move mountains; the living, lasting energy, ever flowing forth from a heart brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. "In purity." Though last in this catalogue of graces, purity is the all-important lesson for our youth. In thought, word, and deed, its inculcation should be paramount. In Timothy the fountain had been cleansed; and the injunction comes tardily, but it comes at last. Would that we could conscientiously give to it the same backward position. But our young readers feel that it demands a foremost place. "The wisdom that descendeth from above is first pure." It is the first day's work of the new creation, "Create in me a clean heart!" Oh, let this be the prayer of all, and especially of our youth, whose tendencies are strong towards worldliness and folly; the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. But special wants have special grants. God has taken their case into consideration, and has met the requirements of youth. He has anticipated the anxious enquiry, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ?" Before they speak, he answers; and his answer is at once, full, plain, practical, and infallible, "By taking heed thereto, according to My word." GUTTA PERCHA, T. “Gutta Percha is a product of the vegetable world, and although but recently known in this country, the tree producing it, has for centuries waved in its native forests-exuding its juice only to be received by the soil, and lost to the many useful purposes to which it might have been applied. "Sir W. Hooker, says of it—'Gutta percha is a vegetable substance, which, though only known to Europeans for a few years, is now extensively used in the arts for various purposes. But while thus frequently employed, and constituting an important article of commerce, the plant which produces it was unknown, until, by a lucky accident, during the residence of Mr. Thos. Lobb in Singapore, where he has been employed in a botanical mission by Mr. Veitch, of Exeter, he detected this plant, and sent home numerous specimens, which prove it to be a new sapotaceous plant. Accompanying numerous well dried specimens, Mr. Lobb judiciously sent small sections of the wood, which is peculiarly soft, fibrous and spongy, pale colored, and traversed by longitudinal receptacles or reservoirs filled with the gum, forming ebony black lines. "It appears that Dr. Montgomerie was the person who first brought the gutta percha into public notice. He writes thus in the Magazine of Science, 1845;-I may not claim the actual discovery of gutta percha; for, though quite unknown to Europeans, a few inhabitants of certain parts of the Malayan forests were acquainted with it. Many, however, of their neighbours -residing in the adjacent villages, had never heard of it; and the use to which it was applied was very trifling, for I could only ascertain that it was occasionally employed to make handles for parangs or wood-choppers instead of wood or buffalo horn. So long ago as 1822, when I was assistant surgeon at Singapore, I was told of gutta percha, in connexion with caoutchouc; and some very fine specimens were brought to me. "There are three varieties of this substance, gutta girek, gutta tuban, and gutta percha. The name gutta percha is pure Malayan, gutta meaning the gum or concrete juice of the plant, and percha the particular tree from which it is obtained. I could not help thinking that the tree itself must exist in Sumatra, and, perhaps derive its name from thence, the Malayan name for Sumatra being pulo percha; but though the straits of Malacca are situated only one degree to the north of Singapore, I could not find that the substance has ever been heard of there, or in Sumatra. "But to return to the period when I first noticed the parang handle that was made of gutta percha. My curiosity being excited by the novelty of the material, I questioned the workman, a Malay woodsman, in whose possession I saw it, and heard that the material of which it was framed could be moulded into any form by dipping it into boiling water till it was heated through, when it became plastic as clay, regaining, when cold, its original hardness and rigidity." "Illness prevented Dr. Montgomerie at that period from visiting the forests where the tree grows. He, however, ascertained from the natives, that the percha is one of their largest trees, attaining a diameter of three or four feet; that its wood is of no use as timber, but that a concrete and edible oil, used by the natives with their food, is obtainable from the fruit. "In many parts of the island of Singapore, and in the forests of Johore, at the extremity of the Malayan peninsula, the tree is found: it grows in Borneo, where it is called Niato by the people, who are not, however, acquainted with the properties of the sap. The tree is often six feet in diameter at Sarawak, and is believed to be plentiful all over Borneo. Its frequency is proved by the circumstance that several hundred tons of the gutta percha have been annually exported from Singapore since 1842, when the substance first came into notice here. COFFEE. THE earliest account we have of Coffee is said to be taken from an Arabian MS. in the Bibliothèque du Roi in Paris. An Arabian author of the fifteenth century, attributes to Gemaleddin, Mufti of Aden, a city of Arabia Felix, who was nearly his contemporary, the first introduction into that country, of drinking coffee. At length the custom became general in Aden; and it was not only drunk in the night by those who were desirous of being kept awake, but in the day for the sake of its other agreeable qualities. Before this time, coffee was scarce known in Persia, and very little used in Arabia, where the tree grew. But, according to Schehabeddin, it had been drunk in Æthiopia from time immemorial. Coffee being thus received at Aden, where it has continued in use ever since without interruption, passed by degrees to many neighbouring towns; and not long after reached Mecca, where it was introduced, as at Aden, by the dervises. Hence, the custom extended itself to many other towns of Arabia, particularly to Medina, and then to Grand Cairo in Egypt, where the dervises of Yemen, who lived in a district by themselves, drank coffee on the nights they intended to spend in devotion. Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses. "It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western parts of Europe. It is, however, likely that the Venetians, upon account of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade to the Levant, were the first acquainted with it; which appears from part of a letter wrote by Peter della Valle, a Venetian, in 1615, from Constantinople; in which he tells his friend, that, upon his return he should bring with him some coffee, which he believed was a thing unknown in his country." Mr. Galand tells us he was informed by M. de la Croix, the king's interpreter, that M. Thevenot, who had travelled through the East, at his return in 1657, brought with him to Paris some coffee for his own use, and often treated his friends with it. It appears that the use of coffee was introduced into London some years earlier than into Paris. For in 1652 one Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with him a Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, who understood the roasting and making of coffee, till then unknown in England. This servant was the first who sold coffee, and kept a house for that purpose in George-yard, Lombard-street. The first mention of coffee in our statute books is anno 1660, (12 Car. II. c. 24.,) when a duty of 4d. was laid upon every gallon of coffee made and sold, to be paid by the maker.— Abridged from "Notes and Queries,” No. 2. ANECDOTE OF HANNAH MORE. IN the summer of 1773, the celebrated Dr. Langhorne resided for some time at Weston-super-Mare, for the benefit of the sea air; the equally celebrated Mrs. Hannah More, then residing at Uphill, for the same purpose. The Doctor meeting this lady one day upon the sea-shore, wrote with the end of his stick upon the sand, the following impromptu "Along this shore "Walk'd Hannah More; "Waves! let this record last"Sooner shall ye, "Proud earth and sea, "Than what she writes, be past." The lady returned the compliment by scratching underneath, with her whip, and the same facility of genius "Some firmer basis, polish'd Langhorne, choose Enquiries and Correspondence. It has been suggested, that instead of answering these enquiries at once, we should afford our readers an opportunity of expressing their opinions. We therefore invite replies from all our young friends, without, of course, pledging ourselves to insert every answer that may be sent us. We shall always, however, regard appositeness and brevity, as paramount recommendations.-ED. 1. Pantheistic Mysticism. SIR,-If you will be so kind as give me a clear definition of the term "Pantheistic Mysticism," and what is the particular nature of that form of infidelity, you will much oblige, DEAR SIR,-Will you kindly favor me with your opinion, as to whether the judgments of God are to be regarded as penal or correotive-as chastisement, or retribution-as sent in anger or in mercy. Your's respectfully, 3. The Centurion's Excuse. M. H. DEAR SIR,-Would you be so kind as to explain to me the reason the Centurion gives for not allowing the Lord to enter his house, in Luke vii. 8. I remain, |