He never denies a lie unless it is in your favor. He is always finding fault with his party, and is continually begging pardon for not belonging to the other side. He is frightfully anxious that all his candidates should stand well with the opposition. He is forever seeing the faults of his party and the virtues of the other. He generally shows his candor by scratching the ticket. He always searches every nook and comer of his conscience to find a reason for deserting a friend or a principle. In the moment of victory he is magnanimously on your side. In defeat he consoles you by repeating prophecies made after the event. The fool friend regards your reputation as common prey for all the vultures, hyenas and jackals. He takes a sad pleasure in your misfortunes. He forgets his principles to gratify your enemies. He forgives your maligner, and slanders you with all his heart. He is so friendly that you cannot kick him. He generally talks for you but always bets the other way. INSPIRATION WE are told that we have in our possession the inspired will of God. What is meant by the word "inspired" is not exactly known; but whatever else it may mean, certainly it means that the "inspired" must be the true. If it is true, there is in fact no need of its being inspired--the truth will take care of itself. The church is forced to say that the Bible differs from all other books; it is forced to say that it contains the actual will of God. Let us then see what inspiration really is. A man looks at the sea, and the sea says something to him. It makes an impression upon his mind. It awakens memory, and this impression depends upon the man's experience--upon his intellectual capacity. Another looks upon the same sea. He has a different brain; he has had a different experience. The sea may speak to him of joy; to the other of grief and tears. The sea cannot tell the same thing to any two human beings, because no two human beings have had the same experience. Another, standing upon the shore, listening to what the great Greek tragedian called "The multitudinous laughter of the sea," may say: Every drop has visited all the shores of the earth; every one has been frozen in the vast and icy North; every one has fallen in snow, has been whirled by storms around mountain peaks; every one has been kissed to vapor by the sun; every one has worn the seven-hued garment of light; every one has fallen in pleasant rain, gurgled from springs and laughed in brooks while lovers wooed upon the banks, and every one has rushed with mighty rivers back to the sea's embrace. Everything in Nature tells a different story to all eyes that see, and to all ears that hear.