soul shall be required of thee;" whereas, if he had not been a fool, God, perhaps, would have been pleased to prolong his life, and made those gifts blessings indeed, for all the real pleasure we have comes from him.

W. I think you are wrong there; for man has many pleasures which do not come from God.

C. Don't talk ridiculous. Have I not just mentioned the kindness of God in giving us all our hearts can wish for? Does he not give us eatables, drinkables, dress, wives, carriages, horses, birds, beast, fish, insects, and all the productions of the earth, which it would take a great length of time only to name. Everything is of use, even the smallest insect is food for the next size insect or bird; animals live on animals, fish on fish, birds on birds, &c., but to man what variety he allows him. It is, therefore, the want of knowledge or thought in any man, which causes him to deny that God is not the giver of every good thing and pleasure he has. To explain more particularly, first consider food, its variety is too numerous to name; what pleasure we feel in eating, pleasure in tasting, as we gradually satisfy our appetites; now the delights we feel in using, are gifts as well as the food; but Satan is always on the alert to mar or to destroy the real pleasure that God intended his gifts to cause us. The devil insinuates thus: "Don't stop until you are hungry; make a mixture of a great number of things at once. If you take a large quantity, and a great variety, you will increase the pleasure beyond what God intended food to give." Then again with drink, such as spirits, wine, beer, &c., there is no doubt but God put spirit into grain, potatoes, grapes, &c., that he put it in the heart or head of man to abstract that spirit for some wise end, perhaps for medicinal uses, or even to cheer the heart of man; but we abuse the gift, by listening to such persuasions as I have just mentioned, thereby making that which is a good gift a curse in every sense. As also with dress; although God made the diamonds, gold, silver, precious stones, wool, cotton, linen, silk, &c., (study the silk worm) and gave also the wisdom to man to comprehend the uses he made them for; yet how they are abused, and how frequently made curses instead of blessings.

W.-How made curses?

C. By listening to the tempter; he persuades some "never to mind being dishonest, only dress well;" others, "you must dress well, you can well afford it," our own pride helps us to that. I admit it is right that all should dress according to their means; but the great mischief Satan does is this, he makes men believe, and actually feel, that they are what they are not.

W. I can't make that out.

C.—Are there not some who fancy themselves gentlemen, when they are more like monkeys? Some, too, fancy they are rich when they are poor; and if the wool, &c., should be dyed some bright colour of God's, and some of his gold and precious stones stuck over them, they feel themselves to be a very superior order of beings. It puts me in mind of a story I have heard of Dr. Watts. He was looked upon by some great man as a very inferior person, on account of his appearance, when Watts exclaimed :

"Were I so tall to reach the Pole,

Or grasp the ocean with a span;
I must be measured by my soul,

The mind's the standard of the man."

Now what I want to impress on your mind is this, first, the better you can afford to dress the more thankful you ought to be; next, never let it cause you to be proud, and do not let it be your study, for when the devil can make men and women believe that their bodies are the only things to study, his object is gained, because attention to the soul will not then be given.

W. I have listened to you with great patience, but this devil you talk so much about I cannot believe exists, I think all the devil there is, is within us.

C.-Only because you cannot see him; that is the very reason men say there is no God; they may as well deny having a heart, because they cannot see it, and which they never will see. I will endeavour to prove that there is an opposition power or spirit existing to God's spirit, and which at the same time, like death, is but a servant. The word of God fully declares the fact," He goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" and God has been pleased to shew us in the case of Pharaoh to what hardness of heart, to what wickedness and end he will bring men to, if God prevent not. Now respecting the power Satan had over Job, you will find it was limited. "Behold he is in thine hand, but save his life," Job ii. 6. I might point out to you a great number of places in Scripture, where the power Satan has over man is seen, at the same time shewing the power of God overruling that which Satan intends for evil, for the good of his people, especially the crucifixion of Christ; besides, we daily see the works of God, and constantly behold the power of Satan over man. But, oh, that day! that blessed time! which God has been pleased to reveal to us by his prophets and apostles, when it is his intention to take him from the earth, and for a thousand years he shall not trouble the world. "Thy kingdom

come, Thy will be done." I do verily believe, if it was not for that enemy of man, the propensity to sin which is born in us, would not be sufficiently strong to withstand the pleadings of men, assisted as they are by God's spirit and word. All men would then believe, all would become Christians; blessed be God, he has promised they all shall be. "A nation shall be born at once. The knowledge of the Lord shall cover the whole earth, all flesh shall know him." Man will then enjoy the Giver and the gifts very much more than they do now, there will be no excess, therefore much greater enjoyment. Oh, that men would watch and pray that God would not allow them to be tempted. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

W.-Do you mean to say God allows the devil to tempt men and women.

C.-If he did not allow it, it would not be, and there would be no occasion for that part of the Lord's prayer which I have just quoted. The reason of such permission no man can tell. It is the main spring of all controversy. It is a hidden thing with God. We cannot alter the will of God, but we can resist the temptations of Satan. There is no doubt it is for some wise end, and shall not the Lord of all the earth do right, we shall know the reason, for he has said, "What ye know not now ye shall know hereafter;" besides, how mysterious does the will of God appear in allowing his prophets, apostles and martyrs to die such dreadful deaths. Jesus, before his death, compared himself to a grain of wheat, which he said must die to bring forth fruit. Besides, God has said that all things shall work together for good to them who love him. I once heard a story of a minister, at the time of bad Queen Mary, he was being taken from the country to London for trial, and on his way, by some means, had his leg broken; the men who had him in charge, taunted him with his favourite or usual expression, "It's all for the best," he replied, there was no doubt about it, that he knew his heavenly Father would not have permitted it, was it not for the best, which was proved to be true, for instead of having his trial, he was taken to a hospital, and while there the queen died, and his useful life was spared; being one instance out of tens of thousands to prove that God brings good out of evil.

W. Such things may happen sometimes, but the mystery to me is, why God should allow that evil to exist. You have been telling me of his kindness to you, that he gives you to see, feel and acknowledge it; that he provides food for all things that breathe; that they must seek or they shall not find; that God will not do for us what we can do for ourselves; that he has given us a very great variety of tastes, enjoyments, pleasures and delights; that if we labour he will approve and

improve; that it delights him to see us happy in his gifts; that he will be enquired of; that man wants to be independant of him and cannot be; that he can bless and curse, &c.; so that, according to your account, he foresees everything, loves all his creatures, (which I have no doubt of,) and tries all he can, as it were, to make us all happy. I say, it is surprising to me why he should allow so much misery in the world?

C.-Man alone is the cause; although, as I said before, the devil tempts and uses men and women as instruments in his hands to tempt others, then he or she who gets into the snare sins and suffers; suppose, for instance, a man was to tell you that what I have been saying was all a lie, and all that came from the Bible was nonsense, and you believed him, that is simply believing the spirit that hates you, in preference or before him who loves you.

W. I understand what you mean; but why should we have such a propensity to listen to him before the other?

C.-As I have stated, there is the mystery. We can only say, according as we read, that man was made perfect, and listened to the same spirit before we did, and through him we have the propensity, it is in our nature, born in us. The devil and the flesh are at enmity against God. God has given us a will of our own; so that there are, as it were, three wills, God's will, the devil's will, and the will of man. God's will is that all men should believe and be saved, for he loves them. The devil's will is that all men should disbelieve God and be damned, for he hates them; and man's will is to be an independant creature, careless of the one or the other.

W. That is coming to the point. Now, from your own words, you say that God's will is that all men should believe and be happy; if, therefore, he is a God of all power, why does he not have his will or wish?

C.-Then man would have no will of his own. If I could do with you what I liked, you would be but a machine in my hands.

W.-Yes, yes, I now begin to see a little into it, how much better for us if we had no will of our own, for we should not resist then.

C.-Our stubborn will is a mystery we cannot fathom. What we have got to do is to know all the devices of Satan, and pray that God would help us to resist his temptations; watch and pray.

W. It is getting late, so I must wish you good night. My wife will wonder what has become of me; but I shall call some other evening; in the mean time I shall look into the Bible a bit.

C.-Good night, and may God open your eyes and soften your heart.

DIALOGUE II.

"Even as the green herb have I given you all things.”—Gen. ix. 3. "For all that is in the heaven and the earth is thine.

Both riches and honour

come of thee, in thine hand it is to make great and to give strength. All things come of thee."-1 Chron. xxix. 11-14.

"The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth."-Prov. iii. 19.

'Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.-Prov. viii. 31.

"Riches profit not in the day of wrath; he that trusteth in his riches shall fall, but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.”—Prov. xi. 4, 28.

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Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight."-Prov. xii. 22.

Wiseman. Taking it cooly and meditating, I wish I could smoke and enjoy a pipe as you do. Well, how are you this evening?

Christian.-Happy, generally happy, and I hope you are

happy.

W-I want to be happy if I can; I try a great many things, but I cannot satisfy my conscience; it seems to be always accusing me.

C.-I am very glad to hear you say so; for some men's consciences are so hardened that one would suppose they were without any; but I think that cannot be.

W.-Now, don't you think it a sinful thing to smoke?

C.-That is rather a foolish question to ask; you may as well ask me if taking a glass of wine was a sin; like all other gifts, there is sin and there is no sin in the use. To explain: if I offend any by smoking, it is sinning, for all offences are sins. If myself or another suffer in any way by my extravagance in cigars, &c. that is sinning; if it hurts my health it is a sin; for we are not our own, we are his who owns the earth and all things on it; besides, to hurt ourselves in any way, not only proves us to be--I was going to say fools-it proves us to be very weak minded; and we not only sin against ourselves, but those who depend on us, and of course that is sinning against God. Now, if I lay out hundreds of pounds in a year for cigars, and smoke the whole myself, it is not sin if neither of those results, which I have mentioned, proceed from it.

W.-That word if comes in very well; then you think God allows it?

C.-Undoubtedly I do. When he made the clay and