FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS. Facts, Hints, and Gems. Facts. RUSSIAN CITIES.-In all this vast empire, there are but three cities of Hints ON HEALTH AND EXERCISE. Your Children.-Often wash them above 100.000 inhabitants-Peters- all over in cold water. Let them burg, Moscow, and Odessa; and only four towns of above 50,000, and twenty of 25,000. A RUSSIAN PALACE.-The winter palace of the Emperor, on the banks of the Neva, is large enough to accommodate 5000 persons-indeed, it is the largest in Europe. A LOYAL WAGONER.-During the panic caused in England at the time of Napoleon's threatened invasion, a carrier of Exeter offered to Government the free use of eighty-five wagons, with eight horses each. SHIPWRECKS. - In 1852 there were 1,100 vessels wrecked on the British coasts, involving the loss of nearly 1000 lives. COAL MINES.-The Great Northern Railway Company has offered Earl Fitzwilliam £60,000 a year for his Yorkshire mines, on a lease for fifty years. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.Dr. Bowring is of opinion, that all the masonry of Great Britain would not be sufficient to build another such a wall. POULTRY. It is stated that in Norfolk and Cambridge, the small farmers pay their rents with the produce of their poultry, POWER OF FUNGI-Such is the power of these mushroom plants, that they have been known to lift up flagstones that one man could not move. NOVEL READING.-It is reported of Napoleon, that if he found a novel in the palace he always threw it into the fire; for he hated every thing of the kind, as calculated to enervate the mind. have plain, good food-brown bread sooner than white. Never let them sleep on soft beds or in nightcaps. Playful exercise every day in the fresh air will do them great good, but not in the rain. Girls should be taught to hold up their heads, and not bend forward at meals or when at their needles. Never let them use stays at all, and then they will not be in danger from tight lacing. Reading aloud is good exercise for the lungs. Singing too, when the voice is clear: but wind instrumeuts should be avoided. Every Sleeping-room should have some place by which the air can escape at night, either up the chimney-so dont stop it up or by a window a little opened. Avoid Reading at Night, either by candle, gas, or lamp light; but always after reading at night, bathe the eyes and forehead in cold spring water. Dont take a New House that has been just built, and has never been inhabited, if you can help it. In this matter too-the old, if sound, is better. Open all Windows in sleepingrooms in the day-time. There is nothing like fresh air for health. Every gas light, or candle, or oil lamp, makes some foul air in addition to that which we make ourselves by breathing in the same room. So purify all sitting and sleeping and working rooms with fresh air. Never let a pool of stagnant water be near your dwelling-but either drain it off or fill it up. ONLY LET ANY MAN set his heart to do something great for God and the good of souls, and God will open his way to do it, and bless him in the doing of it. PARDON AND PEACE.-No man can expect to find peace for his troubled conscience, until he has found pardon for his many sins. Peace is the fruit of pardon. WHAT A REAL FRIEND we have in the Son of God. We were prisoners at the bar of justice, condemned to die; but he came and took his place at our side, and said, 'I will die for them.'. Think of that! MAN NEEDS A SAVIOUR.-He feels he does. No man can save himno angel can. Who then can save him? who will? "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." COME TO JESUS.-You may come now-whether young or aged in health or sickness at home or abroad by night or by day-only come, and come now, and he will in no wise cast you out. NEVER THINK SUCH A THING as that Christ is not willing or not able to save your soul. He has said he is both; and that is enough. Nay, if you do not believe this you grieve him, and make him as a liar. WE ARE ALL IN A STORM.-Our sins have raised the winds and waves; justice thunders and lightens, and the gulf of hell yawns beneath us. But see the life-boat, with Jesus at the helm! Jump in-this moment-there, you are safe now! HAVE YOU COME TO CHRIST ? Then stay with him. Depend upon it if you do not leave him he will never leave you. Poetic Selections. THE CONFLICT. Onward, christians, onward go, THE PILGRIMS. We tread the path our Master trod, And every thorn that wounds our feet, And oft are bathed in tears; DIVINE GUIDANCE. My path is strewed with snares, My trembling steps uphold, And harmless as the dove. Lord, I commend to thee SUPPLIES OF GRACE. To keep the lamp alive, With oil we fill the bowl; "T is water makes the willow thrive, And grace that feeds the soul. Man's wisdom is to seek In Jesus is our store, Grace issues from his throne: Whoever says, "I want no more," Confesses he has none. FOLLOWING OUR LEADER. Jesus, the God of grace and love, Displays the radiant prize; And shows the purchase of his blood To our admiring eyes. The songs of everlasting years That mercy shall attend; Which leads, through sufferings of an hour, To joys that never end. THE POOR WIDOW TO HER CHILD. On sink to sleep my darling boy, Thy father's dead, thy mother lonely; Of late thou wert his pride and joy, But now thou hast but one to own thee. The cold wide world before us lies, But ah! such heartless things live in it; It makes me weep-then close thine eyes, Though it be but for one short minute. Oh! sink to sleep my baby dear, A little while forget thy sorrow, The wind is cold, the night is drear, For none will help, though many see Our wretchedness-then close thine eyes love, Oh! most unhappy must she be Who on another's aid relies, love. Thou hears't me not; thy heart's asleep And wish that I could slumber free, And with thee in yon heaven awaken; Oh! would that it our home might be, For here we are by all forsaken. What have I said, forsaken-no: ONE there is yet will ne'er forsake us; And we will trust him till we go To that sweet rest to which he'll take us. LYING WONDERS OF POPERY. THE Church of Rome boasts of possessing the veritable CROSS on which our Lord suffered. In the Roman breviary we are told that Helen, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, being admonished in a dream, went to Jerusalem in search of this precious relic. At the place where the search was made, three crosses were dug up; and in a place apart from them, was found the title of the Lord's cross. It was impossible to ascertain to which of the three crosses this belonged. A miracle, however, solved the difficulty. The bishop of Jerusalem applied the crosses one after another to a woman labouring under a grievous affliction; the first two had no effect-but no sooner was the third applied, than she was instantly cured. It was at once concluded that this was the true cross. A magnificent church was built upon the spot, and in it was left a part of the cross enclosed in silver cases. The other portion, together with the nails that fastened our Lord's body, were conveyed to Rome, and deposited in the church of the Holy Cross of Jerusalem. In the Paris breviary, another account is given of the manner in which the true cross was identified. "A dead body was brought into contact with the three crosses successively, and the moment it touched the third cross, the dead man was instantly restored to life." In process of time, fragments of this precious relic were dispersed all over Europe, and used as a charm against various evils. Their number and bulk were so great, that they would have sufficed for building a man of war. It was very natural that sceptical doubts should be entertained respecting their genuineness. These, however, were promptly repressed, by an eminent saint affirming, that to supply the wants of christendom, and to reward the zeal of pilgrims, this cross is allowed to grow and vegetate, so that the faithful may be fed as Christ fed the multitude with seven loaves and a few fishes! The CHAIN with which Herod bound the apostle Peter, is also among the treasures possessed at Rome. The breviary supplies all needful information respecting its history. A certain lady named Eudocia, having gone to Jerusalem to perform her vows, received as a present this chain adorned with gold and gems. Having devoutly worshipped it, she sent it to her daughter Eudoxia, at Rome, who presented it to the pope : No. 95. 49 LYING WONDERS OF POPERY. then he showed to her the other chain, with which Peter had been bound under Nero. When the two chains were brought into proximity, they became so firmly united, as to appear but one chain wrought by the same artist. In commemoration of this miracle, a church was erected under the name of St. Peter in Chains, and an annual feast-day appointed in celebration of the same. These chains have been very efficacious in curing the sick and casting out devils, in consequence of which, "the religion of the Holy Chains" has been propagated in the Eternal City. But among all the records of lying wonders which the Church of Rome receives, and which by their insertion in the breviary she practically adopts, none is more extravagantly absurd than the LEGEND OF LORETTO. According to this, the chapel at Loretto was the house at Nazareth inhabited by the Virgin Mary, in which the angel saluted her; and the image it contains, called " our Lady of Loretto," was the product of the artistic skill of St. Luke. When the infidels got possession of Galilee, a band of angels carried this house to a castle in Dalmatia, its progress being accompanied by a blaze of celestial light, and by a band of music. When the angels rested on their way in a wood, all the trees bowed their heads to the ground while the chapel halted. Not, however, receiving proper respect at the castle, the angels carried it across the sea, to a field belonging to a noble lady named Lauretta; but that country being full of banditti, they moved their sacred charge to a hill belonging to two brothers, who fighting for the prize, and finally killing each other, the angels planted it where it now stands. A deputation of respectable persons was dispatched to Nazareth from Loretto, to measure the vacated foundation; and upon their return, they settled all doubts for ever as to this being the Virgin's house, by swearing that the empty space at Nazareth exactly tallied with the chapel at Loretto! The chapel itself is thirty-two feet long and fourteen wide. Its interior is divided into two rooms by silver grating. In the western wall, is the window through which the Angel Gabriel entered at the annunciation. Within is some of the identical furniture used by the virgin; and the very earthen porringer out of which the infant Jesus was fed. In this porringer, rosaries, crucifixes, &c., are shaken, in order to give them miraculous powers in curing diseases, and to preserve those who purchase them from satan's temptations. In the palace of the Vatican, is a fresco representing the scenes of this |