Thy Church and cottages of mountain stone,
Cluster'd like stars, some few, but single most,
And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,

Or glancing at each other cheerful looks,

Like separated stars with clouds between."

H. H. J.

GRASMERE, WESTMORELAND,
May, 1873.

EXTRACTS.

The One that held acquaintance with the stars, Science
And wedded soul to soul in purest bond

Of reason, undisturbed by space or time.
The Other-that was a God, yea, many Gods,
Had voices more than all the winds, with power
To exhilarate the spirit, and to soothe
Through every clime, the heart of human kind.

Monastics make cloisters to enclose the
outward man-would to God they would do
the like to restrain the inward man.
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads:
Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong,
And the most ancient Heavens through thee
are fresh and strong.

The moral power is out of all proportion to social position or intellectual culture-some of the greatest works done for the Church, or for humanity, have been done by persons who had neither position nor income, nor any thing else but the fervent aspirations and concentrated purpose of a devout soul. St. Augustine said: "Only love, and then do as thou wilt."

and Poetry.

Wordsworth.

Monastic Life.

St. Hugo.

Duty.

Wordsworth.

Personal
Influence.

H. P. Liddon.

Medical
Missionary.

Pearson's Life of Surg. Hey.

Man's Extremity, God's Opportunity.

F. Whitfield.

Christ Crucified.

Lucas evangelii et medicinæ munere prudens
Artibus hinc, illic religione valet,

Utilis ille labor per quem vixere tot ægri,
Utilior per quem tot didicere mori.

When Cherith is dried up, then shall Zarephath be opened. Then Christian, banish all thy dark forebodings. Ask not what tomorrow will be: to-morrow's need will bring with it to-morrow's God. Trust and be still. Though a host like Pharaoh's be behind thee, though the floods of the Red Sea be before thee, stand still. Thy God is with thee.

The full faith of Christ crucified is required by our spiritual wants. In those dark hours when man is made to repossess the iniquities of his youth-when the arrows of the Almighty rankle in the soul, a miserable comforter would he prove, who should preach only the example set forth by Christ; for that example the sinner has not followed. In vain would he be told that the cross is a declaration of unconditional mercy; for conscience, knowing full well that the wages of sin is death, and convinced that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness, would give the lie at once, to such a mutilated Gospel. Let me hear when I am on the bed of death, that Christ died in the stead of sinners, of which I am the chief; that He was forsaken of God during those

fearful agonies, because He had taken my place; that on His cross He paid the penalty of my guilt. Let me hear, too, that His blood cleanseth from all sin, and that I may now appear before the bar of God, not as pardoned only, but as "holy, and without blame."

Le Jeune.

Prayer.

In our prayers, desperation is always to be Spurs to expelled. Trouble and fear are the very spurs to prayer; for when man, compassed about by vehement calamities, and vexed with continual solicitude, having, by help of man, no hope of deliverance, with sore oppressed and punished heart, fearing also greater punishment to follow, doth call to God for comfort and support, such prayer ascendeth into God's presence, and returneth not in vain.

John Knox.

Prayer is a high and difficult attainment; Prayer. it is something which keeps attention and thought and feeling at its fullest tension; and he who has advanced but little on its pathway, finds that an arduous effort is involved. That man has not lost his prayers who has risen from his knees humbled by the sense of his weakness and inefficiency. But the success of our prayers does not depend upon whether we ask well, but is obtained through God's love and mercy in Christ. Neither need it be supposed that we have only prayed aright when we have prayed with deep fervour, or