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THERE are few things which I should desire more fervently for a young man, on his entrance into life, than the faculty of saying "NO" promptly and decisively. The spirit of complaisance, the desire to please, may be very excellent, but the power of firm and resolute resistance to surrounding influences is of supreme importance. Without this, there can be no true virtue or steadfast loyalty to truth and God. In every walk of life this is equally needful. Whether we are called to high and heroic service, or whether we tread the obscure path of lowly and pedestrian duty, we must be able to stand alone if we would hold fast our integrity. Who does not remember our great epic poet's description of

"The seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;

Nor number, nor example with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single."

Amongst humbler and more prosaic instances of the same spirit, the case of Benjamin Franklin may be mentioned. In his Autobiography he tells us how, when he came to London to work in a printing-office, he found the habit of intemperance almost uni

versal. His fellow compositors were constantly muddled with gin and beer. For a long time he stood quite alone in his course of frugality, industry, and temperance. Ridicule, entreaty, and threats were tried upon him in vain. He steadfastly persevered in the path he had marked out for himself. The result was, that he gained the confidence of his employer, the esteem of his companions, laid

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the foundation of his own fortunes, and, what was of more importance to him than all besides, acquired an independence and resoluteness of character which raised him above "the fear of man which bringeth a snare."

Let every young man learn to say "No," or despair of attaining excellence in any pursuit.

103

THE COMMUNION.

THE COMMUNION.

THEY knelt them side by side; the hoary man
Whose memory was an age, and she whose cheek
Gleamed like that velvet which the young moss-rose
Puts blushing forth from its scarce-severed sheath.
There was the sage, whose eye of science spans
The comet in its path of fire; and she
Whose household duty was her sole delight
And highest study. At the table, clasped
In meek devotion, were those bounteous hands
Which pour forth charities, unasked, untired;
And his which roughly win the scanty bread
For his young children. There the man of wealth
On bended knee, fast by his servant's side,
Sought the same Master,-brethren in one faith,
And fellow-pilgrims.

See yon wrinkled brow,

Where care and grief for many a year have traced
Alternate furrows, bowed so near those lips,
Which but the honey and the dew of love
Have nourished. And, for each, eternal health
Descendeth here.

Look! look! as yon deep veil

Is turned aside, what an o'erwhelming page
Disease hath written with its pen of pain.
Ah, suffering sister, thou art hasting where
No treacherous hectic plants its funeral rose !
Drink thou the wine-cup of thy risen Lord,
And it shall nerve thee for thy toilsome path
Through the dark valley of the shadow of Death!

'Tis o'er. A holy silence reigns around.
The organ slumbers. The sweet solemn voice
Of him who dealt the soul its heavenly food
Turns inward, like a wearied sentinel.

Then every head
Bends low in parting worship mute, and deep
The whisper of the soul; and who may tell
In that brief, silent space, how many a hope
Is born that hath a life beyond the tomb ?—
So hear us, Father! in our fervent prayer,
That at Thy better banquet all may meet,
And take the cup of bliss, and thirst no more.

THE YOUNG COMMUNICANT.

HAIL, young disciple !-thou whose early feet
From the broad pathway of the world have fled,
Who, listening to the Lord with reverence meet,
Hast to His ritual bowed thy lowly head.
How beautiful, to heed the heavenly call

In the full freshness of thy morning prime,
Before the dark clouds threat, the mildews fall,
Or o'er thy temples creep the frosts of time.
So from each wile that lureth from the fold,

Still may thy chosen Shepherd hold thee free, And from all ill, till life's brief hour be told,

O loved disciple! may He succour thee, Till to that radiant clime thy spirit soar

Where storms shall shred the rose and toss the bark no more.

SELF-SURRENDER.

105

SELF-SURRENDER.

:

"And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul. . . . And al! Judah rejoiced at the oath for they had heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them them rest round about."-2 Chronicles xv. 12, 15.

O HAPPY day, that fixed my choice
On Thee, my Saviour and my God;
Well may this glowing heart rejoice,
And tell its raptures all abroad.

O happy bond, that seals my vows
To Him who merits all my love:
Let cheerful anthems fill His house,
While to that sacred shrine I move.

"T is done! the great transaction's done;
I am my Lord's, and He is mine:
He drew me, and I followed on,
Glad to confess the voice Divine.

Now rest, my long-divided heart;
Fixed on this blissful centre, rest.
With ashes who would grudge to part,
When called on angels' bread to feast?

High heaven, that heard the solemn vow,
That vow renewed shall daily hear:
Till in life's latest hour I bow,

And bless in death a bond so dear.

sworn with all their and the Lord gave

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