not count it; but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve-cells and fibres the molecules are counting it, registering and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes. Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out." - Psychol. Vol. I. p. 127. Have you thought how significant is the fact that most active, fruitful Christians became such when they were young; and that the men and women of sterling character whom you know received their life's bent in early years; that the patient and the pure and the generousthose whom all admire and love are but revealing the force and result of early formed habits? A young tree can be bent to any shape with ease, but a tree that has weathered the storms of fifty years cannot be changed. How few persons are radically changed in mature life. Habit is fixed; the character is set; the life-current has worn deep channels that hold it as the rocky walls of its cañon hold the ancient river. Young men and women, take this truth home to your hearts: you are responsible to God and to humanity for your habits, for upon these depends your usefulness or harmfulness in the world. I do not mean merely those external habits which are mainly physical in their man ifestation as well as their basis, but those inward habits which determine the quality of your moral life and influence, your habits of feeling and thinking and willing, of speaking `and doing. God has given you the precious, perilous power of shaping your future by giving you the power of choice and of ruling your own growth. The alternative is before every one: on this hand, good, on that, evil; and God has said: "Choose ye which ye will." will." But He has not left you alone in the choice; the energy of His love, the instruction of His word written in the Bible, in history, in Nature, and in your own constitution, and the quickening force of His spirit, all combine to help you in your choice and execution of the good. What shall be the issue if you choose the evil? You can not urge habit as an excuse for sin, for you make habit and must account for that. You cannot drift into righteousness. Habits must be formed consciously and with vigilant purpose; you must create righteous habit by resolutely willing to do righteously. Sin may be forgiven, but forgiveness does not unbind the fetters of habit. The love and power of God will enable you to resist and overcome evil habits already formed; but the soul that would enter into life must strive. Gird yourselves, then, for the great achievement of a righteous life, and open your heart to the spiritual forces that will vitalize and energize your whole being for the glorious and successful struggle. "Thronging through the cloud-rift, whose are they, the faces Faint revealed yet sure divined, the famous ones of old? 'What' - they smile -'our names, our deeds so soon erases Time upon his tablet where Life's glory lies enrolled? "Was it for mere fool's-play, make-believe, and mumming, So we battled it like men, not boylike sulked or whined? Each of us heard clang God's "Come!" and each was coming : Soldiers all, to forward-face, not sneaks to lag behind! "How of the field's fortune? That concerned our Leader! Led, we struck our stroke, nor cared for doings left and right: Each as on his sole head, failer or succeeder, Lay the blame, or lit the praise: no care for cowards: fight!' "Then the cloud-rift broadens, spanning earth that's under, Wide our world displays its worth, man's strife and strife's success: All the good and beauty, wonder crowning wonder, Till my heart and soul applaud perfection, nothing less." COMPANIONSHIP. HE that walketh with wise men shall be wise.-Proverbs of Solomon. Keep good company, and you shall be of the number. GEORGE HERBERT. No man in effect doth accompany with others, but he learneth, ere he is aware, some gesture, voice, or fashion. - LORD BACON. I set it down as a maxim, that it is good for a man to live where he can meet his betters, intellectual and moral.— THACKERAY. It is better and safer to ride alone than to have a thief's company; and such is a wicked man, who will rob thee of precious time, if he do thee no more mischief. — SPENCER. It is certain that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught as men take diseases, one of another; therefore, let men take heed of their company. · SHAKESPEARE. Be not deceived; evil companionships corrupt good morals. - SAINT PAUL. IN the beginning of his famous essay on "Friendship," Lord Bacon quotes some one as saying that, "whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god." The quotation was probably a condensed reproduction from memory of Aristotle's saying in the Gird yourselves, then, for the ment of a righteous life, and open the spiritual forces that will vita gize your whole being for the successful struggle. "Thronging through the cloud-rift, whose Faint revealed yet sure divined, the f 'What' - they smile our names, ou Time upon his tablet where Life's g "Was it for mere fool's-play, make-bel So we battled it like men, not boyli Each of us heard clang God's "C coming: Soldiers all, to forward-face, not sne "How of the field's fortune? Led, we struck our stroke, nor and right: Each as on his sole head, failer or suc Lay the blame, or lit the praise : fight!' "Then the cloud-rift broadens, spanning All the good and beauty, wonder crown |