Condensed Comments. For all that God in mercy sends— For health and children, home and friends, ELLEN ISABELLE TUPPER. He who breathes forth this steady desire after God's holiness is upright, reconciled and humble; he is truly in peace of conscience, even when most full of sacred contrition. He has no infinite standard of goodness; for, although what he dimly imagines as perfection is only a limited idea of his own mind, it is both above what he nas yet reached and rises the moment he seems about to reach it. This state of things is the exact reverse of selfrighteousness, which is stagnation.-F. W. NEWMAN. Be not afraid of those trials which God may see fit to send upon thee. It is with the wind and the storm of tribulation that God, in the garner of the soul, separates the true wheat from the chaff. Always remember, therefore, that God comes to thee in thy sorrows as really as in thy joys. He lays low and He builds up. Thou wilt find thyself far from perfection if thou dost not find God in everything.-MOLINOS. "It is good for me to have the "It is good for me to "It is good for me to Let Diotrephes say: pre-eminence." Let Judas say: bear the bag." Let Demas say: embrace the present world." But do thou, O my soul, Say with David: It is good for me to draw near to God."— BISHOP ARROWSMITH. Resemblance to God results from our intimacy with Him. We soon assume the manners of those with whom we are familiar, especially if we love and revere them. Upon this principle, the more we have to do with God the more we shall grow into His likeness and "be followers of Him as dear children."—JAY. You have only to open your eyes to see the handwriting of God upon every object. The shading of the flower, the song of the bird, the form of the tree, the breath of the air, the tint of the sky, the green of the grass--all are thoughts of God, and are designed to help you think of Him.--DANIEL MARCH. The German poet, Hoffman, pitifully said with his last breath: "We must then think of God also." Happy is he who early determines not to put God among the "alsos," but to make Him the keystone of the arch.-FRANCES E. WILLARD. Every event in this world is a syllable breaking from the lirs of God. Every epoch in affairs is a completed sentence of His thought; and the great stream of human history is God's endless revelation of Himself. --Rev. J. H. ECOB. No man in the world should be so happy as the man of God. It is one continual source of gladness. He can look up and say: say: "God is my Father, Christ is my Savior, and the Church is my mother."-MOODY. God is Love. It is God's true name. deed, teach the children to say when 66 Why not, in asked: "Who made you?" "Love, the Father." Who redeems you?" "Love, the Son." "Who sanctifies you?" "Love, the Holy Ghost."--G. GILFILLAN. God is a sun shining with perpetual splendor, and not like the ruler of the day, who is sometimes eclipsed and at other times clonded, now retires from us and then returns, according to the revolution of the year.--JOHN DICK. "I Am" is the name of God; and it imports that in His existence the distinctions of past, present and to come have no place.--JOHN Dick. All things in the natural world symbolize God; yet none of them speak of Him but in broken and imperfect words.--BEECHER. Belief in the existence of God has been almost universal among men.-J. P. BOYCE. THE GOSPEL. Gladstone's Idea. There is but It can, and will, All men at the Talk about the questions of the day! one question, and that is the Gospel. correct everything needing correction. head of great movements are Christian men. During the many years I was in the Cabinet I was brought into. association with sixty master minds, and all but five of them were Christians. My only hope for the world is in bringing the human mind into contact with Divine revelation.-GLADSTONE. The Gospel for the People. Then, on this interpretation of the Gospel, what a grand religion ours must be for working people—and we are all workers-especially those who are waiting and toiling and making little or nothing by it, except getting wet and weary and disappointed! In these days, when the word "unemployed" is continually in our ears and the dismal thing perpetually in front of us, what a splendid religion is the religion of Jesus Christ! What a difference it makes between the unemployed man who believes in Christ and the unemployed man who has no such belief! According to Cotter Morison, this religion is all for the other world, and not for this. Therefore, he says, let us give it up. But if this miracle is true, that objection is overwhelmingly answered. These two unemployed men are not alike. Toto Calo by the whole Heaven they differ from each other. Don't tell me that the unemployed man who believes in Him who sits enthroned above the stars and the unemployed man who trusts Him not are the same. They are not the same. The feet of both are in the gutter, but the head of one is in Heaven, though his feet be trampling the London mud. That, surely, is a mighty difference. Both alike must go around to the shops, yards and offices, seeking for work; but he who loves the Lord, before he starts on his weary journey, goes down upon his knees before the Man upon the shore, even Him at whose girdle hang all keys of shops, yards and offices. To Him he prays: "Lord, Thou hast done the great thing for me. Thou hast died for me. Thou hast given me a kingdom and a crown. Wilt Thou see me lack a covering and a crust?" Such a man can not be unemployed. glorifying God, and verily he shall be fed. "His dwelling mid the strength of rocks Shall ever stand secure; His Father shall provide his bread; His water shall be sure." He is MCNEILL. What Is the Gospel? If you stop on your step, if you listen, if you humble yourself, if you admit that your wisdom is only foolishness, if you admit that the light which is in you is turned to darkness (and oh, how dense is that darkness!), the Gospel changes its tone. First of all, it is solemn, it is warning, it is keen, it is cutting, and it is humbling; and then it says: "Now, do not despair. My voice was |