miserable-by the young and the old, in all ages of the world. It has been the solace of the widow, and the stay of the orphan-even of those two little orphans, one thirteen and the other eleven, on their way to Liverpool to seek the protection of an uncle. Their father and mother had both died in London, of typhus fever. These children were noticed sitting by the wayside, hungry and penniless, and yet refusing five shillings offered them for their Bible, clinging to it, though six shillings were offered them for it by a stranger. Poor boys! young as they were, it had been the means of making them acquainted with Christ and true happiness, and part with it they would not; besides, it was a Sabbath-school gift. The stranger, only wishing to test them, tried their faith yet further, by suggesting that perhaps their uncle would not take them in—then what would they do? One of them replied, "Our Bible says that when father and mother forsake us, then the Lord will take us up." Tears rushing to the eyes of the stranger, prevented him from saying more. He and the two orphans wept together, and in him they found a friend. That night the little orphans knelt in prayer, in a comfortable room, arose refreshed in the morning, and pursued their way to Liverpool. I should like to know their future history. Perhaps we may read yet more of it, when studying the history of this book in heaven.

In the hand of a wounded sailor, an aged sailor, as he lay in his bunk, was a Bible. The ship had passed out of a sharp fight at sea. The action was severe; many were badly wounded, some mortally. Fifteen or twenty years had passed away since that Bible came into his possession, and all that time the secret weight of a murder pressing home upon his heart. In the following, you have the substance of what was related

as a fact: The dying old sailor had been very wicked in the early part of his life, and characterized by frequent spells of intoxication. In one of his drunken freaks, when in port, he flung his little boy (three years of age) into the sea, because he cried for bread, and he had none to give him. After the deed he staggered away. The child, doubtless by divine interposition, by some means seized a floating plank, and on it drifted out to sea. The little fellow was noticed from the deck of a vessel, and rescued from a watery grave. Touched with his helpless condition, the sailors on board adopted the outcast, and, growing up among them, he became an able seaman, and finally was promoted and made officer on board, if I remember aright, a ship of war. The wretched drunkard who had thus rid himself of his boy, sobered after a little, with a sad weight upon his conscience, which he dare not tell any one. A benevolent lady, struck with his appearance, presented him with a Bible, and he went to sea again, taking it with him. He read it, and pondered, and by its instructions prayed, and found his way to the feet of a merciful Saviour. He continued much at sea, and became aged. After the action, as he lay dying, a young officer was attracted toward him with peculiar interest, and waited upon him and procured him comforts. The old sailor, drawing near his end, in token of his gratitude presented the young officer with his old Bible, as a keepsake, begged him to listen while he relieved his mind of a tale of woe, told him how he had drowned his boy, and of the gift of that Bible, and what it had done for his soul. It was the father confessing to his son ! Mutual recognition took place, and the old sailor expired in the arms of his honored and deeply affected son. The body was committed to the deep

to await the resurrection.

The son examined the Bible, which bore the mark of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He, too, read the book, was led a humble penitent to Christ, found mercy, and became a preacher of the Gospel. The remainder of the story belongs, perhaps, to our future readings in the history of the Bible when we reach heaven.

Millions of such incidents belong to Bible history. The recording angel has, doubtless, immortalized them-your own remarkable case among them! Continue to search the Scriptures, and love them while you search; have faith in what you find by searching, and prove by practice that you have not searched them in vain; and expect eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. If God shall call you to extensive usefulness in his cause, here is my prayer for you:

"Furnished out of thy treasury,

Oh! may he always ready stand,
To help the souls redeemed by thee,

In what their various states demand:
To teach, convince, correct, reprove;
And build them up in holiest love!"

CHAPTER LVI.

TO THE SAME-THE BIBLE AND ITS AUTHOR.

E it so!-sail, or swim, or dive! the Bible admits of all or any. You may sail or swim for pleasure or spiritual delight, or dive for pearls or intellectual profit. Those who practise the former, to the neglect of the latter, remind one too much of those summer insects which skip about only to dimple the surface of the water; but there are others, like skilful divers, who descend into the profoundest depths, or deep as they can in those inspired waters, and enrich themselves with pearls of divine truth, which angels desire to look into! The former class are apt to be superficial in their piety and ideas. The latter, on the contrary, enter into "the deep things of God," possess a moral grandeur both in intellect and character, live to some purpose, and make their mark on the generation around them.

To one of your observations, I reply: You will find it thus as you proceed. The sea is not all of a depth, neither is the Bible. The sky is not so brilliant with stars in some parts as in others. The sun does not traverse the northern sky, nor the moon; but the aurora borealis, or northern lights, are there, and the polar star, so useful to the sailor when computing his northern latitude. As in astronomy all parts of the sky are essential, so in theology all parts of the Bible have their use,

and are essential for the proper understanding of the will and ways of God. The moon, some nights, appears quite in our neighborhood, so near does she appear. The sun seems at a greater distance, as he really is. There are stars, too, which make nearer approaches to our homes and hearts; while others in the stellar arrangement are at immeasurable distances from us. And there are depths in space of deeper, darker bluerather altitudes, which no telescope can unfold or astronomical eye measure or investigate. It is thus that some parts of the Bible approach so much nearer our bosoms, business, and homes than others—those parts especially which lie quite beyond the range of all our faculties, although accessible to our faith. The sea has depths which the sailor's plummet has never fathomed; and the sky has altitudes which the astronomer's telescope has never yet explored. Who but a fool would take these facts as arguments against God being the author of such a creation? Apply this thought to the Bible, and you have my idea!

The Bible, sir, like that ocean of water below, and that ocean of space above, unconquered, unfallen, untired, unstained, unpolluted, unexplored, unchanged, tremendous, bowing to no name, yielding to no power, acknowledging no might, trembling before no authority but that of God Almighty, immense, unconstrained, illimitable, image of eternity, reinless, fathomless, alone, in gloom or glory, alone! throne of the Invisible, endless, boundless, sublime, amenable to the will and laws of the Eternal One alone, to him alone yielding homage, warring with man so frequently, because man is so frequently at war with its Sovereign God-glorious, terrible!

"Where rolls the Almighty's thunder word."