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have the good will and good wishes of all other men, so they have the full possession of themselves, have their minds at peace, and enjoy quiet and ease in their fortune, however strait it may be.

The nightingale that sings, with the deep thorn,
Which fable places in her breast of wail,

Is lighter far of heart and voice, than those

Whose head-long passions form their proper woes

Surely, anger is a sort of baseness, as well appears in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns-children, woman, the old and the sick. Anger resteth in the bosom of fools." Men must especially beware that they carry their anger, rather with scorn than with fear, so that they may appear rather to be above the injury that provokes than beneath it, which they may easily do, if they will impose a law upon themselves. The passion may be humored till it becomes our master, as a horse may be pampered till he gets the better of his rider. Early discipline will prevent mutiny and keep the helm in the hands of reason.

For the second point, the causes of anger are chiefly three: first, too much sensibility to injury; for no man is angry that feels not hurt, and therefore tender and delicate persons must necessarily often be angry, they have so many things to trouble them, which more robust natures have little sense of: the next is—an idea of the injury offered being in its circumstances grossly contemptuous; for contempt gives an edge to anger, even more than the injury itself. And therefore when meu are ingenious in finding out circumstances of contempt, they kindle their anger greatly lastly, the supposition that a man's reputation is affected, augments and sharpens anger, wherein the remedy is, to have as Gonsalvo was wont to say, "telam honoris crassiorem." But to refrain from anger, and in all efforts of repression, the best remedy is to win time, to persuade one's self the opportunity of retribution is not yet come, that the time for it is foreseen; and so meanwhile to tranquilize one's spirit.

To restrain anger from doing mischief after it shall have seized a man, there are two things whereof he should especially be cautious-the one, extreme bitterness of words, particularly if they be keen and appropriate, of which the truth contains the sting, for communia maladicta are not of so much consequence; and, again, that no secrets be revealed, for that makes a man unfit for his place in society: the o her, that you do not peremptorily break off any business in anger; but whatever bitterness you show, do no act which is irrevocable.

For exciting or appeasing anger in another: the first may be done most effectually by choosing times when men are most froward and worst disposed, to incense them

"Must I give way and room to your rash choler?
Must I be frightened, when a madman stares ?"

Again, by collecting all that you can to aggravate the contempt

"You shall digest the venom of your spleen
Though it do split you: for from this day forth,
I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter."

To appease anger in another, the remedies are by the contraries, first, by taking favorable occasions, mollia tempora, to relate to him an angry

business, for the first impression is important; the other is, to separate as much as may be, the fact of an injury from any idea of contempt, imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, passion, or what you will.

Cas.

Hath Cassius liv'd

To be but mirth and laughter to his Brutus,
When grief and blood ill-temper'd vexeth him?
Bru. When I spoke that I was ill-temper'd too.

Cas. Do you confess so much? Give me your hand.
Bru. And my heart too.

CHRISTMAS

CUSTOMS.

THEY come to us but once in life,
The holidays of Yule;

When, wild as captives from the cage,
We bounded home from school,
Unshackled by the dreary task-

All lessons put away;

The world a bright revolving mask
Of pantomime and play.

What welcome shall we ever have

Till this long journey ends,

Like that which marked the merry time
From sisters and from friends?
When presents given and received

Brought heart to heart in view,
And every day was golden leaved
With wonders rich and new!

The Christmas sights, the Christmas lights,
The Christmas nights, how grand

To us who walked the glittering lanes

Of boyhood's fairy land!

Remote among its spangled bowers

Old memories parade,

And watch the gorgeous bubbling hours

'All rise, and burst, and fade.

We will not sigh to see them pass

To know them was enough;

Nay, Father, let us joy that we

Were made of sterner stuff.

Who then enjoyed the Yule log's blaze

Its retrospect enjoys;

So, welcome to your holidays,

My merry girls and boys!

Be blissful in the time of bliss,
Unloosed from toil and school;

They come to you but once in life,
These holidays of Yule:

For us, among the world's dark ways,

Our eyes are on the star,

Beyond which shine our holidays,

Though dim, and distant far.

THY KINGDOM COME.

BY THE EDITOR.

[A venerable and reverend friend, whose request we have it not in our heart to deny, has desired us to publish the following discourse in the Guardian. Otherwise it would not have here appeared.]-ED.

In this petition of our Lord's prayer, as in the one which precedes it, we look upward. "Thy kingdom come." The first three petitions all hang on the address: "Our Father who art in Heaven." With our hearts full of the great Father, and of the glory which surrounds Him in Heaven, we begin to pray-that is, by devout longings to draw down to us what there we behold.

In the first petition we desire that His name may be set apart, and seen as holy on the earth. In the second, we desire the power and glory of His kingdom to appear on earth. In the third we desire that His will may be acknowledged and observed as the universal law on earth.

The words," on earth as it is in Heaven," evidently belong to the three petitions. His name is to be hallowed, His kingdom to come, His will to be done-all these "on earth, as in Heaven."

The second petition asks that what is in heaven may come down, and be here as it is there. "Thy kingdom come" to earth-break through the heavens, take in the earth, restore this revolted province, bring all wandering children into the one heavenly Father's family.

This brings before us the first and deepest conception of this kingdom -its unity, or even identity, with that which is in Heaven. It comes down not by transition, but extension--by reaching down. It is not removed from heaven, but extended to earth. By its coming, earth is included in the heavens. There is the king, there the centre and basis of the kingdom, there the power to come, there the glory to be revealed. Hence the first three petitions begin above and end above-in their course taking in the earth. "Our Father which art in Heaven: Hallowed be Thy name: Thy kingdom come: Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven." So, in like manner does the second table cf petitions run through the earth-Give us, &c.,-terminating again on high, gathering all up: "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

Thus the kingdom to come is the kingdom of Heaven-and it remains such while it comes, and when it has come, exerting all its power in the earth as the kingdom of Heaven-the divine in the human; the heavenly in the earthly; the supernatural in the natural; the unfallen laying hold of the fallen; the holy and sanctifying transforming the sinful; the sons and daughters of Adam becoming the sons and daughters of God; and on earth, by a higher birth than that of flesh and blood, children are born into the heavenly family; and in this nursery on earth, which is one room in the Father's house, they are prepared for a transfer into that part of the palace which is higher and nearer the Father-king!

Grace unites again.

Sin separates God and men, heaven and earth. The kingdom that comes makes one, what was sundered before. It brings the kingdom, the power and the glory together; and continually cries "as in heaven, so also on earth."

We can easily make this important view of the nature of the kingdom to come plain and impressive to us by illustrating, as our Saviour did in His parables, the spiritual by the natural.

We have already shown (in previous discourses on this prayer,) how, through the earthly father we come rightly to understand the heavenly Father: how the fraternal relations of earth illustrate, as they typify the higher brotherhood of saints in the heavenly family. We have also shown how the natural physical universe aids us in expanding the true idea of God, raising us to sublimer conceptions of His heavenly majesty and glory

Now, in like manner does the natural physical creation, and especially the physical relation of heaven and earth, illustrate to us the oneness of the kingdom of grace as in heaven and on earth. For we may well take the material universe in its connections, relations and dependencies, as a foreshadowing of the mutuality of that social economy for the being and activities of which it forms the material basis. As the heavens and the earth are connected naturally, so are the social orders in them connected spiritually. As we cannot cut the earth loose from the heavens astronomically, so neither can we do it theologically. In both cases they

are one.

Thus, for instance, it is well known that the earth depends upon the sun, and is one with the solar system; it is equally certain that the sun, with its system, depends upon still higher systems, whose laws he obeys, and with which he is one, and so on of still higher systems. There is here the same order as in a tree, where the bud depends on the twig, the twig on the branch, the branch on the tree; all is in the end one.

The laws by which the earth and the natural heavens are thus held together as one great system are not visible. The ignorant may disbelieve all existence of such relations, yet so it is nevertheless. In like manner, such as are stupid for want of faith, may see no way by which the kingdom of heaven makes itself one with the earth, coming in answer to prayer, and hanging fast the praying spirit to itself as an earth to a sun; but this does not set aside the glorious fact for others. A blind man may deny the existence of light, of which he knows nothing; but this does not take the light from those who see

In the same way does the natural relation of heaven and earth illustrate to us the manner in which the grace of the heavenly kingdom enters, and is reproduced in the hearts of men in the earth.

The light of the natural sun that fills the heavenly space, also streams in the earth. It lies on every hill and plain-it shines from every bright surface it enters every open nook and room; yea, it enters the eye and daguerreotypes every visible object upon the retina; and the same sun which shines into the eye shines out from it again.

Shall this be done by the light of the natural heavens, and shall not the spiritual heavens have the same power to shine into the soul the light of truth, holiness, peace and joy. Shall the spiritual heavens not be to the eye of the soul as much as the natural heavens are to the eye

of the body? What the natural eye does when it opens toward the heavens for light, that the spirit does when it turns upward in prayer, saying: "Thy kingdom come!"

As it is with light so it is with warmth. It also comes from afar where its source is; but it comes and makes itself one with the earth. It spreads over the earth like oil over a wound. It quivers over the field, as a fowl fondly shakes its nursing wings over its brood. It penetrates the soil in field and garden, It steals silently, like an angel with blessings, down to the smallest roots of the plant. It enters the innermost foldings of the embryo germ and incipient bud, prying apart and dressing the infant leaves, and baptizing the young life into a covenant of promise and hope. Under the chrysalid, and in the tiny egg of the smallest insect, life trembles with a new thrill of bliss because it has been visited by the coming power. All life comes forth to bask and bathe in the genial warmth. The torpid earth puts on bloom and beauty. A thousand flowers offer fragrant incense. A thousand insects quiver in their own full bliss. A thousand birds pour their anthems on the air. It is the reign of the sun which has come; and "there is nothing hid from the heart thereof"-nothing that fails to own his power.

Are the powers of the natural heavens thus present and potent on the earth, and shall not spiritual powers of the heavenly kingdom descend, and reproduce themselves in human hearts? Shall there be no warmth of love, mercy, peace and joy; no renewing and reviving grace to call into life and cheer all the faculties of the mind, and all the emotions and affections of the heart? Yea, verily there is. Our Saviour, using the same kind of illustration in a beautiful parable, says: "So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Mark 4: 26, 29.

In these last words we have exhibited to us the manner in which the kingdom of heaven is made truly at home in the earth. "The earth bringetn forth fruit of herself." That is, the heavenly energies are so lodged in the earth, and reproduced from it, that although the light and heat which cause growth are originally at home above, yet are they now also so at home in the earth, that as from itself it hath power to bring forth fruit.

In like manner the kingdom of heaven so locates itself in the earth, that it has as from itself on earth the powers of salvation. This is the Church-the kingdom of heaven come to earth, and unfolding its heaven powers in it.

This idea of the kingdom of heaven in the earth is, in many ways, set forth in the sacred scriptures. Thus it is said to be like leaven put into the meal. When in the meal it now works there-a part of it. It is like a mustard seed put in the soil, and now unfolding its powers from it. It is like a vineyard, a field, a garden; in all of which lies the power to produce as from itself what to put into it.

So is the kingdom of God on earth. It becomes a constitution and a power at home here; and whatever is planted in it grows as with a

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