"That having all things done,
And all your conflicts past,

Ye may o'ercome, through Christ alone,
And stand entire at last."

RELIGION IN DAILY LIFE.

Daily life is just the place for the Christian religion. By his example and teachings Christ showed it to be eminently practical. Its beauty is that it may be carried into all spheres of life-the physical, making right the habits; the intellectual, giving correct turn to thought; the domestic and social, regulating the conduct in all relations; the professional and business, introducing sound principles; the moral, affording to the outward life a pure fountain from which its streams of conduct shall flow. Christ distinctly declared that it was the highest wisdom, not simply to hear, but to keep his saying; not only to know but to do his will. Observe his marvelously beautiful utterances:

"Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,

I will liken him unto a wise man

Which built his house upon a rock:

And the rain descended,

And the floods came,

And the winds blew,

And beat upon that house;

And it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and

doeth them not,

Shall be likened unto a foolish man,

Which built his house upon the sand:

And the rain descended,

And the floods came,

And the winds blew,

And beat upon that house;

And it fell and great was the fall of it.”—MATT. VII. 24–27.

"But," inquires some one, "is it possible to take religion into all the avocations and business of life?" Possible! yes, unless your business is unlawful, in which case you cannot take morality. Where

just law allows you to go, you can carry religion with you. It has been done. Dr. Talmage, in his graphic way, has given some specimens: "Medical doctors who took their religion into everyday life: Dr. John Abercrombie, of Aberdeen, the greatest Scottish physician of his day, his book on 'Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord,' no more wonderful than his book on 'The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings;' and often kneeling at the bedside of his patients to commend them to God in prayer. Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, immortal as an author, dying recently under the benediction. of the sick of Edinburgh, talking to me about Christ and his hope of heaven. And a score of Christian family physicians in Brooklyn just as good as they were. Lawyers who carried their religion into their profession: Lord Cairn, the Queen's adviser for many years, the highest legal authority in Great Britain-Lord Cairn, every summer in his vacation, preached as an evangelist among the poor of his country. And John McLean, Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and president of the American Sunday-school Union, feeling more satisfaction in the latter office than in the former. And scores of Christian lawyers as eminent in the Church of God as they are eminent at the Bar. Merchants who took their religion into every-day life: Arthur Tappan, derided in his day because he established that system by which we come to find out the commercial standing of business men, starting that entire system, derided for it then-himself, as I knew him well, in moral character A 1. Monday morning inviting to a room in the top of his storehouse the clerks of his establishment, asking them about their worldly interests and their spiritual interests, then giving out a hymn, leading in prayer, giving them a few words of good advice, asking them what church they attended on the Sabbath, what the text was; whether they had any especial troubles of their own. Arthur Tappan, I never heard his eulogy pronounced. I pronounce it now. And other merchants just as good. William E. Dodge, in the iron business; Moses H. Grinnell, in the shipping business; Peter Cooper, in the glue business. Scores of men just as good as they were. Farmers who take their religion into their occupation. Mechanics who took their religion into their occupations: James Brindley, the famous millwright; Nathaniel Bowditch, the famous ship-chandler; Elihu

Burritt, the famous blacksmith, and hundreds and thousands of strong arms which have made the hammer, and the saw, and the adze, and the drill, and the axe sound in the grand march of our national industries. Give your heart to God and then fill your life with good works. Consecrate to him your store, your shop, your banking-house, your factory, and your home."

This is your simple duty. Your are responsible to God for its discharge. There is not a single member of a single church, nor a single man or woman who shakes proudly loose from church membership, who is exempt from the obligation to devote time and will and energy in order to make the most of daily life and its grand opportunities for religious usefulness.

BE PRAYERFUL.

Depend not on your own strength, but use what you have. Ask God to give you grace to resist and overcome evil. God and you are a thousand-fold match for Satan; you alone will be treated by him as Goliath proposed to treat David. "If God be for us, who can be against us." By prayer avail yourself of the Almighty strength, and then before your earnest strokes Satan will flee. Eat of the hidden manna, partake of the meat which the world knows not of, and your life will develop a hidden support which, in every critical hour, will surprise yourself. With Paul you can then say, though forsaken by all your friends, "The Lord stood by me and strengthened me." With the sacred poet you can then sing:

"I find him lifting up my head,

He brings salvation near;
His presence makes me free indeed,
And he will soon appear."

KEEP A GOOD CONSCIENCE.

This is better than grandeur, better than gold, better than power and fame. Paul, with his "conscience void of offence toward God and man," is a hundred times preferable to Felix, trembling, cring

ing under the smitings of his conscience because of his cruelties and impurities. To feel that we have kept God's commands and accomplished his will is a consciousness sweeter than any which flows from the possession of worldly wealth or the sound of human applause. Who wants to be despised by himself, though others court him; carrying within him that which constantly stings and embitters life, though friends fawn upon him, whispering praises? Truly does Dr. Wm. M. Taylor affirm that a crust with the consciousness of unswerving loyalty to God is better far than affluence with remorse gnawing at the heart. Well may he defy all human antagonism who is only sure of these three things—a good God, a good conscience, and a good cause.

LIVE FOR SOME USEFUL PURPOSE.

Have a definite aim.

Perhaps you have no desire to be great or grand. All the better. Strive to accomplish something in humble life. Most likely you could not attain to greatness if you would. Few do. But you can attain to goodness which is better. If all were great, none would be great. If all were good, we should have a good world. Goodness amounts to something. It is purity, charity, and kindly activity all combined. Toiling in obscurity is nothing; toiling for the right is everything. Honest endeavor is never lost. For good works there is ultimate reward. Fear not that God will overlook you. Man may forget; God never. has a book of record, and it is always before him. The Apostle Paul speaks of "Those women which labored with me in the Gospel, and other my fellow laborers whose names are in the book of life." Of these "Lost Names" Marianne Farningham has written :

"They lived and they were useful: this we know

And naught beside;

No record of their names is left to show

How soon they died;

They did their work, and then they passed away,

An unknown band,

And took their places with the greater host

In the higher land.

He

"And were they young or were they growing old,
Or ill, or well,

Or lived in poverty, or had much gold,
No one can tell;

One only thing is known of them, they were
Faithful and true

Disciples of the Lord, and strong through prayer,
To save and do.

"But what avails the gift of empty fame?
They lived to God.

They loved the sweetness of another name,
And gladly trod

The rugged ways of earth that they might be
Helper, or friend,

And in the joy of this their ministry

Be spent and spend.

"No glory clusters round their names on earth,
But in God's heaven

Is kept a book of names of greatest worth,
And there is given

A place for all who did the Master please,
Although unknown;

And their lost names shine forth in brightest rays
Before the throne.

"Oh, take who will the boom of fading fame!
But give to me

A place among the workers, though my name
Forgotten be;

And if within the Book of Life is found

My lowly place,

Honor and glory unto God redound

For all his grace."

AN HOUR WITH GOD.

According to sacred story pious men of old lived much in the presence of the holy One. They walked with God and talked with him. They lived in the halo of his smile and basked in the sunlight of his favor. It was their delight to serve him day and night