trary and artificial idea, but one real and vital. While faith and hope are primarily of the soul, scripture everywhere recognizes the value of the reason as an element in it. "Ready always to give a reason of the hope that is in you." (1 Peter 3:15.) For the matter of the revelation, the object of it, and the philosophy in it, all will accord with man's nature and with sound reason. But as man's reason is often at fault logically, and also as in the pursuit of science, we meet with questions the understanding cannot fathom, so it is the part of sound reasoning to expect in true religion to meet with doctrines beyond present comprehension. The visions, promises and judgments of Isaiah and the other great prophets abound in reasoning: thus in Isaiah 1:18: "Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord." "Hast thou not known: hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? Even the youths shall faint and be weary, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." (Isaiah 40: 28-31.) The grand thoughts of King David show how largely the intellect contributes to deep spirituality. "When I survey thy heavens, thy handiwork, The moon, the stars, thou didst of old ordain, The ethic-character of faith and hope lies in the relation they have to a high plane in morals, and as being necessary elements in religion, and also in the ordinary transactions and duties of life. Ouraffections, motives, aspirations and acts are modified -are ennobled or are debased by the quality of our faith and hope. Duties to man necessarily accompany and run parallel; but are second in time and in eminence. It is often said that duty done to man is duty to God. True—and it is also true that the man of native kindly disposition-even though not well informed as to his relation and duty to God-will yet love his neighbor; but if his native disposition be selfish, nothing short of a conviction of duty to God will correct it, and yield as fruit, "duty to man." Most duties to men are seen from reflection on reciprocal relations, under the impulse of a good will. Time is required for their development and clear cognition."Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecclesiastes 12:13.) 41. INDIVIDUAL DUTIES.--Self-preservation is a natural instinct in animals, man included; but man's duty is to make use of his intelligence. Health: Without health a man accomplishes little, and he will have little comfort of life. Its preservation, then, is a prime duty. The old saying, is certainly true as to a life of physical toil, in which little can be done without an early start. The lost hours of the morning cannot be overtaken, and nature has so ordered it that the improvement of these early hours is most conducive to health. As to whether the like regularity of hours for work and sleep can be maintained in literary and in professional toil is another question. Certainly the environments of professional life do not admit of so even a uniformity in the distribution of time. Self-examination requires great moral courage. We dislike to enter upon a work likely to involve self-condemnation; we prefer to think well of ourselves. We know that our conduct ought to be such as we can approve, but this can be attained to only by self-examination through the conscience. "Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men." (Acts 24: 16.) It is human to err; it is manly to acknowledge our errors to ourselves and to God; also to men when the nature of the case requires it. "Have courage to review your own conduct; to condemn it where you detect faults; to amend it to the best of your ability; to make good resolutions for future guidance, and to keep them." The Duty of Labor: There is dignity in labor, when performed with a cheerful mind; and there is duty when it is done for our own support, or for that of those dependent on us. Honest labor, too, promotes health as well as thrift, and is irksome only to those who think more of evanescent pleasures than of solid duty. Labor was ennobled when the Lord appointed it for the first man Adam, while he was yet innocent and obedient. "And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." (Genesis 2: 15.) The farm and the garden is the field of toil for a large part of mankind—and no more healthful employment can be found. Though the crop be subject to vicissitudes, yet this promise holds good: "While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8: 22.) Labor gives necessary exercise to the several organs of the body, promoting secretions, and the casting off the refuse of material that has been used in the maintenance and growth of the physical organism. What gives additional value and zest to labor is that law of nature that nothing we need can be produced without it. True, some fruits good for food grow spontaneously, but these are only a small fraction in man's requirements. The manufacture of suitable clothing and of very many useful articles largely extends the field of labor. Some of these kinds of work are not so promotive of health, and though not to be shunned, they must be supplemented by healthful exercise. As to mental effort, Juvenal points out that for success, "There should be a sound mind in a sound body." This maxim should apply also to the moral, for without a sound body, moral courage and power is crippled. "I cannot too much impress upon your mind that labor is the condition which God has imposed on us in every station of life—there is nothing worth having that can be had without it, from the bread which the peasant wins with the sweat of his brow, to the sports by which the rich man must get rid of his ennui. The only difference between them is, that the poor man labors to get a dinner to his appetite; the rich man, to get an appetite to his dinner. As for knowledge, it can no more be planted in the human mind without labor than a field of wheat can be produced without the previous use of the plough. There is indeed this great difference, that chance or circumstances may so cause it that another shall reap what the farmer sows; but no man can be deprived, whether by accident or misfortune, of the fruits of his own studies; and the liberal and extended acquisitions of knowledge which he makes are all for his own use. Labor, my dear boy, therefore, and improve the time. In youth our steps are light, and our minds are ductile, and knowledge is easily laid up. But if we neglect our spring, our summer will be useless and contemptible, our harvest will be chaff, and the winter of our old age unrespected and desolate."-Walter Scott to his son. Work: "There is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works; in idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has |