say: "Blessed is the hour when the sun goes down and it grows dark; for then we see the glory of Heaven's

Slowly became a darkened wall around, and soon

The world, with all its loved and wonted sights, was gone.

Ah, light that made such sweet revealing,

That showed this world so bright,

You gave no hint you were concealing

The greater wealth of night!

For now, above and far beyond the hills, appear

Ten thousand worlds I did not dream before were here."

-J. R. MILler.

God Knows How to Comfort.

When Christ brings His Cross He brings His presence; and where He is none is desolate, and there is no room for despair. As He knows His own, so He knows how to comfort them, using sometimes the very grief itself, and straining it to a sweetness of peace unattainable by those ignorant of sorrow.-ELizabeth Barrett Brown

ING.

Condensed Comments.

The Cross of Christ is the pledge to us that the deepest suffering may be the condition of the highest blessing; the sign, not of God's displeasure, but of His widest and most compassionate love.—Dean Stanley.

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?

Art fearful now?

When God seemed far and men were near,

How brave wert thou!

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.