Virtue exalts her favourites above the frowns of Fate. The external misfortunes of life, disappointments, poverty, and sickness, are light in comparison of those inward distresses of mind occasioned by passion and guilt.-Paley.

Our disordered hearts, our guilty passions, and misplaced desires, sharpen the dart which adversity would otherwise point in vain against us.-Taylor.

This is thank-worthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully: For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.-1 Pet. ii. 19, 20.

Let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evil-doer. . . . Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed.-1 Pet. iv. 15. 16.

They (the Apostles) departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name sake.-Acts, v. 41.

Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my name sake: Rejoice and be exceeding glad. . . . for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.-Matt. v. 11, 12.

I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distress, for Christ's sake.2 Cor. xii. 10.

Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.-Heb.

x. 34.

It is a noble satisfaction to be ill-spoken of, when we are conscious of doing what is right.-Alexander the Great.

Seque unam clamat causamque caputque malorum.
Habet pœnam noxium caput.-Livy.

CONCLUSION.

THEME LII. Ye (that is Christians) are the Salt of

INTRODUCTION.

the Earth.

1ST REASON.-Christians are compared to salt, because they prevent the spread of moral corruption, as brine preserves meat from putrefaction.

2ND REASON. They exalt a nation, and give it a grace in the eyes of the world, as salt gives a piquancy and relish to food. Thus, Tarsus is honoured because it was the birthplace of St. Paul; and England owes much of its glory to its saints and martyrs, and its faithful profession of the Christian faith.-Job, vi. 6. and Prov. xiv. 34.

3RD REASON. As salt is very searching and penetrative in its effects, so Christians search out evil in order to arrest it; and send missionaries into the dark corners of the earth, to diffuse the light of truth over those who are "sitting in the shadow of death."

4TH REASON. As brine imparts a saltness to whatever it penetrates, and assimilates everything to itself, so Christianity is very aggressive in its character, spreading from heart to heart, and family to family, and nation to nation, and assimilating all to "the image of God."

5TH REASON.-Salt is essential for the preservation of health; and as nothing is more pernicious to health than dissipation and sin, Christians (who by precept and example, persuade men to a holy life) bring "strength to their navel and marrow to their bones."

6TH REASON.-Without salt life would soon become extinct, and if there were no Christians, the world would soon again be "dead in trespasses and sins."

7TH REASON. As flies are kept from meat by the presence of salt, so much folly and frivolity, slander and backbi ing is checked by the gravity and brotherly love of a true Christian.

SIMILES.-Christians may be compared to light, which purifies and quickens.

As leaven spreads through a whole lump, so a Christian influences a whole family.

As the wind "bloweth where it listeth," without being seen, so the power of Christianity is "sharp as a twoedged sword," but "cometh without observation."

Christian missionaries in a heathen land dispel ignorance and superstition, as a lamp dispels darkness and gloom.

As the eye is the light of the body, so Christians are the light of the world.

Lime prevents infection, purifies sick chambers, and disperses noxious effluvia: So Christians, by precept and example, prevent the infection of sin, and purify the charnel-houses of idolatry.

Christianity, like incense, spreads its influence around amongst men, and rises at the same time upwards towards heaven.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

QUOTATIONS.-Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.-Matt. v. 16.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.-Gal. v. 9. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.-Eph. v. 2.

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; For if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched,
But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence;

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use.-Shakspeare.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.-Matt. xiii. 33.

Virtutis enim laus omnis in actione consistit.-Cicero.

THEME LIII Poetry and well-conducted Periodicals are not without their Uses.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON. They exercise the reason without fatiguing it, by leading to inquiries, acute but not painful, profound but not abstruse.

2ND REASON. The most industrious cannot be always engaged in business, nor the most serious employed upon grave studies: All must have vacant hours; and it is far better to spend them in amusing literature, than in routs, and balls, or sensual enjoyments.

3RD REASON.-The elevated sentiments and high examples which poetry, history, and judicious periodicals bring under the view of their readers, naturally tend to nourish in the mind a love of glory, a contempt for every thing base and mean, and an admiration of all that is illustrious and good. Although the impression may not. be durable, yet is it wholesome to rouse the feeling, and make the mind sensible even of the most transient sentiments of honour and virtue.

4TH REASON.-Poetry and well-conducted periodicals may be made most valuable auxiliaries to the cause of sound philosophy, useful science, general knowledge, gospel morality, and true happiness.*

The Tatler, Spectator, and the Guardian deserve the gratitude of every Englishman for breaking down the impassable barriers between schoolmen and the men of the world, for diffusing throughout the nation the urbani

5TH REASON. All literary amusements have a healthy social influence: They furnish men with relaxation at home, and prevent the necessity of seeking it in places of objectionable public resort.

6TH REASON. The popularity of the fine arts, and of periodical literature, causes a vast number of persons to be employed in humanising studies; and the leavening influence of this host of authors must tend to break down ignorance, prejudice, grossness, and vulgarity.

SIMILES. Flowers afford amusement, instruction, and many a feeling of great moral value.

The stars are not needful to give light upon the earth, but they "declare the glory of God," and preach "most excellent wisdom."

The painted butterfly is not to be compared, in solid worth, to the industrious bee and frugal ant, yet it can tell its tale, and point a moral.

The Creator has his "periodicals as well as the press : insects and flowers that die in a day, animalcule of infinitesimal minuteness, shadows and sunshines, the twinkling of stars, the prattle of the rivulet, the spray of the cascade, and the hues of the rainbow.

Collections of leaves, shells, insects, bones, ores, autographs, &c., are generally made to perform the service of poetry and periodicals, although occasionally they are employed for more important purposes. Whatever the object of the collector, the pursuit is innocent, laudable, amusing and instructive.

Concerts of music, galleries of paintings, lectures, &c., tend, like poetry and periodicals, to relieve the mind and instruct it.

Light literature may be compared to the sparks which

ties of refinement, and making infidelity, immorality, and vulgarity at least unfashionable. In our own days, Blackwood's Magazine, Chambers' Journal, the Penny and the Saturday Magazines, the Literary Gazette, the Athenæum, and several other periodicals, have maintained a wholesome influence, and deserved popularity.