FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS. Facts, Hints, and Gems. Facts and Thoughts OF THE GREAT EXHIBITION. DIMENSIONS.-1851 feet long, 456 broad, on 18 acres of ground. Will hold 40,000 visitors, and has a frontage for exhibition of goods ten miles in length. Yet one of the mansions prepared in heaven for us will excel it in glory. THE EXHIBITION consists of 1. Raw Materials. 2. Machinery. 3. Manufactures. 4. Sculpture and fine arts. All the choicest and most perfect ever found or made by man. And yet what children's toys are they all compared with what are seen in that city whose very streets are transparent gold. THE RICHEST GEM in the whole display is one diamond about as large as a small hen's egg, called Koh-i-noor," or "Mountain of light," worth, they say, two millions of money. One single gem in one of the Redeemer's many crowns will be infinitely more brilliant and valuable. THE CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN is also a gem of art, and another from Aus tria sends up a stream of refreshing "Eau de Cologue." But what are these to that river of life which gives immortality. REPRESENTATIVES of many nations were present in the costume and decorations of their own countries. But many from every nation will sit down in heaven, each wearing the robe of" The Lord our Righteous ness." A GREAT MULTITUDE assembled on the first of May-some say half a million, and some say more-but a multitude that no man can number will surround the Throne of the Most High. PRIVILEGE OF RANK OR MONEY only secured admittance into Hyde Park Palace. But without distinctim of rank, without money and without price, whosoever will may come, and obtain admission into the Palace of Heaven. ADMITTANCE could only be given to a certain number, on account of the limits, vast though they were, to see the Queen open the Crystal Palace. There will be standingground for all around the Throne to gaze on the glories of the Lamb that was slain. THE SPLENDOUR OF THE SCENE was surpassing. Many were as if bewildered. It exceeded even what excited imagination had pictured. But mortal eye hath not yet seen, or ear heard, what God hath prepared for them that love him. THE VAST COMPANY in a few hours dispersed, to meet no more, each man, woman, and child, to his own dwelling, agitated and exhausted by the scene. Yonder, endowed with immortal vigour, they never weary; and again and again they gather to behold new glories beaming from the face of Him who redeemed them to God by his blood. "I WISH I HAD BEEN INSIDE" was repeated by many of the spectators as they returned from the park. So the good old Dreamer, when he saw Christian and Hopeful walking the golden streets with the shining ones all in white, said, "Ard when I saw them I wished myself among them." Reader, do you wish you were? What if at last you should be found outside! "O that, with yonder sacred throng FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS. Gems. CHRIST was more willing to die for us than we are to live to him. THE NEARER WE ARE TO THE SUN, the more warmth we derive from it. The nearer we live to Christ, the more joy and comfort we have. THERE ARE TWO THINGS which we should be careful to keep in remembrance: former sins, that we may be humble; and former mercies, that we may be thankful. THE PEOPLE OF GOD have the same need of affliction that our bodies have of physic-that our trees have of pruning-that gold and silver have of the furnace-that the iron hath of the file-that a field hath of a fence-and a child of the rod. THERE IS A THREEFOLD PRO day. 1. A stock of precious promises. 2. A stock of experience. Aud, 3. A stock of grace. OF GRACE as USE THE MEANS though you could do every thing, and trust in God as though you could do nothing. BLESSED IS THAT SICKNESS which proves the health of the soul. HEAVEN. Those who would go to heaven when they die, must begin their heaven while they live. PRIDE is usually the offspring of ignorance. HOW TERRIBLE the workings of a man's guilty conscience. Behold Felix the judge, trembling before. Paul the prisoner. A LITTLE RELIGION, it has been said, and with much propriety, will make a man miserable; but much VISION to be made against an evil will make him happy. Poetic Selections. THE INVITATION. He whispers, "Come to me." The stranger paints Him, harsh, austere, But Christ proclaims the mourner blest; He whispers, "Come to me." Why are thine eyes with weeping dim? Fix on his cross thy tearful sight; He whispers, "Come to me." O'er thee with tenderest love he yearns; Mourner ! canst thou such love resist? Be every doubt and fear dismist; He whispers, "Come to me.' THE INVITATION ACCEPTED. JUST as I am-without one plea, Just as I am--and waiting not Just as I am-though toss'd about O Lamb of God, I come! Here for a season, then above O Lamb of God, I come! THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. TO MY DEPARTED BROTHER. "FEW and evil" thy days have been, My Brother. My Brother. And with thy Lord shalt ever reign, more, But ever Christ thy Lord adore, Thy weeping now is turned to joy, There thou shalt need no candle's Nor shall the sun be there thy light, Thou art enrob'd in purest white Thy faith is now all lost in sight, With joys by mortals never told, My Brother. To journey here below is mine, And though I must thy absence Yet from the place where thou art gone, Thy many schemes for future years,* fears, He intended going out as a missionary My Brother. But we ere long again shall meet, With kindest love each other greet, And bow before the Saviour's feet, My Brother. Then to Immanuel's name we'll sing, And strike our harps of heavenly string, In praise of our Eternal King, My Brother. H. C. THE BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE. WE have furnished our readers with some account of that engine of satan -the Inquisition-as it did exist in Spain, and as it does exist in Italy; and as we have just met with a new account of that hellish massacre known by the above title, from the pen of a living Frenchinan, Professor De Felice, of Montaubon, we hasten to present it, for we cannot do better we think just now than let the cottagers of England and their children see what sort of a religion that is which is trying to get back again into power in England, and which some Protestants, to their shame, are willing should come. First, we should state that Admiral Coligny was a distinguished politician, who stood at the head of the Protestants. An attempt had been made to shoot him on the 22nd of Aug., but he was only wounded. It is supposed that this was done by an assassin hired by the mother of the king-Catherine de Medici, and the Duke of Guise, who were at the head of the Roman Catholics. The king, Charles IX., was very angry, it is said, when he heard of this, and visited the Admiral to condole with him, threatening vengeance on his enemies. Now we quote our author : "Was this indignation sincere? We may conclude so from the menaces he addressed to the Duke Henry de Guise, and from the order he gave him to quit the court without delay. But Catherine and the Duke d'Anjou intimated that the murder of the Admiral, despite of all his efforts, would be charged to him; that the civil war would be again kindled, and it was better to gain the battle in Paris, where all the chiefs were assembled, than be exposed to the hazard of a new campaign. 'Well, then,' said Charles IX., in a fit of phrenzy, since you approve the murder of the Admiral, I am content; be it the same with all the Huguenots, that there may not remain one to reproach me.' 6 PREPARATION FOR THE MASSACRE. 6 Saturday was passed in preparations and meetings. The Duke of Guise, who had returned immediately after having feigned a departure, had an understanding with the magistrates, the captains of quarters, and the Swiss. 'Let every good THE BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE. Catholic,' said he, ‘bind around his arm a piece of white cloth, and wear a white cross on his hat.' The hour advances. Catherine says to Charles IX. that there is no more time to draw back; the moment has come for cutting off the gangrened limbs; and in her deep excitement instinctively using her native tongue, ' Epieta,' says she, ‘lor ser crudele, e crudelta lor ser pietoso;' 'It is piety to be cruel to them, and it would be cruelty to be merciful to them.' 6 Charles still hesitates; a cold sweat ran from his forehead. His mother touches his most sensitive point; she asks him if, by his irresolution, he wishes to give a suspicion of his courage. The king is indignant at the very thought of a suspicion of cowardice. He rises, and exclaims: 'Well, then, begin!'It was half-past one o'clock at night. In the chamber of the king were only Catherine, Charles IX., and the Duke d'Anjou. All three kept a dead silence. A first shot of the pistol sounded. Charles, greatly moved, commands the Duke of Guise not to hasten. It was too late. The queenmother, suspicious of the hesitation of her son, had ordered the signal to be given earlier. The great bell of St. Germain l'Auxerrois was struck between two and three o'clock in the morning of Sunday, the 24th of August. At the sound of the tocsin, from every door rushed armed men, crying: Vive Dieu et le roi ! DEATH OF COLIGNY. The Duke of Guise, accompanied by his uncle, the Duke d'Aumale, a chevalier of Angouleme, and three hundred soldiers, hastened towards the lodgings of the Admiral. They knocked at the first gate, in the name of the king. A gentleman opens: he falls, stabbed. The inner gate is broken in. At the reports of the arquebuses, Coligny and all his attendants arise. They attempt to barricade the door of the apartments; but this feeble defence falls before the efforts of the assailants. The Admiral had invited his minister, Merlin, to recite prayers with him. A servant ran in, greatly terrified. 'My lord, the house is forced, and there is no means of resisting.' 'It is long since,' replied Coligny, 'that I prepared myself to die. The rest of you save yourselves, if you can; for you cannot defend my life. I commend my soul to the mercy of God.' All reached an upper room of the house except Nicholas Muss, his interpreter of the German language. Coligny sup |