How different was the social sphere in the house of Mr. Jones on
that evening! The brow of the husband and father was clouded, and
his lips sealed in silence; or if words were spoken, they were in
moody tones, or uttered in fretfulness and ill-nature. The wife and
children caught from him the same repulsive spirit, and, in their
intercourse one with the other, found little sympathy or affection.
There was a chilling shadow on the household of the merchant; it
fell from the monster form of his expanding selfishness, that was
uplifted between the sunlight of genuine humanity and the neighbour
he would not regard. Alas! on how many thousands and thousands of
households in our own land rests the gigantic shadow of this
monster!

"Will it pay?" is the eager question we hear on all sides, as we
mingle in the business world.

"_Has_ it paid?" Ah, that is the after-question! Reader, is the
monster's shadow in your household? If so, it has _not_ paid.

THE LAY PREACHER.

WHETHER the Rev. Andrew Adkin had or had not a call to preach, is
more than we can say. Enough, that he considered it his duty to
"hold forth" occasionally on the Sabbath; and when "Brother Adkin"
saw, in any possible line of action, his duty, he never took counsel
of Jonah.

Brother Adkin kept a store in the town of Mayberry, and being a man
of some force of character, and not, by any means, indifferent to
this world's goods, devoted himself to business during the six days
of the week with commendable assiduity. It is not the easiest thing
in the world to banish, on the Sabbath, all concern in regard to
business. Most persons engaged in trade, no matter how religiously
inclined, have experienced this difficulty. Brother Adkin's case
did, not prove an exception; and so intrusive, often, were these
worldly thoughts and cares, that they desecrated, at times, the
pulpit, making the good man's voice falter and his hands tremble, as
he endeavoured, "in his feeble way," to break the bread of life.

He had his own trials and temptations--his own stern "exercises of
mind," going to the extent, not unfrequently, of startling doubts as
to the reality of his call to preach.

"I don't see much fruit of my labour," he would sometimes say to
himself, "and I often think I do more harm than good."

Such thoughts, however, were usually disposed of, as suggestions of
the "adversary."

A week in the life of Brother Adkin will show the peculiar
influences th