POETRY. The Shadow of the Rock! Unseen it cools the noon-tide land, And quells the fire that flickers in the sand. Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! The Shadow of the Rock! 'Mid skies storm-riven It gathers shadows out of heaven, And holds them o'er us all night cool and even. Dew falls not there Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! The Shadow of the Rock! This Rock its shadow multiplies, O'er thousands laid Rest in the Shadow of the Rock. The Shadow of the Rock! That have been diligent and fleet, The sleep is deeper and the shade more sweet. Thou art sore pressed Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! The Shadow of the Rock! Thy bed is made; Crowds of tired souls like thine are laid Wake with heaven near Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! The Shadow of the Rock! Pilgrim sleep sound; In night's swift hours with silent bound The Rock will put thee over leagues of ground, Gaining more way By night than day Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! The Shadow of the Rock! One day of pain, Thou scarce wilt hope the Rock to gain, Yet there wilt sleep thy last sleep on the plain. And only wake In Heaven's daybreak Rest in the Shadow of the Rock! -Faber. ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Anecdotes and Selections. THE GULF STREAM.-There is a river in the ocean. In the severest droughts it never fails, and in the mightiest floods it never overflows. Its banks and its bottom are of cold water, while its current is of warm. The Gulf of Mexico is its fountain, and its mouth is in the Arctic Seas. It is the Gulf Stream. There is in the world no other so majestic a flow of water. Its current is more rapid than the Mississippi or the Amazon, and its volume more than a thousand times greater. Its waters, as far out from the Carolina coasts are of an indigo blue. They are so distinctly marked that the line of junction with the common sea-water may be traced by the eye. Often one-half of the vessels may be perceived floating in the gulf stream water, while the other half is in the common water of the sea, so sharp is the line and the want of affinity between these waters; and such, too, the reluctance, so to speak, on the part of those of the gulf stream to mingle with the common water of the sea. In addition to this, there is another peculiar fact. The fishermen on the coast of Norway are supplied with wood from the tropics by the gulf stream. Think of the Arctic fishermen burning upon their hearths the palms of Hayti, the mahogany of Honduras, and the precious woods of the Amazon and the Orinoco ! HALF-WAY TO CHRIST.-" Half-way to Christ,” said a minister, in quoting the remarks of an eminent man; "half-way to Christ is a dreadful place." There is no neutral ground in Christ's territory. You must be either for or against the establishment of His kingdom; and if your sympathies are not thoroughly enlisted in the right cause, then you belong wholly to the adversary. Half-way to Christ! Halfway home is to be still excluded from the light, the love and happiness centred therein. If you have been absent some time, parted from those you love best on earth, and are now on the homeward journey, how the heart leaps when some one beside you whispers, "We are on the last half." And the last half is always longest. Full of imaginary forebodings, apprehending evil that never entered your thoughts before, home becomes each moment dearer, and over the door-post is inscribed in shining letters, "Peace" and "Safety." "Almost saved" is-still left to perish! If you are already half-way to Christ, what is to hinder your progress? If you believe with the understanding, why should you not believe with the heart also? How can you wilfully exclude yourself from participating in the delights known only to the true disciple? Why will you halt on the threshold when the door stands invitingly open, and you may enter if you choose? Are you satisfied with being half-way to Christ? Living at that distance from ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Him, you may realize no present peril, but dying in that condition, you are lost eternally. Come nearer. The children have no need to stand afar off. Half-way to Christ is a dreadful place.' 66 CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS.-The Bible does not underrate Christian ethics or the spotless example of Jesus; but the sacrificial death of the Redeemer transcends all other truths in significance and saving power. As Dr. James W. Alexander once said, "He who would tear from the gospel the atoning death of the Redeemer, would drain away the vital fluid from vein and artery and heart. Of all objects in the gospel, that which stands in highest relief is—the cross. Of all its syllables, the most sacred is-atoning blood." Of all that my Bible tells me of my divine Lord, the most precious and memorable is, that He laid down His life for my sins. If I could deliver but one discourse to a congregation made up of all the dwellers on the globe, this should be my text: "Christ Jesus died for our sins." This is the text that has rung round the world wherever pure Christianity has found a voice. This truth that shook pagan Rome to its foundation, and has been an overmatch for the proudest infidelity. This is the truth that has lain warmest and closest to the Christian's heart in every age. This is the truth that awakens sinners and converts souls.-Dr. Theo. L. Cuyler. BELIEVE AND LIVE.-I desire to bow myself before the will and wisdom of God; but I find that, without a hold of Christ, there is no hold of God at all. I fear that I have not adverted enough to the reception of the gospel as the great initiatory step of our return to God. Let us work as we may before this, we may widen our distance, but certainly not shorten it; and not till the tidings of great joy be simply taken in-not till credit is given to the plain word of the testimony-not till we believe the Word-not till we are persuaded by the promises, and so embrace them-are we translated into the vantageground of reconciliation with God; and this entrance into peace is also the entrance into holiness.-Rev. Dr. Chalmers.. BEING A "SLOVEN."-A Christian should never plead spirituality for being a sloven. If he be a shoe dealer, he should be the best in the parish. "Leaves have their times to fall And flowers to wither at the North wind's breath, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!" Alas! for him who grows old without growing wise, and to whom the future world does not open her gates when he is excluded by the present. The Lord deals so graciously with us in the decline of life, that it is a shame to turn a deaf ear to the lessons which he gives. The eye becomes dim, the ear dull, the tongue falters, the feet totter, all the senses refuse to do their office, and from every side resounds the call, "Set thine house in order, for the term of thy pilgrimage is at hand." The playmates of youth, the fellow-labourers of manhood, die away and take the road before us. THE FIRESIDE.-THE PENNY POST BOX. The Fireside. THE KINDEST MASTER. I was talking one day to a very cheerful old man, who was fond of speaking of the masters whom he had served. It was a pleasant thing to hear him tell of how many kind, good masters, he had worked for. "Had you never once a hard master ?" I said. "Well, maybe I had, but I forgot that sort; there's no pleasure in thinking of them." I thought as I left him, how much better it is to try and remember about the good, rather than the evil that has troubled our past lives; and thinking of masters, put me in mind of the best of all masters. "One is your Master, even Christ." Our earthly masters provide us work, give us leave to toil, pay us wages for our industry, and we thank them, and serve them diligently; but our heavenly Master not only gives us freely the health and strength that enable us to toil, He provides that we shall rest from our labour. He gives us one day in seven as a time of rest and refreshment. He calls us to Him, and says, "I will give you rest." Do we think of that kind Master as we should? Are we grateful that he has so tenderly thought of us as to provide for our repose and rest? We know that "He giveth His beloved sleep"that great restorer of man's physical energies; but not merely does He give us rest to sleep, He provides for us a day of waking rest. On His holy Sabbath we can "rest in the Lord"-enjoy the sweet calm of a day when all labour shall cease-when the tired world, weary with its six days of anxious care and toil, can peacefully compose itself to rest. O, dear brother workmen, let no vain desire for earthly pleasure or profit make you unmindful of the claims of the best of masters! for "His yoke is easy and His burden is light." The Penny Post Box. HOW TO HOLD PEARLS. IT is said that certain native artists, when they would drill a hole in pearls, first fit them loosely in apertures bored in pieces of wood, then a little water is sprinkled around them, and gradually penetrates the fibres and causes the wood to "swell," until each little pearl is held as firmly as in a vice. Indeed no vice could hold such delicate little treasures without marring them and thus diminishing their value. But by this simple process, the choicest ones are kept securely in their places FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. without injury, until the artist's work is done, and then, as the water dries out, the fibres gently relax, and the pearl is free. Is there not here a little lesson to the teacher? How shall we keep the children quietly in their places on the Sabbath? is the question often thought of if not asked. They cannot be held by main force; that would mar the bright and buoyant spirits God has given us to work upon; but sprinkle upon them and around them the gentle influence of Christian love, which should ever flow from that fountain which is as a "well of water springing up into everlasting life," and behold how the spiritual fibres will encircle them, holding each precious soul in their soft embrace, until the desired impression has been made. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. THE YEARLY EXODUS. A good cause makes a stout heart and a strong arm. At the resurrection many of the LAST year nearly two hundred thou-sleepers will be astonished at the sand emigrants left the ports of the falsehoods carved on their grave stones. United Kingdom. The worst prisons are not made of stone. Nearly sixty thousand were English, over fourteen thousand Scots, about sixty-five thousand Irish, over fifty thousand Germans, and about seven thousand are undistinguished. Of these, more than one hundred and fifty thousand sailed for America; twenty-one thousand and over for Canada; nearly thirteen thousand for Australia; and over six thousand to other places. This is three hundred and sixty over 1867, but sixty-six below that of the preceding four years. It is predicted that the Irish dus will now steadily decline. Hints. Gems. Christ's love is the Church's fire. The words of the upright are like gentle showers, quickening whole neighbourhood's to life. The sum of religion is to be like Him whom we worship. There never was an hypocrite so disguised but that he had some work or other to be known by. Dr. Owen says, It is will, and not power, that gives rectitude or obliExo-quity to moral actions. God will accept your first attempts to serve him, not as a perfect work, but as pledges of something better. Have the courage to confess your ignorance. Confide your faults and follies to but few. The cross of Christ is the sweetest burden that ever Christian bore. It is as wings to the blind, or sails to the ship. Our School-rooms are the nurseries of the State; our Churches the nurseries of heaven. Some people have such a horror of ingratitude, that by way of abolishing Fast a meal to give a meal. the very possibility of its existence Hearts may agree, though heads they make a point of never performing a single act of kindness. differ. |