God; hence the world leaves them utterly ignorant of the very meaning of the word "persecution."-Spurgeon.

CHURCH.-Worshippers in the

Here the white, jewelled hand of the nobleman and the brown, horny hand of the poor man are uplifted in prayer. Here the educated and untutored tongue pour forth their praises together. But their prayers and their praises are indited and inspired by one Spirit; and both are poured into the ear and the heart of one Father, even the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the God and Father of all flesh.-Dr. Davies.

CHURCH.-The Youth-Time of the

In the first years of a Church, its members are willing to endure hardships, and to make great exertions; but when once it is prosperous, they desire to take their ease; as one who builds a ship is willing to work all the way from keel to deck, until she is launched; thenceforward he expects the ocean to buoy him up, and the winds to bear him on. The youth-time of Churches produces enterprize; their age, indolence. But even this might be borne, did not these dead men sit in the door of their sepulchres, crying out against every living man who refuses to wear the livery of death. I am almost tempted to think that if, with the end of every pastorate, the Church itself were disbanded and destroyed, to be gathered again by the succeeding teacher, we should thus secure an immortality of youth. -H. W. Beecher.

CHURCHES.-No Antipathies between

There ought to be no secret antipathies between Churches, for which no reason can be given; but let every house sweep the dust from its own floor.Dean Williams.

CHURCHES.-City

Churches in cities should cause their influence to be felt afar, This is true, indeed, of all other Churches; but cities are the centres of influence in fashion, science, literature, religion, and morals. A thousand ties of interest bind them to other parts of a land; and though, in fact, there may be, as there often is, much more intelligence in a country neighbourhood than among the same number of inhabitants taken promiscuously from a city; and though there may be, as there often is, far more good sense and capability to appreciate religious truth in a country congregation than in a congregation in a city, yet it is true that the city will be the radiating point of influence. This, of course, increases the responsibility of Christians in cities, and makes it important that they should be models of self-denial, and of efforts to diffuse the blessings of the Gospel abroad.-A. Barnes.

CHURCHES.-Dead

Have you ever read "The Ancient Mariner?" I dare say you thought it one of the strangest imaginations ever put together, especially that part where the old mariner represents the corpses of all the dead men rising up to man the ship, -dead men pulling the rope, dead men steering, dead men spreading the sails. I thought what a strange idea that was! But do you know that I have lived to see that time? I have seen it done. I have gone into Churches, and I have seen a dead man in the pulpit, a dead man handling the plate, and dead men sitting to hear!--Spurgeon.

CHURCHES.-The Disturbances of

If we thoroughly examine, we shall find that pride, policy, and power, are the three principal ingredients in all the disturbances of our Churches.-M. Henry.

CHURCHES.—Evangelical

Our Evangelical Churches are too much regarded as places for preaching, and too little thought of as intended for the religious elevation of the mind by prayer and meditation.-Humboldt.

CHURCHES.—The Imperfections of

The best Churches are like the moon, not without their imperfections. The purest times had their imperfections; a pure state is not allowed to this world, but is reserved for another. In that better world the Churches shall be delivered for ever from all imperfection.-Charnock.

CHURCHES.-Ornaments in

They who repudiate all ornament, and all the modes of affecting the senses in the offices of religion, as impious or improper, do not recollect the Temple of Solomon, but suffer their good sense to be overpowered by the zeal of a barbarous fanaticism.-Dr. Knox.

CHURCHES.-The Security of

Our Churches will stand in the present day, not by the excellence of their ecclesiastical polity, nor by the splendour of their liturgies, nor by the eloquence of their preachers, nor by the patronage of the State, nor by the endowment of the Queen, nor by the multitude and grandeur of the nobility who attend them, nor by the votes of the people; but by their allegiance to Christ, by their faithfulness to God, and by their sacrifices for truth.-Dr. Cumming.

CHURCHES.-Village

Blessings on those old gray fabrics that stand on many a hill, and in many a lowly valley, all over this beloved country; for I am of Sir Walter Scott's opinion -that no places are so congenial to the holy simplicity of Christian worship as they are. They have an air of antiquity about them, a shaded sanctity, and stand so venerably amid the most English scenes and the tombs of generations of the dead, that we cannot enter them without having our imaginations and our hearts powerfully impressed with every feeling and thought that can make us love our country, and yet feel that this is not our abiding-place. Those antique Churches, those low, massy doors, were raised in days that are long gone by; around those walls, nay beneath our very feet, sleep those who, in their generations, helped, each in his little sphere, to build up our country to her present pitch of greatness. We catch a glimpse of that deep veneration, of that unambitious simplicity of mind and manner, that we would fain hold fast amid our growing knowledge, and its inevitable re-modelling of the whole framework of society. Therefore it is that I have always loved the village Church; that I have delighted to stroll far through the summer-fields, and hear still onward its bells ringing happily to enter and sit down among its rustic congregation, better pleased with their murmur of responses, and their artless but earnest chant, than with all the splendour and parade of more lofty fabrics.-Howitt.

K

CHURCH-GOER.-A Venerable

He, the brown old man, the wrinkled man,
That all his life had been a church-goer,
Familiar with celestial cadences,

Informed of all he could receive, and sure
Of all he understood-he sat content,

And we kept silence. In his reverend face

There was a simpleness we could not sound;

Much truth had passed him overhead; some error

He had trod underfoot;-God comfort him!-Ingelow.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Adornment of the

Why should not the church-yard be the most scrupulously tended spot of ground in the whole neighbourhood? The lawn before our window is constantly mown and weeded; why should less be done for the turf which surrounds the House of God? Trees, shrubs, and flowers adorn our gardens; why should "God's Acre" be destitute of any? Is it not the garden of the Lord, thick sown with the precious seeds of an immortal life? Where but in a garden was the Lord of Glory laid ?-a garden so carefully tended as to imply the presence of a gardener. (John xx. 15.) Much of the gloom connected with the thought of death is occasioned by the unchristian images of darkness and desolation with which we ourselves invest it; but closely-clipped graves adorned with flowers-a well-mown turf-abundance of evergreens, and a line of yews,-all this would tend to inspire a very different train of thought.—Burgon.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Cross in a

There, where the cross in hoary ruin nods,

And weeping yews o'ershade the lettered stones;
While midnight silence wraps these dark abodes,
And soothes me, wand'ring o'er my kindred bones;
Let kindled fancy view the glorious morn

When from the bursting graves the dust shall rise,
All Nature smiling, and, by angels borne,

Messiah's cross, far blazing o'er the skies.-Mickle.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Dial in a

Swept and clean was the church-yard. Adorned like a leaf-woven harbour
Stood its old-fashioned gate; and within upon each cross of iron
Hung was a fragrant garland, new twined by the hands of affection:
Even the dial, that stood on a hillock among the departed,

(There full a hundred years had it stood), was embellished with blossoms;
Like to the patriarch hoary, the sage of his kith and the hamlet,
Who on his birth-day is crowned by children and children's children,

So stood the ancient prophet, and mute with his pencil of iron
Marked on the tablet of stone, and measured the time and its changes,
While all around at his feet an eternity slumbered in quiet.-Bishop Tegnér.

CHURCH-YARD.-An Echo from a

Now did the echo, the moonlight of sound, give back tones like dirges from

the funeral choir; and it was as if the united shades of the departed sang them over in their holy-week under ground-as if the corpse-veil stirred on the white lip, and out of the last hollows sounded again a hollow life.-Richter.

CHURCH-YARD.-A Fallen Tree in a

Since thou that church-yard-gate beside
First waved thy sapling bough,
Beneath thee many a blooming bride-
Fresh from the nuptial vow-

Hath passed, with humble hopes elate;
And slowly borne through that low gate
How many, sleeping now

Beneath the turf's green flowery breast,
Were carried to their dreamless rest!

Under thy shadow, full of glee,

The village children played;
And hoary age has seen in thee
His own decline portrayed:

With human joys, griefs, hopes, and fears,
With humble smiles and lowly tears,

Thy memory is arrayed;

And for their sakes, though reft and riven,
This record of thy fall is given.-Barton.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Graves in a

I pass, with melancholy state,

By all these solemn heaps of fate;

And think, as oft and sad I tread

Above the venerable dead,

Time was, like me, they life possessed,

And time will be when I shall rest.-Dr. Parnell.

CHURCH-YARD.—Holy Talk in the

It would not be amiss if there could be a revival of holy talk in the churchyard. I like to see the big yew trees outside our ancient Churches with seats all round them. They seem to say-“Sit down here, neighbour, and talk upon the sermon: here comes the pastor; he will join us, and we shall have a pleasant, holy chat." It is not every preacher one would care to talk with; but there are some whom one would give a fortune to converse with for an hour. I love a minister whose face invites me to make him my friend.-Spurgeon.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Lich-Gate of a

The presence of a lich-gate of a church-yard, where the clergyman meets the dead, should always be associated in our minds with thoughts of death, and life beyond it; for it is here the Comforter of Bethany so often speaks, through the voice of His Church, to His sorrowing ones in the world-"I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." All this makes us look on the old lich-gate as no gloomy object, but rather as a "beautiful gate of the Temple" which is eternal-a glorious arch of hope and triumph, hung all round with trophies of Christian victory.-Field.

CHURCH-YARD.-Lines Written in a

Methinks it is good to be here;

If Thou wilt, let us build-but for whom?
Nor Elias nor Moses appear,

But the shadows of eve that encompass the gloom,
The abode of the dead and the place of the tomb.

The first tabernacle to Hope we will build,

And look for the sleepers around us to rise;

The second to Faith, which ensures it fulfilled;

And the third to the Lamb of the great sacrifice,

Who bequeathed us them both when He rose to the skies.-H. Knowles.

CHURCH-YARD.-Meditation in a

How sweet and solemn, all alone,

With rev'rend steps, from stone to stone,
In a small village church-yard lying,
O'er intervening flowers to move!
And as we read the names unknown,
Of young and old to judgment gone,
And hear, in the calm air above,
Time onward swiftly flying,

To meditate, in Christian love,
Upon the dead and dying.-J. Wilson.

CHURCH-YARD.-Mosses in a

When all other service is vain from plant and tree, the soft mosses take up their watch on the head-stone. The woods, the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses, have done their parts for a time, but these do service for ever. Trees for the builder's yard, flowers for the bride's chamber, corn for the granary, moss for the grave.-Ruskin.

CHURCH-YARD.-Nature and the

She spread no funeral pall above
That patch of church-yard ground,

But the same azure vault of love

As hung o'er all around:

And white clouds o'er that spot would pass

As freely as elsewhere;

The sunshine on no other grass

A richer hue might wear;

And, formed from out that very mould

In which the dead did lie,

The daisy with its eye of gold

Looked up into the sky.—Archbishop Trench.

CHURCH-YARD.-The Pastor and the

Oh what a throng of varied recollections people that place to a pastor's mind! When he sets his foot within the sacred enclosure, how do the very graves speak to him-awakening thoughts of unutterable tenderness respecting some-of terrible uncertainty respecting others of awe indescribable respecting all! for