COLOURS OF THE OCEAN. Mission. We all wept as we bent our knees in prayer on that memorable spot. Words could not be found to express the powerful feelings which the Lord stirred within us. He understands the beating of the heart, and the tears of the eye. After having visited the grave, where we again joined in prayer, we retired, and the next morning planted a tree on the spot.' One of the first converts in that interesting gathering was Nathaniel Pepper. His conversion appeared to be very real. When he was approaching death, and was told by the doctor that probably he had only one more night to live, his countenance brightened up with joy. During the night he sent for each inhabitant of the place, and exhorted both Christians and heathens, with heart-moving earnestness, to turn to the Saviour, and cleave to Him. After whispering words of prayer, he pointed upwards with his hand, and exclaimed, "I see Jesus!" His last farewells were looked rather than spoken; his wife and three little ones kissed him once more; the missionary laid his hand on Pepper's head, uttering the words, "The Lord bless thee and keep thee," and then his happy spirit departed to be with the Saviour whom he had learned to love. "The old Blacks of Australia," says Mr. A. J. Boyle, "used to paint there bodies in a most hideous fashion-white, blue, and yellow-and each man, with a great handful of spears, came jumping and yelling through the bush near our house when they were having fights. They were always spearing one another; and often they killed each other outright. At different times I have seen three fine strong men killed close to our garden fence. One of these poor fellows was a great chief called Nalungi. Poor people, they know nothing about Jesus." Such is a recent description of the Australian Aborigines; but we see what the grace of God can do for them when they are brought under missionary influence, and have been led to the exercise ef faith in the Lord Jesus. COLOURS OF THE OCEAN. THE ocean has naturally a pure, bluish tint. All profound and clear seas are more or less of a deep blue; while, according to seamen, a green colour indicates soundings. The bright blue of the Mediterranean, so often vaunted by poets, is found all over the deep, pure ocean, not only in the tropical and temperate zones, but also in the regions of eternal frost. The North Sea is green, partly from the reflection of its sandy bottom mixing with the SABBATH SICKNESS. essentially blue tint of the water. In the bay of Loango the sea has the colour of blood, which results from the reflection of the red ground-soil. But the hue is much more frequently changed over large spaces by means of enormous masses of minute algæ, and countless hosts of small seaworms, floating or swimming on the surface. Near Callao, the Pacific has an olive-green colour, owing to a greenish matter found at a depth of eight hundred feet. Near Cape Palmas, on the coast of Guinea, Captain Tuckey's ship seemed to sail through milk; a phenomenon which was owing to the immense number of little white animals swimming on the surface. The peculiar colouring of the Red Sea, whence its name, is derived from the presence of a microscopic alga, or seaweed, less remarkable even for its beautiful red colour than for its prodigious fecundity. In many more instances, from like causes, the deep blue is varied with stripes of yellow, green, brown, orange or red. Small yellowish Medusa are the principal agents in changing the pure ultramarine of the Arctic Ocean into a muddy green. these, it is computed, a cubic inch must contain sixty-four; a cubic foot, one hundred and ten thousand five hundred and ninety-two. It is here that the giant whale of the North finds his richest pasture grounds, Of SABBATH SICKNESS. THIS remarkable disease has not yet been treated in books of pathology. 1. This disease is of the intermitting kind, attacking the patient by violent paroxysms, which return every seventh day. These paroxysms return only on the Lord's-day, and hence it is called Sabbath sickness," but by the faculty it is technically known by no other name than Dei Domini Morbus. 2. It partakes somewhat of the nature of ague, especially as it is attended with a great degree of coldness. This coldness is first apparent early in the morning of the Lord's-day, and in many cases seizing the patient before he has left his bed. But it begins in the region of the heart, and is attended with dullness of the head, and followed by yawning and lethargy. 3. The patient is sometimes deprived of the use of his limbs, especially the legs and feet, so that he is indisposed to walk to the house of God. 4. In some cases this attack has come upon them after they have gone to the house of God, and has been attended with yawning and slumber. NED'S RUDDER. 5. In other cases there has been uneasiness in the house of God, and a disposition to complain of the length of the sermon, though they have been known to sit very contentedly in a playhouse several hours at a time, or stand on the street in the cold several hours to listen to a political harangue. 6. Persons affected with this disease never mourn on account of their confinement from public worship. 7. These persons often surprise their neighbours with great activity and health on the day following, however unfavourable the weather may be. 8. Most of the faculty agree that there is a low, feverish heart, technically called febris mundi or fever of the world, which may be detected in these patients during intervening days of the week. 9. There also seems to be a loss of appetite for savory food, and a want of relish for Panis Vitae-bread of life-which in this case is the indispensable remedy for this disease. 10. Persons affected with this disease generally have a disrelish for private religious exercises of the closet, and the reading of the Scriptures. 11. It is also contagious-neighbours take it from neighbours, and children from parents. NED'S RUDDER. "AND so you mean to follow the sea," said old Dr. Williams to Ned. "Yes. Father says I may sail with 'The Osprey' on the next voyage," answered Ned with a pleased look. "And you sail your yacht meanwhile, to keep your hand in," said the doctor, looking at the toy he had taken from Ned. "It is a pretty little craft, and well put together; but it lacks a rudder, Ned." "I know that, but it's going to have one all right. You don't suppose I'd put to sea without a rudder, do you? The yacht is not finished yet, sir." Ned looked at the doctor with a very confident air, as of one who knew quite well what he was about; and the doctor looked back at him with a grave smile. "I see you understand what your boat needs, my boy. I wonder if you know as well what your own outfit should be." CROOKED STICKS. 'Well, I guess I do." And Ned rattled over a list of things that belonged to a seaman's chest. The doctor listened to him attentively. “There's a rudder lacking, I'm afraid," he said when Ned had finished. "A rudder! How can you carry a rudder in your kit.” "What is the use of a rudder ?" asked the doctor. "Just so. And a man wants something to steer by, as well as a ship. The Bible is a rudder, Ned, and chart and compass besides. It's an anchor, too, of hope and dependence. They that go down to the sea in ships, and see the wonders of the great deep, can the very least of all afford to do without it." Ned looked down, and blushed a little. "I suppose a Bible with me," he said, rather uneasily. I can take "I thought I would bring you one," said the doctor, taking out a neat pocket Bible. "I've put your name in it, and I want you to promise me that you'll steer by your rudder. The ship that dosen't mind her helm is in a bad way; but the boy that drifts here and there, with nothing to shape his course, is in a much worse one. Remember that, Ned." It was a word in season, fitly spoken. The boy had heard the same before; but it reached his heart now with a different meaning. He took the doctor's Bible, and gave his promise; kept it, too, in spite of many a sneer and many a temptation. "The Osprey" went on a long voyage. She met storm and disaster; and often, in the face of hardship and danger, Ned's "rudder" served him well; strengthened his courage; renewed his hope; led him to believe that all would be well, since God was at the helm. On land or on sea, there is no soul that can keep in the right track without the same blessed guide. CROOKED STICKS. THESE "crooked sticks!" We pity the pastor who has them in his church. There are enough of them-crooked as the fence the farmer told of, through which his dog ran fifty times, always to find himself on the same side of it! Hard times are sure to give them an extra twist, and add fresh gall to their sap. The more a church needs sweetening, the more they don't sweeten it. As to treatment, we venture this prescription: First, discriminate between the born crooked, and the crooked by circum POETRY. stances. The latter, softened by the oil of kindness and handled with a wise force, may be put back into shape; and it pays to do it. But the former we have now in mind. Of him we say (a) Don't expect to cure his congenital tortuosity. The wise preacher was thinking of him when he said: "That which is crooked cannot be made straight," You can't untwist a gnarled oak. It is easier to wring its neck off than to take the kinks out of a sapling, even. (b) Don't get angry with him. He likes that, and will be encouraged to greater convolutions. (c) Make him think, if you can, that on the whole you rather enjoy his contortions. He will soon stop doing anything that he thinks pleases anybody. (d) If this fail, train yourself and your people into utter indifference as to what he is doing; if possible, do not know there is such a man. And, sure enough you may wake up and find that there isn't; he has gone to his own place. Poetry. THE GOLDEN GATE. DIM shadows gather quickly round, and up the misty stair they climb, As unseen hands roll back the doors, the light that floods the very air As one by one they enter in, and the stern portals close once more, The faint low echo that we hear of far-off music seems to fill Complain not that the way is long-what road is weary that leads there? -Adelaide A. Proctor. |