dost not act in accordance with what thou knowest, how seekest thou what thou knowest not?"

Were there no affliction, there were no way to God. The supreme thanksgiving to God is that thou shouldest see thyself incapable of duly rendering thanks to Him. PERSIAN.

Y heart believes—yet still I long for light,

Surely the morning cometh after night,

When Faith, the watcher, shall give place to sight!

VII.

The Flight of Years.

Two Voices.

I.

OW soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth

How

Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! My hasting days flow on with full career.

But my late spring no bud nor blossom shewth.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth
That I to manhood am arrived so near;
And inward ripeness does much less appear
That some more timely-happy spirit endu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even,
To that same lot, however mean or high,

Towards which time leads me, and the will of Heaven
All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great taskmaster's eye.

MILTON.

II.

A plaintive sonnet flowed from Milton's pen
When time had stolen his three-and-twentieth year;
Say, shall not I, then, shed one tuneful tear,
Robbed by the thief of three-score years and ten?
No! for the foes of all life lengthened men,
Trouble and toil. approach not yet too near;
Reason, meanwhile, and health, and memory dear
Hold unimpaired their weak, yet wonted reign;
Still round my sheltered lawn I, pleased, can stray;
Still trace my sylvan blessings to their spring.
Being of Beings! Yes, that silent lay
Which musing gratitude delights to sing,

Still to Thy sapphire throne shall Faith convey
And Hope, the cherub of unwearied wing.

WILLIAM MASON.

VIII. The Fittest Preparation for a Better
World.

Return, O my soul, unto thy rest, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.—Psalms cxvi. 7, 8.

HE effect of water, poured on the root of a tree, is seen on the branches and fruit above; so, in the next world, are seen the effects of good deeds performed here. BUDDHIST SCRIPTURE. There are good deeds of which man earns the fruit

but scantily in this world, because the fulness of reward can only be enjoyed in the world to come.

THE MISHNAH.

Is it not strange, my friends, that after all I have said to convince you that I am going to the society of the Happy, you still think this body to be Socrates? Bury my lifeless body where you please, but do not mourn over it, as if that were Socrates.

Spoken shortly before his death.

N loving service for others, remorse for sin allay,

JN

And the angels will forget the debt thou canst not pay.

Heaven's gate is shut to him who comes alone,

Save thou another soul, and it shall save thine own.

IX.

Passing Away in peace.

And the king said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee in Jerusalem. And Barzillai said unto the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem ? I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Wherefore, then, should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord, the king? Thy servant will go a little way over Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward? Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother.-II. Samuel xix. 33-37.

WH HEN I get through my labor, when there is nothing I can any longer achieve, any longer do to make the world brighter, happier, better, then I pray God to let me fade and fall, to let me go to sleep. If I believed that there was nothing further for man, no other, higher life, perhaps I might selfishly cling to my place on the bough, against logic, against reason; but, standing here this morning, I ask that I may fade as a leaf when my-life work is done, when I have ministered to the life that bore me all that it can then let me at least go on, and see if there be not something higher and better than simply waiting alone on the bough that has given me support. MINOT J. SAVAGE.

X.

Planting for Eternity.

The Lord hath chastened me sore; but He hath not given me over unto death.-Psalms cxviii. 18.

THE noble-minded, if brought ever so low in poverty,

cannot hide his nobility; he is like a burning wood; turn it down as you may-the flame still rises heavenwards. EASTERN.

The human heart is like heaven; the more angels, the more room. FREDERIKA BREMER,

To dare is great. To bear is greater. Bravery we share with the brutes: Fortitude with saints.

C. F. DEEMS.

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written; and in writing it consists, in what deserves to be read, and in living to make the world happier and better for our living in it. PLINY.

A man must not so much prepare himself for eternity, but plant eternity in himself-eternity-serene, pure, full of depth, full of light and of all else that is grand and holy.

RISE, O star of blessed hope,

Let not my soul in darkness grope

And suffer pangs of constant death,
Long ere I breathe my dying breath.

XI.

Discords and Accords of Life.

In the evening there is weeping, in the morning cometh rejoicing.—Psalms xxx. 5.