brighter, as the others sank in the gloom of silent despair.  A few days before they made the land, the leakage suddenly ceased; no one could account for it; but a week after their arrival, when the vessel had been condemned by the authorities as unsea-worthy, it was proposed to turn it bottom upward and see what stopped the leak.  God seemed to have performed a miracle for them, when it was discovered that that end of the vessel was entirely covered with barnacles!

A REMARKABLE PRAYER CONCERNING A REMARKABLE TEXT.

A clergyman, accustomed to preach regularly in his journey through Fleming Circuit, Kentucky, was preparing on one Saturday for the labors of the next day.  He was then staying at the residence of a family named Bowers, from which he was to journey the next day five miles to preach at 11 A.M., at a church called Mt.  Olivet.  On this Saturday, as he relates the incident, as soon and as privately as practicable, I pored over the Bible in quest of a suitable subject for the next day at Mount Olivet, and strange to tell! not one passage in the whole Book, that afternoon and night, could I fix upon, as, in my estimation, suitable for the next day.  There was one passage, (two or three clauses of which I had by some means got fixed in my memory), that early that afternoon appeared in my mind as though each word was written in CAPITAL LETTERS.  I turned to the whole passage as soon as I could find it; Heb. 6:  4-6; and read, “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened,” etc., etc.  I had previously studied that whole subject, as recorded in the original, and as disposed of by learned Commentators of different creeds.  I had settled in my own mind the import of the passage.  But it seemed unsuitable for me, not then three years old in the ministry, to attempt the settlement of a theological question, about which the best and most learned of modern days had differed.  I therefore tried to dismiss it from my mind, and to find some passage more suitable for the coming morrow.  But my constant effort proved unsuccessful; and the said passage in Hebrews often recurred to my mind.  Thus passed my time till I had to go to bed, resolving to attempt an early settlement of the growing difficulty next morning.  But the morning studies produced no change in the unsettled state of the question, what shall I preach from to-day?  Thus matters remained until I reached Mount Olivet, and had to begin service without a text.  But I concluded if a suitable text did not occur while singing, praying and reading some Scripture lesson, rather than have no text, I would take Heb. 6:  4-6.  And, cornered in this dilemma, so I did, and used it as well as I could.