child, one on whom we had fondly centered our hopes and affections:

Grief fills the room up of our absent child
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with us,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers us of all his gracious parts,

Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form,

King John, iii. 4.

till we grow, like the bereaved Constance, "fond of grief," and forget that the child has been only removed from the evil to come, and translated to a world of never-ending joy.

For though fond nature bids us all lament,
Yet nature's tears are reason's merriment.

Some grief shows much of love,

Romeo and Juliet, iv. 4.

Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5.

But much of grief shows still some want of wit.

We must not therefore allow our sorrow, which is in itself lawful and natural, to degenerate into "a sorrow that is without hope;" into "that excessive grief which is the enemy of the living," (All's Well, &c., i. 1) into "the sorrow of the world which worketh death."1

We shall now consider the teaching of the Word of God, and the teaching of our Poet, on the subject of Patriotism; or that love of our country which leads us to prefer the land of our birth, with all its faults, and with all its imperfections, to any other country in the world. Now it has been asserted by some, that Patriotism is never once recognised in the Holy Scriptures. For For a complete refutation of so ill-founded an assertion, we need only refer to the Book of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and to the Psalms of the sweet singer of Israel. Dear indeed to the

1 2 Corinthians, vii. 10.

true Israelite was the fair land of his birth-the land that "flowed with milk and honey:" there was no city in the world so beloved by him as Jerusalem, the joy of the whole earth. "If I forget thee"-he would exclaim with passionate fervour, "let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."1 Never were the writers of the Old Testament Books more eloquent than when Salem was their theme; never were their dirges more plaintive and funereal, than when the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem were endangered, either by the hostility of an open foe, or by the dark machinations of a traitor.

Let us see in what terms our national Dramatist speaks of this country of ours, which is dear to us all, as it was to him; and dearer it cannot possibly be:

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
(For Christian service, and true chivalry,)
As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,
Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son:
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world.

Again:

King Richard II., ii. 1.

That pale, that white-faced shore,
Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,
And coops from other lands her islanders.

King John, ii. 1.

This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Come the three corners of the world in arms

And we shall shock them: Nought shall make us rue,
If England to itself do rest but true.-King John, v. 7.

And we are true to our country so long (and only so long) as we are true to that God who has given us the power to get wealth, and glory and dominion, and to establish an influence over the nations of the earth.1

The Inspired Writers of the Holy Scriptures very frequently direct man's attention to the birds of the air, to the beasts of the field, and even to insects and to flowers, as well calculated to call him back to a sense of his duty, and to impress upon him the responsibilities of his position, as a part of the rational creation of God. The prophet Jeremiah2 reproves the Israelites for their ignorance of the Lord's judgments, and contrasts their folly with the superior discernment shown by "the stork in the heavens" who knoweth her appointed times, and by the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, who instinctively observe the proper season of their periodic migration. Isaiah3 also exposes the obtuseness and stupidity of the same people by the examples of the ox that knoweth his owner, and of the ass that knoweth his master's crib. The same mode of teaching is employed by Solomon, and by Him who is in all respects far greater than Solomon. The former refers us to the ants, that we may learn prudence and forethought, and to the locusts, that we may perceive

4

1 Deuteronomy, viii. 18. 2 Jeremiah, viii. 7. 3 Isaiah, i, 3. 4 Proverbs, xxx. 25.

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the manifold benefits arising from a due subordination to the existing powers; and the latter enjoins us to learn. wisdom from the serpent, and guilelessness and simplicity from the dove: and when His object is to inculcate a firm reliance on the never-failing Providence of our Heavenly Father, no fitter mode of instruction suggests itself to the Divine mind, than a reference to the fowls of the air, to the sparrows, and to the lilies of the field. Moreover, David in the Old Testament, and S. James in the New,5 censure and expose the folly and obstinacy of man, by the examples of the horse and of the mule, which have no understanding, but must be held in, and curbed by the bit and bridle; metaphors these, which are so eminently fit and appropriate to the subject, that we are in the habit of employing them, in common conversation, without even once thinking of their origin. Hence has arisen the use, in ordinary discourse, of such modes of expression as "curbing" an unruly thought; checking" an unchaste desire; and 'bridling" inordinate affections: and on the other hand, as often as we are urged on and stimulated by a violent motive to the execution of any project, the motive which impels us is said to act upon us as a "spur." This mode of speech is fully illustrated by our Poet in Richard II., i. 1.

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The fair reverence of your highness curbs me

From giving reins and spurs to my fair speech.
What rein can hold licentious wickedness,
When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

They must be dieted, like mules,

And have their provender tied to their mouths.

Henry VI., Part I., i. 2.

Those that tame wild horses

Pace them not in their hands to make them gentle;

But stop their mouths with stubborn bits, and spur them
Till they obey the manage.-King Henry VIII., v. 2.

Or, as S. James (iii. 3) has it, "We put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us, and we turn about their whole body."

We have already noticed the clear reference made by Shakspere to the ant, as an instructor of mankind in prudent forethought; and as a memorable instance of order and subordination, Solomon has referred us to the locusts. Now in the place of locusts, Shakspere has substituted Bees, and their mode of working in the hives, as clearly showing the advantages which arise from subordination of rank to rank, and an equitable distribution and allotment of labour and responsibility: The idea is precisely the same in both, though the examples brought forward are different.

So work the honey bees;

Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;

Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;

Others, like soldiers, armèd in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;

Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent royal of their emperor;

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys

The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale

The lazy yawning drone.-King Henry V., i. 2.

There is perhaps no one sin into which man, from the