Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

own family, but she has a great deal to spare for others. When sugar was not so plentiful and cheap as it now is, honey was more highly thought of as an article of food, though it is still valued by many as a luxury.

In some of their offerings to their idols, amongst the ancient heathen, honey was made a part of the ceremony; and perhaps, for this reason, it was not allowed in any burnt-offerings of the Jews; as they were always to be distinguished from the idolatrous nations about them, by the difference in their manners and customs, and especially such as belonged to their religion.

The best honey is very light-coloured and transparent, and is generally collected early in the season: the same honey is always purer and better when found in a new comb. If it remains longer than one season in the hive, it becomes dark in colour, and is much less valuable.

Honey is always more rich and delicate, and has a much finer flavour while still in the comb, than it ever has after being separated from it by any process. Some allusion to this difference seems intended by king David, when, in the nineteenth Psalm, speaking of the law and the judgments of the Lord, as contained in the Scriptures, he declares, "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." David seems here to compare the honey with gold while still mingled with the dross, and the fine or pure gold with the more delicious honey in the comb.

The same distinction may be referred to by Solomon, when recommending the pursuit of

wisdom in the Proverbs: "My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste." To teach us the well-known lesson that hunger sweetens the most common repast, we are also told by the same sacred writer, "The full soul loatheth an honey comb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." How often do persons complain of their food, and find fault with it, only because they have no healthful appetite, and perhaps have been spoiled with dainties!

How has the little bee obtained the knowledge she possesses? She has not gained it by experience. She has not tried, first one plan and then another, for her curious works, and then decided upon that which, on the whole, she thought to be best. This could not be. She was not taught these skilful arts by other bees, older and wiser than herself. No: each little bee as well understood at the beginning of her life how to perform her allotted task as she did at the close. She is provided with the instruments necessary for her work, and she uses them properly. She begins the work of her life in the right way; and in the same way she carries it on, with the most perfect order and system, till, in a few short months, it is all ended.

The wondrous faculty which this insect enjoys, to direct all its proceedings, is called instinct. It is given to her, and to other insects and inferior creatures, by the Creator of the world. This gift is all the teaching which they need. It is their guide in all things, and keeps them from mistake.

The bees not only do those things right which are always to be done in the same way, but it is even more remarkable, that, when their wants require it, they alter their arrangements accordingly.

We can only say of these ingenious insects, that God has made them so. It is pleasant to think of his goodness, as it is shown to us in the wonders of the inferior creation. Should we make these wonders the study of every day, the longest life would be too short for us to discover and dwell upon them all.

But, if the love of God has done so much for the smallest and meanest of his creatures, how much more has it done for us, to whom are given high powers of thought and reason! He has made us capable, not only of perceiving that there is a God, the Creator and Ruler of all, but of understanding much of the perfection of his character. He has revealed that character to us, and taught us all his will respecting us in the sacred Scriptures; and there he commands us to learn his will, and to submit ourselves to him, as dear and obedient children.

God hath loved us with a love so vast, so infinite, that he spared not his only begotten Son, but gave him up for us all. May it be our delight to study, not only his works, but his blessed word; and may our hearts be drawn, by his Holy Spirit, to love him, to put our trust in him, and to do his holy will! This is his. will concerning us, "That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment."

Who, in the music of birds and bees,
In the liquid sound of the summer breeze,
Wafting the sweet-scented violet's breath,
Dreams of the hour of decay and death

Say, shall we darken a scene so fair?
Yes, death and decay find an entrance there;
But those shades fall not in realms above:
They are ever light with the Father's love.

They are cheered by the songs of the saved and blest
The weary and faint ones are there at rest:
Not a cloud shall pass o'er their peaceful sky,
In the land where they nor weep, nor sin, nor die.

[graphic]

DISTANCE OF THE SUN.

IMAGINE a railway from here to the sun. How many hours is the sun from us? Why, if we were to send an infant in an express train, going a hundred miles an hour without making

PLEASANT VISITS TO KEW GARDENS. 367

any stoppages, the infant would grow to be a boy, the boy would grow to be a man, the man would grow old and die, without reaching the sun; for it is distant, at this speed, more than a hundred years from us. But what is this compared to the distance of Neptune, one of the newly discovered planets? Supposo there had been a person who started, by a railway, at the creation of Adam and Eve, to go from Neptune to the sun, at the rate of fifty miles an hour, he would not have got there yet; for Neptune is more than six thousand years from our earth. What an idea does this give us of the extent of creation!

PLEASANT VISITS TO KEW GARDENS. No. 12.

THE north wind blows coldly over hill and valley

And one brown prospect opens round,
Of leafless trees and furrowed ground,
Save where unmelted spots of snow
Upon the shaded hill-sides show.

While many boys and girls crouch around the blazing fire, we will wrap ourselves warmly, and hasten away for a Christmas visit to Kew Gardens. It is true, we shall not see that verdure and beauty in the open grounds which we admired in the fairer seasons of the year; yet we shall find, in the newly formed Museum, many things to please and instruct us.

The Museum is a small brick house, with its sides adorned with creeping plants. There will no doubt be a larger building in due time

« AnteriorContinuar »