A BEAUTIFUL REMINISCENCE OF GEORGE HERBERT.

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N walking to Salisbury he saw a poor man with a poorer horse that was fallen under his load; they were both in distress, and needed present help, which Mr. Herbert perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and after to load, his horse. The poor man blessed him for it, and he blessed the poor man; and was so like the good Samaritan that he gave him money to refresh both himself and his horse, and told him "that if he loved himself he should be merciful to his beast." Thus he left the poor man, and at his coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that Mr. George Herbert, who used to be so trim and clean, came into the company so soiled and discomposed; but he told them the occasion, and when, one of the company told him "he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employment," his answer was "that the thought of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight; and that the omission of it would have upbraided and made discord in his conscience whensoever he should pass by that place; for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure that I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practice what I pray for; and though I do not wish for the like occasion every day, yet let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or shewing mercy, and I praise God for this occasion. And now let us tune our instruments."-Isaac Walton.-Life of G. Herbert.

GEMS FROM GEORGE HERBERT.

HITCH thy behavior low, thy projects high;
So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be;

-Who aimeth at the sky shoots higher much than he who

means a tree;

By great deeds show that thou canst little do.

He that needs five thousand pounds to live, is full as poor as he that needs but five.

LIE not, but let thy heart be true to God,
Thy mouth to it, thy actions to them both.
Dare to be true-nothing can need a lie ;
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.

WHO shuts his hand, hath lost his gold; Who opens it, hath it twice told.

SCORN no man's love, though of a mean degree ;
(Love is a present for a mighty king);
Much less make anyone thine enemy,

As guns destroy, so may a little sling;
The cunning workman never doth refuse
The meanest tool that he may chance to use,

WOR

HOW TO WORK.

WORK is only a means to an end; to make an end of it, and worship it as a fetish, is as absurd and foolish as any other kind of idolatry. The people who think they are serving God by wearing themselves out are as much given over to super stition as the fakir who lets his finger nails grow through his hands, or the dervish who whirls himself dizzy in what he regards as an act of worship.

We are to be the masters of work, not its slaves; and the intelligent worker jealously protects himself against the tendency to become a drudge. Many of us, for lack of clear intelligence in ordering our work, spend ourselves on things that are of small consequence, or unsuccessfully diffuse over a wider surface the energy and strength which if focussed would compel success. It is a good plan not to work for the sake of work; not to do with our own hands or brains those things which some one else can do as well; and never to do work that is not really necessary and important. The secret of success with eminently successful workers, men who build up and carry on great enterprises, is rigid exclusion and concentration; such men do a few things and do them with immense force, because all their power converges to a single point. The Duke of Wellington used to say that he never did anything himself which he could get anyone else to do for him. This was the application of intelligence to work, the clear perception that a man can do only a few things with masterly vigor, and that all the rest must be passed over to other hands. The exhausted people are generally those who have not learned this lesson, and who insist that everything shall pass through their bands.

THE HIGHEST GOOD.

Does your soul regard earthly things as the highest, and the business which relates to them as your weightiest, employment? Then is your soul like the waves of the sea, which are driven by the wind; it is given up to eternal disquiet and transient change. For manifold and varied are earthly things, and whoever gives himself up to their dominion, his soul is dragged hither and thither, in all directions, by hope and fear, by joy and sorrow, by desire for gain and by pain at loss. And how should the grace of the Lord and His peace make their dwelling in such a disturbed soul! Oh, my friends, whatever earthly calling may be allotted to us-however spiritual in its functions, however blessed in its effects-if its employments drive us forward in breathless haste upon life's path; if we suppose we can never find time to stand still and to think where

we are and whither we will go, and to reflect on the heavenly and eternal concerns of our spirits; if prayer has lost its power, and the Divine Word its charm for us-then we have cast away our life upon a fearful error, upon a fleeting dream; then are we, with all our apparent richness in bodily and spiritual goods, really poor-very poor. We have, like Martha, much care and trouble, but the highest good, which alone gives to our life its worth and significance is wanting. Julius Miller.

THE CUP OF SORROW,

On classic cups and vases we have sometimes seen devices carved by the cunning hand of the sculptor. So round the cup of trial which God commends to the lips of suffering Christians are wreathed many comforting assurances. Here is one of them: "All things work together for good to them that love God." Here is another like it: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." Afflicted friend, turn thy cup of sorrow around, and thou wilt see engraved upon it these precious words: "As one whom his. mother comfort eth, so will I comfort you." Turn it again and read: "My grace is sufficient for thee." They are invisible to selfihness and blind unbelief. And God sometimes washes the eyes of his children with tears in order that they may read aright his providence and his commandments.-Illustrated Christian Weekly.

MYSTERIES EXPLAINED IN HEAVEN.

John Foster said: "I go through life treasuring up questions to be answered in Heaven." He laid them up as one lays up jewels in a cabinet. He did not lose his interest in them, but whenever his mind recurred to them said to himself, "I shall know all about them bye-and-bye." Now, this is the spirit that we all should cultivate. What we call the mys teries of religion ought to fascinate us while they baffle us. They are shadows that fall across our path revealing in dim and misty outline the glorious reali ties of the spirit world. We cannot see those reali ties here and now, but we are glad to have intimations of their existence. We gaze upon the shadows with the joyous assurance that we will know all about them in a few years. To the thoughtful Christian this is one of the chief attractions of Heaven. He is finding every day something that he can now understand in part-understand enough of to see that a full knowledge of it would be intensely interesting. So he keeps in mind and ponders what he can learn of it here, and says to himself, "I will ask the great Teacher to explain it fully when I go to Him in Heaven."

THE

Temperance.

WORDS TO THE REFORMER.

The

HE drunkard may overcome his appetite. saloon-keeper may overcome his avarice and brutality of disposition. In both cases it will be by the grace of God and the atonement of Christ, and by these only. You, dear brother reformer, must go armed with the same weapons. Unless you are a Christian reformer, I take very little stock in you. You do not know how to truly hate sin until you have truly learned to love God. You may be ever so zealous a teetotaller, but if the world can show that you are slippery in your commercial dealings, and unreliable as regards your word, what will your temperance influence amount to? If it be generally understood that the only decent thing about you is that you do not drink, you will not be a success as a reformer. You cannot urge ahead this grand reform until you learn how to unite the law and the Gospel. With these two working together the victory will be

won.

Hate the drink, but love and save the drinker. Despise and close up the saloon, but win over to the right the saloon-keeper. Is he too degraded to rescue? Take back that statement. Christ saved you. With a firm hand and Christian heart behind it, you will conquer in God's good time. Be not envious if some other person's method is more successful than yours. If you are working for personal glory, you are a weak mortal. Remember the goal you are trying to reach, and be satisfied if it be reached by any way. Then overcoming all obstacles, the blessings mentioned in our Holy Scripture will be yours.-Dr. Cuyler.

THE HUMAN BODY.

God made the human body, and it is by far the most exquisite and wonderful organization which has come to us from the Divine hand. It is a study for one's whole life. If an undevout astronomer is mad, an undevout physiologist is madder. The stomach that prepares the body's support; the vessels that distribute the supply, and send it round; the lungs that aerate the all-nourising blood; that muscle-engine which, without fireman or engineer, stands night and day pumping and driving a wholesome stream with vital irrigation through all the system, that unites and harmonizes the whole band of organs; the brain, that dwells in the dome high above, like a true royalty; these, with their various

and wonderful functions, are not to be lightly spoken of, or irreverently held.-H. W. Beecher.

THE rays of happiness, like those of light, are colorless when unbroken.

A GREAT SUPERSTITION.

There is a general belief that alcoholic liquors tend to give greater bodily vitality, but I do not believe that there is a greater superstition than to suppose that these liquors can give men a greater capacity for bodily or mental exertion, and in this I am supported by the highest medical testimony. RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M. P. INVULNERABILITY OF TRUE TEMPERANCE.

We are informed by Homer that the shield of Achilles was so exquisitely wrought that no weapon colud pierce it. The shield of faith is a finer, firmer piece of armor. Teetotalism is a weapon of defence of rare temper and beautiful workmanship. The battleaxe of science cannot scratch it; the mace of history only rings upon it to render it more comely; the arrow of experience can do it no harm, but proves a firm and lasting friend; the spear of observation can effect nothing in opposition to it; while the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, when wielded against it only makes it more bright, lasting, and beautiful. No weapon formed against it can prosper.

THE Heavenly should be mirrored in the earthly life as the sky is mirrored in the waters of the placid lake. Just as the tides of the ocean rise and swell under the influence of the heavenly bodies, should not our Christian life rise and swell into a glorious expansion?-Rev. F. Binns.

TO BREAK OFF BAD HABITS.

Understand the reason, and all the reasons, why the habit is injurious. Study the subject until there is no lingering doubt in your mind. Avoid the places, the persons and the thoughts that lead to the temptation. Frequent the places, associate with the persons, indulge the thoughts that lead away from temptation. Keep busy; idleness is the strength of bad habits. Do not give up the struggle when you have broken your resolution, just think the matter over, and endeavor to understand why it was you failed, so that you may be on your guard against a

recurrence of the same circumstances. Do not think it an easy thing that you have undertaken. It is folly to expect to break off a habit in a day, which may have been gathering strength in you for years.

represented as fishing for men, and fitting his bait

THERE is a satirical poem in which the devil is

to the taste and business of his prey; "but the idler,” he said, "gave him no trouble, as he bit the naked hook."-E. Irving.