designated. Are jewels precious? Then the saints are the excellent ones of the earth, the precious sons of Sion, the lights of the world, the dew from the Lord, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof. The world may not know their worth it knew not their divine owner; and they his followers, comparable to fine gold, are often esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hand of a potter. But they are high in the esteem of Heaven, and though their praise is not of man, it is of God. Hear His language concerning them. "Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable." Are jewels costly? Have hundreds of thousands been given for a single diamond? Then the saints are bought with a price. And such a price! It cannot be computed. Compared with it, the wealth of our world is dross, and all the riches of heaven but as the small dust in the balance. God gave not heaven-he gave not earth-he gave His own Son, to purchase these jewels. They are bought not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of the slain Lamb of God. Are jewels rare?—but seldom met with? Then the people of God are called a little flock, a remnant, the grape gleanings, or the shakings of an olive tree-two or three berries on the top of the uppermost bough. There are few flowers compared to the weeds, few diamonds compared to the mass of coal in which they are embedded, and few grains of silver compared to the dross with which they are commingled. The way of life is narrow, and few there be that find it. Are jewels brilliant? Then believers shine in holy beauties, and reflect His praise who called them out of darkness into His marvellous light. Their light shines before men. It may now be greatly obscured by remaining corruption; but when the jewel is taken from the casket, when the soul shall escape from the body, it will then shine forth with undimmed radiance. Are jewels greatly prized? So much so, that when the fond mother is pressing the babe to her bosom, she calls it her dear jewel. Such is the affection of God to His people. He takes pleasure in them, He rejoices over them, He rests in them in His love, He joys over them as with singing. A woman, He says, may forsake her sucking child, "but I will not forsake thee. I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are ever before me. O thou, afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted. Behold, I will lay thy stones in fair colours, and thy foundation with sapphires." In fine, are jewels used to adorn a crown? Then the saints are gems in the Saviour's diadem; and when He comes to be glorified in His saints, He will be admired in all them that believe. This was the joy that was set before Him when He endured the cross and despised the shame. On His head, we are told, there shall be many crowns, and every redeemed saint will be a precious stone in the mediatorial crown of Immanuel.

II. The MAKING UP of these jewels is our next inquiry. There seems to be in this phrase an allusion to the practice of jewellers collecting their precious wares, to put them all in one place by themselves. This world is a place of mixture. Here the precious and the vile, saints and sinners, are blended together. In the same house-in the same family-in the same church-in the same pew-at the same communion-table, God may see dross as well as gold, goats as well as sheep, and chaff as well as solid grain. And for a time they must remain thus, undistinguishable sometimes, save by His own eye. The tares and the wheat are to grow together till the harvest, when God will send forth His reapers to make the separation, that the wheat shall be gathered into His garner, and the tares be burnt up with unquenchable fire. The net cast into the sea takes of every kind of fish;

but when drawn to the shore, men put the good into vessels, and the bad are cast away. In heaven there is nothing but jewels. The dogs are without, and there nothing can enter that works abomination, or that maketh a lie. Here some of the people of God are trampled under foot, like the mire in the streets, and some are hidden ones, like gems in the bowels of the earth, or pearls at the bottom of the ocean. But the day will discover them, and when Christ, who is their life, shall appear, then shall they also appear with Him in glory. All whom the Father hath given, must be made up to Him. He shall gather His elect from the four winds. And what a vast collection will this be when the number is completed! Though at present, and in times past, few may have been of God, and almost the whole world has been lying in wickedness, yet when this gathering is made, the redeemed will be a great multitude, which no man can number. In our Father's house there are many mansions, and not one will be unoccupied. Many sons will be brought to glory, and Christ will be satisfied when He sees of the travail of His soul. It is not by a few only that the worth of the slain Lamb is to be celebrated, nor shall the new song rise before the throne in a feeble sound. It will be the anthem of " the nations which are saved," loud as the voice of many waters.

III. WHEN are the jewels made up? "In that day," says God. There may be here a twofold allusion. The day referred to may be the day on which the saint dies. Then his soul is taken to the heavenly house, and placed among the worthies of all former generations, beside the father of the faithful, the Jewish lawgiver, the man after God's own heart, the disciple whom Jesus loved, and all the happy company that is gone on from cross to crown, from thrall to throne. Hence the day of the saint's death is far better than the day of his birth-even his new birth. It is his jubilee-day -his coronation-day-the day of the gladness of his heart. With joy and gladness he is brought forth, he enters the king's palace, and there he abides for ever. If we love the believer, we should surely rejoice when he has gone to the Father. Could we hear him speak, he would say, Weep not for us, but weep for yourselves. We are on the mount of transport, but you are in the valley of tears; we have gotten into the haven, but you are tossed on the stormy wave. Now you have sorrow; but I shall see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from you.

But the chief reference here is to the last day-to the period when the great herald of the universe shall proclaim, It is done. Though the believer's soul is gathered to heaven at death, yet not his body. That is laid in the noisome grave, where it lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more. But the body is also a jewel. It is redeemed to God, and its very dust is precious in his sight. And shall this dust lie for ever, like some precious stone, in the bosom of the earth? No, says the voice from heaven: Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they come. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for your dew shall be as the dew of herbs. And the earth will give up the jewels. Then the body shall be fashioned like the glorious body of Christ. With the robes all white, the heart all holy, the face all bright, it shall mount up on high to meet Christ in the air, and so, with the Spirit, be ever with the Lord. And the number of the elect will not be completed till this consummation of all things. The gathering will go on till the trumpet sound, when the last sheaf shall be brought into the storehouse, the last sheep be gathered into the fold, and the last stone be laid on the temple. Then the whole family of God shall have met together, to celebrate in one undivided company the marriage-supper of the Lamb. The

music of the new song shall be perfect, for none shall be wanting to swell the chorus. Every throne shall be filled, every harp shall be struck, and every palm shall be waved. Blessed day for believers! Then will be the manifestation of the sons of God. When sinners, their hearts failing them for fear, will be crying to the rocks, Hide us, and to the mountains, Cover us, the saints shall leave a dissolving world to enjoy a heavenly kingdom, to wear a crown of glory, and to be ever with the Lord. The Lord grant unto us to find mercy of the Lord on that day.

R. C.

CHRISTIAN ECONOMICS: OR, CAPITAL AND LABOUR IN HARMONY.

PART II.

WE gladly resume our examination of the report of the directors of Price's Patent Candle Company, in order to make a fuller exposition of the treasures of thoughtful intelligence and far-reaching benevolence, which it exhibits in living action, as well as prospective intention. In this wonderful establishment, or rather series of establishments, christianised capital is christianising labour, purifying and elevating it morally and socially, and making it a living mission through all the lower levels of society, teaching by example the virtues of sobriety, truth, moral and religious principle, and all the other lovely fruits of intellectual and moral culture. Every man and woman, every boy and girl, ennobled and enriched by these high influences, is a light set in a dark place, a living evidence of what the toiling millions may become, exhibiting a grand charter of pure rights and lofty hopes, for the long-despised and trodden-down masses. At page 9, we find they propose to erect baths and wash-houses for their workers, and also " cooking accommodation for the men, and a good room to eat their meals in"-the first of these at a cost of L.200 to L.250 a-year, and the latter at an outlay of L.300, and an annual expense of L.150. We believe such magnificent benevolence and generosity, founded, moreover, upon purely economic calculations, is without a parallel in the world's history. It throws far into the shade the baronial exploits of roasted oxen and hogsheads of mighty ale, set afloat to celebrate the serflike family festivities of the great "fruges consumere nati" of the earth. Their seventh proposal is, "to rent a piece of ground near the factory, with grass and trees upon it, and to place a careful person upon it, with a good supply of books, on the summer Sunday afternoons, from two till five o'clock," to keep the boys from wandering abroad, and idling or mis-spending the day. In England, there being generally no religious service after one o'clock till the evening, this is a most happy and thoughtful expedient. The eighth proposal is as follows:

"The Men's Mutual Improvement Society-which is in no way interested in the educational votes of last March-having now been in existence some length of time, and succeeding so well as to leave no doubt of its permanence and usefulness, we propose to pay to it L.100 as the company's subscription for this year. They have found it absolutely necessary, on account of the varying states of progress of the members, to take a house, in order to get several different class rooms; using the night-light school-room, which we lent to them at night for the first start, only as a reading and lecture room. For this and other things, they need more money than their own subscriptions amount to; more, indeed, than they ought to amount to, considering that they have their wives and families to provide for; and if the subscription were made sufficiently high to bring in the amount necessary for working the society efficiently, many of the best of them would, as a matter of principle, deprive themselves of the pleasure and advantage of continuing to belong to it.'

In regard to this suggestion, the benevolent proposers say,

"The sums under this eighth proposal are clustered thickly together, and make a total of L.200; but we would point out (in further anticipation of the general remarks to be made presently about looking at the relative and not at the absolute amount) that the whole cost of the encouragement thus given to the progress of some hundreds of our people in knowledge, is only about that of one additional first-rate mechanic set to work in the place."

They also suggest a Savings Bank, and thus enforce their views.

"But it is not those who have a natural disposition to save (for they might be trusted to themselves to carry it out somehow or other) but those who have none, that we are thinking of in the proposed arrangements; and unless one of these latter is caught just at the time that his pennies are in his hand, they will be spent in some trash or other, making, perhaps, the beginning to him of the life of wretched animal self-indulgence, to which, more than to all other causes put together, the degraded condition of so large a part of the English labouring classes in towns at least, is owing. But if the first pennies are secured (although they will not in the majority of cases, judging from our experience, remain long in the form of a money saving, but will be drawn out, when amounting to a few shillings, to be spent in something useful, and then a new deposit commenced), the object desired will be attained, that of forming the boys to contrary habits to those of self-indulgence, and very soon to a real disposition to save, so as no longer to need coaxing to do it. In other cases considerable sums would be accumulated, and would generally be invested in the company's shares when sufficient for this; and of course the thus adding to our already considerable number of factory shareholders with their interests identified with those of the company, will be of benefit to it, as giving it so many additional pairs of eyes of its own on the watch in different parts of the work. That the boys will be ready to avail themselves of facilities for saving has already been proved in the factory. We have known as much as L.37 in the hands of one man, the savings of the boys in his part of the work, they having confidence in him, and he being always at hand at wages time; and a good deal is done in smaller sums in this way of men persuading boys about them to save, and the boys making them their bankers to help them to do so. We have also received small sums in the school-room. But these little private plans are all defective and quite insufficient."

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The tenth and last proposal to the General Directors is as follows:"We propose in all parts of the factory where regularity of time is of importance, to secure this by an annual money reward of moderate amount, to those only, however, whose conduct has been good in other respects also. This will make more hearty work than the dread of fines, or of dismissal, and, moreover, will show whatever fines or other punishment may still be necessary, to be so manifestly right, as to make, not only the factory in general, but the delinquent himself, sensible of this, and so prevent his mind rising against them..........

"The idea of a money reward at the end of the year for regularity of time, if accom-panied by general good conduct, was suggested to us by the practice of the late Mr Budgett, of Bristol. We are also indebted to Mr Budgett for the idea of our former proposal, of giving to all who have helped to make a year's business profitable, some small additional benefit to themselves out of its profits; but on this last point our proposal, as the managers of the money of others, naturally bears a very small proportion to his practice in the management of his own."

The following up of these various suggestions by the excellent writers is rich in sound and broad views of humanity and factory economy, but our limits will not permit any amplification or comment of our own. The following observations are, however, conceived in so rich and large a spirit of far-seeing benevolence, that we must lay them before our readers :

:

"We hope, however, that after a few years more of cautious stepping, we may find ourselves, not ahead of all, but in the front rank, and that all of us then composing it may have such results to show from our advance, as shall amount to a practical demonstration that the strictest principles of trading economy and the highest principles of philanthropy are not merely often coincident, but, as regards action, strictly and absolutely one in all matters of trade properly understood; so that a man of the most intense selfishness ought, if clever enough to do so, to assume in trade, and thoroughly to act out, for his own interests' sake, the part of a warm philanthropist, while the warmest phi

lanthropist, on the other hand, will, if equally clever, find that he is in trade able to give free course to his benevolent desires, without in any way infringing the strictest trade principles. That this is a true proposition, long and careful observation, under favourable circumstances for observation, has left us without a shadow of doubt. To get it added to the stock of ordinary trade ideas' of the country would be reward enough for any amount of exertion for any length of time; and a very few years of exertion in a few influential trading establishments would certainly accomplish this.

"We must, however, state that, in using the words 'strictest trade principles,' we do not mean that the definition of these should be sought in a dictionary of political economy, but in actual life; by examining trading establishments, and by judging by plaiu common sense, which of them are in the highest state as to present, and promise of future, trading efficiency, especially in their human machinery, and at what comparative expenditures of money, the various degrees of efficiency have been attained. We feel certain that this examination would prove that all such things as we are proposing are, so far as trade results are concerned, neither more nor less than the adoption into trade of the principle of high farming. In the one, an apparently extravagant amount per acre, in the other an apparently extravagant amount per man, is expended, and in each case with the same result, that of bringing back again, not in the first year perhaps, but in a series of years, all the amount expended, and a large profit on it besides. And at their first commencement they were alike scouted, the one by all received farming, the other by all received trading ideas; and their originators were held to be visionary persons, and extravagant, forfeiting their character as prudent practical men, and their right to the confidence of such men."

And, lower in the same page, they are still more urgent:

"We would entreat the proprietors to look at the amount in this way, not as an absolute but as a relative one, and to admit into their minds as a principle, for our benefit, and that of all their future managing directors, that there is no reason beforehand for suspecting of extravagance any plans involving an expenditure of not more than a certain moderate proportion of the whole amount paid for labour; but that, on the contrary, instead of it being thought that the manager who should propose such plans was going too fast, the presumption would rather be, that one who did not propose any, was going too slow, and thus missing the opportunity of making outlays which would bring a profitable return.

"On this view, of looking not at the absolute amount of all such expenditure, but at its amount relatively to the magnitude of the business, we should be disposed, were the factory our own, to place every year to a separate account, headed "charges incidental to the employment of labour," a certain fixed proportion of the whole amount of the wages account, or a fixed sum per ton of raw material, or an amount varying in some other such way with the variations of the business; and out of this amount to pay such charges as we are now considering, and also all educational and other such charges.

"Such a plan would save a world of time and trouble, even now with us, for so long as the matter is to be considered in the absolute instead of the comparative amount, the argument will have to be renewed again and again, as each additional L.500 becomes necessary with the extension of the concern."

Confidently calculating on the hearty response of their highly-privileged workers to such exertions on their behalf, they express themselves

"But of the feeling of the Factory we can speak with greater certainty. It will be one of deep rejoicing, not only at the direct benefits in prospect to themselves, but yet more at the general tone of the paper, promising, as it does, an always increasing good feeling between them and the proprietary, their employers, to knit us altogether, making them happy now, and making a most happy state of things in which to bring up their children. But, perhaps, equal to any other cause of rejoicing will be the firm confidence expressed by us, the managers, in what their conduct will be, and what the result to the company on this participation in its increasing prosperity being granted to them, and their seeing the very great responsibility which we have without hesitation taken on ourselves in acting out this confidence. Only let us circulate this paper, and the responsibility will be off our shoulders in an hour, and on to those of the factory people, and not a man among them will be content to be stinted of any part of his full share of it. They will feel that if the board is trustee for the employers, and the medium through which the contents of their purses are dispensed to their people in return for their labour, we, the managers, are trustees also for the employed, and the medium through which the contents of their hearts are conveyed to their masters in return for their kindness; and that we have shown ourselves thoroughly to understand our trust, in the certainty we have expressed of the trade effect of our proposals. Many a heart here will rejoice in the oppor