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And may succeeding pages
Such goodly handfuls bear,
As shall in future ages

God's faithfulness declare,

And when the final handful
These gleaning labours close,
In God, abiding faithful,

Shall he who gleans repose.

E. COBB.

Handfuls of purpose."-RUTH ii. 16.
Huldah (2 Kings xxii. 14).
Absolom (2 Sam. xvii. 33).
Noadiah (Nehemiah vi. 14).
David (1 Sam. xviii. 1).
Festus (Acts xxvi. 24).
U zza (2 Sam. vi. 6).
Lot (Genesis xix. 15).
Sisera (Judges iv. 21).
O reb (Judges vii. 25).
Felix (Acts xxiv. 26).
Paul (Galatians ii. 11).
Uzziah (2 Chron. xxvi. 16).
Ruth (Ruth i. 19).
Phineas (1 Sam. iv. 11).
Ogg (Deut. iii. 11).

Samson (Judges xvi. 30).
Elijah (1 Kings xvii. 6).

“I'LL TAKE WHAT FATHER TAKES."

"WHAT will you take to drink ?" asked the waiter of a young lad, who for the first time accompanied his father to a public dinner. Uncertain what to

say, and feeling sure that he could not be wrong if be followed his father's example, he replied,

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I'll take what father takes."

The answer reached the father's ear, and instantly the full responsibility of his position flashed upon him. If he said, "I'll take ale," as he always said before, his son would take it also, and then? And the father shuddered as the history of several young men who, once promising as his own bright lad, had been ruined by drink, started up in solemn warning before him. Should his hope also be blasted, and that open-faced, noble lad become a burden and a curse as they had become? But for strong drink, they would have been active, earnest, prosperous men; and if it could work such ruin upon them, was his own son safe? Quicker than lightning these thoughts passed through his mind, and in a moment the decision was made-" If the boy falls he shall not have me to blame;" and then, in tones tremulous with emotion, to the astonishment of those who knew him, he said, "Waiter, I'll take water;" and from that day to this, strong drink has been banished from that man's home.

The young lad, in his brief utterance, was really the representative of the generation to which he belongs. God has so decreed it, that the father is the highest authority in the world to his child. Who does not know that "My father said so," is the end of all controversy with the little ones around us? Who does not see the parent's tone, gait, and manners continually reproduced in the children, whose nature is now soft as wax to receive an impression, and rigid as marble to retain it, and who watch with a quick, imitating eye those who to them are God's vicegerents?

Would that we could impress upon the fathers

and mothers of this country the solemn fact that the future character of their children is instrumentally, in great measure, being formed by them.-Voice of Truth.

LONGEVITY OF SNAILS.

SNAILS are capable of remaining dormant for a very long time. A remarkable instance occurred in the British Museum. A small snail was brought from the Egyptian deserts in 1846, and put in its place amongst hundreds of others, was gummed to a board, and in 1850 was found to be alive, and fed readily on lettuce and delicate cabbage leaves. This interesting specimen of snails of the desert died in 1852.

BIBLE ENIGMA.

WHO to repentant Israel did once deliverance bring?

Who when delivered from their foes, did songs of triumph sing?

Who as a fiend let loose doth goodly words

bestow ?

Who in a wilderness long dwelt, and learned to use the bow?

Next, find where Moses stood, the promised land to view.

A mighty heathen king, whom the sons of Israel slew.

Who to the builders of a wall, with anger fiercely rail?

A name of One whose word is truth, and cannot fail.

What prophet, sad at heart, a king to Judah sent ?

A Church whom God exhorts to cease from idols, and repent?

The initials of these names declare
The great Jehovah's power;

Whose goodness and preserving care
By us are shared each hour.

M. B.

THE FROST FLOWER.

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THE wonderful plant, known as the 'Frost Flower," is found only on the northern boundaries of Siberia, where the snow is eternal. It was discovered, in 1793, by Count Swinoskoff, the eminent Russian botanist, who was ennobled by the Czar for his discovery. Bursting from the frozen snow on the first day of the year, it grows to the height of three feet, and flowers on the third day, remains in flower for twenty-four hours, and then dissolves itself into its original element-stem, leaves, and flower being of the finest snow.

The

stalk is about one inch in diameter; the leaves, three in number, in the broadest part are one inch and a half in width, and are covered with infinitesimal cones of snow; they grow only on one side of the stalk, to the north, curving gracefully in the same direction. The flower when fully expanded, is in shape a perfect star; the petals

are three inches in length, half an inch wide in the broadest parts, and tapering sharply to a point. These are also interlaced one with another, in a beautiful manner, forming the most delicate basket of frost-work that the eye ever beheld; for truly this is frost-work the most wonderful. The anthers are five in number, and on the third day after the birth of the "flower of snow" are to be seen on the extremities thereof, trembling and glittering like diamonds; the seeds of this wonderful flower are about as large as a pin's head. The old botanist says when first he beheld this flower, “I was dumb with astonishment; filled with wonderment, which gave way to joy the most ecstatic, on beholding this wonderful work of nature, this remarkable phenomenon of snow-to see this flower springing from the snowy desert, born of its own composite atoms. I touched the stem of one lightly, but it fell at my touch, and a morsel of snow only remained in my hand." Gathering some of the flowers in snow, in order to preserve the little diamond-like seeds, he hied to St. Petersburg with, to him, the greatest prize of his lifetime. All through the year they were kept in snow, and on the first day of the following year the Court of St. Petersburg were delighted with the bursting forth of the wonderful "Frost Flower."

POPERY.

THE true spirit of that accursed thing that this country is wasting the public money to support, and refusing to repress efficiently in the Church of England, is seen in the following:

"ATROCIOUS PERSECUTION OF BELGIAN PROESTANTS.-An extraordinary trial of seven col

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