108 THE SERPENT'S TAIL AND ITS HEAD. 'Well, well,' The tail, rejoined the tail. This is the language of all and every usurper. They pretend to rule, all of them, for the benefit of their slaves; but I will no longer submit to such a state of things. I insist upon, and will take the lead in my turn.' replied the head, be it so, lead on.' rejoicing, accordingly took the lead. Its first exploit was to drag the body into a miry ditch. The situation was not very pleasant. The tail struggled hard, groped along, and by dint of great exertion got out again; but the body was so thickly covered with dirt and filth, as hardly to be known to belong to the same creature. Its next exploit was to get entangled among briers and thorns. The pain was intense; the whole body was agitated; the more it struggled, the deeper the wounds. Here it would have ended its miserable career, had not the head hastened to its assistance, and relieved it from its perilous situation. Not contented, it still persisted in keeping the lead. It marched on, and at length crept into a fiery furnace. It soon began to feel the dreadful effects of the destructive element. The whole body was convulsed; all was terror, confusion, and dismay. The head again hastened to afford its friendly aid. Alas! it was too late; the tail was already consumed. The fire soon reached the vital parts of the body; it was destroyed, and THE SERPENT'S TAIL AND ITS HEAD. 109 What Was it not the head was involved in the general ruin. caused the destruction of the head? because it suffered itself to be guided by the imbecile tail?" Such will ever be the course and end of all who allow bodily passions to take the lead, instead of spiritual affections: "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly," 1 Cor. xv. 48. : THE IVY. THE hungry man is not over nice in his food. The poor prodigal, when he could no longer obtain dainty meat, was fain to take up with "husks that the swine did eat." As it is with the body, so it is with the soul. A hungry soul will be glad to get sustenance and strength from the meanest thing under heaven. If a Christian has not the book of God's revelation at hand, he looks at the book of creation. If he cannot admire the allglorious sun in the skies, he takes up with a tree, a flower, or a leaf, be it green or withered, and sees therein the handiwork of God. The oak tells him to be stable; and the ivy that twines around it is not without its lesson of instruction : Ivy! thou art ever green, Let me changeless, then, be seen: Ivy clinging round the tree, Yes! come shine or shade, wet or dry, summer's heat, or winter's chilling blast!-If the ivy loses its hold of the tree, it is soon trodden under foot; and if I lose my hold of the cross of Christ, then shall I also perish. THE TRACKS IN THE CLAY. ON passing along the fields at no great distance from a country village, I came to a narrow neck of ground which was bounded on the one side by a pond, and on the other by a steep rock, but the narrow neck or strip of ground itself was a miry clay. This miry strip of ground was a sort of defile, a narrow passage from the higher fields and roads to the lower. All the footpaths from the adjoining meadows, and all the lanes from that part of the neighbourhood met there; so that travellers on foot and on horseback, gigs, wagons, and carts, horses, pigs, sheep, and cattle, all had to pass through the defile. As I paused for a moment, sitting on a stile, and looking down into the defile, I was struck with the numerous tracks or marks left in the clay. Here were the traces of wheels of various kinds; there the iron-shod hoofs of horses and the divided hoofs of cattle had left their impression; while the footmarks of men, women, and children, were clearly discerned. In one place, the ring of |