POETRY. are myriads of men who, like Father Hyacinthe, are Protestants and do not know it. Many of them have, by the most strenuous efforts of the prelacy, been kept ignorant of the fact that the Roman church and the Christian church are not identical. Such, like Father Hyacinthe, will cling to the church while they protest against "the manner in which Catholicism has, for a long time, been understood and practiced." It is well. They are wielding a mightier influence to-day, and propelling forward the church of Rome more rapidly in the path of reform, than it would be possible for them to do if recognized by themselves and others as Protestants. Fire, fagot, and rack, the arguments with which "the church" convinced the doubting and reclaimed the erring in former days, she dares not use, and her heart is grieved that these "damnable heresies" cannot be stayed. Tetzels and Ecks are learning by sad experience that their bluster avails but little, and, like Father Hecker, they resort to the Jesuitical method of disguising history, and disguising or denying current facts. In the very teeth of the Pope's own assertions in his published allocutions, and even in the teeth of the creed of the church itself, they contend that Romanism is the friend of progress. And what next? A COUNCIL. Pius IX. takes a most desponding view of the situation, sees that progress is too strong for superstition, and summons the united wisdom of the church to determine how this fearful progress may be stayed. Poetry. GOOD FROM EVIL. Joy ripens where the days make night Through clouds, and tears, and angry fears, We gather flowers too soon to reap We blight the fairest hope, then weep ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. And yet the rainbow's silver sheen Each star that's lost, and dream that cost Such anguish in its going, But build a bridge of gold across The river's sullen flowing. These dark, lone days are God's good ways, Revealing sunny places; Life's dying years have many tears, Yet cloud they angel faces. Come on, then, toil, and fear, and pain, Through suffering, garner we the grain,- Anecdotes and Selections. THE SERVICE OF PATIENCE.-Old Betty was a match-seller. She was brought in her old age to believe in Jesus as her Saviour, and from that time thought she never could do enough for Him who had washed her from her sins in His own blood. Ever ready to speak of her Master to all she met, and of unwearied kindness, she was one "who went about doing good," "always abounding in the work of the Lord." But in the midst of her labours she caught cold, with rheumatism, and was confined to her bed for days and weeks. One day a minister called on her. He was surprised to see his old active friend and neighbour so happy in her bed; and said, "I little expected to find you so patient in bed, when you have always led such an active life. It must be a trial to lie there so long." "Not at all, sir, not at all, sir," said Betty; "when I was well I used to hear the Lord say to me daily, Betty, go here; Betty, go there; Betty, do this; Betty, do that; and I did it as well as I could. Now I hear him say daily, Betty, lie still and cough." The poor woman had not only "learned in whatsoever state she was, therewith to be content"-her homely words showed that she understood the service of patience. TIME is the most subtle yet the most insatiable of depredators, and, by appearing to take nothing is permitted to take all; nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It constantly flies, yet overcomes all things by flight; and although it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror of death. Timethe cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition-is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise, bringing all they dread ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. to the one, and all they desire to the other; but, like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even the sagest discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind it. He that has made it his friend will have little to fear from its enemies; but he that has made it his enemy will have little to hope from his friends. CHEERFUL PEOPLE.-God bless the cheerful person !-man, woman, or child, old or young, illiterate or educated, bandsome or homely! Over and above every other social trait stands cheerfulness. What the sun is to nature; what God is to the stricken heart which knows how to lean upon Him, are cheerful persons in the house and by the way-side. They go unobtrusively, unconsciously, about their silent mission, brightening up society around them with the happiness beaming from their faces. We love to sit near them, we love the glance of their eye, the tone of their voice. Little children find them out, oh, so quickly! amid the densest crowd, and, passing by the knotted brow and compressed lip, glide near, and, laying a confiding little hand on their knee, lift their clear young eyes to those loving faces. BEAUTIFUL SWISS CUSTOM.-The horn of the Alps is employed in the mountainous districts of Switzerland not solely to sound the cow call, but for another purpose, solemn and religious. As soon as the sun has disappeared in the valleys, and its last rays are just glimmering on the snowy summits of the mountains, the herdsman who dwells on the loftiest, takes his horn and trumpets forth: "Praise God the Lord!" All the herdsmen in the neighbourhood take their horns and repeat the words. This often continues a quarter of an hour, while on all sides the mountains echo the name of God. A solemn stillness follows; every individual offers his secret prayer on bended knees and with uncovered head. By this time it is quite dark. "Good night!" trumpets forth the herdsman on the loftiest summit. "Good night!" is repeated on all the mountains from the horns of the herdsmen and the clefts of the rocks. Then each lies down to rest. THE SIMPLEST POST-OFFICE IN THE WORLD is to be found on the southern extremity of America. For some years past a small barrel has been fastened by an iron chain to the outermost rock of the mountains overhanging the Straits of Magellan, opposite Terra del Fuego. It is opened by every ship which passes through the Straits, either to place letters in it, or to take letters from it. This post-office, therefore, takes care of itself, it is confided to the protection of seafarers, and there is no example of any breach of this trust having occurred. Each ship undertakes the voluntary transmission of the contents of the barrel if their destination is within the limits of its voyage. A SINNER SAVED.-How happy is character to himself-a sinner saved! O, then, what miracles of mercies have the man that can assume this Stop and consider-is it thine? been revealed to thy heart. THE FIRESIDE. The Fireside. FIFTEEN FOLLIES. 1. To think the more a man eats, the fatter and stronger he will become. 2. To believe the more hours the children study at school, the faster they learn. 3. To conclude that if exercise is good for the health, the more violent and exhausting it is the more good is done. 4. To imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained. 5. To act on the presumption that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in. 6. To argue whatever remedy causes one to feel immediately better is "good for" the system without regard to ulterior effects. The "soothing syrup," for example, does not stop the cough of children, does arrest diarrhoea, only to cause, a little later, alarming convulsions, or the more fatal inflammations on the brain, or water on the brain; or, at least, always protract the disease. 7. To commit an act which is felt in itself to be prejudicial, hoping that somehow or other it may be done in your case with impunity. 8. To advise another to take a remedy which you have tried yourself, without making special inquiry whether all the conditions are alike. 9. To eat without an appetite, or to continue to eat after it has been satisfied, merely to gratify the taste. 10. To eat a hearty supper for the pleasure experienced during the brief time it is passing down the throat, at the expense of a whole night of disturbed sleep, and a weary waking in the morning. 11. To remove a portion of the clothing immediately after exercise, when the most stupid drayman knows that if he does not put a cover on his horse the moment he ceases work in the winter, he will lose him in a few days by pneumonia. 12. To contend that because the dirtiest children in the street or highway are hearty and healthy, therefore it is healthy to be dirty; forgetting that continuous daily exposure to the pure out-door air, in joyous unrestrained activities, is such a powerful agency for health that those who live thus are well in spite of dirt and filth. 13. To presume to repeat, later in life, without injury, the indiscretions, exposure, and intemperance, which in the flush of youth were practiced with impunity. 14. To believe that warm air is necessarily impure, or that pure, cold air, is necessarily more healthy than the confined air of a crowded vehicle; the latter, at most, can only cause fainting and nausea, while entering a conveyance after walking briskly, lowering a window, thus still exposed to a draught, will give a cold infallibly, or an attack of THE PENNY POST BOX. pleurisy or pneumonia, which will cause weeks or months of suffering, if not actual death within four days. 15. To "remember the Sabbath-day" by working harder and later on Saturday than on any other day in the week, with a view of sleeping late next morning, and staying at home all day to rest, conscience being quieted by the plea of not feeling well.-Hall's Journal of Health. A WISE man can read most of your private history in your countenance. Only think of it! Here it is, a little patch of white surface, nine inches long and six wide, and yet the whole possibility of human feeling and purpose resides in it. There is the brow, sometimes clear and upright, reflecting back heaven's blue gaze, sometimes lowering and clouded with conscious unrest. There is the cheek, sometimes tinged and glowing with pleasure, sometimes blanched with indignation. There is the eye, that chiefest tell-tale of human feelings veiled with softness and pity, sometimes mirrored with incarnate goodness, then kindled with fires of passion, or, sharpened like a dagger, with hate and malice. There is every line and feature clothed with moral expression. A man's face is the front of his house. One, in looking at it, is sure to see the kind of inhabitants he keeps within. At the doors and windows the inmates show themselves, both angels and demons. No concealment can keep them long out of sight. There are faces that domineer and faces that devour-faces that magnetize and faces that repel. Some are sinister, some trustful, some pleading, some frowning, some full of faith, others of doubt and melancholy; some on which peace lights like a holy dove, and others scarred and furrowed like the unsteady sea, with the storms of passion. Man's face is the bulletin board of his heart and his life. O, it is a very glory to watch this human facethis dial-plate of the soul-when men meet to grasp hands and interchange thoughts! Not grander is the ever-varying beauty of the landscape, with its lights and shades, its hills and fields, its mountains and rivers, than are the sublime movings of the soul on the face of a man-movings that are now joyous, now afflicted, now softened, now impassioned, now struggling to conceal a pang or conceal a rapture. 'Tis a silent orchestra, thrilling in undertone with the richest, and fullest, and saddest music of the human life. Of all the expressions possible to the countenance we think the most significant and distinctive is laughter. Laughter can mean pleasure, or mockery, or applause, or sorrow, or triumph, or despair. It expresses what the speech cannot. It is the flower that blooms on the dry hard |