his spiritual privileges, declared himself to be the chief of sinners; but how many small-souled pietists, of the Horner type, imagine that they have seen the end of all perfection, and arrived at it! The great soul speaks on this wise-"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, . . . but forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press towards the mark." But the little soul vaunts itself after the manner of Jack Horner, who said, "What a good boy am I!"

Alas! What a host of Little Jack Horners there are in the world,—people who think themselves so good that they do not realize the possibility of becoming any better! They feed their vanity upon their piety.

The way of Jack Horner's goodness was in himself. He felt very pious after he had stuffed himself with pie! And how many people imagine that they have more goodness than others because they happen to have more goods. They estimate their moral worth by their money worth; they are "good" for so much!

But, happily, the Recording Angel does not estimate our piety by the superficial measurement of our pie crust!

Ah, friends, it is very easy to feel pious with plenty of pie! It is not so easy to be pious on an empty stomach. How many little hands would be kept from picking and stealing if they could readily come at pie in an honest way! The duties. of policemen would be less arduous if there were no barriers in the way of the attainment of pie!

When we feel the Horner spirit rising in us, prompting us to think ourselves righteous and to despise others, let us reflect how largely our piety may be dependent upon pie; and how much of the impiety prevalent in society around us may be attributable to the want of pie. Let us ever remember that the sins which we condemn in others might have been our sins if we had experienced the temptations to which others have succumbed. Let us pray that we may not be led into temptation, but never boast of our virtue in the spirit of Jack Horner, who said, "What a good boy am I."

The piety that is so conscious of itself knows nothing of the charity which "suffereth long and is kind, envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." The self-righteous have to keep themselves in the conceit of their superior merit by passing harsh, uncharitable judgments upon others. When the Horn-blower is not sounding

his trumpet before him, you may be certain he is using it as an ear-trumpet wherewith to take up ill reports against his neighbours.

The way of wisdom is a way of peace, undisturbed by the blowing of horns. "The way of a man is not in himself"; but his true way is the way of self-forgetfulness and self-denial.

Instead of thinking ourselves righteous and despising others, let us, then, be ever ready to spend and be spent for the good of others, that so our piety may not be a mere pretence, but a real living power, from which the world around us may derive some good.

THE

perversity does not, at first sight, seem very intelligible. Certainly the nose must be followed-it is a leading feature; but if we were all obliged to follow the inclinations of our noses, how many of us would feel the want of wings!

Yet the rhyme implies that Peter White was bound by some mysterious law of gravitation to follow the bent of his nose.

As we ponder over this singular connection between his nose and toes, we feel that there must be a deeper meaning in the text than is

apparent on the surface of it. As we keep repeating the words " He follows his nose,” we gradually perceive that the only hope of getting hold of the true interpretation of the rhyme is by the nose.

The nose of the rhyme is obviously a corruption of the Greek word, noos, or its Attic contraction, noûs.

Nous signifies the faculty of reason or judgment. There was no doubt originally a pun apparent in the rhyme, but the point of its nose has been rubbed off by the friction of the sands of Time! There is an intimate connection between the noûs and the nose. The nose may be regarded as an outward and visible sign of the inward and invisible noûs. A great-minded man has invariably a large

nose.

When a studious man is thinking deeply he frequently rubs the point of his nose. And, then, in the fact that the nose must be followed, we see how fitly it may be regarded as an outward and visible sign or symbol of the inward and invisible nous by which we all are led!

Let us, then, consider

I. How the Noûs affects our walk and conversation. Nous may be regarded as standing for feeling as well as thought. as thought. When we speak of the heart as the seat of the affections, it should be