ings, not regarded as Bible, have much intrinsic value, and were not inferior to some that are embraced in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, is an opinion held by some wise and good men; and we would not undertake to refute it. But the Bible as it is, has Providentially come into existence. It has not been formed by the votes of fallible men. It has all of truth that is necessary for mankind. It would be well for the world if it were read more, and its precepts more faithfully observed. W. E. M. SUGGESTIVE FACTS. BY MRS. H. E. BROWN. Facts appeal to mind and heart better than argument with the majority of people. Especially do we find this true in temperance work. This subject is considered hackneyed and exhausted, as far as logic goes. Every fair-minded person, even such as are not thoroughly principled against the use of alcoholic beverages, will readily acknowledge in temperance to be a great evil, a crime, even a sin. And all are free to admit the necessity of effort to suppress the evil and promote the opposite virtue. But, after all, these same individuals can hardly be persuaded to attend a temperance meeting, or listen to a half-hour's talk by man or woman on the theme. "We are tired of hearing the same thing over and over again," they say. "Nothing new can be said on the subject." The best way to reach such people-and they are legion-is to present facts, which are little sermons in themselves, and set them thinking. Thinking often does more for a man or woman than listening to the thoughts of another, and a short story with a point to it will sometimes fasten itself effectively in the An memory and in the conscience. arrow touched with poison will insinuate the poison into the whole being. The physician inoculates for small or kine pox with a very small amount of virus, in a very small wound. And so we may with a sharp fact inoculate sometimes, by the blessing of God, with temperance convictions, where we could accomplish nothing by more elaborate means. In the course of temperance work we learn many significant facts which need no comment. "I might easily have been led away by this exacting appetite,' said a lady, "but for God's mer cy. When I was young, I was at one time out of health, with a feeble digestion, and my physician ordered a glass of porter daily with my dinner. It seemed to do me go ›d. One Sunday I was a little belated for Sunday-school, where I was a teacher, and, hastening through my dinner, forgot my usual tonic. When I arrived at my class, I felt so languid and miserable that I thought I should have to go home. I could not understand the cause of my indisposition until, in a moment, it came to me that I had forgotten my porter. And with the recollection the thought flashed upon me that I was already a slave to appetite, and what would the end be? My resolution was instantly taken that, God helping me, I would never taste porter again or any other similar medicine. And I never have, and I praise God continually that in that moment he mercifully rescued me from a debasing and enslaving appetite." This lady is now an earnest advocate of total abstinence from principle, the outgrowth of experience. Such, we believe, are the very best workers in the cause. We knew a reformed man who stood well for over a year. In that time he had found good employment, was reunited with a lovely wife, and, to all appearances, was safe. One day he was seized with a pain while at his place of business, and an associate; unthinkingly-should we ever be thoughtless of our brother's weakness?-advised him to take a dose of Jamaica ginger. The potion removed the pain, but aroused a slumbering fiend within him, and the next thing we knew, business, wife, principles, new-found friendships and happiness-were all sunk, and the poor victim was wallowing in the gutter. Have we not a duty to those around us, when we know their danger, to scrupulously guard them from the spark that will set them on fire of hell? Another young man fell, manifestly and by his own acknowledgment, through the use of tobacco. He resisted all entreaties to give up his cigar, and his plea was, "My pastor smokes, and why can't I?" May God, by his Holy Spirit, teach us all the lessons which should come through these facts. THIS GENERATION. In speaking of the coming of the King in judgment, Jesus said, "This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled." Matt. 24: 34. The latest method we have noticed of stretching out "this generation" to the day of judgment, is by translating it, "This nation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled;" and then explaining that "the prophecy is not merely that the Jewish nation, as a nation, should not pass away, but also that it should not lose its national characteristics; amid all the changes of time it should remain unchanged." Now, if this be true-and we can not say it is not-very likely it may be true-it is a curious and somewhat important fact, a fact well worth the knowing, since it is an evidence of the truth of prophecy and of the care of God for his chosen people through all time, and yet it is hardly the fact to have been announced at such a time and in such connection as that in which the above quoted words occur. "This generation shall not pass away, till all these things be fulfilled;" that is "the Jewish nation shall not lose its natural characteristics" until the day of general judgment. Possibly, perhaps quite likely, the Jewish people will not lose their national characteristics for ages yet to come. But this doctrine of a "general judgment" we do not find taught anywhere in the Scriptures, and are certain that it was not that which the disciples waited to hear announced as, marveling, they listened to the strange words of their Master about the time when the Temple in Jerusalem should be thrown down, the city and the land made desolate, and they obliged to flee away for safety. They were anxious to know the signs which would indicate when these things, and not a some ages distant judgment day, were about to come to pass. When they asked the signs of one event, for him to give them those of another, a different, and a thousand ages more distant event, would be hardly less than trifling with the anxieties and fears he had awakened while speaking upon the most important, solemn subjects. He gave them signs by which they would be warned of the approach of an unparalled calamity, and told them that when these things should begin to come to pass, they would "know that it was near, even at the doors." Not the doors of your house or mine to-day, or of some other peo ple in some future age; but " at the doors" of the houses then standing in now desolate Jerusalem. This they could and did understand, and warned by the designated signs of the approaching day, fled to places of security, and so were saved; while those who would not believe nor listen to his words, but were intent upon the overthrow of his religion, were overwhelmed by the calamity which overthrew the Jewish state, and dispersed the Jewish people among the nations of the earth, to wander through the ages. It was the calamity that was about to fall upon the places and the people which they knew, for the signs of which they were inquiring, and not for signs of how the course of Jewish history would run through coming ages, until some distant, general judgment day of which they had no knowledge, and in regard to which their Scriptures were throughout profoundly silent. Christ gave them the signs for which they askedsigns of events which were almost then impending; and it would hardly have been common candor for him to have put them off with a prophecy relating to the future of the Jewish nation. OUR COMMON WANT. Our common want in this life is an increase of faith in Heaven and Immortality. Life has its earthly and its heavenly aspects. All men know something of the former; but few know as they need to know, the realities involved in the latter. Christianity comes to acquaint us with this interest we have in the "things unseen and eternal." It comes to aid us in doing this very work which we all so much need. Christianity is the grand educator, to lift us up out of all this evil servitude to earthliness into a recognition of our spiritual estate. This is what Paul meant by the heavenly citizenship. "For we have our conversation (citizenship) in heaven." While he and his companions and fellow disciples were bound to give all diligence to the work of life which lay directly before them; to meet all its responsibilities, endure all its trials, encounter all the hardness and toiling and loss there might be in it, he and they were blessed with this recognition and enjoyment of the heavenly that awaited them; of whose light and aid and blessing they were here supplied, and whose home-joys and riches were their's everlastingly. No earthly interest with them was above that. Earthly interests, however dear, were uncertain. But what a contrast is here! Paul could never say, " We are sure of this earthly good; we are fully persuaded that this blessing will not fail us-that this treasure will not take its departure." He knew that they would fail. But he was persuaded of something beyond that, better than all. It was this; "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." We are not living here as though these present earthly interests were all. We are persuaded of better things in store for us, and we are drawing daily and constant supplies, by faith from them, So that we can face adversity, resign ourselves to life's changes, have no affright at its strange and fiery trials, glory in its tribulations. All are but the better preparing us for this holy citizenship, the better enabling us to accomplish the good of the present, and to enter upon the higher and more enduring to come. Thus for them "to live was Christ, to die was gain." The heavenly was the ruling power, and that made them best fitted for the present, and in truest readiness for the future. Our spiritual wants are the same; and we shall look in vain in any other direction for the full answer to them, than that in which they found their unfailing supplies. Two advantages shall we derive from this conviction of our alliance with the heavenly, the immortal, strength and elevation. It gives us new vigor in the midst of life's toils and conflicts, if we can feel that there is a divine as well as human meaning in them; that Heaven them; that Heaven watches over us, and will not suffer our efforts to be ineffectual, our lives to go out in the darkness of the grave, the little good we have so trustingly hoped for and so diligently sought, put out of our reach forever; if we can only feel that all our good efforts shall be rightfully answered, if not here, then hereafter. Life has a new aspect then, and its work a meaning. Then, "Life is real, life is earnest, And the grave is not its goal; new O how much stronger and better fitted for life's reality and earnestness is he who thus draws his supplies from this higher source continally, than he who never looks farther than the present earthly aspect of things, and measures all from what they are or are not to him just here and now! There are no greater contrasts than this in all human experience. This conviction, too, gives us elevation, not out of the reach of earthly duty, but out of the power of the earthly to harm or destroy us. We have an interest in the immortal, in those who are already within that realm-in its pursuits, joys and glories. If the earthly here is de. pressive and afflicting, faith aids us in rising above this beclouded atmosphere into a holier presence and companionship; a presence and companionship where these earthly strifes and changes do not enter;- "Beyond the rising and the setting, Beyond the calming and the fretting, Beyond remembering and forgetting; Beyond the parting and the meeting. Beyond the farewell and the greeting, Beyond the pulse's fever beating." This is the high prerogative of the Christian. True faith gives it. In have direst tribulathe world he may tion; in this his uprising, and in this heavenly perspective, he has peace. He is risen with Christ, and walks in newness of life with him. What shall we say then, of this increase of faith? What does it imply? The exercise of our spiritual powers. Faith is a sentiment, a faculty of our nature; and it may be cultured like memory and hope, made to grow like every other faculty, by exercise, by use and action. We are to edu cate the heart. Surrender that to the truth you already know, and you shall see the more. The just shall live by faith. "When the Bible tells us this, it puts the highest honor upon man which any created being can have. Trees, plants, beasts, birds, living and growing by God's providence, yet do not know it, do not thank him, cannot ask him for more strength and life, as we can. Only reasonable beings, like men and angels, can live by faith. If our holy faith, then, could only be the great moving power of our present life; if all else were done in and through that; how bright, how pervading and effective our Christianity would be! How the world would feel its power, and take knowledge of us that we had been with Jesus! "Lord, increase our faith!" faith in thee, in man, in virtue and holiness, in the true life here, in heaven and immortality!" CHEMISTRY IN COMMON SCHOOLS -TECHNICAL WORDS JUS TIFIABLE. Why not introduce the study of chemistry in all our common schools, at least the rudiments of chemistry, and especially the meaning of chemical terms? Why should not a boy, a farmer's boy, be taught the meaning of oxygen and hydrogen, as well as that of the word water? When he is now told by the papers or books he reads, that water-the meaning of which term he understands very well-is composed of certain proportions each of oxygen and hydrogen-terms he knows nothing about, he is at a loss. His education has left him with the idea, that water is a simple element, as the ancients thought it was; and he also complains of the use of these hard words, when the fact is they are no harder than any other words to learn or to speak; but they are new to him, and hence he thinks them hard. All farmers should understand the rudiments of chemistry at least, and as much more as they can command: no one can be a good farmer without this knowledge, except by accident. It is in vain for writers on the subject to try to use language that cannot be understood by those who have not learned the meaning of chemical terms. The word oxygen, for example, has no common term that would be understood more readily by such people; neither has hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, etc. See what a list Webster makes in defining these terms: "Oey gen, in chemistry, oxygen or oxygen gas is an element or substance so named from its property of generat ing acids; it is the respirable part of air, vital air, or the basis of it; it is called the acidifying principle, and the principle or support of combustion." "Hydrogen-in chemistry, a gas which constitutes one of the elements of water." "Nitrogen-the element of nitre; that which produces nitre; that element or component part of the air which is called azote." "Carbon-pure charcoal; a simple body, black, brittle, light and inodorous." Now, what information will one who does not understand the rudiments of chemistry derive from these definitions? None whatever. But if chemistry were made a part of common education, all these terms would convey a meaning to the reader of them as readily as those do of water, atmospheric air, and charcoal. It is not supposed that the science at large could be taught in common schools, for if it could, there would be no necessity for high schools. All that is intended by these remarks, is to recommend that the meaning of all chemical terms should be there taught. For example, the school teacher should teach the scholar the meaning of the word water, thus: "Water-a compound fluid, the elements of which are, by weight, eight parts oxygen, and one part hydrogen; by measure, one part oxygen, and two parts hydrogen. Oxygen and hydrogen are gasses; they are both colorless, having neither taste nor smell. Oxygen gas is heavier than atmospheric air, and it forms a portion of the air itself. It is essential to animal life and combustion. Hydrogen gas is the lightest of all gases, and hence is used in filling balloons, being about six times lighter than oxygen.' "Now, if such instruction was given in schools, there would be no complaint of the use by writers of hard names, hard words, &c.; and the farmers would |