It makes him master of the position, as it were. It puts you upon the defensive, and gives him the pride, and the advantage too, of an attacker. He feels that he is bold and manly, because he does what you would like to do but dare not. He holds up his head whilst you are holding down yours. In fact, he seems to be the man, and you the essence of unmanliness. But reverse all this, and suppose the manly thing to be done in a manly way; paltry pleasures, folly, sin, to be resisted indignantly, with a bold front and withering denunciation, and the man who dares to ply you with such temptations made to feel what a coward he is: how mean, how despicable to be himself the slave of such trashy and absurd things as he has dared to put before you. "I am ashamed of you; you, who ought to be so different, to have got among such a set; to be dragged down to such low things; to be able to be pleased with such toys; not to dare to follow what I know you feel you ought to follow; and, then, for you to think that I also have taken leave of my senses, and to ask me to come." I say, the doing of manly things in this manly way would bring honour to God,-peace, dignity, joy, strength, triumph, comparative freedom from temptation to you-and shame to your tempters; a slinking into their own unmanliness, and a fair, full exhibition before every young man you know of things as they really are; the good be exhibited as the truly great, the manly, the open-faced, bold, real men; and the dissipated, and the polluted, the mean, and low, and cowardly things to be shrunk from by all the pure, and good, and noble; shrunk from save when in pity and in love we come with His message, His invitation, and say in His name, "Turn, turn ye; why will ye die? As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Do, then, I beseech you, strive and pray to be thorough in your manliness. Resist temptation so thoroughly, so boldly, so evidently, earnestly that it may pause before it attacks you again, and that the tempter may be ashamed, and perhaps won to a better mind, and God pleased, and you gladdened and strengthened more and more and more, as you fight manfully under His banner your upward way to heaven. I must not close without noticing one other important thought connected with our subject. It is this: I can conceive an objector saying, "Whilst I fully-most fully agree with you that the things you have called 'manly' are very glorious things; and the conduct you have described as 'manliness' is noble and sublime conduct, I demur to the terms 'manly' and 'manliness:' for though I know what man was in Paradise, how good, and noble, and fearless, and heavenly; knowing no shame. feeling no fear, never a blush upon his cheek, and never an eye that his gaze could not meet; all that was Godlike upon his lofty brow, and Godlike in his holy deeds; yet I know also that man has fallen, and Paradise has been lost, and that Adam himself, as a sinner, was full of fear, and hid himself from God, and dreaded to gaze on him, and lost every particle of the manliness of the unfallen man. I know what man is now, as a corrupt, condemned being, and that there is none righteous-no, not one. And, therefore, now to talk of being manlike and having manlikeness, as a great and glorious thing, is indeed strange. Talk of being 'angelic' if you will, or higher still, of being 'Godlike,' but to be manlike is to be sinlike, and to be dragged down to what is earthly and low, and not raised up to what is high and heavenly." Most true-most sadly true! But then, in these Gospel days, what man are we—as Christians, called to be like, and pledged to be like? Who is the pattern-man, the grand example, now? Adam has fallen, but has not another Adam come among us, who has not fallen? By the first man came a corrupted manhood; but has not a second man linked Himself with us, by whom manhood has been restored to more than Eden purity? What does the Apostle say? "The first man is of the earth earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Manhood starts afresh in Christ; and starts after a higher type, and in exceeding purity and majesty. Jesus, now, is the man. When Pilate said," Behold the man!" he uttered, unwittingly, a glorious truth. Yes, Jesus is "The man," the grand pattern-man;-the grand model which all are ever to set before them. Beholdbehold-yea, behold the man!" So that to be manly, or manlike, now, is to be ever Christlike, ay, to be Godlike, at the very moment we are manlike,-for our great Leader, and head and example now, is " very God of very God," even while He is man. When, therefore, I say, to-night, "Be manly," I bid you be more and more like Christ; I bid you, at every step, take your guidance from what He was and what He did. Whatever He did, that I call manly. So that, if we had time, we could stand together and gaze on Him, and put down our rules of manliness, one by one, in bright and glorious succession, until we reached to heaven itself. We should find that prayer was manly, because none ever prayed as He did. We should find that patient endurance of wrong, and generous forgiveness of wrongdoers, was manly, because He endured, and He forgave, even to astonishment. We should find that bold, unflinching resistance of temptation was manly, for none ever defeated the tempter as He did. We should find that abomination of evil, and denunciation of evildoers, was manly; for none ever abominated sin as He did, or more witheringly denounced the impenitent offender. We should find that holy speech, tender compassion, tears of sympathy, sweet tones of love, ceaseless going about doing good, suffering, self-denial, self-sacrifice for others' weal, were manly; for all these knew no bounds in his holy and blessed life. Nay, we should find that home had its manly charms, if we did as He did; for hear Him, even when earth's sins were crushing Him in agony, and he had the woes of the world upon Him, "Woman, behold thy son!"-Son, "Behold thy mother!" We should find that danger had its strong refuge; and toil its strong arm, and endurance its stout heart, and pain and agony its heaven-descending balm; and even death its far-stretching glory, sent to light us through. But I must stop; for how-oh, how can I speak as I ought of "manliness," with this high interpretation of it before me, as Christ-likeness, likeness to Him whom to be like, is to be like God! Rather would I pray that you and I, and all who name the name of Christ, may toil and pray, and pray and toil, every hour we live, to be manly after this heavenly type; so that we may be stretching on to, and being made meet for, the days when full redemption has come, and we are glorious in body, as well as soul; and the manliness that is in Christ Jesus shall be higher even than "the angelic," and we shall be kings and priests unto our God for ever. Finally, my dear young friends, in seeking to be manly after this glorious manner-to be "Christlike"-never, never forget, that though the first Adam was only made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Jesus, our model, our pattern-man, was a quickening Spirit, quickening dead souls united to Him into new and heavenly life; and if you would be like Him, you, too, must be not only a living soul, but a quickening spirit; you must not only be in Christ yourself, but lead others to be in Him; you must not only be born again by the Spirit yourself, but you must strive and pray that others may be born again for glory. I know, of course, know well, that you can only be quickening spirits as instruments in the hands of the great Spirit of God but still ever is He ready to work in you, and by you, if you gird yourself resolutely for the world's conversion. We have spoken of manliness in bearing, and enduring, and opposing, and fighting against attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil; but shall bold manliness be content with ever acting on the defensive-ever standing firm, but still standing, only to drive back enemies that assail? No!-on to the aggression -on to the attack; follow sin-pursue it-drive it away. Rush, sword in hand, upon Christ's enemies, the world, and the flesh, and beat them down and slay them without mercy. Go where you will make war upon sin. Go where you will speak out for Christ. Warn, and rebuke, and persuade men to be decided and manly in God's service. Wait not to simply resist what this worldly young man suggests, and that dissipated young man persuades, and another, sunk in iniquity, would drag you to; but do you be beforehand. Let loose to stream upon the wind, wherever you are, your banner -the banner of Christ, under which you fight-and maintain it aloft against any enemy. At home be a blessing. In the world be an evangelist. In every work of self-denial be ambitious to excel. In every labour of love bear the heaviest burden. Be a quickening spirit wherever you go, leaving behind you such holy fruits, that God may be for ever glorified through you. And now, if you are "manly" in the highest sense of Christlike, and Godlike because Christlike; or if you have a burning wish and determination-God helping you so to be-come, come, and let us kneel together at our great Captain's table, and renew our vows, and tender again our oaths of allegiance, and tell him that henceforward we will know no master but Him, and that we will stand for Him, and war for Him-ay, and conquer for Him-until life be all over, and we have reached the sweet rest that remaineth for the people of God. THE BIBLE THE CHRISTIAN'S COMPASS. WHAT the compass is to the sailor, such should the Word of God be to all that cross the stormy ocean of life. Some there are whose eye, like that of the faithful helmsman, is never off the compass: they steer by the word, both in the storm and in the calm. It has made them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. iii. 15); and, trusting in his atoning sacrifice and finished work on the cross, all is well with them. They seek to adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in every good word and work; and, keeping a sharp look out for quicksand, rock, and shoal, and for the gallant ship, or the galley of the great enemy (Isai. xxvii. 33), they enter the fair haven with the well-known cry, so sweet to a sailor's ear, "Steady she goes," and, so casting anchor within the vail, "abide there for ever" (Heb. vi. 19). Others there are who profess a great veneration for the word, say it is their compass, and promise to steer by it; and yet you continually find the binnacle-door shut. It is manifest that, if they go on in this way, inevitable destruction is before them; for, if the helmsman's eye is seldom on the compass, it must go ill with him. Again, there are others who do not, in so many words, reject the compass; indeed they say, "It is a very good thing to have one on board;" and yet they never look at it. Ah! how strange it would be, if we met a ship at sea, and hailed her— "Where are you from ?" and they were to reply, "I do not know: I have forgotten." "Where are you bound to ?" "I do not know." "What is your course ?" "I don't look at my compass just now, but I hope to do so at the end of my voyage.' Alas! such a vessel will founder in the mid-ocean: she has despised God's compass, his guide over the stormy ocean of life. A fourth class will say, "I'll none of your compass; there is many a move in it I do not understand; this always turning to the north puzzles me. I won't believe what I cannot comprehend." These are the infidels of this age. Look over the history of those who have "made shipwreck of their faith" (1 Tim. i. 19), and there you will see this infidel fleet sinking amid oaths and blasphemies. The shattered hulls of the Voltaires, Volneys, Paines, and Humes, darkening the coast, and vessels of less magnitude-all wrecked: they threw the compass overboard, and perished in the fearful storm of their last struggle. Lastly, there are others who, dissatisfied with the compass, will have an extra one of their own contriving (without a magnet) in the same binnacle, and forbid all others to steer by the true one only. See especially Jer. xxiii. 29-31. But ah, how different their end will be who take God's Word as their guide! "The Lord will be to them a place of broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no galley with oars, nor gallant ship pass thereby. For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: He will save us. Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast; they could not spread the sail; then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey, and the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity" (Isa. xxxiii. 21-24). How beautifully does Cowper describe the abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom" (2 Pet. i. 11) ; "Thou-as a gallant bark from Albion's coast THE BOOK OF BOOKS. THE language of the Bible is the sublimest that eye ever read or ear ever heard. How rich in imagery, how full of thought, how pregnant with mightiest meaning is that most holy book! It is full of wisdom, beauty, and poetry: wisdom is stamped in each verse, beauty clothes each chapter, whilst its every page is gloriously illuminated with poetry. And how could it be otherwise, when the minds whence those undying passages emanated were inspired by God, and the fingers that penned that everlasting book were guided by a Divine hand? It is Jehovah's work, and every other work sinks into utter insignificance before that matchless masterpiece of wisdom. Would you seek for poetry? unfold its precious leaves, and you will read poetry far more beautiful than any this world has produced, or ever will produce. Would you search for history? Oh, where are the narratives that can vie with those of the Bible? Would you find sublimity? its every page is brightened with the sublimest passages. Would you discover pathos? it is one of the chief characteristics of the Bible. Would you imbibe truth? the Bible is an inexhaustible well, full to overflowing with the loftiest and most solenin truths. Would you gaze upon beauty? go to the Bible, and it will smile upon you in its highest, noblest perfection. It contains rich mines of wisdom, "Bright gems of thought And golden veins of language;" all that tends to elevate man can there be found. It is an everlasting finger-post pointing out the road to happiness; a messenger of love sent down by God to be the light of life; a welcome, a thrice welcome messenger kindly speaking to us of a Saviour's love, and soothingly telling us of a land beyond the grave, a land where sorrow is unknown: it is the joy of earth: it is the beacon-light that guides the weary, tempest-tossed voyager to the harbour of eternal life. Oh, holy book, beloved book, how precious thou art! far, far more precious than gold of Peru or pearls of Golconda. Thou dryest the tears of the mourner and hushest the sighs of the sorrow-stricken heart. In thee there is a balm for every wound; and he who sits down to thee in sadness rises with smiles. Thy voice is sweet music to |