but time and patience, says the Eastern proverb, change the mulberry leaf to satin.

All things come to the feet of him that can wait.

Let none object my lingering way,

I gain, like Fabius, by delay.

Ill news rides fast while good news baits.
Sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste.
Things growing are not ripe till their season.
sweeter by not being plucked till fully ripe.
Wait is a hard word to the hungry.

Fruit grows

Waiting affords one of the best tests of a chastened and submissive Christian spirit; unmurmuring, cheerful in suspense.

To be able to wait patiently the Lord's time and the Lord's way when our own designs are disappointed is a mark of holy submission and obedience. There are so many things to submit to the will, because we want what is denied; the judgment, because we thought it right; the hope, for we had looked for it anxiously. And yet the Christian is taught to wait; to tarry the Lord's leisure, and believe, yet not to make haste; to be expectant, but without impatience; to be ardent and yet calm.

I must beware of waiting in a drowsy and heedless spirit, in an impatient and fretful spirit, a self-willed and unchastened spirit. I must not try to hasten God's plan by my own devices.

God generally exercises the passive graces of His people before the active. There is generally a time of preparation before He bestows some great favour, or calls to some special service.

Every man must patiently abide his time. He must wait; not in listless idleness, nor in useless pastime, but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavour, always willing, fulfilling, and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion comes he may be equal to the occasion.

Christian, wait; Jehovah reigneth
On His throne of mercy still,
And the wrath of man restraineth
When it worketh not His will.

Be assured the future story

Of the days now dark to you,
Will record His work of glory:
Wait and see what God will do.

War.

"WAR is one of the greatest plagues," says Luther, “that can afflict humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys States, it destroys families. Any scourge, in fact, is preferable to it. Famine and pestilence become as nothing in comparison with it. Pestilence is the least evil of the three, and 'twas therefore David chose it, willing rather to fall into the hands of God than into those of pitiless man."

War's a game which, were their subjects wise,

Kings would not play at.

The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to our enemy with the least harm to ourselves, and this, of course, is to be effected by stratagem.

Force is at best

A fearful thing e'en in a righteous cause.

A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.

I should prefer the hardest terms of peace to the most just war," the favourite maxim of Charles James Fox.

Cicero says: "Even an unjust peace is more advantageous than the justest war."

An officer during an engagement received a ball which struck him near his waistcoat-pocket, where a piece of silver stopped the progress of the nearly-spent ball. The coin was slightly marked at the words Dei gratiâ. This providential circumstance deeply impressed his mind, and led him to read a tract which his beloved and pious sister gave him on leaving home, entitled 'The sin and danger of neglecting the Saviour.' This tract it pleased God to bless to his conversion. The ways of God are wonderful, and in none more than the salvation of sinners.

War is honourable

In those who do their native rights maintain ;
In those whose swords an iron barrier are
Between the lawless spoiler and the weak;
But is in those who draw th' offensive blade
For added power or gain, sordid and despicable
As meanest office of the worldly churl.

The arms are fair,

When the intent of bearing them is just.

War, even in the best state of an army, with all the alleviations of courtesy and honour, with all the correctives of morality and

religion, is nevertheless so great an evil, that to engage in it without a clear necessity is a crime of the blackest dye. When the necessity is clear then it becomes a crime to shrink from it. One to destroy is murder by the law,

And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe;

To murder thousands takes a specious name,-
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

If

you desire peace prepare

for war.

War, war, is still the cry,-war even to the knife.

The existence of war always implies injustice in one, at least, of the parties concerned.

Oh! who shall say what heroes feel,

When all but life and honour's lost?

The carnage occasioned by the wars of Cæsar is estimated at a million fighting men. He fought 520 battles and took 800 cities. His famous despatch-"Veni, Vidi, Vici,—I came, I saw, I conquered -was written to the Senate to announce his overthrow of Pharnaces, king of Pontus, at Zela, 47 B.C. That overthrow took Cæsar three days to accomplish.

The Thirty Years' War was between the Protestants and Papists of Germany, 1618-1648.

WAR-CRIES. The Norman shout was, "God help us." The Welsh war-cry was, "Alleluia." The Spanish war-cry was, "St. Iago charge Spain !"

Let the gull'd fools the toils of war pursue,

Where bleed the many to enrich the few.

"The only reason," says Dr. Johnson, "why we lament a soldier's death is that we think he might have lived longer." The peaceful peasant to the wars is press'd,

The fields lie fallow in inglorious rest.

It is commonly observed among soldiers and seamen that though there is much kindness there is little grief.

The Spartan mother said to her son going to battle as she handed him his shield: “ My son, return with this or on it." "Neither shall they learn war any more."

No longer hosts encountering hosts

Their millions slain deplore;
They hang the trumpet in the hall,
And study war no more.

Watchfulness.

"WHAT I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." Prayer without watching is hypocrisy; watchfulness without prayer is presumption.

"Watch unto prayer," in prayer, after prayer.

Satan watches whether we watch or not.

Other persons watch us, often when we little think it.

He who remembers what has fallen out, will be watchful against what may happen.

Let a man strictly observe the first hints and whispers of good and evil that pass in his heart; this will keep conscience quick and vigilant.

Nothing can arrest his daring vigilance. For him the summer has no heat, and the winter no ice."-Boileau's eulogy on Louis XIV., and often quoted in reference to the first Napoleon.

The real Christian believes; therefore he watches. His faith is operative; therefore it keeps him watchful. It is a faith working by love; therefore it makes him love to watch.

When there is most security there is most cause for fear. If you watch not, your heart will lie open, and temptations will enter.

He that watcheth not, tempteth the tempter himself, who would not assault us so often did we not invite him.

To one sinner who reads the Bible, there are twenty who read professing Christians. How important then that we should all shine as moral light-houses, that men may not from our shortcomings and sins make shipwreck of their souls.

The holiest Christians who have willing spirits for Christ and His service, must watch and pray, and thereby guard themselves from temptations. They must be always watching diligently, and praying earnestly.

We must always exercise watchfulness in prayer-watch for the fittest praying season; watch our hearts while we are praying that our thoughts do not wander, nor our affections flag; watch after praying that our hearts be not lifted up by any assistance received in the duty, nor be too much dejected, upon the score of those infirmities that mingle themselves with our prayers.

Without perpetual watchfulness and diligence, holiness can

never be attained; for the moment you begin to relax in these thou wilt feel imbecility, disorder, and disquietude.

Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' The prayer of Christ is more than sufficient both to strengthen us, be we never so weak; and to overthrow all adversary power, be it never so strong. This prayer must not exclude our labour; their thoughts are vain who think that their watching can preserve the city which God Himself is not willing to keep. And are not they as vain who think that God will keep the city for which they themselves are not careful to watch? The husbandman may not, therefore, burn his plough, nor the merchant forsake his trade, because God hath promised, "I will not forsake thee." And do the promises of God concerning our stability, think you, make it a matter indifferent for us to use or not to use the means whereby to attend or not to attend on reading?—to pray or not to pray that we fall not into temptations? Surely if we look to stand in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive. It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour, in saying, "Father, keep them in Thy name," that we should be careless to keep ourselves. To our own safety our own watchfulness is required.

Who can reflect upon the temptations of the world, the deceitfulness of his heart, and the natural bent of his inclinations, and not watch constantly, and pray heartily, that God would preserve him by His power through faith unto salvation?

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