be all this?)-then indeed the sin and woe of intemperance are a fit subject for shame and self-reproach; and when the sinner has partly freed himself from this disgraceful slavery, he will feel keenly the force of this often repeated question: "what advantage had you in these things of which you are now ashamed?"

It would, however, be a great mistake if we confined this question to those two chief and most beastly sins, which very often, but by no means always, go in partnership-intemperance and impurity. Not only these but all other sins are punished long before the unrepenting reprobate has begun his eternal punishment. This is one of the dispositions of God's merciful providence over souls, by means of which He hinders the sinner from resting contented in his sins. "Woe to the rich man who has peace in his riches"-Woe to the sinner who has peace in his sin.

I sincerely trust that for those under whose eyes these pages will fall, though we all have memories that make us blush, and though for all of us the Apostle's question is a home thrust and bears a very definite meaning, even as regards serious sin-nevertheless I hope that the subject will become more practical for us, especially as concerns our present conduct, if we extend this question to other things besides great sins, nay, to things which hardly involve any positive sin at all. The rebuke that is often administered to a froward child, appealing very early to the child's self-respect" you ought to be ashamed of yourself "-in the tribunal of our own conscience, sitting in judgment on ourselves, may we not apply that rebuke with great force and with profound sincerity to many of our doings, to a great part of our conduct, even when those around us would bear testimony that we were leading edifying lives?

"What advantage had you in those things at which you are now blushing?" I blush to think of all the sins that have ever stained my soul in the sight of God from whom not even the most secret passing thought is hidden; but I blush also to think of the indifferent use I have made of all the opportunities of pleasing God that have been mine in every moment of every day of the many long years since I came to the use of reason and was first capable of loving and serving God. How much of all that has been wasted! If a minute account of my goings on hour by hour since the day (for instance) of my first confession as a little child who

was considered capable of perhaps committing serious faults-if a minute account of all that has happened to me since then could be given to some one for whom I have love and respect, how very much of it I should wish to be very different! Of how much of it, not only at my worst time but at my best time, and up to this very hour, this very minute, should I be heartily ashamed?

Seneca, a pagan whom some have thought to be half a Christian, advises us to behave ourselves with men as if God saw everything-which He does-and on the other hand to behave ourselves with God as if men saw what we were doing and how applied (for instance)

we were doing it. If this latter test were to our prayers, how would they stand it? Would the result be creditable? If our accounts with God could be audited with the minute care with which a chartered accountant examines the books of a commercial house, what sort of certificate should we be entitled to? Let us describe to ourselves in plain prose our past conduct, and past dealings with God and with our fellow-creatures up to the present; and, as the result is sure to be unsatisfactory, as we are sure to be ashamed of ourselves if we have proper sense and proper feeling-then will come in the question which we need not repent any more. Everything that took us away from fulfilling perfectly the designs of God-everything that was selfish, imperfect, in the wrong direction, though stopping far on the safe side of mortal sin -every such obstruction to the perfect reign of God in our hearts is seen now already to have been a mistake, a blunder, a misfortune. And if this is our verdict on each bygone portion of our mortal life while we are still in it, subject to its vicissitudes and vanities: how shall it be when the "bewitching of vanity "is over for us with mortal life itself, and when we shall look back on time as revealed in the light of eternity? The searching question which St. Paul has pressed upon us will then require to be couched in far sterner terms, and will for the lost soul enter into that soliloquy of despair beginning Nos insensati, "We fools!" That some mitigated form of the question will not sadden the happiness of some among the blessed whom God's mercy has saved in spite of sloth and cowardice and much ingratitude and much unworthiness, is one of the deepest of the many deep mysteries of heaven.

M. R.

A FRIEND.

T chanced one night my Guardian Angel, meeting
My boat that laboured on the bitter foam,
Let droop his wings, and with a tender greeting
Gave me a message from my Father's home.

"Christ loveth thee," he said, "thine hours of sorrow
Fall to thee from the sacred Crown of Thorn;
Choose now some boon from Him, that on the morrow
Thy heart's desire may ripen with the morn."

And I, with eyes towards that dim haven reaching
Whence joys and sorrows come and find their end,
Knelt at his feet, and answered him, beseeching

Pray the Great God to send my soul a friend!"

And so God made thee, Dearest, strong and tender,
Weaving divine and human, weft and woof,

And sent thee to me, that my soul's surrender
Might put His promise to the furthest proof,

And make thee mine, Beloved, through the ages,
Mine in the fellowship of hopes and fears,
Mine at the closing of life's solemn pages,
Mine when He reaps the harvest of His years.

So in thy presence all my soul is rested,

In thy dear eyes I read the future right;

Or calm or storm, the countless waves are breasted,
And I with thee sail eastward to the Light.

ALICE M. MORGAN.

CLAVIS ACROSTICA.

A KEY TO DUBLIN ACROSTICS."

PART VIII.

P.S.D., H.P., and J.W.A. have been successful in solving Nos. 13 and 14; Anon and Warden. The "lights" of the former are Arno and Norton (namely the Honourable Caroline); of the latter, wood, ace, and rattan. By the way J.W.A. gives age in place of ace, whereas the lines evidently refer to cardplaying.

Before me fall sovereigns, commoners, all,
Though at times to the meanest I yield.

The same expert Acrostician confesses his ignorance of Ned, whom "F," in ringing the changes upon warden, introduces incidentally as "one among the sable choir whose head and harp have won him fame." J.W.A. is more familiar with Greek choruses than with nigger songs; but has he never heard of "poor Uncle Ned, who had no wool on the top of his head in the place where the wool ought to grow ?"

The initials appended to the next two Acrostics, which we hand over to the ingenuity of our readers, stand respectively for Mr. Robert Reeves, Q.C., and another barrister, also dead many years, Mr. Daniel O'Connell-no relative, we think, of his illustrious namesake.

No. 15.
I.

Gem from her finger fell

Gift of her lover

Long though she search and well,

Ne'er to recover!

II.

Fast flow the maiden's tears

My hand can dry them

Soothings to calm her fears?

I can supply them.

1. "They're off!" "Oh! are they?" lisps the languid swell. He means the horses. I the legs as well.

2. This word in that command you're sure to find

Where Dante talks of leaving hope behind. 3. The fishers three would now be safe and sound, If, far from me, they'd stayed upon dry ground. 4. Seek for me now in Erin's humblest home, Though once my wit delighted ancient Rome.

R.

No. 16.

Whether in prose or gentle verse, 'tis plain
An adjective unyielding I remain;
When joined to ship of whatsoever fleet,
I trust the reader we may never meet.

A source of good and evil to mankind,
What many seek for, but what few can find ;
Of which but few can learn good use to make,
And aid their fellows for their fellows' sake.

1. Where'er it comes, a wildly mournful strain,
And dire confusion, hate, and terror reign.
2. The tuneful Darky comes from distant me,
Love in his heart and banjo on his knee.
3. In intervals like this our Solons turn

Their thoughts and energies to fresh intent,
In order that, invigorate, they may earn
Their country's praise, their own emolument.

4. Rapid my pious exercises are,

No Christianity more muscular!

O'C.