SIMILES.Christians may be compared to light, which purifies and quickens.

As leaven spreads through a whole lump, so a Christian influences a whole family.

As the wind "bloweth where it listeth," without being seen; so the power of Christianity is "sharp as a twoedged sword," but "cometh without observation."

Christian missionaries in a heathen land dispel ignorance and superstition, as a lamp dispels darkness and gloom.

As the eye is the light of the body, so Christians are the light of the world.

Lime prevents infection, purifies sick chambers, and disperses noxious effluvia: So Christians, by precept and example, prevent the infection of sin, and purify the charnel-houses of idolatry.

Christianity, like incense, spreads its influence around amongst men, and rises at the same time upwards towards heaven.

QUOTATIONS.-Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.-Matt. v. 16.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.-Gal. v. 9. Have no fellowship with the unfrueful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.-Eph. v. 2.

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; For if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched,
But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence;

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use.

Shakspeare.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.—Matt. xiii. 33.

Virtutis enim laus omnis in actione consistit.-Cicero.

THEME LIII. Poetry and well-conducted Periodicals are not without their Uses.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON. They exercise the reason without fatiguing it, by leading to inquiries acute but not painful, profound but not abstruse.

2ND REASON.-The most industrious cannot be always engaged in business, nor the most serious employed upon grave studies: All must have vacant hours; and it is far better to spend them in amusing literature, than in routs, and balls, or sensual enjoyments.

3RD REASON.-The elevated sentiments and high examples which poetry, history, and judicious periodicals bring under the view of their readers, naturally tend to nourish in the mind a love of glory, a contempt for every thing base and mean, and an admiration of all that is illustrious and good. Although the impression may not be durable, yet is it wholesome to rouse the feeling, and make the mind sensible even of the most transient sentiments of honour and virtue.

4TH REASON.-Poetry and well-conducted periodicals may be made most valuable auxiliaries to the cause of sound philosophy, useful science, general knowledge, gospel morality, and true happiness.*

*The Tatler, Spectator, and the Guardian deserve the gratitude of every Englishman for breaking down the impassable barriers between schoolmen and the men of the world, for diffusing throughout the nation

5TH REASON. All literary amusements have a healthy social influence: They furnish men with relaxation at home, and prevent the necessity of seeking it in places of objectionable public resort.

6TH REASON. -The popularity of the fine arts, and of periodical literature, causes a vast number of persons to be employed in humanising studies; and the leavening influence of this host of authors must tend to break down ignorance, prejudice, grossness, and vulgarity.

SIMILES. Flowers afford amusement, instruction, and many a feeling of great moral value.

The stars are not needful to give light upon the earth, but they "declare the glory of God," and preach "most excellent wisdom."

The painted butterfly is not to be compared, in solid worth, to the industrious bee and frugal ant, yet it can tell its tale, and point a moral.

The Creator has his "periodicals" as well as the press: insects and flowers that die in a day, animalcule of infinitesimal minuteness, shadows and sunshines, the twinkling of stars, the prattle of the rivulet, the spray of the cascade, and the hues of the rainbow.

Collections of leaves, shells, insects, bones, ores, autographs, &c. are generally made to perform the service of poetry and periodicals, although occasionally they are employed for more important purposes. Whatever the object of the collector, the pursuit is innocent, laudable, amusing, and instructive.

Concerts of music, galleries of paintings, lectures, &c. tend, like poetry and periodicals, to relieve the mind and instruct it.

Light literature may be compared to the sparks which

the urbanities of refinement, and making infidelity, immorality, and vulgarity at least unfashionable. In our own days, Blackwood's Magazine, Chambers' Journal, the Penny and the Saturday Magazines, the Literary Gazette, the Athenæum, and several other periodicals, have maintained a wholesome influence, and deserved popularity.

scintillate, from burning wood; much wisdom may be learnt by minds disposed to search it out; much pleasure may be derived by those who are disposed to be pleased; much annoyance, if the temper be censorious; and much injury, when common judgment and prudence are not exerted.

QUOTATIONS.-All study is to be valued, not so much as an exercise of the intellect, as a discipline of humanity. -Lord Bacon.

All arts and sciences owe their worth to the love of the beautiful, rather than the useful. - Wieland.

Works of taste introduce us into a new and model world, and improve and enlarge the mind like travelling. Dr. Jones.

The use of the fine arts is to apply and recommend the dictates of reason to the imagination, in order to excite the affections and will.. -Lord Bacon.

Plato would have all boys taught music as well as mathematics.

Rhetoric and poetry, by plainly painting virtue and goodness, render them, as it were, conspicuous; for, as they cannot be seen by the corporeal eye, the next degree is to have them set before us as lovely as possible by the ornament of words, and the strength of the imagination. - Lord Bacon.

These polished arts have humanised mankind;

Softened the rude, and calmed the boisterous mind.

Addison. Horace maintains that more practical philosophy is to be learnt from Homer, than from Crantor and Chrysippus.* CONCLUSION.

* Crantor of Cilicia flourished B.C. 300: he wrote several works on moral subjects. Chrysippus, a contemporary and fellow-citizen of Crantor, wrote 705 treatises which form the basis of the Stoic school.

THEME LIV.- The Study of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy is attended with incalculable Advantages.

INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON. Chemistry and Natural Philosophy afford a most valuable auxiliary to revelation :

(1.) By representing, in "visible glories," the "eternal power and Godhead ;" and making "known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom."

(2.) By increasing man's admiration for the infinite skill, omnipotent power, unceasing benevolence, and unfailing wisdom of the Almighty, so wonderfully displaye in all the operations of his hands.

(3.) By creating a feeling of profound humility an modesty. What an insignificant being does man appear amidst "the great and marvellous works" of God! "What a poor pitiable speck of perishing earth!" The language of the Psalmist must force itself on every mind that contemplates the wonders of the heavens above, and of the earth beneath, "Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him?” (4.) By converting admiration and humility into reverence and veneration. So "great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; so just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints, -who would not fear thee and glorify thy name?"

(5.) By showing the wonderful condescension of God to man, especially in regard to the redemption of the fallen world. When the student of Nature looks upon "the heavens and the heavens of heavens," and remembers that God "sitteth on the circle of the earth, and all the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers;" or when he dives into the bowels of the earth, "which is his footstool," will he not ask with Solomon, Will this God "in very deed dwell with man upon earth?" and he will allow with St. Paul, that "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, passeth all understanding.'