elevation, or a rnging of folly or of violence. Our peril lies in yielding to the unnatural or the unnecessary. 1. The unnatural. Every man is in duty bound to develop all hie faculties up lo the limit of their capacity. But every man is in 11uty bound also ll?t to develop some to the neglect of others; and not to excite any to a degree beyond his full and perfect self-control. So far as he does he ceases to be a true man; a foreign power has taken the place of his central will, and he is, in fact, a man possessed and ruled by an evil force, by a devil. This may be illustrated by showing (1) the unnatural effect produced by strong drink on the physical frame ; (2) the effect on tbe moral nature, especially in exciting sensual passions; (3) the influence on the children and descendants of the self-indulgent. 'Jhis is so important a point, and brings to view such obscure, but painful facts, that a few may be set down from which selections may be made. Gall relates the case of a Russian family, where the father and grandfather had both died prematurely from the effects of intoxication, and the grandson manifested from the age of five years the most decided taste for strong liquors. M. :Morel says, "I have never seen the patient cured of his propensity whose tendencies to drinking were derived from the hereditary predisposition given to him by his parents." He gives also the history of four generations of a family. First generation: the father an habitual drunkard, killed in a public-house brawl. Second generation: son inherited the father's habits, which gave rise to attacks of mania, terminating in paralysis and death. Third generation: grandson strictly sober, but full of hypochondriacal and imaginary fears of persecution, and had homicidal tendencies. Fourth generation: great-grandson, very limited intelligence, an attack of madness when sixteen years old, terminating in stupidity nearly amounting to idiocy. With him the race became extinct. "\Ve can conceive no revelation of the unnaturalness of the condition and relations produced by strong drink more impressive than this. 2. It is unnecessary; for it satisfies no demand of the true manhood; only the demands of a depraved, disordered, and diseased taste. The best that can be said of it is that it may be a medicine. It is now well established that it is not a necessary food. II. WHO AMONG us LIE EXPOSED TO THE TEMPTATIONS OF STRONG DRINK? This may be answered with great plainness, simplicity, and practical force. 1. Those who are born into a heritage of drinking tendencies. 2. Those who have some ability in song or enter- taining, and so a.re _enticed into company and treated for tbe sake of tbe pleasure they give (compare tbe case of the poet Burns). 3. Those who have idle time which can be spent in inns and hotels. 4. Those who have great business energy and enterprise without the restraining influence of high moral principle. 5. 'l'hose wbo, having little pleasure in intelligent occupations, seek excitement in the indulgence of bodily passion. 6. Those who have unhappy or uncomfortable homes. 7. Those whose daily work takes them to houses where they a.re treated to drink. All are in special peril at holi- day or convivial seasons, and in times of convalescence from disease, or of family trouble. No one of us can venture to say, amidst the enticements of modern social life," I shall never fall. I shall never be a drunkard." He neither knows himself, nor the subtlety of the evil, who speaks so confidently. Our power to stand lies in our laying hold of One who is stronger than ourseives, and keeping up the prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Every day and everywhere, with our eyes on God, we should be saying, "Hold thou us up, and we shall be safe."-R. T. Vere. 5, 6.-Beauty, wisdom, and strength for us in God. Kings wear crowns; king.; decide causes and give judgment; kings lead armies to battle; so kings must be chiefly in tbe thought of the prophet bore. But kings are, or ought to be, the representatives of the nations they rule; tbe realized ideals of the nation, the persons in whom tbey can see their best selves. Hezekiah was in some good sense such a king. What God was to him, God would be to all his people; Isaiah even says, God was to the residue of his people, to the pious ones of Judah, when Samaria was taken, and the kingdom of Israel destroyed. The prophet first speaks admiringly of them, and then finds occasion for the qualifying of his praise (vers. 7, 8). We may consider what God can be to bis people, when they open heart and life to his incomings and inworkin~s. I. CHAllAOTEB Fon THE FELLOWSHll'S OF LIFE COMES OF GoD. upon character the ploasnntness o.nd graciousness of life unions aud nssociations almost entirely depend. 'l'hose who have the tnic helpful 11nu sanctifying power I\D1ong us are those who havti W~ 2H 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PilOPHET ISAIAH. [err. xxvm, 1-29, 1
the "beauty of the Lord their God upon them." There are spheres of Ufe in which tRlent tells; but in homes and society it is character that tells. After illuetratina and enforcing this, the importance of co1Tccling the error of sentiment, which regards cbaracter as a purely human growth and attainment, should be shown. So easily do wo MY, "Character, we can win that ourselves." So nerdful is it to show that" character is of God." It comes out of the circumstances which God provides, and out of the relations in which G-od sets us, 11nd through sorrows, bearings, and struggling~, whioh God sanctifies. St. Paul says, "I am what I am." "His grace on me was not in vain.'' TI. WISDOM FOR THE AFFAIRS OF LIFE COMES OF GoD. We have natural skill for some forms of business or of profession; but who endowed us with the natural ability? We gain practical skill amidst the experiences of life; but who renews the mental powers and bodily health, and presides over impressions made? A thousand complex conditions come in every life: who guides to right decisions, directing the judgment- in v,ays of truth? " This wisdom cometh from above." III. STREKGTH FOR THE DEMA'.!l"DS OF LIFE com:s OF GoD. The psalmist lifts a thankful heart to God who "renews our youth like the eagle's." He" giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." No experience of life is more assured, none brings a deeper rest to our hearts than this-" when we are weak, then we may be strong" in God.-R. T.