s? No, my brethren, it is impossible, unless we
forget this Saviour, and lose sight of that cross on which he poured out
his soul for us.

That is an affecting passage in Roman history which records the death
of Manlius. At night, and on the Capitol, fighting hand to hand, had he
repelled the Gauls, and saved the city, when all seemed lost. Afterwards
he was accused; but the Capitol towered in sight of the forum where he
was tried, and, as he was about to be condemned, he stretched out his
hands, and pointed, weeping, to that arena of his triumph. At this the
people burst into tears, and the judges could not pronounce sentence.
Again the trial proceeded, but was again defeated; nor could he be
convicted until they had removed him to a low spot, from which the
Capitol was invisible. And behold my brethren, what I am saying. While
the cross is in view, vainly will earth and sin seek to shake the
Christian's loyalty and devotion; one look at that purple monument of
a love which alone, and when all was dark and lost, interposed for our
rescue, and their efforts will be baffled. Low must we sink, and blotted
from our hearts must be the memory of that deed, before we can become
faithless to the Redeemer's cause, and perfidious to his glory.

[Footnote 17: A Baptist divine of much distinction: a native of South
Carolina but long settled in Baltimore.]

* * * * *

=_Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-_= (Manual, p. 480.)

From the "Star Papers."

=_47._= A PICTURE IN A COLLEGE AT OXFORD.

I was much affected by a head of Christ. Not that it met my ideal of
that sacred front, but because it took me in a mood that clothed it with
life and reality. For one blessed moment I was with the Lord. I know
him. I loved him. My eyes I could not close for tears. My poor tongue
kept silence; but my heart spoke, and I loved and adored. The amazing
circuit of one's thoughts in so short a period is wonderful. They circle
round through all the past, and up through the whole future; and both
the past and future are the present, and are one. For one moment there
arose a keen anguish, like a shooting pang, for that which I was; and I
thought my heart would break that I could bring but only such a nature
to my Lord; but in a moment, as quick as the flash of sunlight which
follows the shadow of summer clouds across the fields, there seemed to
spring out upon me from my Master a certainty of love so great and noble
as ut