"Do not think I am a happy man," said he, " in having so many and such perfect animals. Alas! even in this perfect and happy world, there are always drawbacks. That fine-looking cow yonder happens to give nothing but warm water, instead of milk; and her calf, poor thing! died before it was a week old. 2. "Some of them are stone blind, some can not live in the light, and few of them can hear. No two of them eat the same food, and it is a great labor to take care of them. I sometimes feel as if I would almost as lief be a poor man." "I think I should rather," said Hafed. 3. While they were talking, in an instant they were in midnight darkness. The sun was gone, and Hafed could not, for some time, see his guide. "What has happened?" said he. "Oh, nothing uncommon," said the guide. "The sun happened to go down now. There is no regular time for him to shine; but he goes and comes just as it happens, and leaves us suddenly, as you see.” 4. "As I don't see," said Hafed; "but I hope he will come back at the appointed time, at any rate." "That, sir, will be just as it happens. Sometimes he is gone for months, and sometimes for weeks, and sometimes only for a few minutes, just as it happens. We may not see him again for months, but perhaps he will come soon." 5. As the guide was proceeding, to the inexpressible joy of all, the sun at once broke out. The light was so sudden, that Hafed at first thought he must be struck with lightning, and actually put his hands to his eyes to see if they were safe. He then clapped his hands to his eyes till he could gradually bear the light. There was a splendor about the sun, which he had never before seen; and it was intolerably hot. The air seemed like a furnace. 6. "Ah," said the owner of the cattle, 66 we must now scorch for it! My poor wool ox must die at once! Bad luck, bad luck to us! The sun has come back nearer than he was before. But we hope he will happen to go away again soon, and then happen to come back farther off the next time." 7. The sun was now pouring down his heat so intensely, that they were glad to go into the house for shelter,— a miserable-looking place indeed. Hafed could not but compare it with his own beautiful cottage. Some timbers were rotten; for the tree was not, as it happened, the same in all its parts. Some of the boards happened to be like paper, and the nails torn out; and these were loose and coming off. 8. They invited Hafed to eat. On sitting down at the table, he noticed that each one had a different kind of food, and that no two could eat out of the same dish.. He was told that it so happened, that the food which one could eat, was poison to another; and what was agreeable to one, was nauseating to another. 9.I suppose that to be coffee," said Hafed, “and I will thank you for a cup.' a cup." It was handed him. He had been troubled with the toothache for some hours; and how did he quail, when, on filling his mouth, he found it was ice, in little pieces about as large as pigeon-shot! 10. "Do you call ice-water coffee here?" said Hafed, pressing his hand upon his cheek, while his tooth was dancing with pain. "That is just as it happens. We put water over the fire, and sometimes it heats it, and sometimes it freezes it. It is all chance work." 11. Hafed rose from the table in anguish of spirit. He remembered the world where he had lived, and all that was past. He had desired to live in a world where there. was no God, where all was governed by chance. Here he was, and here he must live. 12. He threw himself on a bed, and recalled the past, -the beautiful world where he had once lived; his ingratitude; his murmurings against the wisdom and goodness of God. He wept like infancy. He would have prayed, and even began a prayer: but then he recollected that there was no 'God here; nothing to direct events; nothing but chance. He shed many and bitter tears of repentance. At last he wept himself asleep. 13. When Hafed again awoke, he was sitting under his palm-tree in his own beautiful garden. It was morning. At the appointed moment, the glorious sun rose up in the east; the fields were all green and fresh; the trees were all right end upward, and covered with blossoms; and the songsters were uttering their morning songs. 14. Hafed arose, recalled that ugly dream, and then wept for joy. Was he again in a world where Chance does not reign? He looked up, and then turned to the God of heaven, the God of laws and of order, and gave Him the glory, and confessed that His ways, to us unsearchable, are full of wisdom. He was a new man ever afterward; nothing gave him greater cause of gratitude, as he daily knelt in prayer, than the fact that he lived in a world where God ruled, and ruled by laws fixed, wise, and merciful. LESSON XXXIV. 1 VENUS is the second planet in order from the Sun, its orbit lying between that of Mercury and that of the Earth, at a mean distance from the Sun of about 66,000,000 miles. Its diameter is 7,500 miles, and its period of revolution round the sun is nearly 225 days. As the morning-star, it was called, by the ancients, Lucifer; as the evening-star, Hesperus. 2 MARS is the fourth planet in order from the Sun, or the next beyond the Earth, having a diameter of about 4,300 miles, a period of 687 days, and a mean distance of 139,000,000 miles. It is conspicuous for the redness of its light. 1. NO GOD. N. K. RICHARDSON. "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."* S there no God'? The white rose made reply, My ermine robe was woven in the sky;" The blue-bird warbled from his shady bower, 66 66 'My plumage fell from Hands that made the flower." 2. Is there no God'? The silvery ocean spray, 3. Is there no God'? The dying Christian's hand, Pale with disease, points to a better land; And, ere his body mingles with the sod, (p.) He, sweetly smiling, faintly murmurs,-"GOD." 4. "We publish God!" the towering mountains cry "Jehovah's name is blazoned on the sky!" The dancing streamlet and the golden grain, 5. The dew-drop diamond on the lily's breast, *Psalms, 14th, 1st verse, and 53d, 1st verse. 6. The glow of Venus1 and the glare of Mars,2 The morning bursting from the clouds of night ; prayer, 7. The child's fond prattle and the mother's 8. Beware, ye doubting, disbelieving throng, Whose sole ambition is to favor wrong; There is a God; remember while ye can, "His Spirit will not always strive with man." 1. 0 LESSON XXXV. THE PRESENCE OF GOD. AMELIA B. WELBY. THOU, who fling'st so fair a robe The glories of yon upper world; For Thou, the God of love, art there. |