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There is a fear of God that has more love than fear,a fear that has no torment. There is an inspiration by which our duties rise up before us, vested in a nobleness like that which touches the landscape for a great painter. * * * In the heart of us all there is a higher thought of life struggling for realization. God hides some ideal in every human soul. At some time in our life we feel a trembling, fearful longing to do some good thing. Life finds its noblest spring of excellence in this hidden impulse to do our best. All at some time cry, "Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect," and then the fierce conflict of life begins. * * There is a temptation in the wilderness that every soul must meet, and faint and stagger under, in some form or other. But here, on the other side, is God,—standing silently at the door all day long,-God, whispering to the soul that to be pure and true is to succeed in life, and whatever we get short of that will burn up like stubble. Oh, friends! it is to every man and woman the still, small voice, whispering what at that moment we must hear if we will live, crying on the mount of the beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."-[Robert Collyer.]

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Wouldst thou know where I found the Supreme? One step beyond myself. Behind the veil of self shines unseen the beauty of the loved one.-[Persian.]

He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord.

Oh, come and dwell with me,
Spirit of power within,
And bring thy glorious liberty
From sorrow, fear and sin.

The inward, deep disease,
Spirit of health remove!
Spirit of perfect holiness!

Spirit of perfect love.

[C. Wesley.]

He who will persistently follow his highest impulses and convictions, who will trust only these amid noisier claims, and constrain himself to go with them alike in their faintness and their might, shall not find his struggles everlasting; his wrestlings shall become fewer and less terrible; the hand of God, so dim to him, and doubtful at the first, shall in the end be the only thing that is clear and sure; his best impulses shall be his strongest, too. [Martineau.]

The religious frame of spirit that we most need to gain is, to feel that God is near to us; that he upholds and blesses us; that he is near to us always; that all things are filled with his presence; that the universe around us is not so much a standing monument as a living expression of his goodness; that all which we enjoy is not so much benevolence, sending down its gifts from afar to us, as it is the energy of his love working within us.

[Dewey.]

THE WAY OF THE DIVINE LIFE.

Religion is, in the beginning, the learning of God,hence the great name divine, one learned about God;truly religion is the blessedness arising from a knowledge of God. Without God we are lonely throughout eternity; but if we have God we are more warmly, more intimately, more steadfastly united than by friendship and love. I am then no longer alone with my spirit. Its first great friend, the Everlasting, whom it recognizes, the inborn friend of its innermost soul, will abandon it as little as it can do itself; and in the midst of the impure or empty whirl of trifles and of sins, in the market-place and the battle-field, I stand with closed breast, in which the Almighty and All-holy speaks to me, and reposes before me like a near sun, behind which the outer world lies in darkness. I have entered into his church, the temple of the universe, and remain therein blessed, devout, pious, even if the temple should become dark, or cold, or undermined by graves. What I do or suffer is as little a sacrifice to him as I can offer one to myself; I love him whether I suffer or not.-[Richter.]

The measure of the love of God is to love without measure. [Francis of Sales.]

G

We must not hope to be mowers,

And to gather the golden ears,
Unless we have first been sowers,
And watered the furrows with tears.

It is not just as we take it,

This mystical life of ours:

Life's field will yield as we make it,

A harvest of thorns or of flowers.
[Goethe.]

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But one thing is worthy to be an aim of life to a reasonable and immortal being. It is "a heart settled upon a thought of wisdom," a heart and a life consecrated to God, to truth, to spiritual things. This is the crown of thy manliness, the seal of thy nobility, the talisman of thy peace. Come, if thou hast not done it, and pledge thy life to truth and holiness and love. Come, kindle on thy heart's altar the flame of a consecrating purpose. Come, fix thy heart upon a thought of wisdom, and bend thy noblest energies to the service of Almighty God, and his law written on thy heart. Then round this living principle shall all pure thoughts, as round a central crystal, arrange themselves in fair and perfect symmetry. A new and higher wisdom shall inspire thee; new light shall shine upon thee; new peace shall be thine, and holy hopes; life shall be ennobled, and a high and divine mission set before thee. This kindling thought shall shine out in thy life, shedding beauty and healing upon others' pathway. It shall dwell within thee a sanctifying light, to purify thy heart from evil, and fill it with heaven's exceeding peace. [Withington.]

There is only one thing that can give significance and dignity to human life, viz., virtuous energy; and this energy is attainable only by energizing. Books and discourses may indeed awaken and arouse you, and perhaps hold up the sign of a wise finger-post to prevent you from going astray at the first start, but they cannot move you a single step on the road. General notions about sin and salvation can do you no good in the way of the blessed life. As in a journey, you must see mile-stone after milestone fall into your rear, otherwise you remain stationary ; so, in the grand march of a noble life, one paltriness after another must disappear, or you have lost your chance. [Prof. Blackie.]

Possess my heart, O God, I beseech thee, with a sense of thy greatness and holiness; make me now to consider wisely to whom I am about to speak, even to the purest and greatest spirit, to a being infinitely more lovely than my understanding can conceive. With the eye of my mind. set on such majesty and holiness, how can I choose but be filled with the deepest lowliness and self-abasement! Holy Father, thou hast called me that I may be holy, and daily the Holy Spirit pours out grace from heaven upon me. By all that thou hast done for me, how clearly is it shown that holiness alone is the way of life, and that the ways of sin bring down to the chambers of death.

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[Leighton.]

Miserable thou art, whosoever thou art or whithersoever thou turnest, unless thou turn thyself to God. Keep thy heart free and lifted up to him.-[Thomas à Kempis.]