Thou art good and gracious O teach me Thy statutes.-

It is good for me that I have been in trouble: that I may learn Thy statutes.

stalk.

IOLETS.

Clothed with humility.

O sweet are Violets, that truly Violet is but a second name for sweetness. On mossy banks, under hedgerows, overtopped by a fern or even by a blade of grass, curtained also among its own heart-shaped leaves, springs the Violet; which, not sufficed by a lowly stature, crooks downwards also the neck of its slender flowerShades of blue-purple darker or lighter and passing into whiteness make its blossom comely, whereof a speck of gold lights up the centre: yet had it lacked comeliness, the Violet would still have been replete with choice delight; for it emits fragrance which, floating in the air or wafted on the breeze, makes known far and near the presence of the unseen flower. The petals having dropped away, the seed-vessel matures, and exhibits the figure of a somewhat irregularly-modelled globe; this, surrounded by the fingers of a five-pointed calyx, seems a miniature world held in the hollow of a

hand. Nor does this modest plant lack the hidden virtue of discriminative sensitiveness: for a syrup concocted from it detects by contact either acid or alkali; the one transmuting the Violet's blue component into red, the other into green.

A second Violet there is, the Dog Violet, which stands higher on its flower-stem, and does not veil itself within its foliage, and being finely pencilled displays a more beautiful blossom than the other: but this second sort is scentless, and we cherish it not like those sweet Violets

which, abounding in the spring, sometimes bloom again for us in the autumn.

The smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed.Genesis xxvii. 27.

Herself a rose, who bore the Rose,

She bore the Rose and felt its thorn.

All Loveliness new-born

Took on her bosom its repose,

And slept and woke there night and morn.

Lily herself, she bore the one

Fair Lily; sweeter, whiter, far
Than she or others are:

The Sun of Righteousness her Son,
She was His morning star.

She gracious, He essential Grace,
He was the Fountain, she the rill:
Her goodness to fulfil

And gladness, with proportioned pace
He led her steps through good and ill.

Christ's mirror she of grace and love,
Of beauty and of life and death:
By hope and love and faith
Transfigured to His Likeness, "Dove,
Spouse, Sister, Mother," Jesus saith.

St. Mark.

EVANGELIST.

25 APRIL.

The Sacred Text.

ETER came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying.-Acts xii. II, 12.

Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.-Acts xii. 25.

As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister. Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia : and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem. -Acts xiii. 2, &c.

.

Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit

our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. So Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus.-Acts xv. 36, &c.

The church that is at Babylon, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son.-1 St. Peter v. 13.

Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) and Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellowworkers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me.-Colossians iv. 10, 11.

There salute thee Marcus, Aristarchus, my fellowlabourers.-Philemon 23, 24.

Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.—2 Timothy iv. 11.

BIOGRAPHICAL ADDITIONS.

OME have supposed that the foregoing texts describe two distinct individuals who bore alike the name of Mark; and thus that the "sister's son to Barnabas" was not the same as St. Peter's "son" Marcus. Yet a contrary opinion, which applies both definitions to the same person and that person the Evangelist, has been deemed preferable: and on this latter