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and as willing to make sacrifices for conscience' sake. Let us seek also to grow in graces that are beautiful : for beauty has its divinely-ordained uses; and there are those to whom the flowers of a garden are even more beneficial than its fruits. It is not always the so-called "practical" practical" man who really renders the most practical service to humanity. Let not Christian "workers" despise their fellow-Christians who, in "the trivial round and common tasks" of life, are quietly serving God and man in the spirit of love. Whilst Dorcas is busily making garments for the poor, Eunice may be doing quite as good work for the kingdom of God, through the influence of her character on her son Timothy. And let those of us who are pastors remember that it is not only when we are preaching the gospel to the unconverted that we are doing evangelistic work. Every time we succeed in deepening the piety of Christian hearts, in strengthening the roots of Christian virtue, in adding some new touch to the beauty of a Christian home, in stimulating believers to a conduct more worthy of their high calling, we are thereby increasing the volume of evangelistic force in the world. And let all of us who are seeking the extension of the kingdom of Christ be careful to employ only such methods as are in harmony with the Spirit of Christ. The Lord looks, not only at the ends we have in view, but also at the means we use. "The end" does not, of itself, "justify the means"; and when the means are unworthy of the end they may only hinder its accomplishment. There are unevangelical ways of preaching the gospel; there are methods of raising money for the cause of Christ which tend to choke and defile

the springs of Christian liberality; there are ways of seeking to make Christianity the religion of a nation which are out of harmony with the very genius of Christianity. As members of the "church militant,” we ought to bear in mind that the true "weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual"; and, as members of the "church mercantile," we ought to bear in mind that, in trading with the Master's talents, the true methods of such commerce are not carnal, but spiritual. Even in our church-life,

"The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers."

We should have more power for good in the world, if we were more unworldly and more restful in spirit. We discard indeed-and rightly-the monastic ideal of the saintly life. But that ideal was, after all, only the perversion of a great truth. Unworldliness of character is one of the mightiest of spiritual forces. We have talked so much recently about "" religion in common life" that we are in some danger of forgetting that common life is not, of itself, religion. There is no religion in the counting-house, unless a religious man is at the desk; there is no religion in the smithy, unless a religious man is at the anvil. It is true that on the very "bells of the horses" may be inscribed, as it were, the words "Holiness unto the Lord"; but we must remember that the bells cannot consecrate themselves. Let us carry the spirit of religion into all the business of the world; but let us not bring the spirit of worldliness into the aims or methods of the church. Our Lord Himself was willing even

to be defeated, in order that He might win the victory; and, if we would do our best towards conquering the world for Him, let us, as individuals and as churches, strive and pray that we may walk more closely in His steps, along that road which Thomas à Kempis has so well named "the King's highway of the Holy Cross."

ON THE DUTY OF GIVING PLEASURE.

[Reprinted from The Christian Leader, February 9th, 1882.]

WE venture to think that many of us do not sufficiently recognize the Christian duty of giving pleasure to others. In reading the apostolic maxim, "Let every one of us please his neighbour, for his good to edification," we are apt to emphasize the second clause rather than the first. The apostle enjoins a duty, and suggests its limits; and we are apt to plead the limitation as an excuse for neglecting the duty. There are even some cantankerous and churlish people with whom the fact that anybody greatly desires anything seems to be a sufficient reason for withholding it. They like to play the rôle of a disagreeable destiny. It increases their sense of power. They appear to be afraid lest people should be too happy. There are others, again, whose one aim in life is to get not to givepleasure; and they grow so peevish and discontented when their exaggerated expectations are fulfilled, or their exacting claims are disregarded, that they become fountains of bitterness instead of joy.

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In family life, too, there are some parents who,

from a perverted ideal of duty, rob their children of a great deal of that happiness which is the natural heritage of childhood. In their culture of the "olive plants," the pruning-knife is ever in their hands. This policy is as mistaken as it is inhuman. A child to whom pleasure is doled out, as if it were a medicine labelled "poison," is apt to have his nature stunted and impoverished on the very threshold of a life which may yet demand all possible energy and hopefulness. To make a child happy is often one of the best ways of helping him to be good. And when he sees that his parents are glad to give him pleasure, he will be the more ready to trust them when they think it best to deny him what he desires.

It is indeed true that children ought to be trained with a view to the coming duties and trials of life. When you are building a ship which is by and bye to be launched into the deep, and which may have to face many a storm, you wisely build her with a view to her future. But still you build her thus in the dockyard-high, and dry, and safe. In the physical training of children, there is surely a medium between coddling and neglect; the child that is well-nourished and well-clad may thus be built up into a physical robustness which shall be able by and bye to endure hardness. And, similarly, in the moral training of children, there is surely a medium between the enervating and foolish indulgence of every whim, and that repressive rigour which frowns upon the natural cravings and pleasures of childhood. A boy may be turned out into the world hardened and cowardly through the rough

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