POETRY.

"The principal part of the officer's salute, kissing the hilt of the sword, dates also from the Middle Ages. When the Crusaders were on their march to the Holy City, the knights were in the daily custom of planting their long two-handed swords upright in the ground, thereby forming a cross, and before these they performed their morning devotions. On all military occasions they kissed the hilts of their swords in token of their devotion to the cause of the Cross, and this custom was perpetuated after the Crusaders were numbered among the things of the past, and when the religious origin of the salute was forgotten."

Poetry.

THE TRUE SHEPHERD.

I WAS wandering and weary
When my Saviour came unto me;
For the ways of sin grew dreary,
And the world had ceased to woo me,
And I thought I heard Him say,
As He came along His way-

O, foolish souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

At first I would not hearken,

And put off till the morrow; But life began to darken,

And I was sick with sorrow:
And I thought I heard Him say,
As He came along His way-

O, wandering souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

At last I stopped to listen

His voice could not deceive me!
I saw His kind eye glisten,

So anxious to relieve me;
And I thought I heard Him say,
As He went along His way-

O, dying souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

He took me on His shoulder,
And tenderly He kissed me;
He bade my love be bolder,

And said how He had missed me;

And I'm sure I heard Him say,
As He went along the way-

O, precious souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

Strange gladness seemed to move Him
Whenever I did better!

And He coaxed me so to love Him,

As if He was my debtor.
And I always heard Him say,
As He went along His way-

O, precious souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

I thought His love would weaken
As more and more He knew me;

But it burneth like a beacon,

And its light and heat go through me: And I ever hear Him say,

As He goes along His way

O, foolish souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;
I am the Shepherd true.

Let us do then, dearest brothers,
What will best and longest please us;
Follow not the ways of others,

But trust ourselves to Jesus.
We shall ever Him say,

As He goes along His way

O, wandering souls! come near me;
My sheep should never fear me;

I am the Shepherd true.

-FABER.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Anecdotes and Selections.

SERVING CHRIST.-To him who is serving Christ from love and on principle, it makes little difference when or how he "comes" for them; whether by death, or by a visible bodily advent. In either case, he means to lead a holy life, and to persuade others to do the same. He has little or no choice as to what Christ's plan may prove to be in the ordering of future events. He feels a personal responsibility to do with his might whatsoever his hand finds to do, whether he shall live one year or fifty years, and whether Christ's second advent shall be pre-millennial or post-millennial. His "watching" consists not in theorizing not in controversy over prophecy, not in a curious anticipation of future details, not in star-gazing, but in such faithful, loving labour in every department of life, secular and ecclesiastical, private and public, as manifests unwavering loyalty to the unseen Master, and a readiness at any moment to be called upon to appear in His presence, and to render an account of the deeds done in the body.

GOD NOT DEAD.-At one time I was sorely vexed and tried by my own sinfulness, by the wickedness of the world, and by the dangers that beset the church. One morning I saw my wife dressed in mourning. Surprised, I asked her who had died. "Do you not know?" she replied, "God in heaven is dead." "How can you talk such nonsense, Katie?" I said; "how can God die? Why, He is immortal, and will live through all eternity." "Is that really true?" she asked. course," I said, still not perceiving what she was aiming at, "how can you doubt it? As surely as there is a God in heaven, so sure is it that He can never die.' “And yet,” she said, “though you do not doubt that, yet you are so hopeless and discouraged." Then I observed what a wise woman my wife was, and mastered my sadness.-Luther.

"Of

GOD'S APPROACH TO MAN.-The history of all God's dealings with man is the record of an approach nearer still, and nearer, until, in the incarnate Son, He shares all our sorrows, and carries our sins, till faith puts its finger into the prints of the nails, its hand into the wounds, and constrains us to cry, "My Lord, and my God." We need this. We can believe a truth, but we can trust only a person; we can admire a truth, we can love only a person; we can meditate on a truth, we can commune only with a person; and faith stretches out a wistful hand to touch His garment that it may come at last to embrace Himself.-Rev. John Kerr.

SIR P. SIDNEY.-"Thy necessity is yet greater than mine." Lord Brooke says of Sir Philip Sidney, "Being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called for drink, which was presently brought him; but as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw a poor soldier carried along who had eaten his last at the same feast, ghastly casting up his eyes at the bottle, which, Sir Philip perceiving, took from his head before he drank, and delivered it to the poor man with these words,

THE FIRESIDE.

'Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.' Sidney lingered only a few weeks after this in great agony. And it was this man who said, "Fear is more painful to cowardice than death to true courage.'

PROFESSORS LIKE BACKGAMMON BOARDS.-I think a great many professors of religion are just like backgammon boards. They look like stately books; and on the back of them is inscribed in large letters, "History of England," "History of the Crusades," but when you open them you find nothing but emptiness, with the exception of the dice and counters. And many men bear the name "Christian" who are inside all emptiness and rattling nothing.-Bethune.

CHRISTIAN GRACES.-There is not a grace that can adorn the Christian character but you will have need to appear in at some time or other; therefore seek the whole, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.

Her

WOMAN'S BRAVERY.-A woman speaker in an American suffrage meeting said, "Woman is in every respect the equal of man. reputation for heroic bravery- at that point a mouse ran into sight, and the orator jumped on the table and screamed!

PATIENCE.

THERE will come a weary day
When, overtaxed, at length,
Both hope and love beneath
The weight give way:
Then with a statue's smile,
A statue's strength,
Stands the meek sister,
Patience, nothing loth,
And, uncomplaining, does

The work of both.

The Fireside.

-Coleridge.

A WORD TO HUSBANDS.

PERHAPS you have never guessed it, but your wife is a social, intellectual being. If she is not it is your fault. She was so when you married her. If you have been growing away from her, and she has been standing still, the more shame to you. To buy her dresses and bonnets and give a house and a good table does not equip her. She wants intellectual food and stimulus; and you are the one to provide it. While you are among the men discussing business, politics, religion, or what not, she is with the housemaid discussing crockery, or with the cook discussing beefsteak, or with the children playing the part of nursemaid. When you come home at night tired, do you not suppose she is tired too? Bring something with you that your marketbasket cannot contain. Bring the news of the day; bring the latest, freshest thought. In buying your evening paper, or subscribing to

THE PENNY POST BOX.

your monthly magazine, or renewing your religious weekly, get what suits her need, and meets her tastes. There is more in that patient, quiet, silent wife of yours than you think for. You have frozen her up by your contempt for womanhood; for treating your wife as a toy to be pleased only with dresses and to be fed only on gossip is the worst kind of contempt. If she does not feel it so, it is only because she has degenerated that she may fit the place you have prepared for her.

HOME-LIFE.

HOME-LIFE is very often trying. But cross words are sent to make us gentle, and delay hath patience, and care teaches faith, and press of business makes us look out for minutes to give to God, and disappointment is a special messenger to summon our thoughts to heaven. Seek not to run away from these things. Learn God's lesson in them, and you will not call them trying.-Sewall.

FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.