scores and hundreds of news-stands upon the sidewalks offering to our citizens the vilest kind of reading matter, all of which is an offence to the laws of both man and his Maker ?"

It was recently stated to one of our friends, by one whose position gives weight to his opinions, that the practical enforcement of the existing laws against demoralizing literature was not likely to be effected, unless through the aid of some association (such as the Law and Order Society) which could make an organized effort. While this is probably true, we think the success attending the concern of our friend J. W. Leeds, may encourage others, whose minds are impressed with the sense of a duty to be performed in this matter, to go forward with a degree of simple faith and courage. Whether their efforts meet with apparent success or not, those labors that are performed in the Lord's fear and under his counsel, cannot fail of bringing a blessing upon the faithful servant.

It is proper to add, that we believe there are news-dealers who refuse to sell (and we trust on the ground of principle) the demoralizing papers referred to by the Christian Statesman.-The Friend.

THE VALUE OF MANNER.

We have heard it said that you can do everything, however unplesant it may be to those around you, if you only do it in the right way; and the instance given to prove the truth of this assertion is taken from humble life. A cat walks daintily into a room on a cold winter's day, and with a benign glance at the company and a melodious purring sound she walks leisurely round; selects for herself the warmest place in the room-perhaps the only warm place, right in front of the fire-curls herself up and goes serenely to sleep, secure that no one will be so unreasonble as to question her right to sleep wherever inclination prompts her to do so. No one calls it selfish; no one is annoyed, because she has done it so prettily and gracefully. Indeed, all experience an access of warmth and comfort in themselves from beholding pussy's blissful repose. Now, imagine the same thing done in a different way, and by a less self-possessed individual. If it were done hurriedly, or noisily, or clumsily, or diffidently, even, or in any way obtrusively, what a storm of indignation it would excite in the bosoms of all beholders! How thoughtless, how inconsiderate, how selfish! No, it must be done as the cat does it, without a sound or a gesture to provoke criticism, or it must not be done at all.-Lon. Spectator.

WE are shaped and fashioned by what we love.-Goethe.

GOD AND THE SOUL.

The soul wherein God dwells,
What church can holier be?
Becomes a walking tent

Of heavenly majesty.

How far from here to heaven?
Not very far, my friend,
A single hearty step

Will all thy journey end.

Though Christ a thousand times
In Bethlehem be born,
If he's not born in thee,
Thy soul is still forlorn.
The cross on Golgotha

Will never save thy soul,
The cross in thine own heart
Alone can make thee whole.
Hold there! where runnest thou!
Know heaven is in thee.
Seek'st thou for God elsewhere,
His face thou'lt never see.

Ah, would thy heart but be

A manger for the birth,
God would once more become
A child upon this earth.
I don't believe in Death,
If hour by hour I die ;
'Tis hour by hour to gain
A better life thereby.
Go out; God will go in ;

Die thou and let Him live,
Be not, and He will be;
Wait, and He'll all things give.
O, shame! A silkworm works
And spins till it can fly,
And thou, my soul, wilt still
On thine old earth-clod lie.

-Angelus Silesius, 1620.

ASPECTS OF THE PLANETS FOR JULY.

Venus is the evening star until the 11th, then, to the regret of every lover of the stars, he deserts the western sky, where she has eigned with queenly majesty and grace for early ten months, and is seen there no more. he is not lost, however, for when she disapears from the sun's eastern side as evening tar, she reappears on his western side as Borning star. The event is called her inferior onjunction. It takes place on the 11th, at o'clock in the evening. She then passes etween us and the sun, with her dark side urned toward the earth, like the moon at few moon. In like manner she made the assage on the never to be forgotten 6th of December, 1882, but with this difference:

At the present inferior conjunction, she passes above the sun, and is invisible. At he previous inferior conjunction, she was hear one of her nodes, and was projected on he sun's surface as a round black orb, while the grand phenomenon of her transit made he event memorable to every observer. The ike will not be seen again until the year 2004, for, at every intervening inferior conunction, she will pass above or below the sun, and no mortal eye will detect her presence as she passes.

The reason is plain. The orbit of Venus is inclined about three and a half degrees to the ecliptic, so that she is half the time above the sun's path, and half the time below it. She must be at or near one of her nodes or crossing points to bring her directly between the earth and sun, and make her passage or transit visible to terrestrial view.

The interval between an inferior conjunction and the one next succeeding is 584 days. This is called the synodic period of Venus, although she completes her revolution around the sun in 224 days. As the earth and Venus are both moving, nearly three revolutions of Venus are required to bring the sun, Venus, and the earth into line.

Our brilliant celestial neighbor moves very apidly in this portion of her orbit, and soon ecomes visible as the brightest star that hines in the morning sky. She will be worth getting up early to behold at the end of the month, rising then a few minutes after 3 'clock, nearly two hours before the sun. The waning crescent has become the waxing rescent. Hesperus, the evening star, is transormed into Lucifer, the light-bearer. Beauiful as she will be when, a month or two ence, she anticipates the dawn, her morning harm never quite equals the lovely appearnce she puts on amid the glowing splendor f the twilight sky or the grand proportions he assumes as she slowly sinks below the estern hills.-Providence Journal.

NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES.

Plant Culture in Moss.-A novel feature, and one that attracted some attention at the recent Regent's Park show, was some baskets of plants said to have been grown in prepared moss and entirely without soil. The exhibitor was Captain Halford Thompson, who claims to have discovered a new method of thus growing plants. Some time ago a Frenchman of the name of Dumesnil patented a kind of fertilizing moss for the purpose of growing plants without soil. With this production of M. Dumesnil, Captain Thompson states that he made several experiments, which resulted in his considering it open to serious objections, and was by no means certain in its results. These defects Captain Thompson has endeavored to remedy in a new preparation with which he has experimented, and by means of which he states he produced the luxuriant plants which he exhibited on Wednesday. Having found that by Dumesnil's moss it was quite possible to grow plants without soil, he set to work to prepare a fertilizing substance which would enable plants to be grown in it without the precautions necessary in using Dumesnil's moss, and he thinks that he has been perfectly successful in his endeavors.

He states that "plants in full bloom can be taken out of the ground or out of pots, and after all the earth has been carefully washed off, planted in moss which has been previ ously prepared with fertilizing fiber. They never even flag, but grow more luxuriantly than in soil." The plants shown by Captain Thompson fully bore out his statement, for it would be difficult to imagine more luxuriant plants than those he showed. They consisted of tuberoses, begonias, variegated vitis, gardenias, fuchsias, tradescantias, and others. All were furnished with healthy foliage, and were for the most part carrying flowers. The advantages of this method are stated by the inventor to be two-fold; first, the extreme lightness of a number of plants when grown together in one basket; another is the portability, an advantage which renders plants grown in this way particularly suitable for the embellishment of rooms and windows. No doubt to those who live in towns, where potting soil is not easily procured, this moss would be a special boon, on account of its lightness, portability, and cleanliness; but in the country, where mould is readily obtained, it would probably be less trouble to grow plants in the usual way, and we presume that Captain Thompson's invention commends itself to townspeople. In a small pamphlet the method of applying this moss is explained as follows:

"Take the plants you wish to put into the basket, carfully wash off all earth from the

roots with tepid water, taking care not to injure the roots in doing so; then plant them in the ordinary way in the moss, which should be previously well wetted; if possible, keep the basket in a warm place free from draught for three or four days. The plants can, if wished, be transplanted from earth when in full bloom; they will not feel the check. After two months the upper layer of moss should be removed, and a similar quantity of my moss put in its place. If selaginella is grown on the surface of the moss (as in some of the baskets shown before the Botanical Society), it should be carefully removed first and replaced after the moss has been changed. The baskets do not require watering oftener than plants grown in earth do. The weight of the baskets will show if they want water." -The Garden.

THE DOG CARTS OF ANTWERP.

In Belgium, the country people are mostly poor: even those who think themselves "well off" are not what we should call so. Some of them have small farms just outside the city walls, and raise vegetables for the markets. They seldom can afford a horse, so they keep a number of large, strong dogs,sometimes as many as five or six,-which they harness to their market carts. If you could see these dog teams tugging along, you would understand what it means when people say they have to "work like a dog." About all these farmers have to eat is a sort of dark-colored, coarse bread; and the same kind of bread is fed to the horses. It looks very queer to see the cab-drivers cutting off the slices for their horses.

The bakers and butchers and grocers, and a great many other people, keep dog teams. Most of the milk-women bring the milk to the city in shining brass cans packed into their little dog carts; and, when they go home again, they pack themselves in too, along with the empty cans, and, while the poor dogs tug along home, they sit and knit.

This morning one of these market dog carts was standing before our house, and Madam Van de Vin, my landlady, was chatting with Pauline, the driver, trying to decide whether she would buy a cabbage or a cauliflower, when our great black cat walked lazily out, and right along under the very noses of the dogs; and quicker than a flash those four dogs and that cart were on their way down the street as fast as they could go after our foolish cat. Pauline had just time to catch hold of the reins, and she went with them shouting, “Arretez! Arretez!” as loud as she could, and the last I saw of them they

turned into another street in a cloud of dust. -Wide Awake.

THE Mexican Government has entered in an agreement with a steamship company give a bonus of $60 per head for Chinese lab ers, to be landed at Guayamas under a lab contract.

Toulon and at Marseilles, France, and repor THE cholera has made its appearance state that the number of deaths is increasin Dr. Koch, the German cholera expert, h gone to Toulon.

THE anti-Jewish rioters arrested some day

ago at Nijni Novgorod are to be tried by cour martial, as the civil tribunal refused to convi them, owing to the prevalence among the pe sants of animosity to the Jews.

THE Pan-Presbyterian Council at Belfas Ireland, concluded its work on the 3d ins Principal Cairns, of Edinburgh, delivered th farewell address. The Council will meet

London in 1888.

THE Philadelphia Board of Education ha decided to permit the pupils of the Centr High School and Girls' Normal School an Exhibition to be held in September next, o the terms proposed by the Managers, and the no sessions of the schools should be held o the days on which the visits should be mad

the Grammar schools to attend the Electric

IN order to ascertain the effect of darkne upon flowers an English experimenter plante a hyacinth bulb in October, 1882, and, as soo as it commenced to sprout, removed it to perfectly dark but well-ventilated place. I March, 1883, a stem of dark purple flowers wa produced, the leaves of the plant being total colorless. In October, 1883, the same bulb wa again planted, and was grown in the ligh through the winter. It has flowered agai less deeply colored than that which came fort. this year, and the flower cluster is smaller an last year in the darkness.

VOL. XLI.

No. 24.

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INSTRUCTION IN FIRST-DAY SCHOOLS.

The general interest now manifested in First-day schools, and the desire on the part of some of our members to have them recognized by the Society, places a grave responsibility upon those who are giving instruction in these institutions.

Friends, as a body, have always maintained that intellectual research is not sufficient to enable any one to explain to others the meaning of certain psssages of Scripture. They have steadily held to the opinion that the same inspiration which enabled the penmen to write those records, is required by the reader to enable him to interpret the written word. Thus at the very threshold we are met by a condition-not to call it a difficulty -which does not exist in other religious denominations.

Our young men and young women who meet their classes from week to week, feel that the children are expecting something from them, but they distrust their own ability or worthiness to hand forth any spiritual food. Their work is quite different from that of teaching a catechism, or explaining a text by the study of commentaries. Under such circumstances they may well say, we know what should not be done, but how shall we know what to do?

Having had some experience of this kind,

I can sympathize with those who are engaged in the work, and who are sincerely desirous, at least, to do no harm. After considerable reflection on the subject, it has seemed to me that there are three lessons which may safely be taught, and the principles therein contained inculcated by a variety of precepts and illustrations. The three may be designated by the topics, reverence, loyalty, and stillness.

The first of these includes a veneration for all sacred subjects; for everything to which the term religious is applicable. Positively, it enjoins reverence; and negatively, it interdicts ridicule or levity as applicable to serious things. Texts of Scripture, matters of conscience, the ministry, prayer, all references to death, or to a future state, should be treated with a gravity becoming their solemn import; while jesting in reference to any of these may be held up as a species of profanity. The children might also be cautioned against the use of such words as sacred, or religious, when applied to a merely moral obligation. The older pupils might be able to comprehend the difference between religion and morality by the illustration of a simple principle in philosophy: the greater includes the less, but the less cannot fill the greater. But all— younger as well as older-should be cautioned to guard against levity of manner, or even of thought, in treating sacred subjects. Gravity