With Hope grown Faith he strove to gain,
Nor saw that insect climb in vain ;

From it, through God, he won a throne,
When Scotland's freedom near was gone,
And Hope with Effort both had flown!

Such lessons Nature gives to all,
For none too high that cannot fall;
And none too low that cannot rise
Above Despair, if they are wise.

Proud Scotland's Independence hung
Upon an "ugly" spider's tongue,
And from a barn Despair arose,
And hurled Defiance on her foes.

Till, trembling Panic turned and fled,

And Ruin raised his horrid head;

Then smiled for once when Edward fell,
And rung Oppression's dying knell.

Mean Tyranny, with broken chain,
And treacherous Cunning tried in vain
To hide his shattered, baffled aim,

And "Union" begged to shield from Shame.

In pity, Scotland welcome gave
Her Crown, her Might to England brave;
Success now proudly leads them both,
For Discord buried was their troth.

Noble deeds on slender threads,
And noble minds from lowly beds,
Redemption from a Manger sprung,
As Scotland from a Spider hung.

Weak things indeed confound the strong,
And prove poor Betty's mistress wrong;
For in God's eyes there's nothing small,
Unless poor Pride before its fall.

With Him a manger as a palace is,
A monarch in a barn is His;

A wicker cradle1 by a river's brim,
Like yon poor spider came from Him.

1 Moses, the lawgiver of God, who is said to have written the whole of the Pentateuch, was taken out of a basket from the water, a waif doomed to death. Jephtha, judge of Israel, was the son of a harlot. Gideon, the sword of the Lord, was taken from threshing corn to save the people, and discarded all his followers but 300, at the express word of God, according to the Bible, to show that small things by the power of rectitude, the Almighty principle, confounds the fancied strong. Joseph was sold as a slave, yet became not only, as Scripture says, as "God to Pharaoh," but the bodily saviour of his countrymen, and those who sold him :-all proving that in the hands of God little things do indeed confound the strong, receiving its culmination in the birth of Christ,-the Spirit of Truth, the true Son of God, in a manger, a still more humble birthplace than the straw lair of Bruce from whence arose the freedom of Scotland. And the choice of fishermen to be the original disciples for spreading what shall yet become true practical Christianity, shows that, if not in time, at least in eternity, "The humble shall be exalted and the proud brought low," to preserve the even-handed justice of an All-Wise, ordaining God. Because His "doctrine shall drop as the rain, His speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. He is the rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is He."-Deut. xxxii. To show that nothing which God has created is to be despised, Samson, the strongest man, the reputed son of Manoah the Danite, was born of a barren woman, ushered into existence by the angel of the Lord, as the Holy Ghost to Mary-both Nazarenes-Samson, and Jesus (see Judges xiii.). And to use a somewhat incongruous simile-although the mountains of Scotland are to a great extent barren, still their very rugged barrenness have proved to be in the cause of Freedom impregnable towers of strength. Hannah's song in 1 Sam. ii. truly says "The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make then inherit the throne of glory for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He hath set the world upon them. He shall keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail." And when the Lord appointed Saul to be captain over the people to save them from the Philistines, he was constrained to say, "Am not I a Benjamite of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? wherefore then speakest Thou so to me?" And when one of the sons of Jesse was chosen by the Lord to succeed Saul as king over Israel, the youngest, and most unlikely one, David, the keeper of sheep, was chosen. When the prophet Samuel thought that Eliab would have been selected, "The Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; I have refused him for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."-1 Sam. xvi. And regarding weapons, the most unlikely ones were used to destroy enemies, see the ass's jaw-bone of Samson, and the little pebble and sling of David,poor weapons selected to destroy a powerful host, and a giant! All proving that the Lord was determined to show that the weak things of the world should indeed confound the strong, as the minute coral insect, with the help of the sea, can destroy the strongest fabrication of man.

THE TWO SPIRITS.