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y s * •HE COOLEST MAM DC RUSSIA. .." All Old Soldier's Remlatscence. •'I'VE seen many a brave man in my ie. sure enongh," said old Ivan Starikoff, removing his short pipe to puff out a volume of smoke from be­ neath his long white moustache. 44 Many and many a one have I seen; for, thank Heaven, the children of holy Russia are never wanting in that way; but all of them put together wouldn't makq. one such man as our old Colonel, •Count Pavel Petroviteh Severin. It wasn't only that he faced danger like a man--all the others did that--but he never seemed to know that there was any danger at all. It was as good as a reinforcement of ten battalions to bread, so hut] that you had to soak it before you could get it ddwn; and if you'd had to drink water through which hundreds of horses had just been trampling; and to scramble up and down steep hills under a roasting sun, with your feet so swollen and sore that every step was like a knife going into vou; and. to lie all night in the rain, longing for the sun to rise that you might dry yourself a bit--perhaps then you wouldn't talk quite so loud about •glorious war!' " " However, we drove the Turks across the Balkans at last, and got down to Yamboli, a little town at me foot of the mountains, which command the high road to Adrianople. And there the unbelievers made a have him a^nong us in the thick of a j stand, and fought fight, hnd t<> see his grand, tall figure I will say that for em; for they "drawn up to 'its'"full height, and his lirm that if Adrianople were lost, all was right well. I knew up face and keen gray eye turned straight •upon the smoke of the enemy's line, as •if defying thera to hurt him. And when -the very earth was shaking with the •cannonade, and balls were flying thick as hail, and the hot, stifling smoke •closed 11s in like the shadow of death, with a flash and a roar breaking through it every now and then, and the whole air filled with the rush of the shot, like the wind sweeping through a forest in aoitumn--then Petroviteh would light a cigarette and hum a snatch of a song, as coolly as if he were at a dinner-party •in the English Club at Moscow, And it >really seemed as if the bullets ran away from him, instead of his running from them; for he never got hit. But if he -saw any of us beginning to waver, he would call out, cheerily, 'Never fear, lads--remember what the song says!1 For in those days-we had an old camp- song that we were fond of singing, and Hw chorus of it was this: " ' Then fear not swords that brightly shine. Nor towers that primly frown; For God shall march before our line. And tread our foemen down.' 4* He said this so often, that at last %e got the nickname among us of 4 Ne- Boisya' (Don't fear), and he deserved it, if ever man did yet. Whv, Father Nikolai Pavlovitch himself (tfie Empe­ ror Nicholas) gave the Cross of St. George (the highest Russian decora­ tion) with his own hand (the St. George from the Emperor's own hand '--think of that!) at the siege of Varna, an the year '28. You see, our battery i^iad been terribly cut up by the Turk­ ish fire, so at last there were only rabout half a dozen of us left on our feet. It was as hot work as I ever was in--shot-pelting, earth-works crum­ bling, gabions crashing, guns and gun- carriages ' tumbling over together, men falling on every side like leaves, till, all at once, a shot went slap through our flag-staff, and down came the col­ ors! " Quick as lightning, Pavel Petro­ viteh was up on the parapet, caught •the flag as it fell, and held it, right in itbe face of all the Turkish guns, while I and another man spliced the pole "with our belts. You may think now the unbelievers let fly at him when they saw him standing there on the 'top of the breastwork, just as if he'd l)wn set up for a mark; and all at once I saw one fellow (an Albanian by his dress, and you know what deadly shotsthey are?) creep along to the very angle of the wall, and take steady aim at him! " I made a spring to drag the Colonel •down (I was his servant, yon know, And whoever hurt him hurt me); but 'before I could reach him I saw the flash •of the Albanian's piece, and Pavel iPetrovitch's cap went spinning into the ^r, with a hole right through it just .above the forehead. And what do you think the Colonel did? Why, he just snapped his lingers at the fellow, and called out to him, in some jibber-jabber rtongue only lit to talk to a Turk in: •* 6 Can't you aim better than that, ; you fool! If I were your officer, I'd fgive you thirty lashes for wasting the •Government ammunition!1 " Well, as I said, he got the St George, and of course everybody congratulated him, and there was a great shaking of hands, and giving of good wishes, and drinking his health in mavro tchai-- 'that's a horrid mess of eggs, and scraped • cheese, and sour milk, and Moldavian wine, which these Danube fellows have 'the impudence to call 6 black tea,' as if fit was anything like the good old tea *that we Russians drink at Some!' Well, Just in the height of the talk, "'5 Pavel Petroviteh takes the cross off his meek, and holds it out in his hand--just '"BO--and says: «. 4 Well, gentlemen, yon say Fm the -coolest man in the regiment; but rer- ifaaps everybody wouldn't agree with .you. Mow, Just to show that I want '^nothing but fair play, if I ever meet my match is that way, I'll give him this *cross of mine!1 " Now, among the officers who stood around him was a young fellow who VJtad lately joined--a quiet, modest lad, •quite a boy to look at, with light eur- ily hair, ana a face as smooth as any *lady's. But when he heard what the •-Colonel said, he looked up suddenly, and there came a flash from his clear, •blue eyes like the sun striking a bayo­ net. And then I thought to myself: " 'Itwon'tbe an easy thing to match Pavel Petroviteh; but If It can be done, here's the man to do it!' "I think that campaign was the hardest I ever served. Before I was enlisted, I had often heard it said that the Turks had no winter; but I had always thought that this was only a •yaqa,1 though, indeed, it would be only a just judgment upon the unbe­ lievers to lose the finest part of the whole year. But when I went down therie I found it true, sure enough. In­ stead of a good, honest, cracking frost to freshen everything up; as our prov­ erb pays, *s "' Na zimni kholod Vwaki molod'-- » 4pn Interns cold every one ,1s ytfiit 'Was all dhill, sneaking rain, wetting us through and through, ?nd making the hill-sides so slippery that we could Ih&rdUy climb them, and turning all the Jlow grounds into a regular lake of vmud, through which it was a terrible £h to drag our cannon. Many a time after days, when I've heard spruce .young cadets at tome, who had never ocnelt powder in Hfcur lives, talking big about 'glorious wajiP'y jrnd all that, I've said to mvseif, 'Aha, jjp.y fine fellows! if S»u had b een where I nave, marching r days and days ovy ankles in mud, Urith nothing to eat but stale black over. But God fought for us, and we beat them; though, indeed, with half our men sick, and our clothes all in rags, and our arms rusted, and our powder mixed with sand by those rogues of army contractors, it was a wonder that we could fight at all. " Toward afternoon, just as the enemy were beginning to give way, I saw Pavel Petroviteh (who was a Gen­ eral by this time) looking very hard at a mortar battery about a hundred yards to our right; and all at once he struck his knee fiercely with his hand, and shouted: " * What do the fellows mean by firing like that? ?They might as well pelt the Turks with potatoes! Pll soon settle them! Here, Vanya (Ivan)!' "Away he w;ent, I after him and he burst in into the battery like a storm, and roared out: " 'Where's the blockhead who com­ mands this battery P' "A young officer stepped forward and saluted; and who should this be but the light-haired lad with the blue eyes, whom I had noticed that night at Varna. "' Well, you won't command it to­ morrow, my fine fellow, for I'll have you turned out this very day. Do you know that not a single shell that you've thrown since I've been watching you has exploded at all?' . " 'With Your Excellency's leave/ said the young fellow, respectfully, but pretty firmly too, ' the fault is none of mine. These fuses are ill-made, and will not burn down to the powder.' •" Fuses!' roared the General. ' Don't talk to me of fuses; I'm too old for that rubbish! Isn't it enough for you to bungle your work, but you must tell me a lie into the bargain?' " At the word * lie/ the young of­ ficer's face seemed to turn red-hot all in a moment, and I saw his hand clench as if he would drive his fingers through the flesh. He made one stride to the heap of bomb-shells, and, taking one up in his arms, struck a match on it. " 'Now,' said he, quietly, 'Your Ex­ cellency can judge for yourself. I'm going to light this fuse; if Your Excel­ lency will please to stand by and watch it burn, you will see whether I have "lied" or.not.' "The General started, as well he might. Not that he was afraid--you may be pretty sure of that; but to hear this quiet, bashful lad, who looked as if he had nothing in him, coolly propose to hold a lighted shell in his arms to see if it would go off, and ask him to stand by and watch it. was enough to startle anybody. However, he wasn't one to think twice about accepting a challenge; so he folded his arms and stood there like a statue. The young officer lighted the fuse and it began to burn. " As for me and the other men, you may faney what we felt like. Of course we couldn't run while our offi­ cers were standing their ground; but we knew that if the shell did go off it would blow every man of us to bits, and it wasn't pleasant to have to stand still and wait for it. I saw the men set their teeth hard as the flame caught the fuse; and, as for me, I wished with all my heart and soul that if there were any good fuses in the heap this might turn out to be one of the bad ones! J "But, no--it burned away merrily enough, and came down, and down, nearer and nearer to the powder! The young officer never moved a muscle, but stood looking steadily at the Gen­ eral, and the General at him. 'At last the red spark got ©lose to the metal of the shell; and then I shut my eyes, and prayed God to receive my soul. " Just at that moment I heard the man next me give a quick gasp, as if he had just come up from a plunge under water; and I opened my eyes again just in time to see the fuse out, and the young officer letting drop the shell at* the General's feet without a word. " For a moment the General stood stock still, looking as if he didn't quite know whether to knock the young fel­ low down or to hug him in his arms like a son; but, at fast, he held out his hand to him, saying: "'Well, it's a true proverb, that everyone meets his match some day; and I've met mine to-day, there's no denying it. There's the St. George for you, my boy, and right well you de­ serve it; for if I'm "the coolest man in the regiment," you're the coolest in all Russia P " And so said all the rest, when the story got abroad; and the Commander- in-Chief himself, the great Count Die- bitsch, sent for the lad, and said a few kind wordskto him that made his face flush up like a young girl's. But in after days he became one of the best officers we ever had; and I've seen him, with my own eyes, complimented by the Emperor himself, in presence of the whole army. And from that day forth, the whole lot of us, officers ancl men alike, never spoke of him by any other name but Khladnokrovni ('the cold-blooded one')."--David Ker, in St. Nicholas. Nora.---Two other versions of this story, differing nomewhat in detail, are current in the Bunsiaii Army; but the one in the text is the wore probable, a* weii as the mora generally re­ ceived. --" O that I were the Balkan Moun­ tains!1' sighed he. " That is, indeed, a remarkable wish," replied some one; " and why, pray, would you be any­ thing so impracticable?" " Because," replied the dead-head, " if I were the Balkan Mountains, pm see, icouid have nine passes." Winter Bonnets. x % Tor full-dress day receptions white bonnets are chosen, as tney may be worn with various toilettes. The most elegant are of ivory velvet laid plainly on the frame, and trimmed almost en­ tirely with white, though darker vel­ vets are used for the coronet when un­ relieved white is not becoming. Some of these bonnet* have merely downy marabout feathers for ornament, while others have clair de lune beads, or per­ haps dark velvet accessories in the way of face trimmings and the neck­ lace strings. One very elegant model has -a coronet of cardinal red velvet, with a necklace of bias velvet of the same color edged with a fringe of clair de lune beads; a twist of the white vel­ vet is around the crown, and two os­ trich tips--one white and one cardinal red--curl over the top. Flowers are less used than feathers on such bon­ nets, though there are many dress hats made entirely of flowers supported by a velvet coronet, and without any crown; the coiffure of elaborate braids and pufl's fills in the flower bonnet. Colored hats for full dress are either of very brilliant shades, or else the palest fade tints. Thus there are ruby velvet bonnet^ with white roses for or­ naments clustered low down at the back of the erown, while in pale hues are sky blue velvet or plush bonnets, trimmed with blue satin ribbon that has old gold lining and a bird-of-para- dise of the same yellow shade. Two or three piping folds of satin edge velvet or plush bonnets, and give luster and finish. Bunches of the long straight feathers of the white heron are put in with marabout or ostrich tips to give a stylish effect. Long slender quill feathers of gold are more used than when they first appeared in the autumn; a single feather oi this kind giving just the glint of gold that effectively re­ lieves dark velvet bonnets. One of the Srettiest new fancies is that of putting ouble or triple rows of pleated crepe lisse, lace or muslin edged with lace, low down under the crown, so that it will appear below it resting on the soft braids of the back hair, just as face trimmings of this kind formerly did on the front hair. At present there are few white face trimmings seen. The coronet is entirely of velvet, or plush, or of flowers, or else it is covered with a fringe of beads. A fancy is just re­ vived lor shirred satin brims and fronts of bonnets. These gathered brims, like the plush coronets, nave a very soft and becoming effect. The newest and most youthful bon­ nets have the Gainsborough coronet, which is slightly turned up on the left side; these coronets are both plain and shirred. Strings are found to even the moift youthful bonnets. The double- faced ribbons are used for strings, and caprice at present is for tying these in two long drooping loops with short ends, instead of a stiff set bow under the chin. Small stiff bows of narrowly folded satin or velvet are still much used on the back of the crown especially when the bonnet has the stiff curtain now in vogue. There are also some pretty narrow coronets that curve around the sides to the ears, somewat in Marie Stuart style, though the more pronounced Marie Stuart bonnets have not become popular. Ladies who do their own millinery select the nicely-shaped coronet bonnets that come in both French and Ameri­ can felt, with close ears and broad crown sloping well down on the soft braids of nair. If the bonnet is black, the coronet brim is covered smoothly with black velvet. For the outside, double-faced satin ribbon is chosen, with one side black and the other car-, dinal red, old gold or moss green. This is loosely twisted around the crown, showing slight glimpses of the colored side, is crossed at the end of the crown, and passed to the front, where it forms strings that are tied in a long-looped bow. if this looks too plain and scant, one or two small black ostrich tips are stuck high on the left side of the front, and allowed to curl over the coronet. Colored felt bonnets are similarly trimmed with brocaded ribbon, in which are combined the colors of the bourette costumes with which they are worn. A Japanese brooch, long and slender, of mixed silver and gold, orna­ ments such bonnets, and there are groups of birds upon them, such as two or three small Brazilian humming-birds pierced by gilt arrows, or perching on a gilded bow, or swinging in a hoop. Beads are reserved almost altogether for black velvet bonnets, and, by the aid of these, it is an easy thing for la­ dies who have taste in millinery matters to make their own bonnets. These beads come in netted patterns of friukcs, with diamond-shaped meshes holding slender drops, also with shaped pieces for crowns. The fringe pieces cover coronets of black velvet bonnets, and are especially handsome of the gray-blue clair de lune beads. Indeed, the favorite and most stylish black bon­ nets have these clair de lune beads for their only trimmings. Next in favor are those with satin ribbons that have moss green or old gold facings.-- Harper 8 Bazar. Delusive Anticipations. WORRY, as has often been said, kills ten men where work kills one. And worry generally is less about what has been than about what might be, but very seldom is. That which lias actual­ ly past rarely troubles us; that which is present soon becomes past; but that which lies in the future may be as grievous and formidable as we choose to make it. It is the indeterminate, the unhappened, which is likely to give us most uneasiness, and till us with the largest amount of apprehension. The majority of us accept facts, however mournful, with commendable resigna tion, though we are prone to be nerv­ ous and fussy at the thought of what may be. The real ills of life are in most cases far less than the ills which we anticipate. These torment and wear on us year after year, and leave with us the bitter memory that we have suffered deeply for what has never oc­ curred. Very few of us that are not conscious of this tendency to be beforehand with misfortune, to measure the blood of a wound that has not been made. We are perfectly aware of the folly of the thing, and are ever counseling others against its indulgence. Nevertheless, with wise words on our lips, we nour­ ish the weakness in our hearts, and compromise with reason by concealing what we are not strong enough to con­ trol. We look back upon the year that is all but gone, and see the innocence of evils which we fancied and prefig­ ured until thev distressed us as much as, yea, more than, if they had been actual. We determine to be rational the next year, and we believe that we shall be. We do not fear the s&me things; we put new ones in their place: and, because they are new, we imagine that we have conquered the fear. So we go on, struggling to shield ourselves from darts that have not been hurled, and picturing agonies from poisons that have not been brewed. It is hard for us to understand how our asso­ ciates can be so reckless of their con­ tent as to waste it on shadows, though we have shadows also, called by a dif­ ferent name, and allow them to shut out the sunlight that rightfully belongs to us. These darksome and delusive antici­ pations are common to the great bulk of men. They do not seem so, for men are ashamed to acknowledge what they feel to be a weakness. They rarely sympathize with it in their fellows, un­ less their forebodings are of the same kind and on the same subjects, which is very infrequent. Men are disposed to apprehend that which is highly im­ probable, as well as that which is probable. *The rich, albeit their for­ tune is well secured, often dread lest they may come to want, and torture themselves over the possibility. The ambitious, having reached the object of their ambition and intrenched them­ selves there, are incessantly haunted with a fear of their downfall. The strong in integrity and virtue grow morbid in contemplating the opposite, and suffer intensely from fancied con­ sequences against which they are pro­ tected. The folly of anticipations, whether for ourselves or others, might be learned by their contradiction in ex­ perience. What is anticipated happens so seldom that it might seem as if Des­ tiny delights to defy forecast. Invalids very frequently die of a totally different disease from the one they have con­ stantly fought against. A man who in­ herits weak lungs, spends thousands of dollars for medical advice and travel and is finished at last by a malarial fever. He who has suffered for years from calculus goes to his grave from a virulent carbuncle. The life-long vic­ tim of astKma is struck down by dis­ ease of the heart The man who has endured all the horrors of protracted dyspepsia yields suddenly to angina pectoris. The person prepared to end with intestinal trouble ends with pneu­ monia. Cholera carries ofl the man to whom nervous prostration has been from early manhood a familiar foe. He who has repeatedly declared insan­ ity impossible to him becomes a raving and incurable maniac. The brawny, robust fellow, confident of threescore and ten, is buried before he is thirty. The infant which nobody expects to live three months lasts to ninety years. The pale, thin youth, who looks as if a spring might blow him away grows so obese that apoplexy releases him at eighty. Soldiers always expect to fall in front of battle, though the greater part of them sicken life away In the hospital. Men without any notion of business in the beginning abruptly develop into millionaires. Wild boys, about whom sober neighbors shake their heads, and talk lugubriously of disgrace and the gallons, blossom into evangelical cler- gym- --J theii thei; « • Religious. THE SAVIOR8 KNOWLEDGE. " WK are rare thai Thou knowest all thing*."-- John jcvi. 90. ^ Thou knoweat, Lord, the wearincat and Borrow Of the aad heart that comes to Thee for rest; Cares of to-day, and burdens for to-morrow. Blessings implored and Bins to be confessed; I come before Thee at Thy gracious word, And lay them at Thy feet: Thon knowest, Lord. Thou knowest all the pant; how long and blindly On the dark mountains the but sheep had strayed: How the Good Shepherd followed, and how kindly He bore it home upon His shoulders laid. And healed the bleeding wounds, and soothed the pain. And brought back life, and hope, and strength again. Thou knowest all the present; each temptation, JBaeh toilsome duty, eaeh foreboding fear; All to myself assumed of tribulation, Or to beloved ones, than self more dear; All pensive memories, as I journey on, Longings for vanished smiles and voices cone. Thon knowest all the future eleanw of gladneat,. By stormy clouds too quickly overcast, ' Hours of sweet fellowship and parting sadness. And the dark river to be crossed at last; Oh! what hope and confidence afford To tread that path, but this Thou knowest, Lprd. Thon knowest, not alone as Uod, ail knowing. As man, onr mortal weakness Thon hast proved; On earth with purest sympathies o'erflowing. Oh, Savior, Thou hast wept, and Thon hast loved! And love and sorrow still to Thee may come, And find a hiding-place, a rest, a home. Therefore I come, Thv &entle call obeying. And lay my sins and sorrows at Thy feet, On everlasting strength my weakness htHying, Clothed in Thv rote of right eougneaa complete; Then lining uod refreshed, 1 leave Thy throne. And follow on to know as I am known. --Dr. Kennedy'» Hymnologia UhrUtUxna. International Sunday School lessons. •piiwr QUARTER, 1878. Jan. 20.--The Covenant Renewed.2 Chron. l5:8-15. Jan. 27.--Jeho-aphat's Prosperity'2 Chron. 17:1-10. Feb. 3.--Jehosaphat Kepioved. .2 Chron. 19: 1-9. Feb. 10.-- Jehosuphat Ilejped of God 2Chron.£0:14 22. Feb. 17.--Joash Repairing the Temple 2 Chron.24: 4-18. Feb. 24.™Uzxiah'a Pride Pun- i*hed 2 Cbron.26:16 -23. Mch. 3.--Aliaz' Persist'nt Wick­ edness. 2 Chron .28:19-27. Mch. 10--Hez'ki«h'»GoodReicn.2Chr«jn.25): 1-11. Mch. 17,- Hezekiai# and - the Assyrians 2 Chron.32: 0-21. Mob. 24.--Manasseh Brought to Repentance. 2 Chron^S: 9-16. Mch. 31.- -Review of the Lessons lor the Quartet; wiv grea It se ticipate what shall be. Most of us may have our secret and pet bugbear; but th*e danger that confronts us, the rock we split on, is usually as unlike the bugbear as a lizard is unlike a leopard. Fortune seeors bent on baffling our ex­ pectations. No mind can see what may or may not happen. Prophets fee- long to the realm of poetry. But il would appear that we have reason to believe that almost anything may be except the foreshadowed. Perhaps we should have a new proverb: " The an­ ticipated is always and entirely improb­ able."-- .̂ Y. Times. Got Even With Hia. There was one man on the Woodward avenue car the other rainy riorning who felt as if the weather couldti s be abused enough. '• Don't you hate such weather as this?" he asked of » portly acquaint­ ance opposite. "No, sir," was the decided response; "I don't bother about the weather. If it's fair, all right; if it's foul, all right." " But you can't like such a morning as thisP" "It's just as good for me as any other sort o' morning," was the calm reply. " And you like to see rain and mud and slush, do you?" "Yes; I am perfectly satisfied." The grumbler was out of patience, but he secured revenge sooner than he hoped for. In getting off the car the fat man slipped and sprawled at full length in the mud, to the intense delight of the other, who rushed to the platform and shouted: " Don't say a word--it's one of your kind of mornings! If it was one of mine you'd have fallen on a bed of nice, clean, soft, white, beautiful snow! Stand up, till I look at you!" The fat man stood up. He was mud from boots to chin. He looked at himself and then at the oar, and feebly said: "I kin lick you and all the weather in the country with one hand tied be* i hind me!"--iklrail Free Brest. Daniel Wefcster a Christup. THE intensely Interesting Q«Botation from Harvey's " Reminiscemres of Daniel Webster," giving the account of his personal confession and his pen­ itent prayer on meeting John Col by r may seem to some an isolated incident in the life of that great man, and so not a true index to his prevailing religious conviction. ^Another notice of Har­ vey's book alluded to the fact that, when quite young, Mr. Webster pro­ fessed to have met the conversion by a Divine power which, later in life, he saw in his brother-in-law. An inci­ dent of his, ripening manhood, not re­ ported so far as the writer knowsy may add confirmation to the reality of the change often alluded to by Mr. Web­ ster in the progress of his career. In the winter of 1819-'20, the design of bringing Missouri into the? Union as a State, and the policy of adding Maine as a non-slaveholding equipoise, re­ quired the calling of a Convention by the State of Massachusetts to adjust the boundary of the new State taken from its territory. This call suggested a re- visal of the Constitution in the matter of religious liberty; and the writer's father, prominent as a Baptist clergy­ man for more than forty years, was a member of the Convention. The pro­ visions of the then existing Constitu­ tion, touching religious liberty and also ion for the support of the "stand- rder," were referred to a coaamit- five, whose Chairman was Dan- ebster and its junior member a ( young lawyer, while one of the ining three was the writer's father. |e of the provisions of the old Con- ion was, that no person should be didate for a State office who could ke his oath that he believed in the itian religion. When this provis- me up For consideration in com­ et as the member referred to re- Mr. Webster said: " I will call young brother in the profession, for an opinion.1* lite young r was outspoken, declaring that liinself he believed the Christian religion a tictioa of ckdfpuag men, maintained by pviesfc-eraft; aad, aside from this, he arg^wd that it was a dis­ grace to the State that ilg Constitution was not in harmony with that of the United States aadi o! other States of the Union, in revoking all religions tests. The other three oi the committee ac­ corded with the argument in favor of a change in the Constitution, though not in harmony with the young lawyer as to their persona) conviction. Mr. W eb- ster, as Chairman, spoke last. He was then in his prime, distinguished for his early power in the House of Representa­ tives. Calmly towering ia his seat, his remarks were to this effect: " I confess that I have seen the day when my convictions were much like tnose of my young brother. When, however, I opened my office for the practice of the Common Law, of which, as jurists all allow, Christianity is a part, I felt that I wanted at least to be an honest man. I determined that my first effort should be to determine for myself whether I could see that the re­ ligion of Jesus Christ was true. The rwult of my examination was. that I could no more disbelieve in the Divine origin of Christianity than I could dis­ believe in my own existence. That belief I felt it my duty to profess. I acknowledge that my life has not been thoroughly consistent with n:y in­ wrought conviction. I accord with you all, however, gentlemen, in the propriety of modifying the provision of the Constitution under discussion." * Mr. Cnrtis,"in his " Memoir," has re- Eorted the argument of Mr. Webster in is report to the Convention. Personal avowal of religious conviction, in­ wrought by experimental as well as logical conviction, is a matter rather for private declaration. Any experi­ mental Christian, however, accustomed for several years before his death to hear Mr. Webster, as in his argument upon the Girard will case and in his eulogy on Mr. Calhoun, could read the unmistakable testimony of deep and heartfelt conviction in his allusions to the truths of redemption and immortal­ ity; for the tone of the voice, the ex- Sression of the eye, when profound lought overmasters a public man reveals his private sentiments, gave ever-recurring testimony that, as in youth and in old age, so all through his career, Daniel Webster knew the trans­ forming power of spiritual redemption; yet, like David, his many and sad falls compelled him also, like that aneient public leader, to avow as characteristic of much of his life, " I was dumb with silence. I withheld my tongue even from good when the wicked was before me." But when deep conviction awoke him, then in Webster, as in David, was seen the added experience: " While I was musing, the fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue, Deliver me from my transgressions. Oh, spare me. that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more.'-- n-- c W. Samson, in N. T. Observer, Home Influence. 'NOWHERE does Christianity appew to greater advantage than in the home circle. It may, in fact, be said to have created the true Christian home of all modern society. It contained from the beginning an ideal which has since been realized in ten thousand cases. In proportion as its influence is felt, it makes the home intelligent, virtuous, sacred, happy. That which it has ae- oomplished in all Christian lands, it is still seeking to do for the heathen Na­ tions to which our missionaries cany it. As wisdom is justified of her chil­ dren, so Christianity is both justified and glorified, in her innumerable happy homes. In nothing, perhaps, is the ex­ tent of the beneficial influence exerted by Christianity over the world more fully realized than in the creation of the home institute, founded on Bible doctrines and regulated by Bible pre­ cepts.--Interior. The Grandeur of Faiftlu WE recently called on a lady of cul­ ture and refinement who, having just taken possession of a new house with elegant surroundings, had suddenly been called to face the approach of a fearful disease that seemed beyond hu­ man power to avert. With loving hus­ band and winsome daughter, with a home filled with evidences of wealth and taste, encircled by warm, true- hearted friends, with everything earthly to make life glad and joyous, we re­ marked, " You have everything to live for. Does it not depress you to think that all this must be given up if this disease is not stayed?" The reply, sim­ ple, earnest, truthful, was, "Why,! nave everything to die for!" O! the grandeur and the beauty of that faith which sees, through the rifled clouds, the glory beyond, which can say amid deepest darkness, " the morning cometh;" that faith which, with "things seen and temporal," most beautiful aad attractive, can raise one up into a full appreciation of " the things that are unseen and eternal;" that faith which bridges over the river, enabling the believer to tread with firm footstep and alone the way to the unknown land; that faith which will lead one encircled by richest earthly gifts to say, " I everything to die for!"--Advam*. 2'Ij Artificial Warm Weather. A SCHEME for tempering the severity of the winters of Canada is now at­ tracting considerable attention. The cold of the winters all along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence is consid­ ered to be largely due to a constant current of water from the Arctic re­ gions, which sweeps down the Straits of Bellisle, a passage, some twelve miles in width, between Newfoundland and Labrador, carrying with it masses of ice and snow. It is proposed to close up the strait by connecting Newfound­ land with the mainland. The advo­ cates of the scheme argue that the tem­ perature of Labrador, Quebec and Newfoundland would thus be material­ ly raised and vast regions of now ster­ ile and worthless land rendered fit for cultivation. The shutting out of the Arctic current would be followed, it is thought, by a diversion of a greater portion of the Gulf Stream, and proba­ bly the Gulf would remain open- and navigable all winter. The fertility of Prince Edward Island and the south shore of the St. Lawrence are alleged to be due to the absence of these Arctic waves-and the geni A influences of the Gulf Stream., and, \SgMs the Polar cur­ rent diverted by tne closing of the Straits, it is supposed that II weehi-di- verge into the Atlantic and speedily be­ come absorbed. The work proposed is a gigantic en­ gineering enterprise, and woiuft require, an immense outlay, but it is prononnced possiole of accomplishment, and if it should be attended with anything like the results claimed for it in* advance, the expenditure would be far move .than repaid. It is possible, however, that in the discussion of the subject, the In­ fluence of ocean streams upon temper­ ature has been exaggerated. The pres­ ent exceptionally mild winter is credit­ ed to the unusual proximity of the Gulf r Stream to the coast, but this theory would seem to be negatived by the fact that the same unseasonable mildness with which we are favored prevails in the interior, which would hardly be the case unless the cause of the change was of a less localized character.--BosUm Traveller. --A Brooklyn bride's back-hair fell r~ down, and fell off, during the ceremony \ in church, the other evening. There was an instant pause, but nobody was brave enough to stoop down and pick up the mass of blonde stuff and hair­ pins. The bride \M% the church lean­ ing heavily on her husband's arm. Her face was very red, aad a sprout of hair (possibly eleven hairs In all) stuck out at the back of her head, tied with m bit of shoestring. --Richard Grant White, in an article in the New York Times', says: " It is, E perhaps, as hopeless to check the revalence of 4 on the street' as that of alance for 4 rest.' The proper phrase, however, both logically and by good usage, is 1 in the street/ A house even, although it fronts on a street, is in a Street. Ther^ is a noise in the street; people walk in the street, not on the street A street is not a surface; it is a passage-way in or through whiofc pie go.'* i; „ - Lf