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Brother said, "I am dead." Now, brethren, there was death to the will of a man. It has been often said that Popery is not so much a denial of truth as a caricature of it; and it is true there. I would not be dead to any man; I have got my mind, and head, and reason from God Almighty, and bend it before no human authority. But the obedience that I refuse to man, Jesus, I give to Thee; not wrung from me by terror, but won by love; not the result of fear or force, but gratitude. I am dead; I wish to be dead. Paul was dead. He said, "I am dead; I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I." Saul of Tarsus was dead; it was Paul the Apostle that lived. "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me."

Now, brethren, what happy, what good, what brave Christians, we would be had we no will of our own! I have seen a servant come in the morning to his master to get his orders, and he has spent the day executing them; and would God every man and woman in this house went each morning to Christ to get their orders, and say, with Saul, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do this day ?" There would be no difficulty in getting money for Christ; no difficulty in getting people to work for Him; no difficulty in getting people to sacrifice for Him. Did you ever see a steward grudge paying away his master's money? And if I and you felt our money to be Christ's, we never would grudge paying it away for Him. I have seen many a ploughman whistling in the furrow; I have seen the milkmaid singing at her pail; I never saw one of them fret because they had to spend the whole day in their employer's service: no more would we to spend the day, the night, the year, the life, in Christ's service, if we felt that we were His servants. I have read with admiration

how a troop of cavalry would ride to death, and soldiers throw themselves into the fiery breach, knowing that they were to leave their bodies there, because it was the will of their Commander. Shall they do that, amid the shell and shot of battle,-obedient to the will of an earthly Captain, and Christians do less for Christ? My dear friends, are you your own-body -soul-your own? Have you anything you can call your own? We have one Master,-one Master in heaven; and if it be true that He bought us with His life-blood,-bought us with His tears,-bought us with His thorny crown,-bought us with the agonies of Mount Calvary;-in the name of reason and religion,-in the name of God and heaven,-what right has any Christian to himself? Is there a Christian man or woman here not ready to say as Saul, the happy convert, said "I have done with myself: I no longer live. I have no will but Thy will. Tell me what I am to do, and I will do it,-take up my cross and follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. Where Thou goest I will go, and where Thou lodgest I will lodge; Thy people shall be my people, and Thy God shall be my God: nought but death,-nay, thanks be to God,not death-no-nothing, henceforth, shall part me and Thee." God give us this spirit, brethren.

WHAT DO WE REMEMBER? WHAT are the acts on the part of others which are most distinctly impressed on the pages of memory ? Acts of kindness. Go back to the seasons of childhood and youth: what images rise first in remembrance? The images of those who were kind to us. Apart from the family-circle, those who performed acts of kindness toward us and others, are most frequently called to mind. Fallen man is selfish, and loves to cherish the remembrance of injuries received: still, benevolent actions fasten them

selves spontaneously in the memory, with greater tenacity than even injuries received.

Everyone wishes to be remembered by others. Nothing is more painful than the conviction that we are forgotten, that no one remembers us. In the fact noticed above, we find a hint as to the course to be pursued by those who would not be "to dull forgetfulness a prey." Let them abound in acts of kindness. Let them seek to make all around them happy. Years may roll on the child may become a man of grey hairs; yet will he remember the man that sympathized with his childish joys and sorrows, and took pains to make him happy.

But a stronger motive to benevolent acts lies in the fact that God remembers them. However small, every truly benevolent act is noticed and remembered, and will be rewarded by Him. Even a cup of cold water given to a disciple shall not lose its reward.

THE UNIVERSAL QUEST.

"I SEE that when I follow my shadow, it flies from me: when I fly from my shadow, it follows me. I know pleasures are but shadows, which hold no longer than the sunshine of my fortunes. Lest, then, my pleasures should forsake me, I will forsake them. Pleasure most flies me when I most follow it."

Who the author of the above paragraph is, I do not know; but it suggests some very important truths in regard to the great search which we are all making. It is amazing that the accumulated, unvarying experience of the millions of our race, added to the precepts of Divine wisdom, has not made us wiser. But so it is. "Live and learn" is the motto; but we live a great deal, and learn very little in regard to the great problem, how happiness is to be attained.

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There are some axioms upon the subjeet, drawn from experience, which it is well to keep ever in mind.

1. Happiness is not to be sought directly, or, if sought thus, is not to be found. It is not an object, but a result, a consequence. A man may travel round the world in search of it; (as many do;) he may traverse the countries, and rummage the cities of the old world; he may dig among the ruins of past ages, and wander among the works of modern times, and fail to find it, while it will spring up spontaneously before one who is simply seeking to fulfil the end of his being, to do good, and to glorify God. When will the world learn that happiness is soonest won when least wooed?

2. It is not something outside of ourselves; it has its seat within the heart. The busy multitude are toiling hard to surround themselves with some chosen circumstances, in which each one is sure he will find what he craves so earnestly. Many a man has reared a costly mansion, and furnished it with every luxury, or surrounded himself with broad acres, in the expectation that amid these surroundings happiness would come and make its home, and he has found it was farther away than ever; while another without anything around him, has learned to be content, and thus to be happy. Happiness has very little to do with externals, but everything to do with the heart.

3. Happiness is not in selfishness. The proportion between the two is exact, but it is inverse; the more one has of the latter the less he will have of the former. One who seeks to minister to his own desires first, who in the choice between doing good to himself and doing good to others chooses the former, will find that he has chosen just the wrong method. There is a grand paradox in regard to this, which everyone must learn by himself, and reduce to practice ere he can be happy.

4. Happiness is something higher than pleasure. Pleasure is the mere froth upon the cup of life; it is easily dissipated. The breath of affliction will drive it away in a moment; but true happiness will abide and survive the saddest scenes of life, because it is a living principle, settled deep in the soul. Very few indeed aspire to real happiness the multitude attempt to satisfy themselves with the fruitless chase of an empty shadow, pleasure.

5. It is an axiom in morals, as well as in hydrostatics, that " no stream can rise higher than its source." This is the grand reason why those, who look to this world for their enjoyment, so universally, and so constantly, meet with disappointment. There is no stream of earth than can rise to the height of an immortal spirit. The fountains of this world's joys fail to yield a supply because the source is too low. He who would have true, solid, lasting happiness must seek it from God. He alone can make a soul permanently happy. the hope of glory." and God in us, is all we need; and worlds could not make us happy without Him.

"Christ in you

"God with us,"

ALWAYS A HYPOCRITE. YES, that is the cry: he has sinned and fallen, and you now say, " He was always a hypocrite."

I do not believe it. I cannot believe that through all the years in which he professed to follow Christ, he was a traitor to his Master. I pity the heart that can readily credit such a tale.

The poor old man has sinned and fallen. God pity him; for man's sympathy is full of scorn. How eagerly they whisper the sad story, and gloat over the shameful details, as though a brother's fall was a cause for rejoicing! The angels, the pure angels, weep, while frail man looks on with scorn.

True, they close the tale with, "I pity him;" yet their sympathy goes no

further; and they add, "But I believe he was always a hypocrite."

Is not his present shame enough, that all the good of his past life should be counted as nought, or as the cunning acting of a confirmed villain?

"Always a hypocrite!" David fell, Solomon sinned, and Peter denied his Master thrice; yet who will say these were "always hypocrites ?"

I do not know this poor old man, though I have seen him often, as he sat in the house of God; and now, when the story of his shame is on every tongue, my heart bleeds to think of him as, disgraced and deserted, he hides in the solitude of his home, moaning and weeping impotent remorse for the sin which has stamped the Cain-mark on his brow. God help thee, brother; and, in thine agony, find room for gratitude, that though thy sinful, erring brethren cast thee off, God, the pure, the almighty, heeds thy repentance, and will forgive thy sin. "For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." And you who join in this hiss, which pierces the lacerated heart, pause and look at yourself. What has kept you from falling? Perhaps you were not tempted. Then thank God for that, and strive to help those who were. Or, being tempted, you fled to the great Source of Strength, and found power to resist. Then be grateful, and assist those of weaker faith.

Proud Pharisee, despise not thy brother. Look deeply into the recesses of thine heart, and mark well the points of weakness, which, if attacked in an unguarded hour, might prove vulnerable; and humble thyself in the dust, thanking God, not that thou art "not as other men," but that He has supported thee in thy weakness, and guarded thee from "the sin which doth so easily beset."

And ye, young lambs of the flock, who, in your innocent purity, can scarcely believe that such iniquity

abounds, and penetrates even into the church of Jesus, while tears and prayers are fervently offered for the sinning and suffering, nestle closely to the Shepherd's bosom, and pray that prayer as you never did before, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

NEVER CROSS A BRIDGE TILL

YOU COME TO IT.

"NEVER cross a bridge until you come to it," was the counsel usually given by a patriarch in the ministry to troubled and over-careful Christians. Are you troubled about the future? Do you see difficulties rising in Alpine range along your path? Are you alarmed at the state of your business, and uncertainties hanging over your life, at the gloomy contingencies which fancy sketches and invests with a sort of life-like reality, -at the woes which hang over the cause of the Redeemer, or at any other earthly evil? Do not cross the bridge until you come to it. Perhaps you will never have occasion to cross it; and if you do, you will find that a timid imagination has greatly overrated the toil to be undergone, or has underrated the power of that grace which can enlighten the Christian's every labour. In approaching the notch of the White Mountains from one direction, the traveller finds himself in the midst of conical hills, which seem to surround him as he advances, and forbid further progress. He can see but a short distance along his winding road; it seems as if his journey must stop abruptly at the base of the barriers. He begins to think of turning back his horse, to escape from hopeless enclosure among impassable barriers. But let him advance, and he finds that the road curves around the frowning hill before him, and leads him unto other and still other straits, from which he finds escape simply by advancing. Every

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new discovery of a passage around the obstructions of his path, teaches him to hope in the practicability of his road. He cannot see far ahead at any time; but a passage discovers itself as he advances. He is neither required to turn back, nor to scale the steep sides of towering hills. His road winds along, preserving for miles almost an exact level. He finds that nothing is gained by crossing the bridge before he comes to it. Such is often the journey of life. How much of its toilsome ruggedness would be relieved by attention to the above admonition! Never cross a bridge until you come to it. Or, to express the same counsel in a form that does not involve the charge of a Hibernicism, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep" (garrison) "your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

MAKING RELIGION OUR

BUSINESS.

OLD Thomas Watson says, that few make religion their business; and asks, Is he an artificer who never wrought in the trade? Is he a Christian who never serves Christ? Many will commend religion, but will not work it into daily practice. Others mind earthly things until the fire of heavenly love is put out. The bee may suck a little honey from the leaf, but put it in a barrel of honey and it will be drowned. So men in trade, at the shop, farm, counting-room, may be perfectly drowned in business.

1. A man who makes religion his business does not place his religion in externals, in forms, and shadows, and leaves, instead of fruit. Pomp of worship destroys the purity, as the paint on the glass hinders the light. Formality may damn as well as pro

faneness.

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A Christian's main work is in his heart. He gives God the vitals, worships Him in spirit and in truth. Aaron must offer the fat upon the altar, not the skin. Those that give God the skin of duty, will carry away only the shell of comfort.

2. He avoids hindrances. A wicked man stands in the way of temptation. The Christian flies from it, and lays aside every weight of sin that doth so easily beset him. As a man may miss heaven by loitering in the way, he seeks haste, and is careful not to be taken off his work and out of the way.

3. He tries to preserve conscience, and would rather offend the world than it. He regulates it by the Scripture as his watch by the dial.

4. It influences his every-day actions. In eating and drinking, avoiding excess; in recreation, not to get into amusements; in buying and selling, does not sell the refuse of the wheat, (Amos viii. 6,) nor falsify the weights. (Hosea xii. 7.) In marrying, he seeks virtue before dowry, a helpmeet in the Lord, to be joined to one who is "the temple of the Holy Ghost."

5. It will make him a good husband, father, and a light in every place where God sets him.

6. He will take care of his company. Sin is catching. Men who mingle with the Heathen learn their works. If you put rusty and bright armour together, the bright will not remove the rust from the other, but will partake of it. Evil company, like the spider's embraces, will suck out the precious life.

7. He will watch his eye as Job. "I made a covenant with mine eyes," his thoughts, passions. Jonah in a passion quarrels with God. If he is angry, we need to be watchful. He stands upon his watch-tower, and, like the virtuous woman, whose candle goes not out by night, (Hab. ii. 1; Prov. xxxi. 18,) he keeps his watchcandle always burning.

8. Daily he examines the accounts of his soul. He is critic upon himself, not on others. He is afraid of painted holiness. He trieth whether he is in the faith. (2 Cor. xiii. 5.)

9. He can want health, riches, friends, but not Christ. He will follow Him upon the water; in persecution, will wrestle with difficulties. He is not a sailor who has gone to sea for pleasure, but for a profitable voyage. The hypocrite will sail when things are calm and serene, but not in a storm. He will hold on to heaven in the midst of tempests and deaththreatening dangers.

10. He lives every day as if his last. Prays in the morning as if he were to die at night. Lives as if he were presently to be called to God's bar. Walks soberly, righteously, and godly. Girds his loins. Trims his lamp. Sets his house in order, that when death comes for him he may have nothing to do--but to die.

This is the man who makes religion his business.

HOW THE HEATHEN ARE
CONVERTED.

MORE than half a century ago, both the true and the false theories of Missions were described in one of the simple narratives of the United Brethren. Johannes, a North American Indian, thus describes the mode and manner of his own conversion:-

"Brethren, I have been a Heathen, and have grown old among them; therefore I know very well how it is with the Heathen, and how they think. A Preacher once came to us, desiring to instruct us, and he began by proving that there was a God. On which we said to him, 'Well, and dost thou think we are ignorant of that? Now go back again to the place from whence thou camest.'

"Soon after, another Preacher came, and began to teach us, saying, 'You must not steal, nor drink too much, nor lie, nor lead wicked lives.' And