Stand up, O heart! and yield not one inch of thy rightful territory to the usurping intellect. Hold fast to God in spite of logic, and yet not quite blindly. Be not torn from thy grasp upon the skirts of His garments by any wrench of atheistic hypothesis that seeks only to hurl thee into utter darkness; but refuse not to let thy hands be gently unclasped by that loving and pious philosophy that seeks to draw thee from the feet of God only to place thee in His bosom. Trustfully, though tremblingly, let go the robe, and thou shalt rest upon the heart and clasp the very living soul of God. JAMES HINTON. December 23 _Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ_.--2 TIM. ii. 3. Where our Captain bids us go, 'T is not ours to murmur, "No," He that gives the sword and shield, Chooses too the battle-field On which we are to fight the foe. ANON. Of nothing may we be more sure than this; that, if we cannot sanctify our present lot, we could sanctify no other. Our heaven and our Almighty Father are there or nowhere. The obstructions of that lot are given for us to heave away by the concurrent touch of a holy spirit, and labor of strenuous will; its gloom, for us to tint with some celestial light; its mysteries are for our worship; its sorrows for our trust; its perils for our courage; its temptations for our faith. Soldiers of the cross, it is not for us, but for our Leader and our Lord, to choose the field; it is ours, taking the station which He assigns, to make it the field of truth and honor, though it be the field of death. J. MARTINEAU. December 24 _Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light_.--COL. i. 12. The souls most precious to us here May from this home have fled; But still we make one household dear; One Lord is still our head. Midst cherubim and seraphim They mind their Lord's affairs; Oh! if we bring our work to Him Our work is one with theirs. T. H. GILL. We are apt to feel as if nothing we could do on earth bears a relation to what the good are doing in a higher world; but it is not so. Heaven and earth are not so far apart. Every disinterested act, every sacrifice to duty, every exertion for the good of "one of the least of Christ's brethren," every new insight into God's works, every new impulse given to the love of truth and goodness, associates us with the departed, brings us nearer to them, and is as truly heavenly as if we were acting, not on earth, but in heaven. The spiritual tie between us and the departed is not felt as it should be. Our union with them daily grows stronger, if we daily make progress in what they are growing in. WM. E. CHANNING. December 25