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the sunshine of spring or flutter in the breeze will be strewn on the ground in autumn; but when one shall fall and how long another shall hang who can tell? One falls withered by a worm at its root in early summer; a second is nipped by the frost, a third is shaken off by a rough wind, and the fourth, soon after it has burst from the bud in spring, is smitten by mildew. All will fall at some time; so with men. The population of the globe, 1,000,000,000, will in a generation be off the tree of life: some drop in childhood's spring, some in ripe manhood, and some hang on till the winter of age arrive. The time is short to all, and the short time is uncertain to each. The conquerors in the Grecian games were crowned with leaves. These, though beautiful, soon faded away. beauty, like glass, is brittle; trusting in fading beauty is like anchoring in a floating island. The righteous, though his outer man decay, is an evergreen leaf.

China.-Man's life is like a candle in the wind, or hoarfrost on the tiles.

Afghan.-Parents say, Our boy is growing up; they forget his life is shortening.

Turk.-The dust of the tomb fills the eye of man.

Lip Love as Sounding Brass.-1 COR. 13. 1. Bengal.-By words only the moistened rice is not made into a confection.

Bengal.-A false friendship is like a bank of sand. Bengal.-Now, you, as it were, give me the moon, but shortly you will give me a flogging.

Bengal.-In words a tiger, in fighting a lizard.

Bengal.-My house is your own; but if you ask for food, you are my enemy.

Telugu.-A barking dog never bites; does gold ever ring like bell metal ?

Use the Means.

Telugu.-God gives food, but does he cook it and put it in the mouth?

Telugu.-Can your house be burnt down with hot water? Telugu.-By digging and digging the truth is discovered. Telugu.-When the field was sown without being ploughed, it yielded without being reaped-i.e., it yielded

nothing.

China. Better go home and make a net than go down the river and desire to get fishes.

China. No one can sew without a needle, no one can row without water.

China. A dry finger cannot lick up salt.

Afghan.-Though God is almighty, he sends not rain in a

clear sky.

Turk.-Don't descend into a well with a rotten rope.
Turk.—What can a stout ox do with a bad plough?
Turk.-Knowledge is not acquired in a feather bed.
Turk.-Who desires the rose must also consent to the

thorn.

Turk.-Knowledge is not gained on a bed of roses.
Russian.-God help us, but don't lie on your back.
Russian.-A good head has one hundred hands.

Talmud. If a man goes not after wisdom it does not come to him.

Telugu.-Scratching one's head with a firebrand—i.e., the remedy worse than the disease.

Telugu.-Swimming over the Godaveri by catching hold of a dog's tail, Luke 14. 31.

Urdu.-He sets up for a druggist with one bit of assafœtida.

Gravel fills the Mouth of Deceit.-PROV. 20. 17.

The Lalita Vistara states: "Desires are regarded by the wise as the edge of a sword covered with honey, or as the head of a serpent leading to quarrels, as a corpse among dogs."

Diverse weights are an abomination to the Lord, Hos. 12. 7, Deut. 25. 13-16. A bribe-taking judge is called a briar, Micah 7. 4.

Jacob deceived his father with a kid, Gen. 27. 9-14, &c.; more than forty years after, his children deceive him with a kid, Gen. 37. 31, 32. David artfully contrived

the murder of Uriah by the sword, 2 Sam. II. 14, 15; and the providence of God so appointed it that the sword never departed from his house, 2 Sam. 12. 10. So with Haman, Esther 7. 10, and the attempt to assassinate Ahasuerus, Esther 2. 21-23.

The Jews put Christ to death that the Romans might not come and take away their place and nation; by that very act they drew down the vengeance of God, which God appointed the Romans to execute, John 11. 48.

Urdu.—A wooden pot cannot be often put on the firei.e., deceit cannot be often repeated.

Bengal. The low fellow's words are like the tortoise's head, which can be drawn out or put in according to

circumstances.

Turk.-The liar's house is on fire, but no one believes it. Telugu. A trader in the air-i.e., an impostor.

Bengal. He tells the thief to rob; he bids the householder be on his guard.

The Safe Guide.-Ps. 48. 14.

A guide is necessary in a strange place; such the world is a wilderness where there are bad roads, few wells, storms of sand arise, and the dread of robbers.

God directs men's steps; so Pharaoh's daughter found Moses when she went to bathe, Ex. 2. 15; Saul, in search of asses, obtained a kingdom, I Sam. 9. 3-15; Paul, on his way to Damascus, saw Christ, Acts 9.; David's case, I Sam. 17. 53.

Russian.-Man plans, but God fulfils.

China.-Man sees but the present, God all things.
Arab.-Man thinks, God guides.

Urdu.-God is the guardian of a blind man's wife.

China.-A man depends on God as a ship on its rudder. Urdu.-One door is shut, but a thousand are open. Mahabharat.-Like a gem strung upon a thread or a bull

tied by a nose rope, a man follows the command of the Disposer (God) as the tips of grass are swayed by the blasts of a strong wind.

The Hoary Head of the Righteous a Crown of Glory. PROV. 16. 31.

The Jews required persons to rise up when at a distance of four cubits from an old man. The Romans punished with death those not rising up before the hoary; and God sent two bears to devour the men who called Elisha baldheaded, 2 Kings 2. 23.

The Germans call grey hairs death's blossoms; the Bible says, if found in the way of righteousness, they are a crown of life-i.e., unfading, and an ornament, a sign of dominion and victory. Men are like wine; age renders the good mellow, but makes the bad sour, or like chimneys long foul, which, if not swept, are at length fired. Old sinners are like vessels long abroach, in which nothing is left but the lees and dregs of ignorance and sin.

Examples of good old righteous people in Samuel, I Sam. 25. 1; Elisha, 2 Kings, 13. 14; Jacob, Gen. 47, 10; Anna, Luke 2. 36.

The righteous, though old in body, is a new man in religion, 2 Cor. 5. 17; his youth is renewed like the eagle's, Ps. 103. 5.

Arab.-Hoary hairs are death's messengers, Hos. 7. 9. Afghan.-Though the mallet be old, it is sufficient to smash the pitcher.

China.-In clothes we admire novelty; in

men, old age. Arab.-The gravity of old age is fairer than the flower of youth, Job 23. 6, 7.

Hebrew.-Wisdom is the grey hair unto men.

The Body of a House.-2 Cor. 5. 1.

The

The Probodh Chandrodaya compares the soul to a taper confined in a dwelling which has nine openings. Shanti Shatak says: "It is absurd to lament the loss of youthful joy and a lively countenance, which floated off like the sportive and short-lived billows in the Jumna." Veman writes: "When a bubble stands on water, a rapid rush in passing destroys it. Alas! what affection men feel for the frail earthen vessel of the body."

The word " house" sometimes means property, as when referred to the Pharisees who devoured widow's houses, Matt. 23. 14. But "house" more generally means a place to dwell in. The body is the earthly house in which the spirit dwells, and the grave is called "the house appointed for all living," Job 30. 23, because every one now living must at last abide there as in a house. The tabernacle and temple were called "the house of God," as there God dwelt among his people by the signs of His gracious presence, and His glory appeared in the cloud, and shone forth from between the Cherubim over the Ark. And thus Jacob, when he set up the stone which had formed his pillow, called the place Bethel, or the house of God, to signify that the Lord had revealed himself in that place, Gen. 28. 17.

Solomon says, Eccles. 12. 1-7, in old age the keepers of the house, the knees, the pillars, tremble with paralysis; the grinders, or teeth, are like the women who ground meal; the eyes are the windows, the sight becomes dim, Gen. 27. I; 48. 10; the lattices of the windows afford less light to pass through, Judges 5. 28; 2 Sam. 6. 16; the doors are shut to enable the old to sleep; the daughters of music brought low, are singing or nautch girls; the house tumbles, and its tenant goes to his long home. Who builds stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter? The gravedigger: the house that he makes lasts till Doomsday. The believer's sun breaks through the clouds of old age; the golden chain, which binds his heart to heaven, is waxing stronger and stronger, its links are growing more firm; his house is tumbling, but he has a building made without hands, 2 Cor. 6. I, in a city without foundations.

Hearing, not Doing, as a House on a Sandy Foundation. MATT. 7. 26.

Tamul.-By pronouncing the word fire, will the mouth be burnt ?

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