would, and, even when we are most heedless and thoughtless, we are still going on with the record. Is it not worth while, then, to take down the book before the final entry is made, to look over the accounts, and cast up trial balances to find out where we stand? Come with us, each with his own record, and as our present volume draws to a close, open life's ledger, examine its most important accounts, ask how they stand, and, in the light of the facts they disclose, forecast the future and prepare for it.

The parties with whom you and I deal in life are, as individuals, many and various, but in this ledger of ours they may be summed up under three heads, Self, Society, and God. With these three persons, many, yes, all our transactions are held, and, as many as are the spheres and modes of dealing with them, they, after all, are the principals. In the brief word of counsel and conference which we are to have together, these three accounts will occupy all our attention. Let us be frank, sincere, seeking only to know how we stand with these three all-encompassing factors of our life.

The account with Self, our nearest neighbor, our constant companion-how full that is in all its specifications! Here is your body, which the highest authority has called "the temple of God." It is wonderful in structure, exquisite in mechanism, of extraordinary endurance, unequaled flexibility, an illustration and the seat of the most stupendous as well as of the most minute of the natural forces. You have been given the charge of it, its governance. You are engineer of the finest mechanism in existence. How have you handled it? Have you made it the "temple of God" or the hall of Satan? Has it been purified or degraded ?

There are your thoughts. They are part of your account with Self. Its figures are known only to yourself-and God. You do not tell your nearest friend all your thoughts, but "He that searcheth the heart, knoweth the mind of man." This is a most important element in your life's business. Are those thoughts clean and sweet? Do you think on that which is most

noble and worthy? A high aim and steadfast endeavor after character is everything. Are you master of your purposes so that, whether you sail over rough seas or smooth, whether your way lies in the light or the darkness, you are pressing onward toward the higher goal, never giving up though bruised and battered? A high moral purpose in one's own soul makes the difference between true life and mere existence. The one has a harbor to make. The other is like a chip on the stream, the sport of current and storm. The one lays up treasures in heaven. The other is an eternal bankrupt. What does the ledger say-gain or loss? a worthy ambition or heedless, careless improvidence? This account with Self may well make us ponder and beware.

You turn on a few pages and come to the account with Society. Man enters into relation with himself first, and with his fellow men next. Social relations bring obligations, and the obligations fulfilled or unfulfilled appear in the book. What is the home life? Have the children seen the father and mother quarreling? The attitude of the son or daughter toward the parents is the subject of a great commandment of God. What responsibility is assumed by the father of a family, by the mother of children!

What is the business life? The real meaning and value of the money you have made or lost, by fair or foul dealing, you estimate at its true value in the ledger. Here it is charged up for or against you. Other men may think you progressive, but perhaps you write yourself down here as a cheat. Other men may think you dull and slow, but your deeds inscribed on that page show instances of self-sacrificing kindness that would shame your slanderers. The records of your property and its actual worth appear here. What you have given, you possess. What you have selfishly made, you have lost. This ledger is a great corrective of the everyday dealings of man with his neighbor. And the record is made by himself.

Let us look at this account with society from two general points of view,-in terms of speech and influence. The physi

cian says to the patient first, "Let me see your tongue." What have his words contributed to the debit or credit of a man with his fellows? It has been estimated that one says in a week what, if printed, would be an octavo volume of three hundred and twenty pages. In thirty years this would amount to an extensive library of one thousand five hundred and sixty volumes. How little of it is available and uplifting material, and how much is silly and corrupting! The great evil in our common conversation is that so large an element of it is idle, extravagant, injurious. How much time is consumed in gossip more or less slanderous! How much vulgarity and worse than vulgarity is vomited forth from some men's mouths! On which side of the account does all this go? "By thy words shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned."

Even more comprehensive and vital is your obligation to society in the matter of influence. It appears not as promissory notes written on paper, but in the human hearts impressed for good or ill by your example. The marks of influence are ineffaceable, and yet its meaning and effect are easily overlooked. Look around you on your associates and ask yourself, "How am I paying the debt I owe them? Does my example point them upward? Do my words call their better natures into action? What kind of a mark does my life leave upon men?" Influence is as subtle as the atmosphere, but just as penetrating and powerful. Here are father and mother. As a great preacher has said, "They have the marking of a child's heart. They are writing that child's history because they are living it. They are branding its life with shame or sealing it with glory." Who can realize the debt of young womanhood in this matter of influence, and how grandly may she redeem all her obligations. Young women, if they would and dared, or desired, could transform the characters and aspirations of the young men of our generation! Are they meeting their obligations? Oh, this influence of ours, how poorly are we redeeming our opportunities and paying the debts which are incurred through its possession!