entered into every thing; it was too vast and too spiritual to be defined; but there was no need of its definition. And, therefore, when any of the apostles have occasion to describe or enumerate any forms of vice or virtue by name, there is no attempt at system in their words. So, also, speaking of virtue, St. Paul gives up all attempt at definition; he leaves the definition to every man's heart, though he writes so as to mark the overflowing fulness of his own vision of virtue. Ruskin.

It is the doctrine of Augustine, as also of Thomas Aquinas after him, that the principle of holy love existing in the heart, necessarily includes in itself, or implies the existence of all other Christian virtues. And consequently it will assume the form of distinct virtues, on the appropriate occasions of such virtues. He who loves God with all his heart, will not violate the laws of purity, because it would be a disregard of the will of God, which he loves above all things. His love, under such circumstances, becomes the virtue of chastity. He who loves God with all his heart, has too much love and reverence for the will of God, to murmur or repine under the dispensations of his providence. His love, under such circumstances, becomes the virtue of patience. Fenelon, translated by Upham.

The King of the Bees never goeth into the Fields, but environed with all his little People; and Charity never entereth into the Heart, but she lodgeth with her all the

whole train of other virtues, exercising and setting them a work, as a Captain does his Soldiers. But she employeth them not all at once, nor all alike, nor in all Seasons, nor in every place.

Among the exercises of virtues, we ought to prefer that which is most conformable to our calling, not that

which is most agreeable to our fancy. Every vocation hath need to practise some special Virtue. And although all ought to be indued with all virtues, yet all are not bound to practise them alike, but each one to give himself in more particular manner to those Virtues which are requisite to that kind of life whereto he is called.

De Sales.

"Charity" is a sentiment, or pervading tendency of the character, rather than a particular affection. It is the constant temper of the heart, - not the warmth of individual attachments. It acts universally, and before personal affections have time or opportunity to be formed. It does not depend on association, or local connections, or the relations of mutual interest, which create so many of the strongest and most faithful bonds of earthly fellowship. It exists independently within the heart, and is not excited into life, as the passions are, by the attractions and solicitations of its objects. It acts at all times, and amid the most novel or the most revolting circumstances, as truly as amid scenes most familiar, and with beings most endeared. It is the sympathy of the spirit with God, with Humanity, and with Nature. It is the quick

and living sentiment to which the Divine in Life is never long obscured. It is a spirit which, when not a natural gift from God, it is the last and most perfect result of the discipline of life, and of the religious care of the character, to frame within the heart.

J. H. Thom.

The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich. Sadi.

St. Paul urges no extravagance of Charity. He states that there is no obligation on any one to reduce himself to destitution that others may live at ease; - but that still it is the mission of Christian Principle and Love to tend to that Equality, which the physical Laws of the Universe do not produce. We are often tempted to say, when we look upon the inequality of human condition, Is God impartial? Is He an equal Father? Is the Gospel Doctrine true? But we should rather ask, Have we acted as the children of that equal Father? Are the marks of His Spirit upon us? Have we recognized one Brotherhood? God's object in this life is not, by material distributions and measurements, to exhibit His own Paternal Character in unclouded Light, but to educate our Spiritual Nature, and to train to perfect action our filial and fraternal Love. Christian men ought to adjust what for this very purpose God has left unequal.

J. H. Thom.

It is not by material impartialities and uniformities that God shows Himself in intimate paternal connections with Man; it is by giving us of His own spirit that this is most fully manifested, by imparting the ruling principles of His own Nature; and the obscure and destitute in whom the Heart of Love is warm, is more God's child, is more favored, and partially treated by God, than the prosperous, or the great, who are not united to Him by this kindred bond, by this true affinity of Nature and Beatitude. J. H. Thom.

VII.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MORAL SENSE.

MORAL CULTURE OF LIFE THE SAME FOR ALL.

WE are prone to imagine that our Temptations are peculiar; that other hearts are free from secret burdens that oppress our energies, and cast a cloud upon our joy; that Life has for others a freer movement, and a less embarrassed way. But in no one has God made the human heart to carol its thoughtless song of joy; and the shadow of our moral being rests darkly on us all. We cannot take the world as it comes, enjoying what it offers, and passing by its sufferings and its burdens with our lightest touch; we get involved in the deep questions of Conscience and Duty, and the sense of Responsibility stills the carol of the spirit, and suffers no man to repose without a trouble on the bosom of life.

Infinite are the ways in which the devices and aims of the Moral Nature break the instinctive happiness that lives for the day, and forgets the morrow; but effectually this awakening of deeper and sadder life takes place in all; and struggle, fear, disappointment, the partial feel