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I.

Parallel Roads to Happiness.

It is good that thou shouldst take hold of this; but also from that withdraw not thy hand: for he that feareth God cometh forth without hurt from all.— Ecclesiastes vii. 18.

HERE are two ways of being happy—we may either diminish our wants or augment our means—either will do, the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle, or sick, or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous, or young, or in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise you will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well; and if you are very wise, you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society. B. FRANKLIN.

OPEN, Lord, my inward ear,

And bid my heart rejoice;

Bid my quiet spirit hear

The comfort of Thy voice.

From the world of sin and noise

And hurry I withdraw;

For the small and inward voice

I wait with humble awe.

II.

The Joyous Worker.

Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry; for that shall abide with him of his labor the days of his life which God giveth him under the sun.-Ecclesiastes viii. 15.

ZIVE us, O give us the man who sings at his work. Be his occupation what it may, he is equal to any of those who follow the same pursuit in silent sullenness. He will do more in the same time-he will do it better he will persevere longer. One is scarcely sensible of fatigue whilst he marches to music. The very stars are said to make harmony as they revolve in their spheres. Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, altogether past calculation its powers of endurance. Efforts to be permanently useful must be uniformly joyous—a spirit all sunshine-graceful from very gladness-beautiful because bright.

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III.

The Grace of Childhood.

Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength.—Psalm viii, 2.

WHO can look at this exquisite little creature, a child seated on its cushion, and not acknowledge its prerogative of life-that mysterious influence which, in spite of the stubborn understanding, masters the mind, sending it back to days long past, when care was but a dream, and its most serious business but a childish frolic? But we no longer think of childhood as a past, still less as an abstraction; we see it embodied before us in all its mirth, and fun, and glee, and the grave man becomes again a child, to feel as a child. What can be real if that is not which so takes us out of our present selves that the weight of years falls from us as a garment; that the freshness of life seems to begin anew? ALLSTON.

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I once heard a kind father say: "I talk to my children very much, but do not like to beat them; the world will beat them." It was a beautiful thought, though not elegantly expressed. ELIHU BURRIT.

'HE child between her parents knelt,

Who prayed the more to God above,

Because so close to them they felt

The dearest gift of heavenly love.

RAILING clouds of glory, do we come
From God, who is our home;
Heaven lies about us in our infancy.

IV.

or none.

Life in the Destroyer's Steps.

Return unto thy rest, O, my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Thou has delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.-Psalm cxvi.

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HERE is nothing, no nothing, innocent or good, that dies and is forgotten; let us hold to that faith An infant, a prattling child dying in its cradle will live again in the better thoughts of those who loved it, and play its part, through them, in the redeeming actions of the world, though its body be burnt to ashes, or drowned in the deepest sea. There is not an angel added to the host of heaven but does its blessed work on earth in those that loved it here. Forgotten! oh, if the good deeds of human creatures could be traced to their source, how beautiful would even death appear! How much charity, mercy and purified affection would be seen to have their growth in dusty graves. Oh, it is hard to take to heart the lesson that such deaths teach; but let no man reject it; for it is one that all must learn, and is a mighty, universal truth. CHARLES DICKENS.

So others shall

Take patience, labor, to their heart and hand,
From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,

And God's grace fructify to thee, to all.

The least flower with a brimming cup may stand,

And share its dewdrop with another near.

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The sons of Jacob said one to another: we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.-Genesis xlii. 21.

WHAT is meant by our neighbor we cannot doubt; it is every one with whom we are brought into contact. First of all, he is literally our neighbor who is next to us in our own family and household; husband to wife, wife to husband, parent to child, brother to sister, master to servant, servant to master. Then it is he who is close to us in our own neighborhood, in our own town, in our own parish, in our own street. With these all true charity begins. To love and be kind to these is the very beginning of all true religion. But, besides these, it is every one who is thrown across our path by the changes and chances of life; he or she, whosoever it be, whom we have any means of helping, -the unfortunate stranger whom we may meet in travelling, the deserted friend whom no one else cares to look after. A. P. STANLEY.

A child's kiss

Set on thy sighing lips, shall make thee glad;
A poor man served by thee, shall make thee rich;

A sick man helped by thee, shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense

Of service which thou renderest.

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