MARY AT THE SEPULCHRE. BESIDE the Saviour's tomb, Thither by deep affection early led, Chased, as the sunshine doth the cloud, her fears, For had the grave retained That precious form, awhile its honoured guest; And ratifies forgiveness, peace and bliss, Ah! child of sorrow, thou, Like Mary, mournest when thou should'st rejoice; The path thou shrinkest from would be thy choice. The sources of thy grief are really springs P. B. A. EVERY-DAY DUTIES. How limited are the ideas which most persons form of religion! It consists, they imagine, in going to church; in reading the Scriptures; in meditating on serious subjects; in talking about Christian experience; in subscribing to charitable institutions; in visiting the poor, and in instructing the ignorant. They do not realize its adaptation to the simplest duties of every-day life; they have never thoroughly understood that comprehensive rule of the Apostle, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." In their estimation, religion is far too holy and sublime to have any affinity with worldly business, and secular pursuits; it is fitted for the church and the closet, but not for the shop and the factory. Now this is a very sad and injurious mistake, and we would earnestly caution our young readers against it. It has led some to suppose that while their Sundays ought to be devoted to God, their week-days might be given to the world; and it has induced others to relinquish their daily occupations, that they might be engaged in the service of God. Many young Christians frequently lament that they are obliged to spend so much time in making necessary provision for their temporal wants, in discharging their relative and social obligations. Oh, if they could only get rid of these pressing earthly cares; if they could only escape from these uncongenial employments, how gladly and how earnestly would they work for God, and help to promote his cause upon earth. Such mistakes and such complaints would not be cherished if right opinions were entertained of the Christian character, and of God's service. A Christian, then, is one whose heart is influenced by the love of Christ, and whose desire is to live, not unto himself, but unto Him who died for him and rose again. He feels that he is not his own, that he has been bought with a price, and ought, therefore, to glorify God with his body, and with his spirit, which are His. Now place such a man where you will, in the present world; mark out what business you like for him, provided it is a lawful one, and wherever that man is, and whatever he is doing, he will be faithfully and acceptably serving God. Instead of arguing, as some do; that men cannot attend to business and religion at the same time, he considers that his business is part of his religion, as much a part of it as prayer, or reading his Bible. He regards himself as God's servant, and his work as God's work. It may be very humble work; it may not be very pleasant work; but it is not a servant's place to find fault with his work, but to do it, and that in the best way he can. So he minds his shop, or manages his farm, or works at his trade, or attends to his school, with as much energy and cheerfulness as if he were called to be a minister at home, or a missionary abroad. This is the spirit, dear reader, we want you to manifest. You are accustomed, perhaps, to think of your every-day engagements as of something which you must do in order to fulfil a child's responsibilities, or to gain a livelihood, but you are often tired of them; and you imagine, that all the time which you are compelled to spend in this way, is so much time lost, necessarily lost, to God's service. Now do rise to a more elevated view of this matter. Your daily avocations in the family, in the countinghouse, in the world, are marked out for you by a heavenly Master's-nay, by a heavenly Father's-hand, as the channels in which your obedient love is to flow forth from day to day, Oh! how this assurance ennobles and sanctifies the meanest drudgery, the most irksome duty! "Doing it unto the Lord," is a principle which throws a charm around the lowliest calling. It invests with dignity the operative at his loom, or the maiden at her wheel; and links the poorest of God's servants on earth with the most perfected of his servants in heaven. Let that principle, dear reader, animate and encourage you. Think more about the motives that ought to influence your conduct, than of the amount of wordly respectability to which your labours may entitle you. Say, in the quaint but expressive language of good George Herbert "Teach me, my God and King, "A man that looks on glass, Or, if he pleaseth, through it pass, "All may of Thee partake, Nothing can be so mean Which, with this tincture, for thy sake, "A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, And the consciousness that we are God's servants, will not only give a higher character to our every-day duties, but will make us diligent and persevering in our discharge of them. "Not slothful in business,' must ever be the motto of all who are "fervent in spirit." Some Christians seem to think that piety compensates for inertness and carelessness about the things of this life, at least, they act as if they thought so. But that religion which is not practical, as well as experimental, must ever be regarded with great suspicion. What shall the belief that we are working for God make us do our work worse than those who are aliens from his service? It is impossible. Prove by your conduct, dear reader, that it is so. Show those around you that Christianity fits man for this world as well as for the next: that the citizen of heaven makes the best citizen of earth; that a due realization of the claims of eternity leads to a more vivid perception of the claims of time. What you have to do, do well. Don't hurry it over as if you did not care how it was done, or drawl about it as if it was of no consequence when it was finished; but make up your mind, like John Newton, that if you are only a shoe-black, you will be the best shoe-black there is to be found! "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." A noble saying is recorded of a member of our British House of Commons, who by his own industry and perseverance had won his way to that high position. A proud scion of the aristocracy one day taunted him with his humble origin, saying, "I remember when you blacked my father's boots." "Well, sir," was the noble response, "did I not do 66 it well?" It is not of course intended by the previous remarks to throw into the back-ground acts of devotion and efforts of usefulness, but simply to put every-day duties before you in their true light. Habits of communion with God, and endeavours to extend the knowledge of his name among men, should be earnestly and increasingly cultivated; and all the time that you can justly redeem from secular engagements, you ought, and, if your heart is filled with a Saviour's love, you will redeem. But our present object is, not to enforce these points on your attention, but to convince you that every talent you possess, and every occupation you undertake, may be consecrated unto the Lord; and that the commonest employment, when thus dedicated to Him, and pursued with a view to his glory, has a moral grandeur attached to it, and is stamped with the seal of his approbation. And do you not perceive how this conception of daily duties would help to preserve you from earthlymindedness, from God-forgetfulness? You often say, and say truly, that worldly business distracts your mind, and draws your thoughts from God; but is not this the natural result of failing to identify your |