saying, but nevertheless strikingly and powerfully true, that Satan quickly finds employment for idle hands. Reading, conversation, the pointed observation of passing objects, amusement as well as the pursuit of the immediate vocation of life-all are good, all are better than having no definite occupation for the mind; while in this world we stand in a marketplace, and we must be the slave of the highest bidder. It is for us to decide whose servant we will be.

e. Another mode of "keeping self" will be keeping an habitual command over thoughts: musing and wakeful dreaminess are very dangerous as opening the soul to the assaults of Satan. There is hardly one class of sin that is not fed, as fire by fuel, through the medium of the mind. Exaggerated views, taken from the circumstances of life and from the conduct of those who may be among us, form and strengthen the habit of untruthfulness, which would very likely have never received the same form and definiteness, had it not been that the mind had been allowed to dwell upon and exaggerate these objects, and to clothe them with an idea separate from themselves, so that he who has indulged this habit

in this direction is immediately vulnerable to kindred assaults of the devil.

So again, thoughts of this kind pander to the sin of impurity, and like continual breathings fan its flame; in fact, the whole force of impurity, as a distinct temptation, is based upon the opportunities that it offers to the exercising of the musing faculty. The power to bring images before the mind's eye, and to diversify and arrange these exactly at our own will, is one of the most dangerous faculties belonging If we would provide as much as possible against the assaults of Satan to this particular sin, we shall form a habit of fixing the attention of our thoughts on subjects which are either themselves conducive to the good of our fellow-creatures, or are more directly religious. And this is very much more possible for us to form into a habit than we should at first sight imagine.

to man.

These early habits will be to us what the prayers of Hannah and the House of GOD were to Samuel; and will not only help to consecrate our souls to God, but will be a continual safeguard to us until the hour of death.

LIX.

SOLOMON.-PART III.

WISDOM, AN ATTRIBUTE OF THE RELIGIOUS

YOUTH.

1 KINGS III. 9.

"GIVE THEREFORE THY SERVANT AN UNDERSTANDING HEART TO JUDGE THY PEOPLE, THAT I MAY DISCERN BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD: FOR WHO IS ABLE TO JUDGE THIS THY SO GREAT A PEOPLE?"

1. It is a significant circumstance, that both in the Old and New Testaments, we find most prominently put forward two men who were alike remarkable for heavenly wisdom, and the knowledge of those practical sciences connected with the structure of the physical world and languages, which, in too many minds, are connected with what is called carnal reasoning. Solomon in the Old Testament, and S. Stephen in the New, appear in the very crisis of the two dispensations.

It seems as if the whole aim of the patriarchal and Mosaic systems, as far as this world goes, had been gained by the character and position of Solomon; while the seal of the Gospel teaching left its clear and definite impression on S. Stephen. Heavenly wisdom, heroic courage, unswerving self-denial, and love to the death, marked the character of the first deacon and martyr in the Gospel history, and seemed to proclaim with an unhesitating voice that in the character of the young disciple was embodied all, to accomplish which our Blessed LORD had taught and suffered.

The contemplation of these two characters, Solomon and S. Stephen, leads us to the conviction that God values very highly the devotion of powers of mind, and the development of all that is beautiful in the natural human character. He has not made the kingdom of heaven open only or even especially to the wise of this world, but He has given them a very important position, which shows how much He values their love to Him. The martyr is ever mentioned in such very high terms in holy Scripture, that we must attribute great importance to him who is selected to be first of that body. And S. Stephen's standing

in the van-guard of the army of martyrs, is at once a very significant circumstance, and leads us to feel sure that cleverness, eloquence, courage, intellect, personal attractions, and treasured learning, are gifts which are bestowed upon us for the sake of making more acceptable the sacrifice of ourselves to GOD, and are intended to be thrown into the holocaust of the sacrifice of our souls to Him. So S. Paul, the pupil of Gamaliel, was led to consecrate, on the altar of his self-devotion, vast powers of rhetoric, logic, language, knowledge of character, and historic research, to the cause of CHRIST. Timothy was learned in Scripture while yet a child, and Solomon ranks amongst the wisest of mankind. It is a great mistake to imagine, that, because "not many wise are called," the gift of the wise is not acceptable in a very high degree to GOD. In the same way that we esteem the devotion of the powers of the great in this world to be well made in the palace of the monarch, or the halls of the noble, so, when offered to the King of Heaven, we ought to view them as peculiarly worthy and peculiarly acceptable; if they are offered during life, they are worthy; if at death, and offered even to death, they are more worthy still.