A Beautiful Extract

A Beautiful Extract. It is the bubbling spring which flows gently; the little rivulet which glides through the meadow, and which runs along day and night by the farm-house, that is useful, rather than the swollen flood of the eataraet. Niagara exalts our wonder; and we stand amazed at the power and greatness of God there, as he "pours it from the hollow of his hand." But one Niagara is enough for a continent or a world; while that same world needs thousands and tens of thousands of silver fountains and gentle flowing rivulets, that shall water every farm, and every meadow, and every garden, and that shall flow on every day and every night with their gentle and quiet beauty. So with the acts of our lives. It is not by great deeds only, like those of Howard, not by great sufferings only, like those of the martyrs - that great good is o be done; it is by the daily and quiet virtues of life - the Christian temper, the meek forbearance, the spirit of forgiveness is the husband and wife, the father, the mother, the brother, the sister, the friend, the neighbor, that good is to be done; and in this way all may be useful. - Rev. Albert Barnes.