seemed-well, what could our ideas of life be, my young friends, other than just what we gathered from those books we read, those novels which were continually in our hands? Life was to be an adventure—a glorious adventure. Life was to be romance. Life was to be

success, joy and gladness. Hear it, although it may seem to be a wet blanket thrown over your romancing spirit — your enthusiastic soul: "Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives." We shall barely be saved, if we are saved at all-saved by the skin of our teeth, and we shall land on the eternal shore with nothing but what we stand in. MCNEILL.

How to Carry Life's Burden.

To some it

Christ saw that men took life painfully. was a weariness, to others a failure, to many a tragedy -to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's problem. It is still the whole world's problem. And here is Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My principles. Take My yoke and learn of Me, and you will For My yoke is easy, works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and therefore My burden is light."-HENRY DRUMMOND.

find it easy.

A Solemn Thing to Live.

Most people say: "It is a solemn thing to die." And so it is. Death takes us from those we love, bears the

body to the silent grave, and sends the soul into the unBut is it not a great and solemn thing to

seen world. live?

Of this we

they live.

may be certain: People generally die as Oh, if I had thought I should die as I do, I would not have lived as I did!" Thus bewailed an Eastern King when dying. And if you would know what your end will be, you have only to look at your present conduct. Is sin your delight or your dread? Does a true repentance lead you to forsake every evil way? Under a sense of guilt and danger, are you seeking for pardon and acceptance through Him who died to save sinners? And are you, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, showing the sincerity of your faith by a holy life? It will come to these inquiries at last. Let them have your attention now. Learn that life is a sacred trust, and that as you use it so will your eternal condition be in Heaven -or hell. Be assured that a life of faith in Christ, and of obedience to the will of God, is the happiest life that can be spent on earth, and is the only way to a life of blessedness hereafter. -T. L. CUYLER.

The Uncertainty of Life.

Where am I? The Bible and our own experience answer that. Where are we? On the most uncertain footing you can possibly imagine. That is where we are just now, and always here in time. The great characteristic of this life is its uncertainty—“here today and gone tomorrow." A little while ago we were not here, not one of us; a little while hence, we shall be here no

longer. "Man dieth and passeth away; man giveth up his spirit, and where is he?" The place that once knew us shall soon know us no more for ever. That is where we are on that uncertain footing. A little while ago a wave out of the past eternity cast us up like driftwood here on the shores of time, and a little while hence a wave from the eternity that is coming will sweep and carry us back with itself into the eternity that is to be. Landed here for a while on this narrow neck of land, between the two great seas-the eternity out of which we came and the eternity to which soon we are going— how often God brings home to us the uncertainty of our life here! How it ought to tell for the Gospel! How it ought to tell on this text, and lead us to a meditation of our ways, and to getting them put right and straight and sure for eternity! Here today, and gone terramow!— MCNEILL.

What I Live For.

I live for those who love me,

For those I know are true,

For the Heaven that smiles above me,

And awaits my spirit too,

For all human ties that bind me,
For the task my God assigned me,
For the bright hopes yet to find me,
And the good which I can do.

I live to learn their story

Who 've battled for my sake:
The patriot crowned with glory,

The martyr at the stake,
Bards, prophets, heroes, sages-
The noble of all ages,

Whose deeds crowd history's pages
And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion

With all that is Divine, To feel there is a union

'Twixt Nature's heart and mine, To profit by affliction,

Reap truths from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
And fulfill God's grand design.

I live to hail that season
By gifted ones foretold,
When men shall live by reason,
And not alone for gold,
When, man to man united
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,

For those who know me true,

For the Heaven which smiles above me And awaits my spirit too,

For the cause that lacks assistance,

For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,

And the good that I can do.

Life a Campaign.

Life is the United States army on the National road to Mexico-a long march, with ever and anon a skirmish and a battle. At eventide we pitch our tent and stack the arms; we hang up the war cap and lay our head on the knapsack; we sleep until the morning bugle calls us to marching and action. How pleasant it is to rehearse the victories, the surprises and the attacks of the day, seated by the still camp-fire of the home circle !--TAL

MAGE.

LITERATURE.

The Literature of the Future.

There is an eternal power that makes for righteousness. There is also an eternal power, not ourselves, that makes for beauty, and this is the only unerring critic of poetry. What is to be the future of American literature? Ask the supreme powers, rather than the Boston critics. How long are our best productions to express the heart of the ages? Ask the Court and the Throne, and not New York or Cambridge or Concord! It is turning out, here in America, that only those who live near to the Throne can be enthroned. We reverence permanently only the authors who live near the Court.

It is the will of God, apparently, that men should all have fair chances. The poet of fair chances is the poet of the future.-JOSEPH COOK.