relaxes the muscles, prostrates the energies. "Get thee up." Fourthly Effort will shake off the oppressive load, and give fresh energy to your

soul.

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'Trip lightly over trouble,

Trip lightly over wrong;
We only make grief double
By dwelling on it long.
Why clasp woe's hand so tightly?
Why sigh o'er blossoms dead?
Why cling to forms unsightly?
Why not seek joy instead?

"Trip lightly over sorrow,

Though all the day be dark;
The sun may shine to-morrow,
And gaily sing the lark.
Fair hopes have not departed,
Though roses may have fled;
Then never be down-hearted,
But look for joy instead.

'Trip lightly over gladness,

Stand not to rail at doom,
We've pearls to spring of gladness
On this side of the tomb;
While stars are nightly shining,

And the heaven is overhead,

Encourage not repining,

But look for joy instead."

No. CXL.

Subject: VANITY IN PREACHERS.

"Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil."-1 TIMOTHY iii. 6.

The Apostle teaches here that the minister of Christ should not be a neophyte, but a man of experience. The reason that he assigns for this, is the liability of an inexperienced man to be carried away with conceit, and thus "fall into the condemnation of the devil." The subject suggested by the passage is vanity in preachers. Vanity, which is an overweening conceit of oneself, is bad and contemptible in any class, but in preachers of the Gospel it is peculiarly heinous and abhorrent. Two remarks are

suggested. I. YOUNG PREACHERS ARE ESPECIALLY SUBJECT to such vanity. It is the "novice," or the neophyte, that the Apostle considers peculiarly liable to be "lifted up with pride." Two facts show this. (1) The young are naturally disposed to overrate their abilities. The estimate which as a rule young preachers put upon their own gifts, attainments, and eloquence is so extravagant that thoughtful attendants on their ministry not unfrequently recoil in disgust. The gold ring, the florid compositions, the studied attitudinizings, and the self-complacent expression are unmistakable revelations of the mind "lifted up with pride." (2) The young are peculiarly susceptible to adulation. The more unenlightened and unreflective men are, the more they are given to flattery; and the majority of all congregations are composed of such men. Hence young preachers will have no lack of flatterers; and their inexperience of men will lead them to regard their flatteries as truthful testimonies to their capabilities. Hence their vanity fattens on the flattery of fools. Cowper has struck off to life the character of the conceited preacher. II. THE DEVIL'S DESTINY MUST FOLLOW such vanity. "Fall into the condemnation of the devil." The supposed neophyte, through his inexperience and undue elation of spirits, first falls into the sin of the old aspiring apostate, and then shares in his condemnation, passing from the sphere of a minister of light into the doomed condition of an instrument of darkness. The lesson, with its attendant warning, is for all times. Vain preachers must be damned sooner or later. Paul places them amongst the damnabilities.

No. CXLI.

Subject: TRUE WOMANLY ADORNMENT.

"Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."-1 PETER iii. 3, 4.

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Raiment is generally a necessity. Dress, or decoration, is a luxury inspired by vanity. In this sense the apparel oft proclaims the man," and the woman too. The more tinsel and finery in the attire, the more vanity in the mind of the wearer. Peter refers to woman's adornments, and states what he considers the

true ones. What are they? I. Not MATERIAL, but SPIRITUAL. “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel," etc. Had Peter been living in these days, he would have spoken stronger perhaps of plaiting the hair. There were no chignons in his age. More strongly too, perhaps, about jewellery. Certainly more strongly about apparel, which in his days was only a simple robe. He means to say, that outward decoration is no ornament to a human being at all. The true ornament is that which has to do with the "hidden man" It is a "meek and quiet spirit." This expression includes moral goodness in all its fascinating phases and commanding charms. A morally good heart will give beauty to the countenance, grace to the speech, and stateliness to the mien.* II. Not DECAYING, but INCORRUPTIBLE. “In that which is not corruptible." The hair will moulder, the gold will melt away, the grand apparel will rot, but the “meek and quiet spirit,” moral goodness, will never corrupt. It will grow in beauty, advance in strength, and increase in splendour through all ages. It is in truth an "incorruptible crown.” III. Not WORTHLESS, but COSTLY. "Which is in the sight of God of great price." That the Infinite sets a high price on moral goodnesss is clear from two things. (1) The agency He employs to produce it. Not only does He employ nature and providence to produce moral goodness in man, but He gave His only begotten Son. (2) The high blessedness He attaches to it. To those who have it He gives joy unspeakable.

CONCLUSION.-Oh, come the time when men and women will adorn themselves, not with showy costumes or tawdry jewellery, but with the priceless virtues of Christly excellence!

GREAT SOULS.-A great mind, like a great ship, cannot move in shallow water. Give it sea depth and sea room, and it shall bear cargoes to serve the nations.

TRUTH.-Time, which will mar the beauty of the architecture of a school, and crumble its structure to dust, though built of marble or granite, can never touch its truth with the "breath of decay."

* See my article on "True Womanhood.”—“ PRACTICAL PHILOSOPHER,” p. 789.

The Preacher's Scrap Room.

THE ORATOR'S IDEAL.

PUBLIC speakers are often better pleased with their rhetori

cal effort after they have spoken an impromptu address than they are after they have spoken an address, the subjectmatter of which they had previously prepared; and it is not an uncommon thing to hear a man express, in private, the livelier satisfaction which he feels under the circumstances named. This livelier satisfaction is seldom, however, justified. The speaker's hearers, who, after all, are the better judges of the merits of his speech, will usually be found, on comparison, to have formed an unfavourable estimate of it on the occasions when he himself has thus formed a favourable one. A speaker's hearers will generally consider that, as seems reasonable, the man is at his best when he has devoted most antecedent attention to his subject.

This difference of opinion may, probably, be accounted for thus: The speaker who has previously prepared the subjectmatter of his discourse, has an ideal standard of excellence to which he seeks to conform his speech. Probably he fails to do so, for how seldom do people fully embody in act or word the idea which their imagination has conceived! and, with the failure, there comes to the man a sense of disappointment with his rhetorical effort, although, positively considered, it may have been a success. Besides this, the endeavour of such a speaker to direct the stream of his words into those channels which, after adequate deliberation, and in view of the end sought to be obtained, he conceives to be the most fitting ones, will incidentally obstruct somewhat the free flow of his utterance—a result, however, which will probably be more apparent to himself than to his audience, who will be less impressed by the sluggishness of his speech than by the concentration of strength of which that sluggishness is an effect.

Now, the speaker who has not previously prepared the subject-matter of his discourse, has,—unlike him who has been described, no ideal standard of excellence to which he seeks to conform his speech. There will, consequently, not be felt by him any disappointment at having failed to attain to it. Moreover, not having mapped out, in imagination, the successive movements of his discourse, but allowing his words to wander at their own sweet will, the man is not unlikely, in the enjoyment of his own easy volubility, to flatter himself that he is eloquent when he is simply diffuse.

The audience, however, will judge of a speech with less inaccuracy. In the first place, they will not measure it in regard to a standard of excellence of which they are in ignorance, viz., the ideal which the speaker himself may have set up; and in the second place, they are not likely to be so delighted by his verboseness as to value mere fluency above force.

THORNTON WELLS.

EYE. The beauty of the eye consists, first, in its clearness. What coloured eye shall please most, depends a good deal on particular fancies. But none are pleased with an eye whose water (to use that term) is dull and muddy. We are pleased with the eye in this view on the principle upon which we like diamonds, clear water, glass, and such-like transparent substances. Secondly, the motion of the eye contributes to its beauty by continually shifting its direction; but a slow and languid movement is more beautiful than a brisk one: the latter is enlivening, the former, lovely. Thirdly, with regard to the union of the eye with the neighbouring parts, it is to hold the same rule that is given of other beautiful ones; it is not to make a strong deviation from the line of the neighbouring feature, nor to verge into an exact geometrical figure. Besides all this, the eye affects as it is expressive of some qualities of the mind, and its principal power generally arises from this.-Burke.