to each other, unknowing even themselves!"

It was a very suggestive remark that a young woman made to her friend in answer to the question: "By whose preaching were you brought to Christ?" "By nobody's preaching, dear; but just by Aunt Mary's practising." Of such an one Lowell must have been thinking when he wrote:

"She doeth little kindnesses,

Which most leave undone or despise;
For nought which sets one heart at ease,
Is low-esteeméd in her eyes."

And the brilliant pen of F. W. Robertson found fitting employment when he wrote: "What was the secret of such a one's power? What had she done? Absolutely nothing; but radiant smiles, beaming good-humour; the tact of divining what every one felt and every one wanted, told that she had got out of self and learned to think of others; so that at one time it showed itself in deprecating the quarrel, which lowering brows and raised. tones already showed to be impending, by sweet words; at another, by smoothing an invalid's pillow; at another, by soothing a sobbing child; at another, by humoring and softening a father who had returned weary and ill-tempered from the irritating cares of business. None but she saw those things.

None but a loving heart could see them. That was the secret of her heavenly power. The one who will be found on trial capable of great acts of love, is ever the one who is always doing considerate small ones." So let it be repeated that there is as much love and devotion required of those who do the quiet drudgery, faithfully attending to the little things, the obscure duties, as of those who lead in the conspicuous activities. None too strong are the words of John Henry Newman. "One secret act of self-denial, one sacrifice of inclination to duty, is worth all the mere good thought, warm feelings, passionate prayers, in which idle people indulge themselves." And this additional bit from Robertson is eloquent: "The worst part of martyrdom is not the last agonizing moment; it is the wearing, daily steadfastness. Men who can make up their minds to hold out against the torture of an hour have sunk under the weariness and the harass of

small, prolonged vexations. There is many a

Christian who feels the irksomeness of the duties of life, and feels his spirit revolting from them. To get up every morning with the firm resolve to find pleasure in those duties, and to do them well, and finish the work which God has given us to do, that is to drink Christ's cup. The humblest occupation has in it materials of discipline for the highest heaven."

It is thus, in the light of such truth, that we come to understand the emphasis the Lord Christ placed upon the staying rather than the brilliant qualities in human character. Hear Him: "He that endureth unto the end shall be saved." That is a big word, "ENDURETH." The prize is not won by the mere sprinter in a race, however dashing his pace or excellent his form, but by the runner whose powers of lung and leg, trained by faithful exercise, can endure the strain, keep up the pace and win the goal. The truth of the seeming paradox in Eccl. ix:11, "the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong," has been often verified; the secret of success is in endurance. It was such a thought Isaiah sought to impress in that famous passage: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings as eagles, they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not faint." "How absurd," exclaims cold reason; "that's simple anti-climax. It should read -They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall walk and not faint, they shall run and not weary, they shall mount up on wings as eagles.' There, that's climax!" And Isaiah would smile and quietly retort: "That is nonesense." No, it was not anti-climax as Isaiah put it. Rather, sober truth and fine climax; for, as a matter of fact, there

is not much soaring to be done by mortals, otherwise we had been furnished with wings; neither is there much running to be done in the fair course of human life, or lungs had been invested with greater capacity; but that which constitutes the staple of every-day's experience is walking uprightly, and to maintain that, day by day, day after day, week in and week out, month in and month out, year in and year out, requires the finest spirit and taxes the noblest personality far beyond the occasional spurt, or the rarer flight. To be sure there is a great contrast between the soaring of an eagle and the crawling of a snail. There is a great difference between the ecstacy of the chosen disciples, Peter, James and John, on Mount Hermon witnessing the splendors of the Transfiguration of their Lord, and exclaiming: "Master it is good for us to be here;" and the experience of the defeat of their weak-faith brethren on the plain, in their failure to exorcise the evil spirit from the possessed boy. Right understood, the rare flight of the soul, buoyed up on the pinions of faith and hope in the seldom experiences of high aspiration, is calculated to steady the life when compelled to patiently plod over weary pathways for weary years. The purpose of the mountain exaltation is to qualify for the exacting duties of the plain; the former as seldom and brief as the

latter are frequent and protracted. Say, does life present a grimmer irony than that furnished by the man who boastfully imagines he can "sweep o'er the clouds, but sinks amid the clods."

Oh better far "wait on the Lord," and so learn to sing with Vaughan:

"Lord, with what courage and delight
I do each thing,

When Thy last breath sustains my wing!

I shine and move

Like those above,

And, with much gladness

Quitting sadness

Make me fair days of every night."

Ay, 'tis a great conception of life and its duties that here insistently demands recognition. To do faithfully, unmurmuringly, patiently, cheerfully, steadily, perseveringly, every day, the little duties, the small services of life, requires, in the last analysis, a deeper love, a stronger faith, a finer courage, a sublimer devotion, than often finds expression in many a more conspicuous triumph, which will appear, upon careful examination, more the result of favoring circumstances than of inherent religious quality. And it is worthy of note that both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament are to be found corroborative illustrations. From