The whole burden of his utterance has reference to the lot which fell to the children of Ephraim and of Manasseh on the west of Jordan in the promised land; and the description which he here gives of that lot was very accurately fulfilled in the exceptional privileges of soil and climate and watersprings which distinguish the "ancient mountains and the "everlasting hills" where Joseph established his abode. In that choicest region of Palestine he found indeed " the precious things of heaven" in a delicious air, from which at nightfall the dew still falls as heavily as when Gideon wrung out a bowlful of it from a single fleece upon which it had gently descended, whilst in the daytime the abundance of water with which the atmosphere is charged causes everything to be seen through a lovely bluish haze, such as lends its sweetest grace to our own English landscapes, but which is nearly always lacking in Eastern climes. Beneath the soil" couches" a wondrous "" deep" of hidden fountains that gush out in musical streamlets and rills, and fill every valley with verdure and coolness. On the natural terraces of the rounded hills grow all "the precious fruits which are ripened by the sun," and the precious produce of each successive 66 moon "that is, the crops which came to maturity month by month, both barley and wheat, figs and orchard fruits, grapes and olives, and nuts and balsam. Groves of forest trees clothe the skirts of many of these "ancient mountains," and populous villages bear witness to this day concerning the goodwill of Him who at Horeb promised to give to Israel "a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey." In short, between Dan and Beersheba no better portion could be found than that which Joshua assigned to his kinsmen of Ephraim and Manasseh, a plot some seventy miles by fifty, in the very centre of Canaan, and lying across its breadth from the Jordan to the Great Sea, including such far famed sites as Samaria and Shechem, and presenting even under Turkish misrule to-day the most beautiful scenery and the most prolific harvests in all the Holy Land. Nor is the region less strong for defence than it is fertile and delightsome as an abode. Its northern passes are singularly steep and narrow, as well as picturesquely rugged; and here it was that Moses, with prophetic gaze, beheld the myriads of Joseph's sons standing on guard like a noble buffalo whose two wide branching horns block the way against invasion, and hurl back threatened war upon every rash disturber of the mountain where Ephraim's fair kine feed at the head of every fat valley (Hos. x. 11; Isa. xxviii. 1-4). With these brief indications of the natural appearance and advantages of Joseph's lot in Canaan, the language of Moses concerning him will explain itself. Ver. 13. "And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land, And for the deep that coucheth beneath, * Exod. iv. Ver. 14. 15. 16. 17. And for the precious fruits which are from the sun, Let it come upon the head of Joseph, And upon the top of the head of him who was separated from his Let the first-born of his bullock be his glory, And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, BERTHA'S TASTE. "LOVELY!" "Beautiful!" ex-day, and consequently there would claimed the group of girls around be no school in the afternoon, nor the table in the schoolroom, as perhaps for several days. The girls Bertha Deane held up for a mo- looked sober a moment in sympathy ment the bouquet she was making, with Miss Linden, but their eyes and looked at it critically. As would sparkle in spite of them. usual, they had brought flowers for selves at the news of the unthe schoolroom vase, and as usual expected holiday. had called upon Bertha to arrange them. "Too stiff," said she: "it needs some ferns and grasses." Rosa Hall ran out to the brook at the foot of the grounds, and soon came back with a handful. "There! that's better, isn't it?" asked Bertha, as with a few deft touches she made the bouquet look all alive with the green feathery things. 66 "Oh!" "Oh!" came in little sighs of admiration, now from one and now from another. "You have such good taste, Bertha," added Ruth Lee: everybody says so." A flush of pleasure flamed into Bertha's cheeks. Just then Miss Linden came in, glanced at the flowers on her table, and smiled her gratification. "I shall ask you to let me take it home with me this noon, girls, to my sister." She then informed them that as her sister had been taken suddenly ill, though not dangerously she hoped, she should leave for her home in a neighbouring town that 66 66 My sister, if she is well enough, will be sure to appreciate your good taste, Bertha," said Miss Linden at noon, as she took away the bouquet. Bertha's thoughts as she hurried home were quite pleasant. “Your good taste," and "everybody says so," lingered in her mind like a taste of sweets in the mouth. "Yes, I do think my taste is good-let's see! besides my bouquets that all the girls rave about, there are my lamp-mats and tidies. They certainly are the prettiest I've seen; and my decorated jars and vases look different from the other girls', somehow. Of course, any one can stick pictures on things, but how- that is another thing. I declare, I mean to do my other jar this very afternoon." By this time Bertha had reached home. how I can finish cleaning this afternoon," and poor, tired Mrs. Deane hurriedly put the dinner upon the table just as her husband, who was always punctual and expected every one else to be, came in. "There isn't any school this afternoon," said Bertha at dinner, not very cheerfully, for home didn't look as attractive as usual, with the bare floors, and the furniture huddled in out-of-the-way places. 66 Oh, then, you can look a little after Robbie," replied her mother: "he can't help hindering me, poor child. I must get the rooms settled to-day, if possible." But it was not possible. The headache came on violently, grew worse, and before dinner was over Mrs. Deane was obliged to go upstairs to her room to lie down. For a week, besides doing her usual work, she had toiled at house-cleaning, with no help except a boy to beat the carpets, and now the overtasked nerves were taking their revenge. "It will be so bad about the study. You'll need it to-morrow, and I meant to get it in order to-day," said she to her husband, as she almost tottered from the room. and to make and arrange the pretty knickknacks scattered about the rooms. These, to be sure, brightened home, but not nearly as much as even a part of the leisure spent on them would have done, had it been given to helping the tired mother, to whose share fell all the house work. But Bertha had never thought of this. "Now, Robbie," said she, bringing a jar, a box of pictures, and some mucilage to a table, "be good, and you may see sister make something ever SO pretty." "Me play put carpet down,” said Robbie, seizing a hammer and some tacks from the table, and seating himself on the carpet that, beaten and folded, lay on the floor. A sudden question flashed into Bertha's mind. "If my taste is good, why shouldn't it answer for useful as well as merely pretty things? Robbie assented by jumping up as high as he could, and when he was allowed to help in spreading down papers for a foundation and "Well, in the morning will do, I pulling the carpet into place, and, suppose. Of course, I must finish best of all, to pass every tack to his my sermon in the afternoon; but I sister, his delight was too great for can make my calls to-day," and words. The carpet exactly fitted leaving his wife to struggle with the room. Bertha was strong haunting thoughts of the morrow, enough to stretch it out; she knew the good minister started away on his round of calls. The thought of tacking down the carpet in his study, and arranging the books and papers, never entered his mind. "To minister" to others was his outside vocation, but at home he must "be ministered unto." With his head always in the clouds, no wonder that his feet sometimes stumbled. Bertha had cleared away the table and washed the dishes, an unusual feat for her. Generally, her only household help was to amuse Robbie sometimes, just where the little pieces in the each others' places, it seemed as if the room did look pleasanter-at any rate "for a change," as she said. A vase of flowers from the garden, set here and there, finished everything beautifully. Mr. Deane looked at Bertha a moment, then smiled, and put his hand fondly on her head, the nearest approach to a caress he herself by changing things about, and, really, when the table was wheeled between two windows instead of into its usual corner, where she banished the sofa, and the ever gave her. "My daughter, you pictures on the walls had played have taught me a lesson." "I "stage-coach," and all got into wonder what it is," thought Bertha, as she went softly to her mother's room and peeped in. Mrs. Deane had just woke from a troubled sleep, and now started up hurriedly with her hand pressed to her forehead. "Are you better, mother?" "A little dear. I'm coming down to get supper for your father. "Perhaps a cup of tea will do you good, too," added Bertha, following her downstairs. When they reached the sitting-room, Mrs. Deane stopped short in astonishment. Why! who did this?" "Come into the study, mother," replied Bertha, leading the way. "It isn't possible! it couldn't have been you that has done all this!" Bertha, elated by her success, next visited the study. "I can fix this little room just as well as not. I'm not a bit tired; are you, Robbie ?" "Guess not - not the least little bit." So they went to work. The study carpet was all ready, and in a little while it was down nicely, their father's chair set by the window, where he liked it, and books and papers in just the places where Bertha remembered they had been before. She did not forget a vase of flowers for the study, either, and wondered why she had never thought of putting one on the table before. To be sure, her father never seemed to notice pretty things, but he might feel somehow that the room was brighter. When everything was finished it was time for supper. Robbie said he was “drefful hungry," and was glad to help to set the table. Bertha laid the cloth as nice as possible, and found she could even make the tea. Mr. Deane came in at the supperhour, looking tired and, as usual, rather gloomy, passed into the sitting-room and study, and came back with a brighter but somewhat puzzled face. "What! is your mother better?" asked he. "She hasn't been down answered Bertha. yet," "Then, how "--stammered the minister. "We did it all-me and sister," broke in Robbie, proudly. 66 "You didn't know I had a genius for putting down carpets, did you, mother?" laughed Bertha. Mrs. Deane's eyes filled with tears, but Robbie, rushing in and pulling her 20 into the dining-room, made her laugh by his boasts of what " me and sister" had done. Mrs. Deane sipped her cup of tea dreamily, but it was not that alone that made the headache grow better and the tired look pass from her face and give place to one of rest and happiness. "Our daughter has taught me a lesson," said Mr. Deane, at table, and again he did not say what it was. But after supper he split the kindlings, filled the wood-box and water-pail, and next morning made the fire, thus beginning and never afterwards omitting the round of daily chores, by which many a man helps the otherwise overburdened wife, but which the minister had never before thought a part of his mission. Henceforth, looking around and below, as well as above, he saw more widely. Muscular development increased learned to think helping others brain-force, and his sermons grew better than any amusement. To less metaphysical and more prac- Mrs. Deane's shoulders never came tical. The people began to think back the burden of overwork and they really meant something. care, that slipped from them on the Bertha, in the week that followed day when Bertha's taste, that had before Miss Linden's return, was only put forth empty blossoms the busiest of helpers in the rest of before, struck its roots into the usethe house-cleaning. She insisted ful, and so bore henceforth richer on tacking down every carpet, and bloom, merging into fruit. found she had also a genius for putting up curtains, and doing a hundred other things that require a skilful as well as a willing hand. Yet it was not for a week only, but for life, that she had answered the question put to herself on that holiday afternoon. Little Robbie picture. For Bertha, thus saved from sinking into the mere dawdler over fancy work and useless prettinesses that many a girl becomes, and led ever by higher aims and better motives, became at last a true artist, while her life was her noblest THE ARK AND ARARAT. BY THE REV. THOMAS HENSON. Or course, it is taken for granted that the story of the ark and the deluge is a true narrative of facts-not a poetic myth, not a fiction of imagination. No lively and intelligent youth can be indifferent to the marvels of a fine ship, or to the history of its voyages. The first ship in human history ended its voyagings on Mount Ararat. Tradition, whose tongue however is not always infallible, even though used by a Pio Nono, assigns this Ararat to the mountain regions of Armenia, which, among competent biblical critics, is generally accepted as correct. It has two very high peaks, distant from each other, according to Dr. Kitto, about 12,000 yards. The Armenians regard the mountain with intense veneration, and believe that the ark is still preserved on its summit. With its lofty peaks, and extended table-land between them, it was a fitting port for such a marvellous vessel. Of the builder, the capacity, and the passengers and freight of the ark, nothing need be said here, but the reason of its construction, and the close of its voyage, are different matters, which will yield solemn and interesting lessons. In the early age of the human race, as quaint Joseph Hall says, "man grew not so fast as wickedness." Men had banished God so completely from their thoughts, and had given themselves up so entirely to sin, that He would endure it no longer. Yet His long. suffering and His tender mercies are very great; and though gave Him no warning of their departure from Him, and no respite "men |