stream from Vesuvius which in 1737 passed through Torre del Greco, contained 33,600,000 cubic feet of solid matter; and in 1794, when Torre del Greco was destroyed a second time, the mass of lava amounted to 45,000,000 cubic feet. In 1679, Etna poured forth a flood which covered 84 square miles of surface, and measured nearly 100,000,000 cubic feet. On this occasion the sand and scoriæ formed the Monte Rosi, near Nicholosi, a cone two miles in circumference and 4,000 feet high. The stream thrown out by Etna in 1810 was in motion at the rate of a yard per day for nine months after the eruption; and it is on record that the lava of the same mountain, after a terrible eruption, was not thoroughly cooled and consolidated ten years after the event. In the eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79, the scoriæ and ashes vomited forth far exceeded the bulk of the entire mountain; while in 1660, Etna disgorged more than twenty times its own mass. Vesuvius has thrown its ashes as for as Constantinople, Syria, and Egypt; it hurled stones eight pounds in weight to Pompeii, a distance of six miles, while similar masses were tossed up 2,000 feet above its summit. Cotopazi has projected a block of 109 cubic yards in volume a distance of nine miles; and Sumbawr, in 1815, during the most terrible eruption on record, sent its ashes as far as Java, a distance of 300 miles of surface, and out of a population of 12,000 souls, only 20 escaped.-Recreative Science,

"MY SON, IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE, CONSENT THOU NOT."

MERCY TO ANIMALS.

OH! boys and men of British mould,
With mother's milk within you,
A simple word for young and old,
A word to warn and win you.
You've each and all got human hearts,
As well as human features,

So hear me while I take the parts
Of all the poor dumb creatures.

I wot your lot is sometimes rough,
But theirs is something rougher;
No hopes-no loves-but pain enough,
And only sense to suffer.

You men and boys have friends and joys,
And homes and hopes in measure;
But these poor brutes are only mutes,
And never knew such pleasure!—

A little water, chaff and hay,

And sleep, the boon of heaven,
What great returns for these have they
To your advantage given!

And yet the worn-out horse or ass
Who makes your daily gaining,
Is paid with goad or thong, alas!
Though nobly uncomplaining.

Oh! think not thou that this dumb brute
Has no strong friend to aid him,
Nor hope, because his wrongs are mute,
They're hid from God who made him!
A little while-and you are dead,
With all your bitter feelings,

How will the Judge-so just and dread,
Reward your cruel dealings.

M. T.

SWEAR NOT AT ALL. A LITTLE boy came in from school the other day, looking very unhappy. Was he hurt? No. Had the boys plagued him? No. Had he been in mischief? No. What was the matter with Willie ? He hardly spoke at supper time, and ate very little.

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His mother went up to bed with him, and she asked again, "Willie, what ails you, dear?" "Mother," said he,-"mother I swore. The minute I spoke it I was afraid of God, and ran home. Mother, if I could only wipe those wicked words out of my mouth -if I only could! Mother, will God forgive me, ever forgive me for taking His holy name in vain? Pray for me, mother." His mother prayed that he might never, never profane the name of God again.

The next day, he asked his mother to write down all the Bible said about profane swearing; he wanted the word of God on the subject; he said "he wanted to study it, and stick it on his mind, and carry it about with him every where." So she found and

copied these texts:

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who taketh His name in vain" (Ex. xx. 8). This is the third commandment.

"Ye shall not swear by My name falsely, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God; I am the Lord " (Lev. xix. 12).

the

"Because of swearing the land mourneth; pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up" (Jer. xxiii. 10).

"I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." These are the Lord Jesus' words in Matthew v. 34-37.

"Above all things, my brethren," says James, 66 swear not; neither by the earth; neither by any

other oath but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation" (Jas. v. 12).

"O mother," said Willie in reading them over, "how clearly God speaks! How can a man or a boy dare to swear after reading this ?”

He learned these Scriptures, and I have written them down for every boy who reads these lines to learn them also.—Treasury.

THE LOSS OF A CHRISTIAN FRIEND. (Imitated from the 57th chapter of Isaiah.)

WHO shall weep when the righteous die?
Who shall mourn when the good depart?
When the soul of the godly away shall fly,
Who shall lay the loss to heart?

He has gone into peace, he has laid him down
To sleep till the dawn of a brighter day;
And he shall wake on that holy morn

When sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

But ye who worship in sin and shame

Your idol gods, whate'er they be

Who scoff in your pride at your Maker's name,
By the pebbly stream and the shady tree-
Hope in your mountains, and hope in your streams,
Bow down in their worship, and loudly pray;
Trust in your strength, and believe in your dreams,
But the wind shall carry them all away.

There's one who drank at a purer fountain,
One who was washed in a purer flood;
He shall inherit a holier mountain-
He shall worship a holier God.

But the sinner shall utterly fail and die,

Whelmed in the waves of a troubled sea;
And God, from His throne of light on high,
Shall say, "There is no peace for thee!'

BRAINARD