under different circumstances and feelings."-It was thus that wanderer wrote in letter after letter. His bitter regrets and the discomforts of his new position were alike apparent― the wages of sin had been won, and they were paid.

age

Though young Richmond's waywardness was not speedily subdued, it soon became manifest that the truth had some power over the wanderer's mind. Amid his tossings to and fro, he did all the good he could in preventing evil and promoting what is right. He carried Bibles and tracts from harbour to harbour, and spread them wherever he found opportunity. He wrote to Britain for missionaries-and though by his misconduct abroad he was cast upon the world at the of seventeen, without means of livelihood, without friends or even an acquaintance, God saw him while yet a great way off; he was "lone, wandering, but not lost," even amid the tempests which he had to brave; and there is ample reason for believing that the lessons which his mother taught, or the prayers which his father offered on his behalf, were not unnoticed by the Stay of the destitute. After several years of wandering, the youth was returning to his home; but he died at sea, worn down by toil and disease, and his body found a resting-place-if that be not a misnomer-in the depths of the ocean. Too late at least for his earthly happiness, he had become "true to the kindred points of home and heaven." And is not this case another beacon? While it may encourage parents to pray and not faint, it might warn the young that there is nothing before them but sorrow, when God's truth and home affections are outraged.

Again on a cold and wintry day in the year 1803, a youth left his native town of Kelso to find his way to the

THE POWER OF PRINCIPLE.

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great metropolis of Britain and the world. It was with a heavy heart that he set out from home, and on one of the bridges which connect Scotland with England, he stood and wept till the tear had nearly frozen on his cheek. On his eighteenth birth-day he found himself in London, and scarcely had he reached it when a companion attempted to lead him into the paths of the destroyer. But with the firmness of true principle, he repelled the temptation, and left the youth, whom he had known a short time before in his native place, walking as the virtuous do, to hurry along the road which leads to death. That misguided one would not be warned by his friend, and the dupe of his own heart must reap as he chose to sow.

The young friend whom he had thus tried to entice into the cockatrice's den-James Nisbet, afterwards the wellknown publisher-hurried away from that dark scene, and the remembrance of that night helped, as an anchor, to keep him immoveable through life. While dissipation led to the early death of the one, his example was like a beacon above a rock to the other. It stimulated him to decision. That fostered and fortified his early piety; and sad as had been his setting out from home, or painful his adventure with his dissolute friend, young Nisbet soon became marked for consistency and force of principle. "He loved the habitation of God's house," and the blessings which he experienced there led him in future years, when principle was crowned with the blessing of God, to expend large sums of money in building churches both in Scotland and in England. truth, the lad who had wept such bitter tears when leaving the home of his childhood, lived to wield an extensive influence for good, in this and many other lands. Mission

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aries from every shore found an asylum or a welcome in his hospitable abode. His systematic order, his zeal, his activity, his ardour, his large liberality, his devoutness, his hearty, joyous nature, placed him in the front ranks of the Christian men of business, the real philanthropists, who at once adorn and bless the metropolis. And he died as he had lived, in the act of labouring to do good; he went down to the grave honoured by all good men, and wept by not a few with very genuine tears. "His early outset and his long career” in godliness blessed both himself and hundreds besides.

Now, if young Richmond was a beacon, here is a model. The example of James Nisbet is one which might encourage all who are not already blinded by sin, or so far its dupe as to expect happiness for the soul in what entailed misery and a curse at once upon a globe and a race.

Among

We might add many examples to the same effect. the Mohammedans at Tangiers, a missionary once found a dying lad, the son of godly Scottish parents, who had left his home slighting, as he confessed, all that they had done to guide him to the Saviour. But after a career of folly and of trial, when death and his sins found him out together, he felt the full misery of having fled from a holy home. He supposed that mercy there could be none for one so reckless. His sins, his companions, his pleasures were all unavailing now; and if he was saved during his last breaths, when he cried vehemently for mercy, it was so as by fire." He is another beacon, even though he be a brand plucked from the burning.

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CHAPTER XXI.

HEAVEN A HOME.

Heirs of the Promises-" Our Father"-The House of many Mansions-The Elder Brother The Son-The Spirit of Adoption-The Great Family-A Mother's Power-A Family in Heaven — The Mother-The Father-The ChildrenConclusion.

In the Word of God we are encouraged to be "followers of them who through faith and patience are now inheriting the promises." Death makes sad ravages in our homes: he drags the objects of our affection from our embrace, and leaves us little but a mournful memory of what we once enjoyed, in contrast with our present forlorn or widowed condition. But while we are thus bereaved, our God comes in His Word, and if we have hope concerning the departed, He bids us prepare to follow them. The tie transferred from earth to heaven is employed to draw us upwards—the human unites with the Divine to fix our affections upon the things which are above to give reality to the unseen, or nearness to the distant.

And, in the same way, to invest heaven with additional charms, it is associated with all that is venerable, or tender, or dear in a home. Heaven is, in truth, our home-earth is our house of bondage: there we are at rest—here we are strangers and pilgrims; and God only wise has thus linked our deepest sympathies with the heritage of the righteous for ever.

For example, the first clause of Scripture which nearly all

are taught to lisp is, "Our Father who art in heaven;" and the little child or the hoary pilgrim is thus trained to associate the venerable name of Father with that of God, till heaven becomes our better home. The fondest endearments of earth are employed to make the eternal world more intelligible, more palpable and powerful. That wondrous prayer fosters the right Christian spirit. It is catholic, for it says, "Our." It is reverential, for it says, "Hallowed be Thy name. It is missionary, for it says, "Thy kingdom come. It is moral, for it adds, "Thy will be done." It inculcates dependence, saying, "Give us this day our daily bread." It teaches forgiveness and caution: it leaves us reposing in humble confidence upon God-but the basis of the whole is the filial. It relates to the Family Head, and makes our God "our Father."

Christ

But this is not all; it is only the beginning. speaks on this subject, and says, "My God and your God, my Father and your Father." It is through the First-born of many brethren that we are guided to our heavenly Father. The Elder Brother takes us by the hand, and makes us joint heirs with himself; so that in life and at death, a home and a heritage are ever our associations with heaven, if Christ be indeed our Elder Brother. All that is connected in the mind of a seaman with the harbour of his home, or all that is constraining in the mind of a dutiful son, in connexion with a distant but much-loved parent, is enlisted to inweave our affections with hereafter.

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Or more explicit still: The Saviour points us to his Father's house as one of many mansions." In that home of glory there is room enough and to spare; and if we be tempted to fear that we may be excluded, the Saviour