plants of much fragrance usually little colour; birds of brilliant plumage have no music, and musical birds little glory of feather; strong animals ordinarily lack speed, swift animals strength. Now that would be a very disordered state of things in which the brilliant plant ever grieved over its defect of sweetness, and the sweet flower its lack of colour; in which the bird of paradise should lament its vocalism, and the nightingale sigh over its plumes; in which the camel should fret its slowness, and the gazelle deplore its frailty. And yet this error is common to man. We look on the side of our limitations and bereavements, quite overlooking or undervaluing the particulars in which we are rich or strong. We say sometimes, and think it quite an heroic concession: 'It is not so bad but it might have been worse.' 'Worse,' indeed, and usually a great deal worse. We little know how rich we are; how much we have to lose; how easily we might have sorrow upon sorrow. God has taken something from us in His displeasure, but He has left more. He has taken much from us not in displeasure, but in the merciful discipline which sacrifices our secondary interests to our highest, but He has left more. We thank Him for His 'sparing mercies,' and not without reason, for if we should count them they are more in number than the sands of the sea. In all the deprivations of the race, in all our personal losses and sorrows, mercy has prevailed, and we have not " been utterly wasted. Like that of Jonathan's, one end of God's rod is dipped in honey. 3. We see the justification of confidence and quietness. There can be no rational confidence and repose in men who believe not in a personal God ruling the universe to moral ends. They see only vast machinery driven by blind forces-purposeless, merciless. In their terrible universe with its rigid laws and mechanical movements, there is no place for accommodations, abatements and compensations, no possible adjustments to the individual weaknesses and wants. The philosophy of the world given in the text is far more comforting. Here we see a plastic universe in the hand of an indulgent, discriminating Ruler, Who moves and modifies all things to the perfecting of each and all His children. How picturesque and assuring the Prophet's statement of this truth in another place! For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.' The truth is here that men and nations require special treatment: that a gentler discipline is necessary for tender kinds of fruit, and a sterner instrument and severer dealing for those of more obdurate type. The truth is here also, that He will not ever thresh, neither will He break or bruise the spirit of His people. He is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working,' distinguishing between soul and soul; and subjecting each to that wise and merciful discipline by which they shall be best discharged from husks of sin, and as pure golden fruit be gathered home. Surely we may rest with a quiet confidence in the hands of Him who knows us so well, Who gives no unnecessary pain, and Who works so surely to ends so grand. 4. Let us go forth again with renewed courage and hope. It is said of the righteous: 'He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.' But our poor weak nature betrays us, and we are apt to dip into the future and return very dispirited. It is generally allowed that Dante has pictured Inferno more ably than Paradiso; and the critics explain this on the ground that the poet's gloomy genius made him more skilful in depicting a dark theme than a cheerful one. The measure of Dante's genius is rare; the kind very common indeed. Most of us are clever at painting black pictures. We peep into the future and start back aghast. We see fires through which we must pass; raging floods we must cross; steeps we must climb. We think of graves by the side of which we must stand; of one which we shall have to fill; and our soul melts for heaviness. Now this apprehensiveness saps the soul and fills life with vague bitter distress. Schopenhauer's favourite quotation was, 'It's safer trusting fear than faith,' but the history of every grand character and movement from the beginning gives the lie to this aphorism; the strength of the soul and the victory of life is in lofty faith and hope, and we have deep, wide foundations for a great comforting inspiring trust. Courage the silver thread shall run through the whole web of life. Courage there shall be no Marah of bitterness, but some sweetening tree grows by its side. Courage ! in your darkest sky shall shine the morning star. 'I cannot go Where UNIVERSAL LOVE smiles not around, III. THE POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE. 'What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.'-JAMES iv. 14. (R. V.) IT was no part of the Apostle's intention to teach that life is necessarily vain, empty and perishing; he suggests that life is what we make it, accordingly as we live to the 'outer man' which 'perisheth,' or to 'the inward man' which is renewed day by day.' I. 'A vapour'—yet a vapour may be a thing of glory or gloom. A vapour is often an object of glory, of richest glory. Mr. Ruskin complains: 'It is a strange thing how little in general people know about the sky.' People in general may know more about the sky than art critics suppose. Akenside's rustic charmed with the sunset's scarlet stain, is no mere fancy of a poet, for deep in the heart of man is the love of beauty, and many wondering glances do the common people cast upon the glory of the world. But we may readily concede that fixing our anxious eyes too much on the earth we miss many grand spectacles in the sky. The firmament is the Royal Academy of God, glorified with countless masterpieces |