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BEAUTY-Description of.

Beauty is as crystal in the torchlight, sparkling on the poet's page;

Virgin honey of Hymettus, distilled from the lips of the orator;

savour of sweet spikenard, anointing the hands of liberality;

A feast of angels' food set upon the tables
of religion.

She is seen in the tear of sorrow, and heard
in the exuberance of mirth;
She goethout early with the huntsman, and
watcheth at the pillow of disease.
Science, in his secret laws, hath found out
latent beauty,

That is not the most perfect beauty, which, in public, would attract the greatest | observation; nor even that which the statuary would admit to be a faultless A piece of clay, kneaded up with blood. But that is true beauty, which has not only a substance, but a spirit,-a beauty that we must intimately know, justly to appreciate, -a beauty lighted up in conversation, where the mind shines as it were through its casket, where, in the language of the poet, "the eloquent blood spoke in her cheeks, and so distinctly wrought, that we might almost say her body thought." An order and a mode of beauty which, the more we know, the more we accuse ourselves for not having before discovered those thousand graces which bespeak that their owner has a soul. This is that beauty which never cloys, possessing charms as resistless as those of the fascinating Egyptian, for which Antony wisely paid the bauble of a world,-a beauty like the rising of his own Italian suns, always enchanting, never the same.

BEAUTY-Danger of.

C. Colton.

Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee. If thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou hunt after it, it destroys thee. If virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory. It is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace. F. Quarles.

BEAUTY-Death destroys.

I saw a dew-drop, cool and clear,
Dance on a myrtle spray;

Fair colours deck'd the lucid tear,
Like those which gleam and disappear
When showers and sunbeams play :
Sol cast athwart a glance severe,

And scorch'd the pearl away.

High on a slender polish'd stem,
A fragrant lily grew:
On the pure petals many a gem
Glittered, a native diadein

Of healthy morning dew ;-
A blast of lingering winter came,
And snapped the stem in two.
Fairer than morning's early tear,
Or lily's snowy bloom,
1s beauty in its vernal year;
Gay, brilliant, fascinating, clear,
And thoughtless of its doom!

Sphere and square, and cone and curve, are fashioned by her rules;

Mechanism met her in his forces, fancy caught her in its flittings,

Day is lightened by her eyes, and her eyelids close upon the night. M. Tupper.

BEAUTY—Fading of.

Fragrant the rose, but soon it fades away;
The violet sweet, but quickly will decay;
The lily fair a transient beauty wears;
And the white snow soon weeps away in

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How many monarchs, after they had with horror terrified the world, have been seen to become tributaries to a mortal beauty! Bathsheba was neither a lion, a Goliath, nor a Saul, yet, notwithstanding, with the glance of an eye she powerfully quelled him who tore lions, trampled Goliath under feet, and resisted all the arms, power, and legions of Saul. The Philistines found not cords strong enough to bind robustious Samson, yet Delilah quickly captivated, and fast tied him, with one hair of her head. Solomon had a heart as deep as the sea, yet woman found the bottom of it. N. Caussin.

There is none enchantment against beauty,
Magician for all time,

Whose potent spells of sympathy have
charined the passive world;

Verily, she reigneth a Semiramis; there is no might against her;

The lords of every land are harnessed to
her triumph.

Beauty is conqueror of all, nor ever yet
was found among the nations
That iron-moulded mind, full proof against
her power.

Beauty, like a summer's day, subdueth by sweet influences;

Who can wrestle against sleep?—yet is that giant very gentleness. M. Tupper. BEAUTY-Short-lived.

Beauty is like an almanack: if it last a year it is well. T. Adams. BEAUTY-Spiritual.

There is a certain period of the soulculture when it begins to interfere with some of the characters of typical beauty belonging to the bodily frame, the stirring of the intellect wearing down the flesh, and the moral enthusiasm burning its way out to heaven, through the emaciation of the earthen vessel; and there is, in this indication of subduing the mortal by the immortal part, an ideal glory of perhaps a purer and higher range than that of the more perfect material form. We conceive, I think, more nobly of the weak presence of Paul, than of the fair and ruddy countenance of David. J. Ruskin.

BEAUTY-True and false.

Hearing a young lady highly praised for her beauty, Gotthold asked: What kind of beauty do you mean? Merely that of the body, or that also of the mind? I see well that you have been looking no further than the sign which nature displays outside the house, but have never asked for the host who dwells within. Beauty is an excellent gift of God, nor has the pen of the Holy Spirit forgotten to speak its praise; but it is virtuous and godly beauty alone which Scripture honours, expressly declaring, on the other hand, that a fair woman which is without discretion, is as a jewel of gold in a swine's suout (Prov. xi, 22). Many a pretty girl is like the flower called the imperial crown, which is admired, no doubt, for its showy appearance, but despised for its unpleasant odour. Were her mind as free from pride, selfishness, luxury, and levity, as her countenance from spots and wrinkles; and could she govern her inward inclinations as she does her external carriage, she would have none to match her. But who loves the caterpillar, and such insects, however showy their appearance, and bright and variegated the colours that adorn them, seeing they injure and defile the trees and plants on which they settle? What the better is an apple for its rosy skin, if the maggot have penetrated and devoured its heart? What care I for the beautiful brown of the nut, if it be worm-eaten, and fill the month with corruption? Even so, external beauty of person deserves no praise, unless matched with the inward beauty of virtue and holiness. It is therefore, far better to acquire beauty than to be born with it. The

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best kind is that which does not wither at the touch of fever, like a flower, but lasts and endures on a bed of sickness, in old age, and even at death.

My God! my beauty exists only in the sunshine of Thy grace. Without light, nothing is beautiful, and, unless irradiated by Thy goodness, every object is ugly and hideous. Lord Jesus! Thou fairest of the sons of men, shed on my poor soul the beams of Thy love; that is all the beauty I desire. Gotthold.

BEAUTY—Truth in.

Oh, how much more doth beauty beauteous

seem,

By that sweet ornament which truth doth give!

The rose is fair, but fairer we it deem.

For that sweet odour which doth in it live. Shakespeare.

BEAUTY-Universality of.

For beauty hideth everywhere, that Reason's child may seek her,

And having found the gem of price, may set it in God's crown.

Beauty nestleth in the rosebud, or walketh the firmament with planets; She is heard in the beetle's evening hymn,

and shouteth in the matins of the sun; The cheek of the peach is glowing with her

smile, her splendour blazeth in the lightning;

She is the dryad of the woods, the naiad of the streams;

Her golden hair hath tapestried the silkworm's silent chamber,

And to her measured harmonies the wild waves beat in time;

With tinkling feet at eventide she danceth in the meadow,

Or, like a Titan, lieth stretched athwart the ridgy Alps;

She is rising in her veil of mist a Venus from the waters,

Men gaze upon the loveliness,-and lo, it is beautiful exceedingly :

She, with the might of a Briareus, is dragging down the clouds upon the mountain,

Men look upon the grandeur,—and lo, it is excellent in glory.

There is beauty in the rolling clouds, and placid shingle beach,

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Beauty coileth with the water-snake, and is cradled in the shrew-mouse's nest, She flitteth out with evening bats, and the soft mole hid her in his tunnel; The limpet is encamped upon the shore, and beauty not a stranger to his tent; The silvery dace and golden carp thread the rushes with her;

She saileth into clouds with an eagle, she fluttereth into tulips with a hummingbird;

The pasturing kine are of her company and she prowleth with the leopard in his jungle. M. Tupper. BEAUTY AND SUBLIMITY—Influence of. Sublimity is one thing, beauty is another. Both exert a very powerful influence on the human mind, though an influence in some respects inost dissimilar. Both attract, both enchant; but the enchantment of sublimity is reverence: the enchantment of beauty is sympathy. Stationed among the solitudes of some Highland glen, where hill seems piled on hill, and rock on rock, in awful grandeur round and round; or, where the swollen mountain stream, a mighty flood, sweeps on with resistless force; or, where through the black cloud canopy, the thunder leaps from peak to peak; in such situation the spectator feels the influence of sublimity. It is an influence much as if the object that entrances him had placed between itself and him a rigid rod of iron to fix him there in reverential awe and at a reverential distance. Gazing on the sportive gambols of the bleating lamb, or on the opening richness of some lovely flower, listening to the morning melodies of the lark, to the enticing prattle of a little child, or witnessing some kindly, generous, noble action, in such circumstances the observer feels the influence of beauty. It is an influence much as if the object that entrances him had thrown around his heart a hundred cords of love, and drawn him to itself in tenderest sympathy. R. B. Nichol. BEAUTIES-Divine.

All the beauties of all the heavens, and all the angels, have been played forth from their Eternal hiding-place in the Divine Nature. To say that God is in Himself a compacted universe of sweetnesses, beauties, and splendours, is to speak very unworthily, for endless universes lie hidden in the Bosom of the Infinite Nature. Heavens, and heavens of heavens of beauties, are observing a most sacred reserve, in Him. The heavens must improve, and the creatures must mature in wisdom and holiness, yet for ages of ages, before they will be capable of reflecting the higher, not to say the highest, beauties of "the Father of Lights." Beauty is the robe of holiness:

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Let me say to every one that is beginning life: Do not begin with exaggerated ideas of your own worth. Do not think that you, without battle, ought to be victor, and walk from the beginning with those laurels about your head which are to be twined there, if at all, only at the end of the campaign. Do not mistake your own turbulent pride. Do not mistake your own false interpreting, lying vanity. Do not begin your life feeling that such a fine fellow as you are-one so spruce, so handsome, so well-dressed, so accomplished in various ways- deserves a high place. Do not flatter yourself that life owes you any more than it owes anybody else. It owes you, in common with all others, just as much as, climbing, you can bring down. It owes you a chance to be something. It will give you that, and nothing more. It is better for every man to begin with this understanding: I have a chance to carve out my own way. This is all I want. Having that, I will take the consequences. H. W. Beecher.

BEGINNINGS-Importance of.

Four men had occasion to go from Leeds to attend the winter assizes at York, respecting some trials in which they were nearly interested. Of those four, one overslept himself, lost his train, and did not get into court till after his case was disposed of. The second got into what he supposed (from want of inquiry) was the York train, and was some way on the road to Londou before he found out his mistake. The third reached York in time, but found he had carelessly left behind him papers which were as essential as his personal presence. The fourth was both diligent and careful, and assisted to win the cause he went to support.

The first three began wrong, and all their efforts to retrieve themselves were vain. So, in spiritual things, let us be careful to "seek the Lord early," and "not to sleep, as do others." Let us " ponder the path of our feet ;" and let us take care that we do not start on our pilgrimage, and, like Christian, "leave our roll of promise behind us." Life is like a multiplication sum, in which a small error in the amount of the first multiplicand assumes vast dimensions in the total. The beginning enfolds the end, as the acorn enfolds the oak.

I have heard of au insolvent who said he was ruined by a new sofa; and he thus

explained the mode of his ruin. "That sofa was the bad beginning-it was too fine for me. It made my old chairs and table look mean, and I had to buy new ones. Then the curtains had to be renewed. Then the furniture in the other rooms had to be sold, and new articles bought to correspond with the parlour. Soon we found the house was not good enough for the furniture, and we removed into a larger mansion; and now, here I am, in the Insolvent

Court."

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BEGINNINGS-Small.

The considerable actions in the world have usually very small beginnings. Of a few letters how many thousand words are made; of ten figures how many thousand numbers! A point is the beginning of all geometry. A little stone flung into a pond makes a little circle, then a greater, till it enlargeth itself to both the sides. So from small beginnings, God doth cause an efflux through the whole world. S. Charnock.

BELIEF-Definition of.

The belief of a proposition is the receiv ing of that proposition as true upon evidence, from a supposed preponderance of reasons in its favour. H. Rogers. BELIEF (Religious)—Preference of.

I envy not quality of the mind or intellect in others; not genius, power, wit or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful, and I believe most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing; for it makes life a discipline of goodness,-creates new hopes, when all hopes vanish; and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights, awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to paradise; and far above all combinations of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions and plains and amaranths, the gardens of the blest, the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and the sceptic view only gloom, decay, annihilation, and despair.

Sir Humphrey Davy.

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On the

Unless a man values and uses his conception of Christ, or his creed, as a medium of the Spirit, as a lense to condense the radiance of the everlasting world upon his soul, Some creeds have truth and little power; a perfect surface-belief is of no account. others have power and not so much truth. The men of science tell us now that there is a very subtle chemical energy in the sunray-as it were, the soul of it—which is different from its light-giving and its heating properties. Certain glasses stained dark-blue will admit scarcely any light, and yet will offer no interruption to the passage of this mysterious force. contrary, a yellow glass, which transmits almost undiminished the intensity of the light, will completely cut off this chemical principle, whatever it be. So we cannot fail to see how some head-creeds of darkest blue, that one wonld think must make the universe dismal and life a bitter bondage, will transmit the vital effluance of the Holy Spirit to many a believer's heart. While other people may diffuse and live in the full intellectual radiance of a true philosophy of the Gospel, and receive through it nothing of that thrilling energy which is twisted in with the pure light of eternity, and in which the Gospel attests its power. So that the important question is, not so much, what we think of the Holy Spirit, as, what the Spirit thinks of us, and of the truth we have worked into form. Does God use it for His regenerative purposes? Does He make it the medium of His most secret and quickening grace. T. S. King. BELIEF-Varieties of.

'Tis with our judgments as our watches;

none

Are just alike, yet each believes his own. Pope. BELIEF AND FAITH.

Belief without faith in an intelligible sense I can understand; though, if the truth believed be of a nature to excite to emotion and dictate action, and fail to do so, I doubt whether men in general would not call that belief spurious. For example, if a man, on being told that his house was on fire, sat still in his neighbour's chimneycorner, and took no notice of the matter, most persons would say that his assent was no true belief, for it did not produce its effects, did not produce faith. H. Rogers. BELIEVE-The Command to.

Knowing that you would neglect the invitation, he has put it to you in the light of a command. "This is the commandment, that ye believe on Jesus Christ whom He hath sent." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "He

that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." He thought you would say, "Ah, but I am not fit to accept the invitation." "Well," says he, "I will command the man to do it." Like a poor hungry man with bread before him, who says, "Ah, it would be presumption on my part to eat;" but the king says "Eat, sir, or I will punish you." What a generous and liberal command; even the threat itself has no anger in it. Like the mother, who when the child is near to die, and nothing will save it but the medicine, and the child will not drink, she threatens the child, but only out of love to it that it may be saved. So the Lord doth add threatenings to commands; for sometimes a black word will drive a soul to Christ where a bright word would not draw it. Fears of hell sometimes make men flee to Jesus. The weary wing made the poor dove fly to the ark: and the thunderbolts of God's justice are only meant to make thee fly to Christ the Lord. C. H. Spurgeon.

BELIEVE-Only.

What had the woman who touched the hem of our Lord's garment heard? No. thing of His kindness towards herself, but towards others, and upon this she believed. So a rope is but cast down into the sea, to a multitude of drowning men, and all are bidden for their life to lay hold on the rope that they may be saved; it were unreasonable and foolish curiosity for any of these poor men, now upon death and life, commanded to hold fast the rope, to dispute whether did the man who cast down the rope intend and purpose to save me or not? and while my mind is perplexed on that point, I will not put out one finger to touch the rope. Fool! dispute not, but lay hold on the remedy S. Rutherford.

The simple, constant, exclusive, absolute, duty of the Christian is to believe God in Christ. If he doubt, fear, or disbelieve, he does that which is below duty, and actual John Bate.

sin.

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presence of an objection which he cannot solve, and loses all presence of mind in its contemplation. He seldom considers whether there are not still greater objec tions on the other side, nor how much far. ther, if a principle be just, it ought to carry him. The mode in which he looks at a subject often reminds me of the way in which the eye, according to metaphy sicians, surveys an extensive landscape. It sees, they say, only a point at a timepunctum visibile — which is perpetually shifting; and the impression of the whole is, in fact, a rapid combination, by means of memory, of perceptions all but coexistent; if the attention be strongly fixed upon one object, the rest of the landscape comparatively fades from the view. H. Rogers.

BELIEVERS-Death of.

What is it to die? To believers, it is to drop the body of this death, and to put on a joyous immortality; to pass from darkness to everlasting sunlight; to cease dreaming, and commence a waking existence; yes, to awake in the likeness of God, satisfied fully and for ever satisfied. What is it to die? To feel the last pang, to shed the last tear, to raise the shield of faith against Satan's last dart. It is to go home to God; to open the eyes on the enthroned Mediator; to close the ears upon all dis

cords, all sounds of woe, all the falsehoods, the maledictions, the blasphemies of earth, and open them to the harmonies of heaven. What is it to die? To lean on the Almighty for a few steps down a narrow valley; to step out of Jordan upon the borders of the Better Land; to pass up to the New Jerusalem; to enter by one of those gates of pearl into the city; to have ten thousand angels come and utter their

cordial welcome; to see-O, let me die the death of the righteous!-to see the Saviour smile benignantly, and to hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

BELIEVERS-Dearth in.

Dr. Thomson.

True believers have seasons of unfruitfulness, in which they bring forth no good works, devout thoughts or holy aspirations. They are then like the trees in winter, which are indeed destitute of leaves, but are not destitute of sap and life, and hence when spring returns, bud and blossom, and bear afresh. The ungodly, however, resemble withered trees, which at all seasons alike are without either sap, or life, or fruit, and consequently are fit for nothing but the fire. Gotthold.

BELIEVERS-Peace of.

There is a description in the Gospel of a

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