Riches bring discomfort and trouble, and so does poverty. It is the contented soul that thinks lightly of all this, braces the body with such wondrous elasticity and powers of endurance, that all burdens become light and trivial. Godliness with contentment is great gain. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

A man, over whose head the winters of sixty years had thickly sown silvery locks, now attracts our attention. He is all impatience, dissatisfied with the Rail Road Company, for it is an outrage that passengers should be detained when they are made to believe by the "time-table" that they shall get off at a certain hour. He treads the platform with impatient steps, walks in and out of the sitting room with increasing dissatisfaction at his situation, talks of the weather, of cars, and of war. He is posted up on the subject of the war, is satisfied that certain generals are not loyal, otherwise they would have conducted their campaigns in such a way as to have produced more satisfactory results. If he were President, things would be different. The responsibility of removing incompetent officers, even if they were popular with the people, would be readily assumed by him, and every thing would go on in much better style. "What an impatient old fellow!" we said. "Oh, it is likely he has no experience in travelling," remarked a matronly person by our side who had been talking to the Ohio matron for an hour or two. Yes! it was true, this was the explanation. The old gentleman was getting nervous and excitable, but this did not constitute any reason why we should imitate him. It was far more philosophical and Christian to find an excuse for his irritability than to become pettish about it ourselves. We looked with satisfaction on the face that belonged to her who could so gently excuse the way wardness of the old man, and saw that sorrow had left its traces, yet a motherly solicitude for the comfort of all around and a quiet air of resignation to any fate were so marked that we quite failed to read her story for a while. At last it volved itself in the form of a gentle, Christian girlhood, blessed with a happy marriage. Doubtless there were bright, dutiful scions from the parent stock. The hand of affliction had come. One after another had been removed. The jewels were transferred from the earthly home to form a glorious coronet for her in heaven. The mellowing influences of sorrow had warmed the finer feelings of her soul to all the world. She must be happy now for she loved to do good. How many homes had become brighter for her presence, and how many fellow beings had blessed God that He had put it into the heart of the good woman to bring aid and relief in the time of trouble or affliction? This question could only be answered by Him who knoweth all things.

But these were not all our companions. There were noisy children who were as well satisfied with a romp in the Depot as at home, anxious mothers (Marthas) whose solicitude for their offspring kept them in a state of ceaseless excitement,-quiet, staid farmers who could sleep any place and snore away all troublesand men of business who found in the segar all the philosophy

needed to satisfy them for their detention. Indeed our company was, very much like the great world, miscellaneous. Still the influence of the better portion was visible in the increasing contentment which was evinced by all. No rude oaths, no profanation of God's holy name, were heard, and thus one's thoughts were not jarred on by the rude music which the Evil one infuses into the speech of almost every crowd of men.

With thoughts somewhat like these we occupied ourself at the Depot, until at length the shrill shrick of the engine announced the approach of the tardy train. All was bustle and confusion. We procured comfortable places for our charge, and soon travelled with locomotive speed over the iron track. Home was reached at last, and while puffing forth clouds of smoke from our meerschaum it occurred to us that we would write down our musings and send them to our friend of "the Guardian." It may be that he will publish them, and his readers will see how comfort and instruction may be obtained from such musings, even when passing seven hours at the Depot.

THE SURETY OF SALVATION.

BY REV. J. H. KENNEDY.

He, who can with the tiny sand
The ocean's rage restrain,
Can in the hollow of His hand,
These trembling souls retain.

His mercy to the last endures-
His counsels never cease-
His love's eternity insures

Our pardon and our peace!

O come, and praise His holy name-
What thanks should we accord,
That it is ours, by faith to claim
Salvation in the Lord!

His truth, is kindness and His grace—
His Spirit's heavenly call-

Through Christ, the Saviour of our race,
Is promised unto all.

He will not leave us comfortless,

But serving Him in fear,

We soon shall, clothed in righteousness,

Before His throne appear!

HOLY CHRISTMAS.

TRANSLATED FREELY FROM THE GERMAN OF DR. STRAUSS.

Winter Solstice! The shortest day and the longest night! The 25th of December-Christmas! It is as if, at this time, something indescribable trembled through nature, and every thing that has life seems to be affected by it. Solstice in Winter! Secret, hidden, and yet mighty! If we may speak of a Festival of nature, there are no natural feelings that so well fall in with it. Does it not seem as if old and young felt it in every vein and nerve, and as if it trembled in every muscle!

In this there is something mysterious. In the silence of the night the solstice takes place, and nothing of it is seen. Nothing but a pause is discerned. We know that in the middle of the longest night, the light is born to a new course of victory; but it is only announced in this, that the nights do not now grow longer nor the days shorter. Those do not yet decrease, nor these increase. It is the pause of the sun, Solstice.

In the summer a similar event takes place, only that then the day is longest and the night shortest; and the stationary day diverts the senses by the multitude of its bright objects. In winter, however, a wider range is afforded to the inner sense, and it foresees and realizes what is transpiring in secret. Thus we recognize as it were the powerful struggles of the energies of nature. The earth is near the sun; but its darkness is still so powerful, that the new light of the sun, which twinkles toward it, can not as yet penetrate into it. It takes some time before we are able to perceive the victory. Twelve days, at least, the struggle continuesthe still pursuing operations of the old night to the completion of the victory which the new light is winning. So long continue the persistent struggles of the conquered darkness, holding its part of the field against the gentle, silent confident advance of the light. Meanwhile sun, light and life are none the less victors. Of this even the pause assures us. The pause in that power which has hitherto been advancing, the arrest of the day's farther decline, gives us the assurance that something new is at hand-that a new power has arisen, that a struggle has commenced, and a new birth is in promise. The light is again born; a new year, by the influx of fresh energies from the nearness of the sun, has been begun; and the sun will bear off the palm of victory.

In short, what is this mid-winter feeling but a foreshadowing of the great truth that no pressure of want is so great, that it cannot be relieved by help from above, and no curse so heavy that a blessing shall not conquer. From now on we awake fully to the truly new. The foreshadowings of the four preceding weeks are

fulfilled; and the remembrances from former years have not been leading us in vain. This is the secret joy and the festal hope which lies in the pause of the nights in mid-winter. Does not this annual experience, like the smaller daily ones at mid-night, and the monthly ones at the time of the new-moon, return again in every human life; and does not every one, in connection with this, call to mind the days when CHILDHOOD was exalted to a festival, whilst with self-consciousness, the world and life opened up before it in unspeakable hope!

Scarcely had Christia nity touched with its beams the Germanic peoples, in whose northern nights the significance of mid-winter has always been more livingly felt than among other nations, when the human spirit raised itself from the feeble image of nature to the substance which is only shadowed forth in it. The Festival of the birth of Christ arose in the Occident. Light in darkness! What is the visible light of the sun, and the passing light of the earthly soul, in comparison with the everlasting light which came from heaven and hath entered the fallen world. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not, exclaims St John. This is the true light which lightens every man that cometh into the world. It was in the world, and the world was made by it, and the world knew it not. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. But as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth!

Thus the annual Solstice is to us only a welcome reminder of the turning point of the sun of grace, which has brought to earth the light and life of salvation. This is a Solstice which, according to its nature, must be celebrated by a two-fold festival, in that of CHRISTMAS-NIGHT, and CHRISTMAS-DAY. No where appears more strongly than here the double nature which characterizes all the Festivals of redemption, in which the transition from sin to grace is the ever-returning object.

The evening preceding Christmas is part of the Christmas Festival. In the Evangelical Church it is beautifully celebrated, as its character requires. A service is sometimes held at the hour when the light fades into the darkness of the evening, and at other times later in the night and with brilliant illuminations. Sometimes, too, in the way of preparation, in the family at home, in the midst of retiring domestic joy. This is regarded as the fulfilment of that typical event when the Lord promised manna to the children of Israel in the wilderness of Sin. "At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord."

Christmas-day is, in the service of the Church, regarded as only the continuance of the festive worship of Christmas Eve. In St. Luke ii 1-14, the glorious event celebrated is briefly but beautifully told. In words simple, free from ornament, like the self

humiliation the God-man Himself, the highest, most wonderful event is recorded! In the darkness of night, and in secret, pressed into retirement by the crowd that had assembled in the Inn, in the midst of the greatest destitution, such as only strangers could experience, transpires the manifestation of the Incarnate Son of God. The Creator of all things appears as a little child on earth!

But over against the darkness and poverty in which the Eternal clothes Himself on His entering the world, His heavenly glory must still reveal itself around Him. The angel of the Lord greets the shepherds near Bethlehem, who were watching their flocks in the night. Behold! the glory of the Lord shone round about them. The Gloria of the heavenly world sounds around the Messenger of the divine Majesty in the hour when that blessed world itself descended to sinners, and appeared in glory amid the darkness of earth. The carth, yea entire humanity, lies in cold and gloomy darkness. Only in this one spot, where the glad-tidings began, the light shines brightly for poor shepherds. Still the brightness shall spread. The farthest future shall grow bright where this message travels. The highest, and holiest Christmas Hymn shall be repeated daily in the Church until the end of days. The angels themselves shall greet their future companions, the increasing hosts of the redeemed, with the Hymn of Christmas joy. As from heaven to earth it came at first, so from earth shall be returned again to heaven, from the joyful lips of ten thousand times ten thousand, the anointed GLORIA IN EXCELSIS: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men!

Christ was born on Christmas day;

Wreathe the holly, twine the bay;
CHRISTUS NATUS HODIE:

The Babe, the Son,

The Holy One
Of Mary.

BEAUTIFUL SENTIMENT.-" I would frown on vice; I would favor virtue-favor whatever would elevate, would exalt, would adorn character, alleviate the miseries of my own species, or contribute to render the world I inhabited like the heavens to which I looked, a place of innocence and felicity. Though I were to exist no longer than those ephemera that sport in the beams of the summer's morn, during that short hour I would rather soar with the eagle, and leave the record of my flight and my fall among the stars, than to creep in the gutter with the reptile, and bed my memory and my body together in the dunghill. However short my part, I would act it well, that I might surrender my existence without disgrace and without compunction."-Nott.