Satan's school.

He it is, the enemy of souls, who as he made his way into Eden, can make his way anywhere in this world, even into the fairest spots; and he holds his school in many a beautiful field or country lane. His school is a large one even in peaceful England, and it is open on Sundays as well as week-days. Nay, where work is brisk, and honest labour in demand during the week, Sunday is his high day for keeping school. The crowds of happy children who fill our Sunday schools; the quiet people whose habit is to go to church or chapel when Sunday comes, little think or know how many there are, in groups of three, or six, or twelve, who are out in Satan's school. As in Eden, so still he makes use of God's fairest works, even of what is "pleasant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one wise," as lures to sin. And he has no lack of teachers; for his scholars become in their turn teachers in his school; recruits are continually being brought in, and thus many a youth who promised well has been beguiled and ruined.

I did not forget to speak to the boy who hung down his head, and to invite him to our school; and I did not omit on the following Sunday to speak to our scholars about the lesson which the answer given to me conveyed. It is, I think, a wholesome lesson for all parents and teachers, and for all young people too. Boys and girls, remember that on Sundays, as well as week-days—

"Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do;"

and when your companions would allure you to while away the hours when you should be at Sunday lessons or Sunday worship, in sauntering along the streets or lanes, or gathering in groups at street corners or away from public notice in the fields, you are really going "to the big school without any top on it," in which you learn not good but evil. A Sunday walk in the country may do you good, provided it be for a good purpose, with good company, and at the right time, when you have attended school and God's worship; but a walk which involves turning your back upon God's house,

and which brings you into vain and idle and godless company is full of danger and of sin.

Parents and guardians, bear in mind that your children, wherever they be, are at school and learning. Everything said or done in the hearing or sight of a child forms part of its education. Nay, more; what they know you practise that probably they will learn. You send them to Sunday school and Divine service; but if they know that you are idling at home over the newspaper or loitering in the fields during those hours, they will probably begin to think that churches and schools are all very well for young folks, but that when they are older they need care no more about them, but may do as you do. This is doubtless one main reason why so many who have been Sunday scholars turn out careless and ungodly men and women.

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Let us all recollect our Saviour's word in His parable of the Great Supper :--" Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." This is our work as the servants of our Heavenly Master and Lord; the compulsion we are to use is the force of kindness and the power of Christian warning and reproof. If children are taught to fear and love God, to believe in and follow Jesus, to keep holy the sabbath, to read God's. word and to pray to Him daily, they will then benefit by their country walks and strolls, for they will see God everywhere, and be armed against Satan's wiles; and they will be able to enjoy without bad temper or strife the innocent games of their play-hours.

A CHRISTIAN has nothing to call his own save Christ and His salvation; all the rest is surrendered to God.

Patience grows and gathers strength by meditations on the sorrows and sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian must expect opposition from the world, because he is going just the contrary road from the multitude, and has to pass through them.

If you renounce all for Christ, you must expect to be counted a fool; and if you do not, you cannot be called a Christian: "Except a man deny himself, he cannot be my disciple."

A Christian is never satisfied with himself; but this is no wonder, as he is not fully satisfied with any one but Christ.

There is no religion in making yourself miserable. God loves to make poor sinners happy in the Old Testament He bids you delight yourself in the Lord, and promises the desires of your heart. In the New, He says, Rejoice in the Lord alway."

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He is a wise man who knows the way of salvation, and is found in it; the path of duty, and walks in it; the dangers of the way, and avoids them; the provision of the way, and enjoys it.

Lamentation without effort betrays weakness and wickedness. Christ took your nature, and came into your place, to justify you; He took possession of your heart to sanctify you; He advocates your cause before God the Father to comfort you; He reigns on the throne to command you; He will come again to judge you.

Live by the day; you will have daily trials, and strength according: leave to-morrow to the Lord.

To-morrow may be eternity with you; therefore live as on the margin of eternity, as next door to heaven.

E

MET the subject of this narrative at a quiet restingplace in Wales, whither he had professedly gone

Ito drink the waters," and by two or three weeks' absence from scenes of gaiety and dissipation, to undo or stave off the consequences of months of wild and reckless living. He was not more than five-and-twenty years of age; but his haggard look, his bent figure, his tottering gait, to any one who did not observe him closely, proclaimed him as nearer sixty than thirty, and with but a step between him and death. When you came to talk with him, you found that there was an infinite gulf between him and heaven.

Visitors at any of the wells of Wales soon become acquainted with each other. They dine at the same table, take the same walks, are interested in the same news, and enliven their retirement in a variety of ways, to the best of their ability. In this latter respect, however, R- Gadded nothing to the common stock. He rose with the rest of us, took his usual walk before breakfast, as we all did, sat at table with us, and went through the general routine of the day. But he was sullen, irritable, and reserved; and while the flush of health revisited many a pale cheek, and smoothed out the wrinkles of many an overwrought brain, he kept himself to himself; and ere long it was plain to all of us that some secret anxiety was preying upon his mind, so that the most healthful surroundings in the world would have failed as to any beneficial effect upon him.

Every one noticed, after awhile, that at the hour when the evening coach deposited its visitors at the door of the establishment, R- G would be out of the way. The arrival of this coach was the most exciting event of the day, and all honour was done to it by every one turning out to welcome it. Not so R― G—, however. When rallied about his melancholy ways, he excused himself on

the ground that he could not bear excitement; that he had come down for absolute rest, and so on. But even when he came into the supper-room, an hour or two after the coach had set down its load, he looked into the face of every new-comer with the keenest scrutiny, and into the faces of his companions of some days, as if he dreaded the outcome of some revelation that would paralyse him hand and foot. This conduct on his part was charitably put down to an enfeebled constitution; and his fellow guests were more forbearing and sympathetic than ever.

It fell to my lot to be the first to obtain some little insight into the cause of this strange conduct before the day, or rather evening, that brought a catastrophe, bursting upon our little colony of invalids with the suddenness of a bombshell falling into a peaceful city. About two miles from the wells was a rock, from which rather slowly dripped mineral water, twenty drops of which were supposed to contain unusual virtue in them. The rule of the house was that every inmate, with little wine-glass in hand, should repair thither two hours before tea, and take the dose prescribed. One afternoon, on arriving at the spot alone, to my surprise I saw R—G— stretched upon the ground and clutching, now the heather and now his hair, as if he were in a fit. He was wildly muttering to himself some such words as these: "It must come! Why try and evade it any longer? Poor wretch! as you have sown you must reap."

I saw at once that here there was a mind ill at ease; and laying my hand gently upon his arm, I said, "It is quite true that we must reap the reward of our deeds; but with the Lord there is forgiveness, that He may be feared, and with Him there is plenteous redemption."

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He started to his feet, angrily shook off my sympathy and dared me, as a man of honour," to repeat any stray words that I might have heard him utter in his delirium. I assured him that such a thought had never entered my mind; he glared at me for a moment or two with a half-maddened look, and then rushed off homewards. It happened that