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agitate and convulse the world, and see in all, and through all, a governing and a regulating Providence, and therefore not be in the least degree afraid. The grand thing that every Christian needs is peace within ; then, come a convulsed earth, a raining sky, a shattered world, he can say, "We will not be afraid."

I would apply this prescription, "quiet," to advocating the cause and claims of Christian truth. How often do we find men who confound Christian zeal with turbulent passion, advocating a good cause in rash and unwarrantable terms. The cause of righteousness and truth always suffers in the estimate of men, when hot-headed, violent, and indiscreet spirits become its advocates and its supporters. Let there be no tameness or apathy; but let us ever feel, "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God," and that in quiet there is strength, in peace, force and power; for the cause of truth it is ours to advocate is so strong, that it needs nothing but warm hearts, and clear words, and holy men to proclaim it, and thousands will be smitten by its beauty, and embrace and hold fast the truth.

In studying to be quiet, and minding our own business, we shall best comply with the prescription of Paul, if we settle it in our own minds that the course we are pursuing, first, is lawful; second, is dutiful; and third, has a good and a beneficent end in view. If you be sure that you are in the right place, doing the right work and in the right spirit,—a good cause behind you, and a grand object before you, you can afford to be quiet, and toil, and be satisfied to deserve success, leaving it with God to give success as he sees may be most expedient for you.

The apostle says, "Study to be quiet, and to do your own business." "Study to be quiet "-in other words, every duty costs a little trouble, if you would fulfil it well. Whatever be duty requires effort. It is too true that men like to reach results without the toil of ascending the intermediate steps that lead to them. We should all prefer to be the lightning that suddenly illuminates the earth, than to be what God permits us to be only-the quiet lights that meekly and gently shine. But God knows what is best for us; and he tells us that, quietly, and within the limits he has prescribed, doing the business devolved upon us, is our duty; if an obscure one, be thankful; if a brilliant one, be careful and prayerful. And be not careful about how others do their business; but study to be quiet, and to do thine own business; and doing it well, you fulfil that portion of the mission that God has committed to your charge.

"Study to be quiet, and to do your own business." Every one has, or ought to have, some business to do. Adam himself had to work, however lightly, in Paradise, before he fell; now he has to work with the sweat of his brow-and, what is worse, in the exhaustion of his brain. But still it was work in Eden, before sin entered; and what was duty in a state of innocence, is indispensable to our happiness, our peace, and progress in a state of sin and comparative misery. Of all things upon earth the most pitiable are a vacant mind and an idle hand, if such be possible: and they are only possible for a little; for Satan searches above all for empty minds, that he may fill them, and for idle hands, that he may find them employment.

No work, however beneficent it may be, justifies you in neglecting your own. business. If you be

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serving a master, it will not justify your neglecting the duties that he commits to your care, if you go back and tell him, "I was busy distributing tracts, or attending a missionary meeting." The time that is your own, consecrate or employ, as responsible to God, according to your own taste and preference; but the time that is not your own, is your employer's; and you must study to be quiet, and to do with all your might the business which is there and then assigned to you.

Let me add here, as a practical prescription for universal reform,—let every father, mother, brother, sister, master, servant, mind and do well their own business in their own sphere, and the whole social system will be reformed-the whole world will be, if I may use the expression, regenerated. And just as a pebble dropped into a quiet lake sends out its concentric circles till they kiss the very margin of the shores on all sides, so holy, pure, beneficent influences created in each individual home, will radiate concentric circles of influence around them, until the whole earth is filled with the peaceable fruits of righteousness and peace.

Business based upon Christian principle, carried on in the fear of God,—thankfully, dutifully, earnestly, quietly, publicly or privately, but still in the fear of the Lord,—is not only duty, but in some degree pleasure; and if only we can have our hearts in heaven, our treasure with Christ, while our feet are busy in treading the paths of commerce, and our hands are busy in fulfilling the duties that are assigned to us, we shall then feel the main thing, the soul, is safe; and, if it be safe, come wars, come peace, come trouble, come

storm, this glorious thought will animate, sustain, and cheer us in the blackest dispensation: "I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor height nor depth, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"Let us do our work as well,

Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house where God may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

"Nothing useless is or low;

Each thing in its place is best;

And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest."

CHAPTER IV. 13—18.

THE SOUL.

I HAVE elsewhere called your attention to that great cardinal doctrine of Christianity, the resurrection of our Lord from the grave, and therein the sure prospect of the resurrection of all his saints, when He shall come again. Paul proceeds to comfort them that were mourning the martyrdom of many of their fellow-worshippers through the persecution of the heathen at that time; he would not have them ignorant, but would instruct them concerning them who may have been consumed in the fire, who may have been destroyed by the wild beasts, whose beautiful condition is, whatever be the character or the nature of the death through which they have passed, that their bodies for it is of these that he speaks-are asleep in Christ. How very expressive is this sleep; when the body sleeps the soul is often most active; when the body is confined to a few feet slumbering, the soul is traversing distant oceans, distant lands, calling up ancient, and holy, and happy associations; and, in short, never sleeps, and never ceases to think, to feel, to act; so the soul, when the body is in its last slumber, that is, folded in the grave, disorganized, is the unsleeping sentinel that

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