UNTHINKING heads, who have not learned to be alone, are in a prison to themselves, if they be not also with others; whereas, on the contrary, they, whose thoughts are in a fair and hurry within, are sometimes fain to retire into company, to be out of the crowd of themselves. He who must needs have company, must needs have sometimes bad company. Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantages of solitude, and the society of thyself; nor be only content, but delight to be alone and single with Omnipresency. He who is thus prepared, the day is not uneasy, nor the night black unto him. Darkness may bound his eyes, not his imagination.-Sir Thomas Browne.

THE art of meditation is as heavenly a business as any that belongeth either to man or Christian; and such as whereby the soul doth unspeakably benefit itself. For by this do we ransack our deep and false hearts, find out our secret enemies, buckle with them, expel them, arm ourselves against their re-entrance. By this we make use of all good means, fit ourselves to all good duties; by this we descry our weakness, obtain redress, prevent temptations, cheer up our solitariness, temper our occasions of delight, get more light unto our knowledge, more heat to our affections, more life to our devotion. This alone is the remedy of security and worldliness, the pastime of saints, the ladder of heaven, and, in short, the best improvement of Christianity. Learn it who can;

and neglect it who list: he shall never find joy, neither in God nor himself, which doth not both know and practise it. And, however of old, some hidden cloisters have engrossed it to themselves and confined it within their cells; who, indeed, professing nothing but contemplation, through their immunity from those cares which accompany an active life, might have the best leisure to this business; yet there is no man so taken up with action, as not sometimes to have a free mind; and there is no reasonable mind so simple, as not to be able both to discourse somewhat, and to better itself by her secret thoughts.-Bishop Hall.

If thou desirest compunction of heart, enter into thy closet, and shut out the tumult of the world, according to the advice of the Psalmist, (iv. 4) "Commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still."

In thy closet thou shalt find, what abroad thou often losest. The more thou frequentest thy closet, the more thou wilt like it; the less thou comest there, the more thou wilt loathe it.

In silence and in stillness, a religious soul profiteth and learneth the hidden truth of the Holy Scriptures. There she findeth rivers of joys, and may be so much the more familiar with her Creator, by how much the farther off she liveth from all worldly tumult.-Thomas à Kempis.

It is good for us to draw near unto God.

The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him; to all that rall upon Bim in truth.

When Thou saidst seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, thy face, Lord,

mill I seek.

Who can atter the mighty arts of the Lord? who can show forth all his praise?

PRAYER, in its latitude of acceptation, doth comprehend all devotion, or worship immediately addressed unto Almighty God; consisting of praise, which we render to God in regard to His most excellent perfections and glorious works; of submissive gratulation, declaring our satisfaction in all the dispensations of His most wise and just Providence; of thanksgiving, for the numberless great benefits we have received from Him; of acknowledging our total dependence on Him, and our subjection to Him; of professing faith in Him, and vowing service to Him; of confessing the sins we have committed against

Him, with the guilt and aggravation of them; of deprecating the wrath and punishment due to our offences; of petition for all things needful and convenient for us; of intercession for others, whose good we, according to duty or charity, are concerned to desire and promote;-prayer, I say, (although according to its restrained sense, it doth only signify one of these particulars, namely, the petition of what is needful or expedient for us) yet, in its larger acceptation, as it commonly is used, it doth comprise them all. . . . . . It is an effectual instrument, working in us all true good; it is the channel by which God conveyeth spiritual light into our minds, and spiritual vigour into our hearts. It is both the seed and the food of spiritual life; by which all holy dispositions of soul, and all honest resolutions of practice, are bred and nourished, are augmented and strengthened in us. It exciteth, it quickeneth, it maintaineth all pious affections; the love of God can no otherwise than by it be kindled, fomented, or kept in life; (without it, we certainly shall have an estrangement and aversation from Him); it alone can maintain a constant reverence and awe of God, keeping Him in our thoughts, and making us to live as in His presence; it chiefly enliveneth and exerciseth our faith and our hope in God; it is that which begetteth in our hearts a savoury relish of divine things, which sweeteneth and endeareth to our souls the practice of piety, which only can enable us with delight and alacrity to obey God's commandments; it alone can raise our minds from the cares and concernments of this world, to a sense and desire of heavenly things. By it, God imparteth strength to subdue bad

inclinations, to restrain sensual appetites, to compress irregular passions, to evade the allurements to evil and the discouragements from good, which this world always presenteth; to support also with equanimity the many crosses and troubles we must surely meet with therein. It is, in short, the only bulwark against temptation and sin; the only sure guard of piety and a good conscience: no man, indeed, can be a faithful servant to God, a real friend to goodness, a serious practiser of duty, without a constant tenor of devotion.-Barrow.

WHEN we be in trouble, we doubt of a stranger whether he will help us or not; but our Saviour commanding us to call God Father,' teacheth us to be assured of the love and good-will of God towards us. So by this word 'Father,' we learn to stablish and to comfort our faith, knowing most assuredly that he will be good unto us. For Christ was a perfect schoolmaster; he lacked no wisdom; he knew his Father's will and pleasure; he teacheth us, yea, and most certainly assureth us, that God will be no cruel judge, but a loving Father. Here we see what commodities we have in this word, Father. In that we call Him Father,' His will and fatherly affections are expressed; that we call Him Heavenly Father,' His might and power, His omnipotency is expounded unto us.

that He is both loving and kind

So that you perceive toward us; that He

beareth a good will, and also is able to help, able to