GOD'S PROVIDENCE.

Virtuous and holy; chosen from above,

By inspiration of celestial grace.

First Part King Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 4, l. 39.

KING RICHARD II. CARRIED CAPTIVE TO LONDON IN THE
TRAIN OF BOLINGBROKE, A.D. 1399.

SCENE, The Duke of York's palace.

Enter YORK and his DUCHESS.

Duch. My lord, you told me you would tell the rest, When weeping made you break the story off,

Of our two cousins coming into London.

York. Where did I leave?

Duch.

At that sad stop, my lord,

Where rude, misgovern'd hands from windows' tops
Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head.
York. Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,
Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed

Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,

With slow but stately pace kept on his course,

Whilst all tongues cried, 'God save thee, Bolingbroke!'

You would have thought the very windows spake,

So many greedy looks of young and old

Through casements darted their desiring eyes
Upon his visage, and that all the walls
With painted imagery had said at once,
'Jesu preserve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke !'
Whilst he, from the one side to the other turning,
Bareheaded, lower than his proud steed's neck,

II

Bespake them thus: 'I thank you, countrymen :'

And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.

Duch. Alack, poor Richard! where rode'he the whilst?
York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-graced actor leaves the stage,
Are idly bent on him that enters next,
Thinking his prattle to be tedious, -

Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes

Did scowl on gentle Richard; no man cried, 'God save

him!'

No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home;

But dust was thrown upon his sacred head,

Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,
His face still combating with tears and smiles,
The badges of his grief and patience,

That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted
And barbarism itself have pitied him.

But Heaven hath a hand in these events,1

To whose high will we bound our calm contents.
To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now,
Whose state and honor I for

aye

allow.

King Richard II., Act v. Sc. 2.

1 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. Psalm 1xxv. 6, 7.

The Atonement.

One soul working in the strength of love

Is mightier than ten thousand to atone.

SOPHOCLES, Edipus at Colonos, 1. 498.

The great Swiss historian, John Von Müller, gives the result of his life-long labors, extracted, he says, from seventeen hundred and thirtythree authors, in seventeen thousand folio pages, in this striking confession,-"Christ is the key to the history of the world. Not only does all harmonize with the mission of Christ; all is subordinated to it. When I saw this," he adds, “it was to me as wonderful and surprising as the light which Paul saw on his way to Damascus, the fulfilment of all hopes, the completion of all philosophy, the key to all the apparent contradictions in the physical and moral world; here is life and immortality. I marvel not at miracles; a far greater miracle has been reserved for our times, the spectacle of the connection of all human events in the establishment and preservation of the doctrine of Christ."

PROF. HENRY B. SMITH, Faith and Philosophy.

ALAS, alas!

1

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;
And He that might the vantage best have took
Found out the remedy.2 How would you be,
If He, which is the top of judgment, should

1 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. —Rom. iii. 23. 2 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John iii. 16.

But judge you as you are!1 O, think on that;
And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made.2

Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 2, 1. 72.

As surely as my soul intends to live

With that dread King that took our state upon him

To free us from his father's wrathful curse.

Second Part King Henry VI., Act iii. Sc. 2, 1. 153.

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans in those holy fields

Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet

Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross.

First Part King Henry IV., Act i. Sc. 1, 1. 19.

1 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Psalm cxxx. 3.

2 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. —Eph. iv. 24.

God's Choice of Weak Means.

I know that God is ever such as this,
Darkly disclosing counsels to the wise;
But to the simple, speaking fewest words,
Plain teacher found.

SOPHOCLES, Fragments, 1. 707.

E that of greatest works is finisher

HE

Oft does them by the weakest minister: 1

So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,

When judges have been babes; great floods have flown
From simple sources,2 and great seas have dried
When miracles have by the greatest been denied.
Oft expectation fails and most oft there

Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

It is not so with Him that all things knows

As 'tis with us that square our guess by shows;
But most it is presumption in us when
The help of heaven we count the act of men.
All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 1,

1. 139.

1 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence. I Cor. i. 27.

2 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. Ex. xvii. 6.