These "Great Truths" admitted, is it not " passing strange" that no work on the Christian Life, the Christian Church, and the Christian Ministry, in their intimate connection with each other, has ever been presented to the Christian world? The want, it is true, has been long and deeply felt; but until now no attempt has been made to meet it. This work aims to do so in a manner peculiarly its own. Many years have been spent in perusing and collating the writings of theologians, poets, and scholarsthe purest and noblest minds-of different lands and different languages, and carefully and prayerfully selecting therefrom the best thoughts on the leading subjects of this octavo, and matters cognate to each. More than a thousand authors have been consulted, and several thousand passages of unquestionable soundness and inherent worth taken from their works, and classified in alphabetical order, not merely to supersede the need of an index of subjects, but specially to enable the reader to turn immediately to any quotation desired. In a word, a whole library has been condensed into one volume. Yet there is no undue compression for the sake of so-called judicious brevity, as the range taken is so comprehensive that no topic of the least avail, in regard to the "Great Truths" with which it deals, has been omitted. Nor is the work less catholic in its spirit than wide in its embrace. All sincere Christians are herein esteemed as "fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel." Hence the hope is cherished that they will give a hearty reception to a volume which aims to contribute to their everlasting well-being.

But how essential to this important issue is the divine benediction for without it "nothing is strong, nothing is holy."

"Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious man

Has done his part."

GREAT THOUGHTS

ON

GREAT TRUTHS.

THOUGHT ON THOUGHT PRESS'D O'ER HIS SOUL, LIKE OCEAN-WAVES.

Klopstock.

A.

AARON the First High-Priest.

Aaron was the brother of Moses, divine wisdom so ordering it that their natural affection one to another might strengthen their union in the joint execu. tion of their great commission. He was the elder brother; and yet he was willing to be employed by the younger, because God would have it so. The tongue of Aaron, with the head and heart of Moses, made them completely fit for their high embassy.-M. Henry.

AARON.-The Gorgeous Vestments of

His vestments were much more costly than those of the inferior order of priests. He wore a mantle or robe of blue, with the borders embroidered with pomegranates in purple and scarlet; an ephod made of cotton, with crimson, purple, and blue, and ornamented with gold, worn over the robe or mantle, without sleeves, and divided below the arm-pits into two parts or halves, of which one was in front, covering the breast, and the other behind, covering the back. In the ephod was a breast-plate of curious workmanship, adorned with twelve precious stones, each one having the name of one of the tribes of Israel; and on the head a mitre. His office corresponded with his vestments.-A. Barnes.

AARON.-The Principal Duties of

Aaron was invested with the priestly office, with befitting solemnity, immediately after the promulgation of the Law and the consequent setting-up of the Tabernacle. His principal duties were to offer sacrifices upon the altar, and to intercede for the people. In performing these sacred offices, he was clothed with a grand and wondrous importance. He became the type of the great "High

A

Priest of our profession;" and his annual sacrifices of atonement, his interces-
sion, and his appearance at the specified periods before the Shekinah,-all pre-
figured the propitiation and advocacy of our Lord and Saviour, and His appear-
ance in the presence of God for us.-Dr. Macfarlane.

It was death for any one else-priest or layman-to enter the sanctuary. So
carefully was this observed and provided for, that to prevent its being necessary
for any one to enter to bring out the body of the high-priest, in case he should
die there before the Lord on the great day of expiation, a cord was fastened to
his foot, the end of which was left beyond the veil, that he might be drawn out
by it if such a circumstance occurred. It should be observed, that the Jews were
always in dread lest the high-priest should perish in performing the services of
that great day.-Dr. Kitto.

AARON.-The Remarkable Death of

With trembling hand,

He hasted to unclasp the priestly robe,

And cast it o'er his son, and on his head

The mitre place; while, with a feeble voice,

He blessed, and bade him keep his garments pure
From blood of souls. But then, as Moses raised

The mystic breast-plate, and that dying eye

Caught the last radiance of those precious stones,

By whose oracular and fearful light

Jehovah had so oft His will revealed

Unto the chosen tribes whom Aaron loved

In all their wanderings-but whose Promised Land

He might not look upon-he sadly laid

His head upon the mountain's turfy breast,

And with one prayer, half wrapped in stifled groans,
Gave up the ghost.-Sigourney.

ABBEY.-The Appearance of an

There is something unspeakably reverend in the appearance of an abbey. A mass of ancient masonry, it lifts its noble head aloft, and its marble pillars, bearing high its "arched and ponderous roof," impart an air of majestic grandeur to it. In the beautiful language of the poet-it "looks tranquillity."-W. Irving.

More spirit-stirring is the sound

Of night-winds softly sighing
Thy roofless walls and arches round,
And then in silence dying.-Barton.

ABBEY.-The Teaching of an

The dead lie here- poets, historians, philosophers, statesmen, warriors, preachers,-men who have won the applause of the world, either by the genius of the pen, the sweat of the brain, the power of the sword, or the eloquence of the tongue. The walls of the venerable abbey are massed with their exploits. But what lessons are taught here concerning human hopes and earthly greatness! The poet's lyre is unstrung, and his lips are mute; the historian no longer chronicles the prime events of the present or past age; the philosopher discourses no more upon themes sublime enough to inspire the mind of an angel; the statesman has let go the helm of the ship of state; the warrior's sword is sheathed for ever; and the preacher's voice is hushed into an awful stillness: and, albeit the urn is exquisitely chiselled, and the grave pompously adorned, "the tutored mind” learns here that "every man at his best estate is altogether vanity," and though he "stalks through infinite space" as if he were a god, yet his glory is but “the grandeur of littleness," and his life a shadow!-Dr. Davies.

ABBEY.-Worship in a Restored

Monastic and time-consecrated fane!

Thou hast put on thy shapely state again,
Almost august, as in thy early day,
Ere ruthless monarch rent thy pomp away.
No more the mass on holidays is sung,
The host high-raised, or fuming censer swung;
No more, in amice white, the Fathers, slow,
With lighted tapers, in long order go;-
Yet the tall window lifts its arched height,
As to admit heaven's pale but purer light;
Those massy-clustered columns, whose long ro 33.
E'en at noon-day, in shadowy pomp repose
Amid the silent sanctity of death,

Like giants, seem to guard the dust beneath:
Those roofs re-echo-though no altars blaze--
The prayer of penitence, the hymn of praise;
While meek Religion's self, as with a smile,
Reprints the tracery of the hoary pile,-
Worthy its guest the Temple. What remains?
mightiest Master! thy immortal strains
These roofs demand. Listen! with prelude slow,
Solemnly sweet, yet full, the organ's blow:
And, hark again! heard ye the choral chaunt
Peal through the echoing arches, jubilant?

More softly now, imploring litanies,

Wafted to heaven, and mingling with the sighs
Of penitence, from yon high altar rise;

Again the vaulted roof "Hosannah" rings

"Hosannah! Lord of Lords and King of Kings;"

Rent, but not prostrate,-stricken, yet sublime,

Reckless alike of injuries or time;

Thou, unsubdued, in silent majesty,

The tempest hast defied, and shalt defy!

The Temple of our Sion so shall mock

The muttering storm, the very earthquake's shock,

Founded, O Christ, on Thy eternal rock!-Canon Bowles.

ABILITIES-Demanded in a Teacher.

No mistake is more gross than that of imagining that undisciplined teachers are the fittest to deal with ignorance and mental rudeness. On the contrary, to force the rays of thought intelligibly through so opaque a medium demands peculiarly and emphatically a great clearness and prominence of thinking, and an exact feeling of the effect of words to be chosen, combined, and varied.—Foster. ABILITIES.-Natural

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study.-Lord Bacon.

ABILITIES.-The Use of

The knack of making good use of moderate abilities secures the esteem of men, and often raises to higher fame than real merit.-Rochefoucauld.

ABSOLUTION.-The Church's

Our Church, in her absolution, delivers no more than the solemn promulgation of a pardon upon the conditions of faith and obedience, which, to those so qualified, is indeed an absolution; and a warning to others to seek for those conditions, that they may be forgiven.-Dean Comber.

ABSOLUTION.-The Declaration of

The priest, in the matchless Liturgy of the Church, does not presume to absolve from sin-that would be to snatch one of the brightest jewels from the brow of Heaven-to arrogate to himself the prerogative of a God; he simply and solemnly pronounces "to His people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their sins," and then he affirms, in language which cannot be mistaken-" He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe His holy Gospel;" and this the priest does as God's servant, on God's behalf, and at God's command.-Dr. Davies.

ABSOLUTION.-God's

When God absolves, it is only in one way, that is-through a Mediator. His concern for the fundamental principles of His government is the highest concern in His divine nature. God cannot forgive sin at the expense of His justice, His holiness, or His truth. It is through the blood of Christ alone that he can do this. Justice asked for the sufferings of a man-Christ rendered the sufferings of a God: hence the Fount of Infinite Justice now waits to forgive; and He forgives, for Christ's sake, the moment that we ask Him. He is just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.-Dr. Cumming.

We no longer maintain the old and fatal mistake-that Christian men are