LITTLE KITTY. down his body. He was taken with his last illness while going to Isleben to settle some dispute that arose at the Council of Trent, and on reaching there, was almost past hope of recovery, but he lingered for some little time. On February 17th, after eating his supper, he was violently seized with pains in his chest. He took a little medicine, and lay down for an hour or two before the fire. On bidding the friends good night, he admonished those who were present to pray to God for the propagation of the Gospel, because the Council of Trent and the Pope would attempt wonderful devices against it. He had not rested beyond midnight when he had another severe attack, and he complained of the narrowness of his chest, and, feeling that his life was at an end, began to pray for a continuance of God's mercy for the few remaining moments he had to wait. Dr. Jonas then asked him if he died in the constant confession of that doctrine of Christ he had so often preached. He answered so as he might be distinctly heard, "Yes," which was the last word he spoke. He then, without any apparent pain, and like as one falling asleep, passed from this life about three o'clock in the morning of February 18th, 1546, in the sixty-third year of his age. He was buried in the temple in Wittenberg, on February 22nd, many princes and nobles attending to pay the last tribute of respect. Melancthon addressed them with much feeling, and when done the coffin was placed by learned divines into a tomb near to the pulpit in which he had so often proclaimed the truth of God. A brass plate was put to indicate the spot where the remains of Luther sleep. BIBLE SUBJECTS FOR EACH SUNDAY IN JANUARY. Jan. 5. Commit to memory Ps. xxxvii. 5. Jan. 12. Commit to memory Prov. xv. 3. Jan. 19. Commit to memory Gen. xvi. 13. Jan. 26. Commit to memory Ps. xix. 12. LITTLE KITTY. To pout and pull a wry face; Were to very much try, 15 It was blowing east, west, north and south. And supposing, instead Of talking, I said Just nothing or squeaked like a pig, You'd say, "Oh, how silly To fidget, and worry, and stamp ! And she cannot go out in the damp!" And you, little maiden, I think, if the truth I must tell, And make yourself cross, THE BIBLE-READING RAILROAD ENGINEER. on a bracket-like device, a small Bible was open, where the eyes of this Christian engineer could fall upon its pages at any moment. "I have read the good book from back to back several times at home," continued he, "and by having it placed here in this manner before me, I have been able to commit many passages to memory. Sometimes it has been a wonderful comfort to ine. One time in particular, the strength as well as comfort I derived from one glance at a passage on the open page was astonishing." "How was that?" I asked, greatly interested. "Well, madam, it is something I seldom speak of," he said, handing up his oil-can to the fireman, and wiping his hands on a bunch of cotton waste, "but I don't mind telling you now. It is a more thrilling story than any of those the old stage coach drivers used to tell. "You see I was running on the lower end of the road at the time, and my train was an 'express passenger,' which came out of the city before nightfall, usually with a dozen or so heavily laden coaches. Perhaps you remember, if you have been over the road so much, where the track crosses the river, which, you know, is the inlet to the harbour. Being a port of considerable importance, of course, provision has to be made for the shipping to pass above. "There was a man stationed at this post to signal to the approaching trains whether the bridge was open or not. Yes, it was a dangerous place (the means to avert danger there are better now), but after I had run over the bridge twice a day for eighteen months or more, and had always found everything all right, I came to look upon that point the same as I did upon any other piece of the road. "My express was a fast train always, and on the night of which I am speaking I was a little behind time, and so running even somewhat faster than usual in order to make up. As I approached the bridge I looked for the signal, as it was second 17 nature for me to do. The flagman gave the customary' all right' signal, standing as usual on a rock at the point of a curve of the track leading around to the river. "I had no more time than barely to notice that the man was a new hand, in place of 'Lame Jim,' whom I had without a single exception always found at that post, before we came in full view of the bridge. To my horror it was wide open, and a gulf of nearly fifty feet in depth was yawning before me and my ponderous train. "I glanced up to my open Bible, and my eyes fell upon the words, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' The benumbing sense of utter helplessness that for the instant had pervaded both soul and body, as it were, all vanished now, and I became as calm as you see me at this moment. "You know, madam, that the duties of a locomotive engineer are such that oftentimes he has to decide (it may be only on a mere movement of his hand, or the kind of a look he gives his fireman), in such a terrible exigency especially, in the shortest conceivable space of time. In this instance I had no time to consider, and, if I had, I suppose I should have done exactly as I did, whistle for brakes (it was before air brakes came into use) and reverse my engine. "The fireman did not need to be told to do his best upon the tender brakes, as he rapidly tightened them up with the whole swinging force of his large body. It was a clean, dry track, everything in good condition, and I think never a train, with like facilities, was brought to a standstill on shorter notice. For that first almost bewildering instant to me, the belief in the impossibility of escaping that imminent, fearful plunge, so possessed me, with a cold feeling like the coils of a snake down my back, that it was with an almost superhuman effort that I mustered muscular force to raise my hand to the whistle valve cord, reach the regulator, or grasp the reversing handle. "But we came to a dead halt just as the point of the cowcatcher overlapped the frightful chasm! Had the impelling force of that long passenger train carried us a few feet further on, there would have been the worst railroad catastrophe that ever happened in America, and my name would surely have swelled the list of the drowned and mangled ones that would have appeared in the newspapers. "As it was, the escape never got into the papers at all. The bridge was swung into place so quickly, and we were under way again so soon after the customary stop at the draw, that I suppose that very few of the passengers ever knew of the threatened peril. We were miles away before the reaction came to me, as I sat trembling on my seat, with the full apprehending sense of our escape tiding through my brain. "The flagman? oh, yes, he was drunk. You see there had been a new superintendent chosen, and he had commenced business by turning off some of the old employés and putting in new ones. Poor, faithful 'Lame Jim' had been discharged and this fellow installed in his place. He was celebrating his appointment to this responsible post over a jug of rum which was found afterwards in the little signal house near by. "Jim was reinstated next day, but the company was so chagrined over the unwarrantable action on the part of the superintendent that the matter was kept as close as possible. I went to the office the next morning and resigned my position. I couldn't bear to run over that end of the road again. They would not let me off the road, but gave me this train on this end of the route-the Gold Leaf Express.' 66 6 No, I don't suppose I have quite got over the shock to my nerves, for frequently, when I go to bed more tired than usual, I wake with a start from a sort of far-off dream of that eventful nightfall trip, the uncertain light, the still, shimmering water, and the white, scared face of my fireman. My hair was as black as BRAVERY IN TELLING THE TRUTH. WON'T tell a lie; I won't be such a coward !" said a fine little fellow, when he had broken a little statuette of his father's in showing it to his playmates, and they were telling him how he could deceive his father, and escape a scolding. He was right. Cowards tell lies, while brave boys tell the truth. So was Charley Mann right, and was rewarded for it, as the following story shows. was A young offender, whose name Charley Mann, smashed a large pane of glass in a drug-store, and ran away at first, for he was sadly frightened: but he quickly began to think," What am I running for? It was an accident; why not turn about and tell the truth?" No sooner thought than done. Charley was a brave boy; he told the whole truth; how the ball with which he was playing slipped out of his hand, how frightened he was, how sorry, too, at the mischief done, and how willing to pay if he had the money. Charley had not the money; but to work he went at once in the very store where he broke the glass. It took him a long time to pay for the large and expensive pane he had shattered; but when it was done, he had endeared himself so much to the storekeeper by his fidelity and truthfulness, that he would not hear of his going away, and Charley became his clerk. "Ah! what a lucky day it was when I broke that window!" he used to say. "No, Charley," his mother would respond; "what a lucky day it was when you were not afraid to tell the truth!"-From "Dictionary of Illustration." POISONOUS FOUNTAINS AND THE LIFE-GIVING SPRING. 19 POISONOUS FOUNTAINS AND THE LIFE-GIVING SPRING. HERE are few objects more lovely than a clear spring of pure water, gushing from the hill-side, making music as it flows onward, and the earth fertile all along its track. Most are of this kind; but there are some hot springs, some bitter, and a few poisonous. Travellers tell us of a spring in Italy which emits a vapour so deadly that animals which inhale it die in a very few minutes. There are other springs which, though clear and not unpleasant to the taste, contain a poison which slowly but surely brings on disease in those who drink of them. Books are like springs. God has provided a living and life-giving fountain in His holy Word. It is clear as crystal, very pure: it is always flowing; nothing affects its fulness; and when applied by the Holy Spirit, it assuages, though nothing else can, the burning thirst of the human heart. But there are many fountains the supply of which comes from beneath. They are opened by man, aided by Satan; and they are so unwholesome, that those who drink of them find that their thirst only becomes more intense. Such are the books which thousands read, and such is the result upon the heart and character. Some books are poisonous in the extreme; others are less noxious, but still very unwholesome, slowly working mischief in the mind, and causing weakness and decay. Yet the very worst are sought for eagerly by multitudes; and even some persons who should know better, drink of these unwholesome fountains, and neglect the life-giving spring. For a penny and upwards, you may obtain works which pander to the passions, and which are written and published solely for the purpose of gain, without regard to the injury or ruin which will be caused by them. Surely it may be said of thousands of books around us that they contain no real good; but are full of what may be regarded as slow poison to the mind and heart. For Take a few illustrations of this out of a great many. A young woman who had been carefully brought up, and who had attended several years at a Sundayschool, was married to a respectable mechanic in a manufacturing town. some time they regularly attended to hear the Word, and were happy in each other's society. One day the husband brought home a penny publication which a fellowworkman had persuaded him to purchase. It contained part of an exciting romance, which was read with much interest, especially by the wife, who longed to see the remainder of it. The husband was easily persuaded to take in the publication and soon he took in others of a similar or worse character. As Sunday was the most leisure day, these polluting books were after a time read during the morning, and in the evening the husband would stroll to the public house. In a little time the wife became a devoted novel-reader, and the husband became a confirmed drunkard. A youth, sober and industrious, whose prospects in life were cheering, because his character was respectable, and his habits apparently well established, bought a shilling book with gay covers and a taking title, at a railway station. It contained moral poison, which inflamed his passions, and created a thirst for this kind of reading. The means of gratifying this appetite were unhappily within his power, and he indulged it to the full. Next he would see some of the scenes described in the books; and soon he became an actor in them. Health was ruined, character was blasted, his excellent situation lost. A Christian man found him out in his wretchedness, heard his sad tale, and was the means of leading his mind to that fountain of truth which is "able to make wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." |