directed to those matters which are for our eternal welfare also; for in our time the truth of the poet is but too sadly demonstrated when he wrote: "The mind was formed to soar sublime, E. CLIFFORD. NO TEARS IN HEAVEN. I MET a child; his feet were bare, His weak frame shivered with the cold, Said I," Poor boy, why weepest thou?" Artless as the combination of parts appears to a superficial observer, it is yet profoundly systematic and effective. There is a beginning, a middle, and end. The book is the record of a revelation, and this gives it unity. The revelation was made gradually, and this gives the record its diversity. The New T is built upon the Old, and the tells and requires as a comple New. The epistles presup gospels, and the gospels tea expect the epistles. The Pe contains the germs of the prop the prophetical books refer co to the Pentateuch. We have history, biography, s genealogies, poetry, songs, prov ters, laws, visions, allegories, exp and predictions; yet all have a lation to one common theme, upon the same great end; all a or less mutually interdepender can be spared from the book as There is a similarity in tone an ment, which reveals some great lying principle which connects ties otherwise surprisingly great thus striking variations are built a symmetrical whole. Even if spiration be surrendered, there enough of substantial unity to the "inveterate habit" spoken o if we maintain the constant faith Church upon this point, and c God as the real Author of the Bibl there is the greatest reason conc for saying that the book is one. all a result of the Divine wisdom rating through the ages from a p ceived plan to the attainment of seen end. And all is alike necess a perfect result, just as the variou tions of the human frame are to a plete man. None can be spared w damage; and there can be no evidence of the unity of any compo than the fact that the withdrawa PARABLES AND SIMILITUDES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. portion of it makes the rest look like a mutilation. This Nor is it any wonder that unbelievers frequently insist upon viewing the Bible as a haphazard combination of various writings which are as separate in themselves as any writings can be. gives the advantage of attacking in detail what is invulnerable as a whole. And when each distinct section of the Scripture is in turn successfully assailed, the fate of the entire collection is no longer dubious. But this is not to be allowed. Each distinct book of the Old Testament or the New has claims and validity not only in and for itself, but in its relation to what goes before and after. It is part and parcel of a volume which offers itself as the entire record of the infallible 343 revelation God has made to the race, and it must be so judged in all fairness and candour. When thus judged, very many difficulties, or what are considered such, disappear. The Bible is one book. So the critic says; so the philosophic expounder says; so the common judgment of mankind says; so the experience of every believer says. And it is all profitable in the same general direction. Multitudes now all over the world repeat what David said thirty centuries ago, "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them;" and they apply this language to the whole-Pentateuch, Canticles, Amos, Mark, Romans, and Apocalypse-just because it is true of the whole. C. I. PARABLES AND SIMILITUDES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. XLVIII. THE LIFE AND THE GARMENT. "I WILL be just in the sight of God," said a youth to his teacher ;" and I will justify myself by the works I perform. How shall I begin, O master? and how shall I know that I am accepted?" 66 Keep the law first," answered the teacher;" and when thou hast succeeded in doing so, thou wilt no doubt find peace." "I will do so," said the youth; and for weeks he tried to carry out all its details. He observed the Lord's day, set apart seasons for fasting, repeated long prayers, attended the public worship of God, and gained amongst men the character of a devoted Christian. But inwardly he was dissatisfied. His conscience was distressed, since the more he tried to do the more he found out how perfect was the Divine standard, and how far short he fell of its requirements. The details of daily duty weighed him down. He feared to omit the slightest tittle of the law, lest he should be regarded as guilty of a breach of all its commandments. Again he went to his teacher, and said, "Didst thou not tell me to keep the law? My religion is perfect, so far as its external rites are concerned; but it gives me no peace." 66 I told thee to keep the law," replied his teacher, "well knowing that thou couldst not do it. Can the sick giant carry the load that he bore with ease when he was in perfect health? Nay, not so: nor canst thou do with an evil nature that which it requires a righteous strength to accomplish." "But how can I get strong?" asked the youth. 'By going to the Strong for strength.' "Where is He that I may seek Him?" "He is in heaven; but if thou askest Him He will give thee, the dead, the gift of an immortal life." Be instructed by a similitude: the religion we make for ourselves is like a garment; beautiful or gorgeous it may be, but lifeless, and without power to support our life; whilst the religion that comes from God is first a new life implanted in the heart, and then a supply of bread given us day by day to sustain the life within. The garment is necessary as well as the food; but neither food nor garment is of use until the inward life is ours. XLIX. ALL THINGS AT WORK. "I AM idle," said a wanderer, "and I cannot find any work worth doing. I have seen so much that is grand and beautiful that I have grown tired of it. Stay with me for awhile, O river, and teach me the secret of your constant energy.' "I am too busy," said the river. "I have to work with untiring earnestness, or my duties would be neglected: the rains from the moorlands sweep down into my bed, and I must pass them on to the estuary that the ships may be able to ride upon my bosom. I cannot stay to idle away my time with thee." "The river will not wait," said the wanderer; "but thou, O sun, canst surely spare an hour or two to amuse me by telling me the secret of thy light, and how the brightness of thy golden beams is sustained." "I linger on my course to amuse thee!" cried the sun; "were I to linger for an hour I should find this whole system disarranged, and probably other systems also. I am but a single orb in a boundless universe; and even were I to stay to tell thee the story of my being, thou wouldst not be able to comprehend it." "The sun despises me," said the wanderer; "I will ask the ocean: and he addressed himself to the sea as it came bounding over the roc ing the bay with a swellin waters. But the ocean was i to heed his feeble voice. It ships, and swept around t though it had not a momer for idle talk; and after а traveller strolled off into th and sat down to while away under the shade of a forest tr A few brown rabbits frisk out among the dry ferns; were so timid that when they traveller they scampered off to rows. The birds sang merr hopped from bough to boug] distant bushes; but none w near to cheer the lonely man. flashed backward and forwa stream; but as soon as a sl upon the brook they hid t under the bank. 66 Why, shuns me," thought the travel yet I am very respectable. have never been defiled by work, thy heart disturbed by worship voice near him; "work is and idleness is stagnation. L O man, from all the wonders created, lest He at length should away and appoint thee to be with the refuse.' The voice might have been voice of conscience; but it so him like a warning voice, comi from God. A WORD FOR THE LITTLE ONES. WHAT is the use of teaching such little children? How often has this question been put to an infant class teacher by those who think that the whole object of an infant class is to keep the children from teasing mother, and to amuse them for an hour. Certainly it is of use good is done to the children, and to the teacher also. To take the first consideration, a little child needs discipline. Little things of three or four years of age will soon learn to be attentive and obedient, and thus will be better fitted to take their place in a more advanced class care and patience on the teache this discipline will not be pain need not be, it ought not to be, a but pleasant. Secondly, little children n taught to think. The picture, th the hymn, the lesson, all ali make the little ones think. A was once telling that beautiful s the Prodigal Son; speaking father's love to his naughty b asked how would the father sho love. A little girl quickly ans give him a present." A ped up, and, looking in his , exclaimed, eagerly, "God resents." Can any one say tle fellow did not think? ed responsibility that our upon us, when He puts it to guide the first thoughts Is a third and much more sideration. We may lead by degrees so to love the hat they will grow up in athus be preserved from sorrow. It may be slow rk, watching for these renly one out of many is thus nnot say that our work is I this be true, if our labour , how anxious we should DOMESTIC FOWLS e mention of fatted fowl, the coming of our Lord iliar and common, as we allusions; e.g. when the ares His tender love for I which knew Him not to for her brood: How I have gathered thy chilas a hen doth gather her her wings!" (Luke xiii. owing is spoken of as a 1 of the night in Mark now not when the master ometh, at even, or at mide cock-crowing, or in the The cock-crowing here The second cock-crowing, before dawn. The first is at midnight. This explain the slight differthe warning of our Lord recorded by St. Matthew "This night before the shalt deny Me thrice" ; so also Luke xxii. 34, |