Divine Master; by guiding them all into the great household of Him who gives to every man his work, and who rewards every one that is faithful to Him with an everlasting inheritance. Righteousness in the hearts and in the lives of its people is the very life of a nation. Hence it is the anxious desire of every good man to bring the Word of God and the means of grace within the reach, and to press them upon the attention and the acceptance, of every family and of every individual in the land, assured that this is the only way in which the nation can be maintained and the souls of men can be saved for ever.

Let us bear in mind, then, continually, that our Divine Master has given every one of us something to do, and has supplied us with the means of doing it. He has given to every one of us more or fewer talents to cultivate-powers of body and of mind, time, opportunities, wealth, authority over others. Are we employing all that He has given us, whatever it may be, diligently and faithfully? We cannot be idle without incurring His grave displeasure. We cannot say that we have so much already that we do not need to work. The more we have, the more we have got to do. "Unto whom

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much is given, of them much shall be required," says He who is Head over all. The kind of gifts which He has bestowed upon us indicates the kind of work in which He expects us to engage. With marvellous wisdom He prepares different persons for different spheres of duty. The work of the world could not go on were it not for this wisely planned variety. He will not call us to account for not doing the work for which He has not fitted us. But He will certainly reckon with us in regard to the use which we have made of the talent or talents which He has put into our hands.

We have much need, therefore, to watch and to pray without ceasing. We have to guard against sloth, which would allow our talents to lie unoccupied-and against abuse of them, by exercising them from wrong motives and towards the accomplishment of wrong ends. How many are indefatigable in the employment of their strength of body and of mind in order to gratify their own pride and vainglory! How many call every talent they have into exercise in order to promote their own schemes of lust or of ambition ! Our talents are used aright only when they are used in accordance with God's will and with a view to His glory. We have need of

constant prayer, therefore, for we cannot live unto God without His grace. Our encouragement is, that He is with us at all times, and that His ear is ever open to our petitions. We may pray to Him anywhere, at church or on the market-place- as we sit at our desk or as we

walk by the way-in the crowded city or on the lonely hillside-at noonday or at midnight. If we would accustom ourselves to realise His presence in every place which we frequent and at every work in which we engage, and to put our trust in Him, we should be safer from all the arrows of temptation than if we were surrounded with high walls of adamant. Prayer to God in the closet of our own hearts interrupts no good work, but carries it with certainty to a prosperous issue.

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XII.

THE SUPREME DISPOSER OF GOOD AND EVIL.

"I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."-ISAIAH xlv. 7.

HE world in which we live is a mingled

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scene of joy and of sorrow, of happiness and of misery, of health and of sickness, of life and of death. Individuals, families, and nations have their rises and their falls, their prosperity and their adversity, their peace and their trouble. However strong and secure our present position may appear to be, we know from experience that we cannot calculate with anything like certainty upon its not being speedily and completely changed. There is a constant shifting of the scene. One is raised up; another is brought low. The cloud of darkness ascends from off one, and descends upon the head of another.

This is a great fact with which all are familiar. Every one knows it who has any knowledge of the past history of the world, or any acquaintance with the present condition of mankind, or any remembrance of the things which he has himself experienced. We are ourselves not only spectators, but actors. We are not only witnesses of the varied and unceasing movements which are going on upon the earth, but we are involved in them. The unlooked-for changes which have overtaken others may be at no great distance from us. Clear though our sky may now be, there may be rising upon our horizon a little cloud, like a man's hand, which is speedily to overspread us with darkness and gloom.

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This great fact presses upon our consideration a great and important question. Whence do all these things come? Are we victims of chance ? Are we like vessels sent out to sea without rudder, or compass, or pilot? Are good and evil, joy and sorrow, happiness and misery, scattered over the earth without appointment and without control? Or, if there is a ruling hand, is there one hand only? or are there different powers that preside over us and regulate our present circumstances? Do our blessings come from one and our miseries from