Scripture reply, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost."

Reader, have you tested the truth of this reply? Know you anything of that blessed Spirit of whom it is written, "He will guide you into all truth,” John xvi. 13. Yea, guide you unto Jesus "the way, the truth, and the life," John xiv. 6. If you do not, remember, ere it be too late, that the imperishable word of God standeth sure. Ask, and it shall be given you,” Luke xi. 9.

STRENGTH IN CHRIST.

FAINT not, poor traveller, though thy way
Be rough, like that thy Saviour trod
Though cold and stormy lour the day,
This path of suffering leads to God.

Nay, sink not; though from every limb
Are starting drops of toil and pain,
Thou dost but share the lot of Him

With whom his followers are to reign.

Thy friends are gone, and thou, alone,
Must bear the sorrows that assail;
Look upward to the eternal throne,
And know a Friend who cannot fail.

Bear firmly yet a few more days.
And thy hard trial will be past;
Then, wrapt in glory's opening blaze,
Thy feet will rest in heaven at last.

Christian! thy Friend, thy Master pray'd
When dread and anguish shook his frame;
Then met his sufferings undismay'd:

Wilt thou not strive to do the same?

Oh! think'st thou that his Father's love
Shone round him then with fainter rays
Than now, when, throned all height above,
Unceasing voices hymn his praise ?

Go, sufferer! calmly meet the woes
Which God's own mercy bids thee bear;

Then, rising as thy Saviour rose,

Go! his eternal victory share.

66

a

I was about sixteen years old when I left my country home, to enter upon a situation which had been procured for me in London. I was what may be called, I suppose, raw country lad;" that is, I had but little experience in life, and a great city was altogether a new scene to me.

It was not of my own choice that I went to London : if I had had my will I should have remained in the country, and endeavoured to push my way there as I might have been able; but I was not free to choose. When my dear

NOVEMBER, 1865.

father died, his executors, who were also my guardians, decided on disposing of his business, in which I had spent only about a year; and thus enabling my widowed mother and my two sisters to retire on a sufficient competency, which, the two gentlemen argued, would probably be lost in the course of a few years if the business were carried on without proper supervision. I believe now that they were right, though I then thought that their decision was not only arbitrary but unwise. At all events, I can see that those plans of which I secretly disapproved have been overruled for good: and on looking back on the past, I can endorse the prophet's confession,-" O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."*

I have written “man,” but I was only a youth at the time my steps were thus directed for me; and if the circumstances of my leaving home, and those in which I was afterwards placed, were anything but joyous, I know now what I found hard to believe then, that" it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth."†

My guardians, having disposed of my father's business, found that I was rather awkwardly thrown upon their hands; and, as I have implied, without any particular and anxious reference to my wishes, found for me a situation in London, in which I was to be fixed for four years by articles of apprenticeship.

I remember very well, though the time is so distant, how my dear mother, on the eve of my departure from home, encouraged me with all her gentle eloquence, and with very cheerful and cheering words-though her heart was heavy and sorrowful-to be brave and hopeful, to be honourable in my conduct towards those with whom I should have to do, and above all, to be faithful to my Saviour. She told me that offences would probably | come- that they needs must come; that the tempter would seek to draw me off from the paths of true wisdom and virtue; that ungodly companions would scorn and deride what they might call the puritanical principles which 1 had learned to honour; and that I might be half-terrified into a cowardly concealment of my religious profession and of the love which, it rejoiced her heart to believe, I felt towards the dear Lord who had redeemed me with his most precious blood. She reminded me that I was not my ** Jer. x. 23. † Lam. iii. 27.

own, that I had been "bought with a price," and that it was at once my bounden duty and my greatest honour, and would be the source of the most enduring happiness, to glorify God with my body and my spirit, which were his. She recalled to my mind that as the fire on the Jewish altar, under the old sacrificial dispensation, having once been kindled from heaven, was thereafter always to be kept burning by human instrumentality, and never permitted to go out;* so the fire of Divine grace, of repentance, faith, love, and holy obedience,-first lighted on the altar of the renewed soul by God's Holy Spirit, must by that Spirit's grace be ever kept burning there by a diligent and anxious regard to the appointed means of grace. She quoted to me the exhortation of the apostle, with its grand encouragement,-" Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure ;" and she closed the quiet and impressive conference by commending me, in prayer, to Him who was able to keep me from falling, and to present me faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.

And so, with these words and counsels and wishes and prayers fastened on my heart, I bade farewell to mother and sisters and home, and commenced my business life in London.

I had been about three months in London: my indentures had been two months signed; and I was endeavouring, with God's help, which I earnestly sought, to follow out the apostolic exhortation, in being "not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." I was not altogether unhappy; and yet I knew then as I know now that I had much to contend with not calculated to promote personal comfort. My employer was a hasty, passionate man; while his numerous employés were for the most part utterly irreligious, and some of them were profane in their conversation and infidel in their avowed principles. I was hard worked; but this did not trouble me so much as that, when the business of each day was over, I had no quiet retreat to which I could retire to hold communion with God in prayer; and very little opportunity for reading the Scriptures, or for any other reading, but such as was afforded in a noisy supper room, surrounded by young

*Lev. vi. 13.

Phil. ii. 12, 13.

Rom. xii. 11.

men who, naturally enough, gave loose to the animal spirits which, through the long day's engagements, had been kept under by the strict decorum of business, or in a crowded dormitory. The only time I could reckon upon for undisturbed thought was on the Lord's day, when, for a few hours, I was left almost in sole charge of my employer's premises; or when I could, as I sometimes did, manage to escape from the supper table, and secure a few minutes' solitude in the large sleeping apartment before my chamber-mates entered it.

I am

aware that, in writing these particulars, I am stating nothing uncommon. In those days very little regard was paid to the individual comfort, and none to the intellectual or moral-to say nothing of the religious -improvement of young men in business by a great number of employers. I am given to understand, however, that the case is widely different now in almost all reputable houses of business; for which the young men of the present day have reason to be devoutly thankful.

Apart from the disadvantages just mentioned, I was on tolerably good terms with all around,-I think with only one exception. My employer was satisfied with my conduct, I believe, or with what he saw of it, which was not much; for there were so many gradations between his station and that of his youngest apprentice, that we knew very little of each other. The head of the department in which I was principally engaged, however, was pleased to express himself satisfied with me, and treated me kindly enough; though without much forbearance when I committed any blunder, and at every other time without much sympathy. The young men with whom I daily and hourly came into immediate contact in the business, behaved to me with a sort of indifference which, I dare say, bordered rather closely upon contempt. I was looked upon, I believe, as a harmless, willing lad; but too simple and loutish and meek ever to be made much of, or to be worth their present notice.

I have said that there was one exception to this negative treatment. There was one young man who appeared to have taken a strong dislike to me, and who lost no opportunity of showing it. Unfortunately for me, we had a good deal to do with each other, for we were in the same department of the business; and as he had some experience, and authority as well, it was in his power not only