He certainly enjoys it in his quiet way; but he takes his pleasure soberly. And after all the study, what does he make of it? Perhaps he agrees most nearly with the royal sage, who gave it as his experience, "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." On the whole, he will tell you that life is a mistake. But being in it, we may as well try to make it as good as we can. Balance the good and the evil. If you can get the good out of it, well; and if you cannot, well, it does not much matter. It will soon be over; and the sooner it is over the sooner to sleep. Business is all very well, but it is very tiring. Pleasure is the thing for those that like it; but it is not worth the trouble. Right or wrong, they are just names that men use for ticketing what they like or dislike. Home and home life is very dull and very quiet. Public life is a great vexation and weariness. Just be quiet, and take things as they come. Criticise your neighbours. Tell the world what is best for it. If they listen, very good; if not, it is not much matter; and then, when death comes, just take it quietly, and go out into silence and darkness with as little fuss as may be.

Well, you ask, and what then? "Oh, I do not know," he will answer. "I cannot criticise that, and have nothing

to say about it.

My rules and laws and principles have to do with this life. I never met anyone who had been in that other country of which you talk. It is not a very pleasant topic. There is little room for moralizing, or humour; and if you are writing about it, there are some good sort of people who do not quite like it, and so I prefer saying nothing at all about it, to saying what is rather foolish or else unpleasant.'

"And that is your notion of life, is it, sir ?" "Well, yes. I am much at heart with the king whom you have just quoted. In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God also hath set the one over against the other, to the end that man should find nothing after him. All things have I seen in the days of my

vanity there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness. Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself? Be not over much wicked, neither be thou foolish: why shouldest thou die before thy time?' On the whole, 'my son, be admonished.' Even when I review my own life, 'of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.' Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.' And so say I."

But there are men who take yet another view of life. They are of all ranks, all classes, various degrees of intelligence, engaged in all the labours which earth affords, of all ages and all climes. I don't know that there is any very distinctive mark about them. Perhaps the best specimens of the class are remarkable chiefly for a completeness and all roundness of character and disposition. The face is bright, cheerful, but betokens the presence of some guiding law. Content and peace and the quieter characteristics of enjoyment are depicted. There is at times an abstraction in the demeanour, as if thought and spirit were for the moment away from the circumstances immediately surrounding them; but they can exhibit a directness and energy which make them amongst the most successful of the workers of the world. They are called by dif- ferent names. In ridicule, some give them the title of the "saints." A general word for them is "religious." More definitely and precisely they are Christians.

Now what, we ask, is the Christian view of life? In the first place it is looked at as something which must be judged. There are distinct and marked differences in it, denoted by terms, right and wrong, good and evil. These are in conflict. The victory must be on one side. The side that we are to

take is that of the right and the good. Then, besides this, life is looked at as something separate from those who are living it. It will cease, but they will remain. Results upon

them are continually accruing from this life, and those they will take with them, and keep for ever.

Now besides this, they look at life as being the result of the meeting of certain wills-their own in the numberless complexities of human society, but together with those one supreme, eternal, ever-acting Will, who strives with, sometimes against, leading, withholding, checking, stimulating the wills of men. To this supreme Will, which is God, they hold that man owes allegiance, and therefore there must be a judgment of the one upon the many. And then, finally, they look at this life as being anything but final. It is really a preparation--that life in the fullest, truest sense only begins when this life closes, but that the conduct of the present has an infinite influence upon the condition of that future. They raise life, therefore, altogether out of the sphere of the merely physical, sensuous, emotional, or even moral. It becomes a thing of eternal meaning, with hopes, aims, motives drawn from the unseen and the eternal world.

Let us then in a few words sum up the idea of life. It is something to be done, something to be enjoyed, but to be done and enjoyed under the ever-present thought of a life which comes out of it, built upon it as a foundation, growing from it as a germ, flowing from it as a source.

They recognise the presence of God in this life; true, a presence which has been much dimmed and overshadowed by a terrible moral catastrophe which has befallen the human race; a catastrophe against the results of which it is the grand prerogative of a man to fight in all and every side and phase of his existence; but which to help him in the battle, and indeed to make the victory possible, even certain, the love and grace of the God, who is also a Divine Father, has met by an act of overwhelming compassion and power, redemptive, pardoning, sanctifying. This grand act, which gives the very name to Christian life, is the rich source of all that is great, and noble, and true. It is this which makes life as a preparation certain, yea, even a prelude and an

earnest of that life to come. Over and above this there is the constant gift of the Divine Spirit as a companion and a helper for the struggling man. Life is now a glory and a blessing. Man cries when he is born the son of man, but the cry is quickly changed into the exultant shout of the son of God. Life is now not the crucible of the man of science, the mere workshop of the human engineer, the mad bowl of Circe's drink which befools and curses the voluptuary, nor yet a puzzle and a study for the grim philosopher, but it is the home of man and God; it is the school for heaven; it is a march joyous and triumphant of the human soldiers to their city which is on high. What is our life? Ask the Christian, and he will tell you that.

London.

LLEWELYN D. BEVAN, LL.B.

EMPLOYMENT OF TIME.

"WE all complain," says the philosopher Seneca, "of the shortness of time, and yet we have more than we know what to do with. Our lives are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them."

Alfred the Great was one of the wisest, the best, and most beneficent monarchs that ever swayed the sceptre of this realm, and his example is highly memorable. Every hour of his life had its peculiar allotted business. He divided the day and night into three portions of eight hours each, and though much afflicted with a very painful disorder, he assigned only eight hours to sleep, meals, and exercise; devoting the remaining sixteen, one half to reading, writing, and prayer, and the other to public business. So sensible was this great man that time was not a trifle to be dissipated, but a rich talent entrusted to him, for which he was accountable to the Great Dispenser of it.

Gassendi, the celebrated philosopher, was perhaps one of the hardest students that ever existed. He generally rose at three o'clock in the morning, and read or wrote till eleven, when he received the visits of his friends. He afterwards, at twelve, made a very slender dinner, at which he drank nothing but water, and sat down to his books again at three. There he remained till eight o'clock, and after having eaten a very light supper, he retired to bed at ten. KNOWLES.

Homiletic Sketches on the Book of

Psalms.

OUR PURPOSE.-Many learned and devout men have gone philologically through thisTEHILIM, this book of Hebrew hymns, and have left us the rich results of their inquiries in volumes within the reach of every Biblical student. To do the mere verbal hermeneutics of this book, even as well as it has been done, would be to contribute nothing fresh in the way of evoking or enforcing its Divine ideas. A thorough HOMILETIC treatment it has never yet received, and to this work we here commit ourselves, determining to employ the best results of modern Biblical scholarship.

OUR METHOD.-Our plan of treatment will comprise four sections:-(1.) The HISTORY of the passage. Lyric poetry, which the book is, is a delineation of living character, and the key, therefore, to unlock the meaning and reach the spirit of the words, is a knowledge of the men and circumstances that the poet sketches with his lyric pencil.-(2.) ANNOTATIONS of the passage. This will include short explanatory notes on any ambiguous word, phrase, or allusion that may occur.-(3.) The ARGUMENT of the passage. A knowledge of the main drift of an author is amongst the most essential conditions for interpreting his meaning.—(4.) The HOMILETICS of the passage. This is our main work. We shall endeavour so to group the Divine ideas that have been legitimately educed, as to suggest such thoughts, and indicate such sermonizing methods, as may promote the proficiency of modern pulpit ministrations.

Subject: THE FEELINGS OF THE GOOD IN RELATION TO THE SUBJUGATION OF EVIL.

"The king shall joy in thy strength, O Lord;

And in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!
Thou hast given him his heart's desire,

And hast not witholden the request of his lips. Selah.
For thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness:

Thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head.

He asked life of thee,

And thou gavest it him,

Even length of days for ever and ever.

His glory is great in thy salvation :

Honour and majesty hast thou laid upon him.

For thou hast made him most blessed for ever:

Thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance.

For the king trusteth in the Lord;

And through the mercy of the most High he shall not be moved.

Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies;

Thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee.

Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven

In the time of thine anger:

The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath,

And the fire shall devour them.

Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth,

And their seed from among the children of men.