that we are responsible for our companionships. As we have power and opportunity to choose the good, so we are to blame if we choose and keep the bad. There are many who, if they are unsuccessful, find fault with circumstances; if they are overcome by temptation, they blame their evil associates. But no man can clear himself of guilt by shirking his personal responsibility for what he does and what he is. The streak of cowardice in Adam which made him say: "The woman whom Thou gavest me tempted me," has come down to many of his descendants. But this plea, if given as a sufficient excuse for sin, is a pitiful evasion of the truth. Tempter or temptress will be unerringly judged, but meanwhile the tempted has his account to give. There is an old legend that a fool and a wise man were journeying together. They came to a point where two ways opened before them, one broad and beautiful, the other narrow and rough. The fool desired to take the pleasant way; the wise man knew that the hard way was the shortest and safest, and so declared. But at last the urgency of the fool prevailed; they took the more inviting path, and ere long were met by robbers. who seized their goods and made them captives. Soon after both they and their captors were arrested by officers of the law and taken before the judge. Then the wise man pleaded that the fool was to blame because he desired to take the wrong way. The fool pleaded that he was only a fool and no sensible man should have heeded his counsel. The judge decided that both were wrong and punished them equally. The moral of the legend is clear: "If sinners entice thee, consent thou not." Be sure that if you consent to the enticement of sinners the Supreme Judge will not hold you guiltless. Your responsibility is as broad as your whole voluntary life. It covers not only acts but also motives; not only your individual course but also the nature and results of your chosen relationships. With this the practical judgment of men agrees. Society will hold you responsible for the company that you keep, and those who would employ you will be profoundly influenced in the choice or refusal of your services by the character of your associates; when Hal becomes King Henry, he must cut Falstaff and his regiment of swashbucklers. It is said that Pythagoras, the ancient Greek philosopher, before he admitted any one into his school, inquired who were his intimates, naturally concluding that they who could choose immoral companions would not be much profited by his instructions. Men are not less wise now; if. you keep the company of the dissipated or the corrupt, do not be surprised if those who want capable and honest assistants pass you by. The common-sense of the world appreciates the worth of integrity, and quickly presumes the lack of integrity in those who have intimacies with the unworthy. We have no right to be exclusive in the sense that we should repel any human being who seeks aid of us or to whom we can do good; but we have the right to keep our intimacies only for those whom we can trust and whose influence upon us will be pure and conservative of honor. We have the right, nay, we are under most solemn obligation, to preserve inviolate the inmost sanctuary of the heart and mind by admitting therein no profane and polluting fellowship. This does not abridge in the least a true love of all our fellow-men. God loves all. "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust;" but also, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." Our habitual companionships will be determined by our dominant aim in life and by the really master-affection of our hearts. That strange conception of Stevenson's, "Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll," has in it an element of startling truth. Our natures are capable of an appalling moral duality; yet the conception of the novelist is exaggerated, and so far false. Every man is fundamentally one thing or another; but there is always this play of action and reaction: what he is determines the character of his companionships; the character of his companionships determines what he is. No man can go far and fatally wrong who has chosen the supreme good as the goal of his life; no one can form permanent evil fellowships who has learned what it is to have fellowship with the divine man, Jesus Christ. His pure presence in the heart is the perfect moral antiseptic; that will make evil companionships impossible for you, as it also will make you worthy of the love and confidence of all men. Intimate companionship with him will enable you to give, as it will qualify you to receive, the best thing on earth, an enduring, pure, and wholly beneficent friendship. TEMPERANCE. A WISE man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. Proverbs of Solomon. Whatever day Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away. The Odyssey. He that would govern others, first should be MASSINGER. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. -SAINT PAUL. In the supremacy of self-control consists one of the perfections of the ideal man. - HERBERT SPENCER. Chain up the unruly legion of thy breast. Lead thine own captivity captive, and be Cæsar within thyself. - SIR THOMAS BROWNE. Es ist gewiss, ein ungemässigt Leben, Wie es uns schwere, wilde Träume giebt, GOETHE. THE study of words is both interesting and profitable; for words are more than symbols of thoughts, they are thoughts embodied, and the history of words is the history of the intellectual and moral life of man. The word "temperance" is so commonly misunderstood and misapplied that a brief study of |