Not he who maxims from old reading took,
And never saw himself but through a book;
Not he, who hasty in the morn of grace
Soon sinks extinguished as a comet's blaze;
Not he who strains in Scripture phrase t' abound,
Deaf to the sense, who stuns us with the sound;
But he who silence loves, and never dealt
In the false commerce of a truth unfelt:
Guilty you speak, if subtle from within
Blows on your words the self-admiring sin;
If unresolved to choose the better part,

Your forward tongue belies your languid heart;
But then speak safely, when your peaceful mind,
Above self-seeking blest, on God reclined,
Feels Him suggest unlaboured sense,

And ope a shrine of sweet benevolence;

Some high behests of Heaven you then fulfil,

Sprung from His light your words, and issuing by His will.-Byrom.

Seneca writes of Cicero

To speak deliberately and slowly best becomes a preacher; for thereby he may the more effectually and impressively deliver his sermon. -that he spake deliberately from the heart.-Luther.

SPEAKING.-The Function of

That a man stand and speak of spiritual things to men-it is beautiful; even in its great obscuration and decadence, it is among the beautifullest, most touching objects one sees on the earth. This speaking man, whom have we to compare to him? The speaking function-this of Truth coming to us with a living voice, nay, in a living shape, and as a concrete practical exemplar: this, with all our writing and printing functions, has a perennial place !-Carlyle. SPEAKING-Much.

Speaking much is a sign of vanity; for he that is lavish in words is a niggard in deeds.-Sir W. Raleigh.

SPEAKING.-Power in

Power in speaking is the result of power in intellectual conception and emotion; and such power must have greatness in its object. How differently does he speak who earnestly pleads for his country's honour, or for the life of a fellow-creature, or for the salvation of the human soul from everlasting death, from him who has no other object than to please men, or merely to meet a professional call!-Dr. Skinner.

SPEAKING.-Public

In order to acquit yourself creditably in public speaking, you must avoid the faults and copy the excellencies of eminent public orators. A preaching speech neither answers the purposes of the object for which you plead, nor pleases the people who listen to it. The end specially in view requires good sense, Christian feeling, a lively imagination, a readiness to avail yourselves of any topic that occurs, either in the report or the opening speech, in an extemporaneous and free manner; for written speeches, delivered memoriter, seldom succeed well. However, some principal ideas may be secured beforehand; and these should be so judiciously incorporated with the current topics of the meeting that what you may have previously concocted in your own mind may appear as naturally arising from the circumstances of the case as if it had not been matter of study at all. This is absolutely necessary if you desire that your speech should be well received.-Dr. Sturtevant.

SPEAKING.-The Secret of Power in

Many preachers of the Gospel take no pains to search out the secret of this power. They imagine that divine influence is alone necessary to success. Did Christ, who spake as never man spake, or the Apostles, whose tongues were almost as the tongues of angels, think that discourse on divine subjects may be intrinsically feeble, because success comes from the Holy Spirit? If we look narrowly on the one hand into the history of those preachers whose professed confidence in the Spirit makes them desultory and negligent in discourse, and on the other into the history of the primitive ministers of the Gospel, who, while they prayed as if they could do nothing in discourse, preached as if everything depended on the manner of their preaching, we shall find much reason to think that neglecting to acquire the elements of power in speaking, is resolvable, not into a consciousness of dependence on the Spirit for success, but rather into a want of that sacred feeling. One way in which the Spirit works to secure success is by stirring up ministers to take the pains which are necessary to render them masterly in discourse.-Dr. Skinner.

SPECULATIONS.-Abstruse

Abstruse speculations, whatever they may have at the bottom of solidity and truth, suit not the capacities of the many, and influence the hearts of none.Bishop Horsley.

SPECULATIONS.-Vain

Vain speculations are like a plume of feathers, which some will give anything for, and some will give nothing for.-H. Smith.

SPECULATIONS and CONTROVERSIES.

Some spend their time in nice questions, as-What Christ disputed of among the doctors? where Paradise stood? in what part of the world is local hell? what became of Moses' body? how many orders and degrees of elect spirits? These curious persons, the further they go, the nearer they approach a sun that blinds them. Others spend their time in circumstantial controversies, when in the interim the essentials of religion are laid by. Such talk is but a wasting of time, and those that sweat at it are but laborious loiterers; like those that take great pains to crack or cleave a date-stone, which, when they have done, affords them no kernel. Would it not be counted a piece of great folly for a man that

SING. The Duty to Learn to

As praise is the chief employment of heaven, it is the command of God that all should sing on earth; all, therefore, should make a conscience of learning to do so, as it is a thing that cannot be decently performed without learning. Nay, those who neglect to learn to sing, where there is no natural inability, positively live in sin, as they neglect what is necessary in order to their attending one of the ordinances of God's worship.-Edwards.

SINGERS.-A Choir of

Public psalmody should not be entrusted wholly to the light and gay—to the trifling and careless part of a congregation. They who conduct this part of public worship ought to be pious. The leader should be a Christian; and they who join in it should give their hearts to the Redeemer, and so sing from the heart. Their voices would be none the less sweet; their music none the less pure and beautiful; nor could their own pleasure in the service be lessened. A choir of sweet singers in a Church-united in the same praises here-ought to be prepared to join in the same praises around the throne of God.-A. Barnes.

SINGING. The Benefit of

Singing, like music in general, has been too much given up by the Church to the world: but let it be generally taught, and I am quite sure that this could not take place without, by the blessing of God, a great spiritual benefit. When many voices join heartily in prayer, it is hardly possible to remain undevout; when many voices join heartily in praise, it is hardly possible to remain indifferent. Every one feels this. Who can resist the rush of many voices? Whose bosom does not swell, as old and young, rich and poor, mingle their notes of admiration and thankfulness?-Canon Melvill.

The use of simple and plain singing is very great in Churches. For this stirs up the mind with a certain pleasure unto an ardent desire of that which is celebrated in the song; it appeases the desires and affections of the flesh; it drives away the evil thoughts of our enemies that are invisible and secretly arise; it makes the mind irriguous and apt to bring forth holy and divine fruits; it makes the generous contenders in piety valiant and strong in adversity, and it brings a medicine and remedy to all the evil accidents of our life. St. Paul in his spiritual armoury calls this "the sword of the Spirit;" for it is all of it the Word of God which is celebrated in the mind, in the song, and in the verse; it drives away evil spirits, and the pious mind is, by the songs of the Church, perfected in virtue.-Martyr.

SINGING.-Congregational

Unless you have singing in the family and singing in the house, singing everywhere, until it becomes a habit, you never can have congregational singing. It will be the cold drops, half water, half ice, which drip in March from some cleft of a rock, one drop here and another there; whereas it should be like the August shower, which comes ten million drops at once, and roars on the roof.-H. W. Beecher.

What extraordinary things an average congregation will take delight in singing! what very extraordinary tunes! or, even if the tunes should be fragments from the mighty master musicians, perfect in melody and harmony, there are those who would have them driven and hurried along as if the steeds of sound were

SPEECHES.-Profane

Never utter any profane speeches, nor make a jest of any Scripture expressions. When you pronounce the name of God or of Christ, or repeat any passages or words of Holy Scripture, do it with reverence and seriousness, and not lightly, for that is taking the name of God in vain." If you hear of any unseemly expressions used in religious exercises, do not publish them; endeavour to forget, or if you mention them at all, let it be with pity and sorrow, not with derision or reproach.-Hale.

SPIRIT. The Aid of the Holy

When in thy devotions thou findest thine attention fixed, thine affections inflamed, and thy heart melted within thee; and when, while the voice of God's minister, preaching the saving truths of the Gospel, sounds in thine ears, thou art sensible of an inward voice, speaking with greater force and efficacy to thy soul, to thine understanding, to thy heart, then thou art sensible of the presence and aid of the Holy Spirit, whose grace alone is sufficient to every purpose, and whose strength is made perfect in thy weakness. He will glorify Christ in thy full salvation.-Bishop Smallridge.

SPIRIT. The Baptismal Fire of the Holy

Distinctly to the eye of God, though man's dull eye cannot yet trace the line there glows through the human race the fire of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, severing the holy from the unholy, the children of God from the children of wrath, the saved from the damned.-Bishop Jackson.

SPIRIT. The Blasphemy against the Holy

There are many sins against the Holy Spirit. The most horrible is that of blaspheming Him; for this is crimen læsæ majestatis,-a sort of high treason against the Majesty of Heaven. Such a grievous sin the Scribes committed by a single saying; but then they had been long ripening into such depravity, and never could have been guilty of it all at once. In Matt. ix. 10, 11, we may see something like the commencement of it. While some chose to utter the dreadful blasphemy, others perhaps heard it with an approving laugh, and thus made themselves partakers in the horrible sin.-Bengel.

SPIRIT.-Consolation by the Holy

Who has ever consoled like Him? There may be situations when an angel's word would bruise the heart. But the Holy Spirit does not articulate a single He only pours drop by drop the divine oil upon the wound, and the wound closes.-Gasparin.

word;

SPIRIT.-The Divinity of the Holy

The Holy Spirit is not only a real and distinct Person in the Godhead, but He is also a Divine Person, equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. Names proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to Him, as Jehovah, God, and Lord; and attributes proper only to the Most High God are ascribed to Him, as omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, eternity. Moreover, divine works are also ascribed to Him; and worship, proper only to Deity, is required and presented to Him. He is therefore as assuredly God in all the essential characteristics and absolute perfections of His divine nature, as the First and Second Person of the adorable Trinity.-Dr. Davies.

way of transgressors is hard;" that "there is no peace for the wicked." Who can speak worthily of the first dawn of that celestial vision, in which Jehovah is seen as the God who is Love itself! When the sinner was walking in the valley of the shadow of death, he saw a God of terror. He now beholds him as the gracious Being, who is the shield and the reward of them that seek Him.-Bas.

SINNER.-God's Highway for the

God builds for every sinner, if he will but come back, a highway of golden promises from the very depths of degradation and sin clear up to the Father's house.-H. W. Beecher.

SINNER.-Results from the Conversion of a

What abundant glory is brought to God when one sinner turns from the error of his ways! It is then that an enemy to his Maker lays down his arms, that he renounces his criminal hostility to his righteous Lord, and glorifies Him by a willing submission to His blessed dominion. It is then that the God of mercy performs a miracle of grace, and renders His loving-kindness illustrious in the eyes of all worlds, by the forgiveness of multiplied iniquities, and the pardon of a rebel doomed to die. It is then that He achieves a victory of love, and, by the power of almighty grace, triumphs over the stubborn enmity of His foe. It is then that the ranks of His enemies are thinned, and some progress made toward the total extermination of rebellion and sin. It is then that the dying Saviour receives part of the recompense of His travail in the day of His agony; that His heart rejoices in the accomplished rescue of the lost; and that His name is loaded with blessings by the newly-redeemed captive of Satan and victim of wrath. It is then that the host of the saints is re-inforced; that one heart more glows with the common fire; that one lip more becomes vocal with the common theme; and that one hand more is employed in the common and all-glorious work of hastening the universal triumph of their Lord. It is then, in fine, that there is born a child of God and an heir of glory,-that a pilgrim sets out for the heavenly country, over whom there is already "joy in the presence of the angels of God," and who shall soon take his station in the midst of them, to glorify God for ever, both by the beauty of his salvation and the ardour of his praise.-Hinton. SOLITUDE-Desired.

Oh! quickly bear me hence

To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense,

When contemplation plumes her ruffled wings,
And the free soul looks down to pity kings!-Pope.

SOLITUDE-Necessary to Thought.

Let the scholar know that the world is his; but he must possess it by putting himself into harmony with the constitution of things: he must be a solitary, laborious, modest, and charitable soul; he must embrace solitude as a bride. And why must the student be solitary and silent? That he may be acquainted with his own thoughts. Go, then, cherish your soul; expel companions; set your habits to a life of solitude; think alone; then will the faculties rise fair and full within, like forest trees and field-flowers; you will have results which, when you meet your fellow men, you can communicate, and they will gladly receive.Emerson.