sensibly gratify them. If we saw a youth, in hours of full health and vivacity, and under some peculiar stimulus from circumstances, applying himself to a scientific research with ardour and delight, we might predict,—He will distinguish himself at college: and he too might secretly join in the prediction with a sanguine self-congratulating spirit; but if we saw him under languor and discouragement, forcing himself to pursue his object, from a conviction of its excellence, although with very little vigour, and with no sense of pleasure, we should not infer, from the absence of these, an unpreparedness, in other circumstances, to excel and to enjoy. We should rather say,-Here is a principle which nothing can wholly subvert, a taste so deeply implanted, that nothing can eradicate it. Here is vegetation under the snow; shall we despair that the grain will ripen in autumn?

Some Christians may, perhaps, best account for this severe kind of inward trial, by considering more practically the express scriptural assurances, that real chastisement is the needful portion of the sons of God. This needful portion must be, in some way, effectually dispensed. In several ages of the church, it has been externally and conspicuously great and severe.

But in the pre

sent age, there are a vast majority, to whom it has not been dispensed, as of old, in the form of persecution, in fines, or bonds, or scourges, or cruel mockings; many who have not encountered it in the opposition of friends, or the malice of foes; many, likewise, who have not endured poverty or open reproach, nor suffered the most aggravated of relative afflictions. But where the external dispensations of Providence are thus comparatively indulgent, were there no internal pains to balance the account, the Christian would pass through his state of pupilage without any decisive experience of that chastisement, "whereof (an apostle declares) all are partakers.' And since he plainly adds, that our spiritual adoption would be disproved by its absence, how just the fears to which such an exemption might give rise! We may be grateful, therefore, (amidst secret privations and pains,) if our Heavenly Father employ those hidden resources "to humble us and to prove us," that so we need not question our filial relation to him, on account of being screened from a “great fight of” external “affliction."-Will it, however, still be said, Why, since these resources of paternal chastisement are boundless, why this particular trial, this desti

Hebrews xii. 8.

tution of enjoyment in his own service? The question still proceeds on a presumed ability and right to choose; and yet, if other modes of inward trial were offered, which would we accept? Would we be assailed by sudden and excruciating temptation? Would we exchange our present privations for the actual infliction of the acutest bodily pain, or for that horror of spirit with which some devout minds have been overwhelmed?

But if those trials, as being perhaps more temporary, would be really less difficult to bear, may not that be precisely the reason why this trial has in wisdom and mercy been assigned us? What is it we prize and desire the most? Is it spiritual joy? Is it tenderness and complacency in devotion? Is it the sense of God's gracious presence? Here then is the point at which the self-renunciation demanded in the gospel is thoroughly put to the proof. We are to trust God with our all; with the best and noblest enjoyments, as well as those which are inferior. This is the ultimate test. He can prolong our deprivations as he sees good; but He can, also, at any moment, terminate them, imparting "manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting."

XXIII.

ON THE MEANS OF MAINTAINING A DEVOTIONAL HABIT AND SPIRIT IN A LIFE OF BUSINESS.

A LIFE of business, taking the term in its largest sense, is a more usual kind of life than some persons imagine. The great majority of men are actively engaged in secular pursuits, and obviously cannot command any large share of time for retirement. The multitude labour with their hands; and the middle classes, either in a lighter sort of labours, or in superintending those of others, have more exercise of mind, with sometimes not much less fatigue of body. In the higher departments of commerce, and still more in the employments called professional, this mental application is often unremitted and arduous; and even there it is frequently combined with much

bodily exertion. Nor can he have seen much of society, or reflected much on its constitution, who supposes that in the sphere where acquisition of property ceases to be the object of industry, there is no such thing as a life of business, properly so called. The contrary is most apparent with respect to stations of public service, such as those of the British legislator and magistrate; and of Christians who dedicate themselves, with a far higher aim than temporal emolument, to the ministry of religion.

But, not to speak of these situations, even a life called private may be a life of business, by the diversity of engagements which it rightly and in great part necessarily includes. Even the prudent management of that property which confers leisure, when it is not large enough for this to be chiefly deputed, requires frequent personal attention; and, where so deputed, the extent of affairs that renders such aid expedient, will include many which cannot be wholly devolved on others, but where the principal's time is also claimed. Besides this, many undefined and occasional occupations, which cannot well be avoided, though it would be difficult to class or enumerate them, form items in every one's expenditure of minutes.

An ingenious French writer has constructed a