EFFECTS OF THE WEATHER ON PIETY.-Here are some suggestive thoughts, which we advise all to read and ponder: "There is a mystery about this effect of the weather on piety. Sabbath heat seems hotter, Sabbath co d colder, and rain wetter than that of any other day. For the same measure of heat or cold or rain, on a week day, will not keep a man from his usual business. We need a Sabbath almanac, calculated for churches, that will show by its weather-scale when it will be safe for a vigorous Chris tian to expose himself on the Sabbath by going to the house of God. Such an almanac would enable pastors and superintendents of Sabbath-schools to know whom they could depend on in church, Sabbath school, and prayer meeting. I have recently been examining microscopic views of snow flakes, a hundred or so of them. I would suggest to our curious savants an examination of Sabbath snow, to see if it has a peculiarly sharp and injurious crystal."

PULPIT SUGAR PLUMS.-A pastor, who had recently taken a charge at the West, after years of successful work in New England, said of his pulpit exercises, which were helpful to adults and children alike: "I always have a pocket in my sermon, with a sugar plum or two in it for children of the congregation; so I have always something in my prayers that I think will suit their case." That pastor held the attention and the love of the little ones of his flock without losing his hold on the larger ones. He gave each a portion in due season. His example thus far is worthy of imitation. The chi dren are the most impressible hearers of an ordinary congregation. It is certainly worth while for the preacher to say something for their interest and instruction. Yet not every pastor has a word for children from the pulpit.

EARNESTNESS.-The late Rev. Rowland Hill, in once addressing the people of Wotton, raising himself, exclaimed, "Because I am in earnest, men call me an enthusiast. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill, and saw a gravel pit fall in and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loud, that I was heard in the town below, a distance of near a mile; help came, and rescued two of the sufferers No one called me an enthusiast then; and when I see eternal destruction ready to fall upon poor sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in an eternal mass of woe, and call aloud on them to escape, shall I be called an enthusiast now? No, sinners, I am no enthusiast in so doing; and I call on thee aloud to fly for refuge to the hope set before thee in the Gospel."

LIVE FOR THE ETERNAL WORLD.-At a Christian convention, a minister said, that when he was a lad, going by an insane asylum, a young, emaciated female stretched her bony hand through the iron grating, and called out to bim in startling tones:

Young man, live for the eternal world! live for the eternal world!" These words never were effaced from his mind; and, when he grew up, they kept ringing in his ears. In all probability, they were one of the means that God used to induce him to consecrate himself to the service of his Maker. God can use even the insane to call us to our duty. What more appropriate words could be sounded in our ears than these, "Live for the eternal world?"

THE origin of the favorite hymn, "From Greenland's icy mountains,” the original manuscript of which is in the collection of Mr. Raffles, magistrate of Liverpool, is thus given by Dean Howson in the Art Journal:

"When Bishop Heber was a young man, missionary sermons were not sh frequent as they are now; and on one occasion, when he was staying with

Dean Shirley, vicar of Wrexham his father-in-law, such a sermon was to be preached, and the want of a suitable hymn was felt. He was asked on the Saturday to write one; and, seated at the window of the old vicaragehouse, he produced, after a short interval, in his clear hand-writing with one single word corrected, that hymn beginning From Greenland's icy mountains,' with which we are all familiar. It was printed that evening, and sung the following day in Wrexham Church. The writer of these pages saw the original manuscript some years ago in Liverpool, and more recently he has seen the printer, still living in Wrexham, who set up the type when a boy."

MATERNAL LOVE." I have heard it told through one who was present at the shipwreck of the Kent, as a remarkable circumstance, that every mother, in her imminent peril, as if by instinct, turned to her youngest child and clasped it in her arms. So does the Lord to the helpless believer. Will any say, that those children who, exulting in strength, were left to themselves, were more safe than the helpless infant whose life depended on the parent's life?

'Maternal love alone

Preserves them first and last,

Their parents' arms, and not their own,

Were those that held them fast.'

Blessed be God, He loves not according to our desert, but according to our necessity. Blessed be God, it is not written, His blood can cleanse from all that we see, but what He sees."-Lady Powerscourt.

A GOOD Woman, who had been to the house of God, was met on her way home by a friend, who asked her if the sermon was done. "No," she replied, "it is all said; it has yet to be done."

Editor's Drawer.

ITEMS of vital statistics recently published in Europe are cited in confirmation of the generally received opinion, that the duration of human life is at present greater than in past centuries. Thus, it is stated, that in the city of Geneva, Switzerland, registers have been kept of the yearly average of human longevity since 1590. In that year it is given at 22 years and 6 months. At present it is over 40 years. The tables compiled by life assurance companies in England, and adopted in this country, are said to show a similar result. In the fourteenth century, the average annual mortality in the city of Paris was 1 in 16; it is now given as about 1 in 32. In all England, in 1690, the rate of mortality was 1 in 33; as now given, it is about 1 in 42.

TO SAVE MEALS.-Josh Billings says: "Mackrel inhabit the sea generally; but those which inhabit the grocery always taste to me, as though they had been fatted on salt. They want a deal of freshening before they're eat'n, and always arterward. If I kin have plenty of mackrel for breakfast, I can generally make the other two meals out of water."

ON THE WRONG SIDE.-Robert Kettle, a temperance missionary in Glasgow, left a few tracts with a lady one morning. Calling at the same house a few days afterwards, he was rather disconcerted at observing the tracts doing duty as curl-papers on the head of the damsel to whom he had giver them Weel, ma lassie," he replied, "I see you have used the tracts I lef wi' ye; but," he added, in time to turn confusion into merriment, "ye have putten them on the wrang side o' your head, my woman."

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CORN ON THE COBB-A clergyman, accosted by an old acquaintance by the name of Cobb, replied, “I don't know you, sir." My name is Cobb," rejoined the man, who was about half seas over. "Ah, sir," said the minister, "you have so much corn on you that I don't see the cob."

THE following is said to have taken place between two bell-boys at the Fifth-avenue Hotel, recently: Pat asks Mike, "What's this suspension of the banks?" Hist ye!" Mike replies, "I'll tell ye. Suppose ye have five Leave it wid me.' cents." "Yes." 66 "Yes." Next day ye want it." "Yes." "I tell ye, 'No, sir, I've used it meself." "

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AN Irishman was once taken to see the wonders of Niagara Falls. did not seem to think it tremendous after all. His friend asked him, "Don't you think it is a wonderful thing?" Why is it a wonderful thing?" asked the Irishman. "Don't you see," said his friend, "that immense body of water rolling down this precipice?" Says he, "What's to hinder it?"

A PREACHER in a border town took up a collection one recent Sunday, and found when his hat was returned, that there wasn't a cent in it. “I am glad,' said he, turning the hat upside down and tapping the crown of it with his hand, "that I have my hat back from this congregation."

NEAR Rochester there is an eccentric old fellow, who lives alongside a grave-yard. He was asked if it was not an unpleasant location. "No," said he; "I never j'ined places in my life with a set of neighbors, that minded their own business so stiddy as they do."

A "COFFIN," said an Irishman, "is the house that a man lives in when he is dead."

BREAD AND BUTTER.-A quaint old man, a Boston clergyman of the last generation, was accustomed to say that "bread is the staff of life, but bread and butter is a gold headed cane."

SAVINGS BANK." If I can put my money in the savings bank, when can I get it out again?' asked one of the newly arrived. "Och!" said his friend, "sure an' if you put it in to-day, you can draw out to-morrow by giving a fortnight's notice."

MUST ADVERTISE.-A Western paper institutes the following vigorous comparison: "You might as well attempt to shampoo an elephant with a thimblefull of soapsuds, as to attempt to do business and ignore advertising."

HARD HIT.-A lawyer and a parson were talking about which way the wind was. The former said: "We go by the court-house vane." And we," repli-d the parson, go by the church vane." "Well," said the lawyer," in the matter of wind, that is the best authority." The parson went to cogitate.

When a youth I used to watch a certain old man reading his well-worn Bible. It was a heavy book, with large print, metallic clasps and edges. Around him was a group of people, young and old, talking about this thing and that. Not a word of all this did the good man at his Bible seem to hear. I saw his lips move, and here and there faintly heard him slowly whispering the words he read. Now and then he would suddenly begin to weep and sob, • that the tears would roll down his face. Thus he would pore over successive chapters, and become so wholly wrapped up in their contents, that he became unconscious of what was going on around him. Then it seemed strange to me, as it does still, that one's powers of mind, memory and even consciousness should be so wholly absorbed by what the eyes see on paper, as to fill them with tears, and make him for the time being forgetful of all his surroundings. A pleasant thing to remember is this venerable father in self-forgetfulness reading his old Bible, and weeping over the sweet stories of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus.

Paul was similarly impressed with what was made to pass through his mind, while writing some of his epistles, some of which he wrote "weeping." Perhaps some of our readers can recall instances when the writing of a letter to a child, parent or friend, set them to weeping, so that they had to turn their eyes away from the paper, lest the falling tears might soil it. And I know of earnest men of God who have often had to do this in writing sermons. In the progress of their study some precious truth touched their heart, some child of sorrow or sin in their flock was called to mind, and the faithful shepherd weeps as he bends over his study table.

Only people of earnest minds, and tender hearts and consciences are thus affected by books and studies. Surface readers, who make light of truth and righteousness and only skim over the top of things seldom are thus moved. The effect is not only one of sadness. Often it is tears of gratitude and joy they shed. And the opposite effect of laughter may be produced. Travelling in a certain car I remember to have sat back of a gentleman reading a certain book. He seemed to be unconscious of the people around him, nor to feel the jarring noisy motion of the train. Occasionally he would be seized with violent fits of laughter. He would burst out in a regular haw, haw, until he would wipe the trickling tear from his laughing face. This then was, and still is to my mind a strange effect. Often have boys and girls intently poring over Sunday-school books or pictures been subjects of interesting study to me. The visible flashes of feeling playing over the face, they the meanwhile not knowing that any body sees them-all this is very pleasant and very instructive. This is the way to profit by what we read, when the mind seizes hold of the idea with a tight grip. This is what we understand by at-tention.

Thus great minds have often lost themselves in noticing things seemingly trifling. Newton sees an apple falling to the ground. His mind inquires: Why should it drop earthward and not skyward? Some force must draw it downward. This put him on the track of discovering the law of gravitation. Then as now boys were fond of blowing soap bubbles. One day Newton watched them, and saw the pretty colors which the sun put on the bubbles. This suggested certain principles to his thoughtful mind, which led him to discover celebrated properties of light. It is said that Socrates often was so entirely taken up with meditation that he would remain a whole day in the same posture of body and on the same spot. The celebrated geographer Mercator, was so charmed with his studies, that his friends often had to force him away from his maps to take his necessary food. In his treatise on Old Age Cicero makes Cato praise Gallus, whose absorption in study made him unconscious of the flight of time. He sat down to write in the morning, and the next he knew of himself, and his surroundings was when it was getting dark. And studying all night he was only roused from his studious reverie, by the rising of the morning sun. Buffon, the great naturalist says that the finding of a thought, after long study, is a gradual unfolding of it, "till a sort of electric spark convulses for a moment the brain, and spreads down to the very heart a glow of irritation. Then come the luxuries of genius! the true hours for production, and composition; hours so delightful that I have spent twelve and fourteen successively at my writing desk, and still been in a state of pleasure."