ILLUSTRATIONS.

xi

LIFE COMPARED TO THE COURSE OF A RIVER-
The Bridge over the Brook

In the same brook none ever bathed him twice;
To the same life none ever twice awoke.
We call the brook the same; the same we think
Our life, though still more rapid in its flow.

The River Thames in Olden Time.

Young.

Streams never flow in vain; where streams abound,
How laughs the land with various plenty crown'd!
Cowper.

The Mouth of the Dart.

Sometimes swift, sometimes slow,
Wave succeeding wave, they go
A various journey to the deep,
Like human life to death's long sleep.

THE MEETING OF JACOB AND RACHEL.

J. N. Lee, after W. Dyce, R.A.
"And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the
daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of
Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near, and
rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the
flock of Laban his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed
Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept."
Genesis xxix. 10, 11.

LUTHER FINDS THE BIBLE AT ERFURT.

Is there no guide to show that path?
The Bible!-he alone who hath

The Bible, need not stray;

But he who hath, and will not give
That light of life to all that live,
Himself shall lose the way.

FRANKLIN IN THE PRINTING-OFFICE

Montgomery.

G. J. Pinwell.

102

For a long time he stood quite alone in his course of frugality, industry, and temperance. Ridicule, entreaty, and threats were tried upon him in vain. He steadfastly persevered in the path he had marked out for himself.

Anon.

THE PARTING OF LOUIS XVI. WITH HIS FAMILY.

The Garden and Summer-house of the Man of Ross. W. Nicholls.

Rise, honest Muse! and sing the Man of Ross:
Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding bounds,
And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds.

Pope.

"David blessed the Lord before all the congregation:
and David said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel our
father, for ever and ever. Both riches and honour come of
thee, and thou reignest over all and in thine hand is power
and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give
strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee,
and praise thy glorious name, For all things come of thee,
and of thine own have we given thee."
1 Chronicles xxix. 10, 12, 13, 14.

GODLESS PROSPERITY-Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon. C. H. Selous

"The king Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven."

Daniel iv. 30, 31, 33.

163

The crossing of a narrow stream, at a critical moment, decided the fate of an empire, and changed the course of our world's history. The soul, too, has the crisis of its fate to meet, and its Rubicon to cross. Yet how many linger and delay; shrinking from the decisive and irrevocable step, till the delay is fatal,-and more than an empire, more than a world-a soul is lost as the penalty of procrastination.