Year: 1879

Now LAY Me Down TO sLEEP.-Who
wrote that childs prayer? His work has
done more for humanity than all the creeds
of councils, or all the systems of divinity put
together. I fancy some gifted and loving
mother composed it for her own ,darlings, not
dreaming that for centuries it would be taught
by innumerable mothers to millions Of chill.
dren that indeed it would be transmitted
from generation to generation, through all
revolutions, all political and social changes.
to the end of time. How many men and
women, brave boys and gentle girls to-day
date their first impressions, the first awakening
of conscience, the first thought of God the
Gracious Guardian of His children on earth,
to that precious prayer? How many aged
men and matrons, sitting serenely in the
golden glow of life's cloudless evening, trace,
with gratitude to God, the promise and the
potency of their characters and destinies to
the twilight worship of the bedside when
kneeling at their mothers knee they said that
prayer2


Happy child whose mother solemnly and
tenderly teaches her little ones the simple, the
immortal words!


In the very impressive and touching ad-
dress of Judge Thomas Thomson, to five
young men convicted of murder, he remarked
that be pitied them and had thought that
perhaps no tender mother shielded their in
FAINT innocence, and taught them, kneeling at
her knee, that prayer, "Now lay me down to
sleep" I know not, said the Judge, "who
wrote that prayer, but I would rather be the
author of it than the finest poem in the world,
for it has shaped the destiny of millions Of the
human race Courts and codes of law may
pass away, but that prayer will endure to the
end of time to bless mankind.


When listening to Judge Thomson's words,
was reminded Of a touching, beautiful Incl.
dent in the last hours of the useful life of that
noble and just man, Judge D. L. Wardlaw,
of Abbeville, S. C. The grand old Judge lay
on his death.bed. The family did not sup.
pose that his end was SO near. In perfect
peace he bade them goodnight, saying that
he thought he would sleep well. He seemed
to sleep sweetly, and only little grand
daughter sat in his chamber. The silence Of
the night in the old patriarch's room was soft
ly broken by his voice, repeating the prayer
Of his infancy. As little child, the learned
and able jurst and statesman, with bis haneIs
folded on his breast, said, "Now lay ne
down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to
keep; if I should die before I wake, l pray
the Lord my soul to take"


The prayer concluded, he fell asleep and
died before he awoke, and the Lord took his
soul "And Jesus called little child unto
him and set him in the midst of them, and
said, verify say unto you, except ye be con.
verted and become as little children, ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven"


FORMATION OF Rocks. Professor Chand-
Ter, in lecture at Hartford, Connecticut, re-
Gently, said he would give one fact to show
how geologists determine when there has been
an elevation belonging to this class. When
there are fossiliverous rocks we know, he said,
that they rest upon older rocks, because we
know every rock Of that period because had
they remained under they would have had
sediment resting upon them. Because they
are free from this we judge that they are older.
And it is because Of this distinction that we
know that the most ancient rocks Of this co,in-
try are north of the St. Lawrence river, and
so on NORTH clear up to Behring's straits, there
we have the oldest rocks of our globe. These
rocks dip under the others. Set up a row of
bricks and then Knock them Overland any
child can tell you which went over last. That
is the way these rocks lie-the oldest dipping
under the newer ones.> Hence the carbonifer
GUS rocks hid under the Silurian. Take the
northern portion of the State of New York
its fossil rocks belong to the oldA(Ormations
AS you 60 north the older they are. So we
have forty.fve thousand feet Of fossiliverous
rocks already under surveyor about ten
miles if they were all put upon perpendicu.
lar line. Professor Dana says it would take
fifty million years to form these rocks. From
the time organic life began in the sea to the
time of man, at least fifty million years
passed; and before that time all the granite
had to be formed-so you might add another
fifty million years previous to this.


These are not speculations. Why? Be-
cause we must remember that the machinery
which manufactures the rocks is now in ope-
ration. From what is known of the Upper
Tertiary formation, the last where you find
fossil man, the lapse of the cycles can be
Judged correctly. This indicates how long
these rocks were in formation.