Whatever we do to please ourselves, and only for the sake of the pleasure, not for an ultimate object, is "play,” the “pleasing thing," not the useful thing. The first of all English games is making money. That is an all-absorbing game; and we knock each other down oftener in playing at that than at football, or any other rougher sport; and it is absolutely without purpose; no one who engages heartily in that game ever knows why. Ask a great money-maker what he wants to do with his money he never knows. He doesn't make it to do any thing with it. He gets it only that he may get it. What will you make of what you have got?" you ask, "Well, I'll get more,"

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he says. Just as at cricket you get more runs. There is no use in the runs; but to get more of them than other people And there is no use in the money; but to have

is the game.

more of it than other people is the game.

ANGER.

-C. H. SPURGEON.

An unsanctified temper is a fruitful source of error, and a mighty impediment to truth.

- E. L. MAGOON.

He submits himself to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.

- LAVATER.

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which make us stronger for the time, but leave us weaker forever after.

- DEAN SWIFT.

If anger proceeds from a great cause, it turns to fury; if from a small cause, it is peevishness; and so is always either terrible or ridiculous.

The proud man hath no God; the envious man hath no neighbor; the angry man hath not himself.

- BISHOP HALL.

There was a man here last night — you needn't be afraid that I shall mention his name - who said that his will was given up to God, and who got mad because the omnibus was full, and he had to walk a mile to his lodgings.

D. L. MOODY.

When I had twice or thrice made a resolute resistance to anger, the like befell me that did the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedemonians, never after lost so much as one battle which they fought against them.

PLUTARCH,

The sun should not set upon our anger, neither should he rise upon our confidence.

APOSTASY.

— C. C. COLTON.

The kiss of the apostate was the most bitter earthly ingredient in the agonies which Christ endured.

-E. L. MAGOON.

Still in the garden shadows art Thou pleading,
Staining the night dews with Thine agony;
But one is there Thy woe and prayer unheeding,
And to their guileless prey Thy murderers leading,

Lord, is it I?

-GEORGE HUNTINGDON.

O God, the Father, of heaven, have mercy upon us miserable sinners.

"Lord, is it I?" Thou knowest my temptations,
My spirit willing, though my flesh is weak;
My earnest striving, and my often failing;
Sinning, repenting, still Thy grace I seek.

ASPIRATION.

O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee; my soul thirsteth for Thee; my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.

There is not a heart but has its moments of longing,― yearning for something better, nobler, holier than it knows now. H. W. BEECHER.

Aspiration, worthy ambition, desires for higher good for good ends all these indicate a soul that recognizes the beckoning hand of the good Father who would call us homeward towards Himself— all these are the ground and justification for a Christian discontent; but a murmuring, questioning, fault-finding spirit has direct and sympathetic alliance with nothing but the infernal.

-J. G. HOLLAND.

In truth, there is no religion, no worship in our prosperity and ease. So far as we are happy, we are in a state of satisfied desire; so far as we are religious, we are in a state of aspiration and unsatisfied desire.

-JAMES MARTINEAU.

Father! forgive the heart that clings
Thus trembling to the things of time,

And bid my soul, on angel's wings

Ascend into a purer clime.

-JANE ROSCOE.

ASSURANCE.

Assurance of hope is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.

-J. C. RYLE.

True assurance makes a man more humble and self-denied but presumptuous confidence puffs up with spiritual pride and self-conceit; the one excites to the practice of every commanded duty, but the other encourages sloth and indolence.

It is suggested that the

You have a valuable house or farm. title is not good. You employ counsel. You have the deeds examined. You search the records for mortgages, judgments and liens. You are not satisfied until you have a certificate, signed by the great seal of the State, assuring you that the title is good. Yet how many leave their title to heaven an undecided matter! Why do you not go to the records and find it? Give yourself no rest day or night until you can read your "title clear to mansions in the skies."

-T. DEWITT TALMAGE.

The more the soul is conformed to Christ, the more confident it will be of its interest in Christ.

THOMAS BROOKS.

The best assurance any one can have of his interest in God, is doubtless the conformity of his soul to Him. When our heart is once turned into a conformity with the mind of God, when we feel our will conformed to His will, we shall then presently perceive a spirit of adoption within ourselves, teaching us to say, "Abba, Father."

- CUDWORTH.

If you would have clear and irrefragable for a perpetual joy, a glory and a defense, the unwavering confidence, "I am Thy child," go to God's throne, and lie down at the foot of it, and let the first thought be, "My Father in heaven;" and that will brighten, that will establish, that will make omnipotent in your life, the witness of the Spirit that you are the child of God.

- ALEXANDER MACLAREN.

One of those poor fellows that had become a Christian was badgered by his companions; and one of them said, "How do you know that Jesus Christ has forgiven your sins?" The man turned at once and said, "How do you know when you have got sugar in your tea?"

-JOHN B. GOUGH.

Every one of us may know what is the ruling purpose of his life; and he who knows that his ruling purpose is to trust and follow Christ knows that he is a Christian.

"Compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses," let us with firm and cheerful trust endure all trials, discharge all duties, accept all sacrifices, fulfill the law of universal and impartial love, and adopt as our own that cause of truth, righteousness, humanity, liberty, and holiness, which being the cause of the All-Good, cannot but triumph over all powers of evil. Let us rise into blest assurance that everywhere and forever we are enfolded, penetrated, guarded, guided, kept by the power of the Father and Friend, who can never forsake us; and that all spirits who have begun to seek, know, love, and serve the All-Perfect One on earth shall be reunited in a celestial home, and be welcomed together into the freedom of the universe, and the perpetual light of His presence.

-W. E. CHANNING.