ourse of life which runs straight along, unbent aside, and not cut
short off, by the change from earth to Heaven. And this felicity he
only has who, amidst things temporal and insignificant, sees and
seeks the eternal smile on the face of his unchanging Saviour. On
earth, in death, through eternity, such a life will be homogeneous
and of a piece; and when all other aims are hull down below the
horizon, forgotten and out of sight, then still this will be the
purpose, and yonder it will be the accomplished purpose, of each, to
please the Lord Jesus Christ.

My dear friend, remember that in its full meaning this aim regards
the future, and points onward to that great judgment-seat where you
and I will certainly each of us give account of himself. Do you think
that you will please Christ then? Do you think that when that day
dawns, a smile of welcome will come into His eyes, and a glow of
gladness at the meeting into yours? Or have you cause to fear that
you will 'call on the rocks and the hills to cover you from the face
of Him that sitteth on the Throne?'

We are all close by one another; our voices are very audible to each
other. Do you learn, Christian people, that the first,--or at least a
prime--condition of all Christian and Christ-pleasing life, is a
wholesome disregard of what anybody says but Himself. The old
Lacedaemonians used to stir themselves to heroism by the thought:
'What will they say of us in Sparta?' The governor of some outlying
English colony minds very little what the people that he is set to
rule think about him. He reports to Downing Street, and it is the
opinion of the Home Government that influences him. You report to
headquarters. Never mind what anybody else thinks of you. Your
business is to please Christ, and the less you trouble yourselves
about pleasing men the more you will succeed in doing it. Be deaf to
the tittle tattle of your fellow soldiers in the ranks. It is your
Commander's smile that will be your highest reward.

'Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil,
But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes,
And perfect witness of all-judging Jove;
As he pronounces lastly on each deed,
Of so much fame in heaven expect thy meed.'

THE LOVE THAT CONSTRAINS

'The love of Christ constraineth us.'--2 COR. v. 14.

It is a dangerous thing to be unlike other people. It is still more
dangerous to be better than other people. The world has a little heap
of depreci