.hanges. It is what the Germans call a Zeit-geist, and ly no means an Ewigkeit-geist-a spirit of the day, and not a spirit of eternity. Even self-evident truth has sometimes very little power to exorcise what reasoning dic' not inculcate. But it is the business of science to make all ages great and strenuous. When science has done her perfect work in the world, the lawless liberalism characteristic of luxurious and relaxed ages will have no authority.

It is scientifically incontrovertible that the past can not be charged; and, therefore, it is sure that, if regret for what ought not to have been is pain, there will be pain in the universe forever; and part of it will be God's own.

This planet moves through space enswathed with light. The radiance of the sun billows away to all quarters of infinity. L'ehind the globe a shadow is projecting; diminishing, indeed-lost at last in the immeasurable vastness of the illuminations of the scene. The stars sing

there; the suns are all glad. No doubt, if Richter was right in saying that the interstellar spaces are the homes. of souls, there 13 unfathomable bliss in all these pulsating, unfathomable spaces, so far as they are regions of loyalty to God. There can be no blessedness without holiness, and so there can not be bliss where loyalty does not exist. Behind every planet there will be that shadow; and as surely as there can not be illumination on one side without shadow on the other, so surely a record of sin will cast a shadow forever, and some part of that shadow will sweep over the sea of glass, and not be invisible from the Great White Throne.-JOSEPH COOK.

Harmony of Character.

A man may take a dollar or a half-dollar and hold it to his eye so closely that he will hide the sun from him. Or he may so focus his telescope that a fly or a boulder may be as large as a mountain. A man may hold a certain doctrine very intensely-a doctrine which has been looming upon his horizon for the last six months, let us say, and which has thrown everything else out of proportion, it has become so big itself. Now, let us beware of distortion in the arrangement of the religious truths which we hold. It is almost impossible to get things in their true proportion and symmetry, but this is the thing we must be constantly aiming ať. We are told in the Bible to add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge balance," as the word literally means-balance. It is a word taken from the orchestra, where all the parts-the sopranos, the basses, the altos and the tenors, and all the rest of them-must be regulated. If you have too much of the bass, or too much of the soprano, there is want of harmony. That is what I mean by the want of proper focus-by the want of proper balance-in the truths which we all hold. It will never do to exaggerate one truth at the expense of another, and a truth may be turned into a falsehood very, very easily, by simply being either too much enlarged or too much diminished.-HENRY DRUMMOND,

Character Influenced by Environment.

Every man is a reflector. That is the principle upon which this is based. In your face you reflect your nationality. I ask a man a question, and I find out in ten seconds whether he is a Northerner, or a Southerner, or a Canadian, or an Englishman. He has reflected in his very voice his country. I ask him another question, and another and another, and I see reflections flit over the mirror from all points of the compass. I find out in five minutes that he has a good mother. I see reflected in a mirror that he has been reading Herbert Spencer, and Huxley, and Darwin; and as I go on watching him as he stands and talks to me, his whole life is reflected back from it. I see the kind of set he has been living in-the kind of companions he has had. He can not help reflecting. He can not help himself showing the environment in which he has lived-the influences that have played around him. As Tennyson says: "I am a part of all that I have

Now, we become like those I could prove from science physical framework of ani

met." whom we habitually reflect. that that applies even to the mals that they are influenced and organically changed by the environment in which they live.-Henry Drum

MOND.

Character an Achievement.

Characters are achieved-not received. They grow out of the substance of the man's soul. They are not put on as a beggar might put on a stolen coat. They mature like fruit from the vital fluids of the tree. is a sign of their genuineness; they grow with use.

This
A

false limb wears out, wastes, with use. grows stronger and better with use. achievement.-CHARLES H. FOWLER.

A natural limb Character is an

Character the Crown of Life.

The crown and glory of life is character. It is the noblest possession of a man, constituting a rank in itself, and an estate in the general good-will; dignifying every station and exalting every position in society. It exercises a greater power than wealth, and secures all the honor without the jealousies of fame. It carries with it an influence which always tells; for it is the result of proud honor, rectitude and consistency-qualities which, perhaps, more than any other, command the general confidence and respect of mankind. -SMILES.

Character the Product of Daily Life.

Character is the product of daily, hourly actions and words and thoughts; daily forgivenesses, unselfishness, kindness, sympathies, charities, sacrifices for the good of others, struggles against temptation, submissiveness under trial. Oh, it is these, like the blending colors in a picture, or the blending notes of music, which constitute the man.-J. R. MACDUFF.

Condensed Comments.

You can not dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.-FROUDE.

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.-LONGFELLOW.

CHEERFULNESS.

The Habit of Cheerfulness.

It will help us in learning the lesson of cheerfulness if we persistently train ourselves to see the good things, There are some the bright things, in our common life.

people who seem to have eyes only for the unpleasant things. They find every bit of roughness and hardness in their daily path. They see at once, and see it magnified, every disagreeable thing that comes into their life. They remember all the unhappy experiences they have ever had. They keep on their heart's walls the pictures of all their vanished joys and faded hopes. They write with a diamond on their window panes the records of all the trials, adversities and misfortunes they have ever suffered. But, on the other hand, they forget all their blessings. They hang up no pictures of the joys they did not lose, which have filled their life on so many bright days. They have no memory for the beautiful things, the things of gladness.

There are few habits more common, even among Christians, than this of remembering the unpleasant things and forgetting the pleasant things; and there is no other habit which is more inimical to joy. He who would always be of good cheer must break this habitif it has fastened itself in his life-and must learn, must train himself, to see the beautiful things and to be blind to the disagreeable things. The truth is, there are, in the ordinary life, a thousand pleasant things—favors, joys, comforts, things to cheer-to one unpleasant thing,