besides this, there are times when the truest companions must fail. Companionship

can do little in our intense bodily pain, mental anguish, spiritual conflict, throes of death. "In the central depths

of our being we are alone." Happy is he who can say of such times, "Nevertheless, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me."

Bristol.

U. R. T.

(No. XCIV.)

THE LIGHTS OF SOULS. "The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out."-Prov. xiii. 9.

LIGHT," if not essential to life, is essential to its well-being. Life without light, could it be, would be cold, chaotic, wretched. There are different kinds of light even in the material world-some feeble, flickering, transient, others as the lights of heaven, strong, steady, permanent. There are different moral lights-the lights of soul. The text leads us to consider two :

the

I. THE JOYOUS LIGHT OF SOUL. "The light of the righteous rejoiceth.' In what does the light of the soul consist? There are at least three elements-faith, hope, love. The first fills the soul with the light of ideas; the second with the light of a bright future; third, with the light of happy affections. In all souls on earth these three exist. There is a faith in all, a hope in all, a love in all. Extinguish these in any soul, and there is the blackness of darkness for ever. The righteous have these as divine impartations, as beams VOL. XX.

from "the Father of lights," and in their radiance they live, walk, and rejoice. They rejoice in their faith. Their faith connects them with the Everlasting Sun. They rejoice in their hope. Their hope bears them into the regions of the blest. They rejoice in their love. Their love fixes their enrapturing gaze on Him in whose presence there is fullness of joy.

II. THE TRANSIENT LIGHT OF SOUL. "The lamp of the wicked shall be put out." It is implied that the light of the righteous is permanent. And so it is. It is inextinguishable. "It shines brighter and brighter, even unto perfect day." Not so the light of the wicked. Their light, too, is in their faith, their hope, their love. But their faith is in the false, and it must give way. The temple of their hope is built on sand, and the storm of destiny will destroy it. Their love is on corrupt things, and all that is corrupt must be burnt by the all-consuming fire of eternal justice. Thus the lamp of the wicked must be put out. The light of the righteous is an inextinguishable sun-that of the wicked a mere flickering "lamp;"

X

the breath of destiny will put it out. "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out." To live in a world without a sun, were it possible, would be wretched existence -such a world as Byron describes :

"The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars

Did wander darkening in the eternal space,

Rayless and pathless; and the icy earth Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air."

But to live without faith, hope, charity, is infinitely more calamitous.

(No. XCV.)

PRIDE.

"Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well-advised is wisdom." -Prov. xiii. 10.

PRIDE is an exaggerated estimate of our own superiority, leading often to an insolent exultation. "There is no such thing," says Fuller, "as proper pride, a reasonable and judicious estimate of one's character has nothing to do with it." From the text we learn

I. THAT PRIDE GENERATES DISCORDS. "Only by pride cometh contention." "Pride," says Collier," is so unsociable a vice, and does all things with so ill a grace, that there is no closing with it. A proud man will be sure to challenge more than belongs to him. You must expect him stiff in conversation, fulsome in commending himself, and bitter in his reproofs." And Colton says, "Pride either finds a desert or makes one; submission cannot tame its ferocity, nor satisfy or fill its voracity, and it requires very costly food-its keeper's happiness." Being in society essentially exacting, insolent, heartless, detracting, it is ever generating "contention."

II. THAT PRIDE REJECTS COUN

SELS. This is implied in the lastclause rather than expressed. "But with the well-advised is wisdom." The proud man is too great to take the counsel of any. "Pride," says Gurnell, "takes for its motto great I, and little you." Who can teach him?

"Pride (of all others, the most dangerous fault)

Proceeds from want of sense or want of thought.

The men who labour and digest things most,

Will be much apter to despond than boast;

For if your author be profoundly good, "Twill cost you dear before he's understood."

(No. XCVI.)

WORLDLY WEALTH.

"Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase."-Prov. xiii. 11. THIS verse implies three things—

I. THAT WORLDLY WEALTH IS A GOOD THING. (1.) The universal feeling of man shows this-all men strive after it. (2.) The services it can render show this. Man's physical comforts, intellectual opportunities, social resources, and the progress of his religious institutions greatly depend upon this. (3.) The Word of God shows this. "Money," says Solomon, "answers all things." The Bible does not despise wealth. It legislates for its employment and denounces its abuse. We infer

II. THAT WEALTH MAY BE

OBTAINED IN DIFFERENT WAYS.

There are two ways referred to in the text. First: The way of vanity. "Wealth gotten by vanity." The word vanity may represent all those tricks of trade, reckless speculations, and idle gambling, by which large fortunes are often easily gained. Within our own circle of acquaintance, we know many who have become millionaires by happy hits.

Secondly: The way of labour. He that gathereth by labour." Honest, industrious, frugal labour, is the legitimate way to wealth. Honest industry is God's road to fortune. We infer

III. THAT THE DECREASE OR INCREASE OF WEALTH IS DETERMINED BY THE METHOD IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN OBTAINED. "The

wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase." Two facts in human nature will illustrate this principle.

First: What man does not highly value he is likely to squander. That which we hold cheaply we are not cautious in guarding nor tenacious in holding.

Secondly: What comes to him without labour he is not likely highly to appreciate. We generally value a thing in proportion to the difficulty in getting it. The man who has toiled hard for what he has got, will take care of it; whereas he who has got it easily by a hit or by a trick, treats it with less caution, and is more likely to squander it away. Thus the text announces a law in human experience: "Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase."

Brothers, whilst we would not have you to disparage wordly wealth, we would not have you put it in its wrong place. Use it as the instrument of action, not as the representative of wealth or the source of happiness.

"To purchase heaven, has gold the power?

Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life, can love be bought with gold?
Are Friendship's pleasures to be sold?
No; all that's worth a wish, a thought,
Fair Virtue gives unbribed, unbought.
Cease, then, on trash thy hopes to bind;
Let nobler views engage thy mind."
JOHNSON.

(No. XCVII.)

HOPE DEFERRED.

"Hope deferred maketh the heart sick but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life."-Prov. xiii. 12.

HOPE is a complex state of mind -desire and expectation are its constituents. We define it as an expectant desire. It implies the existence of a future good, and a belief in the possibility of obtaining it.

The text leads us to make three remarks concerning it.

I. THAT MAN'S OBJECT OF HOPE IS OFTEN LONG DELAYED. "Hope deferred." The future good which men hope for they seldom get at once. Long years of struggle often intervene. It looms a far distant thing before their vision. There is kindness in this arrangement, although we may fail sometimes to see it.

First: It serves to stimulate effort. It is the goal before the eye of the racer, keeping every muscle on the stretch.

Secondly: It serves to culture patience. We have need of patience. If what we hope for came at once, was not deferred, not a tithe of our manhood would be brought out.

66

II. THAT THE DELAY IS GENERALLY VERY TRYING. It maketh the heart sick." It is trying to the strength, to the temper, and to the religion of man. Still, those "sick" men will not give up the hope. "Hope," says Diogenes, "is the last thing that dies in man." Pandora's fabled box con-· tained all the miseries of mankind, and when her husband took off its lid, all rushed away, but hope remained at the bottom. Ay, hope sticks to the last. However sick at heart, we hold it still "The wretch condemned with life to part,

Still, still on hope relies;

And every pang that rends the heart
Bids expectation rise.

H

ope,

like the glimmering taper's light, Adorns and cheers the way,

And still, the darker grows the night,
Emits a brighter ray."

III. THAT THE TRIAL OF THE DELAY IS FULLY COMPENSATED IN

ITS REALIZATION. "When the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." The longer and more anxiously you wait and toil for a good, the higher the enjoyment when it is grasped. Hence the delight of Simeon, who waited for the consolation of Israel when he clasped the infant Jesus in his arms, and said, "Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." A realized divine hope is, indeed, " a tree of life," and especially so when realized in the pure heavens of God. Hope in fruition is the Eden of the soul. "Oh! how blest

To look from this dark prison to that shrine,

To inhale one breath of Paradise divine;
And enter into that eternal rest
Which waits the sons of God."

BOWRING.

(No. XCVIII.)

THE WORD.

"Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded."-Prov. xiii. 13.

THE world abounds with words. Every day the air is loaded with oral words; the libraries of the world are crowded with written ones. Some human words are unspeakably more valuable than others. The word that expresses the noblest heart, the strongest intellect, the loftiest genius, the highest intelligence, is the best human word on earth. A human word is at once the mind's mirror, and the mind's weapon. In it the soul of the speaker is seen, and by it the soul of the speaker wins its victories over others. But there is one word on earth incomparably and infinitely above all others. It is emaphatically the word-the word of God. The text teaches us two things concerning this word.

I. THIS WORD DESPISED IS RUIN. "Who despiseth the word shall be destroyed." Who is the despiser of this word? The scorner, the rejector, the unbeliever, the neglector, the trifler. Why is ruin involved in despising this word? First: Because he who despises, rejects the only instrument of soul - salvation. The Gospel is the word of salvation. "Unto you is the word of the salvation sent." The only word that can save. It is the only balm for the diseased soul. It is the only quickening power for the dead. Second: Because he who despises it brings on his nature the condemnation of Heaven. Most tremendous guilt is contracted in despising this word. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh, for if they escaped not," &c. (Heb. xii. 25.)

II. THIS WORD REVERENCED IS BLESSEDNESS. "He that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded." The word is a "commandment," it is an authoritative utterance, and to fear it, in a scriptural sense, is to have a proper practical regard for it. First: Such a man is rewarded in its blessed influences upon his own soul. It enlightens, purifies, cheers, ennobles. Second: Such a man is rewarded with the approbation of Heaven. "Unto that man will I look, who his of a broken heart, and contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.' What a wonderful thing is the word! Man's character and destiny are determined by his conduct toward it. How few treat this word as it ought to be treated in this age. In proportion to its aboundings, men seem to despise it. There was a time, in Edward the First's reign, when volume cost £37, to gain which, a labouring man would have to work fifteen long years.

one

(No. XCIX.)

THE LAW OF THE GOOD.

"The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death." -Prov. xiii. 14.

I. THE GOOD ARE RULED BY LAW. "The law of the wise." What is law? There are many definitions; many most unphilosophic, some most conflicting. The clearest and most general idea I have of it is-rule of motion. In this sense all things are under law, for all things are in motion. The material universe is in motion, and there is the law that regulates it. The spiritual universe is in motion, and law presides over it. "Of law, says Hooker, there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice he harmony of the world. All things do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." But what is the law of the goodthat which rules them in all their activities? Supreme love to the supremely good. It is not a written commandment, but an all-pervading, inspiring spirit, called in "Scripture, "the royal law," the

"law of liberty," the "law of the Spirit."

II. THE LAW THAT RULES THE GOOD IS BENEFICENT. "The law of the wise is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death." First: This law delivers from death. The word death here must not be regarded as the separation of body from soul, but as the separation of the soul from God. This is the awfullest death, and supreme love to God is a guarantee against this. Secondly: This law secures an abundance of life. "The law

of the wise is a fountain of life;" a fountain gives the idea of activity, plenitude, perennialness. The law of the good is happiness. The happiness of the true soul is not something then and yonder, but it is something in the law that controls him. In the midst of his privations and dangers, John Howard, England's illustrious philanthropist, wrote from Riga these words, "I hope I have sources of enjoyment that depend not on the particular spot I inhabit. A rightly cultivated mind, under the power of religion, and the exercise of beneficent dispositions, affords a ground of satisfaction little affected by heres and theres."

"If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies;
The world has nothing to bestow,-
From our own selves our joy must flow."