verse, and your very gentleness insults and hurts him. "I speak," he will reply, "that I do know and testify, that which I have seen; and if you receive not my witness as true, spare me your praise that it is beautiful. The Divine objects I announce are there, and the light by which I see them has no glory but as it flows from their reality; were it self-kindled it would be but a darkness kindled into fire." If others cannot perceive the HOLY SPIRIT that looks on us through the veil of life and nature-if in low moods of thought I lose the blessed Presence myself, and begin to ask whether it was a vision-why should I trust the blind heart instead of the seeing, and believe the night rather than the day? Is it more likely that the pure soul, from its own sunbeams, should weave imaginary sanctities than that the impure by its turbid clouds should hide the real ones? No: it is when inward confusion prevails in the conscience, when care consumes the temper, and duty is heavy to the will, when the blood is hot and the heart is cold, then it is that doubt becomes our tempter, and says daily unto us, "Where is your GOD?" When the fogs of earth lie thick around us, it puts the telescope into our hands, and says, "Now show us your stars!" We may retort the charge of brilliant dreaming, and say that our miserable doubts are but the black shadow of our own spiritual disorder thrown upon the universe and turning it into the negative of God.

"Hours of Thought on Sacred Things."

Rer. Augustus Hare.

TRUTH-The Awful Sin of Perverting. I know not any crime so great, that a man could contrive to commit, as poisoning the sources of eternal truth. Dr. Samuel Johnson.

TRUTH-The Speaker of.

"There is nothing," says Plato, “so delightful as the hearing, or the speaker of truth." For this reason, there is no conversation so agreeable as that of the man of integrity, who hears without any intention to betray, and speaks without any intention to deceive. Joseph Addison.

TRUTH-The Standard of.

As the Word of GOD is the light to direct us and to betray errors, so is it also the standard and beam to try the weights of truth and falsehood. Therefore our LORD, knowing that there should be such confusion of things in the latter days, commandeth that Christians should go to no other thing, but to the Scriptures. Here is the rule of our faith. Without this, our faith is but a fantasy and no faith; for faith is by hearing, and hearing by the Word of GOD. Therefore CHRIST saith (John v. 39), "Search the Scriptures; they are they which testify of Me."

Bishop John Jewel of Salisbury.

TRUTH-its Strength from the ALMIGHTY. Who knows not that truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings, to make her victorious; these are the shifts and the defences that error uses against her power; give her but room, and do not bind her when she sleeps. Milton (Areopagitica).

TWOFOLD Relation of Man-The Physical Basis and the Spiritual Superstructure.

Eating and drinking are a means to an end, and that end must of course be higher than the means. It is not merely for the things are done, so that we may again and purpose of keeping us in existence that these again and again have the pleasure of eating and drinking; it is for the purpose of enabling us to fulfil all the possibilities of our life. We can perceive this, because we are so constituted that, notwithstanding all our bodily needs, which make us dependent on matter, we can "see GOD," we can feel our responsibility to Him, and our immutable obligations. And what is the consequence? Those beings which eat and drink for the mere sake of eating and drinking, are briefly described as the beasts that perish. They have nothing ulterior. But those who can

see GOD in the gifts of His bounty, must feel that whatever strength comes out of these gifts must be used according to His will, and for those great purposes which accord with His own nature, and which, as His spiritual offspring, He has made possible to us. We must take care, therefore, that we do not rest in the eating and drinking. We must look upon them as the mere physical basis of our life, not as our life itself. Strength comes out of them, and in our present state all energy whatever, even intellectual and spiritual, is dependent upon them; for the moment the physical basis is destroyed, our earth-life is gone. This may be humiliating in a sense, but it is only humiliating when we rest in it as final, and refuse to rear anything worthy upon it. But when we use it, as a basis should always be used, for the sake of the superstructure which it enables us to rear-a life of benevolence to man, of devotedness to God, a life of good-seeking and good-doing, of working for CHRIST, of character bright with the sunshine of heaven, and radiant with the beauty

of holiness-then beautiful exceedingly will the structure appear when the material conditions are no longer required. "Out of the eater cometh forth meat, and out of the strong cometh forth sweetness ;" and blessed is he whose ordinary meals are "Holiness to the LORD," and whose physical strength, consecrated and sanctified by the Spirit of GOD, passes out in the sweetness of a life laden with the fruits of righteousness, which are unto the glory of GOD and the good of

man :

"Build thee more stately mansions, oh! my soul,

While the swift seasons roll.
Leave thy low-vaulted past;

Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Thy thoughts encompass with a dome more vast,

Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea.'

Very Rev. R. W. Church, M.A., D.C.L. (Human Life and its Conditions).

Church in regard to.

Sad though the time is, it is only sad as night is in relation to day, as the ebb is in relation to the flow. If the Christian Church, as the appointed educator of the spiritual, be true to her vocation, a better I time shall come; and when it comes, men looking back will say this was its necessary precursor. The sea of faith is at the ebb just now, but it is not for ever. The creeks and bays of human life in this land shall be filled as before. In the swing of the great forces of the soul from revelation to science, from faith to reason, our lot has been to be cast in a time in which the set or drift of thought is towards science; and it cannot but happen to an age which is caught in such a tide that the eyes of men shall be blinded to the facts they are leaving behind, and open only for those they are approaching. It would be very foolish to deny that at this moment the eyes of some of the strongest minds amongst us are closed to the light of the Gospel, and that because they are following the trail of the light of the angel of science. What then? Shall this movement go on uncared for? Shall souls in the very highest region of thought, save one, be blind, and CHRIST's teachers make

ing unbelief? Or would it help the evil to hurl anathemas at science? No! The duty of the Christian Church is to sustain and extend her own testimony, and, both by the life of her membership and the teaching of her pulpits, to send forth her light and her truth as the very forces which are certain to lead to a turn of the tide. It may be that it shall seem a preaching of GOD'S Word "out of season." But even this is included in our task. "In season and out of season we are to ply it; and in the ebb and in the flow of faith we are to hold fast and hold forth the Word of Life. Those seekers on the sea which science searches can only find what their predecessors found. They have been carried out one reach farther, it may be, on the tide, but it is only to discover the terrible emptiness, the abysses and speechless blanks which have repelled human hearts before. For them too comes an hour when the soul is weary of searching-a still hour, in which they will know that they have closed their hands upon nothingness; and when, far behind them on the shore they have left, they may hear the voices of brothers who are singing praises to the light. Not only must these men fail in any attempt to educate the spiritual life of the people, but

they themselves as much need the Gospel as the humblest peasant in the land; and meantime the people are perishing for lack of the knowledge which only the Gospel can impart. Let us awake to our great vocation! Rev. Alexander Macleod, D.D. (Christus Consolator).

UNBELIEF-Modern, itself Bears Witness to the Indestructibility of the Religious Instinct in Man,

It is a hopeful sign, even though it bring with it a special peril of its own, to which I am not blind, that the leaders of the schools of thought who at the present moment reject historical Christianity, so far as it claims to have its groundwork in the Will of GOD, acknowledge the existence, and therefore the claims, of that element in man's life which for want of some better word we call "Religion."

That this is so with most of those to whom I have referred, we have, I imagine, evidence

that is not far to seek. It was so certainly

with the thinker whom most of them acknowledge as in some sense their teacher and their guide. You have been moved, I cannot doubt, almost to tears by the infinite sadness of the confessions of Mr. John Stuart Mill's "Autobiography." You remember how one trained after the straitest sect of the Pharisaism of Utility, making the greater happiness of mankind his chief object in life, because in so doing he would also attain that happiness for himself, found after a while that a horror of great darkness fell on him,

"A grief without a pang, dark, void, and drear;'

how he came to look "upon the habit of endless analysis as a perpetual worm at the root both of the passions and the virtues" (Autob. pp. 134-149), and asked, in the bitterness of despair, "What good shall my life do me? The fabric of his happiness was ruined, and seeing that the happiness of others rested on the same foundations as his own, that ruin seemed to involve them also in the fatal doom. . . . In the posthumous writings which contain the fullest confession of his creed, we may trace the workings of a better leaven, working in him a yearning after life and immortality as the only adequate satisfaction for man's religious aspirations, which was altogether foreign to the mood and temper in which his life began. The last lesson which his wisdom bequeathed to mankind was this :"Religion is essential to your happiness, and belongs to the imagination; therefore cultivate your imagination, and try to be reli

:

gious." It may be questioned whether that will be accepted as an evangel by the millions who toil and suffer, or by the few who think and struggle.

Rev. Professor Plumptre, D.D. (Infidelity Refuted by its own Concessions). UNCHARITABLENESS-a very Base Thing.

Uncharitableness is a very mean and base thing; it contracteth a man's soul into a narrow compass, or straiteneth it, as it were, into one point, drawing all his thoughts, his desires, his affections into himself as to their centre, so that his reason, his will, his activity, have but one pitiful object to exercise themselves about to scrape together a little pelf, to catch a vapour of fame, to prog (to seek by low artifices) for a frivolous semblance of power or dignity, to soothe the humour or pamper the sensuality of one poor, is the ignoble subject of his busy care and endeaIsaac Barrow, D.Ď. (Sermon xxviii.). UNDERSTANDING in what its Freedom

vour.

Consists.

In these two things, viz., an equal indifferency for all truth-I mean, the receiving it in the love of it as truth, but not loving it for any other reason before we know it to be true-and in the examination of our principles, and not receiving any for such, nor building on them, until we are fully convinced as rational creatures of their solidity, truth, and certainty, consists that freedom of the understanding which is necessary to a rational creature, and without which it is not truly an understanding.

Understanding is the commanding faculty of the soul, and directs the will. John Locke.

UNDERSTANDING Man's, before the Fall. The noblest faculty of man, the understanding, was before the Fall sublime, clear, and aspiring; and, as it were, the soul's upper region, lofty and serene, free from the vapours and disturbances of the inferior affections. It was the leading controlling faculty; all the passions wore the colours of reason; it did not so much persuade as command; it was not consul, but dictator. Discourse was then almost as quick as intuition; it was nimble in proposing, firm in concluding; it could sooner determine than now it can dispute. Like the sun, it had light and agility; it knew no rest but in motion, no quiet but in activity. It did not so properly apprehend as irradiate the object; not so much find as make things intelligible. It did arbitrate upon the several

reports of sense and all the varieties of imagination; not like a drowsy judge, but also directing their verdict. In sum, it was vegete, quick, and lively, open as the day, untaint as the morning, full of the innocence and sprightliness of youth; it gave the soul a bright and a full view into all things, and was not only a window, but was itself the prospect. Study was not then a duty; night watchings were needless; the light of reason wanted not the assistance of a candle. This

is the doom of fallen man-to labour in the fire, to seek truth in profundo, to exhaust his time and impair his health, and perhaps to spin out his days and himself into a pitiful and controverted conclusion. There was then no poring, no struggling with memory, no straining for invention. His faculties were quick and expedite: they answered without knocking; they were ready upon the first summons; there was freedom and firmness in all their operations. I confess 'tis difficult for us, who date our ignorance from our first being, and were still bred up in the same infirmities about us with which we were born, to raise our thoughts and imaginations to those intellectual perfections that attended our nature in the time of innocence, as it is in a peasant bred up in the obscurities of a cottage to fancy in his mind the unseen splendours of a court. But by rating positives by their privatives, and other arts of reason by which discourse supplies the want of the reports of sense, we may collect the excellency of the understanding then by the glorious remainders of it now, and guess at the stateliness of the building by the magnificence of its ruins. All those arts, varieties,

and inventions which vulgar minds gaze at, the ingenious pursue, and all admire, are but the relics of an intellect defaced by sin and time. We admire it now only as antiquaries do a piece of old coin, for the stamp it once bore, and not for those vanishing lineaments and disappearing drafts that remain upon it at present. And certainly that must needs have been very glorious, the decays of which are so admirable. He that is comely when old and decrepit, surely was very beautiful

when he was young.

An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam, and Athens but the rudiments of Paradise. Dr. R. South.

UNDERSTANDING-Our, Understood of GOD. The language of love sounds but rude and

broken

To him who knows not what love is;
But to him who, love-learned, knows what
the beloved one would fain say,
Its very pauses are full of sweet music.

"Why, then," (addressing the Almighty), "Should I disquiet myself about the words in which I address Thee?

Insufficient as they may be to express my thoughts,

I need not seek to make Thee more fully comprehend me,

Thou who understandest my understanding itself." Lope de Vega.

UNFAITHFULNESS

may bring a Curse upon us.

The least unfaithfulness may bring a curse upon us; as the foot of the chamois on the snowy mountains, or the breath of a traveller who sings or shouts on his snowy road, may cause an avalanche, which shall entomb the village now full of life and gaiety at the mountain's base.

"It is the little rift within the lute
That by and by will make the music
mute,

And, ever widening, slowly silence all :
The little rift within the lover's lute,
Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,
That rotting inwards slowly moulders all."
Rev. Samuel Martin.

UNFRUITFUL-Nothing but Leaves.
Nothing but leaves! the SPIRIT grieves

Over a wasted life;

O'er sins committed while conscience slept,
Promises made but never kept,

Hatred, battle, and strife:
Nothing but leaves !

Nothing but leaves! no garnered sheaves
Of life's fair ripened grain;
Words, idle words, for earnest deeds;
We sow our seeds, lo! tares and weeds
We reap with toil and pain:

Nothing but leaves !

Nothing but leaves! memory weaves
No veil to hide the past;
As we retrace our weary way,
Counting each lost and misspent day,
We find sadly, at last,

Nothing but leaves !

And shall we meet the MASTER so,'
Bearing our withered leaves?
The SAVIOUR looks for perfect fruit;
We stand before Him, humble, mute,
Waiting the words He breathes :
Nothing but leaves?

Rev. Elon Foster (Cyclopædia of Poetical
Illustrations).

As long as you continue out of CHRIST, the devil is omnipotent against you; but once united to Him, you may regard Satan as a conquered enemy; you are placed beneath the cover of that Shield from which the fiery darts of the wicked one fall harmless and innocuous. . . . Even when temptations are at the worst, when every faculty of your soul seems to be in league with the tempter, still cling to the REDEEMER with mighty prayer; and weak and helpless though you be, He will fulfil His promise, and make you more than conqueror for His own sake Who loved you. So shall you be enabled at the last to take up the triumphant song of the redeemed, "We overcame by the blood of the Lamb." Rev. Henry Blunt.

All real believers are vitally united to CHRIST, being made one with Him by the participation of His SPIRIT, and by faith and holiness they visibly as well as vitally live and abide in Him. Various metaphors are used in Scripture to illustrate this union. Believers are united to CHRIST as the building to the Foundation, as the branch to the Vine, or the graft to the Stock. They are one with Him as the bride is one with the Bridegroom. They are united to Him as the members are to the Head. They are one Spirit with Him; yea, their union with the LORD is even compared to the union between the FATHER and CHRIST. This union is not dissolved at death; for it is said, "They die in the Lord," and consequently it can never be dissolved. Rev. Dr. Ryland.

UNION and COMMUNION-One LORD, One Faith, One Baptism.

"One LORD, one faith, one baptism!" where are these?

"One body and one bread!" I see it not; For in the impotence of human thought Each sinner now himself alone doth please. Farewell, sweet love and holy charities!

Shall it be said that we of GOD are taught, While Christian Christian tears in fierce onslaught,

With weapons fetched from carnal ar

mouries?

Therefore, again, LORD GOD of love, we fall
Before Thy footstool, bold to intercede
For our weak brethren. Hear us while we
plead

For those who Thee forsake, and, erring all,
Some of Apollos are, and some of Paul,
In self-directed pride: O LORD! how long?
"There is one baptism;" thus wrote holy
Paul.

Behold its only trace, yon ancient stone,
Forth to dishonour and destruction thrown,
Catching the drippings from the chancel wall.
"We, being many, all partake one bread:"
Behold in yonder unfrequented quire,
For two old men, four women, and the squire
Three times a year the scanty banquet spread.
Are we His people? Is the LORD our King?
Up then for shame, and the old ways restore;
Give to the LORD the honours due, and bring
Glad presents to His courts; that so, before
His wrath arise upon our Church and land,
The incense of our prayer may stay His
Dean Alford

lifted hand.

UNITY-and Community.

(Poetical Works).

The multitude which does not reduce

itself to unity, is confusion; the unity which does not depend upon the multitude, is Blaise Pascal tyranny.

UNITY-in Nature and in Grace.

That theory of physical science which represents the world in which we live as the result of the concourse of independent atoms -the Epicurean theory, and that other theory of vortices, the Cartesian-has no counterpart in the spiritual world as revealed to us in Holy Scripture. But, on the other hand, the discovery made by Isaac Newton that every particle of matter is connected with every other particle, and acts upon it, and that thus these particles together form one grand harmonious whole, has a beautiful antitype, if we may so speak, in what Holy Scripture teaches us concerning the union of all the families of man as derived from one stock, and much more as joined together in one communion and fellowship in the mys tical body of CHRIST. We are not isolated atoms. We belong to one another. attract and are attracted. Whatever we say or do has some influence on others. None of us liveth to himself, and no man

We