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AN EXCELLENT RULE.

they desire it. Under pretence of being useful, people often show more curiosity than affection.-Anon.

Never fail to do daily that good which lies next to your hand. Trust God to weave your little thread into the great web, though the pattern shows it not yet. The grand harvest of the ages shall come to its reaping, and the day shall broaden itself to a thousand years, and the thousand years shall show themselves as a perfect and finished day.-McDonald.

Thou art to be in thy work a copyist, imitator of God. Now, whatever God does, He does perfectly. If it be but the creation of a leaf or flower, it is done in such a manner as that the most minute and microscopic examination only serves to bring out fresh beauties. Strive to do thy work in such a manner. Let it be thy earnest effort that he who looks into it shall find no flaw. Let the thing not only be done, but be done gracefully and ornamentally, as far as may be. It is a great and precious thought that God may be pleased by service done with the whole soul, and with strict punctuality and conscientiousness.-Goulburn.

HOW TO PROMOTE PEACE IN A FAMILY.-1. Remember that our will is likely to be crossed every day, so prepare for it. 2. Everybody in the house has an evil nature as well as ourselves, and, therefore, we are not to expect too much. 3. To learn the different temper and disposition of each individual. 4. To look on each member of the

family as one for whom we should have a care. 5. When any good happens to anyone, to rejoice at it. 6. When inclined to give an angry answer, "to overcome evil with good." 7. If from sickness, pain, or infirmity we feel irritable, to keep a strict watch over ourselves. 8. To observe when others are suffering, and drop a word of kindness and sympathy suited to them. 9. To watch the little opportunities of pleasing, and to put little annoyances out of the way. 10. To take a cheerful view of everything, even of the weather, and encourage hope. 11. To speak kindly to the servants-to praise them for little things when you can. 12. In all little pleasures which may occur, to put yourself last. 13. To try for "the soft answer that turneth away wrath."

Promise cautiously; but when you have promised, fulfil scrupulously.

ANGER.

"Be ye angry, and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath."-St. Paul.

W

ISE anger is like fire from the flint; there is a great ado to bring it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.-Henry.

He that keeps anger long in his bosom, giveth place to the devil. And why should we make room for him who will crowd in too fast of himself? Heat of passion makes our souls to chap, and the devil creeps in at the crannies.-Fuller.

22

ARK OF SAFETY.

The passions, like heavy bodies going down steep hills, once in motion move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.-Fuller.

Nothing doth so fool a man as extreme passion. This doth both make them fools which otherwise are not; and show them to be fools that are so.-Bp. Hall.

A passionate man is as Mount Vesuvius, hollow, and stored with combustible matter-which is every now and then breaking out, to the terror and anguish of all about him. Do nothing in a fury; for that is putting to sea in a storm.-Anon.

Angry men have good memories.-Henry.

Do small faults, continually repeated, always retain their diminutiveness? Is a bad temper which is never repressed, no worse after years of indulgence ?-H. More.

ARK OF SAFETY.

"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."-St. Paul.

W

HATEVER arks you devise to save you from the wrath of a crucified Christ, if the ark of God's building be slighted, the flood will sweep away all your own arks as the refuge of lies.-Willison.

Remember, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee: it is Christ; it is not thy faith in Christ, though that is the instrument: it is Christ's blood and merit. Therefore, look not so much to thy hand, with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hope, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus the Author and Finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to our souls. If we would at once overcome Satan, and have peace with God, it must be by "looking unto Jesus." Let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus: follow hard after Him, and He will never fail thee.

AVARICE.

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty."-Solomon.

HINK what folly it is to dig for dross with mattocks

THINK

of gold; to bestow the precious affections of our souls on white and yellow clay. How monstrous it is to see a man with his head and heart where his feet should be! to see the world in the heart, and on the throne, and Christ at the footstool! to see the world possessing God's room both week-day and Sabbath-day, and getting the service which is due to Him alone !—Willison.

It much more deserves and demands our care, what estate we shall go to in the other world when we die, than what estate we shall then leave behind us in this world. -Henry.

BAD TEMPER.

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BAD TEMPER.

"He that is soon angry dealeth foolishly, and a man of wicked devices is hated."-Solomon.

IT

T is the folly and infirmity of some good people, that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humour and indulge, instead of mortifying it. -Henry.

When we are ill at ease with ourselves, and unhappy in the home of our own heart, everything takes a complexion from our spirit; mercies cease to delight, friends are no longer friends, nature loses her beauty, our employments their interest; life itself may at last become intolerable, and death be sought as a refuge near and immediate from what is already hell. But where peace reigns, sunshine spreads all around. While Judas went, with his silver pieces to hang himself, He who was being led to the cross exclaimed, "My peace I leave with you!" -Norman Macleod.

Manners for the household, and manners for the public; all sweetness for the stranger, but carping, and complaining, and fault-finding for those at home-the very ones to whom we should look for care and help in case of sickness and dangerous accidents. Out upon such double characters-such unmanly, such unwomanly, such miserably mean hypocrisies! If you have one spark of love, cherish it as you would an expiring life; kindle it into some holy flame, and come out in the magnanimity of your nature into