it does not touch; the bolt slides back without a sound, and the door swings open. He knows the secret. He comes in the spirit of love, obedience, and resignation, and to him God's will is revealed. Pride could not open the door; Vanity could not open it; Selfishness could not open it: Love could open it.Beecher. BROTHERLY LOVE. "Be kindly affectioned one to another, with brotherly love."-Rom. xii. 10. HE who groweth in his love to washes all skins alike,-help him! his brethren groweth likewise in-Beecher. his love to Christ.-Salter. BRETHREN in Christ have all one common Father, one common likeness, one object of faith, love, and adoration, one blessed hope, one present employment, alike in trials, alike in prayer.-Katterns. IF thou neglectest thy love to thy neighbour, in vain thou professest thy love to God; for by thy love to God the love to thy neighbour is begotten, and by thy love to thy neighbour thy love to God is nourished.-Quarles. Mutual Help.-The race of mankind would perish did they cease to aid each other. From the time that the mother binds the child's head till the moment that some kind assistant wipes the death-damp from the brow of the dying, we cannot exist without mutual help. All therefore that need aid have a right to ask it from their fellow-mortals. No one who holds the power of granting can refuse it without guilt.-Sir Walter Scott. The Test of Brotherly Love."Be merry with them that be merry, weep with them that weep." He that hath not this fellow-feeling may suspect worthily that he is not a lively member of Christ; for His body is coupled and knit together throughout every joint wherewith one ministereth to another. If, therefore, we do not bear one another's burthen and feel one another's misery, we are not knit together by the sinews of love; and if not knit to the body, no part of the body.-Boyse. Brotherly Love a Measure of Love to Christ.-Our love to our brethren is, as respects ourselves and our posterity, not only the evidence, but the measure of our love to Christ. He that hath not love enough in him for a man like himself, how can he love God, whose goodness, being above our knowledge, requireth a transcendency in our love? This is a sure rule, he that loveth not a member of Christ loveth not Christ; and he who groweth in his love to his brethren groweth likewise in his love to Christ.—Reynolds. The Brotherhood of Trouble.Wherever a man, whether he be connected with you or not, is in trouble, he becomes, by trouble, The Brother Rite" in Africa. baptised into brotherhood with you. Two persons wish to take upon So strong is this command, that if themselves what they call "The a man is your enemy, and is in Brother Rite." To do this they trouble, you are to help him. If he sit down face to face, with their is a stranger, and his trouble is legs crossed, holding in their laps brought within your knowledge, their implements of war. A sheep help him. If he is a foreigner, and or a goat is then killed, and its you are a native, and he is in heart roasted and brought to them, trouble, help him. Even if he is a and half given to each. One of black man, and you are a white them then takes a knife, and opens man, and he is in trouble,-trouble a vein on the left breast of the other, over the heart; and, as the blood flows, he smears his piece of heart in the blood, and eats it; the other doing in the same manner with him. Next, each catches some of the blood of the other, and rubs it into his own wound; and the rite is now complete. This rite is designed to signify that henceforth they are halves or parts of each other. Each, through his own blood thus eaten, and thus absorbed by the other's veins, is considered as living in and of the other. Henceforth, should either be in any trouble, the other is to feel "it is myself that is in trouble," and thus do for the other whatsoever in like circumstances he would do for himself.-Captain Burton. Brotherhood of Man.-You recognise in every nation, in every tribe, your fellow-men, your brethren. Go to Egypt, and stand among the sphinxes, the pyramids, the old and wondrous temples, and you are a stranger in a strange land, and it seems scarcely less than a ghastly dream. Go farther East; behold the ruined architecture, revive the manners customs of the Syrian and Babylonian empires, and you seem still among a strange people. If they should rise and speak to you, their and tongues would be as strange to you as yours would be to them. But let a maiden speak her love, and instantly you know that voice. The works that their hands wrought are wondrous. The affections that throb in their heart are familiar. The things that they live for outwardly-see how widely you are separated from these! How different are their laws, their institutions, and their methods of commerce from ours! How strange to us are their political economy and their ecclesiastical system! Touch that which man fashioned and formed, and man is disjointed, and split apart by rivers, and mountains, and times, and ages; but touch the human heart, and let that speak, and all men rise up and say, Reach but the feeling of love, and every "That voice is my voice." human being says, "It is my those cords that bring out the brother; it is my sister." Strike experience of grief, and every man wails with the hoary wailers of antiquity. Man is not a unit by and the works of his hand, but by virtue of the fruits of his intellect sentiment and affection which are virtue of those eternal identities of common to all men in all nations and ages.-Beecher. CARE. "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."-Phil. iv. 6. ALL cares appear as large again as they are owing to their emptiness and darkness: it is so with the grave.-Jean Paul Richter. QUICK is the succession of human events; the cares of to-day are seldom the cares of to-morrow; and when we lie down at night, we may safely say to most of our troubles, "Ye have done your worst, and we shall meet no more."-Cowper. call drudgery, are the weights and counterpoises of the clock of time, giving its pendulum a true vibration, and its hands a regular motion; and when they cease to hang upon the wheels, the pendulum no longer swings, the hands no longer move, the clock stands still.-Longfellow. Treasuring up Cares. Last week I met a brother who, describing a friend of his, said he was like a man who had dropped a bottle, Life's Cares. The every-day and broken it, and put all the pieces cares and duties of life, which men in his bosom, where they were cutting him perpetually. I have innumerable as the sands of the seen persons with troubles and cares seashore," says Burton, the author that seemed like one that had frag- of "The Anatomy of Melancholy," ments of glass in his bosom, that" and the fable which Hyginus has cut him, and that cut him the more so pleasantly constructed on this the tighter he pressed them to his subject shows that man is their heart.-Beecher. proper prey. Care,' says he, 'cross 66 Emblem of Care. One wintering a dangerous brook, collected a day, some boys had made a snowball, and rolled it along until it had grown too large and heavy for them to move. "Here," said Gotthold, we have an agreeable emblem of human cares. These are often little and insignificant; but we magnify them, by impatience and unbelief, till they become greater than we can bear. Many a one keeps night and day revolving his trouble in his mind to no better purpose than these boys. All they accomplish by their pains is to set up for those who pass a sign that children have been at play; and he gains nothing by this but a head more confused, and a heart more sorrowful than before." The Marks of Care. Suetonius made so light of danger that in one of his exploits he lost an eye. But instead of retiring from a martial life, he rather gloried in his loss, saying that while others did not carry about with them the badges of their valour, he had the evidences of his bravery with him wherever he went, commanding the respect of the people, who received him with shouts of applause when he appeared in their midst. Marks of toil upon the countenance are no disgrace to any man. The wrinkles on the statesman's brow, the lines of care on the captain's face, the scars on the warrior's breast, need no wiping out. Let them be worn. They are more honourable than the flush of beauty seen in youth, or the lily whiteness that has eschewed all labour and despised all work, lest the loveliness that meets the admirers' gaze should be marred. Man a Prey to Care.-"Cares, both in kind and degree, are as MAN mass of the dirty slime which deformed its banks, and moulded it into the image of an earthly being, which Jupiter, on passing by soon afterwards, touched with ethereal fire and warmed into animation; but, being at a loss what name to give this new production, and disputing to whom of right it belonged, the matter was referred to the arbitrament of Saturn, who decreed that his name should be (Homo-ab humo, from the dirt of which he had been made); that Care should entirely possess his mind while living; that Tellus, or the earth, should receive his body when dead; and that Jupiter should dispose of his celestial according to his discretion. was Man made the property of Care from his original formation; and has ever since been his inseparable Discontent, the offspring of Care, companion." essence Thus God's Children Free from Care. "The children of God have the only sweet life," points out Archbishop Leighton. "The world thinks not so-rather looks on them as poor, discontented, lowering creatures; but it sees not what an uncaring, truly secure life they are called to. While others are turmoiling and wrestling, each with his projects and burdens for himself, and are at length crushed and end of all that do for themselves— sinking under them-for that is the the child of God goes free from the pressure of all that concerns him, it being laid over on his God. If he use his advantage, he is not will become of this and that?' but racked with musings, 'Oh, what goes on in the strength of his God as he may, offers up poor but sincere endeavours to God, and is sure of one thing, that all shall be well. He lays his affairs and himself on God, and so hath no pressing care; no care but the care of love, how to please, how to honour his Lord. And in this, too, he depends on Him both for skill and strength; and, touching the success of things, he leaves that as none of his to be burdened with, casts it on God, and since He careth for it they need not both care, His care alone is sufficient. Hence springs peace, inconceivable peace. 'Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds througli Christ Jesus.'' CHARACTER. "Walk before Me, and be thou perfect."-Gen. xvii. 1. A MAN who follows the dictates his character depends upon his of truth and right reason may by artifice be led into error, but never can into guilt.-Steele. THE greatest part of men live by faith in powerful men. A small number of individuals lead the whole human race.-Vinet. THE man who lives under an habitual sense of the Divine presence enjoys every moment the satisfaction of thinking himself in company with his dearest and best of friends.-Addison. THOMAS CARLYLE said that he would like to stop the stream of people in the Strand, and ask every man his history. On reflection he decided, "No, I will not stop them. If I did, I should find they were like a flock of sheep, following in the track of one another." A FELLOW-STUDENT once said to Paley, "You are a great fool to waste your best years in the dissipations of a University; you have talent for something better." Paley took the hint, which was rather coarsely given. And now "there is no name in the English Church that stands higher than his, and no name in the vast circles of English literature that has a more per manent fame." Influences. A man's belief is not the only thing that works upon him. There is a great mistake in saying that as a man believes so is he, if you mean that belief in any technical theological truth. What a man is depends in a great measure upon his father and mother, and brothers and sisters, and friends; that is, it depends partly on the things that he believes, and partly upon the influences that are working upon him in the family, in the society, and in the party to which he belongs. There are a thousand and one circumstances that have much to do with what a man is, and his character is not formed alone by his technical beliefs. Composition of Character.Character is not a massive unit; it is a fabric rather. It is an artificial whole made up by the interply of ten thousand threads. Every faculty is a spinner, spinning every day its threads, and almost every day threads of a different colour. Myriads and myriads of webbed products proceed from the many active faculties of the human soul, and character is made up by the weaving together of all these innumerable threads of daily life. Its strength is not merely in the strength of some simple unit, but in the strength of numerous elements. -Beecher. Formation of Character.-If you ever watched an icicle as it formed, you would have noticed how it froze one drop at a time until it was a foot long or more. If the water was clean the icicle remained clear, and it sparkled brightly in the sun; but if the water was slightly muddy the icicle looked foul and its beauty was spoiled. which will now appear as a spectral image on the surface. Again and again we breathe, and the moisture evaporates, but still the spectral wafer reappears. This experiment succeeds after the lapse of many months, if the metal be carefully put aside where its surface cannot be disturbed. Just so our characters are formed. One little thought or feeling at a time adds its influence. If every thought be pure and right, the soul will be bright and lovely, and will If a sheet of paper, on which a sparkle with happiness; but if there key has been laid, be exposed for be thoughts and feelings impure and some minutes to the sunshine, and wrong, the mind will be soiled, the then instantaneously viewed in the character depraved and darkened, dark, the key being removed, a and there will be final deformity fading spectre of the key will be and wretchedness. How important visible. Let this paper be put aside then that we should guard against for many months where nothing can every evil impulse and desire! disturb it, and then in darkness be Luther's Resolute Character.- laid on a plate of hot metal, the There were many Christian men spectre of the key will again appear. in Wittemberg who said to Martin In the case of bodies more highly Luther, "You don't mean that you phosphorescent than paper, the spectres of many different objects may have been laid on in succession will, on warming, emerge in their proper order. which This is equally true of our bodies and our minds. We are involved in the universal metamorphosis. Nothing leaves us wholly as it found us. Every man we meet, every book we read, every picture or landscape we see, every word or tone we hear, mingles with our being and modifies it.-Christian Treasury. are going to hang up those on the church door?" Said Luther: "They are true; they assail damning error; my Fatherland is bowing down to Antichrist." "Pause," said the men who would stand well with everybody. "Is not this zeal without knowledge? Think how you will scandalise the University; how you will drive off men who would follow you in a more discreet course." "Avaunt!" said the Reformer. "The people are perishing in ignorance. The crowds of the common God Honours Individual Character. people who come into the city to The great things of this world market will read these words. have been accomplished by indiYours is not discretion, but coward-viduals. Vast social reformations ice." He did the deed; and, as the have originated in individual souls. result of that act, Europe received Truths that now sway the world the Protestant Reformation, and the night of the Middle Ages was were first proclaimed by individual lips. Great thoughts that now are ended.-Guest. the axioms of humanity proceeded from the centre of individual hearts. No warlike host delivered the children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt, but one man-Moses. No senate of statesmen raised Israel to a pitch of greatness that proclaimed a theocratic nation to the world, but one man-David. Νο school of divines gave to England the Bible in the mother tongue, but one man Wycliffe. No learned SOciety discovered America, but one Associations. If a wafer be laid on a surface of polished metal, which is then breathed upon, and if, when the moisture of the breath has evaporated, the wafer be shaken off, we shall find that the whole polished surface is not as it was before, although our senses can detect no difference; for if we breathe again upon it, the surface will be moist everywhere except on the spot previously sheltered by the wafer, |