

THE REASON WHY. 259 



'Awake up, iny glory ; awake, psaltery and harp : I myself will awake early." 

 PSALM LVII. 



the condition of their life, the source of their strength. The heart, therefore, 

 BO far from seeking rest, is all fresh and vigorous for the labours of the day, and 

 proceeds to discharge its duty so willingly, that we do not even know of the 

 movements that are going on within us. 



Thus we have seen the difference between the voluntary and the involuntary 

 muscles, and we have perceived the goodness of our Creator in not entrusting 

 to our keeping the controul of an organ so vital to life, as the heart. 



But the heart is not the only organ which thus works unseen and unfelt. 

 There are the lungs and the muscles of the chest, the stomach, and other parts 

 occupying the abdomen, together with all those muscular filaments which enter 

 into tho structura of the coats and valves of the blood-vessels, and which assist 

 to propel the blood through the system. All these are at work at every moment 

 of man's life ; and yet, so perfect is this complicated machinery, that we really 

 do not know, except by theory, what is going on within us. 



During the time that the sleeper has been at rest, the stomach has been at 

 work digesting the food which was last eaten. Then the stomach has passed the 

 macerated food into the alimentary canal, the liver has poured out its secretion, 

 and produced certain changes in the condition of the dissolved food : and tho 

 lacteals, of which there may be many thousands, perhaps millions, have been 

 busy sucking up those portions of the food which they knew to be useful to the 

 system, whilst they have rejected all those useless and noxious matters upon 

 which the liver, like an officer of health, had set his mark, as unfitting for the 

 public use. This busy life has gone on uninterruptedly ; every member of that 

 body, every worker in that wonderful factory, has been unremitting in his duty, 

 and yet the owner, the master, has been asleep, and wakes up finding every 

 bodily want supplied ! 



Notwithstanding that much has already been said of the wonders that 

 pertain to the eye, it has not yet been considered as the seat of tears, those 

 mute but eloquent utterers of the sorrows of the heart. Beautiful Tear! 

 whether lingering upon the brink of the eyelid, or darting down the furrows of 

 the care-worn cheek thou art sublime in thy simplicity great, because of thy 

 modesty strong, from thy very weakness. Offspring of sorrow ! who will not 

 owu thy claim to sympathy ? who can resist thy eloquence ? who can deny 

 mercy when thou pleadest ? 



Every tear represents some in-dwelling sorrow preying upon the mind and 

 destroying its peace. The tear comes forth to declare tho inward struggle, and 

 to plead a truce against further strife. How meet that the eye should be the 

 seat of tears where they cannot occur unobserved, but, blending with the 

 beauty of the eye itself, must command attention and sympathy t 



Whenever we behold a tear, let our kindliest sympathies awake let it have a 

 sacred claim upon all that we can do to succour and comfort under affliction. 

 What rivers of tears have flown, excited by the cruel and perverse ways of man J 

 War has spread its carnage and desolation, and the eyes of widows and orphans 

 have been suffused with tears! Intemperance has blighted the homes o 

 millions, and weeping and wailing have been incessant ! A thousand other evils 

 which we may conquer have given birth to tears enough to constitute a flood 

 a great tide of grief. Suppose we prize this little philosophy, and each one 

 determine r*tver to excite a tear in another. Watching the eye as the telegraph 



