intrudes. It is there where we ma'ke our ultimate decision for good or evil; it is there where we experience our truest joys and our profoundest griefs; it is there where we live our truest life. w·e may so crowd our life with duties and with pleasures that we may reduce to its smallest radius this innermost circle; but some time must we spend there, and the great decisive experiences must we there go through. '!'here we taste our very sweetest satisfactions, and there wo bear our very heaviest burdens. And no one but the Father of spirits can enter into that secret place of the soul. So true is it that "Not e'en the dearest heart, and nee.rest to our own, Knows half the reasons why wo Blllile or sigh." It is well for us to remember that there is more, both of happiness and of sorrow, than we can see; well, that we may not be overburdened with the weight of the manifold and multiplied evils we are facing; well, that we may realize how strona is the reason that, when our cup of prosperity is full, we may have "the heart at leis~re from itself to soothe and sympathize" with those who, beneath a smiling countenance, may carry a very bea,y heart. For we have to consider- II. THE SUPERFICIAL ELEMENT IN MUCH HUMAN GLADNESS, "Even in lauahter .. etc. A man may smile and smile, and be most melancholy. To wear a smil; up~n onr countenance, or to conclude our sentences with laughter, is often only a mere trick of style, a mere habit of life, cultivated with little difficulty. A true smile, an honest laugh, that comes not from the lips or from the lungs, but from the heart, is a very acceptable and a very admirable thing. But a false smile and a forced laugh bespeak a double-minded soul and a doubtful character. Surely the angels of God weep almost as much over the laughter as over the tears of mankind. For beneath its sound they may hear all too much that is hollow and unreal, and not a little that is vain and guilty. But, on the other band, to smile with the glad and to laugh with the merry is a sympathetic grace not to be despised (Rom. xii. 15, first clause). III. THE ISSUE OF FALSE BATISFACTIONS. "The end of that mirth is heaviness." How often is heaviness the end of mirth I All enjoyment that does not carry with it the approval of the conscience, all that is disregardful of the Divine Law, all that is a violation of the Jaws of our physical or our spiritual nature, must end and does end, sooner or later, in heaviness-in depression of spirit, in decline of power. It is a sorry thing for a man to accustom himself to momentary mirth, to present pleasure at the expense of future joy, of well-being in later years. LESSONS. 1. Let the necessary solitariness of life lead us to choose the very best friend• ships we can form; that we may have those who can go far and often with us into the recesses of our spirit, and accompany us, as far as man can, in the larger and deeper experiences of our life. 2. Let the superficiality of much happiness lead us to inquire of ourselves whether we have planted in our soul the deeper roots of joy; those which will survive every test and trial of life, and which will be in us when we have left time and sense altogether behind us. 3. Let the perilous nature of some gratifications impose on us the duty of a wise watchfulness; that we may banish for ever from heart and life all injurious delights which "war against the soul." and rob us of our true heritage here and in the heavenly country.-O.
Ver. 13.-(See homily on eh. xvi. 25.)-C. Vers. 17, 29.-(See homily on eh. xvi. 32.)-C. Ver. 21.-The sin of contempt. We are in danger of despising our neigh hours. The rich despise the poor, the learned despise the ignorant, the strong and be_a.lth:y: despise the weak and ailing, the devout despise the irreverent. But we are wro~g ID domg this. There is indeed one thing which may draw down a strong and even mtense reproba- tion-m~ral bas~ness, meanness, a cruel and heartless selfishness, or a slavish abandon- ment to vice. But even there we may not wholly despise our neighbour; unmitigated contempt is always wrong, always a mistake. For- I. WE ARE ALL THE CHILD mm OF Gon. Are we not all his offspring, the creatures of c,ne Creator, the cbildreu of one r'ather? Does H become us to qespise our OWD en. xrv. 1-35.] nm PROVEl:BS. 289