hadows that mock you as you grasp them. If always
aspiring--ever soaring on the wing--you are likely to become
discontented, proud, selfish, time-serving. In whatever position of life
God has placed you, be satisfied. What! ambitious to be on a pinnacle of
the temple--a higher place in the Church, or in the world?--Satan might
hurl you down! "Be not high-minded, but fear." And with respect to
others, honor their gifts, contemplate their excellences only to imitate
them. Speak kindly, act gently, "condescend to men of low estate."

Be assured, no happiness is equal to that enjoyed by the "_meek
Christian_." He has within him a perpetual inner sunshine, a perennial
well-spring of peace. Never ruffled and fretted by real or imagined
injuries, he puts the best construction on motives and actions, and by a
gentle answer to unmerited reproach often disarms wrath.

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Sixth Day.

THANKFULNESS.

"I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth."--Matt. xi. 25.

A thankful spirit pervaded the entire life of Jesus, and surrounded with
a heavenly halo His otherwise darkened path. In moments we least expect
to find it, this beauteous ray breaks through the gloom. In instituting
the memorial of His _death_, He "_gave thanks_!" Even in crossing the
Kedron to Gethsemane, "He sang an hymn!"

We know in seasons of deep sorrow and trial that every thing wears a
gloomy aspect. Dumb Nature herself to the burdened spirit seems as if
she partook in the hues of sadness. The life of Jesus was one
continuous experience of privation and woe--a "Valley of Baca," from
first to last; yet, amid accents of plaintive sorrow, there are ever
heard subdued undertones of _thankfulness_ and joy!

Ah, if He, the suffering "Man of sorrows," could, during a life of
unparalleled woe, lift up His heart in grateful acknowledgment to His
Father in heaven, how ought the lives of those to be one perpetual "hymn
of thankfulness," who are from day to day and hour to hour (for all they
have, both temporally and spiritually) pensioners on God's bounty and
love!

Reader! cultivate this thankful spirit; it will be to thee a perpetual
feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as _small_
mercies; all are _great_, because the least are undeserved. Indeed, a
really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from every
thing, making the most even of scanty blessings. St. Paul, when in his