January 25.

THE GORDIAN KNOT.

Before a confessed and unconquerable difficulty, such as the origin and extent of evil, my mind reposes as quietly as in possession of a discovered truth. (Arnold.)

[To turn all holy mysteries and difficulties into discovered truths, and then to lean on them in peace, would be a grand step in the right direction-the direction of love and faith.] (P.M.)

January 26.

GIVE WHAT THOU WILT, WITHOUT THEE I AM POOR, AND WITH THEE RICH, TAKE WHAT THOU WILT AWAY."

Let it be called to mind, that pecuniary adversities have ever constituted a frequent ingredient of those very trials with which the Almighty has seen fit to visit not a few of His distinguished servants. (Sheppard.)

January 27.

ORIGEN'S SAGACITY AND BUTLER'S LOGIC. Origen has with singular sagacity observed thus: "He who believes the Scripture to have

January 16.

OH! MY FLESH.

Never pass by the sins of others as though you had nothing to do with them. Remember that you have everything to do with them, even to take them up upon your own shoulders, and so bear them-in brotherly sympathy-in full consciousness of your own infirmity—and in deep confession of your fellow-sinners' faults, to the throne of Grace.

(Mylne.)

[An elderly Christian woman, residing not long ago in Scotland, had the quaint, but humble and self-accusing habit of saying, when told of sins in her fellow-creatures: "Oh! my flesh!"] (P. M.)

January 17.

ISAIAH LXVI. 13.

God sometimes seems to sleep, and to forget His poor children that cry unto Him; but He is preparing the fuller mercies for them.

January 18.

(G

A QUEEN'S PASTIME.

I walk many times into the pleasant the Holy Scriptures, where I pluck

warranted by the Word of God to regard it as one of perfect rest,-of conscious rest,-of rest irradiated by the beatific vision,-of rest which is undisturbed by care, unruffled by sorrow or by suffering, rest, deep and calm, like the placid ocean, and like it, illuminated and beautified by reflections of the heavenly glory.

(Unknown.)

January 12.

CHRIST ALL IN ALL.

Viewed as an experimental Christian, I am still in my infancy; I have not yet reached that repose of heart, which in the beautiful language of one of our old prophets is termed, "quietness and assurance for ever but I am deceived, if I am not feeling my way towards it; and I have to attest that the ground is never firmer under my feet, than when I rest my confidence in Christ, and make HIм all my redemption and all my righteousness. (Chalmers.)

[How suggestive are these words!—Words of earnest desire, expressive of that anxious heartfelt wish which characterizes the true Christian-not to remain for ever in the infancy of his faith.]

(P. M.)

January 13.

FEAR OF CONSCIENCE.

In the commission of evil, fear no man so much as thyself:-another is but one witness against thee, thou art a thousand;-another thou mayest avoid, thyself thou canst not. Wickedness is its own punishment.

January 14.

GRIEF AND SOLITUDE.

(Quarles.)

The heart feels lonely when the world has disappeared and the world which surrounds and incloses us, can only disappear from us when something else interposes between it and ourselves. Affliction, deep affliction, at times produces this effect, and indeed it is in order to bring it about that God thrusts affliction into the very midst of our joys. It comes to us, like a solemn and austere sabbath. But the desired result is then only obtained when affliction is attended with the thought of God. Otherwise --and, oh! how deplorable that it should be thus-otherwise, we become doubly wedded to the world, by means of the very affliction which ought to detach us from it.

(Vinet.)