till he come,' the sphere he has himself assigned you! He compasseth the path of the active laborer as closely as the dying couch of the martyr."

"That is true, I dare say, mother," answered Harold, "but do not those who devote themselves to a life of devout contemplation escape many temptations; and therefore may it not be desirable to retire from the world to avoid its evils ?"

"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou should keep them from the evil!'-This was the Saviour's opinion, Harold; by all means avoid its snares, its gaities, as much as you can; but beware of supposing that you can escape the plague of your own heart, by seclusion and corporeal mortifications. Those earliest recluses have confessed what their modern successors have doubtless also discovered, that they did but change the scene of conflict. Indeed the quiet leisure they fondly hoped might aid their devotion, opened a new array of, temptations and responsibilities, which many would fain relinquish for the more healthy influence of active exertion. Under such circumstances the insincere have degenerated into monsters of secret vice, while the more conscientious have lost life or reason under the fearful and unavailing struggle to work out their own righteousness. The fact stated in our Lord's history is probably not without instructive meaning, that "he went alone into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” Apostolic advice to young people is, 'Let them learn first to show piety at home, and requite their parents, for this is good and acceptable before God.' Those only were called to continual supplication who, by extreme old age, had outlived all who had claims upon their active exertion; but those of mature age, after requiting their parents, are enjoined to guide the house and educate their children."

"Really, mamma," remarked Mary, who had turned to the Bible, "I wonder I never found all this out before!"

"There is a sort of fascination, my love," continued her mamma, "in the outward demonstrations of peculiar garb and speech, but Jesus forbade his disciples to appear unto men to fast, counselling that secret devotion which he assures us our Heavenly Father will reward openly."

“Then, mamma, a private consecration of our powers to God must be as acceptable as a public one?"

"Certainly, my dear, and more appropriate to a retired sphere of action in domestic life. Many eminent Christians have found it beneficial to observe a stated private season of special dedication to their home duties, which they have renewed when desirable. It is interesting to notice how God has honored such diligence in business, by inspiring his prophets in very various avocations, and selecting them from all ranks of society. Thus Moses and David at the sheep-fold; Amos at the plough; Daniel and Nehemiah in the heathen monarch's court; Obadiah in the royal stewardship; Ezra, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel in their priestly office,-showing distinctly that none of their secular employments were inimical to the Divine presence, for they continued mostly in their calling."

"Well, mother,” said Harold, "you have driven me out of all my strong-holds, and so now I will try bravely to meet all the difficulties of my station."

"God grant, my son, that you and Mary too may be enabled to use all your talents profitably, rather than hide them in any earth, however tempting the soil may appear to you."

DEATH.

E. W. P.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

A reflecting reader will observe that David does not speak of the valley of death, but only the valley of the shadow of death. The reference is to danger, exigency, and trouble, so great as to be the very shadow of death itself. The expression is to be interpreted by the subject of which it is a part. In continuance of the beautiful pastoral idea of the Psalm, David intended to say, that as a sheep when it wanders through deep ravines and dark valleys, is secured by the presence of its shepherd with his rod and staff, against the assaults of wild beasts and other dangers, so he, as often as he was in a situation of danger, had a sufficient protection in the shepherd care of God.

There is also another passage, in Psalm cxvi, which by ordinary readers is misapplied. It is there said, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." This is usually understood to mean that the Lord is especially present to his dying saints, and causes his consolations peculiarly to abound at

that season of their trial. But the true meaning, as the context and tenor of the whole Psalm proves, is that the Lord watches over the lives of his saints, and guards them from death. David had experienced this in a dangerous disease by which he had been brought nigh to death, but from which he had been delivered by God's providence, and it was to celebrate this deliverance this Psalm was written. It is of rescue from death, and not of consolation in it, that he speaks.-James's Course of Faith.

THE SENSES.

Ir is sometimes desirable that the eye, the ear, touch, taste, and smell, should be simultaneously put into requisition; for the evidence of all the senses is not only frequently necessary, but sometimes insufficient in the detection and development of truth. There are few greater fallacies than the position, that "Seeing is believing." We neither see objects in their right places, characters, or colours, oftentimes. The eye alone is no judge of distance, for example, but measures it by intervening objects. Were it not that Geometry has lent its aid in exploring the visible heavens, who could have conjectured that the nearest fixed star was so far removed from our earth as to be nineteen billions two hundred thousand miles distant, or that the bulk of many of them was greater than that of our own sun? Were it not that the laws of Optics had come into our aid, how could we have known that bodies changed their apparent colors, in virtue of the proximity of some other body of more vivid hue that the eye for instance, read off a green tint where nothing of the kind existed, simply because a more brilliant red was in close contact with it?

With respect to Hearing, an anecdote, from Dr. Abercrombie, will shew to what extent this faculty may be cultivated. A blind man, in giving his opinion of a horse, declared it to be blind, though this circumstance had escaped the observation of several persons who had the use of their eyes, and who were with some difficulty convinced of it. Being asked to give an account of the principle on which he decided, he said it was by the sound of the horse's step in walking, which implied a peculiar and unusual caution in his manner of putting down the feet.

Instances might be adduced of blind persons who have been able to tell the dimensions and figure of a room from the sound of voices in it, and actually to determine the stature of the speaker, by the direction in which his speaking came to them. The inference from these facts, appears to be, that certainly, both sight and hearing may be rendered much more available than is usually supposed, and the practical bearing of these anecdotes is this-that it would be well to put all the senses in requisition when we are only in the habit of using that which has more immediate business with the object of our investigation.

Take a familiar illustration with regard to Taste. Wine, to be good, must please three senses-taste, smell, and sight. And yet, how very rarely do we test it by the last. Yet, it is a fact, that wines as different in flavor as port and sherry, have been mistaken for each other, by judges of acknowledged compe tency, when the eye has not assisted in the process. Now, if it were intended that the Taste should of itself decide the question, how evident does it seem, that this least honorable of all the senses requires cultivation and the same holds good of all the others.

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The sense of Smell is much more acute in those of the inferior animals, which are dependent on it for protection or supply, than amongst our own species. Yet possibly it might, by proper exercise and discipline, be considerably augmented. It is related of the late Dr. Moyse, the well-known blind philosopher, that he could distinguish a black dress on his friends by its smell, which is not at all improbable. An individual, with what Evelyn calls a good chemical nose, may do this with regard to many of the stuffs in common use.

So also with regard to Sight. It has been truly remarked by those who have paid attention to the subject, that the Eye is the best organ of communication with the mind. It attends, remembers, and makes few mistakes. A familiar instance is presented in the comparative readiness with which we recur to a particular passage in any book we have been reading, by remembering whether it occupied the right or left hand pages, the top, middle, or bottom. It is on this principle that most of our systems of Mnemonics proceed. That we do not task this faculty of vision to its full extent, is clearly proved by the following anecdote from Dr. Abercrombie.

"In the Church of St. Peter, at Cologne, the altar-piece is a large and valuable picture, by Rubens, representing the martyrdom of the Apostle. This picture having been carried away by the French in 1805, a painter of that city undertook to make a copy of it from recollection, and succeeded in doing so in such a manner, that the most delicate tints of the original are preserved with the most minute accuracy. The original painting has been restored, but the copy is preserved along with it; and even when they are rigidly compared, it is said to be scarcely possible to distinguish one from the other.”

This anecdote is too wonderful to obtain unqualified credence; for though it is not difficult to imagine that the memory should retain a very good general idea of the subject: in order to treasure up all the minutia, we must suppose the power of attention to have been not only unprecedently vigorous and acute, but again and again exercised on this one object. But how must our astonishment be increased, when we find the transcript critically collated with the original, without exhibiting any material difference! Few artists are capable of closely imitating a picture of this eminent master with the original constantly before them; and therefore the effort of mind necessary to such an achievement as we have spoken of, must have been stupendous.

THE DUST OF THE GROUND.

That "God formed man out of the dust of the ground" is not a poetical figure, but a great fact. Man and the whole organized world, derive the material elements of which they are formed, from the inorganic world. The tremblings of the earthquake and the eruptions of the volcano are not signs of the divine anger, but indications that changes are going on in the chemical composition of the matter of the earth, by which those elements which are necessary for the growth of plants, and through them for the food of the animal kingdom, are discharged into the atmosphere, and directed towards their ultimate destination. Other elements, again, which do not assume the gaseous form, but necessary for the existence of plants and animals, are embedded in the rocks of the earth; and these, through the researches of the geologist and chemist, have been made available for the culture of plants, and the increase of the plenty which the bountiful earth presents to man.-Dr. Lankester.