Sunday Reading

Laid on Thlno altar, oh ! my Lord divine, Accept my gift thls day, for Jobus' eakc ; I have no jc-svpla to adorn Thy ehrlnp, Nor auy world-famed eacrifice to make - But herc I bring, witïiln my trembllng band, Tuis vnll of mino - a thing that Hormeth mnall, Iïut. nnly Tlïou, doar Lord, clwiHt underHtand JIow, wheu I yield Thoo this, I yield mine all. Hidden thercín, Thy nearching eye can 66 simples of passion, visions of deltght; All that I au, or love, or fain would be, Dé8P love, fond hopo, or longings infinito. It halh been wet with tcar and dünmcd with Bighs, Olfnched in my grasp tiU beauty it bath none ; Now froin Thy footstool, where it vanquiahed Hes, Tho praycr aecendeth, " May Thy wlll be done." Talie it, oh Fathcr! ere. my conrage fall, And mcrge it bo ín Thine own will, that 6'en If iu aonie desperate hmir my crien prevatl, And Tbou giv'st Irack my gift, it may havo been So changcd, bo purifled, bo fair have grown, I may not know or fcel it as my own ; So ouc with Thtnc, bo filled with pcac divine, Uut gaining back my will may ftnd it Thin. Time- Etcrnlty. To man, time is for sowing seed, -while eternity is for reaping the harvest. An inch of time is given us here to decide whether wo shall spend our eternity in enilless weeping, or in supernal bliss. A pious life, however short, ie followed by an oternity of joy. A wicked life, however long, is followed by an unending existence in every part of which a man wishes that he had never been bom. No man ever had an adequate conception of the variety and brovity of our earthly life. No man ever had an adequate conot:ption of the vastness and grandeur of a happy eternity. If I only knew how a man lived, I could easily teil how he died.- S'. S. Times. "A Inp to My Feet." Tliis is what David called the Bible. Not a light up in the sky. like the sun - which shines on everybody, whether they want it or not - bnt a light that we must take in our hands, and trim, and carry with us wherever we go; a light for every day life, and that we must be always throwing upon tiïe steps of that life. We can't get enough Bible on the Snbbath to last all the week, or enough iu the morning to last all the day. No; we must take it with us - in our memories and in our hearts - wherever we go. We must apply its principies to every new emergency. We must obey its precepts at all times. Thus only can we ever " walk in the light," and find our path shining more and more unto the perfect day. Hl " Uallsth for Thee." When Jesus had come f rom " beyond the Jordán" to Bethany, "glad" for the sake of his disciplcs that he was not present at the death of his friend, so that he might wake him out of sleep in their presence, and when he had come into the suburbs of the village and near to tne grave, Martha sent to the contemplative i Mary, still sitting among her friends " in tíie house," saying, " The Master is come, and calleth for thee." And at once the question arises in our minds, Why ? Why was it thnt Jesus did not hasten on and raise tho dead man, and then lead him to tho house, a grand surprise to the sorrowing sister ? Wo think that we know the reasou. It was not tho custom of the Lord Jesus - it would not have been consonant with the grand purpoae of his mission to earth- to do his great deeds in secret. He inust have wilnesses; and when practicable, ana ]nst so lar as practicable, human agencies must co-operate with the divine power. At all events, the works of Jesús were not to be done in secret, not unknown to thoso most interested in them. Lazarus conld not be raised from the dead while "Marysat still in the house." - Hcrald and Presbyter. Stand By Tour Colors. Wlien you join a church, you should calcúlate to stand by your colors. Whnt is a soldier good for who drops out of the ranks, or skulks, or runs, the moment the cause is in peril ? What is a church member worth -who becomes invisible j ust when his services could be of some value? If you are in a large church where workers are abundant, you may without harm keep modestly in the background; but, in case the ranks are thin, your response ehould ring out at every roll-call. As a Christian soldier, you havo enlisted for tUe war ; how can you settle it in the court of conseience that you are delinquent in the breach ? What good opinión can you have of yourself, if , whon in a large church, you press your wny to the front riiuks and seck promotion, and then when your lot falls amoug small people, who really need your help, you keep your letter in your pocket or pass it over to some other denominatiou which happens to be larger or more popular than jourown? That coiirse is a sad commentary on yonr religión. But we fenr it is a true hietory of many a sham professor. If they are not deBerters from the rauks, they are shirks and pretenders, and, as such, a source of positivo weakness to any body to which they belong. - Zion'a Herald. The ï'Hitiiu.v of i)nvicr Among all compositions these alone deserve the name of sacred lyrics. These alono contain a poetry that meets the spiritual nature in all its moods and all its wants, which strengthens virtue with glorious exhortations, gives argelic eloquenco to prayer, and almost rises to the seraph's joy in praise. In distress and fear they breathe the low sad murmur of oomplnint; in penitence they groan with the agony of tho troubled soul. They have a gentle music for the I peace of fa'ith; in adoration they ascend to the glory of creation and the majesty ; of God. For assemblies or for solitnde, ! for all that gladdeus and all that grieves, for our heavinesB and despair, for our remorse and our redemption, we find in these divine harmonies the lond or tho low expression. Great bas been their power in the world. They resounded i amidst the courts of the tabernacle; they floated through the lofty and solemn spaces of the temple. They were ; sung with glory in the halls of Zion; they were sung with sorrow by the streams of Babel. And when Israel had passed away, the harp of David was still awakened m the church of Cbriat. In all the oras and ages of that church, from the hynin which flrst was whispered in au upper chamber until its anthems fllled the earth, the inspiration of the royal rrophet Has enraptured its devotious and enaobled its rituals. And that has been not alone in the august cathedral or the rustic chapel. Chorused by ; the -winds of lieaven, they have swelled ' through God's own templo of tho sky and stars; they have rolled over the broad desert of Asia in the matins and vespers of 10,000 hermite; they have run through the dteep valleys of the Alps in the sobbing voices of the forloru Waldensès; through the steeps and caves of the Scottish Cevenanters; through tho woods and caves of primi! tive America in the heroic hallelujahs j of the enrly Pilgrims.- Scottish American. The fSoTereigns of Christendom. There nre, at the present, moment, thirty-Rx reiguing soveivigns iu Christendom, from the Queen of Eugland, to whom 237,000,000 of human beings owe allegiance, to the Prmue of Monaco, whom 5,742 subjoots acknowledge as j their liege lord. Of these Trincos, ten are noniinally Roman Catholkï, namely, 1 the Eaiperor's of Austria, and Brazil, the ' EingS of Italy, Spain, Portugal, prinm, Bavaria, Saxony, the Princes of Lichtenstein and Monaco. Of the roniiiiuiug twenty-six, two belong to the Greek Church, though the Czar and the King of tho Hellenes belong to different branches of it. The other twenty-four aro Protestants, sixteen being called Lutherans, four (includiug the Germán Emperor) belouging to thq " oal" confession, three to the " reformed" chnrcli, and one being the "snprcme head on earth" of the Chnrch of Eugland, but the vast niajority of Qneen Victoria' sub;ectB (1159,000,000) are neither Protestants nor Cfttholics, bnt Hindoos, while the Mohnminedana, 40,000,000 in number, are thcmselves more numerons than the Protestants of all denomination8 in the empire.