a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh Were he to live, it was that he

is more needful for you." might be useful to others. Were he to die, it was to receive gain. Then rest instead of toil, glory instead of shame, unbroken fellowship instead of occasional communion, full vision of Jesus instead of a glimpse of glory in an ecstasy, would have been his. It was not fear of death, nor love of life, nor desire of the applause of men, that made him wish to live. It was that he might reveal the Crucified in a life of toil for the saving of souls: "Not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that THEY MAY BE SAVED."

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Dear reader, ere ever you can say For me to live is Christ," you must come out of your self-contained religion and live for Christ in your family, your neighbourhood, business, and country. You must show "compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way," and so reveal Christ to them by the aid of his Spirit in your life of faith, as to win them to the Lord Jesus-to enjoy a similar life with you here, and expect a similar gain when they die.

Let me affectionately ask, what are you living for? Have you a spiritual existence, a Christ-like character, and a purpose and employment worthy of them? You have assuredly something more to do with the life that is within you than to toil for bread and water and clothing, and eat and drink and die. You have something more to do than to buy and sell and get gain; than to marry and be given in marriage: than to cultivate your mind and enjoy society; than to exercise political and religious rights; and even than to be active in the church. When the reckoning of life will be called for, it will be seen that more than these were the ends for which you were sent into existence. Life must have a worthy source of happiness. Whence is yours derived? Life

must have a right purpose? What is yours? It must have a proper character. What is yours? Do you LIVE after the flesh? Then you shall die, for "they that are in the flesh cannot please God." Do you live in pleasure? Then you are dead while you live. Are you alive without the law? Then it will prove your condemnation. Have you a name to live and are dead? Then your works are not perfect before God. It is a serious thing to live, and an awful responsibility to pervert life, as the unsaved continually do to their own destruction. Reader, look to Jesus, who came to give life to those dead in trespasses and sins. Come to him. Believe in him. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life." BELIEVE AND LIVE. This is the way of life. Faith in Jesus is its portal.

"Inscribed above the portal, from afar
Conspicuous as the brightness of a star,

Legible only by the light they give,

Stand the soul-quickening words-Believe and live,"

To study life, acquaint yourself with Jesus, who is the Life, and the author of life. Thus only can you ever say— "For me to live is Christ."

It was Christ that first taught the world "that life in every shape is precious." Only since He came did men build hospitals, stoop down to the degraded, and send missionaries to the heathen. Only since He came have men learned that God's image may be engraven upon the wreck and off-scouring of humanity, and that none on earth are too far gone to be beyond the power of the gospel, to regain the real purpose of life, "to glorify God and enjoy him for ever." Only since He came are all invited and made welcome to everlasting life, to the new creation in the image of God, to union with Christ. Only since He came has the life of man been fully consecrated to the best employment. His own life

was a sacrifice to reconcile men to God. It was a revelation of man in the image of God. It was a seed to be scattered over the world, and to be reproduced among all nations.

Every true believer is a reproduction to be employed for Christ and the good of souls. Many have realized their high vocation, and have been able to say with the apostle, "For me to live is Christ." Biography has preserved the memorials of several of these. Their lives were real as yours, chequered as yours, theatres of conflict between the flesh and the Spirit as yours: but they were spent for Christ in walks of usefulness.

Recent times have produced not a few who have thus exhibited the life of Christ. Of these we have selected some examples. They have been taken from various classes and circumstances from the work-shops of the labouring, the marts of business, and from the saloons of the noble. They had their daily cares, their secular engagements, and their family ties, yet they lived to the Lord. These all having "served their own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep," but their record remains for the study and imitation of succeeding ages, and by which, "being dead, they yet spcak."

The lives of good men all remind us

We may make our lives sublime;
And, departing, leave behind us,
Foot-prints on the sands of time,--

Foot-prints that perchance another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, may take heart again.

CHAPTER II.

CHRISTIAN DEVOTEDNESS.

"They first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God." -2 COR. viii. 5.

"Yield to the Lord with simple heart,

All that thou hast, and all thou art."

THE age in which we live is pre-eminently busy. In the pursuits of manufacture, commerce, and trade, energy and zeal characterize those employed. Almost all inventions and discoveries of modern times conspire to promote business. Steam engines, railways, and electric telegraphs, seem now essential to its successful prosecution and increase. Steam is now the great motive power. In ten years railway traffic has trebled. In seven years messages by telegraph have increased fifty-fold. The post-office has received a development almost incredible. But what do these results teach? They testify to the important fact of the engrossing business which now engages men. It is the effort of every man to make the most of his means and opportunities. "Time is money," therefore he travels by "express," writes by "telegraph," and prints by "steam." It is the special vocation of some to devise schemes for economizing time, and toil, and money. Science is made to surmount the barriers of nature, and to improve itself. Utility is sought in all things, and business is its producer. Our commercial towns are utility embodied and business intensified.

The church also partakes this feature of the world. A busy hum sounds throughout its several branches. The numerous organizations, societies, and schemes, which recent times have developed, require a great amount of practical skill and earnest labour. More active efforts, greater variety

of them, and multiplied means for their prosecution, are now manifest in the visible church than in any former era. Usefulness is a characteristic of Christianity. This has ever belonged to it. Religion has been the fertile source of all beneficence. But by reason of the advantages of modern times, schemes of usefulness, scenes for its exercise, and agents in its fulfilment, are abundant. Mind is on the stretch; heart is anxious; and the life of many wears rapidly in making most of the present opportunity to do good. And all are needed who are engaged. The demand is greater than the supply. If any are not employed, it is not because of want of call, or opportunity, or obligation. "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few."

Amidst engrossing duties, we are prone to neglect spiritualmindedness, and to become more busy than godly. In order to guard against this danger, and to stimulate such as are not yet labourers in the vineyard, let us examine the true source of Christian usefulness. It was beautifully exhibited in the churches of Macedonia in apostolic times; and St. Paul, in writing of them, gives us the secret of their devotedness, when he says, "They first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God."

PERSONAL DEDICATION TO CHRIST IS THE SPRING OF CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS.

"They gave their very selves to the Lord first." Such is the rendering of this passage of Scripture by the critical authors of the Life and Epistles of St. Paul. The Macedonian converts were doubtless believers ere this dedication took place. They had fled for refuge to the hope set before them. They had believed in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, and acceptance with God. The first experience of an awakened soul is the desire for salvation. There does not, then, enter so closely into his heart what he can do for Christ,