"U" Feathers

UNBELIEF—Wickedness of The late Dr. Heugh, of Glasgow, a short time before he breathed his last, said, "There is nothing I feel more than the criminality of not trusting Christ without doubt—without doubt. Oh, to think what Christ is, what he did, and whom he did it for, and then not to believe him, not to trust him! There is no wickedness like the wickedness of unbelief!"

UNDERSTANDING—No Time for

"How is it, my dear," inquired a schoolmistress of a little girl, "that you do not understand this simple thing?" "I do not know, indeed," she answered, with a perplexed look; "but I sometimes think I have so many things to learn that I have not the time to understand."

Alas! there may be much hearing, much reading, much attendance at public services, and very small result, and all because the word was not the subject of thought, and was never embraced by the understanding. What is not understood is like meat undigested, more likely to be injurious than nourishing.

UNGODLY MEN—Much Alike In the Aosta Valley we were tormented by the recklessness of a driver who was drunk. Glad enough were we to change him for a sober man—sober as we thought; but, alas! we had only seen him in the morning, and before the afternoon had much advanced his sobriety was gone, and we would willingly have taken back the discarded sot of yesterday. Ungodly men are very much alike when the time of temptation has fully come. The difference between one sinner and another is rather created by outward than by inward causes. Put them in like circumstances, and they would be much the same. All swine are not in the mire, but they all love it.

UNION TO CHRIST

Two friends are said to come into Vulcan's shop, and to beg a boon of him: it was granted. What was it? that he would cither beat them on his anvil, or melt them in his furnace, both into one. But without fiction, here is a far greater love in Christ; for he would be melted in the furnace of wrath, and beaten on the anvil of death, to be made one with us. And to declare the exceeding love, here were not both to be beaten on the anvil, or melted in the furnace; but without us, he alone would be beaten on the anvil, he alone melted that we might be spared.—Thomas Adams.

UNITY—Among Christians to be Desired

Melancthon mourned in his day the divisions among Protestants, and sought to bring the Protestants together by the parable of the war between the wolves and the dogs. The wolves were somewhat afraid, for the dogs were many and strong, and therefore they sent out a spy to observe them. On his return, the scout said, "It is true the dogs are many, but there are not many mastiffs among them. There are dogs of so many sorts one can hardly count them; and as for the worst of them," said he, "they are little dogs, which bark loudly, but cannot bite. However, this did not cheer me so much," said the wolf, "as this, that as they came marching on, I observed they were all snapping right and left at one another, and I could see clearly that though they all hate the wolf, yet each dog hates every other dog with all his heart." I fear it is true still; for there are many professors who snap right and left at their own brethren, when they had better save their teeth for the wolves. If our enemies are to be put to confusion, it must be by the united efforts of all the people of God: unity is strength, UNTRUTH—is Religious Giving

Louis XI. made a donation to the Virgin Mary of the whole county of Boulogne, retaining, however, for his man use, the revenues thereof! A solemn deed was drawn up, signed, sealed, and delivered, and it bears date 1478. What a ridiculous farce! The instrument gives away just nothing at all. But are there no such farces among us? When men of mean and miserly dispositions sing certain of our hymns, are they not guilty of just such a pretence of generosity? With abundance of goods in their power, they fumble for a threepenny-piece in their pockets, singing, meanwhile,

"Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine Demands my soul, my life, my all."

USEFULNESS—Better than Mere Capacity A monstrous vat, certainly, is the great tun of Heidelberg. It might hold eight hundred hogsheads of wine at the least; but what is the use of such wasted capacity, since, for nearly a hundred years, there has not been a drop of liquor in it! Hollow and sounding, empty and void and waste; vintages come and go, and find it perishing of dry rot. An empty cask is not so great a spectacle after all, let its size bo what it may, though old travellers called this monster one of the wonders of the world. What a thousand pities it is that many men of genius and of learning are, in respect of usefulness, no better than this huge but empty tun of Heidelberg! Very capacious are their minds, but very unpractical. Better be a poor household kilderkin, and give forth one's little freely, than exist as a useless prodigy, capable of much and available for nothing.

USEFULNESS—the least Christian to Aim at

Many true saints are unable to render much service to the cause of God. See, then, the gardeners going down to the pond, and dipping in their watering-pots to carry the refreshing liquid to the flowers. A child comes into the garden and wishes to help, and yonder is a little watering-pot for him. Note well the little water-pot, though it does not hold so much, yet carries the same water to the plants; and it does not make any difference to the flowers which receive that water, whether it came out of the big pot or the little pot, so long as it is the same water, and they get it. You who are as little children in God's church, you who do not know much, but try to tell to others what little you know; if it be the same gospel truth, and be blessed by the same Spirit, it will not matter to the souls who are blessed by you whether they were converted or comforted under a man of one or ten talents.

USEFULNESS—Wisdom Needed for In order to reach their hearts on sacred and divine things, he strove to cultivate the art of conciliating even the careless and indifferent, by talking to them, in the first instance, on subjects in which they would be interested; and in this taught a precious lesson, which all who are engaged in evangelistic labour would do well to learn and exemplify. When acting as a regular district visitor in Whitechapel, London, he happened to visit a currier, to whom he was unknown, and his knowledge of the various processes of tanning and the preparation of leather, elicited the remark, "Ah, I see you are in the trade yourself, sir."—From Dr. Duff's "Life of Lord Haddo, fifth Earl of Aberdeen!'