The number forty is very prominent in Bible and Church history:

1. It rained forty days and forty nights in the Flood. - Gen. vii. 12.

2. Moses twice fasted for forty days and forty nights. - Exod. xxiv. 18, etc.

3. The spies sent to Canaan were forty days in searching the land. - Num. xiii. 35.

4. The Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness. - Ps. xcv. 10.

5. Goliath defied the armies of Saul for forty days. - 1 Sam. xvii. 16.

6. Elijah fasted forty days. - 1 Kings xix. 8.

7. Ezekiel bore the iniquities of the house of Jacob forty days, a day for a year.

8. Jonah cried to the Ninevites,"Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown." - Jonah iii. 4.

9. Jesus fasted and was tempted forty days in the wilderness. - Matt. iv. 2.

10. Jesus tarried on earth forty days after his resurrection. - Acts i. 3.

11. Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus forty years after the Ascension.

12. According to Church tradition, Jesus was forty hours in the tomb.

13. The Lenten Fast continues for forty days, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday And there are others.

'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell,

And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;

On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,

And the depths of the ocean its presence confessed;

'Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder,

Be seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder.

'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,

It assists at his birth and attends him in death,

Presides o'er his happiness, honor, and health,

Is the prop of his house and the end of his wealth,

In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care,

But is sure to be lost in his prodigal heir.

It begins every hope, every wish it must bound,

It prays with the hermit, with monarchs is crowned;

Without it the soldier, the sailor, may roam,

But woe to the wretch who expels it from home.

In the whisper of conscience 'tis sure to be found,

Nor e'en in the whirlwind of passion is drowned;

'Twill soften the heart, but, though deaf to the ear,

It will make it acutely and instantly hear;

But in short, let it rest like a delicate flower.

Oh, breathe on it softly, it dies in an hour.