miserable and hurtful gladness to the spiritual and celestial joy, in the Lord Himself.

5. Brethren beloved! ye have been sleeping, now awake; ye have lain long enough in sin. It is time to arise from sleep. Our sleep is the darkness of sin; and so long as we remain in sin, we dwell in darkness, and see not our wickedness. Let us come to the light; let us blush for our iniquity. Oh, what luxury amongst us! what intemperance, what evil-speaking, what falsehood, what treachery to the Lord! We are of the day, because we have believed; because we have put on Christ. But he who is of the day, and yet walks naked, walks dishonourably. Put on the garments of holiness, lest ye be found naked in the presence of the Lord. Be ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man will come.

6. One thief is saved, and cries, 'Lord, remember me;' the other, persisting in his sin, dies on the cross unsaved. How different these two! Both intimate a coming judgment, in which, by His cross, Christ will save some, and condemn others. How different the paths! One ascends to heaven, the other descends to hell. The one is an example to sinners, not to despair, seeing in the very hour of death Paradise is found. The other is a terror to the unbelieving and impenitent, who die in their sins. Yet equally near to both, and equally available for both, was the death of Christ.

7. The day of our redemption is at hand; the deliverance from captivity begins. It is now time that, as the true Jacob, we feast our Isaac-at whose nativity God made our Sarah to laugh—on the best and choicest of our

dainties, lest we be condemned for our thanklessness. To the great Father of the family, whose guests we are, let us present the offerings of faith, righteousness, and meekness, for with the proud He will not eat. They who so eat and drink are His friends just now, and, in the time to come, His best beloved, when, from being Jacob, they shall become Israel; from being wrestlers with God, they shall be beholders of God; from faith they shall pass to knowledge; from their journey to their home; from their race to their rest; where they shall be satisfied with the abundance of God's house, and drink of the river of His pleasures.

BERNARD.

BORN 1091-DIED 1157.

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1. Suppose that you may be righteous overmuch, or wise overmuch, you cannot be good overmuch. Nowhere do I read, Be not 'good overmuch;' for no one can be better than he ought. God only seeks not to be better than Himself, because He cannot be so.

2. If, in everyday warfare, we yield, what will we do in the great conflict? If our weakness gives way before frail reeds, how shall we withstand the weapons of steel?

3. It is the devil's part to suggest; ours, not to consent. As often as we resist him, so often we overcome him; as often as we overcome him, so often we bring joy to the angels and glory to God.

4. O sons of Adam, O covetous generation, what have you to do with earthly riches, which are neither true nor yours! Gold and silver are genuine earth, red and white, which only man's folly makes, or rather reckons, precious. If they be yours, carry them with you.

To us who are

5. We discover glory in the cross. saved, it is the power of God, the source of all holiness. 6. My heart is a vain heart; a vagabond and unstable heart, seeking rest, finding none. It agrees not with itself; it alters its purposes, changes its judgments, frames new thoughts, pulls down the old, then builds them up again; it wills, and wills not, never remaining the same.

7. Happy art thou, if thy heart be possessed with three fears a fear for grace received; a greater fear for grace lost; a still greater fear to recover grace.

8. Happy is he alone, to whom the Lord imputeth not sin. To have Him propitious to me, against whom alone I have sinned, suffices for all my righteousness. If my iniquity is great, Thy grace is much greater. When my soul is troubled at the view of its sinfulness, I look at Thy mercy, and am refreshed. It is a common good; is offered to all; and he only who rejects it, is deprived of its benefits. Let him rejoice who feels himself a wretch. deserving of perpetual damnation; for the grace of Jesus exceeds the number of all crimes. There is no sin greater than to despair of the forgiveness of sin; for God is kind and merciful, ready to forgive.

9. We know another Jerusalem than that in which David reigned, richer by far, more glorious by far.

10. Not in the royal city of Jerusalem was Jesus born, but in Bethlehem, which is the least among the thousands of Judah. O little Bethlehem, made glorious by the Lord, even by Him who, though great, in thee was made little ! Rejoice, O Bethlehem, and through all thy streets let the festal hallelujah be sung.

JI. Wonderful things I say, yet true. The Lord of hosts Himself, King of glory, shall descend to change our bodies, and make them like His body of brightness. How great will be that glory, how unutterable the exultation, when the Creator of the universe, who came lowly and hidden, to deliver souls, shall come in unveiled glory, to glorify thee, O miserable flesh!

1. In the case of a pertinacious disputant, allow him to triumph; of a contumacious one, give way by silence; thus both parties will preserve their tranquillity.

2. Love is the shortest and swiftest way to God; nor is there any sweetness in virtue without love, for love is the essence of all virtues. Through the exercise of this love, man comes to such self-abhorrence as not only to despise himself, but to be content to be despised by others; nay, counts this contempt all joy.

3. As a sculptor is said to have indignantly exclaimed on seeing a rude block of marble, 'What godlike beauty thou hidest!' Thus God looks upon man, in whom God's own image is hidden.

4. We may begin by loving God in hope of reward; we may express ourselves concerning him in symbols; but we must throw them all away, and, much more, must we scorn all idea of reward, that we may love God only, because He is the supreme good, and contemplate His eternal nature as the substance of our own soul (that is, as the God in whom we live and move and have our being).

5. If a man truly loves God, and has no will but to do God's will, the whole force of the river Rhine may run at him, and will not disturb him nor break his peace. If we