over the fatal defect, and may make it be thought of no moment. Amiability and pure morals are, of course, so much religion themselves, but without frank loyalty to God in addition, they are only the virtues of Heathenism, not of Christianity. Vague reverence, and natural worship, show a susceptibility for a more definite faith and homage, but are imperfect if either be wanting. It is not enough to be Scipio, or Marcus Aurelius; what is needed is to be a Christian. Nor is it enough to appropriate Christian morality without acknowledgment, and take credit to ourselves for what is due to the New Testament. I mean by religion that which accepts Jesus Christ as the Saviour, and seeks to reproduce His image in daily life, alike in Spirit and Act.

Anything less must fail to secure a healthy influence of mind on mind. With a lower standard, nothing prevents mistakes or disarms temptations, if expediency, impulse, or pleasure, plead for them. In such a case there is nothing but our own will, in the last resort, to check or guide us. Education is arbitrary, public opinion varies, and natural conscience, even with the light borrowed from the Bible, may be clouded, when strong inducements appeal. We must become our own law, and our will is a Servant oftener than a master. It is not the authority of parents, or forefathers, that teaches control, says St. Jerome, but that of God.*

* Non parentum aut majorum auctoritas, sed Dei, docebit imperium.

To be a good son to the Father in Heaven is the only safety in him whom you make your Companion. There is no limit to the influence of mind on mind, in friendship, which, as the philosopher says, has but one soul in two bodies; and good is more readily tainted by evil than evil corrected by good. It was a saying of the Middle Ages, "If you go to Rome once you will see a bad man; go again, you will make his acquaintance; go the third time, you will bring him back with you"; an anticipation, by some centuries, of Pope's well-known lines.* Poppy and mandragora, loathed at first, are soon indifferent, and, presently, craved; and they say that the bird that once looks in the serpent's eyes, forthwith, helplessly flutters towards its jaws. Like arctic cold, Evil Influence, braved for a time, by and by numbs us, and brings on Death behind a veil of delightful dreams. If thus with vice, it is still more so with mere negations, toned down as they may be by much that is good or pleasant. The absence of the religious sentiment is soon forgotten or forgiven, and we sink to the same level.

A Christian young man will find no thorough enjoyment in the friendship of any one who is not himself a Christian. To have the same likings' and dislikings, the same tastes and turns of mind, is at the bottom of heartiness; without it, there will be disputes, or suppressions, and either cause

"Vice is a monster," &c. Essay on Man. Epist. ii.

want of sympathy. Friends must be twin roses, which hold each other up by twining as they grow. Difference on anything which occupies us much, even for the time, is fatal to friendships, for many are broken by mere passing heats; how fatal, then, must it be when the opposition lies. in the tenderest depths of the soul. To have our most sacred sympathies chilled by indifference. or wounded by antipathy, makes friendship impossible. Walking opposite ways, caring for opposite interests, differing in pleasures, regrets, and hopes, you may be together, but are never one. Sympathy is the golden bond of friendship. Our tastes, pursuits, and affections, are the paths of the spirit, and he who goes with us must have the same. Like the two lutes in a chamber, of which to touch a note on the one, as they say, makes the other murmur it back, two hearts, to be fit for friendship, must have common chords.

Still, with all, there needs care and wisdom. Even to a worthy friend it is not wise to tell everything, though, except in what must be secret, frankness and confidence are as delightful as they are profitable. It was good advice one gave his son, "Make companions of few, be intimate with one, deal justly with all, speak evil of none." If you find a friend, think none the worse of him that he is not a friend to your faults as well as yourself.

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Every one who spares you is

not your friend," says Augustine, "nor every one who smites you your enemy; it is better to love with

fidelity than to deceive by good nature." * Nor must you forget that it is necessary to bear and forbear. Slight faults in a friend always have their counterpart in ourselves. There is no one who has not abatements. Give and require confidence; friendship leaks out of any breach in mutual trust and honour. He who betrays you, whether from intention or weakness, shows a vital defect. To speak to a friend must be to speak to a second self. A blab or sieve, far less a traitor, is dangerous. "It is the solace of this life," says St. Ambrose, "to have one to whom you can open your heart, and tell your secrets; to win to yourself a faithful man, who will rejoice with you in sunshine, and weep in showers; it is easy and common to say, 'I am wholly thine,' but to find it true is as rare." †

* Non omnis qui parcit, amicus est; nec omnis qui verberat, inimicus. Melius est cum severitate diligere, quam cum lenitate decipere.-Aug. Epist. xciii. 4.

Amb. De Offic. lib. iii.

M

SUCCESS.

ORNING opens with painted clouds, and so does life. Many-coloured dreams of the Future sail, slow moving, along the blue-romantic enough as a contrast to the Reality when it comes. The Far-Off Hills of Our Happy Valley lie in the Rosy Light, hiding the roughness one day to be climbed, and sowing the earth with Orient Pearl. Change the figure; call Life a Voyage; it comes to the same. We sail out of the quiet harbour of early years, streamers flying, yards dressed,-" Hope in the prow, and Pleasure at the helm;" but before we gain quiet waters again, what chances, changes, dangers, failures, anxieties, fears! Some, too light, turn over and sink with the first wind; some, wrong in the compass, or driven by a gale, drift on ruin, and perish; some go down battling bravely in the wild sea; some come back again, grey and weatherstained, but sails spread proudly, the light of home on all faces, deep laden with the wealth for which they have ventured so much and so far.

But Success is rightly to be expected, and waits our winning in far more cases than it is realised. The