often selfishly, and madly. We have
been making money our god; and now we see how vain a thing it is in
which to put our trust. Now we feel "it is more blessed to give than
to receive." Now, kindness and tenderness melt the hardness of our
natures. Now, as we stretch the helping hand and witness the joy and
gratitude evoked, by our God-like deeds, we feel in every fiber of our
being the thrill of the poet's rapt exclamation:

"O, if there be an Elysium on earth
It is this, it is this."

Recovery from Earthquakes.

Earthquakes throughout the world have not disturbed the ultimate
confidence of man in the stability of this old and often seemingly
wayward earth. All Greece was convulsed centuries ago from center to
circumference and Constantinople for the second time was overturned
with the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Five hundred years
afterwards the city was again shaken and a large number of its
buildings destroyed with an appalling loss of life. Again and again
was the ancient city of Antioch shattered in almost every portion but
each time she arose stronger than before. Fifteen hundred years ago
one mighty shock cost the lives of 250,000 of its people, but Antioch
remains, although its grandeur from other causes has departed. Twice
at least has Naples been partly destroyed along with its neighboring
towns and more than 100,000 people have perished. But Naples is still
on the map of the earth.

Lisbon, one hundred and fifty years ago lost 50,000 of its inhabitants
and had a part of its territory suddenly submerged under 600 feet of
water. For 5,000 miles the earthquake extended and shook Scotland
itself, alarming the English people and causing fasting and prayer and
special sermons in the Scotch and Anglican churches.

Two hundred years ago Tokio was almost entirely destroyed. Every
building was practically in ruins and more than 200,000 were numbered
among its mangled dead. Again in 1855 it nearly suffered a similar
fate with a decreased though very large loss of life. But Tokio has
helped Japan play its dramatic part in the recent history of the
world.

Graphic descriptions have been left us by eye witnesses of the
tremendous upheaval in the great Mississippi Valley in 1811, when the
flow of the mighty river was stopped, and the land on its banks for
vast distances from its current was sunk for a stretch of nearly 300
miles. But the Father of Waters still goes on unvexed to the sea.

Charle