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p -A. ' i r|«»" -'£v -r „•• * »* " " ""i: ' * >: CLIMATIC INFLUENCES ©? TREES. OBSERVATIONS have shown that there is more of that, necessary element of pure air called ozone in" the country than in the cities. The late Dr. Small- wood, in a work on ozone, says that any cause capable of increasing the relative amount of vapor in the atmos­ phere tends to the development of this substance. So beneficial are the ef­ fects upon persons suffering from pul­ monary affections, that such are fre­ quently sent to the pine forests of Prussia and other countries in order that they may breathe the highly-ozon­ ized exhalations of the cone-bearing trees. For the same reason are many consumptives sent to Minnesota ana Fieri;! a, - - * The temperature and ipoisture of the atmosbbftVR determine the climate. One of the most important elements of the atmosphere is water vapor. This is frequently noticed cohdensed in small cells, and is always present. This vapor is of g^eat importance, for without it there would be no rain, no dew, no clouds, no thunder or light- jjjnfr nn rsinhnw nn kln» stv WhPj1. ever dry air exists there is exposure to extreme temperatures by day and night; while the presence of damp air re- ri^oves the extremes of heat and cold. In Australia fend India, indeed wher­ ever the air is dry, is found intense fruits of the State., The tree w^s plant-, ed everywhere, was easy to cultivate, bore fruit early and yielded a luscious harvest. Frost was" unknown from May to October. But now the peach is a most uncertain crop, and frosts are liable when i^ost dreaded. The same effect has been observed in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. In many places apple Orchards are barren, in comparison with the fruitful uess of former years. Delaware and Maryland are now the principal peach-producing States. Yet in 1871 the excessive cOla killed many of the fruit buds, and prophecies were made that in less than ten years Delaware would be aban­ doned, and the supply be brought from Virginia, There was noticed a corre­ spond imr failurR in «.nnle?> pears and cherriesT all a result of' increased cold in winter from the influence of sweep­ ing winds. Twenty years and more ago Southern Ohio produced an abund­ ance of peachos. The yield has de­ clined and become so uncertain that man}' fruit-growers have been obliged to cut down their peach orchards and utilize the ground in some more pro­ ductive crow. To overcome these disasters wind­ breaks of forests should be provided. Woodlands are Of inestimable value as a shelter from sweeping winds. In some parts of Italy mulberry trees are planted over a large part of the fields lars and other tall trees are left along all the boundaries and division lines. As a result, the violence of the winds is so checked that agriculture is pur­ sued in comfort. In the West thou­ sands of head of stock, especially sheep, annually perish from cold. In the breeding of cattle a sheltered farm, or one having a sheltered corner, is highly prized; for stock will-thrive better in even moderately-sheltered fields than in open, exposed country. The cattle graiing in Texas Will seek the timber1" on the approach of a storm, and re­ main there until it is over. On the Plains of the West they will travel a long distance before an approaching storm, in order to obtain shelter. Ow­ ing to the shelter from the snows, pastures interspersed with trees are fresher. Woodland windbreaks are a protec­ tion to human life. In some places men are in danger of death in going a few rods from the house to care lor stock. Whole sleigh-loads of people have been frozen to death within 100 yards of dwellings--people frozen" in stage coaches; passengers in railroad trains storm-stayed for days, without food and fuel; men,, women and chil­ dren lose their way. Timber-planting, planting only, will overcome these winds, modify the climate, and provide landmarks for lost travelers. Only a few weeks since there was great fear that the abundant wheat crop was all to be destroyed by rust, and many farmers turned their grow­ ing stalks under, and planted the land in corn. An extensive farmer in New York State informed a gentleman a few years ago that of 200 acres of wheat all was entirely destroyed by rust except those portions sheltered by woods, the total loss being several thousand dol­ lars, which, had all the fields been pro­ tected by timber belts, would have been saved. The cool, damp soil, and shade of timber belts, according to Mr. H. G. Knapp, of Wisconsin, present an im­ passable barrier to the march of the chinch-bug and the grasshopper. The former can never traverse a belt of thick woods, seven or eight rods wide, to destroy an adjoining field. Grass­ hoppers will devour the young trees, though unable to injure large forests.-- Cincinnati Commercial. Shade In Harvest. heat during the day, and cold nights I under cultivation, and Lombaxdy pop- following. In the Desert of Sahara the " change is said to be so great as fre­ quently to cause freezing, and even to the formation of ice. The greater the amount of vapor in the air the more easily will it condense in the form of i^in,"dew, etc. In a dry atmosphere the soil is less productive than a wet one, for the reason that the water is more quickly evaporated. A dry at­ mosphere often has an injurious effect upon the organs of respiration; and it is owing to the amount of moisture that a person can breathe easier and freer in forest air, • As long ago as 1799, Noah Webster •expressed the opinion that the weather in modern winters is more inconstant than when the earth was covered with wood, at the first settlement of Europg^., ans in the country; that the warm weather of autumn extends further into the winter months, and the cold weath­ er of winter and spring encroaches upon the summer; that the wind being more variable, snow is less permanent, and perhaps the same remark may be ap­ plicable to the ice of the rivers. These changes he believed to be caused by the exposure of land from the clearings and the extreme depth of freezing of the earth in winter. Thomas Jefferson says that the snows in winter were neither so recent nor frequent as form­ erly, and that the summers were longer, the autumns later, and the winters shorter and lighter than in former years. These changes upon clearing lands were not gradual and slow, but quick and sudden in proportion to the extent of cultivation. Whenever the height at which the wind blows is less than thfct of the for­ est, the wind is stopped at every move­ ment by the trees, and it loses its veloc­ ity. If the woodland is of sufficient ex­ tent it will stop it entirely. When a current of foul air, loaded with mias- mal poisons enters a forest of consid­ erable extent, it is entirely freed of these elements. This is especially seen in the Pontine marshes, where a belt of trees preserves all that is behind it, while the uncovered part is exposed to fevers. Trees remove from infected air the poisons it contains. High trees frequently act as conductors of elec­ tricity, by drawing this element from the clou is, and stopping the injurious effect of storms., There .is great danger, in clearing a dense forest in the vicinity of a fertile plain, with a few springs, that the latter will in part or entirely disappear, and 4W a result impoverish the whole coun­ try. The clearing of a sandy country is apt to bring drifting sands upon ad­ joining plains. A few years only will discover a great change in the now healthy climate of Florida. Much of thatoState is swamp land, and it is only among the pines that an invalid can hops -to be much beacllted. In Orcage County especially hundreds of acres of most valuable trees are being cut Izwa jand burned, for no other reason than tojget them out of the way. Fifteen and twenty atroyed, when only five will be used for an orange grove. Without the settlers realizing the fact, it is these very "pines1 that give to the State its very desirable climate. After awhile they, as many others have already done, will realize that they have killed the goose that laid tfie golden egg. While in the past the summers have been endurable, and not more unpleas­ ant than in the North, the heat is now becoming so oppressive as to compel many to contemplate a return to a less enervating climate. Until recently, if j not at the present, the setting fire to the grass and woods by the "cow­ boys," that they might have green grass for their cattle, was permitted at a stated time in the year. These fires spread for hundreds of miles, and de­ stroyed millions of dollars1 worth of property. Once started it was impos­ sible to check them while anything combustible remained in their way. It is not probable that twenty years . tooce the present generation, will be held in grateful remembrance for their *»&nt of foresight. While winds are a valuable agency in the distribution of rains, bringing moisture from the sea, and other bodies Of water when evaporated, they often prove injurious to agriculture, and par­ ticularly fruits, by their drying effects. This is often the case in the Western ..-and Southwestern States. In an ad- .dpess by Mr. T.T. Try on, of Michigan, Hie results of improvident clearing of forests in that State were stated to be ««een in the higher winds, the more sud­ den changes and the more extreme •©old of the winters. During one win- tr the wheat crop of' the entire State, om the want of tl*± usual covering of LOW, and tb&fMteral lack of shelter from was diminished in amount more than half, with a loss to the State ii^a single year of more than •&Q00»fiOO bushels. It has been ob- •erveatbat the winters within the past iorty years have been growing more severe. Thirty years previous the jpeftch ww one of the most plentiful IT is getting to be fashionable for city editors to urge farmers to have shades prepared for binders on reapers, on sulky plows, and even large umbrel­ las for farm wagons. Do these kind friends to the farmer fully comprehend the situation, or understand the phil­ osophy connected therewith P It is no doubt advisable for persons riding in hot weather in the sun, or standing idle so exposed, to bo pretexted by a shade. But for a man in good health nnd at liard labor, so as to perspire freely, there is no doubt but in the sun is the best place for him. The rapid evaporation of the sweat carries off the caloric and causes a coolncss, and dries his clothes, which are not experienced in the shade. Take a jug of water and cover it thickly with woolen blankets, and keeping the blanket wet will keep the water cooler in the sun than in the shade, as the evaporation is far more rapid. But a person who does not jper- spire either when at work or idle, should be protected by a shade from the burning sun. But such persons generally are of little use in the harvest I field or other places requiring long con- I tinued active exertion. Perspiration was intended for a wise purpose in pro­ tecting the human race from the effects of the heat, and the sun acts as a valua­ ble agent in carrying out that purpose. And from long experience in exposure to the sun, ana from our conception of the wisdom of Providence in his pro visions for the toiling millions, we are convinced that the healthy man, with all his faculties in full play, is more comfortable, and it is more conducive to continued health, to work in the sun, even in our hot harvest days. This is contrary to the, notions of some un­ thinking men, as well as those who »think but do but little physical work. Providence made but few mistakes in providing man for his situation on the earth. On other heavenly bodies, with inhabitants, where there are different surroundings, they are doubtless, pre­ pared for their home and habitation, no matter how great the heat or cold We are satisfied that grain-binders who are in good health, and who are accustomed to work in the sun, and who perspire freely when laboring, seriously err in providing themselves with shade in their work. We see some philanthropist in Philadelphia has started a large manufactory of wagon umbrellas for the protection of farmers from the sun as they ride about their farms and to town. Why not also {irovide reclining chairs and ample pil-ows, etc. P.--Iowa State Register. f FACTS AHP FIGURES. . Jewish population of the United States is 250,000. They hare 162 syn- agogues. THE magnificent new railway bridge over the River Tay, in Scotland, cost about $1,750,000. THE London Institution of Civil En­ gineers has 2,808 members, beside a class of 520 members. IN Great Britain there are 11,000 women telegraph operators, who earn from $5 to $11 a week. THE estimated annual loss to agri­ culture in the United States from in­ sects is not less than $150,000,000. THEKE are enough houses in Wash­ ington to accommodate 1 Sft.ooo people, anci only two-thirds that number to put in them.. ® THE exact cost of the construction of the Paris Exhibition buildings and grounds is now estimated at 45.900,000 francs, or $9,060,000. -- THE new census gives the population of Auckland, New Zealand, and sub­ urbs as 24,422, an increase of 5,640 during the past four years. THE exports of Canada in poultry, eggs, breeding and exhibition stock considerably exceeds half a million annually, and is steadily increasing. THE extent of the oyster grounds outside of New Haven (6onn.) harbor has increased so rapidly that it is esti­ mated that 4,000 acres are planted. THE annual report of the British Mu­ seum, just issued, states that it was vis­ ited, during the past year, by 690,511 people, of whom the readers were 118,- 594. SANGUINE Texans are of the opinion that the next' census will show a popu­ lation of three millions in that State. This would make it the third State in population. . - THREE HUNDRED AMD FORTY-SIX new wells were completed in the Bradford oil regions, in Pennsylvania, during the month of May, yielding 5,650 barrels per day. The wells completed cost, on an average, $3,500 apiece. OF every thousand men, twenty die annually. The population of a city or country is renewed once in thirty years. The number of old men who die in cold weather is, to those who die in warm weather, as seven to four. IT is computed that the grain used for liquors, in a year in the United States reached 70,000,000 bushels, which would make 1,050,000,000 four- pound loaves of broad. Great Britain uses 80,000,000 bushels of grain yearly for the same purpose, and annually imports food to the value of nearly $400,000,100. Remarkable Echoes. IN, the sepulcher of Metella, thewife of Sulla, in the Roman Campagna, there is an echo which repeats five times, in five different keys, and will also give back witn distinctness a hexa­ meter line which requires two and a half seconds to utter. On the banks of the Naha, between Bingen and Cob- lentz, an echo repeats seventeen times. The speaker may scarcely be heard, and yet the responses are loud and dis­ tinct, sometimes appearing to ap­ proach, at other times to come from a great distance. Echoes equally beau- tiful and romantic are to be heard in the British Islands. In the cemetery of the Abercorn family at Paisley, when the door of the chapel is shut, the re­ verberations are equal to the sound of thunder. If a single note of music is breathed, the sounds ascend ^gradually with a multitude of echoes, tin it dies in soft and bewitching murmurs. In this chapel is interred Margery, the daughter of Bruce and the wife of William Wallace. The echo at the Eagle's Nest," on the banks of Kil- larney, is renowned for its effective repetition of a bugle call, which seems to oe repeated by a hundred instru­ ments. until it gradually dies away in the air. At the report of a cannon, the loudest thunders reverberate from the rock, and die in seemingly endless peals along the distant mountains. At the Castle of Simonetta, a nobleman's seat about two-miles from Milan, a sur­ prising echo is produced between the two wings of the building. The report of a pistol is repeated by this echo sixty times; and Addison, who visited the pln.ee on a somewhat foggy day, when the air was unfavorable to the experi­ ment, counted fifty-six repetitions. At first they were very quick, but the in­ tervals were greater in proportion as the sound decayed. It is asserted that the sound of one musical instrument in this place resembles a great number of instruments playing a concert. This echo is occasioned by the existence of two parallel walls of considerable length, between which the wave of sound is reverberated from one to the other until it is entirely spent. in a large easy-chair, and apparently in a comatose condition. Isaac advanced to him, aroused him by placing his hand upon his shoulder, and said he was about to read the will to him. Mrs. Giles, the nurse, objected, saying: « I would not do that; he cannot under­ stand that*' Somebody said, 41 would not, any way J you will only lose time.' It was Suggested that we get another witness, and a Mr. A. A. Foster, a neighbor, was sent for. He came in. Isaac then said to father, 4 Sign your will*' Father said, in a dazed manner: " 4 My will!" " Father then shook his head, saying •No.' Mrs. Thorndike then smiled! * We are all here, pa, and we all want it.' He shook his head again. Then Mrs. TliOi uJike saiu: * And Eliza is here, and she wants it, and we all want it.' " Father was relapsing into his coma­ tose condition, and Isaac went around his chair quickly, took his hand, with a pen in it, and the name was written. My father's jeyes were closed, and be­ fore Isaac took hold of his hand the pen was dropping from it. If he hadn't taken hold of his hand as he did, the pen would have dropped out. Isaac raised his father's hand and arm, and placed it upon the board or table, and put the pen in it At the time the sign­ ing was done there didn't seem to be any knowledge, on my father's part, as to what was being done. There cer­ tainly was no movement or volition, on his part, to sign it."--Boston Herald, Religious. ••'Mi', WELD wind, which on my mood an oa.%.l«$e Playest sad airs and jmasionate melody. And will not let one string of me be mate, ' Smiting like master, fierce and abeolnttF- One day, one day 1 shall be freed from thee. Bright son, upon whose blinding, noonday wins Fall thedim shadowing of human care. Weariness, discontent and suffering-- One day, my eyes made strong to see and bear, 1 shall stand up in your fall light and sing. Visions that dawned and staid not, glories brie£ Which vainly I stretch alter to detain, Whose Bwift evanishment provokes my grief- One day, one day they shall be mine again, Garnered and bound in an immortal sheaf. Sorrows which blessed and suffering blent with balms. Love with a baffling thorn tohmar ite Hower, Hindrance that helped me, storm-enfolded v calms, One tiny shall oome, renewed to life and power, A troop of graciona shape, upbearing palms. All things which work together fot my woe And wake the mortal heart-a<*b* now shall be Transfigured into beauty's brightest plow One day, and I through happy tears shall see The loveliness I was too blind to know. --Susan. Coolidge, in JV. 1'. Independent. W SandaySchool Lessons, f A Remarkable Will Case. THE Smith will case promises to bc- qpme justly celebrated. On the 12th of October, 1864, Ebenezer Smith, of Boston, died at the age of about sev­ enty years, in his residence at Allston street, leaving as heirs-at-law two daughters, Mrs. William H. Thorndike and Mrs. Eliza W. Smith, both of Bos­ ton; one son, Isaac T. Smith, of New York City, and two grandsons, Hazen J. Burton, Jr., and George Burton, both of Boston, sons of Harriet Burton, a deceased daughter of Ebenezer Smith and Eliza Smith, widow of said Ebene' zer. He left what purported to be a w*ll by which he bequeathed his prop­ erty in equal shares to his heirs-at-law, cutting off his grandchildren with a be­ quest of $500 each. This will was ad­ mitted to probate within the statutory time. From this will there was an ap­ peal on behalf of the grandchildren to the Supreme Court of Probate, which appeal was settled by the payment of $5,000 to the guardian ad litem of the grandsons. But now new evidence has been found and a petition has been filed praying that the will be set aside. In the petition Eliza Winchell Smith, the daughter, deposes in regard to the ex ecution of the will: 44 When we started to go into the room, Isaac said: * We had better act quickly, for I am afraid he is too far ---Letters to a beau--R. Q^rHOiHcin-1 gone, even now, to sign it.* We went nati Saturday Night. | into the room. Father was reclining Terrible Famine in Chin|^-- THE famine seems now to be at its worst. The impoverished country con­ sists of the greater part of the Prov­ ince of Shansi, parts of Southwestern Chihli, Wester® Shantung and the Northern districts of Honan, compris­ ing an area variously estimated at from 70,000 to 100,000 square miles. The greatest distress is in the southern half of Shansi, including the Provisional Capital Tai Yuen, the population of which, unless rain comes at once, bids fair to become absolutely extinct. In its horrible details, as given by all witnesses, foreign and native, official and missionary, it is the direst calam­ ity that this or any other country has been visited with. The sturdy Chinese peasants do not calmly fold their hands and die like our poor fellow-subjects, the Madrassees, last year; they eat the dead, and when there are none to take they kill the living for the same pur­ pose. This is no Oriental exaggera­ tion, but the actual state of things in a district not 700 miles from Shanghai. In the Pekin Gazette of the 15th of March there appears a memorial from Li Ho-nien, Governor of Honan, and Yuan, Special High Commissioner for Famine Relief, appealing for State as­ sistance to the disturbed Province. From it may be gathered the straits to which the famine-stricken country is reduced. I therefore append a trans­ lation of it, and I must remind my countrymen as they read it that it is no sensational picture to move the tears of emotional subscribers, but a calm description of the state ofjhe Province by its responsible rulers in the lan­ guage of a Blue-book: "The drought with which the Prov­ ince has been visited for several years in succession has resulted in a famine of an intensity and extent hitherto un­ heard of. As autumn advanced into winter, the number of those in need of relief increased daily, until at last they could be counted by millions. The lower classes were the first to be affect­ ed, and they soon disappeared or dis­ persed in search of subsistence else­ where. Now the famine has attacked the well-to-do and the wealthy, who find themselves, reduced to greater mis­ ery as each day goes by, and they, in their turn, are dying off or following those who have migrated elsewhere. In the earlier period ot distress the liv­ ing fed upon the bodies of the dead; next, the strong devoured the weak; and, now, the general destitution has arrived at such a climax that men de­ vour those of their own llesh and blood. History contains no record of so terrible and distressing a state of things, and if prompt measures of relief be not insti­ tuted the whole region must become depopulated. Local sources of supply are entirely exhausted; the granaries are empty, and the troasury drained dry; while the few wealthy people in the Provinces have helped with contri­ butions and loans till they themselves are impoverished." This dreadful picture is fully borne out by the letters received in Shanghai from the foreign missionaries in Shansi. In the Perfecture in which the Capital of Shansi is situated the population has diminished from over 1,000,000 to 160,- 000, and the Chinese newspapers here give the number of people who have died of starvation, or met the awful fate just recorded, at over 5,000,000. The Government has not done much to relieve its famine-stricken subjects. The Board of Revenue has sanctioned loans to Shansi of 500,000 taels and 100,000 piculs of rice. A further grant of 200,000 taels and 16,000 piculs of rice was made by the Imperial Government on the 22d of March in an edict in which the Emperor is made to accuse himself of every form of misgovernment. The edict says: " The season of spring has now ar­ rived, and still not A drop of moisture has fallen. The land for a thousand li is bare, while the dead exceed the living in number. How can these things be borne? We, whose duty it is to watch over the millions of our people with fostering care, feel that the loss of one of our subjeots is the result of our misdoing.'* . Contributions to a considerable ex­ tent have been made by the different Provincial Governments, and an amount of money has been subscribed by indi­ vidual Chinamen which shows that the sufferings of their fellow-countrymen have deeply moved the whole people. It is noteworthy that by far the largest subscriptions come from the Chinese residents in British Colonies or in the foreign settlements at the various treaty ports. The Foreign Relief Fund amounts now to about £20,000 sterling.-- Shanghai (April 27) Cor. London Timet. --Some girls are like old muskets; they use a great deal o£ powder, bat don't go oft.--Ex. THIBD QUARTER. July 21--Ministry of John the Bap- . Luke July 28--Jam at Nazareth-- ....Luke Aug. 4--Ke DraujjM of Fishes.. .Luke Aug. 11--The Centurion's Faith.. Luke Aug. 18--The Widow of Nain. -- .Luke Aug. 26--The Friend of Sinners-- Luke _ _.. Sept. 1--Return of the Seventy.. .Luke 10:17-24 Sept. 8--The Good Samaritan Luke 10:30 37. Sept. 15--Importunity in Prayer.. - Luke 11: 5 13. Sept. 22--Govetousness Lake 12:13-23. Sept. 29--Review of the Lessons for the Quarter. 4^6-80. 5: 1-11. 7: 1-10. 7:11-17. 7:40-50. Good Wires, A , n w u < • » I . . "r~~~ . . m- wives are great treasures. They are more than silver or gold. Their love is better than money. If it be pure, self-denying, and yet consider­ ate, it will be to their husbands a con­ stant encouragement. It will invest them with an atmosphere in which every element of manly character may grow toward the full. Notwithstand­ ing the reports of domestic infelicities which appear almost daily, still we are sure that the good wives are vastly in the majority, and that they give honor, and dignity, and grace to marriage aa of old. In the lighter and semi-indecent lit­ erature of nearly every age, marriage has been the inexhaustible theme of ridicule. Dramatists and satirists like to take undue license with things re­ spectable and even sacred. They have laid on woman, as such, unjust and heavy burdens of vicious humor, or of defiling wit. And yet her queenly as­ cendancy remains in ever-unfolding splendor, so to-day, in all Christian lands, good wives have and really hold a power the equal of which in its extent and beneficence does not belong to any sceptered potentate. For good wives and mothers rule in the empire of the affections. They shape character, give tone to manners^ make virtue attractive; commend piety, and fill their homes with sunshine. They are the dispensers'of gladness; their tender hands smooth the raven down of care, until it is changed into the quiescence of hope. Their prayers are as benedictions, and the good they do in their quiet ways is seen in the State. and in the Church. They de­ serve honor and receive it. No matter what the novels or the newspapers may do to undermine respect for marriage, it remains after all the sole representa­ tive of Paradise, and is the type of the relation between Christ and His Church. Let it be held sacred.--Rev. E S. Por­ ter, in Illustrated Christian WeeU True Giving Is Worship" WE are too apt to fancy that money- giving is something too earthly, too sordid to be spoken of much on occa­ sions of spiritual worship; that it inter­ feres with the highest Christian feeling; that it is a sort of over practical Mar­ tha to call Mary away from the feet of her Lord. But Jesus loved Martha as well as Mary, and if calls for money interfere with religious feeling, we may be sure the fault is all ours. The writers of Scripture were not thus over­ sensitive. Tliey were not afraid to speak of giving in connection with their most heart-lifting themes. It rings in the music of the Psalms. The Proph­ ets also introduced it into their> grandest visions of the future. When Jehovah would arouse His cold-hearted people by His servant Malachi, he bade them bring all the tithes into the store­ house and prove Him therewith, and see if He would not pour them out such a blessing that there would not be room enough to receive it. Let us not forget that the reference in the much-quoted passage is first of all to the giving of money. The Apostle Paul alluded to giving at the close of that tenderest and most tearful of farewell addresses, the one delivered to the elders of the Ephesian Church; and when in Mp Epistle to the Corinthians he had made that elaborate and thrilling argument upon the glorious doctrine of the Resurrection, he regarded it not as any becoming descent in thought, but rather as a following out and an application of his words to add al­ most in the next breath: " Now con­ cerning the collection." Money-giving is not an unspiritual thing. It is not to be divorced from true Chris­ tian feeling. It is rather its highest expression often. It is one way for the outburst of its enthusiasm. Rightly viewed, considered in these three as­ pects which we have been pondering-- as a test of discipleship, and opportun­ ity for the expression of love to Christ, and a channel of blessings to our own souls--it takes on even a moral grand­ eur, a true sublimity. The churchcs of Macedonia were anxious for the privi­ lege of participatin'f in it. The Apostle bears record that " to their power, yea, and beyond their power they were will­ ing of themselves, begging from him a share in the giving and in the fellow­ ship of the ministering to the saints. In a great trial of affliction the abund­ ance of their joy and their deep pover­ ty abounded unto the riches of their liberality." This they did, he says, be­ cause " they had first given their own selves unto the Lord." Brethren, en­ deavor to imitate their zeal. Become enthused with the spirit which ani­ mated them by coming to the fountain from which they drank it; namely, an intimate fellowship with that Savior wfco, though He was fp neb, ; &r yojtor lakes became poor, tibst ye through His poverty might be rich, fio ndt (t yoar Christian life contract in narrow* ness of view Mid smailness of benefi­ cence. Do not truncate this beautifgj pyramid of the Christian graces. But as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in jour love to % see that ye abound in this grace also.K From a Sermon by Rev. H F. Colby. •& of Personal Beaafyl A BEAUTIFUL person is the natucal form of a beautiful soul. The mind builds its own house. The soul taken prpr.pdpnrw of body, smd shspss th© body to its own likeness. A vac mind takes all the meaning out oi l fairest face. A sensual disposition forms the handsomost features. A cold, selfish heart shrivels and disorts tt& best looks. A. mean, grovelling spirit takes all the dignity out of the figiir^ and all the caracter out of the county nance* A cherished hatred transforms the most beautiful Ilneanieuls into an im&£e of ugliness. It is as impossible to preserve good looks with a brood of bad passions feeding on the blood, a set of low loves trampling through the heart, and aselfish, disdainful spirit en­ throned in the will, as to preserve the beauty of an elegant mansion with ..a litter of swine in the basement, a tribe of gypsies in the parlor, and owls ana vultures in the upper part. Badnesfc and beauty will no more keep company a gveat while than poison will conlpftj with health, or an elegant carving sur­ vive the furnace fire. The cxperimedtif of putting them together has been tried for thousands of years, but with one unvarying result. There is no sculptor like the mind. There is nothing that so refines, polishes and ennobles face anu mien as the'constant presence of great thoughts. The man who lives in region of ideas, moonbeams though they be, becomes idealized. There are no arts, no gymnastics, no cosmetics which can contribute a tithe so much the dignity, the strength, the ennobling of a man's looks as a great purpose, a high determination, a noble principle, an unquenchable enthusiasm. But more powerful still than any of these as k beautifier of the person is the overmj&s- teripg purpose and pervading disposi­ tion of kindness in the heart. Affec­ tion is the organizing force in the hu* mfftn constitution. Woman is fairer than man because she has more affec­ tion than man. Loveliness is the outside of love. Kindness, sweetness, good will, a prevailing desire and determination to make others happy, make the body a temple of the Holy Ghost. The soul that is full of pure and generous affec­ tions fashions the features into its own angelic likeness, as the rose by inherent impulse grows in grace and blossoms into loveliness which art cannot equal. There is nothing on earth which so quickly and perfectly beautifies a face, transfigures a personality, refines, ex­ alts, irradiates with Heaven's owp im­ press of loveliness, as a pervading, pre­ vailing kindness of heart. The angela are beautiful because they are good, and God is beauty because He is love.-- Home Journal. Flowers and Forests* THFC following paper from George May Powell, Chairman of the Fore&t Committee, was read at a recent meet­ ing of the American Institute in New York: The subjects of Flowers and of For­ ests are germane to each other. We cannot cultivate interest in one without aiding both. Promotion of either ot these interests has a very powerful ten* dency to " Wake the better soul that B!ambers." A "grand old master" of musiconfel showed us by drawing his bow OV<B£ •* perfect chords" of his violin, how, when such chords are struck on any string, all the other strings vibrate. He ran over the scale in all the range' Of the instrument to prove this beautiful wonder in the realm of music, and wherever a "perfect chord" was struck On any stritag, all its mates were rStmngcly trcrralotis though i-ntdtichltt by aught that was material. This phenomenon is a typo of a great truth ii unniiig through all the kingdoms pf ethics and of esthetics. Therefore teach the people to plant trees and they thereby learn to plant fiowefs. Teach them to plant flowers and they learn thereby to plant trees. Great move­ ments often have seemingly small be­ ginnings. 'Florence Nightingale picked a leaf from a rosebud in her hand and gave it to a pale suffering one in a hos­ pital. Others plead eagerly each for another leaf. This was the beginning of the thrice blessed Flower Mission? which have done and are doing all amount of good which it is simply im­ possible to compute. In unnumbered cases the little simple bunch of flowers given to a sick one in hospital or in tenement house, hus been the spark <of cheer that has lit the mines of couragfe and hope. Thus it may be many a precious life has been very literaligr given back to dear ones to bless than and to bless the world. , It has been well said that *' A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Oft-times this truth would be very practically in­ tensified by so changing the words that they woula read: " A thing of life add beauty is a joy forever." Very oftep a flowering plant or a little trailing vine alive and growing in a vase of mother earth will cost less than a bunch of flowers from the hot-house, which, with the best of tender care, can last butu few hours, or, at farthest, a few days. The latter soon becomes a reminder <}if withered hopes. The former cohtiniliis as an earnest of a renewed and a better life in this world, and it may be the next also. We cordially commend thia thought to the Flower Missions and to all their friends. Most earnestly do we commend it likewise to the people fofr the benefit of their own homes all over the land. More flowers in and around the homes o! the people on mountaiat and prairie, as well as in the towns and cities. More flowers in the homes of the people everywhere. Plant them, mothers, and wives, and sisters, and yon plant allies of happiness and of morality for your own good and for the good pi those who ar* dearer, than TOtnr own lives. E, x , - "V