I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God?"

In the Greek and Roman poets-in Homer, "the father of song,"-in Ossian: "A dark red stream of fire comes down from the hill. Crugal sat upon the beam; he that lately fell by the hand of Swaran, striving in the battle of heroes. His face is like the beams of the setting moon. His robes are of the clouds of the hill. His eyes are like two decaying flames. Dark is the wound of his breast. The stars dim-twinkled through his form; and his voice was like the sound of a distant stream. My ghost, O Connal! is on my native hills, but my corse is on the sands of Ullin. Thou shalt never talk with Crugal, or find his lone steps in the heath. I am light as the blast of Cromla; and I move like the shadow of mist. Connal, son of Colgar! I see the dark cloud of death. It hovers over the plains of Lenna. The sons of green Erin shall fall. Remove from the field of ghosts. Like the darkened moon he retired in the midst of the whistling blast."

And what of Shakespeare: "Macbeth," with its witches worse than Maiola-"Hamlet," with its ghost, and "Julius Cæsar," chock-full of the supernatural? The superstition of the "evil eye," which, like many others, has come down from the Middle Ages is still firmly believed in in Ireland and in the Highlands of Scotland. In Milton and in Spenser, in

Chaucer and in Dryden, in Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," in Longfellow's "Skeleton in Armor," in Poe's 'Raven,” in Dickens, as well as in Scott, glimpses, or more, of the supernatural and of superstition can be seen and read. "It is all a mystery-I can't understand," "The whole thing is very mysterious," are expressions that we use from childhood to the grave. But we are not to trust in "old wives' fables," nor in "cunningly devised fables," but in "the living God, who giveth richly all things to enjoy."

Dean Swift says: "If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Holy Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless He would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.".

And another great divine has said that if we had one more sense we might be able to see the spirit world. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." If we had a few more faculties we might be able to understand "all mysteries and all knowledge"; but it is God's plan that we shall walk by faith—that we shall "believe and obey "with what He has been pleased to give us. We cannot be God-only the

creature of His hand-" of His court His counsel," "the sheep of His pasture." and not pride and ambition, must be ours.

but not of

Humility, "Who by

searching can find out God?" In the natural world what we do not see with the naked eye is far beyond what we do see; and men, to their immortal praise, sacrifice their time, their fortune, their sleep, that they may learn, with telescope and microscope, and give to the world just one little chapter more of the wonderful, mysterious and marvelous works of Almighty God. But the things which belong to the supernatural, the spiritual world, cannot be learned nor "found out" with any of man's inventions, however great they may be. They must be "spiritually discerned" with the "eye of faith" alone. Simply:

"I believe."

"In its sublime research, philosophy

May measure out the ocean-deep-may count
The sands or the sun's rays-but, God! for Thee
There is no weight nor measure:-none can mount
Up to Thy mysteries. Reason's brightest spark,
Though kindled by Thy light, in vain would try
To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark:

And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high,
Even like past moments in eternity."

66

Humble as a little child

Weaned from the mother's breast;
By no subtleties beguiled,

On Thy faithful word I rest.

"Israel! now and evermore

In the Lord Jehovah trust;
Him, in all His ways, adore-
Wise, and wonderful, and just."

"God hath now sent his living oracle Into the world to teach His final will."

-Milton.

MOLOKAI AND FATHER DAMIEN.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

MOLOKAI, Molokai! how shall I write of thee, loveliest prison, hospital, and tomb-the dreaded and shunned home of the Leper! Is Molokai like the other islands of the chain? As like to them as one brother is to another, where they come of the same parents. There are slight differences in the features and complexion of the different islands, but not enough for any confusion as to what family they belong. Molokai is said to be one of the very most beautiful of the group.

And while the lepers can have the perfect freedom of all-out-o'-doors, the sunshine and the air, they are as much in prison and as securely as if behind granite walls and iron bars! Oh, yes! And this is "wise and merciful and just." Is there a leper in Honolulu or elsewhere, he must go out under cover of the night; and even then he is more than liable to arrest. If it be known that any are in hiding far up in the valleys or elsewhere, detectives are sent to search them out. And this is "wise and merciful and just." Great care is taken to provide for these afflicted ones—men,