prompting to action. He has reason enabling him to distinguish what is false from what is true; what is wise from what is inexpedient. He has conscience discriminating the right from the wrong; and he has will to elect his course and to pursue it.

Now not only are these peculiar and distinguishing powers of man free by their very make and nature, free in themselves, but the exterior sphere, the outer world in which he lives, moves, and has his being, and the whole course of it, recognise his moral freedom. The sphere in which he is placed is adjusted with the view of affording appropriate exercise to his free powers. The external world in its daily course is ever presenting objects good and bad to his desires and affections, and so inciting him to action; opinions, rules of life and conduct, true, lovely, honest, and of good report, or the reverse, to his reason and conscience, and so requiring from each its judgment; while the will, under the guidance of the reigning motive, is choosing the line of action and urging the life along its course. This inward process is going on each day of man's life, and all day long, a process by which he is consciously or unconsciously, perceptibly or imperceptibly, fashioning himself, working in himself a moral character.

II. In the next place, man has the conviction that the character he thus forms in this present state will determine his condition in the world to come. Though God is not visibly resident on earth, though, indeed, he seems to have retired from it, and to have left man alone, man nevertheless feels that he is not far from God. In conscience he recognises, inalienably lodged in his own breast, the stern and incorruptible representative of a God who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. For conscience is not only the law of God written in the heart of man, but God's living vicegerent, claiming obedience to that law and vindicating its authority.

He thus sees what is the will of God in reference to his life; is warned how he should frame it, and has thus wrought into his nature a sense of responsibility to God for the issue.

What conscience thus urges is daily confirmed in actual life by the happiness which attends a virtuous course, and by the misery which attends a vicious one. But while man feels it to be true, on the one hand, that his own wickedness corrects and his own sin reproves him, and, on the other, that in the keeping of the law written in the heart there is a great reward; he also feels that he must regard these awards not as ultimate and final, but simply as indications of the way in which God would have him to go. The judgments of conscience are felt not to be the conclusion of the whole matter. Though it is ever acting for God, conscience never usurps his prerogatives. It is ever proclaiming to man what God has said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." It is ever causing him to feel that it is with God he will eventually have to do. Hence the universal sentiment of the race is that we must all appear before the judgment-seat of God.

Now man feels that he will there be reckoned with on the ground of moral character. This character he is achieving here. As he thinks and acts, lineament by lineament, this character is being fashioned, and it is that which he foresees he must present at the judgment-seat for approval or condemnation; it is that which he foresees must determine his destiny. Evil, he feels, cannot dwell with a God who hateth iniquity, and so he feels that the wicked must be banished from his presence. Good must be approved by a God who loveth righteousness, and so he feels that the good must be honoured and rewarded by him.

Viewing all these considerations together, that man has the power to formis so placed as that he must ever be forming-a character, good or evil; that

he is addressed by solicitations of the one kind and the other; that in his choice he is left to the perfect freedom of his own will; that by conscience, and in the experience of life, he is given to understand which of them God would have him follow; and that the accumulated result of these choices is to be submitted to him at the end for his approval or condemnation :-putting all these considerations together, we say, it would appear that the present state of man is a probationary state, a state of trial, and that he is now on probation for another world.

The Scriptures not only confirm this view, but enlarge it. Turning to them we read, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had forined. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. . . And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Thus was man's original estate a state of probation. Its purpose was evidently to develope his character by his own free action. Death and life were set before himpresented to his choice, and he was required to make election. His choice concluded that first probation state-brought it to a close. A character was manifested by this choice, and the appropriate punishment denounced, death, might have been inflicted on man on the instant. Human history, so far as this world is concerned, might at that point have been wound up. But the penalty was in wondrous mercy not inflicted on man. God's own well beloved Son interposed, saying, "Lo, I come to do thy will (which man disobeyed); save now from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom." The penalty was visited on him. He died that man might live. He died, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Man's probation came thus to be renewed under new circumstances, but still for the same end,--the development of a character. He enters this probation state, it is true, fallen and unholy, and liable to the infliction of the penalty originally denounced under the first. But then he has regenerating and saving influences within his reach, and if he will he may subject himself to their power, and receive the benefits they proffer. Faith in Jesus Christ is the sole condition. Believe in him and thou shalt be pardoned, sanctified, and made meet for heaven. Believe not and thou shalt perish. natives are put to man and he makes his choice, and there succeeds the appropriate, the foretold issue. Believe and all old things shall pass away, and you shall become a new creature. Believe not, and you exclude yourself from those remedial influences, and you inevitably wax worse and worse. As in the first probation, so in the present, there is in constant operation that which causes man thus to declare himself that test which is ever marking off into the two classes, children of God, children of the Wicked One.

has

These alter

This present economy is being sustained, therefore, for the trial of man; and a holy or an evil character is the inevitable issue in which all his action terminates. And so we read conformably with this, that when this economy is closed, the final sentence on man on the day of reckoning will proceed on the ground of the character here realised:-" He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is filthy, let him be filthy still."

Thus we have found, 1. That work had a purpose to serve in relation to man's moral and spiritual nature. 2. That this particular and special purpose was identical with the general purpose of the present state. And 3.

That this present state viewed with reference to man is a state of probation, having for its end the free development of a character- the making man to prove or declare himself, in regard to certain issues appropriate to which his eternal destiny is to be appointed him. In other words, we have found that the purpose of work is to serve this high endto put man on trial; to cause him to discover what manner of spirit he is of; that the moral purpose of work is, in fact, a probationary purpose.

Ere proceeding very briefly to show how work actually fulfils this great function, it will be helpful first of all to get a clear view of the nature of probation. Probation is a proving of some thing or person, and it implies, of course, some thing or person under proof or trial, and some result, which by the proof or trial is expected to be ascertained; if in regard to a person-say, his honesty, his benevolence, his suitability-probation would be constituted by our so placing him as that one of these qualities, or its opposite, must inevitably be called forth into exercise. We should furnish him with the opportunity to show himself honest or dishonest; we should be at pains to supply inducements inviting to the one course and to the other, and should so situate him in reference to these as to secure his making a certain and distinct choice. It would be no probation if we placed him so that he might be neutral; so that to act or to refrain from acting would be optional to him. Neither would there be probation, if all we did was simply to secure that he should act. It is necessary that we make it possible to him to take either of the contrary courses; that we furnish motives of the one sort and the other, the influence of which he shall distinctly feel; and that we so place him as that he must make a free election and so declare what manner of man he is. This is precisely what takes place under the present probationary economy in reference to ourselves. There are but two possibilities opened to ourselves. It is possible to us on the one hand, unholy though we be, to become holy, to attain a character which shall reflect the image of God. It is possible to us, on the other hand, to become still more unholy; to make our last state morally and spiritually worse than our first. There are, besides, inducements which incline us to the one course and to the other --the great rewards, present and future, which are attached to the one, the pleasures of sin which are attendant on the other; and we are placed so that we must ever be making a choice. There is no escape from the environments of this probation. We all feel that it is ever presenting its possibilities and inducements to us, and that we must be ever making our election.

Now, if work is to be of any service in this probation state, if it has any function or office to fulfil in regard to it, it must conform to the conditions we have specified; it must be in harmony with the spirit and genius of the larger system to which it is subservient. It must give us opportunities to fashion our character after the one pattern or the other. There must be furnished to us in connection with it motives which shall incline us in favour of the one or the other, and it must shut us up to choose between them. These conditions it precisely satisfies. We must all acknowledge that in the performance of our daily duties, whatever they may be, we have the means so far of forming either of the two sorts of character which it is the object of this probation to develop and make manifest, that, while so engaged, we find ourselves addressed by motives soliciting to the one course or to the other; and that, work being compulsory on us-if a man work not, neither shall he eat-we are kept by it constantly in the presence of these means and motives, are required to

act in one of two ways in regard to them, and so are necessarily forming in ourselves gradually, but inevitably, a corresponding character.

We

We have then to exhibit work as assisting in the probation of man, as actually carrying out the great end of the present economy. shall best do so by showing how it puts man on trial intellectually, morally, and spiritually.

Man has an intellectual nature. He has a mind. Now this mind is capable of vast improvement; it is also capable of great debasement and deterioration; and there is much within him and without him that is apt to incline him into courses that shall eventuate in the one issue or the other. He is put in trust with himself; and it is his choice that decides which of them shall be the issue. Work constantly presses these alternatives on man; and there is no possibility of evading the test it furnishes, for the requirement to labour is absolute and inexorable. It demands from him the employment of much of his time and of his thought, and a prolonged exertion of his active powers; and the question which it presents is-Shall he withal strive to retain, and recognise, and cultivate this mind which has been given him; or, shall he ignore it, and through neglect and misuse suffer it to waste and decay? Opposite inducements urge themselves on him and seek to sway his choice. There are the pleasures of knowledge and refinement-the pleasures of a mind consciously growthful and expanding-and the expectations grounded on future acquisitions and attainments, the measure of which it is impossible to foretell. Strongly inclining the other way, there is the very pressing motive of subsistence; and even after this has ceased to influence the labourer, in consequence of his having acquired a competency, he is still pressed by the inducement of gain or wealth, which the Creator has connected with work as inseparably as subsistence. Does not work then place man on trial? Have we never felt ourselves to be thus on trial-called upon to decide whether we shall set bounds to ordinary labour, so as to secure leisure to cultivate to our utmost this mind and its high capabilities? or shall devote ourselves, without let or hindrance, to inferior ends, and degrade our higher nature by wholly converting it into a tool for the mere procurement of what shall satisfy the wants of the lower, or its thirst for gold?

We have a moral nature, and it likewise is capable of great improvement, and of great loss and detriment. There are inducements inclining to courses by which either of these possibilities may be realised. This precious trust is in our keeping, and it is our decision that settles which shall be accomplished. Our daily work renders important service in this trial. In the discharge of it, however humble may be its character, there arise occasions which, though their circumstances may seem trivial and insignificant, are great, because of the issues which depend on them-exigencies, which try us morally, in regard, for instance, of honesty, of truthfulness, or of fair dealing. The antagonistic influences in such emergencies are, the doing of right because it is right, or because God requires it; the preservation of an unblemished character, and of a good conscience; the rewards promised to those who do the will of God: or the clamant needs of the body; or the strong passion for wealth; or the desire to please an employer-and our conduct shall be determined by the one set or the other. Thus are our moral principles tested whilst we pursue our several callings; thus are we brought, whilst discharging them, to develop and mature a character. And so, we might add, are our moral affections put on trial. We may expand and sanctify these by a wise and bountiful

generosity, giving to the poor, or to promote objects philanthropical, patriotic, or religious; or, contrariwise, we may dry and shrivel them up by a miserly or extravagant selfishness. The blessedness of the liberal soul may tempt us to give out of our abundance, or even out of our poverty, or it may induce us to labour, that we "may have to give to him that needeth"; it may purify our desire for wealth by leading us to seek it not chiefly for its own sake, but as enabling us "to be rich in good works," and "so to lay up in store for ourselves a good foundation against the time to come"; but, whether or no, work brings us amidst these opposite inducements, presses on us these opposite alternatives, and forces on us the choice of one.

We have a spiritual nature, which is also susceptible of development and deterioration by ourselves under the contrary influences which beset us in connection with our daily duties. 1. Our business entails upon us cares, and renders us liable to reverses which bear on us all the more severely, inasmuch as they deprive us, mayhap, of a livelihood or of prized possessions; and which, when they press us, exercise us in one of two ways dependent on our choice. They leave it to ourselves to decide, though they yet require us to decide, whether they shall be used by us as a means of promoting a murmuring, repining, rebellious spirit, or a spirit of meek submission to the appointments of our heavenly Father, and of humble acquiescence in his will; such a spirit as shall express itself thus:-"The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord." "Although the fig-tree do not blossom, neither is fruit found in the vines, though the labour of the olive has failed, and the fields yield no meat, the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls; yet do I rejoice in the Lord, and I joy in the God of my salvation.”

2. Prosperity tries us no less than adversity. It brings to us an alternative opportunity, with influences biassing to each, and compels us to make use of one. It may be that the opportunity will serve to seduce us into the fond love of wealth; contrariwise, it may be that it will serve to put us on our guard, lest as riches increase we set our heart upon them; but the one or the other of these results shall be the issue of the trial.

3. To be brief, Faith-the foremost of the Christian virtues, the one from which the others derive their strength or weakness-is put to trial under our daily work. For is it not the case that the things seen and temporal-pressing on us with all their urgency-are apt to occupy all our consideration and to exclude thought of all else? But then, on the other hand, may not this very antagonism be a means of calling forth our faith into more frequent exercise, and so of strengthening it? may it not lead us the rather to employ faith in keeping more steadily in our view the things unseen but eternal ?

Thus does work fulfil its function in this probationary state. It is in harmony with the design of all else in this state (as it should be, seeing how largely it occupies it), for it furnishes us with the opportunities of maturing and developing a moral character, good or bad; and in the midst of influences swaying towards each of the possibilities presented, obliges us to make a choice. The products we make, the buying and selling we engage in, the services we render, are but the means by which our probation is, in great part, conducted. Our work is not spent and consumed on them, but reflexly forms, day by day, a result in us, which when we leave them and this world, we carry into the next, a result which there appoints us our destiny and remains imperishable in its character. On the day of the final judgment, is pronounced the sentence-" He that is holy, let him be holy still; he that is filthy, let him be filthy still."