His hand was no longer dead in mine, and he gave me a good friendly grasp. The tears came into his eyes, and he said, "I guess you are a Christian, William Ladd, after all." "And the little fracas with my neighbor about the sheep was," said William Ladd, "the first step to my devoting myself to the Peace Society."

III.-DEEDS, NOT WORDS.

Nor forever on thy knees,

Would Jehovah have thee found;
There are griefs Jehovah sees;

There are burdens thou canst ease:
Look around.

Work is prayer if done for God,

Prayer which God delighted hears;

See beside yon upturned sod

One bound 'neath affliction's rod:
Dry her tears.

Not long prayers, but earnest zeal,
This is what is wanted more:
Put thy shoulder to the wheel;
Bread unto the famished deal
From thy store.

Not high-sounding words of praise,

Does God want 'neath some grand dome;

But that thou the fallen raise;

Bring the poor from life's highways

To thy home.

Worship God by doing good;

Works, not words; kind acts, not creeds;

He who loves God as he should,
Makes his heart's love understood
By kind deeds.

Deeds are powerful; mere words, weak,
Batt'ring at high Heaven's door;

Let thy love by actions speak;
Wipe the tear from sorrow's cheek:
Clothe the poor.

Be it thine life's cares to smother,

And to brighten eyes now dim;
Kind deeds done to one another,
God accepts as done, my brother,
Unto him.

V. THE ART OF THINKING.

Is thinking an art to be acquired? Are not all men endowed with the power of thought? Is there any thing more necessary than for one to close his eyes and let his mind have free course, in order to think? To answer these questions, it is necessary to define what is meant by thought. If day-dreaming-that act of mind in which thought roves at random, purposeless, and without effortis thought, then even the idiot thinks, in his poor fashion. There are no rules applicable to this sort of thinking. But much indulgence in this kind of dreamy thinking weakens the mind, and begets a mental laziness that is fatal to progress. It benumbs all but the purely animal faculties and instincts. It is, therefore, to be deprecated in the strongest terms. It has proved, and will yet prove, the ruin of many a promising youth.

The kind of thought worthy the name, which strengthens instead of weakening the mind, is what we mean when we speak of thinking as an art. This kind of thought is the pleasant labor rather than the luxurious ease of the mind. It is only perfect when under complete subjection to will.

The first great thing in learning to think is to bring thought under subjection to will. There has been a great

deal said about the importance of gaining mastery over our animal passions, propensities, and emotions. Many an earnest prayer for help to conquer these fleshly lusts has been breathed. The fact is, however, that with minds trained to perfect subservience, the passions can have but little sway. It is unrestrained imagination that kindles the fires of passion. Cool blood generally goes with cool heads. Too much stress can not be laid upon the fundamental importance of perfect command over thought. How many a student finds a lack of this power the chief hinderance to progress! How many a page must be re-read, how many a lesson conned over and over, to compensate for lapses of thought! In the possession or absence of this power over mind, lies the chief difference between mental strength and mental weakness. Some men think as a child plays with a hammer, striking little blows here, there, anywhere, at any object within reach. The action of a strong mind may be compared to the stone-breaker's sledge-hammer, dealing stubborn blows successively upon one spot till the hard rock cracks and yields.

When this command over thought has been acquired through the long exercise of resolute will, the power to arrange ideas and to think systematically will come with it, and no thinking amounts to much unless it is systematic. This, then, may be considered as the second important acquirement in the art of thinking.

The power to classify and arrange ideas in proper order is one that comes more or less slowly to even the best of minds. In proportion as this faculty is strengthened, desultory and wasted effort diminishes. When the mind acts, it acts to some purpose, and can begin where it left off without going over the whole ground again to take up the threads of its ratiocinations.

Concentration and system are thus seen to be the chief elements of the art of thinking. To cultivate the first, constant watchfulness to detect the least wandering, and the

immediate exertion of the will to call back and hold the mind upon the subject under consideration, should be vigilantly exercised. To secure the latter, the practice of analyzing and considering the different parts of a subject, first separately, and then in their relations to each other, is a discipline to which every young mind should be subjected, and which, we are sorry to say, is very much neglected in the methods of instruction practiced in this country.

V. GONE OUT FOREVER.

LIKE drooping, dying stars, our dearly loved ones go away from our sight. The stars of our hopes, our ambitions, our prayers, whose light ever shines before us, suddenly pale in the firmament of our heart, and their place is left empty, cold, and dark. A mother's steady, soft, and earnest light, that beamed through wants and sorrows; a father's strong, quick light, that kept our feet from stumbling in the dark and treacherous ways; a sister's light, so mild, so pure, so constant, and so firm, shining upon us from gentle, loving eyes, and persuading us to grace and goodness; a brother's light, forever sleeping in our soul, and illuminating our goings and comings; a friend's light, true and trusty-gone out forever! No! the light has not gone out. It is shining beyond the stars, where there is no night and no darkness forever and for

ever.

SILENT INFLUENCE.

IF a sheet of paper, on which a key has been laid exposed for some minutes in the sunshine, be then instantaneously viewed in the dark, the key removed, a faded specter of the key will be visible. Let this paper be laid aside for many months where nothing can disturb it, and

K. N. E.-13.

then in darkness be laid on a plate of hot metal, and the specter of the key will appear. This is equally true of our minds. Every man we meet, every book we read, every picture or landscape we see, every word or tone we hear, leaves its image on our brain. These traces, which under ordinary circumstances are invisible, never fade, but in the intense light of cerebral excitement start into prominence just as the spectral image of the key started into sight on the application of heat. It is thus with all the influence to which we are subjected.

VI. THE KING'S PICTURE.

THE king from the council chamber
Came, weary and sore of heart.
He called for Hiff, the painter,
And spake to him apart:

"I am sick of faces ignoble,
Hypocrites, cowards, and knaves!

I shall shrink to their shrunken measure,
Chief slave in a realm of slaves!

"Paint me a true man's picture,
Gracious, and wise, and good;

Dowered with the strength of heroes,

And the beauty of womanhood.

It shall hang in my inmost chamber,
That thither, when I retire,

It may fill my soul with its grandeur,
And warm it with sacred fire."

So the artist painted the picture,
And it hung in the palace hall;
Never a thing so goodly
Had garnished the stately wall.
The king, with head uncovered,
Gazed on it with rapt delight,
Till it suddenly wore strange meaning,
And baffled his questioning sight.