THE FIRESIDE.

back the hurrying waters. With no less calm and solemn footsteps, no less certainly, does a great mind bear up against public opinion, and push back its hurrying stream. Therefore should every man waitshould bide his time. Not in listless idleness-not in useless pastime -not in querulous dejection; but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavours, always willing and fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that, when the occasion comes, he may be equal to the occasion.Longfellow.

TRUST IN GOD.-Let us ever exercise a strong faith in God in all the various troubles of this sublunary state. We know that the soul has many things to try its patience, and at times is almost ready to despair; in fact we should give up if it were not for a superior agency to help our infirmities. Trust God. In our worldy calling, sometimes, we may find things to our disadvantage: never mind, let us look forward to better prospects, and trust in God. Trust God when temptations come. Many are the temptations which assail the true Christian while he is passing through life; but let us take courage by looking unto Jesus, and trusting Him. We know that He will help us if we are faithful to Him. Trust God in sickness. Yes, even then look to Him for solace and strength. Trust in God when the hour of death draws nigh. Ah! let us ever look away from the world: then it is we, more than ever, exult over our departure, and exclaim like St. Paul when he said that he had a desire to be with Christ, which is far better. Plymouth.

T. H.

The Fireside.

NUTRITION IN CHEESE.-Cheese of a good quality is richer in nutritive elements than any other known article of food. It is not itself very easy of digestion, although in moderate quantities it is known to help the digestion of other food. It contains in one pound of only a moderately good specimen 2,660 grains of carbon and 315 grains of nitrogen; if the free hydrogen be added to the former, then 3,283 grains of carbon, but the large quantity of nitrogen is the test of nutriment. A pound of the best roast beef contains only 362 grains of nitrogen, and a pound of boiled beef only 215 grains. In dried bacon there are only seventy-nine grains of nitrogen to the pound.

COOKING. There are a goodly number of people who talk about

NOTES AND QUERIES-FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

Notes and Queries.

C. K. L.-You had better read the whole Epistle through before deciding. It is not fair to the writer to fasten upon one passage only, and say that that passage explains the whole letter. You would not like your own letters to be treated in the way you mention.

J. W. H.-Yes: if the people's hearts were ready, they would understand them, not without.

M. A. B.-Some think that there are three classes of persons described -the violent, the persistent evil-doer, and the mocker. Yet one term is used to cover them all in the fourth

verse.

A. C. P.-Not exactly. The disciples did meet on the first day of the week, as you may see in the Acts; and that is quite enough.

B. T. M.-Nehemiah is not talking as a Pharisee would talk, and you are dealing unfairly with his words so to judge them. If one passage seems hard to explain, let the light of another passage, about which there is no manner of doubt, explain it. This is a safe and wise rule in reading all Scripture.

Try

S. T.-Do not be discouraged. again. The effort to succeed will itself be a gain.

C. M.-"Salvation" is a term which, J. S. L.-Always try to remember both in the Old and New Testament, the difference in habit and climate. must be interpreted by the context. A good deal of difficulty will be thus It often means in the Psalms simply removed. deliverance from bodily peril.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.

Facts.

INSANITY.-In England and Wales the ratio of the insane to the population is 1 to 373, in Massachusetts 1 to 423, in New York 1 to 587, in Illinois 1 to 866, and in Iowa 1 to 1101.

Spain has more sheep in proportion to her population than any country in Europe, next comes England, then Denmark, Roumania and Hungary. Saxony, Belgium and Switzerland have the least.

The consumption of oysters in the United States has reached the enormous aggregate of 50,000,000 bushels annually.

Ivory is three times as heavy as elm.

Buckwheat is a native of China. The cultivation of the poppy prospers well in Mozambique.

The pianoforte teachers in Paris are said to number 40,000.

Brazil has an area of 3,287,964 English square miles.

Hints.

"A polite man," said the Duc de Morny, "is one who listens with interest to things he knows all about when they are told by a person who knows nothing about them."

All are not merry that dance lightly. -George Herbert.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbours.-Thoreau.

There is great power in a definite enumeration of our blessings in words. It makes us find out that we are a thousand-fold richer than we thought.

-Christian Union.

Most of those experiences which make the whole world kin must beElizabeth Stewart Phelps. come personal to become interesting.

The rude man is contented if he sees but something going on; the man of more refinement must be made to feel; the man entirely refined desires to reflect.-Goethe.

Let us pray God that He would root out of our hearts everything of our own planting, and set out there, with His own hands, the tree of life, bear-Nor ing all manner of fruits.-Fenelon.

A workshop is not a bad place for It preaching in. If the heart of one workman is filled with the love of Christ, all the hands will hear of it.Arnot.

The essential thing in religion is the Whose seed is in itself, and ever true practice of it.

DEEPER ACQUAINTANCE.

THE thought has often and often come to me, how little and how rarely people hold any real communion with each other. We meet daily, or weekly, perhaps; but then it is either in business, in the the talk of the street, or the pleasant chat of the friendly call. To most of us other people's hearts are a sealed book, into whose mystic and unopened pages we seldom look, the deeper meaning of whose thoughts we never comprehend. You have seen your neighbour a hundred times; but how often have you sat down and honestly, earnestly" compared notes" with him on the higher and better topics of life and its problems. You may know his opinion of politics, his business tactics, something of his social tastes and literary learnings, if he have any; but have you yet gotten into the sacred place where his better thoughts lie, and touched the chords of his inner life, and heard their music?

As men may look every day upon flowers and be familiar with their appearance, recognise their colour, and the shape of leaf and petal, and yet never enter into that deeper companionship with the flower-nature which is born of insight into their structure, their laws of growth, their comparative beauty, and the higher signficance of their being; so it is possible to recognise the face and figure of a friend, and yet to be totally ignorant of the hidden springs of life, the real nobleness of his nature, the great richness of his inner self. And how much better it would be if men would cultivate this more intimate acquaintanceship.

How many of the little prejudices which, from accident, from hearsay, and from slander, grow up as walls between men, and prevent the sweet intercourse of a life-time, would melt away and pass for ever from their vision, if they could sometimes come near, and feel the warmth of each other's better nature. Often and often have we known something such in our experience. Some mere chance, a great cause, a crushing sorrow, an accidental throwing together, has shot like a revelation the conviction to our hearts that the partition wall which had for years risen between us and another was as unsubstantial as cobwebs, and vanished uttterly before that first look of intelligence which passed between our awakened souls.

How the fancies of years dissolved into thin air, and we discovered the real goodness that had hitherto been altogether concealed from our view. So strangers grew to be friends.

Then how much help we should gain from cultivating this better and more intimate acquaintanceship. The heart of every

DEEPER ACQUAINTANCE.

man and woman bows beneath the burden of unsolved problems, of strange doubts, of knotty questions in practical work, and its eagerly looking for answering light. Such seldom flashes down upon us from above. 'Tis no supernatural revelation, that floods us with its unwonted gleams, as the brilliancy flashed upon the eyes of Saul, when journeying towards Damascus. The knowledge is slowly, painfully evolved out of our own experience, our own mistakes, and often erring attempts. 'Tis only after years of patient groping in semi-darkness, often late in life, that we come to a more or less satisfactory answer to these questions. How much better it would be if we were to put these problems before one another, and, throwing our collective experiences together, -each contributing a single ray of light may be add such a brightness and plainness to the difficult pathway of life as would save us many a fall, and tide us over many a rough and unpleasant place. So, dear reader, after you have passed the time of day, and talked of the crops, and the trade prospects, and all such, why not draw your chair nearer to your friend, and mutually open your hearts to each other in kindly counsel and earnest seeking?

What, after all, is the best thing to live for, and how shall we best compass it; what are the higher, better tendencies of our beings, and how shall we cherish them? What are the consolations of life, and whence are they obtained; what of the influence of the unseen and unknown upon our natures, and how most reasonably are they allowed to operate? All these, and scores like these, might, with the greatest benefit, form the subjects of never-to-be forgotten soul-feasts from which we could arise, feeling that we had gained lasting and nourishing spiritual food.

It need that we be philosophers to canvass such questions. Each one of us has in his heart, in his inner life, the seed and kernel of all philosophy. Dimly perceived and unformulated, there lie the feelings, the yearnings, the aspirations, and the uncertain lookings-for which are the stock of all philosophers.

Our plea is for a closer friendship of friends-a getting down deeper than the wind-blown froth of business and politics, and society gossip, into the calm and soundless currents of our real natures. So could we stir up the purer fountains of life in each other, give form and tendency to the hazy, ill-defined broodings of our minds, provide an effectual antidote for superficiality and hollowness, and draw closer the bonds of real and lasting friendship. For all about us men's hearts are filling with dampness and mildew from very want of being unlocked; aspirations lie choked and dwarfed from very lack of the kindly hand of the tiller; grand possibilities lie coiled up in thousands of our fellows, waiting the