_That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God_.--EPH. iii. 17-19. O love that passeth knowledge, thee I need; Pour in the heavenly sunshine; fill my heart; Scatter the cloud, the doubting, and the dread,-- The joy unspeakable to me impart. H. BONAR. To examine its evidence is not to try Christianity; to admire its martyrs is not to try Christianity; to compare and estimate its teachers is not to try Christianity; to attend its rites and services with more than Mahometan punctuality is not to try or know Christianity. But for one week, for one day, to have lived in the pure atmosphere of faith and love to God, of tenderness to man; to have beheld earth annihilated, and heaven opened to the prophetic gaze of hope; to have seen evermore revealed behind the complicated troubles of this strange, mysterious life, the unchanged smile of an eternal Friend, and everything that is difficult to reason solved by that reposing trust which is higher and better than reason,--to have known and felt this, I will not say for a _life_, but for a single blessed hour, _that_, indeed, is to have made experiment of Christianity. WM. ARCHER BUTLER. December 26 _The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus_.--PHIL. iv. 7. _Let the peace of God rule in your hearts_.--COL. iii. 15. Drop Thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of Thy peace. J. G. WHITTIER. "These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." What is fulness of joy but _peace_? Joy is tumultuous only when it is not full; but peace is the privilege of those who are "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." It is peace, springing from trust and innocence, and then overflowing in love towards all around him. J. H. NEWMAN. THROUGH the spirit of Divine Love let the violent, obstinate powers of thy nature be quieted, the hardness of thy affections softened, and thine intractable self-will subdued; and as often as anything contrary stirs within thee, immediately sink into the blessed Ocean of meekness and love. G. TERSTEEGEN. December 27 _Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ_.--GAL. iv. 7. Not by the terrors of a slave God's sons perform His will, But with the noblest powers they have His sweet commands fulfil. ISAAC WATTS.