Most blessed worker for a world
In wickedness still lying,
For mercy unto sinful man

Thy finished work is crying:

For Thou hast done the Father's will
In living and in dying.

Lord, when the chains of self and sin
In slothfulness would bind me,
May thoughts of Thine example pure
Of needed work remind me;
And seeking in Thy Father's house,
Grant I may ever find Thee.

R. R. THOM.

Peasant Life in Norway.

HE Norwegians, who form one great branch of the Scandinavian family- the Swedes and the Danes being also included in the general term "Scandi

navian "—are of great interest to the inhabitants of Great Britain. Together with the Anglo-Saxons, who represent the Teutonic element among us, and who preceded the Scandinavians in the race for conquest in this country, they unite in contributing to that making of England which, being blessed with the enlightenment of Christianity, and the all-wise Providence of God, has become so powerful a factor in the government of the world in our day. The Scandinavians, who are of Aryan race, are believed to have come from the distant East in prehistoric times, having probably been driven to the remote and inhospitable north-west corner of Europe by some mighty tribal convulsion. After a time, when kings began to reign, and exercise lordship over them, sections of this freedom-loving people left their shores in search of new homes where fewer restrictions would be placed upon them. Thus it happened that numerous Norwegian settlers landed in Cumberland, the Isle of Man, and Wales, in or about the seventh century of the Christian era.

By far the most important exodus from Scandinavia, however, took place in the ninth century, when a numerous band of dauntless sea-rovers alighted upon the northern coast of France, and on either bank of the Seine obtained a grant of land from the then reigning King of France. This allocation was first called the Northman's Land, and then in process of time "Normandy," by which name it is known to this day. As it was with the settlement so was it with the settlers. Originally known as the "Northmen," they came in time to be called the "Normans." After extending and strengthening themselves in France for two centuries, and taking on its culture and civilisation, under their leader William the Norman, they determined to try their fortune on the tempting shores of the south of Albion. This was in the year 1066, when the decisive battle of Senlac or Hastings brought the Anglo-Saxon domination of England to a close, and gave the Anglo-Norman room to take root and grow. Thus from the intermediate settlement in Normandy, as well as directly from Scandinavian fjelds and fiords, came the Northmen, redoubtable men, broad across the shoulders, slender in the waist, deep in the chest, large in limb, with comparatively small hands and feet-a mark of their Eastern origin-open and winning in countenance, and mostly with the fair face, hair and eye, which alone in the north passed for the beautiful and the well-born. What these men were such are we to-day, with the addition of all the advantage to be drawn from a high state of civilisation. Most of our best, and it may be a few of our worst, national features are derived from them; but if as a people we are attached to order and freedom, if we are intrepid and enduring in war, enthusiastic in discovery and adepts in colonisation, we have under God to thank the hardy Norsemen, whose history is as astonishing, as their deeds are wonderful. Seeing we are sprung from such a stock, a study of the Norsemen of to-day cannot fail to be interesting and instructive. The country, although a very paradise for the artist, the botanist, the geologist, and the general tourist, is poor, the towns are

necessarily small, the conditions of life are hard, a good part of the population is afloat in the large merchant navy, and the peasantry in Norway-as in other countries no doubt-form the bulk of the people. These peasants, take them all in all, are a noble people; God-fearing, honest to a degree-such a thing as theft is almost unknown-sober, hard-working, often toiling in summer from five o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock at night, thrifty, obliging, not greedy of filthy lucre, and showing piety at home. The writer of this paper once had for a guide in the Hardanger fiord a lithe-limbed little fellow, Olé Igé of Oddé. Olé had been several years in America, and was doing well as a farm-servant there, but hearing that his father and mother were getting too feeble to be left alone, he, an only child, had come back to the little Scandinavian village to smooth their pathway to the tomb, with his kind and helpful ways, and cheery face and talk, and diligent toil at anything he could get to do. "When your parents go to God, what will you do, Olé?" he was once asked. "I shall cross the Atlantic for good and all," he replied. Perhaps no better idea can be formed as to what peasant life is in Norway, than by visiting the royal palace of Oscarshall in the vicinity of Christiania, where there are exhibited, along with the works of several native artists, a series of ten paintings by the Norwegian artist, A. Tidemand, who died in 1847, representing "Norsk Bondelier," or the different periods of peasant life. The works are charmingly executed, and no visitor should leave Norway without carrying off with him. the series of photographs as a most pleasing souvenir. The first work of the series represents 'Childhood,' where a boy is blowing on a cow's horn, a little girl is knitting, goats are lying around them, and behind the humble cottage there stretch away the grand mountains of Gamle Norge Old Norway. In the next we have Courtship,' which may be supposed to be the same everywhere. "A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind." Then follows 'Marriage,' when the youthful and lovely bride wears her wedding crown; the

proud bridegroom is dressed in gallant attire, and what with the accompaniment of glad parents and friends the inevitable flutist and fiddler, the clanging of the bell, the bestowing of gifts, and the joy and sports of children, all are as happy as the day is long. To the last work succeeds 'Happiness,' where the proud father holds out his pipe as a plaything to his little year-old boy, who is sitting on the young mother's knee. Following close on the footsteps of Happiness' comes ' Affliction.' That reaper whose name is Death, and who gathers the flowers as well as the bearded grain, has come with his sickle keen, and taken away the parents' hope and pride. They sit by the side of their dead and pour forth their sore plaint to God. The next painting in the series portrays Instruction.' God has given the once sorrowing parents other children in place of the lost boy, and that they may not be void of instruction father and mother are carefully training them up in the way in which they should go. Then follows' Fishing.' It is moonlight on the Fjord, and the deft fisherman is teaching his boy to spear fish with the aid of the torch. To this succeeds Outgoing.' The place is too strait for all the family, so the eldest son, his father's hope, his mother's joy, goes out into the wide world to seek his fortune, with his little bundle over his shoulder, and his staff in his hand, while as he does so the fond mother weeps, and the father, after imparting the counsel, “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not," bestows his blessing. The series is now near to an end, but two pictures still remain, full of touching pathos. The ninth of the series is styled 'Aged Piety,' and here we have the lonely old couple, their children all having gone out into the world, comforting their pious souls at the close of the day, and in the evening of life, by sitting at their little table in the log-house and reading the Word of the Lord, which endureth for ever. Last of all, when life's fitful dream is well-nigh over, there comes The Last Supper,' when in the rude cabin, and in the presence of assembled friends, and the children and the children's children, as the aged and venerable is about to go

the way whence he shall not return, the gray-haired Lutheran pastor, arrayed in ruff and gown, holds up the symbols of Him who is able to save to the uttermost before his dim eyes and fast-failing sense, as he extends the cup of blessing and says, "This Cup is the New Testament in My blood. This do ye as oft as ye drink it in remembrance of Me."

J. CHRISTIE, B.A.

The Unused Well.

BY THE REV. JAMES GILMOUR, M.A.
Author of Among the Mongols.'

IN desert travelling much depends on finding a well.
The route and the length of the daily march are
determined by the situation of the wells. But

even when a well is found, sometimes there is a disappointment. Many a time our cattle and ourselves have been made glad by the sight of a well in the distance, hoping to camp there and rest, when our Mongols, knowing better, would say, "It won't do; we must go on." And why? Go up to the well and look down; there is the water, and plenty of it, not too far down either, for our ropes and buckets to dip it. May we not camp? "No," says the Mongol, "it won't do; the water is bad, because it is not being used," and to convince us of the truth of this, he would step aside, take a stone, tell us to look down into the well while he threw down the stone and made a splash in the water. He was right; the water was unfit to drink. The smell that came from the splash showed that plainly enough, and we would have to go sorrowfully on. Want of drawing was all that was wrong with it. When the encampment of natives came back, and dipped out the bad water and kept using the well, it was all right, but when left unused and stagnant it became unfit to drink.

In China, too, there are wells which, when drawn from largely, give fairly good water, but which, when used little,