money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satifieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness," To the indolent and slothful, Wisdom says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise;" and declares, moreover, that "he who gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he who sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." Now is the harvest of truth, now is the time to gather for the coming future. The field is large, and handfuls are scattered over it for all who go forth. Dear reader, have you gone forth into the field, and are you now returned heavily laden with the corn of heavenfood for many days to come, and seedcorn for an harvest of eternal joy? It will be well to inquire, "Where hast thou gleaned to-day?" We suppose that you have closed the shop, or that, whatever your calling may be, you have laid it aside; that you have shunned all haunts of vice and scenes of worldly pleasure, and have been up to the house of God, joined in his worship, and listened to the word of life. Now you are returned home, what have you brought with you, and what are you doing with it Ruth brought her corn, exhibited it to Naomi, and then they together blessed the Lord for his goodIs this your case? Inquire honestly and earnestly. Some, while sitting in God's house, are gleaning in another field; a variety of trifling, worldly, or wicked thoughts and schemes employ the mind. Such persons only gather weeds or poisonous berries. Some gather a few ears, but either drop them by the way or let an enemy steal them, and so they come home empty. Others gather and keep, but do not communicate; whereas the command is to "talk of these things while sitting in the house." And have not Christian households and friends found that while, like the disciples going to Emmaus, they have talked of what has happened," Jesus himself has found them, and made their hearts burn within them? Let us all aim to receive the truth in ness. the love of it, and then out of the abundance of the heart let the mouth speak. If some members of the family would ask questions, others might be able to answer them, and thus the subject dwelt on in the sanctuary might be properly discussed, and the truths heard be more firmly fixed in the memory and in the heart. We all do well to bear in mind that life is a gleaning or gathering day; that truth is a field set open before us, into which we are invited, yea, commanded to go and glean; that there are other fields into which we shall be earnestly entreated to enter, and to load our soul with their produce; and that if truth is neglected for anything else, the consequences will be fatal and irremediable. This life is the only summer, and woe to those who dream or trifle it away. When the day of life is over, the bundle which you have gathered will be undone and examined by one who is now looking on, and if it should be found that you have only gathered the tares of error, or the poppies of riches, or the laurels of science, or the honeysuckle of social joys, how will you feel when you discover that, after all, truth and you are strangers-that not one promise belongs to you; and how will you shudder at the question of him whose counsels you spurned-"Where hast thou gleaned all thy life-time, and what is this that thou hast gathered?" Surely we shall all do well to look at the gleanings of each day, and especially each Lord's-day, that we may not be deceived at the last. If haply on this quiet Sabbath eve you discover, dear reader, that you have gleaned the corn of truth, the seed of the kingdom, then go and beat it out, and prepare it by meditation and prayer, that so it may be bread for your soul, in the strength of which you, like Elijah, may go forward to the mount of God. One other thought is suggested by the narrative from which this question is quoted. Ruth, the industrious, humble, pious, loving gleaner, was afterwards the honoured wife of him in whose field she gleaned. Little thought she what her gleaning would lead to. Before honour is humility;" this she found to be true, and so shall all who gather and love the truth. Whoever makes it their life's business to find, profess, and practise truth, shall be exalted "to sit with Christ on his throne," and to share his riches and royalties. Truth lies despised and neglected by most, but those who stoop to gather it up shall have a rich reward. Young people, be in earnest; imitate the noble maiden Ruth. Like her, be thoroughly decided for God, and then like her go forth to glean. Pleasant knowledge, enduring riches, and heavenly joys are to be found in that field to which we invite you. These you will enjoy now, and the end will be perfect salvation and eternal life.- Sunday at Home. THE CROW'S NEST FOR CHILDREN. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. IN the course of the month we have received communications from Wm. Eadie, jun., Bellshill; D. B. Alexandria; S. S. Crieff; James R. Paton, 24, Taylor Street, Glasgow; a large number, as usual, from the young people belonging to the South United Presbyterian congregation, Dunse. ANSWERS TO QUERIES PROPOSED LAST MONTH. I. The answer is found in 2 Kings xvi. 6. This answer is given by James R. Paton, and by a Sabbath scholar in Dunse. The passages quoted by others of our young friends, carry us to a date subsequent to the close of the Babylonish captivity. II. To this question James R. Paton has returned five answers, three of which are correct. Wm. Eadie has returned five answers, three of which are correct. S. S. has returned three answers, all of which are correct. D. B. three answers, all of which are correct. One correspondent in Dunse has given five answers, all of which are correct. In Scripture the term flesh is used to denote animal food, human nature, the sinless humanity of Christ, the fallen humanity of the sinner, our kindred collectively, the ceremonial economy of Moses, in contrast with the spiritual economy of Christ, and that part of our nature which is the seat of the appetites implanted in us. III. All the answers to this question are correct. See 2 Chron. xxxiii. 4-15. IV. Two answers from Dunse are correct. The inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon are the parties referred to. See Joel iii. 4-8. V. The answers returned by Wm. Eadie, James R. Paton, D. B., and all the correspondents in Dunse, are correct. See Acts x. 47, 48. VI. Two answers from Dunse are correct. The passage which contains the answer is Mark iv. 28. VII. The answers by S. S., D. B., Wm. Eadie, James R. Paton, and one from a Sabbath-school in Dunse, are correct. The occasions on which the Israelites were numbered were, when the tabernacle was to be erected, when the Israelites were to encamp in Sinai, and when Canaan was to be divided among the tribes. VIII. The answer by Wm. Eadie is ingenious, but not in the spirit of our question. James R. Paton and one Sabbath-scholar in Dunse are correct. The stealing of men is one of the earliest acts in the slave-trade process. See 1 Tim. i. 10. QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED NEXT MONTH. I. Which were the principal excellencies in the character of Rebekah? II. Name passages where the care of birds for their young is mentioned as an emblem of the Lord's care for his people. III. Which is the earliest sepulchral monument mentioned in the Bible? IV. Which female mentioned in Scripture was distinguished for the number and variety of her charities? V. Mention a passage which shows that the process of cooking food in the East was sometimes very rapidly accomplished. VI. A woman in addressing our Saviour acknowledged his Godhead, humanity, and Messiahship-who was she? VII. How does Job describe the grave? VIII. Name the passage in the life of Abraham, which furnishes an instance of grandeur in combination with exquisite simpllcity. Extracts from the Pages of the Living and the Dead. INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN. LAMARTINE, in his new work, Memoirs of Celebrated Characters, thus speculates on the chances of Napoleon I. invading our island with success:-" Napoleon, during eighteen months, had collected along the coasts of the British Channel the means of a descent on England. An innumerable flotilla of gun-boats assembled near Boulogne, and ready to embark the troops encamped on the shore, taking advantage of a favourable day, could throw a movable bridge across that arm of the sea, and pour upon the shores of Britain one of those vast armies as irresistible on land as the fleets of England were all-powerful at sea. Making every allowance for the patriotic ardour of the island, which the genius of her children had rendered the most astonishing focus of labour, riches, nautical skill, and civilization which the history ages presents, when we compare her moral influence with her geographical extent it cannot be doubted that 200,000 disciplined French warriors, animated by the genius of the modern conqueror, would, for a time at least, have subjugated Great Britain, razed her fortresses to their foundations, spiked her guns, burnt her dockyards, and dispersed to the winds the elements of her wealth and liberty. It is equally certain that England, surprised and chained down in her own territory, would have taken refuge in her ships, whence she might have covered the Channel with her floating citizens, pursued the gunboats of Napoleon, destroyed them in their own harbours; and, finally, imprisoned the French army in the heart of of their conquest. She would thus have compelled Napoleon to a voluntary retreat, while she assured for herself a glorious capitulation. But the disgrace and calamity of the invasion of London would have weighed heavily upon her fortunes and her history; and England, with an enemy for several months in her capital, must have sacrificed a heavy ransom of blood, of iron, and of gold, before she could expect to reconquer her independence." THE ANGLO-SAXON. FORETHOUGHT and calculation hold a prominent position in most AngloSaxon hearts. Projects, designs, and undertakings of all kinds with us, are usually pondered over and internally discussed before their final adoption. Outbursts of passion are rarely suffered to devastate the cool, calculating hearts of the true children of Britain. They possess an innate proneness to investigate thoroughly the principles on which all things they have to deal with are based-thus their actions almost universally spring from the employment of rational faculty, call it as you please, reason or common sense. They are, in short, an eminently practical, not a theoretical people. With them the business of each day is transacted mechanically, for it is an Englishman's head, and not his heart, that he takes into counsel, and whose dictates he obeys. -From Bokinga, by Morton Rae. A SEA-SIDE STUDY. A RICH fund of entertainment is very. accessible to any one who can procure a few bits of wood-covered rock from the level of low water. They need scarcely be selected. With a hammer knock off a few points of the stones, of the size of a crown-piece; the rougher, more leprous, more discoloured, in short more dirty, the better. Put them into a globe of sea-water, an uncut decanter, or a widemouthed bottle, or, the best of all, a confectioner's show-glass, and let them remain for a few hours. At night, examine the sides of the bottle carefully with a pocket lens, placing a candle on the opposite side. The number of curious little creatures that will have crawled out, and will be found mounting the walls of their prison, is quite surprising. Minute mollusca, both bivalve and univalve, uncouth-formed Crustacea, tiny star-fishes, and especially annelida, will pretty certainly reward the investigator. The last-named class occurs in remarkable abundance and variety; while if, after you have gone round the glass, noticing particularly the very edge of the surface-line, you pass your eye, assisted by the lens, carefully over the surfaces of the bits of stone, you will probably find many more creatures, such as tube-dwelling Annelides, the smaller Zoophytes, and several species of the delicate Bryozoa. A SABBATH AT PATMOS. IN a letter, dated from Alexandria, June 1, Dr. Halley of Manchester describes a Sabbath spent on the coast of Patmos, on the 28th of May, by himself and Dr. Raffles:-"I inquired of the officer on deck, 'When shall we see Patmos ? As soon as we pass that headland,' said he, pointing to the extremity of the island of Nicaria. After breakfast, Patmos was clear and full in view on the larboard bow-a bleak and rugged island, with a precipitous coast, and several peaks rising to a considerable height. We had previously arranged with the captain to have morning service at half-past ten o'clock, at which time we were just opposite the north end of the island. Had we known the exact course, we could not have fixed the time more appropriately. During the service we were passing the ten miles of its rocky side. The town, strangely built around the Monastery of St. John, which crowns the summit of a lofty hill, was distinctly in view. Not a ripple was on the sea, nor a sail on the water. We worshipped God 'on the Lord's-day,' with nothing earthly but Patmos in sight. The ship's crew came in their Sunday clothes, with their Bibles in their hands, and sat attentively under the awning. Two Greek passengers joined in our devotions. Even the Turks, of whom about twenty were on board, pilgrims to Mecca, looked with apparent interest upon the island and upon our congre gation. Dr. Raffles read the morning service of the Church of England, and his friends know how impressively he would read it. The captain led the responses. If ever I was in the spirit on the Lord's-day,' it was on that memorable occasion. Although I had intended to speak from another passage, no text seemed so appropriate as Revelation i. 9, 'I, John, who am your brother and companion in tribulation, and the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.' After directing the attention of the audience to the exile of the apostle, to the rocky island on my right hand, I preached the gospel by explaining the testimony of Jesus Christ,' and exhorted the sailors, if ever they again passed the isle of Patmos, to associate with it 'the testimony' which was that day delivered unto them. Although, they were told, the town on the hill before them might perish, like the old populous cities which once florished in the neighbouring continent of Asia, yet the rock would remain, it might be, a witness against them on a future day. But, even when it shall melt away with fervent heat, the Word of the Lord will endure for ever. The remainder of that Lord'sday, until Patmos faded like a shadow in the distance, was spent in thinking of that glorious revelation which Jesus then made to his servant John." THE INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE. THE circulation of the Scriptures not only confers spiritual benefit on a people, it brings with it the greatest political and temporal benefits. It is the greatest and only true civilizer of the human race. No nation has ever been truly civilized except by means of the Bible. The people of ancient Athens and Rome, with all their secular education, were brutal, cruel, licentious, and profligate, and were inferior in civilization to the Greenlander or the Esquimaux, who is just, sober, temperate, and chaste. Yet the book which has wrought all these wonders, and would still work others greater than these, it is said by some to be worn out and effete. Effete! when every discovery which is made in any part of the world bears testimony to its truth. Effete! when it produces such effects as we feel in ourselves, and see in those around us, compared with the inconceivable folly broached by men of the most powerful intellects in the present day. The Bible is the necessary supplement of all our missions and preaching; for while common may rid us of the grosser forms of idolatry, nothing but the Word of God will give the principle of life-will carry the last conviction.- The Earl of Shaftesbury. - sense THE TELEGRAPH OF THE BRAIN. Ir seems almost incredible that a number of slender nervous filaments could be the conductors of a speech by Demosthenes or Edmund Burke. Can we properly conceive of one of Handel's oratorios rushing along a tiny cord like the trunk of the auditory nerve? How does it seem possible that all the rich varieties of tone we hear-all the diversified notes of nature, from the whisper of the wind to the crush of the thunderbolt-should be conveyed along a chain of bones in the tympanic chamber, and, streaming through this solid conduit, shall impart their tremors to the feelers of the brain? Full as the world is of the Creator's marvels, there are few more astounding things, when minutely examined, than the performances of the ear. The same fibrils which at one moment will carry the massive harmonies of the "Hallelujah Chorus,' were it hymned by the Angels of the Nativity themselves, will shortly afterwards convey the gentle wail of the parting spirit as it seems to sing the flesh to sleep with the assurance that the Redeemer liveth; and that, though worms devour the forsaken dust, yet he shall raise it in honour at the day of his appearing.-British Quarterly Review. HOW TO TREAT OUR ENEMIES. A MAN who has no enemies is seldom good for anything. He is made of that kind of material which is so easily worked, that every one tries a hand in it. A sterling character-one who speaks for himself, and speaks what he thinks is always sure to have enemies. They are as necessary to him as fresh air. They keep him alive and active. A celebrated person, who was surrounded by enemies, used to say: They are sparks, which if you do not blow them, go out of themselves." Let this be your feeling, while endeavouring to live down the scandal of those who are bitter against you. If you stop to dispute, you do but as they desire, and open the way for more abuse. Let the poor fellows talk. There will be a reaction, if you do but perform your duty; and hundreds, who were once alienated from you, will flock to you, and acknowledge their error. FAITH. I ENVY no quality of mind or intellect in others, said Sir Humphrey Davynot genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious. belief to every other blessing, for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and far |