indeed. It had not yet reached maturity, nor as yet shown all its
resources of vigour and of beauty, but we took great pleasure in
watching its gradual unfolding. Some of its beautiful double bells did,
in fact, come out, and gave forth their delicious perfume. But one day
there came a stop to its development, which made us anxious. Some of the
blossoms faded before they had fully displayed their lovely hues, and
the buds remained stationary in their leaves. Water, sunshine, soft
spring air, were not lacking to them. The earth in the flower-pot was
good, and there was sufficient space for the roots to expand, but it was
speedily evident that the plant was dying. "At all events," I said,
"I'll save the bulb." So saying, I raised the plant out of the base,
using great precaution, that I might not break the beautiful white-red
threads, which I shook, in order to loosen them from the earth. They had
become wound together, and formed a sort of nest, in which crawled,
twisting themselves as they went along, as many as eight worms.
It was certainly not to be wondered at that, with eight worms at the
root, the poor flower should not have been able to thrive. I removed the
enemy at once, and planted the hyacinth again under more favourable
conditions; but it is to be feared that the sap had been too much
impoverished for it ever to thrive again.
I seemed to see a parable in the history of my plant, and I could not
avoid sighing. Why did I sigh? Because I have known so many young men
and women who have disappointed the hopes felt about them in their
childhood. The careful culture these young people have had from tender
and anxious parents has not succeeded. These promising plants have been
blighted because some gnawing worm, which their friends had not
remarked, was at the root. It was vanity--the desire to shine--it was
deceit--untruthfulness--it was pride--rebellion of the will against all
authority--it was covetousness--it was selfishness--it was----But why
should I continue the melancholy enumeration? It is God who alone knows
the secret enemies of our happiness. "The heart is deceitful above all
things, and desperately wicked," says the voice of Scripture; "who can
know it?" "Out of the heart come evil thoughts," says Christ; therefore
how needful for all of us is the prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O
God!" and how cheering the promise, "I will give you a new heart, and I
will put a new spirit within you."
J. Y.
WORDS AND DEEDS.
One of our party greatly needed some elder-flower water for her face,
upon which the sun was working great mischief. It was in the Italian
town of Varallo, and not a word of Italian did I know. I entered a
chemist's shop, and surveyed his drawers and bottles, but the result was
nil. Bright thought--I would go down by the river, and walk until I
could gather a bunch of elder-flowers, for the tree was then in bloom.
Happily the search was successful. The flowers were exhibited to the
druggist; the extract was procured.
When you cannot tell in so many words what true religion is, exhibit it
by your actions. Show by your life what grace can do. There is no
language in the world so eloquent as a godly life. Men may doubt what
you say, but they will believe what you do.--_C. H. Spurgeon._
IT is a great shame to a man to have a poor heart and a rich
purse.--_Chaucer._
DESTRUCTION OF SODOM AND GOMORRAH.
"_He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants
of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground._"--GENESIS xix. 25.
The following extract from "Word Pictures from the Bible," by G. H.
Taylor, furnishes a good specimen of pictorial teaching, and will serve
to illustrate the lesson on the above subject:--
In the southern part of Palestine, and about thirty miles south-east
from Jerusalem, stands the Dead Sea. It is a lake of about forty miles
in length, with an average breadth of ten miles. On the east and the
west, steep, rugged, and barren mountains of limestone rise up to the
height of two thousand feet, and enclose the waters as in a huge
cauldron. A death-like stillness prevails all around, unbroken save by
the scream of the wild fowl on the bosom of the lake, or the footstep of
some daring and solitary traveller. Its shores are deserted. No human
habitation exists within miles. Even the wandering Arab approaches it
with superstitious dread. Nothing can exceed the gloomy grandeur of its
scenery. Rocks piled upon rocks, like ruin upon ruin, look down from the
east and the west, and are reflected in its sluggish waters. In its
immediate vicinity all vegetation languishes and dies, and the shores
are covered as with a coat of salt. In the waters themselves no living
thing exists. Everything contributes to the ideas of solitude, silence,
sterility, mystery, ruin, and death.
Now there was a time when the Sea did not exist--when the ground which
it now covers formed part of a lovely, extensive, and fertile plain. So
lovely was this plain that it was likened to the garden of paradise, on
account of its fertility. Everything which was pleasant to the eye and
good for food grew there. There was one valley in this plain which was
beautiful beyond all others; it was the vale of Siddim. In this vale
were built the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, and some
others. Now, the fertility of the ground caused the inhabitants of these
places to be very rich and very idle. They forgot the goodness of God in
placing them in such a lovely spot; and instead of thanking Him for His
kindness towards them, they gave way to such a beastliness and
licentiousness of conduct as one cannot think of without shuddering.
Their very name lives to our times to designate all that is filthy and
abominable in the conduct of men. They were not only licentious, they
were proud; not only proud, they were greedy and uncharitable. Although
they possessed in such abundance all that was necessary for the
happiness and sustenance of man, yet would they not give anything to
assist the poor and the needy. The Prophet Ezekiel says, "Behold this
was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom; pride, fulness of bread, and
abundance of idleness, was in her and in her daughters; neither did she
strengthen the hand of the poor and needy, but was haughty, and
committed abomination before Me." All the worst of sins in the greatest
excess were to be found among these inhabitants of the cities of the
plain.
At this time there was living among them a man of the name of Lot, the
nephew of Abraham. One evening, as Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, two
angels, in the form of men, appeared unto him. "And Lot, seeing them,
rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the
ground; and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into
your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye
shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we
will abide in the street all night." They did not wish to enter; but
Lot pressed them, and they went in, and he gave them some refreshment.
That very night the angels communicate to Lot the intelligence that the
Lord had sent them to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the cities of
the plain, for the sins of the people had become so great that they were
an abomination in the land. And the angels said unto Lot, "Hast thou
here any besides? son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and
whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place." This
awful news must have made Lot very anxious for the safety of his family,
and accordingly he goes out and tells his relations, and bids them get
up and leave the place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city. "But
he seemed as one that mocked, unto his sons-in-law." Lot entreats them
like a kind father who desires the safety of his children; but they only
mock him in return--"Why should to-morrow differ from other days? Who
ever saw it rain fire, or whence should the brimstone come? Or, if such
showers must fall, how shall nothing burn but this valley?" "And when
the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy
wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in
the iniquity of the city." How destruction hunts the wicked! As soon as
it is morning, Lot is told to hurry out of the guilty city, lest he
should be consumed in its iniquity. Lot looks upon it, and thinks,
perhaps, of his property which he must leave to perish. He looks, and
lingers; but the angels "laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of
his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the Lord being
merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the
city." No sooner are they beyond the walls of the city than the angels
say unto him, "Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay
thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed."
The command terrifies Lot. "Escape to the mountain--to a wild, barren,
desert spot, where I cannot find food to eat, and where the wild beasts
may destroy me? I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me,
and I die. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a
little one. Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my
soul shall live." The prayer of Lot is graciously accepted. "See, I have
accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this
city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I
cannot do anything till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the
city was called Zoar." As Lot enters the little city of Zoar the sun is
shining. Everything was as usual. The sun is shining upon the cities and
the beautiful vale of Siddim. The inhabitants, heedless and careless as
before, are wantoning and revelling. Suddenly the windows of heaven are
opened, and floods of fiery rain pour down upon the guilty cities and
all within them. The ground takes fire; the wicked inhabitants fly,
shrieking, from place to place, but all too late. The swift devouring
flames follow them, and in a short time the cities, the people, all that
was fair to look upon in the vale of Siddim, even the solid earth
itself, are in a blaze! Presently a noise like that of thunder is heard.
The earth, like some huge animal, opens wide its mouth; the cities sink
into its jaws and are swallowed up; floods of water, filled with
sulphur, rush over the place where they stood, and nothing is seen but a
thick cloud of smoke rising from the water. That water is the Dead Sea.
These were not all the horrors of that dreadful day. Lot escaped into
Zoar, but his wife, who was behind him, looked back, and she became a
pillar of salt. The angel had told them not to look back. God was at
that time showing her the greatest mercy, yet, contrary to His commands,
she looked back, and became a pillar of salt. It may be that the swift
flames overtook her as she loitered, or that God, offended at such
ungrateful disobedience, punished her on the spot by immediately turning
her into a pillar of salt. It matters not to us which way it was. In
either case it was the result of disobedience.
THE BIBLE AND ITS CLAIMS.
I do not know whether you have seen Mr. Smiles' life of our late friend
George Moore, but in it we read that, at a certain dinner-party, a
learned man remarked that it would not be easy to find a person of
intelligence who believed in the inspiration of the Bible. In an instant
George Moore's voice was heard across the table saying boldly, "I do,
for one." Nothing more was said. My dear friend had a strong way of
speaking, as I well remember, for we have upon occasions vied with each
other in shouting when we were together at his Cumberland home. I think
I can hear his emphatic "I do, for one." Let us not be backward to take
the old-fashioned and unpopular side, and say outright, "I do, for one."
Where are we, if our Bibles are gone? Where are we if taught to distrust
them? If we are left in doubt as to what part is inspired and what is
not, we are as badly off as if we had no Bible at all. I hold no theory
of inspiration. I accept the inspiration of the Scriptures as a fact.
Those who thus view the Scriptures need not be ashamed of their company,
for some of the best and most learned of men have been of the same mind.
Locke, the great philosopher, spent the last fourteen years of his life
in the study of the Bible, and when asked what was the shortest way for
a young gentleman to understand the Christian religion, he bade him read
the Bible, remarking, "Therein are contained the words of eternal life.
It has God for its Author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any
admixture of error, for its matter." There are those on the side of
God's Word whom you need not be ashamed of in the matter of intelligence
and learning; and if it were not so, it should not discourage you, when
you remember that the Lord has "hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and revealed them unto babes." We believe, with the Apostle,
that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men." It is better to believe
what comes out of God's mouth, and be called a fool, than to believe
what comes out of the mouths of philosophers, and be therefore esteemed
a wise man.--_C. H. Spurgeon._
MANKIND'S MISTAKES.
It is a mistake to labour when you are not in a fit condition to do so.
To think that the more a person eats the healthier and stronger he will
become.
To go to bed at midnight and rise at daybreak, and imagine that every
hour taken from sleep is an hour gained.
To imagine that if a little work or exercise is good, violent or
prolonged exercise is better.
To conclude that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep
in.
To eat as if you had only a minute to finish the meal in, or to eat
without an appetite, or continue after it has been satisfied, merely to
gratify the taste.
To believe that children can do as much work as grown people, and that
the more hours they study the more they learn.
To imagine that whatever remedy causes one to feel immediately better
(as alcoholic stimulants) is good for the system, without regard to its
after effects.
To take off proper clothing out of season, simply because you have
become heated.
To think that any nostrum or patent medicine is a specific for all the
diseases flesh is heir to.
POSTAL SERVICE STATISTICS
The Right Hon. H. C. Raikes, her Majesty's Postmaster-General, has
issued the thirty-fourth annual report on the working of the postal
services in the United Kingdom for the year ended March 31st last. The
record starts with a table, the figures of which convey some notion of
the magnitude of the task undertaken. It is estimated that during the
year the number of letters entrusted to the department for delivery was
1,512,200,000, in addition to 188,800,000 post-cards, 389,500,000 book
packets and circulars, 152,300,000 newspapers, and 36,732,000 parcels,
making a gross total of 2,279,532,000. Compared with the previous year
these figures show an increase of 3.6 per cent. in letters, 4.8 in
post-cards, 5.6 in book packets and circulars, 0.8 in newspapers, and
11.8 in parcels, the increase in the total being 3.9. It is calculated
that the average number of letters addressed to each person was 41, of
postcards 5, of book packets and circulars 10, of newspapers 4, of
parcels 1; or a grand average of 61. The distribution of these figures
over given areas was marked by the usual disproportion. Of the total
delivery about 85 per cent. was in England and Wales (28 per cent. being
in the London postal district), 9.0 per cent. was in Scotland, and 6.0
per cent. in Ireland. The total number of letters registered was
10,814,722, being an increase of 0.3 per cent.
The constantly growing work of the department necessitates an increase
in the numerical strength of the staff. The Postmaster-General shows
that the permanent establishment consists of about 56,460 persons, being
an increase of 1,609 over last year. Of the 3,872 females employed, 751
are engaged as clerks in the central offices in London, Dublin, and
Edinburgh, and 3,121 as telegraphists, counter-women, sorters, &c.,
throughout the kingdom. In addition to this staff about 48,900
supernumeraries are employed in the country to assist in the general
work of the Post Office. Of these 16,000 are females.
The Parcel Post continues to be much used for the transmission of
flowers, game, &c. It is calculated that over 12,000 parcels, containing
upwards of 45,000 grouse, were received in London last autumn, and in
the month of March vegetables in considerable quantities arrived in
parcels from Algiers, while it was also noticed that in one week 3,787
parcels containing hats were posted in London alone. As an illustration
of the use made of this service by certain firms, it may be mentioned
that two firms in London each posted 70,000 parcels at one time, while a
third posted 5,000 parcels. The total postage paid on these parcels
amounted to L1,875.
The "Dead Letter" department, as it is popularly known, has been called
upon to deal with 13,436,600 letters, newspapers, postcards, packets,
and parcels. These figures mark a decrease of 785,387, which is
attributed firstly to the absence of a general election, and secondly to
the progress of education, "which causes letter writers to exercise more
care and accuracy in addressing letters." The report continues:--
"Of the total number received 412,122 were unreturnable; 175,408 were
registered or contained enclosures of value, and 25,726 were wholly
unaddressed. Of these unaddressed letters 1,553 contained money and
cheques, &c., amounting to L7,111. The careless and insecure manner in
which the public send articles through the post is shown by the facts
that no less than 24,727 articles of all sorts, including 289 coins,
were received, having escaped from their covers or wrappers, and that
the addresses had become detached, through insufficient fastening, from
4,578 parcels, many of which contained matter of a perishable nature,
which was thus lost to the owners.
"During the year ended December 31st, 1887, the deposits in the Post
Office Savings Bank numbered 6,916,327; the amount being L16,535,932, as
compared with 6,562,395 deposits, amounting to L15,696,852 the year
before, being an increase of 353,932 in number and L839,080 in amount.
The sum credited to depositors for interest was L1,244,074, an increase
of L74,484 over the previous year. The total amount standing to the
credit of depositors at the end of the year was L53,974,065, being an
increase of L3,099,727 over last year. This total is exclusive of the
sum of L3,345,106 Government Stock held by depositors. The number of new
accounts opened during the year was 794,592 as compared with 758,270 in
1886; and the accounts closed were 574,252 as compared with 562,499."
Dealing with the Telegraph business, it is shown that the number of
messages forwarded during the year was 53,403,425, being an increase of
3,159,786. A reminiscence of the Queen's Jubilee is fittingly recorded.
The events connected with the celebration caused an immense increase in
telegraph work in London, amounting to nearly 60 per cent. over the
ordinary average, and on the day preceding the Jubilee ceremony no less
than 30,597 local messages were transmitted through the central station,
the total number of messages dealt with on that day in the Central
Office being 124,291.
THE most valuable, pure, useful, and durable of all metals, is tried
gold; so is tried faith, among all the Christian virtues.--_Jackson._
IT is not enough in this world to "mean well." We ought to do well.
Thoughtfulness, therefore, becomes a duty, and gratitude one of the
graces.
NATURE HER OWN SURGEON.
Equally worthy of admiration, and all but equally complex, is the
process by which Nature repairs a fractured limb, especially when the
injury is such that the broken ends of bone cannot be brought exactly
into their proper positions. It is remarkable, too, how she adapts her
process to the different habits of her patients. In the case of a simple
fracture, if the parts that have been disjoined are set close together
in their normal line--if it be the leg of a dog, for example--there is
first a hard sheath, called a "callus," formed round the fracture, and
this "callus" permits a restricted use of the injured limb, even before
the two parts have grown together. It is, however, only a temporary
provision, necessitated by the natural restlessness of the lower
animals. After the fracture has completely healed the "callus" gradually
disappears. A human case is treated differently. Here, unless it be a
broken rib (which requires the provision in consequence of its incessant
motion in respiration), the healing takes place ordinarily without the
formation of any _outer_ "callus." Sometimes the broken ends cannot
be--or at all events are not--brought into their proper relative
positions. Is it possible, it may be asked, that Nature can provide the
means for meeting such an emergency, when, that is to say, the two
portions of bone to be joined are all awry, and something quite new--in
fact, a kind of bridge, and a bridge not merely serving the purpose of a
solid connection between opposite banks, but like the bridges which
carry the appliances of modern civilization, connecting the nerves,
which answer to the telegraph wires, and the veins and arteries
corresponding to our water and other conduits, has to be constructed?
Nature's engineering is equal even to this task.--_Quiver._
ABOUT SWEARING.
A CHAT WITH MY BOYS.
Some boys seem to think that it is manly to swear. Passing along the
street, one is shocked to hear oaths from well-dressed, intelligent
boys, who evidently belong to cultivated Christian families. I am going
to tell the boys a true story about swearing, which I trust will
influence them to break themselves of this ungentlemanly and wicked
habit.
"When I was a young lad," said a gentleman, "I learned to swear. I had a
good Christian mother, and she had taught me what a heinous sin it is to
use the name of God in vain. But I heard other boys swearing, and I
thought it was very manly to swear as they did, and I tried it too. At
first the words of an oath came stumbling along, and I felt all the time
I was using them that God would strike me dead. But after a while I
could swear as easily and fearlessly as some of my companions. But I
never swore before my mother. I used the Lord's name in vain so often
that it seemed as if He had forsaken me, and left me to my sins. I
became wicked and reckless.
"When I was fifteen years old I went to sea. My mother reluctantly gave
her consent, only because she knew that I would go without it if she did
not. My father was dead, and I was her only son. I had no idea then what
my mother's feelings must have been; now I realize what she must have
suffered in parting with me.
"When I went to sea I swore in the worst manner. In fact, I scarcely
spoke a word that was not accompanied by an oath. After a three years'
voyage I came home. My mother met me with great kindness and affection.
She had prepared a most tempting supper for me. My trunk was being
brought into the door, when a misunderstanding between myself and the
man who had brought it, about the pay, aroused my anger, and, forgetting
where I was, I swore as only a rough seaman can swear. When oath after
oath had passed my lips, I chanced to look at my mother, who stood near
me in the hall. Her face was as white as the face of the dead, and an
indescribable expression upon it that I can never, never forget. I saw
that she was falling, and I put my arm around her to support her. She
shrank away from my touch, and fell senseless to the floor. I paid the
man the price he demanded, closed the door, lifted my mother up, and
laid her on the lounge. I thought I had killed her. Oh, the feelings of
remorse that filled my heart at that moment! But she opened her eyes,
and seeing me standing before her, said, 'Oh, my son, you have broken my
heart!' I assured her with tears and kisses that I would never swear
again, but the habit had taken such strong hold on me that I found
myself swearing unconsciously many times a day. My mother did not enjoy
the long-anticipated visit of her only son. Her spirit seemed crushed,
and I know she felt that she had lost her boy, and a reckless, wicked
man had come home in his stead. With many tears and kind words of
pleading she bade me 'good-bye' when, in a few weeks after, I started on
my second sea voyage. At the first port at which we stopped after
leaving home, I received a letter from my aunt, containing the sad news
of my dear mother's death. Instantly that mother's face, as it appeared
to me on the evening I returned home, was before me. I threw myself on
my knees in my cabin, and pleaded for forgiveness. I resolved with God's
help to lead a different life. But habits of sin, that begin in cobwebs,
end in iron chains. It was not easy to break away from them. But every
time I began to use an oath, my mother's face, as it looked that night,
came before me. I shall never forget it to my dying day. With God's
help, I have overcome that terrible sin. I would give everything I
possess could I only speak to her once more, and tell her my sorrow and
remorse. But she is silent in the grave."