ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. THE NEEDLE O' THE LAW.-A shrewd Scotchman said "You never saw a woman sewing without a needle! She would make but poor speed if she only sewed wi' the thread. So, I think, when we are dealing with sinners we maun aye put in the needle o' the law first; for the fact is they're sleepin' sound, and they need to be awakened up wi' something sharp. But when we've got the needle o' the law fairly in, we may draw as lang a thread as you like o' Gospel consolation after it." A FATHER with a handsome son and a plain daughter gave them this good advice: " I would have you both look in the glass every day; you, my son, that you may be reminded never to dishonour the beauty of your face by the deformity of your actions; and you, my daughter, that you may take care to hide the defect of beauty in your person by the superior lustre of your virtuous and amiable conduct." LUTHER gave as one qualification for a minister that he should know when to stop. The same qualification should be prescribed to all Christians who pray in public. GOOD BREEDING is a guard upon the tongue; the misfortune is, that we put it on and off with our fine clothes and visiting faces, and do not wear it where it is most wanted-at home! PUZZLED. If there is anything in our language that puzzles a Frenchman, it is the different significations of the same word. The perplexities of a persevering Monsieur arising from our word fast, are more numerous than one would suppose, as for instance "Zis horse, sair, he go qeek, what you say?" "Yes, he is a fast horse." "Ah! pardon, Monsieur, but your friend say he make fast his horse, and he tie him to post so he no go at all." "Very true; he is made fast by being tied.” "Ah! zat cannot be; he cannot go fast; but what you call zat keeps fast ?" "Oh! he is a good man who does not eat on fast days.” "But I have seen one bon vivant, who eat, and drink, and ride, and do every zing. Ze people say he is a bad man-he is very fast." "True: that is called living a fast life." 26 Ah, certainment! zen all ze days of his life moost be fast days." Certainly they are." "Eh bien! Does he eat every day? Zen how can he keep fast ?" Why-he keeps going, to be sure. "Mais, tenez! You tell me to stand fast when you want me to keep still, and go fast when you wish me to run-diable take ze fast." THE FIRESIDE.-THE PENNY POST BOX. The Fireside. SEVEN FOOLS. HERE are seven fools. Let them be seven beacons to warn the young and inexperienced from evil and folly : 1. The envious man-who sends away his mutton because the person next to him is eating venison. 2. The jealous man-who spreads his bed with stinging nettles and then sleeps in it. 3. The proud man-who gets wet through sooner than ride in the carriage of an inferior. 4. The litigious man-who goes to law in the hope of ruining his opponent, and gets ruined himself. 5. The extravagant man-who buys a herring, and takes a cab to carry it home. 6. The angry man-who learns the ophicleide because he is annoyed by the playing of his neighbour's piano. 7. The ostentatious man-who illuminates the outside of his house most brilliantly, and sits inside in the dark. The Penny Post Box. A LITTLE THREAD. PAYSON once gave notice in Portland that he would be glad to see any person who did not intend to seek religion. About forty came. He spent a very pleasant interview with them, saying nothing about religion, till just as they were about to leave he closed a few very plain remarks thus:-"Suppose you should see, coming down from heaven, a very fine thread, so fine as to be almost invisible, and it should come and gently attach itself to you. You knew, we will suppose, it came from God. Should you dare to put out your hand and thrust it away?" He dwelt for a few moments on the idea, and then added :— "Now such a thread has come from God to you this afternoon. You do not feel, you say, any interest in religion. But by your coming here this afternoon God has fastened one little thread upon you all. It is very weak and frail, and you can easily brush it away. But you will not do so? No! welcome it, and it will enlarge and strengthen itself until it becomes a golden thread to bind you for ever to a God of love!" FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. There is no religion in the Bible any more than there is a road upon the finger-post. Religion is in the man, or it is nowhere. Religion should not be used as calking-something to stuff into the cracks and crevices of a man's life; but it should be regarded and used as the very warp and woof of life. Poetic Selections. "ALWAYS REJOICING." My life flows on in endless song; Above earth's lamentation I catch the sweet though far-off hymn Through all the tumult and the strife How can I keep from singing? I lift my eyes: the cloud grows thin; And day by day this pathway smoothes THINGS THAT NEVER DIE. THE pure, the bright, the beautiful, That stirred our hearts in youth; The impulse of a worldless prayer, The dream of love and truth, The longings after something lost, The spirit's yearning cry, The strivings after better hopesThese things shall never die. The timid hand stretched forth to aid A brother in his need, That kindly word in grief's dark hour That proves the friend indeed, The plea of mercy softly breathed The sorrow of a contrite heartWhen justice threatens nigh, These things shall never die. THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The memory of a clasping hand, hat make up love's first bliss. If with a firm, unchanging faith, And holy trust and high, [metThose hands have clasped, those lips have These things shall never die, The cruel and the bitter word The chilling want of sympathy The hard repulse that chills the heart Be firm, and just, and true; The Children's Corner. TIDE MARKS, and the great, gray IT was low tide when we went down to rocks stood up bare and grim above the water; but high up, on all their sides, was a black line that seemed hardly dry, though it was far above the water. “What makes that black mark on the rocks ?" I asked of my friend. "Oh, that is the tide mark," she replied. "Every day when the tide comes in, the water rises and rises, until it reaches that line, and in a great many years it has worn away the stone until the mark is cut into the rock. I have seen a great many people that carried tide marks on their faces. Right in front of me was a pretty little girl, with delicate features and pleasant blue eyes. But she had some queer little marks on her forehead, and I wondered how they came to be there, until presently her mother said "Shut down the blind now, Carrie; the sun shines right in baby's face." "I want to look out," said Carrie, peevishly. But her mother insisted, and Carrie shut the blind and turned her face away from the window. Oh, dear me! what a face it was! The blue eyes were full of frowns instead of smiles, the pleasant lips were drawn up in an ugly pout, and the queer little marks on the forehead had deepened into actual wrinkles. "Poor little girl," I thought; "how badly you will feel when you grow up, to have your face marked all over with the tide marks of passion;" for these evil tempers leave their marks just as surely as the ocean does, and I have seen many a face stamped so deeply with selfwill and covetousness that it must carry the marks to the grave. My little friend, be careful how you let the tide of an unholy temper or the waves of a wicked passion rise in your heart, and leave their disfiguring marks on your face. LION HUNTING. THE following, from Sir Samuel Baker's work on the Exploration of the Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, is full of interest : "Every day, from sunrise to sunset, I was either on foot or in the saddle, without rest, except on Sundays, which I generally passed at home, with the relaxation of fishing in the beautiful river Settite. There was an immense quantity of large game, and I had made a mixed bag of elephants, hippopotami, buffaloes, rhinoceros, giraffes, and great numbers of the large antelopes. Lions, although numerous, were exceedingly difficult to bag; there was no chance but in the extreme risk of creeping through the thickest jungle. Upon two or three occasions I had shot them by crawling into their very dens, where they had dragged their prey; and I must acknowledge that they were much more frightened at me than I was at them. I had generally obtained a most difficult and unsatisfactory shot at close quarters; sometimes I rolled them over with a mortal wound, and they disappeared to die in impenetrable jungles; but at all times fortune was on my side. On moonlight nights I generally lay in wait for these animals with great patience; sometimes I shot hippopotami and used a hind-quarter as a bait for lions, while I watched in ambush at about twenty yards distant; but the hyænas generally appeared like evil spirits and dragged away the bait before the lions had a chance. I never fired at these scavengers, as they are most useful creatures, and are contemptible as game. My Arabs had made their fortune, as I had given them all the meat of the various animals, which they dried and transported to Geera, together with fat, hides, &c. It would be wearying to enumerate the happy hunting-days passed throughout this country. We were never ill for a moment; although the thermometer was seldom below 88 degrees during the day, the country was healthy, as it was intensely dry, and therefore free from malaria; at night the thermometer averaged 70 degrees, which was a delightful temperature for those who exist in the open air. As our camp was full of meat either dried or in the process of drying in festoons upon the trees, we had been a great attraction to the beasts of prey that constantly prowled around our thorn fence during the night. One night in particular a lion attempted to enter, but had been repulsed by the Tokrooris who pelted him with fire-brands; my people woke me up and begged me to shoot him; but as it was perfectly impossible to fire correctly through |