which greatly diminishes the image of reflected objects: but everything evil in a concave mirror, which magnifies the image of the object reflected.

Suspicions are like dreams, which take their colour from the thoughts of the mind; but are greatly distorted because judgment is asleep.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.

...

QUOTATIONS. Many are deceived by their own vain opinion; and an evil suspicion hath overthrown their judgment.-Eccles. iii. 24.

Men of base natures, if they find themselves suspected, will never be true.-Lord Bacon.

Suspicion always haunts the guilty breast.

To be overrun with suspicion, is a kind of political madness.-Lord Bacon.

Suspicion often breaks a frail integrity, says Lord Bacon. How different is this to the spirit of God's "servant in whom his soul delighteth," and of whom it is said, "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench."-Isa, xlii. 3.

Domitian used to say, "Such as give heart to slanders,

are worse than slanderers themselves."

I do suspect the Moor . . . . the thought
Doth, like a poisoned mineral, gnaw my inwards :
I know not if't be true:

Yet I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do, as if for surety.-Shakspeare.

Perchance I'm vicious in my guess,
As, I confess, it is my nature's plague
To spy into abuse; and oft my jealousy
Shapes faults that are not.-Shakspeare.
Where an equal poise of hope and fear
Doth arbitrate the event, my nature is
That I incline to hope rather than fear,
And gladly banish squint suspicion.- Milton.

Be no over-exquisite

To cast the fashion of uncertain evils ;

For, grant they be so, while they rest unknown,
What need a man forestall his date of grief,
And run to meet what he would most avoid?
Or, if they be but false alarms of fear,

How bitter is such self-delusion !-Milton.

Your soul's above the baseness of distrust.-Dryden. Sospetto licentia fede.

Te conscientia suspiciosum faciebat.— Cicero.

Bomilcar suspectus regi, et ipse eum suspiciens.— Sallust.

THEME LXXV. Be anxious for nothing. INTRODUCTION.

1ST REASON.-Great solicitude about the future shows a want of confidence in God, who has promised, saying, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."-Heb. iii. 5.

2ND REASON.-It keeps the mind in a state of constant uneasiness; and preys upon the temper, spirits, and health.

3RD REASON.-It produces perplexity of purpose, disqualifies the mind from pursuing its ordinary duties, and often accelerates the very evils that are the objects of dread.

4TH REASON. It is a great temptation to sin.

5TH REASON. It has a most pernicious moral influence, as it leads to repining, discontent, envy, peevishness, prayerlessness, and infidelity.

6TH REASON.-Man is so short-sighted, that the very cloud he dreads may be replete with mercy; while the

object of his desire may be like the meat which the children of Israel craved in the wilderness, of which they had no sooner eaten than it became "loathsome," and numbers died "with a very great plague."-Num. xi. 4. 18, 19, 20. 33.

7TH REASON.-Carking anxiety makes a person overweeningly selfish; shuts up all the generous sympathies of the heart; and binds every thought to the wheel of this despotic monomania,

SIMILES. AS great effeminacy of mind or body produces nervousness, and many moral evils, so great anxiety debilitates the mental and physical powers.*

Gnawing anxiety is like a tape-worm in a tree, which makes it bleed profusely, but destroys its fruitfulness.

As pulmonary consumption wastes away the body, so carking care consumes the mind.

As iron is consumed by the canker tooth of the air, so the mind and body are rusted away by the canker tooth of anxiety.

As a worm in the bud, so is care in the heart.

As a moth frets a garment, so distressful solicitude preys upon the mind.

Anxiety may be likened to the vulture which preyed upon the liver of Prometheus, while he was chained to the Caucasian rock.

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.—Martha. Luke, x. 40, 41. Dan. iii. 16, &c. .

QUOTATIONS. Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.-Matt. vi. 25.

*St. Paul says, that no "effeminate person shall inherit the kingdom of God" and he classes the effeminate with thieves, drunkards, idolaters, and all "the scum of the earth."-1 Cor. vi. 9.

Take no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.-Matt. vi. 34.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.-Ps. lv. 22.

Cast all your care upon (God), for he careth for you. -1 Pet. v. 7.

Be careful for nothing.-Phil. iv. 6.

Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?-Luke, xii. 25, 26.

I would have you without carefulness.-1 Cor. vii. 32. Watching care will not let a man slumber.-Eccles. xxxi. 2.

Carefulness bringeth age before the time.-Eccles.

XXX. 24.

Can your solicitude alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events?

He bids danger advance who buckles against it.Lord Bacon.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining,

Behind the clouds the sun is shining.-Longfellow.
Bear up!

Yet still bear up! No bark did e'er,
By stooping to the storm of fear,

Escape the tempest wrath.-Beaumont.

The story of a man who grew grey in the space of one

night's anxiety is very famous.-Spectator.

Cheer up, sad heart! God is where he was.

Content in a cot is better than care on a throne.

Blaw the bla' wind ne'er so fast.

Its bluster will abate at last.-Scotch proverb.

Si quis est timidus in magnis periculosisque rebus, semperque magis adversos rerum exitus metuens, quam sperans secundos, is ego sum.-Cicero.

Degeneres animos timor arguit.-Virgil.

Timidum nullius animi, nullius consilii esse, confiteor.

Cicero.

Animus otiosus est imperium.-Terence.

Neque semper arcum tendit Apollo.-Horace.

1ST REASON. The commission of sin is like the letting in of waters; he who once tolerates it from a virtuous motive, will soon indulge in it from mere concupiscence.

2ND REASON. No one evil can be committed alone. Sin is a large family, of which, if you marry one, you must be saddled with all its poor relations.

3RD REASON.--The notion that "the end sanctifies the means," is a sad delusion: So long as conscience feels sin to be sinful, its compunctious visitings will serve as a check to wickedness; but immediately it is taught to believe that sin is justifiable, it will "run after error with greediness."

4TH REASON." As the tree, so must the fruit be;" "No man can gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles:" Even so no evil act can proceed from a good heart.

5TH REASON.-"What a man soweth that shall he also reap" He that soweth brambles must not expect to gather grapes; and he who commits sin (no matter