Food and medicine, shield and sword: John v. 39. 2 Timothy iii. 15. Acts v. 20. 1 Timothy i. 11. Prov. xxv. 25. Eph. vi. 15. 2 Cor. v. 19. Psalm xix. & cxix. Psalm xix. 7. Col. iii. 16. Psalm xix. 8. Psalm exix. 4. Psalm cxix. 20. John xiv. 21. Prov. i. 3. Psalm xxv. 4. Rom. xv. 19. Isaiah 1. 4. Jude iii. Acts xx. 24. Isaiah xxvii. 13. 1 Timothy iv. 6. W BEWARE OF HEN I was a little girl, and went to school, I had a book of French phrases, and among them was "A dog which barks seldom bites." I do not know whether that is always the case. The dogs in the picture certainly look as if they were barking, and the man seems to fear that they mean to bite, for he holds up his leg, and no doubt wishes that the door would open that he might step within with his flowers and leave these little barkers outside. The picture brings to my remembrance a little incident which happened a long time ago, when I, too, had a bunch of flowers, and was very much alarmed by a large dog. I wish I could make you see with the eye of your minds as clearly as I do now. A pretty lane in the country, where the green banks were shaded by tall trees on either side, casting such pretty shadows over the roadway, when the soft wind stirred their branches in the sunny summer days. Such pretty hedgerows too. When the tall brambles in the early autumn were laden with blossoms and berries, green and red, and black. Such hedges for wild flowers in the early spring; and later on trimmed with the white convolvuli which grew there in great proportion. One hot summer's day when I was a little girl, younger than many of you who read this Magazine, I went with my uncle (who was going to the town three miles distant) part of the way for a drive, and I was put down a little way from the end of the lane to walk back. I was a long time going that little distance, for the banks were full of summer blossoms, and I had soon a pretty bunch. A short distance down this lane, behind the high hedge which I could only peep through, was a farm-house. It was so sheltered by trees that very little of it could be seen, but I had often through a gap in the hedge seen the shining tin milk cans put in the sun to dry, and caught a glimpse of the THE DOG. · white walls of the house. It was such a pretty lane, and such a nice piece of shade after the hot sun in the high road; and yet my heart began to beat faster as I neared the place, for I knew that somewhere behind that thick hedge was a large dog-a dog that barked and jumped whenever he heard a footstep-and I began to fear that he would jump upon me now I was alone. I peeped through the other hedge; there was nothing there but a cow, who quickly turned and looked at me. No one was in sight, and I began to think I wish I had not come. There was no other way. I must pass this house, and so going to the extreme edge of the grass, close to the hedge, I tried to steal quietly by; but even my light footstep was heard; there was a rustling and a shaking, and then the loud deep bark of the dreaded dog fell on my ear. Shall I tell you what I did then? why let all my treasured flowers fall, and ran as quickly as I could along the lane until I was in sight of the house where I was visiting. When I could no longer hear the dog I thought of my lost flowers, and it was no small grief to me to think of them left to fade upon the ground. I remember my aunt's surprise when I went into the house without my wild nosegay, and she questioned me why I had been running when the weather was so warm. So, though half ashamed of my fear, I admitted my dread of the barking dog. "But did the dog run after you?" I remembered how kindly and gently my fears were soothed, and I was told that, although the dog was large and fierce, he was secured by a strong chain, and that any one who was in the lane could not be harmed by him. I know that when I went that way again, and heard the same loud deep barking, I tried to think of the chain which held the dog and would not let him MAN'S SIN AND GOD'S STROKE. reach me. Some time after, the orchard of that farm-house was robbed, and one of the men who went there to steal the apples, was held fast by this very dog, and so discovered. So I learnt that the fierce dog was useful to his master, and did his duty in the best way he could, and it was only those who were doing wrong who had cause to fear him. I daresay most of my readers recollect the following verse, 66 Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog" (Psa. xxii. 20). David felt his darling soul was in danger through the power of Satan, whom he compares to a fierce dog, and he felt that without God protected him from his rage, that he would not only destroy his body but what is of far more value, his soul. How many precious souls are in a similar danger, and yet their owners are in no trouble about it at all? To such I would say, "May God teach you to Beware of the Dog.'" DAISY. MAN'S SIN AND GOD'S BOUT the year 1794 the Dissenters attempted to introduce the Gospel into Garstang, Church-town, Lancashire. They happily in the end succeeded, though for a considerable length of time they had to endure a very violent opposition. Among the foremost to give proof of their hatred to religion were two innkeepers, who used their utmost influence, and attempted various means to prejudice the people, so as to prevent their attendance, and thereby prevent the spread of divine truth. How exceedingly well would it have been for these persons to have noticed the wise counsel of the Jewish doctor, who, when Peter and the other apostles were seized for preaching Christ, said, "Refrain from these men, and let them alone for if this counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow 123 it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." But it is too evident this advice was neglected, for the keenest reproaches were vented against the people, and the vilest abuse profusely poured upon the preachers; yet, notwithstanding all this, the place of meeting continued to be crowded with hearers, which the two individuals before mentioned did not observe, but with great and increased mortification. On a certain Sabbath, when the preaching was ended, and the auditors were peaceably retiring, one of these men was heard to say with considerable earnestness, "Never mind! I'll engage to get a greater congregation than the parson," adding, "We'll have a cockfight." This wicked determination, for the moment, was consolatory, and as it held out a prospect of eventual success, was highly applauded by the other. But what is man? How insignificant his designs, how impotent his strength, and how ill-fated his attempts when opposed to that Being who is infinite in wisdom, boundless in power, terrible in judgment, and who frequently reverses and suddenly renders abortive the immature projects of the wicked! A few days after the avowal of his intention, the innkeeper sickened, and was called from this world to account for his stewardship. Preparations were made for his funeral, the day of interment arrived, the bell's sullen toll had announced it, a concourse of people attended, the procession passed just by the preaching house, where a few had assembled together! And the relator of this account was struck with the awful coincidence, as the scene that presented itself occurred on the day, and exactly at the time, the deceased had engaged to "get a larger congregation than the parson." How unsearchable are thy judgments, O God! It is almost unnecessary to add that the surviving persecutor was so affected by this alarming circumstance that he afterwards exclaimed, "I will never again, on any account, disturb this people." Nor did he to the day of his death. AUTOMATA KOT seems to have been a desire from earliest times for men to try to imitate nature as closely as they could, even to the giving of a sort of artificial life to their works, and we have accounts of the wonderful ingenuity of various mechanical geniuses of remote ages. Four hundred years before Christ, Archytas, of Tarentum, is said to have made a wooden pigeon that could fly. This Archytas is supposed to have been the inventor of the screw and the pulley. He met with his death by shipwreck, B.C. 394. Of the great geometrician Archimedes, who did such wonders in the siege of Syracuse, it is also recorded that he made many automata. Coming nearer our own times, we have the wonderful clocks of Strasburg, Lyons, Lunden, and Lubeck-the first the most famous. But wonderful as these clocks are, we have accounts of still more remarkable automata, that act as it were alone. Regiomontanus (John Müller, of Nuremburg) is said to have invented a wooden eagle that descended towards the Emperor Maximilian as he approached the city, and hovered round him. Müller (or Regiomontanus) also constructed an iron fly that would start from his hand, fly round to each guest, and then return to him. 66 33-66 93 66 Friar Bacon invented a head which could speak, and M. de Kempelin, in 1783, was inventing an automaton that could say many words quite plainlyamongst them Papa," Mamma," My wife,' "My husband," "Rome,"" Madam," "The Queen," "Mamma loves me," &c. He intended to finish it in the form of a child of five or six years old, but died before it was completed. M. Maillardet, a Swiss artist, made several celebrated figures. One was a lady seated at a piano, on which she played eighteen tunes. She moved her body and hands and fingers with the precision of a living person. He also made the figure of a boy, who, kneeling on one knee, wrote sentences and made sketches with a pen which an attendant had dipped in ink for him. The Swiss appear to be peculiarly skilful in works of this kind. A family named Le Droz, residing at Neufchatel, were particularly successful. One of them made a clock with a sheep and dog attached to it. The sheep could bleat very naturally, and the dog, who was placed as guard to a basket of fruit, would snarl and try to bite in a most life-like manner if any one attempted to take any of the fruit which was loose from the basket. The son of this particular Monsieur Le Droz was the inventor of musical boxes. A certain Monsieur Camus invented a very wonderful toy for Louis XIV. when a boy. It was a coach and pair of horses, with coachman, footman, and page. Inside the coach was a lady, and when the toy was placed on a table of proper size the coachman smacked his whip, the horses began to trot, and when the equipage arrived opposite to the Dauphin it stopped; the page opened the door, the lady descended the steps, and making a curtsey to the youthful prince, presented a petition. After waiting a short time she re-entered the carriage; the page closed the door and took his place on the footboard; the carriage drove off, and the footman, after running a few steps behind the coach, took his place beside the page. Besides these automata, there was a celebrated duck made by M. Vaucanson, a member of the French Royal Academy. It could eat, quack, and swim as if it had been alive. The same gentleman also constructed a wonderful flute-player, six feet high; and another figure that played on the Provençal shepherd's pipe, and at the same time beat the tambourine. These are among some of the many |