Sabbath Reading

TIn Book III. of Clement of Alexandria is givm (in Greck) thcmofet ancicut hynm of the primitivo church. it jft thcrc (150eari after the apostles) aaeort'ed to hr. of much' caflJer oriin. The followinu versión will givo eoiiio imperfect idea of the apirit :J Shepbcrd of tender yonth Ouiding in love and truth, Through dcvioiis wya ; (')irist, otir trlumphnnt Ktug, We como Thy natae to Idr, And hcre our childrcn briüg TO ghout Thy praiae Thou art our hol y liofd 1 The all BiibduiuR Word, He:ilcrof Btrife! Thou didst Thyeelf abase! That f rom Bln'B dbêp diegraco Thou mightettt aave our race, And givo U8 life. THou art wiedomV High Prieat J Thou hast prepnred tho feaat Of holy lovoi And in our mortal ptitl mc oftll on 'fhefi ia valn } Help Thou ilotit not disdain - Help froai above. Kver be Thou our GuUIe, OUr Shephprd and our pridc, Our stafT rtnd song. Jesus, Thoit fJhriBt of Ood ! By tho poronnial word, Lcad ur wherc Thou hast trod, Mnki' our faith etrong. 80 now, and Üll wö (li-, Sound wc our praiao ou high, And joyf ui flintf. Infante, md the tia.d throng, Who to Thy charch belang l'nito and gwell t: soDg To Clnistour King. Work and Wisdom. How may the Christian teacher learn to adapt Jbis instructions to those whom he is callee! upon to guide? Let himbo instructed by the dUigence and care oí the husbandman. No wisc farmer would fchink of sowing all Lis lands witb the same kind of seed. Beíore he begua bis labors ho would study the nature and capabilities of every field, to discover whether it were fit ïor pasturo, for cereal erops or for an orchard, and act according to the best of bis judgment. Nor by doing this would he be disregarding the pcwer of the Lord of provióence. Af ter all his care the same suulight, rain and dew wotild need to descend upon every part to make it fraitful, and only by the blessiug of Heaveu could his work be crowned with succes?. Tlio Comfortor. We all Lke comfort. But wkat kind of comfort do we not mcrcly like but need? Merely to be comfortable? To be freo from pain, anxiety, sorrow ? To have only pleasant faoes round us, and pleasant things said to ai ? Il' we want that comfort, we ehall very seldom fiud it. It will be very seldom good for us to have it. The comfort which pooï human bcings want in such a world as this is not the comfort of ease, but the comfort of strength. The comforter ■whom we need is not one who will merely say kind thiugs, but give help - help to the weary and heavy laden heart which has no time to rest. We need not the sunny and smiling face, but the strong and helping arm. For we may be in that state that smiles are shocking to us, and mere kindness - though we ïuay be grateful for it- of no more (ioin lort to us t han sweet music to a drowning man. We may be miserable, and unable to help being miserable, and unwilling to help it, too. We do not wish to üee from our sorrow. We dare not, it is so awful, so heartrending, so plain spoken, that God, the master anc tutor of our hearts, must wish usto face it and endnre it. Our Father bas given us the cup - shall we not drink it ? Bu who will help us to drink the bitter cup Who will be the comforter, and give u not mere kind words, but strength Who will give us the faitL to say wit] Job, "Though He slay me, yet will ', trust in Him?" Who will give tis the firin reason to look stenuily at our grief and learn the lesson it was meant to teach ? Who will give us the températe wil!, to keep sober and cuim amid the shocks and changes ot mortal life? Abovo al}, I may say- who will lead us into all truth? How inuch is our sorrow increased - how much of it is caused by simple ignorance ? Why bas our anxiety come ? how are we to look at it ? What are we to do? Oh, that we had a comforter who would lead us unto all truth ; not make us infalliblf , or all-knowing, but lead us unto truth ; at least, put us in the way of truth; put things in their trae light to us, and give us sound and rational views of life and duty. Oh, for a comforter who would give us the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel aud gbostly Ktrength, the spirit of kuowledge and true godliness, and fill us with that spirit of God's holy fear which would make us not superstitious.notslavish, notanxious, but simply obedieut, loyal, and resigned. - Charles Kingsley. Uhe BIble. When w riso to the higher roalm of thought, and ask whence we came and wbither we are going ; what life means ; what are its relations, if auy, to an after state; what God is, and wbat is His character ; what He requires of us as the subjects of His moral government ; how He proposes to deal with us as Binners; how we are to be forgiven and stand justified in God's sight - in a word, when we seek for religious truth as the foundation on whioh to rest our faith, erect our hopes, and die in peace, then the Biblc comes to us as the Book of books, with answers to the dcepest aud most universal questions of the soul, and with directions and promifies to pilot tüat soul aoross tho soa of lil'o and assure its safety and good in the spirit land. Hëre it is the imperial volume. Here it has uo pqnal. The pensant and the sage herj alike need its bght. We do well to give promineneo in our thoughts to the fact that religión - considered as a body of truths revealed and apprehended, as a body of resulting oxperiences feit, iml, in both appects, as a preparatory proliniinary to a largor aud grandor scène beyond the bouidaries of time, f.s tli e garb aud covcring of the soul for its habitat-ion in the sities - is the sun and the center of the Bible systom. It thinks not of what men are here, except in connection with what they are to be horeafter; and it thinks of Üiewhat here chiefly on account of another what there. All other ideas, in the comparison are inferior, subordínate, but not secondary. Everything in tho Bible - its history, its miraclcs, its prophecy, its Christ, its atonement, its pardon, itssalvation, its promise, its heaven and its bell - converges at this one point. Every ray of light, in the practical effoot sougbt. termiuateshere. - Dr. Samuel T. S2ear, ■in the Princttm Ho-icw. Who Was Casabiiinca? Owon Ca'sabianca, the young hero of Mrs. Hemans' poém beginning, "Tbe boy stood on the bnruing deck;" so familiar to every schonlboy, wns a native of Corsica, the islund on wbich Napoleon was bom. His fathor, Louis Casnbi:p.c, wa a French politician and navol commauder of soine note. Owcn was boin in 1788. His niother dying while lie was quite young, he wns taken upou a man -of-war, and Btudied sciimanship unflër tho oye of liis fnthcr. He was a favorito with every ono on the ship, as he was a handsome boy, gotxl humorcd and intelligent, and noted for his ready obedienco to tbc rulos oí strict naval discipline. At only 10 ycars of ago he was n midshipruan under ftithor, who at that time commanded the Oriënt, one of the largest vessels in tho French navy, carrving 120 guns and 500 seamen. In the belebrated Battleof the Nile, in 1798, the boy was set to hoip werk a battery. In the midst ot" tho iintion, the Oriënt took fire. Alinost immcdiately aftor Capt. Casabianoa was wounded by a muskot ball, and tlu'u by a splinter which laid him insensible. The ship wns soou envelopcd in smoke and fiamos, iiud ihe crew began to desert lier, but the boy, unconpcious of nis father s condition, roiused to leavo his poet rod till lung to his battery. At last, when the hip was a mase of flamea, and he knew liat lus father, if alive, could not reach ïim, he leaped overboard imd tried to ave himself. Bnt it was too late. Intantly, with a terrino explosión, the Drient was blown into fragmenta. The ky irn ülled with fkmo and smoke and iery timbers, and the boy was seen no more until the ncxt dny, when his ïnan;led corpse was found among the fragacnts of the wreek.