to me, "I want you to notice that family there in one of the front seats; and when we go home I want to tell you their story." When we arrived home I asked him for the story, and he said, "All that family were won by a smile." "Why," said I, "how was that?" 'Well," said he, "as I was walking down a street one day I saw a child at a window; it smiled, and I smiled, and we nodded. So it was the second time; I nodded, she nodded. It was not long before there was another child, and I had got into a habit of looking and nodding; and pretty soon the group grew, and at last, as I went by, a lady was with them. I did not know what to do. I did not want to nod to her, but I knew the children expected it, and so I nodded to them all. And the mother saw I was a minister, because I carried a Bible every Sunday morning. So the children followed me the next Sunday and found I was a minister. And they thought I was the greatest preacher they knew, and their parents must hear me." 1 How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeperrooted affections? The boy's flute-like voice has its own spring charm; but the man should yield a richer, deeper music.2 O Youth immortal-O undying love! With these by winter fireside we'll sit down, And sing as in a grove, Where the full nests ring out with happy cheer, Roll round, strange years; swift seasons, come and go; Ye cannot touch the inward and divine, While God alone does know; There seal'd till summers, winters, all shall cease Therefore uprouse ye winds and howl your will; Grand Angel-not of ill: Healer of every wound, whene'er thou come, D. L. Moody, The Faithful Saying, 44. 2 George Eliot, Adam Bede. Dinah M. Mulock. LITERATURE. Aked (C. F.), The Courage of the Coward, 225. Clow (W. M.), The Secret of the Lord, 337. (W. W.), in Oxford University Sermons, 144. Jones (J. S.), Seeing Darkly, 3. Leach (C.), Shall We know our Friends in Heaven? 81. Lewis (E. W.), Some Views of Modern Theology, 50. (H. E.), in The Old Faith and the New Theology, 241. Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. Paul's, 367. Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 110. Morrison (G. H.), Sunrise: Addresses from a City Pulpit, 12. Paget (F.), The Spirit of Discipline, 111. Pope (R. M.), The Poetry of the Upward Way, 137. Randall (R. W.), Life in the Catholic Church, 155. Roberts (R.), The Meaning of Christ, 39. Sampson (E. F.), Christ Church Sermons, 11. Sanday (W.), Oracles, 34. Smith (D.), Man's Need of God, 199. Vaughan (C. J.), Epiphany, Lent and Easter, 87. (J.), Sermons in Christ Church, Brighton, i. 204. Watson (F.), The Christian Life Here and Hereafter, 233. Christian World Pulpit, xv. 221 (Craig); xvii. 238 (Wonnacott); xxii. 184 (Johnson); xxxv. 232 (Westcott); xxxvii. 369 (Rogers); liv. 10 (Stalker); lxv. 104 (Winnington Ingram); lxvii. 69 (Watt); lxx. 8 (Watson). THE PARTIAL AND THE PERFECT. For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I have been known.-1 Cor. xiii. 12. 1. ST. PAUL has been speaking of gifts or endowments on which members of the Corinthian Church were priding themselves. There was a great deal of emotion in the new Christian societies of that day. Emotional impulses broke out in irregular exhortations, in utterances of praise, in expressions of conviction, in acts of healing; and these impulses, which sometimes led to disorderly competition, needed to be controlled. The first principle that St. Paul lays down with regard to them is that their proper object is to be of some use to the Christian society. They were given not for the profit or distinction of the individual, but for the benefit of the Church. Then he bids his readers see that all gifts, even those from which the Church might derive most advantage, were essentially inferior to love. He goes on to describe, in words worthy of what he praises, the beauty and blessedness of love. The ultimate distinction that he ascribes to it is that it lasts; it does not fail, or undergo changes, it abides. Herein especially was it contrasted with prophesying and tongues and knowledge. Prophecies will be done away, tongues will cease, knowledge will be done away. St. Paul was no doubt referring here to the emotional gifts which were used and valued in the Churches of that age. But he lets us see that he regards these as representing all intellectual conceptions and utterances concerning spiritual things. "For we know in part, and we prophesy (or preach) in part: but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away." St. Paul would hardly have spoken thus if he had not himself been perplexed by the incompleteness and unsatisfying |