taken one to an asylum. Constant looking at any bright object would blind us. In times of deep religious interest, persons have lost their reason, and it has been said that religion occasioned it. It was not religion, but an exclusive attention to some one department of religion. The best food we eat, if eaten exclusively, would cause dyspepsia, perhaps death. Hence Christians are always injured when any one thought of duty or usefulness or reform of society takes possession of them, to the neglect of other spiritual nourishment or other calls upon their sympathy

and assistance.

This excessive use of particular means is adopted very naturally. The Christian, perhaps, has found, on some occasion, great benefit from meditation, and forth with concludes that this is all he needs. Or he has waked up to see the worth of the soul and the need of direct labor for its salvation, and now he feels that this is the only end of life. This is all natural, but not the less mistaken. When there has been no rain for a long season, and all vegetation is withering and dying, as we see the first shower descend, and mark its effects, we feel, Oh! this is all that is needed; but do we not know that if the shower continues unabated, it will as readily destroy as the burning sun?

Christians must grow as plants grow, not by the use of one means alone, but by every means. The plant grows by day and by night, in the sun and in the shade, in the clear sky and in the shower, by means of earth, air, dew, rain. Any one alone will injure and destroy. In combination they will cause the plant to grow in beauty and fruitfulness.

V. Nor are we to despise outward forms and symbols as helps in religious growth. In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper all is vain except by faith we eat the flesh, and drink the blood of the Son of God. Yet we are to be aided by the use of bread and wine, as appointed symbols of the body of Christ broken for us, and his blood shed for us.

So with prayer. The essence of prayer is the pouring out of the soul before God; but we are not to despise even an attitude in prayer, and regularity in our devotions, as aids, which may greatly help the spirit.

It may be asked what matters the form if I have the spirit; but will you have the spirit as fully without the aid of the form? We are not purely spiritual beings; we are body as well as spirit. And there is an action of the body that harmonizes with the spirit and helps the spirit. There is a song of praise on the tongue which aids the song in the heart. The body is the organ of the soul. When Jesus prayed he lifted up his eyes to heaven. The outward aided the inward. The Son of God was not above the use of these outward helps. Men may sit in unreverential posi

tions, or stand with an air of indifference in the time of prayer; in most cases the outward will express the inward.

Nor can devotion prosper well without set seasons; we need the aid of habit to assist in the formation of spiritual character. Daniel went to his room three times a day to pray to the God of heaven. We may not despise these formal helps in the divine life, remembering that while the plant feeds on air and sunlight it also sends its roots into the dark and damp earth, and finds nourishment even there.

VI. He who will grow in grace, who prays that he may advance in the divine life, must be ready to suffer. The soul can not be disciplined without suffering. The natural life in us dies not without some species of internal agony. The life of faith grows by trials of faith. It is a mystery to the world that the good suffer. "We wonder not," say they, " that the wicked are in trouble, but why should the holiest be afflicted ?" Our Master explained all this to the disciples before leaving them. "Every branch in me, that bringeth forth fruit, he purgeth (or pruneth) it, that it may bring forth more fruit."

"Think it not strange," says Peter, "concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you."

Suffering then is an essential part of the appointed means of our sanctification; no matter what the form of it may be. For one Christian God has one form of trial; for another, another form. The suffering by which you will be sanctified will be probably not of a kind you may be expecting. And this is one reason why it will be more effective. Remember your present trouble, whatever may be its form, whoever may be the agents or instruments in causing it, this trial is all known and permitted by Him who pruneth the branches, that they "may bring forth more fruit."

Read the 11th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and learn how the holiest have been sanctified by suffering; and all in different forms. Abraham must offer his son. Joseph must be hated, and sold by his brethren. This is not enough; before he is exalted, he must be brought still lower, and be cast into an Egyptian prison, under a false accusation. Moses must fly from the luxuries of a court, and wander for forty years in a desert. Daniel must enter the den of lions; the three holy children a fiery furnace; so of David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, John, Polycarp, Huss, Calvin, Baxter, Bunyan, and some devout ones whom you have known. If we suffer with him we shall be glorified together.

VII. Growth demands earnestness. No one grows who does not mean to grow. Paul made great progress; but Paul had a great purpose. Mark his emphatic language: "This one thing I do."

This earnestness of purpose will lead one to watch for every opportunity of growth. It will turn every event, and especially every annoyance of life into a round of the ladder, by which the soul may daily ascend to God. Annoyance-what is an annoyance but something permitted by thy Father to discipline thy spirit?

That man will grow in grace who understands the meaning and value of these little but frequent trials of our temper, just as a man may become wealthy by the income of small but constant profits.

Where there is earnestness there will be growth under the most unpromising circumstances. Earnest souls may seldom hear the Gospel. They live in some destitute region; yet they grow. The Church may be dead about them; the pure doctrines of the Gospel may be so incrusted with superstitions and ceremonies, as scarcely to be recognized, yet such will grow on the little gleams of light and the little nutriment which may be separated from the gross adulterations; just as you sometimes see a living and growing tree whose roots seem to grasp nothing but rocks. As you see a flower flourishing right by the edge of a glacier-a field of ice. Fenelon, Madame Guion, A Kempis, lived the life of God, surrounded by the forms of the Roman Catholic Church. And no doubt to-day may be found many of the hidden ones of the Saviour in the midst of that corrupt communion.

The earnest Christian will find nutriment for his piety every where. Want of growth will not be for want of material for assimilation, but for want of a principle to assimilate.

VIII. Growth demands exercise. As fast as we learn duty we must apply it. To him that hath shall be given-that is, he who makes a right use of what he has. Every act of humility strengthens the feeling, and the man is more humble. Every act of forgiveness renders us more forgiving. Every act of faith increases the principle of faith. Abraham's faith was stronger in his return from the mount of sacrifice than when he ascended with his son for an offering. Every effort put forth, for the cause of Christ, strengthens our love to Christ; as every battle Washington fought for his country only increased his patriotism. As the human body grows by exercise, so the soul.

The pilot of a steamer, on the Ohio, saw a boy struggling for life in the rapids; he sprang into a skiff, was soon among the boiling waters, without an oar; but he saved the boy. Said a stranger to him, on hearing this: "Do you ever see the boy whom you saved ?" "Yes," he answered, "at every trip he comes down to the boat to see me." "And how do you when you see him?" "More than I can tell," he replied: "A deeper interest almost than in any one of my own seven at home,

feel

for whom I have run no such risk." So it is in our labors for Christ. The more we do for him-the more we deny ourselves for him, the deeper will our love be toward him. Growth must have exercise; and we have ample room for it-in the family, in the Church, the Sabbath-school, the city, the land, the world. The whole world now presents itself as a grand arena, for the exercise and discipline of the Church of God. There is enough to do for the highest spiritual development of every disciple; and our Christian progress demands that we cherish a practical sympathy with every movement by which man may be elevated and saved, and God glorified.

IX. Religious growth is no mere theory; it is a possible and a practical thing. A Christian who has aught of the love of Christ in him may have more of that love. He who is humble may be more humble. He who has faith may have a stronger faith. We have beautiful examples of growth in Scripture to stimulate us. Look at the Apostle John. When a young disciple, he wished to call down fire from heaven upon a village of Samaritans because they did not do as he thought they ought to do. Mark this same man after he had been some years in the school of Christ. You would hardly know the once quick and fiery disciple. Hear the aged and matured Apostle, ripe for the charity of heaven: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." "For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath not seen?" A very different spirit this, from calling down fire from heaven!

So too mark the spiritual growth of the man who wrote the text. So weak was Peter's faith and devotion, in his early history, that the taunting of a maiden, in the hall of Pilate, led him to deny his Master, even with an oath; but in process of time that weak faith was so increased, that Peter could meet scourging, imprisonment, and a bloody death without fear, for the sake of his Lord.

And so have we not known those whose Christian growth has been evident to all about them? Does not every Christian pastor's eye delight to rest upon one, here and there, in his flock, whose advance in holiness and usefulness is manifest day by day? What has been done may be done. And it is God's pleasure that it should be done in the case of each one of us; for this is the will of God, even your sanctification.

How blessed the privilege, that we may become more and more like our Saviour day by day. Men delight in growing rich, the scholar in adding to his stores of learning, the ambitious man delights in his growing popularity; but how low and mean is all this, compared with the growth of the soul in virtue, in goodness, in holiness, in likeness to God.

THE PRAYER-MEETING.

WITH the advent of a new year and new volume of this work, we propose to begin a third series, and introduce a new feature into its original plan, in the confident hope of greatly extending its usefulness, and thus supply an important want.

1. We have chosen this heading-THE PRAYER-MEETING - because of its religious and practical significance. They are household words in the great household of Christian faith, redolent of privilege and duty by praying ones in all ages.

2. We believe that prayer-meetings, by the grace of God, are destined to increase in numbers and deepen in interest, till the spirit of prayer shall pervade the Christian world, and introduce the full-orbed splendor of millennial glory. We covet the privilege of aiding in the accomplishment of this blessed work.

3. We have received the approval and encouragement of fathers and brethren in the ministry cordially bestowed on this plan.

4. A leading object of this new feature is indicated by its name or title, THE PRAYER-MEETING. It is designed to place within reach, in convenient form, a rich variety of impressive and suggestive thoughts, as starting-points, when needed, for further instructive remark and comment by those who conduct the prayermeetings.

5. It is believed that in the absence of the pastor or minister from the prayer-meeting, which is not unfrequently the case, acceptable and appropriate aid, to give interest to the occasion, may be derived from the reading of some brief paragraph, article, address, or anecdote, laden with important truth, which may stir the hearts and serve to awaken thoughts and feelings, edifying and profitable.

6. If, in this way, with any subsequent changes or modifi cations which may be found desirable, we can render some humble service in this most important department of Christian instrumentalities, our chief object and desire will be gained.

7. We propose to gather up original and selected articles and anecdotes, which may best subserve the desired object. We hope to gather up treasures new and old.

8. We beg the aid and coöperation of pastors and brethren in the churches, to extend the circulation and usefulness of this work. We hope to render its pages so acceptable and useful, that it will find a place in many families and among private Christians.