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one would take it pleasantly enough with a little milk and sugar? You needn't take a sledge-hammer to drive a tin-tack with, and a pair of tweezers will get a splinter out easier than pincers. If it becomes a duty to speak plainly, there's a time and place and a way to do it with the best chance of getting success. If you try to break stones with your fist, you will break your knuckles; if you won't choose the time for sowing, don't expect your seed to grow. Reproof is kind, when needed, and tenderly given; but not when it is so given as to degrade the receiver before many witnesses.

My Sunday-school teacher spoke his mind to me kindly one day. Taking me round a corner, he put his hand on my shoulder and, looking into my eyes with his own all a-brimming, told me of my besetting fault. And I have never forgotten it; the remembrance of the faithful reproof, and respect for the friend who gave it have lived in my heart ever since.

One of my companions in the next class was often reproved by his teacher, who spoke his mind and said "You'll never come to any good." So the boy believed it, and, seeing that his teacher expected it, and told everybody else to look for the result he predicted,

he threw off all restraint and lived to justify the unkind prophecy. Well, I mustn't go on speaking my mind at this rate, or I shall become wearisome. So with a verse that my dear old grandmother was very fond of, and taught me when I was a tiny boy, I'll close this rambling talk.

"Speak gently! it is better far

To rule by love than fear;

Speak gently, let not harsh words mar
The good we might do here.

"Speak gently to the little child,
Its love be sure to gain;
Teach it in accents soft and mild,
Your teachings shall remain.

"Speak gently to the young, for they
Will have enough to bear,

Pass through this life as best they may
'Tis full of anxious care.

"Speak gently to the aged one,

Grieve not the care-worn heart;

The sands of life are nearly run,
Let such in peace depart.”

II.

ON EVERY DAY RELIGION.

T is a good thing for a man to have a

IT

Sunday coat, but a bad thing for him to have a Sunday religion. The piety that is laid aside with the man's Sabbath garb is no true piety at all. That is a false view of religion which regards it as something apart from or added to the life. Religion is the life, and not an external adornment of it, to be worn or thrown aside as convenience dictates. I have heard it said that "Religion is that which binds the heart of man to God;" then surely one is not religious who puts restraint on himself for one day out of seven, but runs at random all the other six. Some flowers cannot live out of the hothouse, and some people seem to think religion should never be brought out of the sanctuary; and when their Bibles and hymn-books are closed and left in the pew, have an idea that their religion may

be left there till wanted again the next Sunday. So their religion may, for they are sure never to miss it. The life of a man who possesses real piety is changed by it, ruled by it, and filled with it. If a man be not the better for his religion, he either has none, or else deceives himself with a bad substitute. When a man is truly converted to God, it will be known without his "making profession" of it. When a candle is lit it must shine; all you have to do is not to put it under a bushel, but simply let it have a chance and it will shine. Every creature in the house, down to the youngest child or the cat by the fireside, will be blessed by the head of the house being a true Christian. Real religion makes a man a better father in his family, a better master or a better servant in the world of business. The ploughman or the stable-boy who loves God will be worth more to his master than he who is no Christian.

There is plenty of "Sunday-go-to-meeting" religion in the world, we want a little more of the "week-a-day-go-to-work" sort. "Fast colours," they are the thing; something that will wash and wear well; something that will stand the worry of chil

dren, and the vexations of the kitchen, and the irritations of business. A flimsy, showy garment is sure to get torn,-let us have something that can stand pulling and be always good alike. The great mistake all along has been in separating religion from the heart and life. This has made some people cut themselves off from their fellowmen and become monks and hermits, others wear clothes of coarse stuff and hideous cut and colour; as if ugliness were more godly than beauty, and loneliness better than God's arrangement of men in families. No, no! Religion must be no outside thing at all, except so far as it is the fruit and outgrowth of something possessed in the heart. And as a sunbeam can go nowhere without giving light, and can never become defiled, even should it shine in a sepulchre; so true piety can shine out everywhere and make everything the better for its presence, without being sullied because its possessor has to do with what men call "common things."

I wonder whether some people think a man a better Christian because he has a white hand! I verily believe they do. Religion in a scullery, or in a barrack, or coalmine, or ship's forecastle! Yes, if it will not

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