If God sends thee a Cross, take it up and follow Him. Use it wisely, lest it be unprofitable. Bear it patiently, lest it be intolerable. If it be light, slight it not. If it be heavy, murmur not.-QUARLES.

There never did, and there never will, exist anything permanently noble and excellent in the character which is a stranger to the exercise of resolute self-denial.WALTER SCOTT.

Those who have suffered much are like those who know many languages; they have learned to understand all and be understood by all.-MADAME SWETCHINE.

It requires greater virtue to sustain good fortune than bad.-ROCHEfoucauld.

THE SOUL.

The Value of the Soul.

The soul! How shall I estimate the value of it? Well, by its exquisite organization. It is the most wonderful piece of mechanism ever put together. Machinery is of value in proportion as it is mighty and silent at the same time. You look at the engine and the machinery in the Philadelphia Mint, and, as you see it performing its wonderful work, you will be surprised to find how silently it goes. Machinery that roars and tears soon destroys itself; but silent machinery is often most effective. Now, so it is with the soul of man, with all its tremendous fac

ulties; it moves in silence. Judgment, without any racket, lifting its scales; memory, without any noise, bringing down all its treasures; conscience taking its judgment-seat without any excitement; the understanding and the will all doing their work. Velocity, majesty, might; but silence-silence.

You listen at the door of your heart. You can hear no sound. The soul is all quiet. It is so delicate an instrument that no human hand can touch it. You break a bone, and with splints and bandages the surgeon sets it; the eye becomes inflamed, and the apothecary's wash cools it. But when a soul is off the track, unbalanced, no human power can readjust it. With one sweep of its wing it circles the universe, and overvaults the throne of God. Why, in the hour of death the soul is so mighty it throws aside the body as if it were a toy. It drives back medical skill as impotent. It breaks through the circle of loved ones who stand around the dying couch. With one leap, it springs beyond star and moon and sun, and chasms of immensity. Oh, a soul is superior to all material things! No fires can consume it; no floods can drown it; no rocks can crush it; no walls can impede it; no time can exhaust it. It wants no plummet with which to sound a depth. A soul so mighty, so swift, so silent -must it not be a priceless soul?

I calculate the value of a soul by its capacity for happiness. How much joy it gets in this world out of friendships, out of books, out of clouds, out of the sea, out of flowers, out of ten thousand things. All the enjoyment of the soul in this world, the enjoyment which.

we think is real enjoyment, is only preparative; it is the first stage of the thing, the entrance, the beginning of that which shall be the orchestral harmonies and splendors of the redeemed.

You can not test the full power of the soul for happiness in this world. How much power the soul has here to find enjoyment in friendship! But oh, the grander friendships for the soul in the skies! How sweet the flowers here! How much sweeter they will be there! Christ is glorious to our souls now, but how much grander our appreciation after a while! For that immortal soul, the richest blood that was ever shed, the deepest groan that was ever uttered, all the griefs of earth compressed into one tear, all the sufferings of earth gathered into one rapier of pain and struck through his holy heart. Does it not imply tremendous value ?—TALMAGE.

My Soul and I.

Stand still, my soul! In the silent dark
I would question thee,

Alone in the shadow drear and stark,
With God and me.

What, my soul, was thy errand here?
Was it mirth or ease,

Or heaping up dust from year to year?
"Nay-none of these!"

Speak, soul, aright in His holy sight
Whose eyes look still

And steadily on thee through the night. "To do His will!"

What hast thou done, O soul of mine,

That thou tremblest so?

Hast thou wrought His task and kept the line He bade thee go?

What, silent all! Art sad of cheer?

Ah, soul of mine! So brave and wise
In the life-storm loud,
Fronting so calmly all human eyes
In the sunlit crowd!

Now, standing apart with God and me,
Thou art weakness all-

Gazing vainly after the things to be

Through Death's dread wall.

WHITTIER.

SUCCESS.

Conditions of Success.

The success of mankind all depends upon three things: The discovery of the laws of its well-being, its freedom to obey those laws, and the goodness that will render obedience. No one of these three elements can alone secure good for man. Freedom to follow law is vain, unless man knows what are the laws of his nature. Knowledge is vain without freedom; and both knowledge and freedom are useless unless the heart has the goodness that will make its knowledge and liberty pass into action. The Indians have freedom, but they do not what are the highest aims of the human spirit. The criminal and the vagabond have both the information and the liberty, but they are wanting in that goodness which can turn truth and freedom into the actuality of being. Three ingredients must, therefore, meet to compose a valuable society --knowledge, freedom and goodness.-SWING.

Decision and Energy.

For success in life, it is essential that there should be a fixedness of purpose as to the object and designs to be attained. There should be a clear conception of the outlines of that character which is to be established. The business of life, in whatever pursuit it may be directed, is a great work. And in this, as in all other undertakings, it is important in the outset to have a clear conception of what is to be done. This is the first thing to be