You cannot shut the windows of the sky, Through which Aurora shows her brightening face; The woods, or lawns, by living stream at eve: And I, their toys to the great children leave. Of fancy, reason, virtue, you cannot me bereave." Whychcotte of St. John's. FAME IN LONDON. THE celebrity of a man in London blazes, and vanishes away like a firework: there is a great noise, numberless invitations, endless flattery and exaggeration, for a few days, and then eternal silence. The English people are greedy of novelty, childish in this alone, it makes no great distinction between good and bad, they want only what is new. They pay for the magic lantern, and pay well; but they always want fresh figures. DISCOURSE OF DR. TANLERUS WITH A BEGGAR. A great divine prayed to God during the space of eight years, that he would be graciously pleased to direct him to a man who might teach him the true way to heaven. It was said to him at length, "Go to such a church-porch, and there thou shalt find a man who will instruct thee in the spiritual life." Accordingly he went, and found a poor beggar, very meanly clad. He saluted him in these words,-"God give you a good day, my friend." The poor man answered, "Sir, I : do not remember that I ever had an evil day." The doctor said to him, "God give you a good and happy life." "Why say you that," replied the beggar, "I never was unhappy." "God bless you, my friend," said the doctor, "pray, tell what you mean." He replied, "that I shall willingly do; I told you first I never had an evil day; for when I have hunger I praise God; if it rain, hail, snow, or freeze, be it fair or foul; or if I am despised or ill used, I return God thanks; so never had an ill day, nor have I ever been unhappy since I have learned always to resign myself to his will, being very certain of this, that all his works are perfectly good and therefore I never desire anything else but the good pleasure of God." "Then," said the doctor, "but what if the good pleasure of God should be to cast you hence into hell?" "If he would do so," replied the other, "I have two arms to embrace him with, the one whereof is profound humility, by which I am united to his holy humanity, the other is love or charity, which joins me to his divinity. Embraced with these two arms, he would descend with me thither, if thither he ordered me; and there I had infinitely rather be with Him, than in paradise without Him." Hereby the doctor learned that a true resignation to the Divine will, accompanied with profound humility of heart, is the strongest way to attain God's love. After that, he asked him again from whence he came; the poor man answered, God sent him. The doctor inquired of him where he found God; he replied, "I found him when I had renounced all the creatures." "And where did you leave him," said the doctor; he replied, "With the poor in spirit, the pure in heart, and men of charity." "But, who are you," says the divine; "I am a king," says the beggar. "Where is your kingdom," says the former; "in my soul," says the latter. "I have learned to bring into subjection, and to govern my senses, as well outward as inward, with my affections and passions, which kingdom is undoubtedly superior to all the kingdoms of this world." The doctor then asked by what means he had attained to such perfection. He answered, "by silence, vigilance, meditation, and prayer, and the union I had with God: I could find no sure repose or comfort in any creature of the world, by means whereof I found out God, who will comfort me, world without end." Amen. COAL AGAINST GOLD. In a work, lately published by a Spaniard, there is a comparison between the produce of the gold and silver mines of America, and the coal mines in England, from which it appears, that the gross value of the annual produce of the coal mines is 18,000,000 of tons, amounting to 450,000,000 of francs, including the wages and other charges; while the produce of the gold and silver mines, including the same charges, is only 220,500,000 francs, showing a balance in favour of the coal mines of England, over the gold and silver mines of the new world, of no less a 229,500,000 francs. sum than A certain person, deeply perplexed about the state of his soul, and continually fluctuating between hope and fear, came one day to a church, overwhelmed with grief; and, prostrating himself before the altar, repeatedly uttered this wish in his heart;-" O, that I certainly knew I should be able to persevere." Immediately the Divine voice speaking within him, answered thus;-" And what wouldst thou do, if this certain knowledge were bestowed upon thee? Do now that which thou wouldst then do, and rest secure of thy perseverance." Comforted and established by this answer, he resigned himself to the Divine disposal, and his perplexity and distress were soon removed. Instead of indulging anxious inquiries into the future condition of his soul, he applied himself wholly to know what was "the good and acceptable will of God," as the only principle and perfection of every good work. Trust in the Lord, and do good, saith the royal prophet, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and be fed with the riches of His grace. If the progress to perfection is placed only in external observances, our religion, having no divine life, will things on which it subsists. quickly perish with the But the axe must be laid being separated and freed to the root of the tree, that, from the restless desires of nature and self, we may possess our souls in the peace of God. Thomas a' Kempis. ON THE DEATH OF CHRIST. In predicting this event, the language of ancient prophesy was magnificent, but seemingly contradictory, for it foretold a Messiah, who was to be at once, a sufferer and a conqueror. The star was to rise out of Jacob, and the branch to spring from the stem of Jesse. The angel of the Covenant, the desire of all nations, was to come suddenly to his temple; and to him, was to be the gathering of the people; yet, at the same time, He was to be despised, and rejected of men. He was to be taken from prison, and from judgment, and to be led as a lamb to the slaughter: Though he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, yet, the Gentiles were to come to his light, and kings to the brightness of his rising. In the hour when Christ died, those prophetical riddles were solved; the seeming contradictions were reconciled; the obscurity of oracles, and the ambiguity of types, vanished, the Sun of Righteousness rose, and together with the dawn of Religion, those shadows passed away. This was the hour of the abolition of the Law, and the introduction of the Gospel; the hour of terminating the old, and the beginning of the new dispensation of religious knowledge and worship throughout the earth. Viewed in this light, it forms the most august æra which is to be found in the history of mankind. When Christ was suffering on the cross, we are informed by one of the Evangelists, that he said, I thirst, and that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it to his mouth. After he had tasted of the vinegar, knowing that all things were now accomplished, and the scriptures fulfilled, he said, it is finished, that is, this offered draught of vinegar, was the last circumstance predicted Q |