hem.--Matt. vi. 26.

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is
forgotten before God?--Luke xii. 6.

VOICES FOR THE SPEECHLESS.

* * * * *

A PRAYER.

Maker of earth and sea and sky,
Creation's sovereign, Lord and King,
Who hung the starry worlds on high,
And formed alike the sparrow's wing:
Bless the dumb creatures of thy care,
And listen to their voiceless prayer.

For us they toil, for us they die,
These humble creatures Thou hast made;
How shall we dare their rights deny,
On whom thy seal of love is laid?
Teach Thou our hearts to hear their plea,
As Thou dost man's in prayer to Thee!

EMILY B. LORD.

* * * * *

HE PRAYETH BEST.

O wedding guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide, wide sea:
So lonely 'twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.

O sweeter than the marriage feast,
'Tis sweeter far to me,
To walk together to the kirk
With a goodly company!--

To walk together to the kirk,
And all together pray,
While each to his great Father bends,
Old man, and babes, and loving friends,
And youths and maidens gay!

Farewell! farewell! but this I tell
To thee, thou wedding guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

S. T. COLERIDGE.

* * * * *

OUR MORALITY ON TRIAL.

Bishop Butler affirmed that it was on the simple fact of a creature being
_sentient_, i.e. capable of pain and pleasure, that rests our
responsibility to save it pain and give it pleasure. There is no evading
this obligation, then, as regards the lower animals, by the plea that they
are not moral beings; it is _our_ morality, not _theirs_, which is in
question.

MISS F. P. COBBE.

* * * * *

"Never," said my aunt, "be mean in anything; never be false, never BE
CRUEL. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you."

C. DICKENS, in _David Copperfield_.

* * * * *

SYMPATHY.

Wherefore it is evident that even the ordinary exercise of this faculty of
sympathy implies a condition of the whole