true happiness of man has been ascertained, lose no time in pursuing it. There is one thing, and only one thing, which can make you happy-the image of Christ. Every day you live, then, endeavour to be acquiring more of this. You may become richer, and yet be no happier at all. You may have a great variety of what the world calls pleasure, without increasing your stock of happiness. You may be surrounded with all the comforts and elegances of life, and God may fill your belly with his hid treasure; and still you may be unsatisfied and joyless. But you cannot become more holy, more like to Christ, without being happier. You cannot see more of his grace and glory, without tasting more largely of substantial joy. Be not diverted, then, by the golden apples of pleasure or of gain, from that course, in which alone you can find full satisfaction.

And if you do this indeed, and say, as David did, with full purpose of heart, "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness," you may, with the same assurance which he possessed, go on and say, "I shall be satisfied with thy likeness." For God has in store the same good thing for you, which he provided for him; so that he without you shall not be made perfect. When David awakes from the grave, and is presented before the divine glory with exceeding joy,. you shall be presented also. You shall have part in that resurrection, and be satisfied, as well as he.

A A

THE JEWEL DROP.

(ATTRIBUTED TO THE REV. LEWIS WAY.)

"We have this treasure in earthen (Greek, testaceous, or oyster shell) vessels." -2 Cor. iv. 7.

A PERSIAN TALE.-A drop of water fell out of a cloud into the sea; and finding itself lost in such an immensity of fluid matter, broke out into the following reflection. "Alas, what an insignificant creature I am in this prodigious ocean of water, my existence is of no concern to the universe. I am reduced to a kind of nothing; I am less than the least of the works of God." It so happened that an oyster, which lay in the neighbourhood of the drop, chanced to gape, and swallow it up in the midst of this soliloquy. The drop, says the fable, lay a great while hardening in the shell, till, by degrees, it was ripened into a pearl, which is fixed in the top of the Persian Diadem."-Spectator, No. 293.

A DROP, descending from a cloud,

On ocean's foaming spray,
Enveloped in a watery shroud
Of rolling billows lay.

But He-whose path is in the sea,
Whose footsteps are not known,
Who "gave the waters his decree,"
And calls the deep his own:

The Spirit, brooding o'er the face
Of all the liquid main,

Assigns to every drop its place,
Within the wide domain.

The little drop of heavenly dew,
Though lost to sight and sense,
Protected, like a chosen few,
By special Providence,

Became a goodly jewel rare,

Such as the merchant sought;
Which having found with all his care,
He sold his all, and bought.

An Eastern monarch then surveyed
The glory of the gem,

And placed the Pearl, its purchase paid,
On Persia's Diadem.

APPLICATION.

A chosen vessel, (Scripture saith,)

Idolatrous and blind,

Received a drop of precious faith,
Salvation to mankind.

Less than the least in mortal eyes,
To whom like grace is given,
The faithful find the pearl of price,
The Jewel Drop of Heaven.

The gift that cometh from above,
All who possess it know,
Is given by constraining love,
To lay the lofty low.

Exalted to the stars on high,

And near the throne of God,

See faithful Abraham's children fly
Before his chastening rod.

O! what a destiny is theirs,
On seas of wrath to roam,
And roll along revolving years,
Without a house or home.

When swelling billows in the soul
Rebellious passions raise,

A word! omnipotent control,
Can turn from wrath to praise.

And see, 'mid regions drear and dark,
The dawn of hope begin;
A window opens in the ark,
To take the wanderers in.

That vessel bears the royal gem,
All Ophir could not buy ;
The ransom requisite for them,
The pearl of charity.

The genuine signet of the court
Of Israel's future throne,
When Sheba shall again resort
To visit Solomon.

From sorrow then shall all rejoice,
The blind, the lame shall come,
The chief of nations raise their voice,
And shout "The remnant home."

The Lord shall save them in that day, The people of his flock,

As stones upon a crown are they,
His ensign on the Rock.

For thou, Jerusalem! shalt bear
The sceptre and the rod!

"A crown of glory" shalt thou wear,
The diadem of God!

UNION OF CHRISTIANS.

WOODWARD.

SYMPATHY of mind and character unites the children of God in that mutual affection, which Christ himself describes as the peculiar badge of their profession. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another," not that mere natural philanthropy, which we owe to man as man, but that special, peculiar, and sacred attachment, which flows from a renewed nature. "We know," says St. John, "that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." If the name of countryman be, among the children of this world, a bond of union in foreign climes, can the citizens of heaven refuse the claims of so endearing a relation? If fellow-soldiers, in an earthly warfare, who have stood by one another in frequent perils, and seized with united hands the palm of victory, if they can contract, amid the din of