5. See now! he wants something else: his appetite for something better than he has, grows upon what he feeds on. The fact is, he has plodded about in his one-horse wagon till he is disgusted with his poor capacity of locomotion. The wings of Mercury,2 modern eagles, and paper kites, are all too impracticable for models. He settles down upon the persuasion that he can make a great IRON HORSE, with bones of steel and muscles of brass, that will run against Time with Mercury, or any other winged messenger of Jove, the daring man!

6. He brings out his huge leviathan upon the track. How the giant creature struts forth from his stable, panting to be gone! His great heart is a furnace of glowing coals; his lymphatic blood is boiling in his veins; the strength of a thousand horses is nerving his iron sinews. But his master reins him with one finger, till the whole of some Western village-men, women, children, and half their horned cattle, sheep, poultry, wheat, cheese, and potatoes—has been stowed away in that long train he has harnessed to his foaming steam-horse.

7. And now he shouts, interrogatively, "ALL RIGHT'?" and, applying a burning goad to the huge creature, away it thunders over the iron road, breathing forth fire and smoke in its indignant haste to outstrip the wind. More terrible than the war-horse* in Scripture, clothed with louder thunder, and emitting a cloud of flame and burning coals from his iron nostrils, he dashes on through dark mountain passes, over jutting precipices and deep ravines. His tread shakes the earth like a traveling Niagara, and the sound of his chariot-wheels warns the people of distant towns that he is coming.

* See 39th chap. of Job, 20-25th verses.

LESSON L.

THE RESULTS OF WORK.

DR. J. G. HOLLAND.

NDEPENDENCE and SELF-RESPECT are essential to happiness; and these are never to be attained without earnest work. It is impossible that a man shall be a drone, and go through life without a purpose which contemplates worthy results, and, at the same time, maintain his selfrespect. No idle man, however rich he may be, can feel the genuine independence of him who earns honestly and marfully his daily bread.

2. The idle man stands outside of God's plan,- outside the ordained scheme of things; and the truest self-respect, the noblest independence, and the most genuine dignity, are not to be found there. The man who does his part in life, who pursues a worthy end, and who takes care of himself, is the happy man. There is a great deal of cant afloat about the dignity of labor, uttered mostly, perhaps, by those who know little about it experimentally; but labor has a dignity which attaches to little else that is human.

3. To labor rightly and earnestly is to walk in the golden track that leads to God. It is to adopt the regimen of manhood and womanhood. It is to come into sympathy with the great struggle of humanity toward perfection. It is to adopt the fellowship of all the great and good the world has ever known. I suppose that all God's purposes in work are fulfilled in the completion of the discipline of the worker; and the results of work are doubtless laid under tribute for this end.

4. It is in achievement that Work throws off all her re

pulsive features, and assumes the form and functions of an angel. Before her, like a dissolving scene, the forest fades, with its wild beasts and its wild men; and, under her hand, smiling villages rise among the hills and on the plains, and yellow harvests spread the fields with gold. The city, with its docks and warehouses, and churches and palaces, springs, at her bidding, into being.

5. The trackless ocean mirrors her tireless pinions as she ransacks the climes for the food of commerce, or flames with the torches of her steam-sped messengers. She binds states and marts and capitals together with bars of iron that thunder with the ceaseless rush of life and trade. She pictures all scenes of beauty on canvas, and carves all forms of excellence in marble. Into huge libraries she pours the wealth of countless precious lives. She erects beautiful and convenient homes for men and women to dwell in, and weaves the fibers which Nature prepares into fabrics for their covering and comfort.

6. She rears great civilizations that run like mountainranges through the level countries, their summits sleeping among the clouds, or still flaming with the fire that fills them, or looming grandly in the purple haze of history. Nature furnishes material, and Work fashions it. By the hand of Art, Work selects, and molds, and modifies, and recombines that which it finds, and gives utterance, and being to those compositions of matter and of thought which build for man a new world, with special adaptation to his desires, tastes, and necessities. Man's record upon this wild world is the record of work, and of work alone.

7. Work explores the secrets of the universe, and brings back those contributions which make up the sum of human knowledge. It counts the ribs of the mountains, and feels

the pulses of the sea, and traces the foot-paths of the stars, and calls the animals of the forest, and the birds of the air, and the flowers of the field, by name. It summons horses of fire and chariots of fire from heaven, and makes them the bearers of its thought. It plunders the tombs of dead nationalities, and weaves living histories from the shreds it finds.

8. How wonderful a being is man, when viewed in the light of his achievements! It is in the record of these that we find the evidence of his power, and the credentials of his glory. Into the results of work each generation pours its life; and, as the results grow in excellence, with broader forms, and richer tints, and nobler meanings, they become the indexes of the world's progress. We estimate the life of a generation by what it does; and the results of its work stand out in advance of its successor, to show it what it can do, and to show it what it must do, to reach a finer consummation.

9. Thus Work, in her results, lifts each generation in the world's progress from step to step, shortening the ladder upon which the angels ascend and descend, and climbing by ever brighter and broader gradations toward the ultimate perfection. A new and more glorious gift of power compensates for each worthy expenditure; so that it is by work that man carves his way to that measure of power which will fit him for his destiny, and leave him nearest God.

10. Hammer away, thou sturdy smith, at that bar of iron! for thou art bravely forging thy own destiny. Weave on in glad content, industrious worker of the mill! for thou art weaving cloth of gold, though thou seest not its luster. Plow and plant, and rear and reap, ye tillers of the soil! for those brown acres of yours are pregnant with nobler

fruitage than that which hung in Eden. Let Commerce fearlessly send out her ships; for there is a haven where they will arrive at last, with freighted wealth below, and flying streamers above, and jubilant crews between. Working well for the minor good and the chief good of life, you shall win your way to the great consummation, and find in your hands the golden key that will open for you the riddle of your history.

LESSON LI

1 CAR LYLE', THOMAS, an eccentric writer, was born in Scotland, 1796. His style, at first, was simple and eloquent; latterly he became affected and grotesque, though often vigorous.

No

OUR DEEDS IMPERISHABLE. .

L. H. GRINDON.

O man is happier than he who loves and fulfills that particular work for the world which falls to his share. Even though the full understanding of his work and of its ultimate value may not be present with him, if he but love it, and his conscience approve, it brings an abounding satisfaction. Indeed, none of us fully compre hend our office, nor the issues we are working for.

2. To man is intrusted the nature of his actions, and not the result of them. This, God keeps out of our sight. The most trivial act, doubtless, goes to the promotion of a multitude of ends, distant it may be to ourselves, but only as the leaves of a tree are distant from their supplying rootlets; and therefore does it behoove us to be diligent in our several spheres. We should work like the bees, sedulous to collect all the honey within our reach, but leaving to Providence to order what shall come of it.