Benevolence.

THE distinguishing feature of Christianity is benevolence. Benevolence is not merely a feeling but a principle; not a dream of rapture for the fancy to indulge in, but a business for the hand to execute.

All other joys grow less

In the great joy of doing kindnesses.

The conqueror is regarded with awe, the wise man commands our esteem, but it is the benevolent who wins our affections.

John Kyrle, the "Man of Ross" in Herefordshire, was distinguished for his benevolence. Richer than miser, nobler than king.

We are sure that Howard the Philanthropist was one of the happiest of men. His love for man led him

To quit the bliss his rural scenes bestow,

To seek a nobler amid scenes of woe.

It was said of Isaac Walton:

Happy old man, whose worth all mankind knows, except himself. I must not be known as a

Vox et præterea nihil-a voice and nothing more, else it may be truly said of me :

Doing good,

Disinterested good, is not his trade.

It should be rather said of me-He is

Firm of word,

Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue.

I must strive to be always doing good rather than to be conspicuous.

Talkers are no great doers; be assured

We come to use our hands and not our tongues.

Doing good is the only certainly happy action of a man's life. Posthumous charities are the very essence of selfishness, when bequeathed by those who, when alive, would part with nothing.

Give and spend and God will send.

There is no use of money equal to that of beneficence; here the enjoyment grows on reflection.

We lose what on ourselves we spend,

We have as treasure without end

Whatever, Lord, to Thee we lend,

Who givest all.

"The wealth which you give away will ever be

Let it be said of me :

Good, the more

Communicated, more abundant grows.

For his bounty

There was no winter in't, an autumn 'twas
That grew the more by reaping.

A good heart's worth gold.

The truly generous is the truly wise:
And he who loves not others lives unblest.

'Tis not enough to help the feeble up,
But to support him after.

The kindness which is shown on the good is never lost.

That best portion of a good man's life

His little, nameless, unremembered acts

Of kindness and of love.

As benevolence is the most sociable of all virtues, so it is of the largest extent; for there is not any man, either so great or so little, who is not capable of giving and of receiving benefits. -Seneca.

Benevolence is a duty. He who frequently practises it, and sees his benevolent intentions realized, at length comes really to love him to whom he has done good.

Never did any soul do good, but it came readier to do the same again with more enjoyment.

He that does good to another man does also good to himself -the conscience of well-doing is ample reward.

The dews come down unseen at eventide,

And silently their bounties shed, to teach
Mankind unostentatious charity.

A Christian should be, and is, humble to his God, loyal to his king, kind to his relations, benevolent to all.

Bible.

WITHIN this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries:
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has given grace
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,

To lift the latch, to force the way;

But better had they ne'er been born,

Who read to doubt or read to scorn.-Sir W. Scott.

The Bible has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter :-it is all pure, all sincere, nothing too much, nothing wanting.—Locke. A glory gilds the sacred page,

Majestic like the sun :

It gives a light to every age;

It gives, but borrows none.-Couper.

There are no songs comparable to the songs of Zion; no orations equal to those of the Prophets; and no politics like those which the Scriptures teach.-Milton.

The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most comfortable way of dying.— Flavel.

I have carefully and regularly perused these Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion, that the volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected. from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written.-Sir W. Jones.

All the genius and learning of the heathen world, all the penetration of Pythagoras, Socrates and Aristotle, had never been able to produce such a system of moral duty, and so rational an account of Providence and of man, as is to be found in the New Testament.-Beattie.

Herein is the infinite wisdom of God seen, in wreathing together plain truths with obscure, that He might gain the more credit to His Word, by the one instructing the ignorance of the weakest; by the other puzzling and confounding the understanding of the wisest. This also adds a beauty and ornament to the Scripture.

The Word is a telescope to discover the great luminaries of the world, the truths of the highest concernment to the souls of men; and it is such a microscope as discovers to us the smallest atom of our thoughts, and discerns the most secret intent of the heart.-Bp. Stillingfleet.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublinie philosophy.-Sir Isaac Newton.

The longer we read the Bible the more we shall like it; it will grow sweeter and sweeter.

With what a mixture of fear, reverence, and holy joy, should we open the Bible-the book of truth and happiness! God's heart opened to man! and yet the whole and every part of it secreted from him, and laid over with an impenetrable veil, till he opens his heart to God.

As the word of God, well studied, will help us to understand His providences; so the providence of God, well observed, will help us to understand His word, for God is every day fulfilling the Scripture.-Henry.

If we would preserve the conscience quick and sensible we must be daily conversant in the Book of God. For His Book commands with authority, instructs with that clearness, persuades with that force, reproves with that purity, prudence and charity, that we shall not easily be able to resist it: it describes righteousness and sin in such true and lively colours, proclaims rewards and punishments in such powerful and moving language, that it rouses even the dead in sin; penetrates and wounds the stupid and obdurate.

This Book, this holy Book, on every line
Mark'd with the seal of high divinity,
On every leaf bedew'd with drops of love
Divine, and with the eternal heraldry
And signature of God Almighty stamp'd
From first to last; this ray of sacred light,
This lamp from off the everlasting throne
Mercy took down, and in the night of time
Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow;
And evermore beseeching men with tears

And earnest sighs, to read, believe, and live.-Pollock.

Birth.

THE origin of all mankind was the same: it is only a clear and good conscience that makes a man noble. For a man to spend his life in pursuit of a title, that serves only when he dies, to furnish an epitaph, is below a wise man's business.

Ovid says: "Birth, ancestry, and all other things, which we ourselves have not acquired, can scarcely be called our own." Nought from my birth or ancestors I claim; All is my own, my honour and my shame.

Juvenal asks: "Of what advantage is it to you to quote your remote ancestors, and to exhibit their portraits?"

Where's the advantage-where the real good
In tracing from the source our ancient blood;
To have our ancestors in paint or stone,
Preserved as relics, or as monsters shown?

Some men, by ancestry, are only the shadow of a mighty

name.

An empty man of a great family is a creature that is scarce conversable.

It is with antiquity as it is with ancestry, nations are proud of the one, and individuals of the other; but if they are nothing in themselves, that which is their pride ought to be their humiliation.

Convince the world that you're devout and true,
Be just in all you say, in all you do;
Whatever be your birth, you're sure to be

A peer of the first quality to me.

Those who have nothing else to recommend them to the respect of others, but only their blood, cry it up at a great rate, and have their mouths perpetually full of it. They swell and vapour, and you are sure to hear of their families and relations every third word. By this mark they commonly distinguish themselves. You may depend upon it there is no good bottom, nothing of true worth of their own, when they insist on so much and set their credit upon that of others.

Boast not the titles of your ancestors, brave youth!
They're their possessions, none of yours.

When your own virtues equall'd have their names
"Twill be but fair to lean upon their fames,