160 SABBATH LESSONS. the Gospel have been numerous. Roman Catholic parish priests preach the pure Gospel,, The Bible is extensively circulated. The people demand with earnestness the celebration of worship in the vulgar tongue. All events seem to show that Bohemia, that ancient focus of reform, where four centuries of persecution have not been sufficient to put out the light of the Gospel, is about to make a new advance in Christian faith, DIAMOND DUST. LITTLE Willie, though only eight years old, knew something about Jesus. When ill of fever, and delirious, his mother asked him, as he tossed upon his bed, "Willie, do you want a drink?” "No; I want the blood." "What blood ?" "The blood of Jesus."-Christian Treasury. HEAVEN! It is called the Paradise of God, to show how quiet, harmless, sweet, and beautiful a place it shall be to them that possess it. Bunyan, IF He prayed who was without sin, how much more ought sinners to pray ?-Cyprian. IN the Bible we often read of war-chariots. Dreadful things they were-dashing along, cutting down people right and left. Chariots were common in those days. For instance, when Joseph interpreted the dreams of King Pharaoh, he was not only to be dressed like his master, to wear the king's ring on his finger, and the NOVEMBER, 1860. M royal gold chain about his neck, but he was to ride on all state processions in the second chariot, In 2 Kings we read of another great man who travelled in a chariot. He was commander-in-chief of the Syrian army; and he took leprosy, no one could cure him, and so he got into a chariot and hurried off to the prophet Elisha. There was another man, called an Ethiopian, who wAS prime minister and treasurer to the Queen of the Ethic pians, who once travelled in a chariot to Jerusalem. When coming home again a very interesting circumstance took place. He was sitting in his chariot read. 1 ing the Old Testament. It was the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, which speaks of the sufferings of Christ, the Mes siah; but he did not understand it. The Lord told Philip, one of the apostles, to go to the man in the chariot. He did so, and asked the man if he understood what he was reading. He honestly confessed he did not; and then the apostle told him all about Jesus, the tru Messiah, and what he had suffered and done to save a lost world, It is thus seen that these chariots were used on stat occasions and for travelling purposes. They could, ho ever, be fitted up and used for war, by fixing very lar and sharp knives, or swords, on the axles, which reache out some distance from the middle of the wheels. Th on the end of the pole, between the horses, were faster strong spears. When so prepared they were called ch riots of iron, which may be seen in the picture, W such chariots did the Egyptians pursue the Israelite with a determination to cut them to pieces in the wile ness, or to drive them back into Egyptian bondage. Wh these chariots were getting so near as to fill the Jews w MOUNTAINS' MOUNTAIN-PASSES. 163 terror, God appeared for their deliverance, and, in Exodus xiv., we read that God "troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot-wheels;" the consequence of this was, they could not get on; and so marvellous was this strange circumstance that they at once came to the conclusion that God was fighting against them. Of course he was; he had done so in the ten plagues of Egypt; or rather, they were so obstinately wicked that they were fighting against God, and God was resisting them and protecting his people. Well would it have been for them to have known sooner that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. They found it out too late, for, as the Israelites sang, "Jehovah has triumphed-his people are free. Sing for the pride of the tyrant is broken; His chariots and horsemen all splendid and brave; But vain was their boasting! The Lord hath but spoken, MOUNTAINS' MOUNTAIN-PASSES. ONE of the most grandly beautiful characteristics of our earth is to be found in the mountain ranges with which its face is covered. We, who have all our lives lived - amongst the plains of England, can form but a faint conception of the grandeur of many of the mountains of the globe. In this we might perhaps take a lesson from some -of our Scotch brethren with advantage to ourselves. As the traveller approaches a range of mountains from a distance they stand out in dark lines along the horizon, distinguished from the clouds with which the sky is studded only by the distinct sharpness of their lines. As he comes nearer, however, they rise up more dark and more distinctly visible, till they appear before him as an impassable barrier, whose summit meets the sky. 164 MOUNTAINS' MOUNTAIN-PASSES We have said that we in England can have but trifling notions of the height or grandeur of many of the mountain ranges of the world. Some notion, nevertheless, we may gather by comparing them with some more familiar object. Most of us have seen a balloon rising swiftly and silently through the air, high over our heads; and, doubtless, many of you, as you have seen it passing out of your sight into the clouds above, have thought that it was surely going so far from this world that it could never return again. Yet the greatest height ever yet reached by a balloon falls considerably short of the top of the highest mountain, the greatest height ever yet attained by a balloon being 23,100 feet, or upwards of three miles, while the highest mountain in the world is nearly 28,000 feet in height. What a grand idea does it give us of the magnitude of our globe when we think that, measuring the whole surface of it, these mountains would appear only like the small pimples on the skin of an orange! Many mountains are too high to be ascended at all; but there are others which hardy men have been found willing to scale. The accounts given by these climbers o. their ascent is often interesting in the extreme. Let us suppose a traveller straining up the Alps, so famed in suppose a traveller straining up the Alps, so famed in European history. Every mountain he comes to he thinks will be the last; he finds, however, an unexpected hill rise before him; and, that being scaled, he finds the highest summit nearly as far off as ever. Below he has left a green and fertile soil, and a climate warm and pleasing; as he ascends, the ground assumes a more russet colour, the grass becomes more mossy, and the weather more moderate. As he ascends still higher, the earth be comes more barren, and the temperature still colder. Here and there in his upward road he meets with some little valley of surprising verdure, but more often he meets with frightful precipices or peaks of snow and ice. When he has reached the topmost summit vegetation has ceased, the air has become denser, and he treads on a carpet of snow wherever he turns. Such are the mountains of Europe, but these ale far |