nd suddenly
quenches that light! Is there not left a moral which abides a sweet and
lasting consolation? That moral is-the power of a kind heart; the worth
of domestic virtues; the living freshness of a memory in which these
qualities are combined.

Thus, then, in its brevity and its comprehensiveness, with its plot and
its moral, we see that each human life is like "a tale that is told."
To you, my friends, I leave the personal application of these
truths. Surely they suggest to each of us the most vital and solemn
considerations. Surely they call us to diligence and repentance,--to
introspection and prayer. What we are in ourselves,--what use we shall
make of life;--is not this an all important subject? What lesson we
shall furnish for others,--what influence for good or evil;--can we be
indifferent to that? God give us grace and strength to ponder and to act
upon these suggestions!

Finally, remember under whose dominion all the sorrows and changes
of earth take place. Let your faith in Him be firm and clear. To Him
address your grief;--to Him lift up your prayer. Of Him seek strength
and consolation;--of Him ask that a holy influence may attend every
experience. And while all the trials of life should quicken us to
a loftier diligence, and inspire us with a keener sense of personal
responsibility, surely when our hearts are sore and bleeding,--when our
hopes lie prostrate, and we are faint and troubled, it is good to rise
to the contemplation of the Infinite Controller,--to lean back upon the
Almighty Goodness that upholds the universe; to realize that He does
verily watch over us, and care for us; to feel that around and above all
things else He moves the vast circle of his purpose, and carries within
it all our joys and sorrows; and that this mysterious tale of human
life-this tangled plot of our earthly being-is unfolded beneath His
all-beholding eye, and by His omnipotent and paternal hand.

THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF SORROW

"A man of sorrow, and acquainted with grief" Is. Iii. 3.

There is one great distinction between the productions of Heathen and of
Christian art. While the first exhibits the perfection of physical form
and of intellectual beauty, the latter expresses, also, the majesty
of sorrow, the grandeur of endurance, the idea of triumph refined from
agony. In all those shapes of old there is nothing like the glory of the
martyr; the sublimity of patience and resignation; the dignity of