city, town, and village accessible? We welcome the approach of tha day when the distinctive Methodist Churches of this country shall be one organisation; or when, at the least, some system shall be adopted whereby the expenditure of time, talent, and money, and the indulgence of jealousy and rivalry among the small village Churches shall be prevented. In the meantime, as Churches bearing the same name, believing the same truth, adopting the same forms of worship, attending the same means of grace, and recognising the same agencies and ends, let us go forth in one great effort to save and sanctify men: not in the spasmodic effort of a week as an apology for fifty-one weeks, neglect and indifference, but as the outcome of intensified spiritual life, earnest prayer, and restless zeal; go forth as our divine Lord, "glorious in our apparel, travelling in the greatness of our strength, mighty to save." Going forth thus, spiritual signs and wonders shall follow. Strongholds' of sin and Satan shall be converted into temples of the Holy Ghost. Scepticism abashed before such proofs of a divine existence shall bow before the sovereign Lord Ritualism, recognising a living Christ, shall fling aside its gorgeous vestments, that untrammelled it may touch the healing hem of the Saviour's garment. Sister Churches with re-enkindled zeal shall hail us as "the people whom the Lord hath blessed." The young shall run to our embrace, and the old shall lean on the arm of our strength; the rich shall give us of their abundance, and the poor shall bless us for divinest benefactions; and, our mission fulfilled, the glorified shal greet us as the bride of heaven and the benefactress of earth, while the King of kings will welcome us with words which will make the melody of our everlasting heaven: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of one of these My little ones, ye have done it unto Me."

LETTERS TO THE YOUNG ON MATTERS OF SCIENCE. BY REV. J. BOYES, M.A.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,

LOUTH, October 1, 1881

MANY important and useful subjects have been discussed this year

by the members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, which you will do well carefully to read. I find among the few original discoveries that have been made, one by Mr. Baldwin Latham. He notices an important discovery of his own with regard to the influence of barometic pressure on springs. He says, that when

there is a rapid rise in the barometer, there is a corresponding increase in the volume of water flowing from our springs, and that with a fall in the barometer, there is a diminution in the flow. The geologists present expressed their convictions that this will probably give rise to practical results in the way of modifying some prevalent theories, and giving rise to others which will more effectually explain the phenomena of nature.

There is evidently a disposition to accept the theory of development in relation to the human race, as though it were established on indisputable evidence, and to act as though the farther we go back to the annals of human history, the greater natural dunces must mankind have been. The discovery of the Viking ship at Sandeford, Norway, has somewhat astonished both scientists and practical shipbuilders. This Viking ship is a one-masted vessel, which has been buried above a thousand years, and was built on what sailors call beautiful lines, and was admirably adapted both for speed and storage. In the judgment of many skilled in shipbuilding, it is superior in many respects to the vessels of the present day. It shows that our forefathers were far more skilful than we, in this nineteenth century, have believed them to be.

Dr. Montagu Lubbock endeavoured to show that in the early ages of human history mankind were deficient in the faculty of recognising colours. This theory was first suspected from the fact that Homer the Greek poet so rarely mentions colours. The evidence then is altogether of a negative kind. The colours which we find on ancient Egyptian and Assyrian monuments are so good, that we can hardly doubt that in very remote times these nations were perfectly capable, not only of distinguishing general colours, but also their finer shades. In the present day the lower races of savages are known to possess a well-developed colour perception, though they have not many words with which to express the varied colours with which they are familiar. The Doctor thinks that his investigations are in favour of development, though he confesses that he cannot verify the opinion. It remains therefore only an assumption. According to the observations. of his brother, Sir John Lubbock, monkeys possess the sense of colour, inasmuch as they are attracted to fruit by its colour. Their eyes are said to be strikingly like those of human beings. There is, however, no evidence that we can find of man ever having been deficient in perception of colour; though Sir John says, there has been a gradual development among the inferior animals in the power of perceiving both colour and form. The perception of colour is well developed among some of the insects, many of them being

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guided to flowers by their colour. Both the sense of colour and of smell seem to be inherent in the creatures, whose environments require them to use these special faculties, and to have been there implanted by an infinitely wise Creator, for the safety and happiness of the creatures possessing them. Sir John has elsewhere shown that ants are affected by different coloured lights. Some of the species are blind, and others nearly so, and such are doubtless guided in great measure to their food, and to each other, by the sense of smell. The little neuter workers, which do the real work of the nest, are often entirely blind, and must therefore trust entirely to their sense of smell, both in finding their way about, and in recognising friends and foes. From recent investigations we infer that this sense of smell resides in the antennæ of insects. Sir John some time ago noticed an ant which by accident was born without antennæ, and which occupied among them a similar position to that of a blind man in human society. This subject has also been experimented upon by others, among whom may mention Dr. Hauser, a German microscopist, who finds that the ends of the antennæ are covered with small pits or depressions, which are filled with a gummy fluid, and connected with a large nerve which runs directly to the little knot of brain matter. These pits or depressions may be counted by thousands, and evidently take the place of the moist expanded membrane which forms the sensitive surface in the higher animals, as, for example, in a dog, which is guided mainly by scent. In order to ascertain whether the sense of smell resides in these antennæ, Dr. Hauser took a number of beetles and grasshoppers having perfect antennæ, and held them over strong smelling chemicals, such as turpentine and carbolic acid, when they manifested a decided disrelish to the odour. It is evident that odours play an important part in the mental world of these creatures. Where the sight is good, as in the dragon-fly, the eyes form the largest part of the face, and the sense of smell seems to be proportionally weak; the number of olfactory pits on the antennæ, in such cases, being few when compared with those of their less keen-sighted relations, the loss of one faculty being compensated by the fuller development of another. The marvellous adaptation of every creature to its position in the creation is seen in the fact that the ants which are blind have the strongest powers of scent, whereas birds that are gifted with wonderfnl powers of vision are almost devoid of the sense of smell. In all the carnivora the sense of smell is predominant, while in all the frugivorous creatures the faculty of vision takes the lead. Hunting animals that have to track their prey by its spoor alone, possess this sense of smell in an almost infinitely delicate degree. The blood

hound, for example, has such a fine scent, that it will select a single human track out of hundreds, and in spite of all the crossing and recrossing, at all sorts of angles, it will follow on till it comes directly upon its prey. A fruit-eating creature must, on the contrary, be guided mainly by the sense of sight. We might take many more instances, but they would all illustrate the same truth, namely, that where one special faculty predominates, the others are comparatively weak. The world will necessarily be to all these creatures what the special faculty makes it, but we cannot fail to recognise an important fact, namely, that each creature has its own source of happiness, and occupies an important place in the scheme of providence, without which the balance or harmony of the creation would be defective.

Let us now turn to one of the many wonderful things that are being accomplished by the ingenuity of man. Probably all of you know that during the siege of Paris there existed what was called a pigeon post, and by means of this novel method of transit, messages were transmitted from place to place. These messages were reduced by photography to such a small size as to be altogether invisible to the naked eye. They were printed on very small pieces of thin paper, often not more than an inch square, and after being rolled were attached to one of the tail feathers of a carrier pigeon. When the bird reached its destination the postal authorities placed the paper under the microscope, and after duly copying the communication delivered it at a heavy charge to its owner. This very small photo writing excited admiration, but has been far surpassed of late by Mr. W. Webb of London, who by the use of a machine he has invented, has written with a diamond on glass the whole of the Lord's Prayer in a space not larger than the dot over the letter i. All the words are legible under the microscope, and such is the fineness of the writing that Mr. Webb could write the entire contents of eight Bibles, each containing the Old and New Testaments, within the space of one square inch of glass. Even this machine is said to have been surpassed by an instrument belonging to Mr. N. Peters, a wealthy banker of London, in the year 1855, who was able to write three times finer than Mr. Webb. What has become of this machine I do not know. Whether these machines will ever be anything more than expensive toys I cannot tell. Perhaps they may in the near future supply an important place in practical mechanics.

Our scientists generally at the present seem to be more bent on the development and perfection of the various inventions which have been so abundant during the last few years, than on new inventions and discoveries. No doubt our telephones, microphones, and accumulators are filling an important sphere, and are helping on the world to

a higher and grander life. I hope they are suggesting to your minds the desirability of asking your heavenly Father to bestow upon you that wisdom which will enable you rightly to fulfil your mission. A little girl recently said that God's telephones ran everywhere, and so He can hear the requests you make for the wisdom He has promised liberally to bestow.

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JUVENILE CHRISTIAN BANDS.

AM extremely anxious to direct the attention of our friends throughout the Connexion to a matter which, if fnlly carried out, would, in a very important degree, promote the spiritual and numerical interests of our body, the matter to which I allude is the formation of Christian Bands or Associations, having for their object the promoting of the Christian life amongst young people. It is a matter of thankfulness that a fair number of Churches, connected with different denominations, have formed associations; about thirty of these are already found in London alone. I venture to affirm that there is no department of labour in our Lord's vineyard that will yield so large an amount of spiritual results, for the amount of effort put forth, as will these associations, if well worked. Mr. Tyler, superintendent of the children's special service in connection with the Hawkstone Hall Sunday-school, London, wrote to me on the of 1st August, stating that the attendance of the children at the Sunday evening service was about 280, and on Tuesday evening 80 or 90; he thought over 90 had joined the Church as the result of these services.

I have great pleasure in stating that we have a children's service in connection with our Church in Baillie-street, Rochdale; this service is held on Thursday evening, at 7 o'clock, and was commenced by our esteemed brother the Rev. T. B. Saul. Another meeting is held at 8 o'clock, the outcome of the 7 o'clock meeting. This meeting has been under the care of the Rev. T. M. Booth. Mr. Butterworth, one of our society's stewards, furnished me with the following particulars on the 21st of July. There were 89 names on Mr. Booth's Thursdayevening class book, 43 of whom commenced with the class originated by Mr. Saul at 7 o'clock, 30 of the 43 are very regular in attendance. The 7 o'clock meeting has mainly been conducted since Mr. Saul left us by Miss Emmeline Petrie, the granddaughter of our veteran friend J. Petrie, Esq., for many years Connexional Treasurer, and by Miss. Harley, daughter of our friend Mr. John Harley. Miss Harley stated that the average attendance was 80 in summer, and 200 in winter, these meetings have formed one of the most fruitful sources of