Exodus xxv. 31.-" AND THOU SHALT MAKE A CANDLESTICK OF PURE SHAFT, AND HIS BRANCHES, HIS BOWLS, HIS KNOPS, AND HIS 1837. The Golden Candlestick.-The Golden Candlestick was placed in the first apartment of the tabernacle, on the south side. It stood on a base, from which the principal stem arose perpendicularly. On both sides of it there projected upwards in such a way as to describe a curved line, three branches. They arose from the main stem, at equal distances from each other, and to the same height with it. The height in the whole, according to the Jewish Rabbins, was five feet; and the breadth, or the distance between the exterior branches, three and a half. The main stem, together with the branches, were adorned with knops, flowers, and other ornaments of gold. The seven extremities of the main stem and branches were employed as so many separate lamps, all of which were kept burning in the night, but three only in the day, Exod. xxx. 8; Lev. xxiv. 4. The priest, in the morning, put the lamps in order with his golden snuffers, and carried away the filth, that might have gathered upon them, in golden vessels made for that purpose. The weight of the whole candlestick was a talent, or one hundred and twenty-five pounds, Exod. xxv. 31—40 ; xxvii. 20; xxxvii. 17—24; Lev. xxiv. 1-4; Numb. iv. 9. 1 Peter i. 16.-"BE YE HOLY; FOR I AM HOLY." 1838. Holiness.-A Bechuana's Interpretation.-Dr. Livingstone once asked a Bechuana what he understood by the word "holiness" (foitsepho). He answered, "When copious showers have descended during the night, and all the earth and leaves and cattle are washed clean, and the sun rising shows a drop of dew on every blade of grass, and the air breathes fresh, that is holiness." Proverbs xxii. 6.-"TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY HE SHOULD GO AND WHEN HE IS OLD, HE WILL NOT DEPART FROM IT.” Romans xii. 10.-" BE KINDLY AFFECTIONED ONE TO ANOTHER WITH BROTHERLY LOVE." 1839. The Law of Kindness.-The Two Scholars.—“ There now, the bell rings; and I'll be off!" said Charles B. to his playmate; "and you may gather up the marbles, and put away the tools." "Now, Charles, don't go, pray don't. If you leave me, I shall be too late, and the door will be shut, and I shall be fined." "Fined! you paltry little miser, and what care I for that?" and off he scampered as fast as his legs could carry him. From another part of the same playground ran a number of boys, amongst whom was a fine tall lad, who, in passing, saw little Harry's distress. "What's the matter, my little fellow ?" "Oh! Fred, Charles, and I were at play together; and he has left me to gather up all the marbles, and to put the tools away. He said he could 'not spare a minute' to help me, and I know I shan't be in time, and master will be so angry, and fine me." "Never mind, Harry! I'll help you; and we'll soon scramble up the marbles, and be in time too; and if not, I'll pay half your fine, and my own into the bargain. Come, cheer up!" The two boys made haste, and reached the schoolroom door just before it was finally closed. Fred had always time to spare for kind actions, and money to spare for generous ones. Charles had neither time nor money for any but himself. Fred had a pious and judicious father, and an equally devoted mother, whose only care had been to train up their son in the fear of God, and in kindness and beneficence to all around him. That morning he had repeated to his father at the breakfast-table, as his texts for the day: "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men," Gal. vi. 10; and "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted," Ephes. iv. 32. Fred thought of his texts when he saw his little schoolfellow in trouble. Charles, too, had a father; but a far different man. He boasted of his son's fine spirit, and prognosticated from it something great in the future man. But what kind of spirit did he manifest? He was disobedient to his mother, teasing to his sisters, unkind to his schoolfellows, gave trouble to the servants. The spirit on which his father built his hopes was, in fact, an evil spirit, far removed from the spirit of the only perfect Man, who was also perfect God, "the man Christ Jesus." This boy grew up to be a godless, selfish, overbearing young man; a grief to his parents. What in childhood they had laughed at they were now left to mourn over. They had spared no time to train him in his early years. He now spared none to seek to add to their happiness. How true is God's word!" Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," Gal. vi. 7.-From a little work, Not a Minute to Spare." Hebrews xiii. 1.-"LET BROTHERLY LOVE CONTINUE. 1840. A Loving Family.-A gentleman of Marseilles, named Remonsat, shortly before his death, desired that his numerous family might be assembled about his bed. He acknowledged the delight which his children had afforded him by their affection and attachment, and especially for the tender love which they bore to one another. "But,” continued he, "I have a secret to disclose, which will remove one of you from this circle. So long as I had any hopes of living I kept it from you, but I dare not violate your rights in the division of the property which I leave you. One of you is only an adopted child-the child of the nurse at whose breast my own child died. Shall I name that child?" "No, no," said they with one accord, "let us all continue to be brothers and sisters." Psalm civ. 24.-"O LORD, HOW MANIFOLD ARE THY WORKS! IN WISDOM HAST THOU MADE THEM ALL. 1841. God seen in His Works.-The Eye of the Mite.-The mite has eyes, and turns aside if it meets with such objects as may be hurtful to it; place it on anything that is black, for the help of your observation, and if, whilst it is walking, you lay but the least bit of straw in its way, you will see it alter its course immediately. And can you think that crystalline humour, the retina, and the optic nerve, all which convey sight to this little animal, are the product of chance?-LA BRUYERE. Nature aiding Science.-When Smeaton had reflected long, in search of that form which would be best fitted to resist the combined action of wind and waves, he found it in the trunk of the oak. When Watt was employed to conduct the supply of water across the Clyde to the city of Glasgow, he borrowed his admirable contrivance of a flexible water-main, from considering the flexibility of the lobster's tail; and so, when Mr. Brunel was engaged in superintending the construction of the tunnel under the Thames, it was from observing the head of an apparently insignificant insect, that he derived his first conception of the ingenious shield, which he introduced in advance of the workmen, to protect them from being crushed by the falling in of the earth. Psalm cxvi. 12.-" WHAT SHALL I RENDER UNTO THE LORD FOR ALL HIS BENEFITS TOWARD ME?" 66 1842. Services due to God.-We may use the words of Socrates to his scholar, who saw in the contemplation of nature only a proof of his own insignificance, and concluded 'that the gods had no need of him," which drew this answer from the sage,66 The greater the munificence they have shown in the care of thee, so much the more honour and service thou owest them." Psalm cxix. 165.—"GREAT PEACE HAVE THEY WHICH LOVE THY LAW." 1843. A Collier Boy.-At an anniversary meeting of the Sunday School Union at the London Tavern some years since, the Rev. Legh Richmond narrated the following fact :-" By a sudden burst of water into one of the Newcastle collieries, thirty-five men and forty-one lads were driven into a distant part of the pit, from which there was no possibility of return until the water should have been drawn off. While this was being effected, though all possible means were used, the whole number gradually died, from hunger or from suffocation. When the bodies were drawn up from the pit, seven of the youths were discovered in a cavern, separate from the rest. Among them was one of peculiarly moral and religious habits, whose daily reading of the sacred Scriptures to his widowed mother, when he came up from his labour, had formed the solace of her lonely condition. After his funeral, a sympathising friend of the neglected poor went to visit her; and while the mother showed him, as a relic of her son, his Bible, worn and soiled with constant perusal, he happened to cast his eyes on a candle-box, with which, as a miner, the boy had been furnished, and which had been brought up from the pit with him; and there the visitor discovered the following affecting record of the filial affection and steadfast piety of the youth. In the darkness of the suffocating pit, with a bit of pointed iron, he had engraved on the box his last message to his mother, in these words,- Fret not, my dear mother; for we were singing and praising God while we had time. Mother, follow God more than ever I did. Joseph, be a good lad to God and to mother.' Mr. Richmond produced the box, which he had borrowed from the widow, under a solemn promise of returning a relic so precious to a mother's heart. Ephesians v. 11.-"HAVE NO FELLOWSHIP WITH THE UNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS, BUT RATHER REPROVE THEM. 1844. Reproving Sin.-The Gaelic Scholar-A teacher of a Gaelic school one day sent one of his scholars on an errand some distance from home. Another boy, but not of the same school, offered to accompany him. They had proceeded about four miles, when the latter began to swear. The Gaelic scholar reproved him; he confessed his fault, and they went on together. A second and a third oath, however, escaped him; and then the Gaelic scholar stood still, and said, "Dost thou not know that the Bible says, ' Can two walk together except they be agreed ?' therefore, by Bible law, I can go no further with you; I will return home, and you may do what you please." He accordingly returned and reported to his teacher the facts of the case, who was far better pleased with the tenderness of his conscience than if he had fulfilled his errand. |