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the escapade of a fine, bold-spirited boy, who

struggled against coercion?"

"Entirely," said Self-deception with emphasis. He was pursuing his usual system of soothing

"I've a notion that I was mismanaged from away self-reproach, by laying the blame of his the first," muttered Wildrake. patients' errors upon any shoulders but their "Stern has a great deal to answer for,and so has your weak, silly mother."

"Grossly mismanaged!" cried Smoothaway quickly. "If you've not turned out everything that your friends might have wished, it is all their own fault. Your mother spoiled you-and has no cause to complain if she reaps the fruit of her spoiling. Then, after your father's death, had you not for guardian that Pharisaical hypocrite Stern?"

"Not hypocrite-no; I hate the fellow, but I'll give him his due," interrupted Wildrake. "He is a hypocrite," cried the doctor, "for he says one thing and does another. Stern says that he is a follower of the gospel which bids Christians love one another; and if ever there was a heart full of prejudice, bigotry, and intolerance, it is that of the saintly Stern."

"Yes, yes; you are right there!" exclaimed Wildrake, eager, as the world always is, to detect inconsistency in professors. "Stern cannot for"Stern cannot forgive Ernest Getreu for being his father's son, though Ernest would be as fine a fellow as ever trod earth if he had not taken up such absurd Puritanical notions." The contemptuous tone in which the last words were uttered showed that whatever might be the regret of Wildrake for the follies of his own past life, his was not the repentance of a Christian.

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"Stern did his best to make a saint of you," observed Smoothaway with a laugh; "but he did not exactly succeed in accomplishing his plan.' "He made me detest the very name of saint!" exclaimed Wildrake with vehemence. "He could not wrap and bind and embalm a free spirit into a mummy. He tried to force his religion upon a wild young scamp who cared for nothing but freedom and frolic. Stern had no geniality in him, no power of imagining that a flow of gay, bold spirits could not be kept in the narrow canal-like channel in which his own mind so soberly moved on. My guardian exaggerated boyish follies into vices; and condemning me at once as a reprobate, he made me what he chose to fancy me to be. Yes, yes; my errors are entirely owing to my mother's ill-judged indulgence, and my guardian's stupidity and harshness."

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"Ah! my poor mother!" sighed Wildrake. "She has had a bitter penalty to pay for her over-indulgence. I have not yet told the whole of my story. The first day that I was able to leave the house after my illness, as I sauntered slowly through the streets of Nocross, I chanced to pass a large pawnbroker's shop. My eye was attracted by some bauble in the window which took my fancy; so I determined to buy it. I had not much cash in my purse, the little which I had had been given to me by my mother that morning; I had asked her for money, and she never knew how to refuse me aught that I asked. I remember, however, that it had been with an air of hesitation that my mother had drawn forth her purse. I turned into the shop, but had to wait for awhile before the owner, who was otherwise engaged, could attend to my wishes. I employed the time in looking around me, and noticed, lying across the counter, an India shawl exposed for sale. I recognized the pattern in a moment; it was that of a shawl which my mother had often worn and highly valued, for it had been the wedding-gift of her husband. If any doubt as to the identity of the article before me could have existed, it soon was removed; I turned the shawl over where it lay, and as I did so lighted on the small, neatlydarned place where my bullet had gone through. No eye but mine might have detected the blemish, but the moment that I saw it I could have sworn to the shawl!"

The young man spoke with vehemence, and with some signs of emotion.

"That shawl-the wedding-gift of my dead father-must have been sold by my mother ; she had been hard pushed, indeed, ere she had parted with that! I saw a price-mark upon it, scarce a tenth of its original value: I have thrown away as much on one day of wild pleasure, staked and lost double the sum on one night! The sight of that shawl brought back the feelings of that day, long ago, when, as a child, I was

startled by the loud report of the pistol, and knew not, for the moment, whether I had not destroyed my parent. I left the shop at once, and swore a deep oath as I did so that I would change my course from that hour, give up my follies, my companions, my extravagant habits, and settle down to sober life. I repeated my vow in the presence of my mother, saw her pale face brighten with delight, and had her blessing as she sobbed on my neck. The oath which I have sworn I will keep, and as the earnest that I am resolved to do so, I bring back that chain to you now."

"Yes, you will settle down to sober life," observed Smoothaway in his satirical tone, "and your first step towards it must be to seek out your saintly friend, your indulgent guardian, tell him that you are ashamed and grieved at having for so long played the prodigal's part, setting aside all his wise counsels, but that you are now going to make up for the past, and turn into a good quiet soul-a regular psalm - singer and church-goer, like himself."

Wildrake winced as if he had been stung. "You will beg him-very humbly, of courseto find for you some situation in which you may earn a new character by any sort of work hard enough-monotonous-degrading enough to serve at once as a suitable penance, and enable you to gain a pittance sufficient to keep you from actual starvation."

Wildrake started up to his feet. "I can't do that I'll never do that flesh and blood could not endure it!" he exclaimed, striking the table with his clenched fist. "But my oath-I have sworn to give up my wild life, and to win back that shawl for my mother."

Even after all that I had seen during the preceding interviews of the effrontery with which Self-deception opposed common-sense as well as conscience, I was surprised at his boldness in thus counselling perjury and gambling as a means of redeeming past sins. It must have been obvious to any one possessing the smallest amount of knowledge of human nature, that if the prodigal again crossed the threshold of a gaming-house it would not be only for once, that if he approached the edge of the whirlpool he would inevitably be drawn into the fatal vortex. And yet, why should I have been thus surprised? Was I a stranger to the fact that Self-deception has a thousand times drawn victims to destruction by the fatal suggestion, "It is only for once"? Is he not perpetually deluding sinners by the hope, that having sent the stone bounding down the mountain they can arrest it at will, though experience shows that the force of its momentum every moment increases ?

"If I could be sure that the cards would bring me luck-," began Wildrake. The bird was under the fascination of the serpent's gaze, but had power feebly to flutter still.

"I warrant you that they will," interrupted Self-deception eagerly; "my life on it, they will: Have I not secret means of divining what lies in the shuffling of the pack or the throw of the dice! Have you ever known me to be mistaken?"

No one can better than Self-deception assume the attribute of Infallibility, to work on the superstition of ignorant minds.

"You know more than most mortals know," cried the prodigal, with an oath.

"Trust me then for once," said the great Impostor, advancing nearer to his victim, and laying his hand on the arm of Wildrake. "Stake what you can, play high to-night-for the last timeand with your winnings-for you will win-start fair on your new career to-morrow."

"You shall keep your oath, you shall win back the shawl," cried Self-deception; "but if you delay till you earn money by slow drudgery at desk or counter, you may wait till your head is gray. Take a shorter method, my boy! Go to-night to your favourite resort at Blackleg's, go only this once, you will have a run of luck, of that I have a presentiment which I have never yet found false. You will play-play high-for the last time, of course, fill your purse, recover the shawl, and give it back to your parent, and then start at once on your new course of reformation, satisfied that you have "Dare not! is that a word for a bold dashing done what you could to repair your former errors." | spirit such as yours?" exclaimed Self-deception.

Wildrake looked on the Tempter with a gaze expressive of uncertainty and perplexity, then muttered between his clenched teeth, “I dare not do it, I dare not go there; if I once began playing I could not stop,-I should perjure myself,―no, I dare not."

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"Who would believe that you are he who rode Coquette at the steeple-chase, cleared at a flyingleap the stone dyke on Deadman's Hill which half the horses refused, and the hedge by the sunken ditch where young Harkaway's collar-bone was broken, and came in winner at the last, amidst the deafening cheers of a crowd of spectators!" "Ah! that was a day to be remembered!" cried Wildrake, kindling into sudden enthusiasm at the recollection of his triumph.

"A day worth a thousand of such as you doom yourself to pass on a social treadmill," said Selfdeception. "Recollect the heavy betting on that steeple-chase, and the hundred guineas which you

won-"

"And lost that very night at the gaming-table," interrupted Wildrake.

"You will not lose this night," cried the Tempter; "Dan Dice, who cleared you out then, will be at Blackleg's; you must-you shall have your revenge!"

| with a wild laugh which was sadder to hear than that of a maniac, the prodigal made his exit by the same door as that through which the wretched Leah had passed.

"Intoxication by the dram, intoxication by maddening excitement, they bring to the same goal in the end," observed Smoothaway to himself; "gambling and drunkenness are wellmatched racers in the course to ruin, and the winner, whichever it be, wins but by a neck at the last!"

The almost horizontal rays of the sun, now near his setting, fell full on the western windows, and struggled to penetrate through the ovals of frosted glass, like truth almost piercing through the mist of error. The ovals reddened into a flush; there was just enough of the glorious radiance from without beheld within the mysterious apartment to show that the sun was behind the glass, but not one pure beam could stream into the chamber of Self-deception. That transitory flush soon passed away, like the short-lived impulse towards reformation which had arisen in the hearts of the two last hapless transgressors who had listened to the flatterer's voice.

"I will have my revenge!" exclaimed Wildrake, snatching up the electric belt, and from its touch appearing to gather wild animation and spirit. "I will wear this to-night, if I never wear it more; I will have my full swing of pleasure for O Self-deception! most faithless, most false ! once, if I hang myself for it to-morrow!" And how many soul-murders lie at thy door!

XVIII.

The Church in the House.

BEREAN NOBILITY.

ACTS xvii. 10, 11.

SECOND SERIES.

BY THE EDITOR.

ASON and his companions were admitted to bail. The tumult for the time subsided. The brethren sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea; for they were free to act on their Master's rule, "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye unto another."

That night-journey demands a passing notice. They started at night in order to escape the rage of the persecutors; but they could not reach Berea in one day's march, for the distance was about sixty miles. The road led at first westward, through a great plain, and then ascended the mountain. Berea lies on the eastern slope of the Olympian range. It is still a town of 20,000 inhabitants, and contains some remains of Greek and

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Roman buildings. Behold the two missionaries, with their guide, toiling along by night, eager to reach another station, where they might work and win before the wave of persecution should overtake them.

It is instructive to compare the occupation of this night with that of the last night of which the history is recorded-the night in prison at Philippi. Then they sang praise and prayer. They were enclosed within prison walls, and fastened to the ground. What could they do? All was bound except their lips, and with these they sang. But this night, when they had escaped from the persecutors in Thessalonica, they did not sit down and sing. There, worship was work; here, work was worship. Generally the history tells what was done in the day-time; but in these cases the events of the night are mentioned because these events concerned the King. In the first of these nights, the men, finding work impossible, worshipped; and that act of worship

turned out a successful work, for numbers were thereby won to Christ, and a footing for the gospel obtained in a heathen city. In the second night, when they could neither sleep nor work, the missionaries marched; and the march became the means of life from the dead to many in Berea, for by that sudden night-march the preachers got the start of their enemies, and had laid the founda- | tions of a permanent edifice, before the Jews of Thessalonica could discover the direction of their flight and take measures for opposing them.

In Berea, they immediately addressed themselves to the Jews in their synagogue. "These were more noble then those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so."

There is a heraldry, it seems, in the kingdom of God as well as in the kingdoms of this world. Our King's throne, too, is encircled by a high-born nobility. In the Scriptures you will find the record of their deeds and the patent of their rank. The disciples of Christ are taught neither to vilify nor extol a temporal nobility. Christianity is not revolutionist. It is so deeply occupied with an inner revolution for eternity, that it cannot bestow any attention on the political revolutions of time. As it will not spend its strength in setting these thrones up, neither will it turn aside to pull them down. It leaves them precisely where it found them, and passes en in pursuit of its own aim.

If we could obtain a view of this earth from a great height in the heavens, the mountains would not appear very high, the valleys would not appear very deep. The inequalities on the earth's surface, which from our present view-point seem great, would disappear, and all would be reduced to a level. Precisely the same law rules in the spiritual sphere. When any one attains spiritually a great elevation, the differences of social condition, which bulk largely in other men's eyes, almost altogether disappear. To one who looks on the community as from the throne of God, the artificial distinctions which prevail in society seem to be blotted out: in his view, all are low until grace raise then no.

But distinctions there are, notwithstanding-distinctions between one man and another-real, deep, permanent. Some are slaves when seen from the higher view-point, and some are free; some are dead in sins, and some have been raised to newness of life; some are rich in grace, while others are wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked; some are high-born, and some low.

These were more noble-high-born. Two things go to constitute nobility in its temporal form: first, the sovereign's choice in its origin; and second, the actual birthright of each individual noble in successive generations. The spring of all lies in the good pleasure of the king. The same feature is found in the nobility of the heavenly kingdom. Abraham was one of the multitude "beyond the flood"-on the east of the Euphrates. He

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was of plebeian blood and training. His tribe served idols in the rich plain of the Tigris, and lived without God in the world. He was sovereignly chosen and called. He received the patent of his nobility in the specific promise of the King eternal; and large possessions were bestowed upon him for the support of his dignity. Το him, many generations afterwards, kings and nobles proudly traced their pedigree.

At a later period of the empire, when the King's Son was sojourning in this province, he called others-certain common plebeian men-and conferred on them the patent of nobility. Some fishermen were at that time raised from the ranks. In Rome they call Peter a prince: the title is not amiss, although they apply it falsely. About the same time some tax-collectors were admitted into the princely rank; and after the King's Son had returned to the seat of government, a noted rebel was first taken captive, and thereafter made a noble at his conqueror's court-an ambassador to the nations in the service of his reconciled King.

Further, each noble of this kingdom is himself born to his title and estate. Nicodemus, though a son of Abraham by his first birth, must himself be born again ere he could enjoy the privileges of a peer.

But there is one broad distinction, which should be carefully observed, between the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of Christ, in regard to the manner in which peers are made,-in regard to what constitutes nobility. In the kingdoms of this world there are two distinct methods; and of the whole body of the peerage, some are admitted in one way, some in the other-none in both. Some are called from other classes by the free election of the sovereign, and some are born into their dignities. In the kingdom of Christ, every noble unites in himself both these rights. He is chosen from without into the circle of the princes; and he is also born into the family. It requires both the earthly things to represent the heavenly. One represents the election by the sovereignty of God, and the other represents the actual change which in the regeneration passes upon the heart and life of the man.

These two represent salvation respectively on its upper and its under side, as the Parable of the Good Shepherd and the Parable of the Prodigal represent it. The upper side of the seal contains the legend, “The Lord knoweth them that are his ;" and the under side, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Two characteristic features of the Berean nobility are recorded, in order that we in the end of the world may be able to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious; "They received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether these things were so." These qualities are distinct from each other, and yet are so bound together as to constitute a pair. The one is a tender, childlike receptiveness for revealed truth; the other is a manly independence of judgment. Their hearts drank in readily the water of life; but their

understandings sifted the doctrines that were preached, and tried them by the law and the testimony.

1. Their hearts were receptive. In this matter the Jews of Berea were favourably distinguished from those of Thessalonica. Those who, like Saul before his conversion, had a knowledge of the law, and a full stock of variegated merits, did not so readily open to receive the gospel. They were like a field that is soaked and soured with stagnant water: when a shower falls on such a field it trickles off again. It is the dry land that drinks in the rain.

The distinction is similar to that which the parable makes between the good ground and the hard beaten wayside. The seed that fell on both places was the same. It was the quality of softness in the one that rendered it receptive, and the quality of hardness in the other which caused it to reject the seed. Here lay the cause of the difference disclosed in harvest. As more depends on the condition of the soil than on the skill of the sower, so more depends on a receptive spirit in the hearers than on the peculiar ability of the preacher. There is a remarkable analogy, too, between the immediate cause of receptiveness in the cultivated ground on the one hand, and the immediate cause of the receptiveness of a human heart on the other. A broken, a contrite heart is the ordinary expression for a humble disposition of scul, crushed by a sense of sin, and thirsting for the living water. It is where the ground is broken small that the seed finds its way into the soil and the grain is gathered in harvest; in like manner it is in those who have been bruised by conviction of sin, and as it were melted by the mercy of God, that the offer of the gospel goes home, and the fruits of righteousness ripen apace.

The second characteristic of Bercan nobility is the exercise of private judgment. They searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so. This short, simple intimation puts to shame the sophistry with which Rome has for ages striven to conceal the Word of God from the people. Charity is popular in our day, and "great is the company of them" that preach it; but we must see well to it lest we make a fatal mistake as to what is charity. Charity is not an equal regard for truth and falsehood,-for light and darkness. Charity is love; but how can you really love your brother if you do not loathe and denounce that which destroys him? You cannot love your brother, and fondle the serpent which is stinging him to the second death. The political sentiment which in the name of charity supports the Papacy is a delusion. It is a dream from which political men will be awakened by some rude shock. It is a spurious liberalism that under any pretext pets and feeds the greatest enslaver of mankind. It is noble, says the Spirit of God, for private men to search the Scriptures daily in order to determine thereby the truth or falsehood of any doctrine that may be proposed for their acceptance: for this noble act the Romish hierarchy has everywhere persecuted even unto death.

The term rendered "searched" in the text indicates

that they pored over the page; and after having read a sentence, returned to traverse the lines again, in order that the track of the sense might be more deeply graven on their minds. They avoided the two extremes of easy credulity and hard unbelief. Some stand rigid against the truth and yield not at all; others bend easily before every doctrine that is plausibly presented, but bend as the willow bends to the breeze, taking every position but keeping none.

It is a general law of human nature that what comes lightly, goes lightly. What we gain by a hard struggle, we retain with a firmer grasp, whether it be our fortune or our faith. Those men who have obtained great wealth without any trouble or toil of their own, often scatter it, and die in poverty. It is seldom that the man who gains a fortune by gigantic labour wastes the wealth he has won. In like manner, give me the Christian who has fought his way to his Christianity. If it is through fire and water that he has reached the wealthy place, he will not lightly leave his rich inherit

ance.

XIX.

SOME AN HUNDREDFOLD.

ACTS xvii. 12.

THEY believed. The word is little; the thing is greatis life from the dead. By this one step they passed from a state of condemnation to a state of peace with God. They escaped from a house built on the sand before it fell, and took refuge in the house that was built upon the rock. The moment before they were without Christ, and therefore without hope in the world: the moment after, they were in Christ, and heirs of eternal life. The step they took that day separated them conclusively from all the wicked, and allied them for ever with the true and pure. Their life is hid now with Christ in God: none shall ever be able to pluck them from their Redeemer's hand.

If any should ask, How could interests so vast turn on a point so small? How could the act of a moment,the secret quiver of the soul's affection in transferring itself to the Saviour,-how could this mental act become the turning-point between woe and weal for eternity? All decisive turnings are made on points. It is on sharp points that great magnitudes can best be turned. He was born he died. These are small points; and how vast the issues that move on them! People speak vaguely about the poles of the globe: these poles are mathematical points; yet how huge is the mass that spins round upon them from age to age!

Many believed. A swelling of spiritual life sometimes comes over a city or a country, as the tidal wave comes over the ocean,-lifted and led, in both cases, by a distant power in the heavens. Therefore many believed: the effects are distinctly traced to their immediate cause. The minds of the listeners inclined and opened to the

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