is the staple out of which animals and vegetables are built up, it is a constituent of many rocks, and it pervades the air. Hydrogen is even more abundant. It forms one ninth part by weight of every drop of water on the globe, and therefore it may be said that rivers and lakes and the ocean itself are really vast reservoirs of latent fire. Of the two constituents of water, oneoxygen-is an admirable promoter of combustion; and the other-hydrogen-burns, under ordinary circumstances, with more heat than coal, while, by the skilful admixture of the two, a temperature of the highest intensity is produced. We do not attempt in these conjectural hints to indicate the way in which such materials will be made available, and the want of coal supplied, but only to point out that sources of "Fire and Heat" exist everywhere around us, and that, when need comes, God will inspire His children with wisdom to turn them to account. In looking into the future, therefore, let us dismiss anxiety from our minds, in the firm conviction that nature's resources are boundless, and that, if the world be still existent in those far off days, God will not forsake the race for whom His providence daily does so much.

O put your trust in Him alway.-Ps. lxii.

FROST AND COLD.-ICE AND SNOW.

Oye Frost and Cold, bless ye the Lord: praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.

O ye Ice and Snow, bless ye the Lord: praise Him, and magnify Him for ever.

ROST and snow are so often associated in the mind with physical suffering, or with bleak

winter and inhospitable polar regions, that their services in nature's economy are apt to be overlooked. How different it is in the verses of the Benedicite, where they are dwelt upon almost with redundancy, as illustrations not only of Power but also of Goodness and Wisdom. The Three Children could not survey the river that washed the walls of Babylon without being reminded how much it owed to frost and snow. In the fierce Mesopotamian summer, when wells were drying up and the district streams had ceased to flow, the Euphrates was still copiously fed from its snowy reservoirs on the Armenian mountains. And when the people, like nature all around, were drooping under the exhausting heat of the sun, the northern winds which braced their nerves with vigour gathered coolness from the same high source.

It seems unnecessary to remind any of my readers that cold has no existence as a separate or independent principle, and that it merely implies in a general way the

lower ranges of temperature. The word, however, will frequently be found in the remarks that follow, both because it is a convenient term, familiarly used and well understood by all, and because it has been specially introduced into the Hymn.

Snow has its well known aspects of beauty. Where can the eye rest upon such an expanse of purest white as the unbroken sheet it lays upon the fields in winter, and how picturesque the trees appear with the snow-flakes clinging to their twigs and branches. Bathed in the light of the sun, the snow-wreath often throws back the colour in pale but beautiful reflection. At sunrise and at sunset the snow-clad Alps glow in rose and gold. Sometimes the snow, especially in polar regions, is tinted red by myriads of minute algae which pass a frugal life upon its sterile surface, and the famous Crimson snowcliffs of Baffin's Bay arrest the attention of the passing navigator at a distance of ten miles from the shore. The beauty of snow is of that true kind that bears inspection. A few grains taken from the heap that gathers upon the window-sill will exhibit the prettiest crystals when looked at in the microscope.

Ice is even more beautiful than snow. Who has not stopped to admire the sunbeams playing with the icicles and winning glowing tints from their cold surface, or the windows encrusted with their frosty featherings, or the trees decked stiffly in fleeting robes of crystal? Who has not peered curiously at the stones and plants lying beneath the clear sheet of glass with which ice wraps up the brook in winter. Sometimes it is gemmed with air, as if the water had suddenly stiffened before the lingering air-bells could escape; sometimes the tiny globules are so crowded together as to make the ice look white like hardened snow. But it is in glaciers, more especially, that the most beautiful tints are to be seen. Transmitted

light frequently imparts a greenish colour to their masses; at other times, they assume the milky dimness of the opal. Sometimes their huge fragments have been compared to blocks of beryl; more rarely their blue has the fine tint of aquamarine. Not unfrequently the ice arrays itself in all the colours of the rainbow. The play of the low, midnight sun on the glaciers of the coast of Greenland has been described as making "the ice around one great resplendency of gem-work, blazing carbuncle and rubies and molten gold."

Ice water is purer than that procured from snow. The latter, besides the air mixed with it, usually contains some animal matter and other impurities gathered from the atmosphere. In freezing, water has a tendency to free itself from the foreign matters it contains; and advantage has been taken of this circumstance in arctic regions to procure drinkable water. McClintock found that in each successive freezing the ice became less salt; until, after the fourth time, ice was formed which on melting yielded fresh water. From the brine left behind salt was readily procured by evaporation. As there are 66 sweet uses in adversity," so does the pinching rigour of winter in northern climates enhance the enjoyment of summer. Thankful thoughts should rise as we call to mind the wood and coal and springs of oil given to us as means by which cold may be mitigated or subdued. These, no doubt, are common-place subjects and reflections; but life itself is spent among commonplace things, and when we make them lead to thoughts that honour God, we elevate them above their commonness, and invest them with the dignity which belongs to everything that aids in promoting His worship. Cold brings sleep to the vegetable world, and prepares it by a period of rest to burst forth with fresh vigour in the spring. Snow and frost are valuable servants to the

husbandman. By expanding the moisture with which the hard clods are permeated frost crumbles them down, and renders stiff land friable, porous and mellow. Frost, likewise, rids the soil of some of its vermin life, which, but for this check, might increase to an extent that would seriously damage the crops. In winter it gives the soft, moist ground the necessary hardness to allow field operations to be carried on. Snow is even more useful. It covers up the tender plants as with a blanket, and preserves them against the effects of excessive cold. "He giveth snow like wool." The blanket thus softly laid on is "a bad conductor," neither allowing the heat which is in the earth to pass out, nor, if we may use the expression, the external cold to pass in. Observation shews that the inner surface of the snow seldom falls much below 320 Fahr., although the temperature of the air outside may be many degrees under the freezing point; and it is found that the crops can stand this amount of cold without injury, so long as their covering protects them from the raking influence of the wind. In climates where the winter's cold is longer and more intense than in our sea-girt island, the protecting influence of snow is more conspicuously marked. Where it lies long and deep it opens out routes that were impracticable in summer on account of their ruggedness, and prepares a smooth path for the sledge, or for the "lumberer," over which the largest stems of the forest may be dragged with ease to the canal or river.

In polar regions snow supplies the ever ready material out of which the Esquimaux construct their houses, and hardy explorers extemporise the huts in which they find. shelter when absent from their ships on distant expeditions. Nor are the ships themselves considered " in winter-quarters" until their sides have been banked up in walls of snow, and the roof raised over the deck

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