ONE adequate support

For the calamities of mortal life
Exists-one only an assured belief
That the procession of our fate, howe'er
Sad or disturbed, is ordered by a Being
Of infinite benevolence and power,
Whose everlasting purposes embrace
All accidents, converting them to good.
The darts of anguish fix not when the seat
Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified
By acquiescence in the will supreme
For time and for eternity; by faith,
Faith absolute in God, including hope,
And the defence that lies in boundless love
Of his perfections; with habitual dread
Of aught unworthily conceived, endured
Impatiently, ill done, or left undone,
To the dishonour of his holy name.

Soul of our souls, and safeguard of the world!
Sustain, thou only canst, the sick at heart;
Restore their languid spirits, and recall
Their lost affection unto thee and thine.

How beautiful this dome of sky;

And vast the hills, in fluctuation fixed

At thy command, how awful! Be mute who will,

who can,

Yet I will praise thee with impassioned voice;

My lips that may forget thee in the crowd
Cannot forget thee here; where thou hast built,
For thy own glory, in the wilderness!
Me thou didst constitute a priest of thine
In such a temple as we now behold,

Reared for thy presence; therefore am I bound
To worship here and everywhere. Wordsworth.

Religion I consider as a chain, of which God is the first link, and which reaches to eternity: without this tie everything is dissolved and overthrown. Men are creatures only deserving of contempt, the universe is not worth our attention, for it is neither the sun nor the earth which makes its merit, but the glory of being a part of the Supreme being. Ganganelli.

THE Lord ought to be regarded as the only life, or living being, because he alone properly lives, and all other beings and things live only by virtue of what they receive from him. All derived life then manifestly demonstrates its divine source, and is in some connection with it, more or less remote. Clowes.

By doing well, charity-the good of faithis perfected; but it is only by suffering well, that celestial love-the good of innocence and love-is perfected. Hence it behoved the Lord himself to be "made perfect through suffering." Thus did God provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering. It is well to suffer with sub

B

mission; better to suffer with resignation; better still with patience; but, best of all, with cheerfulness. This becomes possible when the conviction becomes sufficiently established in the whole mind, that "God is love;" and that even the very hairs of our head are all numbered. What can be more cheering than the thought that God is love; and who can be otherwise than cheerful, when this thought irradiates even the distant parts of the mental earth?

Intellectual Repository.

THE quality of mercy is not strain'd;
It droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power
The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

Shakspear.

LET not any one say he cannot govern his passions, nor hinder them from breaking out

and carrying him into actions; for what he can do before a prince or a great man from a worldly motive, he can do when alone or in the presence of God from a religious motive, if he will.

Locke.

FOR while we love

An inward day that never, never sets,

Glares round the soul and mocks the closing eyelids.

THE world's a wilderness of woe,
And life a pilgrimage of pain!
"Till mild religion from above

T. S. Coleridge.

Descends a sweet engaging form,
The messenger of heavenly love
The bow of promise in a storm!
Then guilty passions wing their flight,
Sorrow, remorse, afflictions cease;
Religion's yoke is soft and light,
And all her paths are peace.
Beyond the narrow vale of time

Where bright celestial ages rule,
To scenes eternal, scenes sublime,
She points the way and leads the soul;
At her approach the grave appears

The gate of Paradise restored,

Her voice the watching cherub hears,
And drops his double flaming sword.

James Montgomery.

Good minds are ever apt to forget benefits, but a grateful heart is equally tenacious to remember them. It is the indelible register of every act that is dismissed from the memory of the benefactor. Mrs. Radcliffe.

A WHOLE world of pleasure is perpetually streaming into us through the eye, to whose sensations the green livery of nature has been rendered peculiarly grateful and refreshing. This little organ, like the vases of Pelides, is never filled, although perpetually replenished; and we pass from the contemplation of natural beauties to the study of artificial ones,-from the everchanging landscape, heavens and sea, to the endless succession of buildings, statues, paintings, as if the day was too short for its enjoyments. When the bodily eye is shut, the mental vision is opened, and the same sights are again presented to us, heightened to the exquisite of ideal perfection. What a succession of pleasant tattoos are perpetually beating upon the tiny drum of the ear, from the syren mouth of beauty, 66 Warbling immortal verse and Tuscan air," or the rich harmonies of "Song and cymbal, cithern, harp and lute," "in many a band of linked sweetness long drawn out," to the symphonius concert of the birds, the music of the winds, "the murmuring woodlands, the resounding shore,"