the walks all overgrown with rankest weeds-and, perhaps, decaying logs, pieces of board, old shoes, broken crockery, cast-off clothing, tin pans, pools of stagnant water, and what not, all around in wild profusion! Such things are eye-sores to passers-by. They contrast painfully with the natural beauties all around. A little expense, and a little labor, are all that is needed as a remedy. It is ungodlike, and, I contend, unchristian, to act in this way. Men of the world may, or may not be, just as they are inclined, tidy, neat, cleanly, orderly; but it is the duty of Christians to imitate the divine perfections and beauties of Him, in whose image and after whose likeness they have been re-created. The beauty of the Lord is seen in the place where He specially manifests His presence and glory. If this world is beautiful, marred, as it is, by the disturbing power of sin, the very ground being cursed for man's sake, what must that world be, upon which the curse does not rest, and into which sin has never come! Accordingly, heaven described in Scripture in the most exalted terms. Its walls are built of precious stones-its streets paved with gold-its gates of pearls-its light the glory of God-its temple the Lord Almighty and the Lamb. From the throne proceeds a river of water of life, clear as crystal, on either side of which is the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of fruits, and yielding her fruit every month. These are but figures of speech, perhaps, but they are figures that mean, if they mean any thing at all, beauty, nay, even grandeur. Let this beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. The Sanctuary which is His house, where his honor dwelleth, should be as beautiful as He has given us the means of making it. Wherever God is worshipped in spirit and in truth, though it be in a schoolhouse or barn, there will He be present; but if we worship Him in a barn or school-house, when our means would justify something better, we do wrong in two directions-towards God, and towards ourselves. Towards God, because His majesty and holiness demand and will accept something better. Only read and think of the temple of Solomon, ye Quakers and Dunkards, and all ye who side with them on this subject! And God is unchangeably the same. If God once accepted and dwelt in a temple of such magnificence, He will surely not now be displeased, if you erect a beautiful house of worship to His honor and praise. To act otherwise, we would also be doing wrong to ourselves. The worship of God is the sublimest, holiest act of man. Now, as the outward should correspond with the inward, it is assuredly inconsistent to perform the highest act in a mean, filthy, or ugly place. It would have a bad reflex influence on our very hearts. O, if man were all spirit and no body, he might, perhaps, worship God without injury to himself, in a house defaced or deformed. Even then, if the spirit had eyes, it ought to keep them closed. Your eyes, unless you shut them when you worship, must be fixed on something; that something should, as near as possible, correspond with the character of the worship itself. The outward and inward will then help, and not oppose, each other; just as the body aids or hinders the mind, and the mind the body. The Lord may complain of us as He complained of His ancient people by the mouth of the prophet Haggai:-"Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord. Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house." Many a man ceils and carpets, and otherwise decorates his own dwelling, but is contented to worship God in a barn or a barn-like house. I verily believe it to be a sin. I have often thought how such persons, acting thus, either from principle or negligence, would open their eyes when they first enter their eternal heavenly home! I do not suppose they would be thrust out, but I would not be surprised if they would feel like standing back, afraid to venture on the golden streets, or advance into the midst of the heavenly beauties all around, because unused to any thing of this sort in all their previous life! Surely, it is right and proper, and need not come from feelings of pride (unless pride be also ascribed to Solomon and God Himself) to make our churches as near as possible like the Temple of Jerusalem, and the very heaven of heavens themselves. The beauty of the Lord our God is seen also in His own person. If we think of God as an infinite Spirit, He is even then represented as surrounded by an ineffable light, the very emblem of purity and beauty, and the effect of His own presence. But our thoughts can turn from the infinite God to His manifestation in the flesh, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus was handsome in His outward appearance. We have some reason, at least, to suppose so. Such was the personal appearance of some in the line of His ancestry. Sarah and Rebekah were fair women. The Blessed Virgin Mary was full of grace. David, the great type of Christ, was "ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to." Why should not the Seed, and great Antitype, Himself be possessed of good form and features? True, Isaiah says, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." But the prophet may here mean that there was nothing in His appearance so superhumanly resplendent as to lead the beholder to suspect His divine origin and exalted character. Certainly the words of the prophet would not justify us in supposing that the Messiah would be deformed or disfigured. Such an idea is to my mind perfectly irreconcilable, while the idea of His being of a handsome personal appearance flows in harmoniously with the fact, that Jesus Christ is the Son of Man, in whom we have the new creation of God. Solomon represents the world as asking the Church respecting Christ, her lover, "What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women?" To which she replies in the glowing language: "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, his locks are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl: his countenance is as Lebanon excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet: yea he is altogether lovely." This may refer to the loveliness of his character, but it is very strong language to have no reference at all to His outward appearance. Perhaps his natural beauty was hidden from view because of the fact that our sins were laid upon him, and it may be on this account that Isaiah speaks of Him as he does. The most beautiful person, weighed down with trouble and grief, may lose some of his charms. In that case, on the Mount of Transfiguration, when his face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light, He broke through the veil and stood before His disciples in the native beauty of his person. But whatever we may think of His appearance when in a state of humiliation, now that he is perfected, glorified, exalted to the throne of heaven and earth, no one will deny that He is the one altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand. Let this beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. We must beautify not only our houses and our sanctuaries, but must have some care also of our personal appearance. Of course, we cannot make one hair. white or black, or add one cubit to our stature-we cannot change our form or features-but there are some things we can and ought to do. We can comb our hair; we can wear becoming garments, and keep them clean; we can be careful, in general, of the appearance we present to our friends. This does not call for pride or extravagance. To be slovenly, untidy, uncleanly; to dress in styles or colors at variance with good taste, is unchristian. Suppose all Christians, as well as others, would neglect this duty, and act in the manner just described, what a world this would be! Would it not be degrading to the lords of creation? But let it be remembered, however, that it is a pure and holy soul which, after all, renders a body beautiful. Such the Saviour possessed, which, no doubt, helped to render His outward appearance attractive to all His friends. A person's outward beauty is marred by an ugly soul; a kind and amiable disposition improves a face that would otherwise be void of attraction. We meet, for the first time, a young man of good manners and prepossessing appearance, we are attracted towards him. The next time we see him perhaps carousing in a bar-room, his beauty suddenly vanishes away. It is only the Christian, whose nature is regenerated, that can be truly handsome in the sight of God or man. Such beauty is an object of cultivation; and we should pray with the Psalmist of old, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." TWILIGHT MUSINGS. BY NELLIE. How sweet is the twilight hour, And the going down of the sun we see. Yes, the twilight hour is a sweet and holy one. We can then throw off the shackles of toil, which have bound us all day long, and give ourselves up to silent meditation. 'Tis then we love to muse on "days gone by." Scenes which have been treasured in the "urn of memory" are brought out and laid upon the tablet of thought to be viewed once more. Loved forms of friends, who have long been sleeping the "dreamless sleep," come up to us in blissful imagination. All the sunny scenes of childhood rise up before us. Where are they, with whom we wandered in the greenwood and by the sparkling spring, where we gathered fern, wild honey-suckle, and blue forget-me-not. Where are they, whose voices rung out clear and free in joyous laughter? Where those voices now? And echo answers, Where? Alas! they are scattered like the leaves of some fair rose. Some have grown weary of the march of life and dropped by the way-side. Some have gone to live in strange lands; others have broken the ties of friendship and scattered the links which bound us together. "Such is life." To-day friends cluster round our pathway, to-morrow they are all gone: we look for them, and they are not. Oh, twilight! truly thou art called the "hour of visions." How many are the visions thou hast brought us at this time! If we could have thee stay, we would bid thee not leave. No; but thou must go and give place to night. We should live so that all our twilight visions might be holy ones. Then let us try, and work faithfully for our Master's cause; so that, when our life is running away, we can look back upon years well spent. Thus, when our sun sets, we can depart without a murmur, and say farewell to earth with all its rainbows. "Until the evening we must weep and toil, Plough life's stern furrow, dig the muddy soil, Oh! when our sun is setting, may we glide, NOTHING BY CHANCE. BY I. D. Some confidently believe, that all great and important events are ordered by the Almighty, such as the rise of nations and the overthrow of governments; they will even acknowledge that God oversees also the leading events of individual life, such as the time and place of our birth, the time and circumstances of our death, and other important points in our life and history; but they cannot bring themselves to see and feel, that God's providence extends also to the little things of life. Yet no doctrine of the New Testament is more plainly taught than that of a special providence. Indeed, you cannot separate between a general and a special providence, because what to us seems great and highly important is often simply trifling, both in itself and in its results; whereas what we sometimes pass by, as beneath our notice, is full of interest even to angels. In fact, from all that we know of the character of God, it seems utterly unreasonable that his providence should not extend to the very particu lars of every point and part of our life and history. It is contrary to all Christian feeling to suppose, that the heavenly Father should leave any opening, breach, weak spot or dangerous place in His orderings toward his children, so that evil could enter without a divine challenge. There is, therefore, no possible room for the idea of chance or luck. Indeed, the idea of chance is not Christian, but infidel. It is not even heathen. The heathen, who know nothing of the true God and, of course, nothing of God's providence as revealed in the Scriptures, look upon the little events of life as ordered by some great and unseen power, which they call fate or destiny, but which they would call providence, if they knew as much as we. How then can Christians look upon any thing as "just happening" -so the common expression runs-as if any thing could "just happen" without God's will? No, nothing comes by chance, but all things by His fatherly hand. This lesson is taught us in Mat. x. 29, where the argument is from the less to the greater. Sparrows are within his notice, and hairs within his knowledge; how much more, then, you and I, his blood-bought people! Can any event in our life be so trifling as the fall of a hair?—or of so little account as the fate of a sparrow? Then assuredly we may be without fear, knowing that his blessed providence extends to the little things of our life. Yet, at the same time that we teach the doctrine of God's ruling and overruling providence, of course we must hold fast to the idea of human willing, and, therefore, also of human responsibility. Though the Almighty and every where present power of God does uphold and govern heaven, earth, and all creatures, yet it never interferes with willing. Look into your own life and experience, in which you find thousands of God's daily and hourly providences, and you cannot help but feel that in all your willing, deciding, determining, you were not forced, but free, and therefore also responsible. Without pretending here to argue the doctrine of a special providence, we point you to the Scriptures: can you find any thing like chance or "just happening" there? Take up any book or chapter, event or circumstance; is there any thing there but human willing and divine ordering, human acting and divine overruling? See how every thing meets and fits? See how times, places, characters, actions, and circumstances, come together and complement each other, in the most natural way and working together toward one great end! Take the case of Joseph (Gen. xxxvii). Why does the father give him a coat of many colors? How does Joseph come to dream such a peculiar dream? How do you account for such a second dream, equally prophetic and significant as the first? Is it a matter of chance that Joseph is sent to his brothers, who are feeding the sheep in Dothan? Did it "just happen so," that Reuben persuaded them to cast Joseph into the pit instead of directly murdering him? Was it accidental that just at that time a band of Ishmaelitish merchants passed by on their way to Egypt? If Joseph had been left in the pit, the noble-hearted Reuben would have delivered him and sent him back to his father, and so changed his whole subsequent history. Now, is it chance-work that he is taken down into Egypt? He was sold to Potiphar, but why to him rather than to another? It was sad that through the false witness of his master's |