SUBLIMITY OF LAW.

Of Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is in the bosom of God; her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage-the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest is not exempted from her power: both angels, and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the author of her peace and joy.

HOOKER.

CHARACTER OF THE TIMES.

In place of a rightly ordered heart, we only strive to exhibit a full purse; and all pushing, rushing, and elbowing on towards a false aim.

On every side, instead of Faith, Hope, and Charity, we have neediness, greediness, and vainglory.

CARLYLE.

WHEN the labour and urgency of life are directed to mere worldly ends, the relaxations and ornaments will naturally also be governed by a taste for the showy and luxurious-for that which produces the utmost display with the least value.

BLACKWOOD,

114 GATHERINGS FROM MANY AUTHORS.

THE WORLD AND THE CHURCH.

THE history of the world impresses the reflecting mind with the universal tendency of human institutions to decay and dissolution. Whether we contemplate the fate of man himself, or of illustrious empires raised by virtue, cemented by wisdom, but destroyed by luxury and sin, we trace in all, the operation of that sentence of death, which once passed on all men, and to which all that is merely human must bow. But in the history of the Church, we view, not only the working of the law of death, but the counteracting tendency of the Spirit of life, sustaining man amidst his infirmities, elevating him above all that is carnal and terrestrial, and impressing on his actions and his destinies the stamp of eternity. Empires, superstitions, and philosophies have faded away, but true religion continues always to exist; and as it came in the beginning from above, so at the end of all things, it shall return thither again.

PALMER.

THE END.