PARTING GLANCE AT THE EXHIBITION. 133 course, fearing God, looking to the Saviour, and loving one another. In youth "try back" through every daily stage, A PARTING GLANCE AT THE GREAT EXHIBITION. WE ought not to part from an old friend as we put aside an old glove: the latter we seldom think of, but the former should often be called to our remembrance. Let us then look at the last year, and take a parting glance at the Great Exhibition. Sometimes, when facts are put into an odd shape they are remembered the more easily. Taking advantage of this circumstance, we will try to put a few items respecting the Exhibition in a way that they scarcely can be altogether forgotten. The Crystal Palace was kept open about 144 days, during which time it received more than six millions of visits. Had the people who visited it formed themselves into a round ring, standing close together, they would have enclosed more ground than the whole of England contains. You can hardly forget this. The money received at the Exhibition from all sources amounted to upwards of half a million, the greater part of it in silver. If you had to count this money, say half a million, and it was all in shillings, it would take you much more than half a year, even if you counted sixty shillings every minute, and worked twelve hours every day. Surely you will remember this. There were more than 300,000 shilling catalogues sold, to say nothing of the higherpriced ones. These catalogues would have filled about a hundred and twenty carts, had a ton weight of them been put in each cart. It is not at all likely that this will escape your memory. Had these catalogues been placed flat singly on the ground, touching each other, they Iwould have formed a line as much as forty miles long; and had their leaves been torn out and put singly, close to each other, the distance would have amounted to more than six thousand miles. This will no doubt be deeply impressed on your memory. Were the whole of these catalogues to be piled in a single column, one lying flat on another, the pile would be four hundred times as high as a house, nearly a hundred times as high as the monument, and at least fifty times as high as the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. Do you think that you shall ever forget this? The number of vehicles of different kinds, conveying visitors to the Crystal Palace on the day when the Exhibition opened, amounted to a total of not less than 4630; quite enough to form a line of twenty miles in extent. What would people from the country, who rarely see a carriage, think of a line of coaches and cabs twenty miles long? While we communicate to you this information, we must confess that there are other things about which we are quite at a loss ourselves. We should much like to know how many people from abroad, who visited the Exhibition, went back better than they came ? How many carried away a Bible, or a religious book, or tract, in their box or carpet-bag? How many attended our churches and chapels? And how many of the hearts of our visitors were influenced by English example to fear God and love mankind more than they did before ? But though neither we nor our readers can find out how others have been affected by the Great Exhibition, we can put a few questions to ourselves. We can ask if we have regarded it merely as a huge bazaar, a place of public amusement; or endeavoured to get from it lasting good. The curious products of the earth, and the skilful handiworks of man, were alike proofs of the goodness of God, and as such should be acknowledged, for without him man can do nothing. While, then, we remember the Crystal Palace, the visitors, the amount of admission money, the catalogues, and the carriages, let us gratefully praise the Great Giver of every good, who sees from his Almighty throne all the dwellers upon earth, And widely scatters, with indulgent hand, NOTHING TO DO. 66 DR. FRANKLIN used pleasantly to repeat the word of his negro servant, when the doctor was on a journey in England : Everything, massa. work in this country; water work, wind work, fire work, smoke work, dog work, man work, bullock work, horse work, ass work; everything work here but the hog: he eat, he drink, he sleep, he do nothing all day-he walk about like a gentleman." We hope our young friends will try to be useful and active. They surely do not wish that the saying of the negro should be true of them. HYMN FOR A SUNDAY-SCHOOL A JOYFUL band, O Lord, To ask thy promised grace; To choose the better part; By Satan's wiles be led ; But keep us in the narrow road, Whate'er our life befall We pray Thee, Lord, that all Who worship with us here, Pastor and teachers, children, friends, "I WISH I WAS A QUEEN!" "I WISH I was a queen," said a little girl, whom we will call Olivia, one day to her aunt. "What, you a queen? a little girl only eight years old, who sometimes cannot say her lessons, and who is punished by being put in the corner." "Why, aunt, should I not be a queen some day? You know I have seen the queen, when she passed through the town. I told my brothers and sisters about it the next day, and we acted it all over. I was the queen, and they carried me about in a chair; and then the table was my throne, and I stood on it: but it was slippery, and I fell." And what then ?" 66 Oh, they all ran away, and my mother came in; and, seeing the room all 2 66 |