hard."

2696. HEART, a reservoir. You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, in which the water to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now, the heart is the reservoir of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its proper season. That life may flow through different pipes-the mouth, the hand, the eye; but still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is great necessity for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and corrupt.-Spurgeon.

2697. HEART, Christ entering the. Suppose you were in a dark room in the morning, the shutters closed and fastened, and only as much light coming through the chinks as made you aware it was day outside. And suppose you should say to a companion with you, "Let us open the windows and let in the light." What would you think if he replied, "No, no; you must first put the darkness out, or the light will not enter?" You would laugh at his absurdity. Just so we cannot put sin out of our hearts to prepare for Christ entering we must open, and take Him in, and sin will flee. Fling the window open at once, and let Christ shine in.-Dr. Edmond.

2698. HEART, Christ's dealings with. It is said that the natives of India, when they want to quarry out a stone, first take a chisel and run a groove, then they kindle a fire in the groove, and last of all they pour in a little water, which, becoming heated, causes the stones to expand and eventually to burst. This is just what the Lord Jesus did. First He grooved right down into the hardness of the human heart, then poured in the water of His love, and thus gained an entrance, and broke

it asunder.-Dr. Armitage.

:

2699. HEART, controls the life. Yonder locomotive, with its thundering train, comes like a whirlwind down the track, and a regiment of armed men might seek to arrest it in vain. It would crush them, and plunge unheeding on. But there is a little lever in its mechanism that, at the pressure of a man's hand, will slacken its speed, and in a moment or two bring it panting and still, like a whipped spaniel, at your feet. By the same little lever the vast steamship is guided hither and thither in spite of adverse wind or current. So with the heart of man. With your grasp gentle and firm on that helm, you may pilot men whither you will.

2701. HEART, Fear of a change in. Soon after our arrival at Linyanti, Sekeletu took me aside and pressed me to mention those things I liked best and hoped to get from him. Anything, either in or out of his town, should be freely given if I would only mention it. I explained to him that my object was to elevate him and his people to be Christians; but he replied he did not wish to learn to read the Book, for he was afraid "it might change his heart, and make him content with only one wife, like Sechele." .. Motibe, after he had mastered the alphabet, reported the thing so far safe, and Sekeletu and his young companions came forward to try for themselves. He must have resolved to watch the effects of the Book against his views on polygamy, and abstain whenever he perceived any tendency, in reading it, towards enforcing him to put his wives away.-Dr. Livingstone.

2702. HEART, God's Word in. Lycurgus, although a great lawmaker, would allow none of his laws to be written. He would have the principles of government interwoven in the lives and manners of the people as most conducive to their happiness. bookshelves or lie upon tables is an easy matter, The multiplication of Bibles that stand upon but to multiply copies of walking scriptures, in the form of holy men who can say, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart," is much more difficult.—New Handbook of Illustration.

2703. HEART, Greed of. That bird was once a woman, and it is a good lesson she reads us. One day she was kneading bread in her trough, when our Lord passed by, leaning on St. Peter. She did not know who it was, for they looked like two poor men. "Give us of your dough, for the love of God," said the Lord Christ; "we have come far across the field, and have fasted long." Gertrude pinched off a small piece for them; but on rolling it in her trough, to get it into shape, it grew and grew, and filled up the trough completely. She looked at it in wonder. "No," said she, "that is more than you want;" so she pinched off a smaller piece, and rolled it out as before; but the smaller piece filled up the and pinched a smaller bit still. But the miracle trough, just as the other; so she put that aside too, was just as apparent, the smaller bit filling up the trough the same as ever. Gertrude's heart was hardened; she put that aside also. "I cannot give you any to-day," said she, for the greed of her heart was to divide all her dough into little bits and roll it into loaves. "Go on your journey, and the Lord prosper you." Then the Lord Christ was angry, and her eyes were opened, and she fell down on her knees to hear Him say, "I gave you plenty, but that hardened your heart, so that plenty was not a blessing to you. I will try you now with the blessing of poverty; you shall henceforth seek your food day by day, and always between the wood and the bark."-Norwegian Legend of the Gertrude Bird.

2704. HEART, Hardness of. I have heard it more than once and again, from the sheriffs who took all the gunpowder plotters and brought them up to London, that every night when they came to their lodging by the way they had their music and dancing a good part of the night. One would think

"Will you engage in prayer first!" She prayed, and I never heard such a prayer as she offered. For about fifty minutes she went on pleading that God would have mercy on the poor Chinese, and strengthen her papa to preach Christ to them. My heart was bowed before God; I could not describe it to you. Next morning I was summoned away to see a sick missionary at a distance, and had to leave my loved ones. When I came back she was unconscious, and she never recognised me again. That prayer for the poor Chinese was the last conscious words I heard her speak.—Rev. J. Hudson Taylor.

2715. HEATHEN, and God. Undoubtedly restlessness and barrenness characterise most spiritual experience beyond the knowledge of the historic Christ. Nevertheless, man is so made that God draws near to him when he draws near to God. In Calcutta I stood in Keshub Chunder Sen's temple, and saw the audience rise and stand with clasped hands in perfect silence five minutes. The worshippers then cried, "Victory to God!" and again remained silent, with bowed heads. I felt sure that the spiritual leader of that assembly had a right to pronounce over all who had uttered that exclamation honestly the benediction, "Peace, peace!" A peace this may be that would not satisfy many tormented souls, and ought not to satisfy them; nevertheless, such is the structure of the soul, that when it yields completely to the best light known to it, God whispers to it consolation.-Rev. Joseph Cook.

2716. HEATHEN, Conversion of. There is a cold spirit of cynicism-a spirit of laziness, as I would call it-which is abroad in the world, which cannot be argued out of the Church, and cannot be argued out of the world. But it can be loved out of the Church, and it can be loved out of the world, if we only try. We know that it existed in the last century. "Young man," said a man to one who was pleading on behalf of the heathen, "when

God wants to convert the heathen to Himself He

will do it without your aid and without mine. But the air grew balmier beneath the preaching of Wesley and of Whitefield. Then Carey rose and preached his great sermon from Isaiah liv. 2, 3, and he deduced two things-namely, that the Church should attempt great things, and that the Church should expect great things.-Rev. Samuel Pearson, M.A.

2717. HEATHEN, Conversion of. Bailey, Griqua, in South Africa, stated that the first thing which led him to think of religion was observing the Hottentots who belonged to Zak River Mission giving thanks when eating. "I went," said he, "afterwards to that settlement, where I heard many things, but felt no interest in them. But one day, when alone in the fields, I looked very seriously at a mountain, as the work of that God of whom I had heard; then I looked to my two hands, and for the first time noticed that there was the same number of fingers on each. I asked, 'Why are there not five on this hand, and three on that? It must be God that made them so.' Then I examined my feet, and wondered to find my soles both flat-not one flat and the other round. 'God must have done this,' said I. In this way I considered my whole body, which made a deep impression on my mind, and disposed me to hear the Word of God with more interest, till I was brought to believe that Jesus died for my sins."

2718. HEATHEN, Future state of. A clergyman once travelling in a stage-coach was asked by one of the passengers if he thought that pious heathens would go to heaven. "Sir," answered the clergyman, "I am not appointed judge of the world, and consequently cannot tell; but if ever you get to heaven, you shall either find them there, or a good reason why they are not."

2719. HEATHEN, Ignorance of. Inquiring one day of a group of natives (Bechuanas) whom I had been addressing if any of them had previously known the Great Being which had been described to them, among the whole party I found only one old woman who said she remembered hearing the name Morimo (God) when she was a child, but was not told what the thing was. Nor is it surprising that a chief, after listening attentively to me while he stood leaning on his spear, should utter an exclamation of amazement that a man whom he accounted wise should vend such fables for truths. Calling about thirty of his men who stood near him, he addressed them, pointing to me, "There is Ra-Mary" (Father of Mary), "who tells me that the heavens were made, the earth also, by a beginner whom he calls Morimo. Have you ever heard any. thing to be compared with this? He says that the sun rises and sets by the power of Morimo; as also that Morimo causes winter to follow summer, the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, and the trees to bud ;" and, casting his arm above and around him, added, "God works in everything you see and hear! Did you ever hear such words?" Seeing them ready to burst into laughter, he said, "Wait, I shall tell you more. Ra-Mary tells me that we have spirits in us which will never die, and that our bodies, though dead and buried, will rise and live again. Open your eyes to-day; did you ever hear fables like these?" This was followed by a burst of deafening laughter; and on its partially subsiding, the chief man begged me to say no mad.-Moffat. more on such trifles, lest the people should think me

2720. HEATHEN, Love of. M. B. Cox said before the American Board of Missions, "Gentlemen, send me to Africa !-send me to Africa! I know the climate is a deadly climate-I know that I may only get there to die; but if I can die there, I ask no more, because then my bones buried in Africa will be a bond that will bind Africa to the Church

in America that can never be severed." And when he lay a-dying there, turning round to his friends, he said, "Never mind me! let thousands of us die, but let Africa be saved!"—Denton.

2721. HEATHEN, Unreasonable Folly of. The Rev. J. D. Gordon was a medical man as well as a minister, and was therefore peculiarly adapted for his position. One of the natives had sent a request that the missionary should visit his sick children. He promptly responded; but on arriving at the place he found that the children were dead. The native charged Mr. Gordon with being the cause of his bereavement, and in a rage of passion tomahawked him on the spot.

2722. HEATHENISM, Cruelty of. A custom prevails among the Bechuanas of removing to a distance from the towns and villages persons who are ill or have been wounded. Two young men who had been wounded by the poisoned arrows of

the bushmen were thus removed from the Kuruman station. Having visited them to administer relief, I made inquiries as to the cause of such treatment, and could learn no reason except that it was a custom. The son of one of the principal chiefs, a fine young man, had been wounded by a buffalo; he was, according to custom, placed on the outside of the village till he should recover, a portion of food being daily sent to him, and a person appointed to make his fire for the night. One night the fire went out, and the hapless man, notwithstanding his piteous cries, was carried off by lions and de. voured."-Moffat.

2723. HEATHENISM, Glimmerings of light amid. There remains for them (the Chinese) only the natural and indistinct reverence of heaven, with groanings and complaining appeals to it, or to God in heaven, when they are suffering under calamity or other causes of distress. . . . Recently I was struck with a passage in the story of a young lady, pressed to a certain course which, though not contrary to what was right, did not command her full approval. It was not evil, but might be misinterpreted so as to give to another passage in her life the appearance of being evil. She wished to avoid it, and to trust in Heaven to bring about the object she desired. "I have heard," she says, "that Heaven is sure to bring to pass the things of which Heaven has originated the purpose."-Dr. Legge (abridged).

2724. HEATHENISM, Inconsistencies of. Many of the orthodox Hindoo books, in order to exalt the power of Shiva-worship or Vishnu-worship, declare in the most emphatic ways that certain simple ceremonials or the utterance of certain syllables, apart from intention or moral conduct or character, will ensure future happiness. . . . In the minds of most Hindoos distinctly contradictory beliefs and wholly inconsistent practices are tolerated and held together in the most unnatural fellowship. Hence we sometimes have a public disputant arguing earnestly that God is everywhere and in everything, and in less than half an hour, and before the same assembly, urging with equal confidence that there is no God in existence. Hence, also, we sometimes see Lakshmi and Basavana-a blood-demanding and a blood-forbidding deity-in the same temple, and worshipped by the same persons.-Rev. J. G. Hawker (India).

2725. HEATHENISM, No vitality in. In spite of all Julian's (the Emperor Apostate) efforts and exhortation, in spite of his own devotion, in spite of his restoration of Apollo's shrine at Daphne, when he came to celebrate with renovated pomp the annual festival of the town's patron deity, the sole representative of all the wealth and prosperity of that great city was a single priest with a solitary goose, who could scarcely prevail on his own son to serve him as acolyte.-Rendall.

2726. HEAVEN, An abundant entrance to. He had prayed for a triumphant death. One day, when speaking about heaven, some one said, "I'll be satisfied if I manage somehow to get in." "What!" said Robert, pointing to a sunken vessel that had just been dragged up the Tay, "would you like to be pulled into heaven by two tugs, like the "London" yonder? I tell you I would like to go in with all my sails set and colours flying."-Life of Robert Annan.

2727. HEAVEN, a compensation. "You seem to be in great agony," said a minister once to a dying saint. "Sir, I am," was the reply; "but one half-hour in heaven will compensate for all."

2728, HEAVEN, a place of reconciliation. Dr. White, the first Anglican Bishop of Pennsylvania, in some manuscript notes which he left, says Whitefield dined with one of his relatives in 1770, a few weeks before his death. During dinner he was almost the only speaker, as was said to be common. In the course of his remarks Whitefield said, “In heaven I expect to see Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell, and Archbishop Laud, singing hallelujahs together."-Church Review.

2729. HEAVEN, A sight of. It is said that when Cortez led his sailors across the vast continent of South America, after months of toil and sickness they climbed one of the peaks of the Andes, and saw out there in the distance, far away, the glimmering of the sea.. And the men wept for very joy at the sight. It was their own native element, the love of their life, their home. Toil there was a pleasure in comparison with this journeying through endless forests and wilderness, and they wept for joy. So it is with God's children when they catch sight of that sea of glass mingled with fire which is before the Throne. There is the desire of their hearts, the hope of their life, their treasure, and their home.-B.

2730. HEAVEN, and bereavement. Was it not a pretty thought, that of the gay young Southern girl dancing with a sort of ecstasy among the falling leaves, whose brilliancy she had never seen in her sea-coast home? To one near her, saddening over their fall, she said, "Just think how much more room it gives you to see the beautiful blue sky beyond!" Is it not true that, as our little joys and pleasures and earth's many lovely things fade and pass, they open spaces for us in which to see God's heaven beyond?-Christian Union.

2731. HEAVEN, and best days. A young girl of fifteen, a bright, laughter-loving girl, was suddenly cast upon a bed of suffering. Completely paralysed on one side and nearly blind, she heard the family doctor say to her friends, who surrounded her, "She has seen her best days, poor child!" "Oh no, doctor!" she exclaimed; "my best days are yet to come, when I see the King in His beauty."Freeman.

2732. HEAVEN, and children. There was a clergyman who was of nervous temperament, and often became quite vexed by finding his little grandchildren in his study. One day one of these little children was standing by his mother's side, and she was speaking to him of heaven. "Ma,' said he, "I don't want to go to heaven." "Do not want to go to heaven, my son?" "No, ma, I'm sure I don't." "Why not, my son?" "Why, grandpa will be there, won't he?" "Why, yes, I hope he will." "Well, as soon as he sees us he will come scolding along, and say, 'Whew, whew, what are these boys here for?' I don't want to gr to heaven if grandpa is going there."

2733. HEAVEN and earth, relative value of. A man receives from the estate of a rich ancestor a picture of great value. When he first sees it, nothing impresses him but the frame, that is beau

tifully carved. The canvas, in accordance with a custom that prevails in revolutionary times, has been coated over with paint. A rude picture has been raised upon the surface to prevent its tempting any one's cupidity. The man takes the picture, and looking at it, says, "The frame is very fine, and I shall prize that; but the painting, though it cost thirty thousand pounds at one time, I cannot see any particular value in." By-and-by there comes along an artist, who, looking at the picture, and suspecting that there is something in it more than appears on the outside, takes a sponge and commences working and rubbing, and behold, the beauteous head of a child is disclosed under this covering of paint! And, applying himself with renewed zeal, he soon cleanses the whole surface, and reveals a wonderfully rich picture. Then he says to the owner, "There is your painting!" And the man forgets to look at the frame after that. The magnificent picture that it encloses, and that he never knew was there, now commands all his attention. The frame is nothing to him any longer. He says, "It is perfectly absurd to talk of a frame where there is such a picture." Now it seems to me that heaven is in a frame, that this world is the frame, and that the present life is the coating through which we behold the heavenly vision. And so long as grime and dirt are over the picture we talk much about the frame, and place a high value upon that; but the moment that some artist teacher or preacher reveals the picture, bright, shining, and glorious, then that fills the mind, and the frame is forgotten. The frame yet has a value, but it is a frame value, and not a picture value. So men, when they come into that state of which the Apostle speaks, do not lose a sense of the value of earthly things. Money, raiment, food, houses, lands-all these have their value, but they are only a mere framework; and other things have so much more value than these that are cast into the background.-Beecher.

his Father's house.

2734. HEAVEN, Conversation in. The excellent Mr. Finley, of Edinburgh, spoke habitually of death as only a step which would take him into His conversation was truly in heaven. In one of his many errands of mercy he called on a young girl sinking in a decline. Looking on her wan face, he took her hand, and said with a smile, "Weel, my dear, you're afore me. You're only nineteen, an' you're almost across the river; a step or two mair, and ye'll stand on the ither side. I'm almost seventy, an' maybe I'll have some hard steps afore I'll hear its ripple. O lassie, this is a sweet day for you! Ye'll get home first."

2735. HEAVEN, Degrees of happiness in. Mr. Dilly told me that Dr. King, a late Dissenting minister in London, said to him, upon the happiness in a future state of good men of different capacities, "A pail does not hold so much as a tub; but if it be equally full it has no reason to complain. Every saint in heaven will have as much happiness as he can hold." Mr. Dilly thought this a clear, though a familiar, illustration of the phrase, "One star differeth from another in brightness.”—Boswell.

2736. HEAVEN, desired for others. When the late King of Prussia visited him (Gossner) in his hospital, and expressed his pleasure, and asked if he had any wish that he could fulfil, he only raised his finger and pointed upwards and said, “My wish is,

that I may know your Majesty by my King yonder.” -Dr. Stephenson.

2737. HEAVEN, despised. A certain gentleman in France, who, having feasted high on sensual gratifications, said, "Let God Almighty give me all the good things in Paris, and secure me from the monster death, and He may keep His heaven to Himself, and welcome."-Buck.

2738. HEAVEN, Entrance to. On one occasion, which the Marquis of Anglesea presided, Christmas while speaking at a Bible Society meeting, over Evans turned and personally addressed the Marquis thus "I imagine, my lord, that you have died, and that the angel of death has taken your soul to the portals of the holy city. Only a few are admitted into paradise; the entrance is narrow and jealously watched. 'Open!' shouts the angel of death as he presses forward to secure a place in heaven worthy of your lordship. Who to?' asks the guardian of paradise, with an authoritative voice. To the Honourable the Marquis of Anglesea.' Who is he? An old officer in the army of the Duke of York.' 'In that capacity,' says Peter, he is not on my list.' 'But he has filled the office of High Master of the Ordnance.' 'That may be possible, but we know him not.' 'He has been several times Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.' total stranger. 'I say nothing to the contrary, but he is to us a 'He was the leader of the Horse Guards at the Battle of Waterloo.' 'I repeat that we know nothing of him.' 'Besides that, he was for many years President of the Bible Society.' Ho!' shouted Peter, 'that alters the case. He can enter in; indeed, I see his name recorded among the blessed on the books of my Father.'"

2739. HEAVEN, Entrance to. Al Sirat is a bridge extending from this world to the next, over the abyss of hell, which must be passed by every one who would enter the Mohammedan paradise. It is very narrow, the breadth being less than the thread of a famished spider, according to some writers; others compare it to the edge of a sword or of a The deceased cross with a rapidity proportioned to their virtue. Some pass with the rapidity of lightning; others with the speed of a horse at full gallop; others still slower, on account of the weight of their sins; and many fall down from it, and are precipitated into hell.—Wheeler.

razor.

2740. HEAVEN, Fitness necessary for. I knew children to inherit it. Smitten with the vain and a man who had amassed great wealth, but had no strange propensity to found a house or make a family, as it is called, he left his riches to a distant relative. His successor found himself suddenly raised from poverty to affluence, and thrown into a position which he had not been trained to fill. He was cast into the society of those to whose tastes and habits and accomplishments he was an utter and an awkward stranger. Did many envy the child of fortune? They might have spared their envy. Left in his original obscurity, he had been a happy peasant, whistling his way home from the plough to a thatch-roofed cottage, or on winter nights, around the blazing faggots, laughing loud and merry among unpolished boors. Child of misfortune! he buried his happiness in the grave of his benefactor. Neither qualified by nature nor fitted by education for his position, he was separated from