business haunts him day by day. He painfully feels, on each serious review of his manner of living, that he is busy only outside of, and away from the true path of life. He carries with him an abiding restlessness and self-reproof. He can find no nook for perfect quiet. No evening hour, no hallowed day of rest, no wooing of peace enables him to feel as if his work were done. There is no cure for his unrest, except deliverance from unfinished business, and the only way to get clear of that is to finish it.

2. Quite different from his case is that of Mr. Noway. The fact is he is an idle man. He is reluctant to do any thing. Like a certain animal, he always moves with an inward groan of pain. He never does any thing he ought to do, until he is pushed into it by the urgent claims and demands of the work itself. He does as little as it is possible for him to do. He is perfectly overwhelmed with unfinished business; and though wonderfully phlegmatic, he has a conscience! This is his perpetual tormentor. He is never free from its chidings. Even when he is not clearly conscious of neglect of duty, he has a kind of half-conscious sense of it. He feels it just enough to make and keep him uneasy. What a life! There can be no greater bondage-no more absolute slavery.

Let these two examples be studied by all those who are restless, without knowing what is wrong in their own case. Here is a picture of the true ground of their unrest.

How hard is it to labor when one is all the time pushed by unfinished work. There is no satisfaction in such labor. How different is the case when one is always well ahead with his duties. He feels like a master. He works as one who feels a power in himself. With what self-respect and cheerful assurance he moves along in his duties, and with what absence of care he rests when rest is necessary, or the time for rest appears.

We are fully convinced, that one half of the irritableness, moodiness, and unhappiness of men, is the result purely, of their carelessness or unfaithfulness in not attending promptly and vigorously to their dutiesduties they themselves acknowledge, but fail to perform. How can they feel satisfied with themselves, when there has been an absence of every thing that can be remembered with satisfaction?

Is there not a law as sure in its operations as any law can be, that rest can only be enjoyed after actual labor-victory, after real conflict-the crown after the cross; and must not, by the same law, satisfaction with ourself depend on the consciousness of work promptly, steadily, and well done? Yea, it is so. If there be a law in our nature that rest is sweet to enjoy after labor, there is just as surely a law in our nature, that our heart will feel an indescribable satisfaction after our work is well and faithfully done.

In view of all this, let it not be forgotten, that our habits are formed in youth. If promptness in duty be not then cultivated-if conscientious faithfulness to committed work and reposed trusts be not then cultivated, it is not likely to be done in later life. Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Can one who has dragged and droned through youth ever make a prompt and faithful man? It may perhaps sometimes be the case, but how seldom !

No one can form this kind of irresponsible, unfaithful, and careless habit in youth, and yet maintain his own self-respect; and when self

respect is gone, or reduced to a low grade, there is an end to energy, an end to improvement, and consequently an end to success in life. The freshness and vigor of action are gone, and life soon becomes a mere play of forces, a meaningless, aimless perplexity, rather to be tolerated than enjoyed.

Be faithful if you would be happy. Labor, if you would be cheerful. Do your duty promptly, if you would maintain your own self-respect. Make your life useful, and it will be vigorous, fresh, cheerful and happy.

YOUNG MEN ON FARMS.

BY THE EDITOR.

Great changes have taken place in our country within the last twenty years. Greatly have the circumstances and the condition of society changed; and in no other sphere has the change been so marked as among the farming community.

Farmers are in all respects more independent than they were twenty years ago. Their progress in wealth, though sure and safe, was tedious and slow. Few made money, and those who did make, made only little year by year, and made that only by the strictest economy. The reason of this was, partly, that prices of produce were low, and partly, because the farming land was not so well under cultivation, and did not yield as much as it is made to do now. The farmer knew where his money came from in those days, and valued it accordingly.

This had its effects upon the minds, hearts and habits of the entire class. What it costs us much toil to get, we very naturally like to keep. It was not difficult for economy to pass over into penuriousness, or at least to prevent the growth of a large-hearted, generous and liberal disposition. This result, in fact, manifested itself in many cases.

Things have changed. Farms are thoroughly cleared out, and greatly improved. They are provided with the convenient improvements of the day, and stocked with those various labor-expediting and labor-saving inventions which have of late years so greatly relieved farmers of many onerous burdens. Farmers themselves have improved in the art of farming, so that crops are more sure and more abundant. Markets are nearer than they used to be. Prices are far more remunerative. In one word, farmers are prospering.

This also has its effect on mind, heart and habit. As money comes in faster and easier, it is not so firmly held. The spirit of liberality, and public spirit, increases with an increase of wealth; so that some of the finest specimens of large-heartedness and public spirit are now found among far mers. As this portion of the community grows independent, and is by virtue of labor-saving inventions relieved of much hard and tedious toil, it is natural that the higher interests of human life should receive increased attention on their part.

Where Fathers

Results of this kind are always appearing. Higher education is far more appreciated among farmers than it was twenty years ago. Our colleges and seminaries of learning are being patronized as never before. one farm was represented at college, ten are represented now. and mothers, instead of being reluctant to send their sons to college, are now anxious that they should go, and in many cases urge them to do so. The expense, which was formerly regarded as a burden and often was such in reality-is now easily and cheerfully borne. These young men, who are thus moving forward in the work of higher education, exert an elevating and refining influence back upon the families and the communities to which they belong.

What is still more, those young men from the country and from the farms enter upon the severe life of study with robust constitutions. No feeble minds in sickly bodies do they bring. This kind of material is not worn out and effete. This kind of mind is rich and vigorous; and when properly roused, regulated and set forward, it moves with giant strides up the difficult hill of science. As the stunted and sickly tree by the curb, or in some city park, differs from the full-orbed and vigorous tree in some country woods, so do the young men that come from our farms, differ from those who come from towns and cities. Their college course is not likely to break them down in health. Instead of preparing them for the grave, it will prepare them for the heavy and responsible labor and mission of life.

What a rich mine of unquarried intellectual wealth exists in the rising young men on our farms. The rivers of oil, and the beds of coal, or even the veins of gold, which have been struck and opened, all over the land, are not to be compared in value with this far richer mine of wealth. Let but this gold of mind, this wealth of intellectual capacity, be brought out by means of thorough Christian education, and then only will be seen what a power has lain dormant among us.

True farming is itself an honorable and useful calling; and those who with right views and aims pursue this calling, can well and properly glorify God and serve their generation. Yet, there are many young men on our farms who have clearly and fairly a call to still higher and nobler work. There are public spheres in State and Church to be filled. There is high and solemn work to do in schools, in state and national councils, in editorial chairs, in the medical and legal profession, and especially in the pulpit and at the altar of the Lord. Never did the field seem to be either wider or riper than at just the present time. The country wants-the Church wants, earnest, honest, vigorous scholars-men of sturdiness and standing, men of just that social and firm character, possessed generally by young men that come from the rural districts. Let them come forth by scores, and assume the responsibilities which Providence has so clearly prepared for them.

Time has been,‚—as we have already intimated,-when parents on farms were only with difficulty induced to give their sons a college education. That this is no more the case, is a fact in which young men have reason to rejoice. Hundreds who have gone before have found a college course to be indeed "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." We congratulate the young men of the present generation on their better fortune, and the more generous times into which their lot has fallen. If they fail amid

such privileges to meet the full measure of their responsibilities, they deserve to be beaten with many stripes."

Up, ye young men! The State and the Church, men and God, call you! This is no world-this is no age for idleness, or low pursuits. Act promptly, act earnestly, act manfully, in this moving and stirring age.. Hasten to find your calling and your worth. The field is before you. God and men will favor and help him who is in earnest; and sweet will be rest when your work has been well, and bravely, and piously done.

THE MILLS OF GOD GRIND SLOWLY, BUT GRIND FINE.

From the German of W. D. Von Horn,

BY REV. U. H. HEILMAN.

The German proverb frequently loves to choose a real old simile, but the truth and power in it is, that it always selects them from the sphere of life and experience, and that it ever strikes the nail on the head, in an energetic and intelligible manner.

We all know how rapidly and incessantly, the wheels in the mill run, when a sufficient stream flows upon the water-wheel-how the stones grasp the grains, how they break the shells, and, then grind them, in the mys sterious darkness of the millwork, grind them into meal, and, how that they only then, are truly useful for the purposes for which God has allowed them to grow. That we know all, and thus the sense of the proverb becomes intelligible to us.

"The mills of God"-That is, His silent and mysterious ruling in human hearts and human lives, as mysterious, but as certain a process in the heart and in the life, as in the sphere of nature, where it forces the buds from trees, deadened by winter, and causes them to unfold into leaves, blossoms and fruit; without our knowing how it comes to pass, and the wisest of the wise not being able to tell, however much they may speculate about it. "The mills of God grind," yea, truly! They grind so silently that we hear not the play of the wheels, and see not the stream that moves them, and the stones which they set into motion. They grind. Have you not lived to see how a hardened villain, suddenly caves in-how remorse and despair seize him in his wicked life, he not knowing how and whence? The mills of God grind! Or have you not lived to see how a rich and riotous man has been chastened through misfortune-how another is thrown upon a bed of sickness-how a third was stricken with poverty-and, how a fourth is unsuccessful with every thing, until unutterable woe and sorrow come upon him, and he is unable, even with burning tears, to quench the fires of remorse that burn within him, and how nothing can calm the

worm gnawing at his heart? The mills of God grind! Or have you not lived to see it, how one is hurled down from the giddy height upon which, like a peacock, he had lifted himself, into the darkness out of which he came? "The mills of God grind," but they "grind slowly"-not as human feelings pass over in a storm of passion, revenge, hatred, or other incurable passions. They grind slowly, unconsciously and mysteriously in the conscience, until it is aroused, until it awakens from the sleep of sin, and until anguish becomes keen, and swells into an unquenchable horror and

fear.

They grind slowly. First the shell, the external house of the so-called prosperity, falls into nothing. If this does not suffice, the stones grasp the inner grain and grind it. Or, have you never studied those holy histories, where the mills of God have seized and ground men and nations, because they did not turn to Him? Yet of that we do not desire to know any thing! Well! Have you not thought of it, how, in the course of your own life, and before your own eyes, the mills of God ground? Perhaps in the case of Napoleon-until ambition was crushed.

That was a slow grinding-but fine, wholly, truly! Or, do you think they do not grind, because you do not see the grinding-perhaps in your own case? Man, do not deceive thyself, God is not mocked. Even in your case, they grind slowly. Well it will be, if you mark it in time.

One thing more. The mills of God grind slowly, but always grind fine. They do not grind for the purpose of crushing. The mills only grind the grains into meal, that they may the better serve the purposes of God. Behold, so the mills of God, grind in life, that we may be made better, that we may be better qualified, for the end that God has laid up for us, that we may be sanctified in our inner life, and be made citizens of the kingdom of God. Blessed is he who is experiencing in his own life, the grinding of the mills of God.

Nulla crux-nulla corona.

ONE HAND WASHES THE OTHER.

From the German.

RY U. H. H.

Thus we say when one villain helps the other out of a difficulty, and many a man repeats the proverb, after having done a little favor. Pshaw! Truly, that is not the import of the proverb. Think of it for a little time, when you wash your hands, you may move one of them through every part of the water and yet it will not become clean. The other hand must wash, and rub and press it, then it will be made clean.

What does this teach us? This, one who stands alone, without the faithful aid of his neighbors, will not be able to accomplish any thing. But when they say, "Wait neighbor, I will come and assist," the one hand

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