broken, he admitted both, and waited with a sulky, defiant air for the usual sentence.

Then it was announced to him that his superiors were grieved to repeat a punishment which seemed to have no power to reform him, and had resolved to try pardon instead of penalty. He was freely forgiven.. This new, strange method with an offender broke the crust which had hardened so fearfully over his whole moral nature, and brought the wayward subject of it to penitence and obedience. He "loved much, because much forgiven."

A similar instance occurred many years ago between a father and son. The latter had grown nearly to manhood. Having been placed by the parent in a position of trust at some distance from home, in a moment of temptation he betrayed his father's confidence, and fell into grievous sin. His course of wrong-doing was long enough concealed to deprave and harden him; so that, when his guilt was discovered, he felt angry and defiant rather than remorseful. In this mood, with his clothes packed for flight that night from country and kindred, he waited only the arrival of the evening mail, which was to bring him a remittance from a comrade to defray the expenses of his long journey.

He started when the carrier brought him also a letter in the well-known handwriting of his injured father. His first thought was to burn it unread, so sure was he of its severe and merited denunciation. But a painful curiosity led him to open it; and what a surprise awaited him! "My poor guilty boy," it said, "do not despair, though you have done fearfully wrong. I love you still, and will heartily forgive you. Come home at once to the open arms and pitying heart of your affectionate father."

That loving forgiveness went to the soul of the erring youth, and saved him. Humbled and penitent, he returned to the parental roof, and, by a life of virtue and filial piety, sought to make amends for the past, and to show his gratitude and love in return for that generous pardon.

Listen also to the words of Jesus already referred to. He had been speaking of two debtors, one of whom was forgiven by his creditor a claim of five hundred pence, and the other fifty. "Tell me," he says, "which will love him most?" The answer was prompt: "I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." The ready response of Jesus confirmed the reply: "Thou hast rightly judged."

E. N. H.

THE MIND OF CHRIST.

Upon the thronging multitude the sinless Man of grief
Let fall his wondrous charities of healing and relief

As fall the golden grains from out the autumn laden sheaf.
They knew him not, they hated him; yet still, with gracious

smile,

He wrought his kindly miracles, and taught and blessed the

while,

Nor breathed reproach, nor asked reward his labors to be

guile.

And when at last his weary feet up Calvary's steep had

pressed,

And on the cross the fainting head drooped o'er the dying

breast,

"Father, forgive!" he cried. Was e'er such plea to Heaven addressed?

O Christian! fainting, crushed, and sad, beneath thy lesser

woes,

What if contempt, and causeless hate, and wrong thy way

oppose?

Like Jesus, love thine enemies! forgive thy cruel foes!

Learn how to triumph over ill, to smile for wrath and scorn; To pardon, and, like God, forget all deeds of malice born: So shall thy patient, loving life the name of Christ adorn.

H. E. B.

LOVE TO GOD AND MAN.

Lovest thou God as thou oughtest, then lovest thou likewise thy brethren :

One is the sun in the heaven; and one, only one, is Love

also.

Bears not each human figure the godlike stamp on his fore

head?

Readest thou not in his face thy origin? Is he not sailing, Lost like thyself, on an ocean unknown? and is he not

guided

By the same stars that guide thee? Why shouldst thou hate, then, thy brother?

Hateth he thee? Forgive! for 'tis sweet to stammer one

letter

Of the Eternal's language: on earth it is called Forgive

ness!

Knowest thou him who forgave with the crown of thorns round his temples?

Earnestly prayed for his foes,- for his murderers? Say, dost thou know him?

Ah! thou confessest his name; so follow, likewise, his ex

ample:

Think of thy brother no ill, but throw a vail over his fail

ings:

Guide the erring aright; for the good, the heavenly Shep

herd

Took the lost lamb in his arms, and bore it back to its

mother.

This is the fruit of Love, and it is by its fruits that we

know it.

Longfellow.

THE HARD LESSON.

When on the fragrant sandal-tree
The woodman's axe descends,
And she who bloomed so beauteously
Beneath the keen stroke bends,

E'en on the edge that wrought her death,
Dying, she breathes her sweetest breath,
As if to token, in her fall,

Peace to her foes, and love to all.

How hardly man this lesson learns!

To smile and bless the hand that spurns;

To see the blow, to feel the pain,

But render only love again.

This spirit not to earth is given :

ONE had it, but he came from heaven.
Reviled, rejected, and betrayed,

No curse he breathed, no plaint he made;

But, when in death's deep pang he sighed,
Prayed for his murderers, and died.

Selected.