faithful and unfaithful servants are contrasted. All the labourers in
this vineyard worked. None are accused of laziness or unfaithfulness.
None are blamed for the way in which their work was done. Those who
laboured longest were still well paid, while the late comers were
rewarded by sheer generosity. So, in the kingdom of God's grace, each
favoured servant of the Lord "knows in all his heart and soul that not
one thing has failed of all the good things the Lord his God promised
him." He never gives less than He said He would. He often gives more
than we either ask or think.
Does the end of the day in this parable mean the evening of life, or the
end of the world? And did Jesus represent the feelings of some of His
people when dying, or at the last day? Oh, no! I do not for one moment
think so. But you know we sometimes show a pouting, cross little child a
picture of one like itself, to let it see how ugly it looks; and in the
same way Jesus, by this parable, taught His disciples and us that when
we are jealous and envious of others, we are finding fault with God's
kindness and bounty.
And let us remember that, whether we are rich or poor--whether our
labours in Christ's cause seem very successful or not--yet, if we have
been called to serve Him at all, the highest honour has been put upon
us. Far better to be employed in His vineyard than to be loitering
outside; infinitely preferable to be "a doorkeeper in His house, than to
dwell in the tents of wickedness." His "ways are ways of pleasantness,"
and "in keeping His commandments there is great reward."
May we be His servants, loving and faithful, and receive at last that
great reward which none but Jesus can deserve, "the free gift of God,
eternal life," through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour; and our song
of humble gratitude will be, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
Thy name be glory, for Thy mercy and truth's sake. Amen."
Our next subject will be, _Ananias and Sapphira_ (Acts v.).
Your affectionate friend,
H. S. L.
PRIZE ESSAY.
CONTRAST THE LESSON TAUGHT BY THE CONDUCT OF SOLOMON AND OF REHOBOAM, AT
THE COMMENCEMENT OF THEIR REIGN.
The chief lesson taught by the conduct of Solomon at the commencement of
his reign is, humility. We know this by his choice when God asked him,
in a dream, "What shall I give thee?" He made answer that the people he
had to rule were as the dust of the earth for multitude, and that he had
no more power to act as a king than a child. He therefore wished for
wisdom to help him to do right, and for God to be with him, as He had
been with his father David.
This incident shows the gracious nature of Solomon's character; and the
reward that God gave him ought to make us remember that "he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted."
With Rehoboam it was different. The lesson taught is, that his conduct
should be shunned by all. Shortly after he was made king, those who had
lived the greater part of Solomon's reign came and asked him if he would
be kind to them, and ease the servitude that his father had put upon
them. He sought to man instead of to God, and chose the counsel of
foolish young men. After the people had been kept waiting three days, he
told them that he would add to the yoke that they formerly had borne,
and as his father had "chastised them with whips," so would he "with
scorpions." At the time that Rehoboam made that rough and haughty
answer, he probably had forgotten that the majority of the people had
most power, but so it was here, for ten of the twelve tribes revolted.
The first lesson taught by Solomon, and the second taught by Rehoboam,
contrast deeply with each other. The first, if imitated by every one,
would work a wonderful change in the world. There would be fewer
quarrels, fewer wars, and, in a word, less sin. The second is the cause
of many evils with which the earth abounds. The former the Lord is
delighted with; the latter is an abomination. If Jesus Christ was once
"made lower than the angels" for our sakes, surely we ought to put away
all haughtiness, and remember that we are on a level with our
fellow-creatures by creation, and that all who are saved are saved by
free grace, through faith in Christ.
WILLIAM ERNEST CRAY
(Aged 11 years).
_Pearl Cottage, Carlyle Road,
Forton, Gosport, Hants._
[Good Essays have been received from Jane Bell, Laura Creasey, E. B.
Knocker, Alice Creasey, B. Stroud, Annie Judd, Alice Pease, G. A.
Osmotherly, E. Saunders, M. E. Denly.]
[The writer of the above Essay receives a copy of "The Life of George
Whitfield."
The subject for October will be, "Charity," as commended in the
Scriptures; and the prize to be given for the best Essay on that
subject, a copy of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs." All competitors must give a
guarantee that they are under fifteen years of age, and that the Essay
is their own composition, or the papers will be passed over, as the
Editor cannot undertake to write for this necessary information. Papers
must be sent direct to the Editor, Mr. T. Hull, 117, High Street,
Hastings, by the first of September.]
THE cross is the distinct announcement to us of that wonderful law, that
"through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Perfection through suffering--that is the doctrine of the cross. There
is love in that law.
Interesting Items.
ON July 15th, after two sermons by Mr. Hull, at Rochdale Road,
Manchester, L44 9s. 51/2d. was collected for the Sunday School there.
SALE OF PICTURES.--The _Chester Chronicle_ states authoritatively that
Lord Tollemache has sold two of his pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds for
L15,000 each, and one by Gainsborough for L14,000.
IN addition to the present from a London banker of 10,000 books, a lady
in the City has sent a van load, about one and a half tons, to the
Mariners' Mission, Burdett Road, London, E., for free distribution among
sailors and others.
LOW RENTAL FOR LAND.--Eight hundred acres of arable land in the Isle of
Sheppey, well known for its productive nature, have just been let to a
new tenant at the unprecedentedly low price of 1s. 2d. an acre. The
tithe on the land is 12s. an acre.
ON June 1st, 1883, a toad was placed in a cavity hollowed in a large
stone, and the opening was sealed up with cement. On the 1st of June,
this year, the stone was broken open, and the toad was found alive, and
strangely enough, it had grown considerably.
MR. JOHN WHITE, of Nuneaton, Warwickshire, erected a highly horrible
scarecrow in a field. Three weeks afterwards he went to inquire after
its health, and found that a robin had built her nest in one of the
pockets, and a tomtit had utilized a sleeve for the same purpose.
A MAIDEN SESSION.--There were no prisoners for trial at Cambridgeshire
Quarter Sessions, July 13th, 1888. Mr. Sperling, the chairman, who was
presented with a pair of white gloves, said that, during an experience
of over thirty years, he did not remember a previous maiden session.
THE Dundee sealing steamer _Esquimaux_ arrived the other week at St.
John's, Newfoundland, from seal fishing, with a catch of 23,000 seals.
The _Aurora_, another Dundee vessel, followed, with a cargo of 25,000
seals. The seal fishing off the Newfoundland coast has this season been
a great success.
ARTIFICIAL IVORY.--A substance resembling ivory of creamy whiteness and
great hardness is made from good potatoes washed in diluted sulphuric
acid, then boiled in the same solution until they become solid and
dense. They are then washed free from the acid and slowly dried. This
ivory can be dyed, and turned, and made useful in many ways.
DR. GORDON STABLES, the well-known author, spends the summer in going
about the country in a caravan. His handsome home on wheels is called
"The Wanderer." It is drawn by two capital carriage horses, and is
fitted in most luxurious fashion. He takes a man-servant with him, and
has a tricycle attached to the vehicle. He stops at night by the
roadside.
NEW GOLD FIELD.--A rich gold field has been discovered between the two
rivers, Lava and Papanahoni, in Surinam. It is an open question whether
this district of 20,000 to 25,000 square kilometres belongs to France or
Holland. M. Condreau, the French traveller, who has been closely
investigating the district, considers that it will be as productive as
the gold-fields of Australia and California.
MR. GEORGE LE FEVRE, of the Huguenot Church at Canterbury Cathedral,
writes thus--"A large and valuable oil painting of a scene in the
history of the Huguenots has been presented to the French Church. The
subject is exceedingly appropriate this year, being the tercentenary
celebration of the defeat of the Spanish invasion of England. The
picture has been hung up in that part of the Crypt known as the Chantry
of the Black Prince, and has been much admired by tourists, who are now
visiting in considerable numbers."
BY the steamship _Oonah_, which is the latest addition to the fleet of
the Tasmanian Steam Navigation Company, there arrived at Melbourne on
Saturday, April 28th, from Tasmania, the largest shipment of fruit for
the London market which has left the Australian colonies--about 13,000
bushels of choice apples. The fruit will be transhipped into the cool
chamber of the P. and O. mail boat _Oceana_, leaving on the 4th of May,
and will be followed by another shipment by the _Britannia_, leaving on
the 18th of May. This, we understand, closes the operations of the
shippers for this season. Should the outcome of these shipments be as
encouraging as the telegraphic news already received seems to indicate,
there is every prospect of a very large export trade in this industry
being established. We are informed that the parcel now arrived could
have been very much increased had there been more room in the cool
chamber of the _Oceana_. No doubt next season all the boats of the P.
and O. and Orient Companies will make arrangements to take fruit, so
that shipments can be forwarded every week.--_Launceston (Tasmania)
Examiner, May 2nd._
FURTHER particulars of the floods in Mexico show them to have been of a
most serious character. It is stated that, in the town of Silao, where
the river overflowed its banks on the 18th of June, 1,500 persons
perished. At Leon, over 2,200 houses were destroyed. In some districts
it is declared that bodies were floating about on the waters as thickly
as driftwood.
DREAD OF COMETS.--A story is related showing the dread with which comets
were regarded in the early part of the last century. A renowned
astronomer predicted that a comet would appear on Wednesday, October
14th, 1712, and that the world would be destroyed by fire on the Friday
following. The astronomer was correct, so far as the comet was
concerned. A number of persons got into the boats and barges on the
Thames, thinking the water the safest place. A captain of a Dutch ship
threw all his powder into the river, that his ship might not be
endangered. A number of clergymen, it is said, were ferried over to
Lambeth, to request that proper prayers might be prepared, there being
none suitable in the Church service. Sir Gilbert Heathcote, at that time
head director of the Bank, issued orders to all the fire offices in
London, requiring them to keep a good look-out, and to have a particular
eye on the Bank of England.
A MILLIONAIRE INVENTOR.--We have more than once pointed out how simple
inventions (observes a writer in _Invention_) often realize large sums
for the fortunate inventor. Here is another illustration. The discovery
of the perforated substance used for bottoming chairs and for other
purposes has made its inventor a millionaire. George Yeaton, the
inventor in question, was a poor Yankee cane-seater in Vermont. He first
distinguished himself by inventing a machine for weaving cane, but he
made no money out of it, as some one stole his idea, and had the process
patented. After a number of years experimenting, Yeaton at last hit upon
this invention, which consists of a number of thin layers of boards of
different degrees of hardness glued together to give pliability. Yeaton
went through a number of bitterly contested law-suits before he got his
invention patented. He was wise in not paying others to manufacture his
device. He formed a company, and to-day he has a plant valued at half a
million dollars, and is in the receipt of a princely annual revenue
derived from this invention.
THE FASTEST TRAIN IN THE WORLD.--The fastest train in the world is
without doubt the "Flying Dutchman," which for many years has succeeded
in knocking off the seventy-eight miles between London and Swindon in an
hour and twenty-seven minutes. This is at the rate of fifty-three miles
an hour. Exeter is 194 miles from Paddington, and is reached in four and
a quarter hours, or an average pace throughout, including stoppages, of
forty-five miles and a half per hour. The Prince of Wales has made some
remarkably quick journeys on the Great Western. Not very long ago the
North Western took him from Manchester to London in three hours and
fifty-five minutes, but the Great Western had previously beaten this by
conveying him from London to Swansea (216 miles) in three hours and
fifty-three minutes, the average speed throughout that remarkable
journey being almost fifty-six miles an hour. English trains are much
quicker than those of the Continent. The speed of the American expresses
is from thirty-five to forty miles an hour. The Chemin de fer du Nord
runs its expresses at an average of thirty-seven, and the Paris and
Mediterranean at thirty-four miles an hour. Some of the German expresses
cover thirty-six miles an hour.
A TERRIBLE SITUATION.--Mr. Ballou, in his recent wanderings under the
Southern Cross, has found one more unpleasant item for reptile
literature. In Sydney he heard the following snake story, the facts of
which occurred not long before, near the town of Parramatta. In the
family of a settler, who resided some half a league from the town, there
was an invalid daughter, she being of an extremely nervous temperament.
She was sleeping, one summer afternoon, in a hammock swung between two
supporting standards in the shade of the piazza, when she was suddenly
awakened by feeling something cold and moist clinging about her throat.
She put her hand to the spot, and clasped the body of a snake just at
the back of its head, and, with a horrified cry, wrenched with all her
strength to pull it away. This was the first instinctive action of the
moment, but so great was her terror that she speedily lost all
consciousness of the situation. Her hand, however, still grasped the
snake where she had first seized upon it, and with such a convulsive
force that the creature was rendered powerless. The cry of the terrified
girl brought the father from within the house, who instantly came to her
relief; but in the fit which her fright had induced, her hand slowly
contracted about the creature's throat with a force which she could not
possibly have exerted when awake, and before her fingers were unclasped,
by the aid of a bit of hammock cord, the reptile was completely
strangled. Fortunately, the creature had not bitten the girl before she
seized it, and after that it was unable to do so. It is said to have
been four feet long, and of a poisonous species.
[Illustration: "I GAVE MYSELF UP TO READING THE BIBLE." (_See page
194._)]
LETTER BY A DYING SOLDIER.
My dear wife,--Before these lines reach you, grim death will have swept
me off the stage of time. No more shalt thou repose in these arms; no
more shall these eyes behold thy lovely person, or gaze with delight on
thee or my dear infants.
Yesterday we had a bloody and obstinate fight, in which we had great
numbers killed and wounded. I received one ball in my leg, another in my
breast. I am now so weak with the loss of blood that I can hardly write
these few lines as the last tribute of my unchanging love to thee. The
surgeons inform me that three hours will be the utmost I can survive.
Alas! too true was the dire presage in my mind that we should never meet
again on this side eternity.
On our passage here, I gave myself up to reading the Bible, it being the
only Book I was possessed of. The Almighty was pleased to draw my heart
to Him by the sweet attractions of His grace, and at the same time to
enlighten my mind.
There is in the regiment a corporal who is a Christian. I had no
knowledge of him till one night when I had been earnest in prayer to God
to guide me in the way of peace. During my sleep I dreamed of this same
man, and was directed to him by name, Samuel Pierce. The dream made so
strong an impression on my mind that the next morning I inquired if
there was such a person in the regiment, and was greatly astonished to
find him. I told him my dream, with which he was much pleased. We soon
contracted a strong friendship, and he was pleased to explain to me the
amazing love of God in giving His Son Jesus Christ to bleed and die for
sinners. He unfolded to me the mysteries of salvation, the nature of the
new birth, and the great necessity of holiness of heart and life. In
short, he became my spiritual father, and to him, under God, I owe much
that I am now acquainted with.
Soon after we landed, God was pleased to speak peace to my soul. Oh, the
bliss, the unutterable joy, that I then felt, through the blood of the
Lamb! How I longed to tell the whole world what Jesus had done for me!
But how did I long for thee, my love, to taste and know the love of God
in Christ Jesus! I would have given the world to have been with thee, to
have told thee of "the pearl of great price." And as we shall never meet
more in this vale of tears, this is my dying wish and advice--read the
Bible and good books, frequent the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord
will guide thee in His way. And oh, endeavour to bring up the dear
little ones in the fear of God. Oh, never fix thine heart upon the vain
and unsubstantial things of this world! Heaven and the love of God are
the only things that demand our hearts, or are worthy of engrossing
them. I have been a worthless husband to thee, and a vile rebel against
my God. "God be merciful to me a sinner!" I die in peace. I die in a
full assurance of eternal glory. A few moments and my soul shall be
ranged in the "general assembly of the Church of the First-born who are
written in heaven."
And now, my dear infants, the God who blessed Jacob and Joseph will
bless you. Seek Him, and He will be found of you. Call upon Him, and He
will hear and bless you. Learn, then, my dear children, when you grow
up, to seek for permanent happiness in God through a crucified Redeemer.
"The world recedes, it disappears;
Heaven opens on my eyes, my ears
With sounds seraphic ring.
Lend, lend your wings; I mount, I fly!
'O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?'"
Dear wife, more would I say, but life ebbs out apace. Bright angels
stand around the gory turf on which I lie, ready to escort me to the
arms of Jesus. Bending saints reveal my shining crown, and beckon me
away. Yea, methinks my Jesus bids me come. Adieu, adieu!
JOHN RANDON.
A HOPEFUL CASE.
Being called to preach the Word in a parish where there is no resident
minister, it frequently falls to my lot to visit those who are
afflicted.
A singular instance, both of ignorance and mercy, appeared in the
character of a person almost unknown to me till the following
circumstance took place.
A poor woman, about the middle of August last, was taken very ill with
pleurisy, and was much alarmed. This being the Sabbath evening, she sent
for one of the people who usually attend my preaching to come and read
with her. He accordingly went, and she was much pleased with what he
read. Before he left her, she solicited him to ask me to come and see
her. Being out preaching, upon my return home I met this person, who
told me the request of the poor woman. I immediately went, and found her
in a helpless, miserable state, both as to body and soul. Her husband
being gone to harvest, she was left without money to procure any of the
comforts of life. The marks of poverty appeared in every part of the
habitation, and the poor creature laid stretched out upon a bed of
sorrow, being in a languishing state through the violence of the fever.
After condoling with her for a few minutes upon her external situation,
I began to converse with her pretty freely upon the more important
affairs belonging to her never-dying soul. The first topic of
conversation was upon man as a sinful creature, and the enmity of the
heart in the unconverted. I endeavoured to show that, although some
might be a little more refined as to gross acts of immorality, yet by
nature we "are all the children of wrath even as others." I next spoke
of salvation by Jesus Christ, that it was all of grace.
The woman listened to every word I uttered. The tears began to trickle
down her cheeks, and at last she said, "I know nothing of the Man of
whom you have been speaking," immediately adding, "I was never brought
up in the way of religion--never taught to know a letter of a book, nor
yet attend any place of worship." After I had engaged in prayer with
her, I left her.
The next day I made her another visit, and found the fever increased,
the cough very troublesome, and the pain in her side very acute. I began
to discourse upon the suitableness, the ability, and willingness of
Jesus to save perishing sinners, and then she put this question--"And do
you think, sir, He will save such a wretch as I am?" I observed, "The
promise runs thus, 'Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast
out,'" &c.
Her knowledge of divine things rapidly increased, and her earnest
devotions seemed now to be the perpetual breathings of her soul.
The third visit I made her, she lamented her former state of ignorance
and sin, and expressed great fears lest her sins should be too enormous
to be forgiven.
The poor woman continued in this state about six weeks, soliciting the
company of all Christian friends to converse and pray with her.
The last visit I made to her produced a very affecting scene, both to
her and me. I talked to her as one actually dying, and prayed for her as
one who must soon appear before the Judge of all the earth. While I was
engaged in prayer, she repeated the words after me in the most affecting
manner, and after I had finished supplicating the Father of mercies, she
added, "Oh, Lord, hear! Oh, Lord, forgive such a wretch as I am!" A few
hours after this, she breathed her last, without either sigh or groan.
THE GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851.
Of late years we have had in Britain almost a surfeit of exhibitions, of
one sort or another, chief among which have been the splendid series
which so many witnessed at South Kensington, and which have given to
many of the inhabitants of these isles a far better ideal of the
empire's resources than otherwise they would have had, besides having
contributed not a little to the stimulation of commerce, while
furnishing agreeable entertainment to the sightseer. That the day of the
exhibition, as we understand the word, as an educational and
profit-raising medium, is not yet gone, is proved by the holding of the
Irish, Italian, and Anglo-Danish Exhibitions in London this year, and
the popularity of the more general display at Glasgow, not to speak of
minor shows which have found favour elsewhere.