SINS LIKE SHADOWS. Our sins, like to our shadows, When our day's in its glory, scarce appear; Towards our evening, how great and monstrous! Suckling. GOOD CHRISTIANS Play their offensive and defensive parts, Herrick. THE PORT OF DEATH. Death is a port, whereby we pass to joy; DULL RELIGION LIKE DEAD WOOD. Some people's religious opinion is only a stake driven in the ground; does not grow-shoots out no greenremains just there, and just so. Foster. KNOWLEDGE. A climbing height it is, without a head, Not comprehended, all it comprehends, Sir Fulke Greville. Labour to distil and unite into thyself the scattered perfections of several nations. Many weed foreign countries, bringing home Dutch drunkenness, Spanish pride, French wantonness, and Italian atheism; as for the good herbs, Dutch industry, Spanish loyalty, French courtesy, and Italian frugality, these they leave behind them: others bring home just nothing; and because they singled not themselves from their countrymen, though some years beyond sea, were never out of England. Thomas Fuller. NEUTRALITY LOATHSOME. God will have all or none; serve him, or fall Either be hot or cold; God doth despise, Herrick. TENDERNESS AND FORBEARANCE DUE TO HUMAN A tender consideration of human imperfection is not merely the dictate of revelation, but the law of nature, exemplified in the most striking manner in the conduct of Him whom we all profess to follow. How wide the interval which separated his religious knowledge and attainments from that of his disciples; he, the fountain of illumination, they, encompassed with infirmities! But did he recede from them on that account? No, he drew the bond of union closer, imparted successive streams of effulgence, till he incorporated his spirit with theirs, and elevated them into a nearer resemblance of himself. In imitating, by our conduct towards our mistaken brethren, the great exemplar, we cannot err. By walking together with them, as far as we are agreed, our agreement will extend, our differences lessen, and love, which rejoiceth in the truth, will gradually open our hearts to higher and nobler inspirations. Might we indulge a hope that not only our denomination, but every other description of Christians, would act upon these principles, we should hail the dawn of a brighter day, and consider it as a nearer approach to the ultimate triumph of the Church than the annals of time have yet recorded. In the accomplishment of our Saviour's prayer, we should behold a demonstration of the divinity of his mission, which the most impious could not resist; we should behold in the church a peaceful haven, inviting us to retire from the tossings of this unquiet ocean, to a sacred enclosure, a sequestered spot, which the storms and tempests of the world were not permitted to invade. All attempts to urge men forward, even in the right rath, beyond the measure of their light, are impracticable in our situation, if they were lawful; and unlawful if they were practicable: augment their light, conciliate their affections, and they will follow of their own accord. Robert Hall. THE BETTER BARGAIN. In alms regard thy means, and others' merit; Join hands with God to make a poor man live. Till thou change names, and be where he began. Man is God's image, but a poor man is Christ's 's stamp to boot: both images regard: God reckons for him, counts the favour his; Write so much giv'n for God. Thou shalt be heard; Let thy alms go before, and keep heaven's gate Open for thee; or both may come too late. Herbert. RELIGION INDISPENSABLE. If a man, by a vast and imperious mind, and a heart large as the sand upon the sea-shore, as is said of Solomon, could command all the knowledge of nature and of |