FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. The labyrinth of Egypt contained three hundred chambers, and twelve halls. Thebes, in Egypt, presents ruins twenty-eight miles round, and contained 350,000 citizens and 400,000 slaves. Eight pin factories in the United States manufacture 47,000,000 of those useful instruments daily. It is yet to be discovered what becomes of them. The recent census gives these figures: New York, 1,060,000; Philadelphia, 800,000; Brooklyn, 507,000; St. Louis, 450,000; Chicago, 410,000; Boston, 340,000; San Francisco, 250,000. By a decree of the Khedive of Egypt the Mohammedan calendar was dis placed, Jan. 1, 1876, by the Gregorian calendar. Thirty thousand persons were added to the permanent residents of London last year, and it is estimated that by the middle of the present year the population of the British metropolis will exceed four and a quarter millions. Hints. The idle do not like the busy; they do not understand the luxury of labour. The world swarms with good fellows, who harm nobody, and benefit only themselves. This is one of the sweetest mercies of life, that "the heart knoweth its own bitterness," and, knowing it, can hide it. It is safer to affront some people than to oblige them; for the better a man deserves the worse they will say of him.-Seneca. The man who has a feeling within that he has done his duty upon every occasion is far happier than he who hangs upon the smile of the great. The fear of God begins with the heart, and purifies and rectifies it; POETIC SELECTIONS.-THE CHILDRENS' CORNER. Praise the Lord, ye fountains of the deep Wash, Lord, and purify my heart, and seas, Rocks, and hills, and mountains, cedars and And when 'tis clean, Lord, keep it too, all trees; Praise Him, clouds and vapours, snow and hail, and fire, Stormy wind, fulfilling only His desire. Praise Him, fowls and cattle, princes and all kings; Praise Him, men and maidens, all created For the name of God is excellent alone: A PRAYER. OH! that mine eyes might closed be That no vain thought might ever rest, That by each deed, and word, and thought, For that is more than I can do. -Thomas Elwood, A.D., 1639. GOD IS SO GOOD TO ME. He fills my soul with burning light, And I am free-so free! I long to sing through all of time, I long to fly from clime to clime, I'm lost-all lost-dear Lord, in Thee! And His I'll ever be ! -Laura E. Thomas. The Childrens' Corner. GOD NEVER FORGETS. A DEAR little boy was very sick. His father and mother had prayed many times that he might get well again. One night, when very ill, he asked, "Isn't God so busy sometimes, helping everybody, that He forgets such little boys as I?" "No, my darling," said his mother; "God never forgets. He cares every moment for His own dear children who are to live with Him always in heaven. Even if He should take you from us, it would not be because He forgets you; but because He is thinking of you, and doing what will be the best for you and us." "O, mamma, I am so glad God never forgets me!" said the sick child. "I won't forget Him, if I can help it, ever.” After a few days the little fellow began to get well, and he said, "God didn't forget me, did he, mamma ?" DON'T HALT. Go Ir is the first step that costs. When the Israelites came up to the Red Sea, the command of God was, "Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward." But how? The Jewish leader might well cry out, "We have no fleet to bear us over. forward! But, Lord, we cannot ford the gulf before us. Go forward! Wouldst Thou have us, Lord, to perish in the billows?" Still the same answer comes, "Speak to the children of Israel, that they go forward." The command is peremptory. It admits of no delay. And just as soon as Israel goes forth in obedience to Jehovah's voice, lo! the waves part asunder, and the mighty cavalcade marches through dry shod! Unhesitating obedience to God always ensures a blessing. Here is a lesson for halting inquirers. To you comes the command of God, "Go forward." Death is behind you. Hell followeth hard after you. There is no salvation in retreat. Heaven lies before you, not behind. No man ever saved his soul by relapsing into indifference. If you give up, you are lost. 1. Perhaps you say, "I have prayed many times already, and no blessing has yet come." Will you cease to pray, then? Will that bring an answer? As well might a voyager to New York, when one hundred miles from port, put about his helm, and steer back to Liverpool; he is almost there; why does the foolish man retreat? How many a soul has quit praying when the door of mercy was just about opening! Go forward. 2. Another is kept back by fear of ridicule. He cannot stand a laugh. There is a sneer waiting for him at his father's table, or a cutting sarcasm in his counting-room. He wavers before it. He winces under the slightest word, and imagines terrible things in store for himself. Go forward; the sea will open unto you, and so will many a heart, to cheer you on. You will inspire respect in the very quarters from which you now expect opposition. He is a weakling who is pushed back with a straw. 3. A third person complains, "I am in the dark; I cannot see my way." Then go forward, and get out of the dark. The determination to do your duty will be attended by a luminous discernment of the path of duty. God will show you the way; only go forward, looking for the cross. 4. Unbelief draws back a fourth. There is only one way to conquer doubt. It is to believe. Then, instead of halting and THE SPEED OF ELECTRICITY. shivering in an ague-fit of indecision, take a bold, decisive step. End the torturing uncertainty by going forward, "looking to Jesus." The only way to do a thing is to do it. God gives strength to the obedient. He has no promise for cowards, or double-minded, vacillating doubters. He bestows grace on those who try to do their duty. His grace is all-sufficient for you. The deepest sea of difficulties will divide its waters for your advancing footsteps just so soon as you determine to obey that voice which says to you, Go forward. The moment of ruin to Lot's wife was the moment in which she halted. A steady pushing on towards Zoar would have saved her life. As soon as an awakened soul stops to parley with temptation, or to cavil at some Bible doctrine, or for any other reason, the Spirit of God is grieved. The great majority of unconverted persons in our congregations have-at some time in their lives-been under serious convictions, and halted. Death will not halt. Time halts not one instant. Dear friend, if you halt one step this side of Jesus, you must perish outside of heaven's gate. Don't halt, or else the same bell which now rings for you a glad invitation, will toll the knell of your lost soul. THE SPEED OF ELECTRICITY. WITH the Atlantic cable a low speed of from twelve to sixteen words per minute is adapted for public messages; but when the operators communicate with each other a speed of twenty-four words per minute is sometimes attained. Electricity cannot properly be said to have a velocity, but differs with the circumstances under which it travels. For about one-fifth of a second after contact is made with the conductor of an Atlantic cable, no effect is perceptible on the opposite side of the ocean, even by the most delicate instrument. After two-fifths of a second, the received current is about seven per cent. of the maximum current which the battery could produce. One second after the first contact the current will reach about half its full strength, and after about three seconds its full strength. Lovering states that, practically, electricity has no velocity. According to one experiment, when a very long conductor was used, electricity travelled at the rate of 288,000 miles per second. This rapidity is considerably lessened when a shorter conductor is used, and may come down to 800 miles per second. A wire from Cambridge, Mass., to San Francisco, and thence back through THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. Canada to Massachusetts, about 7,200 miles in all, transmitted a message in two-thirds of a second, and some of this time was wasted through thirteen repeaters. Electricity travelled over 4,000 miles of cable in one second, even under some unfavourable conditions. Lovering's system connects the wire with tuning forks, the vibrations of which indicate the ten thousandth part of a second, or even less. THE DEPTH OF THE SEA. THE great difficulty in determining the average depth of the sea arises chiefly from the deviations in sounding lines caused by submarine currents. Although of late years great improvements have been made in the sounding apparatus employed, no reliable soundings have yet been made in water over five miles in depth. The following information on this subject has been selected and condensed from M. Louis Figuier's Ocean World, which has been critically revised by Professor Wright, of the University of Dublin, and consequently must occupy a high position for reliability. On astronomical considerations, Laplace found that the mean depth of the ocean could not be more than 10,000 feet, and Alexander von Humboldt adopts the same figures. Dr. Young assigns to the Atlantic a mean depth of 1,000 yards, and to the Pacific 4,000. Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Royal of England, has constructed a formula connecting the breadth of waves with the velocities with which they travel at a given depth. From this formula it is estimated that the average depth of the North Pacific, between Japan and California, is 2,149 fathoms, or two miles and a half. But these estimates fall short of the soundings formerly reported by navigators, in which there are important and only recently discovered elements of error. Du Petit Thouars, during his scientific voyage in the frigate Venus, made some very remarkable soundings in the Southern Pacific Ocean; one without finding bottom at 2,411 fathoms, and another in the equinoctial region indicating bottom at 3,790. Captain Ross, of the Royal Navy, in his last expedition in search of a north-west passage, found soundings at 5,000 fathoms. Lieutenant Walsh, of the United States Navy, reports a cast of the deep-sea lead, not far from America, at 34,000 feet without bottom. Lieutenant Berryman, of the Royal Navy, reported another unsuccessful attempt to fathom mid-ocean with a line 39,000 feet in length. Captain Denman, of H. M. S. Herald, |