Sabbath Reading

I did iiot asfe Thee, Lord, to give This racking pain, these aching eyes, This fecble flcsh in torturc'a granp, TIiíb absence from the sunny ekies; 1 prayed for hoaltli, for bounding b'ood, For joy beneath the glanciner sun; Aud Thou hast answered with this wce- Thy will be done. I did not pray, Oh Lord, for this; That friendp should lea ve me lont and drear, Tliat poverty sliould hedge me in, That I shonld work in care and fear; I prayed for home and Tvealth aüd bliss, That what I toiled for might be won; Thou haat denied the blesaing Btili - Thy will be done. I did not eeek, Oh Lord, for night And eorrow darbening o'er my way, That I Bhould look into the grave And all alone be turned to clay; I prayed for light, that faces dear Might groet me as the days went on, And they have vaiiished iike a clond- Thy wül be done. Thy will be done; Thy will be done; I trust Thee, Father, Mother, God ! I trust Thee though my fleeh grow faint, Though Í ain buried 'neath the sod; Sfcill trust Thee, for in death'w cold arms Thy preeence is a beaming sun, All that is lost in Thee aye Bhines - Thy will be doiie. Negativo Christians. It would be a poor system of moral governmeiit which was made up merely yï negations and prohibitions. And so ie would be a poor Ohristian whose reigion had nothing of a positivo element. Many a man imagines he has built up a character, when it is simply a conspiouous absence of character, good or bad. lis chief characteristic - if that which ías no character can be said to have characteiistice - is that of passivity. He may measure up to what St. Paul deíominates "a righteous man" - just, un)lamable - yet for whom one would íardly die; but is entirely lacking in ;hose grand, positive features which niake a man so greatly beloved and esteemed that his friends "would even daré to die" for him. - Watchman. The Sermón on the Mount. The most careless reader has probably been struek with the contrast between the delivery of this sermón and the delivery of the law on Sinai. We think of that as a "fiery law," whose tion is surrounded by the imagery of thunders and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet sounding long aDd waxing louder and louder. Wethink of this as flowing forth in divinest music ainid all the calm and loveliness of the clear and quiet dawn. That carne dreadfully to the startled conscience from an Unseen Presence, shrouded by wreathing clouds, and destroyiDg fire, and eddying smoke; and this was uttered by a sweet human voice rnoving the heart mostly in words of peace. That was delivered on the desolate and storm-rent hill, which seems with its red granite crags to threaten the scorehing wilderness ; this on the flowery grass of the green hillside which slopes down to the silver lake. That shook the heart with terror and agitation; this soothed it with peace and love. - Texas Baptist. Art and Religión. Bear us witness, ye poets and actors, ye painters and sculptors, ye singers and players upon instruments, that your art has not saved the most of you from becomingpettyand selfish men and women. You are jealous of one another. You are greedy of praise and of the gold it brings. You know that there is nothing in your art that enlarges and liberalizes you, that restrains you from drunkenness and vices that shall not be named, that gives you sobriety and solidity of character. that enlarges your social sympathies, that naturally leads you into organizations f or helping others outside of your own circle. Bear us witness that you are not the men and women who are relied on for performing the duties of society. If all ■vrere like you - if all were controlled by the ideas that domínate yon - if all shirked the duties of social and civil life like you- if all were as mueli unfitted by their ideas and their employments as you are for carrying the great burdens of society, what do you suppose would become of the country, and what would become of the -worid 1 Now, if there is anything in art that can take the place of religión, we should like to see it. If there is anything in culture that can take the place of religión, it has not yet revealed itself. Culture is centered in self. Self is the god and self is the model of all culture. Why should it not ultímate in selfishness ? Culture assumes that what is present in a man needs only to be developed and harmonized to lift character to his highest point, and lift to lts highest issues. It carnes no idea of self-surrender, which is the first fact in practical religión of any valuable sort, and the first fact in all good developmeft. Greece and Rome had plenty of culture, and are still our teachers in art, but the beauty that looked upon them from every hill and gate and temple eould not save them from their viees. By-and-by culture will learn how powerless it is to make a man tnat shall bc worth the making, and what poor instruments science and art are for uprooting the selfishness that rules the world. It is slowly learniüg this, and men who have bowed low to her have been touched with that divine discontent which