The commonest duties of life may be elevated by performing them in accordance with the loftiest principles of love and obedience. Healthful, hopeful work is the surest antidote for depression of spirits.

"Strong gales keep the clouds from raining, Work lulls the sad heart's complaining;

Through the task and the toil runs the yearning ache,
Yet duty grows dear for her own grave sake,
And muscles are stronger for straining.

Each life has some prize for gaining,
Each woe has a balm in its paining;

So we seek for it long in faith and prayer,
For the finger of God is everywhere;
While the days are dawning and waning.

Though the mildew its bloom is staining,
The rose has some scent remaining;

Through the darkest hour still trust in the light; What the hand has to do, let it do with its might; Strong gales keep the clouds from raining."

Persons who strive most to conceal their egotism, are often most dangerously affected by the disagreeable quality. A hidden disease affects the vital springs of being. The attempt to conceal, rather than eradicate, our natural defects of character, is like hiding a cankerworm at the root of a tree.

We admire most that virtue in another which we are conscious we do not possess.

Self-deception is most frequent as well as most disastrous in its consequences upon its victims.

Random shots may sometimes hit the mark, but oftener miss, resulting in a false report, with a loss of ammunition.

To be politic is not always to be wise.

The human soul is many sided. If one avenue be closed against the truth, it may be accessible upon another.

It is not an encouraging sign of the times, that there is a tendency to discard true sentiment, and encourage commonplace and slang literature.

If intense feeling and deep thought may not find expression, it argues ill for religion; for is not the expression and practice of God inspired sentiment.

What a wealth of music lies dormant within our souls from our poverty of expression. "We mumble a few words and leave a thousand better ones unsaid.” Oh! when our fetters are removed, what an ecstacy of melody will vibrate throughout the heavenly arches.

"With stammering lips and insufficient sound,
We struggle to deliver aright

That music of our natures, day and night,

With dream, and thought, and feeling interwound."

Mrs. Browning.

The stimulus of hope is necessary to induce to bold and vigorous action.

Education is the basis of an efficient Christianity.

In the hour of adversity we are like little sick and peevish children, who, ignorant of the loving parent's intent, rebel against the bitter, yet healing mixture.

When we are conscious that we have resisted evil in its multitudinous forms, in accordance with the strength given us, in answer to our importunate and persistent pleadings, then may conscience permit us to expect the Divine blessing upon our labor.

Some one has said, that we can never know how base we are until we have suffered adversity. But is it not equally true, that adversity tests the strength of our virtue as well, often developing excellencies which otherwise would have lain dormant.

We are not well prepared to do the Master's work until we are willing to look to Him alone for reward. The dross of selfish emolument must be purified beforc we can offer an acceptable service to the Searcher of hearts. It is doing good, hoping for nothing in return, that insures a heavenly reward.

It is a startling thought, that we carry within our own bosom the germ of our destruction- -a deceitful heart. "Keep thy heart with all diligence."

To be popular, is not always to be good. "Take heed, when all men speak well of you."

It is not often prudent to acquaint another, however friendly, with our private grievances. The only safe receptacle is the ear of our Heavenly Father, and His the only sure, intelligent and helpful sympathy which does not contain the alloy of contempt. Human pity is so nearly allied to contempt.

Let those who feel that by their obscure condition in life they are debarred from congenial society, remember that there is One who is Lord over all, with whom they may hold daily converse. The children of a king should maintain a cheerful and noble bearing, as becomes their birthright.

Our spiritual life may be compared to that of the earth in its revolution around the sun, by which a part of it is in shadow. So we are continually changing our position in relation to our spiritual sun, presenting at the same time but one side of our nature to our Divine Luminary. Let us remember when we sit in darkness, it is not that our sun has changed towards us, or has ceased shining, but that we have turned our backs upon the light.

He is a weak and pitiable coward who dare not acknowledge a friend in humble guise in the presence of his fashionable acquaintance. "A man's a man for a' that."

Why should our short lives be embittered with envy and jealousy in regard to each other's mental or spiritual attainments? We jostle and jar as if there were not room or use for all our varied gifts in their appropriate sphere.

Death is but the transit from one part of God's kingdom to another. There is no purgatorial stream which separates us from the other land. It is but a rill; one bound, and we are there. How silent and restful! how profound the slumber of the parted body! Who can paint it?

Graduated, is a fitting substitute for the gloomy term death, and of truer significance; graduated from earth's school to a higher and heavenly one, all within the Father's domain.

"There is no death!

And ever near, in us though unseen,

The dear, immortal spirits tread :
For all the boundless universe

Is life-there are no dead."

H. Glydon.

The interlude between the farewell notes of earth and the celestial welcome of heaven, is but one minor strain swelling into a glad anthem of joy.

A plain record of God's discipline of the humblest individual life, is of more real value to society than the most elaborate and fascinating production descriptive of