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It has often been exemplified in real life; and ought to be so common as to be familiar to all. Many sisters are more than guardian angels to their brothers, and will be ascertained to have been such in a better world. One sister, too, may exert an influence equally benign and salutary over another, and may prove to her more valuable than all the rubies in the world.

This holy influence over both brothers and sisters ought to be the aim of all who bear this appellation and sustain this sacred relation. It ought to be acquired at the earliest period possible; and the easiest and surest way to establish it, is for the sister to be herself virtuous, pious, and intelligent, affectionate, amiable, and agreeable. Being so, her influence may be almost omnipotent. S. S. Treasury.

MONTHLY CALENDAR OF NATURAL PHENOMENA,

SUMMER

JULY.

now seems to have reached its height, and though we have passed the longest day, the heat and brilliancy of the gorgeous sun seem only to have increased. "Weatherwise" people are predicting for us this year an unusually wet season, the oak was out so long before the ash, and a few weeks will now decide the correctness of their prophecy. It does, however, often happen that July is a showery month. Frequent thunder-storms break up the weather, and greatly perplex and annoy the farmer, who is anxious now to secure his hay.

This is, indeed, one of his busiest months, and if the weather at all allows of it, all hands are at work in the hayfield, or otherwise helping to store the crops. To our own mind this is a most cheerful and lively time in the country. The grass fields are literally covered with busy and happy labourers of every age and sex. Whole villages seem to empty themselves on propitious days, and none that can wield a scythe, or handle a rake, or toss the grass, or carry the provender for man or beast, is allowed to stay behind. Now the children are in fullest glee, and may be seen playing amongst the new-cut grass, or shouting and dancing on the loaded hay-cart, or the quickly rising mow. The whole country is joyous too, and the cheerful voices mingling with, to us, the pleasant notes of the mower's scythe, give a glee and charm to country life and scenes just now it never wears excepting at the time of har

vest.

The woods at this season are most delightful. Their deep refreshing shade and rich luxuriance are never so charming as amid the bright, hot suns of summer. They abound, too, in interesting plants, ferns, campanulas; various large and elegant grasses cover the ground, while climbing up and festooning themselves from tree to tree, may be seen the elegant brioney, wild hop, and various other climbing plants.

Hedgerows and fields abound with vegetable beauties. The white snapdragon, yellow-toad flax, harebell, lady's bed-straw, and a multitude of others, all well known to our country children, abound in every lane, while the corn-fields are literally flower-gardens by the abundance of gorgeous poppies and other showy flowers now in fullest bloom.

and new moon on the 19th, at 15 minutes past 9 at night. The moon, during the present month, will pass near the principal planets at the times following:

Distance.

Those who want to see our heath-12th, Saturn, at 8h. morn. deg.

lands in their glory must go to them

now.

The various kinds of heath are in full flower, while numbers of moor plants mingle their scents and colours with them. There are certainly no more beautiful and elegant little English flowers than the heaths, and whoever has access to the high moorlands, where they grow in greatest beauty, would find ample entertainment and instruction in a little time spent amongst them. The air is now joyous with the hum of many insects, and butterflies abound of almost every shape and hue.

Birds are nearly silent this month, but the lark in the morning, and the blackbird and thrush at sunset, still cheer us with their song.

On July 1st, strange to say, the sun is at a greater distance from the earth than at any other time during the present year, and yet we are in the midst of summer, and feel the heat of the sun's rays much more than in winter, when we are nearer the sun. Try and ascertain the reason of this.

The "longest day" being past, we shall soon observe the days decline, and by the end of this month the sun will rise 40 minutes later in the morning, and set 32 minutes earlier in the evening.

It will be full moon on the 5th, at 29 minutes past 1 in the afternoon,

14th, Mars, at 5h. 50m. aft. 3 deg. 16th, Venus, at 3h. aftern. 11⁄2 deg. 21st, Jupiter, 9h. 31m. aft. 1 deg.

Our only "evening star," Jupiter, will soon leave us-it sets a short time after the sun, and as the month advances will be lost in the twilight. Those who have been delighted in observing the eclipses of Jupiter's moons, must wait until October before they can again have that pleasure, Jupiter being too near the sun. Saturn, Mars, and Venus, are all morning stars; but Venus is by far the brightest, is moving eastward among the stars, and will be near a bright star (Aldebaran) on the 15th. These planets rise on the 15th at the following times:Saturn, at 10 min. before 11 at night. Mars, at 10 min. before 12 at night. Venus, at 13 min. after 1 in morn.

Mars is moving eastward among the stars; and Saturn is nearly stationary during the month.

"JULY (Latin, Julius) was originally called Quintilis, being the fifth month of the Roman calendar. Marc Antony designated it Julius, in honour of Caius Julius Cæsar, dictator of Rome, who was born in it, and who reformed the calendar. It answers to Ab, the 11th month of the Jewish civil year, and the 5th of their sacred year. The Anglo-Saxons called it Madmonath, the meadows

being all out in bloom; also Hey- vest; and Deftera-litha-monath, or monath, because in it they mowed latter mild month." - Christian Altheir grass, and gathered their har-manack.

The Model Gallery.

JOHN BUNYAN AND HIS FAMILY.

ABOUT the year 1634, there was a boy running about at Elstow, in Bedfordshire, who was the plague and torment of the neighbourhood. He was the ringleader in every noisy pastime, the head of every rude sport. Yet those who noticed and blamed his faults the most, pitied the boy because he was very poor, very ignorant, and very much neglected. He had great talents, untiring activity, and a fine open countenance. Yet all these were so perverted by negligence, that they only made him more wicked and troublesome. His talents enabled him to devise schemes of mischief; his activity to put them into prac tice; and his health, vigour, and mirthfulness, to render him careless of consequences. This boy was John Bunyan.

His parents did not wilfully neglect their boy, but they were ignorant and poor; and the trade of his father, that of a travelling tinker, compelled him often to leave his son in Elstow, while he went travelling up and down the country with the gipsies. For a short time he was once sent to school, and the truths he heard there about an all-seeing and ever-present God, and a day of judgment, made a deep impression on his mind; and, though he con

tinued in sin, yet his conscience often told him of his wickedness; and, when only nine years of age, he had often dreams of such an awful character, and so full of grandeur and solemnity, that he never forgot them while he lived.

It does not appear that these dreams had much lasting effect upon him, for he grew up from a turbulent boy to a profligate youth: indeed, so great was his sin, that even wicked persons were surprised and shocked at his profane words and wilful conduct. Swearing and sabbathbreaking were his besetting sins.

At the time that this youth was about seventeen years of age, there was great strife and tumult in the land between King Charles the First and his Parliament, and England became the scene of civil war. The idle and profligate sort of life that soldiers often lead, seemed well to suit the feelings of a thoughtless youth like Bunyan; and he accordingly entered the army, and continued to live a careless, godless life, as heretofore; and even forgot, by his neglect, the little he had learned at school of reading and writing. At this period, however, a circumstance occurred which changed all his future course. He had won the affections of an amiable young woman, the

daughter of pious parents, and she became his wife. For a little time he seemed to be reformed; but, very soon after, he took to his former wicked habits, doubtless much to the grief of his young and gentle wife.

It was well for her that she had a meek and quiet spirit," for nothing but the power of meekness could have reclaimed such a turbulent spirit. Had she scolded and railed at his faults, or wept and lamented in gloomy discontent, she would have disgusted him, and perhaps forced him to entirely neglect her. But instead of this, she always met him with a cheerful smile, and tried to entertain him with pleasant conversation about the things she had been taught, and the books she had read in her father's house. By these means she made her society dear to him, and induced him to forsake the ale-house and its low pursuits; the village green, and its riotous sports, for her gentle voice and his own fire-side, where he might be seen in an evening trying to recover his lost reading and overcome his evil habits, his kind wife helping him in both.

He soon improved under this instruction, became a fluent reader of the Bible, and in many ways reformed. He found, too, from reading God's book, what a great sinner he had been, saw the necessity of repentance, and passed through a time of deep anguish about his sins. His mind, however, was very dark, and it was long before he was brought to see the simple way of life by childlike faith in Christ's finished work.

When this was at last made plain to him, he greatly rejoiced; and you may be sure his wife rejoiced too, in his altered happy state. What a privilege it was for her to have aided in this good work! She met with the reward of her "who openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness." But she did not live long after this change. Her work seemed done when her husband was converted, and she quickly entered on her rest.

In those days there was great persecution in the land. The subject of religious toleration was not as well understood then as now, and people could not allow others that liberty of conscience they claimed for themselves. When King Charles the Second was restored to the throne, representations were made to him against a class of religionists called Puritans, and many severe laws were in consequence enacted against them, as well as against all their preachers who were not ordained by the bishops of the church of England, and all of those who refused to worship according to its forms. These last were called Nonconformists. It so happened that John Bunyan belonged to this denomination, and was one of the first to suffer under these strict laws.

The remarkable change that God had wrought upon him, constrained many to come and ask about his religion; and, in a little time, many urged him to preach, and tell publicly what God had done for him. At first he was very unwilling to do so, but finding that one or two attempts he made were very much blessed, he went on, and was the honoured means of turning many from sin to Christ.

The Bedfordshire magistrates, being arbitrary men, now came in and forbade his labours in this way, citing him before them, and requiring him to promise to preach no more. This Bunyan could not do, so he was sent off to prison.

We have seen that his first wife was dead; but he had now a second, a kind and excellent friend to his motherless children, and a suitable partner for himself, called Elizabeth. He was still very poor. One of his children, a daughter, was blind. The prison was the old damp jail on Bedford Bridge, and Bunyan complained that it was so mildewed, that it was enough to make "the moss grow upon his eyebrows." Here he was confined for twelve years, at any time during which period he would have been set at liberty, if he would have promised not to preach again; but he believed God had opened his mouth, and he dare not promise to keep it closed. He preferred imprisonment, misery, and poverty, to liberty obtained by, to him, a sinful promise. It was during this imprisonment that John Bunyan wrote his Pilgrim's Progress. An old Bible and Concordance were all the books he had to help him, yet it stands out as one of the most wonderful books in either this or any other tongue. During great part of his imprisonment, his blind daughter used to knit staylaces, which he tagged, and his wife sold about the streets of Bedford, in order to support the helpless family.

There is a beautiful instance re

corded of Bunyan's wife going before Judge Hale to plead for her husband's liberty. She had just recovered from a serious illness, and was still very weak; but her modest confidence, tender appeals, and sensible replies won the respect and admiration of the judge upon the bench and all that were in the court. There is every reason to believe that, though she was in the very humblest station of life, she was a woman of true nobility of soul and elevated christian principle. Deeply as she must have suffered, she never counselled her husband to act contrary to his principles, but used all her powers to soothe his prison sufferings. At last he was released, being allowed to depart from prison without making any compromise of his conscientious convictions.

From the time of his release, he was regularly employed in preaching the gospel; and when he preached in London, the places were too small to contain the multitudes that flocked to hear him. Many were apparently greatly blessed by him. Dr. Owen once said to King Charles, when upbraided for going to hear him, "Please your Majesty, could I possess that tinker's abilities for preaching, I would most gladly relinquish all my learning."

At last Bunyan had to die, and his death was worthy of his life. He had been labouring very hard, in preaching and writing; in the last twelve months of his life he published six books on religious subjects. This mental fatigue, added to the hardships he had before endured, affected his health, and his friends saw with

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