cal, or presumptuous, or even insincere, or hypocritical; and at the very moment that we worship Christ with our lips, we are turning to Satan with our hearts. Or, again,-we employ ourselves in some common pursuit, with no definitely serious object, only, it may be, in compliance with neces sity, or friendship, or the forms of society; yet, if we are in earnest, we make an effort to put a higher spirit into it, because naturally it has none of its own. But we spend our time in teaching in schools, acting as members of charitable societies, working altar-cloths, and decorating churches; and because we have been consciously employed upon the things of God, we do not deem it incumbent upon us to inquire whether our thoughts may not, at the very same time, have been given to the things of Satan.

Fashions are always more or less mournful to those who ponder seriously upon them. We think the old monks mistaken who believed they were doing God service when they spent their time in illuminating missals; perhaps they would think us more than mistaken if they saw the trouble which is sometimes taken at the present day to illustrate and ornament portions of God's Holy Word merely as specimens of taste.

In our more serious moments, we have all probably been tempted to sigh for the opportunities of a more definite religious life; we imagine that with religious services, conversation, employments, there would necessarily be religious safeguards.

But God deals more wisely with us than we should with ourselves. He wills to make us sincere; and these things upon which our hearts are set would possibly be to us temptations to insincerity. The situation in which we are placed, the advantages, or even the disadvantages, which in the ordering of Providence are provided for us, these, we may be assured, are the best for our spiritual education Further privileges may be desired and prayed for; and if the prayer be granted, they will assuredly prove blessings; but, if it be not, we may fear that they would be stumbling-blocks, or snares. God only knows our hearts. But better, far better, must it be for us never to have the opportunity of offering to our Lord the Kiss of Peace, if by such an apparent privilege we are tempted to bestow on Him the Kiss of Treachery.

ENERGY.

ST. LUKE, Xxii. 49–51.

"When they which were about Him saw what would follow, they said unto Him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And He touched his ear, and healed him."

THERE is a wonderful contrast between St. Peter's hasty zeal and our Lord's divine calmness; but it is long before we learn to appreciate the difference. Age and experience may assist us, though the danger then is of lukewarmness and indolence. Young persons, from the very violence of their feelings, sympathise peculiarly with energy; but they judge of it ignorantly; they marvel at the power which sets the universe in motion, and forget that it is an exercise of the same power, intensified, which preserves it in its uninterrupted course. This human view of energy, which is especially a sceptical view in abstract theology, and leads men to deny the attributes of God from the very order and care with which they are exhibited, leads also to most injurious practical results. And it is the peculiar characteristic of the present day, and the

temptation, probably, of every one who attempts to take a leading part in directing public opinion. We must all not only do, but we must feel that we are doing. We cannot be contented with the conviction that our work is being completed, but we must see, and actually be conscious of the process of completing; if not, we draw back in disappointment.

Our Redeemer's life teaches us a very different lesson. He could, as He Himself tells us, have saved Himself by a miracle. But He had a work to do, so unutterably important, that, in His inward human feelings, "He was straightened till it was accomplished;" yet for which for three and thirty years He had tarried-labouring, suffering, praying, till His hour should come; and so he would suffer and pray still.

Was there no energy in this? Surely endurance is stronger than impulse, for it is the prolongation of the life of impulse. Perseverance is the highest form of energy, for it is the continued exertion of energy.

The slow accomplishment of all things is, indeed, one of the greatest mysteries both of reason and revelation. It is in vain to search into it, but it is not in vain to strive to learn from it. It may be that the gradual working of the operations of Nature is necessary as an exhibition of the attributes of Almighty Power and Wisdom. He who said, "Let there be light, and there was light," could, in like manner, have called the heavens and the earth into existence by one word. The fact that

creation, as it now is, was a consecutive not an instantaneous work, is a self-evident proof that it was best it should not be so. Still more is it a proof that some wonderful exemplification of power and goodness is hidden under this same principle of continued rather than instantaneous energy, when

we see it exhibited not only in the works of the natural world, but in the dealings of God with the spiritual world.

Redemption, so long expected,-salvation, in its fulness, so long delayed,--the lingering probation of this weary earth, the patient waiting of the spirits of the just in the land of the departed,— what does it all mean? Surely, again, endurance must be better, wiser, more merciful, more just, more energetic, than impulse, for it is the characteristic of the dealings of the All Holy One. He forbade the stroke of the sword which might have freed Him from His enemies. He bore with evil because it was to be conquered by endurance; and now He summons us to do likewise.

Yes, to bear with it even in ourselves. Our work lies before us, to be completed, when-God only can tell; and we therefore need not ask. Strange though it may sound, the fulfilment of our object is not our object, because it is placed beyond our reach. We sigh for sinlessness; we labor to attain it; but we have set before ourselves a wrong aim, and no marvel that we are disappointed in attaining it. Sinlessness, indeed, we must long for; if we do not, are not prepared for Heaven. Sinlessness,

we