THE CHINESE ALMANACK.--The great value which the Chinese attach to their almanack is shown in many ways. Recently the Chinese residents at Lhassa, in Thibet, implored the Emperor to cause arrangements to be made which would enable them to receive their copies of the almanack at the earliest possible date in each year. A writer in a recent issue of the _Chinese Recorder_ says that the most important book to the Chinese is the almanack. Its space is far too important to be occupied with the matter which fills Western almanacks. It contains astronomical information, which is useful; but its great mission is to give full and accurate information for selecting lucky places for performing all the acts, great and small, of every-day life. "And as every act of life, however trivial, depends for its success on the time in which, and the direction (_i.e._, the point of the compass) towards which it is done, it is of the utmost importance that every one should have correct information available at all times, to enable him to so order his life as to avoid bad luck and calamity, and secure good luck and prosperity. Consequently, the almanack is perhaps the most universally circulated book in China." The writer speaks of it as a terrible yoke of bondage. It is issued by the Government, and the sale of all almanacks but the authorized one is prohibited. Quite recently the new Chinese Minister to Germany refused to sail for his post on a day which the almanack declared to be unlucky, and the departure of the German mail steamer was consequently deferred at the request of the German minister to Pekin.--[What a pity but these poor deluded creatures were blessed with Bible truth and Jesus' grace!--ED.] [Illustration: "A TROOP OF DRAGOONS CAME UP AT FULL GALLOP." (_See page 146._)] THE COVENANTER'S ESCAPE AND DEATH. On the 16th of April, 1685, Peden made a narrow escape. Being then at the house of John Nisbet, of Hardhill, a little before nine o'clock in the morning, a troop of dragoons were observed by the servants, who were working in the fields, coming up to the house at full gallop, upon which the servants ran to conceal themselves. Peden, and those who were with him in the house, had fled for shelter to a moss nearly two miles distant from the place where the servants were working.