To be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of meat, and sleep, and exercise, is one of the best precepts of long lasting.

Bacon.

Youth will never live to age unless they keep themselves in breath with exercise, and in heart with joyfulSir Philip Sidney.

ness.

If the soul be happily disposed, everything becomes capable of affording entertainment, and distress will almost want a name. Oliver Goldsmith.

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness. Montaigne.

If there is a virtue in the world at which we should always aim, it is cheerfulness.

Bulwer Lytton.

Christ.

In his death he is a sacrifice, satisfying for our sins; in the resurrection, a conqueror; in the ascension, a king; in the intercession, a high priest. Luther.

Deeper than the love of home, or of kindred, or of rest and recreating, or of life itself, is the love of Jesus. His love to us will ever sustain and keep us from falling; and our love to him will constrain us to be faithful to the end, so that at last the crown of life may be

ours.

J. Hamilton.

Men who neglect Christ, and try to win heaven through moralities, are like sailors at sea in a storm, who pull, some at the bowsprit, and some at the mainmast, but never touch the helm.

H. W. Beecher.

All the glory and beauty of Christ are manifested within, and there he delights to dwell; his visits there are frequent, his condescension amazing, his conversation sweet, his comforts refreshing; and the peace that he brings passeth all understanding. Thomas à Kempis.

If you walk with Christ, keep out of all evil company, of all evil associations; keep from all evil places, from every place where you can not go with the spirit of Christ, and that, if upon earth, you might not expect to meet him there. If you go out of the territory where he would go, you must not expect to find him. Bishop Simpson.

The name of Jesus is not only light, but also food; it is likewise oil, without which all the food of the soul is dry; it is salt, seasoned by which whatever is presented to us is insipid; it is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, joy in the heart, medicine to the soul; and there are no charms in any discourse in which his name is not heard. Bernard.

Our Lord and brother who put on

Such flesh as this we wear,
Before us up to heaven is gone,
Our places to prepare :

Captivity was captive then,

And He doth from above

Send ghostly presents down to men,
For tokens of his love.

My hope is built on nothing less

George Wither.

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

He is a path, if any be misled;

He is a robe, if any naked be;
If any chance to hunger, he is bread;
If any be a bondman, he is free;

If any be but weak, how strong is he!

To dead men life he is, to sick men health;

E. Mote.

To blind men sight, and to the needy wealth;

A pleasure without loss, a treasure without stealth.

Giles Fletcher.

Christ leads me through no darker rooms

Than he went through before;

He that into God's kingdom comes

Must enter by his door.

Come, Lord, when grace has made me meet

Thy blessed face to see;

For if thy work on earth be sweet,

What will thy glory be?

R. Baxter.

52

CHRISTIAN AND CHRISTIANITY.

Christian and Christianity.

WE have, amid all changes, three unchangeables: an unchangeable covenant, an unchangeable God, and an unchangeable heaven; and while these three remain "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," welcome the will of our heavenly Father in all events that may happen to us. Matthew Henry.

There is in Christianity light enough for those who sincerely wish to see it, and darkness enough to confound those of an opposite disposition.

Pascal.

Patient endurance of sufferings, bold resistance of power, forgiveness of injuries, hard-tried and faithful friendship, and self-sacrificing love, are seen in beautiful relief over the uniformity of life, or stand out in steady and bright grandeur in the midst of the dark deeds of men.

R. H. Dana.

Good works do not make a Christian, but one must be a Christian to do good works. The tree bringeth forth the fruit and not the fruit the tree. No one is made a Christian by works, but by Christ's, and being in Christ, he brings forth fruit for him. M. Luther.

Christian graces are like perfumes; the more they are pressed the sweeter they smell; like stars that shine brightest in the dark; like trees-the more they are shaken, the deeper root they take, and the more fruit they bear.

Rev. J. Mason.

CHRISTIAN AND CHRISTIANITY.

53

I do not want the walls of separation between different orders of Christians to be destroyed, but only lowered, that we may shake hands a little easier over them. Rowland Hill.

The soul that truly fears and loves God will always have light and strength and peace from on high.

J. Mason.

To pray with all your heart and strength, with the reason and the will to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice through Christ, and verily do the thing that pleases him as best-this is the last, the greatest achievement of the Christian's warfare on earth. Coleridge.

The wish falls often warm upon my heart that I may learn nothing here that I can not continue in the other world-that I may do nothing here but deeds that will bear fruit in heaven.

Richter.

My will, not thine, be done," turned paradise into a desert. "Thy will, not mine, be done," turned the desert into a paradise and made Gethsemane the gate of heaven.

Pressensé.

Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have each of them the dew of heaven, which, being shaken with the wind, they let fall at each other's roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of each other.

Bunyan.