those northern regions the air is clear and biting, to an extent never known in more temperate climates. The members of their party were each wrapped up warmly, and anticipated a pleasant drive. Their sledge was drawn by dogs, and driven by an Esquimaux Indian. Another sledge followed, in which were other natives, who were friends of the Missionaries, and among them were a woman and her child.

The whole party were in high spirits. They had one hundred and fifty miles to go, which they expected to accomplish in about two days, as most of the way was over the frozen sea, and the sledges ran with ease, and the dogs were fresh and in full vigour.

After they had journeyed some hours, and were a long distance from the shore, upon the clear, glistening ice that covered the ocean, they met a sledge containing some strange Esquimaux Indians. These natives were hastening for the land as rapidly as possible. They barely stopped a moment, and advised the Missionaries to return at once to the shore. They gave no reasons for their advice, and as the Missionaries could see no cause for returning, it was not heeded by them. The weather was fair: hardly a cloud was seen in the sky. The frozen ocean, as far as the eye could reach, was as motionless as though the treacherous waves beneath were chained for ever. Not many moments passed, however, before their driver thought he perceived what is called a ground-swell, under the ice. He jumped from his sledge. Lying down, he placed his ear upon the frozen surface. He then distinctly heard a hollow grating and roaring noise that seemed as if ascending from the abyss beneath. The travellers now quickened the pace of their dogs. Soon the motion of the sea under the ice was more perceptible. The drivers turned for the shore, and urged the dogs to their utmost speed. The wind soon began

to blow, and dark clouds seemed to rise up almost as if by magic from the horizon. The ice began to break: it opened here and there, in fissures and cracks one or two feet wide. These were rapidly crossed by the frightened company, and still they urged forward their dogs on their perilous way.

But now the warning signs increased. As the sun descended toward the west, the wind rose to a storm. The snow upon the rocks and mountainous ledges of the coast, was violently driven up by occasional gusts, and filled the atmosphere. The ground-swell increased so much, that the vast body of ice, upreared by a troubled ocean beneath, heaved fearfully in many places, and rose slowly like gathering waves. The sledges no longer moved swiftly and smoothly along, but could, with difficulty, be preserved from overturning. Loud noises, too, were heard in the distance, resembling the discharges of cannon, occasioned by the breaking up of the ice.

The Esquimaux eagerly strove to gain the shore; but it soon appeared evident that the ice would burst midway between them and the land. As they neared the coast, the prospect before them was truly terrific. The ice was grinding and breaking into a thousand pieces against the precipices, with a tremendous noise, which, added to the raging of the wind, and the snowstorms driving about in the air, utterly prevented their hearing or seeing anything distinctly. It was with the utmost difficulty the terrified dogs could be urged onward, amid the rising and falling of the icy sea. The drivers paused a few seconds, in a sort of mute despair. Then, seizing the critical moment when the trembling mass dashed wildly to the level of the coast, they drove their sledges furiously along it, and succeeded in their hazardous attempt.

They had hardly time to look around them, after gaining the land, when that part of the ice from which they

had just made their escape, burst asunder, and the water forced itself from below. In an instant, the whole frozen mass, in the wildest imaginable ruin, broke loose. The vast surface, as far as the eye could reach, was crumbling, crushing, piling, and tossing itself madly, amidst a clamour utterly indescribable, and through which the braying of a thousand trumpets could no more have been heard than the puny voice of a child.

The Missionaries were overwhelmed with amazement at their marvellous escape, and even the pagan Esquimaux expressed gratitude to God on account of their deliverance.

Their first care was to build a snow house, about thirty paces from the beach; and very glad were they to creep into its shelter, thanking God for this place of refuge from the stormy wind and cold, which were so violent as to deprive them almost of breath, and vital warmth. Having sung a hymn, the whole party lay down, and composed themselves to rest. The natives were all soon asleep, but the Missionary Liebisch, could not repose, owing in part to the dreadful roaring and tumults of the elements without, and also to the severe pain which he suffered from sore-throat. His wakefulness saved the whole party from death in another form.

About two o'clock in the morning, he perceived salt water dropping from the snow-roof. He was just about to give the alarm, when a tremendous surf broke close to the hut, and carried away the slab of snow placed before the entrance. He instantly awoke the sleepers. One of the Esquimaux, with his knife, cut a passage through the side of the house, and each of the others, seizing a part of the baggage, rushed out. The poor woman, with her child, fled in terror to a neighbouring eminence, whither they all followed, and took shelter behind a rock; which they had scarcely done, when a second wave swept away the snow hut. Cut

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ting holes in the snow, they tried to find a partial covert; but, during the remainder of the night, they suffered much on account of the wind, sleet, and snow. As soon as the miserable hours of darkness were passed, they gazed around, and saw not a vestige of ice remaining. All before them was open sea. As soon as possible, the Esquimaux built a second hut, eight feet square, and six feet high; but now another terrible calamity pressed upon them. Famine, a fiercer enemy than cold, came on apace: their slender stock of provisions, though doled out in pittances, could not possibly last long, and there was no prospect of their being able soon to quit this dreary place, and reach the home they had left.

Only two ways were left for escape: either to attempt the passage over the wild and unfrequented mountain, Kiglapiet; or wait for the sea to freeze again a biscuit and a half a day was the allowance for each. The poor natives were soon so sorely pinched with hunger, that they devoured an old sack made of fish-skins. While they were at this strange meal, they kept singing in a low tone, “You were a sack but a little while ago, and now you are food for us." Their spirits, too, began to sink; but happily they found refuge from their miseries in sleep, as they possess the convenient faculty of being able to go to rest whenever they please, and can, if necessary, go to sleep for days and nights together.

Meanwhile, the Moravians kept sad and anxious watch, looking forth wistfully from their snowy shelter, over the wide waste around. The poor dogs had now fasted four days; and another source of disquiet was occasioned by the mildness of the air, which thawed the roof, so that their clothes were thoroughly soaked, and they had not a dry place to lie on. At length, after remaining six days in this miserable place, they resolved to

return to Nain. There was no way to effect this but one; and their Esquimaux driver ran forward as a kind of pioneer to find the track. The brethren followed with their sledge. It was a weary, fearful journey. They made a last meal of the remainder of their provisions, and by dint of boldness and skill arrived at length at Nain, to the great joy of the whole settlement, and especially of their own families, who had been reduced almost to despair of ever beholding them again. This is but one of the numerous perils and escapes of which the Moravians speak in the simple annals of their mission to Labrador.

CHRISTIAN SUBMISSION. "LORD, what Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, and how Thou wilt," was Baxter's utterance; and he "being dead, yet speaketh."

What a world of trouble would be avoided, what volumes of complaint would be saved, if this language were adopted by every servant of God! Why should it not be! Does not God know what is for the best interest of every one? Is it not certain that He will give to each one what is best for him? Is there any flaw in the argument of the Holy Spirit, "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Baxter felt that his times were in the hands of God, and he was willing to have it so. There are events which we know must take place, trials which we know must be borne. We know that in regard to them we must exercise submission. We strive to do

submission, in consequence of circumstances connected with the event. The event we could have borne, had it not been for the manner in which it occurred. It is as important that we are able to say, "how Thou wilt," as "what Thou wilt," and "when Thou wilt."

THE GREEK'S EVENING-HYMN.

[This hymn is to the scattered hamlets of Chios and Mitylene what Bishop Ken's Evening-Hymn is to the Christian homes in our own land. Its melody is singularly plaintive and soothing. It is attributed to St. Anatolius of Constantinople, who died about A.D. 458.]

THE day is past and over:

All thanks, O Lord, to Thee! I pray Thee now, that sinless The hours of dark may be. O Jesu! keep me in Thy sight, And save me through the coming night.

The joys of day are over:

I lift my heart to Thee; And ask Thee that offenceless

The hours of dark may be. O Jesu! make their darkness light, And save me through the coming night! The toils of day are over:

I raise the hymn to Thee; And ask that free from peril

The hours of dark may be. O Jesu! keep me in thy sight! And guard me through the coming night! Be Thou my soul's preserver,

O God! for Thou dost know How many are the perils

Through which I have to go! Lover of men, O hear my call, And guard and save me from them all!

The Zoology of the Bible.

THE WILD BOAR. TRAVELLERS in the East frequently refer to this animal and to its ravages when it gets into a rice-field or a vineyard; for although its natural food be wild roots and wild fruits, if cultivated grounds be in the neighbourhood its ravages are very annoying to the hus

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Messrs. Irby and Mangles as they approached the Jordan saw a herd of nine wild pigs, and they found the trees on the banks of a stream near that river all marked with mud, left by the wild swine in rubbing themselves: a valley which they passed was grubbed up in all directions with furrows made by these animals, so that the soil had all the appearance of having been ploughed

up.

Burckhardt mentions the occurrence of the wild boar and panther together, or the ounce, as he calls it, on the mountain of Rieha, and also in the wooded part of Tabor. He mentions "a common saying and belief among the Turks, that all the animal kingdom was converted by their Prophet to the true faith, except the wild boar and buffalo, which remained unbelievers it is on this account that both these animals are often called Christians. We are not surprised that the boar should be so denominated; but as the flesh of the buffalo, as well as its leben or sour milk, is much esteemed by the Turks, it is difficult to account for the disgrace into which that animal has fallen among them; the only reason I could learn for it is, that the buffalo, like the hog, has a habit of rolling in the mud, and of plunging into the muddy ponds in the summer-time up to the very nose, which

Travels, p. 147.

alone remains visible above the surface."+ Wild boars were frequently fallen in with by this traveller during his Syrian travels in the neighbourhood of rush-covered springs, where they could easily return to their "wallowing in the mire:" he also met with them on all the mountains he visited in his tour. In the Ghor they are very abundant, and so injurious to the Arabs of that valley that they are unable to cultivate the common barley on account of the eagerness with which the wild swine feed on it; and are obliged to grow a less esteemed kind, with six rows of grains, which the swine will not touch.

Messrs. Hemprich and Ehrenberg tell us that the wild boar is far from scarce in the marshy districts around Rosetta and Damietta, and that it does not seem to differ from the European species. The head of a wild boar which these travellers saw at Bischerre, a village of Lebanon, closely resembled the European variety, except in being a little longer. The Maronites there, who ate its flesh in their company, called it chansir; a name evidently identical with the Hebrew word chasir, which occurs in the Bible. The Turks, according to Ehrenberg, keep swine in their stables, from a persuasion that all devils who may enter will be more likely to go into the pigs than the horses, from their alliance to the former unclean animals.

+ Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, p. 9.

No. CXXIII.

"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." (Matt. xii. 36, 37.)

These idle words are profane atheistical discourse, blaspheming God and His providence, ridiculing His worship and religion, the doctrines and precepts of it, and those miracles which were wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost for the confirmation of Christianity, to which our Saviour particularly refers in this

place; or obscene and wanton discourse, which St. Paul calls "corrupt communication," which should never come into the mouths of Christians; and all reviling and reproachful speeches, slandering, backbiting, railing, which our Saviour threatens with eternal damnation.

Atheistical, profane, obscene, reviling discourses make up the wit, and humour, and conversation of the age. These men never think of being judged for their words; yet words are the first and most natural indications of the temper and dispositions of the mind; for out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh. Our words betray the atheism and in