And fill

your fellow-creature's ear

With the sad tale of all your care.

Were half the breath thus vainly spent,
To heav'n in supplication sent,

Your cheerful song would oft'ner be,

"Hear what the Lord hath done for me!” !

Time passeth on, yet a few days and we shall be

here no more.

The more confession of Christ, the more persecution for Christ, the more suffering for Christ's sake, the more enjoyment of Christ's love.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.-Rev. iii. 20.

Behold a stranger at the door!

He gently knocks, has knock'd before,
Has waited long, is waiting still;

You use no other friend so ill.

When we fancy others better off than ourselves, it may only be because we know our own circumstances, but do not know theirs.

There is a science reason cannot teach;

It lies beyond the depths her line can reach;
It is but taught by heaven's imparted grace,
The feet of Jesus is the only place:
And they who mental riches largely share,
But seldom stoop to seek their wisdom there.

A dying saint being asked, why he so wept? an

swered, "I weep not that my sins may be pardoned, but because I hope they are pardoned."

Thy tears all issue from a source divine,
And ev'ry drop bespeaks a Saviour thine.

When we grow wanton, or worldly, or proud, how doth sickness or other affliction reduce us! We may say with David, "Before I was afflicted I went astray;" and many thousand recovered sinners may cry, “O healthful sickness! O gainful losses! O blessed day that ever I was afflicted!" Not only the green pastures and still waters, but the rod and staff, they comfort us. Suffering so unbolts the door of the heart, that the word hath easier entrance.

With me, if of old thou hast strove,
And strangely withheld me from sin,
And tried, by the lure of thy love,
My worthless affections to win;
The work of thy mercy revive,
Thy uttermost mercy exert,
And kindly continue to strive,

And hold, till I yield thee my heart.

Affliction sanctified is better than health.

Afflictions, though they seem severe,
In mercy oft are sent;

They stopp'd the prodigal's career,
And forc'd him to repent.

O! lost to virtue, lost to manly thought,

Lost to the noble sallies of the soul!

Who think it solitude to be alone!

The calm retreat, the silent shade,
With prayer and praise agree;
And seem, by thy sweet bounty made,

For those who follow thee.

It is in small things that brotherly kindness and charity chiefly consist. Little attentions; trifling, but perpetual acts of self-denial; a minute consultation of the wants and wishes, taste and tempers, of others; an imperceptible delicacy in avoiding what will give pain; these are the small things that diffuse peace and love wherever they are exercised, and which outweigh a thousand acts of artificial civility.

The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion to forbear;
And something, ev'ry day they live,
To pity, and perhaps, forgive.

There is both a simplicity and a majesty in the essential truths of the "glorious Gospel of the blessed God," from which human pride shrinks with disdain and aversion.

O, how unlike the complex works of man,
Heaven's easy, artless, disencumber'd plan!
No meretricious graces to beguile;

No clustering ornament to clog the pile:
From ostentation, as from weakness, free,
It stands, like the cerulean arch we see,
Majestic in its own simplicity.
Inscrib'd above the portal, from afar
Conspicuous, as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quick'ning words-BELIEVE AND LIVE!

"The communion of saints" with each other is not a matter of barren credence. It is a sacred reality, less frequently known, indeed, than acknowledged, but the perennial source of pleasures the most refined and exalted, and inferior only to those which flow from "the communion of saints" with their Father and Redeemer. None of the "yesterdays" of life look backward with a smile so sweet and satisfactory as those which were marked with the true bliss of "hearts in union, mutually disclosed," on all that gives a character of interest to the present and future scene.

O days of heaven, and nights of equal praise!
Serene and peaceful as those heav'nly days,
When souls, drawn upward, in communion sweet,
Enjoy the stillness of some close retreat;
Discourse, as if releas'd and safe at home,
Of dangers past, and wonders yet to come;
And spread the sacred treasures of the breast
Upon the lap of covenanted rest.

Jane, Queen of Navarre, blamed her ladies and women, when she observed them weeping about her bed, and said: "Weep not for me, I pray you; for God, by this sickness, calls me hence, to enjoy a better life and now I shall enter into the desired haven, towards which this frail vessel of mine has been a long time steering."

In passing judgment upon the characters of men, we ought to try them by the maxims of their own age,

not by those of another. For, although virtue and vice are at all times the same, manners and customs vary continually.

All the principles which religion teaches, and all the habits which it forms, are favourable to strength of mind. It will be found, that whatever purifies, fortifies also the heart.

By faith in Christ I walk with God,
With heaven, my journey's end, in view;
Supported by his staff and rod,

My road is safe and pleasant too.
I travel through a desert wide,
Where many round me blindly stray;
But he vouchsafes to be my guide,
And will not let me miss my way.

Dr. Isaac Watts, when broken down by age and infirmity, quoted the sentiment of an aged minister, "that the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises of the Gospel for their support as the common and unlearned:" "and so," said he, "I find it. It is the plain promises of the gospel that are my support; and I bless God they are plain promises, that do not require much labour and pains to understand them.”

O, 'tis good

To wait submissive at thy throne:

To leave petitions at thy feet, and bear
Thy frowns and silence with a patient soul.
The hand of mercy is not short to save,