he thinks how near he came to being on board that death freighted vessel. And yet the very next time that man is thrown out by Providence in some favorite plan, he is slow to apply the lesson of the past, and to thank his heavenly Father for a disappointment.

I do not pretend to be a very apt learner; but many of my best lessons through life have been taught me by the same old school master, disap pointment. And one lesson I learned was that this world was not made only for me. If it had been, the sun would have just shone when my hay needed it, and the rain would have fallen only when my garden needed to be watered. But God goes on, and orders things as pleaseth him best, without consulting us. And when our schemes were thwarted the stern schoolmaster said, "The world was not made for you alone. Don't be selfish. Your loss, perhaps, is another's gain. The rain that spoils your new-mown hay, makes the blade of corn grow faster in your neighbor's field. The fall in grain that cuts down your profits will help the poor widow in yonder cottage to buy bread cheaper for her orphan babes. don't be selfish."

So

ALL ARE CHRIST'S AND SHOULD

LIVE TO HIM.

For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live we live unto the Lord; and whether we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. -ROM. 14:7, S.

It appears to us to have been the intention of the apostle here to say, that all are Christ's whether living or dead, whether in this state of being or the next. The same sentiment is expressed in Luke 20: 38. He is not a God of the dead, but of the living; for all live unto Him. And this is further evident from the very connection

of the passage: For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. Now mark the argument of the apostle. For to this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Now we ask, for how many did Jesus die? For ALL. I. Tim. 2: 6. For EVERY MAN. Heb. 2: 9. For the WHOLE world. I. John 2: 2. It is indisputable that Jesus is Lord of all for whom he died; and as he died for all without distinction, they all belong to him. As the shepherd seeks his sheep when it is lost, and finds it, and brings it back to the fold, so will "the shepherd and bishop of our souls" be equally persevering and successful.

INTERESTING FACTS.

The most ancient manuscripts are written without accents, stops or separation between the words, nor was it until after the ninth century that copyists began to leave spaces between the words.

The first piece of artillery was invented by a German, soon after the invention of gunpowder, and arti'lery was first used by the Moors at Agesirar, in Spain, in the siege of 1341.

The first banks were established in Italy, in the year 808, by the Lombard Jews, of whom some settled in Lombard street, London, where many bankers have ever since resided.

The oldest version of the Old and New Testament belonging to the Christians, is that in the Vatican, which was written in the fourth or fifth century, and published in the year 1596.

Ancient books were originally boards, or the inner bark of trees; and

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bark is still used by some nations, as are also skins, for which, later, parchment was generally substituted.

Bowling is an old English game, and was very common as early as the thirteenth century. Charles I. played at it, and it was a daily sport of Charles II.

Stones were first used for bullets; iron ones are first mentioned in 1550. Leaden bullets were made before the close of the sixteenth century. Stone cannon balls are still used in the East.

The most stupendous canal in the world is the one in China, which passe over two thousand miles, and to forty-one cities; it was commenced in the tenth century. A monster work

Has wandered away from me; But although the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find my sheep."

But none of the ransomed ever knew

How deep were the waters crossed; Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through

Ere he found his sheep that was lost. Out in the desert he heard its crySick, and helpless, and ready to die. "Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way,

That mark out the mountain's track!" "They were shed for one who had gone astray

Ere the shepherd could bring him back." "Lord, whence are thy hands so rent and torn?"

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They are pierced to-night by many a thorn."

And all thro' the mountains, thunder riven And up from the rocky steep,

There rose a cry to the gate of heaven, "Rejoice! I have found my sheep! And the angels echoed around the throne, Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own!"

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ADVICE TO MARRIED PEOPLE.

Before marriage and afterward, let them learn to center all their hopes of real and lasting happiness in their own fireside; let them cherish the faith that in home, and all the English virtues which the love of home engenders, lies the only true source of domestic felicity; let them believe that 'round the household gods of Contentment and Tranquility cluster in their gentlest and most graceful forms; and that many weary hunters of happiness through the noisy world have learned this truth too late, and found a cheerful spirit and a quiet mind only at home at last. much may depend on the education of daughters, and the conduct of mothers how much of the brightest part of our national character may be perpetuated by their wisdom or frittered away by their folly-how much of it may have been lost al

How

ready, and how much more in danger of vanishing every day-are questions too weighty for discussion here, but well deserving a little serious consideration from all young couples, nevertheless. To that one young couple on whose bright destiny the thoughts of nations are fixed, may the youth of England look, and not in vain for an example. From what that one couple, blest and favored as they are, may they learn, that even the glare and glitter of a court, the splendor of a palace, and the pomp and glory of a throne, yield in their power of conferring happiness to domestic worth and virtue. From that one young couple may they learn that the crown of a great empire, costly and jeweled though it be, gives place in the estimation of a Queen to the plain gold ring that links her woman's nature to that of tens of thousands of her humble subjects, and guards in her woman's heart one secret store of tenderness, whose proudest boast shall be that it knows no loyalty save Nature's own, and no pride of birth but being the child of heaven! So shall the brightest young couple in the land for once hear the truth, when men throw up their caps, and cry with loving shouts -God bless them!-Charles Dickens

ABORIGINAL MINING.

Great Antiquity of the Copper Mines on Lake Superior.

Writing on "Ancient mining in North America," Prof. Newberry speaks, in the American Antiquarian, of the great antiquity of the aboriginal works. The ancient copper mines on Lake Superior were abandoned not less than four hundred years ago; for the heaps of rubbish around the pits made by the ancient miners were covered with forest trees that had reached their largest size.

The old mica mines of North Carolina and the quarries of serpentine in the Alleghanies showed like evidences of antiquity. Some population in the Mississippi Valley worked the oil-fields in various places. The author, visiting Titusville in 1860, when the first well had been opened, noticed pits in the ground which proved to be relics of the excavations of primeval oil-gatherers. A citizen digging a well in one of the pits had discovered and followed an old well, which was cribbed up with timber and contained a primitive ladder, like those which have been found in the

old copper mines of Lake Superior. The cribbing had been rudely done with sticks from six to eight inches in diameter, which had been cut or split by a very dull instrument, "undoubtedly a stone hatchet." The oil was probably gathered by being skimmed from the water that collected in the bottom of the pit. Traces of a similar well were observed at Enniskillen, Canada; and depressions in the surface like those on Oil creek were noticed at Mecca and Grafton, O. Ruins of an ancient lead mine exist on the Morgan farm, near Lexington, Ky., in the form, where the y have not been disturbed, of an open cut, from six to ten feet wide, "of unknown depth, and now nearly filled with rubbish. On either side of this trench the material thrown out forms ridges several feet in height, and these are everywhere overgrown by trees, many of which are as large as any found in the forests of that region." Galena has been found in many of the ancient works in Ohio, but has never been smelted, and appears to have been valued merely for its brilliancy. Dr. Newberry does not believe that the mound-builders were of the present Indian stock. Popular Science Monthly.

FAILURE AND SUCCESS.-No true work since the world began was ever wast d; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand, my brethren, those two perverted words, failure and success, and measure them by the eternal, not by the earthly standard. What the world has regarded as the bitterest failure, has often been, in the sight of heaven, the most magnificent success. When the cap, painted with devils, was placed on the brow of John Huss, and he sank dying amid the embers of the flame-was that a failure? When St. Francis Xavier died, cold and lonely on the bleak and desolate shore of a heathen land-was that a failure? When the frail, worn body of the apostle of the Gentiles was dragged by a hook from the arena, and the white sand scattered over the crimson life-blood of the victim whom the dense amphitheatre despised as some obscure and nameless Jewwas that a failure? And when, after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be pre-eminently the Man of Sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross-was that a failure? Nay, my brethren, it was the life, it was the death of him who lived that we might follow in his steps--it was the life, it was the death of the Son of God.

F. W. FARRAR.

TRUTH. Truth, is the glory of time, and the daughter of eternity; a title of the highest grace, and a note of divine nature; she is the life of religion, the light of love, the grace of wit, and the crown of wisdom; she is the beauty of valor, the brightness of honor, the blessing of reason, and the joy of faith; her truth is pure gold, her time right precious, her

word is most glorious; her essence is in God, and her dwelling with his servants; her will in his wisdom, and her work to his glory; she is honored in love, and graced in constancy; in patience admired, and in charity beloved; she is the angel's worship, the virgin's fame, the saint's bliss, and the martyr's crown; she is the king's greatness and the council's goodness; his subject's peace, and his kingdom's praise; her heart never faints, her tongue never trips, her hand never faints, and her faith never fears; her church is without schism, her city without fraud, her court without vanity, and her kingdom without villainy. In fine, so infinite is her excellence in the construction of all sense; that I will thus only conclude in the wonder of her worth, she is the nature of perfection in the perfection of nature, where God in Christ shows the glory of Christianity.

You want to be true, and are trying to be. Learn these two things,never to be discouraged because good things get on slowly here, and never to fail daily to do that good which lies next to your hand. Do not be in a hurry, but be diligent. Enter into that sublime patience of the Lord. Be charitable in view of it. God can afford to wait; why cannot we, since we have him to fall back upon? Let patience have her perfect work, and bring forth her celestial fruits. Trust to God to weave your thread into the great web, though the pattern shows it not yet.--George MacDonald.

THE repose of the passsions must not imply their stagnation. They must rouse themselves at last and go forth, though it be only to bear a burden and be baffled by defeat. Successful or baffled, their duty is in the struggle. The struggle itself is the life.-Simms.

A TEMPERANCE STORY. Freight Handlers Tap a Barrel of Whisky and Then Wish They Hadn't.

An exceedingly practical temperance lecture was preached to the freight-handlers at one of the stations of the Pennsylvania railroad a short time ago, says the New York Tribune. The result is that each man now wears a blue ribbon and all mysterious-looking casks and barrels which are put off at that station and for which there are no known owners are left severely alone. A few months ago there came to this place by express, a big barrel unaccompanied by anything and having no mark by which the owner or its distination could be learned. There was an odor of whisky about it, and it looked suspiciously like a whisky barrel. A tracer was sent over the road, but nothing could be learned as to where it came from, to whom it was going or by whom it was owned. It stood on the platform for a few days until it became a nuisance. The freight-handlers eyed it rather longingly, but could not get at it while it was in that conspicuous place. By the order of the station agent the barrel was taken to the loft of the store-room to await for a possible owner who might turn up some time in the future. It had been there for two or three months when one of the express companies' men went to the station agent and told him he was looking for a barrel of alcohol with two skeletons inside of it.

The station agent remembered the mysterious barrel as the one which he was looking for. A kick from his foot produced a hollow sound, followed by the rattling of some dry objects inside. A closer examina

tion showed that numerous gimlet holes had been made in the head, and that the holes had been plugged up with matches.

The station agent sent for the freight-handlers to have them come to the loft and help take the barrel down.

"It's empty," faltered one of the

men.

"Yes, I know; but I want to see if there is anything inside of it," said the express agent, at the same time breaking in the head of the barrel with an axe. Out tumbled the two skeletons, to the horror and dismay of the freight-handlers. They were dumfounded and fled from the loft instantly. Not one of the men turned up for work for three days. All sent around word in the morning that they were sick. When they did come back each wore a blue ribbon, and they haven't since been known to take a drink of whisky. Un. claimed freight is alsolutely safe at the station now.

AN ENEMY OF THE GOSPEL.

As a Christian minister I oppose drink, because it opposes me. The work I try to do it undoes. My charge against it at this point is single and simple: it is an obstacle to the spread of the Gospel-nay, it is an enemy which assails the Gospel, and whose complete success would drive the Gospel from the earth. The chains it forges are the strongest and most galling ever fastened on the human body or the human soul. There is not a sinner on the face of the earth so unlikely to be savingly affected by the influence of the Gospel as the habitual drunkard. may be a man of delicate sensibility,

He