labor, gives us daily bread, continues our friends and common pleasures, and grants us the privilege of retiring, after the cares of the day, to a quiet and beloved home? 3. The review of the day will often suggest not only these ordinary benefits, but peculiar proofs of God's goodness, — unlooked-for successes, singular concurrences of favorable events, special blessings sent to our friends, or new and powerful aids to our own virtue, which call for peculiar thankfulness. And shall all these benefits pass away unnoticed'? Shall we retire to repose as insensible as the wearied brute'? How fit and natural is it to close, with pious acknowledgment, that day which has been filled with Divine beneficence! 4. But the evening is the time to review, not only our blessings, but our actions. A reflecting mind will naturally remember, at this hour, that another day is gone, and gone to testify of us to our Judge. How natural and useful to inquire what report it has carried to Heaven! Perhaps we have the satisfaction of looking back on a day, which, in its general tenor, has been innocent and pure; which, having begun with God's praise, has been spent as in His presence; which has proved the reality of our principles in temptation: and shall such a day end without gratefully acknowledging Him in whose strength we have been strong, and to whom we owe the powers and opportunities of Christian improvement'? 5. But no day will present to us recollections of purity unmixed with sin. Conscience, if suffered to inspect faithfully and speak plainly, will recount irregular desires and defective motives, talents wasted and time misspent; and shall we let the day pass from us without penitently confessing our offenses to Him who has witnessed them, and who has promised pardon to true repentance'? Shall we retire to rest with a burden of unlamented and unforgiven guilt upon our consciences'? Shall we leave these stains to spread over and sink into the soul' ? 6. A religious recollection of our lives is one of the chief instruments of piety. If possible, no day should end without it. If we take no account of our sins on the day on which they are committed, can we hope that they will recur to us at a more distant period, that we shall watch. against them to-morrow, or that we shall gain the strength to resist them, which we will not implore'? 7. The evening is a fit time for prayer, not only as it ends the day, but as it immediately precedes the period of repose. The hour of activity having passed, we are soon to sink into insensibility and sleep. How fit that we resign ourselves to the care of that Being who never sleeps, to whom the darkness is as the light, and whose providence is our only safety! How fit to entreat Him that He would keep us to another day; or, if our bed should prove our grave, that He would give us a part in the resurrection of the just, and awake us to a purer and immortal life! Let our prayers, like the ancient sacrifices, ascend morning and evening. Let our days begin and end with God. 1. LESSON XLVII. THE TIME FOR PRAYER. ANON. THEN is the time for prayer? WH With the first beams that light the morning sky, Ere for the toils of day thou dost prepare, Lift up thy thoughts on high; Commend thy loved ones to His watchful care: 2. And in the noontide hour, If worn by toil, or by sad cares oppressed, Thy voice shall reach Him through the fields of air: 3. When the bright sun hath set, While eve's bright colors deck the skies, For those who in thy joys and sorrows share: 4. And when the stars come forth; When to the trusting heart sweet hopes are And the deep stillness of the hour gives birth 5. When is the time for prayer? In every hour, while life is spared to thee; At morn, at noon, and eve, with loved ones there, LESSON XLVIII. ONE BY ONE. ADELAIDE A. PROCTER. 1. ONE by one the sands are flowing; One by one the moments fall; Some are coming, some are going: 2. One by one thy duties wait thee; Learn thou first what these can teach. 3. One by one, (bright gifts from Heaven,) 4. One by one thy griefs shall meet thee; Do not fear an armèd band; One will fade as others greet thee,- 5. Do not look at life's long sorrow; See how small each moment's pain: 6. Every hour that fleets so slowly Luminous the crown, and holy, 7. Do not linger with regretting, 8. Hours are golden links, God's token, LESSON XLIX. NEP' TUNE, (the son of Saturn and Ops,) the god of the sea, fountains, and rivers. He is represented as bearing a trident (a spear with three prongs) for a scepter. 2 MER' CU RY (the son of Jupiter and Maia) was the fabled messenger and interpreter of the gods, and the god of eloquence and commerce. Jove, or Ju' PI TER, (the son of Saturn,) was the chief divinity of the ancient Romans. INVENTIVE GENIUS AND LABOR. ELIHU BURRITT. HE physical necessity of mental activity, in every prac THE tical sense, confers upon the mind the power to determine our stature, strength, and longevity; to multiply our organs of sense, and increase their capacity, in some cases, to thirty million times their natural power. This capacity of the mind is not a mere prospective possibility; it is a fact, a tried, practical fact; and the human mind is more busy than ever in extending this prerogative. 2. Let us look in upon man while engaged in the very act of adding to his natural strength these gigantic faculties. See him yonder, bending over his stone mortar, and pounding, and thumping, and sweating, to pulverize his flinty |