For this great work of life God has not left the poor, groping, blundering builder to his own wit and wisdom. He has not thrown him back upon his own resources of human nature. He himself has drawn the plan and given the specifications. In the Bible he has put it all down so plainly and simply, that even the fool, with that wonderful manual in his hand, need not err. He even offers to come into lowly partnership for co-operation in the work, to give power, to make his strength perfect in human weakness, to take the heaviest burdens himself. He has given his solemn pledge that not one thing of all that is necessary to the completion and perfection of the work shall fail on his part.

One by one the workmen, the builders for eternity, are dismissed from their work. How unspeakably sad and heartbreaking will it be to the foolish builders to see the work of a whole lifetime, of every toil and care, vanish in the testing fire of the day of God! "Wood, hay, stubble!" Time, strength, talent, painful application, all wasted and lost! Houseless, homeless, hopeless for evermore!

But how glorious, builders, will be the day that shall declare the work of a lifetime approved by God, and reveal the perfected temple of character, unhurt by the fire, "found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ"! Oh, blessed fullness of compensation for all the toils and tears, the sacrifices and sufferings, of this little life! To be forever with the Lord! To have a permanent place in that "city never built with hands, or heavy with the years of time; a city whose inhabitants no census has numbered; a city through whose streets rushes no tide of business, nor nodding hearse creeps. slowly with its burden to the tomb; a city without griefs or graves, without sins or sorrows, without births or burials, without marriages or mournings; a city which glories in having Jesus for its King, angels for its guards, saints for citizens; whose walls are salvation, and whose gates are praise."

Into that city of God, with life's work well done, may writer and reader at last have an abundant entrance.

Our Great Ledger Account.

PROF. GEORGE S. GOODSPEED, PH.D., of the University of Chicago.

THE

HE evening hour is approaching. The day's work is almost over. We have made many entries during the busy

hours, but have not found time to sum them up and compare debit and credit, to know where we stand. It is well to do so now before we go home. Rest will be sweeter and the evening hour undisturbed, if we have made out the balance sheet. Then to-morrow we can go back to our work refreshed, with no unfinished tasks lying in our onward pathway. And if we should die, there will be no errors for our successor to correct, and no ugly snarls for the expert to unravel.

Not every one of us keeps accounts. There are some very careful people, who, in their family life, are extraordinarily systematic and laborious in the reckoning of their receipts and expenses. Then there are others so constituted that they do not know where the money goes, or whence it comes, and they do not care. But in one sphere we are all bookkeepers, and our library, if it has no other book in it, has a ledger, which we are at work upon every moment of our waking hours. It is the book which we open from the first day of conscious responsibility and close only as the night of death draws down. Then, indeed, we take it with us where we can take nothing else, and, on the last great day, we bring it before the great Master Accountant when "the books are opened," and we read out from it the record of the past, the balance sheet which determines the place and manner of our future activity through the endless ages. This kind of accounts we cannot avoid if we

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