there was but one right way. The silence which, for a few moments, held all the party in thoughtfulness, was broken by an earnest utterance of a young man whose conversation and demeanor through the whole excursion had not indicated any habitual seriousness of character. With tones that came from the heart, he spoke these simple words: "How much do we now depend upon our guide! He is everything to us."

13. There was a deep solemnity in those words, as they were spoken, in that dismal cavern, to those who had before them so dark a way, which they were just beginning to retrace, with the single aim "to get out."

14. "How much do we all depend upon our guide! He is everything to us." That guide, then, was a slave; not the master of his own body. Even the fee which we paid for his service was accounted for to his owner. But he knew the way; his lamp burned brightly; he was supplied with a reserve of oil; his sight was keen; his heart was true and friendly; and he safely led those who trusted him back to the glad light of heaven.

15. But those simple words, which that youth spoke then and there, have often come back to my mind in other scenes, in other experiences, with other companionships. "How much do we depend upon our Guide!" Not in a dark cavern, but in a way sometimes as dark; not amid chasms and precipices of rock, but in labyrinths often as perplexed; not over a sunless river, but through waters often bitter and deep, leads the way of our human life. We are indeed pressed on by curiosity and excitement. The pleasurehalls which we light up with our lamps, and irradiate 9

with our transient splendors, shine brightly with their gems and beauties.

16. While the way is onward, we never realize where we are, nor think of fatigue, nor feel a fear. But "the way out" the way out from life, the way homeward to the friends who sit in brighter regions, the way over hidden and open dangers that at last throws its spell of solemn thoughtfulness over our minds. Then, how much do we depend upon our Guide! He is everything to us! We light our lamps by His. We rely upon His reserve of oil. We follow in His path. May God permit us to enter with Him the Mansions of Light!

1 STU-PĚN'DOUS.

Wonderful.

2 CON-STEL'LAT-ED. United in lustre, as several stars.

8 CLEW. Anything that guides or directs. SUB-TER-RA'NE-OUS. Under ground. STYG'I-AN. Belonging to the lower world.

7 AL'CHE-MY. The science of chemistry
as practised in former times; or the
pretended art of changing the baser
metals into gold and silver, and of the
preparation of an elixir by which dis-
ease and death were to be avoided.
8 SIN'U-OUS. Winding.

GŎTH'IC. A style of architecture char-9 IR-RA'DĮ-ĀTE. Brighten; illuminate. acterized by a pointed arch.

[Edward Hubbell Chapin, an eloquent preacher of the Universalist denomination, was born in Washington County, New York, in 1814. He has resided since 1848 in New York city. He is a very attractive popular lecturer. His style is rich, animated, and earnest.]

1. BUT there is a book more positive and personal in its contents than any I have yet mentioned. It is the book of human character. It is the book of every man's inward and spiritual life. This is a sacred volume, a volume that no other man's eye can read, the

perusal1 of which we ourselves are apt to neglect; but one that is ever open to the Omniscient2 eye, and whose pages are the red-leaved tablets of the heart. This is the true private account of stock and capital, of profit and loss.

2. O merchant or mechanic, so anxiously balancing your accounts for the year, there is stated the precise amount of your real wealth, the only scrip and substance you can carry with you when the years pass away! O politician, man in office and in power, there is the register that enrolls your actual honors, and shows to what you are elected the types of character stamp deeper than printing-presses, and will tell your story better than all the newspapers. O mariner, there is the log-book of years, declaring what course you have held in your earthly voyage! there is the chart that indicates upon what shoals and breakers you may be driving now!

3. Young man, young woman, there is the journal of your daily life! there is the remembrancer that records no compliments, no flatteries, only the plain, honest truth blotted it may be with passages of sin and shame, and let us hope here and there with penitent tears; dedicated, let us pray, for its future pages, with a new year's resolution that shall be answered. and blessed in the record. Is not that indeed a most important book, the book of character, that is surely and constantly written in the soul's life of every one of us? Remember that beside the volume which goes on with every year, recording what we gain or lose of outward possession, what we have or what we do, there proceeds this inner record stereotyping what we

are.

4. And let me say, that this is a book which is both in our own control, and is not in our own control. It is in our control before we speak and act, but not so ever after. The evil passion its characters are all engraved there; and what a fearful picture is it to look back upon! The angry word — there it is printed quicker than the telegraph can do it. And our life in all its passages is there, translated into imperishable history. Surely here is a "book of the generations of Adam" in which we are, of all things, most deeply interested.

5. Let me ask, Do we keep it shut? Do we never consult those interior pages, in our carelessness, or in our guilty consciousness? Vain is our neglect. The story is written—whether we peruse it or not, it is written and it will come out in the unmistakable lines of character.

1 PE-RO'SAL. Examination; the act of reading.

use of stereotype plates; fixing or establishing unchangeably.

2 OM-NY"SCI-ENT (om-nish'ẹ-ent). Know- 5 TRANS-LĀT'ED. ing all things.

8 LŎG'-BOOK. Register of a ship's way.

4 STER'E-Q-TYPING. Printing by the

Changed; changed or rendered to another language, retaining the sense. IN-TE'RI-OR. Internal; inner.

"Thou hast put all things under his feet."

1. O NORTH, with all thy vales of green!
O South, with all thy palms!

From peopled towns and fields between
Uplift the voice of psalms.

Raise, ancient East! the anthem high,
And let the youthful West reply.

16

2. Lo! in the clouds of heaven appears
God's well-beloved Son.

He brings a train of brighter years;
His kingdom is begun.

He comes a guilty world to bless
With mercy, truth, and righteousness.

3. O Father haste the promised hour,
When at His feet shall lie

All rule, authority, and power,
Beneath the ample sky;

When He shall reign from pole to pole,
The Lord of every human soul;-

4. When all shall heed the words He said,
Amid their daily cares,

And by the loving life He led

Shall strive to pattern theirs;

And He who conquered death shall win
The mightier conquest over sin.

[The following amusing piece is taken by permission from the July, 1867, number of Our Young Folks

a popular illustrated juvenile magazine.]

1. "KITTY, Kitty, you mischievous elf,

2.

What have you, pray, to say for yourself?"

But Kitty was now

Asleep on the mow,

And only drawled, dreamily, "Ma-e-ow!"