grateful to the bosoms of a joyous, a free, a loyal, and after all is said, a religious people.

For Religion, as we understand it, has many subordinate elements. Order, the first law of heaven, owes much even in its outward developments, to the indirect, and often undesigned, influence of religion. An English mob, though nine-tenths of its constituents may not be vitally influenced by the spirit of the Gospel, is not like a French aggregation of individuals of the same social standing. Lawlessness and violence are not their habit. Even when they occur, they are always the accident and not the essential of such gatherings. We love the masses, because we love our Constitution; and they are in the main at one with it. The "mob-mist," of the First of May, consolidating and concentrating around the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, was a sight to make England proud. Liberty, Fraternity, and just so much Equality as God has made the rule in all His worlds, animate and inanimate, were conspicuous every where. Of "the motley groups who crowded the park, many might be homely, but all seemed happy. Doubtless, there is a great accumulation of foreigners in London just now, but they were lost in the ocean of London population, swelled as it is by the influx of provincial visitors disgorged during the last few days from all the railways. The aspect of the crowd was entirely, exclusively, English. And a more good-natured populace than that of England, and of London in particular, does not exist. If any of those emeutiers who have been haunting the waking and sleeping dreams of old women for the last few weeks were present on that day in Hyde-park, they must have felt intinctively that it was no place for them and their vagaries. They must have felt that they were among a multitudinous crowd of which not one had the remotest sympathy with their savagery, and who were strong and numerous enough to have crushed them by simple pressure, had they attempted to move a finger in the way of doing mischief.”

This scene alone was a tableau worthy of the Great Exhibition itself. "It was a flight of locusts, and like locusts, the mass must have destroyed the grass in their way." The aristocratic region of the Parks was traversed by myriads of

plebeians, unwatched, unwarned, uninterfered with. The noble trees, just gemmed and sprinkled with their new foliage, were literally alive with human forms-a vast rookery of bipeds without feathers. A considerate chimney sweep had ensconced himself in the hollow of an aged elm, his grim face, which, but for his white teeth and laughing eyes, had been almost in total eclipse, peering through a hole about midway up the trunk. He was safe and happy-a climbing boy of England; with more true liberty than a count or baron of many foreign States.

But to the scene itself. "It is no exaggeration to say that the spectacle within the Crystal Palace far exceeded, in impressive beauty, what the most sanguine could have anticipated. To the surprise of those who had seen the interior of the building only a few days before, the arrangement of the costly and valuable articles exhibited was complete; a minute inpection might have shown defects, but the general effect was perfect and satisfactory. The beholder felt himself in a lightsome, airy, spacious world, under an invisible cover, protecting him from all inclement airs. The brilliant and contrasting colours of the holiday dresses of the thronging visitants-the silvery living play of the fountain in the sun-the gorgeous magnificence of the gay eastern wares and arms-the breathing poetry of the statuary-the fresh rustling of the leaves of the trees-all were sources of intensely pleasurable feelings in themselves, and attuned the mind to the impressions it was subsequently to receive.

"This state of preparation was carried to a higher pitch by the music. The God save the Queen,' accorded with the sentiments of the auditors, and the grand chorus of the 'Hallelujah' swelled out in harmony like the noise of many waters heard in some apocalyptic vision, making the hearts of the hearers vibrate like the glass of the edifice that inclosed them.

Anything trivial, common-place, or unsympathising, in the human performers, who were to breathe a living soul into this aggregate of elementary charms, would have spoiled all. But the task had devolved upon performers worthy of the occasion. The reverend grace of the Archbishop of Canterbury imparted a charm to the brief and unostentatious act of devotion which hallowed the whole. Her Majesty entered into her part with

a heartiness and vivacity that carried the willing sympathies of all around her. Every one of her attendants caught the genial contagion, and, in not the least degree, the Duke of Wellington, who contemplated the scene with as much of pleased vivacious interest as if it had been his twentieth, instead of his eightysecond, birthday."

Yes. He who had been a man of war from his youth, had never with such serene delight gazed upon any of the gorgeous pageants with which his brilliant career had been associated. An enduring and magnificent Triumph was spread in all its glory before him, but it was utterly unlike anything he had witnessed in his day of strife. There were the gorgeous trappings of the warrior, but the "confused noise of contending armies was superseded by the Anthem of Peace. There were "garments" from all looms and lands; but they were never more to be "rolled in blood." There were the odours and the incense of an ovation, but the savor was 'of life unto life' alone. The only captives following in that train, were unreflecting Ignorance, and Prejudice, and Bigotry, and heavy-footed Indolence; and to these, even, no death-doom was awarded. The captive was to become the scholar only, in the great Temple of Concord, and having " enquired wisely" concerning the status of the nineteenth century, was ultimately to discover, not only that the former days were no better than these; but that England's path was to shine yet more and more unto the perfect day of Universal Brotherhood and Permanent Peace.

And what an earnest of these blessings have we in the World's Ark before us! Arithmetic can scarcely sum up the value of the various arts and manufactures here exhibited. Under what Bond are these costly contributions loaned to a country, which a disaffected section of our brethren would have us believe is already sold to Popery and Revolution? Concentrated in a form no larger than a pigeon's egg, one object alone in this Exhibition is worth more than a kingly fortune. The farfamed Koh-i-noor diamond, in its gilded cage, little as it looks it, to the uninitiated observer, is really the representative of two millions of money! “The great value of this gem invests it with an almost mysterious sanctity. A strong iron house has been constructed for its permanent residence, and a gilded

grating surmounts the top, far within which a glass frame keeps off all intruders. No human hand must touch this Wonder of the East. A spring, communicating with the outside of its house, shoots it up upon its purple velvet cushion in the morning, and draws it down when it is time to retire for the night."

Taking this but as a type of many treasures-nominally indeed of far less value, but intrinsically, of more, we ask again to see the stringent Bond, and read the awful penalties, by which this little isle of Britain engages safely to hold in trust these precious contributions. Our Sovereign is no Ximenes. Her trust is not in troops under arms, or parks of artillery. But pointing to the radiant faces of a happy people, and the thunder of their cheers, she says to all the world;"With these I govern England; and these constitute my sole engagement to repay those treasures, the loss of which would make an empire bankrupt, and involve in ruin many of the thrones of Christendom."

THE LITTLE CLOUD.-(1 Kings xviii. 41-46.)*

and Ahab his

One would think that Elijah was the king, subject. It is not Ahab who says to Elijah, but Elijah to Ahab" Go, and he goeth; and, Come and he cometh." So now the prophet tells the king to withdraw and refresh himself after the fatigues of the day; and Ahab glad to be relieved, retires to eat and to drink. But Elijah's "meat was to do the will of Him that sent him, and to FINISH his work. He then went to the top of the mountain, and cast himself down upon the earth, with his face between his knees-thus remaining in earnest prayer. He then desired his servant to go to the top of the promontory, and look towards the sea. The man went, and returned to report that he observed nothing. Seven times the prophet bent down in prayer, and six times the servant returned without the report of coming rain. But the seventh time he announced, with quickened works, that he saw on the horizon a little cloud, not larger than a man's hand, arising

* From the concluding volume of Kitto's "Daily Bible Illustrations,” just published, see page 260.

out of the sea. On hearing this, the prophet sent the man to tell Ahab to betake himself to his chariot, and hasten home lest the rain should prevent him. The king caught the precious meaning of this message. Never was the prospect of a journey being hindered by rain so gladly received by mortal man. He hastened to his chariot. It was full time. The heavens were already black with clouds; the wind arose; and presently the rain fell down in mighty streams. The king, meanwhile, was scouring the great plain of Esdraelon for Jezreel. But who is that strong man, with tightly girded loins, who flees swifter than the horse, and runs before the chariot of his king? It is Elijah. The great prophet chose, in this remarkable, characteristic way, to evince that, after all the great deeds he had done-after all the stern things he had spoken-he forgot not that Ahab was his sovereign; for the part he took was that of a servant, whose duty it is to run before the chariot of his master. It is seen by Egyptian monuments that the princes and nobles of that country had attendants who ran before their chariots. Such vehicles are not now used in Egypt, or in western Asia; but in Persia it is at this day regarded as a piece of necessary state for the king and great nobles to have several men to run before and behind them as they ride out on horseback. This they do even when the rider put his horse to a gallop; and, as a general rule, it is understood that a well-trained footman ought to remain untired fully as long, if not longer, than the horse ridden by the master. The men are of course trained to this arduous service; and it is astonishing to observe the apparent ease with which they keep their relative distance from the master's horse, in all its paces, even the most rapid. These men are called shatirs; and the reported feats of some of them would be incredible, were they not well authenticated. One is known to have accomplished about one hundred and twenty miles in fourteen hour's unremitted running; and instead of finding praise for this, was rather censured for not having accomplished the task in twelve hours.

These men are, like Elijah, tightly girded; so tightly that to stoop were death, and to fall were to rise no more. There is near Ispahan a monument called the Shatir's Tower (Meel e Shatir), the story connected with which is, that a king of