Hark!


ONE! two! three! fire,  boys,  from  box 

132!  Run, Fred, Frank, and George! 

Hurry along!  Don't you hear the alarm? 

Listen; there, it strikes  again.  It will be 

a  tough fire,  boys.  The wind is blowing a 

perfect  gale.  Do  Fred,  Frank, and 

George  remain  motionless  on  their  seats 

while  the little tappers  call  them  to  duty? 

Do  they sit still  and  finish the story which 

they are reading,  or the game in which they 

are interested?  Not they.  Everything is 

dropped in  the twinkling of an eye.  The 

horses are brought from the stable,  hitched 

to the machine,  and before the alarm has 

sounded the second time, they are speeding 

to  obey  the  summons.  But  suppose  they 

had waited,  suppose  the whole  fire  

department  had said,  "Oh, it is only a false 

alarm;  no  need to  hurry;  no  need  to  go.  Let

 us  finish  our  game  first."  If such were  the 

case,  my  young  friend,  what would  have 

become  of  our famous  city  of  Boston  this 

morning, when  the  fire  broke out?  It 

would  have  been  laid  waste.  And unless 

we  obey  the  call  of  the  third  angel,  and 

awake  to  the  alarm  that  is  now  sounding 

throughout  the  world,  put  away our sins, 

drop the vanities  and follies  of  this  world, 

and  consecrate  ourselves  to  God,  we shall 

be like  unto  a  great city  destroyed by fire. 

God forbid, my young  friends,  that you or 

I should  loiter  behind;  but  rather  be  one 

of  the first to  obey the  call,  and have our 

robes (character) washed clean  and white in 

the blood of  the Lamb.  



M.  WOOD.


Finish What You Begin.


MY  great  grandmother  Knox  had  a 

way of making her children finish their work. 

If they began a thing, they must complete it. 

If they undertook to build a cob house, they 

must not leave it till it was done;  and nothing 

of work or  play to which  they set their 

hands, would  she  allow them to  abandon  

incomplete.

I  sometimes  wish  I  had  been  trained  in 

this way.  How much of life is wasted in un- 

finished work.  Many a man uses up his time 

in splendid  beginnings.  The labor devoted 

to  commence ten things  and  leave them

 useless,  would finish five of them and make 

them,  profitable  and  useful.

Finish your work.  Life is brief; time is 

short.  Stop beginning forty things, and  go 

back  and finish  four.  Put patient, persistent 

toil  into the matter,  and  be  assured, one 

complete  undertaking will  yield  yourself 

more  pleasure,  and  the  world  more  profit, 

than a  dozen fair plans of which  people say, 

“The man began to build and was not able to 

finish."



ADVERSITY is  the diamond dust Heaven 

polishes its own jewels with.