34. CHARACTER, influential. 

 Lord Peterborough, speaking

on one occasion of the "cele-

brated Fenelon," observed :

"He is a delicate creature; I

was forced to get away from

him as fast as I could, else he

would have made me pious."

Would to God that all of us had

such an influence over godless

men. Some one has said that

it is not so much the words as

it is the “ Acts of the Apostles"

that convince us of the truth of

the Gospel. 

216. PREACHING, essen-

tials.  I. A definite theory of

preaching ; a theory that the

man has wrought out for himself

on his knees before God. Not

only should each sermon be a

unit, but all your sermons should

form one structure, dominated by

the power of one living law. 2.

Thoroughness of doctrinal knowl-

edge. The hard pan, and the

solid rock beneath, are necessary

to the life and beauty of the

flowers of the field; so is the

rock of doctrine necessary to the

life and beauty of Christianity.

3. Passion. Not the passion of

excitement, but that which springs

from intensity of living convic-

tions. This is the great lack of

our pulpits to-day. 4. Adapta-

tion in statemnent : that is, the use

of language level to the under-

standing of the vast majority of

the men you address. 5. Free-

dom in delivery. Not outward

freedom, but the utter absence of

arrogant assumption in the pul-

pit. 6. A profound sense of de-

pendence on the Holy Ghost. 

—-Berhends. 

232. PROVERBS, of caution.

The cheek speaks quicker than

the tongue.

Three may keep a secret if two

of them are dead.

Hedges have no eyes, but they

have ears.

A talkative fellow is like a

drum, which beats a wise man

out of his wits.

Do you wish men to speak

well of you ? Commend not then

yourself.

The less men think, the more

they talk.

Think much, say little, write

less.

He who says what he likes,

must hear what he does not like.

An angry man opens his mouth

and shuts up his eyes.

Too much scratching smarts,

too much talking harms.

Drop the jest when it is most

amusing.

He falls into the pit who leads

another into it. 

20. BIBLE, — the central figure

Christ.  A celebrated artist

made a wonderful shield and

worked his own name into it so

that it could not be removed with-

out destroying the shield. Thus

is Christ so in woven into the tex-

ture of the Scriptures that noth-

ing can remove Him without

destroying the Word itself.

49. CHRIST, the only door.

Though there were many rooms

in the ark, there was only one

door. " And the door of the ark

shalt thou set in the side thereof."

And so there is only one door in

the ark of our salvation, and that

is Christ.  Guthrie. 

79. FAITH.  A train of cars was
passing swiftly down the steep

grade of the Alleghany Moun-

tains, when the engineer discov-

ered a little girl and her baby

brother playing on the track just

ahead. At this crisis the girl dis-

covered a niche in the side of

the rock, into which she thrust

the baby and pressed herself,

saying, as she did so, " Cling

close to the rock ; cling close to

the rock !" The train thundered

by, and they escaped unharmed.

The safety of every soul from

swift coming wrath is found alone

in "clinging to the Rock."

" Other refuge have I none,

Helpless hangs my soul on Thee.'' 

226. PRESUMPTION.  Be-

fore Waterloo, Napoleon is said

to have exclaimed : " At last I've

caught them!" he was so sure of

victory. So Pharoah thought

when Israel stood between the

mountains and the sea. 

298 WAYSIDE SEED. A

ticket was once dropped in the

street by a Sunday-school scholar.

A lady passing that way in her

carriage, and, supposing it to be

a treasury' note or small bill, such

as we then used for change, or-

dered her servant to bring it to

her. He did so, when, lo! in-

stead of its representing a small

amount of earthly treasure, she

found the following words:

''What shall it profit a man if

he shall gain the whole world

and lose his own soul ?" The

inquiry was deeply impressed

upon her mind, and in vain

did she attempt to banish it; in

vain she sought the circles of

folly and dissipation ; the thought

still pressed upon her mind,

“ What shall it profit ?" nor did

she find rest till brought to the

feet of  Jesus, God's word "shall

not return void." 

120. INGRATITUDE, If one

should give me a dish of sand

and tell me there were particles

of iron in it, I might look with

my eyes for them and search for

them with my clumsy fingers

and be unable to find them ; but

let me take a magnet and sweep

it, and how it would draw to it-

self the most visible particles by

the mere power of attraction !

The unthankful heart, like my

finger in the sand, discovers no

mercies; but let the thankful

heart sweep through the day,

and as the magnet finds the

iron so it will find in every hour

some heavenly blessings; only

the iron in God's sand is gold.

 O. W. Holmes. 

111. HUMILITY. A converted

skeptic was asked how he felt in

reference to the resurrection and

other truths about which he had

caviled. "Oh, sir," he replied,

"two words from Paul conquered

me: “  Thou fool ! Do you see

this Bible?" taking up a beauti-

ful copy of the Scriptures, fast-

ened with a silver clasp. "Will

you read the words upon the

clasp that shuts it? ' His friend

read, engraven on the silver

clasp, "Thou fool !" "There,"

said the owner, 'are the words

which conquered me. It was

no argument, no reasoning, no

satisfying my objections; but

God convincing me that I was a

fool, and thenceforward I deter-

mined I would have my Bible

clasped with those words:

“Thou fool! and never again

would come to the consideration

of its sacred mysteries but

through their medium. I will

remember that I am a fool, and

God only is wise."