Angelo and Raphael. Christianity helped to make Angelo and Raphael by furnishing them with grand themes. As no lips can be eloquent unless they are speaking in the name of a great truth, so no painter can paint unless some one brings him a great subject. Heaven and hell made the poet, Dante. Christianity made Beatrice. Paradise made John Milton. The mother of our Lord and the last judgment made Angelo. It is the great theme that makes the orator, the painter, the poet. The great theme lifts up the soul and makes it the revealer of a new world.--SWING. Music the Child of Christianity. There is an art which Christianity created almost wholly, asking little of outside aid. Music is that peculiar child. The long-continued vision of Heaven, the struggle of the tones of voice and of instrument to find something worthy of the deep feelings of religion, resulted at last in those mighty chants which formed the mountain springs of our musical Nile. There could have been no music had not depth of feeling come to man. The men who went up to the pagan temples went with no such love, with no sorrow of penitence, with no exultant joy. It was necessary for Jesus Christ to come along and transfer religion from the form to the spirit, and from an "airy nothingness" to a love stronger than life, before hymns like those of Luther and Wesley and Watts could break from the heart. The doctrine of repentance must live in the world awhile before we can have a "Miserere," and the exultant hope of the Chris tian must come before the mind can invent a “Gloria.” -SWING. ASSURANCE. The Superiority of Christian Faith. With the results of Christianity before him and in him, the Christian may confidently say to all his foes: "If a lie can do all this, then a lie is better than all your truth; for your truth does not pretend to do it. And if our lie is better in every possible legitimate result than your truth, then your truth is proven to be a lie, and our lie is the truth." Of all short methods with infidelity, this is the shortest.--J. G. HOLLAND. The Assurance of Christ. "But," a man said to me, "no one has come back, and we don't know what is in the future. It is all dark, and how can we be sure?" Thank God, Christ came down from Heaven; and I would rather have Him, coming as He does right from the bosom of the Father, than any one else. We can rely on what Christ says, and He "He that believeth on Me shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Not that we are going to have it when we die, but right here today. --MOODY. says: The Assurance of God's Word. Now, I find a great many people who want some evidence that they have accepted the Son of God. My friends, if you want any evidence, take God's word for it. You can't find better evidence than that. You know that when the Angel Gabriel came down and told Zachariah he should have a son he wanted a further token than the angel's word. He asked Gabriel for it, and he answered: "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Lord." He had never been doubted, and he thundered out this to Zachariah. But he wanted a further token, and Gabriel said: You shall have a token; you shall be dumb till your son shall be given you.”—-MOODY. BELIEVING. The Peace of the Believer. The believer's peace is like a river for continuance. Look at it, rising as a little brook among the mosses of the lone green hill; by and by it leaps as a rugged cataract; anon it flows along that fair valley where the red deer wanders, and the child loves to play. With hum of pleasant music the brook turns the village mill. Hearken to its changeful tune as it ripples over its pebbly bed, or leaps adown the wheel, or sports in eddies where the trees bend down their branches to kiss the current. Anon the streamlet has become a river, and bears upon its flood full many a craft. Then its bosom swells, bridges with noble arches span it, and, grown vaster still, it becomes an estuary, broad enough to be an arm of old Father Ocean, pouring its water-floods into the mighty main. The river abides the lapse of ages; it is no eva nescent morning cloud or transient rain-flood, but in all its stages it is permanent. "Men may come, and men may go, But I flow on for ever." Evermore, throughout all generations, the river speedeth to its destined place. Such is the peace of the Christian. He has always reason for comfort. He has not a consolation like a swollen torrent which is dried up under the hot sun of adversity, but peace is his rightful possession at all times. Do you inquire for the Thames? You shall find it flowing in its own bed in the thick black night, as well as in the clear bright day.-Spurgeon. Believing Confidence in God's Word. Believing does not come by trying. If a person were to make a statement of something that happened this day I should not tell him that I would try to believe him. If I believed in the truthfulness of the man who told the incident to me, and who said he saw it, I should accept the statement at once. If I did not think him a true man I should, of course, disbelieve him; but there would be no trying in the matter. Now, when God declares there is salvation in Christ Jesus I must either believe Him at once or make Him a liar.--SPURGEON. BENEVOLENCE. I Shall Not Pass Again This Way. The bread that bringeth strength I want to give; I want to give the oil of joy for tears, The faith to conquer crowding doubts and fears; I'm sure I shall not pass again this way. I want to give good measure running o'er, I want to give to others hope and faith; ANONYMOUS. Doing Good a Blessing to Ourselves. If we view this microcosm, the human body, we shall find that the heart does not receive the blood to store it up; but while it pumps it in at one valve, it sends it forth at another. The blood is always circulating everywhere, and is stagnant nowhere. The same is true of all the fluids in a healthy body; they are in a constant state of |