old ways the new life is cramped and uneasy, and demands enlargement; and slight breaches of the delicacy of domestic relation are made, which are difficult to repair. In many cases the moral conduct becomes less amiable than before, for reasons which are now to be detailed.

There may often be members of the same domestic circle, men in whom conscience takes the lead of the conduct, and who are capable of the greatest sacrifices at the call of Duty. They discern intellectually all the moral perfections of God, and sincerely revere Him. The thought of his All-seeing eye braces them against temptation, nor are any more trustworthy persons to be found for all the ordinary outward duties of life. Yet their religion is not a very inward nor productive one; it sanctions and confirms, but does not animate and elevate their morality. While they are mild toward the unselfishly irreligious, and show toward penitent offenders a feeling which, though not tender, is considerate, they are exceedingly keen critics of all professors of spirituality, and cannot make allowance for errors of impulse and neglect in such. They have no vivid and satisfying sense of God's presence, as is shown by their liking for outward distinctions and many artificial pleasures, as also by their regard for fashion and for the world's opinion in trifles; yet they have strength of mind to rise above these things, whenever clear duty calls. They act "upon principle," that is, upon rules capable of being defined in words; and seldom think it wise to follow the instinct of the soul.

Now between such a character and a soul which has

suddenly come into new and vehement life, there is some repulsion. Each sees the other's defects. The one appears to be stiff, dry, pharisaic, and certainly unregenerate; the other to be self-pleasing, uncontrolled, incapable of conscientious sacrifice, one-sided in moral conduct, selfconfident, and very presumptuous. The former, having little or no consciousness of spiritual instinct, gathers, with mingled concern and indignation, that the latter believes himself guided by the Spirit of God within his heart. F. W. Newman.

This is the ordinary and open way of God's providence which art and industry have in a good part discovered, whose effects we may foretell without an oracle. To foreshow these is not prophecy, but prognostication. There is another way full of meanders and labyrinths, whereof the devil and spirits have no exact ephemerides, and that is a more particular and obscure method of his providence, directing the operations of individuals and single essences. This we call fortune, that serpentine and crooked line, whereby he draws those actions his wisdom intends in a more unknown and secret way. This cryptic and involved method of his providence have I ever admired; nor can I relate the history of my life, the occurrences of my days, the escapes of dangers and hits of "Beso las manos chance, with a to fortune, or a bare

gramercy to my good stars. Abraham might have thought the ram in the thicket came thither by accident. Human reason would have said that mere chance con

veyed Moses in the ark to the sight of Pharaoh's daughter. What a labyrinth is there in the history of Joseph, able to convert a Stoic! Surely there are in every man's life certain rubs, doublings, and wrenches, which pass awhile under the effects of chance, but at the last, well examined, prove the mere hand of God. 'Twas not dumb chance, that to discover the fougade or powder plot, contrived a miscarriage in the letter. I like the victory of '88 the better, for that one occurrence which our enemies imputed to our dishonor and the partiality of fortune, to wit, the tempests and contrariety of winds. King Philip did not detract from the nation, when he said he sent his armada to fight with men, and not to combat with the winds. Where there is a manifest disproportion between the powers and forces of two several agents, upon a maxim of reason, we may promise the victory to the superior; but when unexpected accidents slip in, and unthought-of occurrences intervene, these must proceed from a power that owes no obedience to those axioms; where, as in the writing upon the wall, we may behold the hand, but see not the spring that moves it.

Sir Thomas Browne.

It would have been easy to create us so that we should seem to ourselves independent; but our characters require to feel our dependence. The free gifts are given for happiness to make life beautiful and us tender and grateful and to teach us dependence. What we gain by our own exertions develops our faculties, and gives the stronger part of character.

It is the chance element of life which shows the existence of Higher Powers. If we could command reward we should become deities unto ourselves. Müller says the Infernal Powers were the only purifying element of the Grecian Mythology.

I confess that mankind hath a free will, but it is to milk kine, to build houses, &c., and no further; for so long as a man sitteth well and in safety, and sticketh in no want, so long he thinketh he hath a free will, which is able to do something; but when want and need appeareth, that there is neither to eat nor to drink, neither money nor provision, where is then the free will? It is utterly lost, and cannot stand when it cometh to the pinch. But faith only standeth fast and sure and seeketh Christ. Luther.

We make too little of the subject of Providence. My mind is by nature so intrepid and sanguine, and it has so often led me to anticipate God in his guidings, to my severe loss, that perhaps I am now too suspicious and dilatory in following him. Cecil.

I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere.

We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the

day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties.

Thoreau.

Precipitation is acting without sufficient grounds of action. There is self-blindness in it; there is great criminality in it. It is not a state of dependence. It betrays want of patience with respect to God, and want of faith. It discovers a want of charity, and in a rash moment we may do an injury to our neighbor, which we can never repair. There are few who do not feel that they are suffering through life the effects of their precipitation, of taking God's work out of his hands. There is no such effectual cure of this evil as experience when a man is made to feel the effects of his precipitation, body and mind; and God alone can thus bring a man acquainted with himself. Cecil.

We must follow Providence not force it. Shakspeare.

It is altogether unreasonable to require that Divine Providence should miraculously interpose upon every turn, in punishing the ungodly and preserving the pious, and thus perpetually interrupt the course of nature, but rather carry things in a still and silent path, and show his art and skill in making things of themselves fairly unwind, and clear up at last into a satisfactory close. Passion and self-interest is blind or short-sighted; but that which steers the whole world, is no fond, pettish, impatient, and pas