As there are flowers that are constantly sending forth the sweetest odors, so there are lives redolent with the perfume of benevolence and love. There are also many flowers, equally beautiful to behold, which are odorless, likewise many lives outwardly fair but destitute of fragrance.

We are but tenants in the earthly house of God's kingdom, and should hold ourselves in daily readiness for our warning to remove to the heavenly mansion. Our earthly house will soon be pronounced unfit for repairs, and be allowed to crumble back to its native dust. Are we returning a grateful tribute of affection and faithfully performing the work for which the lease was given ?

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Stay, stay the present instant.

Infinite, the masks of wisdom upon its wings,
Oh let it not elude thy grasp,

But, like the good old Patriarch of holy record,
Hold the fleet angel fast, until he bless thee."
Longfellow.

"Walk in the spirit." Who can estimate the results upon our sin-burdened world of a full, practicable demonstration of that last best gift of our risen Saviour, the Holy Spirit, the enlightener, the comforter. A spiritualized Christianity is the demand of the age. The whole creation groaneth for such a manifestation. This divine motive power is alone sufficient to subvert the tidal waves of infidelity and error, and this the power

that shall declare the fiat: "Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther." This the power that shall exalt the dark valleys, bring order out of confusion, and quell the terrible unrest of our distracted world.

All true intellectual progress is founded upon this divine influence. It must underlie all the reasoning faculties of the soul. His is the promised light which our ascending Lord declared should reveal all things unto us. By this divine illumination new revelations of truth will be gained, limited only by our finite power of reception. Our capacities will be enlarged, and we shall develop symmetrically towards the infinite source of all truth, receiving the gift of prophecy and spiritual insight, which will enable us to discern results and make wise decisions, giving an appropriate relative importance to the various subjects presented for our consideration. There will be an order and method in our investigation of truth indispensable to real progress, which is impossible to one who has not been subjected to this divine influence.

The motive power of our lives will be in imitation of our Divine Master, the manifestation of the Father before the world.

How like are we to the disciples of old, who even in those last precious moments with their ascending Lord at Jerusalem were clamorous for temporal aggrandizement, crying, "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Mark the answer: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power."

Witnesses for the truth should not forget that their Master's kingdom is a spiritual one, leaving the time and season of events into the Father's hands to whom it belongs.

Nonconformity to the world in spirit and practice can only be attained by that spiritual transformation which arises from the renewing of our minds by the Holy Spirit, and His abiding presence therein, by which we are enabled to gain a spiritual elevation, from which the world will assume its relative position in our affections.

A law licensing the sale of ardent spirits as a beverage is but a compromise with evil, acknowledging the vice by the demand of a certain money equivalent for its propagation, and qualifying the act by using the avails in establishing institutions for the support of its victims.

We have just laws to defend us against the various criminal offences to which we are exposed. Why may we not have a prohibitory law to protect us against an evil which is the source of two-thirds of all the crime committed in our land? We have frequent and terrible examples of the agency of intemperance in the perpetration of crime, as well as the entire catalogue of evils attendant upon the fearful scourge.

The wind that to the weary watcher sounds weird and melancholy through the night, as morning dawns seems

to change its tone in unison with his more hopeful anticipations of returning day; so to the Christian watchman who has nearly passed through the night of earth and hies the light of the eternal day, the winds of adversity assume a more friendly tone, and speed his heavenward flight.

"Hope is the expectation, faith the evidence, of things not seen, but love is the blessed fruit of all the graces."

Faith, Hope and Love were questioned one day of
what they thought of future glory which religion taught.
Now Faith believed it surely to be true,
And Hope expected it to be so too;

Love answered, smiling with a conscious glow,
Believe! expect! I know it to be true.

Soul acquaintance, or affinity, is rare.

Members of

the same family are often spiritually at an infinite distance from each other.

"Yet shall we one day,

Life past, gain clearer vision o'er
Our being's whole, shall see
Ourselves, and learn at last.

Our true affinities of soul."

The powers of darkness are ever near to entrap us. We need to keep our spiritual lamp constantly burning, that we may discern our treacherous foes, and avoid the pitfalls they have laid for our unwary feet.

Submission to the will of God is better than burnt offering or costly sacrifice, and will save us from the necessity of much afflictive discipline.

"Who art thou, oh man, that judgest another? Unto his own Master he standeth or falleth."

If it is true, that when we are right we are always more right than we think, is it not equally true, that when we are wrong we are always more wrong than we think?

We should be careful not to judge hastily or harshly the conduct of another, however inconsistent it may appear to us. We cannot understand the pressure of adverse influences to which he may have been subjected.

The fact that mankind are free, responsible, moral agents, to the intelligent mind is a weighty one, and presses with greater or less force according to the moral status of the individual. It is a prerogative most difficult to exercise; our conscientious balances swayed by conflicting emotions, presents but an uncertain decision to our consideration.

The outlines of our moral platform have deen determined for us, and we, perchance, been instructed therein from our earliest youth in such a manner that the average conscience might not err therein, but in the innumerable inextricable cross lines which impede our