this constellation, and the star Argus, have for an Australian traveller, when describing a flood rapidly approaching his party. "Some hours later, and after the moon had risen, a murmuring sound like that of a distant waterfall, mingled with occasional cracks, as of breaking timber, drew our attention, and I hastened to the river bank; by very slow degrees the sound grew louder, and at length, so audible, as to draw various persons besides, from the camp to the river side. Still no flood appeared, although its approach was indicated by the occasional rending of trees with a loud noise. Such a phenomenon in a most serene moonlight night was quite new to us all. At length, the rushing sound of waters, and loud cracking of timber, announced that the flood was in the next bend. It rushed into our sight, glittering in the moonbeams, a moving cataract, tossing before it ancient trees, and snapping them against its banks. It was preceded by a point of meandering water, picking its way, like a thing of life, through the deepest parts of the dark, dry, and shady bed, of what thus again became a flowing river By my party, situated as we were at that time, beating about the country, and impeded in our journey, solely by the almost total absence of water, suffering occasionally from thirst and extreme heat, I am convinced, the scene never can be forgotten. Here came at once, abundance, the product of storms in the far-off mountains, that overlooked our homes. My first impulse was to have welcomed this flood on our knees, for the scene was sublime in itself, while the subject—an adundance of water, sent to us in a desert-greatly heightened the effect to our eyes; suffice it to say, I had witnessed nothing of such interest in all my Australian travels. Even the heavens presented something new, at least uncommon, and therefore

in harmony with this scene; the variable star, Argus, had increased to the first magnitude, just above the beautiful constellation of "The Southern Cross," which slightly inclined over the river, in the only portion of sky seen through the trees. That very red star, thus rapidly increasing in magnitude, might, as characteristic of her rivers, be recognized as the Star of Australia, when Europeans cross the line. The river gradually filled up the channel nearly bank high, while the living cataract travelled onward, much slower than I expected to see it; so slowly, indeed, that more than an hour after its first arrival, the sweet music of the head of the flood was distinctly audible from my tent, as the murmur of waters, and the diapason crash of logs, travelled slowly through the tortuous windings of the river bed. I was finally lulled to sleep by that melody of living waters, so grateful to my ear, and evidently so unwonted in the dry bed of the thirsty Macquarie." *

Establishing a house on the "top of the mountains," gives us an idea of reaching a place which cannot be arrived at without great difficulty. Our Saviour said to his disciples when he preached his memorable sermon to them from the top of a mountain, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they

* See "Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia." By Lieut. Col. Sir T. L. Mitchell.

D

Therefore take no or, What shall we be clothed? (For

spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? thought, saying, What shall we eat? drink? or, Wherewithal shall we after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.' From this command we may learn that the kingdom of God, where the "Lord's house," was to be established, was to be found in a part of the earth capable of producing all the raw material requisite for the best description of food and clothing, which was to be discovered by some of the Lord's people who should be engaged in preaching his gospel, and setting an example of righteousness; and the reward they were led to expect, for not thinking so much about their own individual food and clothing, as proclaiming the Lord's message to a perishing world, was, that they should find a country equal in natural advantages to any of the nations of that world, but still unoccupied, and sufficiently large for them to "flow" into it from all nations in great numbers. It is very remarkable that the gospel should have been preached for nearly 1800 years before Australia was discovered, and that it should then have had the British flag planted in it. The flag of a nation which, although stained by the blood of martyrs, was then sending the gospel message to all parts of the known world. From Britain, missionaries were then,

*Matthew vi. 25-33.