they are the most triumphant when most tempted; as their conflicts, so their conquests; as their tribulations, so their triumphs. True salamanders live best in the furnace of persecution; so that heavy afflictions are the best benefactors to heavenly affections. And where afflictions hang heaviest, corruptions hang loosest; and grace that is hid in nature, as sweet water in roseleaves, is then most fragrant when the fire of affliction is put under to distil it out.

Do you wish to live without a trial? Then you wish to die but half a man-at the best but half a man. Without trial you cannot guess at your own strength. Men do not learn to swim on a table. They must go into deep water and buffet the surges. A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against the wind, and not with the wind; even a head wind is better than none. No man ever worked his passage any where in a calm. Let no man wax pale, therefore, because of opposition; opposition is what he wants and must have, to be good for any thing. Hardship is the native soil of manhood and self-reliance.

An acorn is not an oak tree when it is sprouted. It must go through long summers and fierce winters; it has to endure all that frost, and snow, and thunder, and storm, and side-striking winds can bring, before it is a full-grown oak. These are rough teachers; but rugged schoolmasters make rugged pupils. So a man is not a man when he is created; he is only begun. His manhood must come with years. A man who goes through life prosperous, and comes to his grave

without a wrinkle, is not half a man. In time of waf, whom does the general select for some hazardous enterprise He looks over his men, and chooses the soldier whom he knows will not flinch at danger, but will go bravely through whatever is allotted to him. He calls him that he may receive his orders, and the officer, blushing with pleasure to be thus chosen, hastens away to execute them. Difficulties are God's errands. And when we are sent upon them we should esteem it a proof of God's confidence-as a compliment from God. The traveler who goes round the world prepares himself to pass through all latitudes, and to meet all changes. So man must be willing to take life as it comes; to mount the hill when the hill swells, and to go down the hill when the hill lowers; to walk the plain when it stretches before him, and to ford the river when it rolls over the plain. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

The best of people will now and them meet with disappointments, for they are inherited by mortality. It is, however, the better philosophy to take things calmly and endeavor to be content with our lot. We may at least add some rays of sunshine to our path, if we earnestly endeavor to dispel the clouds of discontent that may arise in our bosoms. And by so doing, we the more fully enjoy the bountiful blessing that God gives to his humblest creatures.

It is far more noble to improve each hour in culti vating the mind, and attuning it to the glory of the Creator. For this end it matters not so much whether we spend our time in study or toil; the thoughts of the