74

A SUMMER HOLIDAY.

HOW pleasant it is to spend a long

summer day by the sea-shore! The promised excursion is looked forward to with delight for days or perhaps for weeks before. When at length the looked-for day comes, all are ready betimes-no fear of sleeping too long that morning.

What a disappointment when one of the little ones is prevented by sickness from joining the merry band; but even the sick one is cheered by promise of shells, seaweeds, and other pretty things on their return; and we hope these promises will be fulfilled. We should always remember those who are sick or in any trouble.

Suppose we join a holiday party, and proceed with them to the sea-coast. When we arrive there we find that we have five hours to spend before we must be at the station to return home. How shall we make the most of these five hours? It is a fine thing to make the most of our time. Could we remember this every day, how much good it would do us. We all wish to get as much enjoyment as possible on this holiday. The little ones wish to gather shells-some of the older ones to collect sea-weeds-and the boys would think the day almost lost if they did not get a sail.

A rowing boat is near, and, the weather being favourable, it is hired, and soon our party are sailing along. Looking into the water we see so much to admire so many kinds of sea-weeds, curious stones, bits of coral, shells, and fishes swimming about in the water, that we gaze on them with wonder and delight. We cannot but remember the words-O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.'

We find five hours far too short a time for all we had intended to do; but if we carry home with us a deepened sense of the manifold display of the wisdom and power of God in his works, our holiday will have done us great good.

"THE DAYSPRING' PICTURE GALLERY. VII. THE FIRE AND THE HAMMER.

THE

HE next picture introduces us to a very busy scene. On one side are large smelting furnaces, with leaping, roaring flames, out of the heart of which you see streams of molten metal flowing into moulds prepared for the purpose. On the other side are a number of masons, hewing and dressing stones, or polishing blocks of marble and porphyry. Every one is busy, either in feeding and tending the huge furnaces, and directing the waves of purified metal which they send forth, or in hammering and chiselling the stones, some of which are massive pillars and corner-stones, and some of them ornamental facings, or capitals of delicate tracery. We see here such a scene as was familiar in the land of Israel about 2800 years ago. There were thousands of workmen employed at that time through the length and breadth of the land,-masons, carpenters, sculptors, smiths, iron and brass founders; each following his own trade, and all working for one object. If you had asked one of these men what he was about, he would have told you that the king was going to build a magnificent temple in the city of Jerusalem, and that it had been decreed that all the materials were to be brought to the spot ready for use. That was why the air, in many parts of the land, was filled with the ring of the axe, and the heavy thud of the hammer, and with the roar of the surging flames of the blast furnace, and the tread of many feet, and hum of many voices. Every hour's work was doing something to hasten the erection of the stately building which would soon be the glory of the land of Israel.

Do you know why this picture hangs in our gallery? It is because our God is about to build for Himself a more glorious temple than Solomon's; and now He is preparing the materials for it all up and down our world. They seem unlikely enough for the purpose; for they are sinful men and women and children, with hard hearts and unholy lives. But there is a wonderful instrument at work among them,

towards God. Some nations, like the Hindoos and Chinese, are difficult to reach, because they have learned systems of religion and philosophy; some, like the Kaffirs and South Sea Islanders, seem hopelessly sunk in ignorance and brutal wickedness. But no people has yet been found whom the Bible could not conquer, and prepare among them living stones' for God's glorious temple.

A missionary in Aneityum, one of the New Hebrides, says: During the first year of my residence in Aneityum, assisted by the natives, I built a chimney. About a mile from the mission station I found a number of whinstones, very suitable for my purpose. I had among my tools a good whinstone hammer. I set to work to dress and square the stones for the chimney. The novelty of the operation drew a crowd of natives around me. They looked on in wonder, amazed, beyond measure, to see how the hammer broke into pieces, and brought into new shapes, those hard stones which nobody had ever attempted to break before.' The missionary goes on to tell how he made use of the opportunity to preach them a little sermon upon the power of God's word to break their hearts, when no human words had any effect on them; just as the iron hammer split the stones that a wooden mallet could not chip. Then he says, 'The illustration took hold of their imagination; the sermon on the stones and the hammer was never forgotten. Now and again, to this day, I hear some of our elder natives pray in the church in words to this effect:- "O Lord, Thy Word is like a hammer; take it, and with it break our stony hearts, and shape them according to the rule of Thy holy law."

If I had time and space, I should like to give you a number of illustrations of the power of God's word in many lands. I should tell you of a Brazilian desperado, who, when only sixteen, had killed two men in a street brawl; and who, finding no peace for his conscience in all the masses and penances recommended by priests, became so hardened and reckless, that he was a terror to the whole neighbourhood;

till a friend, who had got a New Testament, read him the story of the life and death of Christ, and his hard heart was broken, and the lion changed into a lamb. I should tell you of an old Chinese schoolmaster, vain of his knowledge, and satisfied with his religion, to whom a missionary's wife found time to read the Bible for half an hour every day, till he confessed himself conquered by the Book, and was baptised as a Christian. I should tell you of a London rough, who, finding a city missionary speaking to the people in a public-house one day, was about to knock him down, when prevented by his companions; and who was visited and taught to read by the same missionary, each lesson being closed by reading the Bible and prayer, till the rough became a changed man, and the bare garret a Christian home.

These are only specimens of the great and glorious work that God's word is doing to-day in all lands. If you will read Bible Society and Mission Reports, you will gather many a wonderful proof that God is daily preparing down here the materials for a temple to His everlasting praise.

I have left no room to speak of fire as an emblem of the Bible because of its purifying power. I must leave you to find texts about that, and illustrations of it, for yourselves. May God grant that you and I may have a corner in His building,—a place prepared for us, and for which we are being daily prepared.

IN

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.

J. B. M.

N the far off land of Egypt, rising from a grove of date and acacia trees, there stands a solitary stone, some seventy feet in height, one of the most venerable monuments of antiquity. Well-nigh 4000 years have come and gone-the exact date of its erection being 2050 B. C.—since, at great expense and labour, it was brought from the quarry of Syene in Upper Egypt, and erected on its pedestal. In the picturesque language of Egypt-with hieroglyphic symbol of bird, beast, and insect-it bears an inscription, stating that