is best within us. 1. It nourishes fortitude-a commendable capacity to endure; a readiness to accept, unmoved and untroubled at heart, whatever may befall us. 2. It creates and sustains cQUrage-a deliberate determination to face the evil that may possibly await us. 3. It contributes to true manliness-the power to do and to endure anything and everything as God may will, as man may want. We pity those whose field of work, whose path of life, is unvisited by adverse winds and unplea.sant rains. If they do grow up into strong and brave souls, it will be in spite of the absence of those circumstances which are most helpful in the formation of character. We have no condolence for those who have to face the strong wind and the rain ; we con- gratulate them that they are placed where the noblest characters are shaped. III. lTs LESSON FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORKER. Too often the workman in the Master's vineyard is inclined to lay down his weapon when the clouds gather in the heavens. But to act thus is not worthy of him. Not thus did he who" bore such contradiction of sinners against himself." Not thus have the worthiest of his disciples done-they who have done the most, and have left behind them the most fragrant memories. Not thus will they have acted who receive the gladdening commendation of their Lord" in the day of his appearing." Not thus shall we finish the work our Father has given us to do. Let the strong winds of even an unkindly criticism blow, let the dark cloud of possible failure show itself in the horizon, we will not be daunted; we will go forth to sow the good seed of the kingdom, to reap its precious harvest.-C. Vera. 7, 8.-The shadow of the tomb. Let a man rejoice, says the Preacher, in his long bright days of prosperity; but let him remember that the time is drawing on when he will sleep his long sleep beneath the ground; and many as his days have been when the light of the sun was sweet to his eyes, very many more will be the days of darkness which will follow. It is open to us all to indulge in some-- I. SENTIMENTAL BADNESS, IN VIEW OF THIS LONG FUTURE. We may stroll in the churchyard, and as we read the names and ages of men who lived for thirty or forty years, but who have been in their graves for, it may be, two hundred years, we may think bow email was the measure of the light on which they looked compared with that of the darkness in which they have been sleeping. And as we yield to these thoughts we feel the vanity of human affairs. Thus the shadow of the tomb falls upon aod darkens the brightness of our life. It seems to us a poor thing for a man to come out of the infinite darkness behind; to walk in the sunshine for a few swiftly passing, soon-departed decades, and then go out into the immeasurable darkness on the other side. There is, however- H. A CORREOTING THOUGHT. Why should the excellency of human life be spoiled to us by the reflection that it is limited, bound by a line which is not far off us? If it be so tbat there is nothing but darkness beyond, if it be true that what we see comprises all that is to be seen, then let us, for that very reason, make the most of all that we hold. If the worth of our existence is confined to the present, let us com- press into the present time all the action and all the enjoyment which it will hold. Shall we not say- • " I will drink Life to the lees. . . . Life piled on life Were all too little, and of one to me Little remains : but every hour is saved From that eternal silen9e " ? III. THE OHRIBTIAN Al!PE0T OF THE BUBJEOT. We know that this life will soon be over, may reach its terminus any day, and must come to its conclusion before many years have gone. What she.II we be concerned about in this? 1. Not the hour or act of dying. Common human fortitude will carry us through that experience, as it bas done in countless millions of cases already; much more will Christian faith and hope. 2. Not the silence and darkness of the grave. What does it signify to us that our mortal body will lie long in the grave, when we are hoping to be " clothed upon with our house which is from heaven"? 3. The long future of heavenly life. Not the many days of darkness, but the long, the everlasting day of glory is before us who believe in Christ, and who hope to dwell with him for ever. For '1lat endless day of ECCLEBIABTEB. V 290 ECCLESIASTES$ OR, TH-E PREAQHEB. [orr. u. 1~10.
blessedness the life we are now living is not only tho preliminary but tho preparation. Therefore let every day, every hour, be sacred ; be so spent in faith,. in love in holy lab0ur, in ennobling joy, that the future will be but the continuance of the present- the conliuuance, but also the enlargement, the glorification. 'l'hus shall there not fall upon the life that now is the shadow of the tomb; thero shall shine upon it somo beams frc,111 the glory that is bey,md.-C.