ing is committed to the church. The support of missions, the recovery of the lost, all works of philanthropy, are the trust committed by God to all his believing children. This they have to do. It is their responsibility, for which they must reckon with the Lord. This is their Father's business, and gives a hallowed character to their secular engagements. The mechanic at his toil, who labours in the fear of God, is at his Father's business. The maid at the mill, who goes from earnest prayer to honest work, is at her Father's business. The trader, who buys and sells with a strict regard to integrity, is at his Father's business. The merchant, who under a due sense of responsibility to God for his stewardship, gathers in his gold, is at his Father's business. But what is all this for? Not for bread alone, but also for usefulness. The labourer is to make his life a testimony; and that influence among his fellow-workmen will not be lost. The merchant is to use his high position and ample means for doing good to those whom he can influence, and promoting the cause of Christ. The rich, or the noble, whose time is at his own command, has a business higher than all the dignity amidst which he moves. If a Christian, his talents are more than the jingling of his purse, or the glittering of his coronet. They are deposits in his hands by God, to be returned with usury, in the thanksgiving of the widow, the orphan, the friendless, and the perishing. Is the reader thus about his Father's business? You may be misunderstood; so was Christ, even by his mother. You may be wondered at; so was he, and so have many besides : but consciousness of honest purpose and devotion to the Lord is superior to all the disapprobation of men. Are you not a Christian? Why, then, should any other course have been expected from you ? "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Had you, reader, met an English gentleman at Rome, travelling at his own expense, you would have concluded that he was visiting the monuments of art which so many centuries have collected there; but lawful and interesting though those sights are, John Howard was engaged in the prisons and lazarettoes. And had you asked him the reason of his conduct, his reply, in spirit, if not in words, would have been, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Had you encountered Samuel Budgett at the Exchange, you would have thought him a close-fisted, greedy man, who drove a hard bargain; and you would have been astonished to learn that more than once he gave away all that he had, and regularly distributed £2000 a-year in benevolent gifts. But he, too, would have replied, that, alike in the market-place and at the Lord's treasury, he was about his Father's business. Wilberforce, leaving Doncaster and the fashionable saloon, the Haldanes becoming preachers, officers of army or navy-speaking for Christ, were similarly engaged, and would be ready with a similar reply. These were all eccentric in the esteem of men; but noble purposes, consistent lives, and useful labours were theirs, as they pursued their Father's business. "I have often had occasion to observe," said Mr. Cecil, "that a blundering man does more for the world than a frigid wise man. A man who gets into the habit of inquiring about proprieties, and expediencies, and occasions, often spends his life without doing anything to purpose. The state of the world is such, and so much depends on action, that everything seems to say loudly to every man, 'Do something-do it-do it!'" Is the reader engaged in his Father's business? Are you doing something for him in the world? Such work is quite consistent with other duties that claim your regard and time. It is consistent with domestic duties. Jesus was none the less obedient to Joseph and Mary that he was conscious of his high mission, and must be about his Father's business. "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." Filial affection never lost its hold in the Son of Mary. He was "A son that never did amiss, That never sham'd his mother's kiss, E'en from the tree he deigned to bow On her his agonized brow Her, his sole earthly care." His Father's business engaged him then, but he could still regard his mother with a fond affection, and provide for her a home and a son after he had gone away. In like manner, Christian reader, are you to act. You cannot serve your Father in heaven at the expense of a neglected nursery, a forsaken home, or disobedience to parents. Domestic duties have the first claim. Christian influences ever radiate outwards. Charity begins at home, and extends throughout the world. The first circle on the water is nearest to the stone cast into it, but the last ripples the utmost shore. It is consistent with secular business. Jesus pursued his Father's business as really when he laboured at the carpenter's bench as when he taught the multitudes, healed diseases, and shed his blood. Marvellous it is, but true, that the greatest portion of Messiah's earthly career was spent in honest toil. You are not called to leave your trade or profession to prosecute your Father's business. Some may be called, as Peter and John were; but these are exceptions, not the rule. The ordinary course is, to sanctify business to the glory of God. Your heavenly Father expects his business to run through yours. He expects yours to be diligently prosecuted. It is a blot on the benevolent labours of Christians, when they suffer their secular concerns to get embarrassed while they prosecute the Lord's work. It will not glorify your Father though you act honestly in Christian works, if you are dishonest in ordinary business. You are a child of God always, and ought to be conscious of the high relation, so that you need never blush to say, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" "Come, let us anew our journey pursue, Roll around with the year, And never stand still till the Master appear. "His adorable will let us gladly fulfil, And our talents improve, By the patience of hope and the labour of love. "O that each in the day of His coming may say, I have finish'd the work thou didst give me to do.' "O that each from his Lord may receive the glad word, Well and faithfully done; Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne "" CHAPTER I. JOHN LAST, THE FARMER. "And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord And they answered him, The Lord bless thee."-RUTH ii. 4. be with you. Be useful when thou livest, that they may Both want and wish thy pleasing presence still. BIOGRAPHY has not been much enriched by rural life, but many have lived for Christ in most secluded abodes. It is not the notorious, but the useful in the church on earth, that attain to most fame in the kingdom of heaven. The life of faith is the same though the theatres of its action bé varied; and labours of love are essentially alike, whether done in sunshine, where they are universally seen, or in the shade, where they are beheld by few. In agricultural districts the sphere of usefulness is not so large as in populous cities; but it is as interesting, and valuable, and productive-as worthy of faith, and prayer, and pains.. In our day, especially, do rural districts present a strong claim on Christian sympathy and enterprise. They are not what once they were-filled with the devout and exemplary in faith and practice, in domestic religion and public worship. Worldliness and ungodliness— neglect of family prayer, of Sabbath worship and Sabbathkeeping-characterize very largely both farmers and labour |