Chapter 3

[#] S. Luke vi. 35.Strive, then, to practise the golden rule of kindness, in whatever station God has placed you. Be genial, be kind, be civil to all, following the Apostolic rule, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another: even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you[#]."[#] Ephesians iv. 32.OUR PARENTS."Who sat and watched my infant head,When sleeping on my cradle bed?And tears of sweet affection shed?My Mother!Who taught my infant lips to pray,And love God's holy Book, and Day,And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?My Mother!And God, Who lives above the skies,Would look with anger in His eyes,If I should ever dare despiseMy Mother!"Our earliest recollections are of our father and mother! All through our childhood they were near us, joining in our play, nursing us in sickness, comforting in pain or trouble. All that made us happy, or that made the world seem bright to us, they gave us. They were always ready to reward us when we were good; they were always grieved when we did wrong. We never can repay our parents for all their kindness to us in our infancy. All the labour which supplied the bread we ate and the bed we slept on; and shall not we do what we can for them in their old age? If your parents, reader, were religious people, they prayed for you besides, and you will never know on this side the grave how many early temptations those prayers may have kept off. You can understand now why it was that your parents sometimes punished you for doing wrong, though you might not have seen the wisdom of it then. And the day will come, believe me, when you will learn--it may be only "through much tribulation"--the wisdom of the punishments inflicted by our Father in heaven. "Fornowwe see through a glass darkly; butthenface to face: now I know in part, butthenshall I know even as also I am known." And now, in all humility, do let me say a word to those parents into whose hands this book may chance to fall. I have spoken of influence and its wonderful power in the other parts of this book. I have repeatedly dwelt on the necessity of setting a good example; let me do so once again here. I cannot put what I wish to say into better, or shorter, or simpler language than it has been put by a recent writer, who speaks as follows--"Old friends," he says, "fathers, mothers, whose heads are filled with the snows of age, whose brows are furrowed deep with the traces of life's cares and burthens, perhaps with the thorns of its crown, we look to you to teach us all that God means by death; all the blessings with which the angel who guides our pilgrimage comes laden, when he advances to clasp our hand, to be to us a rod and a staff through the glooms that hang about the threshold of the ever-lasting home. We look to see you with something of the brightness of the heavenly home upon you now; a gleam in the eyes, a tone in the look and bearing, which have been caught from long communion with the things and beings, whose full glory awaits you there. No complaints, no sadness, no sorrowful looking back to the world which you are leaving, and where your place, to which you thought yourself all-important, is already filled."Lastly, let me return for a moment to those to whom this book is specially addressed. Young men, it is your duty and your privilege alike to take care of your parents, and to provide for their wants when they are too old or infirm to do so for themselves. Be laying by a little store of money now against that day, if it be only a few pence a week that you can save out of your wages, you can't think what a help it may be hereafter. You wouldn't like your children to leave you to die in the workhouse; you wouldn't like, when old age comes, to feel that you and your wife, who had lived happily together for years, were now to be taken to live within high walls in a pauper's dress, and not be free to go in and out as you pleased. You wouldn't like to find that you were suffering all this want, while your son, who was quite able to keep you out of it, was drinking away his wages in the nearest public-house. And if you wouldn't like this yourself, why should you treat your parents so? This, as you know, is not a made-up case; it is happening every day in almost every village in the country. God gave us parents, first, that they might take care of us; and then, if need be, that we should take care of them. The earthly parent should be in every way a pattern of the heavenly, for He is good, "even to the unthankful and the evil," to the just and to the unjust alike.Reader, if you have not been doing your duty to your parents hitherto, go and begin at once. Try and make the old folks comfortable. Let them feel that their son is indeed a comfort to them, and a stay in their old age. And then, when old age comes upon you, God will repay you. In the hour of sickness He will be with you, comforting and blessing you: until the time come when you too have to lean on your staff for very age, while the shadows grow darker and darker round you.OUR CHILDREN."Oh! there are times when to our sight,E'en on this side the grave, is givenA glimpse revealing in full lightThe triumphs gained on earth by heaven.In Him our little ones are great,In Him our feeble folk are strong;And childhood sits in high estateAmid the martyrs' noble throng."R. Tomlins.God has committed no more solemn charge to our care than that of our children. Over and over again in the Gospels do we find that Jesus called attention to little children. On one occasion you will remember that strife having arisen among the disciples, as to which of them should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus, perceiving it, took a little child, and set him by His side; and from this simple circumstance He taught His disciples that in order to enter into that kingdom, they must receive His message with the same simple, trustful faith, as would a little child. And once again, we read that the parents brought their little ones to Him that He might bless them; and when His disciples, being vexed that their Master's time should be taken up with what they doubtless considered a trifling matter, Jesus, we read, rebuked them, and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God[#]."[#] S. Mark x. 13.Reader, the times have not changed so much, since Jesus walked upon our earth, that we can afford to disregard His words. Do remember that if you use bad language, or tell an impure story, or even speak an unkind word, you may be putting a stumbling-block in the children's way, and keeping them from Christ.And now let me say a word concerning Baptism. I do not believe, and our Church nowhere teaches her children to believe, that a child who dies unbaptised is in danger of eternal damnation. But she does tell us thatthe parentswho keep their children back from that sacred ordinance, are in danger of punishment. She goes straight to the Bible, as her authority, and points out the blame which our Lord attached to the disciples, who would have kept the children from Him, teaching us thereby that the same kind of blame belongs to those parents who keep their children from holy Baptism now.And when your children are baptised the great thing to remember is example. Parents, set a good example to your children at home. Children very quickly notice anything that is wrong, and as quickly copy it. And then they go out, and teach it to other children, and so by your bad example at home, you may have destroyed the happiness of many lives. Teach your children rather that they may have an interest beyond the grave, that for them there is laid up a rich reward in our Father's kingdom. "I pity," says a recent writer, "the son, who has never had an interest beyond the grave; but I pity far more the mother, who has never told him of the rest that remaineth for the people of God."There were once two fathers, both of whom God had blessed with children. One lived on the river Mississippi, in America. He was a man of great wealth. Yet he would have freely given it all to have brought back his son from an early grave. One day that boy had been borne home unconscious. They did everything that they could to restore him, but in vain. "He will die," said the doctor. "But doctor," cried the poor father, "can you do nothing to bring him to consciousness, even for a moment?" "That may be," said the doctor, "but he can't live." Time passed, and after awhile the father's wish was gratified. "My son," he whispered, "the doctor tells me you are dying." "Well," said the boy, "you never prayed for me, father, won't you pray for my lost soul now?" The father wept. It was too true he hadnever prayed. He was a stranger to God. And in a little while that soul, unprayed for, passed into eternity. Young man, the day will come, when you perhaps will be a father too. If your boy was dying, and called on you to pray, could you lift your burdened heart to Heaven? Have you learned this sweetest lesson of heaven or earth, to know and hold communion with your God? And before this evil world shall have marked your dearest treasures for its prey, oh learn to lead your little ones to a children's Christ. But what a contrast was the other father! He too had a lovely boy, and one day he came home to find him at the gates of death. "A great change has come over our boy," said the weeping mother; "he has only been ill a little while, but it seems now as if he were dying fast." The father went into the room, and put his hand on his son's forehead. He could see the boy was dying. He could feel the cold damp of death. "My son, do you know you are dying?" he asked. "No, father, am I?" said the boy. "Yes, my boy, you can't live till the evening." "Well, then, I shall be with Jesus to-night, shan't I, father?" "Yes, my son, you will spend to-night with the Saviour." As he turned away, the little fellow saw tears trickling down his father's cheeks. "Don't weep for me," he said; "when I get to heaven, I shall go straight to Jesus, and tell Him that ever since I can remember, you have tried to lead me to Him." Reader, if God should give you a son, and should see fit to take him again to Himself, would you not rather he should carry such testimony as that to your Master, than have all the wealth of the world rolled at your son's feet?Once more, then, let me earnestly pray you to set a good example. Young man, set a good example to the boys who work with you on the farm or elsewhere. They will be ready to pick up anything good or bad from you. And if they once learn it, it will be very hard to unlearn it again.And to all who read this book, whether their work lie in the farm, in the counting-house, in the barracks, or on board ship, my last words are the same; the great secret of example is purity of heart and life. Never do anything or say anything that you would be ashamed for God to hear. And if you yourself have never thought how little it would profit you to gain the whole world, and lose your own soul, I beseech you not to let another sun go down before you think out that great question.HOME."Friend,--when in trial and suffering,Where dost thou find thy home?Where in thy pain canst thou seek relief,Where in thy sorrows come?Where from the world's rude conflictCanst thou find a calm retreat?Where learn afresh with courageThy trials and sorrows to meet?Where is thy shield from adversity's dart?Friend, thyhomeis a loved one's heart.Man,--when thy heart is torn with grief,When thy hopes are for ever gone,When adversity's cloud hangs over thy head,And earth's troubles weigh thee down,--When those whom thou lovest have turned away,And cruelly slighted thee,--When thy heart is crushed, and thy joys are gone,--For shelter, oh! where canst thou flee?Man, though from comfort on earth thou'rt driven,Thy home and thy joys are with God in Heaven."L. Jewitt.Home! What a word that is. Is there any word like it? Any that brings so much joy, or so much sorrow, into the human breast? The fisherman who has toiled all night and caught nothing, looks anxiously for dawn, because he knows that then he will return home to wife and children. The sailor, toiling over the endless sea, rejoices as he thinks that each moment he is nearing home. The labourer in the fields is glad when the hot sun sinks towards the west, because it is nearly time to go home. The boy at school longs for the holidays to come because it means home, and to him home is everything. The weary traveller, well-nigh dead with fatigue, who sees his distant home from the top of a neighbouring hill, gathers fresh strength from the sight to continue his journey.But the home can only be really home in the truest and best sense of the word, when the people who live there make it home-like. It need have no costly adornments, but every member of the family should have "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." There should be no display of angry tempers, or of hard words. Kindness should reign there; gentleness and love should be practised there. In short, that home can only be a happy one which is a copy of the home in heaven. Parents have a very solemn and important duty to perform here. It is for them to make their homes not nurseries of vice and sin, but homes of love and happiness, where Jesus and His angels will be glad to come. How many men and women there are who can trace an evil, misspent, sinful life back to their early home. It was, may be, from a father's lips they first learnt to swear; perhaps from a mother's example they first learnt to lie. And the children, too, have a solemn duty to perform with regard to home. There are life lessons which must be learnt at home, if we would learn them at all. Obedience, purity, love, and piety, all must be learnt at home; and if these are indeed to be found there, the home on earth is a fit type of the home in heaven.Reader, are you doing your utmost to make your home on earth like the home beyond? Perhaps you have never thought much about it. Perhaps you have never considered that there was any connection between them. But there is; there should be. They should be, as it were, the same home, separated indeed by a narrow gulf, but joined by a bridge over which all must pass, even death itself.Some people look upon death quite wrongly, for this reason. If one of their children die, they almost think that when the earth covers it they will never see it again; but the Bible does not teach that. Rather should we feel, in the beautiful words of the hymn, that our little ones are going home--"They are going--only going--Jesus called them long ago;All the wintry time they're passingSoftly as the falling snow.When the violets in the spring-timeCatch the azure of the sky,They are carried out to slumberSweetly, where the violets lie.All along the mighty ages,All adown the solemn time,They have taken up their homewardMarch to a serener clime,Where the watching, waiting angelsLead them from the shadow dim,To the brightness of His PresenceWho has called them unto Him."Yes, it is even so, "they are going, only going," from the home on earth to the home in heaven. Going from pain and sorrow and sin to a better home, where there is no bitter parting, no more sorrow, and no more death. And looking at it in this light, would you wish to keep them, would you even seek to stay their departure for one short hour. The home on earth is subject to sickness, to sorrow, and partings. But the home in heaven knows none of these. We cannot always stay at home on earth, but must needs go out to work for our living among strangers. But when we once reach the many mansions of our Father's house, we shall go no more out. There will be no more sleepless nights, or sunless days, for the Sun of righteousness shines on all alike, "and there is no night there."Strive then to dwell together in unity on earth; doingyourbest to make home what home should be, and God will do the rest.HEAVEN OUR HOME. PART I."There is a blessed HomeBeyond this land of woe,Where trials never come,Nor tears of sorrow flow.There is a land of peace,Good angels know it well:Glad songs that never ceaseWithin its portals swell."Baker.Our thoughts, as Christians, must needs often turn upon our heavenly home. The labourer toiling in the hot harvest-field often thinks of his distant cottage. The sailor upon the lonely sea is often thinking of those at home. And the Christian, in the midst of his troubles and temptations here, must often think of his home beyond. Heaven is the dwelling-place of God. It matters little how far away it is. God is there, and that is enough. We often feel sad when we think of our dear ones who have left us. But if we could look beyond the veil into the eternal city, we should see the Good Shepherd leading them by the green pastures, and beside the still waters. Our friends, who have died in the fear of God, are not lost to us for ever, only gone before. They had a desire "to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better"--better than the suffering, and the sorrow, and the toil. And Christ has given them their wish. And He has told us that if we would rejoin them one day, and be with them for ever, we must not lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven. Earthly treasure, gold, silver, land, popularity, and the praise of men, these may be taken from us, and given to others. But heavenly treasure--purity of life, love to God, helping travellers on the road to heaven--these we may lay up now, with the certainty that we shall never losethem, either in this world or in that which is to come.I read a story the other day of a rich man in America, to whom a person went to try and interest him in mission work. The rich man took him up to the top of his house, and said to him, "Look yonder over that beautiful rolling plain, that is all mine as far as the eye can reach." He took him round again to the other side, and showed him thirty miles of pasture, with horses and cattle feeding. "They are all mine," he said, "I have made it all myself." Then he pointed proudly towards the town, and showed him streets and warehouses, and a great hall named after himself, and said once more, "They are all mine; I came into this country a poor man, but my own industry has done it all." The other listened patiently until he had done speaking, and then pointing upward to the sky, he asked, "And what have you got there?" "Where?" asked the rich man. "In heaven!" said the other. "I have got nothing there," he answered bitterly. Alas, he had lived his three-score years and ten, and must soon enter eternity, and yet he had no treasure in heaven!Reader, where isyourtreasure? "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also[#]." There is no harm whatever in your feeling pleasure in your cottage, or your garden, or your field. But when these things shut out thoughts of God, and thoughts of heaven, from that moment they become sinful."I'm but a stranger here;Heaven is my Home.Earth is a desert drear;Heaven is my Home.Danger and sorrow standRound me on every hand;Heaven is my Father-land;Heaven is my Home.What though the tempest rage!Heaven is my Home.Short is my pilgrimage;Heaven is my Home.And time's wild wintry blastSoon will be overpast;I shall reach Home at last;Heaven is my Home.There at my Saviour's side;Heaven is my Home.I shall be glorified;Heaven is my Home.Then with the good and blest,Those on earth I love the best,I shall for ever rest;Heaven is my Home."[#] S. Matt. vi. 21.HEAVEN OUR HOME. PART II."While I do my duty,Pressing through the tide,Whisper Thou of beautyOn the other side.Tell who will the storyOf our now distress--Oh! the future glory,Oh! the loveliness."J. M. Neale.I have thought it best in writing on so wide a subject as "Heaven our home," to divide it into two parts; so that in this chapter I shall finish with a few practical thoughts on the subject we entered upon in our last. I there spoke about laying up treasure in Heaven. I gave you the advice our blessed Lord gave when He was upon earth, and pointed out how very much more valuable to the Christian man would be a little treasure laid up in Heaven, than all the wealth this world could give rolled together at his feet.You know how, when you used to go to school, prizes were sometimes given. And you know, if ever you brought home a prize, how your brothers and sisters would come round you, eager to get the first look. Well, it is just the same in life! This life is but a school-time, a growing-time, a running-time, in which we all set out to win a prize, and that prize is the home in Heaven. Try and get the first prize, reader, in this life-school. How to be most like Christ, that is the lesson given you to learn. "As for the prizes that God has ready, I cannot tell you about them; for they are more beautiful than anything you have ever seen, or can fancy. In that glorious country where our Father's home is, you will have such prizes as you never could have dreamt of." When the time to receive the prize will come I cannot tell; that will depend partly upon the way in which the lesson is learnt--though some there are, alas! who never learn it at all. Never trouble yourself about the time; "Whenever it is time for you to go home, our Father will send for you." I remember a noble boy who gave promise, if he had lived, to do something good and great; he was sunshine in the house, and made his parents' hearts like summer. In the morning he was full of health and spirits, ready to enjoy to the full all the games and sports of the holiday; in the afternoon he was dying from an accident--not in pain, but calm and quiet. The next day, when he had gone home to God, his little sister came to their mother, and said, "Shall we crown him, mother?" "Crown him! yes, by all means, for he is a brave little soldier, who has fought for Christ. He tried to be like Jesus--obedient, unselfish, and loving, and now he has gone back to his Father's home, where they will make a wreath for him of fadeless roses and lilies of light. Yes, crown him with many crowns; you can find none so beautiful as those which the angels have been weaving for him in Heaven."Now I want you to look at "Heaven our home" in two different ways: 1. as our reward, 2. as our rest. First, then, as our reward: God rarely gives man a command without giving him a promise also. It was so, you know, with Abraham. In Genesis xii. 1, we read, "The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee"--that was the command. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing," and that was the promise. And I could name a number of God's saints in every age, to whom He has given commands, but seldom or never without a promise.Reader, God has given you a command, the command to follow Him, and work for Him, and love Him; and He has given you a promise, that if you serve Him faithfully here you shall reign with Him eternally hereafter in Heaven. And, oh! think of the kindness of our Heavenly Father! Just compare the two--a few years of sickness, sorrow, and labour here, and then an eternity of rest and perfect happiness there.Secondly, look at Heaven as our rest. And perhaps there is no way of looking at it which gives us more thankfulness than this. Sorrow and labour we must have here, but there we shall have rest, and our "rest shall be glorious." "Everything round us here has a capacity for rest as well as action. The stormy winds and restless waters can at times be calm and still. The city, with its ceaseless hum and stir of voices and footsteps, lies hushed and quiet in its nightly rest. The railway, with its snorting engines, its crowded stations, and lightning speed, seems as if it knew no rest; yet a moment after the flying train has gone there is no sign of life or motion along its iron rails." And so, too, is it with life. The most active Christian will one day be at rest. Like the stormy waves, or the whistling train, he cannot work for ever, and after his work is over then will come rest.Oh! reader, Heaven is indeed a home worth working for. Where is the home on earth, in which we never hear an angry word, or never see a cold or passionate look? But it won't be so in Heaven! In our Father's kingdom we shall hear no angry words, and we shall have nothing but the kindest looks. God is there, and Jesus is there; and there too we shall meet our friends who are now "absent from the body," but "present with the Lord." The mother who first taught you to speak the name of your Heavenly Father will be there. The father, whose bright Christian example you remember as a child, will be there. Your brothers and sisters will be there. All, in short, will be there, who by their bright Christian examples have helped you on the road to Heaven; for all God's saints will be there, enjoying their reward and resting from their labours.Young man, the same Heaven is open to you as to them. The same battle-field lies before you; the same cross and the same crown. The same heavenly watchers as welcomed them are waiting to receive you into your heavenly home. It is for you to say whether you will accept their invitation to come. It is for you to show by your daily life and conversation whose side you have chosen in the battle of life, whose home you will live in hereafter.SUNDAY."Oh! pass not hence so swiftly,Bright Sabbath hours, we pray;None other tell so sweetlyOf regions far away.No breath of flowers at eventide,When the rain-cloud's store is spent;No cooling airs so softly glideFrom the sultry firmament;No waveless calm along the deep,When its fever-pulse is still;No visitings of dew-like sleepTo eyelids worn with ill."F. C. Boyce.The word "Sabbath" meansrest. And such indeed God intended Sunday to be. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God[#]." Our Saviour indeed teaches us that the stern and strict way in which the Sabbath was kept by the Jews was an unnecessary and painful discipline. He told the people it was quite lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, even though that good might be misinterpreted and misunderstood. He taught us that Sunday was a day sacred to God, and not to man, and that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath[#]." You know the old words--"A Sabbath well spentBrings a week of content,"and if you will try to put that old maxim into force, you will find as you give up the Sunday to God and His service, so surely will He be with you during the week. For now the old Jewish Sabbath has given place to the Christian Sunday--our Lord chose "the first day of the week" on which to rise from the grave, and the Church has fitly chosen the first day of the week as the best on which to meet together to worship her ascended Lord.[#] Exod. xx. 8.[#] S. Mark ii. 7.Sunday was never meant to be a dreary day, or a wretched day, any more than it was meant to be a working day, or a drinking day. And if you give the day to God, be sure He will give you plenty of amusement, and plenty of happiness. His is no wearisome service, His is no tiring Sunday task, but in His worship you will find peace, and His service is perfect freedom.Sunday, again, is most valuable to working men as aday of rest. During the great French Revolution, those who were at the head of affairs determined that they would neither fear God nor regard man; and so they passed a law to the effect that none should pay any heed to Sunday, to its services, its lessons, or its rest. And what was the consequence? Why, these ungodly men, looking at it only from a worldly point of view, found that it was quite impossible for the body or mind of man to keep on working day after day, and week after week. And so the plan failed, and Sunday came to be restored again. You must have felt the need of Sunday rest, after the week's toil sometimes too; you must have felt ready to cry out, in the words of the Postman's song,"We ask one day in seven,'Twas ours since time began--Sent by the love of heaven,In pity for toil-worn man."Look once more on Sunday asa thinking day. Men, and especially working men, need some quiet hours, when they can cease work and let their thoughts turn to the world to come. And this is one great use of Sunday. There is a quiet calm in the air; no sound of the threshing machine or the ploughman's voice breaks the stillness; man can feel that he isalone with God. And so wandering out into the fields at eventide, or sitting in his cottage garden, or by his hearth when the little ones are in bed, he can think of his prospects and hopes here below, and still more of those in the world to come.Lastly, Sunday isa day of learning. On Sunday we go up to church, and learn from God's minister's lips the lessons of His love. We sit at home and we read our books, and most of all the Bible, that Book of books, which is specially fit for working men to read. We go out walking in the fields, and see God's works in nature, and from them too we learn something; and as we learn these lessons on earth, they serve to bring us nearer to our Father in heaven.But do remember this; that Sundays on earth are meant to be as far as possible copies of that eternal Sabbath rest above. The service of prayer and praise with which our churches re-echo on earth, are but copies of the grand and perfect worship in the courts of heaven. The evening hours spent with our family before going to rest, are but a type and shadow of the eternity we shall spend in that family of which God is the Head, and Jesus Christ the Elder Brother. And the comfortable home, which God has given us on earth, is after all but a faint picture of those many mansions, "where the sun shines for ever, and the flowers never die."CHURCH."The Church's one foundationIs Jesus Christ her Lord;She is His new CreationBy water and the Word:From Heaven He came and sought herTo be His holy Bride,With His own Blood He bought her,And for her life He died."S. J. Stone.How very often it happens, when the subject of religion is mentioned, that we hear people say, "I go regularly to church." And this is thrown in the teeth of the clergy, as if the very fact of church attendance was quite enough in itself to save the soul. But do you think that Jesus Christ would have left His Father's throne in heaven, and lived those thirty troubled years, and died that terrible death, if salvation was so easy? Do you think that if men could be saved by merely going to church, our blessed Lord would have made use of such expressions as "Strive" (that is, toil, labour hard) "to enter in at the strait gate," or again, "Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able"? I hardly think He would. Religion was made for man, and not man for religion. It was given him as the means whereby he might speak to God, and hold frequent communion with his Maker. It is quite possible to be a most regular attendant at church, and yet to go away without receiving the slightest benefit.Some time ago I heard of an old woman who regularly went to a place of amusement, where she had been accustomed to go as a child. And though she became at last quite deaf, and nearly blind, she still persisted in going. And, reader, there is such a thing as deafness of the soul. The beautiful words of Scripture, the grand soul-stirring music, the touching words of our Church's prayers, may all pass by unheeded, unless the soul is waiting upon that God Who is her helper and deliverer. But there is quite another class of persons, who receive no benefit from our Church's services. I mean those who never go to church at all. Sometimes when the clergyman goes to see them they find it convenient to tell a lie, and say they are chapel people; but they never go to chapel. They live from day to day, and from year to year, as if there was no God, no church, no minister, no Bible. And when they come to die, what then? They go down into that dark hereafter of uncertainty; uncertain indeed to them, for they have neglected during their life everything that kindles and keeps alive the hope of a better world.Reader, if this is your case, if you have neglected church-going, let me implore you to do so no longer. The day will come when you will have to confess your sins, not to man but to God. There will be no concealment then; no shirking, or hiding your real motives under cover of a lie. The eyes of Almighty God will look you through and through; and if you take any excuses to Him, be sure they will not avail you.Some people, again, there are who stay away from church for the following reason. They feel that they believe the Word of God, and all the great truths written in the Bible; but they also feel that they love the world very much, more indeed than they love Christ, and if they become Christians they think they will have to give up all pleasure and go through the world with a long face, and never smile or laugh again. But, believe me, no greater lie was ever forged than that. The devil started it thousands of years ago in sunny Eden; but there is not one word of truth in it; it has been well called "a libel on Christianity." It does not make a man gloomy to become a child of God. Do you think that if a man is dying of thirst and you give him a drink of water, that thedrinkmakes him gloomy? Do you think that when the Queen's gracious message of pardon comes to a condemned murderer, that thepardonmakes him a gloomy man for the rest of his days? Oh, no. And that is what Christ and Christianity are to the soul of man. What the water is in the one case, what the Queen's free pardon is in the other, so is religion, so is church-going, so is Bible-reading, so is Christ to the soul. Oh, then, come to church, the church of your baptism, the church of your fathers. Come to it as God's own blessed appointed means of salvation. Join in the prayers and praises. Listen to the lessons and the sermon, and ask that your heavenly Father may send His blessing upon your hard and stony heart. And don't forget this most important duty, without which all church-going, all prayer, and all sacraments will be worse than useless,--don't forget to practise in the week the lessons you have learnt in church on Sunday. You will learn there the lessons of life, the lessons of holiness, therefore act up to what you hear, and "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify"--not you, but--"your Father which is in heaven[#]."[#] S. Matt. v. 16.HOLY COMMUNION. PART I."Once, only once, and once for all,His precious life He gave;Before the Cross our spirits fall,And own it strong to save."Canon Bright.

[#] S. Luke vi. 35.

Strive, then, to practise the golden rule of kindness, in whatever station God has placed you. Be genial, be kind, be civil to all, following the Apostolic rule, "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another: even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you[#]."

[#] Ephesians iv. 32.

OUR PARENTS.

"Who sat and watched my infant head,When sleeping on my cradle bed?And tears of sweet affection shed?My Mother!Who taught my infant lips to pray,And love God's holy Book, and Day,And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?My Mother!And God, Who lives above the skies,Would look with anger in His eyes,If I should ever dare despiseMy Mother!"

"Who sat and watched my infant head,When sleeping on my cradle bed?And tears of sweet affection shed?My Mother!

"Who sat and watched my infant head,

When sleeping on my cradle bed?

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother!

Who taught my infant lips to pray,And love God's holy Book, and Day,And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?My Mother!

Who taught my infant lips to pray,

And love God's holy Book, and Day,

And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?

My Mother!

And God, Who lives above the skies,Would look with anger in His eyes,If I should ever dare despiseMy Mother!"

And God, Who lives above the skies,

Would look with anger in His eyes,

If I should ever dare despise

My Mother!"

Our earliest recollections are of our father and mother! All through our childhood they were near us, joining in our play, nursing us in sickness, comforting in pain or trouble. All that made us happy, or that made the world seem bright to us, they gave us. They were always ready to reward us when we were good; they were always grieved when we did wrong. We never can repay our parents for all their kindness to us in our infancy. All the labour which supplied the bread we ate and the bed we slept on; and shall not we do what we can for them in their old age? If your parents, reader, were religious people, they prayed for you besides, and you will never know on this side the grave how many early temptations those prayers may have kept off. You can understand now why it was that your parents sometimes punished you for doing wrong, though you might not have seen the wisdom of it then. And the day will come, believe me, when you will learn--it may be only "through much tribulation"--the wisdom of the punishments inflicted by our Father in heaven. "Fornowwe see through a glass darkly; butthenface to face: now I know in part, butthenshall I know even as also I am known." And now, in all humility, do let me say a word to those parents into whose hands this book may chance to fall. I have spoken of influence and its wonderful power in the other parts of this book. I have repeatedly dwelt on the necessity of setting a good example; let me do so once again here. I cannot put what I wish to say into better, or shorter, or simpler language than it has been put by a recent writer, who speaks as follows--"Old friends," he says, "fathers, mothers, whose heads are filled with the snows of age, whose brows are furrowed deep with the traces of life's cares and burthens, perhaps with the thorns of its crown, we look to you to teach us all that God means by death; all the blessings with which the angel who guides our pilgrimage comes laden, when he advances to clasp our hand, to be to us a rod and a staff through the glooms that hang about the threshold of the ever-lasting home. We look to see you with something of the brightness of the heavenly home upon you now; a gleam in the eyes, a tone in the look and bearing, which have been caught from long communion with the things and beings, whose full glory awaits you there. No complaints, no sadness, no sorrowful looking back to the world which you are leaving, and where your place, to which you thought yourself all-important, is already filled."

Lastly, let me return for a moment to those to whom this book is specially addressed. Young men, it is your duty and your privilege alike to take care of your parents, and to provide for their wants when they are too old or infirm to do so for themselves. Be laying by a little store of money now against that day, if it be only a few pence a week that you can save out of your wages, you can't think what a help it may be hereafter. You wouldn't like your children to leave you to die in the workhouse; you wouldn't like, when old age comes, to feel that you and your wife, who had lived happily together for years, were now to be taken to live within high walls in a pauper's dress, and not be free to go in and out as you pleased. You wouldn't like to find that you were suffering all this want, while your son, who was quite able to keep you out of it, was drinking away his wages in the nearest public-house. And if you wouldn't like this yourself, why should you treat your parents so? This, as you know, is not a made-up case; it is happening every day in almost every village in the country. God gave us parents, first, that they might take care of us; and then, if need be, that we should take care of them. The earthly parent should be in every way a pattern of the heavenly, for He is good, "even to the unthankful and the evil," to the just and to the unjust alike.

Reader, if you have not been doing your duty to your parents hitherto, go and begin at once. Try and make the old folks comfortable. Let them feel that their son is indeed a comfort to them, and a stay in their old age. And then, when old age comes upon you, God will repay you. In the hour of sickness He will be with you, comforting and blessing you: until the time come when you too have to lean on your staff for very age, while the shadows grow darker and darker round you.

OUR CHILDREN.

"Oh! there are times when to our sight,E'en on this side the grave, is givenA glimpse revealing in full lightThe triumphs gained on earth by heaven.In Him our little ones are great,In Him our feeble folk are strong;And childhood sits in high estateAmid the martyrs' noble throng."R. Tomlins.

"Oh! there are times when to our sight,E'en on this side the grave, is givenA glimpse revealing in full lightThe triumphs gained on earth by heaven.

"Oh! there are times when to our sight,

E'en on this side the grave, is given

A glimpse revealing in full light

The triumphs gained on earth by heaven.

In Him our little ones are great,In Him our feeble folk are strong;And childhood sits in high estateAmid the martyrs' noble throng."R. Tomlins.

In Him our little ones are great,

In Him our feeble folk are strong;

And childhood sits in high estate

Amid the martyrs' noble throng."

R. Tomlins.

God has committed no more solemn charge to our care than that of our children. Over and over again in the Gospels do we find that Jesus called attention to little children. On one occasion you will remember that strife having arisen among the disciples, as to which of them should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus, perceiving it, took a little child, and set him by His side; and from this simple circumstance He taught His disciples that in order to enter into that kingdom, they must receive His message with the same simple, trustful faith, as would a little child. And once again, we read that the parents brought their little ones to Him that He might bless them; and when His disciples, being vexed that their Master's time should be taken up with what they doubtless considered a trifling matter, Jesus, we read, rebuked them, and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God[#]."

[#] S. Mark x. 13.

Reader, the times have not changed so much, since Jesus walked upon our earth, that we can afford to disregard His words. Do remember that if you use bad language, or tell an impure story, or even speak an unkind word, you may be putting a stumbling-block in the children's way, and keeping them from Christ.

And now let me say a word concerning Baptism. I do not believe, and our Church nowhere teaches her children to believe, that a child who dies unbaptised is in danger of eternal damnation. But she does tell us thatthe parentswho keep their children back from that sacred ordinance, are in danger of punishment. She goes straight to the Bible, as her authority, and points out the blame which our Lord attached to the disciples, who would have kept the children from Him, teaching us thereby that the same kind of blame belongs to those parents who keep their children from holy Baptism now.

And when your children are baptised the great thing to remember is example. Parents, set a good example to your children at home. Children very quickly notice anything that is wrong, and as quickly copy it. And then they go out, and teach it to other children, and so by your bad example at home, you may have destroyed the happiness of many lives. Teach your children rather that they may have an interest beyond the grave, that for them there is laid up a rich reward in our Father's kingdom. "I pity," says a recent writer, "the son, who has never had an interest beyond the grave; but I pity far more the mother, who has never told him of the rest that remaineth for the people of God."

There were once two fathers, both of whom God had blessed with children. One lived on the river Mississippi, in America. He was a man of great wealth. Yet he would have freely given it all to have brought back his son from an early grave. One day that boy had been borne home unconscious. They did everything that they could to restore him, but in vain. "He will die," said the doctor. "But doctor," cried the poor father, "can you do nothing to bring him to consciousness, even for a moment?" "That may be," said the doctor, "but he can't live." Time passed, and after awhile the father's wish was gratified. "My son," he whispered, "the doctor tells me you are dying." "Well," said the boy, "you never prayed for me, father, won't you pray for my lost soul now?" The father wept. It was too true he hadnever prayed. He was a stranger to God. And in a little while that soul, unprayed for, passed into eternity. Young man, the day will come, when you perhaps will be a father too. If your boy was dying, and called on you to pray, could you lift your burdened heart to Heaven? Have you learned this sweetest lesson of heaven or earth, to know and hold communion with your God? And before this evil world shall have marked your dearest treasures for its prey, oh learn to lead your little ones to a children's Christ. But what a contrast was the other father! He too had a lovely boy, and one day he came home to find him at the gates of death. "A great change has come over our boy," said the weeping mother; "he has only been ill a little while, but it seems now as if he were dying fast." The father went into the room, and put his hand on his son's forehead. He could see the boy was dying. He could feel the cold damp of death. "My son, do you know you are dying?" he asked. "No, father, am I?" said the boy. "Yes, my boy, you can't live till the evening." "Well, then, I shall be with Jesus to-night, shan't I, father?" "Yes, my son, you will spend to-night with the Saviour." As he turned away, the little fellow saw tears trickling down his father's cheeks. "Don't weep for me," he said; "when I get to heaven, I shall go straight to Jesus, and tell Him that ever since I can remember, you have tried to lead me to Him." Reader, if God should give you a son, and should see fit to take him again to Himself, would you not rather he should carry such testimony as that to your Master, than have all the wealth of the world rolled at your son's feet?

Once more, then, let me earnestly pray you to set a good example. Young man, set a good example to the boys who work with you on the farm or elsewhere. They will be ready to pick up anything good or bad from you. And if they once learn it, it will be very hard to unlearn it again.

And to all who read this book, whether their work lie in the farm, in the counting-house, in the barracks, or on board ship, my last words are the same; the great secret of example is purity of heart and life. Never do anything or say anything that you would be ashamed for God to hear. And if you yourself have never thought how little it would profit you to gain the whole world, and lose your own soul, I beseech you not to let another sun go down before you think out that great question.

HOME.

"Friend,--when in trial and suffering,Where dost thou find thy home?Where in thy pain canst thou seek relief,Where in thy sorrows come?Where from the world's rude conflictCanst thou find a calm retreat?Where learn afresh with courageThy trials and sorrows to meet?Where is thy shield from adversity's dart?Friend, thyhomeis a loved one's heart.Man,--when thy heart is torn with grief,When thy hopes are for ever gone,When adversity's cloud hangs over thy head,And earth's troubles weigh thee down,--When those whom thou lovest have turned away,And cruelly slighted thee,--When thy heart is crushed, and thy joys are gone,--For shelter, oh! where canst thou flee?Man, though from comfort on earth thou'rt driven,Thy home and thy joys are with God in Heaven."L. Jewitt.

"Friend,--when in trial and suffering,

Where dost thou find thy home?

Where in thy pain canst thou seek relief,

Where in thy sorrows come?

Where from the world's rude conflict

Canst thou find a calm retreat?

Where learn afresh with courage

Thy trials and sorrows to meet?

Where is thy shield from adversity's dart?

Friend, thyhomeis a loved one's heart.

Man,--when thy heart is torn with grief,When thy hopes are for ever gone,When adversity's cloud hangs over thy head,And earth's troubles weigh thee down,--When those whom thou lovest have turned away,And cruelly slighted thee,--When thy heart is crushed, and thy joys are gone,--For shelter, oh! where canst thou flee?Man, though from comfort on earth thou'rt driven,Thy home and thy joys are with God in Heaven."L. Jewitt.

Man,--when thy heart is torn with grief,

When thy hopes are for ever gone,

When adversity's cloud hangs over thy head,

And earth's troubles weigh thee down,--

When those whom thou lovest have turned away,

And cruelly slighted thee,--

When thy heart is crushed, and thy joys are gone,--

For shelter, oh! where canst thou flee?

Man, though from comfort on earth thou'rt driven,

Thy home and thy joys are with God in Heaven."

L. Jewitt.

Home! What a word that is. Is there any word like it? Any that brings so much joy, or so much sorrow, into the human breast? The fisherman who has toiled all night and caught nothing, looks anxiously for dawn, because he knows that then he will return home to wife and children. The sailor, toiling over the endless sea, rejoices as he thinks that each moment he is nearing home. The labourer in the fields is glad when the hot sun sinks towards the west, because it is nearly time to go home. The boy at school longs for the holidays to come because it means home, and to him home is everything. The weary traveller, well-nigh dead with fatigue, who sees his distant home from the top of a neighbouring hill, gathers fresh strength from the sight to continue his journey.

But the home can only be really home in the truest and best sense of the word, when the people who live there make it home-like. It need have no costly adornments, but every member of the family should have "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." There should be no display of angry tempers, or of hard words. Kindness should reign there; gentleness and love should be practised there. In short, that home can only be a happy one which is a copy of the home in heaven. Parents have a very solemn and important duty to perform here. It is for them to make their homes not nurseries of vice and sin, but homes of love and happiness, where Jesus and His angels will be glad to come. How many men and women there are who can trace an evil, misspent, sinful life back to their early home. It was, may be, from a father's lips they first learnt to swear; perhaps from a mother's example they first learnt to lie. And the children, too, have a solemn duty to perform with regard to home. There are life lessons which must be learnt at home, if we would learn them at all. Obedience, purity, love, and piety, all must be learnt at home; and if these are indeed to be found there, the home on earth is a fit type of the home in heaven.

Reader, are you doing your utmost to make your home on earth like the home beyond? Perhaps you have never thought much about it. Perhaps you have never considered that there was any connection between them. But there is; there should be. They should be, as it were, the same home, separated indeed by a narrow gulf, but joined by a bridge over which all must pass, even death itself.

Some people look upon death quite wrongly, for this reason. If one of their children die, they almost think that when the earth covers it they will never see it again; but the Bible does not teach that. Rather should we feel, in the beautiful words of the hymn, that our little ones are going home--

"They are going--only going--Jesus called them long ago;All the wintry time they're passingSoftly as the falling snow.When the violets in the spring-timeCatch the azure of the sky,They are carried out to slumberSweetly, where the violets lie.All along the mighty ages,All adown the solemn time,They have taken up their homewardMarch to a serener clime,Where the watching, waiting angelsLead them from the shadow dim,To the brightness of His PresenceWho has called them unto Him."

"They are going--only going--

Jesus called them long ago;

All the wintry time they're passing

Softly as the falling snow.

When the violets in the spring-time

Catch the azure of the sky,

They are carried out to slumber

Sweetly, where the violets lie.

All along the mighty ages,All adown the solemn time,They have taken up their homewardMarch to a serener clime,Where the watching, waiting angelsLead them from the shadow dim,To the brightness of His PresenceWho has called them unto Him."

All along the mighty ages,

All adown the solemn time,

They have taken up their homeward

March to a serener clime,

Where the watching, waiting angels

Lead them from the shadow dim,

To the brightness of His Presence

Who has called them unto Him."

Yes, it is even so, "they are going, only going," from the home on earth to the home in heaven. Going from pain and sorrow and sin to a better home, where there is no bitter parting, no more sorrow, and no more death. And looking at it in this light, would you wish to keep them, would you even seek to stay their departure for one short hour. The home on earth is subject to sickness, to sorrow, and partings. But the home in heaven knows none of these. We cannot always stay at home on earth, but must needs go out to work for our living among strangers. But when we once reach the many mansions of our Father's house, we shall go no more out. There will be no more sleepless nights, or sunless days, for the Sun of righteousness shines on all alike, "and there is no night there."

Strive then to dwell together in unity on earth; doingyourbest to make home what home should be, and God will do the rest.

HEAVEN OUR HOME. PART I.

"There is a blessed HomeBeyond this land of woe,Where trials never come,Nor tears of sorrow flow.There is a land of peace,Good angels know it well:Glad songs that never ceaseWithin its portals swell."Baker.

"There is a blessed HomeBeyond this land of woe,Where trials never come,Nor tears of sorrow flow.

"There is a blessed Home

Beyond this land of woe,

Where trials never come,

Nor tears of sorrow flow.

There is a land of peace,Good angels know it well:Glad songs that never ceaseWithin its portals swell."Baker.

There is a land of peace,

Good angels know it well:

Glad songs that never cease

Within its portals swell."Baker.

Within its portals swell."

Baker.

Our thoughts, as Christians, must needs often turn upon our heavenly home. The labourer toiling in the hot harvest-field often thinks of his distant cottage. The sailor upon the lonely sea is often thinking of those at home. And the Christian, in the midst of his troubles and temptations here, must often think of his home beyond. Heaven is the dwelling-place of God. It matters little how far away it is. God is there, and that is enough. We often feel sad when we think of our dear ones who have left us. But if we could look beyond the veil into the eternal city, we should see the Good Shepherd leading them by the green pastures, and beside the still waters. Our friends, who have died in the fear of God, are not lost to us for ever, only gone before. They had a desire "to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better"--better than the suffering, and the sorrow, and the toil. And Christ has given them their wish. And He has told us that if we would rejoin them one day, and be with them for ever, we must not lay up treasure on earth, but in heaven. Earthly treasure, gold, silver, land, popularity, and the praise of men, these may be taken from us, and given to others. But heavenly treasure--purity of life, love to God, helping travellers on the road to heaven--these we may lay up now, with the certainty that we shall never losethem, either in this world or in that which is to come.

I read a story the other day of a rich man in America, to whom a person went to try and interest him in mission work. The rich man took him up to the top of his house, and said to him, "Look yonder over that beautiful rolling plain, that is all mine as far as the eye can reach." He took him round again to the other side, and showed him thirty miles of pasture, with horses and cattle feeding. "They are all mine," he said, "I have made it all myself." Then he pointed proudly towards the town, and showed him streets and warehouses, and a great hall named after himself, and said once more, "They are all mine; I came into this country a poor man, but my own industry has done it all." The other listened patiently until he had done speaking, and then pointing upward to the sky, he asked, "And what have you got there?" "Where?" asked the rich man. "In heaven!" said the other. "I have got nothing there," he answered bitterly. Alas, he had lived his three-score years and ten, and must soon enter eternity, and yet he had no treasure in heaven!

Reader, where isyourtreasure? "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also[#]." There is no harm whatever in your feeling pleasure in your cottage, or your garden, or your field. But when these things shut out thoughts of God, and thoughts of heaven, from that moment they become sinful.

"I'm but a stranger here;Heaven is my Home.Earth is a desert drear;Heaven is my Home.Danger and sorrow standRound me on every hand;Heaven is my Father-land;Heaven is my Home.What though the tempest rage!Heaven is my Home.Short is my pilgrimage;Heaven is my Home.And time's wild wintry blastSoon will be overpast;I shall reach Home at last;Heaven is my Home.There at my Saviour's side;Heaven is my Home.I shall be glorified;Heaven is my Home.Then with the good and blest,Those on earth I love the best,I shall for ever rest;Heaven is my Home."

"I'm but a stranger here;Heaven is my Home.Earth is a desert drear;Heaven is my Home.Danger and sorrow standRound me on every hand;Heaven is my Father-land;Heaven is my Home.

"I'm but a stranger here;

Heaven is my Home.

Earth is a desert drear;

Heaven is my Home.

Danger and sorrow stand

Round me on every hand;

Heaven is my Father-land;

Heaven is my Home.

What though the tempest rage!Heaven is my Home.Short is my pilgrimage;Heaven is my Home.And time's wild wintry blastSoon will be overpast;I shall reach Home at last;Heaven is my Home.

What though the tempest rage!

Heaven is my Home.

Short is my pilgrimage;

Heaven is my Home.

And time's wild wintry blast

Soon will be overpast;

I shall reach Home at last;

Heaven is my Home.

There at my Saviour's side;Heaven is my Home.I shall be glorified;Heaven is my Home.Then with the good and blest,Those on earth I love the best,I shall for ever rest;Heaven is my Home."

There at my Saviour's side;

Heaven is my Home.

I shall be glorified;

Heaven is my Home.

Then with the good and blest,

Those on earth I love the best,

I shall for ever rest;

Heaven is my Home."

[#] S. Matt. vi. 21.

HEAVEN OUR HOME. PART II.

"While I do my duty,Pressing through the tide,Whisper Thou of beautyOn the other side.Tell who will the storyOf our now distress--Oh! the future glory,Oh! the loveliness."J. M. Neale.

"While I do my duty,

Pressing through the tide,

Whisper Thou of beauty

On the other side.

Tell who will the story

Of our now distress--

Oh! the future glory,

Oh! the loveliness."

J. M. Neale.

I have thought it best in writing on so wide a subject as "Heaven our home," to divide it into two parts; so that in this chapter I shall finish with a few practical thoughts on the subject we entered upon in our last. I there spoke about laying up treasure in Heaven. I gave you the advice our blessed Lord gave when He was upon earth, and pointed out how very much more valuable to the Christian man would be a little treasure laid up in Heaven, than all the wealth this world could give rolled together at his feet.

You know how, when you used to go to school, prizes were sometimes given. And you know, if ever you brought home a prize, how your brothers and sisters would come round you, eager to get the first look. Well, it is just the same in life! This life is but a school-time, a growing-time, a running-time, in which we all set out to win a prize, and that prize is the home in Heaven. Try and get the first prize, reader, in this life-school. How to be most like Christ, that is the lesson given you to learn. "As for the prizes that God has ready, I cannot tell you about them; for they are more beautiful than anything you have ever seen, or can fancy. In that glorious country where our Father's home is, you will have such prizes as you never could have dreamt of." When the time to receive the prize will come I cannot tell; that will depend partly upon the way in which the lesson is learnt--though some there are, alas! who never learn it at all. Never trouble yourself about the time; "Whenever it is time for you to go home, our Father will send for you." I remember a noble boy who gave promise, if he had lived, to do something good and great; he was sunshine in the house, and made his parents' hearts like summer. In the morning he was full of health and spirits, ready to enjoy to the full all the games and sports of the holiday; in the afternoon he was dying from an accident--not in pain, but calm and quiet. The next day, when he had gone home to God, his little sister came to their mother, and said, "Shall we crown him, mother?" "Crown him! yes, by all means, for he is a brave little soldier, who has fought for Christ. He tried to be like Jesus--obedient, unselfish, and loving, and now he has gone back to his Father's home, where they will make a wreath for him of fadeless roses and lilies of light. Yes, crown him with many crowns; you can find none so beautiful as those which the angels have been weaving for him in Heaven."

Now I want you to look at "Heaven our home" in two different ways: 1. as our reward, 2. as our rest. First, then, as our reward: God rarely gives man a command without giving him a promise also. It was so, you know, with Abraham. In Genesis xii. 1, we read, "The Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee"--that was the command. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing," and that was the promise. And I could name a number of God's saints in every age, to whom He has given commands, but seldom or never without a promise.

Reader, God has given you a command, the command to follow Him, and work for Him, and love Him; and He has given you a promise, that if you serve Him faithfully here you shall reign with Him eternally hereafter in Heaven. And, oh! think of the kindness of our Heavenly Father! Just compare the two--a few years of sickness, sorrow, and labour here, and then an eternity of rest and perfect happiness there.

Secondly, look at Heaven as our rest. And perhaps there is no way of looking at it which gives us more thankfulness than this. Sorrow and labour we must have here, but there we shall have rest, and our "rest shall be glorious." "Everything round us here has a capacity for rest as well as action. The stormy winds and restless waters can at times be calm and still. The city, with its ceaseless hum and stir of voices and footsteps, lies hushed and quiet in its nightly rest. The railway, with its snorting engines, its crowded stations, and lightning speed, seems as if it knew no rest; yet a moment after the flying train has gone there is no sign of life or motion along its iron rails." And so, too, is it with life. The most active Christian will one day be at rest. Like the stormy waves, or the whistling train, he cannot work for ever, and after his work is over then will come rest.

Oh! reader, Heaven is indeed a home worth working for. Where is the home on earth, in which we never hear an angry word, or never see a cold or passionate look? But it won't be so in Heaven! In our Father's kingdom we shall hear no angry words, and we shall have nothing but the kindest looks. God is there, and Jesus is there; and there too we shall meet our friends who are now "absent from the body," but "present with the Lord." The mother who first taught you to speak the name of your Heavenly Father will be there. The father, whose bright Christian example you remember as a child, will be there. Your brothers and sisters will be there. All, in short, will be there, who by their bright Christian examples have helped you on the road to Heaven; for all God's saints will be there, enjoying their reward and resting from their labours.

Young man, the same Heaven is open to you as to them. The same battle-field lies before you; the same cross and the same crown. The same heavenly watchers as welcomed them are waiting to receive you into your heavenly home. It is for you to say whether you will accept their invitation to come. It is for you to show by your daily life and conversation whose side you have chosen in the battle of life, whose home you will live in hereafter.

SUNDAY.

"Oh! pass not hence so swiftly,Bright Sabbath hours, we pray;None other tell so sweetlyOf regions far away.No breath of flowers at eventide,When the rain-cloud's store is spent;No cooling airs so softly glideFrom the sultry firmament;No waveless calm along the deep,When its fever-pulse is still;No visitings of dew-like sleepTo eyelids worn with ill."F. C. Boyce.

"Oh! pass not hence so swiftly,Bright Sabbath hours, we pray;None other tell so sweetlyOf regions far away.

"Oh! pass not hence so swiftly,

Bright Sabbath hours, we pray;

None other tell so sweetly

Of regions far away.

No breath of flowers at eventide,When the rain-cloud's store is spent;No cooling airs so softly glideFrom the sultry firmament;

No breath of flowers at eventide,

When the rain-cloud's store is spent;

No cooling airs so softly glide

From the sultry firmament;

No waveless calm along the deep,When its fever-pulse is still;No visitings of dew-like sleepTo eyelids worn with ill."F. C. Boyce.

No waveless calm along the deep,

When its fever-pulse is still;

No visitings of dew-like sleep

To eyelids worn with ill."F. C. Boyce.

To eyelids worn with ill."

F. C. Boyce.

The word "Sabbath" meansrest. And such indeed God intended Sunday to be. "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God[#]." Our Saviour indeed teaches us that the stern and strict way in which the Sabbath was kept by the Jews was an unnecessary and painful discipline. He told the people it was quite lawful to do good on the Sabbath day, even though that good might be misinterpreted and misunderstood. He taught us that Sunday was a day sacred to God, and not to man, and that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath[#]." You know the old words--

"A Sabbath well spentBrings a week of content,"

"A Sabbath well spent

Brings a week of content,"

and if you will try to put that old maxim into force, you will find as you give up the Sunday to God and His service, so surely will He be with you during the week. For now the old Jewish Sabbath has given place to the Christian Sunday--our Lord chose "the first day of the week" on which to rise from the grave, and the Church has fitly chosen the first day of the week as the best on which to meet together to worship her ascended Lord.

[#] Exod. xx. 8.

[#] S. Mark ii. 7.

Sunday was never meant to be a dreary day, or a wretched day, any more than it was meant to be a working day, or a drinking day. And if you give the day to God, be sure He will give you plenty of amusement, and plenty of happiness. His is no wearisome service, His is no tiring Sunday task, but in His worship you will find peace, and His service is perfect freedom.

Sunday, again, is most valuable to working men as aday of rest. During the great French Revolution, those who were at the head of affairs determined that they would neither fear God nor regard man; and so they passed a law to the effect that none should pay any heed to Sunday, to its services, its lessons, or its rest. And what was the consequence? Why, these ungodly men, looking at it only from a worldly point of view, found that it was quite impossible for the body or mind of man to keep on working day after day, and week after week. And so the plan failed, and Sunday came to be restored again. You must have felt the need of Sunday rest, after the week's toil sometimes too; you must have felt ready to cry out, in the words of the Postman's song,

"We ask one day in seven,'Twas ours since time began--Sent by the love of heaven,In pity for toil-worn man."

"We ask one day in seven,

'Twas ours since time began--

Sent by the love of heaven,

In pity for toil-worn man."

Look once more on Sunday asa thinking day. Men, and especially working men, need some quiet hours, when they can cease work and let their thoughts turn to the world to come. And this is one great use of Sunday. There is a quiet calm in the air; no sound of the threshing machine or the ploughman's voice breaks the stillness; man can feel that he isalone with God. And so wandering out into the fields at eventide, or sitting in his cottage garden, or by his hearth when the little ones are in bed, he can think of his prospects and hopes here below, and still more of those in the world to come.

Lastly, Sunday isa day of learning. On Sunday we go up to church, and learn from God's minister's lips the lessons of His love. We sit at home and we read our books, and most of all the Bible, that Book of books, which is specially fit for working men to read. We go out walking in the fields, and see God's works in nature, and from them too we learn something; and as we learn these lessons on earth, they serve to bring us nearer to our Father in heaven.

But do remember this; that Sundays on earth are meant to be as far as possible copies of that eternal Sabbath rest above. The service of prayer and praise with which our churches re-echo on earth, are but copies of the grand and perfect worship in the courts of heaven. The evening hours spent with our family before going to rest, are but a type and shadow of the eternity we shall spend in that family of which God is the Head, and Jesus Christ the Elder Brother. And the comfortable home, which God has given us on earth, is after all but a faint picture of those many mansions, "where the sun shines for ever, and the flowers never die."

CHURCH.

"The Church's one foundationIs Jesus Christ her Lord;She is His new CreationBy water and the Word:From Heaven He came and sought herTo be His holy Bride,With His own Blood He bought her,And for her life He died."S. J. Stone.

"The Church's one foundation

Is Jesus Christ her Lord;

She is His new Creation

By water and the Word:

From Heaven He came and sought her

To be His holy Bride,

With His own Blood He bought her,

And for her life He died."

S. J. Stone.

How very often it happens, when the subject of religion is mentioned, that we hear people say, "I go regularly to church." And this is thrown in the teeth of the clergy, as if the very fact of church attendance was quite enough in itself to save the soul. But do you think that Jesus Christ would have left His Father's throne in heaven, and lived those thirty troubled years, and died that terrible death, if salvation was so easy? Do you think that if men could be saved by merely going to church, our blessed Lord would have made use of such expressions as "Strive" (that is, toil, labour hard) "to enter in at the strait gate," or again, "Many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able"? I hardly think He would. Religion was made for man, and not man for religion. It was given him as the means whereby he might speak to God, and hold frequent communion with his Maker. It is quite possible to be a most regular attendant at church, and yet to go away without receiving the slightest benefit.

Some time ago I heard of an old woman who regularly went to a place of amusement, where she had been accustomed to go as a child. And though she became at last quite deaf, and nearly blind, she still persisted in going. And, reader, there is such a thing as deafness of the soul. The beautiful words of Scripture, the grand soul-stirring music, the touching words of our Church's prayers, may all pass by unheeded, unless the soul is waiting upon that God Who is her helper and deliverer. But there is quite another class of persons, who receive no benefit from our Church's services. I mean those who never go to church at all. Sometimes when the clergyman goes to see them they find it convenient to tell a lie, and say they are chapel people; but they never go to chapel. They live from day to day, and from year to year, as if there was no God, no church, no minister, no Bible. And when they come to die, what then? They go down into that dark hereafter of uncertainty; uncertain indeed to them, for they have neglected during their life everything that kindles and keeps alive the hope of a better world.

Reader, if this is your case, if you have neglected church-going, let me implore you to do so no longer. The day will come when you will have to confess your sins, not to man but to God. There will be no concealment then; no shirking, or hiding your real motives under cover of a lie. The eyes of Almighty God will look you through and through; and if you take any excuses to Him, be sure they will not avail you.

Some people, again, there are who stay away from church for the following reason. They feel that they believe the Word of God, and all the great truths written in the Bible; but they also feel that they love the world very much, more indeed than they love Christ, and if they become Christians they think they will have to give up all pleasure and go through the world with a long face, and never smile or laugh again. But, believe me, no greater lie was ever forged than that. The devil started it thousands of years ago in sunny Eden; but there is not one word of truth in it; it has been well called "a libel on Christianity." It does not make a man gloomy to become a child of God. Do you think that if a man is dying of thirst and you give him a drink of water, that thedrinkmakes him gloomy? Do you think that when the Queen's gracious message of pardon comes to a condemned murderer, that thepardonmakes him a gloomy man for the rest of his days? Oh, no. And that is what Christ and Christianity are to the soul of man. What the water is in the one case, what the Queen's free pardon is in the other, so is religion, so is church-going, so is Bible-reading, so is Christ to the soul. Oh, then, come to church, the church of your baptism, the church of your fathers. Come to it as God's own blessed appointed means of salvation. Join in the prayers and praises. Listen to the lessons and the sermon, and ask that your heavenly Father may send His blessing upon your hard and stony heart. And don't forget this most important duty, without which all church-going, all prayer, and all sacraments will be worse than useless,--don't forget to practise in the week the lessons you have learnt in church on Sunday. You will learn there the lessons of life, the lessons of holiness, therefore act up to what you hear, and "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify"--not you, but--"your Father which is in heaven[#]."

[#] S. Matt. v. 16.

HOLY COMMUNION. PART I.

"Once, only once, and once for all,His precious life He gave;Before the Cross our spirits fall,And own it strong to save."Canon Bright.

"Once, only once, and once for all,

His precious life He gave;

Before the Cross our spirits fall,

And own it strong to save."Canon Bright.

And own it strong to save."

Canon Bright.

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