heart. In secret-alone with God-this conflict goes on, not in the face of the world. The half-hearted man, nay, the hypocrite, may seem to conquer there. He may, and he does compose his countenance before the world, and restrain his spirit before the world. His utmost object the highest attainment at which he aims, is, to succeed in the eyes of the world; and he does perhaps succeed, succeed in a measure, succeed for a time. But inasmuch as he cares not, attempts not to succeed with his own heart, or to become the conqueror over his own spirit, the master of his own inward energies-inasmuch as he has never gone over entirely to the Lord's sidenever served Christ as his only Lord and Master, as there are but two Masters, and he cannot serve both; two ways, and he cannot walk in both; so he shall find that there are but two issues and ends of his mortal existence, and if he does not awake in heaven, he must awake in hell. My reader, let us think of this now ; let us now pray for the Holy Spirit, as we would pray for life, let us cleave to the Lord Jesus with purpose of heart, for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him, are not only "called, and chosen, but faithful," faithful to themselves, faithful to their God, faithful unto death.

Go on-go on-that is the lesson here taught; be in

earnest to go on, and not to stop.

How long, do you

ask? O do not be careful to count the times. The halfhearted man, the lukewarm spirit might do that-the man in earnest does not bargain for a certain number of times, and suppose that he can then have done enough. No, go on-go on without ceasing, and be sure of this when you begin to think that you may fix a time for staying your hand from the work—then you have no downright earnest desire to conquer. The Lord God replies to your question, (if you put it to him as Peter did-Lord, till seven times?) with the same reply He gave to Peter. I say not unto thee till seven times, but till seventy times seven. Go on-go on. How long? why, for ever; that is, while you continue on earth, and in the body of this death; you do not mean to say, that you ever intend to stop till you have conquered, till you have subdued Syria, or that which is Syria to you. O you are shamed by a heathen, if you do—a Christian, and not a warrior-not a conqueror? it must not be!

I bring forward a great name in the heathen, whom I beg you to follow-the name of a great man in the little pursuits and low ambitions of this corrupt and fallen world, but a man who, if not wiser in his generation than the children of light, was more of a warrior and more of a conqueror in his generation; the man that said, when

he had conquered the world, "Give me more worlds to conquer!"

His was certainly a boastful spirit, and a vainglorious spirit, and the child of God is never boastful nor vain-glorious. He does glory, but he would be horror-struck to find himself glorying, save in that cross by which he is crucified to all earthly glory. Oh, had Alexander the Great carried his spirit into the camp of the Christian, and become, by the grace of God, a soldier in the ranks of our great Captain, and fought under the banner of the cross, he would not have said, “O for more worlds to conquer !" but he would have desired and he would have learnt to conquer himself. He would have said with the modest, and manly, and Christian spirit of the great apostle-"Not as if I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after. . . This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

We must do this; nay, it is the common every-day work, the common every-day fight, of every child of God, in his daily walk and you must learn to know this, and act upon it. You must learn to say, "If I do not go on thus, I must be a castaway." Paul felt this, and Paul said this. Is it possible for the child of God to become a cast

away? I reply in Scripture-words: "God is faithful, who also will do it. I am confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." But how? By teaching your hands to war and your fingers to fight, and by keeping your hands in to the work of the fight. You wear His uniform, not as the vain and foolish youth who becomes a soldier for the sake of the golden and glittering trappings of his regimental dress, and to parade it in the idle and the piping times of peace; but you wear His uniform that you may fight His battles, or rather your own battles; for fight you must, and for your own life. Your adversary, if you do not fight, will be satisfied with nothing less than your life; it is for that he tempts you, attacks you, fights with you, and will never cease to keep you up to the fight. You must conquer, or you must be conquered: you must fight or fall. It is hard work, you say. Yes, it is hard work: God forbid that we should make it appear otherwise than hard work. I know it to be hard work; but how glorious it is-how happy we are when resting on our arms-never resting but on our arms; resting on our arms, like the breathless gasping warrior, we feel and we know that we have not yielded-that God who conquered for us, has also conquered in us and by us.

BELSHAZZAR.

"And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote."-DANIEL V. 5.

BY THE REV. CHARLES B. TAYLER,

It was a glorious evening,
The moon unclouded shone,
In all her peerless majesty,
On ancient Babylon :

In shadowy grandeur lying,
With many an airy height
Of terrace, obelisk, and tower,
Steeped in the clear moonlight.

On the lovely hanging gardens
That silvery moonshine falls,
Mid sparkling fountains, grassy glades,
Mid stately palms, and cedar shades,
Within the city walls.

On palace, temple, battlements—

All now to ruin hurled,

One vast and splendid city,

The wonder of the world.