Poetry,

The forests grow out of the air much more than from the soil. Spiritual atmospheres, and not our external literary fashions, build poems. When we see in the short turf of the upland pastures the filtering threads of rain-water in the summer shower, we know that they come out of the sky, and that they nourish the roots of the mighty pines. So with the poetic forests that lift their sable, resounding spires of evergreen into the heavens and cast their brown sheddings upon the scented gloom of sacred study and emotion beneath them. They are the children of the air. Great poetry has always been the offspring of deep ethical convictions.-Joseph Cook.

LITTLE THINGS.

A Little Word.

A nameless man, amid a crowd that thronged the daily mart,

Let fall a word of hope and love, unstudied from the

heart;

A whisper on the tumult thrown-a transitory breathIt raised a brother from the dust; it saved a soul from

death.

O germ! O fount! O word of love! O thought at

random cast!

Ye were but little at the first, but mighty at the last!

CHARLES MACKAY.

Danger of Little Sins.

Be fearful of little sins. Take alarm at even an evil

thought, wish, desire. These are the germs of sin-the floating seeds which drop into the heart, and, finding in our natural corruption a fat and favorable soil, spring up into actual transgressions. These, like the rattle of the serpent, reveal the presence

snake and the hiss of the and near neighborhood of danger. The experience of all good men proves that sin is most easily crushed in the bud, and that it is safer to flee from temptation than to fight it. GUTHRIE.

Little Nuggets from Josh Billings.

Life is made up of little things. Life itself is but a little thing. One breath less-then comes the funeral.

A penny is a very little thing, but the interest of it from the days of Cain and Abel would buy out the globe.

The acorn is a little thing, but the black bear and his family live in the oak that springs from it.

A word is a little thing, yet one word has been many a man's destiny - for good or for evil.

A kiss is a very little thing, but it betrayed the Son of God into the hands of His enemy.

A spark is a little thing, but it can light the poor man's pipe or set the world a-burning.

An egg is a little thing, but the huge crocodile creeps into life out of it.

A star is a little thing, but it can hold this great world in its arms.

The tongue is a little thing, but it fills the universe with trouble.

To or From.

A little more, and how much it is!

A little less, and what worlds away!

BROWNING.

LOVE.

God's Rebukes Loving.

Do

your aim to imnot deal with a

God's rebukes are in love, and so should ours be; holy reproofs in the spirit of affection are snuffers of gold. Never use any other, and use even these with discretion, lest you put out the flame which it is prove. Never reprove in anger. small fault as if it were a great crime. on your boy's forebead don't try to kill hammer, or you may kill the boy also. but very difficult work of reproof in the kindest and the wisest style, so that the good you aim at may be attained. -SPURGEON.

Rebuke with Love.

If you see a fly it with a sledgeDo the needful

Let us be silent about things which are a discredit to Christian character. Keep an ill report secret. But do not be like the young lady who called in a dozen friends

out.

to help her keep a secret, and yet, strange to say, it got Remember, you may yourself deserve rebuke one of these days; and as you would like this to be done gently and privately, so keep your remarks upon others within the happy circle of tender love. To rebuke in gentle love is difficult, but we must aim at it till we grow proficient. Golden snuffers, remember; only golden snuffers. Put away those old, rusty things-those unkind, sarcastic remarks. They will do more harm than good, and they are not fit things to be handled by servants of the Lord Jesus.-SPURrgeon.

Outraged Love.

Outraged love is the severest, the most terrific, of enemies. Offended honesty has no pity upon the thief. It is right that it should be so. It is right that it should be a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God; and it is right because God is love. We must in some

quarter of the universe find a throne that can not be bought, a scepter that can not be bribed, an authority that can not be deterred. That which is but partially honest is not moved to jealousy by felonious action; by its very nature it connives at it. It does not judge them God is mag

in the eternal light and at the eternal bar.

nified in His judgments upon evil, that He may lay a broader claim upon our veneration and trust. —JOSEPH PARKER.

The Gospel Full of Love.

God is ever putting lines of mercy amid all the black print of the law. It would seem as if wherever God

could find a place at which He might utter some word of pity or compassion He filled up that place with an utterance of His solicitude for the welfare of man. Loving words always look beautiful; perhaps they look most beautiful when surrounded by contrastive words of stern righteousness. of unyielding law, of severe prohibition. So these Gospel words are full of charm, here in Deuteronomy. They are ever presenting hope to man. Blessed be God for the singing angel. When we quench his song we quench ourselves. So let us remember, wherever there is a sinner, there is an offered Savior; wherever there is abounding sin, there is superabounding grace.-JOSEPh Parker.

Marriage and Love.

Gentlemen, fulfill your contracts Christian marriage is an affectional bargain. In heathen lands a man wins his wife by achievements. In some countries wives are bought by the payment of so many dollars, as so many cattle or sheep. In one country the man gets on a horse and rides down where a group of women are standing, and seizes one of them by the hair and lifts her, struggling and resisting, on his horse. Then if her brothers and friends do not overtake them and rescue her before they reach the jungle, she is his lawful wife. In another land, the masculine candidate for marriage is beaten by the club of the one whom he would make his bride. he cries out under the pounding he is rejected. If he receives the blows uncomplainingly, she is his by right. Endurance, bravery and skill decide the marriage in bar

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