THE NATIVITY. In the dark and silent midnight, To a loud seraphic throng, Chorus-Alleluia, Alleluia, Jupiter the mighty, king of gods and men, is the vastest, the most important, and the most majestic. This colossal world of Jupiter has a diameter of about 88,000 miles, and which surpasses that of our earth by more than 11 times. The circumferance of Jupiter's world at the equator is about 275,000 miles. The volume of this giant Christ the Saviour, blessed Saviour, exceeds that of the earth by 1,234 Wake thou merry, merry morn; To redeem the world is born. O, such music as they chanted To creation's limits rang, This the burden of their anthem, See the hosts of Peace descending, Down salvation's mighty train; Its eternal depths of Grace, Floating down the hoary ages To eternity again. times. This immense globe seen at the distance at which we are situated from the moon, would appear to us with a diameter about 40 times larger than that of our satellite, and the surface of its disk would embrace on the celestial vault an extent 1,600 times greater than that of the full moon. This giant of the worlds travels through space, accompanied by a retinue of four satellites, at a mean distance of 496,000,000 miles from the sun, and which is more than five times greater than that of the earth from the same. Its orbit is more than 1,000,000,000 miles in extent, and through this it passes in 4,332 days, or 11 years, 10 months and 17 days. Such is the year of this immense globe. In order to complete its entire orbit during this period it speeds around the sun with a velocity of 700,000 miles a day, or a little more than eight miles a second. This is a little less than half the velocity of the earth in its orbit. But it revolves on its axis with a very great swiftness, for its day and night combined only last about nine hours and fifty five minutes. It is probable that this globe, although created before the earth, has preserved its pristine heat much longer by reason of its volume and mass. Is this characteristic heat sufficiently intense to prevent all manifestations of life? And is this globe, still at the DO FOREIGN MISSIONS PAY? present time, not in the state of a luminous star, but in the condition of a dark and burning one, entirely liquid, or scarcely covered with a first hardened crust, as the earth was before life began to appear on its surface? Or, indeed, is this colossal planet in that condition of temperature through which our own world passed through the primary period of its geological epochs, when life began to show itself under strange forms, as animal and vegetable beings of astonishing vitality and the convulsions and tempests of the new-born world? The last is the most rational conclusion that we can draw from the most recent and exact observations to which we are indebted for what we know of the present state of this vast world. Whether Jupiter be inhabited now, whether it was yesterday, or whether it will be to-morrow, is of little consequence to the grand, eternal philosophy of nature. Life is the object of its formation, as it was the object of the earth's formation. Therein is everything. The moments the hour is of little account. It is impossible for us to imagine that the existence of the stars can have any other object than that of receiving or giving life. Life! Such is the grand object which we shining in the destinies of creation. see The absence of life is to us a synonym for death and nothingness. Our logic refuses to believe that the millions of suns which are burning in infinite space are of no use, and they neither illumine, warm, nor govern anything. And if they are useful for something for us, this "something" is life, under whatever form it may be, from the simplest blade of grass up to the highest, most intelligent, most powerful mind. 53 If the gigantic world of Jupiter is now undergoing those conditions of temperature that marked the primitive epochs of the earth, we cannot consider it as being at present the seat of intellectual life. It is the land of the icthyosaurus, but not that of man; not the calm and tranquil world which is necessary for the manifestations of a delicate, nervous system and of contemplative thought. It is only later, in the future ages, that Jupiter will be inhabited by an intellectual race; and who knows whether, perhaps, it may not be ourselves? Its situation then will be incomparably superior to that of the earthan immense empire, a perpetual spring, long years and a mild, unvarying temperature will form an abode of peace and happiness truly worthy of our ambition and our hope.-Camille Flammraion. DO FOREIGN MISSIONS PAY? During the century missionary societies have increased in number twenty-fold, or from 7 to 194. Missionaries have increased over forty-fold, or from 170 to 7,000. The latter number does not include the more than 30,000 ordained native preachers, together with teachers and other native assistants, who are really engaged in missionary work among the heathen. Contributions for foreign missionary purposes have increased fortyfive-fold, or from $250,000 to $11,250,000 in America and Great Britain alone. Besides this, in these same countries, there is a growing interest and increased benevolence from year to year in the support of Home Missions. Converts have increased from 5,000 to 3,000,000. Protestants now occupy 500 fields, with 20,000 mission sta tions and nearly 40,000 missionaries, European, American, and native, and 500,000 children of heathen parents are being taught in Christian schools which schools have increased in the century two hundred fold, or from 70 to 14,000. The same progress is seen in the translations of the Scriptures, which have increased from 50 to 250 languages. For three thousand years there were but three versions of the Holy Scriptures. To-day the inspired record may be read in 350 tongues. At the beginning of the century there were but 5,000,000 copies of the Bible in the world, and it could be read by only one-fifth of the human race. To-day there are more than 160,000,000, and it is accessible to nine-tenths of the race. A sort of bird's eye view of the world, passing from country to country where the light of the gospel has gone, will further assure us of the progress that has been made in mission lands within a comparatively short time. Japan, so long closed against missionary operations, has literally been taken possession of by the Christian idea, and that since 1885. Recently the empire adopted the type of Christian civilization, with a written constitution, and a Parliament was elected, of which four per cent. of its members are Christians. The Christian population of India is doubling every ten years, and it is believed that with the present rate of progress it will reach 140,000,000 at the second centennial of Carey's first baptism. In the Sandwich Islands the people in fifty years have been transformed from cannibals to Christians, and in the island of Hawaii it is said there is to be found one of the largest Christian congregations in the world, numbering 4,500 members. The Fiji Islands have been Christianized within the memory of many now living, and the number of Christian worshippers on these islands today is given as 90,000. Three hundred islands in the Pacific have been evangelized. The island of Raratonga was Christianized in a single year. In the Samoan group, after fiftyfive years of missionary work, 60,000 children are in Christian schools. On the West coast of Africa, embracing Sierra Leone, there are 60,000 Christians. Missionary labors. began there in 1816. In the Telugu mission in India in 1878, 2,000 were converted in a single day, and 60,000 in that year. In the Friendly Islands, Terra del Fuego, New Zealand, Madagascar, in Australia, Persia, Arabia, Turkey and elsewhere there has likewise been great progress,s showing that the heathen are literally stretching out their hands for the bread and water of life-the gospel of the Son of God. There are in the United States and Canada, England and Scotland thirtyfour women's missionary societies, and they collect annually more than $1,000,000, and employ and support 1,397 missionaries, besides the great work they do in stimulating increased missionary zeal among the churches. These societies, all of recent origin, are the outgrowth of the marked missionary awakening of the past twentyfive years.-Christian at Work. EVERY man has a paradise around him until he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden.-Longfellow. Most persons are disposed to ex-pend more than they can afford, and to indulge more than they can endure. -Mme. de Puisieux. TEACHINGS OF THE SPIRIT. For the Young People. TEACHINGS OF THE SPIRIT. There are two great dangers of the present day; the search for truth without seeking the help of the Holy Spirit, and the fanatical belief in the leadings of the Spirit apart from the truth. The former is much the more prevalent error, and the one most necessary for the majority of Christians to guard against. In much of the attractive writing and preaching of the day we have the truth exalted. The truth of Jesus, it is said, must conquer because of its essential life. Doubtless it must; but the Lord Himself said He could not tell His disciples the full truth, because they could not bear it until the "Spirit should show it to them." St. Paul had the truth of the Old Testament, but he used it to sorry purpose before the Holy Spirit enlightened his mind. He says: "I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to Jesus of Nazareth." Observation shows that the human intellect, though possessing the highest culture, cannot comprehend the expressed mind of God. It goes off into vagaries and errors that sadly mislead society. How do we know it is error? Because it agrees not with the Word as written: "If they speak not according to this Word, it is because they have no light in them." This, we believe, is the explanation of the fact, so often deplored, that Christians themselves fail in their example before the world in many vital questions now agitating society. That inward monitor, "the Guide into all truth," is not regarded as He should be. A definite recognition of the special promised guidance, an honest 55 following of the light as it is given, a conscience made wakeful and wise as only the indwelling Spirit can make it, will lead to right opinions and con sistent action. HALF-TRUTHS. The world is misled by half-truths. No truth stands by itself. The assertion of a truth is liable to convey, if not by necessary implication at least by natural suggestion, an error, if there be silence respecting the truth which forms its counterpart and so converts the hemisphere into the globe. If it had been barely affirmed by Copernicus that the sun stands. still, and had he not at the same time taught that the earth moves in an orbit round the sun, he would have brought in more confusion than light. No religion is totally false. Mohammedanism proclaims a great truththe dominion in the world of an almighty will. The creed of Islam is mischievous, not in virtue of what it thus declares, but on account of that which it ignores. There is no type of theology calling itself Christian which is wholly erroneous. Few sermons are delivered in which there is not a positive inculcation of something that is true. But if we are to judge of the value of the sermon we must take into the account the things that are left out or called into question. There will be reactions in theology. An undue emphasis in one place gives occasion to an undue emphasis in another. So the integrity of Christian doctrine is broken. The symmetry of Christian truth is often sacrificed to the detriment of the congregations who listen to pulpit instruction. MASTERY OF THE FORCES OF NATURE. Many of the great forces of nature originally attract attention by their destructive effects. Fear-inspiring at first, upon closer acquaintance they are perceived to be capable of import ant service to man as he learns what are the laws of their action, and intelligently brings them under mastery. The ocean was doubtless regarded by primæval men as an object of might and mystery, exhibiting quiet moods only to lure its victims, and turning upon them with relentless fury when once they were in its power. The mountain stream, ordinarily charming and refreshing, was considered the treacherous agent of evil deities, at their will expanding its volume with tumultuous wrath and sweeping to destruction the dwellings of those who had ventured a home upon its banks. The lightning and thunder were unquestioned displays of anger and ill-will by the powers of the upper regions, occasionally accentuated by a well-directed bolt rending some mighty forest monarch and smiting the life that had sought shelter under its branches. But at length men conceived the possibility of bringing these great forces into subjection, and transforming their destructive abilities into agencies of blessing. No serious attempt was ever made to deprive them of their natural power, but rather to direct their operation and harness them for the service of man. Experimentation, timid and rude in the outset, but gradually becoming confident and skilful, finally transformed the storm-swept ocean into a highway for the world's commerce, chained the mountain torrent to the wheels of industry, and harnessed the lightning to bear men's despatch es and draw their vehicles of transit. The result is that the destructive effects of these great powers, so feared at first, have come to attract little notice compared with their marvellous serviceability when mastered and directed by intelligence. THE RESPONSIBILITY OF It is to the buoyancy and ardor of youth, with its high hopes and generous, sometimes almost quixotic aspirations, that we owe most of the great things that have been done in this world. Depend upon it, Alexander the Great would not have conquered the universe at sixty, and Lord Beaconsfield was not far wrong when he made Sidonia say that "The history of heroes is the history of youth." And it is for this reason that to those of us who believe in the moral and mental growth and amelioration of our country and our race, the subject which I have tried to illustrate possesses an absorbing interest. You, undoubtedly, enjoy advantages which were denied to the generation on whom the curtain is now rapidly falling. Remember that privileges involve responsibilities, and that to whom much is given of them will much be required. It is a trite saying that the future of a country is the property of its youth. In that sense you may be said to hold in your hands the threads of the destinies of England. The world of the future, with its far-stretching horizon, its boundless possibilities, belongs to you. To you it may be given to enter the promised land which we can only dimly discern from the height of our Pisgah. Like the runners in the old Greek festival, we hand the lightedtorch to you. Be sure that you so carry it in the race which is set before you that when your turn comes to quit the stage, and to make room for |