ADVERSITY.

He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity.--Psalm x. 6.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him.--Ecclesiastes, vii. 14.

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.--Hebrews, xiii. 3.

STERN teacher! should'st thou come, and sit by me,
And fix upon me thy dread, stony eyes,
Calmly may I behold and welcome thee,

As one that hath a message from the skies,
Fraught with intelligence to make me wise:
God grant me strength to view thee steadfastly,
And listen to thy voice, though agonies
Should rack my soul or frame. Adversity!
Full oft hast thou a friend to mortals been,

A blessing in disguise, though stern thy look; Hard is thy hand, but still thy palms between Thou hold'st outspread the pages of God's Book; Wherein who reads with humble, prayerful mind, Will hope, and ease, and consolation find.

When first thy sire to send on earth
Virtue, his darling child, designed,
To thee he gave the heavenly birth,
And bade thee form her infant mind.
Stern rugged nurse, thy rigid lore
With patience many a year she bore;
What sorrow was thou bad'st her know,

Anon.

And, from her own, she learned to melt at other's woe.

Adversity misunderstood,

Becomes a double curse:

Her chastening hand improves the good,
But makes the wicked worse.

Thus clay more obdurate becomes,
To the fierce flame consign'd;

While gold in the red ordeal melts,
But melts to be refin'd.

C

Gray.

C. C. Colton.

AFFECTION.

SET your affection upon my words; desire them, and ye shall be instructed.--Wisdom, vi. 2.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.-Colossians, iii. 2.

Be kindly affectioned one to another.--Romans, xii. 10.

HEAVENLY Father! God of love,
Look with mercy from above;
Let thy streams of comfort roll.
Let them fill and cheer my soul.

Love celestial, ardent fire!
O extreme of sweet desire!
Spread thy bright, thy gentle flame,
Swift o'er all my mental frame.

Sweet affections flow from hence,
Sweet above the joys of sense;
Let me thus for ever be,
Full of gladness, full of Thee.

Precious are the kind affections
Which around this life entwine,
Making earth, with all its troubles,
Something more than half divine.
But, alas! they fade and perish,
Like the bright and fragrant flowers,
Sorrow blights, and death destroys them,
And their beauty time devours.

'Tis not so with those affections,
That are set on heavenly things;
They will bloom and flourish ever,
Watered by eternal springs;
Warmed by everlasting sunshine,
Sheltered from the storms of earth.

Ever growing and increasing,

Knowing nought of drought or dearth.

Parnel.

Anon.

AFFLICTION.

BEFORE I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.-Psalm cxix. 67.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes -Psalm cxix. 71.

I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.-Psalm cxl. 12.

He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.-Isaiah, liii. 7.

In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old.-Isaiah, lxiii. 9.

Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.-Hosea, vi. 1. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. -II. Corinthians, iv. 17.

AFFLICTION has a taste as sweet
As any cordial comfort.

Shakspere.

Perfumes, the more they're chafed, the more they

render

Their pleasant scents, and so affliction

Expresseth virtue fully.

Afflictions clarify the soul,

John Webster.

And, like hard masters, give more hard directions, Tutoring the non-age of uncurbed affections.

Francis Quarles.

To bear affliction with a bended brow,
Or stubborn heart, is but to disallow

The speedy means to health. Francis Quarles.

A life all ease is all abused;

O, precious grace that made the wise
To know-affliction, rightly used,
Is mercy in disguise.

G. B. Cheever.

Heaven but tries our virtues by affliction,
And oft the cloud which wraps the present hour
Serves but to brighten all our future days.
Dr. Brown.

I cannot call affliction sweet,
And yet 'twas good to bear;
Affliction brought me to Thy feet,
And I found comfort there.

My wearied soul was all resigned
To Thy most gracious will;
Oh! had I kept that better mind,
Or been afflicted still!

Where are the vows which then I vowed,
The joys which then I knew?
Those vanished like the morning cloud,
These like the early dew.

Lord, grant me grace for every day,
Whate'er my state may be;

Through life, in death, with truth to say,
"My God is all to me!"

J. Montgomery.

Come then, Affliction, if my Father bids,

And be my frowning friend: a friend that frowns,
Is better than a smiling enemy.

We welcome clouds that bring the former rain,
Though they the present prospect blacken round,
And shade the beauties of the opening year,
That, by their stores enriched, the earth may yield
A fruitful summer and a plenteous crop.

Mid pleasure, plenty, and success,
Freely we take from Him who lends;
We boast the blessings we possess,
Yet scarcely thank the one who sends.

But let affliction pour its smart,

How soon we quail beneath the rod! With shattered pride, and prostrate heart, We seek the long-forgotten God.

Swaine.

Eliza Cook.

AGE.

GREAT men are not always wise, neither do the aged understand judgment.-Job, xxxii. 9.

And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you.-Isaiah, xlvi. 4.

Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth.-Psalm 1xxi. 9.

Now also, when I am old and grey-headed, O God, forsake me not; until I have showed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.--Psalm lxxi. 18.

They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.-Psalm xcii. 14.

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness. Titus, ii. 2, 3.

YE gods! how easily the good man bears
His cumbrous honours of increasing years.
Age, oh my father, is not, as they say,
A load of evils heaped on mortal clay,
Unless impatient folly aids the curse,

And weak lamenting makes our sorrows worse.
He, whose soft soul, whose temper ever even,
Whose habits placid as a cloudless heaven,
Approve the partial blessings of the sky,

Smooths the rough road, and walks untroubled by;
Untimely wrinkles furrow not his brow,

And graceful wave his locks of reverend snow.
M., from Anaxandrides.

And next in order sad, Old age we found,
His beard all hoar, his eyes hollow and blind;
With drooping cheer still poring on the ground,
As on the place where nature him assign'd
To rest, when that the sisters had untwined
His vital thread, and ended with their knife
The fleeting course of fast-declining life:

There heard we him with broke and hollow plaint,
Rue with himself his end approaching fast,
And all for nought his wretched mind torment
With sweet remembrance of his pleasures past,
And fresh delights of lusty youth forewaste;
Recounting which, how would he sob and shriek,
And to be young again of Jove beseek!