Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 jt-^>
 
 WORK 
 
 PLENTY TO DO MD HOW TO DO IT, 
 
 MARGARET MARIA BREWSTER. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH THOUSAND. 
 
 EDINBURGH: THOMAS CONSTABLE & CO. 
 
 HAMILTON, ADAMS, & CO., LONDON. 
 MDCOCLIV.
 
 fllEFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 THE words of preface which this homely little volume 
 requires are but few. With no pretensions to originality, 
 it professes merely to be a brief Manual of every-day hints 
 to those who, commencing " Life in Earnest," and fully 
 instructed in its principles, may yet feel their need of a 
 few practical and plain-spoken words about the details of 
 their work words often left unspoken, because apparently 
 so obvious. The Author is not without the hope, that her 
 little work may prove of some service to those who, along 
 with herself, may have experienced the needs and lamented 
 the failures, to which she has sought to direct attention. 

 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 A SECOND EDITION having been thus early called for, 
 the Author begs to acknowledge with gratitude the kind 
 reception which her little volume has met with, and to 
 state. for the purpose of removing a misapprehension of 
 which she has been informed, that comparatively but a 
 small portion of this work has appeared in another form.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 I. INTRODUCTORY, 1 
 
 IL WARFARE WORK, 8 
 
 III. EVERY-DAY WORK 14 
 
 IV. SOCIAL WORK, 20 
 
 V. HOME WORK, 34 
 
 VL SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK 44 
 
 V1L WAITING WORK, 54 
 
 VIII. PREPARATORY WORK, 59 
 
 IX. DESULTORY WORK 64 
 
 X PRAISING WORK, 67 
 
 XL SPECIAL WORK 75 
 
 XII. PRAYING WORK, 83 
 
 XIIL HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK, 89 
 
 XIV.- REWARD OF WORK, 100 
 
 XV. FUTURE WORK, 103 
 
 XYL CONCLUSION. ... ... M
 
 WORK. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no 
 work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou gocst." 
 ECCLES. is. 10. 
 
 " Man hath his daily work of body or mind 
 Appointed, which declares his dignity, 
 And the regard of Heaven on all his ways, 
 While other animals inactive range, 
 And of their doings God takes no account." 
 
 PARADISE LOST. 
 
 IDLENESS has no place in the busy and beautiful 
 creation of God ; it enters not into His thoughts and 
 ways ; it is opposed to all that He has said, and to 
 all that He has done. Work, various it is true in 
 kind and degree, is one of the laws of the universe. 
 In our own planet at this moment, multitudes of 
 busy hands and busy heads are to be found in all 
 directions. The merchant at the desk, the labourer 
 in the field, the statesman in the cabinet, the 
 author in the study, the red Indian in the hunting 
 ground, the gold digger in the mine, and a great
 
 2 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 company whose work as a whole constitutes the very 
 essence of social order. It is true that men have 
 taken advantage of this to hold the scales of work 
 with an uneven hand, and to mete an unjust 
 measure. Hence the cry of the slave, hence the 
 "long hours" of the factory, hence the mournful 
 song of the seamstress. 
 
 This does not however interfere with the fact that 
 work is an element of our being. It is not only a 
 barter for food, and raiment, and gold, but it is in- 
 tended and fitted to produce happiness ; while the 
 unworldng classes, sensible of the deficiency, are 
 obliged to assume the semblance of work, and toil 
 in their vocation of finding pleasure. Nor is this 
 principle confined to our earth. We know not what 
 passes within the starry mansions ; but the planet in 
 its revolution, the satellite in its perturbations, the 
 comet in its eccentric path, are all working their 
 appointed work ; while light and heat, snow and 
 vapours, and stormy winds, fulfil the word of their 
 Creator. 
 
 While such is the universal law, its principle 
 and practice have been so marred by the selfishness 
 of man, that we must look to the Gospel for the 
 remedy of the evil, and for those high and holy 
 motives by which the true service of God ought to 
 be characterized and sustained. We accordingly 
 find that there is one great and peculiar privilege 
 amongst many, which God accords to those who,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 being redeemed by the blood of Christ, occupy the 
 twofold position of children and servants. He allows 
 such to work for Him. Nor is this a mere nominal 
 position. He condescends to call them to His help. 
 He gives each a different " charge to keep," which if 
 he neglects, God's glory will suffer loss. He gives 
 each a field to cultivate, and if the furrows are thinly 
 sown, where will be the summer harvest ? In look- 
 ing around, however, upon the Christian Church, it is 
 stailingly evident that there is more profession than 
 practice, more words than deeds, more fair green 
 leaves than ripe wholesome fruit. There are indeed 
 many whose works the day alone will declare, for 
 even their left hand knoweth not what the right hath 
 done; and there is ever a staff of open zealous 
 workers, a record of whose deeds is left behind, 
 
 " Like foot-prints on the sands of time." 
 
 Still there remains a large number of professing 
 Christians who do not work, or at least do not work 
 thoroughly and acceptably, from want of power, or 
 opportunity, or understanding. 
 
 There are many who marvel at the idea of work 
 being a privilege, many whose whole felicity is 
 comprised in the dolce far niente of their negative 
 existence, or in the excitement of their pursuit after 
 blight glancing butterflies. There are others who do 
 not understand the privilege of work, though they 
 are hard workers, harder than any others, for they
 
 4 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 work as if to complete the tale of bricks for an 
 Egyptian task-master. Others there also are, and a 
 vast proportion in the present practical age, who 
 delight in work for its own sake ; their whole lives 
 are passed in meditating and in accomplishing 
 work, successful work, useful work, work to be 
 honoured in all ages. There are yet others whose 
 heads droop, and whose hands hang down ; and who, 
 when they hear that work is a privilege possessed by 
 the children of God, are ready to fancy that such they 
 cannot be, for alas ! they are of no use in the world, 
 God has given them no work to do for Him. Now, 
 to the first class we have nothing to say, unless to 
 bid them learn wisdom from the bee and the bird, 
 and the silent but ever-working monitors who dwell 
 in the little peopled cities on every hill-side. (Prov. 
 vi. 6.) Neither do we speak to the second class, 
 because they are not working for God, they are 
 emphatically working for themselves, and in the way 
 most offensive to God, for they are trying to hew out 
 a door of their own into heaven, their works are 
 " dead works," or " splendid sins," as St. Augustine 
 said of such. Nor can we invite the third class to 
 listen to us, for neither are they working for God, 
 even though their work may often look like God's 
 work, they are working for fame, for occupation, 
 for excitement, for philanthropy ; they are working 
 because they cannot help working, because to be 
 busy is a principle of their nature. But we turn to
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 5 
 
 the fourth class, because we would fain say a few 
 words to open their eyes to see, and their ears to 
 hear something of all that their Master is doing, and 
 speaking, and requiring from them. 
 
 Of course, we do not refer to those who turn away 
 from work when it is before them, because they do 
 not like it, and listlessly dream away their lives in 
 imagining work that they would do if they had it, 
 work that would suit their natural temperaments, or 
 in other words, their natural selfishness. No ; but we 
 speak to a class much more numerous than is gene- 
 rally supposed, those who are ready and willing 
 to work for God more than willing tremulously 
 anxious to do something for Him who has done so 
 much for them, but who, from nervous, easily dis- 
 couraged temperaments, and a false understanding 
 of the nature of work, oftentimes imagine that they 
 have neither niche in the temple, nor place in the 
 vineyard. Such Christians look with a feeling akin 
 to envy upon those who are engaged in special and 
 visible work, in teaching the ignorant, clothing the 
 naked, visiting the prisoner, ministering to the sick, 
 winning souls to Jesus. Are you, dear friend, whom 
 we now address, prevented from doing this by peculiar 
 causes known only to yourself ? It may be delicacy 
 of health, difficulty of position, many incompatible 
 duties, dependence on the will of others, want of pe- 
 cuniary means, or all of these combined. The cause 
 or causes, though quite apparent and necessarily con-
 
 6 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 straining to yourself, may not be equally visible to the 
 world ; and the fear of being looked upon by those 
 who do not understand your position, as one whose 
 faith, being without works, is dead, and thus dis- 
 honouring to the cause of your Master, is perhaps 
 adding a deeper shade to your discouragement a 
 sharper sting to your sorrow. Is it so ? Then we 
 would attempt to impress the blessed fact upon your 
 mind, that you are now in a working position, if you 
 have a working spirit. In the routine of your every- 
 day life, you have work given you to do, although 
 you do not recognise it, it is waiting at your side, 
 although you are looking away in search of something 
 which your Master has not seen fit to give. 
 
 One great and general mistake evidently arises from 
 a separation between the different parts of the Chris- 
 tian's duty. A young believer was one day mourning 
 over the quantity of ivorlds work which she had 
 to do. "Do not call it such," said a farther ad- 
 vanced friend ; " there is no world's work to the 
 believer ; it is all the Lord's work." In short, the 
 Christian's whole life is a work for God ; when he 
 becomes the Lord's, he ceases to be his own. He is 
 bought with a price ; and from the time when he 
 feels the first rush of grateful love, there need never 
 be an hour or a moment in which he is not accom- 
 plishing the primary part of " man's chief end," the 
 glorifying of God. He may rise up in the bright 
 morning prime, and go forth to the various duties
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 and intricacies of the day with the blessed assurance 
 that the eye of his benign Master is smiling upon 
 him the while, and that He is accepting and treasur- 
 ing the smallest services, if done for His sake, and 
 washed in the blood that is required to purify all : 
 and when, returning to his home, he enjoys the rest 
 and relaxation of the sweet dewy evening, he may 
 rejoice in the thought that this also is not wasted 
 time, but that in fitting and refreshing him for the 
 morrow's work, it is in itself also service for God.
 
 WARFARE WORK. 
 
 II. 
 
 WARFARE WORK. 
 
 " Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of 
 God ? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye be- 
 lieve on him whom he hath sent." JOHX vi. 26, 29. 
 
 " Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand 
 held a. weapon." NBH. iv. 17. 
 
 " Fight the fight, Christian, 
 
 Jesus is o'er thee ; 
 Run the race, Christian, 
 
 Heaven 's before thee. 
 Thee from the love of Christ. 
 
 Nothing can sever ; 
 Mount, when thy work is done. 
 
 Praise Him for ever." 
 
 WE have placed this species of work first, although 
 it is not an outer, but an inner service. The results 
 of the struggle are, however, apparent to all, and the 
 work that has been begun in the hidden temple, will 
 manifest itself in the external vineyard. In fact, 
 without the warfare there can be no successful work ; 
 without the weapon in the one hand, there is little 
 use of the trowel in the other. Till the soul has 
 worked out its own salvation with fear and trembling, 
 the hand will not be confident, nor the step unfalter- 
 ing in the service of God. 
 
 There is no danger of any Christian being without
 
 WARFARE WORK. 9 
 
 work in abundance, for sufficient is here laid before 
 him for a long life-time. It is not easy to believe ; 
 nay, it is very difficult truly and simply to believe in 
 Jesus Christ ; and yet in the passage quoted above, 
 He himself speaks of it as the work of all others, which 
 is to be worked for God. When our hearts are crusted 
 over by carnal reason, and doubt, and difficulty, it is 
 no easy matter to take again the heart of a little 
 child, and simply believe our Father's true word ; yet 
 this is a needful work for His children. When self- 
 righteousness, strong and throbbing, whispers that it 
 is long enough for a couch, and broad enough for a 
 covering, then it is difficult indeed to cast off its 
 " rags," and to put on a spotless robe which we have 
 had no share in weaving ; yet, this too is one of the 
 works of God. When all within us is dark and dreary ; 
 when a thick, heavy veil seems to hang between us 
 and all that was once clear and bright to our vision ; 
 when we knoiv, but do not feel, that we are sinners, 
 and Jesus Christ a Saviour, then there is nothing in 
 the whole world so difficult as to look up and say, " MY 
 Lord, and MY God." But, every time that we take the 
 sword of the Spirit and cleave asunder the veil, and 
 mount up, up, far beyond the mists, to the light- 
 surrounded throne, and see there, and love there the 
 Lamb as it had been slain, we are working a work 
 more honouring to God than any other. Look up 
 then, desponding and self-righteous, and doubting be- 
 liever, look up believe and live believe and ivorlc.
 
 10 WARFARE WORK. 
 
 This, however, is but the beginning of warfare 
 work, it is continued through the whole upward 
 struggle. Holiness, the result of faith, does not 
 enter the heart quietly and gently, though it brings 
 joy and peace ; it causes a hard struggle, a fierce 
 warfare with the old unholy inhabitants of the heart. 
 We may fully trust in earthly friend or father, and 
 there is none to hinder us ; we may pour devoted love 
 upon beings like ourselves, and all within the heart 
 is in unison ; but we cannot confide in Him who be- 
 seeches our confidence, without contesting every inch 
 of the ground with fierce foes from within ; we can- 
 not love Him, who is the lover of our souls, without 
 heart rivals starting up to dispute the supremacy. 
 Where is the human heart that has not its besetting 
 sin, its chosen idol ? Where is the renewed heart 
 that is not struggling, or attempting to struggle, in 
 the agonies of its crucifixion ? The idol-breaking 
 work in each individual is as much of a reality, as 
 the iconoclastic work of bygone centuries the idols 
 that are unseen, are as real as the Juggernauts of 
 India, and the images of Rome. Every time, how- 
 ever, that the Holy Spirit enables us to dethrone the 
 usurper, to bear the suffering, to resist the temptation, 
 to love the Loving One, to trust in the true Friend, 
 we are gaining ground in holiness the chief end of 
 the new creation and we are working the work of 
 God. Nor is it alone for Him ; it is also a work 
 for others every self-conquest, every progress in
 
 WAKFARE WORK. 11 
 
 sanctification, is an increase of influence over souls. 
 When the armour is laid aside when the sword 
 falls from the nerveless arm when sin is allowed to 
 triumph, and holiness is forgotten, or deferred till the 
 morrow then words of warning to the sinner, of 
 counsel to the backsliding, of sympathy to the sorrow- 
 ful, come carelessly and coldly from our lips. It is 
 only when we have put on the whole armour of God 
 when we are resisting unto blood, striving against 
 sin when we are mourning over our defeats, and 
 fleeing to the Strong One for strength, that we can 
 minister to the needy, that we can arm the unarmed, 
 that we can shew the way to Him who giveth us the 
 victory through Christ our living Lord. 
 
 Besides this inner struggle, there is another which 
 bears more upon the outward life, and may be called 
 a warfare with circumstance. We have said that it 
 is only the renewed heart that is the battle-ground of 
 the one, but all are more or less engaged in the other. 
 All have a crook in the lot, a skeleton at the feast ; 
 all have a conflict to maintain with contending duties 
 and perplexing difficulties, with intricate positions, 
 with cares, strifes, and sorrows. Very different, how- 
 ever, are the ways in which this warfare is waged. 
 Some struggle because they cannot help it, and are 
 like " the dumb driven cattle " others are so feeble in 
 their grasp, so faltering in their step, that they soon 
 
 " By the roadside fall and perish. 
 Weary with the march of Life."
 
 12 WARFARE WORK. 
 
 Others attempt to strew the ground with flowers, to 
 dispel the darkness with ignesfatui to conceal even 
 from themselves that they have a conflict to main- 
 tain ; although none know better how the iron of 
 unused weapons enters into the soul, how sharp are 
 the thorns of the rose, how deluding is the light of 
 the meteor. Others are strong in their own strength, 
 and stoically bear the wounds, and handle the wea- 
 pons, but a time of defeat surely comes, when they 
 are heard to say, " All these things are against us." 
 It is the Christian only, who, going not forth at his 
 own charges, can engage in the Life-battle joyfully 
 and successfully. That victory which secures tem- 
 poral rest and enjoyment, is of less importance to 
 him than to others, for he knows that all things are 
 working together for his good, and he is sure of a 
 coming time of entire repose ; but he struggles against 
 despondency, he conquers difficulties, he rises above 
 sorrows and disappointments, that his Father may 
 be glorified in him to the utmost, and that by so doing 
 he may work a good work of faith and patience. 
 
 The encouragements to warfare work are many 
 and great. The Captain of our salvation is pledged 
 for our victory. He is engaged to " cover our heads 
 in the day of battle," and through Him we shall be 
 more than conquerors. Unlike the iron warriors of 
 the earth, His heart bleeds in His soldier's wounds ; 
 He feels the pangs of the cut off arm and the plucked 
 out eye ; and He rejoices in His own promise of a
 
 WARFARE WORK. 13 
 
 blessed future, when " the warfare shall be accom- 
 plished," when the conquered land shall be possessed. 
 We cannot conclude this chapter better than by the 
 following extract from GurnaU's " Christian in Com- 
 plete Armour :" " The Christian armour is made to 
 be worn ; no laying down or putting off our armour, 
 till we have done our warfare, and finished our 
 course. Our armour and our garments of flesh go 
 off together ; then indeed will be no need of watch 
 and ward, shield or helmet. Those military duties 
 and field graces, (as I may call faith, hope, and the 
 rest,) they shall be honourably discharged. In heaven 
 we shall appear, not in armour, but in robes of glory ; 
 but here they are to be worn night and day; we 
 must walk, work, and sleep in them, or else we are 
 not true soldiers of Christ."
 
 14 E VERY-DAY WORK. 
 
 III. 
 E VERY-DAY WORK. 
 
 " Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 2lory of 
 God." 1 COB. x. 31. 
 
 " We need not bid, for cloister'd cell, 
 Our neighbour and our work farewell, 
 Nor strive to wind ourselves too high 
 For sinful man beneath the sky. 
 The trivial round, the common task, 
 Would furnish all we ought to ask, 
 Room to deny ourselves, a road 
 To bring us daily nearer God." KEBLE. 
 
 " All may of Thee partake. 
 
 Nothing can be so mean. 
 Which with this tincture, FOR THY SAKE, 
 
 Will not grow bright and clean ; 
 
 This is the famous stone 
 
 That turneth all to gold, 
 For that which God doth touch and own, 
 
 Cannot for less be told." HERBERT. 
 
 THOSE who wish to bestow the years of their life 
 upon God, must also give Him the days, the hours, and 
 the moments. Bickersteth says, " Only think of pre- 
 sent duties, the moment's work : our life is given to us 
 in moments, and we shall have joys for each." Every- 
 day work is often looked upon as waste of time, or 
 only fitted for those who have no exalted sensibilities, 
 no heroic purposes, no aspirations after the higher
 
 EVERY-DAY WORK. 15 
 
 services of God. We strongly suspect, however, that 
 those who can see no true sublimity in the faithful 
 performance of lowly and self-denying tasks, even to 
 the " sweeping of a floor" if need be,* will fall very 
 far short of the heroism and magnanimity required 
 foi the sacrifices and the services which they think 
 themselves prepared to offer. On the other hand, the 
 missionary will be all the better fitted for his noble 
 career, if he has been faithful in the daily mission of 
 life ; the martyr will not suffer with less fortitude, 
 because he has long taken up meekly the daily cross. 
 Heroism, in fact, is rarely understood to be, simply, 
 uncompromised duty ! Heroism, which is not duty, 
 is but a dream of the dark ages. Duty that is not 
 performed with the spirit of a hero, is but the mortar 
 and the brick of hard bondage. The hero understood 
 this, who proclaimed to his heroes, no premature 
 peeans of secure victory, no highly wrought represen- 
 tations of martial glory, but the simple words, " Eng- 
 land expects every man to do his duty I" and the 
 aggregate of individual duty was triumphant heroism. 
 In the daily walks of life unseen and unadmired, there 
 may exist the truest heroic elements ; and 
 
 " All may find, if they dare choose, 
 A glorious life and grave" 
 
 in the sphere of commonplace duty. It is not very 
 long since a prince in Israel went from amidst his 
 
 * " He that sweeps a floor as for God's law, 
 
 Makes that and the action fine." UXBBBBT.
 
 16 EVERY-DAY WORK. 
 
 peers, and most of his " glorious life" was lived in n 
 grocer's shop. We think that none can rise from the 
 perusal of the " Successful Merchant/'* without feel- 
 ing the strength and the stateliness of that spirit of 
 grace, which can shed beauty upon what might else 
 be unseemly, and stamp nobility where the world 
 had not bestowed it. " Elizius, an eminent French 
 bishop, born at Chatelat, A.D. 588, became known in 
 the Church, not from the fame of his learning, not 
 from the austerities practised in his age, but from the 
 skill, fidelity, and success which he displayed in the 
 goldsmith's shop, which was then the scene of his 
 daily labours. His learned biographer says, ' Re- 
 ligion gave him strength and interest in his work ; 
 and as his work constrained him to attend to earthly 
 things, he felt all the more the necessity of refreshing 
 his spirit with spiritual things.' The religion which 
 had thus shed its lustre upon the shop of the artisan, 
 did not stop there. The influence which his honesty, 
 economy, and frequently tried principle, obtained for 
 him, paved the way for his religious labours amongst 
 the ignorant people by whom he was surrounded, and 
 when a bishopric became vacant, that required to be 
 filled by one peculiarly laborious and devoted, he was 
 unanimously elected. His goings out and comings 
 in, and the commencement of all his undertakings, 
 had long been accompanied by prayer, while the open 
 Bible, which we are told was spread before the dili- 
 
 Or Memoirs of Samuel Budget, Esq. By William Arthur, A.M.
 
 EVERY-DAY WORK. 17 
 
 gent fashioner of the fine gold, was the best school of 
 divinity for the future bishop.* 
 
 It is a common idea, and we may venture to say, 
 a common mistake, that attention to every-day affairs 
 is incompatible with genius. Now it seems to us 
 that the highest attainment and ambition of this 
 rarely understood gift especially in woman ought 
 to be the power of performing all duty, from the 
 highest to the humblest, with energy and success, 
 so that its possessor may bestow happiness, soothe 
 sorrows, inculcate truth, and accomplish the tasks of 
 Life more successfully than they from whom it has 
 been withheld. The genius which turns in disgust 
 from what is plain and homely, and confines itself to 
 the ecstatic regions of sentiment, is a spurious or at 
 best a defective quality, and lacks the unity and 
 enlargement of true power. 
 
 Look around then, you who are yearning to be 
 employed in the service of your God, and try to 
 realize what He has given you to do to-day, and do 
 not look beyond it. Strength is promised according 
 to your day, but not according to your morrow. 
 Every-day work requires every-day grace, and every- 
 day grace requires every-day asking. Just try the 
 experiment then, for once, no matter what your 
 occupation may be, no matter how distasteful to 
 your natural disposition, the more distasteful the 
 
 * " Light in the Dark Places ; or, Memorials of Christian Life in the Middle 
 Ages." From the German of Neander.
 
 18 EVERY-DAY WORK. 
 
 better, so long as it is your duty. It may be the 
 arithmetic lesson taught to the little wayward child 
 or the wearisome drive with the complaining in- 
 valid or the petty and fatiguing duties and arrange- 
 ments attendant upon your household concerns, or 
 the routine of the shop, or the counting-house, or the 
 writing-office ; whatever it is, take it first to God. 
 Before you begin, kneel and implore His blessing ; 
 ask Him for a fresh, diligent spirit ; ask Him for 
 a spirit of patience and meekness in contending with 
 all the little wearisome difficulties and annoyances 
 connected with it ; ask Him to enable you not only 
 to bear the daily cross, but to " take it up," denying 
 yourself and following the footsteps of the Lord 
 Jesus. (Luke ix. 23.) Then put your whole might 
 into it, the might that you have borrowed from a 
 mightier than yourself, for that is the secret of real 
 work. Do it as if your Master were standing before 
 you, do it as you would have cast the net into the 
 sea, as you would have fastened together the tent, 
 as you would have laboured in the carpenter's 
 shop, had you lived in the early days with Christ 
 and His Apostles. Do not offer to God the blind, and 
 the lame, and the maimed things of your mind ; do 
 not offer a spirit dreaming of the great things which 
 you could do, or may do at some other time, but offer 
 to Him your wakeful, rejoicing, present energies, and 
 you will find how brightly the day beams upon you, 
 how sweetly the night gives you sleep, and how
 
 EVERY-DAY WORK.. 19 
 
 gratefully your heart swells with a sense of the ten- 
 derness of God as a Father, as well as His benignity 
 as a Master. 
 
 We think it was John Newton who went one day 
 to visit a Christian brother, and found him busily 
 engaged in his occupation of tanning. The man 
 attempted to apologize. " Just so, my friend," said 
 his pastor, " may your Lord find you when He comes ; 
 it is the work He has given you to do, and He expects 
 you to do it diligently."
 
 20 SOCIAL WORK 
 
 IV. 
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 " Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon ua ; and establish thou the wori 
 ef our hands upon us." PSALM xc. 1". 
 
 " Adom the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." TITCS ii. 10. 
 
 " I ask thee for a thoughtful love, 
 
 Through constant watching wise, 
 To meet the glad with joyful smiles, 
 
 And wipe the weeping eyes : 
 And a heart at leisure from itself, 
 
 To soothe and sympathize. 
 
 " Wherever in the world I am, 
 
 In whatsoe'er estate, 
 I have a fellowship of hearts. 
 
 To keep and cultivate ; 
 And a work of lowly love to do, 
 
 For the Lord on whom I wait." 
 
 THERE are few trials so grievous to the Christian as 
 the necessity of being much in uncongenial society ; 
 even if his natural temperament is not entirely op- 
 posed to it, his renewed one revolts from it alto- 
 gether. If this is your position, dear friend, we can 
 imagine your heart fainting, and your spirit failing 
 within you. When you would love to be still and 
 silent, with your heart lifted up in blessed communion 
 with your Saviour, or taking "sweet counsel" with 
 His people, or when you would fain be employed in
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 21 
 
 active service in His vineyard, you are obliged to go 
 into scenes whence you return home despondingly, 
 feeling that there you have left some of your precious 
 things, without having imparted them to others ; your 
 bodily strength is worn out by what seems labour worse 
 than wasted, and day after day finds you and leaves 
 you weary, and useless, and murmuring. This must 
 not be. When safely within the ark yourself, you are, 
 it is true, 
 
 " Sheltered, but not to social duties lost : 
 Secluded, but not buried." 
 
 WOKDSWORTH. 
 
 God has allotted to you a social work to do for 
 Him, and how grieved He must be when His servant, 
 Jonah-like, flies from it. It has been eloquently said 
 by one, herself, alas ! a stranger to the highest ele- 
 ment of this species of service, " No, we cannot leave 
 society while one clod remains unpervaded by Divine 
 life. We cannot live and grow in consecrated earth 
 alone."* Keep this work ever before you self- 
 denial is one part of it ; the adorning of the doc- 
 trine of your Saviour is another ; the winning of souls 
 to Christ by your influence, noiseless and name- 
 less as it may be, is another ; and soon you will find 
 the evil to yourself obviated, despondency vanish- 
 ing, and an object of deep interest rising into your 
 present objectless life. To give an example how the 
 principle may be reduced to practice in what are called 
 " little things," (although nothing is little in the sight 
 
 * Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli.
 
 22 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 of the great God ;) the next time that your brow is 
 shadowed and your tone impatient because of the 
 arrival of one visitor after another, interrupting a 
 favourite occupation ; or a cherished scheme of doing 
 good ; or that you are obliged to go forth to the social 
 circle, when you would rather be resting beside your 
 own pleasant fireside ; go to Him who went forth from 
 the mountain, and the Kedron, to be buffeted in the 
 busy world ask for the same Spirit that was in 
 Him, to make you a willing servant in any way that 
 He pleases ; take up the little cross cheerfully, smooth 
 your perturbed brow, get your heart filled with in- 
 terest, and your eyes brightened with kindliness ; and 
 in the pleasant glance, the genuine cordiality, the 
 gentle word spoken in season, perchance to those not 
 accustomed to gentleness, you will be doing real 
 Jhough humble work for God, all the more real 
 and the more acceptable that it is work which none 
 will know and none applaud. 
 
 Inseparable from this kind of work, there is the 
 work of influence, both conscious and unconscious ; 
 for the latter we would refer our readers to the ad- 
 mirable little tract called " Unconscious Influence ;" 
 with regard to the former, we would seek to impress 
 upon all the necessity of cultivating diligently a talent 
 which God has confided to the trust of every one. 
 There is no form of false humility more common 
 than that which prompts the remark, " Alas ! / pos- 
 sess no influence, what can I do ?" Now it is true
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 23 
 
 that many have no wealth, no beauty, no rank, no 
 accomplishments, no intellect ; but there never lias 
 been a heart created since the world began, that has 
 not received and exerted the precious though much- 
 abused gift of influence. How is this ? Just be- 
 cause every heart has the power of loving. We have 
 heard the well-known answer of Cecil's little daughter, 
 quoted by one of the greatest of our living poets, 
 as containing the essence of the truest, most thrill- 
 ing poetry ; it certainly contains the essence of the 
 truest influence : " Mary, why does every body love 
 you so much ?" " Oh, papa, I think it must be be- 
 cause I love every body !" 
 
 Here, then, is a work which all have to do. " Love 
 is power ;" therefore love is work, if the power is used 
 for God. The sunshine has its work to do ; it pene- 
 trates into all dark places, all dreary nooks and 
 crevices, lighting up and cheering ; it brings life and 
 warmth to the chilled and torpid ; it gives colour to 
 the flower, and ripeness to the fruit ; it takes a 
 message into every heart, for all hearts love the sun- 
 shine, and it speaks of hope and comfort even to the 
 kneelers beside a dying bed. Just so may the loving 
 heart do : it may not be a powerful heart it may 
 not be a wise heart it may nt>t be a rich heart ; but 
 if it is a loving heart, it will go about cheering and 
 lighting up, warming and colouring, and ripening all 
 things just like the sun. One of the most hardened 
 offenders in Newgate, when she was brought to the
 
 24 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 feet of Jesus in her right mind, declared that it was 
 Mrs. Fry's " Look of Love" that first led her to hope 
 that she too might be saved ; and most of us know 
 well the effect of a kindly sympathizing look, shining 
 upon us in the midst of heart darkness, like a burst 
 of light and blue sky on a " rainy day," that was 
 " cold, and dark, and dreary." 
 
 Closely allied to the loving heart and the loving 
 look is the loving manner ; and yet these three are 
 often at variance, and we are wounded by the thorns 
 and the briers when beneath are blossoming fresh 
 lovely rose-buds. Many very good people seem to 
 think it a duty to keep their hearts locked and pad- 
 locked, for fear of casting their pearls into the'mire ; 
 others are intensely disagreeable, because it is their 
 way, and " what does manner signify ?" Others are 
 painfully aware of their defects, but the habits of 
 early life are too strong for them. And so it comes 
 to pass that we so frequently meet with that anomaly 
 in grace, a disagreeable Christian. Have you ever 
 thought seriously of the sin which it involves ? Have 
 you ever thought that it makes the religion of your 
 gentle, genial Master appear disagreeable too ? Have 
 you ever thought, that as the Lord Jesus Christ 
 looks upon the cup of cold water as given to Hun, so 
 He will look upon the wounded feeling, the repulsed 
 confidence, the bruised spirit, as given to Him also ? 
 Oh, it is a sad thing to fold up in a napkin the talent 
 of manner, to lose the key of the casket, to forget
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 25 
 
 the Sesame to the hearts of men ! Let it not be ob- 
 jected that this implies insincerity or affectation, 
 that it is assuming something which is not felt. If the 
 heart is right with God, glowing with love to Jesus, 
 and filled with the fruits of the Spirit, there is no fear 
 of insincerity in a manner expressing interest, and 
 sympathy, and kindness, and compassion towards all ; 
 for all are " possible angels," possible redeemed ones ! 
 Closely connected with the law of love, there is 
 the "Law of Consideration." Mrs. Hannah More, 
 of whom we shall give a slight sketch at the end of 
 the chapter, was so impressed with the necessity of 
 this quality, that she expressed her intention of writ- 
 ing a treatise upon it, which, however, she unhappily 
 never accomplished. It is not so necessarily a part 
 of love as influence, for many loving hearts who 
 would lay them down to die for the objects of their 
 affections, yet lack the minute thoughtfulness, the 
 attentive watching, the intuitive knowledge, " the 
 determination," to use Mrs. More's words " to be 
 the author, in the common matters of life, of as little 
 unnecessary uneasiness, trouble, or inconvenience as 
 possible/' which are essential parts of the law of con- 
 sideration. This law is simply a fulfilment in its 
 strictest sense of the command, " Love thy neighbour 
 as thyself ;" for who does not like to be thought of, 
 and thought for ? Who does not wish to be saved 
 from the pin-points of trouble and uneasiness which 
 we suffer, and make others suffer every day from
 
 2G SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 want of consideration ? This quality is peculiarly 
 alluded to, when God says, " Blessed is he that con- 
 sidereth the poor," which is not a benediction upon 
 those who give large alms and do great things for 
 them ; Lut upon those who consider their case, and 
 with wisdom and tenderness think for them and do 
 for them according to their ability. 
 
 We must allude in passing, to a subject which 
 often causes doubt and embarrassment to the con- 
 scientious Christian, viz., the lawfulness of cultivating 
 what are called " accomplishments." In accordance 
 with the views stated above, we look upon it as a 
 duty to do so. Has God given beautiful gifts for 
 the purpose of being buried in the earth ? If the 
 soul-cheering art of the musician, the singing of 
 sweet songs, and the still more noble studies of the 
 pencil and the palette, are not abused, but used for 
 the relaxation and refreshment of the wearied mind, 
 and as means of influence and attraction over others, 
 they are consecrated into work for the Bountiful One, 
 who giveth us all things, richly to be enjoyed. In- 
 deed, viewed as the medium of giving pleasure, they 
 become no small element in the social work ; there 
 are ever some irritable and Sanl-like temperaments 
 which can be soothed and comforted by heart-reach- 
 ing strains of music ; there are ever some minds 
 which will give more respect to the religion that is 
 accompanied by gifts and accomplishments, simply 
 and cheerfully exercised.
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 27 
 
 The quality most required in social work, is that 
 most difficult to be obtained even at a throne of grace, 
 unselfishness ! There are few imputations from 
 which we start back so sensitively as the charge of sel- 
 fishness, and never is it more justly founded than when 
 in our own estimation we are peculiarly free from its 
 dominion. All our social faults, however, flow from 
 this source, and we are apt to forget that it is not 
 only selfishness displayed to men, but also displayed 
 to Him who pleased not Himself. God has given us 
 His will upon this point clearly and strongly expressed 
 in the Golden Eule "Whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do to you, do ye even so to them," and 
 its twin commandment " Love thy neighbour as 
 thyself." Such, doubtless, is the code of the social 
 circle above, but it is not upon earth as it is in 
 heaven. From whence proceeds that " entrenchment 
 in our own individuality," as it has been well ex- 
 pressed by a modern writer, which prevents us from 
 admitting any within the pale of our sympathies, 
 who do not " interest" us, as the phrase is, or with 
 whom we have " no ideas in common ?" From 
 whence comes the feeling of self-congratulation 
 " Lo, I am better than thou, wiser than thou, created 
 of finer clay, and gifted with higher intelligence 
 than thou ?" From whence come the indifferent 
 manner, the hasty judgment, the supercilious look, 
 the witty story told at the expense of an acquain- 
 tance ? From whence the carelessness of the pur-
 
 28 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 suits, the wishes and the feelings of our neighbours ? 
 From whence, save from the deliberate breach of 
 God's commandments. Christians though we be, we 
 do not love our neighbour as ourselves, we do not 
 unto him as we wish him to do unto us. 
 
 Here is a work then placed before each, a work of 
 obedience so arduous and so momentous, that in- 
 stead of any bemoaning the absence of work, they 
 might be more easily excused, were they to exclaim 
 despondingly " Who is sufficient for these things ?" 
 Up, then, rouse you from your lethargy, do battle 
 with the principle of self within you, unlock this 
 exclusiveness, escape from this indifference. What ! 
 indifferent to any whom you may meet in heaven, 
 or rescue from hell ? Throw shaft and pulley into 
 the yet unworked mine of manner, of affection, of 
 influence, and precious will be the treasures that 
 come forth from the depths. Replace the gossip, the 
 self-estimation, the superciliousness by kind looks, 
 thoughtful actions, encouraging words. Lend a help- 
 ing hand to some, who, though they have failed to 
 " interest," may yet be sorely discouraged because of 
 the way. Draw forth the good that there is in all. 
 " None are all evil." Many hearts that appear hard 
 and inaccessible will be found in the sunshine of 
 kindness like the granite rock in the south, which 
 emits sweet music at sunrise. Many still more icy, 
 resemble the snowy Andes which are not without 
 their currents of genial air.
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 20 
 
 Were there no other instrument for social work 
 placed in our possession than the wonderful one of 
 speech, what a wide range of usefulness would be 
 opened up to us, and how startling the thought of 
 the multitude of " idle words" which are gathering 
 against us for the day of judgment ! One ahle 
 writer * informs us that every spoken word causes a 
 vibration in the air which spreads in all directions 
 round the whole world, and produces a change in the 
 atmosphere which alters it through all future time. 
 Anotherf declares that " the air is one vast library 
 in whose pages are for ever written all that man has 
 said, and woman whispered." Alas ! for the bulky 
 volumes of the idle and the hurtful thus strangely 
 registered, compared with the small compass required 
 for words to which God hearkens and writes in the 
 book of His remembrance. Such statements in some 
 measure realize to us the wonderful significance of 
 language which in some such way may now be regis- 
 tering its silent records, hereafter to witness against 
 us with loud and startling re-utterance. 
 
 To draw the poison from "the unruly evil," to 
 tame the tameless member, to guide aright the small 
 helm which turneth about great ships,! is no easy, 
 unworthy, or merely negative work. " Pleasant 
 words are as an honey-comb, sweet to the soul, and 
 pleasant to the bones." The fountain which has 
 
 Dr. Hitchcock in his " Religion of Geology." t Mr. Babbage. 
 
 I James iii. 4-8. 5 Prov. xvi. 24.
 
 30 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 hitherto sent forth a bitter flood, may send forth 
 the sweet waters of affection and blessing ; the " idle 
 words" may be changed into the busy ones of gentle- 
 ness and sympathy ; the harsh accents into a sweet 
 voice, persuading men to listen to the yet sweeter, 
 which says, " Beloved, love one another." 
 
 So important is the social vocation, that we can- 
 not consider any species or degree of work, needful 
 though it may seem, to be work befitting the 
 Christian, which interferes with the cultivation of 
 social interests, and social amenities. It is at best 
 only one species of work untimeously displacing an- 
 other, which cannot be pleasing to the God of order 
 and design. We quote the following admirable pas- 
 sage from the accomplished authoress of " Anna ; 
 or, Passages in a Home Life." "When God is 
 teaching us lessons on this subject, we begin to see 
 that circumstances as well as commands are but an 
 expression of His will. We then feel that no out- 
 ward thing can really ' hinder' us. A 'vexatious 
 interruption to duty,' we perceive to be a contradic- 
 tion in terms. . . . Let us thank God and take 
 courage when it is so with us ; let us take the full 
 comfort of this fact, that we are servants, and have 
 really no work of our own to do, nothing which we 
 are striving to accomplish on our own account. We 
 have no selfish schemes which circumstances may 
 thwart, we acknowledge no selfish hopes which they 
 may destroy. It is blessedness, indeed, to have
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 31 
 
 accepted as our only portion, that His will should be 
 done, in us, and for us, and by us for ever !" 
 
 It must be remarked that there is no small degree 
 of danger connected with social work, and no small 
 degree of grace required to enable us to walk in 
 wisdom. The temptations are great to overstep the 
 line of demarcation between the social sphere in 
 which God has placed us, and the worldly sphere in 
 which God has not placed us, to be unduly all 
 things to all men, and to seek, and perhaps to find, a 
 degree of popularity which may interfere with the 
 simplicity of our work. Rutherford says, that the 
 Christian in society must be like "the fresh river 
 that keepeth its own fresh taste in the salt sea." 
 
 We are not without bright examples of the prac- 
 ticability and the importance of such a work. One 
 there was, who lately belonged to our own times, 
 but who now belongs to the times of heaven ; her 
 spirit like the sandal tree was fragrant as well as 
 fruitful, and though the life has departed from the 
 stem, the fragrance yet lingers, and the fruit yet 
 remains. Fifty years ago a lovely spot in Wiltshire 
 received the name of Barley Wood. Situated on 
 elevated ground commanding picturesque and beauti- 
 ful views, its lawns and its gardens bore the marks 
 of graceful and constant cultivation. So retired and 
 so peaceful was its aspect, that when told it was the 
 abode of a Christian lady, the passer-by might think 
 that she had taken wings like a dove, according to
 
 32 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 the wish of the Psalmist, and flown away from the 
 busy world. Barley Wood, however, was in one 
 sense a world in miniature. Rank and wealth and 
 fashion found their way there, to sun themselves in 
 the smile of a graceful and courteous hostess. Men 
 of taste and literature sought the dwelling of Hannah 
 More. The afflicted, and the ignorant, and the per- 
 plexed, went for help and instruction. There was 
 besides another world of correspondence to be dealt 
 with, a large system of schools to be superintended, 
 the most arduous literary tasks to be performed 
 while the woman called to these conflicting claims 
 and duties was no longer young, but bowed down by 
 sickness and bereavement. How then do we find 
 her performing her social work under such trying 
 circumstances ? We are told by the biographers of 
 Hannah More, that when first introduced to worldly 
 people, she did not immediately enter upon the sub- 
 ject of religion, but tried to use the charm of her in- 
 fluence to do away prejudice, and to prepare the way 
 for more personal dealing ; if, however, she knew 
 that she might not again have an opportunity, she 
 used to come to the point at once. Peculiarly sen- 
 sible to her influence, many youthful hearts were thus 
 led to Jesus, and in the midst of the most worldly 
 society, she never forgot to confess her Master before 
 men. It was said of her that whatever was the party 
 and the topic, " upon her tongue was the law of kind- 
 ness ; there was never a word to offend^ or wound,
 
 SOCIAL WORK. 33 
 
 or grieve, but always something to instruct and im- 
 prove. Her thoughts were always given to the busi- 
 ness of the moment with concentration and energy ; 
 nor was any duty too small to be performed with 
 care and prayerful diligence, if it was large enough 
 to affect the comfort, the feelings, and the interests 
 of those around her. Along with the marvellous 
 testimonies to her Christian and social graces, which 
 greeted this mother in Israel on all sides, there was 
 one, which, although simple and homely in its ex- 
 pression, requires many, and various, and rare quali- 
 ties she was pronounced to be " a person most easy 
 to be lived with." 
 
 Wilberforce was another great and striking ex- 
 ample of religion carried into the social sphere with- 
 out injury to his own spirituality. When he went 
 into society he used to prepare what he called 
 " launchers" or questions and subjects for discourse, 
 suitable for introducing the spiritual conversation, 
 which he endeavoured to make useful to a class of 
 whom Wesley said, in a message to Hannah More, 
 " Tell her to make that her sphere they will not 
 listen to us." Lord Bacon makes the following strik- 
 ing observations in his Essay upon Goodness : " If 
 a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shews 
 he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no 
 island cut off from other lands, but a continent that 
 joins to them ; if he be compassionate towards the 
 afflictions of others, it shews that his heart is like the 
 c
 
 34 SOCIAL WORK. 
 
 noble tree, that is wounded itself when it gives the 
 balm ; if he easily pardons and remits offences, it 
 shews that his mind is planted above injuries, so that 
 he cannot be shot ; if he be thankful for small bene- 
 fits, it shews that he weighs men's minds, and not 
 their trash ; but above all, if he have St. Paul's per- 
 fection, that he would wish to be an anathema from 
 Christ, for the salvation of his brethren, it shews 
 much of a divine nature, and a kind of conformity 
 with Christ himself." 
 
 Without multiplying examples and quotations, 
 however, we shall only farther cite an often read, 
 often lauded, often forgotten, yet faultless code for 
 social manners. Were its sublime precepts to be 
 fully observed, the wilderness might blossom as the 
 rose, the lion might lie down with the lamb, and 
 there might be nothing to hurt or destroy in the holy 
 mountain. "Charity suflereth long, and is kind; 
 charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, is 
 not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
 seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh 
 no evil ; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in 
 the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things, endureth all things." 1 COR. 
 xiii. 4-7.
 
 HOME WORK. 35 
 
 V. 
 HOME WORK. 
 
 " Howbeit Jesus suffered him not; but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends 
 and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee." MARK T. 19. 
 " And Moses verily was faithful in all his house." HUB. iii. 5. 
 
 " Poor indeed thou must be, if around thee 
 
 Thou no ray of light and joy canst throw, 
 If no silken cord of love hath bound thee, 
 To some little world through weal and wo. 
 
 " If no dear eyes thy tender love can brighten, 
 
 No fond voices answer to thy own, 
 
 If no brother's sorrow thou canst lighten, 
 
 By daily sympathy and gentle tone. 
 
 " Daily struggling, though enclosed and lonely, 
 
 Every day a rich reward will give, 
 Thou wilt find, by hearty striving only, 
 And truly loving, thou canst truly live." 
 
 HARRIET WJMSLOW. 
 
 THERE is a safe and easily applied test by which 
 to determine whether the Christian in society is in- 
 deed working for God or for himself. If the social 
 work is not carried into the home, finding there a 
 narrower, though not less difficult sphere, there 
 ought to arise a suspicion, that excitement and love 
 of popularity may have somewhat to do with our 
 social zeal. That Church which sent forth its whole 
 strength in missions to far lands, and left its home
 
 36 HOME WORK. 
 
 thousands to starve and die, could not be in a healthy 
 condition ; and that soul is in much the same state, 
 which expends its energies upon work without doors, 
 and neglects the work within. If each individual 
 Christian performed faithfully his and her share in 
 the home mission if each cultivated carefully the 
 little garden within his own gates if each were a 
 faithful steward in the household charge, there would, 
 indeed, be fewer homes that are not homes there 
 would be fewer flowerless and unwatered gardens 
 there would be fewer of those arrears of which the 
 Lord, when He comes, will take strict account. 
 
 There is one feeling and desire in the human heart 
 which is universal all wish to be understood. In 
 ordinary acquaintanceship, how frequently the com- 
 plaint meets the ear " We cannot come on together, 
 for he never understands me." The constitution of 
 the one mind is a mystery to the other the language 
 of the one heart an unknown tongue to the other. 
 It is strange that in the home, and by the household 
 hearth, encircled by one family, where we might 
 expect misapprehension to be unknown, it exists as 
 frequently as in any other place ; jars, coldnesses, 
 constraints, and dissensions, all arise from it while 
 even sisters, whose hearts God has created to throb 
 in unison, are often obliged to seek elsewhere that 
 appreciation and sympathy which they have not found 
 in each other. Now, there is a serious home sin in- 
 volved here. Whenever any one complains of not
 
 HOME WORK. 37 
 
 being understood, it will generally be found to arise 
 from the want of trying to understand. If people 
 would think less of themselves, and be less intensely 
 sympathetic with the intricacies and sensitivenesses 
 of their own hearts, and pay more attention to the 
 peculiarities of others, the evil would probably be 
 greatly obviated. We are aware that many feel 
 rather proud than otherwise of " not being under- 
 stood," even in their own homes, and consider it a 
 proof of genius and highly- wrought sensibilities. We 
 cannot help regarding it, however, as a mark of de- 
 cided inferiority of mind. True genius is ever easily 
 understood, and true genius ever easily understands. 
 They who are really possessed of true genius, com- 
 bined with deep and tender feeling, are in possession 
 of treasures not to be locked up in inaccessible 
 coffers, or brought out occasionally to be counted and 
 admired, but to be used every day to gladden and 
 benefit all around. Let them sympathize with 
 others, and others will soon sympathize with them. 
 Let them cast the light of their love upon home 
 hearts, and it will soon so illumine their own, that 
 all who run may read the once mysterious characters. 
 In home work, home sunshine is a very important 
 element. Many conscientious people strive to per- 
 form, and actually do perform, all their home duties 
 faithfully and earnestly, and still there is felt to be 
 somewhere a startling deficiency. They are not seen 
 in their homes as their Saviour would have been, had
 
 38 HOME WORK. 
 
 He shared a home wherein to lay His head, diffusing 
 light and strength, and consolation. What is spe- 
 cially lacking there, is joyfulness blended with their 
 work. They have not taken the joy of the Lord 
 as their strength, and they have separated the two 
 things which God hath joined together duty and 
 sunshine. 
 
 " A solemn yet a joyful thing is life. 
 Which, being full of duties, is for this 
 Of gladness full, and full of lofty hopes." 
 
 Even as the sunbeam is composed of millions of 
 minute rays, the home light must be constituted 
 of little tendernesses, kindly looks, sweet laughter, 
 gentle words, loving counsels ; it must not be like 
 the torch-blaze of natural excitement, which is easily 
 quenched, but like the serene, chastened light, which 
 burns as safely in the day of the east wind as in 
 the serenest atmosphere. Let each bear the other's 
 burden the while let each cultivate the mutual 
 confidence, which is a gift capable of increase and 
 improvement and soon it will be found that kindli- 
 ness will spring up on every side, displacing con- 
 straint, unsuitability, want of mutual knowledge, 
 even as we have seen sweet violets and primrose 
 buds dispelling the gloom of the grey sea rocks. 
 
 The most obvious of all home sins is that of tem- 
 per. Too often do Christians, who are all sweetness 
 and graciousness in society, appear (to use the simile 
 of Kowland Hill) as if ingrafted upon crab-trees in
 
 HOME WORK. 39 
 
 their own homes. The most visible manifestations 
 of this sin, in passionate outbreaks, violent words, 
 and fits of sullenness, are so odious in themselves, 
 and cause so much misery to their authors, as well as 
 *o their victims, that when a Christian is liable to be 
 possessed by this evil spirit, he is generally on his 
 guard, and watches and mourns because of it. There 
 are various lesser degrees, however, which are often 
 perceptible in those who would be exceedingly, and, 
 perchance, justly indignant were they to be designated 
 as ill-tempered. The want of gentleness in tone and 
 look the needless difficulty and objection thrown in 
 the way of the eager and the energetic the undue 
 regard to our own " dignity" (much abused word) 
 when offended, forgetting that 
 
 " To err is human to forgive (Urine;" 
 
 the maintenance of our own opinions simply because 
 they are our own, and the feeling of irritation at the 
 opposition they encounter the assumption, however 
 slight, of superiority and self-importance the undue 
 attachment to our own methods and our own ways 
 the painful allusion and ill-timed jest the jealousy 
 of others, and the over-exaction of affection, attention, 
 and sympathy, are all off-shoots of the crab-tree : 
 and even as we find in nature the finest species of 
 apples, if unpruned and uncultivated, returning to 
 the native crab, so the heart, unkept and untended, 
 will become, even when renewed, bitter in its fruits, 
 and degenerate in its soil.
 
 40 HOME WORK. 
 
 Great part of the home work, therefore, will con- 
 sist in a constant watch and ward over this besetting 
 sin, in its dwelling within the heart, as well as its 
 outward avenues. It is not enough to repress the 
 word, if the irritated feeling remains within ; it is 
 not enough to smooth the unloving look, if the heart 
 itself be void of love ; and this must be done not for 
 our own comfort, because a happy home is desirable, 
 or because it is pleasant to be loved and praised, but 
 because it is part of the work by which God is to be 
 glorified in us. This principle must be carried into 
 every relation of life ; without it there is danger, on 
 the one hand, of the work being turned into self- 
 idolatry, or idolatry of others as belonging to our- 
 selves ; and, on the other hand, of its being left 
 undone. 
 
 The mother is too apt to joy in her little ones as 
 " her own," forgetting that they are bought with a 
 price, and are not hers, but God's. In the instruction 
 she chooses for them in the amusements she per- 
 mits them in their whole training, excellent as it 
 may be, she is prone to work at her own hands, that 
 she and they may be exalted, or at the best, that 
 they may be preserved from the dangers and diffi- 
 culties of the way, and secure the salvation of their 
 souls. Too often does she forget that the chiefest 
 motives of her work must be to bring God glory, 
 and so to teach her children, that they in their turn 
 may glorify Him, each spreading wider the circles
 
 HOME WOEK. 41 
 
 of influence produced by the work of all, but more 
 especially by the work of a mother. 
 
 The mistress would succeed better in her respon- 
 sible charge she would attain more easily to the 
 happy medium between discouraging severity and 
 culpable indulgence or indifference she would not 
 so often fail in attaching to her the hearts of her 
 household she would have her work better done, 
 and her injunctions more faithfully obeyed, if she 
 remembered that it is part of her appointed service 
 to God, to teach those entrusted to her care to be 
 active servants, useful members of society, and happy 
 Christians. 
 
 There would not so often be the coldness and 
 reserve between sister and brother, sister and sister- 
 in-law, and even between sister and sister, which too 
 often mar the peace, or at least the rejoicing con- 
 fidence of a family circle, were it borne in mind that 
 not a jar, not a clouded brow, not a hasty word, but 
 is dishonouring to His name, and grieving to His 
 heart, who set the people of the earth in families. 
 The solemn consideration of each having to perform 
 to each the will of their mutual God, would soothe 
 many an irritated spirit, and open the bolts and bars 
 of many a closed heart. 
 
 If the wife, whose portion too often appears to be 
 one of heart-weariness and disappointment, of hope- 
 less exposure to selfish and unreasonable temper, 
 would but set herself to her work, forgetting her
 
 42 HOME WORK. 
 
 own trials in the earnest desire to glorify God, by 
 rectifying what is amiss in her conjugal relations, 
 and by exerting the sweet influences of woman's 
 affection, bearing and forbearing, overlooking what 
 is faulty, and cherishing what is good, she would 
 reap her reward in due time. The old simple story 
 of a smile, may not be out of place here. A woman 
 who lived very unhappily with her husband, came to 
 a great divine to ask his counsel. " Always meet 
 your husband with a smile/' said the wise man. She 
 followed his advice, and very soon returned to thank 
 him for the blessing of a happy home. Whenever a 
 home landscape is dreary, and its horizon clouded, we 
 believe that it proceeds not so much from the storms 
 of man's petulance and unreasonableness, as because 
 woman has forgotten to draw a sunbeam from the 
 Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 In home work it must ever be borne in mind, 
 that it is but a home for a little while, and that 
 the chief object of the Home Missionary is to lead 
 those who now circle the board and the hearth to 
 seek the things that are above, and to form a family 
 and a home in heaven. Often the Lord calls one 
 of a household, and when He has engaged that 
 heart to follow Him, He sends it home to tell what 
 great things the Lord has done. Not always, how- 
 ever, is the report listened to. There may be long 
 years of indifference, and diminished affection, and 
 scorn, and even persecution, but let such a solitary
 
 HOME WORK. 43 
 
 one take courage. Let her pray unwearied the prayer 
 of faith ; and while never yielding one iota of prin- 
 ciple, let her cultivate every iota of tenderness ; let 
 her preach silent sermons of example, and speak judi- 
 cious words of precept. God will yet set her in a 
 family of grace. The light will yet shine upon the 
 hearts that have had light close to them though 
 they acknowledged it not. The prayer for all those 
 life-relations which our Lord himself sanctioned and 
 enjoyed, will yet be answered far more abundantly 
 than we can ask or think.
 
 44 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 VI. 
 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 " The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord." 1 COB. vii. 34. 
 " Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain : but a woman that feareth the Lord, 
 she shall be praised." PKOV. xxxi. 30. 
 
 " Gather thou not together in a net, 
 The love, the strength, the work which God hath set 
 For the wide household of the earth. Go forth, 
 Free and unfettered, east, west, south, and north ; 
 No symbol but the inner Cross of Faith, 
 No rules but what the Lord Jehovah saith ; 
 Go forth, work cheerly, love divinely, raise 
 Thy lonely heart in songs of joy and praise. 
 Fulfilling meekly, ere thou hence depart, 
 The ' Woman's Mission' of thy woman's heart." 
 
 IN addressing social and home workers, we have 
 hitherto supposed them to occupy distinct " niches" 
 in society, their work to be fully defined, and their 
 hearts cheered by love and appreciation. Some- 
 thing more, however, is wanted to fill up the pic- 
 ture. There is a class yet unspoken to hearts yet 
 unreached. There are those who have no home, 
 or but a solitary one, whose portion in society is 
 peculiarly one of neglect and insignificance. Take 
 woman in all her phases, with one exception, and she 
 is surrounded by a halo of interest and sympathy. 
 The young and the lovely are ever the beloved.
 
 SINGLE WOMEN S WOKK. 45 
 
 Many rise up around the wife and the mother, and 
 call her blessed. The aged woman is a link to other 
 times, and her words are listened to with reverence 
 and respect. But from the single woman d'une cer- 
 taine tige, are withheld the interest which it is the 
 foible of her sex to covet, and the sympathy which 
 she more than ever requires. Behind her are the 
 sorrows and severings of the past, before her the 
 waste and desolate places from whence the sunshine 
 has faded. 
 
 There are several characteristics, or rather, prone- 
 nesses, in woman, that render her peculiarly alive to 
 the trials of such a position. Prone to make idols 
 and to find them clay, her first real conviction that 
 there are no idols that will not break, severs her heart 
 from its refuges like a nestless bird. Prone, too, to 
 faint and fail when the trial is petty and ignoble, 
 she surfers acutely from the daily darts of neglect 
 and ridicule, and from the departure of those attrac- 
 tions which once procured attention and consideration. 
 Because she can no longer pour forth the full affluence 
 of prized affection, she takes it for granted that she 
 need bestow no love, and cultivate no sympathy. 
 Much has been said and written upon this subject, 
 and yet we have sometimes felt as if women thus 
 isolated, were still left tossing in a rudderless vessel 
 on a strange ocean, told, indeed, that land lay near, 
 but unable to distinguish it, informed of the work 
 before them, without having it clearly defined, bid
 
 46 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 to be of good cheer, without the tenderness and sym- 
 pathy which the intricacies of their position peculiarly 
 demand. Our intention is, simply, to offer a few 
 practical and suggestive hints to single women, how 
 they may best put their shoulder to the wheel their 
 hearts to the work set before them, thus becoming 
 " God's operatives," instead of spending money for 
 that which is not bread, and labour for that which 
 satisfieth not. 
 
 For this work, apparently so solitary, many of the 
 elements of social and home work are required. The 
 single woman must, more than any other, struggle 
 against the law of self, for her toil is not for the near 
 and the dear ; it may not be met with love, and 
 may fail in calling forth affection ; it is for those, 
 only connected with her by the wide, though unseen, 
 family tie, which makes all her brothers and her 
 sisters. Whenever a single woman resolutely de- 
 votes herself to the service of God in all its parts, she 
 must become fully assured of her own position of its 
 strength, its dignity, and its advantages. She must 
 remember that it is her portion, spoken of by the 
 Apostle with respect and admiration, to serve the 
 Lord " without carefulness." She must take to her- 
 self the encouragement, that even the solitary and the 
 unappreciated has more weight in the social economy 
 of the times than she has hitherto dreamed of ; and 
 that though her place and her influence may be as 
 unmarked as the dew of the forest, or as the star of
 
 SINGLE WOMEN S WORK. 47 
 
 the galaxy, yet, if she fulfil not her mission, there 
 will be a diminution of the strength and the light of 
 society. 
 
 The mission of the single woman is, in a great 
 measure, to her own sex. There is a reproach hang- 
 ing over it which she alone can take away. God has 
 bestowed upon woman independent gifts and graces 
 wherewith she may bring glory to Him. Forming so 
 large a portion of society, it would have been incon- 
 sistent with His tender wisdom, had He left woman, 
 when independent of man, a useless cipher, a discon- 
 tented and objectless being. To look attentively 
 upon society, however, it might be supposed that 
 marriage is the great end of life, and that the un- 
 married have failed in the great mission intended for 
 them. Their name and position are considered legi- 
 timate objects of raillery and ridicule, to escape from 
 which many a woman is driven to attempt to " estab- 
 lish herself in life," as it is called equally degrad- 
 ing, whether successful or the reverse. Whenever a 
 single woman so lives as to rebut these calumnies 
 and disprove this necessity, she is doing a great 
 work ; when she is seen to be loved, and occupied, 
 and happy, and respected, she is encouraging her 
 sisterhood to be so likewise. She is a practical 
 warning against the yoke of joyless and uncom- 
 panionable marriage, hastily assumed to escape from 
 a position which she has proved capable of being a 
 joyful and useful one. She is an example of the
 
 48 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 needlessness of entering those conventual establish- 
 ments, half-way between England and Rome, where 
 women, fleeing from their single responsibilities, may 
 set themselves where God has not set them in fami- 
 lies or, weary of social insignificance, may place 
 themselves upon a pinnacle. 
 
 Another portion of social work belongs peculiarly 
 to the " old maid." It is hers to redeem her sisters 
 from the imputation of being peculiarly guilty of 
 "idle words," harsh judgments, and a proverbially 
 strict surveillance over others. The heart that does 
 not go out in love, will not feed upon itself alone, 
 it will unlovingly press upon those around. The 
 thoughts that do not perform their holy mission ot 
 meditating good for others, will become receptacles 
 of envy, hatred, and uncharitableness the words that 
 are not sanctified, will speak but of gossip and cen- 
 soriousness. Every time, therefore, that the single 
 woman, both by precept and example, attempts to 
 stem and sweeten the waters of Marah, and to lead 
 her sisters to perform the gentle charities of life, and 
 to speak of things of beauty, and joy, and goodness, 
 instead of the exaggerated story the evil motive 
 taken from their own hearts,* imputed and discussed, 
 she is doing no ignoble work for Grod : she is proving 
 " that there is nothing on earth more tender than a 
 woman's heart when it is the abode of piety." 
 
 As we have hinted above, " Thought Work," as it 
 
 " Self-knowledge makes us uncharitable."-MAflO*.
 
 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 49 
 
 may be designated, must be combined with the single 
 women's social vocation. That it is a work of no 
 small moment, we may gather from the beautiful 
 prayer of David the king. " Lord God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for 
 ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart 
 of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee." 
 1 Chron. xxix. 18. This is indeed a work for all 
 classes, and for all individuals ; but upon whom can 
 it be so forcibly urged as upon those who are em- 
 phatically " dwellers alone," and to whom, for long 
 periods, the inner world of thought is their principal 
 scene of action? There is a beautiful and well- 
 known hymn, each verse of which commences with 
 these words, " Speak gently ;" but " Think gently," 
 would go more to the root of the evil. How fre- 
 quently the lonely one brooding over an imaginary 
 insult, or a pardonable omission, instead of being 
 
 " To her neighbours' faults a little blind, 
 To her neighbours' virtues ever kind," 
 
 becomes additionally clear-sighted to their faults, 
 and peculiarly blinded to her own ! How often the 
 train of exaggerated and censorious thought goes on, 
 gathering material like a snowball, till the heart, 
 which might be warm with love to friend, sister, and 
 neighbour, is cold and hard the very antipodes to 
 the heart which " thinketh no evil, and is not easily 
 provoked !" Till the chambers of thought are puri- 
 fied, warmed, and illuminated by the Holy Spirit,
 
 50 SINGLE WOMEK'S WORK. 
 
 the outward conversation will never be becoming the 
 Gospel, which is so often highly professed ; and the 
 thoughtful solitude will never become " the seat of 
 perfect peace," as the Spanish soldiers beautifully 
 called the solitary mountain amidst the South Ame- 
 rican Llanos, " Paramo de la Suma Paz." 
 
 Another work to which the single woman may 
 specially devote herself, and to which she is often 
 proverbially disinclined, is the exercise of love and 
 influence over the young. Pleasant it is to see an 
 " old maid," with perchance no external attraction 
 but the sunshine of a gentle smile, no accomplish- 
 ment but the music of a sweet tongue, amusing and 
 instructing happy groups of children. Her influence 
 over the youthful of her own sex may be strong ; 
 nay, we could imagine it to be, in some respects, 
 greater than the maternal. Frequently, the mother, 
 exhausted by the wear and tear of commonplace 
 cares, or absorbed with the interests of her happy 
 home, forgets the struggles and sorrows of her early 
 life ; she is disposed to view lightly the youthful trials 
 of others, and to expect them to be as transient as 
 her own now appear in her eyes. But the woman of 
 no present ties remembers vividly the difficulties and 
 dangers of the past ; she can recall every rock and 
 current in the stream of life, and none are better 
 fitted to speak words of hope and warning to the 
 dejected and the struggling. She can take them 
 back to sorrows borne, and disappointments blessed ;
 
 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 51 
 
 she can tell how great the " boon of suffering" is to 
 woman ; she can point to the refuge for the lonely, 
 to the rest for the weary, so that, although none on 
 earth can call her by the sweet name of mother, yet 
 she may say in heaven, " Behold here I am, and the 
 children which Thou hast given me." It is beautiful 
 to see the young and the old, the home-dweller and 
 the isolated, thus clinging to each other, creating a 
 new beauty, and a new affection, and embellishing 
 each other, like the sere leaves and the green of the 
 beechen wood. 
 
 Nor is this all, the single woman has yet another 
 mission. She has a great debt to assist in paying. 
 Although father and brother may be silent in the 
 grave, and the lover of her youth may have passed 
 from her, yet has she an influence to wield over man, 
 a power to " help" him in his career. To use the 
 words of a modern writer : " ' II n'est pas bon que 
 I'homme soit seul ; je lui ferai un aide semblable a 
 lui.' Ceci s'applique a toute femme, non a la femme 
 mariee seulement. Car Eve n'apparait pas seulement 
 ici comme la femme du premier homme, mais encore 
 comme la premiere femme ; et solidaire de tout son 
 sexe, ainsi qu'Adam Test du notre, elle en ofrre dans 
 
 sa personne le type et une sorte de miniature 
 
 Honteuse d'elle-meme et j abuse de se rehabiliter, la 
 femme ne vivra plus que pour reparer le mal qu'elle 
 a fait a I'homme, en lui prodiguant, avec les consola- 
 tions qui peuvent adoucir ramertume presente du
 
 52 SINGLE WOMEN'S WORK. 
 
 peche, les avertissements qui peuvent en prevenir 
 1'amertume eternelle."* 
 
 It may be objected that this influence requires the 
 aids of youth, beauty, talents, and self-confidence, 
 which the middle-aged and the solitary do not pos- 
 sess. Not so : it requires but the moral youth and 
 beauty bestowed by the graces of the Spirit ; it re- 
 quires but an earnest recognition of the feminine 
 mission and obligation, and of the implanted strength 
 which can alone give a sanctified influence. None 
 are more ready than men to recognise the beauty 
 and dignity of woman's character, thus shining from 
 amidst the shadows of solitude and obscurity none 
 more ready to be benefited by its influence. 
 
 It is obvious that the single woman, with few house- 
 hold cares and family anxieties, and with small re- 
 striction upon her time, must have a large amount 
 of special and visible work in her power. The poor, 
 the sick, the afflicted, and the ignorant, have mani- 
 fest claims upon her leisure ; but upon this branch 
 of the subject we shall not enlarge, as it comes under 
 the head of " Special Work" for all. To perform the 
 mission of single women aright, an especial portion 
 of the joy of the Lord is needful, for a higher purpose 
 than that of smoothing their own path and alleviat- 
 ing their own sorrows. It is not enough that the old 
 maid's home shall be one of comfort and content, 
 it is of real importance to the circle around each, 
 
 * " La Femmc ; Deux discours par Adolphe Monoi"
 
 SINGLE WOMEN S WORK. 53 
 
 that they who are experiencing the undefined sad- 
 ness of departing youth, should learn to " sing as in 
 the days of their youth;"* and that they whose 
 affections have been torn or left lonely by the adverse 
 circumstances of life, should be seen rejoicing be- 
 cause they have fixed them upon the home and the 
 affections above.
 
 54 WAITING WORK. 
 
 VII. 
 WAITING WORK. 
 
 " Wait on the Lord ; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart : 
 wait. I say, on the Lord." PSALM sxvii. 14 
 
 " God doth not need 
 
 Either man's work, or his own gifts ; who best 
 Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state 
 Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed, 
 And post o'er land and ocean without rest ; 
 They also serve who only stand and wait." 
 
 MILTON'S SOSSKTS. 
 
 IT is always easier to act than to wait ; it is pleas- 
 anter to the natural heart, full of its own energy and 
 excitement, to do a great action than a small one, or 
 apparently to do nothing at all. The men of war, 
 who, like the war-horse scented the battle afar off, 
 found it a hard service to walk around Jericho seven 
 times seven. It must have been difficult for the 
 Israelites, on the banks of the Ked Sea, to stand still 
 and see the salvation of God, instead of rushing upon 
 the hosts of Pharaoh. The Syrian captain was 
 wroth when with no pain or trouble he had but to 
 wash in the waters of Jordan. Yet the one species 
 of service is as needful as the other. The strength 
 and courage will come to those only who have waited
 
 WAITING WORK. 55 
 
 for the good time of their Giver ; and most of the 
 Lord's servants who are called to work that is seen, 
 have gone through a course of waiting discipline, 
 often unsuspected and unseen. 
 
 Dear, anxious, somewhat impatient believer, to 
 whom we have before addressed a few homely words, 
 bear with us yet a little, while we suggest that 
 another part of the work which you have to do at 
 present may be a waiting work. You need such 
 discipline far more than the sinless angels, who yet 
 stand and wait, joyfully and unrepiningly, and in so 
 doing equally serve their Master. You require to be 
 taught humility. If you were an open, active 
 labourer in the Lord's vineyard, observed of all 
 observers, you would perhaps become puffed up with 
 pride, and you would say, " Oh, well done ! " as it 
 happened to Bernard, into whose ear, even while 
 preaching, Satan whispered " Bene fecisti Bernarde." 
 So you must needs learn that all manner of active 
 service can go on upon the earth without your aid, 
 that God has workers in abundance ready for His 
 purposes ; and that when He chooses you to work for 
 Him, it is because of His good pleasure and tender- 
 ness, not because He cannot do without you. You 
 require to be taught patience. All eagerness and 
 excitement, you would rush forward impatient to be 
 employed, and perform the Lord's work in a hurried 
 and imperfect manner, peculiarly distasteful to Him 
 who loveth to " have all things done in order ;" so He
 
 56 WAITING WORK. 
 
 wills a period of patient quiet waiting and restraint for 
 you. You require to be taught child-like submission 
 to your Father's will. Perhaps you have attained 
 to so much of it as to lay your hand upon your 
 mouth, and your mouth in the dust, during times 
 of chastening ; and in difficulty and perplexity, you 
 can cry unhesitatingly, " My Father, my Father, 
 thou art the guide of my youth I" But you are not 
 equally submissive when you desire to do active work 
 for God, and He will not allow it. You feel as if it 
 were a duty to be impatient, and so God must check 
 this unchild-like spirit, and bring you into subjec- 
 tion to His will in all things. Then, above all, you 
 require to wait for greater degrees of that sancti- 
 fication which is to fit you for active work. " If a 
 man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be 
 a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the 
 Master's use, and prepared unto every good work." 
 A blessed way of spending the waiting tune, thus 
 uniting the warfare work, scarcely less blessed than 
 the sinless services of the angels, who have never re- 
 quired to yearn and struggle after holiness. 
 
 Frequently the " waiting" is in the chamber of 
 sickness in " the fires" of bodily suffering. Very 
 trying is it to the Christian, when life and activity 
 have been throbbing high in his heart, to be laid 
 upon a bed of languishing ; when he has been long- 
 ing to prove that he is a living branch of the fruitful 
 Vine to feel himself but a dry twig, a withered
 
 WAITING WORK. 57 
 
 leaf. Even more trying than a season of decided 
 and dangerous illness, is the protracted time of 
 languor, and weakness, and weariness, when use- 
 fulness seems forbidden by the jarred and thrilling 
 nerves, giving greater intensity to the irritating self- 
 condemnation, and injurious struggles to escape from 
 the hand of the Lord, so common in such a position. 
 Be still, oh weak, and nervous, and restless sufferer ! 
 consider that the Lord Jesus knoweth thy frame, 
 and remembereth that thou art dust, for He " was 
 made like unto His brethren/' Others may weary of 
 thy incapacity, but He never does ; others may forget 
 their own past sufferings, but every pang is still fresh 
 in His memory. 
 
 " Thou who didst sit on Jacob's well 
 
 The weary hour of noon ; 
 The languid pulses thou canst tell, 
 The nerveless spirit tune." 
 
 He is proving what of faith and submission is in thy 
 heart ; and oh, disappoint Him not ! let Him find a 
 patient spirit amidst the languor and nervousness, a 
 waiting heart upon the wearisome couch. 
 
 Frequently, also, the "waiting" is amidst the 
 depths of heavy chastening and sore bereavement. 
 When the heart has been well-nigh broken with its 
 yearning for a removed prop and fibre, it is best that 
 the time of healing and binding up should be spent 
 " alone with Jesus," sitting at His feet and waiting 
 for His strength. It is not needful, however, that 
 the waiting season in any of these cases should be
 
 58 WAITING WORK. 
 
 altogether inactive. The patience and sympathy dis- 
 played to others the meek submission, " Though 
 He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," the evident 
 though speechless desire for the glory of God, may 
 all bring forth fruit unto everlasting life. 
 
 " Count each affliction, whether light or grave, 
 God's messenger sent down to thee. Do thou 
 
 With courtesy receive him Grief should be, 
 
 Like joy, majestic, equable, sedate 
 
 Confirming, cleansing, raising, making free, 
 
 Strong to consume small troubles ; to commend 
 
 Great thoughts, grave thoughts, thoughts lasting to the end ."* 
 
 During this season there must also be a good hope 
 within you. Without hope you cannot wait and can- 
 not war ; without hope you will sink down contented 
 with your inaction. Cultivate then, an earnest, lov- 
 ing, active principle of hope, which is in itself work. 
 It will be the salt that preserves the grace of patience 
 from degenerating into indolence. It will be the 
 light that illumines what might else be a dark place. 
 Hope against hope, wait against weariness, and you 
 will yet be chosen and meet for active work here, and 
 for the inheritance hereafter. 
 
 Aubrey de Vere.
 
 PREPARATORY WORK. 59 
 
 VIII. 
 PREPARATORY WORK. 
 
 " Prepare thy work witrout, and make it fit for thyself in the field ; and after- 
 wards build thine house." PEOT. xxiv. 27. 
 
 ... "All the means of action 
 The shapeless masses the materials, 
 Lie everywhere about us. What we need 
 Is the celestial fire to change the flint 
 Into transparent crystal, bright and clear." 
 
 LONGFELLOW. 
 
 LICHENS and mosses and decayed leaves are need- 
 ful to prepare a soil for the trees of the forest ; so 
 they who are to be called to some special work, are 
 often led by a way that they know not, to some special 
 preparation ; and work that may seem unnecessary 
 and unimportant, proves to be the under soil from 
 whence the fruitful tree is to spring up. We knew 
 a lady who had her mind much turned to the study 
 of German. In her case it seemed a waste of time, 
 and was met with some opposition and discourage- 
 ment. Still she persevered, and it was not till after 
 she had conquered the difficulties of her favourite 
 language, that an unthought of door was opened, 
 and she became the wife of a missionary to the Jews 
 in Germany. Without the probability of so pro-
 
 60 PREPARATORY WORK. 
 
 minent a leading of Providence, there are many 
 things that may be cultivated by the Christian in the 
 waiting interval, which he will find useful as auxili- 
 aries when called into active service. Knowledge of 
 all kinds comes under this head. History, languages, 
 logic, mathematics, and the physical sciences, may all 
 be useful in interesting and influencing the young, 
 in enabling us to " give a reason for the hope that is 
 in us," and in confuting the sophistries of those who, 
 destitute of this " good hope," strive to destroy it in 
 others. Researches into the hidden works of God, as 
 well as into those which clothe the earth with beauty, 
 awakening praise and admiration of their Creator in 
 ourselves, fill up many an idle hour, and create many 
 a busy and blessed thought in the minds of others, 
 while the well-stored memory, the cultivated taste, 
 the quick observation, the keen discrimination 
 into heart and character, if not concealed in the 
 folded napkin, may take their honourable place as 
 part of the prepared material, from which are to be 
 fashioned the tools of the vineyard and the weapons 
 of the armory. 
 
 The Christian, therefore, who prays for a blessing 
 upon his studies, and who earnestly desires to con- 
 secrate every talent, need not fear that he is wasting 
 time when he is solving the mathematical problem, 
 when he is tracing the physical laws of the storm, 
 and the glacier, the flood, and the geyser, when he 
 is classifying the fronds of the fern, and grouping the
 
 PREPARATORY WORK. Gl 
 
 stamens of the flower, when he is learning the 
 languages of the earth, and numbering the stars of 
 the heavens. Although he may not for a time be 
 able to see the ways and means, yet if his preparatory 
 work be done in faith, nothing doubting, it will yet 
 be turned to good account in the service of God. 
 Only let him take heed that his work degenerate not 
 into self-seeking and self-applause ; let him watch 
 for every opportunity of bringing therewith glory to 
 God, and let him remember that without prayer, 
 such things have been, and may be again, as idols 
 in the way. " Apply and rely" is the only safe 
 motto. 
 
 Literary work is not always preparatory only, it 
 may even when of very humble kind be important 
 work for God. Is there nothing, however small, 
 that you can do with your pen and your knowledge ? 
 Is there no little tract to be written ? Is there no 
 homely volume which might reach some hearts and 
 find entrance into some homes ? Is there no transla- 
 tion which might give to a good thought wings like 
 a bird to fly from its own land and its own tongue ? 
 Remember the brief yet comprehensive advice which 
 Sir William Jones received from his mother, " TRY." 
 Search and see for yourselves what you can do. 
 " She hath done what she could," is world-wide 
 encouragement. Avoid the false humility of slothful 
 self-depreciation on the one hand; and the pre- 
 sumption of self-dependent knowledge on the other.
 
 62 PREPARATORY WORK. 
 
 Work for God and not for yourself, and the pre- 
 paratory work will soon be found to assume its dis- 
 tinct place in the vineyard of God. Most of our 
 readers are acquainted with the Memoirs of Mary 
 Jane Graham, a remarkable example of sanctified 
 genius, and attainments. The following "Prayer 
 before stud/' was found among her papers after her 
 death, and it seems so applicable to our subject, that 
 we are tempted to transcribe it. No preparatory 
 study will answer its end without a similar dedica- 
 tion, and dependence upon Divine teaching. 
 
 " I desire to thank thee, my God and Father in 
 Christ Jesus, for this and every other opportunity of 
 improvement which Thou hast given me ! Enable 
 me to receive it with thanksgiving, and sanctify it to 
 me by the Word of God and prayer. Oh let me know 
 nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified ; and 
 other things just so far as may be for my good and 
 thy glory, and no farther. I would mourn before 
 Thee, the base ingratitude with which I have hitherto 
 abused my time and talents by loving thy gifts more 
 than Thee, and seeking myself, not Thee in them. 
 Now I bring all my things to Thee ; for they are not 
 mine but thine own. Take that accursed thing self 
 out of them all, and condescend to use them for thy 
 glory. . . . Holy Lord God the Spirit ! who 
 dividest unto every man severally as thou wilt, bless 
 such of my studies, and in such a degree, as may be 
 most to thy glory. If it be thy will, prepare me by
 
 PREPARATORY WORK. 63 
 
 them for the work to which I desire thou wouldst 
 call and separate me. I commit this work to which 
 I would devote myself into thy hands. Prosper it or 
 not as Thou seest good. . . . Even so, Holy 
 Spirit, for the sake of Thy great mercies in Christ 
 Jesus, to whom, with Thee and the Father, be all 
 the honour, all the praise, and all the glory, now and 
 for ever. AMEN."
 
 64 DESULTORY WORK. 
 
 IX. 
 DESULTORY WORK. 
 
 " Here a little, and there a little." Is. xxviii. 10. 
 
 < Who hath despised the day of small things ?" ZBCH. IT. 10. 
 
 " A spark is a molecule of matter, yet may it kindle the world: 
 
 Vast is the mighty ocean, but drops have made it vast 
 
 Despise not thou a small thing, either for evil or for good ; 
 
 Commit thy trifles unto God, for to Him nothing is trivial ; 
 
 And it is but the littleness of men that seeth no greatness in trifles. 
 
 All things are infinite in parts, and the moral is as the material, 
 
 Neither is anything vast, but it is compacted of atoms. 
 
 .... If pestilence stalk through the land, ye say, this is God's doing. 
 
 Is it not also His doing, when an aphis creepeth on a rosebud ? 
 
 .... A thing is great or little only to a mortal's thinking, 
 
 And happy and wise is the man to whose thought existeth not a trifle." 
 
 MARTIX TUPPER. 
 
 DURING the waiting season, while God withholds 
 active work from the believer, He often gives little 
 services to do for Him, which we venture to class 
 under the head of Desultory Work, work that may 
 happen one day, and not another, " here a little, and 
 there a little ;" and which is often left undone, just 
 because it is desultory, and apparently so small in 
 its results. Many, however, are now in heaven who 
 would never have known the way there had it not 
 been for the religious book lent by a neighbour ; or 
 the persuasive letter penned in a distant land ; or 
 the awakening sermon listened to at the entreaty of
 
 DESULTORY WORK. 65 
 
 a Christian friend ; or the tract found in a railway 
 station ; or the short, sudden, but heaven-heard and 
 heaven-answered prayer ; or the timely word spoken 
 by the way-side ; or the hymn lovingly taught to 
 the little child ; or the striking anecdote treasured 
 up and repeated ; or the pointed text of Scripture 
 that went into the heart sharpened as a two-edged 
 sword. 
 
 The very crumbs of work that fall from the 
 Master's hand, the fragments that remain from 
 what He gives His strong ones, the " corners of 
 time" snatched from the more secular work of every 
 day, ought to be treasured by the Christian. They 
 whose time is much at the disposal of others, or who 
 are much in the habit of travelling from place to 
 place, and therefore peculiarly fitted for a " wayside 
 witnessing for Christ," (as it is called in an admirable 
 little manual for travellers,*) need to consider deeply 
 the importance of seizing all opportunities for desul- 
 tory work. How well it would be if each in going 
 through the world were to remember what the old 
 writer said of life ; that it consisted of two heaps, a 
 large one of sorrow, and a small one of happiness, and 
 whoever carried the very smallest atom from the one to. 
 the other, did God a service ; much more those who 
 are instrumental in any way in leading or helping one 
 precious soul from the pit of eternal misery, to the 
 home of eternal joy. Let us take heed, then, to be 
 
 * A Word for the Way ; or, Hints to Travellers and Tourists.
 
 66 DESULTORY WORK. 
 
 faithful in the smallest things, or how can we expect 
 to rule over ten cities ? (Luke xix. 17.) Let us 
 watch over the little cloud, from which, though no 
 larger than a man's hand, great showers of blessing 
 may be poured down. Let us nurture the tiny seed, 
 which may spring up into the branching tree ; for 
 though our words and deeds may seem slight and 
 powerless things, yet 
 
 " No act falls fruitless ; none can tell 
 
 How vast its power may be, 
 Nor what results unfolded dwell 
 Within it silently." 
 
 Like the rain drop of a million years ago, whose 
 fossil steps are traced in the sandstone, so will the 
 smallest of our actions leave traces behind for good 
 or evil if not visible in time yet clearly visible in 
 Eternity.
 
 PRAISING WORK. 67 
 
 PRAISING WORK. 
 
 " Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given 
 unto thee." DEUT. xxvi. 11. 
 
 " For what shall I praise thee, my God and my King, 
 For what blessings the tribute of gratitude bring ? 
 For the spirits which heightened my days of delight, 
 And the slumbers that fell on my pillow by night ? 
 For this I should praise thee ; but if only for this, 
 I should leave half untold the donation of bliss. 
 I thank thee for sickness, and sorrow, and care, 
 For the thorns I have gathered, the anguish I bear, 
 For nights of anxiety, watchings, and tears, 
 A present of pain, a perspective of fears. 
 I praise thee, I bless thee, my King and my God, 
 For the good and the evil thy hand hath bestowed." 
 
 " A cheerful expecter of the best, hath a fountain of joy within him ; 
 Ask for good and have it ; for thy Friend would see thee happy." 
 
 MARTIN TUPPEB. 
 
 LIKE the disagreeable Christian, the gloomy 
 Christian is an anomaly in grace. What a sad 
 spectacle ! a Christian who makes the young feel old, 
 the old feel older, the sad feel sadder, who confirms 
 the worldly in their worldliness ! Christians, however, 
 are never gloomy because they are too religious, as 
 the world alleges, but because they are not religious 
 enough. That is a striking combination in 2 Tim. 
 iii. 2, "unthankful, unholy ;" and it will ever be
 
 68 PRAISING WORK. 
 
 found that the more thankfulness, the more holiness, 
 the more happiness. Kise up, then, oh believer ! from 
 your despondency ; emerge from the dark shadow ; 
 do no more dishonour to your joy-loving Lord. 
 Your heart ought to be as the glad welling fount in 
 the midst of the fresh green grass. Let this rejoic- 
 ing, fertilizing work be yours ; it is the portion of 
 the vineyard most neglected by the Lord's labourers, 
 and yet it is of exceeding value, for " he that offereth 
 praise glorifieth God." An eloquent modern writer 
 has spoken to us of " the duty of delight,"* and it 
 is a duty peculiarly appropriate to the Christian, 
 upon whom all rich gifts and sweet influences are 
 showered by a reconciled Father. Beautiful are the 
 white and crimson clouds that " lie cradled near the 
 setting sun ;" joyous the lark's melody, that riseth 
 on the wings of the morning from the earth to the 
 heavens ; lovely the deep blue shadows cast by the 
 golden sunlight ; fresh and fragrant the flower of the 
 valley, the green leaf of the forest; soothing the 
 ripple-music of the river, and the chiming of the 
 sea upon the shore. Go forth, then, amongst all 
 that is rich and beautiful in nature, and thank Him, 
 the beloved Son, by whom every bright, and lovely, 
 
 "They tell ns often to meditate in the closet, but they send us not, like 
 Isaac, into the fields at even ; they dwell on the duty of self-denial, but they 
 exhibit not the duty of delight. ... It is not possible for a Christian man 
 to walk across so much as a rood of the natural earth, with mind unagitated and 
 rightly poised, without receiving strength and hope from some stone, leaf, flower, 
 or sound, nor without a sense of a dew falling upon him out of the sky." 
 
 M.1DEBS r.UXTERS.
 
 PRAISING WORK. 69 
 
 and melodious thing was created. Go forth, also, 
 amongst the treasures of art, the forms of sculptured 
 beauty, the harmonies of music, the rich colour- 
 ing of the life-like canvass, the " marble letters and 
 granite pages" of old stately architecture, and lift 
 up your heart in praise to Him who hath put wis- 
 dom into the hearts of the wise-hearted, like unto 
 the wisdom of Bezaleel and Aholiab. (Ex. xxxi. 
 1-11.) Go forth, also, amongst those whom God 
 hath given to love you and to be beloved, and for 
 every soul-thrilling glance, for eveiy kindly sym- 
 pathy and tender word, for all " sweet counsel," and 
 precious unity, thank Him without whose love all 
 earthly sympathy would have been but a name, all 
 earthly tenderness would have been but as the 
 foolishness of idolatry. Go back in memory to the 
 days of "long ago," recall the wind tempered to 
 the shorn lamb, the strong wave of temptation 
 breasted, the hurtful thing, to which your soul 
 clung, removed out of your path, the right way 
 chosen for you, instead of the wrong way which you 
 had chosen for yourself, the measure of affliction 
 meted out which you required, the friends selected 
 whom your soul needed, the breathing times granted 
 which your tried and struggling spirit yearned for ; 
 oh, thank your God for it all. He it is who has 
 been your guide through the waste howling wilder- 
 ness, and the brightener of all green places with His 
 smile. Go deep within the chambers of your soul ;
 
 70 PRAISING WORK. 
 
 see . there the bright hope smiling, and the light 
 shining, and the new heart struggling, and the old 
 sins staggering and falling ; listen there to the voice 
 which whispers all tender things of the love "un- 
 speakable ;" behold there the holy and adorned 
 temple, rising stone by stone on the ruins of the 
 chambers of imagery ; meditate upon the bright, 
 sinless, victorious future, upon the palm and crown 
 which you shall cast at the feet of the Saviour, upon 
 the new song which you shall sing to the slain Lamb, 
 who: so loved your soul even unto the death ; and 
 then thank Him, though breathlessly and voicelessly, 
 for the great things He has done for you/who have 
 done. such small things for Him. 
 
 There is a beautiful old legend or " parable," which 
 Lord Lindsay quotes in " Christian Art," under the 
 head of Christian Mythology. " Beyonde the sea 
 was a noble ladie, on whose house alleway the sone 
 shone on the day, and on the nyghte the mone. Of 
 this many men mervayled. Atte last the fame of this 
 come to. the Byshop, a worthy man ; ande he wente 
 for to see here, hopyng that she was of grete pen- 
 aunce in clothinge, or in mete, or in othere thinges. 
 And when he come, he saw here alleway mery ande 
 glede. The ; Bishope saide, ' Dame, what ete ye ?' 
 She answeride and saide, that dyverse. metes and 
 delicate. Then he asked if she vsed the hayre ? She 
 sayde, ' Nay.' After this the Byshope mervaylede, 
 that Gode wolde shew so grete mervaylle for such a
 
 PRAISING WORK. 71 
 
 woman. And when lie hade taken his leve of the 
 ladie, ande was gone his way, he thought he wolde 
 aske here more of anothere thinge, and wente againe 
 to here and said, ' Love ye not meikle Jhesu Criste ?' 
 She said, ' Yis, I love hyme, for he is alle my love ; 
 for when I thinke on his sweetnesse, I may not with- 
 hold myself for. gladnesse and myrthe that I ever 
 fele in hyme/ " 
 
 Some hearts are by nature full of false sentiment 
 and morbid feeling. . They shrink from being happy, 
 as if it were uninteresting and commonplace, and, 
 strange as it may appear, they greatly prefer being 
 miserable ; they delight in being the heroes, or more 
 frequently the heroines of interest and sympathy from 
 others, and of their own day-dreams of romance ; and 
 this strong tendency is often seen even after the 
 heart is renewed. Others are afraid of being happy, 
 lest, as they say, they should suffer for it after, as if 
 God grudged His creatures happiness, and took hard 
 compensation for their enjoyments ! Instead, there- 
 fore, of leaving to-morrow as well as to-day in the 
 keeping of their wise God, they darken the present 
 with the shadows of the future, and die the many 
 deaths of the coward. Others are afraid of being 
 happy, for a different reason. They look so much to 
 themselves and their sins, and so little to Christ and 
 His righteousness, that they dare not be happy and 
 assured Christians, lest they may be, or may seem to 
 be presumptuous. Such melancholy temperaments
 
 72 PRAISING WORK. 
 
 forget that the more they joy in God, the more cause 
 for joy He will give them ; that the more they praise 
 Him for strength, the more strength they will re- 
 ceive ; that the more they thank Him even for the 
 wish, to conquer temptation, the more He will stand 
 by them, and cause them to triumph for His name's 
 sake. They forget that God's nature is a joyful one ; 
 that the element in which He lives is one of joy ; 
 and that when He gave men a new nature, it was 
 part of His own joyful one. They forget that the 
 showing forth of God's praise will be a work and a 
 witness for Him, in the midst of a joyless and thank- 
 less generation. There was a world of significance 
 in the answer of the half imbecile Christian who was 
 asked by men of wisdom and experience, how it was 
 that he rejoiced more than they ? " Just because I 
 am nothing, and you are something ; 
 
 I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, 
 And Jesus Christ is all in all." 
 
 If the trusting single-hearted Christian is not 
 happy, who dares to be ? If the possessor of a rich 
 demesne may not rejoice in his prospects, how can 
 they rejoice, who have no abiding treasures laid up 
 in earth or heaven ? Of whom ought it to be said 
 but of the Christian, that he is " a man of cheerful 
 yesterdays, and confident to-morrows ?" 
 
 " Resolve, Christian," says Gurnall, " to enclose 
 some time from all worldly suitors, wherein thou 
 mayest every day, if possible, at least take a view of
 
 PRAISING WORK. 73 
 
 the most remarkable occurrences that have passed 
 between God and thee. First ask thy soul what 
 takings it hath had that day, what mercies heaven 
 hath sent in to thee ; and do not when thou hast 
 asked the question, like Pilate, go out ; but stay till 
 thy soul has made report of God's gracious dealings 
 with thee. Yea, while thou art viewing these fresh 
 mercies, telling over this new coin, hot out of the 
 mint of God's bounty, ancient mercies they will come 
 crowding in upon thee, and call for a place in thy 
 thoughts, and tell thee what God hath done for thee 
 months and years ago. . . . There is a great 
 treasure of mercy always in the Christian's hands, 
 and conscience is oft calling the Christian to take 
 the account, and see what God has done for him ; 
 but seldom it is he can find time to tell his mercies 
 over ; and is it any wonder that such should go be- 
 hind hand in their spiritual estate, who take no more 
 notice what the gracious dealings of God are with 
 them ? How can he be thankful that seldom thinks 
 of what he receives ?" 
 
 " Bless the Lord then, oh my soul, and forget not 
 all His benefits." Let not one be struck from thy 
 memory let not gratitude for the old mercies be 
 absorbed in the enjoyment of the new. Neither let 
 the work be a selfish one. Praise God for His tender 
 dealing with others ; and if there be any whose 
 tongues utter no words of praise, but whose language 
 is, " Who shall shew us any good ?" teach them to
 
 74 PRAISING WORK. 
 
 distinguish and appreciate the good already given 
 the sweet drops mingled in their cup ; be to them 
 a mouth of praise shed upon them a gleam of your 
 rejoicing follow the example of Him who was light 
 amidst darkness, and be 
 
 " A sunshine in the shady place."
 
 SPECIAL WORK. 75 
 
 XI. 
 SPECIAL WORK. 
 
 " But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly ; and he 
 which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he 
 purposeth in his heart, so let him give ; not grudgingly, or of necessity ; for God 
 loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you; 
 that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." 
 2 COB. ix. 6-8. 
 
 " Sow in the morn thy seed, 
 
 At eve hold not thy hand ; 
 To doubt and fear give thou no heed, 
 Broad cast it o'er the land. 
 
 " Beside all waters sow, 
 
 The high-way furrows stock, 
 Drop it where thorns and thistles grow, 
 Scatter it on the rock. 
 
 " Thou canst not toil in rain, 
 
 Cold, heat, and moist, and dry, 
 Shall foster and mature the grain 
 For garners in the sky. 
 
 " And duly shall appear 
 
 In beauty, verdure, strength, 
 The tender blade, the stalk, the ear, 
 And the full corn at length." 
 
 JAMES MONTGOMERY. 
 
 OUR purpose has indeed failed, if we have led one 
 soul to remain satisfied with small duties and easy 
 work, instead of pressing on to higher degrees of ser- 
 vice. We believe, however, that those who are most 
 zealous in performing the humblest labours of the
 
 76 SPECIAL WORK. 
 
 vineyard, will ever be found most able and desirous, 
 when the Master calls, of going forth early to sow the 
 seed, to plant the vine, to twine the young tendril, 
 to watch the tender grape and the budding forth of 
 the green pomegranates. It must ever be remem- 
 bered, that the most patient, cheerful, childlike sub- 
 mission to the trial of being debarred from the active 
 work for which the soul longs, is quite compatible 
 with a watching for every opening, a seizing of every 
 opportunity, a knocking at every door, along with 
 earnest prayer, to be permitted to employ every 
 faculty in the service of God. When the Christian 
 is brought to this willing, yet waiting spirit, he will 
 not remain long on the threshold of the vineyard ; 
 for soon will the joyful summons be heard, " Enter 
 in, the Master hath need of thee." He hath need 
 of thee perhaps in his nurseries and his sheepfolds. 
 Sabbath after Sabbath there are little tender plants 
 and wandering branches to be trained into trees of 
 the Lord's planting, that He may be glorified, or little 
 wayward lambs to be guided to the Good Shepherd, 
 and laid upon His steady shoulders. He hath need 
 of thee, perhaps, in His mission-house, to encourage 
 the bearers of glad tidings to far off kindreds and 
 tongues, to give to them of your substance, to aid 
 them by your activity. He hath need of thee, per- 
 haps, in His prisons ; He wants to be visited by thee, 
 to receive a cup of cold water from thee, to have 
 the captive led to Him who leadeth captivity captive,
 
 SPECIAL WOKE. 77 
 
 and breaketh asunder stronger chains than those of 
 brass and iron. He hath need of thee, perhaps, in 
 the lane and the alley, the cellar and the garret. He 
 hath silver and gold to give out of thy abundance 
 to the hungry and thirsty and wretched. He hath 
 kind words to speak by thee, and tender love to 
 bestow on those who have known no kindness, who 
 have imagined no love, and for whose souls no man 
 hath cared. He hath need, perchance, of thy pen 
 and thy intellect ; there are scorners to be rebuked, 
 and sophists to be confuted, in " thoughts that 
 breathe, and words that burn." He demands of 
 thee, perhaps, the talent of thy rank and influence, 
 to be a light shining and burning in the midst of 
 thick darkness, to be a missionary in high places, 
 where the accredited message, where the tabard of 
 the herald, would find no entrance. Go forth, then, 
 rejoicing to thy work ; linger not a step, for the way 
 is short ; lose not an hour, for the night cometh 
 when no man can work. 
 
 It has been said by one who once appeared " al- 
 most a Christian," " Let him who gropes painfully in 
 darkness or uncertain light, and prays vehemently 
 that the dawn may ripen unto day, lay this other 
 precept well to heart, which to me was of invalu- 
 able service: Do the duty which lies nearest tJiee, 
 which thou knowest to be a duty, thy second duty 
 will already have become clearer."* And it is true, 
 
 * Carlyle's Sartor Resartus.
 
 78 SPECIAL WORK. 
 
 that while Christians work not to be saved, but be- 
 cause they are saved, yet there is much spiritual 
 benefit to be obtained for our own souls by active 
 work for God. He that doeth His will shall know of 
 the doctrine. John vii. 1*7. Let the Christian who 
 is mourning over his ignorance, his doubts, his want 
 of experience, become a diligent worker, and he will 
 find that knowledge will flow in upon his soul like a 
 river, and that he shall be satisfied with the riches of 
 understanding that are in Christ Jesus. " He that 
 watereth others, shall be watered also himself." Per- 
 haps the believer is enveloped in thick, dark clouds, 
 or pursued by fiery darts of temptation, till his soul 
 is ready to despair. Let him work, let him strain 
 every nerve in the service of his Master, and he will 
 forget not his sinfulness, not his weakness, but he 
 will forget his despair he will have no time for his 
 unbelief; there will be no room for Satan's tempta- 
 tions in his busy hands. While watering others, his 
 own soul will become as a watered garden, filled with 
 all manner of spices, and pleasant fruits, and lovely 
 flowers. It is true that at first he will not bear the 
 seed-basket so joyfully as those who are basking in 
 the sunshine of God's countenance. There will be 
 weeping because of weariness, weeping because of 
 weakness, weeping because of un worthiness ; so much 
 the better. The precious seed will rise up all the 
 goodlier and the greener, because of the spring showers 
 before the summer sunshine. Ps. cxxvi. 5, 6.
 
 SPECIAL WORK. 79 
 
 In this work the instruments placed in our hands 
 by the Father and the Master, are of no uncertain 
 edge ; and sharpened by the Holy Spirit, there is no 
 fear of their operation being inefficient, for God him- 
 self works not only in us, and by us, but more 
 gracious still, He works 'with us,* while the holy 
 angels are our helpers and fellow-servants.f Confi- 
 dently, then, let us take courage and be strong in 
 the Lord. Joyfully let us plant in all soils and sow 
 beside all waters. Let us scatter truths, which, like 
 the seeds of the bread-fruit tree, may take root and 
 flourish, after being long tossed on the stormy waters. 
 
 Before concluding this chapter, we must allude to 
 a subject prominently brought forward in the fasci- 
 nating periodical literature of the day. We mean 
 the injudicious, ill-timed, and ostentatious perform- 
 ance of the duties belonging to " special work," by 
 the class often satirically characterized as "good 
 ladies." The sketches of character to which we refer % 
 though broadly caricatured contain much painful 
 and useful truth. Extensively read, however, by 
 those only whose prejudices need no such stimulant 
 whose perceptions of the existing evil are more vivid 
 than of the attempted good, and unread by those 
 to whom they might speak a word of warning, they 
 are more likely to prove injurious than beneficial. 
 That the evil rebuked and satirized is a real and 
 
 * Mark xvi 20. t Key. xxii. 9. 
 
 J Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, Esq.
 
 80 SPECIAL WORK. 
 
 extensive one, is, nevertheless, abundantly evident. 
 Twofold in its aspect, it is not only hurtful to those 
 immediately affected by it, but the eddying circles 
 reach many who are thus led to look sceptically upon 
 the real good, and to conclude that active outward 
 work is incompatible with the domestic calling. It 
 is certain that this special activity ceases to be the 
 appointed work for any, where it necessarily interferes 
 with home duties. The exciting and conspicuous 
 doings of the committee-room the missionary col- 
 lectorship the secretary's desk the abolitionist's 
 appeal the prison visitation, cannot be considered 
 the vocation of those who have husbands requiring 
 in vain their sympathy and companionship at home 
 who have neglected children to be taught and at- 
 tracted to religion whose servants are sick, or idle, 
 or unruly whose next-door dwellers stand in need 
 of unostentatious but efficient aid. The falseness of 
 this position for a Christian worker, is frequently 
 aggravated by an almost unconscious mixture of 
 selfishness and parade the silver is tarnished with 
 dross the wine mixed with water. Not only is the 
 domestic routine neglected, but the important prin- 
 ciple contained in the command " Let not thy left 
 hand know what thy right hand doeth," is forgotten 
 and disobeyed. Religious newsmongers and philan- 
 thropic gossips, are made acquainted with the doings 
 both of the right hand and the left ; while the oneness 
 of aim, the holiness, dignity, and symmetry of God's
 
 SPECIAL WORK. 81 
 
 service, are marred by injudicious and partial per- 
 formance, and debased by self-exaltation. 
 
 While deploring the evil, however, let us not mis- 
 take the true remedy. While doing the one set of 
 duties, let not the other be left undone. There is no 
 reason why wives and mothers should be debarred 
 from " the special work" for which they may have a 
 peculiar talent. Only, let their primary duties be 
 performed in their due order ; let them seek a double 
 portion of grace, that they may be gifted with single 
 hearts, steadfast hands, and wise heads. Let them 
 make it more clearly evident that they are united to 
 that " Green Fir Tree," that Living Vine whose 
 branches shall never drop their blossoms, nor shed 
 their fruit at untimely seasons. Let the activity that 
 is for Christ "be from Christ, and it will never be un- 
 due and misplaced ; let them deny themselves in 
 making time snatching it from their indolence and 
 their amusements ; let them deny themselves, by re- 
 tiring as much as is possible from the applause and 
 the excitement frequently attendant upon their good 
 works ; but, above all, let them deny themselves in 
 these very works, so as cheerfully to give up the mis- 
 sionary meeting the school superintendence the 
 prison or district rounds, when there is a prior claim 
 to humbler work at home. Let not the stigma be 
 cast upon the religious profession, of working every- 
 where save in its own sphere, but let it be shewn to 
 the world, that both may be accomplished by those 
 F
 
 82 SPECIAL WORK. 
 
 who, weak and foolish and sinful in themselves, re- 
 ceive strength and wisdom and righteousness from 
 Him in whom dwelleth all fulness ; that, like the 
 work of the Apostles, which began, but tarried not at 
 Jerusalem, the work begun at home may spread itself 
 well and wisely in ever-widening circles.
 
 PRAYING WORK. 
 
 XII. 
 PRAYING WORK. 
 
 " Thua saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things 
 to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command 
 ye me." ISAIAH xlv. 11. 
 
 " If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it 
 shall be done unto you." JOHN xv. 7. 
 
 " Lord, what a change within us one short hour 
 Spent in Thy presence will prevail to make ; 
 What heavy burdens from our bosoms take ; 
 What parched grounds refresh as with a shower ! 
 We kneel, and all around us seems to lower ; 
 We rise, and all the distant and the near- 
 Stands forth, in sunny outline, brave and clear. 
 We kneel ; how weak ! We rise ; how full of power ! 
 Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong ; 
 Or others, that we are not always strong ; 
 That we are ever overborne with care, 
 That we should ever weak or heartless be, 
 Anxious or troubled, when with us is prayer, 
 And joy, and strength, and courage are with Thee ?" 
 
 TEBNCH. 
 
 PRAYER is the life of all work. Without prayer, 
 work would be as useless as the suit of armour with- 
 out the living man within it, or as the richly-carved 
 casket from whence the gems had been stolen, or as 
 the scabbard apart from the sharpened steel. With- 
 out prayer, "every-day work" would be but a dull 
 round of uncongenial tasks. Without prayer, " social 
 work" would degenerate into worldliness on the one
 
 84 PRAYING WORK. 
 
 hand, or weariness of the flesh and spirit upon .the 
 other. Without prayer, " home work" would be but 
 another form of self-intrenchment. Without prayer, 
 " warfare" weapons would dim with rust, and there 
 would be a turning back in the day of battle. Ps. 
 Ixxviii. 9. Without prayer, " waiting work" would 
 become sloth and self-indulgence ; " preparatory 
 work" would turn into intellectual idolatry, and 
 " desultory work" would be aimless and spasmodic. 
 Without prayer, there could be no " praising work," 
 or it would be but the effusion of the natural heart, 
 praising nature but not God, admiring beauty but 
 not its Creator. Without prayer, "special work" 
 would be nought but the " splendid sins" of the self- 
 righteous, and the self-justifying. Without prayer, 
 the missionary in his hut beneath the banyans 
 would be weak as other men. Without prayer, the 
 Jew of Tarsus would have been but a blind leader of 
 the blind Gentiles. Without prayer, the strengthen- 
 ing angel would not have appeared to the Agonized 
 of Gethsemane. 
 
 Nor is prayer the medium only through which we 
 receive spiritual blessings and consolations, an 
 opening of the heavens, through which, like the 
 Captives of Chebar, we may see visions of God ; nor 
 is it only the salt which preserves from corruption, 
 the throb of life in the living work ; it is in itself 
 work the noblest, the highest, the most successful ; 
 for it moves God himself to work ; it commands His
 
 PRAYING WORK. 85 
 
 hand ! This wonderful work is not limited in its 
 sphere ; it is suited to all situations and all capacities. 
 Many there are who cannot work what man calls 
 work, but none there are who cannot pray. The 
 lonely dweller among the mountains, with no neigh- 
 bours save the eagles of the corrie, with no listeners 
 save the winds of the heavens, can pray ; and the dry 
 bones of the far-off world may become a living army 
 through his lonely prayers. The pale silent siifferer 
 on the couch of pain can pray ; and by her voiceless 
 petitions may be hastened the outpouring of the 
 Spirit, the coming of the Kingdom. Far away may 
 we be from those whom we love better than life ; 
 powerless may we be to guide them, to watch over 
 them, to comfort them ; but we can rouse up for 
 them an untiring Watcher, an unchanging Lover, 
 an unfailing Comforter we can pray. Agonizing 
 may be our fears for precious souls hurrying on the 
 broad road to destruction our words fall unheeded, 
 our anxieties are laughed to scorn, our presence is 
 avoided. Can we do nothing ? We can pray ! We 
 can call down upon them the mighty Spirit, the 
 resistless Pleader ; we can bring the Saviour to 
 them, though they will not go to the Saviour. An 
 old author writing upon intercessory prayer, tells 
 the following story : " It was a law amongst the 
 Eomans, when in the field, that any person found 
 near the emperor's tent at night should suffer death. 
 One night a soldier was found holding in his hand a
 
 86 PRAYING WORK. 
 
 petition. The sentence was about to be executed, 
 when the emperor called out ' If the petition is for 
 himself, let him die ; if for another, spare his life.' 
 It was found to be for two of his fellow -soldiers who 
 had incurred the displeasure of then: monarch, and 
 the lives of all three were saved. Was this office of 
 charity so pleasing to an earthly prince, as to induce 
 him to dispense with a law for its sake ? Oh, how 
 acceptable, then, to our merciful God to intercede for 
 our fellow-sinners !" 
 
 It might seem at first sight as if this work were 
 an easy one, and that the slothful heart might take 
 refuge in it when averse to any other ; but it is not 
 so, either as work for ourselves or others. It is easy, 
 indeed, to offer the prayers of the hypocrite and the 
 formalist, morning and evening, at noon, and at 
 midnight, sending words up to heaven, while the 
 thoughts remain on the earth.* It is easy to stand 
 in the weekly prayer meeting, or kneel in the daily 
 service, and to wander the while contentedly upon 
 the mountains of vanity. It is easy to ask a hasty 
 blessing for a friend, or for a work, and then forget 
 to expect the answer to press the petition. But it 
 is very hard to pray so that Satan shall tremble, f 
 It is hard to pray so that God by His pledged word 
 must answer us. It is hard to pray while seemingly 
 
 * " My words fly up, my thoughts remain below, 
 Words without thoughts can ne'er to heaven go." 
 
 t " For Satan trembles when he sees 
 The weakest saint upon his knees."
 
 PRAYING WORK. 87 
 
 the heavens are of brass, and there is neither sign 
 nor voice, and yet to take no denial. It is hard to 
 pray and to be resigned to the answer, even to the 
 breaking of idols, the crucifying of affections. It is 
 hard to pray for " everything," to be " careful for 
 nothing," and to realize that in no other way can we 
 obtain daily strength, wisdom, and success. It is 
 hard to pray in all sincerity, as true men speaking 
 to Him who is the truth. The sin of Ananias and 
 Sapphira is oft repeated in prayer, we keep some- 
 thing back, we spare some darling treasure, we 
 make the reservation, " Lord, not yet." There was 
 once a little child who understood somewhat of the 
 nature of sincere prayer; he refused to pray one 
 evening ; his mother reproved him, but to no pur- 
 pose he would not pray ; he was asked his reason, 
 and weeping bitterly, he said, "My sparrow dee'd 
 last night, and I couldna say ' Thy will be done/ " 
 Yes ! it is hard to pray, but we make it harder. We 
 come as subjects to a king, but we come not as chil- 
 dren to a Father, we come as slaves to an overseer, 
 bnt we come not as brethren to an Elder Brother. 
 We are afraid of irreverence in prayer ; or we think 
 there is little need of telling God what He knows 
 already ; or we dread being selfish in our petitions, 
 and so we do not come to particulars in prayer. 
 We confess our sin in a general way, but we do not 
 detail its sufferings, its temptations, and its aggra- 
 vations. We pray for our friends, and we implore
 
 88 PRAYING WORK. 
 
 the Divine guidance upon our way, but we do not 
 specify times and seasons, circumstances, sorrows, 
 idols, fears, names, cares, and reasons ; and thus we 
 have so few answers to prayer so many heavy and 
 unrelieved burdens, often made up of trifles, like 
 rocks of microscopic shells. 
 
 Yes ! it is hard to pray ; but, blessed be God, we 
 are not left to pray alone. There is one who will 
 put within us the courage of sons, the confidence 
 of daughters ; One who is the Teacher of prayer, 
 loving to teach, and loving the taught, and who is 
 the helper of our infirmities ; One who ever liveth to 
 present our petitions, that they may be answered for 
 His own sake. Oh, then, Christian, pray and work, 
 work and pray ! Prayer is the beginning of work, 
 prayer is the end of work, prayer is work itself. 
 
 " Were not my watchings another's care, 
 Long since I had wearied and ceased from prayer ; 
 Watchman of Israel, watch over me, 
 Pity if wearied and faint I be, 
 Wake me with new and re-riving power, 
 Say to me, Canst thou not watch one hour T
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 89 
 
 XIII. 
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 
 
 " Let all things be done in order." 1 COR. xiv. 40. 
 
 " Do what thou dost, as if the earth were heaven. 
 And that thy last day were the judgment day; 
 When all's done, nothing's done." 
 
 KIHGSLET. 
 
 " A wise man scorneth nothing, be it never so small or homely, 
 For he knoweth not the secret laws that may bind it to great effects." 
 
 MAKTIN TUPPEB. 
 
 THE law of order requires to be duly combined 
 with the law of work, else we shall walk at hap- 
 hazard, hindering our own usefulness, and irritating 
 che feelings of others. There may be much diligence., 
 and faith, and zeal, without order, but there can be 
 only partial success ; nor without it can there be a 
 thorough spirit of obedience, for it is one of the com- 
 mands of God, " Let all things be done in order." It 
 appears to be a thing of easy attainment, belonging 
 to the essentially commonplace and uninteresting 
 elements of work ; hence is it so frequently neglected, 
 and any admonitions on the subject generally received 
 with weariness, if not contempt. Those, however, who 
 have known the sadness of failure in their work, with- 
 out any apparent cause, unless it be the want of due
 
 90 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WOKK. 
 
 regularity and design, will not disdain to listen to a 
 few brief and homely words, and to such we say 
 
 Be methodical ! The very idea of " living by 
 rule" is frightful to many, especially to those who 
 pique themselves on possessing something of "genius," 
 which they consider incompatible with method. Now, 
 if genius has accomplished much in the world with- 
 out method, doubtless it would have accomplished 
 much more with it ; while those who have neither 
 genius nor method, will find themselves but in a 
 melancholy plight. When we rise in the morning 
 to the light and the work of a new day, unless we 
 have some rules of action, unless we know what we 
 have to do, and when it is to be done, unless we 
 have the hours parcelled out in some measure so that 
 we need not waste large intervals in arranging and 
 discussing, we run great risk of having our duties ill 
 balanced, giving undue space to the work that we 
 like, and crushing into a corner the work that we do 
 not like. While we allot, as far as possible, the dif- 
 ferent duties for the different hours, it is well to leave 
 some but partially filled, to meet the emergencies of 
 unexpected claims, reserving some lighter employ- 
 ments for these " corners of time." The lesson that 
 we may learn from the following resolution of Mrs. 
 Fletcher of Madely, as recorded in her diary, will be 
 found useful by those who for the first time are 
 attempting to cultivate method. " I will endeavour 
 to lay out my time by rule, that I may know each
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 91 
 
 hour what ought to be done; nevertheless I will 
 cheerfully submit to have these rules broken or over- 
 turned, whenever the providence of God thinks fit 
 so to do." 
 
 Be punctual ! Punctuality is essential to method, 
 but we make a distinction between the two, because 
 with some degree of growing method, as regards our 
 own duties, we may yet be heedless regarding the 
 work and the method of others. Time is a gift, and 
 if we choose to undervalue and mislay our own por- 
 tion, we certainly have no right to appropriate what 
 belongs to those around us. Yet when we forget to 
 keep an appointment, when we arrive an hour too 
 late for the work to be done in concert with others, 
 we have not only defrauded God of His service, 
 but we have robbed our neighbours of hours that 
 might have been usefully occupied. In some cases 
 this is tantamount to the crime of stealing silver 
 and gold, for to many time is money. Charlotte 
 Elizabeth said that by the want of punctuality in 
 her friends interrupting her literary work, she had 
 lost hundreds of pounds ; still more is this true in 
 the case of artisans and tradespeople, to whom want 
 of punctuality is positive injustice ; and yet how 
 little is this social sin watched and striven and prayed 
 against ! 
 
 Be thorough ! Do not aim at more than you have 
 strength or opportunity for ; but what you attempt, 
 do well : it is better to do one duty thoroughly, than
 
 92 I10UELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 
 
 half a dozen superficially ; and as it is not the oh- 
 ject of God that you should perform a certain num- 
 ber of services, but that you should so enter into 
 the spirit of them as to glorify Him, and obtain from 
 each its full amount of benefit for others, you will 
 frustrate God's plan by their perfunctory performance. 
 There is nothing too small to be done thoroughly, 
 no work so insignificant that we can say, " It is of no 
 consequence how I do it." This thorough spirit will 
 prevent procrastination, there will be no putting off 
 till to-morrow the duty to be done, or the difficulty 
 to be grappled with, which each day will grow more 
 distasteful and more burdensome ; it will also pre- 
 vent the opposite tendency to undue haste, and the 
 anticipation of future duty, when we ought to be 
 absorbed in the present. Let there be also a com- 
 bination of earnestness and reality so needful in all 
 work, without which we shall walk through the vine- 
 yard as "in a vain show," without which our hearts 
 will be far away in dreams, while our hands are 
 mechanically employed. 
 
 Be wise I Too often the usefulness of Christians 
 is marred by a native want of wisdom. With the 
 best intentions, they say and do just what is cal- 
 culated to injure, instead of to profit, and they lay 
 hold of the Apostolic injunction " Be instant !" as 
 an excuse for being very much ofbener " out of sea- 
 son than in season." Sometimes the defect proceeds 
 from an overweening confidence in their own wisdom,
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 93 
 
 wlrich makes them trust to this broken reed to ex- 
 tricate them from perplexities, to uphold in difficult 
 paths, and to solve harassing doubts and fears ; there- 
 fore God leaves them to these their counsellors, that 
 after doing, saying, and thinking the most unwise 
 things possible, they may become " fools" in their 
 own estimation. The cure for both these cases is so 
 simple and direct, that it need only be stated in these 
 few words of Scripture " If any of you lack wisdom, 
 let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally, 
 and upbraideth not ; and it shall be given him." 
 All that is essential for the obtaining of this true wis- 
 dom, is to be ever bearing in mind our daily, hourly 
 need of it, and ever pleading the full promise of its 
 immediate supply ; so that in all sincerity though 
 not with fleshly wisdom, we may walk without en-ing 
 in the highway of holiness. (Is. xxxv. 8.) 
 
 Be watchful ! Never is the enemy's hand so full 
 of tare-seeds as when he sees the husbandman dili- 
 gent in the field. Never does the roaring lion go 
 hither and thither more vigilantly seeking for his 
 prey than when the Christian's hands and heart are 
 eagerly and successfully employed. Never does the 
 beacon require to be fed by night, and the watch- 
 tower to be mounted by day more unweariedly, than 
 when the Lord's soldier is at the same time the Lord's 
 workman. Be watchful, then, over your own soul, 
 lest in the unguarded zeal of your occupations the 
 fiery darts of Satan may find entrance lest, as you
 
 94 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 
 
 "are busy here and there," He who must be the 
 strength of your hand and the light of your heart 
 departs from you, (1 Kings xx. 40,) grieved at the 
 unwatchfulness of His servant. 
 
 Be consistent I The Christian is not as the un- 
 recognised architect of the coral atoll and lagoon, 
 or as the builder of many of earth's proudest fanes ; 
 he is identified with his work, whatever it may be, 
 and it will suffer loss, or increase in value according 
 as he walks steadfastly in the ways of the Lord, or is 
 driven hither and thither, as if by a strong wind ; one 
 day at work in the vineyard, the next immersed in 
 folly and vanity ; one day speaking words of precept, 
 the next day unspeaking them by contrary words of 
 example. G-od's servant must bear the badge of his 
 service at all times and in all places ; that he may be 
 consistent abroad, he is to be consistent at home ; 
 that his clothing without may be of wrought gold, 
 like the king's daughter, he strives to be all glorious 
 within. This consistency implies courage, and this 
 courage implies decision. It is only the heart that 
 is brave in the strength of the Lord that dares to 
 walk boldly yet humbly, consistently yet tenderly. 
 It is only the heart that is like a soldier's heart, that 
 heeds not the smoke and the noise of ridicule and 
 reproach. It is only the heart braced with decision 
 that shrinks not from confessing its master, and that 
 when calmly assured of the path of duty, is not 
 careful to answer the arguments of the opposer.
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 95 
 
 Upon the tombstone of the Scotch Keformer were 
 written the words, " Here lies he who never feared 
 the face of man ;" and had this eulogy been unmerited, 
 limited and unsuccessful would have been his work. 
 When Martin Luther was implored by his friends 
 not to answer to his citation before the Diet of Worms, 
 he exclaimed " I am called in the name of God to 
 go, and I would go though I were certain to meet as 
 many devils in Worms as there are tiles on the 
 houses." When Paul listened to the prophecies of 
 Agabus on the one hand, and the weeping of his 
 beloved friends on the other, it was Christian decision 
 that prompted the glorious reply " What mean ye 
 to weep and to break my heart ? for I am ready not 
 only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for 
 the name of the Lord Jesus." The heart that is 
 thus enabled by grace to be bravely and decidedly 
 consistent at all times and seasons, and under all 
 circumstances, will find that whereas in the old days 
 of its cowardice and hesitation it was a dwarfish 
 and puny thing, it will now grow in stature and in 
 strength, like the coral polypi which increase in 
 vigour when exposed to the swell of the breakers. 
 
 Be straight-forward ! When we do even a little 
 evil that much good may follow, we are turning 
 aside from the straight road, and we countenance a 
 principle which, perhaps, more than any other, has 
 reared its Babel-like front against the simplicity of the 
 truth that is in Jesus. Of all mottoes involving im-
 
 96 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 
 
 poriant practical and doctrinal results we would have 
 this inscribed over the gates of the Christian Vine- 
 yard, " Never do evil that good may come !" whether 
 it be under the name of expediency or policy, or 
 prudence, or Christian wisdom. Though the amount 
 of evil be as small as a tiny acorn, it encloses the 
 germ of a gigantic principle. The straight road is the 
 Christian's road, wherein none can lose their way, 
 the winding path is but a branch of the Broad Koad 
 and beaten track. Like the " living creatures" by the 
 Chaldean river, our feet must be " straight feet ;" 
 like them let us endeavour to go " straight forward," 
 turning not aside as we go, but following the Spirit 
 that goes before us. In all work this will be found a 
 safe and simple rule. The duties that must be done 
 clandestinely, cease to be duties. The work that is 
 done under another badge than the Master's will never 
 prosper. The truths that must be rendered palatable 
 by worldly policy will lose their truthfulness, and 
 fail of their effect. 
 
 Be patient ! God looks not upon the success, but 
 upon the unwearied arm, the patient heart. The 
 very toiling and rowing in contrary winds, though 
 the rowers apparently do not near the land, is 
 pleasing to Him. The casting the nets into the 
 sea during the long weary night, though finding 
 nothing, is service to the gracious Master. Be 
 patient, therefore, like the husbandman who waits 
 long for the precious seed ; it may be that you are
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 97 
 
 taken away before the early and latter rain, so that 
 you never see the young stem, the green sheaths, 
 the yellow grain ; but in planting the crop you have 
 worked your appointed work. The great object in 
 Christ's vineyard is not to see by sight, but to sow 
 and water by faith. If you measure your work by 
 the work of others, you will grow impatient, they 
 seem to do so much more, and to succeed so much 
 better ; but God has given you one kind of work, 
 and one kind of discipline in that work, to them 
 He has given another, and it belongs not to you to 
 judge which is the more useful, which the more 
 successful. If you are too anxious that the fruit of 
 your work should look well to the world's eye, you 
 will grow impatient speedily ; but remember, that 
 the outside may be fair, and the inside bitter dust, 
 like the apples of the doomed city. Be patient, then, 
 for the ripening of the good fruit of the good tree ; 
 there will be a time when it will appear green and 
 hard to those who look on it in ignorance ; but keep 
 it ever nearer to the Sun of righteousness, and soon 
 its beauty will be rich and ripe. 
 
 Be spiritually minded! Never let work of any 
 kind interfere with the times and seasons of devotion, 
 or with the habit of spiritual communion with Him, 
 who is the Father and the Friend, as well as " the 
 great Work-Master." If we neglect to sit at the 
 feet of Jesus, we shall grow careful and troubled 
 about many things, about the table, the farm, 
 G
 
 98 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 
 
 the merchandise, about the work that is highest, as 
 well as the work that is lowest ; we shall be selling 
 doves in the temple, which, however pure and inno- 
 cent, must be cast out. If we are to go forth in 
 the Spirit into the outer walks of life, His influence 
 pervading the works of our hands, He must dwell 
 within the temple of our hearts by faith, He must 
 give us clear and spiritual views of the things that 
 are eternal, that we may place in their right position 
 the things that are temporal. 
 
 In concluding these homely hints, we must note 
 some pitfalls in the Lord's vineyard, because of which 
 the deceitful hearts of the vine-dressers may halt and 
 stumble. You may make an idol of your work, dear 
 friend. If you are over-anxious for success, elated 
 by it when it comes, desponding when it is with- 
 held ; if you refuse to believe that others will rise up 
 in your room, as well or better fitted to carry on the 
 work ; if your soul cleaves to it till you are unwilling 
 to hear the summons to your home, to your rest ; 
 then there is reason to fear that you are worshipping 
 the work of your own hands, " bowing down to your 
 own net, and sacrificing to your own drag."* 
 
 On the other side, you may be weary, weary of 
 the labour, weary of the struggle, weary of the 
 long slumbering of the seed within the earth ; and, 
 
 * " To our own nets, ne'er bow we down, 
 
 Lest on the eternal shore, 
 The Angels, while our draughts they own, 
 Rjeet us evermore." KEBLE. Hab. i. 16.
 
 HOMELY HINTS ABOUT WORK. 99 
 
 like the prophet under the juniper tree, (1 Kings 
 xix. 4-8,) you may be ready to say, " It is enough ; 
 now, Lord, take away my life ;" but he replies, 
 " Not so ; arise, and eat ; the journey is long, and 
 the burden is heavy, and the labour is great ; but 
 strengthen and refresh thyself in the Lord, and be 
 not weary of well-doing." " Are you not wearying 
 for our heavenly rest ?" said Whitefield one day to 
 an old clergyman. " No ; certainly not," he replied. 
 u Why not ?" was the surprised rejoinder. " Why, 
 my good friend," said the old minister, " if you were 
 to send your servant into the fields to do a certain 
 portion of work for you, and promised to give him 
 rest and refreshment in the evening, what would you 
 say if you found him languid and discontented in the 
 middle of the day, and murmuring, ' Would God it 
 were evening !' would you not bid him be up and 
 doing, and finish his work, and then go home and 
 get the promised rest ? Just so does God say to you 
 and me."
 
 100 REWAED OF WORK. 
 
 XIV. 
 REWARD OF WORK. 
 
 " Be ye strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak : for your work shall 
 be rewarded." 2 CHBOS. XT. 7. 
 
 " Thy works and alms, and all thy good endeavours. 
 
 Staid not behind, nor in the grave were trod : 
 But as Faith pointed with her golden rod, 
 
 Followed thee up to joy and bliss for ever. 
 Love led them on, and Faith, who knew them best, 
 
 Thy handmaids, clad them o'er with purple beams, 
 And azure wings, that up they flew so drest, 
 
 And spake the truth of thee on glorious themes 
 Before the Judge ; who thenceforth bid thee rest, 
 
 And drink thy 611 of pure immortal streams." 
 
 MlLTOS'3 SONHETS. 
 
 CONSCIOUS as we are of having owed a vast debt 
 which we cannot pay ; conscious of having been 
 forgiven that debt fully and freely, the idea of reward 
 for the sin-stained services of the poor debtor, is at 
 first intensely painful, and seems to introduce a lower 
 motive and an unworthy element into our work. 
 Yet we have no right to turn away from a truth 
 so clearly revealed in Scripture. Like all parts of 
 Jehovah's Gospel plan, it is composed of interwoven 
 wisdom and love ; for the doctrine of reward of work, 
 when fully understood, only lays the forgiven and 
 the rewarded soul more humbled and more adoring 
 at the feet of his Master. The acceptance of our
 
 REWARD OF WORK. 101 
 
 poor broken services so stained by wrong motives, 
 by ignorance and by faithlessness, seems wonderful 
 condescension ; but to reward them is like return- 
 ing good for evil, thus heaping coals of fire on our 
 heads. "Fourscore years/' said Polycarp, "have I 
 served God, and found Him a good master ;" and this 
 will be the experience of all the Lord's people, who, 
 while often neglecting what they can do, are, even 
 when they have done all, unprofitable servants. 
 God often rewards in this life, by large measures of 
 success the reaping time will surely come, though 
 it may seem to tarry, and the precious seed sown in 
 tears, will in all certainty be changed into golden 
 sheaves. Frequently He rewards by a fulness of 
 blessing, returned upon the worker's own soul. The 
 heart that is drawn out to the hungry and the 
 afflicted, will be guided and satisfied by the Lord 
 Himself. He that cultivates all social and relative 
 love for the sake of Jesus, will be more and more 
 transformed into His divine and loving image. He 
 that has led a soul to the Truth will know it more 
 convincingly in his own soul. Those who have given 
 their youth to the service of God, will be like the 
 green cedars, for long life and strength, and like the 
 palm tree, that yields clusters of fruit in its old age. 
 But it is not only such rewards that the believer is 
 promised in the Word of God. For all, houses, 
 lands, children, parents, wives, brethren, forsaken for 
 His name's sake, there shall be an hundredfold in the
 
 102 EEWARD OF WORK. 
 
 everlasting kingdom. For all grief and warfare, 
 there shall be a double of rest and blessedness. For 
 the many souls won to righteousness, there will be 
 crowns of rejoicing, and a radiance like the stars of 
 the firmament. For the food to the hungry, for the 
 drink to the thirsty, for the clothes to the naked, 
 for the consolation to the captive, for the cup of cold 
 water to the disciple as given to the King himself, 
 there will be an additional joy on the right hand 
 thrones. Even as one star differeth from another 
 star in glory, so will those whose works are as gold 
 and silver, upon the true foundation, differ in bright- 
 ness and enlargement from those whose " wood, hay, 
 and stubble," must be burnt, though they themselves 
 " are saved as by fire." Oh ! how the thought of 
 this stupendous love will prostrate each redeemed one 
 before the rainbow throne ! How gratefully the 
 crowns will be cast at the Saviour's feet ! How re- 
 joicingly the voices will mingle in the new and ador- 
 ing song !
 
 FUTURE WORK. 103 
 
 XV. 
 
 FUTURE WORK. 
 
 " His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been 
 faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou 
 into the joy of thy lord." MATT. xxv. 23. 
 
 " And his servants shall serve him and see his face." REV. xxii. 3, 4. 
 
 " Thy Master calls thee, good and faithful servant ; 
 Long hast thou served on earth with spirit fervent. 
 Go hence to yonder temple filled with glory. 
 There shalt thou praise thy Lord in song and story ; 
 There shalt thou see his face instinct with beauty, 
 There shalt thou serve with all delightsome duty." 
 
 IT has been beautifully but untruly said, that 
 
 " All we know of saints above 
 Is that they sing and that they love." 
 
 We know more than this. Though the river is 
 wide, we can see in clear weather something of the 
 scenery on the other side ; though the veil is thick, 
 we can catch glimpses of what is passing behind it ; 
 though the voices and the music are too distant to 
 be distinctly heard by mortal ears, yet some words, 
 some harmonies, come faintly to us when the Bible 
 opens the door of those glorious but invisible dwell- 
 ings. We know that the servants of the Master are 
 to serve him and see his face, we know that it is to 
 be an active service, for they are to serve him resting
 
 104 FUTURE WORK. 
 
 not, day and night, in his temple, we know that 
 they are to judge, and to rule, and to have power 
 over the nations. We know not, indeed, what manner 
 of service that of the servitors in the upper temple 
 is to be ; whether, like the angels, they are to be 
 ministers to the heirs of salvation in other worlds, 
 whether they are to be watchers and warners of the 
 tempted, the sinning, and the penitent, whether they 
 are to fly swiftly, bearing the Lord's messages, and 
 rejoicing with those who do rejoice. Into the realms 
 of conjecture we dare not venture ; but this we may 
 know, as surely as if we had been caught up into the 
 heavens to see with our own bodily eyes, that among 
 the prepared things of the prepared home, for the 
 prepared people, there will be blessed and congenial 
 service appointed for each, for which all that has 
 gone before of waiting, and longing, and struggling, 
 and working, has been but the preparation, a service 
 combining indeed, the joyfulness of praise, and the 
 sweetness of rest, but in its very nature possessing 
 the active, useful, and progressive elements of WORK. 
 " Surely the idea is inadmissible that an instrument 
 wrought up at so much expense to a polished fitness 
 for service, is destined to be suspended for ever on 
 the palace walls of heaven, as a glittering bauble no 
 more to make proof of its temper."* Trained in a 
 school, purified in a furnace, loved with a love which 
 the seraphim and cherubim have never known and 
 
 Isaac Taylor's " Natural History of Enthusiasm."
 
 FUTUKE WORK. 105 
 
 never needed ; instinct with yearnings and strivings 
 after the high, the beautiful, and the immortal, we 
 cannot doubt that the service of the Lord's redeemed, 
 accompanied as it is to be with the sight of that 
 blessed countenance, the veiling of which is the 
 believer's greatest sorrow upon earth, will be yet 
 higher and nobler than the services of the happy and 
 glorious, but unfallen and unpurchased angels.
 
 106 COLLUSION. 
 
 XVI. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 " Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and 
 the service of the kingdoms of the countries." 2 CHHOS. xii. 8. 
 
 . . . . " Christian works are no more than 
 Animate love and faith, as flowers are the animate spring-tide. 
 Works do follow us all unto God : these stand and bear witness. 
 Not what they teemed, but what they were only." 
 
 THB CHILDBED OP THE LOKD'S SUPPER. 
 
 IN our progress through this little volume, we have 
 taken it for granted that those who have accompanied 
 us in quest of a few useful hints belong decidedly 
 to the number of those who rejoice in the title of 
 " servants." It is not impossible, however, that these 
 pages may fall into the hands of some who may find 
 the words, duty work service, hard and distaste- 
 ful. There is a sentimental school in the present 
 day, that would fain abolish all these ungraceful 
 words, as they are deemed, and substitute some that 
 are beautiful when joined to the others, but vain and 
 vacant when left to stand by themselves. We hear 
 much of the principle of " love," which is to sup- 
 plant duty, instead of supporting and adorning it. 
 We have Jehovah revealed to us not as the personal
 
 CONCLUSION. 107 
 
 Master, Father, and Saviour, but as God in every- 
 thing, and everything as God the works of His hands 
 transformed into Himself. We have genius, with all 
 its eccentricities and weaknesses, turned into a faith 
 and a worship. We have " earnestness" much lauded 
 and much recommended not earnestness in truth, 
 but earnestness often in spite of truth ; error taken 
 no account of, as long as men are " earnest" in main- 
 taining it. We have aesthetic beauty reared upon an 
 idol's shrine, and all that is "useful" branded, not 
 only as devoid of beauty and elevation, but as de- 
 basing to the free and aspiring soul of man. It 
 is little to be wondered at, that men, wrapt in a 
 visionary existence of beauty and perfection, should 
 look with contempt on those who so openly avow 
 themselves to be "servants." What beauty what 
 merit what spontaneous grace what earnest dedi- 
 cation can there be in this menial work ? Yet there 
 was one instance of the most devoted love the most 
 earnest self-sacrifice the most heroic beauty that the 
 world ever saw, and the prime feature of wonder and 
 praise in that blessed example was, that He made 
 Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the 
 form of a servant. Since those marvellous days in 
 the elder time, the act of SEKVICE has been ennobled 
 and consecrated. The doing the will of a master, 
 the " ministering," instead of being ministered unto, 
 has become work of which neither man nor the spirits 
 that are hovering around us, need to be ashamed.
 
 108 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In fact, whether recognised or not, service is the 
 universal law. Ay, and though it sound not fit 
 for ears sentimental and polite, we know that those 
 who serve not God, are the servants, nay, the slaves 
 of a hard task-master. Various and plausible are 
 the forms of his unsatisfying and if the chains be 
 not broken his eternal servitude. Some are slaves 
 of the fancy some are slaves of society some are 
 slaves of the flesh some are slaves of the mind ; 
 and the fetters are not the less ignoble because un- 
 consciously worn the tasks not less menial because 
 they are suited to the grovelling tastes of the servants 
 the work is not less essentially laborious, because it 
 is of no avail : " The people labouring in the very 
 fire for very vanity." Hab. ii. 13. Thus we have a 
 learned and industrious man, of other tunes, crying 
 out upon his deathbed " Alas ! I have squandered 
 away my life laboriously in doing nothing."* 
 
 There is as great a difference in the two ser- 
 vices, and the two rewards, as in the two masters. 
 There is as great a difference between the apparent 
 and the real beauty of the work here, as there will 
 be between the beauty and the misery of the two 
 states in eternity. We grant that the beauty of the 
 senses, and the beauty of the feelings, and the beauty 
 of the intellect, and the work to which they lead, 
 surpass infinitely in external graciousness the every- 
 day duty the heavy cross the weeping eyes the 
 
 The learned Grotius. See " The Christian World Unmasked," p. 71.
 
 CONCLUSION. 109 
 
 weary feet and toiling hands of those who follow 
 Him who was like a root out of a dry ground, with- 
 out form or comeliness. But the beauty of the one 
 passes away, and where is it, and what remains ? 
 The struggles and the scars pass away also, and are 
 no more seen for ever ; but there remain on earth the 
 beauty and the grace of good deeds, long after their 
 doers have perished, like the ancient glass, which, 
 destitute of beauty and colour in its youth, shines forth 
 in the decay of its original substance, resplendent in 
 gorgeous hues. Nor is this all; those who have 
 borne the image of the earthly in so much weariness 
 and infirmity, shall also bear the image of the 
 heavenly those who have been scorned for the low- 
 liness of their work, shall reign as kings and priests, 
 crowned with diadems of immortal beauty. 
 
 So far as we have yet gone, we have contemplated 
 the working believer as an individual, in some of 
 his phases of duty towards God, towards himself, 
 and towards his neighbour. There is one aspect of 
 his position, however, which we cannot overlook, 
 luminous as it is with love and beauty. The believer 
 is not only a part of Christ, he is a part of Christ's 
 Church. We hear much of "The Church" in the 
 present day, too much, and yet not enough. We 
 hear of it as connected with the priesthood, one 
 saying, " I am of Paul," and another, " I am of 
 Apollos." We hear of it as connected with the 
 walls and the screens, the organs and the surplices.
 
 110 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We hear of it as connected with sharp contentions 
 and unbrotherly divisions, but we hear little of it as 
 the spiritual body of Christ, as the great company 
 of the redeemed, both in earth and in heaven. And 
 so it comes to pass, that among infidels, the word is 
 a scorn and a scoff, and among believers it is used 
 shrinkingly, and approved doubtingly. Let us not, 
 however, allow the blessed and beautiful title to be 
 monopolized by those who know not its true beauty 
 and value. The Church is not composed of quarrel- 
 some children, who must have all tilings their own 
 way, and no other, as might often be imagined, 
 neither is it composed of self-complacent architects of 
 their own barriers, and forgers of their own bolts 
 and bars, but of tried and tempted, repenting and 
 pardoned men and women, who have duties to per- 
 form for each other, and for God, as members of a 
 spiritual church. Nor is a forced union in external 
 form needful to the proper division and success of this 
 work. It is not needful, it is not the essence of 
 strength, it is, or would be, the essence of very weak- 
 ness ; for, as it has been well said, " An intolerant 
 sect, is a sect in fear."* Christ did not die to give 
 His people strength and safety by means of uniform- 
 ity, He died to give them the strength of unity, 
 unity with Him, unity with each other, unity in 
 then- great work. God who knows all the intricacies 
 and needs, and varied constitutions of man's spirit, 
 
 Isaac Taylor's " Spiritual Christianity."
 
 CONCLUSION. Ill 
 
 far better than man knows them himself, has not in- 
 stituted in His Word one form of worship, with secu- 
 lar penalties to guard, and persecution to punish. He 
 has clearly set forth the doctrines to be taught in all 
 Churches, the blood of the Cross, the regeneration 
 of the Holy Ghost, the adoption into the Father's 
 family, the grateful services to be rendered because of 
 these great benefits, and He has left His children free 
 to worship Him in all non-essentials, according to their 
 individual characters and necessities, and their varied 
 views of scriptural obligation, giving His Son to 
 save and His Spirit to sanctify, and His will to be done 
 in and by all Churches, a blessed fact to which the 
 great company before the throne are at this moment 
 bearing joyful testimony. Besides the individual 
 obligations and responsibility which lie upon each 
 labourer in the Lord's vineyard, he has therefore an- 
 other equally important charge to keep as a member 
 of the Congregation of the Faithful. He has to do 
 with each and all, as they belong or do not belong to 
 the true Church. If as far as man's judgment is of 
 avail in " trying the spirits," he can decide that those 
 who are within the range of his influence, are spiritual 
 " Churchmen," in deed and in truth, then are they 
 to be cheered, to be cherished, to be visited, even 
 as in so doing, " Ye do it unto ME." If, on the con- 
 trary, it appears as if their names were yet want- 
 ing to the records of the Church, then is all social, 
 domestic, prayerful, and special work to be exercised,
 
 112 CONCLUSION. 
 
 that these souls may be brought within the spiritual 
 pale. 
 
 No circumstances can interfere with this ecdesias- 
 t iced responsibility. It may be, to use Mr. Buskin's * 
 beautiful simile, that the Christian may take some 
 of the sheep of the fold for stones on the far moun- 
 tain side, but let him draw nearer to them, and he 
 will soon see the true sheeplike form and demeanour. 
 It may be that those whom he believes to be his 
 brethren, may turn away and say, " Stand by ; I 
 belong to a church that is holier than thine," and the 
 natural heart may retort and say, " I am more liberal 
 than thou, and I can hold no communion with a 
 bigot." Dream not, believer, that thou art thus 
 loosed from thy responsibilities ; thy work in watching 
 and convincing that erring but sincere heart, is but 
 laid before thee the clearer. 
 
 The present day, with its past warnings and its 
 future perils, is not wanting in special and startling 
 arguments for the urgency of work, and the neces- 
 sity of warfare. When the spiritual and CATHOLIC 
 CHUKCH (we shrink not from the name) is threatened 
 with foes without, and traitors within, and injudicious 
 friends around and about, it is time that she should 
 be seen as an illuminated city set on an hill, that she 
 should be known as a Church engaged in full work 
 work of all kinds and all degrees, but more especially 
 in the urgent one of plucking souls from the burning, 
 
 * Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds.
 
 CONCLUSION. 113 
 
 so mucli the more as she sees the day approaching. 
 When the signs of the times seem to give forth 
 audible utterances when it is possible that the fire 
 for the martyr, as well as the dungeon and galley for 
 the confessor, may be near at hand, it is well that 
 the Church should carefully foster and seek to main- 
 tain, in all hearts bound up within her, the courage 
 of the martyr, and the faith of the confessor. If 
 there never has been a day, however, of such startling 
 calls, and such glorious opportunity, there never has 
 been one of such glaring obstacle. Satan, knowing 
 that his time is short, is putting forth all his energies 
 " in great wrath ;" he has sown dragon's teeth in the 
 vineyard, and thrown shells of fire into the camp. 
 
 Let us glance for a moment at the scene around 
 us. Life is a bivouac* the world a broad plain of 
 strife, and there is a day approaching, even the battle 
 of the great day of God Almighty. Slowly but 
 surely the hosts of the foe are mustering. You may 
 see the broad flag of Eome, and the less conspicuous 
 ensign of Anglo-Catholicism, and the black banner 
 of infidelity, and the puny pennons of false prophets 
 and false Christs. But where are the opposing 
 legions ? where is the phalanx of the Lord's people ? 
 Alas, there is a division in the camp ; brother will 
 not march forward with brother ; their eyes are 
 
 " On the world's broad field of battle, 
 
 In the bivouac of life, 
 Be not like dumb driven cattle, 
 
 Be ye heroes in the strife '." LOSGFEILOW. 
 
 H
 
 114 CONCLUSION. 
 
 fixed, not upon the God above them, not upon the 
 foe before them, but upon the colours of the ensigns, 
 upon the forms of the pennons around them ! What, 
 then, is to be done ? Let all who are upon the 
 Lord's side unite their forces, let the flag of each 
 wave bravely and broadly above them, let their own 
 churches and altars become daily more precious to 
 their hearts, even as the child loves its father's birth- 
 place, its mother's home ; only let each heart have 
 love and sympathy for its fellow-heart, let each 
 brother prize his brother's worship, though it is not 
 his own, let the tables of communion be as free to 
 those who shew themselves to be God's people, as 
 the wells of water and green palm-trees in God's 
 wilderness, let the prayer be special and earnest, 
 faithful and unwearied, for an outpouring of the 
 Lord's Spirit, as a spirit of Catholic love and unity, 
 let each man, and woman, and child, add their weight 
 and their influence, though it be but as the grain 
 of sand, as the widow's mite, against the iniquity of 
 sectarianism then shall we go forth a united com- 
 pany from every tongue, and people, and kindred, 
 and nation, a victorious band of brothers, with our 
 elder Brother at the head, the Captain of the Lord's 
 host! 
 
 We need not wonder that schemes of this kind are 
 so often pronounced Utopian, and so often fail, as 
 they certainly do, when we remember the unbelief 
 that prevails upon the subject few believing that,
 
 CONCLUSION. 115 
 
 though difficult, it is not impossible, for " all things 
 are possible with God," and " we can do all things 
 through Christ strengthening us," very few hope- 
 fully and earnestly praying to God to do this thing 
 for us that we cannot do for ourselves, and still fewer 
 realizing such a spiritual unity as the very best and 
 the very highest. For we maintain that a unity of 
 spirit between two of different Churches is far more 
 honouring to God, and far more convincing to the 
 world, than the same degree of unity between two of 
 the same Church. The latter may be the result of 
 fear, or policy, or self-interest, or brick and mortar 
 combination ; the former is a free, wide, noble, re- 
 joicing sympathy, shewing to the world whence it 
 came, and whom it imitates, looking up and away 
 from the little things that are below to the great 
 things that are above, loving because Christ loves, 
 pardoning because Christ has pardoned, the one and 
 the other, sitting beside each other on earth, because 
 they are to sit together in heaven, working hand to 
 hand and heart to heart, because they expect the 
 same summons to the marriage supper of the Glorious 
 Lamb. 
 
 We conclude this little volume with the following 
 striking quotation : 
 
 " My particular calling being a peculiar and distinct 
 station, wherein I am bound to be serviceable to my 
 country and family, and wherein also I have this 
 privilege, that I may further my general calling, if I
 
 116 CONCLUSION. 
 
 mind it out of conscience to the Lord, or in obedience 
 to His Word ; I wish, in general, that I may never 
 cross the wise providence of my God (in the govern- 
 ment of the world) by neglecting it or thinking 
 lightly of it, but since I am listed under the Captain 
 of my salvation, may serve Him faithfully, not only 
 in general as a soldier, but also in that place or office 
 to which He hath chosen and called me. I wish, in 
 particular, that ' what my hand findeth to do, I may 
 do it with all my might ;' that I may be of the num- 
 ber of them that spend themselves with labour, and 
 not of them who waste with rust and laziness ; my 
 diligence herein is some help against the temptations 
 of the devil. The sluggard's heart is like his field, 
 overgrown with weeds. Lord, let me rather wear 
 out with work than consume (like a garment laid by 
 with moths) for want of use !....! desire 
 that I may be so sensible that good things here be- 
 low come from the Most High God, and the success 
 of my labours dependeth more on His providence 
 than my diligence, that I may never in a morning 
 open my shop, or lift up a tool, (as my trade is,) be- 
 fore I have opened my heart and lifted up my soul 
 to my God for His blessing upon my endeavours. 
 All creatures in the hands of my God are as dead 
 tools in the hands of a living workman, by whose force 
 
 and influence alone they act In a word, 
 
 I wish that I may, like the wise merchant, sell all I 
 have to buy the pearl of great price ; the gold tried
 
 CONCLUSION. 117 
 
 in the fire, that I may be rich ; the white raiment, 
 that I may be clothed, and drive such a constant 
 trade with my God in the other world hearing from 
 thence, and sending thither that when the King of 
 Terrors shall give me a writ of ease from my par- 
 ticular calling, I may die in the Lord, rest from my 
 labours, and have my works following me, ' through 
 free grace, into an exceeding and eternal weight of 
 glory/ AMEN." Siuinnock's Christian Man's Calling. 
 A.P. 1662. 
 
 IIISTBB TO HER MAJESTY
 
 SECOND SERIES.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE Author acknowledges with gratitude, that the 
 reception given to the first volume of her little work, 
 has been such as greatly to encourage her in sending 
 out a second. She feels, however, that some apology is 
 due for dealing with subjects, the thorough treatment 
 of which, requires an amount of experience and qualifi- 
 cation to which she can lay no claim. Her purpose has 
 been throughout entirely suggestive ; and her object will 
 be in no small measure gained, if she succeed in leading 
 some to think upon topics, which, often handled in theory, 
 are too much neglected in practice.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 
 I. LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK 1 
 
 II. YOUNG LADIES' WORK 18 
 
 III. WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT, 35 
 
 IV. HOUSEHOLD WORK 46 
 
 V. WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED, 60 
 
 VI. COUNTRY WORK, 69 
 
 VII. SABBATH WORK 79 
 
 VIII. THOUGHT WORK 91 
 
 IX. PROVING WORK 105 
 
 X. REST, ... 120
 
 WORK, 
 
 i. 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 
 
 * Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether 
 it be right/'-PROV. xx. 11. 
 
 Mother, to thy heart are given 
 Rich and precious gifts from Heaven, 
 Not to be thine own for ever, 
 > 7 ot to save thee hard endeavour ; 
 Souls for thee to guide and cherish. 
 Teach, that so they may not perish ; 
 Hearts and hands to train untiring, 
 For Work that God is now requiring. 
 
 OF all the beautiful things in this world of beaut}', 
 children are surely the most beautiful : " The poetry 
 of the world, the fresh flowers of our hearths and 
 homes; little conjurors with their natural magic, 
 evoking by their spells, what delights and enriches 
 all ranks."* Xot only, however, are they things of 
 love and beauty, but like the flowers which are theii 
 prototypes, they are of sweet and pleasant use. Few 
 hearts but must have been cheered by their joyous- 
 ness, few minds that have not been taught by their 
 
 * Binney's " Is it possible to make the Best of both Worlds ?"
 
 2 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 
 
 questionings. In the verse of Scripture which heads 
 this chapter, we have a beautiful indication of tho 
 fact, that each little child, careless and frolicking as 
 it may appear to be on the pathway of life, has yet 
 high and holy functions to perform, a little spot of 
 the vineyard to occupy which is tenderly overlooked 
 by its Master, and a power of shewing to others the 
 purity and rectitude of its work. Solemn as this 
 thought is to us, it is not often so to the young, who 
 are generally unconscious workers, like the birds, the 
 bees, and the blossoms ; but it ought to startle and 
 arouse those to whom is entrusted the responsibility 
 of making or marring these little instruments of God. 
 Few sights are so awfully significant as what is fami- 
 liarly termed " a spoiled child," " spoiled" for its 
 present work of joyfully serving its Creator, "spoil- 
 ad" for a future living and loving life, " spoiled" 
 for the purposes of a blessed eternity. Most of the 
 tnothers who thus act, start back shocked and in- 
 dignant at the idea of the effects being permanent. 
 By some strange process of self-delusion, they allow 
 themselves to believe that a mysterious change will 
 take place, that the ill-tempered and wilful girl 
 will become the gentle and unselfish woman, and 
 that the idle and lawless boy will be a useful 
 worker in his future day. Such changes have been, 
 and may be again in God's mercy ; but even if so, 
 His immediate design has been frustrated by those 
 to whom He lent the treasure. The little child whom
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 3 
 
 Jesus would fain have loved is practically detained 
 from Him, the kingdom of Heaven is robbed of 
 part of its essential element.* It has been well said, 
 "that excessive indulgence to others, especially to 
 children, is only self-indulgence under an alias."f 
 Oh then, self-indulgent mothers, cease from your 
 selfishness ! There is sorrow enough in store for your 
 children ; do not assist in laying up for them more 
 than they can bear. Do not, while God is wishing 
 to guide them early heavenward, be yourselves the 
 means of leading them, even for a time, in the direc- 
 tion of Hell. Do not so train them that they cannot 
 do the work which is already given them to do, and 
 which God will require at your hands as well as at 
 theirs. 
 
 Others there are whose dearest wish is to have 
 their little ones consecrated to God. They pray and 
 labour in faith, looking forward to the time when 
 their children will become workers in their Master's 
 vineyard; but even they may forget that a mo- 
 ther's work is not only one of faith, but may also be 
 one of sight, that it is as easy for the Saviour to 
 change the heart of the little child whom He has 
 taken in His arms and blessed, as to renew it after 
 years of folly and alienation. When the seed is sown 
 the promise of the harvest is " in due time," but how 
 often there is a sad and weary, though at last a suc- 
 
 * " For of such is the kingdom of Heaven." MABK i. 14. 
 + " Guesses at Truth," 1st Series.
 
 4 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 
 
 cessful watch through many an untimely season ! It 
 cannot be God's fault that there are so few converted 
 children, for He loves to give a speedy answer, He 
 loves to give a timely harvest ; but there are many 
 mighty works which He cannot do because of unbe- 
 lief. Mothers ! it is well that ye should hope and 
 watch and teach it is well that ye should pray, and 
 that your children should see you pray. A Christian 
 philosopher was but a few weeks ago conversing with 
 an eminent French savant, gone since then to his 
 long home.* The latter expressed his difficulty in 
 understanding the existence of God, " le Dieu de 
 vos philosophes." His friend directed him to " le 
 Dieu des Chretiens." " ' Ah ! oui !' me clit il, ' c'est de 
 celui de ma mere, de celui devant lequel elle eprou- 
 vait toujours tant de douceur a s'agenouiller.' II 
 n'ajouta plus rien. Son coeur avait parle ; cette 
 fois il avait compris !" But it is not enough thus 
 to pray. See to it that ye also believe and expect, 
 see to it that ye look for great things now, for the 
 infancy of your children may be, and ought to 
 be their accepted time, and their day of salvation. 
 Never could there be a more acceptable office for 
 the blood of Jesus than to cleanse those little ones 
 of whom He said, " Suffer them to come unto me.'"' 
 Never could the Holy Spirit's work be more appro- 
 priate than when building up a temple in the hearts 
 
 * See a notice of M. Arago by M. Auguste de la Rive of Geneva, in ' Coenu-3, 
 a French journal of science.
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 5 
 
 of the " little children," whom He teaches sinners to 
 resemble. God has Himself given a great reason 
 for early conversion. The very words, " a pious 
 child," excite apprehension in many minds that it 
 is in ordinary phraseology " too good to live ;" 
 even when rejoiced in as safe, it is trembled over 
 as doomed. But God speaks of the " work of the 
 child," God tells us of His converted little ones, that 
 ''they do the will of their Father:" God's highest 
 motive for your children being saved, is not that 
 they may be safe, but that they may be His own 
 lovely and loving servants. 
 
 We are so accustomed to influence children by 
 loving, blaming, and teaching them, that we are apt 
 to forget the strong influence which in their turn be- 
 longs to the little ones of whom is the kingdom of 
 Heaven ; we forget to train them so that this in- 
 fluence may be exerted for immediate good. It is 
 often objected, that in the present day children are 
 made too conscious agents, that in the efforts of 
 an infant teacher or little missionary collector, 
 there is much more gratification of childish vanity 
 than honest effort, and that thus the simplicity of 
 childhood is tarnished, and its weakness and needs 
 kept out of view. This may be so, if the fact of their 
 having a work to do for others only, is too promi- 
 nently brought forward. But let the little child be 
 impressed with the knowledge that it has work to do 
 for God, even if only like the dew-drop that refreshes
 
 6 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 
 
 the stately rose, or the little songster that makes 
 merry the gloomy forest. Let it be taught that its 
 own heart is a large field of work, that a watch 
 over its besetting sins is the first step of its service 
 to God, and we believe that far from making chil- 
 dren vain, it will deepen the conviction of their own 
 littleness, and God's greatness and condescension. 
 That was a beautiful remark of the heathen child, 
 " God is great enough to reign in the wide heavens, 
 and small enough to live in my heart." 
 
 Precious and delightsome as children are, they are 
 not like rare exotics or costly gems ; they are here, 
 and there, and everywhere, springing up like the 
 wayside grasses, and are like the stars of the heaven 
 for multitude. There are few hearts that cannot either 
 in their own homes, or in the homes of others, rejoice 
 in youthful sunshine, who cannot study the ways, 
 and help the infirmities of little children, 
 
 " Not too good, 
 
 For human nature's daily food, 
 For transient sorrows, simple wiles, 
 Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears and smiles." 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 Most of our readers, therefore, will understand 
 that the difficulty of appeal and realization is very 
 forcibly felt in going through a child's daily history. 
 We find there, fear of some supposed danger, pain 
 caused by some little accident, weariness of con- 
 straint, despondency at tiny difficulties, naughti- 
 ness, shewing, like the serpent's trail in Paradise,
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 7 
 
 mingled with that bright light upon brow and lips, 
 that sweet music of words and laughter, which make 
 even our heavier hearts feel childlike for the time. 
 In looking back upon the day's alternations, we won- 
 der how little effect we have had in equalizing the 
 temperature. We have spoken of the love of God, 
 but the moment's fear, or pain, or difficulty, has been 
 too strong to realize it ; we have appealed to their 
 love for us, but the moment's temptation or passion 
 has swept it away ; we have spoken of God's anger, 
 but it has only made the little one shrink and shud- 
 der. Thus we have been apt to sink down in dis- 
 couragement, forgetting the wayward and rebellious 
 day's history of ourselves, "children of a larger 
 growth/' and perhaps judging hardly of 
 
 " The young young children, oh my sisters !" 
 
 It is clear that something more tangible is needed 
 to impress and bring home exhortation. Those who 
 have had the management of the young know well 
 the effect of employment, in alleviating sorrows and 
 subduing waywardness. " Who will do this for me ?" 
 " I," and " I," and " I," will be cheerfully answered 
 by little voices that had previously been choked by 
 sobs. Now, when met by this difficulty of daily ap- 
 peal and realization, let us carry the principle of 
 action to its highest extent. Let the child have a 
 strong and vigorous motive for learning that spelling 
 lesson, for resisting that piece of gluttony, for help-
 
 8 LITTLE CHILDREN S WORK. 
 
 ing that helpless little sister, for giving the kiss of 
 forgiveness to that offending playmate. Let it be 
 distinctly and forcibly understood, that here is some- 
 thing to be done for God that He is watching to 
 see how the trial is borne, how the temptation is 
 resisted, how the service is performed ; for trifling as 
 they may all appear to us, they are not so, either to 
 the child or to God. This plan may at first fail, but 
 if consistently, solemnly, yet cheerfully carried out, 
 we believe that in few cases will it fail of ultimate 
 success ; for it is God's will that these little ones 
 should be thus trained to an early and joyful service 
 for Him. 
 
 Much honour is put upon children on earth. Not 
 only is praise ordained out of the mouths of babes 
 and sucklings, but our Lord says, "Whosoever re- 
 ceiveth one such little child in my name, receiveth 
 ME." Much honour is put upon them in Heaven, 
 where, as we are told for a motive in our conduct 
 towards them, they always see the face of God.* 
 Let us not then wonder at the influence which 
 in their simplicity they exert over the proudest in- 
 tellect. One day a little girl of four years old was 
 playing unobserved in a corner of the room, when 
 it was remarked of a gentleman who had just gone 
 out, that he was an infidel. " What is an infidel, 
 mama ?" said little Mary. Her mother gave her an 
 explanation suited to her age. She said nothing,
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN s> WORK. 9 
 
 but was very thoughtful. The next day the gentle- 
 man, to whom she was much attached, returned, and, 
 to his astonishment, his little friend refused to speak 
 to him, and shrank from his usual caresses. He in- 
 quired the reason, and she answered firmly, " Be- 
 cause you are an infidel.'"' " What is an infidel ?" he 
 said, to try her. " One who does not believe in God, 
 heaven, or hell." The arrow had sped, and he went 
 home to think. The result was his conversion to 
 Christianity. Truly that child's mother must have 
 had a thankful heart. A case of this kind may be an 
 exception ; for it is not often that the young are the 
 visible teachers of the old, but many and wonderful 
 are the trains of influence which unconsciously they 
 spread around, many the flowers and the pleasant 
 fruits that spring up from the seeds which they waft 
 into the breezy air. We remember being much struck 
 by a little story, shewing that " a word fitly spoken," 
 or, to use the expressive Hebrew reading given in the 
 margin, " a word spoken upon wheels," even by the 
 weakest and youngest, is precious as gold and silver.* 
 One day a boy was tormenting a kitten, when his little 
 sister said to him with tearful eyes, " Oh, Philip, don't 
 do that, it is God's kitten." The word of the little 
 one was not lost ; it was set upon wheels. Philip left 
 off tormenting the kitten, but many serious thoughts 
 were awakened regarding the creatures that he had 
 before considered his own property. " God's kitten
 
 10 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 
 
 God's creature, for He made it." It was a new 
 idea. The next day, on his way to school, he met 
 one of his companions who was beating unmerci- 
 fully a poor starved-looking dog. Philip ran up 
 to him, and almost unconsciously using his sister's 
 words, he said, " Don't, don't, it is God's creature." 
 The boy looked abashed, and explained that the dog 
 had stolen his breakfast. " Never mind," said Philip, 
 " I will give you mine, which I have in my basket ;" 
 and sitting down together, the little boy's anger was 
 soon forgotten. Again had a word been unconsciously 
 set upon wheels. Two passers by heard Philip's 
 words, one a young man in prosperous business in 
 the neighbouring town, the other a dirty ragged 
 being, who, in consequence of his intemperate habits, 
 had that morning been dismissed by his employer, 
 and was now going home sullen and despairing. 
 " God's creature !" said the poor forlorn one, and it 
 was a new idea to him also ; " if I too belong to 
 God, He will take care of me, though no one else 
 will." Just then he came to a public-house, where 
 he had been in the habit of drowning his miseries, 
 and then staggering home to inflict new ones on his 
 wife and children. He stopped, the temptation 
 was strong ; but the new idea was stronger, " I am 
 God's creature." and he passed on. His wife was 
 astonished to see him sober, and still more when he 
 burst into tears, declaring that he was a ruined man, 
 but that he was determined to give up drinking and
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 11 
 
 to trust in God. At that moment a knock was heard 
 at the door, and the gentleman came in to whom 
 we have before alluded. He too had been rebuked 
 'by the boy's words for the scorn and loathing which 
 he had felt to the miserable object before him. 
 " God's creature ! therefore entitled to help and 
 pity." We need not detail the words of hope and 
 comfort, the promise and the performance of active 
 assistance, which in a short time lifted up the poor 
 man's head, and made him one of God's thankful 
 and joyful " creatures." It would be well for us all, 
 old and young, to remember, that our words and 
 actions, ay, and our thoughts also, are set upon 
 never-stopping wheels, rolling on and on into the 
 pathway of eternity. 
 
 One great and obvious effect of a complete realiza- 
 tion of a child's influence and work, would be the 
 encouragement and stirring up of mothers in their 
 work, every detail of which would then be animated 
 by the sweet hope of making ready little workers for 
 God's immediate service, while the solemn words of 
 the Spirit, " Even thy child is known by its doings," 
 would give an object and importance to each new 
 habit and occupation. It would remedy the want of 
 balance which is often to be seen in the training of 
 children ; those whose thoughts are already wrapped 
 up in their homes have their affections morbidly 
 cherished, and the hearts that are inclined to wander 
 have their external sympathies alone drawn out,
 
 12 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 
 
 thus isolating the energies which require to be com- 
 bined. It would also open the eyes of partiality to see 
 those little foxes spoiling the tender grapes,* which, 
 though visible to others, are often hid from maternal 
 vision. 
 
 When carefully brought up children are loving 
 and obedient, and inclined to much that is good, 
 we often see little blemishes, which interfering seri- 
 ously with their influence, are yet overlooked by a 
 mother, because they are so dutiful and obedient to 
 her. They are, perhaps, so absorbed by their home- 
 happiness, so occupied by the pleasure or the duty 
 of the moment, that they have no room for other 
 thoughts, and meet the playmate or the friend with 
 the cold look and absent heart, which may thus 
 grow into a wounding and alienating habit. Or per- 
 haps there is the tell-tale look in quest of admiration, 
 resulting from the fond praise and laugh at home, of 
 witty sayings, and clever mimicry. Or we seq, the 
 expression of disappointed vanity when left unno- 
 ticed, while others are brought forward and admired. 
 Because everything else is so fair, and these specks are 
 so small in degree, they are either unobserved, or 
 considered necessary parts of all childish nature. 
 Yes, mother, yet they are not the less symptoms 
 of the old heart which must be taken away they 
 are not the less germs of the self-occupied and self- 
 sufficient spirit of later years, not the less will they
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 13 
 
 prevent the child's work from being " pure and right," 
 and if not checked, the plague spot of selfishness, 
 though now scarcely visible, will spread out into all 
 its frightful proportions. mothers ! teach your 
 children to work for God by loving others much 
 and themselves little. Teach them that to break 
 that touchingly suitable command, "Little children, 
 love one another," is as much a breach of God's law, 
 as a theft or a falsehood, for in His sight, 
 
 " A small unkindness is a great offence." 
 
 Teach them that without love, ardent and glowing 
 in their hearts, their work for the Lord will not be 
 accepted. Teach them not to put on artificial and 
 worldly manners, but to struggle to feel a love and to 
 practise a self-denial which will make ready courtesy 
 and thoughtfulness a truth and a pleasure, which 
 will enlarge their hearts, till they contain many a 
 thought and feeling beyond their own immediate 
 pleasures. In that book which has so strangely moved 
 all hearts in all lands, drawing tears whence tears 
 had rarely fallen, we have this essential element of 
 the Missionary Spirit exquisitely delineated. " ' Oh, 
 Topsy, poor child, I love you,' said Eva, witli a sudden 
 burst of feeling, laying her little thin white hand on 
 Topsy's shoulder ; ' I love you, because you hav'nt 
 had any father, or mother, or friends, because you 
 have been a poor abused child ! I love you, and I 
 want you to be good.' .... The keen round eyes
 
 14 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 
 
 of the black child were overcast with tears, large 
 bright drops rolled heavily down one by one, and fell 
 on the little white hand. Yes, in that moment a 
 ray of real belief, a ray of heavenly love, had pene- 
 trated the darkness of her heathen soul." 
 
 It would be foreign to our purpose, which is 
 merely a suggestive one, to enter upon the wide 
 and oft trodden field of Education ; yet we may re- 
 mark in passing, the use and beauty of what may be 
 called the Education of Observation. To have the 
 eyes fully opened has its effect on the heart as well 
 as on the mind. The little one who is accustomed 
 to watch and understand the various beautiful gifts 
 around, who makes friends of the mosses, the sea- 
 weeds, the rocks, the rainbows, the sunsets, will the 
 sooner learn to say, " My Father made them all," 
 and will the sooner learn sympathy and care for others 
 who love them likewise. We have heard of family 
 journals being kept, in which it was the pleasure and 
 privilege of each child to write down every day, the 
 various and varying appearances of Nature which it 
 had observed, the rare plant, the early butterfly, 
 the curious stone, the habits of cuckoo, swallow, or 
 corncrake, thus learning first to search, then to see, 
 then to feel, then to think, 
 
 " While with an eye made quiet by the power 
 Of harmony, and the deep power of joy. 
 He looks into the life of things." 
 
 WOKDSWOETH. 
 
 Nor is it only external observation that may thus
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 15 
 
 early be learned, the different points of character, 
 the variety of pursuits, tastes, feelings, and sorrows, 
 and the events both in and beyond the home circle, 
 may all be usefully and intelligently noticed. " Ac- 
 custom a child, as soon as he can speak, to narrate 
 his little experiences, his chapter of accidents, his 
 griefs, his fears, his hopes, to communicate what he 
 has noticed in the world without, and what he feels 
 struggling in the world within. Anxious to have 
 something to narrate, he will be induced to give 
 attention to objects around him, and what is passing 
 in the sphere of his instruction ; and to observe and 
 note events will become one of his first pleasures. 
 This is the groundwork of a thoughtful char- 
 acter."* 
 
 Another kind of Education which is much ne- 
 glected, we find beautifully named the " Education 
 to Happiness," in one of those books which become 
 to us almost like a living friend.f Children are 
 allowed to be happy when they are so inclined, but 
 they are not taught to be so when they are not 
 inclined. They are not roughened, so to speak, 
 against the little mischances and disappointments of 
 every day, in eating, amusement, weather, or com- 
 panions, but are allowed to cherish feelings dispro- 
 portioned to the cause, and thus, in later years, 
 " their garments become embroidered with hooks,"! 
 
 * Locke, quoted in Christian Treasury. 
 
 f Fricuds hi Council. See Essay on Education. { Ibid.
 
 16 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 
 
 which catch troublesomely at all kinds of persons and 
 things, which otherwise they might pass by, not only 
 without offence, but giving or gathering use and 
 comfort. 
 
 Before concluding these few suggestions upon the 
 work of children, let us advert for a few moments to 
 the additional grace and dignity which such a service 
 confers upon the character and position of children 
 and their mothers, not in this sphere of action only, 
 but far more when both have passed into the heavens, 
 and are at home with the Cherisher of " little chil- 
 dren." Sore as is the trouble, aching the void. 
 agonizing the sight of unused cradle, toy, book, and 
 chair, yet when a Christian child dies, there is light 
 and comfort, ay, and thankfulness, that it will never 
 know the struggles, sins, and sorrows which other- 
 wise lay before it. How much richer, however, the 
 blessing, if in the long years that pass before the 
 mother joins her child, she is permitted to see the 
 evidences that its work was accepted, its patience 
 not lost, its love not forgotten, its simple reproofs 
 laid to heart, and to know that gracious influences, 
 albeit unseen and unknown, have emanated from each 
 part of its service ! And when the time of reunion 
 comes, when the little redeemed one springs to its 
 old place on the redeemed mother's breast, how far 
 greater the boon that it is not only safe, safe for ever, 
 but that it is occupying the higher place, and shining 
 with the different glory which belongs to the sue-
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN'S WORK. 17 
 
 cessful servants of God. Nor will the gratitude 
 to the Saviour of little children be less lowly, the 
 love less adoring, that He has thus, by His free Grace 
 and Spirit, enabled mother and child to fulfil His 
 will, first on earth and then in Heaven. 
 
 " Oh, when a mother meets on high, 
 The child she lost in infancy, 
 Hath she not then for pains and fears, 
 The day of wo, the anxious night, 
 For all her sorrow, all her tears, 
 An over-payment of delight !" 
 
 (2)
 
 18 YOUNG LADIES'" WOKK. 
 
 II. 
 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 
 
 ' Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days O.-. 
 , nor the years draw nigh, when thou shah say, I have no pleasure in than. 
 its. xii. 1. 
 
 " Now in thy youth beseech of Him 
 
 Who giveth, upbraiding not, 
 That His light in thy heart become not dim, 
 
 Nor His love be unforgot ; 
 And thy God in the darkest of days shall be 
 Greenness and beauty, and strength to thee." 
 
 THEKE are few classes of a community more in- 
 teresting and important than young ladies ! We 
 do not mean those who, so named by courtesy, have 
 weathered not a few of the storms of life, and the 
 iutigues of society, but those who, 
 
 " With all their clustering locks untouched by care," 
 
 stand on the threshold of life, enveloping the misty 
 and troubled future with the hopes and sunshine of 
 their own lightsome position. Such a sight is very 
 touching to the old. They would not, indeed, re- 
 trace one step of the way, yet they remember, with a 
 wistful tenderness, those early days upon which was 
 written. " Passing away." In the groups of jojous
 
 YOUNG LA.DIES' WORK. 19 
 
 creatures which surround them, they see the materials 
 of much that is to be important and useful in carry- 
 ing out the work of their day. Some will go forth 
 as wife and mother, spreading the influences of that 
 early spring-time far and near, some will encounter 
 the responsibilities of single life, others will arise 
 nobly as guides and teachers, others will take up 
 cheerfully the cross of life-long pain and sorrow. 
 Nor is this all 
 
 . ..." In those fair and meek, 
 And fragile things, as but for sunshine wrought, 
 They see what grief must nurture for the sky, 
 What death must fashion for Eternity."* 
 
 No wonder that the old feel solemnity and com- 
 passion, ay, and fear also, in gazing upon the young. 
 It is not only, however, in their future aspect that 
 they are thus important. Like all other beings of 
 God's creation they have their present work. Who 
 more important in their homes, in their social circles, 
 in the schools arid the sick-rooms of their villages, 
 who can diffuse more happiness, who can love, soothe, 
 and influence brother, friend, and parent more bless- 
 edly than the daughters and sisters of England ? 
 But the old feel also disappointment. Too often the 
 young, even those who are afterwards chastened by 
 sorrow and taught by grace, are useless and crippled 
 in the prime of their sweet youth. Let us glance for 
 a moment at some of the causes and effects often 
 
 Mrs. Hemaiis' Evening Prayer at a Girls' School.
 
 20 TOTING LADIES' WORK. 
 
 apparently slight which are yet as the canker in 
 the bud, QS the axe grazing the green tree. 
 
 Here is the inmate of a prosperous and unbroken 
 home ; young, fair, healthy and beloved, yet neither 
 happy daughter nor useful companion, she is the 
 victim of sentimentality ! She delights in day dreams 
 of future happiness or interesting distress, in which 
 Self plays a prominent and praiseworthy part. She 
 shrinks contemptuously from the matter-of-fact re- 
 marks and occupations of her mother and sisters: 
 the hemming of pocket handkerchiefs for her school- 
 boy brother, the reading of newspapers to the dim- 
 eyed parent, the preparation of delicacies for the 
 invalid sister, are too uninteresting sacrifices to be 
 pleasantly endured, and have no place in Moore, 
 Byron, L. E. L., and the novels which feed her heart 
 and intellect. She is always " in love," as the phrase 
 goes, and though generally misplaced or unrequited, 
 she is not disconcerted, 
 
 " For there's such a charm in melancholy, 
 She would not, if she could, be gay." 
 
 She contemplates many tremendous sacrifices for 
 the sake of imaginary and ungrateful heroes ; but 
 she never cultivates the daily yielding of her own 
 way, the subduing of temper, the attention to 
 household duties that would be imperatively de- 
 manded were her dreams to be realized. She is not 
 without a species of religion, for she speaks much of
 
 YOUNG LADIES WORK. 21 
 
 the joys of Heaven ; and when jars and difficulties 
 arise, she exclaims with Mariana,* 
 
 " I'm aweary, I'm aweary, 
 And I would that I were dead." 
 
 Yet she makes no serious preparation for the work 
 either of living or dying. 
 
 Or she is the victim of discontent ! If her mother 
 were not so exacting, her brothers not so trouble- 
 some, her wishes more studied, her duties more 
 pleasant, her good qualities better appreciated, in 
 short, if she were in any other possible situation, she 
 would, in her own opinion, be an energetic and 
 happy-minded worker ; but as it is, she looks list- 
 lessly and ungratefully on all the daily beautiful 
 gifts which God's bounty showers upon her. She 
 reverses the good old precept, " Think much of 
 small mercies, and forget small miseries," till at 
 last there is a perpetual gloom on the brow, and 
 querulousness in the voice, which ought to cheer her 
 own and other's work with sunshine and music. 
 
 Or she is the victim of ignorance ! From want of 
 cultivation her memory, sieve-like, allows everything 
 to escape, even what she once acquired with no 
 small expenditure of time and money. Dates and 
 facts are to her as if they never existed. She knows 
 nothing of the culture and habits of the flowers 
 which she arranges in vases, nothing of the graceful 
 
 * See Tennyson's Poems. We have always thought that Mariana would have 
 been a happier woman had she set to work diligently nailed the "peaches" to the 
 " garden wall," trimmed the "flower plots," and swept away the cobwebs !
 
 22 TOUXG LADIES WORK. 
 
 green forms which fill the woods and the hills with 
 beauty, and the hearts of fern-lovers with joy and 
 gratitude, nothing of the materials and manufac- 
 tures, even of the ribbons, laces, silks, and ornaments, 
 in the outward details of which she is not destitute 
 of care and interest. Instead of gathering and 
 rejoicing in knowledge, as the bee gathers the honey 
 and rejoices in the aroma of the flowers, not for 
 itself only, but also for others, she is useless, igno- 
 rant, and uninterested in the pursuits that occupy 
 usefully and happily the companions of her home. 
 Many will be the occasions in her after-life, when 
 she will say regretfully, " Would that I had applied 
 my heart to seek after knowledge, in the days of my 
 youth and leisure." 
 
 Or she is the victim of causeless fears ! 
 
 She is of little sendee in her home, where presence 
 of mind and calmness are required. None fly to her 
 for support, none trust in her for direction : a lancet 
 is the signal of flight, leeches send her into fits, 
 the sight of pain throws her into agonies of useless 
 distress ; and fears of infection are so overwhelming 
 as almost to produce the dreaded malady. Unruly 
 dogs and cows are the Mtes noires of her morning 
 walks, wasps and earwigs haunt her retirement. 
 and ghosts and burglaries mar her midnight peace ! 
 
 Or she is the victim of idleness ! 
 
 " The silent heavens have goings on, 
 The stare have tasks, but she has none." 
 
 WORDSWORTH.
 
 TOTJXG LADIES' WORK. 23 
 
 Morning, nuon, eve, and night, find her with folded 
 hands and vacant gaze or occupied solely in inter- 
 rupting the pursuits of others, in asking frivolous 
 questions, in giving utterance to idle gossip, in 
 lounging languidly on pavement or terrace. The 
 tedium of a rainy day casts a still deeper gloom on 
 that miserable and unnatural thing, the daily life of 
 an idle woman, which presents a thorough contrast 
 to the poet's lovely picture, 
 
 " It rains What lady loves a rainy day ? 
 She loves a rainy day who sweeps the hearth, 
 And threads the busy needle, or applies 
 The scissors to the torn or thread-bare sleeve ; 
 Who blesses God that she has friends and home; 
 Who, in the pelting of the storms, will think 
 Of some poor neighbour that she can befriend; 
 Who trims the lamp at night, and reads aloud 
 To a young brother tales be loves to hear : 
 Such are not sad even, on a rainy day." 
 
 If the victim of idleness were to give her own ex- 
 planation of her case, she would tell you that at all 
 events her life is a negative one, if she does no good, 
 she does no harm ; but let her remember that there 
 is nothing negative in the kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 Or she is the victim of society ! 
 
 So necessary to her happiness are the crowded 
 rooms, the late hours, the banter and the gossip, the 
 excitement, the rivalry, the vanity, that constitute 
 what is called Society, that though brilliant and 
 engaging to the many abroad, she is dull, irritable, 
 and unsociable to the few at home. Give her excite- 
 ment and every ache and ailment vanish, dim eyes
 
 24 YOUNG LADIES WORK. 
 
 sparkle, and pale cheeks flush with delight, take 
 it away, and she again sinks into the disagreeable 
 daughter and sister. The quick repartee, the win- 
 ning smile, the tender songs, which might make her 
 dwelling-place so pleasant and tuneful, are reserved 
 only for display ; while, like all who go into society 
 with no other aim than self-gratification and exalta- 
 tion, she meets with many bitter mortifications stings 
 of envy and malice haunting remembrances of fool- 
 ish things said or done, aggravated by intense fear of 
 what that society, for which she gives up all her best 
 and holiest things, will say and think of her. 
 
 Or she is the victim of caprice ! 
 
 As safely may the direction of the veering wind 
 be calculated beforehand, as the mood in which she 
 is to meet friend or sister ; at one time all charm 
 and graciousness, at another, cold and unconscious. 
 In making new acquaintances, she will hastily take a 
 violent fancy to one, and a causeless dislike to another, 
 although these mature judgments are generally re- 
 versed upon the next convenient occasion. To any 
 remonstrances that may be ventured on, an unan- 
 swerable argument is always at hand. " It is my 
 way," is considered as ample solace and apology for 
 the feelings she may wound, and the injustice she 
 may commit, forgetting that where there is a good 
 " will," there is ever a good " way." 
 
 This list of "Victims" might be considerably length- 
 ened, but we hope that we have said enough to lead
 
 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 25 
 
 young ladies to search for themselves into the faults 
 and failings to which they are prone. A great motive 
 for this self-examination may be found in the fact, 
 that there is seldom such a thing as a solitary victim. 
 Home victims must ever make victirns, their friends 
 must be unhappy, their work useless or left undone. 
 
 We frequently find, even amongst those who are 
 sincerely desirous of fulfilling aright their duties to 
 God and man, a variety of faults often arising from 
 youth and inexperience, which, while they do not 
 mar happiness, yet seriously interfere with duty. 
 Want of proper appreciation of their own position, is 
 a common mistake amongst those who escape the 
 opposite extreme of its over-estimation. " We have 
 no talents, no influence," say they ; forgetting, that if 
 they have no other, they at least cannot be destitute 
 of those peculiar though transitory talents belonging 
 to the young, which, when they pass away, will leave 
 stings behind if not consecrated to God. Youth it- 
 self, the absence of heavy care, mirth, buoyancy, and 
 any degree of personal attractions, all contain mate- 
 rials of usefulness, and must be laid out to the ad- 
 vantage of Him who gave them ; while even of the 
 apparently trivial details of dress and manner, which 
 are more important and noticeable in the young, we 
 have a solemn record that God takes notice to punish 
 or to bless. (Is. iii. 16-24 ; 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4.) 
 
 It was engraved upon the signet ring of the Sultan 
 Akbar, that " none ever lost his way upon a straight
 
 26 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 
 
 road." Exaggeration, and a want of tins " straight- 
 ness," are seldom sufficiently guarded against in youth. 
 While black, or even " white lies," would be shunned 
 and abhorred, how often we meet with that disin- 
 genuousness which conveys a double meaning, with 
 that incorrectness of statement which misleads and 
 annoys, with a want of that truthful simplicity 
 which is expressed by the beautiful Scotch and 
 German words aefaldness and Einfdltigkeit ; not 
 to speak of the various conventional falsehoods 
 which it is so difficult for youth to withstand 
 bravely. 
 
 Want of perseverance is also a very frequent and 
 very serious obstacle to usefulness. " Everything by 
 turns and nothing long," the young lady takes up all 
 kinds of good and excellent ideas, but whenever 
 difficulties arise, her heart fails, and she hastens to 
 something else, that presents at first sight a less 
 formidable aspect. Our young readers will wonder 
 when we beg them to turn with us to the history 
 of a celebrated French potter,* which presents one 
 of the most striking instances of successful perse- 
 verance that the world ever saw. Bernard Palissy 
 was born in 1509, amidst the walnut and chest- 
 nut forests of Perigord, and in due time became a 
 painter on glass, which was then a profession fol- 
 lowed even by nobles. One day he saw a beautiful 
 enamelled cup of Italian manufacture ; although 
 
 * Set> Life of Bernard Palissy the Potter, by He.nry Morley, Esq.
 
 YOUNG LADIES WORK. 27 
 
 accustomed from his childhood to search into nature's 
 treasuries of flowers, trees, earths, and minerals, he 
 yet knew nothing of pottery, " had never seen earth 
 baked ; and there was no man in the nation who 
 could make enamels. That last fact was the attrac- 
 tion to him. Enamels could be made, there he 
 beheld a specimen. What is possible is sure to him 
 who wills, if he can use a little skill and a great deal 
 of patience. So Palissy resolved to make himself a 
 prince among the potters !" From that time com- 
 menced a struggle of sixteen years with broken 
 earthenware, unsuccessful chemical preparations, 
 furnaces fed in vain with the tables, chairs, and doors 
 of his own dwelling ; ridicule of friends, calum- 
 nies of enemies, opposition and want of sympathy 
 even from the wife of his bosom, hunger, fatigue, 
 confusion, and shame ; " but never despair, 
 enamel has been made in Italy why not in France ?" 
 One day some of the melted material ran over the 
 earthen potsherd, it cooled, it hardened, it whit- 
 ened into a lovely enamel, the first that France had 
 made ! Still, many a disappointment awaited him 
 before it was a complete and useful discovery ; but 
 at last Bernard Palissy stood forth as the inventor of 
 that beautiful Palissy ware, which gained for him 
 name and influence in high places, lifted his family 
 out of poverty and obscurity, and is still to be ad- 
 miringly beheld in his own and other lands. All 
 this may seem irrelevant matter in addressing young
 
 28 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 
 
 ladies, who are certainly not likely to become " artists 
 in earth." But Bernard Palissy performed a greater 
 work than the mere discovery of enamel. He shewed 
 the intense and almost unconquerable power of per- 
 severance. No matter, then, what your object may 
 be, only gain this habit, and exhibit this example, 
 and great results may happen both to yourselves and 
 others. When the little spider of Scotland succeeded 
 after seven trials in accomplishing its tiny design, it 
 could hardly have been thought that a crown and an 
 empire depended upon its work. The persevering 
 spirit of Bernard Palissy was not, it should be added, 
 confined to his earths and his enamels, but gave a 
 beautiful example in all things, of Christian stedfast- 
 ness. Grand old Huguenot, brave preacher of the 
 Word, undaunted martyr for his faith, after years 
 of patient imprisonment, he went joyfully to his God 
 from the dungeons of the Bastile. 
 
 The very charms of youth, its impressibility, 
 its vehemence, its highly wrought and susceptible 
 imagination, are all snares in its path, especially in 
 connexion with the external and exciting religion of 
 the present day, presenting its idols of favourite 
 doctrines, contended for with unseemly tenacity, its 
 false shrines whereon is offered incense to idolized 
 ministers, in comparison with whom all others seem 
 tame and powerless; its false worship which can only 
 be offered amidst the excitements of the sanctuary, 
 arid which starves and dies on the silent Sabbath in
 
 YOUNG LADIES WORK. 29 
 
 the solitary chamber ; its disregard of the apostolic 
 injunction, " Take heed what ye hear," and its substi- 
 tution of its own, " Take heed where ye hear." Still 
 greater is the danger when the youthful enthusiast 
 is thrown in the way of the glare and the glitter 
 the music and the architecture of Roman Catholic 
 services, whether hidden or avowed. Displaying the 
 goodly blossom, while they bear the bitter fruit, 
 working upon the innate carnality, while they seem 
 to rouse but the highest essence of spirituality, they 
 minister to the craving for excitement, to the love of 
 all that is beautiful, save the beauty of holiness, thus 
 pleasing the senses but not impressing the soul. In 
 this state of false excitement, while there is much 
 that seems pure and elevated, there is ever one ele- 
 ment wanting, the truth as it is in Jesus. The 
 sensitive spirit, while rapt in the glories of music and 
 architecture, finds it hard to descend to the quiet 
 self-denial of daily and besetting faults ; and, above 
 all, to the consciousness of sin, and the need of a 
 Saviour, and herein lies the danger. Many an 
 enthusiastic temperament, exquisite in its sensibili- 
 ties, has been thus led away from the sober realities 
 of religion, and drawn step by step, first to hear, 
 then to admire, then to frequent the musical services 
 in church and convent, till it was found asleep on the 
 enchanted ground, and enveloped in the net of the 
 fowler. 
 
 There is only one defence against the dangers
 
 30 YOUNG LADIES WOKK. 
 
 one deliverance from the peculiar snares that beset 
 the path of youth. To say that this is Keligion, is 
 to say little in these days of profession, and of various 
 opinions as to its proper nature and degree ; we prefer 
 to characterise it as whole-hearted religion. Nothing 
 else can give a victory over the small outward mani- 
 festations of that inward sinfulness, which is never 
 small in child of Adam. Nothing else can so teach 
 and inform the hearts of sister, friend, daughter, be- 
 trothed wife, that they shall be enabled to fulfil their 
 various and loving duties, happily for themselves, suc- 
 cessfully for others, and devotedly for God. Nothing 
 else can put a stedfast vigour into all the touching 
 offices which it is part of youthful work to perform 
 to the aged, or to those who are still younger. No- 
 thing else can give those just views of life and love, 
 which, while preventing the heart from frittering 
 away its affections idly and changeably, will make it 
 welcome a deep and well-grounded attachment as 
 sent from God, even if it brings with it sorrow and 
 disappointment. Nothing else can give the faith 
 and the courage necessary to subdue misplaced affec- 
 tions, thus lifting their yearnings from the dust, and 
 satisfying them with those things that are at the right 
 hand of the Saviour.* We have here enumerated 
 
 * We must give ourselves the pleasure of quoting the following beautiful passage 
 from a female writer of the day : " To her who has loved not ' wisely/ perhaps, 
 but 'too well.' . . . we would say, ' Be strong and of a good courage;' we would 
 assure her that passion is not and cannot be eternal ; and that it must ultimately 
 die out with the hopes on which it fed. But while the heart in which it has raged 
 uu-us^ted, is left ban-en and seared, perluips for over, that in which it is con^uero..
 
 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 31 
 
 some of those occasions of life, when it is a blessed, 
 nay a necessary thing to be " an unequivocal Chris- 
 tian/' Need we say that nothing but such an entire 
 dedication can prepare the young for a " brief life 
 and an early immortality/' The white unmossed 
 head-stones of our churchyards, and those that are 
 grey and mouldering, alike bear dates that show how 
 early the young can die ; and how awful, if thus 
 snatched from the joys of this life, they rob them- 
 selves of the joys of the next ! But blessed is the 
 triumph, when through the faith of Jesus Christ 
 we may gaze fearlessly 
 
 .... "Where 
 
 That fair brow, and those unfrosted locks 
 Return to dust, where the young sleeper traits 
 The resurrection morn, and lift the heart 
 In praise to Him who gave the victory."* 
 
 Of this whole-heartedness we have a brignt ex- 
 ample in Madame Guyon, who, like the stars that 
 shine in darkness, arose out of the corruptions of the 
 Romish Church. In her earliest youth f Mademoiselle 
 
 through the might of higher principle, is purified and ennobled by the victorious 
 struggle. The victory is not to be won in solitude. The duties of life are equally 
 binding upon us in sorrow as in joy ; we may not abandon our post because it is 
 difficult to maintain. Nor is it in shrinking from social duty, but in patiently and 
 perseveringly performing it, that we shall find the truest source of consolation. 
 Life ceases to be desolate when we find that we have still power to give pleasure, 
 to do good, to be ourselves a blessing, though we be not blessed. And the blessing 
 will not fail to come even to us at last, the peace of a heart that has won the vic- 
 tory over itself, that has subdued passion by principle. One dark enigma of life 
 will then be solved, and we shall have learnt that not the enjoyment of happiness, 
 but the fulfilment of duty, is the object of our existence on earth." SEL? 
 
 CULTUBK. 
 
 * Mrs. Sigourney. 
 
 t Sao Life of Madame dela Mothe Guyon, by Thomas Upborn.
 
 32 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 
 
 Jeanne Marie Bouvieres de la Mothe was singular, 
 even in the fastidious Paris of Louis Quatorze, for 
 her beauty and fascination, and for the powers of a 
 mind, " fait pour le monde." At sixteen she was 
 married to Monsieur Guyon, a wealthy but unwel- 
 come suitor ; of which event she said long after, 
 " No sooner was I at the house of my husband, than 
 I perceived it would be for me a house of mourning." 
 It required long years of domestic misery, of bereave- 
 ment, bodily sickness, and mental depression to turn 
 her heart wholly to the Lord. At last, while still in 
 the prime of her youth and beauty, and beset by 
 many worldly temptations, her biographer says of her, 
 " And here, I think, we may mark a distinct and very 
 important crisis in the history of her spiritual being. 
 Taught by sad experience, she saw the utter impos- 
 sibility of combining the love of the world with the 
 love of God. ' From this day, this hour, if it be 
 possible, I will be wholly the Lord's. The world 
 shall have no portion in me/ Such was the language 
 of her heart, such her solemn determination. She 
 formed her resolution after counting the cost, a 
 resolution which was made in God's strength, and 
 not in her own, which, in after life, was often 
 smitten by the storm and tried in the fire ; but from 
 this time onward, so far as we know anything of 
 her history, was never consumed, was never broken. 
 She gave herself to the Lord, not only to be His in 
 the ordinary and mitigated sense of the terms, but to
 
 YOUNG LADIES WORK. 33 
 
 be His wholly, and to be His for ever, to be His in 
 body and in spirit, to be His in personal efforts 
 and influence, to be His in all that she tuas, and in 
 all that it was possible for her to be. There was no 
 reserve." * 
 
 Through the whole of Madame Guyon's noble 
 missionary and martyr career, we find this feature of 
 whole-hearted consecration ever prominent. She 
 was permitted to see the full triumph of faith in her 
 home, to shew forgiveness to the mother-in-law 
 who had cruelly injured her, to minister peace 
 and comfort to the husband who had tyrannized 
 over her, to be the means of conversion to hundreds 
 who called her their spiritual mother, and to show 
 forth God's glory in society, where it was said of her 
 by one of the world's devotees, " It is very visible 
 that she lives in the presence of God." Permitted to 
 let her sweet and stirring voice be heard in hymns 
 that yet cheer the Zion-ward traveller, and in valuable 
 works of devotion, she was counted worthy of even 
 more honour. She was chosen to confess Christ and 
 His free justification, and above all, His Spirit's free 
 sanctification, before kings, and rulers, and Roman 
 ecclesiastics ; for His name's sake she suffered the 
 loss of all things, persecution, solitary confinement 
 in various French fortresses, and for four years 
 in the fearful Bastile, next door to the dungeon 
 where perished the Man in the Iron Mask. She at 
 
 * See Life, vol. i. p. 108. 
 (2) C
 
 34 YOUNG LADIES' WORK. 
 
 last (in 1717) died a death in banishment, of which 
 it was said, " Such a departure, preceded by such a 
 life as we have described, might be called a transition 
 rather than death. It is proper, indeed, to say, that 
 she died ; but it is equally proper to say, that she 
 went home." It is true that there were some doc- 
 trinal and " mystical" errors resting upon her faith, 
 but they were spots on the sun, hay and stubble 
 dropped for a while on the firm rock. We shall 
 conclude our chapter by the following lines, expres- 
 sive of this devoted Christian's entire self-renunciation 
 and divine love. 
 
 ' I love my God, but with no love of mine. 
 
 For I have none to give ; 
 I love thee, Lord ; but all the love is Thine, 
 
 For by Thy love I lire. 
 I am as nothing, and rejoice to be 
 Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in Tbee 
 
 ' Thou, Lord, alone, art all Thy children need, 
 
 And there is none beside ; 
 From Thee the streams of blessedness proceed. 
 
 In Thee the blest abide. 
 Fountain of life, and all abounding grace, 
 Our source, our centre, and our dwelling-place." 
 
 SfADAMB GUTOS'3 POEM*.
 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 35 
 
 III. 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 " Whosoever shall do and teach one of these least commandments, shall be 
 called great in the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. v. 19. 
 
 The governess ! the governess ! oh wearily she sits, 
 
 While midst the dazzling throng another vision flits ; 
 
 A mirthful circle cometh, with footsteps swift and near, 
 
 And she is there so joyously, hut she wakes with start and tear. 
 
 The governess ! the governess ! now lonely in her room, 
 The wounded nerve is throbbing, the brow is dark with gloom ; 
 Not a kindly word was spoken, not a glance in heart to bide, 
 Even the mothers and the sisters passed on the other side ! 
 
 The governess ! the governess ! oh patiently she bends, 
 While the day it goeth drearily, as if it never ends ; 
 The children turning careless from the task that's scarce begun, 
 The brow of weary aching, when all the tasks are done. 
 
 The governess ! the governess ! her work is scorned and lowly, 
 Yet in the clear true heavens it is counted blessed and holy ; 
 The white-robed angels tenderly their glances on it cast, 
 And her loving God accepteth it, with whom she rests at last ! 
 
 AT first sight it appears a social enigma, that 
 mothers should entrust the education of their chil- 
 dren to strangers, instead of counting it as their own 
 especial privilege. It can, however, be easily and 
 satisfactorily solved. It is a measure of necessity, 
 real or fancied. The frequently defective education 
 of mothers themselves forms one obvious reason ;
 
 36 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 their want of time is another, whether caused by 
 needful home and social duties, or by the distraction 
 of those worldly scenes in which it is strange indeed 
 to find mothers happy and absorbed. Another rea- 
 son we may find in the fact, that teaching is seldom 
 regarded in the light of a privilege : mothers are 
 delighted with the amusement of their children, but 
 exceedingly anxious to be saved all the trouble ; hence 
 teachers are classed amongst the absolutely necessary 
 luxuries of life, such as ladies' maids and carriages. 
 But there is yet another reason. It is not always 
 advisable that even those who are well educated 
 and at leisure, should be the sole instructors of their 
 children. Teaching includes two things, instruc- 
 tion and discipline, and when competent to give 
 the first, parents are apt to fail in the second, so 
 great is the temptation to listen indulgently to 
 rambling remarks and untimely laughter, or to have 
 superfluous compassion on wandering thoughts and 
 languid faces : the colder, firmer manner of a com- 
 parative stranger, is therefore found an excellent ait' 
 in producing efficient discipline. There are also wise 
 and merciful providential reasons to be traced for 
 these social arrangements, when we consider h'ow 
 many talented and highly educated women are daily 
 deprived of homes and wealth by the fluctuation of 
 private and public affairs. Such being the case, it is 
 not difficult to form Utopian theories as to the posi- 
 tion which governesses might be expected to occupy
 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 37 
 
 in society. Possessing minds refined by cultivation, 
 manners fitted for any station, sensibilities made 
 keen by misfortune, hearts oppressed by anxiety for 
 struggling and distant beloved ones, they may yet 
 be the honoured and useful inmates of a happy 
 home. They are engaged in the peculiarly femi- 
 nine and lady-YikQ office of teaching and guiding 
 the young, " thus possessing peculiar facilities for 
 coming in contact with the unfolded and unformed 
 mind." They are companions and coadjutors of 
 mothers to whom they are not inferior in heart and 
 sentiment, though probably their superiors in talents 
 and in knowledge. They are the teachers of future 
 mothers, who in their turn may become teachers of 
 future sons ; and thus they " are accountable for the 
 characters of the next generation."* We may there- 
 fore expect to find them revered and beloved as in- 
 struments in carrying on the great work of education, 
 a work so great, indeed, that if its external aids and 
 machinery were suddenly to be stopped, if none 
 were to be had save what fashionable or untaught 
 parents could or would bestow, the next generation 
 would be useless and ignorant. We may expect to 
 find that the name of governess only excites ideas of 
 reverence and respect, that she who bears it occupies 
 at the same time the full position of LADY, so difficult 
 to define, but so universally understood, that parents 
 may send their daughters, without fears and weeping, 
 
 * Mrs. Sigourney.
 
 38 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 into families where mutual advantages are given 
 and received. 
 
 That these expectations are not wholly theoretical 
 we acknowledge gratefully, for we know that there 
 are homes in Britain where the governess is treated 
 like elder daughter and cherished sister, when the 
 immediate tie is severed, still the beloved friend and 
 companion, and in the decline of life soothed and 
 comforted by the ministrations of her pupils. That 
 this is the exception to the rule, must, however, be 
 acknowledged by all who have looked around them 
 with any but the most superficial vision ; acknow- 
 ledged seif-justifyingly by some, with doubts and 
 difficulties by others, and with earnest purposes and 
 loving resolves by a few. The sober facts are, that in- 
 stead of holding a high status in society, the very 
 name of " governess" is painful to its bearer, its 
 use is checked before her by thoughtful kindness, and 
 it is applied contemptuously by vulgar scorn. Kind- 
 ness she often meets with, but it is the kindness of con- 
 descension, not the consideration of friend to friend, 
 lady to lady. In the home, but not of it, in so- 
 ciety, but barricaded from it, surrounded by crowds, 
 yet the loneliest there, her thoughts unguessed, her 
 conversational powers untried, her accomplishments 
 unpraised, her feelings, if thought of at all, con- 
 sidered very troublesome things, she creeps to her 
 room to stifle in tears, or in meekness, or, alas ! in 
 bitterness, that baneful feeling of undeserved social
 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 39 
 
 insignificance, of ungrateful and unworthy slight, 
 which sinks like a leaden weight upon the energies 
 of the most patient and hopeful. Yes ! we said un- 
 grateful, for who is she the neglected and the solitary 
 one ? She is the trainer, not of the body that goes 
 down to the dust, but of the immortal mind that 
 came from God, she is the guider, not of little steps 
 upon the nursery floor, but of precious souls upon 
 their way to God. This is the woman who is exposed 
 to neglect from her equals, to undignified fami- 
 liarity or positive rudeness from her inferiors, and to 
 unchecked petulance, unkindness, and irreverence 
 from her pupils. This is the woman left in her old 
 age to die untended and forlorn, thankful for the 
 charities of strangers, the refuge of public institu- 
 tions, or for the alms drawn reluctantly from the 
 purses of those in whose behalf she had spent the 
 best, if not the happiest years of her life. 
 
 And why is this, heads of professedly Christian 
 households ? What is the reason in your own secret 
 minds for doing yourselves and your children such 
 flagrant injustice, and for inflicting needless mortifica- 
 tions upon one who never injured you, by thus degrad- 
 ing the instructress of your children ? Is it because 
 she receives, in return for her services, a small pro- 
 portion of your worldly superfluity ? So also do the 
 courtly ladies of royal palaces, whom you would 
 proudly welcome to your saloons, so also do the 
 eminent physicians, lawyers, officers, lionized authors
 
 40 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 and authoresses, whom you number amongst your 
 acquaintance. Is it because she is possessed of the 
 gifts in which you are deficient ? Is it because she 
 has no home wherein to be loved, and happy, and 
 important ? Is it because it is less trouble to have 
 your governess sitting in her solitary chamber, than 
 to blend her with your family circle, or to introduce 
 her to your social one, as another and a welcome 
 guest ? Is it from that laudable desire to keep all 
 in their proper places, which generaDy results in 
 their being placed exactly in their wrong ones ? 
 We doubt whether the great Hearer of cries, and 
 Counter up of tears, He who looks more to the 
 principle than to the degree, will listen to such 
 reasoning more complacently than to the logic of the 
 planter, and the consequent moan of the slave. 
 
 It is not with impunity, however, that these 
 things are so, evil consequences of no small mag- 
 nitude must and do arise. The evils of a governess's 
 position are so universally known and dreaded, that 
 the influence and instruction of many peculiarly gifted 
 and talented women are lost to the young, because 
 they lack moral courage to face the ordeal. They 
 are driven instead to dependence upon friends and 
 relatives, or they seek shelter in some Romanizing 
 " sisterhood," or they depend for a precarious sub- 
 sistence on the sale of drawings and fancy work, or 
 they take upon them heartless and loveless vows. 
 Thus valuable feelings and energies are forced out of
 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 41 
 
 their right channels into unnatural ones, thereby 
 necessarily producing flaws in the whole structure of 
 society. It has been well and wisely said, " To 
 make education a great work, you must make educa- 
 tors great also." * When, therefore, the teacher is de- 
 graded in the eyes of a child, when she is exposed 
 to neglect, to rudeness, and to have her authority 
 despised, the things that are taught are degraded 
 also. May not this be the reason that there are 
 so many half-educated women, (save perhaps in 
 the article of accomplishments,) that in their youth 
 they were encouraged to look down on their instruc- 
 tress, and, necessarily, on her instructions also ? 
 May not this be the foundation laid, of much of 
 that principle of evil, whence such wo cometh into 
 the world even the want of care and consideration 
 for fancied inferiors, and real dependents, even the 
 existence of the oppressor and the oppressed !, 
 
 It is easier to comment upon social errors and 
 inconsistencies than to avoid them ourselves, or to 
 point out the best means of their removal. But we 
 may be allowed to say, that the cause which we are 
 advocating would come good speed, if parents would 
 but consider it as part of their solemn work for God, 
 affecting succeeding generations, to raise high the 
 standard of education and educators. Let them open 
 their hearts as well as their doors, to the educated, 
 though otherwise destitute lady, keeping themselves 
 
 * Friends in Council.
 
 42 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 in their proper places, in order that she may be kept 
 in hers. Let them impress upon grown up son and 
 daughter, upon servants, and upon the strangers that 
 are within their gates, that this woman is their friend, 
 and the benefactress of their children. Let the 
 mother consider it part of her work to draw out the 
 excellencies, to give courage to the bashfulness, to 
 teach those minor, yet daily refinements, in which it 
 may be by accident of birth, though not the fault of 
 education, she may be deficient. Let the mutual 
 work of parent and governess be ever kept in view, 
 so that hand in hand, and heart in heart, they may 
 carry on God's designs. Let it be tenderly impressed 
 upon the children, that their portion of the work is 
 not only to be taught, but to make their teachers 
 happy not only to learn with diligence, and re- 
 member with attention, but to nurse her in sickness, 
 to soothe her in sorrow, and to be sweet and real ties 
 to her heart, taking the place of those which have 
 been severed. 
 
 Far be it from us to allege that there are not 
 " faults upon both sides," that the governess is not 
 too frequently captious, irritable, " presuming," and 
 tenacious ; but before judging too hardly of these 
 manifestations, which might be our own in the same 
 position, would we not need, Howard-like, to pene- 
 trate the secrets of the prison-house nay, Christ- 
 like, to read the volume of the heart ? We would, 
 therefore, simply say to the governess, that of the
 
 WORK OF TEACHEES AND TAUGHT. 43 
 
 important work which God has given her to do, 
 teaching is but a part ; one essential portion is to 
 seek to be taught for who needeth more the teach- 
 ing that is from above, and this not once, which is 
 to last for ever, but every day anew, |br every task 
 anew, in every difficulty anew, must the teacher be 
 the taught of God ! She must also work her work, 
 by bearing meekly the mortifications and slights 
 which may find place in her daily lot, and so to 
 dignify them by love and forbearance, by humility 
 and consistency, that the alleged necessity of keep- 
 ing governesses at a distance may in her case be 
 disproved, thus lending a helping hand,- and giving 
 a bright example to her sisters in similar positions. 
 Let her try to cultivate, in spite of all drawbacks, 
 a home-like spirit, not unnecessarily changing or 
 giving up in discouragement, not cold and hard 
 to her pupils, but patient and loving as to her 
 little sisters at home, not too familiar, and not 
 gossiping, but teaching them to be her companions 
 in better things, thus raising them up to a higher 
 level. The chiefest part of her work, however, must 
 always be to win, as well as to teach, the little ones 
 to " go to Jesus." We cannot better conclude than 
 by quoting part of one of Miss Mary Jane Graham's 
 very appropriate Letters of Advice to a Gover- 
 ness.* "And first, I earnestly recommend you to 
 ' Look unto Jesus,' in your choice of a situation. 
 
 * See Memoir of Miss Graham.
 
 44 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 
 
 Pray constantly for Divine assistance and direction 
 on this most important subject. 'Look unto Jesus, 
 also, for strength to perform the duties of your situa- 
 tion. These you will find to be many and arduous, 
 such as in your own strength you can never rightly 
 perform. The more correct and enlarged your view 
 of those duties, the more readily you will sink under 
 them, unless you can be strong in the Lord, and in 
 the power of His might. ' Look unto Jesus ' for 
 counsel in the difficulties of your situation. When 
 your path is so intricate and perplexed that you 
 know not which way to turn, then ask the Lord to 
 ' lead you in a plain path,' to order your steps in His 
 word. In every little, as well as in every great per- 
 plexity, follow David's rule, to ' inquire of the Lord.' 
 The advice of friends is ever to be sought and valued ; 
 but that of the kindest and wisest may sometimes be 
 insufficient or erroneous, or given in a harsh and 
 injudicious manner. But the Lord giveth not only 
 advice, but wisdom, liberally and without upbraiding. 
 ' Look unto Jesus' for comfort and encouragement. 
 The life of a governess is peculiarly subject to little 
 daily crosses and vexations. These, as well as great 
 ones, are to be borne by laying them upon Jesus. 
 No burden is too great or too little to be cast upon 
 the Lord. A cheerful looking unto Jesus, an assur- 
 ance that He ever loveth, ever careth for us, will 
 bear us through many petty annoyances, which 
 sometimes wear health and spirits much more than
 
 WORK OF TEACHERS AND TAUGHT. 45 
 
 real and great grievances. Lastly, ' Look unto Jesus' 
 for a certain reward upon your labour. You have a 
 promise ' Train up a child in the way he should go, 
 and when he is old he will not depart from it/ Ask 
 for patient, earnest faith, to plead this promise impor- 
 tunately, incessantly with Him. The great Sower 
 will assuredly watch over the seed that is sown in 
 faith, and will bring it to perfection. You may 
 labour day after day for the souls of the children 
 under your care, and yet see them as careless and 
 unconcerned as ever ; but look steadily unto Jesus ; 
 take contentedly the Lord's leisure, for in due time 
 you shall reap if you faint not."
 
 1C HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 17. 
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 ' 1 will walk within my house with a perfect heart." Ps. ci. 2. 
 " She looketh well to the ways of her household." PEOV. xxxl 27 
 
 " Fly not the household task, the duteous care, 
 Each gladness heighten, and each sorrow share, 
 Where pine the poor, be near thy help to lend, 
 Be thou thy brother's aid, thy server's friend ; 
 With Martha's zeal, yet Mary's " better part," 
 Walk thou within thy house with perfect heart. " 
 
 " I am not she that list 
 
 Her anchor to let fa!! 
 
 For every drizzling mist 
 
 My ship's substantial* 
 
 ANNE ASKEW. 
 
 IN saying a few words upon the subject of Do- 
 mestic Work, we do not intend presumptuously to 
 invade the domain of those old and established 
 matrons, who move awfully before the eyes of the 
 inexperienced at an obscure and unattainable height 
 There are many, however, young, if not in years, at 
 least in knowledge, who are placed, by the events of 
 Providence, at the head of their father's, brother's, 
 or uncle's household, and we think that to such, a 
 few words of homely advice and experience, worked
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 47 
 
 out of inexperience, may be as welcome as the exhor- 
 tations of those who seem never to have known 
 a time of weakness and ignorance. Though sneered 
 at by the modern blue-stocking, and opposed to t^ie 
 habits of the sentimental and the fashionable, there 
 is no doubt that the domestic sphere is natural to 
 feminine tastes and talents, so much so, that every 
 woman, of whatever order of mind, if left unbiassed 
 by training, and giving herself earnestly to her work, 
 will find in it interest, satisfaction, and consequent 
 success. It is adapted, not only for times of pros- 
 perity, as active and healthy employment, preventing 
 those undue sedentary habits which are so destructive 
 to health, but in times of sorrow and suspense, it 
 will be found a most suitable remedy in the very 
 contrast it presents for nervous restlessness, for over- 
 indulged, or sentimental grief. Thought for others, 
 which is the very essence of Domestic Work, will act 
 like a charm in giving the heart occupation, and the 
 life an object, when reading, writing, working, music, 
 or drawing are wearisome and distasteful. From 
 the clays when Eve " bestirred her then," and " tem- 
 pered dulcet creams," to the present, when, if not in 
 our own, yet in neighbouring lands, ladies of the 
 highest rank partake of all household labours, this 
 species of work has been justly considered as a fitting, 
 though not a sole sphere for the employment of femi- 
 nine capacity. 
 
 Let us glance for a moment at the nature of the
 
 48 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 position thus bestowed upon woman. She is the 
 mover of a little world, which will not turn upon its 
 axis, or will take some erratic and uncomfortable 
 course, if she withhold from it due aid and impetus. 
 She is the director of those to whom, like the cen- 
 turion of old, she can say " Go," and they go, 
 "Come," and they come. She is the framer of 
 domestic laws, upon which depend the every-day 
 comfort, happiness, and usefulness of several, if not 
 many individuals. It is clear, therefore, that the 
 duties devolving upon the female head of a house- 
 hold, are at once important and honourable. Those 
 who involuntarily assume this position, are often, 
 however, not disposed to welcome its onerous respon- 
 sibilities. Accustomed to have their time much at 
 their own disposal, and to spend it in elegant and 
 leisurely pursuits, or in schemes of external useful- 
 ness, it seems a grievous waste of time to set io 
 work every morning on a routine of household 
 duties. Accustomed, too, to absolute indifference 
 and ignorance as to the day's providing?, it is highly 
 disagreeable to find a preponderance of beef and 
 mutton, and their divers adjuncts and allies, in the 
 scale of the day's interests, and to have bakers, 
 butchers, and grocers, formerly almost mythical per- 
 sonages, suddenly invested with reality and distinct- 
 ness. Now we are not disposed to underrate the 
 unpleasantness of all this, especially when aggravated 
 by small means and utter ignorance ; but though at
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 49 
 
 first a cross of DO small magnitude, it will not long 
 continue to be so, if taken up cheerfully and reso- 
 lutely, its difficulties grappled with, and its heaviest 
 weight laid where, like all other burdens, it can 
 alone be lightened.* This sort of trial is generally 
 increased by struggling under the yoke, as if it were 
 unworthy of an educated or Christian mind, to be 
 cast down by such " contemptible trifles." So it is, 
 but not for the reasons generally assigned. It is not 
 wrong to spend time and serious thought upon these 
 things, which are not contemptible, because the 
 confused household, the uncomfortable dinner, the 
 arrangements without tact and discrimination, will 
 throw discredit upon the profession of a Christian 
 woman, and consequently upon Him who called her 
 to be so. But it is wrong so to be overborne by 
 anxious and careful thought, that their cheerful ful- 
 filment is rendered impossible, and other duties are 
 shadowed and burdened by it. 
 
 There is a striking home and household picture, 
 presented to us by the beloved family of Bethany, 
 wonderful in its portraiture of character, wonderful 
 as bringing the Lord of Heaven before us for once 
 in a happy earthly home, wonderful in its adapta- 
 tion to the needs and infirmities of feminine nature. 
 We see the active and energetic Martha, burdened 
 with the cares and responsibilities of her household 
 
 * " Yet I do persuade myself you know, that the weightiest end of the Cross of 
 Christ that is laid upon you, lieth upon your strong Saviour. For Isaiah sayeth, 
 tLat in all your affliction- he is afflicted." Ri'TUER."oar> s u;Tl'l!K8. 
 
 (2) D
 
 50 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 work ; " cumbered with much serving," Martha, like 
 many another woman, allows it to come between her 
 and her Divine Guest. The consequences are not 
 confined to herself; they produce irritation and in- 
 justice. She goes to Jesus, and that she did so, 
 fearlessly, shows how home-like and familiar a guest 
 he was, saying, " Lord, dost thou not care, that my 
 sister hath left me to serve alone ? Bid her, therefore, 
 that she come and help me." Then comes the gentle 
 yet faithful answer, so exquisitely adapted to find en- 
 trance into every woman's heart, " Martha, Martha, 
 thou art careful and troubled about many things. 
 But one thing is needful. And Mary hath chosen 
 the better part, which shall never be taken away 
 from her." Let us learn then from this passage, 
 not the lesson which it was never meant to convey, 
 that everything but religion is to be neglected, but 
 the lesson so to take this " one thing needful/' into 
 all duties, all " serving," all perplexities that every- 
 thing may become blended into that good part which 
 shall never be taken away. 
 
 Martha's over-care is one of the principal snares in 
 the paths of those housekeepers who escape the 
 opposite extreme of not caring at all ; and very 
 touching is it to the burdened and self-reproaching 
 heart, to meet with this ready response, " Cast all 
 your care upon God, for He careth for you ;" all 
 your care, dear friend, that care with regard to the 
 morrow's dinner for those difficult to please that
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 51 
 
 perplexity about a provoking or ill-suited servant 
 that doubt from whence is to come the needed supply 
 for your household wants, all to be cast upon 
 another, and that other your Father who is in 
 Heaven. There is significance too in that word 
 " cast," which does not mean that you retain your 
 cares while you call upon God for help and sympathy, 
 no ! you cast them away, they are no more yours 
 but His ! Oh, it is wonderful love, wonderful conde- 
 scension ! let us see that we take the full benefit of 
 it. And more wonderful still when the result and 
 the answer come, the doubt solved, the emergency 
 provided for, the care to be no more recognised, the 
 absolute proof given that God has heard, that God 
 has considered, that God has approved and an- 
 swered. Martin Luther gave the following beautiful 
 illustration : " This little fellow," said he of a bird 
 going to roost, " has chosen his shelter, and is quietly 
 rocking himself to sleep, without a care for to- 
 morrow's lodgings, calmly holding by his little twig, 
 and leaving God to think for him." As a practical 
 evidence of the Lord's thoughtfulness for the comfort 
 of His people, even in little things, there is something 
 very touching in His care of the lost garment, 
 when its restoration was forgotten by the careless 
 neighbour, and the owner is exposed to cold and 
 discomfort, He says, " when he shall cry unto me, I 
 will hear, for I am gracious." * 
 
 * See Exodus xxii. 26, 27.
 
 52 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 When God has lifted the care, which is the heaviest 
 burden of all, from the mistress of a house, He does 
 not leave her to do nothing. He bestows various 
 gifts, which are to be employed for the Giver's glory ; 
 they are scarcely looked upon as gifts, however, as 
 their bestowal is so common, till deprivation of some 
 of them teaches us the lesson. God gives us time. 
 " Why, that is a truism," you answer ; so it is, yet 
 one that we are apt to forget. When the interesting 
 volume comes in the way of a consultation in the 
 kitchen, or an unnecessary visit to an acquaintance 
 occupies the time which ought to have been employed 
 in the storeroom, or at the account-book, we do not 
 often remember that we are defrauding God of the 
 time which He intended for keeping all things right 
 and in order within our own little sphere. 
 
 God gives us capacity, if we would but use it. 
 There are few instances of a woman destitute, even 
 naturally, of that household talent which will enable 
 her to fulfil her various duties, much more when 
 under the guidance of Him who giveth liberally all 
 kinds of wisdom. If not always completely successful, 
 she may at least take the comfort to herself, that 
 when she has done her very best, honestly and prayer- 
 fully, failure may be a sorrow but is never a fault. 
 
 God gives us money; a small share it may be, 
 or a large one, to be stewarded for Him. Not to 
 be grumbled over, because it is so small ; or to be 
 buried in the earth, for that is less trouble ; or
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 53 
 
 squandered in extravagant dress, or useless bargains, 
 or expensive dishes, but that every shilling may 
 be thought over, and cared for, as God's gift, and 
 made to produce its full amount of use, happiness, 
 or comfort. It is very common to hear people say, 
 and to say ourselves, " If I had but more money, how 
 much good I would do with it." The best way to 
 remedy the evil, is to do as much good as possible 
 with what we have, that God may increase the value 
 of a stewardship, which he sees we are conscientiously 
 holding. It is well to ask ourselves with each sover- 
 eign or note that passes out of our hands, " What is 
 God's intention with regard to this money ?" and as 
 far as possible to work it out, learning to give cheer- 
 fully, and to refuse bravely, when your only reason 
 for giving what you cannot justly afford, is that miser- 
 able one, " What will people say ?" Of course, in this 
 conscientious expenditure of God's bounty, you must 
 expect to encounter not a little self-denial, for it is 
 difficult to remember in a tempting shop, that your 
 money is not your own, but like every other talent, 
 is " bought with a price." It will involve trouble too, 
 " for wisdom will always have a microscope in her 
 hand,"* and there must be that careful and exact cal- 
 culation in the smallest matters, without which you 
 cannot be a just steward. It is a common quotation, 
 that " the love of money is the root of all evil ;" but 
 we must not forget also, that " money answereth all
 
 54 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 things ;" * and that when torn from the roots, and 
 grafted upon good fruit-bearing trees, it becomes 
 that blessed thing wherewith widows' hearts may be 
 made to sing for joy, wherewith the orphan and the 
 fatherless may be kept from the paths of the de- 
 stroyer, wherewith messages of mercy may be sent t& 
 the far off heathen, and upon the disposal of which, 
 God looks with peculiar interest, for it is said that 
 He loveth a cheerful giver. 
 
 God gives us servants. Did you ever look on 
 them in this light ? as gifts, and very valuable ones, 
 more valuable than you can fully appreciate, 
 unless you meet with a reverse which will compel 
 you to be your own servant ; then you will under- 
 stand how much you owed to them. Perhaps there 
 is a greater amount of querulous dissatisfaction on 
 this subject than on any other ; indeed, complaints 
 of servants are so universal, that curiosity is some- 
 times excited to know whether the complainers would 
 behave with the requisite degree of perfection were 
 their positions to be reversed. That there are many 
 bad servants, and that they are a very serious domestic 
 affliction, none can deny. The most inattentive, the 
 most giddy, the most unfaithful, are not, however, 
 " all evil ;" and to find the tender spot in their hearts, 
 to draw out their neglected energies, to give them a 
 sense of sorrow, and responsibility for the uneasiness 
 they occasion, must ever be included in the work of 
 
 * Eccles. x. 19.
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 55 
 
 a mistress. To do this fully, much grace is of course 
 required, not only to deal wisely and faithfully with 
 them, but also to deal wisely and faithfully with our- 
 selves. It will not do to be thoroughly alive to their 
 besetting sins, without being conscious of our own : 
 it will not do to keep a stricter account of their fail- 
 ures to us, than of our failures to them ; nor to expect 
 a thorough feeling and knowledge of our wants and 
 ways, and yet be destitute of sympathy with them. 
 If it is a difficult thing to fulfil the duties of a mis- 
 tress, it is no easy thing to be a servant. Brought into 
 the closest contact with stranger fellow-servants of 
 opposing tempers and designs, treated negligently, 
 yet perhaps harshly, by their mistresses, expected to 
 know everything by intuition, to think yet not to 
 think, to have perfect memories, and no feelings, 
 indeed, to like being found fault with, rather than 
 otherwise, exposed to every temptation to levity 
 and dishonesty, perhaps forbidden to see in comfort 
 a few respectable and useful friends, and thus thrown 
 upon disreputable society, enjoyed surreptitiously, 
 what can we expect from servants, if mistresses are 
 not true to them and to themselves ? Oh, then, dear 
 friends, let us search into the relations between us 
 and our servants, and endeavour to realize, that if 
 they have a work to do for us, we have a work to do 
 for them. Part of this work must be to make them 
 love you, even while holding firmly the reins of 
 domestic government : and this you will never sue-
 
 56 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 
 
 ceed in doing, till you learn to look at their duties 
 and their necessities from another point of view than 
 your own position, even from what you would your- 
 self experience were you in theirs. Is your treatment 
 of them as just, your tone in reproof as calm, your 
 consideration in sickness as tender, your compassion 
 in sorrow as real as you would expect from your 
 superiors, were you in a subordinate situation, nay, 
 as you expect now from those who have any authority 
 over you ? Example is likewise an essential part of 
 domestic work. What we are in our households, will 
 bear a strong influence upon what our servants are in 
 ours, and what they will be in their own, should they 
 ever take up house for themselves ; they are quick- 
 sighted, and the selfish indulgence, the inconsistency 
 in religion, the unjust suspicion, will always be noticed, 
 and sometimes be copied by them. While on the 
 other hand, there is the hope that an exhibition of 
 the opposite qualities may be blessed in leading them 
 to be taught by the same Spirit that can alone pro- 
 duce them. Example, however, is not enough. Pre- 
 cept, and above all, prayer, must also be employed in 
 carrying out the highest part of the work, the safety 
 and eternal happiness of the souls under your roof ; 
 but the mode and means of doing so must necessarily 
 vary so much with circumstances, that they must be 
 left to be settled between the mistress and her God. 
 How beautifully and impartially the Scriptures un- 
 fold to us this portion of household ethics, so necessary
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 57 
 
 for Christians to study and practise ! " Servants, obey 
 in all things your masters according to the flesh ; not 
 with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but in singleness of 
 heart, fearing God. . . Masters, give unto your ser- 
 vants that which is just and equal ; knowing that ye 
 also have a Master in Heaven."* 
 
 God gives us the poor. " Them have ye always 
 with you ;" and great is the privilege of trying to 
 fulfil the wishes of our Saviour as expressed in 
 this verse, that the care of the poor may be part 
 of our constant work ; " ye have them always with 
 you." We class this amongst household work, for 
 it is closely connected with it, and we cannot help 
 thinking should be more so than is generally the 
 case. When the mistress of a house is anxious to 
 do good, she very properly becomes a tract distri- 
 butor, the visitor of various poor people who are 
 known as objects of charity, the member of a 
 clothing society, of a soup kitchen, and so on. 
 It is quite right that these things should be done, 
 but all the while there are claims equally real though 
 not equally obvious, which ought not to be left un- 
 done. It is often a great temporal blessing to the 
 poor, when any special accident, sickness, or misfor- 
 tune befalls them, for then visitors flock in, comforts 
 are pressed upon them, and, in short, they become 
 fashionable for the time. It would be better, how- 
 ever, to reach the poor before their extremity of need 
 
 * Col. iii. 22, and iv. i.
 
 58 HOUSEHOLD WOKK. 
 
 comes ; and this is, we think, peculiarly the province 
 of the female head of a household, tor there are many 
 branches, so to speak, from the domestic stem, which 
 require to be looked to and tended. We knew a 
 case which may illustrate our meaning. A washer- 
 woman was occasionally employed by a lady, who, 
 however, knew nothing of her except her name. One 
 day she was asked to visit her, as she was ill. She 
 found the poor woman in the last stage of a mortal 
 malady, aggravated by a craving for whisky ! Now 
 that she was ill, she became " interesting" to a number 
 of visitors, and there was no lack of sympathy and 
 comforts, till death closed the scene. It was, how- 
 ever, a subject of deep sorrow and self-reproach to 
 her employer, to find that for years this poor woman 
 had subsisted on the occasional pittance she had re- 
 ceived from her; and that poverty, accompanied by a 
 pride which forbade complaint, had driven her into 
 the habit of intoxication. Half of the attention 
 showered upon her, on her almost unconscious death- 
 bed, if extended in the years of struggle with poverty 
 and temptation, might, humanly speaking, have been 
 the means of arresting her untimely, and though not 
 hopeless, yet unsatisfactory end. Keep watch, then, 
 over those in any way connected with your daily 
 work, and while not neglecting the open and abject 
 cases of distress, take heed to them also who " make 
 no sign." Do you know anything of the condition 
 of your washerwoman, of your occasional "help,"
 
 HOUSEHOLD WORK. 59 
 
 or messenger, of your milk girl, or baker's boy ? 
 Better to be the means of helping them now by sym- 
 pathy, by advice, by judicious aid and interest, than 
 to fly to them when prostrated by distress, in a 
 paroxysm of tardy, though well intentioned, and 
 zealous benevolence. 
 
 Mrs. Bury, a pious lady, who died two hundred 
 years ago, was so impressed with the importance of 
 her household work, that she had engraved in Hebrew 
 characters upon the walls of her room, " Thou God 
 seest me ! " We shall conclude this chapter by the 
 following beautiful verses, peculiarly appropriate tc 
 all domestic work : 
 
 " So others shall 
 
 Take patience, labour, to their heart and hand, 
 From thy hand and thy heart and thy brave cheer, 
 And God's grace fructify through thee to all. 
 The least flower, with a brimming cup may stand, 
 And share its dew-drop with another near." 
 
 ELIZABETH BAERKT BBOWBIKQ.
 
 60 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 T. 
 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 " So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the 
 sun ; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter ; 
 nnd on the side of their oppressors there was power ; but they had no comforter." 
 ECCIBS. iv. 1. 
 
 " They know the grief of man, but not the wisdom ; 
 
 They sink in man's despair, without its calm 
 Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom, 
 
 Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm, 
 Are worn, as if with age, yet unretrievingly 
 
 No dear remembrance keep, 
 Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly : 
 
 Let them weep ; let them weep ; 
 They look up with their pale and sunken faces. 
 
 And their look is dread to see, 
 For they mind you of their angels in their places, 
 
 With eyes meant for Deity." 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING. 
 
 THE relation between the employer and the em- 
 ployed is a subject which occupies the high places of 
 counsel in our land, and agitates the minds of the 
 statesman and the political economist. Its abuse 
 shakes the very foundation of the social edifice, and 
 its remedy would make England what she professes 
 to be, " the land of the free." This question is pecu- 
 liarly fitted for the attention of our sex, even of those 
 who profess that " they know nothing of politics ;" 
 for like the power of the gentle moon upon the rest-
 
 WORK OF EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYED. 61 
 
 less ocean, they have a strong and abiding influence 
 upon the susceptible masses of society. Of course, 
 the branch of it which comes most peculiarly within 
 the feminine province, is that which concerns the 
 various abuses resulting from DRESS. The curse 
 pronounced against the produce of the earth, and 
 the doom of hard labour, are yet unrepealed, and 
 never do they seem so strangely 'sad, so sin-like, so 
 death-like, as when visible in terrible contrast with 
 the beautiful and the graceful. So exquisite are the 
 forms and fabrics of clothing, that were it not for the 
 " sweat of the brow," and the sorrow of the heart, 
 which are its awful accompaniments, its original pur- 
 pose as a token of the Fall, and a sign of God's dis- 
 pleasure, might well be forgotten. 
 
 Very numerous are the aristocratic and lovely 
 ladies who are to be seen in that magnificent and 
 incomprehensible London. Nurtured so tenderly, 
 that the winds of heaven may not visit them too 
 roughly, not doomed to tread the vulgar earth, but 
 borne on prancing palfreys, or in gorgeous equipages, 
 surrounded by the loving and the admiring, with 
 the generous impulses and tender hearts of England's 
 daughters beating beneath the crust of conventional 
 coldness, they are yet the unthinking instruments of 
 worse than Inquisition tortures, life-long and hope- 
 less. Those exquisite flowers, those graceful capotes, 
 those becoming corsages are the price of blood. Where 
 shall we look for the twiners of the garlands. for
 
 62 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 the fabricators of the goodly raiment ? In the gloomy 
 and unhealthy back rooms of this gay and glittering 
 dwelling, the champing horses at the door, the 
 jewelled and feathered dames lavishing hundreds in 
 the showroom, contrasting strangely with the stern 
 realities of the world within. Young and tender girls, 
 some from the town, others from the sweet and far 
 off country, work there from ten and fifteen to twenty 
 hours a-day, according as the demand comes for ela- 
 borate and hastily wrought dresses. No time for 
 breathing the fresh air, no time for stretching the 
 constrained and racked muscles, or restoring the 
 circulation deadened by one unchanging posture. 
 No sufficient supply of wholesome food. No Bible 
 reading, and little prayer, save what may go up from 
 the quivering lips, while the hands are busy over 
 baubles and gew-gaws. Little time for sleep, so 
 needful even to the happy young, for if the em- 
 ployer must figure in her robes at the ball or birth- 
 night, the employed must drag wearily through the 
 night, with eyes dazzling, and brain swimming, kept 
 awake by unnatural stimulants, and on extra occa- 
 sions allowed a quarter of an hour's swoon-like sleep, 
 from which there is a miserable awaking. And alas, 
 at times, no Sabbath rest ! If the employer scruples 
 not to invade the holy day, she will not heed though 
 the employed must, in her service, break into its 
 blessed hours. Under such untoward and blighting 
 circumstances, the health of the " young ladies,"
 
 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 63 
 
 (bitter irony there is in the appellation !) seldom 
 lasts ; a hectic flush, a flying pulse, a rasping cough, 
 and the young girl, old in her youth, is sent with 
 her miserable pittance to her home to die. Killed 
 by the needle, which ought to be but an emblem of 
 happy home industry ; a sharper death than the 
 bodkin of old which pierced the heart quickly. Killed 
 by tunics and flounces, by trains and mantillas. Killed 
 because the tender and delicate woman has no mercy. 
 Well it would be if these were the only evils to which 
 the employer virtuous herself, and philanthropic, 
 when she thinks of being so exposes the employed- 
 Those who do not escape by death oftentimes escape 
 by sin. A few kind words and treacherous promises, 
 a vision of release from her slavery, a hope of light, 
 and air, and rest, and food, and to none is the down- 
 ward path to destruction so easy and certain as to 
 the dressmaker's apprentice. 
 
 There are lower grades of poverty, deeper shades 
 of grinding human misery, still within your pro- 
 vince, rich and beautiful Belgravian. Who sews 
 the fine linen of your trousseau, which you take 
 with you to a new and 'happy home ? Who fastens 
 the folds of your riding habit, which you compla- 
 cently exhibit in Rotten Row ? The slop- worker ! 
 who obtains not the honest value of her work, but 
 is employed second hand and at nominal prices by 
 the gay shop and the fashionable tailor.
 
 64 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 " Work work work ! 
 
 Thy labour never flags ; 
 And what are its wages ? a bed of straw, 
 
 A crust of bread and rags. 
 That shatter'd roof and this naked floor 
 
 A table a broken chair- 
 And a wall so blank, my shadow I thank, 
 
 For sometimes falling there." 
 
 " ! but for one short hour ! 
 
 A respite however brief ! 
 No blessed leisure for love and hope, 
 
 But only time for grief ! 
 A little weeping would ease my heart, 
 
 But in their briny bed 
 My tears must stop, for every drop 
 
 Hinders needle and thread !" 
 
 It is said by the Political Economist, that " the 
 lowest point to which wages can be permanently 
 reduced, is that which affords a bare subsistence to 
 the labourer." Such a rule were a blessing to the 
 slop-worker. She may exist, but she scarcely lives, 
 and too frequently she ceases to " subsist," unless she 
 resorts to the frightful alternative which is the doom 
 of " three out of four of the young women in London 
 who do slop-work."* 
 
 These are well-known and often proved facts, and 
 may be met with, alike in the political pamphlet, in 
 the newspaper column, in the American squib, in 
 the exciting novel. The young and enthusiastic 
 grudge not tears and exclamations, and plans for a 
 crusade in behalf of their favourite dress-making 
 heroines ; but when the worn and weary milliner's 
 
 * See a deeply interesting pamphlet upon the Slop System by Thomas 
 Hughes, Esq.
 
 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 65 
 
 apprentice, or seamstress, comes in their way with no 
 other qualifications for a heroine than uncomplaining 
 wretchedness, the zealous impulse is unaccountably 
 forgotten, the uninteresting girl is allowed to shiver 
 at the door, to be received with impatient and 
 reproachful words, to have work thrust upon her 
 calling for cruel and unnecessary haste, and to 
 depart without her just and sorely required remu- 
 neration. Were the bright unclouded eyes of these 
 children of prosperity to be fastened day after day, 
 and hour after hour, to the needle-work which they 
 abhor, were they to feel the benumbed limbs and 
 aching spine, and stooping blood-charged head, for 
 one week, even with all the alleviations of their com- 
 fortable homes, the impression would not be so 
 transient. Others who are more deeply and truly 
 interested in the subject, console themselves by 
 thinking, that as they are not particularly fashion- 
 able, seldom order fine dresses, and never live in 
 London, that they have no part or lot in the matter ; 
 but the evil is not confined to London. In Dublin, 
 in Edinburgh, in Manchester, in the provinces ; 
 wherever, in short, there are ladies to be dressed, and 
 makers of dresses, the evil to some degree exists, to 
 be remedied as well as mourned. Have you ever 
 seriously reflected on the covenant which exists be- 
 tween the employer and the employed ? the one 
 having something done which they cannot do for 
 themselves, the others obtaining food and raiment 
 (2) E
 
 G6 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 which they could not otherwise secure ; but when 
 the employer receives the full amount of use and 
 comfort from the employed, while they in her service 
 lose things more precious than the silver and gold 
 that they receive, the covenant is falsified, the true 
 relation marred. It would be a happy day for 
 England, if every British lady without exception, 
 young and old, married and single, in town or in 
 country, would resolve, that while claiming, if they 
 choose, the work of the dressmaker and seamstress 
 to the uttermost farthing, they would in the same 
 measure perform their work to them, giving just 
 and punctual remuneration, wearing the old dress 
 rather than torture human beings with the hur- 
 ried new one, not wasting time by unpunctu- 
 ality to appointments, or by turning over finery 
 which they do not intend to purchase, inquiring 
 for themselves who are most deserving and needy, 
 shewing a kindly interest in their various cir- 
 cumstances, proving that they know that they 
 have souls, and are earnest for their safety. The 
 employer who does not thus do her best, it may 
 be in a limited and obscure sphere, to diminish 
 the blot and the misery of English slavery, cannot 
 consistently lift up her voice in weeping over the 
 miseries, or denouncing the oppressions that exist in 
 America. The surest way of testifying sympathy 
 and one-heartedness with the noble strugglers for 
 emancipation, and of proving the practical good
 
 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 67 
 
 which has been done in this country by "Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin," will be to labour for home emancipa- 
 tion, thus depriving the slave-holder of the handle 
 which he turns to such good or evil account, when 
 he cries triumphantly, " Look to your white slaves, 
 England." 
 
 If this is the first step, however, it need not be 
 the last. When the English lady's conscience can 
 testify, that by influence and action she protests 
 against the woes that are in her own land, it were 
 hard indeed that she should be compelled to wait till 
 all had done likewise, before she could manifest by 
 voice, true though feeble, by aid, hearty if not suc- 
 cessful, her abhorrence of that giant crime, that 
 remorseless legalized cruelty, which exists in a land 
 of Christianity and equality. Kather will her efforts, 
 her sympathies, and her prayers in that quarter, be 
 the means of stirring up and encouraging her to 
 work still more diligently for her beloved England. 
 Bather will her increased knowledge and abhorrence 
 of slavery make her a stronger and better armed 
 champion against the practice, where the principle is 
 denounced. And now little is left to say to the 
 employed ; we might sing to them with the poet, 
 
 . . . What if the bread 
 Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod 
 To meet the flints ? at least it may be said, 
 Because the way is short, we thank thee, God .'" 
 
 ELIZABETH BARKBT BROWNISG. 
 
 But we prefer leaving with them the prayer of the
 
 68 WORK OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. 
 
 prophet, " Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me." 
 Were the words of that sublime prayer taken to 
 heart, the oppressions of daily circumstance, of toil, 
 of unkindness, of sin, and of temptation, would be 
 all rolled off upon the Great Burden-bearer, who 
 can alone " undertake," either for employer or em- 
 ployed, who can sustain under the wasting poverty, 
 and shooting pain, and incessant toil, who can 
 keep the foot from falling in the slippery place, and 
 give light through the horrible shadow of death, 
 who can inspire the heart with love and forgiveness, 
 and teach diligence and punctuality in serving the 
 unjust as well as the just, even the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the Loving, the Faithful, the Kighteous.
 
 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 VI. 
 
 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 " The Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God givetb 
 t!,ee for an inheritance to possess it." DUT. xv. 4. 
 
 " Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, 
 But with high objects, with enduring things, 
 With life and nature ; purifying thus 
 The elements of feeling and of thought, 
 And sanctifying by such discipline 
 Both pain and fear, until we recognise 
 A grandeur in the beatings of the heart 
 
 WOEDSWOBTH. 
 
 " Love had he found in huts where poor men lie. 
 His daily teachers had been woods and rills, 
 The silence that is in the starry sky, 
 The sleep that is among the lonely hills." 
 Ibid. 
 
 IT is a curious proof of a certain quality in the 
 human mind, sometimes called discontent, some- 
 times perversity, sometimes mildly named love of 
 change, that while many who dwell in cities pine 
 for the dimly remembered or seldom enjoyed country, 
 those whose beautiful homes are amidst woods and 
 hills and waters, often hurry from them to the 
 town, and the town-like watering-place. It is not 
 unnatural that those who live amidst the noise, the 
 interruptions, " the fretful stir unprofitable," the
 
 70 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 " greetings where no kindness is," which abound in 
 cities, should look with feelings akin to envy upon a 
 life by the lonely sea-shore, or river-bank, or " brae- 
 side," adorned with loveliness fresh from the hand of 
 God ;* the quiet, the rest, and the leisure, form a 
 vision of delight to many, especially to those who 
 enjoyed these privileges in early days. " If we 
 but lived in the country," say they, " it would be so 
 much easier to be diligent, to be consistent, to be 
 separate from the world." Like most other yearn- 
 ing desires for what is beyond our reach, this is 
 founded on wrong conceptions of what is really 
 good for us. 
 
 Besides the steady anchorage to the soul, afforded 
 by giving up the will to God, as knowing best where 
 to fix the bounds of our habitation, there are wise and 
 visible reasons for checking the murmur, and consol- 
 ing the sorrow. A town life has solid advantages, 
 and useful lessons to recompense the Christian for the 
 loss of the imagined paradise. There is the almost 
 compelled self-denial and self-control, in the constant 
 yielding of our own way to meet the sudden emer- 
 gency, or to suit the convenience of others, there is 
 the felt need of watchfulness against the surrounding 
 worldliness, there is the frequent call to the scene 
 of distress, there is the ever deepening sense of the 
 reality of life and action. The heart that is at peace 
 with its God, the hands that have His purposes to 
 
 * " God made the country, man the town."
 
 COUNTRY WORK. 71 
 
 fulfil, may be, and the probability is. will be ir.ore 
 patient and diligent amidst these untoward circum- 
 stances, than if the plain of Ease, which the pilgrims 
 found to be short and quickly traversed, were to be 
 extended along the pathway ; 
 
 "For Love's a flower that will not die 
 
 For lack of leafy screen, 
 And Christian hope can cheer the eye 
 
 That ne'er saw vernal green : 
 Then he ye sure that love can bless 
 Even in this crowded loneliness, 
 Where ever-moving myriads seem to say, 
 Go thou*art nought to us, nor we to thee away ! 
 
 " There are in this loud stunning tide 
 
 Of human care and crime, 
 With whom the melodies abide 
 
 Of th' everlasting cMme ; 
 Who carry music in their heart, 
 Through dusky lane and wrangling mart, 
 Plying their daily task with'busier feet, 
 Because their secret souls a holy strain repeat." 
 
 KBBLB. 
 
 Country life so fair and pleasant externally far 
 from being devoid of trials and snares, presents a 
 class of temptations, which, though more hidden, is 
 to many minds more dangerous. Sloth selfishness 
 love of ease forgetfulness of life, and its urgent 
 claims to God's service, " while it is called to-day," 
 may all exist unsuspected in the smooth routine of a 
 country home. The garden the poultry-yard the 
 pleasant volume by the winter fire-side, or beneath 
 the shady summer trees the flattering dependents 
 in tidy cottages, or school-children in fancy uniforms, 
 to be visited and looked at, the occasional archery
 
 72 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 meeting or county ball, or formal dinner party, 
 the array of servants, who take off all charge of house- 
 hold affairs, form the elements of a life which goes 
 on with the smoothness and regularity of clock-work. 
 Day after day the same, or nearly so, there are no 
 beacons to warn against indolence, there are no 
 landmarks pointing out the fields of work. Earnest 
 endeavour, therefore, against selfishness, against fold- 
 ing the hands in sloth, and wrapping the heart in its 
 own imaginings, is peculiarly needful for those who, 
 possessing the talents of leisure and undisturbed 
 repose, are apt to lose that vitality which must be 
 infused into the service of all, whether inhabiters of 
 town or country. 
 
 There is one kind of work peculiar to dwellers in 
 the country, upon which we shall briefly touch. 
 None are so imperatively called upon to " declare the 
 wondrous works of God," to have knowledge of 
 them, and rejoicing in them, as those who, far from 
 the imitations of art, are surrounded by the originals 
 of nature. Debarred, it may be, from the proud 
 fanes, with shaft and corbel, with screen and tran- 
 sept, into which man has built his great heart,* 
 they have the architecture of God in old stately 
 mountains, with pine, and heath, and cataract, in 
 forests, with heaven-pointed arches, and columns 
 
 *...." The architect 
 Built his great heart into these sculptured stones." 
 
 LONGFELLOW.
 
 COUNTRY WORK. 73 
 
 bronzed and gnarled, in the unpillared temple of 
 the heavens, with its bright traceries, and delicate 
 starry oriels. If they cannot obtain concert, oratorio, 
 and opera, they have the winds that sweep the chords 
 of the forest branches, and the melody of the ocean 
 waves, and the rippling of the burn-waters upon 
 the white pebbles, and the voices of the mavis and 
 the merle. If galleries of paintings are awanting in 
 their neighbourhood, the purple of the distant hill, 
 the vivid green and rich brown of trees and waving 
 grasses, the scarlet glory of the western clouds at 
 evening, and the colours of the little wild flower 
 petals, are ever near to shame the palette of a painter, 
 and to darken the flush and the glow of the canvass. 
 But all these things are too often looked upon with 
 careless and accustomed eyes, or they fill the ima- 
 gination of the beholder with sentimental delight, 
 without a recognition of the hand of the Lord, with- 
 out a suggestion to the heart, of His will and word, 
 that we should " seek out and take pleasure in His 
 honourable and glorious works/'* God has given us 
 a wonderful proof of His own appreciation of the 
 operation of his hands, of the importance He at- 
 taches to them, and the great effects which their 
 study may produce. The only arguments by which 
 He drew from His self-righteous servant the con- 
 fession, "Behold, I am vile!" were the power and 
 wisdom of the Creator as shown in the foimda- 
 
 * Ps. xxviii. 5. Job xxxvii. 14. Ps. cii. 2-4.
 
 74 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 tions of the earth in the staying of the mighty 
 ocean in the parting of the gladsome light in the 
 sweet influences of the Pleiades in the formation of 
 the snow, and the hail, and the frost of the heavens, 
 in the goodly wings of the peacock, and the 
 strength of the pawing war-horse. " Then Job an- 
 swered the Lord, and said, Thou canst do every- 
 thing."* Let not then the dwellers in the God-made 
 country cast away their privileges unimproved. Let 
 there be an intelligent and adoring study of God's 
 wise and beautiful designs, and their marvellous 
 adaptation to the use and happiness of man. Neglect 
 not the fallen apple. Overlook not the mechanism 
 of the vine tendrils. Turn not away from the polished 
 and jewelled surface of the dew-drop, or the crystal- 
 lized stars of the snow storm.f Be not contented 
 with seeing, and admiring, and wondering at the 
 beautiful objects and curious natural phenomena you 
 may encounter, but make it your business to search 
 for information, either from books, or from those who 
 have made such pursuits their study, so that you may 
 be fitted to give glory to God intelligently, and in 
 your turn to stimulate others to the perception and 
 the admiration of His creative power. 
 
 Attention to God's inanimate works alone, were, 
 however, but a partial fulfilment of country work. 
 
 * fee Job, chaps, xxxviii., xxxix., xl. 
 
 t See a beautiful passage on "Divine Contrivance" in Abbott's Cornerstone. 
 Chap.i.
 
 COUNTRY WOKK. 75 
 
 Although outwardly less degraded than wyud or cel- 
 lar, there exists nearly as much moral and mental 
 degradation in the picturesque cottage, or in the 
 lonely hamlet ; and sometimes the fairest scenes of 
 nature are chosen habitations of sin and misery. 
 Help to the needy, the rescue of the miserable 
 who abound in every neighbourhood, the consi- 
 deration for dependents who, though pleasing and 
 respectful in manner, may yet greatly require an ele- 
 vating hand, will of course come within the sphere 
 of a country lady's work, in which her influence is 
 even more decided and extended than that of her 
 town neighbour. Frequently the only person of 
 united means and will within a few miles, the lady 
 at the "great house" has an almost unbounded 
 personal influence over her poorer neighbours. Whe- 
 ther they make known their expectations or not, it 
 is from her that the sick look for help, the impo- 
 verished for money, the young women for service, 
 or recommendation and advice for it, and the whole 
 neighbourhood for that kindly and familiar inter- 
 course with their superiors which they prize so 
 highly, and which may be made so useful to them. 
 Even the mistress of a smaller dwelling than the 
 large " country house," has a greater number depend- 
 ing upon her individual aid, than in towns where 
 work is so much generalized by associations and 
 societies, she comes into contact with the poor, 
 untrammelled by the presence or the views of others,
 
 76 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 and while equally their benefactress, has more leisure 
 to be their friend. 
 
 Country Work will also take a wider range, and 
 calling into exercise feminine tact and powers of 
 arrangement, it will aim at the highest type of im- 
 provement, which, going beyond the outward adorn- 
 ment, or pecuniary benefit of an estate, secures the 
 hearty co-operation of the lower classes in their own 
 comfort~and elevation. It is not uncommon to see 
 the tiny but picturesque cottage fitted into some 
 favourite nook, or finishing some lovely vista, and 
 a whole family crushed into it from a more com- 
 modious dwelling, without the slightest regard to 
 their convenience ; or we have show villages furnished 
 with useless luxuries and comforts, which are only 
 a source of annoyance and irritation to those who 
 have just emerged from the hut and the hovel, 
 wretched to our view, but much more in accordance 
 with their own feelings and wants. Feminine influ- 
 ence will be rightly used in procuring more thoughtful 
 and better applied help, and in adapting improve- 
 ments to the progressive state of those who are to 
 be benefited, thus taking away gradually all dislike 
 to the innovations of light, and air, and space, and 
 cleanliness. 
 
 There is another portion of a lady's country work of 
 which we must say a few words, and that is, her in- 
 fluence over the husbands, fathers, brothers, and 
 friends who hold the position of " country gentlemen."
 
 COUNTRY WORK. 77 
 
 Amongst this class many are to be met with, who, 
 originally well educated, and gifted with respectable 
 if not superior talents, have fallen into that state of 
 deterioration, which is absolutely unavoidable, when 
 country sports, instead of being kept in their proper 
 place, as amusements, are magnified into the object 
 and end of life. A country gentleman, the heir ex- 
 pectant to a large estate, was lately heard to expatiate 
 on the difficulty he had found in arranging the em- 
 ployment of his time throughout the year. He did 
 not live in a county that was regularly hunted, nor 
 was there much curling in the neighbourhood. golf, 
 which presents such a resource for the destitute in 
 some favoured places, was unknown, and the cricket 
 ground was too distant. But beginning with the 
 grouse on the glorious twelfth of August, and then 
 in succession studying the partridges, the pheasants, 
 the woodcocks, (the draining had left but few snipes,) 
 and the wild-ducks, he got through the winter pretty 
 well, and by advancing a little the spring and sum- 
 mer fishing, he contrived to fill up the time till the 
 happy August " moor days" came round again. Such 
 was the cycle of his work. Such was his understand- 
 ing of the words, " Occupy till I come." Similar de- 
 terioration, though in a lesser degree, may be found 
 resulting from an undue absorption in farming and 
 other country pursuits, which in themselves are most 
 useful and laudable. The effect of this is either 
 directly prejudicial to woman, or it acts injuriously
 
 78 COUNTRY WORK. 
 
 in preventing all communion of tastes and pursuits 
 between her and the masculine members of her 
 household. With whom, therefore, does the power 
 of amending this social and individual evil rest so 
 entirely as with the gentler and more refined sex ? 
 Who can so skilfully substitute the intellectual 
 volume, for the Sporting Magazine, or the Farmer's 
 Calendar, who can so judiciously give just the requi- 
 site degree of interest in the favourite sport, claiming 
 and obtaining in return a kindly and rational interest 
 in their own more elevated pursuits, who can foster 
 the languid aspiration and recall the long lost enthu- 
 siasm more successfully than the wives and the sisters 
 of fox-hunters and farmers ? 
 
 We have given but a very hurried and superficial 
 sketch of a few of the duties and snares belonging to 
 a sphere which may be made at once so honourable 
 and so delightful ; but we have said enough, if any 
 are persuaded to seek the cultivation and exercise of 
 that energy, which is peculiarly needed to counteract 
 the enervating tendencies of tranquillity and repose, 
 and to put a higher spirit into the enjoyments which 
 are so liberally scattered around. The "perfect 
 gifts" of Creation call with a loud voice to the 
 " work," which will make their enjoyment still 
 sweeter, adding a significant beauty to the sunset, 
 a healthier balm to the breeze, a more solemn 
 loveliness to the moonlit hills and valleys.
 
 SABBATH WORK. 79 
 
 VII. 
 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 " If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my 
 hcly day ; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable ; and 
 shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor 
 speaking thine own words : then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." ISAIAH 
 Iviii. 13, 14. 
 
 " Did ever law of man a power like this 
 Display ? power marvellous as merciful. 
 Which, though in other ordinances still 
 Most plainly seen, is yet but little marked 
 For what it truly is, a miracle ! 
 Stupendous, ever new, performed at once 
 In every region, yea, on every sea 
 Which Europe's navies plough ; yes, in all lands, 
 From pole to pole, or civilized or rude, 
 People there are, to whom the Sabbath morn 
 Dawns, shedding dews into their drooping hearts." 
 
 GBAHAME'S SABBATH. 
 
 " Nobly distinguished above all the six, 
 By deeds, in which the world must never mix." 
 COWIBR. 
 
 THE title of this chapter must sound strange to 
 the ears of those who look upon the Sabbath only as 
 a day of enforced and unwelcome rest, of languid 
 yawns, of vacant hours, and of fervent desires for 
 the termination of the weekly day of penance. 
 The original element of the day was rest, but rest
 
 80 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 includes happiness ; that were a miserable rest for 
 a man which permitted his mind to be a prey to 
 weariness and vexation, that were a thing with a 
 name, but without a substance, which offered rest 
 and withheld happiness. Therefore has the Lord 
 expressly made provision for this want, and promises 
 " delight" to those who " call the Sabbath a delight, 
 the holy of the Lord, and honourable." We do not 
 intend to enter upon any Sabbatarian controversies, 
 but simply to point out the different kinds of " Work" 
 which would make the hallowed day assume its right 
 place as the " Pearl of the Week," and make its ob- 
 servance an intelligent, active and happy duty, instead 
 of the slavish ceremony which it too often is. This 
 is doubly important when we consider how large a 
 portion of time would thus be redeemed from waste, 
 and restored to happiness; each person who lives 
 seventy years, has lived ten years of Sabbaths ! 
 
 We shall notice first, Preparatory Work. We can 
 bring no melody from the harp-strings all jarred and 
 unstrung by the damp and rust of a period of disuse, 
 they need to be attuned before the rush of music 
 can be swept from their chords. In like manner the 
 heart that is damped and exhausted by the cares, 
 and bustle, or distracted by the amusements of a 
 long and late Saturday, can never breathe cheerful 
 and inspiring music on the Sabbath, and can only 
 give to its services a Pharisaical spirit of formal and 
 discordant observance. The Jewish " day of prepara-
 
 SABBATH WORK. 81 
 
 tion"* migVit afford a beneficial lesson to the Chris- 
 tian ; it might fitly lead him to commence the spirit 
 of the Sabbath on the previous day, by so arranging 
 circumstances that no undue flurry of worldly busi- 
 ness, or unnecessary society, or even physical fatigue, 
 shall interfere with the remembrance that the mor- 
 row " is the day which the Lord hath made let us 
 be glad and rejoice in it." 
 
 Then we have Personal Work, Each portion of 
 consecrated time ought to be a mile-stone in the nar- 
 row way, " a Sabbath-day's journey towards heaven." 
 To those who on week-days are in a constant state of 
 occupation and over-fatigue, and whose hours of re- 
 tirement may at any time be interrupted and short- 
 ened, how blessed to stand still and see the salvation 
 of God, to draw water out of the wells of Salva- 
 tion without check or hindrance, to commune with 
 their own hearts, and with their own Saviour, and 
 to " search" into the hidden mine of Scripture, like 
 the " more noble" Bereans.f 
 
 Then we have Sanctuary Work ; not to be viewed 
 as a mere excitement in an otherwise blank day, or as 
 the amusement of a " public place," where friends and 
 strangers may be commented on, when other resorts 
 are forbidden, not as a work done for us by our pas- 
 tors, with which we have no concern, save perhaps to 
 approve or criticise, but as part of our own indivi- 
 dual and solemn work to whi."h a special promise is 
 
 * Luke xxiii. 54. t Acts xvii. 11. 
 
 (2) F
 
 82 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 attached, " I will make them joyful in my house of 
 prayer."* Have we neglected to pray for those be- 
 loved " workmen," that they may rightly " divide 
 unto us the word of truth ?"f Have we left unsung, 
 or sung only for the sake of the music, those spiritual 
 melodies, which when poured forth with fervent heart, 
 though with stammering lips, blend with the songs 
 of the angels ? Do our thoughts wander upon the 
 mountains of vanity, while prayer is ascending to fill 
 the golden odorous vials ? J Do we listen to the words 
 of instruction, with ears " itching" after eloquence and 
 excitement, or idolizing an Apollos, a Paul, or a 
 Cephas, forgetting the message in its way of delivery, 
 forgetting the Sender in the sent ? Then are we 
 leaving undone arrears of important work, for which 
 we must give account to the Lord of the Sabbath. 
 
 Then there is Social Work. Surely the day on 
 which the most joyful event of the world's history 
 took place, is especially a day for that chastened 
 gladness which will shew itself, not by austerities or 
 moroseness, but by a double share of kindness, love, 
 and sympathy to all around. Many claim a high 
 place for music in the home employments of the holy 
 day, but as Cowper says, 
 
 " Love, joy, and peace make harmony more meet 
 For Sabbath evenings, and perhaps as sweet." 
 
 It is beautiful to see, as it is in some households, the 
 Sabbath made a day to be distinguished by the more 
 
 * Is. IvL 7 t 2 Tim. ii. 15. } Rev. v. 8.
 
 SABBATH WORK. 83 
 
 than ordinary interchange of affection and confidence 
 between the members of the family, where exclu- 
 sion from its social privileges and its happy circle of 
 instruction, is considered as one of the most painful 
 of punishments. This species of Sabbath work need 
 not be confined to home society, but ought to in- 
 clude anxious and individual effort to commend 
 the Sabbath as " the poor man's day," to those of 
 the lower classes who come under our influence, 
 thus doing our best to leaven the mass with the 
 primary element of all that is healthful and glad- 
 dening. The poor man knows little of the blessed- 
 ness of the day which his God gives him. He is 
 either worn down by hard and involuntary work, or 
 he is tempted by the specious arguments of his 
 superiors, to walk in his own ways, and find his own 
 pleasure, and speak his own words, in " innocent 
 amusements," which are neither God-obeying nor 
 God-delighting ; or he substitutes by his own 
 darkened will a day of his own, like the shoemakers 
 of London, who are ashamed to appear upon Sundays 
 in their miserable clothing, and therefore work all 
 the Sabbath, and make Monday or Tuesday their day 
 of unhallowed and disobedient rest. To lead such, 
 therefore, either by precept or example, to know 
 something of that rest and enjoyment to be derived 
 from the intelligent spiritual observance of the Lord's 
 day, producing a contrast and variety of employment 
 which is the secret of all true relaxation, would be
 
 84 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 one of those " works of mercy" that might take its 
 place in the services of the heavenly Sabbath. 
 
 Then we have Active Work. If those to whom the 
 Sabbath is a weariness, and its duties but lifeless 
 things, would but try the experiment of teaching a 
 Sabbath-school class, they would be astonished at the 
 life which it would give to the day, and at the ob- 
 ject which would arise in their hearts and minds for 
 thought and interest during the week. It might 
 seem that the occupation of teaching a few children 
 in a pew, or in the corner of a school-house, was one 
 of slight importance ; yet a useful and devoted ser- 
 vant of God, who but lately went to his rest, and 
 his reward, after years of agonizing and nobly borne 
 sufferings, traced his conversion to the instruc- 
 tion of a young lady at the Sabbath school, which, 
 though apparently neglected, came freshly to his 
 heart after years of forgetfulness and folly.* Listen 
 to the words of an eminent American author on 
 this point : " As you love the Church which 
 Christ loved, and desire to see it built up of 
 living stones, fashioned after the similitude of a 
 palace, come, bring your tools, ye wise and skilful 
 workmen who have laid them by to rust. Disdain 
 not the call. There is noble work for you to do, in 
 helping to shape and ornament the materials which 
 are to constitute 'the Church of the future/ . . . 
 Joining itself with kindred influences, your influ- 
 
 * Pastoral Memorials of the late Rev. W. Gregory of CHftom
 
 SABBATH WORK. 85 
 
 ence upon the mind of some youth may be precisely 
 that which is to give momentum and guidance to 
 its energies. You may fix a thought which will 
 shape a character and fix a destiny. Through this 
 medium you may be more effectually working for the 
 Church and the world, than you could by any other, 
 because you may be helping to prepare for society a 
 benefactor, who, as a minister of Christ, or a jurist, a 
 statesman, a physician, a teacher, will show ' how 
 great a matter a little fire kindleth.' Out of public 
 sight, your work may be obscure and unblazoned ; 
 but like that of the bee, which in the dark builds its 
 cell and stores it, it is none the less good, in that it 
 proceeds upon the principle of that divine philosophy, 
 which is equally apparent in the kingdoms of nature 
 and grace, and which teaches us not to ' despise the 
 day of small things,' since it is God's pleasure that 
 His kingdom should come, ' not with observation.' 
 Then come forth and help to build the temple of 
 God, though no noise of the hammer and axe be 
 heard in the work. The great empire of thought is 
 silent, but in it dwell God and all spiritual creatures. 
 Aim then to belong to it, for, though silent and un- 
 seen itself, it is destined to govern the world. In it, 
 though out of sight, is to be found the secret spring 
 which is steadily moving the hands forward upon 
 the dial-plate, until they reach the hour of time."* 
 
 * A Call to Christians to Labour in the Sabbath-School, by the Rev. D. Pott*. 
 Quoted in Monthly Messenger.
 
 86 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 That Sabbath-school teaching is an object of easy 
 attainment and of small requirements is a very com- 
 mon mistake ; and one of the reasons that Sabbath- 
 school teachers so often fail of success, is surely 
 because they neglect the employment of their whole 
 powers of mind, as well as of heart. No com- 
 mon gift is it to have a sufficiently clear under- 
 standing, to make the things, understood by ourselves, 
 intelligible to the young ; no ignoble exertion of the 
 intellect to overcome the difficulty of suiting thought 
 and expression to a lower standard of ideas than 
 our own, and to speak as a child to children, yet as 
 a teacher to the taught, not only instilling know- 
 ledge, but eliciting thoughts, questions, and difficul- 
 ties ; no unworthy use of the treasures of a well- 
 cultured mind and memory, to bring the apt illustra- 
 tion, the striking anecdote, the historical event, the 
 phenomena of nature, to commend and enforce the 
 lesson of practical instruction. The benefit of 
 devoting a little time every day in the week to 
 intellectual preparation for the Sabbath-class duties, 
 is very great ; it is too often the custom to give 
 only a short space on Saturday evening to the pre- 
 paration of the lessons for the following morning ; 
 there is no leisure for meditation, the required texts 
 and illustrations vanish from the memory, and the 
 lesson is ill-prepared and ill-digested. But the habit 
 of reading and pondering over the passage, verse by 
 verse, during the week, making notes of whatever may
 
 SABBATH WORK. 87 
 
 occur to us in the way of parallel texts, illustrations, 
 or practical lessons, will send us on Sabbath morn- 
 ings into endeared and familiar ground. The import- 
 ance of prayer, regular, every-day, and individual, 
 for our Sabbath-school children, is also obvious. 
 There is often a reaction after the bodily and 
 mental excitement and fatigue of teaching, which 
 produces a kind of insensibility for the first days of 
 the week, the duty is over for the time, and cast 
 aside, and the souls of the scholars are forgotten, 
 till a few cold and hurried petitions are offered up at 
 the end of the week. Every Sabbath-school teacher, 
 however, has found, that it is just in proportion to 
 his week-day prayers, his real earnest pleadings, that 
 the class prospers on the Sabbath. If this duty has 
 been neglected, that is the time when one scholar 
 comes lazily in after the preliminary prayer, an- 
 other stammers over her lesson, a third yawns re- 
 morselessly in the middle of our most interesting 
 illustration, and we return home with the mortify- 
 ing feeling that we have not reached the heads or 
 the hearts of our pupils. If, however, we have been 
 enabled to pray real prayers during the week, for 
 the progress of our classes, for strength in our own 
 souls, and for that feeling of weakness, which is, 
 as it has been well called, "a sinew of God's 
 strength," then may we go to our places expect- 
 ing to find that there has been a good influence 
 upon our scholars during the week, expecting to see
 
 88 SABbAfH WORK. 
 
 the eyes glisten, and the brows become earnest, and 
 the hearts anxious, and the souls safe. Nothing but 
 such believing help, thus sought and found, will 
 overcome the difficulties and stumblingblocks in 
 the way of the Sabbath-school teacher. Nothing 
 else will give the enduring faith, going on Sabbath 
 after Sabbath without any fruit, and yet believing 
 that fruit will come. Nothing else will strengthen 
 against the fatigues, both mental and physical, and 
 take away the nervousness which so painfully besets 
 many teachers, the heart sinking at the sound of 
 the coming feet, the stammering voice, the confused 
 address. Nothing else will give that love to the 
 shepherd, which will make the heart first exclaim, 
 " Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee," and 
 then, as a natural consequence, hasten into the fold 
 to " feed His lambs." Nothing else will give that love 
 to the strayed little ones, which will enable the teacher 
 to " search them out in the dark and cloudy day," to 
 overcome dislike, prejudice, and weariness, to visit 
 them in their own houses, and to watch in after life 
 even the careless and ungrateful. We need not fear 
 that this labour will be wasted, or that it is less than is 
 required. It is a melancholy fact, that there is little 
 visible success in our Sabbath-schools, and for this 
 sad effect there must be a cause. What is it then ? 
 Can God be unwilling to save ? Has Jesus Christ 
 ceased to say, " Let little children come unto me ?" 
 Is the Spirit unable to come down in floods upon
 
 SABBATH WORK. 89 
 
 the dry ground ? No ! we must look at our own 
 hearts for the cause, at our own scanty prayers and 
 tardy praises, and slothful preparations. 
 
 Sabbath-school teaching is not only a pleasing, 
 important, and useful duty, it is also an imperative 
 one upon all who are not hindered by the force of 
 circumstances. There are ever peculiar agencies of 
 evil at work against each rising generation, and if 
 we refuse to come to the " help of the Lord against 
 the mighty," we place ourselves in the awful position 
 of Meroz, 
 
 " Curse ye Meroz,* said the angel of the Lord. 
 What has Meroz done ? Nothing. 
 
 Why then is Meroz to be cursed ? Because Meroz did nothing. 
 What ought Meroz to have done ? Come to the help of the Lord. 
 Could not the Lord do without Meroz ? The Lord did do without Meroz. 
 Did the Lord then sustain any loss ? No, but Meroz did. 
 Is Meroz then to be cursed ? Yes, and that bitterly. 
 Is it right that a man should be cursed for doing nothing ? 
 Yes, when he ought to do something." Luke xii. 47-t 
 
 One other kind of work appropriate to the Sabbath 
 remains to be noticed, and that is Prospective Work. 
 Sabbath evening, too often the period set apart for 
 untimely sleep, letter-writing, or gossiping conversa- 
 tion, has been beautifully called " the seedtime for 
 eternity," and it is also the pledge and earnest of the 
 Sabbatism of eternal life. If we take no part in the 
 work of the Holy Sanctuary here, how shall we be 
 pillars in the temple of our God ? If we value 
 not the rest of the earthly day, how shall we enter 
 
 * Bead Judges y. 23. t Children's Missionary Record.
 
 90 SABBATH WORK. 
 
 into the rest that remaineth for the people of God ? 
 If the Sabbath of twenty-four hours is to us a 
 weariness, how shall we endure that Sabbath which 
 hath no end ? It is necessary then to keep ever in 
 view, amidst our Sabbath duties, the important one 
 of making ourselves ready for a Sabbath that is not of 
 earth. We must struggle against our backwardness 
 to the work, against our discouragements, against 
 our weariness, against our want of spirituality, be- 
 cause unfitting us for the adoration, the activity, the 
 delight in spiritual things, which must be elements of 
 the coming glory. We must rejoice in the Sabbath 
 as in the beautiful streaks of the light which groweth 
 into noon-day sun, as in the first refreshing drops of 
 the rill, which spreadeth into the mighty ocean. 
 
 He shall assist me to look higher, 
 Where keep the saints, with harp and song, 
 
 An endless Sabbath morning ; 
 And in that sea commixed with fire, 
 Oft drop their eyelids, raised too long 
 To the full Godhead burning." 
 
 ELIZABETH BASKET BROWSING.
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 91 
 
 VIII. 
 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 " The thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness ; but of every one that 
 is hasty, only to want." PROV. xxi. 5. 
 
 " The gentler charms which wait on female life. 
 Which grace the daughter and adorn the wife, 
 Be these our boast ; yet these may well admit 
 Of various knowledge and of blameless wit, 
 Of sense, resulting from a nurtured mind, 
 Of polished converse, and of taste refined." 
 
 HANNAH MORE. 
 
 " The bey-stone of thy mind to give thy thoughts solidity, 
 To bind them in an arch to fix them as the world ia in its sphere, 
 Is to learn from the book of the Lord, to drink from the well ot His wisdom." 
 
 MARTIN TUPPER. 
 
 To think, is no uncommon employment. The 
 miser thinks about his gold, the young lady thinks 
 about her bonnets and balls, the gossip thinks about 
 her neighbours ; yet is Thought a comparatively rare 
 achievement. " My friend," said John Foster, " to 
 have thought far too little, we shall find among the 
 capital faults in the review of life. To have in our 
 nature a noble part that can think, would be a cause 
 for infinite exultation if it actually did think, as 
 much and as well as it can think, and if to have an 
 unthinking mind were not equivalent to having no
 
 92 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 mind at all. The mind might, and it should be 
 kept in a state of habitual exertion, that would save 
 us from needing to appeal for proof of its existence 
 to some occasion yesterday when we did think, 01 
 to-morrow when we shall." 
 
 Equally important for the welfare, equally consti- 
 tuting a part of the work of both sexes, Thought 
 requires to be specially cultivated by woman, as it 
 is more opposed to the natural constitution of her 
 mind, and frequently altogether omitted in her edu- 
 cation. Woman, therefore, must educate herself to 
 think. She will thus become a more harmless 
 member of society, for the woman of reflection rarely 
 gossips, rarely propagates scandal, rarely sows dis- 
 cord amongst her neighbours. She will be a bet- 
 ter companion and helpmeet for thoughtful men, 
 and a safer friend for thoughtless women. She will 
 be equally fitted, as the case may be, to become the 
 cheerful " old maid," the respected teacher of the 
 children of others, or the intelligent instructress of 
 her own. She will escape the evils of ignorance and 
 vacancy of mind, on the one hand, and on the other, 
 the imputation of being learned over-much. No 
 " blue stocking" was ever a thinking woman ; igno- 
 rant of all that remains to be known, she prides her- 
 self upon the little that she knows ; and incapable of 
 understanding the humility which is inseparable from 
 true knowledge, she forces upon others her petty and 
 superficial attainments. The woman of reflection.
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 93 
 
 moreover, will not contract her feminine sphere, by 
 occupying a corner of it, and allowing the rest to be 
 wasted ground, but she will never advance a step on 
 the outside of the magic circle. No " emancipated 
 woman" to use a popular American phrase was 
 ever a woman of Thought ; she emancipates herself, 
 because she has not thought, or has thought to very 
 little purpose, of the noble place, and the influen- 
 tial duties which God has given her, nobler than 
 the place of any man, more blessed and angel-like 
 than the duties of any other created being. She 
 emancipates herself, by throwing aside the mighty 
 power that is her own, and trying to grasp in vain, 
 the intellectual strength, the unshackled freedom of 
 her brother's position. She emancipates herself, in 
 short, because she has not mind enough to enter into 
 the mind of God. 
 
 Original thought in a woman, is likely to be crude 
 and unprofitable ; hence it requires a large infusion 
 of the thoughts of others. Beading will therefore 
 form a prominent part in the employments of those, 
 who are aroused to a sense of the wonderful ele- 
 ments of work, which exist in the unseen regions of 
 Thought. Some people clever, active, and useful, 
 in their own way maintain that reading is a mere 
 selfish indulgence, which takes up a great deal of 
 time, and is of no use in practical life. Others are 
 of opinion, that to fill the mind with other people's 
 ideas, is a sort of mental plagiarism ; thus a young
 
 94 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 man once remarked, that he was not reading much, 
 for fear of hurting his eyes and his originality ! 
 To read aright, so as not on the one hand to in- 
 terfere with the practical duties of life, and on the 
 other, not to impair the individuality of the mind, 
 it is necessary to read with a purpose. WHY do 
 we read ? If only to wile away the vacant hour, 
 or to post through miles of paper, or to gain the 
 credit of being " a great reader," our books may 
 be consigned to the flames for all the good they 
 do us. As the body requires nourishment, so does 
 the mind, not taken at random, but regularly, and 
 with consideration, so as to suit the mental diet to 
 the mental constitution ; and as the body without 
 sustenance could not fulfil its appointed services, so 
 the mind, if left unfed and unstrengthened, could 
 not perform its varied and important work. Why 
 then do we read ? Let it be to fit us for thinking, 
 for living, for working ; let it be to honour Him, 
 who having given us the magnificent palace of the 
 mind, cannot be pleased when it is left unfurnished 
 and untenanted, and consequently rendered by degrees 
 useless and uninhabitable. But HOW do we read ? 
 If our reading is designed for anything better than 
 " much talk and little knowledge," it is equally 
 important and difficult to know how to read ! more 
 difficult than our early exploits in alphabet and 
 spelling-book, for it requires patient and laborious 
 mental operations, to meet the mere external one, of
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 95 
 
 pouring in knowledge at eye and ear. A master of 
 the subject says, " Beading furnishes the mind only 
 with materials of knowledge ; it is thinking makes 
 what we read ours. We are of the ruminating 
 kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with 
 a great load of collections; unless we chew them 
 once again they will not give us strength and nour- 
 ishment. ... To which let me add, that this way 
 of thinking on, and profiting by what we read, 
 will be a clog and rub to any one only in the be- 
 ginning ; when custom and exercise have made it 
 familiar, it will be despatched, in the most occa- 
 sions, without resting or interruption in the course of 
 our reading." * 
 
 Let us read, then, so as to increase, to elevate, to 
 furnish thought. Let us read patiently, not ex- 
 citedly rushing through a book to know the end of 
 it, or to begin another in haste, or to have the satis- 
 faction of getting through so many volumes. Let us 
 read systematically, not adhering too pertinaciously 
 to our own rule, and the rules of others, but modify- 
 ing, altering, and increasing a judicious course of 
 reading, according to our better acquaintance with 
 our own mental wants and peculiarities. It is well 
 not to despise the aid of notes and abstracts, so as to 
 gather up fragments which might otherwise be lost 
 to our memories, to record our own impressions, 
 make our own reflections and illustrations, and thus 
 
 * Locke on the Conduct of the Understanding.
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 prove our own progress. Let us strive against that 
 besetting sin amongst us, superficiality. If all 
 were as candid as Hannah More's heroine, her con- 
 fession would not be a very uncommon one. 
 
 " I seiz'd on learning's superficial part, 
 And title-page and index got by heart, 
 Some learned authority I still would bring, 
 To grace my talk, and prove the plainest thing ; 
 This the chief transport I from science drew. 
 That all might know how much Cleora knew." 
 
 HAHSAH MOKE'S Search after Happinen. 
 
 If we read hastily, we shall think hastily, and thus 
 we shall not only be scantily supplied with materials 
 for the honey, but we shall be destitute of the skill, 
 patience, and perseverance needful for forming the 
 cells, and filling them with the precious store. 
 But WHEN do we read ? Although man's education 
 is so much more thorough, and occupies so much 
 longer time, yet it is not so decidedly pronounced to 
 be " finished," as that of woman after eighteen years 
 of masters and governesses, calisthenics and guitars. 
 When a girl has gone through a good deal of what 
 receives the name of reading, in London or Edin- 
 burgh, Bath or Brighton, she thinks that the time 
 for it is past, and that, if she reads any more, it is 
 only for the purposes of amusement or fashion ; but 
 if she is to be superior in future life to a faded belle 
 or an elderly butterfly, reading, and its inseparable 
 vocations of thinking and learning, if begun in child- 
 hood and youth, must not stop there, but must go
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 97 
 
 on through middle life, to the days of old age. That 
 was an ingenious as well as instructive device of 
 Michael Angelo, which represented an old man in a 
 go-cart, with an hour-glass upon it, and this inscrip- 
 tion, " Ancora imparo I YET I AM LEARNING." 
 
 ' Were man to live coeval with the sun, 
 The patriarch-pupil would be learning still ; 
 Yet dying, leave his lesson half unlearned. 
 
 YOUNG 
 
 The time of our daily readings must vary of course 
 with circumstance ; but when practicable, it should 
 assume a stated place in the day's avocations, 
 though it need not be rigidly confined to it, or 
 smaller portions left neglected. " Secure the in- 
 terstices of your time," said Robert Hall, " and you 
 will be astonished to find how much reading you will 
 get through in a year." 
 
 WHAT do we read? is also a question to be 
 seriously asked, and seriously answered, in these 
 days when female literature has such a wide field 
 to wander in, of abridgments, reviews, magazines, 
 serial novels, and ephemeral biographies, not to 
 be despised in their own time and place, but when 
 filling the library, and forming the taste, they are 
 found to unsettle and excite the mind, to produce a 
 patch-work of thoughts and opinions, and to foster 
 that indolent superficiality, which contents itself 
 with gathering a few facts and external ideas. It 
 would be good to ask ourselves in closing the en- 
 (2) a
 
 98 THOUGHT WOKK. 
 
 grossing volume, what useful thoughts and elevated 
 feelings it has left with us, and to what train of 
 ideas it has opened the way: and whether it has 
 left us satisfied with its own scanty share of infor- 
 mation, or has sent us intelligent and thirsting in- 
 quirers to more extensive wells of knowledge. 
 
 To elevate reading and thinking, into their right, 
 though rarely occupied place, they must go hand in 
 hand With mental discipline, or " the power of master- 
 ing the mind." Without the habit of close attention, 
 and of resolute self-control, the mind will wander 
 from the page or from the teacher, into its favourite 
 field of speculation, or will be absorbed in fancies and 
 day-dreams ; and though ever and anon returning to 
 its occupation, it receives but a spasmodic attention, 
 the unity of the subject is utterly broken, a false 
 estimate of it is formed, and only a few of its bear- 
 ings recognised. Dr. Abercrombie says, " The culti- 
 vation of a habit of steady and continuous attention, 
 or of properly directing the mind to any subject which 
 is before it, so as fully to contemplate its elements and 
 relations, is necessary for the due exercise of every 
 other mental process, and is the foundation of all 
 improvement of character, both intellectual and 
 moral. Nearly connected, and of equal importance, 
 is a careful regulation and control of the succession 
 of our thoughts. This remarkable faculty is very 
 much under the influence of cultivation, and on the 
 power to acquire it depends the important habit of
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 99 
 
 regular and connected thinking. ... It may not be 
 going too far to assert that our constitution, in the 
 scale both of moral and intellectual beings, is, in a 
 great measure, determined by the control which we 
 have acquired over the succession of our thoughts, 
 and by the subjects on which they are habitually 
 exercised."* 
 
 Fifty years ago there might have been more 
 ground for hesitation than there is at present in 
 a woman advocating to women, the advantages to 
 be derived from mathematics, in mental training. 
 Female geometricians were even then looked upon 
 as criminal personages, in spite of Locke's decla- 
 ration, that mathematics should be studied, " not 
 so much to make mathematicians as reasonable 
 creatures/' Many more of the latter would there be, 
 if such a study were a common and necessary ele- 
 ment in all female education. If the study of other 
 sciences may be supposed to distract and unfit the 
 feminine mind from its peculiar province of thought 
 and usefulness, the study of mathematics does not 
 seem liable to the same objection, so practical is the 
 turn of mind which it induces, so successful is the 
 warfare which it wages with inattention, with super- 
 ficial knowledge, with flighty and sentimental trains 
 of thought. As there is no " royal," so there is no 
 feminine road through the proposition and the 
 theorem ; the simplest demonstration requiring a 
 
 Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers.
 
 100 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 patient investigation and thorough comprehension, 
 which will go far to cure woman of some of her 
 prominent failings. Often contented to pick up half 
 an idea, or a partial demonstration of truth, mathe- 
 matics will teach her to grasp the whole in all its 
 bearings. Often prone to exaggeration and incor- 
 rectness of thought and statement, mathematics 
 will teach her to think before she jumps to a con- 
 clusion, and to cultivate precision of thought and of 
 expression. 
 
 When a woman sets herself diligently to Thought 
 Work, she must necessarily bestow on it much care, 
 time, and trouble ; but she will find her reward in 
 the additional influence which it will give her at 
 home and in society, in the additional ease with 
 which she will perform the rest of her work, and in 
 the satisfaction of turning to good account the men- 
 tal powers which God has bestowed upon her. It is 
 not impossible, however, that she may be called upon 
 to make a more open use of the materials of thought 
 which she has collected. The present days are dif- 
 ferent from those when Lady Mary Wortley Mon- 
 tague's mother burnt her daughter's best letters, 
 because she considered it a blot in the family escut- 
 cheon, to have literary honours emblazoned there- 
 on ! Love of notoriety is no uncommon feeling in 
 women, and we sometimes see it manifesting itself, 
 by aspirations after the dubious career of female 
 authorship. That fame to a woman is peculiarly
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 101 
 
 unsatisfying, we have the authority of one of its most 
 successful candidates : 
 
 " Fame ! Fame ! thou canst not be the stay 
 
 Unto the drooping reed, 
 The cool fresh fountain in the day 
 
 Of the soul's feverish need. 
 Away ! to me, a woman, bring 
 Sweet waters from affection's spring." 
 
 MES. HEMASS. 
 
 While another, almost equally successful, has called 
 it " a royal mourning in purple for happiness." * 
 When a woman of cultivated mind, therefore, finds 
 her thoughts wandering in this direction, she had 
 better pause and cross-examine her own feelings, 
 hopes, and purposes, for " power to do good is the 
 only true and lawful end of aspiring."f Apart 
 from this, to write books will only place her in an 
 anomalous and uncomfortable position. If, however, 
 she has something to say for God, words of expe- 
 rience, of knowledge, of encouragement, of pleasant, 
 and not unprofitable amusement, let her say it boldly, 
 yet with simplicity, and God speed her in her utter- 
 ance. Let her eye be single, and her heart large and 
 loving, and He for whose glory she writes, will pre- 
 serve her from the wounds of discouragement, and 
 from the dangers which often attend success. In 
 however humble a field, she may thus be enabled to 
 work for God ; and she may be placed in many posi- 
 tions where the power of so employing herself, 
 when other avenues of usefulness seem closed, may 
 
 * L. E. L. t Lord Bacon.
 
 102 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 be a great resource and happiness. This talent, how- 
 ever, in a woman, must be kept in subordination 
 to her own peculiar duties, however homely; the 
 proof-sheet that prevents the dinner from being or- 
 dered, the new idea or flowing stanza that usurps 
 the place of the needle, or the account-book, are un- 
 suitable elements in feminine work. 
 
 Although we have dwelt longer upon the intellec- 
 tual phase of Thought Work, its moral culture is of 
 course the more important, for out of the heart are 
 the issues of life ; and its thoughts are everywhere 
 spoken of in Scripture, and everywhere recognised 
 in experience, as possessing the most important 
 agency over the whole inner man and outward con- 
 duct. 
 
 Of the close connexion between the thoughts and 
 the tongue that unruly fire, we have an illustration 
 in the social experience of the Psalmist. " And if he 
 come to see me, he speaketh vanity; his heart gather- 
 eth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he 
 telleth it."* How often, alas ! do we see the truth 
 of this picture, not only in the more open forms of 
 sinfulness, to which we may flatter ourselves that its 
 meaning is limited, but in the friendly circle, the 
 private boudoir, wherever, in short, there are words 
 and thoughts that are contrary to the command of Him 
 whose thoughts are not as ours ; " Judge not that ye 
 be not judged." That was a safe determination of the 
 
 Ps. xJL 6.
 
 THOUGHT WORK. 103 
 
 old divine, " Whenever I spy a fault in a neighbour, 
 I will be careful to think of two of my own." The 
 vain and frivolous thought, how opposed to the 
 dignity of the mind, to the welfare of the soul, for 
 the " thought of foolishness is sin." The contemp- 
 tuous thought, how displeasing to Him who feels no 
 contempt, even for us. 
 
 " Stranger ! henceforth be warned ; and know that pride, 
 Howe'er disguised in its own majesty, 
 Is littleness ; that he who feels contempt 
 For any living thing, hath faculties 
 Which he has never used; that thought with him 
 Is in its infancy." 
 
 WORDSWOHTH. 
 
 The self-righteous and complacent thought, how re- 
 volting to Him who can only dwell in the broken and 
 contrite heart. The unbelieving thought, how dis- 
 honouring to Him who loves the trusting, unquestion- 
 ing spirit of the little child. 
 
 That moral culture and regulation of the mind, 
 therefore, which can only proceed from a changed 
 heart, is a most important part of Thought Work. 
 It will prompt all tender and gentle thoughts of, 
 and for others ; it will enable it to say with the 
 Psalmist, " In the multitude of my thoughts within 
 me, thy comforts delight my soul,"* and it will give 
 a joyful and decided answer to that question which 
 searches and tests all mental operations, " What think 
 ye of CHRIST ?"
 
 104 THOUGHT WORK. 
 
 With regard to Reading Work, let it be kept in 
 mind, that the wisdom which is not drawn from the 
 Book of the Lord, would be an arch without a key- 
 stone, a world unsteady in its sphere. Knowledge, 
 when separated from this, is but " wood, hay, and 
 stubble." Knowledge that is united to it, is like a 
 firm rock, that shall never be moved. The Bible, 
 then, must be the beginning and the end, the com- 
 panion and the aid to all other studies, not only for 
 the intellectual power of its diction, the grace of 
 its songs and lyrics, the burning beauty of its pro- 
 phetical strains, but specially for that knowledge 
 that alone " maketh wise unto salvation." That was 
 a beautiful definition given by a converted heathen of 
 true Scripture study, and the devotion to which it 
 leads, "When I open my Bible," said he, "God 
 talks with me, and when I put it down, I talk with 
 God." 
 
 " In the temper of the invisible mind, 
 The God-like and undying intellect, 
 There are distinctions that will live in Heaven, 
 When time is a forgotten circumstance ! 
 The elevated brow of kings will lose 
 The impress of regalia, and the slave 
 Will wear his immortality as free, 
 Beside the crystal waters ; but the depth 
 Of glory in the attributes of God 
 Will measure the capacities of mind ; 
 And as the angels differ, will the ken 
 Of gifted spirits glorify him more." 
 
 BETAST.
 
 PROVING WORK. 105 
 
 IX. 
 PROVING WORK. 
 
 " But let every man prove his own work." GAI. TL 4. 
 
 " Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, >>< 
 cause it shall be revealed by fire ; and the fire shall try every man's work of HUSH 
 eortitis." 1 COB. iii. 13. 
 
 " Their glorious efforts, winged with heavenly hope, 
 Each rising morning sees stiB higher rise ; 
 Each bounteous dawn its novelty presents, 
 To worth maturing, new thoughts, lustre, fame ; 
 While Nature's circle, like a chariot wheel 
 Rolling beneath their elevated aims, 
 Makes their fair prospect fairer every hour, 
 Advancing virtue, in a lure to bliss ; 
 Virtue, which Christian motives best inspire ! 
 And bliss, which Christian schemes alone ensure !" 
 
 " His God sustains him in his final hour : 
 His final hour brings glory to his God ; 
 Man's glory Heaven vouchsafes to call her own. 
 We gaze ; we weep ; mixt tears of grief and joy ! 
 Amazement strikes ! Devotion bursts to flame ! 
 Christians adore ! and Infidels believe !" 
 
 YOUNG'S NIGHT THOUGHTS. 
 
 MUCH pleasanter would it be to let our work go 
 improved, to allow the apple of bitter dust to con- 
 tinue fair and shining, to fold complacently the 
 petals of the rose-bud around the cankerworm, to 
 admire the column of flame shooting up from our 
 heart-altars, without inquiring too minutely whether
 
 106 PROVING WORK. 
 
 it be consecrated or " strange" fire. To do so, how- 
 ever, were to disobey God's distinct command to 
 prove our own work. We are not to be the provers of 
 other people's work, a much easier and pleasanter 
 proceeding, and by no means an unusual one ; but 
 each is to take self, that fair and dearly cherished 
 object, and place it under the power of a mental 
 microscope. Its thoughts, its utterances, and its 
 actions, so long covered by a shining veil, are to 
 be laid bare and scrutinized. " This work that 1 
 have done, how fair, how honoured of man, how ac- 
 cepted by God ! " But is it*so ? Look again ! and 
 the man's inmost soul recoils with abhorrence, he 
 recognises not the work of his own hands through 
 the microscopic lens. Full of cracks is the enamel, 
 full of dross is the gold, full of flies is the sweet 
 ointment. 
 
 The study of MOTIVE, so essential to that self- pro- 
 bation which is commanded by God, opens up a 
 strange and melancholy page of our individual his- 
 tory. Let us commence in the morning, and keep- 
 ing this great end in view, let us prove ourselves 
 throughout the day, by searching and understanding 
 the motive of every work, small as well as great. 
 We have done a kind and self-denying action, and 
 when it has not been recognised with prompt and 
 flattering gratitude, our wounded feelings may per- 
 haps divulge to ourselves another motive than the 
 apparent one. We have spoken " honestly" to a
 
 PROVING WORK. 107 
 
 friend, and told "painful truths;" bnt is there no 
 lurking feeling of complacency at our freedom from 
 the same fault, no tinge of satisfaction at our friend's 
 fallibility, to mar the purity of our Christian exhor- 
 tations ? We have done a deed of charity, and 
 though we have not sounded a trumpet before us in 
 the streets, yet have we not secretly rejoiced when 
 others have done it for us ? We have descanted on 
 the general sinf illness of human nature, and on our 
 own " particular share of it ; yet when others, how- 
 ever gently, have placed but a finger on the tender 
 spot of our besetting faults, how we have shrunk and 
 quivered ! We have told a story, or repeated observa- 
 tions which implied self-compliment, and has it been 
 to interest our auditors or to magnify ourselves ? 
 We have worked a work for God, which to admiring 
 friends and to corroborating Self, appears to have His 
 glory for its aim and object ; but like the clear and 
 muddy waters which we see flowing side by side in 
 the same stream, the difference of which is not dis- 
 cernible in the distance, we find on closer inspec- 
 tion a dark and selfish motive beside the pure and 
 heavenly.* 
 
 Motive is a test which can only be applied by God 
 and by our own hearts, for no stranger can inter- 
 meddle with the bitterness or joy of its discoveries. 
 It breaks up the outward religion that we think 
 
 " Many actions, like the Rhone, have two sources, one pure the other impure." 
 GUESSES AT TEUTH.
 
 108 PROVING WORK. 
 
 must be all right, because it is long since we have 
 professed it, or because it is almost an hereditary 
 possession. It rends and soils the fair robe we may 
 wear before the world, sending us all black and un- 
 seemly to Him 
 
 i knows all, yet loves us better than He knows." 
 
 KEBLE. 
 
 It seems sometimes to be thought that work is the 
 proof of motive, instead of motive being the proof of 
 work, that when we are engaged in a career of 
 active and useful service, it must be all right with 
 our souls, and that there can be no reason to doubt 
 the acceptability of our work in the sight of God. 
 There was once, however, a fair and goodly vine ; its 
 tendrils clasped many a support, its leaves were green 
 and spreading, its clusters were purpled with sunny 
 ripeness ; yet in the sight of the Vine-dresser it was 
 useless and unfruitful. " Israel is an empty vine, he 
 bringeth forth fruit unto himself; according to the 
 multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars, 
 according to the goodness of his land they have made 
 goodly images. Their heart is divided ; now shall 
 they be found faulty." Hos. x. 1, 2. There may be 
 emptiness, then, where there is apparent fertility and 
 beauty. There may be unremitting and zealous em- 
 ployment, which is not accepted, because proceeding 
 from a divided heart. There may be work for our- 
 selves so pleasant, that while it is our meat and drink
 
 PROVING WORK. 109 
 
 to do our own will, we forget altogether to do it as 
 the will of our Father who is in heaven. 
 
 Few things are so utterly mortifying and dis- 
 couraging as the study of our own work, and of the 
 heart and mind that prompted it. Our own individu- 
 ality, in all its selfishness and debasement of motive, 
 is seen to cling fatally to our services, like the poison- 
 ed raiment. Self-righteousness, in all its Protean 
 forms, discovers itself in every nook and corner, not 
 only in connexion with our righteousness and good 
 works ; but our very humility and convictions of sin, 
 yea, even our confessions of self-righteousness, are 
 turned into occasions for its display ! When first 
 aroused to consciousness of this self-confidence, this 
 self-glorification, this earthly motive, in each varied 
 aspect, we are apt to think that something new and 
 hopeless has arisen in our hearts, forgetting that in the 
 long years of our comfort and complacency, Self, 
 though unseen, was as rampant and as fully developed, 
 while, being unresisted, it was far more dangerous. 
 It is something, however, even to know and see the 
 real state of the case, and no longer to live at ease in a 
 dwelling which we cannot discover to be full of lurk- 
 ing enemies, only because of its darkness and their 
 dexterity. The first step towards the use of weapons 
 of defence is a conviction of their necessity, the first 
 approach to the admission of light is the felt sense 
 of being in darkness. If to this knowledge we add 
 not only watchfulness but energetic endeavour to
 
 110 PROVING WORK. 
 
 resist the usurpation of the evil motive, and heart- 
 shame and sorrow for the long welcome and enter- 
 tainment it has had, we may cheerfully hope and 
 believe that this sin " shall not have dominion over 
 us." It will be a good sign of our progress in this 
 part of the work, when, instead of looking upon it 
 as some great thing entitling us to credit and admi- 
 ration, we restore it to its real place, as " reasonable 
 service/' as the offices of the servant who does what 
 he is commanded, so natural, so needful, so destitute 
 of any claim to merit, that when we have done all, we 
 are constrained to say, " we are unprofitable servants, 
 we have only done that which was our duty."* It 
 will be useful, too, to cherish a conviction of the 
 futility of those flattering, though sometimes honest 
 judgments, passed upon our work by those around us, 
 who can read neither heart nor motive. 
 
 Blessed indeed will it be when our work, increased 
 and hallowed by purified motive, is but another name 
 for increased love to God and man, both springing 
 from the stem of a strong and vigorous faith, which, 
 like a costly exotic, bears flowers, foliage, and fruit, at 
 the same season. This faith that worketh by love, will 
 produce a child-like simplicity of work, in which no 
 doubts, no demurs, no unfilial questionings will find 
 a place. A class of Sabbath-school children in the 
 course of an examination upon the Lord's Prayer, 
 were once asked how they thought the will of God 
 
 Lake xvii. 7-10.
 
 PROVING WOHK. Ill 
 
 was done in heaven. Various answers were given, 
 and at last a little girl, the youngest of the class, 
 rose and said, that she thought it must be done with- 
 out asking any questions ! 
 
 It may appear to some, that Proving Work is of 
 comparatively small, or at all events only of personal 
 interest and importance. Its result seems to be 
 slight, for the amount of good done to others by 
 unproved work is to all appearance equal, and the 
 estimation in which it is held by the world is scarce 
 affected by it. Selfish motives, however, can rarely be 
 so skilfully hidden as not in some degree to mar our 
 consistency, even in the world's eyes ; while nothing 
 will more surely destroy the happiness and cheer- 
 fulness of our services, than the mortification and 
 wounded vanity, which is sure at times to buffet and 
 paralyze all selfish work ; whereas that which has a 
 high and single motive will be like the stately vessel 
 which sails triumphantly amidst blasts as well as 
 breezes. Nor will the success, though apparently 
 equal, be so in reality. The selfish motive may be 
 rendered a useful instrument, like many things, per- 
 sons, and events, in the history of society, which in 
 themselves are evil, but it will never be a permanent 
 and honoured agent of good ; its selfishness will be 
 punished, and its results will be cast aside when 
 they have lived their little day. Even temporary 
 success is not always sure. Like the royal owners 
 of the ships of Eziongaber, those whose industry is
 
 112 PROVING WORK. 
 
 not of God, may have it said unto them, " The Lord 
 hath broken thy works."* 
 
 It is well that we should be provers of our own 
 work now, when its proof need not drive us to despair, 
 when we may hope to have the motive changed 
 and the performance purified ; for if we disdain to 
 do so in this our appointed time for probation, the 
 Lord will take the work into His own hands, and 
 send His own awful instruments. Approaching death 
 is one of these, not to be denied, not to be turned 
 aside from its purpose, but probing and proving to 
 the very uttermost, the poor conscience-stricken, self- 
 deceived, and deceiving labourer. Perhaps he has 
 cherished the expectation that he is to be amongst 
 the blessed who die in the Lord, because there are 
 works, fair and flourishing, to " follow him" into the 
 unseen world. But he is laid upon a bed of lingering 
 sickness ; or he is prostrated suddenly by pestilence ; 
 or he lies mangled and bleeding on the iron paths 
 which intersect our land with danger and destruction. 
 Hastily he summons to his aid the companions of his 
 journey into eternity ; but his works, where are they ? 
 One has vanished and left no wreck behind, another 
 is but a ghastly idol, a third is burnt to ashes, 
 another has been weighed in the balance and found 
 wanting: so he dishonours God by a frightened 
 and despairing death ; and if saved at all, he is saved 
 as by fire. 
 
 * 2 Chron n. 37.
 
 PROVING WORK. 113 
 
 Proving Work, then, must ever have in view, and 
 be preparatory to that awful time, when scrutiny is 
 certain, by one means or other, " for he only is 
 wise who, while daily planning for time, is hourly 
 planning for eternity." It has been said, " Esteem 
 time as your most precious talent, which, when 
 you bestow it upon any, you give them more than 
 you can understand. A joint assistance of men 
 and angels cannot restore it to you again."* We 
 give too much time and labour to others, how- 
 ever, when we are thus led to forget that we have a 
 work to do for ourselves, even to prepare to meet 
 our God. A poor child, nearly imbecile, who was a 
 pupil in a Sabbath-school in Fife, sent a message on 
 her death-bed to her teacher, " to teach a' the bairns 
 how to dee !" Truly a necessary lesson, and a neces- 
 sary work, not only for the purposes of the last closing 
 scene, but for the work of life itself. Till we have 
 learned, or are learning how to die, we shall never 
 know how to live. Imperfectly will the mother the 
 governess the pupil the employer the employed 
 the mistress the servant the Sabbath-school 
 teacher, perform the difficult and intricate duties of 
 their several life-spheres, unless they have learned to 
 keep death ever in view, and the two worlds to which 
 it is an entrance, unless they have learned how to 
 escape from the one, and how to guide to the 
 other. 
 
 * Lady Brooke. 
 
 (2) II
 
 114 PROVING WORK. 
 
 Death is " a tremendous necessity," a law insepa- 
 rable from all earthly created being. It came to 
 the mammoth and the mastodon in their solitudes, 
 lighted by the same stars on which we gaze, and 
 sepulchred them for the awe and instruction of 
 future periods. It came to the first murdered, to 
 the first murderer, and to the patriarch, who lived 
 almost a millennium. It came to the Hun and to 
 the Goth, to the conqueror of worlds, and to the 
 trampled and tortured slave. It came to the Chris- 
 tian in the catacomb, to the Red Cross knight in 
 tented field or tournay, and to the Emperor in his 
 ermined purple. It comes now, as it came of old, 
 to the mother and the child, to the lover and the 
 beloved, to all that is instinct with the beauty and 
 the joy of life. 
 
 In an old and rare volume by a female author, the 
 subject is thus spoken of: "The very thought of 
 death disturbs one's reason. There are some so wise 
 as neither to hate nor fear it ; but for my part, I 
 have an aversion to it, and with reason ; for it is a 
 rash, inconsiderate thing, that always comes before it 
 is looked for ; always comes unseasonably, parts 
 friends, ruins beauty, laughs at youth, and draws a 
 dark veil over all the pleasures of life. This dread- 
 ful evil is but the evil of a moment, and what 
 we cannot by any means avoid ; and it is that which 
 makes it so terrible to me ; for were it uncertain, 
 hope might diminish some part of the fear ; but
 
 PROVING WORK. 115 
 
 when I think I must die, and that I may die every 
 moment, and that too a thousand several ways, I am in 
 such a fright as you cannot imagine/'* Too terrible 
 in its omnipresence to be forgotten, men have at- 
 tempted to strip death of its horrors. The ancients 
 sculptured a vase on the sarcophagus, and adorned 
 the ghastly skull with living flowers. The Romans 
 would not mention the fatal word, but intimated that 
 their friends " had departed from life ;" while, in the 
 court of Morocco, it was a breach of etiquette to 
 speak of " death," and it was only said, that the 
 dead man " had fulfilled his destiny." The Greeks 
 called the grave-yard " the sleeping-place," the 
 Jews named it "the house of the living," and the 
 Saxons, " God's acre."f 
 
 Death is not less dreadful to the worldling now, 
 not less busy amidst the proud and lofty, amidst the 
 tender and cherished, not less adorned by public 
 pomp, plumed and sabled cortege, escutcheoned vault, 
 and heraldic shield, as it has ever been ; but it is not 
 more familiar to men's thoughts, it is not more 
 wisely prepared for. While silver and gold are 
 sought and heaped up, few invest the treasures 
 which constitute readiness for death. While work 
 of all kinds is to many a pleasure and a duty, 
 Dying Work is thrust aside with alarm, as if it 
 were to produce that death, which it only changes 
 from a foe to a friend. Therefore it is that the end 
 
 * Lady Gethin. See D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature. * Ibid.
 
 116 PROVING WORK. 
 
 of life so often contradicts the fair profession of the 
 life itself, and that so many 
 
 " Deeply disappoint us by their deaths." 
 
 An old Christian once said, that he expected to find 
 THEEE WONDERS in Heaven. The first was, that 
 many would be there whom he did not expect to see, 
 the second, that many would be absent whom he 
 thought to have met there, and the greatest wonder 
 of all would be, to find himself there ! 
 
 If there is any kind of work which may be evaded 
 by some as out of their province, Dying Work be- 
 longs to the province of all ; it must be begun early, 
 never laid aside, and never completed till death is 
 swallowed up in victory ; and it must have the soul's 
 salvation for its material and groundwork. A 
 missionary in the East Indies being called to visit a 
 native Christian's death-bed, inquired into the state 
 of her feelings. She replied, " Happy ! happy ! I 
 have Christ here" laying her hand on the Bible, 
 " and Christ here" pressing it to her heart, " and 
 Christ there" pointing upwards to Heaven. 
 
 Safety in death, however, is not all that is implied 
 in Dying Work. The advice of the philosopher was 
 " to familiarize ourselves early with death, for it is 
 only dreadful to those who dread it." Familiarity 
 with the thoughts, hopes, and changes which are 
 attendant on death, will diminish the dread and 
 shrinking sometimes manifested even by those whose
 
 PROVING WORK. 117 
 
 safety is provided for. Habitually to realize that 
 death, though attended by gentle tears and natural 
 timidity, is stingless to those who have had its sting 
 plucked out by grace, will rob the darkened chamber 
 of the terrors, both of anticipation and reality, 
 which too often reflect dishonour on the religion 
 which we have professed to be capable of sustaining 
 us in the time of utmost need. To be so pre- 
 pared at any period of life, that we have nothing 
 to do but to die, and so to die, as to bring glory to 
 God, are the chief aims of Dying Work. It is not 
 impossible for ambition to find its place even in anti- 
 cipations of the last enemy ; and to glorify ourselves 
 in a triumphant death, which will give interest and 
 romance to our memories, is no uncommon desire ; 
 but we accustom ourselves too little to think of the 
 last act of life, when all work for ourselves is over 
 and done, as one of distinct service for God in declar- 
 ing the glory and the strength of His rod and staff in 
 the valley of the shadow of death, and as one also of 
 decided work for man, in shewing how the " spoiled 
 can be strengthened against the strong," * how the 
 hour of Nature's dismay can be changed into perfect 
 peace, how He who was dead is alive for evermore, 
 to lead His people in the path which He knows so 
 well. An aged man, called into the vineyard at the 
 eleventh hour, was desirous of doing something for 
 his Master, but his weakness and infirmity seemed
 
 118 PROVING WORK. 
 
 insuperable barriers ; at last he bethought him of 
 setting aside a portion of time every day for special 
 prayer, that in his death he might work for God by 
 glorifying His name. His petitions were answered. 
 Long and lingering and painful was his dismissal, 
 but he not only awaited it with patience and resigna- 
 tion, he seemed to " swim in a sea of glory," as was 
 said of another aged saint. All who looked on him 
 fblt that he was not alone in the swellings of Jordan ;* 
 and many who came doubtingly, went away adoringly, 
 when they saw how a Christian could die. Death in 
 such an aspect as this becomes changed and glorified. 
 Instead of a terror to individuals, instead of a 
 world's wo, instead of a grisly King of Terrors, 
 it is transferred into a great social benefit. As the 
 poet has beautifully sung, 
 
 " Who would build temples without tombs in sight ? 
 Who live without some dead man's benison ? 
 Who seek truth, find good, or strive for right, 
 If looking up he saw not in the sun 
 The angel of the martyrs all day long, 
 Standing and waiting !" 
 
 " Scant were the gardens if the graves were fewer." 
 
 ELIZABETH BAKKET BROWNING. 
 
 'We have spoken of death as one of the Lord's 
 provers ; but there is yet another, the latest and the 
 most resistless. Death will not come to all. We 
 know that there will be a generation who shall not 
 die, but who shall be changed. But the Lord will 
 
 * Jer. xii. 5. Is. xliii. 2.
 
 PROVING WORK. 119 
 
 come ; and when the trumpet shall sound, when the 
 clouds shall sever, when the dead shall arise, there 
 must be an end of all unproved work. The dead 
 man's work may be fearfully proved to himself and 
 to God, and yet in the assemblies of earth it may take 
 an honoured place, but in the day when all flesh 
 shall be at once in the presence of the Lord, it will 
 be declared before God, and men, and angels. As 
 nothing that defileth or that " maketh a lie" shall 
 enter in through the gates into the city, so all 
 deceptive worship, work, and motive, shall be cast 
 out and have no part in that blessed place and 
 period, when 
 
 " In the desert shall arise 
 Fruits of more than Paradise, 
 And the earth again be trod, 
 One great garden of her God ! 
 Till are dried the martyr's tears, 
 Through a thousand glorious years." 
 
 CKOLT.
 
 120 REST. 
 
 X. 
 
 REST. 
 
 " Thus saith the Lord, The people found grace in the wilderness, even Israel. 
 when I went to cause him to rest." JBB, xxxi. 2. 
 
 " For we which have believed do enter into rest. . . . There remainetb . 
 therefore, a rest to the people of God." HEB. iv. 3, 9. 
 
 " Oh princely lot ! oh blissful art ! 
 
 Even while by sense of change opprest, 
 Thus to forecast in heart, 
 Heaven's age of fearless rest " 
 
 " And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed around our incompleteness, 
 Kound our restlessness His rest." 
 
 ELIZABETH BABBET BBOWHISO. 
 
 EVERYTHING around us has a capacity for rest as 
 well as action. The stormy winds and restless waters 
 can be calm as a slumbering infant. The shifting 
 sands of the desert, in spite of their moving columns 
 and scorching showers, are oftentimes awful in their 
 quietude. The city, with its ceaseless hum and stir 
 of voices and footsteps, lies hushed and restful in the 
 quiet of every midnight. The railway, with its 
 snorting engines, and crowded stations, and lightning- 
 speed, seems as if it knew no rest ; yet a moment 
 after the flying train, there is no sign of life or motion 
 on the iron lines. There is a double capacity, how- 
 ever, in the Christian life ; not restless at one time
 
 REST. 121 
 
 and calm at another, not working first, and then 
 taking rest ; it is composed of united labour and re- 
 pose. All men yearn for rest, from tumultuous strife, 
 and cankering cares, and warring affections, and 
 struggling memories, and distracting fears, hence a 
 false rest has often been sought and found, in convent 
 and cave, in the allurements of the world, in the 
 sluggish pause of indolence. Men also yearn for 
 work without toil, for action without restlessness, 
 but it is only the Christian who can combine these 
 two apparently anomalous desires, Work and Eest. 
 
 Life is generally spoken of as a wilderness ; a 
 mode of expression not unwarranted by Scripture, 
 and certainly not contradicted by experience, for 
 there is much that assimilates life to a wilderness. 
 Yet this gift of sweet and genuine rest is possessed 
 by the pilgrim, even while journeying amidst its 
 waste and desert places. To obtain it, he is not ex- 
 empted from the clangers, difficulties, and discourage- 
 ments of the way, nor surrounded by appliances of 
 luxury and idleness. There, even there, in the wil- 
 derness, like Israel of old, he finds grace and rest. 
 Yet when the Lord says to His disciple, " Come 
 into this desert place and rest awhile," it is not 
 for inactive indolence. No rest can be refreshing 
 that is but another name for self-indulgence, and no 
 work can be thoroughly successful that is not joined 
 with a calm and resting spirit. Best must be a 
 treasure in possession as well as an inheritance to
 
 122 REST. 
 
 come, though to many this is a mental enigma. 
 " We are very weary, both in mind and body," say 
 working Christians ; " we are exhausted by the force 
 and the shock of the battle," say soldiers of the 
 Cross ; " our lives are bitter to us because of our 
 afflictions," say the bereaved ; " we are walking in 
 darkness, and are wayworn and sad," say mourners in 
 Zion ; " the grasshopper is a burden," say the aged 
 ones ; " surely it is a sign that our souls are not 
 right, because we do not find rest here, but are looking 
 only for that which is to come ; and how are we to 
 recognise this blessing in times of hard work and 
 heavy sorrow, unless we may stop the one, and have 
 the other lightened ?" Dear friends, it is true that, 
 in one sense, there is no rest here for the sole of the 
 Christian's foot ; for like the dove that would not 
 else have returned to the ark, we should never have 
 sought what was better and more enduring. It is 
 true that, as Baxter says, " If God allowed us to 
 have rest on earth, we should be restless wretches 
 through all eternity." Those, however, who believe 
 do enter into rest, and, though faith may not be 
 wanting, there must be a deficiency in its quality 
 and degree, when we struggle without a quiet con- 
 fidence, when we sorrow without a calm and chas- 
 tened spirit, when we work and find no rest. Yes ! 
 there is rest even in this weary world, there is repose 
 even in the busiest hours of the vineyard. Is there 
 DO rest in the sense of the Saviour's love, and the pro-
 
 REST. 123 
 
 mise of His presence, in the knowledge of His in- 
 finite power for our protection, in the suitableness of 
 all His dealings to the requirements of our souls and 
 bodies ? Has the little one no rest beside its mother ? 
 So may the Christian rest in the shadow of the wings 
 that are even as those of the bird mother around her 
 tremblers.* Has the son no confidence when his 
 Father is at the helm ? So may the Christian look 
 up in the storm and have no fear. Has the pilgrim 
 no repose when journeying from the waters of Marah 
 he finds the wells of Elirn ? So may the Christian 
 arise and depart from broken and polluted cisterns, 
 and rest beside the waters of life with exceeding joy. 
 
 . . . " I hence appeal 
 To the dear Christian Church that we may do 
 Our Father's business in these temples mirk, 
 Thus, swift and stedfast ; thus, intent and strong ; 
 While thus, apart from toil, our souls pursue 
 Some high, calm, spheric tune, and prove our work 
 The better for the sweetness of our song." 
 
 ELIZABETH BARRET BROWNING. 
 
 The pilgrim's rest, however, is not only in the wil- 
 derness ; that weary pathway is trodden at length ; 
 the caravan passes its last post ; and while behind 
 stretches a long dismal waste, before, there is smiling 
 verdure. No longer smitten by the simoom me- 
 naced by the wild Arab tortured by thirst scorched 
 by the eastern sun pursued by the beasts of the 
 desert, the pilgrim's work is over and done ; he toils, 
 he travels, he combats no more for ever. He has 
 
 * Matt, sxiii. 37.
 
 124 REST. 
 
 entered the better country, he has found the continu- 
 ing city, he has reached the beloved Home. 
 
 Work goes with us to the very portals of eternity ; 
 there is work for the sick, for the aged, for the dying, 
 but 
 
 " Death's mild curfew shall from work assoil ;" 
 
 and then comes " the rest that remaineth ;" still, in- 
 deed, endowed with the double capacity of which we 
 have spoken, and taking the form of active rest, or 
 resting action, but containing no toil, no weariness, 
 no baffled yearning for repose. Every faculty of 
 mind and heart will then know what it is to rest 
 fully. Love, so often restless and severed in this 
 world, will then enter into its quiet rest. 
 
 " There we find the joy of loving. 
 As we never loved before, 
 Loving on unchilled, unhindered, 
 Loving once and evermore." 
 
 Memory so painful, so smiting, so yearning here, will 
 be full of rest in its rejoicing and grateful thoughts 
 of all, that dark on earth, is radiant in heaven. 
 Thought, so weary with its perplexities, its difficul- 
 ties, its vain strivings, its imperfect comprehension, 
 will then be free and unshackled, resting in its perfect 
 knowledge. Hope so often fainting, subdued, and 
 disappointed so frequently but a hoping against 
 hope, will then rest in full fruition. Benevolence, so 
 limited in its possibilities, so laborious for apparently 
 but a small result, so cast down when it realizes the 
 woes which it cannot relieve and the wrongs which
 
 REST. 125 
 
 it cannot redress, will be freed from its burden of 
 sympathy and responsibility, and will rejoice in 
 the banishment of sorrow and oppression, from the 
 place " when the wicked cease from troubling and 
 the weary are at rest." The body, too, so worn 
 with sickness, so faint with languor, so weary with 
 fatigue, will have its repose, not only for a little 
 while in the green " sleeping place," beside the quiet 
 river, or under the drooping willow, or by ancient 
 cross and oriel, but it will rise again to take an ani- 
 mated and blissful rest. United to the spirit, its 
 old inmate and companion, to which it was formerly 
 but a clog and a hinderance, it will enjoy a blessed 
 and reposing eternity. And when thus " this cor- 
 ruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
 mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
 brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
 swallowed up in victory. Death, where is thy 
 sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? The sting 
 of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. 
 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my be- 
 loved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always 
 abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
 know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord/' 
 1 Cor. xv. 54-58. 
 
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