Beware of the Wolf. You need never fear, little children, to meet Bad Temper's the wolf which we meet everywhere- I know of a boy, neither gentle nor wise, I know of a girl always trying to learn About things with which she should have no concern; To me like the wolf with the very large ears, And Greediness, that's like the wolf in the wood Passion, Prying, and Greediness, each thus appears -Christian at Work. Watchwords for August. First Week.-"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile."-Ps. xxxii. 1, 2. Second Week.-"Thou hast delivered my soul from death; wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?"-Ps. lvi. 13. Third Week.-"I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints; but let them not turn again to folly."Ps. lxxxv. 8. Fourth Week.-"We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself."-PHIL. iii. 20, 21. Correspondence. Hotel Servants. DEAR SIR-I was staying lately at one of our large metropol. itan hotels. While there I took an opportunity of conversing with one of the housemaids on the subject of religion. The poor girl told me with pain that she never went to church; she said, the very short time she was allowed out, every other Sunday, made her unwilling to spend any of it indoors. She said, with much feeling, that she had given away her Bible, and in the very short and rare times she went out, always forgot to buy one; that no one cared about her state; that the other servants were all pretty much as she was; that if she had a Bible and good books, she would have time to read in her service-room, but that no one cared. I said what I could to her, to press on her the importance of caring for herself, and told her that, but that I was leaving by a very early morning train, I would get her a Bible and some books. She promised, with much feeling, to think of God in her daily work, to pray more earnestly, to buy a Bible and read it, and to go to evening service-the only thing possible to her. She told me she had been taught in a Sunday School, and had not quite forgotten all she learned. I know no one in London before whom I could bring this subject. I thought of writing to the Rector of the Parish, but I knew that he must be overpowered with work; so I just lay the case before your London readers, if you will publish this letter, hoping that something may be done for the hard-worked class of hotel servants. 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John Chatterton Esq., a 6 Mrs. McKerrow, · 50 5 0 · 2 6 2 0 Amount of previous Grants in All applications for Grants, and remittances of money for this object, to be made to JOHN MACFARLANE, Manager, Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling, N.B. Published and sold by the Trustees acting under a Trust Disposition and Codicils relating to the STIRLING TRACT ENTERPRISE, granted by the now deceased PETER DRUMMOND founder thereof, proprietors in Trust, at Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling, N.B. Published by the Trustees of the late Peter Drummond, at Drummond's Tract Depot, Stirling, N.B. Rev. William Taylor, M.A., Editor. Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. HAT the fate of some words is very remarkable, was an observation that forced itself on our minds during a recent visit to Paris. It was not long after the explosion in the Czar of Russia's Winter Palace, which destroyed so many lives, and such inestimable works of art, although it happily failed in its object. This was done in the names of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity;" as were all similar attempts on the lives of the sovereigns of Europe, which had preceded it. Mutterings of the same words were heard in Ireland, threatening life and property in these names. With a feeling akin to horror as we thought of all this, we saw those words written up in Paris in every direction, on churches, public buildings, palaces, and on the ruined Tuileries, as if to exult in the atrocities of the Commune. Since Madame Roland exclaimed on the scaffold, "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!" the truth of her saying has become tenfold confirmed, until those three words have seemed ominous of every evil of which human nature is capable. The more our minds dwelt on them, from seeing them so constantly before us, the more they seemed to grow in signification; and we asked ourselves, "Have they no legitimate meaning?" Can words which have taken such a deep hold of human nature only find a realisation in "levelling down," in the assasination or downfall of Kings, in the destruction of property, in the outbreaks of Communism or Nihilism? So we tried to think out the question, as to what was the sense in which we might lawfully expect to see them fulfilled. Not in Politics. In the present state of the world, we can hardly hope to find full liberty, equality, or fraternity realised under any form of government. Laws which restrict liberty in a certain degree are necessary: they may not be oppressive, but they must be repressive. Equality is also impossible: for although as subjects and citizens all are equal, yet some must preside and rule over others. And these differences of party and of opinion, which must now exist in the state if it would have any well-balanced healthy life within it, are almost incompatible with anything which we can call Fraternity. So that we must look elsewhere than in politics for the things we are seeking, and be satisfied with a more restricted scope for them on earth than dreamers believe in. Earthly Liberty. To begin with this, less space is required for it than many think; for indeed our earthly lives are very narrow. "How small, of all that human hearts endure, With regard to both time and space, we must live in the little present; so that unless we find liberty in our selves, we are likely to seek it in vain. To please ourselves is for the moment to feel at liberty. The bird that sings in its cage, feels free; bees, that soar for bloom "High as the highest peak of Furness fells, Will linger by the hour in cowslip bells." Who is freer than the student, who early quits his library; or than the artist, whose days and nights are spent at his easel or his instrument? He that would drive the lonely watcher from the sick-room into the brightest scenes, would impose on him a cruel banishment. The willing prisoner in a good cause can sing in his chains: "Stone walls do not a prison make, If I have comfort in my love, To a well-regulated mind, even the monotonous round of common life gives a certain satisfaction which, in so far as it goes, is what men mean by liberty. We have all heard of the retired tallow chandler, who, though he tried after his retirement to endure the tedium of release from work on ordinary days, could not keep away from his long accustomed place on "melting days." Such enjoyment makes the dullest employment real liberty. Earthly Equality. Whether perfect equality would be a good, we have no means of knowing; for we cannot see it. If all distinctions and titles were swept away from England tomorrow, the essential differences among men would appear even more strongly. "The rank is but the guinea stamp, The man's the gowd for a' that." "When Adam delved and Eve span;" by evening, If, in the morning, we were all put on the level of breeding, intellect, and worth would have reasserted themselves, as naturally as water rises to its level. inequality. The man who does his duty, and fills his Yet there may be equality in some senses amid this place well in the world, is morally equal to any other Minister and the other his groom. man who does the same, though the one be a Prime There is another kind of equality lying in the very depths of human nature: that is, the idiosyncrasy belonging to each It has been said that every person we see is superior person which distinguishes him from every one else. to us in something; while in something, we are superior to them. It is a sense of this that begets the innate pride in every individual, which makes him feel his individuality so strongly, and probably really is the root of the feeling of equality. Bishop Jeremy Taylor brings forward this as a motive to contentment; for he says that no one would consent to change his identity with that of any person, however envied his lot may be. Earthly Fraternity. There are those who, while differing widely in social position, birth, personal appearance, wealth, are yet superior to all these accidents, so that they meet on a ground high above them, and can forget them in their intercourse. This brings them nearer to the essence of equality than any other thing can do. These have also fraternity. Indeed it is found by all who throwing themselves heart and soul into a good cause, forget all petty differences, and labour together for a common good. Yet though such realizations of these words give more happiness, where they are possessed, than all the dreams of Socialists carried into effect could procure, they are very slight compared to What Christianity promises and does. None but a Christian has Liberty. His song may be- I have no fears; for come what will, all shall be fully happy, because loved by their Father, and enjoying the light of His countenance. It will never be known until then, what Fraternity really is. "Fed by a Father's hand, Love cannot die." Here we think and speak of it as a lovely thing; but Christ it is a weak bond; there is such clashing of even among brothers in blood as well as brothers in interests, divergence of views, difference of character, even among the best people. But in "the days of the restitution of all things they shall see eye to eye." "The lion shall lie down with the kid; they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord." Then, and not till then, shall the goal of humanity be reached, and what may be the ideal of Communism in some untaught and simple mind will then be realised far more fully than even it was in the early days of Christianity, when the disciples, forgetting all social differences, and needing no outward barriers, were "all of one heart and of one soul, and had all things in common," He whose will is so united to the will of God that he embraces it with delight, says, "I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts." If he feels at times "tied and bound by the chain of his sins," he knows that "they shall not have dominion over him," and he bursts one bond of sin after another in this strength. God's service is "perfect freedom;" for he who does his Father's will is doing his own. The spirit of the Gospel is Liberty, even in a temporal way. The emancipation of the slave has been owing to the influence of Christianity. We owe to Christianity all the development of the human mind which, since its promulgation, has followed in its wake; but far more we owe to it the deliverance from the bonds of "There is a river, the stream of which makes glad the city of God.”— "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free sin. indeed." It is the same with Equality and Fraternity. Christ's religion brought them in. In Him there is no difference between Jew or Greek, bond or free; all His members are equally necessary in the body, and social distinctions disappear at that Table where all drink out of the same cup, and eat of the same bread. There we are all brethren, "the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Some object to this, that whatever Christians ought to be, they are not, in point of fact, either free, equal, or brotherly. That this is true, is only another form of saying that we are still in an imperfect state; that still all creation groans, waiting for the fulfilment of what Christ came to effect, and what He will effect when His work of redemption is accomplished. In the meantime it is well for us to raise our thoughts from what is, to what might be even now. We are as dwellers among magnificent mountains, which are hidden by a dense atmosphere of fog and mist that lies around them: but it is something to know that they are there, and to watch for openings through which we may catch any glimpse of their glories; while waiting for the time to come, when the morning shall break in full splendour, and the mists be rolled away. Then every aspiration of mankind shall receive its full accomplishment. Creation itself shall then be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious Liberty of the children of God." "A King shall reign," before whom all other kings shall fall; for "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." Law and its restraints shall be no longer needed; His subjects' wills shall then be in complete conformity to His. Accounted worthy to obtain that world, they shall be "equal to the angels;" not that they shall not shine with varied lustres, but GOD'S RHINE; OR, A River for those who stay at Home. "We have just been up the Rhine-O the beauty." PSALM xlvi. 10. Up the streams of God's own river, O what charms our faith doth greet; Beauty ever fresh surprising. Up life's streams for ever flowing, -From a Letter. Heaven's own glories, grand alone. See God's choristers sublime; Ŏ love's music, grand, surprising! But the bubbles of Time's sea; Brighton. |