tracing His sacred steps from Galilee to Bethany, from Bethany to the Temple, from thence to the Paschal chamber, to the garden, the judgment-hall, the cross, and the sepulchre. In the same exercises, too, we shall find our best security against that engrossing power which belongs to every great interest. A restless activity is to some men an easy task, the excitement affording the motive. To guard against this danger, "the primitive bishops had places of retirement near their cities, that they might separate themselves from the world, lest teaching others, they should forget themselves; lest they should lose the spirit of piety themselves, while they were endeavouring to fix it in others[1]." And assuredly, in our day as in theirs, the antidote to all the dangers which must ever attend a Christian, even in that intercourse with the world to which his duty calls him, will be found in communion with his own heart and with his Lord. Thus fortified, and pursuing the path of duty, he may brave the infected air, in confident reliance on that protection which of old gave to those who went forth from the immediate presence and society of Christ, "power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, so that nothing could by any means harm them[2]." Tempering the eagerness of our active service with seasons of contemplation, of
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AMIDST EXCITEMENTS.
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