The Light is ever silent;

Most silent of all heavenly silences;

Not even the darkness stiller; nor so still;
Too swift for sound or speech it rushes on
Right through the yielding skies, a massive flood
Of multitudinous beams: an endless sea,
That flows but ebbs not, breaking on the shore
Of this dark earth, with never-ceasing wave.
Yet, in its swiftest flow or fullest spring-tide,
Giving less sound than does one falling blossom,
Which the May-breeze lays lightly on the sward.

Such let

my life be here;

Not marked by noise but by success alone;

Not known by bustle but by useful deeds.

Quiet and gentle, clear and fair as light;
Yet full of its all-penetrating power,

Its silent but resistless influence;

Wasting no needless sound, yet ever working,
Hour after hour upon a needy world!

Sunshine is ever calm;

There are no tempests in yon sea of beams,
That bright Pacific on whose peaceful bosom
All happy things come floating down to us.
Light has no hurricane, no angry blast,
No turbid torrent laying waste our plains.
Morn after morn goes by, and the fresh light
Pours in upon the darkness, yet no storm
Awakes, no eddy stirs the tranquil glow :
No crested billow rises, and no foam,
Drifting along, tells of some tumult past.

Sunshine is ever strong;

No blast can break or bend one single ray;

LIGHT'S TEACHINGS.

In seven-fold strength it faces wave and wind;
Heedless of their opposing turbulence,

It passes through them in its quiet power
Unruffled, and unbroken, and unbent.

No might of armies and no rage of storms
Can turn aside one sunbeam from its path,
Or bate its speed, or force it back again
To the far fountain-head from which it came.

Sunshine is ever pure;

No art of man can rob it of its beauty,
Nor stain its unpolluted heavenliness.
It is the fairest, purest thing in Nature,
Fit type of that fair heaven where all is pure,
And into which no evil thing can enter;

Where darkness comes not, where no shadow falls,
Where night and sin can have no dwelling-place.

Sunshine is ever joyous ;

Its birthplace is in yon bright orb which flings,
O'er cliff and vale, its wealth of rosy smiles.
Each sunbeam seems the very soul of joy;
No sadness soils it; scattering gladsomeness,
Like a bright angel, onward still it moves.
The very churchyard brightens, as the ray
Alights upon its tombstones, and the turf
Seems strangely heaving to the radiant glow,
As if fore-dating the expected sunrise,
When, at the first gleam of the Morning-star,
The faithful grave shall render up its treasure,
And sunshine, such as earth has never known,

Shall fill these skies with mirth, and smiles, and beauty,
Erasing each sad wrinkle from their brow,

Which the long curse had deeply graven there.

Kelso.

H. B.

THE THRONE OF GRACE.

CLEMENCY is one of a sovereign's noblest qualities, and its exercise must to himself be as delightful as its exhibition is to beholders endearing and impressive. But it is not always that his office as administrator of law and guardian of the public welfare, allows him to indulge his private or personal disposition for, by a false leniency, by being too soft and facile, and so making pardons too frequent, a sovereign may multiply crimes, and may bring his laws into contempt; whilst, by letting loose on society a host of miscreants, for whose reformation no means have been taken, he may contaminate the virtuous community, and may inflict on his dominions an injury more grievous than if he broke up a pest-house and scattered its contagious inmates through all his provinces.

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66

Of the arrangement to which we owe our amnesty we do not know the entire details, but we know such things as these 1. It was no suggestion of a third party, much less was it a device of the culprit's own; it was a mystery of godliness," an extrication which Wisdom, moved by tender Mercy, found out, and which God alone could propose to God. 2. It was an expedient which amply vindicated the broken law, and held forth no encouragement to a repetition of the first transgression. The eternal Son of God became man, and taking a nature that could die, He offered an atonement for sin, exhaustive and complete, and brought in a righteousness everlasting and redundant, which is counted as the righteousness of all the second Adam's family. And, whilst thus magnifying the law and justifying the ungodly, the magnificence of the sacrifice was the best

DEMETRIUS AND THE INSURGENTS.

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security against a pardon so purchased encouraging a spirit of levity or lawlessness. It as much as said, These are the lightest terms which Justice can accept. No ransom less costly can release from the desert of sin. And if a new race fall from innocence to guilt, or if any member of the human family pass away from earth contemptuous of Calvary, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. In order to obtain remission we must procure a substitute greater than Immanuel-a victim who is more than Divine. 3. It was a

plan which abundantly guaranteed the restoration and progressive improvement of the rescued offender. In other words, it insured that the pardoned should not be moral pests, but epistles of goodness and patterns of every excellence sent forth to circulate in the midst of society. And this not merely from the force of generous and grateful emotion, but from a peculiar feature in the scheme of mercy: from that condition in the covenant of grace which secures to the redeemed of the Saviour the new-moulding and inspiring influence of the Holy Spirit the Comforter. When Demetrius starved into surrender the insurgent city, and assembling the inhabitants in one place, surrounded them with his soldiery, they expected to die; but the conqueror said, "It is not an enemy whom you have refused, but a prince who loved you, and still loves you, and who wishes to revenge himself only by granting you pardon and being still your friend. Return to your homes. Whilst you have been here, my people have been filling your houses with provisions." In the first gush of gratitude, in the first ecstasy of admiration, there would be no lack of loyalty; and yet in the lapse of months and years that loyalty might have died away, and the fickle Athenians might have been in danger of revolting again. And so when God undeceives the arrested transgressor-when He tells him, "I am not your enemy. I so loved the world as to send it a Saviour.

I grant you a free pardon, and I only seek to be your Friend. And during this interval, while you have been harbouring such hard thoughts, and rebelling against me, I have been preparing a feast of fat things for you;" in the first burst of astonishment there will be no want of devotion. "What shall I render to the Lord? Mine ears must be bored. Behold the Lord's servant for ever!" But the bones which rejoice grow used to health. The deliverance ceases to be recent; and when early motives lose their freshness, there is a danger lest, along with waning gratitude, obedience grow stunted and formal. But the same economy of grace which confers on the sinner believing an instant pardon, secures to the believer the teaching and quickening of the Holy Spirit: and though His blessed influences may not always be the subject of a vivid consciousness, they are none the less real; and they are so kindly continued and so effectual, that notwithstanding corruption within and temptation without, the believer is enabled to hold on to the last, not only a new and altered man, but most usually a rising and improving character.

"Seeing then that we have a great High-Priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God . . . . let us come boldly unto the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." The graciousness of God is an unchanging perfection. Amongst our weak and fallen brethren we are accustomed to caprice and uncertainty. The last time we parted with the friend nothing could exceed his frankness and fervour; but as we met him yesterday, all was coldness and unaccountable reserve. The last time we were in the presence of this superior, he was so affable and so confiding that we hoped to rise high in his favour; but as we return to-day, we know not the reason, but his answers are sharp and short, and his face is dark with frowns. You remember the Eastern despot. If