to find himself when first he
attempts to put Christian principles into practice. We imagine one
brought up in the ordinary mixed circles of society, where there are
unbelievers and lax Christians mingled together, and where there are no
principles firmly enough held to interfere with any sort of enjoyment of
life which offers. Such an one--a young woman, let us suppose--in the
Providence of God becomes converted to our Lord, and comes to see that
the lax and indifferent Christian life she had been leading was a mere
mockery of Christian living. Speedily does she find when she attempts to
put into action the principles of living which she now understands to be
the meaning of the Gospel that a breach of sympathy has been opened
between her and her accustomed companions; that many things which she
was accustomed to do in their society and which made for their common
fund of amusement are no longer possible to her. The careless talk, the
shameless dress, the gambling, the drinking, the Sunday amusements--such
things as these she has thrown over; and she finds that with them she
has thrown over the basis of intimacy with her usual companions. It is
not that they are antagonistic but simply that their points of contact
have ceased to exist. Her own inhibitions exclude her automatically from
most of the activities of her social circle. She finds herself much
alone. Her friends are sorry for her and think her foolish and try to
win her back, but it is clear to her that she can only go back by going
back from Christ.

This is the common case of the young whether boy or girl to-day, and the
practical question is, Can they endure the isolation? It is easy to say:
Let them make Christian friends; but that is not always practical,
especially in the present state of the Church when there is no cohesion
among its members, no true sense of constituting a Brotherhood, of being
members of the same Body. We have to admit that the attempt to hold a
high standard usually ends in failure, at least the practical failure of
a weak compromise. But there are characters that are strong enough to
face the isolation and to readjust life on the basis of the new
principles and to mould it in accord with the new ideals. The period of
this readjustment is one of severe testing of one's grasp on principles
and one's strength of purpose. But the battle once fought out we attain
a new kind of freedom and expansion of life. We look back with some
amuseme