EDMUND KEAN AND "MASTER BETTY."

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years old, till his death in 1887; and Monsieur Chevreul, the eminent chemist of Paris, dying in 1889 (born 31st August, 1786), living to see the Centennial of the French Revolution, would each be youths in 1804; but what exceptions are these! The Survivors out of how many millions!

No boy this country has produced ever had his ambition gratified to such an extent as William Henry Betty! Yet how empty and blank at this length of time worldly triumph seems, when the actor, and the witnesses, have alike long passed away! Every boy who reads this book,-however poor and humble his position may seem to himself,-has now placed before him by his Creator an ambition,—a future,— infinitely higher, and more lasting, than anything that these Boys achieved, or aspired to! What avails the applause of delighted audiences, when the Grass in the quiet Richmond Churchyard, and Highgate Cemetery, has been waving for many a long year over their forgotten graves ?

But not so with a Christian youth! When the lights of "Vanity Fair" are going out in silence and in gloom to the Worldly man, the Christian youth feels that their departure is but a prelude to the life of Eternal Happiness upon which he has, with God's aid, set his ambition, his heart, and aspirations.

"He aims too low, who aims beneath the skies!"
"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs,-
Of stupid starers, -and of loud huzzas!"

CHAPTER XVI.

MODERN INFIDELITY!

"HELL IS BUT A FABLE,-HEAVEN A POET'S DREAM."

(Theory.)

WHAT have I DONE? WHAT have I BEEN DOING ?”

(Reality.)

· Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.”Third Commandment.

HERE is, perhaps, no country in the World which has been more favoured by God, for a long course of years, than Great Britain, and no country in which His Holy Name is more frequently "taken in vain," and insulted by Profanity. There are men to be met with,-especially the younger men amongst the working classes,-whose every third word is an oath! Even the commonest salutation,— the commonest remark on what is passing around them,is an occasion for taking God's name in vain. Christ!". "Damn!"—" Blast!"-" God strike!"-" Bloody,' come from them in one continuous stream, with almost every sentence they utter! Almighty God is, however, a Being Whose wonderful long-suffering, I am certain, strikes a very wicked man frequently with surprise; he is at times astonished at God's forbearance; at the time it takes to provoke Him to anger, and how God can bear with him so long as He does.

&c.,

But with Eternity before us,--an Eternity which, after Millions of Ages have passed, will not even have begun,we may see the reason for God's forbearance! God knows the lives that poor neglected boys are too often brought up to, the example they have had placed before them from childhood, by their parents and associates, the language and habits they have been accustomed to from boyhood;swearing, drinking, and vicious fellow workmen in the workshops; Godless, and prayerless, Parents; God's word never read to them; with such Examples before them, what else can you reasonably expect hundreds of youths to be? If we had shared their experiences, who knows what we should have been? In youths, however, who know far better, and have had a proper education, it is a far more solemn thing for them to indulge in oaths, or to take God's name in vain. What God may take, with great long-suffering, from an ignorant and neglected mind, He may not choose to suffer from an intelligent and wilfully profane person.

It is this wilful taking of His name in vain, by intelligent men, for the express purpose of ridiculing Religion, and causing others to despise it and God, which is, in the worst sense of all, what is meant by "taking His Name in vain."

You are probably aware that there is a Body (greatly increased of late years) calling themselves "Secularists,"in plain English, Atheists, who, in almost every large town in England have now regular Meetings, often on a Sunday, -not for the purpose of worshipping God, but just the contrary, of ridiculing the Old and New Testaments, lampooning religion, and opposing Almighty God in every possible

way.

Before presuming to become a Teacher of Religion to others, the Writer resolved to know the worst that any could advance against God and the Bible. Opinions may differ on this point, but a blind belief in anything told us from infancy, with no investigation or thought of our own, never did appear to him to present a very hopeful or rational view of an intelligent Christian. In the mysterious operations of Divine grace and wisdom in the work of salvation, every Christian knows that there are two chief Stages. The first, and elementary stage, is to convince the Understanding, the Intellect, the second, is to convince the Conscience, and the Heart. The first is to hear, and to understand, the second, and all important one, is to obey! No intelligent reader of his Bible, and of God's dealings with man, can fail to see that, at whatever cost, God is resolved never to interfere with the Free-will of any created being. Intelligent love and service-an intelligent choice of Him for a Master, is what He desires, and what God may, if asked, incline our heart to give, but He never can, and never will, force any to render it to Him against their own free-will. Although for a youthful,-necessarily unsettled,mind to read works of an Infidel character, or to listen, unprepared by study and investigation, to an Infidel Lecture, would be simply madness-it is, nevertheless, certain that an intelligent, and thoughtful, Christian, of a more advanced age, may. with God's aid, not only read carefully the works of the leading opposers of Christianity, but may see clearly their fallacy and unfairness, and how easily they may be met by an intelligent and painstaking believer. Amongst the principal Works which have been probably most successful in spreading the deadly Nightshade of unbelief in the world during the past century, may be mentioned those of Voltaire, the Frenchman, Thomas Paine, Renan, the late Dr. Strauss, the German, Spinoza, Dr. Colenso, Francis Newman (one chapter of whose book called Phases of Faith," upon our Saviour, being

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probably, excepting the "Letters to Jesus Christ," by that wretch Foote, the most deliberate insult ever offered to Christ) and last, but, not least, the late Leaders of modern infidelity in this country, Charles Bradlaugh, of London, Charles Watts, Holyoake, " Saladon," Colonel Ingersoll; all now dropped into Eternity. In all these gifted men there are three things ever observable; the first is either a deadly enmity to or a calm contempt for God's Word, the Bible, accompanied by an intense aversion to the plan of salvation opened to us by our Saviour; the second is, their invariable practice of first dethroning God, and then placing themselves and their ideas upon the platform of Infinitude, for the benefit of those who can believe in them, rather than in God ;—and the third is the very remarkable fact, that, while each has endeavoured to take religion away from us, not one of them has ever given the world anything in its place! They attempt to destroy, but never to construct! What there is in the assertions of these men to damp in any way our love, reverence, and veneration for God, for our Saviour, and for that most wonderful and Holy Book, the Bible, it is difficult to imagine, more especially to those who have read carefully their writings, and heard on one or two occasions their so-called "Free discussions."

There must, it is thought, be a predisposition—a wilful inclining to unbelief in God, in those who prefer their assertions to those of Divine Wisdom. Thousands of the Working Classes will not read the Bible quietly, and patiently, for themselves; it is difficult to induce them to listen to it, or to attend the Sabbath School, or Chapel, where they might do so; they will not study this most wonderful and priceless book-the Bible for themselves, yet they will go and even pay to hear men like Bradlaugh lecture by the hour against a Book which they have never read, and never will study carefully for themselves! This country owes its supremacy over others mainly to its Religion, and its reverence for the Bible. There are not wanting signs to show that this reverence is becoming sapped, that the working classes of this country are becoming divorced from their allegiance to what they have for years held in reverence.

You, dear youths, who read this book will not pass through life without encountering such men as those alluded toyou may be tempted to go to their lectures, and to read their books. An intelligent youth, to whom Drunkenness, vile habits, and company, offer no attractions, and cannot ruin, may yet fall before the deadly poison of Infidelity! I would, therefore, ask you to remember that we now see these men

in good health and strength, while God supports them. This is God's World; everything they eat and drink is God's; they could not create a morsel of the food they live upon to save their lives! God supports us by His creatures every day we live. "The earth is Mine, and the fulness thereof, and the cattle upon a thousand hills." While, then, His anger slumbers, it is easy to insult God! All I ask is, how is it to end? I see no escape from God; you may go all round this world, as I have done, but there is no getting out of it. As David says: Whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, behold, Thou art There! my bed in Hell, behold, Thou art There!"

If I make

You, I, and all we see around us, will only leave this World to appear before our God! This, instead of appearing dreadful to a Christian, is a thought which affords him the greatest joy and thankfulness! He has ever found in God an indulgent, loving Creator; he has found in Christ an elder Brother, a Saviour able to present him with acceptance even before the all-seeing eye of God. But once let a man who is not, and will not be, a Christian, go too far, and exhaust God's patience, and long-suffering, and then He shuts, of Whom we read in the Bible, when " He shutteth, no man openeth!" In that other phase of God's character, God tells us that He is "not a man that He should repent." "I will laugh when their fear cometh." He is slow, very slow, to anger; God seldom strikes in anger, but when He does thus strike, it is for ever! One instance of this, and I have done.

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THE BLASPHEMER.

'WHAT have I DONE? WHAT have I BEEN DOING?

There was a gentleman, well-known at one time in London, who was in many respects much like the men of whom I have been speaking. He was, however, a gentleman of considerable attainments, and of good address, fond of company, good-humoured, and possessed of ample means; he enjoyed excellent health, and a constant fund of lively spirits--in fact, he was a very humorous man. But he was a most profane person! Treating every serious subject with lightness, he seemed never tired of lampooning Religion and the Bible! He especially liked doing this in the company of young men, with whom he was a great favourite; and he would do it with such lively wit, and in such a way, as to make a person who opposed him look very ridiculous. Like all such habits, it grew upon him, till it was evident that he was desperately opposed to Religion. He would go out of his way and take