to the wants of one who is known to complain vigorously if he is not pleased. But everybody hates the cantankerous fool, and, worst of all, he misses of approval where alone approval really counts for much,-up above where Christ sits looking into the hearts of men.

Finally, the Christian-courteous, forbearing, and unselfish-lives this Christian life for the sake of Jesus Christ, and in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the strength of God. The Christian family, recognizing both the importance and the difficulty of ideal domestic life, makes use of all spiritual assistance. Every day the word of prayer is said by all the family together, so that the little children learn from the beginning of their lives that religion is a real element in daily life, and that the thought of it is not locked up between Sundays in an empty church; and the message of God is heard, and the benediction of God is asked, and the presence of God in the midst of the family is recognized.

The Christian tests his life in the family by this one question. What kind of life, he asks himself, would the Lord Jesus Christ live if he were in my position, in my family?

SAINTS IN SOCIETY.

THE Christian ought to go into society. Do I mean theatre parties, and afternoon teas, and formal calls, and balls and banquets? Yes; why not? There is no reason why a woman should not be a society woman and a good Christian at the same time. There is no reason why a man should not be as religious in a dress coat as in a surplice.

I know very well that to some people this would seem a doctrine of the pit. They believe that if the devil was to turn preacher, he would preach just that sort of sermon. He would try to persuade all the Christians to go into society, and then he would confidently rely upon the influences of society to convert most of them out of Christianity. And evi

dently there is danger in that direction.

Nevertheless, I am sure that there is nothing that would please the devil better than to have a high stone wall built up between the church and the world; with neither door nor window,

so that nobody could get from one side to the other; and sprinkled all along the top with broken glass, so that nobody could climb over. That would be pernicious both for society and for the church. It would not only be the end of progress; it would not only, as one has said, be like putting all the dough in one dish and all the yeast in another, and expecting bread; but it would be demoralizing both to the church and to society. It would deprive Christians of the pleasures of society, and it would deprive society of the presence of Christians.

Christians ought not to be deprived of the pleasures of society. God has put into our hearts that social instinct which gives us happiness in one another's company. God does not wish us to spend half our time in hard working and the other half in hard praying. If he had intended that we should live that sort of life, he would have put us in a world that would have corresponded with it. The soil of the earth would have produced nothing but the most wholesome kind of vegetables useful for daily food. There would have been no flowers in it. What are flowers good for? For no practical purpose whatsoever, for beauty, for adornment, for pleasure

only. And God would have stretched out over the earth a sky which would somehow have fulfilled its useful purpose of disseminating the rays of the sun, and giving us rain for drinking and for washing; but there would have been no rainbow in it, and the sun would have retired soberly to rest behind drab curtains. For these bright colors are of small practical value. We cannot eat them or drink them or wear them. They are to look at, for our pleasure. God has made the world beautiful, that it may minister to our delight. He intends us to be happy in it.

God is our Father. This is the supreme truth that we know about him. Jesus Christ came to make us sure of it. And the inference is easy. What is there that a father desires more for his children than that they shall be happy? It is a mistake to think that he would have us write over the church door, "All joy abandon, ye who enter here." They used to think that sanctity and misery were synonyms, and believed that in order to be a saint a man must put his body to all manner of unnecessary discomfort. He must starve

himself; he must lacerate his back with a stout whip; he must absent himself from human hab

itations, and take up his residence in a hole in the ground; he must shun the sight of pleasant faces. We do not any longer hold that. Yet so strongly has the old tradition impressed itself upon our thoughts, that it is hard for some people even to-day to believe that a man or woman can be perfectly happy and at the same time be perfectly holy. But the psalmist crying, "This is the day that the Lord hath made," is not ashamed to go on and invite us to "be glad and rejoice in it." And the invitation opens the door into all the days that the Lord hath made, from January around the year to January; this is the world that the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. The Christian ought to have the privilege of all the pleasures of society. The Christian religion was not brought into the world to take a single honest pleasure out of it, but to bring a great deal of pleasure into it.

And society ought to have the privilege of the presence of Christians. What would become of society if the Christians were all taken out of it? What would become of the theatre if none of the actors, and none of the managers or owners, and none of the audience, were religious people? Of what character would be the