FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

all we need to know of our sinful condition, salvation from sin by Jesus Christ, resurrection from the dead, and Eternal Life.

Neither Sun, Moon, Stars, nor Comets, can teach us the way by which we must be saved. They display the glory of God, but they utter no audible voice in the hearing of man. The Comet will not speak.

The Bible is God's voice to man.When God speaks man ought to hear. Comets, when seen, are objects of alarm and terror. Peace on earth, and good will to man, are seen in the Bible on every page.

Poetic Selections.

THE ETERNAL GOD.
ETERNAL GOD! Almighty cause
Of earth, and seas, and worlds unknown;
All things are subject to thy laws;

All things depend on Thee alone.

Before thy word gave nature birth,
Or form'd the varied face of earth,

Or spread the starry heaven's abroad,

From everlasting thou art God.

MAJESTY OF GOD.
GLORY to the eternal King,

Clad in majesty supreme!
Let all heaven his praises sing,
Let all worlds his power proclaim.
Through eternity he reigns

In unbounded realms of light;
He the universe sustains,

As an atom in his sight.
Suns or stars thro' boundless space,
With their systems, move or stand

In their own appointed place,

And comets come at his command.

Unreasonable and wicked men will not look into or listen to the word of God. They want more evidence they say; more miracles, signs, and wonders. They are like Herod and the scribes and pharisees. But they would not believe," though one rose from the dead." The fact is, Nature, with all her moving frame, they love darkness; the light of the Bible is too strong for them.

Comets will not convince such men of their folly and their sin. Neither would they be persuaded if an angel were to descend, and write before their eyes on some black cloud, in characters of lightning-"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," and then repeat it in their ears in a voice of thunder.

Let us search the Scriptures, for in them we know we have eternal life. For they are able to make us "wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

Men are not converted by signs and wonders.-When the comet has come and gone, thousands, now, it may be, full of alarm, will return to their sinful courses; and, it is feared, will become ten-fold more the children of hell than they were before! The grace and love of God in Christ only converts the soul. THE BIBLE IS A BETTER TEACHER THAN THE COMET.

THE ALMIGHTY.

THE LORD! how fearful is his name?
How wide is his command?

Rests on his mighty hand.
Immortal glory forms his throne,

And light his awful robe :
Whilst with a smile, or with a frown,
He manages the globe.

INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

WHAT is our God, or what his name,
Nor men can learn, nor angels teach,
He dwells conceal'd in radiant flame,
Where neither eyes nor thoughts can reach.
Not the high seraphs mighty thought,
Who countless years his God has sought,

Such wondrous height, or depth can find,

Or fully trace thy boundless mind.

CREATING POWER AND WISDOM.
THY hand how wide it spread the sky!
How glorious to behold!
Ting'd with a blue of heavenly dye,

And starr'd with sparkling gold.
Thy glories blaze all nature round,

And strike the gazing sight,
Thro' skies and seas, and solid ground,
With terror and delight.
Infinite strength, and equal skill

Shine thro' the worlds abroad;
Our souls with vast amazement fill,
And speak the builder God.
But still the wonders of thy grace
Our warmer passions move;
Pity divine in Jesus' face

We see, adore, and love!

with yellow honey, and out they went in search of more. In and out they went, without running against each other, or stopping for one moment to rest. What an example of industry! Well: little folks should learn from the little busy bee, that they must not be idle. Now their parents work for them, but they must soon learn to work for themselves. Young bees soon learn to work. But there is another creature called a drone, it wont work, but it will eat the honey if it can get it. Now, little, reader, will you be as a bee, or a drone?

"Pretty bee, pray tell me why

Thus from flower to flower you fly,
Culling sweets the live-long day,
Never leaving off to play?"

"Little child, I'll tell you why,
Thus from flower to flower I fly:
Let the cause thy thoughts engage,
From thy youth to riper age..

Summer flowers will soon be o'er,
Winter come, they bloom no more;
Finest days will soon be past,
Brightest suns will set at last.

Little child now learn of me,
Let thy youth the seed-time be;
So when wintry age shall come,
Thou shalt bear thy harvest home."

THE ROMAN MOTHER.

In an old city in the old time, when christianity was a new religion, and heathenism was trying to subdue it, there dwelt a woman named Agatha, with her husband and two children. I don't know whether she was handsome, nor whether her children were beautiful; I don't know whether her husband was rich, nor whether their house was a grand palace with pictures on the walls, and marble floors, and fine statues, and leaping fountains;-but the beauty of holiness belonged to them all, and the "true riches" were in their dwelling. The mother had beard of Christ, and had believed; she had taught her little ones to trust in him; the husband had been won by the conversation of the wife, and they were all bent on the same. journey, that had the golden city in the skies for its end.

Their religion was not popular; it did not as old John Bunyan says, walk "in silver slippers." Ah, no!—it went barefoot for the most part, and was terribly wounded and bruised by the stones of stumbling over which it passed. When Agatha went with her husband and children to worship, it was not in some comfortable chapel or grand old church, but under ground, where slaves were buried, and in the dead of the night. They were in danger even there, and worshipped God with the full knowledge that before the last "amen" was said, rough soldiery might fall upon and kill them, or drag them off to grace some holiday display, and be torn to pieces by wild beasts as a public show.

Well, this did not happen. They sang their hymns in peace,

offered up their prayers, and listened,-oh, how devoutly!

to the reader, as he unrolled his book and went through some passage in Christ's history. And Agatha rejoiced, with all that were in her house, that the lines had fallen to them in pleasant places. But there were betrayers in that little company of christians with whom they met,-betrayers who did not shrink with shame and fear when they heard it read how Judas kissed his Master, and with that kiss betrayed him. The betrayer made it known to the governor who those christians were who worshipped in the tombs. None escaped notice; the rich lady, who came veiled; the Ethiopian, who came with her "no longer a servant, but a brother beloved in the Lord;" the little hump-backed shoemaker; the centurion; the dancing girl, with her light, graceful form; the old

THE ROMAN MOTHER.

gladiator, with his strong limbs; the rough labourer, with his iron hands; the young noble, with his satin skin; all were marked, and all their names written in a book—the governor's criminal list: aye, but in a better and more lasting volume too -in the Lamb's book of life.

One night there came a messenger to Agatha's house, and a guard, who bore a letter from the governor, commanding the arrest of all the family, and their committal to the city prison. So they were hurried away; but instead of, as they expected, being separated from one another, were all lodged in the same ward. On the morrow there came a messenger, saying that Agatha was to appear before the governor. The hour of trial had come. She had anticipated this. When she became a christian she knew that a crown of glory would be hers; but a cross and a sepulchre lay between her and its possession. She kissed her children and embraced her husband, and feltas only a mother and a wife can feel when separated from all they love; and was sustained only as a christian can be—by God's grace in the hour of adversity.

Through the gloomy passages, into the presence of the governor, Agatha advances. The guards leave her at the door. She anticipates her fate;-death in some cruel form,—in the flames-in the torture room-or by the wild beast on a holiday. And she prays as Hannah prayed her lips moving, but no sound heard. She is ready to die. "For me to die is gain." She has read these words in a letter from a faithful missionary, and she repeats them now. But she is prepared for the trial. The governor commands obedience-expostulates-threatens. But his words move her not. Now comes the test.

"Woman, by this new doctrine you have lost a wife's affections and sacrificed a mother's love. By it you have seduced others into your own error, and made them the sharers in your punishment. It is written in your books that a wise king found out the true mother when he ordered her child to be slain, and that rather than that child should perish, she would give it up to a strange woman. See; if you do not resign this new faith-Nazarene doctrine-I will order the execution of your youngest born: if you recant, for your sake yours shall be spared."

The christian woman bowed her head, and was silent. Prayer from her heart went up to God's throne, and strength from God came down to her heart. So she made answer:

THE ROMAN MOTHER.

"They who love their children more than Christ are not worthy of him. If God take my children to himself, shall I complain? Unjust judge, I trust in the judge of all.'

At a motion from the governor, the guards advanced towards her. She fainted, and they carried her back to her husband and children. When she recovered, the guards waited with the order for the death of her youngest born. He was a brave boy, with light hair and blue eyes, and a great heart. He bade his mother and the rest to shed no tears for him. He would soon be with Christ, and sing with the children cruel Herod slew when Christ was a child himself. He hears that they will expose him on the bleak mountains, and that he is to die of hunger and thirst; but he answers he "has meat to eat they know not of," and that in the land he is going to, "they neither hunger nor thirst." So they lead him away to death; and the mother covers her head, and weeps bitterly. Her first trial is

now over.

Next day the guards return. Another interview, with a like result, ensues. The mother is doomed to lose another child. It is a girl-a girl just blooming into womanhood. The mother and father tremble and shed tears, but they feel they must not surrender. It is a happiness in their sorrow that their children are brave-hearted. The girl throws her arms about her mother's neck, and whispers that her brother and herself are but going to heaven first-that they will all meet again—that in the world above the stars there are no tears, and no more parting. She is to die in what they call the arena, before holiday folks, by wild beasts. So she whispers that God took care of Daniel, and that God will do better still for her:he will take her to himself. And the second trial is past.

Agatha is childless, and she fears that some new terror may come upon her; but her trust is in God. She prays that God would make her strong enough to bear all trials, and her husband joins her. Next day her husband is the victim. "Resign," says the unjust judge, "thine husband or thy faith." And she answers and says, "Christ, the Saviour, will help me; the Lord will enable me to bear it all." The husband comforts his wife with hopeful, happy words, and so they part. The third trial is over.

A week has passed, and the widowed wife and childless mother sits in a cell alone, and it is night. There comes a visitor; he bears a lamp with him, and is troubled as he enters.