the profligate? Where art thou, in the tents of wickedness? What do they say to the Christian? "Come up to the house of the Lord;" and the Christian's heart beats responsively, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

He

Sundays are as milestones to mark progress; and whoso is wise will understand that not all exertion is progress. A man may read and pray and meditate, and yet not advance; he may be ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. In his movements there is no earnest purpose to advance. imitates the little bird in its cage. Waking up with the first gleams of the morning sun, it begins its little flight, leaping from perch to perch, now on one side, now on another. If, at night, we could put together all its various leaps and evolutions, we should find that it had fled many miles-that the same exertion would have carried it over the sea to foreign lands; and yet, here it is, in its cage-it has made no progress. And why? Because it is confined by iron bars.

It is melancholy to see the sapling stunted-never increasing in bulk or height; it is melancholy to see the child dwarfed, making no increase in stature; but it is far more melancholy to see a Christian making no progress or growth in grace. Yet, sad as the sight is, it is often, doubtless, presented to the observant eyes of heaven. If we might suppose that God had deputed a guardian angel to watch over the condition and advancement of each Christian, and to register his movements, his advances and his backslidings, then how often must that angel, at the end of the day, or the week, or the

month, or the year, write against us the sad words, No progress. A stationary Christian apologises for his want of progress by saying: "There are ups and downs in my spiritual life; my soul is like a wheel, sometimes going up, and sometimes going down-but, thank God, I do not despair." To this it may be answered: "You say, truly, that the wheel sometimes goes up and sometimes goes down, but you forget that it goes forwards at the same time." And so it should be with us. Amidst all our ecstasies, amidst all our depressions, in all our joys, and in all our sorrows, in all our hopes, and in all our fears, if our soul sometimes rises and sometimes falls, yet it should go forward at the same time.

The spirit of devotion can be easily strangled by some dominant passion, by covetousness, for instance. The covetous man will be thinking of his money even at his prayers, as if he used his cashbox for a hassock. But, whatever preoccupies the mind utterly destroys the efficacy of our devotions, for it makes them heartless, and heartless prayers resemble meteoric stones, which, though rising to a certain height, are all showered down again.

Men are elevated by feeding on God's Word. If the larva of the working bee is capable of becoming a queen, when treated to a richer kind of food, so mortal men become kings and priests unto God—yea, shall be as the angels. And the caterpillar, which now only crawls, will soon be capable of rapid and extensive flight, symbolizing to us the elevating tendency of devotion, which enables grovelling man to soar.

Owing to the great facilities for travelling on Sunday, and the large amount of refreshments required, there is

great danger that multitudes will be deprived of their day of rest. Railway servants, barmaids, omnibus drivers and conductors have to work on that day, ministering to the pleasure of others. One of the most beneficent acts of the Legislature would be to protect the Sabbath for the working man, and to limit as far as possible Sunday labour. The excursionist is the master, and he, in effect, says to bakers, stokers, drivers, barmaids, greengrocers, and butchers, "Work on Sunday, or starve."

Although

the English Sunday is not what it ought to be, yet there is great cause for thankfulness when we compare it with Continental usage. Every one who has been to Paris remembers how many shops are open on Sunday. In Spain and Portugal the bull-fight is the consolation of the multitude. In Geneva plays are freely permitted in the theatres on Sunday. In Sweden bills are presented, and counting-houses open, and business transacted as usual.

A fine testimony is borne by the Abbé Mullois to the English Sabbath :-"The business transactions of the English are enormous, yet they do no work on the Lord's day. Look at the banks of the Thames. There are wharves and dockyards extending leagues in length, and on week-days they are covered with a mass of workmen. The Lord's day arrives. All these workmen rest, and not a blow of the axe is given."

If you could take the spring out of the year, and if you could take youth out of life, you would not do a greater injury to the human race than if you took Sunday out of the week.

*

"The People's Day," by William Arthur, M.A.

CHAPTER XXIII.

AMUSEMENTS.

THE word recreation, which is often used for amusement, is very suggestive, indicating that a man when spent and exhausted with work is, as it were, revived, renewed, and re-created by means of pleasant entertainment. That same word suggests the philosophy of amusements; for it bears witness, as far as a word can, that we are to indulge amusement in order to be fresh for work again, and not that we are to work in order to amuse ourselves.

Rest from labour does not imply listless indolence, but rather repose with pleasant and easy occupation. Such a rest is by no means fruitless. Often in a holiday, when not working, many useful reflections about one's pursuits come unsought. Out of the current one can judge better how to act in the current. It would be a mistake on many accounts to imagine that these intervals are lost time. Every man needs rest and leisure; and these intermissions do not weaken, but rather strengthen his character; like the blank spaces of an archway, which are stronger than solid blocks.

There are few traces of amusement in Scripture. There are more, yet not very many, in classical literature.

The reason may be, partly, that there were really fewer and less varied amusements; partly, because ancient history described battles and politics, but did not describe social life. In the Odyssey we find tumblers performing feats for the amusement of the company after dinner; there was the song and the dance, and the bard was almost always present at great entertainments. We meet with many allusions to games and athletic contests, and the ferocious amusements of the arena, in which gladiators contended to the death.

:

The discoveries of science and the inventions of machinery abridge the working hours, and give more leisure to mankind; but, at the same time, we work more intensely in these days. There is therefore both more time for amusement and more need for it. We live rapidly, and we cannot do without relaxation it is the grease that lessens the friction of life. Thus it becomes a question of great personal and domestic interest, how best to employ our leisure. "Pleasure is a delicate plant, and cannot be cultivated without much study and practice. Any excess of it is followed by a reaction of disgust, and by a diminution in the power of entertaining it."*

Not all amusement is recreation, for some amusements excite and inflame the mind and exhaust its powers. This may be safely said of casinos, music halls, and such places, where thousands of young men spend their evenings far into the night in feverish excitement, retire to sleep late, rise unrefreshed, and hurry off to business

"Ecce Homo," p. 112.