nerth, yn gwneuthur ei air Ef. Ac yn wir, nid rhyw eiddilod dinerth a wnaethent y tro i lenwi swyddi pwysig yr angylion. Faint o allu a nerth sydd yn ofynol i ddwyn un Lazarus i fynwes Abraham? Dim llai na'r eiddo angylion! Beth a wyddom ni faint o lengoedd anifeiriol o ellyllon du y fagddu fawr a fydd yn ceisio lluddias mynediad eneidiau y cyfiawnion i Gaersalem, na pha faint o bicellau tanllyd, a chawodydd brwmstanaidd o ddigofaint, a fyddant yn eu harllwys yn eu herbyn ar eu ffordd yno. Da i'r cyfryw fod angylion cedyrn o nerth, i gymeryd eu gofal yr holl ffordd, ac i gadw draw a'u tarianau cwmpasog bob picell wenwynig a deflir atynt gan elynion y Groes, o lyn cysgod angeu i dangnefedd ty eu tad,'

&c.

THE GIANT'S CAUSEWAY.

It was not until the year 1693 that public attention was called to this remarkable natural formation in the North of Ireland. To form any conception of the appearance of this remarkable phenomenon, we must suppose a wild rocky shore, with here a shoal, and there a beetling cliff, alternating with deposits of debris. But the majority of our rocks in cliffs are deposited in layers one above another; whereas these are composed of perpendicular columns, some five, some six-sided, and though separate, fitting so closely together as to exclude, in some places, even a sheet of paper. The exposed ends of these columns form the Causeway, their entire lengths in other places forming the ribbed or fluted crags, as in the Organ and Stack, resembling, but far surpassing in extent, the similar columns on Arthur Seat known as Sampson's Ribs. Nor are the pillars themselves continuous, but composed of several pieces fitted together by con

vex and concave surfaces. We walk over the heads of some forty thousand columns (for this number has been counted by some curious and leisurely persons), all beautifully cut and polished, formed of such neat pieces, so exactly fitted to each other, and so cleverly supported, that we might fancy we had before us the work of ingenious human artificers; and yet what we behold is the result of the immutable laws of nature, acting without any apparent object, and by a process which must remain a mystery for ever to our understanding. Even the simplest inquiries it is often impossible to answer; such, for instance, as how far these colonnades run out beneath the sea, and how far into the land, which throws over them a veil as impenetrable as that of the ocean.

THE PENTECOST.

A brief article in one of the religious papers lately, discussed the question whether on the day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter only did the preaching which resulted in so many conversions, or whether the other Apostles assisted in the work. The answer is of course only a matter of inference or opinion. But the inference here, and commonly made, that these 3,000 conversions were all the work of that one day, seems to me to be open to question.

The language of the record is not 3,000 converted, but "3,000 added to the Lord." How many were really new.converts on that day, it is impossible to say. We must remember that Christ had been preaching in Gallilee, Perea and Judea for three years, and had been followed by multitudes. How many declared disciples he left, we do not know. We only know that they were above 500, for He was seen after his resurrection

of man.

Now suppose these people gathered together at Pentecost, and to have heard Peter, and been moved by the Holy Spirit, what more natural than a declaration of what they had long felt, but had been, for some reason or another, held back from announcing? The significance of this question is in the fact that this case of Pentecost is always appealed to as the true-perhaps only-type of a revival, and is commonly thought of as all the work of that one day, without taking into account the preparation and groundwork of it. Conversion is sometimes confused with regeneration; but in the analysis there is a distinction to be made. Regeneration is God's work. Conversion is in part the act Samuel, Jeremiah and John the Baptist were regenerated from birth; but when were they converted? Who can say that Pentecost did not find a multitude of persons already regenerated, who now came for the first time to recognize it openly? I once examined, to receive them into the church, some 30 persons converted in a revival led by an evangelist; but upon asking them as to the date of their hope in Christ, all but one put it at one or two years before they saw the evangelist! What he had done had been simply to move them now to declare themselves by a public profession. What does such a fact teach, but that it behooves the minister to preach the doctrines of Gospel salvation all the time. Pentecost brought together many whose minds had been turned to duty and

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righteousness from all over the empire, and who were already prepared for the change, which seemed so sudden as to be miraculous. There is but one such scene in the New Testament. But there are "turnings to the Lord" all along the history of the church, under the Old Dispensation and the New.

AMBROSE, in N. Y. Evangelist.

MODERN GEOLOGY AND THE PENTATEUCH.

Vegetation in some form must have existed before there could be animal life. Vegetation on land must have existed before there could be airbreathing animals. This necessity may not have been known to the writer of Genesis, but it is well known to us. The most startling point in the old record is, that the primitive vegetation includes not only the humbler cryptogams ("Deshe," not "grass," as in the authorized version), but seed-bearing herbs, and trees bearing fruit. So far as geological discovery has yet reached into the older layers of the earth's crust, it has found abundant remains of animals as low as the Lower Cambrian, and it has traced land vegetation of arboreal forms, though of very peculiar organ zation, nearly as far; but below this there is a vast thickness of both crystalline and fragmental rock, in which the Eozoon of the Laurentian stands out as the sole representative of animal life, and its claim to be ananimal is still in question. But land plants are not known to reach so far back. None are known so old as the Lower Cambrian, so that marine animals, aud probably marine plants, appear to have existed long before land plants. Yet the geologist cannot safely deny the existence of land vegetation even in the old Laurentian period. We know

that there was land at that time; and in the middle of the Laurentian series there exist in Canada immense bedded deposits of carbon, in the form of graphite with ores of iron which cannot be accounted for on any principles of chemical geology, except by supposing the existence of abundant vegetation. It is true that Eozoon exists in these beds, but it is in any case a mere precursor or foreshadowing of animal life, while the quantity of Laurentian carbon which it would seem must owe its accumulation to

we can

the deoxidising agency of plants is enormous. Whether we shall ever find Laurentian rocks in a condition to yield up the actual forms and structures of this old vegetation is uncertain; but we know on strictly scientific evidence, as certainly as we can know anything inferentially, that it existed; and even by analogy know something of its probable character. Of its precise relations to modern plants we have no information except the record in Genesis. If it was given to the primitive prophet of creation to see in his vision the forms of Laurentian vegetation, he saw what no geologist has yet seen, but what some geologist of the future may possibly see. In any case he has to thank the discoveries of Sir William Logan and his confreres in Canada for establishing at least a probability on scientific grounds that he was right; and until these discoveries were made, the fact of pre-Cambrian vegetation rested on on his sole authority. It may be said. that such vegetation would be useless; but the same remark may be made as to the lower animals which existed so long before man, or as to the exuberant vegetation of some oceanic islands untenanted by the higher animals. "Modern Science in Bible Lands," by Sir J. William Dawson.

WHEN great thoughts are for the first time coming forth, there is a kind of primordial roughness about them, as if the earth, out of which they are arising, were still clinging to them.

THE greater and more original a character is, the less dependent it is on the peculiarities of its environment.

EVERY arrival of a new soul in the world is a mystery, and a shut casket of possibilities.

Ir is no sin to be tempted; it is only sin to yield to temptation.

GOD's silence is no less wonderful than His words.

We never know when a great beginning may be happening.

THE real size of any space of time is to be measured by the amount it contains of the soul's experience.

WHEN a man's life is reposing in the attainment of its true end, trials are light, and all things work together for good.

WAITING is a common instrument of Providential discipline for those to whom exceptional work has been ap pointed.

ORIGINALITY in the preaching of the truth depends on the solitary intui

tion of it.

NATURE and grace blend secretly in the redeemed life.

HATRED is strong, but stronger still is love.

THE misery of the world is the shadow of its sin.

had need to be afraid of others' memory.

DEFER not charities till death; for certainly, if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather liberal of another man's than of his own.

NATURE is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

A MAN'S nature runs either to herds or weeds; therefore, let him seasonably water the one and destroy the other.

FAME is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: "Be ye angry, but sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath."

THE great winding-sheets that bury all things in oblivion are two-deluges and earthquakes.

THE EVENING PRAYER. "Our Father." The mother's voice was low, and tender, and solemn.

"Our Father." On two sweet voices the words were borne upward. It was the innocence of reverent childhood that gave them utterance.

66 Who art in the heavens."

"Who art in the heavens," repeated the children, one with her eyes bent meekly down, and the other looking upward, as if she would penetrate the heavens into which her heart aspired. "Hallowed be Thy name."

Lower fell the voices of the little ones. In a gentle murmur they said: "Hallowed be Thy name."

"Thy kingdom come."

And the burden of the prayer was still taken up by the children-"Thy kingdom come.

"Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."

Like a low, sweet echo from the land of angels-"Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven," filled the chamber.

And the mother continued: us this day our daily bread."

"Give

"Our daily bread," lingered a moment on the air, as the mother's voice was hushed into silence.

"And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

The eyes of the children had But they drooped for a moment. were uplifted again as they prayed"And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors."

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen."

All these holy words were said, piously and fervently, by the little ones, as they knelt with clapsed hands beside their mother. Then as their thoughts, uplifted on the wings of prayer to their heavenly Father, came back again and rested on their heavenly Father, came back again and rested on their earthly parents, a warmer love came gushing from their hearts.

Pure kisses, tender embraces, the fond "good-night." What a sweet agitation pervaded all their feelings! Then two dear heads were placed side by side on the snowy pillow, the mother's last kiss given, and the shadowy curtains drawn.

What a pulseless stillness reigns throughout the chamber! Inwardly the parents' listening ears are bent.