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The frigate bird (Figata) spreads its wings to the extent of three yards, and its power of flight is, therefore, very great. When a hurricane arises it mounts up far above the storm, and remains in these empyrean regions until the tempest is overpast. In consequence of their immense expansion of the wing they can sustain themselves in the air for days together without taking or requiring rest. The human soul, like the frigate bird, possesses a power to rise above its storms. Upon the pinions of faith it can ascend above the tempests of time, and calm itself in the prospects of immortality. No storms can beat it down, for it possesses a spirituality which, as Dr. Croley says, enables it to rise higher and higher with every fresh wave of its wing.

(Scientific Illustrations.)

And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind. — In the Greek, Could not eye the wind. This directs attention to a peculiarity of ancient Oriental ships. In the Egyptian sculptures, the war galleys have often at the prow a lion's head or a ram's head, with the eyes clearly represented, and looking ahead of the ship. In the Khorsabad sculpture copied by Layard in "Nineveh and its Remains," the ship is in the form of a sea monster, with a horse's head as the prow, a nondescript body forming the bulk of the vessel, and a fish tail forming the elevation at the stern. The Oriental ship was thus conceived of as an animal: its figure head was really the head of the animal form; and the figure head at the prow was balanced by the figure tail at the stern. This conception of a ship as a sea animal was not alien to the sailors of the Mediterranean at the time of Paul. In the paintings on the walls of Herculaneum we see several ships, not only with swan-head prows, but with gigantic eyes painted on either side of the swelling bulk beneath the swan necks. The vessel thus had two pairs of eyes — the small eyes in the swan's head, and the large eyes on the bow. In other cases, the whole bow was a gigantic human head; but even in such instances a well-defined tail is sometimes shown in the paintings. It is worth noting that a relic of this custom still survives on the Mediterranean, many of the vessels still having large eyes painted on the bow; and the swift Turkish skiffs, with long and high prows and sterns, which recall the form of the ancient animal ships, are still called "swallows." Chinese junks are always supplied with eyes on their bows, and the traveller who asks the significance of the custom is told, "Junk no have eyes; no can see."

(S. S. Times.)

We let her drive. —

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KJV: But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon.

WEB: But before long, a stormy wind beat down from shore, which is called Euroclydon.