I.-GOOD FRIDAY.

ID clouds and rain the sun goes sadly down,

And deepening shades drape all the
earth around,

As on that day of woe when 'neath
God's frown

The heavens and earth grew dark
in awe profound,

And frighted ghosts rose from the yawning ground. The grand old minster-towers rise in the air,

Spectral and shadowy in the solemn gloom; Plaintive and slow the bells peal out for prayer, Their old-world tongues still preaching of the doom,

The sins that brought the Saviour to the tomb.
I pass beneath the portal. Through the pile
The dim light flickers upon roof and wall;
Tall pillars cast their shadows cross the aisle,
While on the ear the chants of dirges fall,
Holding the spirit in a sweet, sad thrall.
Out pour the organ-pipes their flood of sound;
Now lowly wailing, as the sobs and sighs
Of mourning women. Now a burst profound
Proclaims a mightier grief, great agonies
As when some tortured saint sublimely dies.

Wrapt in an ecstasy of sad delight

I close my eyes, nor aught around I see;
Ages roll back to that mysterious night-
I stand in spirit upon Calvary,
And gaze on my dead Lord upon the tree.

The mocking crowd are gone. I see a few

Poor men, grief-wildered, in the dusk draw near; One, nobler, stands among them, just and true, Whose prayers have won the precious corse, whose

care

Provides his Lord a hasty sepulture.

Gently and carefully loosen the cord;
Reverently, tenderly touch your dead Lord.

Draw forth the nails from the hands and the feet;
Wipe from His forehead the blood and the sweat;
Take off the thorn-crown, clotted with gore;
Hold up the drooping head, aching no more;
In your fond arms now, with awe and with care,
That body most sacred all lovingly bear-
Bear, oh, most tenderly, down from the stake,
The Master that loved you and died for your sake.

Bring the fine linen cloth, aloes and myrrh,
Herbs of sweet savour to lay on the bier.
John, the belov'd, take His head on thy breast,
Oft did thine own on His bosom find rest;
Thou of the Sanhedrim, counsellor wise,
Reverently close with thy fingers His eyes;

Ruler, that sought'st the young Rabbi at even
To learn the new birth for the kingdom of heaven,
Decently swathe the dear limbs, as ye spread
Unguents and spices to honour the dead;
Thou that deniedst Him, oh! think of the look
The gentle One gave thee of sorrowing rebuke-
Sadly and solemnly, in the night's gloom,
Bear your loved Saviour in grief to the tomb!
Mary, sad mother! bowed down in despair-
Penitent Mary! with long, flowing hair-
Weep, bereaved mother, thy holiest child,
Tender and dutiful, gentle and mild;

Weep, thou poor penitent heart, sorrow riven;
Much didst thou love Him, for much was forgiven.
Follow the dead One with wail and with tear,
The Son that thou borest, the Lord thou lovedst dear.
Fearfully, tearfully, lingering apart,

Ye ministering women so dear to His heart,
Mournfully, prayerfully, through the deep gloom
Follow, and carefully mark ye His tomb.

Sadly and slowly the precious load bear,
Meekly and lowly, in trouble and care
Seek in the garden a tomb newly made,
Hewn from the rock, where man never was laid;
Lay there the MASTER. Roll to the stone
'Gainst the door of the sepulchre. Leave Him alone
With God and the angels-that HOLIEST ONE!

Still, as each revolving year Brings the holy season near, Her penitential cry we hear

De profundis.

Abased before the Crucified,
In dust and ashes all her pride,
She mourns the sins for which He died.
De profundis.

In sad review before her eyes
The passion of her Lord doth rise,
His dread, mysterious agonies.

De profundis.

The sweat as blood, the anguished prayer That God the cup of woe might spare, While angel-arms support Him there.

De profundis.

Betrayed, denied, the stroke, the scorn,
The scourge, the robe, the crown of thorn,
Sublimely meek by Jesus borne.
De profundis.

The cross of shame, the sacred blood
From hands and feet and side that flowed,
While Jesus hung upon the rood.
De profundis.

The lingering death upon the tree,
The thirst, the cry of agony-
"Why hast Thou, God, forsaken me?”
De profundis.

Oh! by Thy burial on that even,
By death's strong chains triumphant riven,
Thy glorious rising into heaven,

Domine, nos libera!
JOHN FRANCIS WALLER.

PART I.

H, Arthur, how you waste the salt!" exclaimed Adelaide; "you cannot possibly eat up all that salt on your plate, even if you might have all the walnuts that are in the dish."

The four children, Adelaide, Arthur, Edith, and Lilly, were sitting round a small table in the dusk of the evening, eating walnuts; and Arthur had just helped himself to such a large quantity of salt that his sister remonstrated.

"Why, what can it matter, Adelaide, if I do waste, as you call it ? I am sure salt is cheap enough," replied Arthur.

"If it is cheap now, Master Arthur," joined in the old nurse, who was sitting in her rocking-chair by the fire-side, "there is no sense nor reason in your wasting it, especially in that silly way." For Arthur, in mere recklessness, had just taken up a quantity and spilt it on the table. "Salt was none so cheap in my young days."

"How nice, and fine, and dry, this is," said Edith, slowly drawing her finger over the heap of salt which Arthur had spilt, "and how easily it separates into little bits."

As Edith continued spreading it about, the grains became scattered, and one a little larger than the others was drawn away from the rest. This grain, as Edith looked at it, appeared to grow gradually larger and larger, till at last Lilly exclaimed :

"

Oh, look, look, Edith! some fairy must have touched it and made it all at once so pretty and smooth, just like a small glass box, only I do not see where to open it."

"No, little Lilly," said a brisk, clear voice from out of the middle of the box, as the child called it;

no fairy has touched me; I am just what I was before-a grain of common salt; it is your eyes that are touched, and you see me more correctly. You call me 'common salt,' and happily for the human race, I am so; that is, I am found in all quarters of the globe, am used by all living creatures, and am put to many great and important purposes; but if you meant by that word 'common' to show the slightest disrespect, then allow me to tell you that I fear you are rather ignorant."

"No indeed," said the children, somewhat abashed, we meant nothing of the sort. We do not, it is true, know much about you, but if you will teach us we shall be very much obliged."

"In that case," said the Grain, sparkling up, "I shall be much pleased to do so; pray ask me any questions you like and I will do my best to answer them."

After a short pause Arthur took courage and began

:

"You came direct from the sea, I suppose, and dry land and solid things must seem strange to you?"

"By no means," answered the Grain, "I was never in the sea, at least not that I am aware of." I once formed a part, though small, of a magnificent set of rocks of solid salt, all made up of particles like myself. This field of salt,' as the range of salt rocks is called, is about thirty miles long and from ten to fifteen broad. How deep the beds or strata extend from the surface, I am afraid to say, but I believe they have been found to reach upwards of a hundred feet."

"I should not like to live so far under the ground," said Lilly in a low voice.

"I dare say not," replied the Grain, "but let me

tell you that you, in your dark, dingy, narrow houses, can form no idea of the beauties of a mountain home like mine. A rock salt house is a true Crystal Palace! You should go and visit one; go down one of those large long holes which your race make in the hills, and then you will see some wonders. I must confess," continued the Grain, speaking more quickly, "that I myself was not aware of the extreme beauty and brilliancy of my home till some of your race threw artificial light upon the subject. The revelation thus made repaid me, in some degree, for your most unwelcome intrusion. Digging these 'mines,' as you call them, appears to be one of your favourite means of seeking to turn the world upside down."

431

places in England, and in the Polish mines I have described, but also in the Betski mines in Russia, and in the Saltzburgh in Austria. I am to be met with in the mountains of the Tyrol, and nigh to Astrachan, on the borders of the Caspian Sea. Near to Cordova, in Spain, there is a hill of solid salt, which is much higher than St. Paul's. So much for Europe. Go next to Asia, and you will find in India a salt hill almost as high as the one near Cordova. In the southern parts of Asia Minor, I have heard that the salt is so hard and plentiful, and the atmosphere so dry, that it is used for building purposes. Go to America, and you will meet with me in the moun

'No doubt you would," continued the Grain; "but these English mines are, I must admit, small, compared to those near Cracow, in Poland, of which you may have heard."

"Yes, we have, but still we should like you to tell us about them, if you please," said Edith.

"The mines at Wielitska, a village six or eight miles from Cracow, are certainly most wonderful places," resumed the Grain. "You might descend five hundred feet, and then you would see roads with carts, and carriages, and horses upon them, and halls and chambers, and men and women and children. One chamber is described as so large that one thousand people could dine in it (but I will not vouch for that exact number). It would almost seem to you as if some country place above ground had been carefully let down and settled underneath; only, that you find no sun or sky, no spreading trees, and no smooth grass. Some of the people and horses never leave the mine, but live there altogether."

"I should not like to stay there for a long time, much less to live there," said Adelaide; "the glitter must be so great."

"Perhaps so in your eyes; yet it is all very wonderful and beautiful. Only think of churches, with all that belongs to them, and high chambers, supported by pillars, some thirty, some eighty feet in height, all cut out of the solid salt! Think, also,

Africa, you will find that I am used, not to make money, but as money itself. I am made up into round flat cakes, stamped, and then circulated as money, just like your shillings and sovereigns. And in Southern Africa you will find a lake, far away from the sea, and upon a height, the soil of which, when the rain water is evaporated, is found to be impregnated with salt to the depth of three or four feet. Then, as you know, the waters of the ocean are well supplied with me. But, if you please, let us now return to my Cheshire home: I am tired of thus wandering over the world."

"What was done to you when you were brought up from the mine?"

"Well, Master Arthur, I went through sundry processes not very pleasant to look back upon and too long for me to describe. I will only say that the large lump of rock salt, of which I formed a part, had first to be dissolved in order that all the impure things-the foreign substances which did not belong to it might be got rid of; and, after the salt was thoroughly separated from these, then the water in which it was dissolved, and which was saturated with it, had to be evaporated—that is ?"

"Driven away by heat and turned into steam," replied one of the children.

Then," resumed the Grain, "when the water was driven away, I and my companions began to rearrange ourselves, according to certain laws, and to

take a particular form, of which I will tell you more presently, only now remarking that the manner in which we do so, and the appearance we at last present, depend much upon the time allowed and the degree of heat employed in driving away the water. The methods employed in purifying and evaporating differ somewhat in different places, but the object is the same in all."

"What a tremendous deal of salt there must be in the sea. Is it everywhere equally salt ?" asked Arthur.

"Pretty much so, I believe; though in the Baltic the quantity of salt is only about one-fourth of that in the ocean. Consequently that sea is sometimes frozen. The ocean, as you know, never freezes, and the quantity of salt in it is supposed to be one of the causes which prevent it from doing so. What the Mediterranean does with the great quantity of salt which flows into it puzzles many of your wise men," continued the Grain after a short pause. "You see the surface water of that inland sea evaporates very quickly, owing partly to the hot winds from the north of Africa; and the Atlantic Ocean is constantly sending in a supply of salt water, so that one would expect to find the water in that sea salter than the water in the ocean, and yet such is not the case."

"Perhaps it lets the heavier water and salt sink down and flow away from it," remarked Adelaide. "No, that is just the puzzle," replied the Grain; "that heavier water cannot get out."

"But why not?" said the three children.

'Because the sea at the Straits of Gibraltar

which, you know, is the only passage by which it could get out-is found to be only two hundred and twenty fathoms deep. Now it is believed that this heavier water is not to be met with except at a much greater depth than two hundred and twenty fathoms; so you see it would sink lower than the Straits, through which alone it could flow out into the Atlantic."

"Well, perhaps it is sending its salt down and down into the earth, and by degrees making a mountain of rock salt," said Edith.

"No," replied the Salt, "I believe not. Other things, such as carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, are deposited by the waters of this sea, and rocks are being formed of them; but it is supposed that salt cannot be thus deposited (or laid down) until the water is saturated with it, which is not the case with the water of the Mediterranean. What may go on in other parts of this sea, some of which are as deep as the Alps are high, is, as yet, a mystery to your wise men. I only mention these little facts

"Ah, no, Miss Adelaide; you might as well ask me what Odin whispered in the ear of his son, Balder the Beautiful, as he lay upon his funeral bier, and which, according to that Scandinavian poem that your mamma was reading to you last night, no one kenneth save the mighty Odin himself.' Now suppose you go on with your walnuts for a little, and let me rest: but pray do not consume me just yet, for I have more that I should like to say to you."

(To be concluded in our next.)

"THE QUIVER" BIBLE CLASS. 189. What promise can be pleaded when sin is not removed, and the wish for its removal possessed? 190. Give instances of possessing the assurance of forgiveness of sin.

191. State three things which Scripture tells us God cannot do.

192. A man in the Old Testament who twice in a few days asserted the principle-" Right over might."

193. What comparison will Abraham's love to Isaac bear with Rebekah's love to Jacob?

194. What is the only revenge permitted by our Christian faith?

195. A king who visited a dying seer, and from a restricted faith injured his own fortunes. 196. One of our Lord's miracles was worked by the utterance of one word.

197. How many times is our Saviour represented 'seated" on the right hand of God, and how many times as "standing?”

as

198. Give an instance in the New Testament where a man depended for his recovery upon human help and sympathy.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 400. 180. Eccles. xii. 7.

181. Nineteen times. Sixteen times it refers to the eternity of God's attributes, and three times to the duration of rewards and punishments.

182. The Gentile superseding the Jew (Gen. xlviii. 13, 14; Isa. xix. 24, 25).