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but only the large illuminated letters sequence then what sort, the fact -the great T and G and S and M, was enough. A situation in a bankwith flourishes around each of them, ing house; what will the other boys and then the smaller letters to make think? To begin next Monday. up the four words of the motto. And He could scarcely wait so long. when H- opened his eyes early And then there was preparation, in the long summer mornings, it and bustling, and packing up his was the first thing he looked at. trunk, and all that. His mother There it had hung all the night said he had better put in that long, and there it seemed to wel- motto, but H- was too careful come his first look-it was a sort of it, and wanted to wait till he of morning visitor, and received all should be settled. He could get it his attention, for there was nothing at any time, he thought. else on the wall worth his notice. He counted the letters a thousand times, read them forward and read them backward, formed new combinations of them, and they spelled out many other and funny names; but there was one way they read best, and that was as they were printed on the tablet, “Thou God Seest Me."

It was only the summer before that his mother bought it. "Because," she said, "it was so approriate for H- -'s room. Not," she added, "that I thought him more liable to forget God than his brothers, but it was from that text our pastor-who is now in heavenpreached the day H- was baptised." That was why she purchased it the moment she saw it, and had it hanging in H's room to surprise him when he returned from school, and she gave it to him as his own. H- liked it, too, and took a glance at it as he lay down at night, and said the prayer, "Our Father which art in heaven;" but it was when he awoke in the morning that he studied it most attentively. And now for more than six years he had closed his eyes and opened them as often upon the same words, and there it hung as attractive as ever.

One evening his father came home from the city. The family were all around the table at tea, when he looked across and said, "H- I have got a situation for you." Hwas delighted. It was of little con

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Monday morning came at last, and H- was off to the city with his father. What a sight! As far as the eye could reach were houses, long chimneys, spires. He had never been in the city or seen the like before. The streets were crowded. He was bewildered with the buildings, the dazzling windows, and the ceaseless din of busy traffic. He scarcely knew himself. He felt that he was but "a drop in the bucket" in the endless crowd.

"This is the place," said his father, and they turned in at a wide door, and stood within a large counting-house. There were a dozen other men and boys, and Hsoon found his place among them; but could think of nothing, only gaze in bewilderment at the magnificence on which he had opened his eyes so suddenly.

His father must return by the evening train. He took him aside and said, "My son, be obedient, obliging, civil, and respectful, be attentive to business, be honest, be trustworthy. You are now to form a character for life, and perhaps a fortune too. Above all, remember your motto, Thou God seest me." "

Hpromised he would, and kept his pledge, for it was impossible for him to forget it, then at least. He followed as closely as possible his father's advice, and gained the esteem of his equals and the confidence of superiors. rose step by step till he occupied

He

one of the most responsible positions | him, and, with reproving glance,

in the place.

But he was not to live always a stranger to temptation. His position and reputation put the enemy in his way. At any moment he might have laid his hand on hundreds or thousands of pounds and walked away with it. At first he reproached himself for permitting the thought of such covetousness to enter his mind; but the temptation grew stronger and he grew weaker. The plans by which the wicked act could be carried out opened before him. They formed themselves without any mental effort. The tempter of souls was after him. Perhaps he was too young in years to be placed in a position of such responsibility.

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warning him of his guilt. He fell upon the floor and groaned aloud. The money he had dropped semed to answer, Thou God seest him." He cried out aloud, "O God of my mother, save me from this crime!" And God did save him. uttering the prayer he had passed the crisis. He replaced the package of money, closed the vault, and repaired at once to the house of the president of the bank, related to him all that had transpired, and begged to be dismissed from his position. The president was a good and wise man, and promised that he would keep the matter a secret, assured him that his confidence in him was not destroyed, and that he would keep him in his place. But he advised him to retire for a month from the bank to recover his shattered energies, and to reflect upon the past, and prepare himself for the future. At the end of that time he could resume his duties as if nothing had taken place. He came back with a deep sense of his own weakness, but with a firmer reliance upon the grace of God as his only true safeguard, and with a more abiding sense than ever of the great truth, "Thou God seest me.' ""

Gradually the project became the tyrant, and he submitted as its slave. Everything arranged itself with the nicest harmony and precision. The evening was set; the money counted. He could lay his hand on it in a moment. Through all the previous day he was fearfully tried. He appeared happy and pleasant, but then there would rise the uncalled-for sight. At last the fearful moment came. All the others had left. He remained under pretence of finishing some business. He walked to the vault, It is many years since this and swung open the heavy door. occurred. It is a lesson from the As he reached out his hand to grasp life of an experienced banker; but, the money, it fell from his fingers with some modifications, it is a as if it had been a bar of red-hot history of the temptations that iron. He trembled as in a convul- beset scores of boys and young sion, and then the burning thought men in city life. May the result flashed across his terribly excited be also the history of every one mind, "Thou God seest me." He that is tempted to take money that felt the eye of God gazing upon is not his own!

VISIONS AND VOICES FROM THE HOUSE OF

PILGRIMAGE.

BY THE REV. R. H. ROBERTS, B.A.

V. THE TESTIMONY OF THE RESURRECTION.

"And with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all."—Acts iv. 33.

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THE battle between the Sanhedrim and the Apostles turned mainly just at this time upon the point of the resurrection. This was the position around which they were hotly contending: the Apostles, uttering the voice of the Church, affirmed, " He is risen from the dead;" the Jews retorted, "He is not, and if you say so we will whip you and kill you -a very foolish argument to use, not only as a specimen of logic, but as a matter of policy. They attempted to shut the Apostles' lips, and instead of being shut up, "with great power gave these men their witness" to the world. The rendering of our English version hardly represents, however, the full force of the language of Luke. It seems to us that we should get the complete idea if we were to translate somewhat thus: "And with great power did the Apostles render or give up the testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all," in which we may discern two additional shades of meaning. testimony was a charge or treasure which they held in trust, and it was not so much a testimony to as "the testimony of the resurrection," which, held as a trust, they were thus giving up. They were not merely witnesses to the fact that Jesus was risen from the dead; but testifiers of the truth regarding Him which the fact of the rising from the dead avouched. In other words, they not only came out grandly as reporters of what had happened, but they grew into mightier heralds of Jesus and preachers of the truth as it is in Him. Taking note then of these additional shades of meaning, I propose to dwell a short time on the following points. I. The Church of Christ looks upon the resurrection as truth of vital and supreme importance with which it has been entrusted in order to testimony. II. Through self-sacrifice the Church is developed to a higher fitness for the discharge of this duty. III. Along with this higher fitness there is sure to come a brighter manifestation of spiritual life. IV. Thus the whole course of events works out a renewed and stronger proof of the reality of the occurrence for which they were contending.

I. The resurrection. is a truth of vital and supreme importance with which the Church has been entrusted in order to testimony.

1. It is a truth of supreme and vital importance. It is this (1) because it is a matter of fact. Abstract reasoning is good, but after all the most it can do is to evolve a probability more or less strong, which may amount to a moral demonstration, and which

may be no more than a presumption of the weakest kind. And however weak or however strong, abstract reasonings, especially if they consist of a long chain of arguments, are not easily understood or readily appreciated by ordinary minds. But what a difference it makes, both as to the strength of proof and as to the influence upon the general mass to be able to say, "Christ is risen from the dead!" Establish that, and all your abstract reasoning may be dispensed. with. Establish that, and it is an argument which everybody will understand and appreciate.

(2) It is the corner-fact of Christianity, the key to its position; that upon which and with which the whole fabric stands or falls. Take for example the question of its miracles. If the resurrection of Jesus Christ be a mistake or an imposition, what care I to contend whether certain sick people were cured, or supposed to be cured, or certain blind men made to see? And if it be a reality, what need have I to be fighting the battle over again at these several points ? The resurrection carries with it all the other miracles. We can afford to listen with the utmost calmness to crushing demonstrations of their impossibility, and then, quietly answering, "With God all things are possible," go on to bring out the teaching they convey, because we know that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. Take again the doctrines. Your immortality, on what does it rest? On the resurrection of Christ from the dead. There it stands as firm as St. Paul's Cathedral, but apart from that it is about as shadowy and uncertain as the appearance of ghosts. The atonement, moreover, and your justification in the sight of God, on what are they based? On a living Christ. I have sometimes tried to picture to myself what would the consequences be if a discovery were to be made of bones which could by the most irresistible evidence be proved to be the remains of Him who died on Calvary. What a revolution it would work! What a change would pass over the heavens above us, and how dark they would become ! This Bible, its truths all sucked of their power, its promises all emptied of their sweetness, would have to be put aside, to abide for ever after the mysterious monument of the most gigantic imposture ever perpetrated. No believer that had ever known in any degree what it is to have peace with God, and rejoice in hope of His glory, would be able to sing a single note. His muscles would be paralysed. Like Job, he would almost hear a voice saying to him, "Curse God and die." "My life with His connected stands." "Nor-blessed be God-nor ask a surer ground.' And so the importance of the resurrection comes out in this,

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(3) That it is a testimony to Him the Eternal Lord. is a great, a grand Being who has taken mighty hold of our imaginations and our affections. There is One whom we suppose to be "God manifest in the flesh." "We have seen the King in his beauty;" "we beheld his glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth;" and it would almost break

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our hearts, if He were to be blotted out and fade into a shadow. But the resurrection vindicates all His claims and confirms all His works. Does He say, "I and tho Father are One"? The resurrection responds 66 amen to that. Does He say, "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost"? The resurrection cries "amen to that. Does He heal the sick and raise the dead? Yes, says the resurrection, in the deepest and truest sense of the word. Does He promise, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any be able to pluck them out of my hand"? Ah! cry death and hell out of the empty grave, that promise is yea and amen. I say the truth of the resurrection is truth of the utmost importance, because it is a matter of fact, because it is the corner-fact of Christianity, and because it bears such witness to the Lord Jesus.

2. It has been entrusted to the Church in order to use in testimony.

(1) This follows because it is such important truth. I believe that all the treasures we possess are given us as Christians in order to be used for the sake of others. When the Church established a community of goods, they were only foreshadowing what will become the eternal order when God's ideal kingdom is developed in the perfection of its power. If fuel were failing us, or men were desperately in need of work, and a proprietor had upon his estate an extensive vein of coal, or a mine of metal, he would be morally bound to open it up, and be guilty of a wrong and a crime if with ability to do so he refused. But pre-eminently is all this applicable to the possessor of truth. Truth is just as much a treasure as any of those goods which you can touch, and upon which the world sets a value, and it ought to be worked for the sake of mankind. God has given us truth, not that we may hoard it up and walk in its light and drink-in its comfort for ourselves, but that we may turn that light upon others, and cry, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."

(2) We owe this to Christ. He is our Master, we are His stewards. Now it is required of stewards that they waste not their master's goods, and who is the steward that is guilty of this waste? He among others certainly who goes and hides his talent in the earth; and a Church that fails to proclaim the truth of which it has been put in charge by Him whom it calls Lord is guilty of robbery.

(3) Moreover, we are under great obligations to Christ.

He loved us and gave Himself for us, and shall not we feel bound by forces of the most potent kind, forces infinitely more constraining than any ever exerted by the strong arm of law, to announce whatever truth tends to exalt Him and spread His influence? Christian men, this is your function. This is your solemn charge. There are times when the Church may elect to give its testimony through the Apostles, and I know not why I should hesitate to say that such a decision is often

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