somewhat harsh; so was my speech toward you.

But it was meant for good. I wanted to show you that I was in earnest. Therefore, I spoke of repentance; therefore, I spoke of judgment; therefore, I spoke of danger; therefore, I spoke of hell everlasting. It was not because I loved to flout you and to rub you the wrong way. It was because I know what is at the terminus of the road along which you are going the sea across which you are sailing. Therefore, I spoke so firmly, almost fiercely, as I did." But now that you listen, now that you humble yourself, what is the Gospel? It is really good news; it is glad tidings. As it was then, so it is this bright June day. The Gospel is June for gladness-June for bursting life and renewed vigor and energy. The Gospel may be likened to a man standing forth on the deck of a ship. The winds have raged around it all night, and the sea has dashed against it; the timbers are strained and leaking; the sails have been blown from the ropes; the masts are crashing and falling; death is imminent in its most terrifying form. The Gospel is a man standing in the midst of the huddled wretches on that wind-swept and sea-swept deck, and saying: "Sirs, be of good cheer. There shall be no loss; not a hair of your head shall per. ish. Be of good comfort, for I believe God that it shall be even as it was told me. I exhort you to be of good cheer. There shall be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.”—MCNEILL.

GRATITUDE.

What Gratitude Will Do for Us.

No companion can be better for us than gratitude in the darkness gratitude to God, gratitude to man.

Gratitude will heal the worst evil of darkness-the angry bitterness which, continued and cherished, corrupts and hardens the heart; and no need is deeper, no blessing is greater in great pain and sorrow of soul, than a cure for that. Evil is in that constant looking back with sorrow as if all life was in the past, which so often marks the days of darkness.

It is not memory of, and gratitude for, joy and good and love. It is memory of, and wild regret for, lost joy and lost good and lost love; constant hopeless loitering around the graves of the past; bitter crying for the dead. Cast off regrets; let the dead bury their dead. Stand forth free of the past, and girt for action while still in the gloom. Look forward, waiting for the dawn, alert and ready. Tomorrow the way may open; the call may come; the sunlight break upon your life.-STOPFORD A. BROOKE.

Touching Gratitude.

poor

There is a very touching little story told of woman with two children, who had not a bed for them to lie upon and scarcely any clothes to cover them. In the depth of winter they were nearly frozen, and the mother took the door of a cellar off the hinges and set t up before the corner where they crouched down to sleep,

that some of the draft and cold might be kept from them. One of the children whispered to her, when she complained of how badly off they were: "Mother, what do those dear little children do who have no cellar door to put up in front of them?" Even there, you see, the little heart found cause for thankfulness.-SPURGEON.

Punishment of Ingratitude.

When I consider how the goodness of God is abused and perverted by the greatest part of mankind, I can not but be of his mind who said: "The greatest miracle in the world is God's patience and bounty to an ungrateful world." Oh, what would God not do for His creatures, if thankful, Who thus heaps the coals of His mercies upon the heads of His enemies? But think not, sinners, that you will escape thus. God's mill goes slow, but it grinds small. The more admirable His patience and bounty now are, the more dreadful and insupportable will be that fury which ariseth out of His abused goodness. Nothing is blunter than iron; yet, when sharpened, it hath an edge that will cut mortally. Nothing is smoother than the sea; yet, when stirred into a tempest, nothing rageth more. Nothing is so sweet as the patience and goodness of God, and nothing so terrible as His wrath, when it takes fire.-GURNALL.

HAPPINESS.

The Secret of a Happy Day.

Just to let that Father do

What He will;

Just to know that He is true,
And be still.

Just to follow, hour by hour,
As He leadeth;

Just to draw the moment's power
As it needeth.

Just to trust Him-that is all.

Then the day will surely be

Peaceful, whatsoe'er befall;

Bright and blessed, calm and free.

Just to leave in His dear hand

Little things;

All we can not understand;

All that stings.

Just to let Him take the care
Sorely pressing;

Finding all we let Him bear

Changed to blessing.

This is all, and yet the way

Marked by Him who loves thee best

Secret of a happy day,

Secret of His promised rest.

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

Happiness Makes Us Better.

Mankind are always better for having been once happy; so that if you make them happy now, you make them so, twenty years hence, through the memory of it. Childhood, passed with a mixture of rational indulgence, under fond and wise parents, diffuses over the whole of life a coloring of calm pleasure, and, even in extreme old age, is the last remembrance that time can erase from the mind of man. No enjoyment, however inconsiderable, is confined to the present moment. A man is the happier through life for having once made an agreeable tour, or lived for any length of time among a pleasant people, or enjoyed any considerable interval of innocent pleasure; and it is more probably the recollection of their past joys that contributes to render the aged so inattentive to the scenes passing around them, and carries them back to a world that is past and scenes that can never be again restored.-SYDNEY SMITH.

The Way to Be Happy.

A hermit there was, and he lived in a grot,
And the way to be happy, folks said, he had got;
As I wanted to learn it, I went to his cell,
And when I came there, the old hermit said:
Young man, by your looks you want something, I see;
Now tell me the business that brings you to me."

The way to be happy, folks say, you have got; And wishing to learn it, I've come to your grot. Now, I beg and entreat, if you have such a plan,

"Well,