frisk round my feet,

Impatient my first look of welcome to greet; Then threaten the sparrows with serious air, As much as to say, 'I'll soon be at you there.

Nor has he forgotten the friend of his soul: Jack calls still as ever, and longs for a stroll.

Oh! when will he learn that his bark is in vain

That they never will wander together again?

Jim lies in his grave, and I blush not to tell

I mourn the fond creature that loved me so well.

Who would not like to be missed and mourned when his place is empty? Then do not think it beneath you to learn a lesson even from one so lowly as 'poor Jim.' With only his dog-nature, he cherished love and affection for those around him. Do you the same. Love is one of this poor earth's priceless things which we would sometimes give our all to secure, but which no money can buy. 'Ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee.' Job xii. 7.

K.

KING ALFRED THE GREAT. 'Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. Matthew xx. 26.

FAR off across the mists of many hundred

years, we see the figure of this AngloSaxon King, who used the pen as well as the sword, and by incessant toil and patient resolution in those dark and troubled times, well earned the title of the Great. Born in Berkshire in 849, young Alfred seems early to have shown the promises of ability fulfilled in his manhood, as he was able, when only six years old, to repeat from memory the ballads heard from wandering gleemen. At the age of twenty-two he ascended the throne of the West Saxons, and bravely led his people through disasters and reverses, till at last their unresting foe, the Danish Pirate, ceased to desolate the land. Some pictures have come down to us which show how the young scholar king faced the troubles of his reign. At one time, when Guthrum the Danish Chief had overrun the

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and taken into the Christian church. We read that the faithful swine-herd, who had kept his king concealed in the marshy island by the Tone, rose afterwards to the bishopric of Winchester; but we must bear in mind that the level of education of Anglo-Saxon clergy was not difficult to attain.

Fifteen years of peace followed the subjection of the Danes, during which the king turned his attention to the elevation of his people and his country.

He built schools, inviting learned men to come and settle at his court; and in his scanty leisure he himself translated into Anglo-Saxon, for his people, the psalms and works of philosophy and history. He had not learned Latin till he was forty, but he was an eager student, and in his division of work for the day, he only allowed himself eight hours for sleep, meals, and exercise, so that when public business was over, we can imagine him busy with his pen far into the night while his 'time candles' burn down ring after ring. He enlarged the fleet, improving his ships so that they soon excelled in fleetness the Northmen's flat bottomed boats; he built strong castles and protected the cities by walls; divided the Ĩand into shires; prepared a code of laws; and showed to his people the example of a good and useful life.

Towards the end of his reign, the Danes, led by Hastings the prince of pirates, again devastated the land; but the Saxons, with their stone-fenced cities and swift fleets were able now to make a brave resistance, and after four years, Alfred gained a final victory beside the river Lea, and saw at last the Danish ships set sail for other seas. Then a few more years of peace, and Great Alfred's work for England was ended. To the last he laboured for the land he loved so well, though his feeble frame was wasted by a malady for twenty years of his busy life. He died in 901.

After doing with his might whatsoever his hands found to do,' he joined the ranks of that great army, who may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.

M. M. E.

THE BEAUTIFUL.

BEAUTIFUL upon the mountains

feet of those who bear
Tidings of the 'Open fountain
To the weary wanderer.
Beautiful in lowly valley,
Darkened long by error's night,
Is the star-gleam of salvation-
Star of everlasting light.
Beautiful within the desert-
Weary waste of herbless sand-
Is the freshness of the river
Guided to the thirsty land.
Beautiful the Gospel radiance
In the land of heathen gloom,
Pouring light amid the darkness,

Stirring life within the tomb.
Sun-gleam on the distant summit
After day of sullen cloud;
Springtide bursting bonds of winter,
Life-bloom springing from the shroud,
Is the free, the Gospel message,

Free to every clime and hue,-Tidings of a blood-bought pardon To the Gentile and the Jew.

G. PAULIY.

SERGENT, THE BRAVE BULL-DOG. (From the French.)

FAI

AR away in the midst of Bohemia, at the foot of a hill, stood a large house or castle. On the one side was a wood; on the other, a fine large garden, with a deep pond at the foot of it. In this dwelling lived a count and his two little boys. The countess had died shortly before, greatly lamented not only by her own family, but by many poor people, to whom she had been very kind.

The children were very fond of an English bull-dog called Sergent, which belonged to their father. It was white, of a medium height, but very strong, with bright, intelligent eyes. When Sergent got out to walk with his masters, he was so happy that he would bound away to a great distance, and return all panting to be off again in a few minutes. The only time when Sergent gave trouble, was when he