When the Saviour came forth from his celestial habitation, the whole earth spread out at his feet as a barren and dusty wilderness. In groups of millions lay its population famishing for the waters of life. The rivers that watered the world in the days of its innocence, had failed and ceased. Some had hewn out to themselves

cisterns, but they were broken cisterns, which could hold no water. Wise men here and there had given out words of hope, but they had proven to be mockery.

Here and there a Mara had been discovered, but its contents were bitter to the taste and death to him that drank them. Earth had many cries, but they all combined in one universal wail for water, water, water!

The fullness of the time had come, of which inspired bards had sung, when a fountain was to be opened. The congregation of heaven looked on, to see the wonderful performance. The stroke of the great Law-giver came down upon the Rock of Ages. The world shook under it. It was an effectual stroke. A rent was made deep down into the springs of everlasting life. Out came the gushing flood. A shout was upon the eternal hills. The angels sang to the music of the stream. And the voice of gladness echoed round the world-"Ho! EVERY ONE THAT THIRSTETH, COME YE TO THE WATERS!"

And still the fountain flows. In all lands is heard the lullaby of its waters.

""Tis music in the sinner's ears;

"Tis life, and health, and peace." Voices from the heavens are calling the attention of each to the sacred stream. The Rock itself has a tongue, saying, "Ir

ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME AND DRINK." "WHOSOEVER DRINKETH OF THE Water that I SHALL GIVE HIM, SHALL

The fountain flows. It flows abundantly. Its waters run "in dry places like a river" -like "overflowing streams." To Isaiah's eye, they are as "broad rivers." In Ezekiel's vision, they are as "waters to swim in," and too deep to be waded.

"Its streams the whole creation reach,
And take in every shore;
Enough for all, enough for each,

Enough for ever more."

The fountain flows. It flows free to all.

The precious waters are no more for the rich than the poor. They are as accessible to the sick and the feeble, as to the well and the strong. "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst, come. AND WHOSOEVER WILL, LET HIM TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY."

The fountain flows. It flows continuously. Its stream is never arrested by evaporation, or lost by absorption, or stayed by congelation. It took its rise far back in the eternal ages. It has flowed down from among the everlasting mountains. It has been flowing for centuries upon centuries. Multitudes which no man can number, have drank deeply from it. The prophets stood on its banks, and cried with gladness, and touched their lips to its satisfying waters, and sang exultingly of its virtues. The apostles and martyrs knelt on its margin, looked upon heaven reflected in its peaceful waves, and drank in a refreshment which could not be parched or crisped by all the fires of the stake. The reformers and confessors found it in their day plenteous and fresh as at the first. And still it flows for generations yet to come.

The fountain flows, with all that is needful to complete man's bliss. There is not a thirst but can here be slaked. There is not a pollution but may here be washed off. There is not a lasting pleasure but may be secured in this bath of peace and good.

watering the earth, and gladdening the heavens. Trees of life shade its delightful banks. It is pouring healing into the dead sea of this world. Its waters sparkle in the rays of the Sun of Righteousness.

It is the FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS.

shores of earth.

Flow on, thou everlasting stream, flow on! Let thy refreshing tide lave all the Let no man stay thy course, or say to thee, "Thus far." Fill all the deserts with thy quickening floods. Cool the hot plains of human strife. Wash from this footstool of the Lord its many

stains of blood. Quench all the raging fires that hell has spewed upon our world. Baptize the fallen ones, and cleanse them from their guilt. Touch thy blest waters to the roots of every plant of grace. Let nations taste thy healing power, and bless thee in thy course. Let it be seen in every clime, creation knows no gladder thing than thee. Nor ever let thy saving current stop until the ages cease. River of God, FLOW ON!

Baltimore, Md.

For the Lutheran Home Journal.

Naples, through the town of Portici to Resina a distance of about five miles. Here we took horses and a guide and started the side of the mountain which up

towards the North West sends out a long inclined spur, up which the government has constructed a most excellent carriageroad. It is McAdamized with lava. In fact I have seldom passed over so perfect a road. It winds up gradually a distance of two hours ride, to the Royal Meteorological Observatory which commands one of the most enchanting prospects world affords. There lay spread out as on a map, the Campania, with its numerous villages, enclosed by snow-crowned hills

the

that bounded the view to the eastward.

Almost at our feet lay the splendid city of Naples with its suburbs enfolding that matchless Bay upon whose bosom were swimming islands of lands, and islands of light formed by the bright rays of the sun bursting here and there through the clouds and to the left are the black streams of that obscured the sky. To the right hand lava that petrified in their course. The stream to the left is the one that flowed down only two years ago-it extended down upon the plain. The hill begins to assume the appearance of a mountain of cinder. The carriage road ceases at the Observatory and hence our ponies must

WITH

NEUM.

ITH two companions with whom I had wandered about Jerusalem and ascended the tallest of the pyramids of Eygpt, I set out on the 14th of January, to make the ascent of Vesuvius. In coming hither from Sicily I for the first time saw a living volcano, as Stromboli breathed out fire and smoke while we sailed near it on the night of the 12th. To go up to the mouth of a burning volcano, even Vesuvius, was one of the fond desires I had cherished long before I reached the Italian shores. As we had a hard day's work before us, we started early and taking a carriage, drove round the beautiful Bay of

which flowed down but two months ago and are therefore still perfectly fresh. We now ride over what was once the very crater of the volcano and soon come to the foot of the cone. We are now about half a mile above the level of the sea. Here we must dismount and go on foot up a very steep declivity about fifteen hundred feet higher. This is a most laborious task of almost an hour over lava and volcanic dirt and gravel. The side of the cone was also covered with snow. As we near the summit the sulphurous smoke begins to be emitted through the crevices of the rocks of lava. But we must sit down and rest a while before going to the mouth of the crater. The air around is cold, but the

hill is so hot we can scarcely sit down upon it, in order to partake of some refreshments. We had some eggs boiled for us by the heat in one of the crevices of the lava and they were well boiled. It seemed as though we were nearly far enough, but having lunched, we followed our guide who said there was no danger, and went up and looked into the flames that roar as they roll from the throat of the Volcano. There are at present two mouths from which the flames issue. They are about one hundred yards a part. We passed through between and went up and stood upon the lips of the larger mouth. It was a terrible place. We were standing on an ocean of fire, rolling beneath a shell liable to break at any moment. We did not remain many minutes for occasionally small stones were thrown out with the smoke and flames, several times the wind swept the smoke upon us, we covered our faces and dropped to the surface or we should have been suffocated almost in an instant. Having gratified our curiosity, with hasty steps we turned from this horrible place.

It appeared to me as though Peter must have had a scene like this in view, when he wrote (2 Peter iii. 10.) concerning "the day of the Lord, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Vesuvius stands along the great highway of the world and with ceaseless voice proclaims: "The day cometh-is nigh at hand!"

The descent from the cone was much less tedious and fatiguing than the ascent. It was only necessary to take a gravelly path and unlock the wheels of one's legs and the foot of the cone was soon reached. Mount Vesuvius is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. "It rises in the plain of Campania, and is surrounded on the North and the East by mountains of Apennine limestone. On the West it is open to the plain of Naples, on the South its base is washed by the sea. It is about thirty miles in circumference." The height

of the eruptive cone has varied during the last twenty-five years from four thousand and seventy feet to three thousand four hundred. It is constantly changing its appearance.

The history of this mountain is interesting. Before the time of Titus it showed no signs of activity. Some of the ancient writers, however, have given an account of its volcanic character. It was first in the sixty-third year after Christ, during the reign of Nero that Vesuvius began to show signs of life. "On the 5th of February the whole neighborhood was convulsed by an earthquake, which, as Seneca records, threw down a great part of Pompeii and Herculaneum," cities that were situated at the base of the mountain towards the sea. The following year another earthquake occured, which injured Naples and destroyed the theatre in which Nero had been acting a few minutes before. These earthquakes continued at intervals for sixteen years, when in the year seventy-nine the first eruption took place, which buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Among those who perished in this catastrophe was the celebrated naturalist Pliny the elder, whose historian was his nephew the younger Pliny, who was an eye witness of the scenes of that day and has left us a thrilling account of one of the most remarkable events in the physical history of the world.

From Pliny's account we learn that at this time, the mountain did not pour forth lava, but only ejected immense masses of ashes, red-hot stones and other loose fragments of volcanic materials. Stones weighing eight pounds were thrown out with such violence that they fell from four to five miles from the crater, which vomited at the same time monstrous volumes of steam, which fell upon the country around in torrents of heated water, charged with the dry light ashes which were suspended in the air. This water, as it reached the soil, carried with it in its course the cinders which had fallen, and thus deluged Herculaneum with a soft, pasty, volcanic mud which penetrated and filled up the