of all his duties, and out of the circle of all his happiness, and away, far, far away, from the purposes of his creation. II. THE BEAM OF DEVOTION. GEORGE P. MORRIS. 1. I NEVER could find a good reason Why sorrow unbidden should stay, Our cares would wake no more emotion, That leave scarce a ripple behind. 2. The world has a spirit of beauty, Which looks upon all for the best, To Providence leaves all the rest: Which lights us through life to its close, III. PROGRESS. Two principles govern the moral and intellectual world. One is perpetual progress, the other the necessary limitations to that progress. If the former alone prevailed, there would be nothing steadfast and durable on earth, and the whole of social life would be the sport of winds and waves. If the latter had exclusive sway, or even if it obtained a mischievous preponderancy, every thing would petrify or rot. The best ages of the world are always those in which the two principles are the most equally balanced. In such ages, every enlightened man ought to adopt both principles into his whole mind and conduct, and with one hand develop what he can, with the other restrain and uphold what he ought. IV. LOVE DUE TO THE CREATOR. G. GRIFFIN. 1. AND ask ye why He claims our love'? 0, O, answer, all ye lights above, That watch in yonder darkening heayen! As when His angels first arrayed thee, Why man should love the Mind that made thee! 2. There's not a flower that decks the vale, There's not a beam that lights the mountain, There's not a hue that paints the rose, But in its use or beauty shows True love to us, and love undying. V. INFLUENCE OF GOLD. ADDISON. A MAN who is furnished with arguments from the mint, will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy. Gold is a won derful clearer of the understanding. It dissipates every doubt and scruple in an instant; accommodates itself to the meanest capacities; silences the loud and clamorous, and brings over the most obstinate and inflexible. Philip of Macedon1 was a man of most invincible reason in this way. He refuted by it all the wisdom of Athens, confounded their statesmen, struck their orators dumb, and, at length, argued them out of all their liberties. VI. INGRATITUDE. SHAKSPEARE. 1. BLOW, blow, thou winter wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude: Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. 2. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remembered not. VII. THE BIBLE. WAYLAND. THAT the truths of the Bible have the power of awakening an intense moral feeling in man, under every variety of character, learned or ignorant, civilized or savage, that they make bad men good, and send a pulse of healthful feeling through all the domestic, civil, and social relations, that they teach men to love right, to hate wrong, and to seek each other's welfare, as the children of one common Parent, that they control the baleful passions of the human heart, and thus make men proficient in the science of self-government, — and, finally, that they teach him to aspire after a conformity to a Being of infinite holiness, and fill him with hopes infinitely more purifying, more exalted, more suited to his nature, than any other which this world has ever known, are facts as incontrovertible as the laws of philosophy, or the demonstrations of mathematics. VIII. THE MOMENTS. J. L. EGGLESTON. 1. THE moments are little and unseen things; 2. O, list to the moments! though little they seem, They are bearing your bark on a swift, silent stream; IX. THE WAR-HORSE. BOOK OF JOB. HAST thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder? Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth cn to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear, and the shield. He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage; neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet. He saith among the trumpets,-"Ha, ha!" and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. X. SECLUSION. BEATTIE. Он, how canst thou renounce the boundless store Oh, how canst thou renounce, and hope to be forgiven? |