Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it. Every man has his faults, therefore I have mine.

Along with Shakespeare's intense humour and his equally intense piercing insight into the darkest, deepest depths of human nature, there is still a spirit of universal kindness pervading his works.

The principal and distinguishing excellence of Virgil is tenderness; and this he possesses beyond all poets.

Whenever any of God's saints in the Old Testament are mentioned in the New they are always spoken of with honour, and their faults and failings are not alluded to. On the contrary, the ungodly are never spoken of but with some blot-"Cain, who was of that wicked one; "Ishmael "persecuted him that was born after the Spirit; Balaam "loved the wages of unrighteousness."

The end of the commandment is charity"-by this chiefly are we known to be the disciples of Christ. The deficiency of brotherly kindness and true Christian love, more perhaps than all other "things that are wanting," hinders the spread of the Gospel and the good fruits of Christianity. Little need we wonder that the Apostle who continually, and the more he advanced in age, exhorted Christians to "love one another," was the "disciple whom Jesus loved."

We are sure to judge wrong if we do not feel right.
Cynics and sycophants are equally despicable.

The difference between coarse and refined abuse is as the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow.

Cowards are cruel, but the brave

Love mercy and delight to save.

To spread suspicion, to invent calumnies, requires neither labour nor courage.

It is the bent of the basest and most worthless spirits to be busy in the search and discovery of others' failings, passing by all that is commendable and imitable. But the more excellent mind of a real Christian loves not unnecessarily to touch-no, nor to look upon them-but rather turns away. Such never uncover their brother's sores but to cure them, and no more than is necessary for that end. They would willingly have them hid, that neither they nor others might see them.

Let it never be said of me, "There is no bearing his uncharitableness."

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Cheerfulness.

CHEERFULNESS is health; melancholy disease.

The most manifest sign of wisdom is continued cheerfulness. Always, if possible, take a cheerful view of things.

Make sunshine in a shady place.

We love to meet a friend who is cheerful.

The grave a gay companion shun,
Far from the sad the jovial run.

Cheerfulness makes the mind clearer, gives tone to thought, and adds grace and beauty to the countenance. A loving, cheerful temper,

A gentle, smiling face,
Will cast a ray of brightness
Within the darkest place.

Dr. Johnson used to say that a habit of looking on the best side of every event is better than a thousand a year.

Bishop Hall quaintly remarks: "For every bad there might be a worse; and when a man breaks his leg, let him be thankful it was not his neck."

Cheerful he seemed, and gentleness he loved.

Gentle, yet not dull.

Cheerfulness banishes all anxious cares and discontent, soothes and composes the passions, and keeps the soul in a perpetual

calm.

"The mind," says Horace," that is cheerful in its present state, will be averse to all solicitude as to the future, and will meet the bitter occurrences of life with a placid smile."

Old age without cheerfulness is a Lapland winter without a sun; and this spirit of cheerfulness should be encouraged in our youth if we would wish to have the benefit of it in our old age. A cheerful countenance is permanently so-it marks the contentment of the heart.

Persons who are always innocently cheerful and good-humoured are very useful in the world; they maintain peace and happiness, and spread a thankful temper amongst all who live around them.

A merry heart goes all the day,

A sad tires in a mile.

Employment so certainly produces cheerfulness," says Bishop Hall, "that I have known a man come home in high spirits from a funeral because he had had the management of it."

Be cheerful, no matter what reverse obstruct your pathway, or what plagues follow in your trail to annoy you. Ask yourself what is to be gained by looking or feeling sad when troubles throng around you, or how your condition is to be alleviated by abandoning yourself to despondency. Be not a travelling monument of despair and melancholy.

An habitually cheerful temper is like a good fire in winter, diffusive and genial in its influence, and always approached with a confidence that it will comfort and do good.

He was always at leisure

For every one who came;
However tired or weary,
They found him just the same.
He did things so kindly;
It was his heart's delight
To make poor people happy,
From morning until night.

Be cheerful and comfort yourself with the God of all comfort, Who is not willing to behold any sorrow, but for sin.

God intends your soul to be a sacred temple for Himself to dwell in, and will not allow any room there for such an inmate as grief, or allow that any sadness shall be His competitor.

Since we cannot promise ourselves constant health, let us endeavour at such a temper as may be our best support in the decay of it.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, altogether past calculation its power of endurance. Efforts, to be permanently useful, must be made in a cheerful spirit.

Try for a single day to preserve yourself in an easy and cheerful frame of mind, and you will find your heart open to every good motive, and your life strengthened-you will wonder at your own improvement.

A rational repast;

Exertion, vigilance, a mind in arms,

A military discipline of thought,

To foil temptation in the doubtful field,

And ever-waking ardour for the right

'Tis these first give, then guard, a cheerful heart.

Children.

"CHILDREN are an heritage of the Lord."-Ps. cxxvii. 3. "Train up a child in the way he should go : and when he is old, he will not depart from it."-PROV. xxii. 6.

"What gift has Providence bestowed on man," asks Cicero, that is so dear to him as his children?"

Children are what the mothers are.

No fondest father's fondest care
Can fashion so the infant heart
As those creative beams that dart,
With all their hopes and fears, upon
The cradle of a sleeping son.
His startled eyes with wonder see
A father near him on his knee,
Who wishes all the while to trace
The mother in his future face;
But 'tis to her alone uprise

His wakening arms; to her those eyes
Open with joy and not surprise.

Behold the child, by nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw.

The childhood shows the man

As morning shows the day.

By sports like these are all their cares beguiled;
The sports of children satisfy the child.

It is a curious fact that children are the best judges of character at first sight in the world.

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There is an old Scotch proverb: "They are never cannie, that dogs and bairns dinna like; and there is not one more true. Happy those early days when I Shined in mine angel infancy! Oh, how I long to travel back, And tread again that ancient track, Before I taught my tongue to wound My conscience with a sinfu sound.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death.

The plays of natural lively children are the infancy of art. Children live in the world of imagination and feeling. They invest the most insignificant object with any form they please, and see in it whatever they wish to see.

Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.

My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother."-PROV. i. 8.

The child's commandment-the fifth.

The obedience of children to their parents is the basis of all government, and is set forth as the measure of that obedience which we owe to those whom Providence has placed over us.

For one cruel parent we meet with a thousand undutiful children.

Children should not be flattered, but they should be encouraged. They should not be so praised as to make them vain and proud, but they should be commended when they do well.

If the mind be curbed and humbled too much in children, if their spirits be abased and broken much by too strict a hand over them, they lose all their vigour and industry.

Be ever gentle with the children God has given you; watch over them constantly; reprove them earnestly, but not in anger. Be not bitter against them." Let memory carry them back to a home where the law of kindness reigned, where the mother's reproving eye was moistened with a tear, and the father frowned more in sorrow than in anger.

Children generally hate to be idle; all the care then is, that their busy humour should be constantly employed in something of use to them.

Call not that man wretched who, whatever ills he suffers, has a child to love.

Bishop Hall says: "I remember a great man coming to my house at Waltham; and seeing all my children standing in the order of their age and stature, he said, These are they that make rich men poor'; but he straight received this answer: Nay, my lord, these are they that make a poor man rich; for there is not one of these whom we would part with for all your wealth.'"

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,

Look upon a little child;

Pity my simplicity,

Suffer me to come to Thee.