way, and to help the little feet to go in the way of God's commandments. A poor dying sinner who had been found, after weary wandering, by the Good Shepherd who goeth after the sheep until He find it, did once comfort himself with the thought that God would even accept "the devil's castaways." But oh, better, a thousand times better, that the young life be given up to Him! that in the freshness of youth and feeling the heart's best affections be yielded to Him; that a life of loving service may prove that what might have been waste, or worse, has been used by the great King, and owned of Him. Can you not point some weary, aimless soul to the niche that is waiting for his service to fill? Can you not by some skilful manœuvre wake up the hope of being and doing something, by just leaving something undone yourself right at his feet, so that he cannot help but take it up and do it, and doing it be impelled with a little waking glow of feeling, to ask, What next? They said I was of use, and if I can do that I can do something better still.—If we only saw it so, how much happier would our lives be, that we are not living as by and for ourselves, but as by and for Him who died for us, and then of necessity for those around. And if He honours you by letting you rescue a jewel for the Redeemer's crown, from amid the mass of waste that appears on all sides, will you not thank Him, saying, "Not unto us, not unto us, oh Lord, but to Thy name be the glory"? We have spoken of happy homes: they should be "like a little heaven below." But the heaven we look for shall know no change, the riches we look for are enduring riches, the inheritance we long for is certain to be ours if we are Christ's, for Christ is God's. "Set your affections then on things above, and not on things on the earth," for here moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal; and there are many holes in the bag, and much labour and sorrow in the happiest lot,— "But there are perfectness and peace "Lay up for yourselves therefore treasure in heaven," where, in God's presence, "there are pleasures for evermore." 66 A X. OUR BEST. "I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept We have enough, yet not too much A yearning for a deeper peace "Oh, for the pearly gates of heaven, Oh, for the sun of righteousness, ND the best is yet to come!"-Dying words! We are apt to treasure them in memory's storehouse; and sometimes if a loved one has passed away without a dying message, we have a longing to hear the voice again, with just one last word; a heart ache "For the sound of a voice that is dead." Dying words ofttimes give out a depth of love to those around, and an experience of God's truth which comfort and teach those left behind. Some dying words we fain would forget: when the awful future will not be put away, but the soul is waking to the realities beyond this life, which till now it has striven to put away or forget; and the horror breaks out in a pleading, "Not yet: I cannot die!" But the fiat has gone forth, and the naked shrinking soul passes into the presence of its Judge. Well would it be if all would now lay to heart Christ's question to the Pharisees of old: "How shall ye escape the damnation of hell?" It is a life problem with many who are striving and struggling to make a way of escape for themselves, and who will not read the plain direction on the finger-post pointing heavenwards at the entrance of that opened way, so plain that "he who runs may read," "and the wayfaring man, though a fool," need "not err therein." It is indeed a fearful thing to wake from a dream of safety, and find ourselves on the edge of a precipice; having to take a leap in the dark, when there ought to be nothing to do but to die saying “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." "An acre of gold for an inch of time!" are said to have been almost the last words of our Queen Elizabeth, who for her wise rule and the prosperity enjoyed in her reign, in contrast to that of "bloody Mary," was called "The good Queen Bess,"-as she besought her physicians to accord her a few more hours of life. “Had I but served my God as faithfully as I have served my king and my country, I should not now be left to die friendless and forlorn," was the dying thought of that favourite of fortune Cardinal Wolsey, who was deprived of his honours and his royal master Henry the Eighth's favour, and left to die in shame and neglect. One has well said, "Tell me how a man lived, and I will tell you how he died;" for it is the testimony of the life that we look at. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him," but before going "he had this testimony, that he pleased God." That description still applies to some on the earth, and of some whom we have known we can say indeed that sudden death was sudden glory; where they have been so clearly living for God, and having heard His call, their 66 "Soul undrest From the mortal vest, Has stept into her car of heavenly fire, And proved how bright Were the realms of light, Bursting at once upon the sight." Very shocking!" people say, when they hear of a sudden death; but they pass on and soon forget it, and forget too that they may die as suddenly. "From sudden death good Lord deliver us;" or keep us so ready for it that it may be to us sudden glory. A great many of us echo Balaam's wish: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." And a very good wish it is. But for holy dying there must be holy living, and for holy living we want the new nature implanted; we want |