ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS, Anecdotes and Selections. THUNDER-STORM IN THE CRIMEA.—At eight o'clock this evening, June 23, a thunderstorm, advancing from the mountain ranges over Balaklava and Mackenzie's farm, burst on the valley of the Tchernaya and on the southern portion of the camp. I never beheld such incessant lightning. For two hours the sky was a blaze of fire. The rain fell like a great wall of water behind us. Not a drop descended over the camp in front, but we could see it in a steep glistening cascade, illuminated by the lightning, falling all across the camp from sea to land. The storm has done more damage than we could have anticipated. Men were drowned in ravines converted by the tornado into angry watercourses, were carried off roads by mountain torrents, and dashed against hill sides; beasts were swept away into the harbour and borne to sea; huts were broken up and floated out into the ocean; the burial grounds near Balaklava were swept bare, and disclosed their grim army of the dead in ghastly resurrection, washed into strange shapes from out their shallow graves; and, greatest calamity of all, the railway was in various places discomposed, ripped up, and broken down, so as to be unserviceable at our greatest need. 66 66 Times Correspondent-1855. THE RAIN CLOUD AND FLOWER.-The ground is dry and hard, the sky intensely blue, the hot rays of a summer sun are pouring down upon the earth, and fields and gardens, trees and flowers, pant for rain. Suddenly a rain cloud no bigger than a man's hand seems to arise out of the sea, and expanding, floats negligently in the deep sky, its dark black body edged with gold and silver. 'Bless the rain cloud," saith the parched earth. A little flower, pale and nearly dead, lifts up its head, and with a supplicating voice prays to the rain cloud. Oh, rain cloud! beneficent rain cloud let fall a drop of water into my cup: I am thirsty, panting, dying relieve my want, and may the God that made both thee and me, bless thee!" But the proud rain cloud refused to listen to the prayer of the flower, and carried its mighty self away, its dark black body edged with gold and silver. Yet the treasures of the rain cloud must be dispensed; and better, so the haughty rain eloud thinks, that it should fall on the ocean that needs it not, than on the flower that perishes for lack of moisture. So the little flower droops its head and dies. [This is a riddle. Can you unravel it ?] GRASPING AT RICHES. A young man expressed his surprise to Dr. Franklin that the possession of great riches should ever be attended with undue solicitude, and instanced a merchant, who, although in possession of unbounded wealth, was as busy, and much more anxious, than the most industrious clerk in his counting-house. ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. The Doctor, in reply, took an apple from a fruit basket, and presented it to a child in the room, who could scarcely grasp it in his hand. He then gave him a second, which filled the other; and choosing a third, remarkable for its size and beauty, he presented that also. The child, after many ineffectual attempts to hold three apples, dropped the last on the carpet, and burst into tears. See," said Franklin, "there is a little man with more riches than he can enjoy." 66 ROBERT NEWTON.-Before railways were generally constructed in England, Mr. Newton was familiarly known to the drivers and guards of stage-coaches on all the great roads, who regarded him as a friend, and were ever ready to meet his wishes. On one occasion, it is said, he had made an arrangement to meet a coach at the end of a cross road, early in the morning; but when the coach arrived, he was not on the spot. The coachman stopped, and the passengers began to remonstrate. He expressed a full persuasion that the reverend gentleman would speedily appear, and he was unwilling to leave him. Immediately Mr. Newton was seen galloping up the cross-road, with a carpet-bag in his hand. On his arrival he tied the horse's head to a gate, took his place behind the coachman with many expressions of thanks, and stated that he had set off in time with his friend in a gig, that the gig having broken down, he stripped the horse of its harness, mounted its bare back, and left his friend to follow on foot, for the purpose of taking the horse back again. By these means he was able to fulfil his engagements for the day. OCULAR DEMONSTRATION.-The following anecdote is told of Robert Robinson, of Cambridge. Upon one occasion when he was preaching, he dropped the immediate subject of his discourse, and made this observation:-"It is a rule with me never to use an expression which the humblest of my hearers cannot understand. I have just made use of the term ocular demonstration; I will explain it to you. I look in the table pew, and I see a young man in a blue coat and scarlet waistcoat fast asleep. On pronouncing the last two words, he raised his voice considerably, and, all eyes being attracted to the unfortunate sleeper, he added in a lower tone, "Of that I have ocular demonstration." He then resumed his discourse in his accustomed manner. But all who heard him now knew the meaning of the two hard words. 99 ROWLAND HILL.-Not long before his death, meeting an acquaintance who was nearly as aged as himself, said, "If you and I dont march off soon, our friends yonder (looking upwards) will think we have lost our way." Once, at Wotton, while preaching in the afternoon, he saw some persons sleeping, and paused, saying, “I have heard that the miller can sleep when the mill is going, but if it stops it awakens him. I'll try this method," so he sat down, and soon saw an aroused audience. ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. WHAT IS A BILLION ?-Why a million times a million, to be sure! Ah, you may easily write this down, and still more easily pronounce it; but can you count a billion? Why not? Stop a bit. Perhaps you can count 160 or 170 in a minute,-nay, suppose you could even count 200 in a minute, then, in one hour you would count 12,000, if you were not interrupted. Well, 12,000 an hour would be 288,000 a day; and a year, or 365 days, would produce 105,120,000. But this would not allow you a single moment for sleep, or for any other business whatsoever! Well, now, suppose that Adam at the beginning of his existence had begun to count, and were counting still, he would not even now, according to the usually supposed age of our globe, have counted near enough. For to count a billion he would require 9512 years, thirty-four days, five hours and twenty minutes, according to the above reckoning. But suppose we were to allow the poor counter twelve hours daily for rest, eating, and sleeping, he would need 19,024 years, sixty-eight days, ten hours, and forty minutes, to count a billion. ETERNITY.-O Eternity, Eternity! how are our boldest and our strongest thoughts lost and overwhelmed in thee! Who can set landmarks to thy dimensions, or find plummets to fathom thy depths? Arithmeticians have figures to compute all the progressions of time. Astronomers have instruments to calculate the distances of the planets. But what numbers can state,-what lines can guage the lengths and breadths of Eternity? "It is higher than Heaven; what canst thou do?-deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth;— broader than the sea. Mysterious, mighty existence! A sum not to be lessened by the largest deductions; an extent not to be contracted by all possible diminutions! None can truly say, after the most prodigious waste of ages, So much of Eternity is gone!" For when millions of centuries are elapsed it is but just commencing; and when millions more have run their ample round, it will be no nearer ending. Yea, when ages, numerous as the bloom of spring, increased by the herbage of summer, both augmented by the leaves of autumn, and all multiplied by the drops of rain which drown the winter,-wheu these, and ten thousand times ten thousand more,-more than can be represented by any similitude, or imagined by any conception,-when all these are revolved and finished, Eternity,-vast, boundless, amazing Eternity will only be beginning. Dobson. 66 REMARKABLE ANSWER TO PRAYER.-John Newton once said, "I have known wonderful proofs of the faithfulness of the Lord in answering the prayers of parents who left young and helpless families behind. A friend of mine, in the west of England (a faithful, laborious minister; but who, I believe, never was master ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. of five pounds at one time), was a dying. His friends advised him to make his will; he replied, “I have nothing to leave, but my wife and children, and I leave them to the care of my gracious God." Soon after this he died happily. But there appeared no prospect of support for his family at that time. The Lord, however, stirred up a man, who had always despised his preaching, to feel for the deceased minister's poor destitute family; and he so exerted himself, that he was the means of £1,600 being raised by subscriptions for them; and the clergy of Exeter, who had never countenanced his preaching, gave his widow a house and garden for her life, so that she lived in far greater plenty than in her husband's life time. Why was all this? It was in answer to the prayers of a man who had God for his friend." old and faithful NONE BUT CHRIST.-Mr. John Johnson, an servant of Jesus Christ, began to travel in Mr. Connection, in 1755, and laboured many years. with a long life, being 78 years old when he died. very great during his illness; yet not a murmuring word dropped from his lips. When one said to him, "You may look back with pleasure on a well-spent life;" he broke out, though very weak, with that earnestness of expression which manifested how far anything of that kind was from being the foundation on which his hopes were built, "I can look back," said he, "on the time I was convinced that I was a lost sinner. I can look back with joy on the day when Mr. Whitefield preached from that text, 'Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,' when joy so filled my soul, that whether I was in the body or out of the body, I could not tell; and when I appear before my Saviour, I will cast my crown at his feet. No: By grace am I saved!" SACREDNESS OF TEARS.-There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of grief, of contrition, of love. If there were wanting any argument to prove that man is not mortal, I would look for it in the strong convulsive motions of the breast, when the fountains of feeling are rising, and when the tears are gushing forth in crystal streams. Oh! speak not harshly to the stricken one, weeping in silence. Break not the rude solemnity by rude laughter or intrusive footsteps. Despise not woman's tears, they are what make her an angel. Scoff not if the stern heart of manhood is melted to tears, -they are what help to elevate him above the brute. I love to see tears of affection. They are painful tokens, but still most holy. There is a pleasure in tears, an awful pleasure. If there were none on earth to shed a tear for me, I should be loath to live; and if no one might weep over my grave, I could never lie and rest in peace."-Dr. Johnson. THE FIRESIDE THE PENNY POST BOX. The Fireside. HOW TO PROMOTE HARMONY IN A FAMILY. We may be quite sure that our will is likely to be crossed during the day; so prepare for it.-Every body in the house has an evil nature as well as ourselves, and therefore we are not to expect too much.To look upon each of the family as one for whom Christ died.When any good happens to any one to rejoice at it. When inclined to give an angry answer, to lift up the heart in prayer.-If from any cause we feel irritable, to keep a strict watch upon ourselves. To observe when others are suffering, and drop a word of kindness and sympathy suited to their state. To watch for little opportunities of pleasing, and to put little annoyances out of the way. To take a cheerful view of everything, and encourage hope.When we have been pained by an unkind word or deed, to ask ourselves, "Have I not done the same thing and been forgiven ?" -To be gentle with the younger ones and treat them kindly.— Never judge one another, but attribute a good motive when we can.— To compare our manifold blessings with the trifling annoyances of the day. The Penny Post Box. ABOUT THE NUMBER SEVEN. You have told us some curious things about number seven from the Bible. Can you tell us why there is so much said from the beginning to the end of the Holy Book about that remarkable number? For I have a notion that there must have been some design in its being mentioned so frequently. INQUIRER. We do not pretend to know; but in reply we would suggest that the frequent repetition of that number might be to keep before the world an unfailing remembrance of the weekly period of time, with the holy day of rest at the end or the beginning of it. And certainly the sabbath, or one day of rest in seven, is so necessary for man and the animals he employs to labour for him, and so great a blessing in affording opportunity for divine worship, and the proclamation of the glad tidings of salvation, that we take it as a proof of our Heavenly Father's love of us, and his great care for our temporal and spiritual well-being, that he has done so much to keep the number of the days of the week constantly before our eyes throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, that the observance of the sabbath may never be neglected or fall into disuse. These are our thoughts about it, and we think we are right. |