ites, to save trouble, gathered enough manna whilst they were about it for two or three days, and then I suppose they would lie in bed half an hour longer next morning, and when they came down to breakfast there was the manna all mouldy and full of worms. I think, like those Israelites, we often try to get enough grace one day to last for one or two more, and the result is a failure." "You remind me," said the Leader, "of a gentleman who once told me that Mondays had often been his worst days, and it was because he began them carelessly, depending upon Sunday's blessing instead of seeking earnestly fresh grace for Monday's need. I beg your pardon for interrupting; now the other text, please." "The other text is, 'I will be as the dew unto Israel;' the dew, falling softly every evening, to refresh the earth after the heat and dust of the day. It seems to me that if we were fed with the bread of life every morning, and refreshed with the dew of God's blessing every evening, we should make daily growth in grace, and advance rapidly towards perfection."

Everyone looked up and smiled. It was not often this lady spoke, she was usually very quiet. Indeed, two Leaders had made their classes to use the expression of one of them-"too hot for her," because she was a silent member. But if this member spoke seldom, when she did say anything, it was to the point, and as her Leader remarked, "Better something fresh and helpful once in six weeks than the same old commonplaces fifty-two times a year." A hymn and three prayers, the last by the Leader, and all very brief, brought the meeting a close.

"But," exclaims someone," that is not a class-meeting! None of the members have spoken their experience." I reply, they have given the results of their experience. It is true they have not expressed themselves in that idiomatic phraseology which has become the acknowledged currency of many class-meetings. It was the fixed. purpose of the Leader not to allow them to do so. That was another of his crotchets, and he thought it essential to the well-being of the class-meeting of A.D. 1884. December, 1884.

H. W. SHREWSBURY.

A GOOD Conscience is better than two witnesses. It melts sorrow as sun does the ice. It is a spring when we are thirsty, a staff when we are faint, a shelter when the sun strikes us, a pillow in the hour of pain sickness, and death.

A GOD who has no personality, no care for us, we can have but one feeling for-immeasurable awe. And surely in the great sorrows and temptations of life we need a closer and stronger help than a chilled, vague reverence for an unkn own God.

AN INCIDENT: A LESSON TO YOUNG

MINISTERS.

Not long ago we took our seat in a railway coach for a short ride, when an incident occurred which may not be altogether uninteresting or unprofitable. A young preacher entered and took his seat by the side of one who happened also to be on the train, and was by years his senior. One was in the first or second year of his ministry, the other had spent a third of a century in the same work. They were acquainted, and immediately fell into conversation. It was quite natural that they should talk about their mutual calling, its sacrifices, its losses, its compensations. As nearly as we can recollect, the following passed between the two :

"Well," said the elder of the two, "how do you enjoy preaching and the general work of a minister?"

"Oh, I am delighted with preaching, and enjoy very much the work of a minister," was the reply; "but still I find it demands great sacrifices; I have been preaching long enough to find that out."

“Ah! has that knowledge come to you so soon? Pray, what have you sacrificed or are sacrificing, in order to preach the Gospel ?"

"Well, you know, of course, one can't preach without selfsacrifice."

"No; I don't know that. I have been trying to preach for quite a number of years, and haven't yet found that out. What form has the sacrifice taken so early in your case?"

The answer came thus: "After I graduated an opportunity presented itself to go into business that promised exceedingly well, and I had to surrender it."

"Your sacrifice, then, was a prospective one. What real ones have you made? Prospects are unreal things, very unsubstantial, a good deal of the nature of dreams. What substantial ones have you already made that have impressed you so soon that the ministry is calling down so much of self-denial ?"

"Why, of course, you know-everybody knows-that a man can't preach the Gospel without sacrificing a great deal."

"I beg pardon, but that is not an item of personal knowledge with me. I know that is the general talk, the general impression, I suppose, but I am after specifics. What do the sacrifices consist in? I have been quite a number of years in the ministry; have had professional arrangements proposed that, by the books, would bring me in thousands a year, but I have never felt that I have

made sacrifices by becoming a minister. If gain is the great purpose of life, perhaps I have, but even that is by no means certain. It is very easy for God to make void the best-constructed plans of men, and it is nothing new for Him to do it when they refuse the calls of duty. I have nothing laid up for a rainy day, which I suppose will come, but I have been comfortable, perhaps more so than I would have been had I refused obedience to what I thought the voice of the Lord."

And then, as if to embrace an opportunity to benefit the younger preacher, the elder continued about in the following strain: "I know it is one of the stock subjects of conversation on the part of many ministers of the Gospel-the sacrifices they have made in consenting to preach. I have but little sympathy with them in this matter. I have noticed that those who have made the fewest sacrifices, probably none, who would never have been heard of out of their own neighbourhoods had it not been for the position the Church has given them, talk the loudest and longest upon this subject; while those who have made them, according to all seemings, never say anything about it. But is it true that a young man, a graduate like yourself, makes sacrifices that are worth recounting in entering the Christian pulpit, and permitting himself to be put at the head of a Christian Church without years of delay and struggle to gain the position? Compare his course with that of the young lawyer or physician, and see how he will fare. If the young lawyer or doctor is able to make a living for the first five years of his practice, he is doing well. If prepared to settle in life thus early, he is well established in his profession, with a profitable practice, he congratulates himself upon his good fortune.

"The young man entering the ministry has not the promise of wealth before him, to be sure, but he is sure of a comfortable living from the start, he may settle in life without apprehension, and, if a faithful preacher, is sure of freedom from want. And there is another advantage he has without wealth which other men must gain with it, if it is theirs-that is the command of their time. One of the objects of wealth is to give the owner command of his time. This the lawyer has not till he gains the reputation that enables him to select his clients; this the physician acquires with difficulty; this the business man never has till he makes his for: tune, and in the great majority of cases not then. This the minister always has, subject only to the dictation of an honest conscience before God. If he is an honest man, he will, of course, give his time, his thought, and his strength to the people he has engaged to serve; but how he shall do it is left to his own judgment. He is master of his time.

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And, then, his position in society: is not that to go for something? It ought to go for a good deal. Position is generally the fruit of years of struggle; if gained, it is usually after midlife is passed. The minister gains it without a struggle; it comes to him with his pulpit and his pastorate.

As Christ and His truths have entered into the minds and hearts of men, they are so honoured, that those who stand as the most conspicuous representatives of both share in the elevation accorded to them. You, as pastor of the Church, are invited to dine with the man of wealth. You are not assigned an inferior place at the table, nor waited upon last. You are one of the recognised leaders of society where you are. The wife of the minister and his family are regarded with like favour. If he or they are afflicted, they have an entire Church to sympathise with and help them, not for pay, but out of love. If unjustly assailed, a Church is ready for their defence. These things money could not buy.

"And then look at the minister's intellectual advantages, if he will only improve them. No ranges of knowledge are illegitimate to him. All truth is for Christ, and may be employed for Him. No field of inquiry is shut off from the preacher. No realm of knowledge closed against him. The whole empire of thought is before him, and he may go where he listeth, and will never be found out of place, so that he go for the sake of his Master. And in these explorations what elevated associations he finds. His communion is not with the low, the vulgar, the sordid, the impure; but with the choicest spirits of past generations and of the present. To a thoughtful man, one of generous aspirations, these advantages are superior to mere facilities for money-getting. All things taken into account, I do not think the position of a Christian minister is one that calls for pity. Far from it. It is one of honour, and he ought to so esteem it. To be speaking of his sacrifices constantly is to degrade him, and his calling, and his Church, and put Christ into a wrong position before men. Better talk about the honour that has been put upon him, and instead of complaining of hardships, better be rejoicing over the privilege of labouring to make this world the Kingdom of God and His Christ."

The thoughts of the young preacher seemed to be turned into new channels. He left his seat for a time, and when he returned he said, "I see matters in a new light now. I never looked at them as I do now. I see how this talk about sacrifices may be misunderstood. I'll never talk about them any more."

A few miles further on they parted. The one with fine prospects, and many years before him in which to enjoy the honour of preaching Christ, the other, doubtless, feeling that a few more years will rob

him of his honour, and bring silence to his trumpet. No wonder he appreciates that vanishing honour, and wonders how young men can be called to be God's ambassadors, and then condole with themselves over their sacrifices.

Is it not a serious reflection upon Christ, and the Gospel they are called upon to preach? If Christ be the Son of God, what honour can compare with that of being called upon to hold the intimate relationships which a minister sustains to his Principal? Are there any names more honoured in the world than those whom Christ sent forth to be His heralds? And if the Cross be the power of God unto salvation, what glory can this earth give like that of lifting it up in the presence of men, persuading them to embrace it? Talk about self-denials, sacrifices, to preach Christ! What will the people think! Will they not judge you as dwelling in your thoughts more upon what you think you might have had of this world, than upon your Master's interests and their salvation? If a minister wants to cast disrespect upon himself, let him disrespect his work, by bringing it into unfavourable contrast with the business and professional employments of other men.-Selected.

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL.

PERSONAL INFLUENCE OF THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER. PERSONAL influence-a subtle, unseen, and often unconscious exercise of power, force, authority—is the inheritance of every one. When man stood forth, new created from the hand of God, some of the first words he heard from his Divine Maker were, "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." And all through the ages the influence of man upon his fellows has been an enormous factor in the history of the race-moulding and fashioning alike the thoughts and habits of nations, and stamping upon the world at large the impress of his individuality.

This possession nowhere finds a nobler field for its exercise than in the Sunday-school, seeing that there we have to do specially with that side of being which is spiritual-upon which eternal destiny dependsand that, too, in the early days of life, when impressions are more easily made, right principles implanted, and the religious instincts more readily affected and moulded, "while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when we shall say we have no pleasure in them." At such a period the amount of good which can be wrought by Sunday-school teachers is, to my mind, simply incalculable.

Commodious buildings, full and complete organisations, each of these is needed; but the most perfect scheme will not do everything. As the