people." What, then, do ye more than others? In the counting-house or on the exchange, in the manufactory or in the workshop, let men "take knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus" -not by your talking about religion out of place, but by your acting on its principles and carrying out its precepts in all your dealings and relations. Impregnate the ordinary business of life with the spirit of the gospel. "Be not partakers of other men's sins." 66 Keep yourselves pure." Ask not what is customary, but what is right. In pursuing such a course, you may have to suffer from unscrupulous competition, you may have to forego tempting advantages, you may see no prospect of success-but be not anxious. Endure to the end. Bear in mind what the prophet answered the King of Judah when he asked, "But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?" "The Lord is able to give you much more than this." So, reckon that He whom you serve can give you manifold more than you lose for His sake, even in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting. Above all, realize that as it would profit you nothing to gain the whole world and lose your own soul, so it will disadvantage you little, if you lose the whole world and save your own soul. Let your treasure be in heaven.

"Let integrity be the guide of your life." "If

riches increase, set not your heart upon them;" if they diminish, let not your heart be troubled. How much better is honourable poverty than dishonourable opulence! Woe to the "men of the world, who have their portion in this world;" but blessed are they who are "as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things."

There are few characters more honourable or more useful than that of the Christian man of business, who sets an example of truth, of uprightness, and of diligence; and who labours to have a conscience void of offence towards God and man. Mercantile men of this description are the salt of the commercial world, and "the substance" of the nation. God grant that the mercantile men of this flock may be numbered amongst them!

"And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in.”—NEH. vi. 11.

THOSE of us who have been baptized in the national church, were signed at our baptism with the sign of the cross, in token that we should not

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thereafter be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His banner, against sin, the world, and the devil, and to continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants unto our lives' end." We were pledged therefore, to fight as soldiers, as well as to obey as servants. Indeed we cannot do the one, except we do the other. For no man can serve God in this wicked world unless he contend, in order that he may obey. But in a soldier

there is no quality so shameful as cowardice, and no excellency so essential as courage. A cowardly soldier has no right to be in the army-a cowardly Christian has no right to be enrolled under the standard of the Captain of our salvation. Hence it is, that when St. Peter enumerates the chief graces which we are to give all diligence to attain, he places fortitude next to faith; "Giving all diligence," says he, "add to your faith virtue,"-the primitive sense of the word employed in the original is valour; even as in the Latin tongue, and in our own language, the word virtue originally signified courage-an expressive fact, which indicates how closely the two qualities are allied. The Spirit of God thus proves, that the next thing to believing in Christ in order that we may be saved, is boldness through Christ to avow that belief; for "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." If there be not, therefore, the courage to avouch Christ with the lip and in the life, the seal and superscription of the faith that saves is lacking.

Distinguished as he was for other graces of the Spirit, the noble man whose character forms the platform of our course of instruction to men of business, was especially illustrious for his holy intrepidity. Nehemiah was a man of surpassing

magnanimity; he never flinched, never faltered, in carrying out what God had assigned him to do. And as the Lord never gives special grace but He specially exercises it, he allowed the courage of this champion of his people to be tried by a succession of assaults the most intimidating, stratagems the most subtle, and conspiracies the most treacherous. He allowed him to be beset by such a diversity of temptations, that nothing but omnipotent strength could have enabled him to come off more than conqueror over them all, and to finish the work which God had commissioned him to fulfil. We have already called your attention to his unwavering determination in duty. You have heard his glorious reply to his enemies when they would have distracted his attention from his work, and, under pretences of friendship, seduced him into the plain of Ono: "I am," said he, "doing a great work, I cannot come down; why should the work stand still while I come down to you?" A still more crafty snare was laid for him where it was most to be feared, because least to be suspected-amongst false brethren; for, as Satan is most to be dreaded when he comes in the likeness of an angel of light, so are his ministers most formidable when they assume the same disguise. Nehemiah had gone, it would appear, for counsel or comfort into