Z
i
Selections and Comments.
A P ractical M an on P roto
plasm . — Professor Huxley made
but a short stay in New York, but
Iri s arrival was. the .ca u.se nf co n y e r-
sation between one of the city’s
amateur scientists and a matter-of-
fact friend. The amateur was an
enthusiastic admirer of Huxley, and
he spoke so extravagantly about
him, that his friends finally became
“ curious, arid asked," Who tirthail-
der is Huxley, anyway?” “You
don’t mean to say you have not
heard about Professor Huxley, the
.... great scientist ?’’ . “ Yes, I _ do
though;
what has he done ?”
r Why, man, Huxley made the im
portant discovery about proto-
plasm.” “ About what ?” “ Proto
plasm.” “ And what the dickens
is protoplasm ?” “ Now, look here,
you don’t mean to sit there and tell
me yon don’t know what protoplasm
• is ?” “ That’s just it. Nary proto
plasm ?”
“ Well, protoplasm is
__ what we may call the life princL.
pie.” “ Anything to do with insur
ance?” “Oh nonsense! The life
principle in nature; the starting
-point of vital action, so to speak.”
He discovered that, did he ?”
• Yes, a few years ago, in England.”
«• And what good is it going to do ?”
• Good ! a great deal of good. It
expands the eircle of human knowl
edge, and is valuable in bearing out
the theory of evolution. It is a
noble contribution to science, and it
has made Huxley one of the few
immortal names that was not bom’
io die.” “ So Huxley knows all
about the life principle, does he ?”
Yes—all about it.” “ And the
starting point of vital action ? ’
Exactly.” “ Well, see here now ;
can he take some of that protoplasm
and go and make a man, or a horse,
or an elephant with it ?” “ Oh, no,
he couldn’t.” “ Can he take it and
make anything at all of it—even a
gnat or a fly ?” I guess not.”
" Well, then he may just go to
thunder wi^jl his protoplasm; I
don’t believe it’s worth ten cents a
pound anyhow. ’Pears to me these
scientific fellows put on a big lot of
airs about very little. Protoplasm,
eh ! Shouldn’t wonder if Huxley
came over to get up a company to
work it. Did you say the mine is
in England ?” It is almost needless
to say that the scientist gave up his
friend in despair.— Selected.
*»
-I
A T hought for C hurches —In
an exchange we find the following
paragraph copied from t\\e Religious
flerald, of Richmond, Va. No
doubt it tells the truth—a truth
which is a serious one, and which
churches would do well to ponder :
" When' a pastor is so popular
that he fills the house without any
nprcinl offhrt ftii tKa port qf hia,
people, the latter suffer great loss,
and though the congregation grows
larger, the vital powers of the
church as steadily weaken. *
And
thus it is that we have known a
church to die (almost) while appar-
'enlTy on the flood tide ofpl'hsperity.-
In a Northern city, as we turned
away from a crowded church, we
asked a deacon: ‘ If your pastor
were to leave, bow many of those
people would you hold ?’ ‘ Not one
in twenty,’ was his prompt reply.
It is work —"earnest, prayerful
work—that saves souls and builds
up the churches.”— Christian Com
monwealth.
■
No G ood T hing W ithheld .—
This, then, is the promise unto
those that walk uprightly. It is
theprovidence of God, the special
provision vouchsaved to those who/
by His grace, are living consistently.
But we must be taught to remem
ber that it wdll be the great Giver,
who will decide what things are
good for us. We have’ our own
ideas of what is best, or rather, of
what we should like ; but it may
be that the wisdom which cannot
err will judge very differently. We
might ask wealth, a very question
able good to any man, and He
gives us poverty, or the anxieties of
winning the daily bread ; we may
wish for reputation, and humilia
tion is our lot, for high service in
the Church, and a lowly position is
assigned. But it matters not. He
doeth all things well; and with
that assurance we may safely say,
in the sincerity of a humble heart,
“ Thy will be done.”— Ex.
“W hat W ilt T hou H ave M e
Do ?”•—This was the question of the
awakened conscience
of St. Paul;
*
it has been the earnest cry of many
a heart since then. When under
the impulse of the new ’1x<n lovE,
the full heart has ardently, in these
words, sought the will of God. In
the deep perplexity of some trying
hour, standing as it were at the
crossing of the roads, the petition
has been uplifted for guidance and
light. Let us, in spirit of faith and-
reverent submission, wait the divine
reply, and which ever direction the
divine finger points, may we with
willing feet and thankful hearts
pursue our course, and thus fulfill
hi« blessed will.— C. IF,
L iving I t .—Ay, there’s the rub. vineyards and, houses ready furn
When you have come from your ished, were given to Israel. If
mountain of quiet communion, when God is the God the above quoted
beatific vision ended, the claims of Scriptures affirm, why were not
daily practical working life meet these nations permitted to live ?
you. When instead of a divine Why this wholesale slaughter of
converse you have'to face hearts TOKrofis—of men, women and chil-
and natures hard and repellant, dren / Where the justice of such
when you have, to exchange Tabor an act ? Infidels have much to say
for the market-place and the shin- about a God that could do this—
mu
e - 11
’*’J or tramc- his barbarity, injustice, cruelty,
in" 7)T angels Tor
me \rnr
ing, then do we need to cry for sup- etc., and it is well to be able to "
__
■p orti ng- ■gr a ee
s piri tual . ..ddmlDie Character
power. And yet this is the true the assaults of such ignorant pre-
sphere for the display of the Chris sumptious men. The same Book
tian graces; here in the thick of that tells us that these nations were
the fight, in the heaviest labor of thus treated, also gives a justifying
tKe vineyard we are fuTfillirigr the reasonfurit—a reason which must
divine purpose. When he cometh be entirely satisfactory to all intel
may he find us not listlessly wait ligent,. thinking people. Listen to
ing but watching and working.— Moses. Hear, O Israel: Thou art
to pass over Jordan this day to go
Christian Commonwealth.
in to possess nations greater and
D raw A L ine S omewhere .— mightier than thyself, cities great
Perhaps it is a natural revulsion and fenced up to heaven; a people
from the narrowness of a past age, great and tall, the children of the
but it is evident that among many Anakins, whom thou knowest, and
people, especially young men, there of whom thou hast heard say, Who
F ïtöffitawy tTTMtjtt-IMBr “n sten(I WorenJÎTdïïWreïFïïr
and discard all limits and function.
To slightly change the reason for
wearing the yellow ribbon, it is the
fashion now-a-days for a man to
boast that he may believe what he
likes, go where he likes, anil agree
with as much and as little as he
likes. 1 f human nature was utterly
irresponsible, save to itself, this
kind of doctrine might be counted
other than pure foolishness, but
surely in the next world, if not in
this, men will discover that they
cannot, save to their eternal hurt,
do as they like with what belongs
to God.— Ex.
Original Contributions.
BIBLE TALKS.
BT M. B. LEMEET
NTMBEB XVI n.
“ The Lord is good to all, and his
tender mercies are over all his
works” “Say unto them, As I
live sal th the Lord God, Thave no
pleasure in the death of the wicked;
but that the wicked turn from his
way and live.” “ For he doth not
afflict willingly.”
It has been already staged that
when the Lord brought the children
of Israel out of Egypt, the land
promised them—Caanan—was pos-
scssed by seven nations greater
than themselves; and that these
nations were all destroyed to make
room for the Israelites, and that
their land—their fields and crops,
Anak ? Understand therefore this
day that the Lord thy God goeth
before thee ; as a consuming fire he
shall destroy them, and bring them
down before thy face; so shalt
thou drive them out, and destroy
them quickly, as the Lord hath
said unto thee: Not for thy right
eousness or for the uprightness of
thy heart, dost thou go to possess
their land ; but for the wickedness
of these nations the Lord thy God
doth drive them out before thee, and
that he may perform the word
which the Lord sware unto thy
fathers, Abraham Isaac and Jacob.”
(Deut. 9: 1-5.) Then their de
struction was but the.penalty in
curred by their crimes.
Before Abraham was a father,
the Lord told him that his posterity
should be very numerous, literally
innumerable, and that he would > ’
give them the land of Caanan for a
possession; but before getting pos
session, they would be strangers in
a land not their own, and be afflict
ed by a nation w’hich the Lord
would judge; afterward they were
to come out with great substance.
“ In the fourth generation they
shall come hither again; for the
iniquity is not yet full." The
Amorites was one of the seven
nations inhabiting Caanan, and per
haps the greatest. The expression,
The iniquity of the Amorites is not
yet full, is very significant; they
had not yet become wholly corrupt.
So more time ■was to be granted