84 YE CANNOT SERVE BOTH GOD AND MAMMON. be with God's blessing, approval, and aid, sought by daily prayer. Wealth, success, and worldly prosperity-without God, leads to the hardest, coldest, and most lonely of lives; and, whatever the amount of riches we leave behind us (for others to enjoy) we shall find, when we go out alone to meet our God, that such a life leads in the end to a failure-so fatal, so irrevocable-that no human language can describe it! "For what shall a man be advantaged though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul."-(Luke ix. 25). "No man can serve two Masters! Mammon."-(Matt. vi. 24). Ye cannot serve both God and "Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.-(Matt. vi. 21) The Master never uttered deeper words than these. "Gold! Gold ! Gold! Spurned by the young, But hugged by the old,-to the very verge of the churchyard mould,-Price of many a crime untold! CHAPTER XII. SMALL BEGINNINGS, AND HOW TO GET ON." ALDERMAN KELLY, OF LONDON. FARMER'S BOY, AFTERWARDS LORD MAYOR OF LONDON. OOR Boys, and how they became rich and great, is of all subjects perhaps the most interesting; it is a secret well worth inquiring into. Some of our greatest men began life in so humble a way, in positions so apparently hopeless as regards fortune, that their lives should prove an incentive to every youth who reads this book to make a determined effort to rise, as they did, above adverse circumstances, and with God's aid, and in submission to His will, to become the architect of his own fortune. In reading the lives of successful men, a youth in poor circumstances compares despondingly his own prospects with those around him, and sadly concludes that the success of others depended upon fortunate circumstances and chances, which he can never hope will occur to him. Such a youth should, however, remember that if he possesses a spark of determination and perseverance in his breast, and God gives him health for many years to come, there is nothing whatever in his case to prevent his doing what many a poorer boy has done before him. The secret is not in looking for immediate results, but to be willing to live for a few years a life of resolute, steady application, in whatever position one may be placed, not looking too far ahead, but letting the duty of each day be well performed, and not letting a day go past without something gained, some efforts at self-government. One other secret may be named. Without for a moment hinting at the life of a miser-hoarding every penny you can obtaindenying yourself every pleasure-refusing to bestow charity upon those in greater need than yourself-still whatever your income may be, something should be laid by. In spite of the wonderful tide of prosperity England has enjoyed the past seventy years, how many of the working classes appear to save little or nothing? They have not the habit of saving, a habit only to be acquired by effort and self-denial. The working 86 ALDERMAN KELLY, OF LONDON. classes in France and other countries, with half the wages of our English workpeople, are nevertheless wealthier. They save what our English workmen squander. Few nations work more constantly, with fewer holidays, than the English, yet our working classes seem little the better for it; the millions they obtain in wages pass away from them almost as soon as obtained to satisfy the pleasures of the moment. If a youth, therefore, desires to find himself,-in a few years' time, on the way to prosperity, let him commence at once the habit of saving. Remember that the habit need not interfere with innocent pleasures; the cheapest pleasures are not unfrequently after all the best. Alderman Kelly, of London, began life as a very poor boy, on a very poor farm-engaged in the commonest drudgery of the rough farm labour. Notwithstanding this depressing and apparently hopeless position, the boy felt within him the ambition every thoughtful youth possesses for something better. Whilst engaged in tending cattle, or at work in the fields, the thought would often come to the boy-" Surely I must have been born for something higher and better than a life like this!" He met, however, with many disappointments. One of his school-fellows had obtained a situation in an office in London, and the boy had hopes that a similar one might be found for him. The influence he hoped would have been used in his behalf, however, failed, and the opportunity for a change of life passed by, and nothing more was heard of it. These repeated disappointments began to tell upon his health, and poor Kelly sank into despondency; especially upon hearing that his parents had decided to apprentice him to a small shopkeeper-a chandler-at an obscure, neighbouring village. The engagement had been entered into, and his father was to accompany him. The day arrived, but they had hardly started when the poor boy overcome by his feelings burst into tears. His father, guessing the cause, after some thought, said kindly—" Well, Tom! If having to go to Oxtead makes you so unhappy, you shall not go there!' To the boy's delight, the engagement was abandoned, and they returned home, greatly to the surprise of his mother. Upon what little things do our future lives turn! Had Kelly gone to this situation, he would probably have lived a life of obscurity in a country village, ending probably in an old age of penury. At length, a situation was found him as office boy in a brewery at Lambeth. A few shirts and necessary articles of apparel in a small bag, with 3s. or 4s., was the whole property with which its future Lord Mayor, and Commissioner ALDERMAN KELLY, OF LONDON. 87 of the Central Court of Justice in England, entered London. In after life he used to describe the loneliness and wretchedness of his first few days, after leaving his home and parents, and entering London on a gloomy, foggy Autumn day. In two years the brewery proved a failure, but through the influence of the proprietors, a situation was obtained for the boy in the office of the well-known publisher, Mr. Hogg. The arrangement was, that he was to board and lodge on the premises, and to receive ten pounds a year for wages. The business premises of Mr. Hogg, in Paternoster Row, were even then very extensive. Kelly's duty was to make up parcels for retail purchasers, write out invoices, and to attend to the wants of casual visitors. When the duties of the day were over the boy applied himself diligently to improve himself by studying history, geography, &c. Those were the old days of rigid business habitsof long hours and hard work. For fifteen years the boy never had a holiday! It was thought necessary for the security of the premises that someone should sleep on the spot, and this duty fell to the youth Kelly. He slept on a small bed made up under one of the counters in the shop. One can hardly conceive a life more depressing to mind or body; but the inflexible resolve never to give up, and to persevere, which served him so well through life, never deserted him ! He found one friend in the person of the old housekeeper -Mrs. Best. She proved from the first a faithful friend. It was in the company of this humble but worthy woman that most of his leisure time was spent, she being never tired of listening while the boy read aloud from various books. In return, as an instance of her consideration, she never allowed the boy to perform any menial work. Unfortunately, Kelly's consistent conduct excited the jealousy of one of the young men employed by the firm in the delivery department. For reasons of his own, which were afterwards explained, he endeavoured to obtain the boy's dismissal from the establishment by every means in his power. It is the jealousy, and unreasonable dislike of a worthless fellow workman, which often discourages and injures many a wellmeaning worthy youth. Kelly's worthy friend, the housekeeper, spoke on every occasion in the boy's favour, but one day overheard the following conversation between this man-under whom the boy was placed-and Mr. Hogg. "Well!" asked Mr. Hogg, and how is the new lad getting on?" "Oh!” 88 ALDERMAN KELLY, OF LONDON. 46 replied the man, "I wished to speak to you about him; I can't make anything of him. I don't think he is at all the boy for us!” Why?" asked Mr. Hogg. Oh! he is so very slow," replied the man, adding something which the housekeeper could not hear. "Oh! Well! give him time -replied Mr. Hogg-" let him have a fair trial." "I like him," added Mr. Hogg-" he's a biddable boy!" It was evident that the youth's attentive docile conduct had already caught the eye of his employer. One day, as Kelly was passing a cheesemonger's shop, the boy's quick eye detected in the window some sheets of printed paper, which he instantly recognised as part of a work then in process of being printed by his employer. Quietly entering the shop, and making a trifling purchase, he saw in a corner a large stock of similar sheets. Kelly immediately obtained a private interview with Mr. Hogg, who accompanied him to the shop. The shopkeeper willingly placed the matter in the hands of the police, who soon discovered that the dishonest young man above alluded to, who was so anxious to obtain Kelly's removal, had been in the habit of selling considerable quantities of paper belonging to the firm, representing it to be the damaged paper of a printer which he had purchased. This was my first appearance in a court of justice," says Kelly "I felt very sad at having to be witness against the young man I had worked with, and I remember the extreme fear I had lest I should state when on my oath, anything-even a single word-incorrectly, remembering the necessity of having a conscience void of offence before God, before whom I had taken the solemn obligation of an oath. Little did I then think, when trembling, as a boy, in the witness box, that at a future day I should be raised to the dignity of First Commissioner of the Central Criminal Court, with sword of Justice over my head, and the Mace at my feet, and should occupy the very judgment seat at which, as a boy, I had looked with such awe!" The theft being clearly proved, the man was convicted, and sentenced to seven months imprisonment. Although having lived so hard a life-while his wages were but ten pounds a year, the boy gave nearly half of it to aid his parents, who were in poor circumstances. As his salary slowly increased-with that unselfish affection for his parents which many of the most successful men have shown-he constantly helped his Father to stock his farm and improve his land-and (what the boy cared for more than all) to lighten his poor Mother's toil. There were griefs which he could not ward off. One after |