Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Che Character of the Saviour.

In the character of our Saviour, the mind and the heart rest satisfied; the more it is studied the more holy and beautiful it becomes. Does the mind ask for submission? seek it in his childhood, while he was subject to his parents: for youthful dignity? see him standing in the midst of the temple, sublime in youth and power, reasoning with the doctors and lawyers, with a wisdom which astonished even those who questioned him on subjects which had been, to them the study of a life-time. Does it ask for humility and forbearance? find him washing his disciples' feet, and sitting at the same board with publicans and sinners: for true and gentle charity, listen to his voice when he says to the sinful woman 66 woman where are thine accusers? Go in peace and sin no more." Does it ask a heart full of gentle and domestic sympathy? follow him to the grave of Lazarus, or to the bier of the widow's son for benevolence? let the mind dwell for a moment on the cleansed leper, on the blind restored to sight, and on that heart stirring scene where he stood in the midst of the multitude, while the sick man was let down through the roof that he might heal him for firmness? go to the wilderness where the Son of God fasted and was sorely tempted forty days and forty nights: for energy? witness it in the overthrowing of the money-tables, while those who had desecrated the temple, were cast forth from the place they had polluted: for wisdom? read it in every act of his life, and in every line of his sermon on the mount: for prudence? see it in his answer given to the chief priests, when they brought him the tribute money for patience, forgiveness, and all the gentle attributes that form the Christian character in its perfection, follow him to the Garden: witness his prayer and his agony of spirit: dwell on his patient and gentle speech, when he returned from that scene of pain, and found even his disciples asleep : reflect on his meekness and forbearance, when the traitor's lip

[blocks in formation]

was on his cheek: on the hand so readily extended to heal the ear of the maimed soldier. Go with him to the place of trial, and to that last dreadful scene which caused the grave to give up its dead, and the solid earth to tremble beneath the footsteps of his persecutors. Dwell upon his life, and upon every separate act of his life, and the soul must become imbued with a sense of its health, beauty and holiness.

Grief.

COUNT each affliction, whether light or grave,
God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou
With courtesy receive him: rise and bow:
And ere his shadow pass thy threshold, crave
Permission first his heavenly feet to lave.
Then lay before him all thou hast. Allow
No cloud of passion to usurp thy brow,
Or mar thy hospitality no wave
Of mortal tumult to obliterate

The soul's marmoreal calmness. Grief should be
Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate.

Confirming, cleansing, humbling, making free:

Strong to consume small troubles to commend

Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end.

AUBREY DE VERE.

GOOD qualities are the substantial riches of the mind: but

'tis good breeding sets them off.

LOCKE.

Cemperaments.

A FALSE standard of action determines nothing but the blindness or the bigotry of him who erects it. It is not meritorious, it is not blameworthy, to have a sanguine or nervous, a bilious or lymphatic temperament. It was a fortunate circumstance that Luther was not Melancthon, and that Melancthon was not Luther. The reformation could not have spared either of them without loss. They were of one spirit; but the manifestation of that spirit was widely different in those distinguished reformers. Peter and John, Paul and Apollos, had their distinctive characteristics; yet they all heartily espoused the cause of their Lord and Master, and continued faithful unto death. The state of the heart is not infallibly determined by any degree of physical activity or quiescence. Let not him who, in whatever he undertakes, is as impetuous as a mountain torrent, reprove him who is habitually like a gentle stream; and let not the constitutionally mild, censure the constitutionally severe. Gentleness of spirit is not incompatible with intense energy of action.-The Lamb of God is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Abstinence from denunciation is no evidence of sweetness of temper; a soft and persuasive disposition is not necessarily evincive of a slight abhorrence of iniquity, or a feeble regard for the cause of righteousness. Perfect love does not consist of similarity of tastes or identity of temperament. One star differs from another star in glory; nevertheless, they are lights in the heavens, and utter the same language:

"The hand that made us is divine."

It is not for the sun to reprimand the moon for her coldness, -to say to her" Why do you not flame as I do? you are so frigid, that even icebergs are impervious to your rays, and all vegetation would perish under your influence. See how I

22

THREE DAYS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

vivify all nature! Stand by-I am hotter, and therefore better than you!" It is not for the moon to retort, and say—“ You are of a fiery temperament, you are an incendiary. The fierceness of your rays is overpowering. The ardour of your disposition is incompatible with sobriety of judgment. You are always in a state of excitement—always burning, burning, burning! Why do you not imitate me? I am immaculate-perfect -none too hot, none too cold-always mild, calm, reflectiveprecisely what every sun ought to be!"

It is well for the universe that those twain are not one. Blot out the sun, and chaos would come again. Deprived of the light of the moon, the earth would mourn. The moon is not for the day-the sun is not for the night, but they will be indispensable as long as day and night, seed time and harvest shall last.

W. L. G.

Chree Days of Christopher Columbus.

"BACK to Europe again; let our sails be unfurled !"
"Three days," said Columbus " and I give you a world!"
And he pointed a finger and looked through the Vast,
As if he beheld the bright region at last :

He sails and the dawn, the first day, quickly leads:
He sails and the golden horizon recedes :
He sails-till the sun, downward sinking from view,
Hides the sea and the sky with their limitless blue-
On, onward he sails, while in vain o'er the lea,
Down plunges the lead through the fathomless sea!

THREE DAYS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

The pilot in silence leans mournfully o'er

The rudder, which creaks mid the dark billows' roar:
He hears the hoarse moan of the waves rushing past,
And the funeral wail of the wind-stricken mast:
And the stars of far Europe have fled from the skies,
And the "Cross of the South" meets his terrified eyes.
But at length the slow dawn softly streaking the night,
Illumes the vast dome with its beautiful light.

23

"Columbus!" 'tis day, and the darkness hath past! "Day!" "and what dost thou see?" "I see nought but the Vast!"

What matter? he's calm! but ah stranger, if you
Had your hand on his heart, with such glory in view;
Had you felt the wild throb of despair and delight
That depressed and expanded his bosom that night;
The quick alternations, as morning drew near,
The chill and the fever, the rapture and fear,

You would feel that such moments exhausted the rage
And the multiplied malice and pains of an age-
You would say these three days half a lifetime hath slain,
And his fame is too dear at the price of such pain!

Oh who can describe what the crushed heart can bear-
The delirium of hope, and the lonely despair!
Of a Great Man unknown, whom his age doth despise
As a fool, mid the vain vulgar crowd of the wise!
Such wert thou Galileo! Far better to die

Than thus, by a terrible effort, to lie!

When thou gave, by an agony deep and intense,
That lie to thy labours, thy reason, thy sense,
To the Sun to the Earth to that Earth we repeat,
Which thou trembled to feel moving under thy feet!

« AnteriorContinuar »