flower-committee belonged. But she thought of a plan, which her mother gladly encouraged her to carry out. In Nina's own little garden sweet-peas and lupins, snapdragons and larkspurs, blossomed in abundance. From these she gathered once a fortnight, so long as the summer lasted, and with her own pocket-money she paid the good carrier for taking them up to town.

And Tom, the errand-boy, flushed with joy as he laid them by Freddie's side, and marked the grateful smile of him whose young life was wasting away in the sickly atmosphere of Pepper's Court.

'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.'-St. Matt. xxv. 40. E. L.

WHAT DO YOU READ?

LAD of sixteen lay upon his death-bed: a wasting consumption was slowly but surely doing its fatal work. He was a former pupil of mine; I approached his bedside, took him by the hand, and gazed a moment on his thin, emaciated form: pale, hollow cheeks, and sunken eyes, all telling me that his sojourn on earth must be brief.

'How are you to-day, Arthur?' I asked.

'About as usual,' he replied.

'Do you suffer much lying here?'

'Sometimes I suffer a good deal, especially from difficulty in breathing.'

'It makes but little difference with me whether I do or not.' 'Does the thought of approaching death give you any anxiety or alarm?'

'I have no fears or care about it.'

'Do you feel willing to die?'

'I have wished I were dead a hundred times since I have been sick, to get rid of my sufferings !'

'What is your hope for the future?'

'I do not concern myself at all about the future.'

Afterwards I asked him if I should

pray.

'I do not care, if you want to pray,' he replied.

In two or three days he died. His father made this remark in my hearing My son lies in yonder cemetery-an infidel from the effects of novel reading!'

Parents, what do your children read ?-Christian Treasury.

BY W. I. WEBB, M.A., VICAR OF BRADWELL.

'THE HOLY GHOST WHICH IS IN YOU.

A Comment from the Book of Nature.

1 Cor. vi. 19.-'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?'

HESE words of the Apostle, written to the Corinthian Christians of his days, may be taken as applying with equal force to Christians of every country, and of every age. They contain a truth, which in itself is a very Gospel. For what tidings' can be more glad' than this, that the Holy Ghost-the Lord, the Life-giver-is in us, and for the Redeemer's sake takes up His abode in the bodies of the redeemed?

6

And yet as 'the Gospel' may be a 'savour of death' to some, as well as a savour of life' to others, so with this single Gospel truth. Such an inestimable benefit as the actual indwelling of the Holy Ghost in every one of us cannot but bring with it very grave responsibilities, and ought to produce in us very marked effects. And it is just in proportion as we do or do not realise those responsibilities, and exhibit those effects, that it is a savour of Eternal Life or Eternal Death to us.

It is important, therefore, for all who name the name of Christ to try to take in the meaning of this truth-to grasp and realise the greatness of this great gift which is given to us and to become impressed with the true nature of the results which ought to follow from it.

In humbly endeavouring to help you to do this in some degree, let me ask you to turn your thoughts from the written Word of God, in which the fact of this gift is recorded (as in our text), to that which has been very beautifully called 'God's Picture-Book'-the Book of Nature. For, to those who have eyes to see and hearts to understand, it contains many beautiful illustrations of this and many other deep, and important, and mysterious truths.

As you wander through the fields in the early hours of some bright morning, have you ever noticed the countless dewdrops glistening on the blades of grass, and making the ground around you seem strewn with diamonds? What makes these dewdrops glisten and sparkle? If you were to examine one of them carefully, you would see that in every one there was a perfect image of the sun: not merely a ray of sunlight, but the whole sun shining from out of its pure depths, giving out more or less brightness according to the capacities of the drop! In fact, although the sun himself is but one, yet he is (it may be said with perfect accuracy) in every individual dewdrop. Just as if you yourself were standing in a room, surrounded by several mirrors, might, with accuracy, be said to be in each mirror; so the one sun is in each dewdrop, and each dewdrop reflects from its purity the perfect image of the sun which is in it.

Thus we have a beautiful illustration, in the first place, of how the Holy Ghost, Who is (we must never forget) a Personal Being, and

as a Being is, therefore, but one, can be said with perfect accuracy to be in each one of an indefinite number of other beings. And, I would suggest, does not the difficulty in realising this hinder us from realising, as we ought, the Personality of the Holy Ghost, and thus in some degree detract from the dignity of the truth: 'your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?' But to return.

Just as the sun may be said, and may be seen, to be in each dewdrop, so in fact he may be said to be in every object on which he shines. But the effect is not the same in all cases. And it is to the effect produced by the sun-king in the various objects of nature, more than to the actual fact of his being in them, to which we must now apply ourselves.

There are substances in nature on which the sun shines, and in which therefore he is, which are in no visible way affected by his shining. All his light is absorbed, swallowed up, by those things which we call black. Though under his powerful influence, though he actually is in them, they are no different than if he had never shone on them at all.

And there are substances in nature on which the sun shines, and in which he is, which reflect back in dazzling purity, like the dewdrops, and the snow, and those things we call white, the whole of that pure light which they receive from him. That they may do this is the object for which he is in them.

And so, too, it is the object of the Holy Ghost in dwelling in us, that we may reflect His image from our own persons. That there may be seen in us a perfect image of Himself, Who is one with the Father and the Son. It is, therefore, just in proportion as this is or is not the case with any one of us that His dwelling in us will be a success or a failure, a savour of life, or a savour of death.

There has been but One of all the human race, from Whose pure heart and by Whose pure life was reflected the full brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His person;' and that was the Lord Jesus. As He Himself said, 'He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.'

But there are many-it is sad to think how many-whose bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost, which is in them, and yet who reflect absolutely nothing of His glory. Like the black things in nature which absorb the sunlight, and are not affected by his indwelling, so their black hearts show no indication whatever of His presence, and might as well, to all intents and purposes, never have come under his influence at all. Ah! If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!'

Here let us turn again to Nature's Book. There we find that the light of the sun, though in appearance white, is really the combination of many differently coloured rays. These rays are shown by a prism of glass, or by the rainbow. And, so wise men tell us, that that in nature which we call colour, in all the varied hues and tints in which we see it, is simply caused by the various substances, absorbing some and reflecting others (one or more in varied proportions as the case may be) of these colour rays. And thus all things in nature but the black do reflect in some degree, some more and some less, the image of the sun which is in them.

Just so Holiness, which is the perfect character of God, is made up of various virtues, each of which are shown forth in their due proportion and perfection in Him alone, and in Jesus Christ, whom He sent. Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but one, that is God.' These virtues (spirit rays shall we call them?) are called by St. Paul the fruits of the Spirit, and are these, Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, &c.' And between the all-pure, all-holy Jesus, Who reflected all, and the poor black-hearted members of Christ who reflect none of these spirit rays, there come a vast crowd of persons, in whose bodies the Holy Ghost dwells, and by whom some, in a greater or less degree, some one or more of the spirit rays shine forth but from none, all; or, if all, yet none perfectly.

One more hint from the chapter on colour, from God's PictureBook, and I have done. It is not the most brilliant and striking tints which reflect most colour rays. On the contrary, a single ray, much intensified, is much more striking. A red, or a yellow, or a blue, or even a green (which is made up of two rays), is to some minds more striking and attractive than a quiet grey, which is composed of four rays, or more (as every artist knows), in order to give it its soothing, pleasing influence.

Just so, a single divine virtue or spirit ray, much intensified, will often make a greater sensation when reflected in a Christian's life, and be more attractive in the spiritually-uneducated eyes of the world, than the quiet, unobtrusive life, which reflects many more spirit rays, and approaches much nearer to reflecting the pure light of the Holy Ghost. And yet the latter is the more pleasing in the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.

And this is what we Christians have to aim at, more than to please the fancies of (spiritually) uneducated men of the world; to seek the praise of God rather than the applause of men.

But although it is not possible for us ever in this life to reflect in its full brightness the light of the Spirit of Life which is in us; yet this is the aim we must ever keep in view,- to be perfect as Christ was perfect.' True, we shall often be sadly grieved, disappointed, and cast down. It is not the fault of the Holy One Who is in us that His image is not seen in us. But the frailty and wickedness of our mortal nature will, spite of all our efforts, cause many a spirit ray to be absorbed and imprisoned, even though it is struggling to burst forth, and we ourselves long for it to do so.

And when, after earnestly praying, as every true Christian must often pray, Lord, show me Thyself, and show me myself;' the almost despairing cry bursts forth from our disappointed lips, 'Who shall deliver me from this body of death?' Then let us take courage, and thank God that through Jesus there is hope; and let us wait patiently (watching, and praying, and struggling in the meantime) unto the coming of the Lord. Then He, Who has begun the good work in us, will bring it to perfection, and present us faultless before the presence of His Father with exceeding joy, our bodies made clean by His body, and our souls washed in His most precious blood.

THE ATHEIST EXPOSED.