The lesson is one which all who work for Christ should mark and remember. Success is what all faithful labourers in the Gospel field desire. The minister at home and the missionary abroad, the district visitor and the city missionary, the tract distributor and the Sunday-school teacher, all alike long for success. All long to see Satan's kingdom pulled down, and souls converted to God. We cannot wonder. The desire is right and good. Let it, however, never be forgotten, that the time of success is a time of danger to the Christian's soul. The very hearts that are depressed when all things seem against them, are often imduly exalted in the day of prosperity. Few men are like Samson, and can kill a lion without telling others of it. (Judges xiv. 6.) No wonder that St. Paul says of a bishop, that he ought not to be " a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.'* (1 Tim. iii. 6.) Most of Christ's labourers probably have as much success as their souls can bear.
Let us pray much for humility, and especially for humility in our days of peace and success. When everything around us seems to prosper, and all our plans work well, — ^when family trials and sicknesses are kept from us, and the course of our worldly affairs runs smooth, — when our daily crosses are light, and all within and without like a morning without clouds, — then, then is the time when our souls are in danger ! Then is the time when we have need to be doubly watchful over our own hearts. Then is the time when seeds of evil are sown within us by the devil, which may one day astound us by their growth and strength. There are few Chris-