air, if now and then they were not carried off by the rain, which precipitates them upon the earth, and thus clears and purifies the air. The rain is not less useful in moderating the burning heat of the atmosphere, as we see in the rainy season in India, Isa. 44. 3, when the rain falls from a higher region, and brings to the lower a refreshing coolness, of which we always feel the agreeable effects when it has rained. It is also to the rain we must partly attribute the origin of fountains, wells, lakes, brooks, and consequently rivers such as the Amazon of America, 180 miles wide at its mouth. We are supplied in abundance with those sources of water in the wet and rainy seasons, whereas they evaporate during a long drought. The earth and vegetables languish for want of these fruitful showers, without which everything would perish, for rain is in many respects the food of vegetables; it circulates in their finer veins, and in the vessels of plants and trees, and conveys to them those beneficial juices which preserve their life and give them growth. When it pours on mountains, it sweeps from them a soft, rich, and fruitful earth, which it deposits in the valleys where it falls, and which it fertilizes. The valleys of the Ganges and Nile have been thus formed. Among the Egyptians the prophet carried in his hand a pitcher, as a symbol of his dispensing the water of learning. In the Lalita Vistara it is said that Sakhya Muni "will render calm and cool by the rain of the law those who are devoured by the fire of envy and passion." God's influence like rain in four points : 1. Sometimes comes irresistibly, Isa. 60. 10, 11. 2. Varies-sometimes in torrents, at other times in showers. The feast of Pentecost, when 3,000 were converted, was a torrent. Lydia's case was the gentle shower, Acts 16. 14; so was Timothy's case. 3. Falls in drops in succession; so line upon line, Isa. 28. 10. Men, like narrow-mouthed vessels, cannot receive much at a time. 4. At God's pleasure. In some countries the rain falls in torrents; in Egypt scarcely any falls. Redeeming the Time.-ЕPH. 5. 16. The text treats of laying up time as a thing of value, such as the dying, who know the preciousness of time; there is only one building eternal, 2 Cor. 5. I. Solomon says, Eccles. 3. 3-7, there is a time to break down, such as happened to the walls of Jerusalem, 2 Kings 25. 4-15; there is a time to cast away stones, as in building memorials, Gen. 30., Jos. 4. 1-9; so Paul threw things overboard in the shipwreck, Acts 27. 38. The English say, "Time and tide wait for no man ;" the Bengalis say, "When the rice rises in the pot, quick, quick, quick;" in hell they know the worth of time; the sinner's to-morrow will never come; Jerusalem had its time, but it knew it not, Luke 19. 42; a Jewish rabbi, asked when a man should repent, said one day before his death. Christ came in the fulness of time, Gal. 4. 4; and our times are in God's hands, Ps. 31. 15. Time brings changes; thus one man who in the morning was worshipped, in the evening was hung up as food for crows, Esth. 7. 1-10; one great king became mad, Dan. 4. 32; see the fate of a king in the midst of a feast, Dan. 5. 30. Arab. Opportunities pass away like clouds. Persian.-The arrow, once shot, never returns to the bow, Eccles. II. 3. Russian.-Summer never comes twice in a year. Arab.-The best teacher is time. Sanskrit.-Repairing the tank after the water had escaped. Sparing the Rod, hating his Son.-PROV. 13. 24. Sweet honey is sucked out of the bitterest herbs; scouring makes a vessel shine the brightest; so with punishment. Eli neglected to restrain his sons, I Sam. 3. 13; this proved their ruin, 1 Sam. 4. II. Such apparent kindness was cruelty. David did not restrain Absalom, 2 Sam. 14. 25, and it led to his ruin, I Kings 12. The best horse needs breaking, so the best child restraining. Bengal.-Sand sharpens a knife, a stone an axe, good words a good man; so a thrashing does a rogue. Talmud.-A word is enough for a wise man, a stick for a fool. So in Arabic. Telugu.—An iron ladle for a stone pot. Afghan. The porcupine says, O my soft little son, softer than butter. Afghan. The ungrateful son is a wart on his father's face. To leave it is a blemish: to cut it a pain. Illustrate Eli's sparing the rod by an Afghan proverb ? The Root of all Evil is the Love of Money.—ı Tıм. 6. 10. St. Paul calls covetousness idolatry, Eph. 5. 5; covetousness implies distrust of God, Luke 12. 29; we are to ask only for our daily bread, Mat. 6. 34; hasting to be rich leads to wrong means, as with Judas, Balaam, Ahab, Ananias, Simon Magus; their root of money-love spreads like the banyan, its branches very wide in discontent and carelessness of the poor. (See the parable of the Unjust Steward and Rich Worldling, Luke 12. 15-21.) Christ said, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon;" or, as the Bengalis have it-"One foot on land, the other on water." The ostrich cannot fly high because of its wings; and Jacob with his flock had to travel slowly, Gen. 33. 13. He is not rich who possesses much, but who desires little; the evil lies not in the mere acquisition of money-thus Abraham, the father of the faithful, was wealthy, Gen. 1 3. 2; so was David, the man after God's own heart, 1 Chron. 28. 10; 29. 1-16. Theirs was not filthy lucre, Tit. I. 7. Turk.-The stomach of the covetous is satisfied; his eye never. Malabar.-Money is the hatchet to separate pleasant friends. Arab. The gaping mouth of covetousness is not filled except by the earth of the grave, Ps. 146. 4. Arab.-Covetousness is the punishment of the rich; a rich miser is poorer than a poor man. Arab.-Riches are the fomenters of desire; the thirst after wealth is more vehement than after water. Arab.-Covetousness has for its mother unlawful desires, for its daughter injustice, for its companion vileness. Turk.-To ask bounty from a covetous man is to dig a trench in the sea. Syrian.-Like the monkey's fat, which does not melt or soften. Kurd. The camel carries sugar, yet eats thorns. Telugu.-Avarice knows not shame; sleep (of the covetous) knows not comfort. Persian.-The miser has locked up the gate of heaven. Mahabharat.—The bolt of the door of heaven is made by covetousness. Persian.-Fat does not come from a stone-i.e., the miser is stony-hearted. Bengal.-An ox carrying sugar-i.e., a miser enjoying not what he has. Bengal. Even iron swims for gain; from covetousness came sin, from sin death. Persian.- -A man attempted to swim with a load of iron on his back, Hab. 2. 6. Afghan.-Though the river be large, it is on the dog's tongue-i.e., misers have much, but can spend little on themselves. Afghan.-Wealth is his who eats it (enjoys), not his who keeps it. Tamul.—Patient endurance is the root of religious merit; avarice the root of sin. Arab. The thirst after gold is worse than the thirst after water. Sanskrit.-Man is the slave of money. Rottenness of the Bones in Envy.-PROV. 14. 30. If the bones, the mainstay of the system, be rotten, the whole body becomes sick-a slow and torturing death takes place; so envy is the soul's rottenness. Envy converts the happiness of which it is the witness into wormwood and gall for its own cup, and transforms the honey of another man's comfort into the poison of asps for its own bosom : it is an instrument of self-torment -a burning ulceration of the soul-a crime which, partaking of the guilt, partakes as largely of the misery of hell. Cain, the first murderer, slew his brother at the instigation of this vice, Gen. 4. 4; Saul, under the influence of envy, plotted for years the slaughter of David, I Sam. 18. Ahab, the king of Israel, pined for the vineyard of Naboth, and shed his blood to gain it, 1 Kings 21.; it was envy that perpetrated that most atrocious crime on which the sun refused to look, and at which Nature gave signs of abhorrence by the rending of the rocks-the crucifixion of Christ, Mat. 27. 18. The envious man is a man of the worst diet, for he consumes himself, and delights in pining: a thorn-hedge covered with nettles; a peevish interpreter of good things; and no other than a lean and pale carcase, quickened with a fiend. Envy is painful to ourselves, and injurious as rust is to iron or the moth to cloth; therefore called "the rottenness of the bones." It arises from pride, and is carried out in covetousness and evil desire, ending in discontent. Envy is discontentedness at another man's good and prosperous estate, holiness, esteem, renown, and ability. carnal things it is sordid, in higher things it is devilish. In the one we partake with the beasts, who ravenously seek to take the prey from one another; in the other with the devils and evil angels, who, being fallen from happiness, now malign and envy those that enjoy it. St. James 3. 14, calls it "bitter envying," to distinguish it from that holy emulation which makes us strive who shall excel In |