Thou hast never cried for mercy
From the Lord, the Crucified;
I am waiting for my summons,
And my King I soon shall see,
Standing there beside the harpers,
On the mystic crystal sea.
Rise my son in brighter colours
Paint the Blessed, Blessed Face,
Be thy life the pure reflection
Of the Holy Saviour's grace!
Not with these poor earthly colours,
But in Truth, and Hope, and Love,
Work thou out the living picture,

Which in God's bright home above
Still shall shine in growing beauty
And in men and angels' sight
Shadow forth the Saviour's glory
In its living lines of light;
So shall men draw near and linger,
Growing stronger as they gaze,
Drawing in new life, new courage,
For the work of coming days."

And the Painter rose-and calmly
(With a shade upon his brow,
Half of sadness, half of something
Men had never seen till now)
Seized a brush, and lo! the canvas
With its inwrought ideal, lay
Smeared and blotted, as a treasure
Men have spoilt and cast away;
But from out the silent ashes
Of those hopes of early days,
Rose a life of deeper beauty

To the Heavenly Master's praise; And men saw that life and lingered, Growing stronger with the gaze, Gathering up new hope, new courage For the work of coming days.

Christian Painter! toiling ever
With a high and earnest aim,

To reflect thy Saviour's Beauty,
To adorn His Blessed Name;
Not alone, in silent chamber,

But in active work and strife
Filling in each day the pattern
On the canvas of thy life,-
By thy lowly course of service,
By thy words and deeds of grace,
Strive to mirror forth the glory

Of the perfect Saviour's face!
All too poor the faint reflection,
Oftentimes so marred and dim,
Thou canst hardly trace the outline
Of its likeness unto Him;
Only in that Light unclouded,
Where no earthly sun doth shine,
Shall stand forth, in fair proportions,
Perfected thy life's design.

FANNY WILSON.

Moyallon, Ireland.

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE.

"And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”—Rom. xii. 2.

It is the glory of the Gospel of Christ that it is the manifestation of the Infinite love of God to man, by which life and immortality become the inheritance of the believer, and present spiritual blessings, his privilege, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, whereby the Lord's people are "sealed unto the day of redemption." And not alone are these most precious gifts of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the portion of the true Christian, but there is, as an inseparable characteristic of the religion of our Lord and Saviour, in its evangelical aspect, the permeating principle that by no works or righteousness of ours can we merit His favour, or that "Eternal Life," which is the unspeakable gift of God.

Thus the vitality of the Gospel consists rather in the change of the entire nature, the renewal of the heart and mind, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, and of the affections swayed by that absorbing love to Christ and submission to His will, by which that will becomes more and more the delight of the true-hearted believer.

This view of Christian truth-which will, it is presumed, be assented to by a large proportion of the readers of the Friends' Examiner-it seems essential for us to bear in mind in considering the subject of non-conformity to the world, and of one or more special phases of it which may come under review in this paper.

The fervent appeal of the Apostle, beseeching his

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brethren, "by the mercies of God," to present themselves "a living sacrifice," "holy, acceptable unto God," as their reasonable service," following, as it does, a powerfully logical argument, in which he sets forth the extension of redeeming grace, to Gentile as to Jew, the nature of justification by faith in the Atonement, and the victory to be gained through Jesus Christ our Lord, does indeed emphatically bear witness to the truth that the Lord's people are bought with a price," that they may glorify Him in their bodies, and in their spirits, which are His.

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If, then, we acknowledge this return of loving allegiance to Him who hath so loved us to be the privilege of the reconciled children of God, and through His Holy Spirit's renewing grace in the soul the necessary outcoming of the new life in Christ, shall we fail to recognise our responsibility as a Church, or individually, in regard to upholding the standard of nonconformity to the spirit and practices of the world?

Many amongst us may indeed rejoice that changes in the discipline of our Society which have taken place point to the principle of faithfulness to individual conviction, and of cherishing that vital union with Christ, the Vine, by which the branch, living in Him, will become rich in spiritual fruit, to His praise.

But shall this be a plea for relaxed vigilance on the part of professed and truly living believers, over themselves, and one over another, lest insensibly the tendency to earthly-mindedness and worldly practice should creep in ?

And here it may be said that the boundary line is so uncertain in its character, so varying with the individual apprehension of duty, or of Christian expediency—so modified by early training, in a more or less contracted sphere, by innumerable influencesmoulding the mental and spiritual constitution, and by almost indefinable shades of religious thought and

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experience, that even with the most honest desire to point out a safe path, for the guidance especially of the young and immature, failure in large measure must practically be the result. This may be the case, doubtless, to some extent.

Whilst the teaching of our Holy Redeemer remains unchangeably true, that there are but two ways—the narrow, leading to life eternal, for those who enter in by the strait gate of repentance and faith in Christ; and the broad road leading to destruction, for those who neglect the great salvation-there may be considerable diversity of view as to that degree of Christian liberty which can be admitted within the narrow way. And here there will ever be large room for the exercise of charity. With scrutinising jealousy over our own daily life and conversation in its comprehensive aspect, and in its many details, there will also be the watchful desire to avoid the spirit of judging, or setting at nought our brother, remembering that "we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ."

Yet if-accepting the principles which we have attempted to delineate in the commencement of this paper-we arrive at the conclusion that in no spirit of bondage to the letter of the law, but under the constraining love of Christ, we desire to live unto Him who died for us, and rose again; if, as the sons and daughters of God, we are "led by the Spirit of God," shall we not become more and more susceptible to the teachings of that Spirit, to His enlightening operations upon the heart and conscience, and will not the question rather be, how may we know the mind of the Lord; how may we become more conformed to His will, than how far we may tread in the steps of the unconverted, or of the cold-hearted professor?

It may be said that this reasoning is applicable to those who have arrived at years of matured judgment, and to those who are making distinct profession of the