Commit the following to memory: Jesus is God! Alas! they say Who for our sake, was man? John Dryden (1631-1700) occupies an important place in English literature, both by the number and general excellence of his productions, as well as by his influence upon poetic taste. His dramatic works are exceedingly numerous, but at this day, of comparatively small literary value. They are disgraced by indecency and immorality. His controversial poems, "Religio Laici," and the "Hind and Panther," the latter written upon his conversion to Catholicity, are the finest examples of argument in verse. The translations of Virgil's Eneid and the Satires of Juvenal and Persius are standard classics in our language. His lyric productions though few, are excellent, the Ode on St. Cecilia's Day being considered the finest in the English language. Dryden's prose works are chiefly critical essays prefixed to his poetical works. In prose as in verse he showed himself a great master of English, and his style, vigorous, idiomatic and harmonious, did much to improve the diction of the language. CREATOR Spirit, by whose aid, The world's foundations first were laid. Come visit every pious mind; Come pour thy joys on human kind; From sin and sorrow set us free, O source of uncreated light, Plenteous of grace, descend from high, Rich in thy seven-fold energy! Thou strength of his Almighty hand, Whose power does heaven and earth command, Proceeding Spirit, our defence, Who dost the gift of tongues dispense, Refine and purge our earthly parts, And when rebellious they are grown, Chase from our minds th' infernal foe, Make us eternal truths receive, Immortal honor, endless fame, Who for lost man's redemption died: Eternal Paraclete, to thee! Questions: Who is the "Creator Spirit" here understood? Who are "human kind"? From what are we to be made free? What means, besides prayer, will then make us free? What are the "temples" meant in the last line of first stanza? What is a Paraclete? Whence is a heavenly love to reach us? What can grace do for us "while we sing"? What is the "gift of tongues"? Who received this gift at Pentecost? In what two ways may this gift have been bestowed? Which would have been the more convenient? Explain why. What is eloquence? What is meant by our "earthly parts”? What are our frailties? Name our senses? Who is "th' infernal foe"? Why must the Holy Spirit "protect an:1 guide us in the way"? What spirit does this for good children? What is asked for the "Eternal Father's name"? Why do we ask that the "Saviour Son be glorified"? How do we pray that the Eternal Paraclete may be adored? kind plenteous Paraclete energy proceeding frailties GROWTH AND REPAIR OF THE BODY. THE human body is often compared to a house. When a man builds a house, he collects a great variety of materials. He gets timber of different shapes, as beams and boards. He buys bricks of the brickmaker. He gets lime from one place, sand from another, and hair from another, and mixes them to make the mortar to hold the bricks together. He procures stone for the foundation and the steps, and various other purposes. He provides glass for the windows, paper for the walls, and paints of various colors. Besides these, many other things must be collected to complete the building. And then, how many things are required to furnish the house after it is built! Now the house that your spirit lives in, the body, with all its variety of furniture, is made of only one material, the blood. And it is also kept in repair with the same material. You can see how wonderful this is if you observe how many different things there are in the frame-work of the body. Think a moment about this. Look at the outside of the body. There we see the skin, the hair, and the nails. How different these are from one another! But they are all made out of the same material, the blood.. You would think it very wonderful if a man could make bricks, and boards, and nails out of the same thing. If a man should say that he could do it, you would set him down as a crazy person. But bricks, and boards, and nails are not so much unlike one another as your hair, skin, and finger-nails are. And how entirely different these are from the blood out of which they were made! Look now at the eye. How different it is from the parts of which I have been speaking! But it is made. out of the same blood with them. Look at the various parts of this beautiful organ. See the firm, white eyeball. Then see in front what a clear, thin, round window is set into this ball, like a crystal in the face of a watch. Look in at this window, and see the delicate iris, which has so many different colors in different persons. Then there are parts which you cannot sce. There are three different kinds of fluids inside of the eye. There is a nerve which spreads out its little, fine fibres all over the back part of the eye inside. There are muscles, also, that move the eye about so quickly. Then, too, there is the tear-factory, or gland, that keeps the eye moist. Is it not wonderful that all these parts, so different from one another the eyeball, the window, the iris, the three fluids, the nerves, the muscles, the tear-gland and its tears-should be made out of the same thing, and that, too, a thing which is not like any of them? Look now at the mouth. Would you suppose that those hard teeth are made out of the same material with the clear window in the eye, and the delicate iris, and the soft tears? It is even so. See how different the gums are from the teeth. It seems almost impossible that they are both made out of the blood. Then, inside of the body, out of sight, are a great many different structures, such as the bones, the red muscles, the white, silk-like, shining tendons, the glands, the firm liver, the spongy lungs, the stomach, and all the various fluids, as the saliva, the tears, the bile- - all are made from the blood. Even the very vessels that carry the blood, and the heart that pumps it into them, are made out of the blood itself! This is no less wonderful than it would be to have the walls of a canal or an aqueduct made out of the water that runs through it. But you will want to know how the blood is converted into so many different substances, and who the workmen are that do it. It is not the arteries. They only serve to carry the material everywhere. They are the common carriers of the body. Through these the heart, as it pumps away, seventy times a minute, sends the blood to every part of the system. And in every part there are multitudes of workmen that take this material, thus brought to their very doors, and use it to manufacture various things. Some are bone-makers, some nervemakers, some muscle-makers, some makers of teeth, some eye-manufacturers, and so on. All the workmen work in separate companies, and very seldom interfere with one another, though they |