the circumstances of an individual's history may have addressed peculiar snares and temptations to his particular temperament, we are tolerably certain of possessing, as it respects ourselves, an acquaintance with something in the nature of an overruling law, as having saved us again and again, even when we did not want to be saved. We know enough in short, or ought to do, of our own case to remind us of the propriety of keeping our mouths " as it were with a bridle," from the utterance of all censure upon that of others. "How much," says the pious Herbert,

"How much, preventing God,-how much I owe
To the defences thou hast round me set;
Example,-custom,-fear,-occasion slow,-
These scorned bondsmen were my parapet;
I dare not peep over the parapet,

To gauge with glance the roaring gulf below ;-
The depths of sin to which I had descended,
Had not these me against myself defended."

There is yet another consideration of the doctrine of necessity which appears to me to be greatly helpful in staying and strengthening the mind, and bringing it to a harbour of rest; and that is in the deliverance which it effects from all restless anxieties on the subject of individual influence. How many are the occasions on which it seems as if we have only to state our impressions in order to produce the desired effect upon the mind of another, so reasonable, and almost self-evident do those im

pressions appear to us. A wise parent, for instance, perceiving the folly, the rashness, the ignorance with which his children are bent upon their particular purposes, is just at his wits' end to make them see the case as he does. A preacher, or teacher of any kind, warmed by good wishes and good will for his fellow creatures, and supposing that his long and dearly bought experience, backed, it may be, by age and imputed knowledge, will surely gain him a hearing and cause his audience to believe that " days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom;"-finding, as he often must, that his appeals are fruitless,—is ready to throw up the mission he believes to be appointed him in despair and disappointment, and to regard his influence as scarcely worth the trouble of using. But when he is firmly persuaded that he has nothing to do with results, inasmuch as they are governed by their own laws, and that his only concern is to endeavour at fulfilling the law of God written upon his heart and conscience, and confirmed to him by the Scriptures; and, in his place and condition, to be found doing his duty, assured that, in the unswerving nature and necessity of things, every honest faithful warrior in the cause of truth will, sooner or later, discover as Mr. Carlyle says, that 66 one's poor battle in this world is not quite a mad and futile, that it is perhaps, a worthy and manful one which will come to something yet;' "*-he feels

* Life of Sterling, p. 248.

beneath him a rock on which he may securely build an everlasting dwelling place.

Scarcely any lesson has been more indelibly and practically fixed upon my own mind than that which has taught me the wisdom and proper humility of foregoing all anxiety respecting the consequences of supposed personal influence. "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand." "As thou hast freely received, freely

give;" for it is thy duty towards God and man so to do. But," thou knowest not," neither is it thy business to know," whether shall prosper, this or that." "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter." "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter," is the invariable language with which in the kingdom of nature and of grace he silences the pride of man, and stills his restlessness and futile solicitude about events. In the meanwhile with good cheer and full of hope that every honest effort in the cause of virtue will be "sanctified and made meet for the Master's use," let us remember that "no man liveth unto himself, and no man dieth unto himself." How many simple words of truth and righteousness, as unconsciously uttered as the bird in the desert pours forth its solitary song, have found their way to the soul that wanted them, and have comforted and helped it long after the mortal frame from whence they emanated has been mouldering in the dust!

"God did anoint thee with his odorous oil,
To wrestle, not to reign ;-and he assigns
All thy tears over, like pure crystallines,
For younger fellow workers of the soil,
To wear for amulets. So others shall

Take patience, labour to their hearts and hands,
From thy hands and thy heart and thy brave cheer;
And God's grace fructify through thee to all."

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

CHAPTER VIII.

HEREWITHAL shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word."

This comprehensive query and response arrested me long and I think, profitably this morning, as I took for the subject of my meditations a portion of that divine Psalm* which, though read it may be for the thousandth time, is ever new, ever fraught with materials for prayer, for praise, for instruction, for every thing in short, that addresses itself to the best and most enduring of man's faculties.

I saw with a force and distinctness beyond words to express, how essential it was to possess within the soul a principle of life and wisdom superior to ourselves our poor selves,-yea, our terrible selves how often may we say, when we contemplate self in its rashness, ignorance and folly, especially under the heedlessness and impetuosity of youth,

Psalm cxix.