I WANT in this sermon to turn my largest hive into a pulpit, and to preach a short apiarian homily to English cottagers, which I know they will read, and hope they will "mark, learn, and inwardly digest." 1. They may carry from the hive to the cottage hearth a lesson of industry. During work the bees are so intensely absorbed in their duty that they ignore every distracting and diverging object and interest. They have learnt well a text their masters would do well to copy, "Not slothful in business." There is no getting on in this world of ours without hard work. It is not work and plenty of it that kill people, but worry. 2. Bees teach a lesson of loyalty. They are monarchical by conviction and in practice. They love a queen, whose sovereignty is motherhood, and whose service is perfect freedom. They detest your republics, and democracies, and radicalism in all its phases. 3. Bees are immensely attached to their homes. They are "keepers at home." No mother of a family gets on by gadding about and gossiping from house to house. 4. Bees are models of cleanliness. The care with which they remove filth of all kinds is something remarkable. They plainly believe what many Christians say, "cleanliness is nearest to godliness." The cottager cannot in this matter do better than follow the example of these admirable sanitary philosophers. 5. Bees set a beautiful example of Christian sympathy. I have seen a wounded bee, accidentally hurt, carried out from the hive and laid tenderly on the beeboard in the warm sunshine. One bee would lick the sufferer with his tongue from head to foot; another would roll him over and over in the sunshine; and at sunset they would carry him in to his sick bed. I do not complain of want of such sympathy among the poor. I have seen much of it in the homes of the most destitute, and witnessed personal attentions and sacrifices and services in a district surrounding Brewer'scourt ragged schools which have never been exceeded, if equalled, in the houses of the great. 6. Bees are very fond of fresh air. A hive is one of the best ventilated homes; and I have some doubt about the wisdom or success of the various arrangements made by some beemasters for increasing the ventilation of their hives. In a hot and sultry day I have seen successive lines of bees take up their position at the mouth of the hive and, joining the tips of their wings, work these fanners for ten minutes, and then retire and let the second parallel line come to the front and continue the same process. This example is not efficiently followed in city or cottage. People who are most careful about what they eat and drink and put into their stomachs are utterly careless what they allow to enter their lungs. Now, the truth is, it is easier to poison a man through his lungs than through his stomach. My bees would die in a London bedroom in 12 hours. 7. Bees are very early risers. The first ray of sunshine is their matin bell, and by 7 o'clock p.m. they are most of them at home. People that live long and are healthy differ in many of their habits, but generally agree in being early risers. Early light has sanitary as well as photographic influences, which post meridian light is a stranger to. "Early to bed and early up" is an admirable maxim-an axiom among bees, and it should be a habit among rational men. prove that the best defence of home is a good preparation to repel the aggressor. As if to teach the bees that their weapons are to be used only in the last extremity, every bee knows that the use of his sting is followed by its inevitable loss and his destruction. It sticks where it strikes, and the violence done to the bee ends always in death. I think I have shown that morals, money, country and enjoyment may all be helped a little by keeping bees; and, therefore, that I have done some good by directing attention to these "great and marvellous works" of One who still gives His care to a beehive and to Buckingham Palace. A BEE-MASTER. Tunbridge Wells. OUR OWN STRENGTH WEAKNESS. It is perhaps not unworthy of observation, that in sacred history we invariably find, that the recorded defects of the people of God are on the side of their most conspicuous graces. Thus, the recorded sin of the father of the faithful was want of faith; of the meek and gentle Moses, that he spake unadvisedly. Scripture Illustration. JONAH IN THE WHALE'S BELLY ILLUSTRATED. "SCRIPTURE by no means," says Jonah had previously performed the same voyage in the belly of the whale, which by safely landing him at the mouth of the Tigris, enabled him to perform the remainder of his journey by water to Nineveh! Further, the comparison of Jonah being in the mouth of the whale, as our Lord was buried in the surface of the earth, is rather beside the mark; for the expression, 'the heart of the earth,' referred doubtless to our Lord being laid in a tomb dug out of a rock, as St. Matthew records, which would be suitably defined as belonging to the heart of the earth, as distinct from the upper surface, or what geologists term the posttertiary system. But the question which really concerns us is the possibility of there being any species of sea monster inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea with a throat sufficiently large to swallow, and a belly to contain, a human being; for though, in the exercise of this miraculous power, God could as easily enlarge the throat of a whale, and place him in any sea to which naturally he does not belong, we have no reason to suppose that He goes unnecessarily out of His way to perform a second miracle in addition to what His own word declared. Now we have evidence that there is a great fish' common to these latitudes, in which men have been discovered whole. Without accepting the wonderful tales of Pliny, who speaks of whales six hundred feet long, and three hundred and sixty feet broad, or of Pomponius Mela, who relates that at Joppa they used to show the skeleton of a great sea monster, which was afterwards exhibited at Rome during the ædileship of M. Scaurus; (though, as these are not writers of Scripture, possibly their stories will have more weight with some than Christians would feel right to allow ;) we have the explicit testimony of credible writers that in more than one instance a fish of the species called carcharias, or 'dog-fish,' has been taken in the Mediterranean, in whose belly was found the body of a soldier armed cap-à-pie. In Linnæus's "System of Nature," by Müller, a fact is mentioned which may be considered as illustrating the miracle of Jonah. At the close เ of the last century, during a storm in the Mediterranean, a sailor fell overboard, and was instantly received into the throat of a carcharias. An officer on deck, having a gun at hand, fired instantly at the monster's head, and the shot taking effect, the creature disgorged the sailor, comparatively speaking uninjured. This great fish' was subsequently captured, and found to weigh four thousand pounds. We have therefore good reason to believe in the miracle recorded in the book of Jonah, but we have no reason to credit the mythical theories of the rationalistic school in general and of essayists in particular, who seek to bring the miracles of Scripture down to the level of their own finite understandings." Biography. THE LAST HOURS OF COLUMBUS. IN the midst of illness and despondency, when both life and hope were expiring in the bosom of Columbus, a new gleam was awakened, and blazed up for the moment with characteristic fervour. He heard with joy of the arrival from Flanders of King Philip and Queen Juana, to take possession of their throne of Castile. In the daughter of Isabella he trusted to find a patroness and a friend. King Ferdinand, and all the court, repaired to Toledo, to receive the youthful sovereigns. Columbus sent his brother, the Adelantado, to represent him, and wrote a letter to the king and queen, lamenting his being prevented by illness from coming in person to manifest his devotion. He expressed a hope that he should receive at their hands a restitution of his honours and estates; and assured them, that, though cruelly tortured by disease, he should yet be able to render them services, the like of which had never been witnessed. Such was the last sally of his sanguine and unconquerable spirit; which, disregarding age and in firmities, and all past sorrows and disappointments, spoke from his dying bed with all the confidence of youthful hope, and talked of still greater enterprises, as if he had a ong and vigorous life before him. The Adelantado took an affectionate eave of his brother, whom he was never to behold again, and set out on his mission to the new Sovereigns. He experienced the most gracious eception, and flattering hopes were given him that the claims of the Admiral would speedily be satisfied. In the meantime, the cares and roubles of Columbus were drawing o a close. The transient fire which had recently reanimated him, was soon quenched by accumulating nfirmities. Immediately after the departure of the Adelantado, his llness increased in violence. Finding is end was approaching, he aranged all his earthly affairs for the benefit of his successors. * * * Having scrupulously attended to all he claims of affection, loyalty, and ustice, upon earth, he turned his thoughts to heaven, confessing imself, partaking of the holy acrament, and complying with the >ther ceremonies of a devout Cathlic. Surrounded by devoted friends, le expired, with great resignation, on the 20th of May, 1506, being bout 70 years of age. His last words were, "In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum. "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit." MOSES. BORN in Egypt A. M., 2433, fortyone years after Levi died, his great grandfather; three hundred and fifty from Abraham's first entering Canaan. An infant of three months when, committed to the care of Providence amid the tall flags skirting the Nile, the little ark, containing a nation's future deliverer, is discovered by the king's daughter. Forty years of age when, versed in the wisdom and the sciences of Egypt, popular with all classes he made that memorable choice, counting the wealth and preferments of the world as nothing compared with those associated with the people of God. Heb. xi. 24, 25, Acts vii. 23. This year, to avoid the king's resentment, he flies to Midian, living there forty years in the obscurity and capacity of a shepherd. Eighty years when the impressive spectacle at the burning bush arrests his attention, followed by his designation and appointment to act as Israel's deliverer, A. M., 2513. An eventful year in his life, and Jewish history. Within a few months occur the ten plagues, the exodus, the scenes at the Red Sea. This year he received the ten commandments with numerous ceremonial statutes. Eighty-one when the tabernacle, a costly moveable structure, designed for public worship, was erected. This year, near the frontiers of Canaan, ten of the twelve spies brought back an evil report. One hundred and nineteen when, at Meribah, he and Aaron, having offended, are prohibited entering Canaan. This year his sister Miriam, distinguished for her position and character, died, about one hundred and thirty years old. Aaron |