HYMN FOR THE OPENING YEAR.

HEN Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil;

When Summer's, balmy showers refresh the mower's toil;

When Winter binds in frosty chains the fallow and the flood,

In God the Earth rejoiceth still, and owns her Maker good.

The birds that wake the morning, and those that love the shade;

The winds that sweep the mountain or lull the drowsy glade,

The Sun that from his amber bower rejoiceth

on his way,

The Moon and Stars, their Master's name in silent pomp display.

Shall Man, the lord of Nature, expectant of the sky,-
Shall Man, alone unthankful, his little praise deny?

No, let the year forsake his course, the seasons cease to be,
Thee, Master, must we always love, and Saviour honour Thee.

The flowers of Spring may wither, the hope of Summer fade,
The Autumn droop in Winter, the birds forsake the shade;
The winds be lulled-the Sun and Moon forget their old decree,
But we in Nature's latest hour, O Lord, will cling to Thee.

B

IN MANY LANDS.

NEW YEAR'S DAY IN MANY

ONCE resided for two years and a half with the natives of one of the South Sea Islands. There was no Sunday, no Christmas, no New Year's Day, and I learnt to believe there that time is worth but little to man without being measured. Its value is not properly appreciated unless we know how much of it we are getting, for we are too apt to think that it is given to us in unlimited quantities.

English colonists in Australia and other places generally keep New Year's Day in about the same manner as at home; some make it a holiday, and others do not. All are a little more particular about their dinner, and there are, I am sorry to add, an unusual number of cases before the police courts the next morning.

The ways and customs of the mother country are followed with some difficulty in the Australian colonies. A hot turkey, or goose, and the national plum-pudding, are not so inviting in appearance where the thermometer is at ninety degrees in the shade as in the much-abused climate of England. Christmas and New Year's Day seem out of season in Australia.

The inhabitants of Cape Town, South Africa, are an exception to other English colonists. The English and their descendants there have fallen somewhat into the customs of the early Dutch settlers, and make a business of celebrating the advent of a new year for a week. Every house seems full of visitors; everyone is dressed in his best, and no one seems to have any business but that of seeking amusement, at which they work frantically. There are pic-nics to Table Mountain, and pleasure excursions in boats. "Cape smoke" and wine flows freely; everyone dances in the evening, and an unfortunate sailor cannot get beyond the reach of a merciless storm of

music. The holiday or week passes away, and hardly a pleasureseeker can be seen; all are again seriously engaged in business and money-getting.

I was one New Year's Day in Callao, the principal seaport of Peru. The town was full of English and American sailors, who could not resist the fine opportunity of having a row with each other, and many of them celebrated the latter part of the day in a quiet, thoughtful manner within the walls of a gaol.

The inhabitants of Spanish America search the calendar for all the holidays, and New Year's Day is not forgotten. They have a grand passion for bells-not bells of the " Big Ben" family, with deep and solemn tones, but they try to make up in numbers, and in perseverance in energetic ringing, what each bell lacks in quantity and quality of sound. On that bright and sunny New Year's morning I was aroused by the tormenting sounds of many bells, each quite as distracting in effect as the ringing of a railway bell at the arrival or departure of a train from

a station.

The Peruvians keep the New Year's Day by attending mass in the morning, a bull-fight in the afternoon, and by dancing and gambling in the evening. Englishmen call this very bad, as indeed it is, but it would be well to take the beam from their own eyes. There are few Peruvians who would degrade themselves by intoxication, and none but would think that man little better than a pig who can only keep a holiday by feasting and drinking.

The French observe the day by distributing presents to their friends. It is said that the sale of bon-bons and sweetmeats in Paris, for presents on New Year's Day, amounts to about £25,000 annually. It is also said that the sale of jewellery and fancy articles in the first week in the year in Paris amounts to one-quarter of the sales during the rest of the year.

New Year's Day in Germany is kept as a day of amusement; it bears no religious character officially or by authority, coming so soon after Christmas, which is considered a great Church festival among all denominations. By old-established custom the holiday begins on the eve of New Year's Day, which the Germans call "der Sylvester Abend." To dance from the old year into the new one is thought no unbecoming occupation by the young and thoughtless. In those families where life is regarded as having higher purposes than mere business and amusement, New Year's Eve is celebrated in a more homely, but certainly not less happy manner. It is the only evening in the year when the