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His people's holiness, and that it is only by making them new creatures-pure-minded, kind-hearted, unselfish, devout that He can fit them for a home and a life like His own; that He can fit them for the occupations and enjoyments of Heaven. And, believing all this, he prays and labors after holiness.-JAMES HAMILTON.

The Security of Christianity.

The real security of Christianity is to be found in its benevolent morality; in its exquisite adaptation to the human heart; in the facility with which its scheme accommodates itself to the capacity of every human intellect; in the consolation which it bears to the house of mourning; in the light with which it brightens the great mystery of the grave.-MACAULAY.

Condensed Comments.

Wherever are tears and sighs,
Wherever are children's eyes,

Where man calls man his brother,

And loves as himself another,

Christ lives!

GEORGE HOUGHTON.

The trees look cold and bare today as the wind passes by and finds no playmates in their leaves. Yet on every branch the winter leaves hold, folded in darkness, motionless in their compact sheaths, the radiant life of the summer foliage. They do not rebel against their destiny, but, in submission to law, await the light. Within their chambers the force of growth is being laid up; the color and play and light of a higher life are being wrought.

Spring comes; Wind, the fairy whose breath is love and life, touches with her lips the folded gates, their leaves fly open at the gracious call, and in a thousand forests Wonder and Joy awake to sing the green creation of each year. That is the Christian view of life and its sorrows. It awaits in patience for the certain Spring.—-Stopford A. BROOKE.

There are many ways of teaching Christianity to children. But this is the most practical way of doing it: Tell them that there was One Man who, more than all else, lived on earth to make manifest this truth-that true life was duly watching and caring for others, forgetfulness of self in others, in our family, in our society, in our Nation, in mankind. If we can teach our children to do that, and to connect it and its solid pleasure with Him, there is no fear of their losing love and honor for Him in the clashing opinions of after life. — STOPFORD A. BROOKE.

A Christian man is higher and deeper and broader than other men are. He is more fully developed in all his capacities, both for joy and sorrow. Christ had in himself all the nobleness of man and all the gentleness of woman; He had vaster capacities of suffering than other men. Stoical indifference to pain is evidence of a coarse To feel, and yet to do and dare, is to be truly noble.-R. S. MACARTHUR.

nature.

Our abiding belief is that just as the workmen in the tunnel of St. Gothard, working from either end, met at last to shake hands in the very central root of the mountain, so students of nature and students of Christianity

will yet join hands in the unity of reason and faith, in the heart of their deepest mysteries.-LEMUEL Moss.

Christianity is an evolution, a growing revelation of God in the Old Testament Scriptures, a revelation consummated in Jesus Christ, a growing life—in church, in social order, in theological thought-beginning at Bethlehem, to be consummated at some får future; no one knows when or how.-LYMAN ABBOTT,

On the day of Pentecost Christianity faced the world, a new religion, without a history, without a priesthood, without a college, without a people, and without a patron. She had only her two sacraments and her tongue of fire. The latter was her sole instrument of aggression. WILLIAM ARTHUR.

Simpler manners, purer lives, more self-denial, more earnest sympathy with the classes that lie below usnothing short of that can lay the foundations of the Christianity which is to be hereafter, deep and broad. F. W. ROBERTSON.

The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these other, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after man.-THOMAS ARNOLD.

There are many, in the Church as well as out of it, who need to learn that Christianity is neither a creed nor a ceremonial, but a life vitally connected with a living Christ.-JOSIAH Strong.

Christianity has made martyrdom sublime and sorrow triumphant.-E. H. CHAPIN.

THE CHURCH.

Aggressiveness.

A healthy church kills error, and tears in pieces evil. Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery; but when was it utterly abolished?

She lives

It was when Wilberforce roused the church of God, and when the church of God addressed herself to the conflict, then she tore the evil thing to pieces. I have been amused with what Wilberforce said the day after they passed the Act of Emancipation. He merrily said to a friend when it was all done: "Is there not something else we can abolish?" can abolish?" That was said playfully, but it shows the spirit of the church of God. in conflict and victory; her mission is to destroy everything that is bad in the land. See the fierce devil of intemperance, how it devours men! Earnest men have been laboring against it, and they have done something for which we are grateful; but if ever intemperance is put down, it will be when the entire church of God shall arouse herself to protest against it. When the strong lion rises up the giant of drunkenness shall fall before him. "He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain."-SPURGEON.

Sneering at the Church.

Only the ignorant and the low-minded sneer at the churches. To all others the mere act of worship, how

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ST. PETER'S, ROME.-From a Photograph.

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