The ground is very sloping just here, and the water tumbles from rock to rock. Look at some of the large stones, they appear almost like great heads with green hair streaming away round the bald crown.

Lizzy: This is what we call mermaid's hair.

Father: Let us gather a tuft. It is exceedingly fine. It consists of a number of plants growing together. It is a kind of sea-weed, if we may so call it, growing in fresh water, and is called conferva. Well, I have called your attention to these plants, the lichens, the fungi, and the mermaid's hair or confervæ, because they are the plainest or simplest forms which the Great Artist has created.

James: What do you mean by the plainest and simplest, father?

Father: I mean they have the smallest number of thoughts or contrivances in them. They consist of nothing but cells built up one upon another into the simplest shape.

Charley: What are cells--and why are they built of cells?

Father: Cells are roundish things like the Indian rubber balls sold in the toy-shops, only very small. They are hollow, and their walls are very thin. Can you imagine no reason why all plants should be built of cells, and not of particles packed as closely together as possible?

James: I think I see. If plants were made of particles packed very close together, they would be as hard as stone or iron, and would not bend gracefully or be fit for food.

Father: Exactly. From this principle we put yeast in the dough of our bread, that by fermenting it may make the bread full of cells. Besides, if plants were created of such closely packed particles, it would require a million times more materials to form them; and the Great Builder is economical. He wastes nothing. He does nothing in vain. Now, if you take a mushroom and cut open the top, it will appear like a fine sponge, because it is made up of cells heaped together. If you look at the mermaid's hair with a powerful microscope, you will see that it is made of cells, made very long, and

joined end to end, with a little green substance in the middle. Now, if I were to give you a number of cells, and request you to build with them a graceful form, but the simplest that you could possibly conceive, what would you do?

Charley: Well, I think I would just make one row of cells like the conferva, end to end.

Father: Exactly, and that plan the Creator adopts also on the mould which you see in paste and preserves, for that is a plant, or rather a number of plants. Well, suppose I asked you to build up another form, a little less simple, what would you do?

Charley: I would build a number of lines side by side. Father: Yes, and then you would have the long ribband-like forms of sea-weed. What would you do next?

Charley: I would keep on making lines side by side, running out from a centre till I had made a circle.

Father: Then you would have the lichen, which is mostly a roundish leaf, and many lichens bear round shields or cups.

James: And then, father, if you took a round plate of cells, like the lichen, and kept on heaping other cells upon it, like apples on a plate, you would have the mushroom form.

Father: True. Thus you see the Great Builder condescends to work in the universe, after the same methods in which our minds would work. Or rather, it is the Divine Reason in us which works there by the same law by which it works in creation. In fact, by this agreement between what He has made, and what He makes us conceive, He is teaching us that He is with us and in us-the Indwelling God-the Reason by which the worlds were made.

My son, be this thy simple plan,
Serve God, and love thy fellow-man.
Forget not in temptation's hour.
That sin brings sorrow double power.

Count life a stage upon thy way,

And follow conscience, come what may.

Alike, with heart, and brow, and bosom clear,

Fear God, and know no other fear.

SOLOMON'S Temple, after having stood 420 years, was
destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; and in its place was
afterwards built the second temple, by Zerubbabel. It
was inferior in magnitude and beauty to its predecessor.
This was again rebuilt by Herod the Great, who suc-
ceeded in rendering its appearance so magnificent as to
make it celebrated among ancient writers.
It was
built of white marble exquisitely wrought, and stones of
very large size; and a great part of it covered with
plates of gold. Josephus (the celebrated Jewish histo-
rian) states that its appearance had everything which
could strike the eye and astonish the sight; that when
the sun rose upon it, it reflected such a strong and
dazzling effulgence, that the eye of the beholder was
obliged to turn away from it, being no more able to
sustain its radiance than the splendour of the sun.

But this stately pile, this costly monument of art and magnificence, soon shared the lot of all buildings made with hands; for in forty years after our Saviour's prophecy of its destruction, that even not one stone should be left on another, it was strikingly fulfilled

For the Romans, to whom Judea was then tributary, being, we are informed, harassed by the continued revolts of the Jews, resolved on bringing them into more complete subjection. Accordingly, in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian, his son Titus was despatched with a large army to besiege Jerusalem. The Jews refused to surrender, the siege continued for six months, during which time they endured calamities of the most dreadful nature. At last the city was taken; six thousand Jews took refuge in the temple, when (though contrary to the wishes of Titus) a burning brand was thrown by one of the Roman soldiers, which set fire to this once glorious edifice, and thus it was finally destroyed.

remain; and the sacred vessels from the temple were represented on this arch carried in triumph, as shown' in the picture of part of the sculpture, on the former page.

It is not easy for travellers to recognise in modern Jerusalem all the localities mentioned in the Bible; the Mosque of Omar stands on the site of the temple, and as it is death for a Christian to enter it, it is difficult to carry on a careful examination of the ground. The following plan will give some idea of the place, and the section shows the relative heights.