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feel that, to believe that, in such a spiritual sense, is it not to have a passion kindled within that shall strengthen us to resist every influence which would weaken our life? Oh, verily, we often think that circumstances keep us unchristlike, when the real cause is the faintness of such a Christianity as that. They can do nothing unless the inner life is predisposed to receive their force by being vacant of all such feeling. It is because the love of Christ in us is feeble, that the love of applause makes us speak uncharitable words to please men; it is because the love of Christ is weak, that the thirst for riches makes us undervalue great spiritual principles,-that we find health and sickness, solitude and companionship, wealth and poverty, alike full of snares; and we blame the force of circumstances instead of blaming the poverty of our spiritual life. I say that the Christian man has no right to make use of the feeble complaint,“ Circumstances are adverse." He has no right to depend on any organisation, on any teaching, for his life. If he be true, he will look direct to God and not to man; and feeling the force of this love, will stand firm in individual life, as on a rock that circumstances may rage against but cannot move. 12. The absence of purpose in life is the other element in the power of circumstances ; for it is too obvious to need illustration, that a purposeless life must be the creature of circumstances, and at the mercy of every influence. The man who has no aim in living, opens his soul to every force that may arise from his position, and every power that other men may exert upon him. Such a man is utterly uncertain. Could you foretell what influences would meet him to-morrow, you could predict in what direction he would be moved. Equally familiar is it that a true Christian life-purpose is a life-surrender to God; it is to live constantly as in the eye of the Eternal King; to exist that we may be self-consecrated to Christ, and attain a resemblance to Him;

purpose not visionary, but sublime,-a purpose not attained in the middle of life, nor at life's close, but going onward into the life of boundless ages. But it will be more obvious that such an aim in life must shut out the force of circumstances, from the fact that it can only be lived through an independent and individual conviction of Christian truth. Men may live for other ends under an influence derived from their brethren; they cannot live to God but under an impulse derived from God. These are days of social organisation. It is doubtless true that social sympathy has a power to strengthen and encourage, but we are thereby tempted to depend too much on it. there are men who, having joined a Church, imagine that their indivi. qual life is ended. Hence it is they are so liable to influences, so dependent on human aid, so moulded by circumstances. We want, as men, to realise our Christianity in more individual living, in more independent conviction, and these would render us independent of circumstances. We want men who are not echoes but voices; men who araw their inspiration from prayer rather than from preaching ; from mdividual self-consecration and not from collected sympathy. Then should we feel less that external things can effect the grandeur and Carnestness of our Christian life.

And one other fact will bring all this to a personal and direct appli cation. We must be thus conquerors over circumstances and opposin forces, or our Christianity will ever be weak. Each man knows thos that surround him. Each man knows his own battle. That batt! thou must fight, my brother: it and no other. We must be men, ng spiritual infants, or we shall lose our Christian mission in life. Thu then again that cry about circumstances is weak; the result of a feebl life, not the cry of an earnest struggle. Circumstances ? They pre sent no impassable barrier to our return to the Christianity of the apostles. These men of Sardis conquered far stronger influences that those which surround ourselves. We, too, may be conquerors as they were. A deeper spiritual life is all that we need.

II.-We notice in closing, that this conquest contains in itself the elements of a blessed reward. And the commencement of that blessed ness may be felt even now, amid the tumult of the struggle ; for te such victors Christ's voice is saying at this hour,“ Ye shall walk with me in white, for ye are worthy." This reward is in the conquest, and cannot be separated from it. To have the white garment is to be a conqueror, and being conquerors we walk with Christ and have fellow ship with Him. We may easily perceive that this fellowship spring necessarily from such a conquest, and is its own exceeding great re ward. For fellowship arises from similarity of destiny. We feel tha he is our friend whose life struggle is akin to our own; be alone car understand our life, and participate in our emotions. Christ's humai life was emphatically a battle with circumstances, a conflict with socis influences. All the prejudices of rank and power were against Him Assuming no earthly splendour, He walked the world poor and des. pised; a Man who had not where to lay His head. His purpose and aim were beyond the range of social sympathy. His friends understood Him not. His country valued Him not. “He came to His own, but His own comprehended Him not.” How could He be otherwise than alone ? surely the loneliest worker in the annals of all time? I suffering He was alone. Who shall unveil to us the mystery of the mighty thoughts that passed through His soul, as, without one emotion of real sympathy from men, He bore in solitude the agony of Gethse mane, and the deep death struggle of the Cross ? To have true fellow ship with Him, therefore, is to live thus opposed to those influences of the world which strive to repress the Christlike life; depending not for help upon our fellows, but solely upon the Father in heaven : to work if need be single-handed and alone for God. Thus only can we understand Christ and feel with Him. And is not that fellowship reward now? Who does not feel it better to be alone with Christ, in struggling with opposing influences, than to be up-borne by the cur rent of popularity, and stimulated by the flattery or friendship of ment And when thus we gain through our own battle a deeper insight into the mystery of that life of Jesus, and have the consciousness of a growing fellowship with Him, we are already being clothed in the white garments of eternity, and walking with the Son of God.

But we rise by gradual conquest. Yet to be conscious of advancement in Christlikeness, to feel within us the warrant of an everlasting growth, is in itself a reward. Life may often be a pilgrimage through many a dark valley, and over many a dreary waste; but sometimes from mountain summits we see the city, and have an earnest of the ineffable recompense. We know not what the life of eternity is, but we do know that it must be progressive, a continual outgoing into new phases of being crowned with an ever-deepening knowledge and love of God. And if we have commenced that eternal life now, if our Christianity is conquering the adverse influences that surround us,—to us now is Christ saying, “ He that overcometh shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but will confess his name before my Father and before His angels." - King's Lynn, 1859.

THE HONEST BOY:
WHAT HE WAS, WHAT HE DID, AND WHAT HE BECAME.

FOR THE YOUNG. A POOR boy, about ten years of boy's innocent, handsome face. “But age, entered the warehouse of the are you not ashamed," he said, in a rich merchant, Samuel Richter, in | kind, though serious tone, " you so Dantzic, and asked the book-keeper young and hearty, to beg: Can for alms.

you not work?” "You will get nothing here,” Ah, my dear sir," replied the grumbled the man, without raising / boy, “I do not know how, and I am his head from his book ; “be off !” too little yet to thresh, or fell wood.

Weeping bitterly, the boy glided My father died three weeks ago, and towards the door, at the moment my poor mother and little brothers that Herr Richter entered.

have eaten nothing these two days. 1 "What is the matter here?" Then I ran out in anguish and he asked, turning to the book. begged for alms. But alas! a single keeper.

peasant only gave me yesterday a "A worthless beggar boy," was piece of bread; since then I have the man's answer, and he scarcely not eaten a morsel.” Looked up from his work.

It is quite customary for beggars 1. In the meanwhile, Herr Richter by trade to contrive tales like this; glanced towards the boy, and re- and this hardens many a heart marked that, when close to the against the claims of genuine want. door, he picked something from the But this time, the merchant trusted ground.“ Ha! my little lad, what the boy's honest face. He thrust is that you picked up ?” he cried. his hand into his hand into his The weeping boy turned, and pocket, drew forth a piece of money, shewed him a needle.

and said: "And what will you do with it?" | “There is half a crown; go to the

baker's and with half the money "My jacket has holes in it," was buy bread for yourself, your mother, the answer; “ I will sew up the big and your brothers, but bring back ones."

the other half to me.” ...Herr Richter was pleased with The boy took the money, and ran Haus reply, and still more with the joyfully away.

asked the other.

« Well," said the surly book- | the boy; "I have read the Catechisi koeper, "he will laugh in his sleeve, already, and I should know a grea and never come back again."

deal more, but at home I had alway "Who knows?" replied Herr my little brother to carry, for mothe Richter. And, as he spoke, he beheld was sick in bed.” the boy returning, running quickly, Herr Richter suddenly formed hi with a large loaf of black bread in one | resolution. “Well, then," he said hand, and some money in the other. "if you are good, and honest, and

“There, good sir!" he cried, industrious, I will take care of you almost breathless, "there is the rest You shall learn, have meat and of the money." Then, being very drink and clothing, and in time eart hungry, he begged at once for a something besides. Then you ca knife, to cut off a piece of bread. support your mother and brother The book-keeper reached him in also." silence his pocket-knife.

The boy's eyes flashed with joy The lad cut off a slice in great but in a moment he cast them to th haste, and was about to bite upon ground, and said, sadly, “My mother it. But suddenly he bethought all the while has nothing to eat." 1 himself, laid the the bread aside, At this instant, as if sent by Pro and, folding his hands, rehearsed a vidence, an inhabitant of the boy's silent prayer. Then he fell to his native village entered Herr Richter food with a hearty appetite.

house. This man confirmed the The merchant was mored by the lad's story, and willingly consented boy's unaffected piety. He inquired to carry the mother tidings of he after his family and home, and son Gottlieb, and food, and a small learned from his simple narrative sum of money from the merchant that his father had lived in & village | At the same time Herr Richter di abous fourmiles distant from Dantzie, rected his book-keeper to write where he owned a small house and letter to the pastor of the village farm. But his house had been commending the widow to his care burued to the ground, and much with an additional sum enclosed for sickness w his family had compelled the poor family, and promising fur him to sell his furm. He then bired ther assistance. biaselt out to & rich neighbour, but, As soon as this was done, Herr before shree weeks were 20 an end, Richter 80 once furnished the boy he ded, broken down by griet and i with decent clothes, and at noon led excesvre teil. And now, his mother, him to his wife, whom he accurately when worrow bad shrow upon a bed informed of biggle Gottlieb's story, of vekuess, was with her four young and of the plans wbieh he had formed children, sufering the bitterest po for him. The good woman readily verty. He, she eidest, bad respired promised her best assistance in the tu es or distance, and had gone acter, and she faithfally kept het 30 r m village to yoilage, Chen port. hau Cruck into the big road and During the next four years Gottlieb 30 at, having begged everywhere in xtended de schools of the great vaint, bau come 20 entzie.

commercial city: then his fithful The merchant, bears was pouched. tosterather took him into his count-| He ha buo que child, and the bor ingroom, in order to educate him appeare so um s irait so Sgor, ur business. Here, as well as there woice Providence had trawy ipve she writing tests, as on the school him o n this protrue benců, se ripening youth distm**ven, HY VIR** te vegant, are used himseif. not only by his you, when, really wise eart acurt capacity, but by the faithful

"Uh, yes dave inueert," vriend nuustry with which he exercised

rant.

it. With all this, his heart retained that love or gratitude could suggest, its native innocence. Of his weekly | Gottlieb now did to repay his beneallowance, he sent the half regularly factor's kindness. Redoubling his To his mother until she died, after exertions, he became the soul of the having survived two of his brothers. whole business, and still he watched She had passed the last years of her long nights at the old man's bedside, ife, not in wealth, it is true, but, by with his grieving wife, until, in the he aid of the noble Richter, and of sixty-fifth year of his life, Herr her faithful son, in a condition above Richter closed his eyes in death.

Before his decease, he placed the After the death of his beloved | hand of his only daughter, a sweet nother, there was no dear friend girl of only two-and-twenty, in that left to Gottlieb in the world except of his beloved foster-son. He had his benefactor. Out of love to him long looked upon them both as his he became an active, zealous mer children. They understood him; chant. He began by applying the they loved each other; and, in sisuperfluity of his allowance, which lence, yet affectionately and earnestly, he could now dispose of at his plea- they solemnized their betrothal at sure, to a trade in Hamburg quills. the bedside of their dying father. Vhen, by care and prudence, he had In the year 1828, ten years after gained about thirty pounds, it hap-1 Herr Richter's death, the house of pened that he found in his native Gottlieb Bern, late Samuel Richter, fillage a considerable quantity of was one of the most respectable in hemp and flax, which was very good, all Dantzic. It owned three large and still to be had at a reasonable ships, employed in navigating the price. He asked his foster-father Baltic and North Seas, and the care to advance him fifty pounds, which of Providence seemed especially to the latter did with great readiness. watch over the interests of their And the business prospered so well, worthy owner; for worthy he rethat, in the third year of his clerk mained in his prosperity. He ship, Gottlieb had already acquired honoured his mother-in-law like a he sum of one hundred and fifty son, and cherished her declining age pounds. Without giving up his with the tenderest affection, until, trade in flax, he now trafficked in in her two-and-seventieth year, she inen goods, and the two combined died in his arms. made him, in a couple of years, about Having no children of his own, he three hundred pounds richer.

took the eldest son of each of his This happened during the cus two remaining brothers, now subtomary five years of clerkship. At stantial farmers, into his house, and the end of this period, Gottlieb con destined them to be his heirs. But, in tinued to serve his benefactor five order to confirm them in their humiyears more, with industry, skill, and lity, he often shewed them the needle fidelity; then he took the place of which had proved such a source of the book-keeper, who died about blessing to him, and bequeathed it this time; and three years afterward as a perpetual legacy to the eldest he was taken by Herr Richter as a son in the family. partner into his business, with a It is but a few years since this third part of the profits.

child of poverty, of honest industry, But it was not God's will that and of misfortune, passed in peace this pleasant partnership should be from this world. His death was an of long duration. An insidious exemplification of the old text: disease cast Herr Richter upon a “ Mark the perfect man, and behold bed of sickness, and kept him for the upright, for the end of that man two years confined to his couch. All is peace” (Ps. xxxvii. 37).

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