3.  If we reflect on its truths, they are lovely and spotless, sublime and holy as God himself, unchangeable as his nature, durable as his righteous dominion, and versatile as the moral condition of mankind.  If we regard the value of its treasures, we must estimate them, not like the relics of classic antiquity, by the perishable glory and beauty, virtue and happiness, of this world, but by the enduring perfection and supreme felicity of an eternal kingdom.

4.  If we inquire who are the men that have recorded its truths, vindicated its rights, and illustrated the excellence of its scheme, from the depth of ages and from the living world, from the populous continent and the isles of the sea, comes forth the answer:  “The patriarch and the prophet, the evangelist and the martyr.”

5.  If we look abroad through the world of men, the victims of folly or vice, the prey of cruelty, of injustice, and inquire what are its benefits, even in this temporal state, the great and the humble, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the learned and the ignorant reply, as with one voice, that humility and resignation, purity, order, and peace, faith, hope, and charity are its blessings upon earth.

6.  And if, raising our eyes from time to eternity; from the world of mortals to the world of just men made perfect; from the visible creation, marvelous, beautiful, and glorious as it is, to the invisible creation of angels and seraphs; from the footstool of God to the throne of God himself, we ask, what are the blessings that flow from this single volume, let the question be answered by the pen of the evangelist, the harp of the prophet, and the records of the book of life.

7.  Such is the best of classics the world has ever admired; such, the noblest that man has ever adopted as a guide.

Definitions.—­1.  Clas’sic, a work of acknowledged excellence and authority. 2.  Au-then-tic’i-ty, of established authority for truth and correctness.  Sanc’tion (pro, sank’shun), authority, support. 3.  Ver’sa-tile, readily applied to various subjects. 4.  Vin di-cat-ed, defended, justified.  E-van’gel-ist, a writer of the history of Jesus Christ. 6.  Ser’aph, an angel of the highest order.

CXVII.  MY MOTHER’S BIBLE.

George P. Morris (b. 1802, d. 1864) was born in Philadelphia.  In 1823 he became one of the editors of the “New York Mirror,” a weekly literary paper, In 1846 Mr. Morris and N. P. Willis founded “The Home Journal.”  He was associate editor of this popular journal until a short time before his death.

1.  This book is all that’s left me now,—­
     Tears will unbidden start,—­
   With faltering lip and throbbing brow
     I press it to my heart. 
   For many generations past
     Here is our family tree;
   My mother’s hands this Bible clasped,
     She, dying, gave it me.