work, whereby the worth of the calling is enhanced and its name increased in honour. It has all done for him which ought to be done. He must do the rest; and leave the calling nobler than when it found him. This is duty. This is opportunity. This is a grand time to live in; a grand world to work in. Bacon said, that "In this world God only and the Angels may be spectators." They are not spectators. They work, and admit us into their purposes, that with clear reason, and strong will, and a robust conscience, we may be labourers with them. It is very fine if we are equal to the calling. Let us be equal to it!

VI

TIME

IME is "a definite portion of duration,"

T

and duration is "the period of time dur

ing which anything lasts." Eternity is “infinite duration." The Lexicon does not give much help. We have to fall back upon our own knowledge, which it is not easy to frame in words. Perhaps it is well to say that Time is a part of Eternity; or, to be more precise, it is that part of Eternity which is given us in this world. In a definition of Time, or of anything else, it is necessary to set it in its relations. It flows from the duration which has been before it and it passes smoothly into that which comes after it. Whatever may be imagined of our preexistence, of which we know nothing, the continuance of our being is a commonplace of the common mind. Of this continuance some things have already been written in these papers. Its bearing upon present purposes and actions cannot be overrated. It is Time itself which we are now to consider. We give to Time its own names and measurements, and it should be of service to regard these. After a plan of our own

we number the century and the year. But from what point do we start in our reckoning? There have been many systems of chronology. In the land in which we live and among those with whom we have chiefly to do in other lands, there is one system, which is being extended. It is not the oldest. The Hebrew counted from the creation of the world. This would be very well were it not that we cannot determine the beginning. Indeed Creation was not the work of any one year, or age; although there was a final act and thought. The Roman counted from the founding of Rome, which was to him. the point of greatest consequence. The Greek started from the Olympic games, which carried him further back than the Roman wished to go. Then there were various Oriental methods with which we need not concern ourselves. But it is a fact of momentous significance, that the point "in the files of time" from which the ruling peoples reckon their place was found in a small province of the empire and in the night when, in the household of a village carpenter, then far from his home in Galilee, a child was born. Many beautiful things are told of this birth which has come to be known as the Nativity. But there is nothing more remarkable than that an event of that character, and under those conditions, should be made the starting point of the world's measurement of time, for

its governments, its commerce, its literature, and the affairs of daily life. It is remarkable that the daily paper should assert its place as nineteen hundred years from that child's birth; and that practically every treaty, contract, book, letter, should bear the same figures. We ought to know how this has come to pass and to be familiar with all the steps of the process. The date is not exact, but the variation of four or five years does not lessen its significance. The history is not to be traced here, but a few words should be said of the reasons in its beginning.

About the middle of the sixth century, as we count centuries, because of certain changes in the Roman government it became necessary to find a new point from which time could be computed. There was a Roman abbot named Dionysius, known as Dionysius the Small, but of large learning, who was concerned with ecclesiastical laws and canons and decretals; and in his tables for Easter had begun to count the years from the birth of the Child in Bethlehem. When the authorities were looking about for a new starting point this method was thought to be a good one, and it was adopted by the government. It was readily taken up by writers and rulers, and by the eighth century had become well established in the position which it now holds. It is all wonderful, that the birth

of the child of a humble woman in an obscure provincial village should become the centre of chronology. This belongs with the larger fact, that the ruling nations of the world call themselves after Him. It is a strong figure of speech by which his name is represented as "ploughed into" civilization. If one chooses to give this a religious bearing, he is at liberty to do so; but it is written here merely as a matter of history.

We have taken a profound subject in "This deep mystery of ever-flowing Time; bringing forth, and as the Ancients wisely fabled, devouring what it has brought forth; rushing on, in us, yet above us, all uncontrollable by us; and under it, dimly visible athwart it, the bottomless Eternal," this is what Carlyle calls "the primary idea of Poetry." Perhaps it is; but we are not so helpless as the words would have us think. Life is properly likened to a stream; but the stream does not cease to flow. In all its course it is one. Enter it where you will, it is still the stream. Time may be the outer veil of Eternity"; but it is a very real present. It does not bear away the past, but holds it for our use. We do not need a "Time annihilating Hat" to restore to us that which has been; its form may have been taken from us, but its meaning and influence remain. These are the oldest times, because the furthest from Time's birth. Although

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