is worthy of being remarked. At the present day the active shipping season at Alexandria commences about the first of August. The rise of the Nile is then so far advanced that the produce of the interior can be brought to that city, where it is shipped at once and sent to different parts of Europe. At the beginning of August of the last year, I saw it stated in the circular of a shipping house at Alexandria that there were twelve vessels there taking on board grain cargoes just received from Upper Egypt. Thus it appears that the Alexandria ship mentioned by Luke may have left Egypt not only after the grain harvest of the year had been gathered (it is ripe at the end of March), but just at the time when cargoes, or the earliest cargoes of that kind, could be obtained there; and further, that the ship would have had, after this, just about the time requisite for reaching Myra, when Paul's ship arrived at the same place.-PROFESSOR HACKETT.

Prov. xvi. 33.-"THE LOT IS CAST INTO THE LAP; BUT THE WHOLE DISPOSING THEREOF IS OF THE LORD."

2008. Missionary Influence.-Mr. Morgan, of Calcutta, thus writes of the influence which led him to think of missionary work: “Very many years ago there was, at one of the Welsh associations, the usual gathering of a great concourse of people. But there was an unusual stir amongst them. A missionary was about to address the multitude. Presently he came forward. There was a lad present who listened with avidity to the strange account which the missionary gave of the strange people amongst whom he had lived. Some years after that event, the same lad was invited by the Committee of the Baptist Mission to meet them in London. With a palpitating heart he opened the door at Fen Court, and on the stairs met that missionary coming down. That missionary was dear Mr. Carey, and the lad is the writer of this page."

These incidents are commonplace enough; yet they are ofttimes the turning-point in a life.

Matthew xiii. 25.-"WHILE MEN SIEPT, HIS ENEMY CAME AND SOWED TARES AMONG THE WHEAT, AND WENT HIS WAY."

2009. Sleep-Satan's favourite Weapon.-Satan's chief object is to get the soul asleep, for it is mainly through sleep that he can expect to conquer. Luther illustrates this very forcibly in one of

his sermons. "The devil," he says, "held a great anniversary, at which his emissaries were convened to report the results of their several missions. I let loose the wild beasts of the desert,' said one, 'on a caravan of Christians, and their bones are now bleaching on the sands.' 'What of that?' said the devil, their souls were all saved.' 'I drove the east wind,' said another, ' against a ship freighted with Christians, and they were all drowned.' 'What of that?' said the devil, 'their souls were all saved.' For ten years

I tried to get a single Christian asleep,' said a third, and I succeeded, and left him so.' Then the devil shouted," continues Luther," and the night stars of hell sang for joy."

Jeremiah i. 8.-"I AM WITH THEE TO DELIVER THEE, SAITH
THE LORD."

2010. Providential Interposition. Mr. John Craig, a distin guished minister, and colleague of Knox, having gone to reside in Bologna, in a convent of Dominicans, found a copy of Calvin's Institutions, which God made the means of his conversion to the reformed faith. He was seized as a heretic soon after, and carried to Rome, where he was condemned to be burnt; but on the evening preceding the day of execution, the reigning pontiff died, and, according to custom, the doors of all the prisons were thrown open. All others were released; but heretics, after being permitted to go outside the walls, were re-conducted to their cells. That night, however, a tumult was excited, and Craig and his companions escaped. They had entered a small inn at some distance from Rome, when they were overtaken by a party of soldiers, sent to apprehend them. On entering the house, the captain looked Craig steadfastly in the face, and asked him if he remembered having once relieved a poor wounded soldier in the neighbourhood of Bologna: Craig had forgotten it, "But," said the captain, “I am the man; I shall requite your kindness; you are at liberty; your companions I must take with me, but for your sake I shall treat them with all possible lenity." He gave him all the money he had, and Craig escaped. But his money soon failed him; yet God, who feedeth the ravens, did not. Lying at the side of a wood, full of gloomy apprehensions, a dog came running up to him with a purse in its teeth. Suspecting some evil, he attempted to drive the animal away, but in vain. He at length took the purse, and found in it a sum of money, which carried him to Vienna.

Gems.

75. Sin.-Sin is like sound, and it finds the moral nature of man, like the atmosphere, a good conducting medium.-Rev. W. Arnot.

76. The Heart and Tongue.-The heart is the workshop in which are forged secrets, slanders, and all evil speakings. The tongue is only the outer shop where the goods made within are sold.-Sunday Teacher's Treasury.

77. Resolutions.-Many resolutions are like impressions made on the sand, the first wave washes them away.

78. Worldly and Spiritual Joy.-Worldly joy is like the sun-flower, which shuts when the gleam of prosperity is over; spiritual joy is an evergreen, an unfading plant.

79. No Desire after Salvation.-Walking along the street, how many children do you see all covered with filth and dirt, while water is so plentiful, and ofttimes so near at hand! Yet there they are. They seem happy in their dirt, they have no wish to be clean. Could we look into the hearts of many, how close a correspondence should we find to the bodies of these children! And yet within their reach the means of cleansing is provided, the fountain opened, they have only to wash and be clean. The reason why of their position is a very sad one-they have no desire after salvation.-W. H. W.

80. The Heart of Man.-At places of public resort, such as the summit of a lofty mountain; or the site of some famous monument, you may see on vacant spaces, that inscriptions have been chiseled so thickly, that you could not now find an unoccupied spot to plant a letter on; the characters are various-some old, some new, some well-formed, some irregular scrawls, some mere scratches on the surface, which a winter's storm will wash out, some so deep that they will be legible for ages.. As to matter, some are records of personal ambition, others are expressive of thoughtless jollity, others the date of some great event; the table lies there, the helpless recipient of ideas good or bad, that stray comers may chance to impress on it; in many respects how like to the heart of man! -Rev. W. Arnot.

81. Talking and Doing.-Two rival architects were once consulted for the building of a certain temple at Athens. The first harangued the crowd very learnedly upon the different orders of architecture, and showed them in what manner the temple should be built; the other, who got up after him, only observed "that what his brother had spoken he could do," and thus he gained the cause.

Proverbs xxi. 9.-"IT IS BETTER TO DWELL IN A CORNER OF THE HOUSETOP THAN WITH A BRAWLING WOMAN IN A WIDE HOUSE.

2011. The Corner of the Housetop.-Although it is very common in the East for people who sleep on the housetops during the nights of summer to have their beds on the perfectly open terrace, yet in some parts and in some households it is preferred to have on the roof, during that season, certain slight constructions, frequently of wicker, forming very small closets, without any door, in which the persons severally sleep. These are by no means suited for occupation during the day, and still less for permanent residence; and perhaps Solomon means that it were better to reside by day, or even constantly, in these little tenements, than in a wide house with a contentious woman. The cut we offer in illustration is drawn from a model of an Egyptian house in the collection of the late Mr. Salt. DECEMBER, 1868.

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James iv. 11.-"SPEAK NOT EVIL ONE OF ANOTHER, BRETHEN."

2012. Evil-Speaking.—A Timely Reproof.-The following anecdote is related of the late excellent J. J. Gurney by one who, as a child, was often one of his family circle:-"One night-I remember it well-I received a severe lesson on the sin of evil-speaking. Severe I thought it then, and my heart rose in childish anger against him who gave it; but I had not lived long enough in the world to know how much mischief a child's thoughtless talk may do, and how often it happens that great talkers run off the straight line of truth. I was talking very fast about some female relative, who did not stand very high in my esteem, and was about to speak further of her failings of temper. In a few moments my eyes caught a look of such calm and steady displeasure that I stopped short. There was no mistaking the meaning of that dark, speaking eye. It brought the colour to my face, and confusion and shame to my heart. I was silent for a few moments, when Joseph John Gurney asked, very gravely, 'Dost thou not know any good thing to tell us of her?' I did not answer, and the question was more seriously asked, 'Think; is there nothing good thou canst tell us of her?' 'Oh yes, I know some good things certainly, but▬▬’ 'Would it not have been better, then, to relate these good things than to have told us that which must lower her in our esteem? Since there is good to relate, would it not be kinder to be silent on the evil? Charity rejoiceth not in iniquity," thou knowest.' It was our custom every morning for Miss Gurney and any little visitor she might have with her, to go, before breakfast, into the room next to her father's dressing-room, and repeat some portions of Scripture. On the following morning I was desired to read in the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians, and afterwards to commit a portion of it to memory. There was no comment made on what I read; it was not necessary. The reproof was felt, even to the shedding of tears; but the kind voice and silent kiss soon spoke love and peace, and I was comforted. A word spoken in season, how good is it!' Every one who visited his house must have been impressed with the superior tone of conversation there, with the absence of scandal and small-talk; and when persons, rather than things, were a little too much in the discourse of the juniors, how ingeniously, and yet how kindly, has the subject been put aside, and some other matter of innocent interest introduced in its stead!

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