Master, and obedience to his commands. Then distress not yourself because you do not always feel just as you wish and desire, because your affections are not so quick nor your love so fervent as you would fain experience. God reads your inmost heart. He sees the secret purpose and the inward longing, — the longing to know him more fully, to love him more fervently, to believe on him more trustingly, as he has manifested himself in the Redeemer. And the soul thus turned to him he will not leave to itself, to vain efforts at self-excitation. He will impart what you need; he will quicken and animate, strengthen and sustain. He who spared not his own Son, shall he not give, in his own time, all those feelings of love you desire, all those deeper emotions of gratitude, and confiding trust in his all-embracing goodness and loving-kindness, which you earnestly long for?

Only be faithful to the means offered to you, — faithful to those means of inward quickening which God has placed within your own control,

faithful in prayer, communion, and the earnest study of the revealed word,- faithful in watchfulness and self-examination,-faithful in tracing the Father's hand in all the trivial events of each passing day, faithful in looking unto Jesus; then doubt not the assured promise, “He that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened."

Remember too the comforting thought of an old English poet in such moments of self-questioning, coldness, and doubt, "that our Heavenly Father does in truth take the will for all in all."

"And when the heart says, (sighing to be approved,)
'O could I love!' and stops, God writeth 'Loved'!"

I have thus endeavored to point out to you some of the plain and simple tests by which you may judge of your true spiritual state, and of your right to accept the clear, full promises of God. Not at once, I repeat, not by any one earnest resolve or stringent effort, can you attain the stature of the perfect Christian; but

"Day by day with strength supplied,
Through the life of Him who died,"

go forth, in trusting faith, to the combat with sin and evil within and around you, remembering the quickening words of the beloved disciple: "It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." And again he says: "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he

heareth us; and if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."

May this purer love, and warmer devotion, and deeper assurance of faith, be yours, in God's own time and way!

LETTER IX.

THE TRUE SPHERE OF LIFE.

FROM your last letter, my dear friend, I fear that you are in danger of becoming dissatisfied with your present circle of duties, and the comparatively retired sphere of life in which Providence has placed you, and are cherishing a secret feeling, that in some more commanding position, in some wider and more conspicuous field, you could accomplish more fully the great ends of existence, could exert a larger influence, and do more for the cause of Christ and the promotion of his truth in the world. Now I will not reprove you for this feeling, for it is far from being a strange or unnatural one. There is an almost universal tendency in the human mind to aspire and seek after objects above and beyond its immediate sphere of operations, accompanied at the same time by more or less discontent with present pursuits, duties, and occupations. Sometimes it expresses itself in an undefinable restlessness, or a peevish discontent, and again in a morbid sensitiveness, or an impa

tient longing for something more definite, complete, and satisfying. It looks not at the sphere immediately around it, but imagines that in the distant future there must exist some situation, some position of influence, of duty, and effort, more in consonance with its individual capacities and powers. The feeling is confined to no age or condition, to no particular class in society and no special routine of daily duty. It is the natural expression of all aspiring souls, and when placed under the control of religious principle, and converted into a holy ambition, forms one of the chief motive powers to effort, progress, and advancement; otherwise it is a constant source of unhappiness, discontent, and weari

ness.

If the Master would only bid us do some great thing, something to excite attention and admiration, something that would lead even to the burning stake or the cross of shame, how gladly would we press forward to the conflict! But to go on, day after day, patiently seeking the conquest over inward passion and sin, performing "the trivial round and common task of daily duty, this is too monotonous, too humbling. Pride shrinks away abashed, and a thirst for human admiration steals imperceptibly into the soul, too often withering all its higher aims and holier aspirations.

But you ask, How shall I indeed know that I