I heard some time ago that a young man who was studying to become a doctor, said to his father, "When I go to some of my lectures on biology" (that is the study of life), "the only thing that I can do when I hear things said that are quite contrary to the Bible, is to keep saying to myself, 'It's not _true_, it's not _true_.'" I think this young man was right: he had settled it in his heart that whatever he might hear, he must think as God thinks. He was like one who when just starting in life, wrote these words on the flyleaf of his little Bible--"Man has faith in his compass, yet he cannot understand it. He takes it as his guide across the trackless ocean. He relies implicitly upon it, and well he may trust it. This Book is my compass. I have faith in it, thanks to God: it explains itself; I take it for my guide across the ocean of life--I rely upon it. Man may jeer at my faith, but my compass is vastly more reliable than his--still better may I trust mine." "HIDDEN TREASURES. "The gems of earth are still within Her silent unwrought mines; There hide they, all unknown, unseen, No sparkle upward shines. "The stars of heaven, how few and wan Are all we see below Compared with what remain unseen Beyond all vision now! "Who knows the untold brilliance there, The wealth, the beauty hid? Like sparkle of a lustrous eye Beneath its veiling lid. "So with the heaven of better stars Of which these are but signs: So with the stores of wisdom hid In everlasting mines." H. BONAR. THE FIFTH DAY. "THE MOVING CREATURE THAT HATH LIFE." "_This is the finger of God._"--EXODUS viii. 19. "_The Lord ... in whose hand is the soul of every living thing._"--JOB xii. 10. "_O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts._"--PSALM civ. 24, 25. We now come to the time when the empty water, air, and land were filled. The work of God on the FIFTH DAY is spoken of in verses 20 and 21 of our chapter. In reading them we noticed that in respect of the "great whales," or sea monsters, the word "created" is again used, as it was in the first verse; and then, as we read the twenty-third verse, we had a little talk about the words now used for the first time in the story of Creation, "and God blessed them." How beautiful it is to see that as soon as God had caused the waters to "swarm with swarms of living souls" (look at the margin of your Bible as you read the twentieth verse)--as soon as we read of creatures to whom God gave a life different from that of a tree or a flower, a life that could enjoy itself in the home prepared for it--all these living things were blessed, that is, made happy, by Him who called them into being!