than it does now, if it were a million times as far off as it now is? H. Yes; it would certainly. M. Then a sun as big as ours or bigger, might be removed to such a distance, as to seem no larger than a star does, mightn't it? H. Why yes; but the stars, mamma, are as near as the sun, an't they? Look at that bright twinkling fellow there; surely he is as near as the I don't think he can be above a mile or two above my head; oh! no, not a mile. I wish I could go up to him in a balloon. sun; M. What will you say, Henry, when I tell you that, instead of a mile or two, we are two hundred millions of millions of miles at least from the nearest of the stars. H. Oh! mamma, mamma ; two hundred millions of millions! oh! who can say that? how can any body know that, mamma? M. Why that, Henry, I cannot explain to you; it would be impossible for me to make you understand this yet. You must believe it at present. But see, here comes papa, to meet us. "Oh! papa, do tell me all about the stars," said Henry, running to meet his рара. P. All about the stars! you must be satisfied with a little less than quite all, my dear boy. But I will tell you something another day. How late you are, dears. H. Yes, papa; I was so tired; but I forgot my tire when mamma began to tell me about the stars. P. Well, my dear, we will talk about the stars again some day. But now make haste and get to bed. But first say your prayers, dear, to Him who made the stars. Good night.-How tired I am! H. Yes, papa. QUESTIONS ON OUR LORD'S ASCENSION. Q. WHAT benefit do we particularly receive from Christ's exaltation in heaven? A. The great advantage of his intercession for us at the right hand of God, where he is a perpetual patron and advocate on our behalf, to plead our cause, to solicit our concernments, to represent our wants, and to offer up our prayers and requests to God, by virtue of His meritorious sacrifice. So that the true penitent may expect forgiveness, the weak but sincere Christian, strength and assistance, having so powerful a mediator with the Father. Those that suffer and are persecuted, may depend upon their High Priest for comfort and support, since He is touched with a sense of our infirmities; and all may come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and help in time of need', because our prayers are offered to God by so powerful and prevalent a hand. Q. What influence ought the ascension of our Saviour to have upon us? A. It ought to confirm our faith, to strengthen our hope, and to raise our affections to things above. Q. How doth the Ascension confirm our faith? A. Because it gives a further proof of our Saviour's divine mission, and that He was a true prophet sent from God; it being evidence beyond exception that God would never have so highly rewarded Him, and visibly have taken Him into heaven, if He had not been sent into the world by Him, and had not approved of the message He had delivered to us. Neither can we doubt of His return to judge the world, our Saviour having declared Himself appointed by God, judge of quick and dead', and the angels having confirmed the same; nothing being more credible than the saying of one whom God has so visibly taken to Himself. 1 Heb. iv. 15, 16. 2 Acts x. 4. Q. How doth the Ascension strengthen our hope? A. By seeing our own nature thus advanced, we are assured that dust and ashes may thither ascend; and the blessed Jesus being our head, as members of His body we may expect admission into that heavenly court, where He sits in glory, since we have His word, that can never fail, that He is gone to prepare a place for us. Besides, our Saviour's exaltation dispels all those fears the weakness of our nature may suggest to us, because He hath an absolute disposal of all those graces which are necessary to attain eternal happiness. Q. How doth the Ascension exalt our affections? A. By putting us in mind that our treasure is above, and that therefore we ought not to set our affections upon things that are below: that heaven is the true and only happiness of a Christian, and that our great design in this world ought to be, to fit and prepare ourselves for the enjoyment of it: that our constant endeavours ought to tend towards the qualifying ourselves to be received into our Saviour's presence, to whom we have the greatest obligations of duty and gratitude: that by trampling upon our sins, and subduing the lusts of the flesh, we may make our conversation correspond to our Saviour's condition, that where the eyes of the Apostles were forced to leave Him, thither our thoughts may follow Him.-Nelson. The sun has long been set, The stars are out by twos and threes, Among the bushes and trees; There's a cuckoo and one or two thrushes, And a sound of water that gushes, Wordsworth (an impromptu). PROFESSION OF FAITH OF THE ASCENSION. I BELIEVE, O victorious Love, that Thou, after Thy conquest over death and hell, didst ascend in triumph to heaven, that Thou mightest prepare mansions for us, and from thence, as conqueror, bestow the gifts of Thy conquest on us, and, above all, the gift of Thy Holy Spirit; that Thou mightest enter into the holy of holies, as our great High Priest, to present to Thy Father the sweet-smelling sacrifice of His crucified Son, the sole propitiation for sinners; and therefore all love, all glory be to Thee. Glory be to Thee, O Jesus, who didst leave the world and ascend to heaven about the thirty-third year of Thy age, to teach us, in the prime of our years, to despise this world when we are best able to enjoy it, and to reserve our full vigour for heaven and for Thy love. O Thou whom my soul loveth, since Thou hast left the world, what was there ever in it worthy of our love? O let all my affections ascend after Thee, and never return to the earth more; for whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. Amen. Lord Jesus, Amen. Bp. Ken. DISCOVERY OF THE TELESCOPE. BEYOND all, perhaps, that a discoverer ever felt, must have been the surprise and delight of Galileo, when, having turned for the first time to the heavens the wonderful instrument which his own ingenuity had invented, he beheld that crowd of splendours which had never before revealed themselves to the eye, nor even been dreamt of by the imagination of man. While Galileo resided at Venice, a report was brought to that city, that a Dutchman had presented to Count Maurice of Nassau an instrument, by means of which distant objects were made to appear as if they were near; and this was all that the rumour stated. But it was enough for Galileo. The philosopher immediately set himself to work, to find out by what means the thing must have been effected; and in the course of a few hours satisfied himself that, by a certain arrangement of spherical glasses, he could repeat the new miracle. In the course of two or three days he presented several telescopes to the Senate of Venice, accompanied with a memoir on the immense importance of the instrument to science, and especially to astronomy. He afterwards greatly improved his invention, and brought it to such a state of perfection, that he was in a condition to commence, by means of it, the examination of the heavens. It was then that, to his unutterable astonishment, he saw, as a celebrated French astronomer has expressed it, "what no mortal before that moment had seen the surface of the moon, like another earth, ridged by high mountains, and furrowed by deep valleys-Venus, as well as it, presenting phases demonstrative of a spherical form; Jupiter surrounded by four satellites, which accompanied him in his orbit; the milky-way; the nebula; finally, the whole heaven sown over with an infinite multitude of stars, too small to be discerned by the naked eye '." Milton, who had seen Galileo, described, nearly half a century after the invention, some of the wonders thus laid open by the telescope :— "The moon, whose orb, Through optic glass, the Tuscan artist views Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe." A few days were spent by Galileo in rapidly reviewing the successive wonders that presented themselves to him; and then he proceeded to announce his discoveries to the world by the publication of a paper, which he entitled the Herald of the Heavens, which 1 Life of Galileo, by Biot, in the "Biographie Universelle." 2 Nuncius Sidereus. |