distinction between modern "sensational" Plays, and the representations of noble character to be found in those of Shakespeare. It was from such that the parts for Master Betty were selected, and that his acting of them softened, and elevated, the feelings of vast audiences cannot be denied. It drew them for the time out of themselves.

It is not, however, with a view to defend, in the slightest, play acting, that the lives of these two gifted boys have been brought together, but their careers teach the young reader a lesson at the commencement of his. Many a youth who reads this book has, in him, the germs of ambition. It is the marked feature of boys in our day, and country; thousands of English boys long to attract notice, to gain fortune and distinction. Both these boys succeeded in doing so. The sympathies of the reader will be chiefly with the boy Kean; he had no kind parents, no home, no start in life; and the heroic perseverance of this poor boy, beginning life with everything against him-poverty-neglect-unkindness— must command the respect and goodwill of every generous heart. He deserved to succeed, and it is to be observed that God's Providence was true to him, if only he had been true to God, and to himself. He did achieve a success, which, had he not ruined all by his vices, would have entirely eclipsed that of his contemporary; his genius was far greater and more lasting; he raised the tone of the English Stage, representing the splendid ideas of Shakespeare in a way they had never been presented before. He would have acquired a princely fortune; for even in the few years before his premature death, it is known that Edmund Kean must have received from first to last, upwards of £100,000; and, like Mr. Betty, he might have lived to an honoured, peaceful, and good old age. Why, then, did this boy of indomitable perseverance and wonderful powers, make shipwreck of all, and, in darkness and gloom, sink into a drunkard's grave in his early manhood, forty years before Mr. Betty's death? Fortune came to both boys alike, but found an entire contrast in their characters; it found in William Henry Betty, the light-hearted modest boy, with kindly, generous, disposition, and impulses, and, what was far better-as life went ona heart far from indifferent to the claims of Religion. It found in Edmund Kean, not merely a passionate, envious, reckless, disposition, bent upon himself and his ambition alone-that all would willingly forgive, considering his terrible deprivations and sad boyhood-but, when success, in God's good providence, had come to him, his utter rejection

of Religion, and wilful neglect of all that leads to a noble and better life, was his ruin!

Both have now passed away! Out of the four millions now living in London, how few are left who remember the years 1804, 1805! Sir Moses Montefiore living to be 103 years old, till his death in 1887; and Monsieur Chevreul, the eminent Chemist of Paris, reaching a similar agedying in 1889, (born 31st August, 1786) living to see the Centennial of the French Revolution,-would each be about 19 years old in 1804; but what exceptions are these! The Survivors out of how many Millions!

No boy this country has produced, ever had his ambition gratified to such an extent as William Henry Betty! Yet how empty and blank at this length of time, worldly triumph seems, when the actor, and the witnesses, have alike long passed away! Every boy who reads this book,however poor and humble his position may seem to himself, -has now placed before him by his Creator, an ambition,— a future, infinitely higher, and more lasting, than anything that these Boys achieved, or aspired to! What avails the applause of delighted audiences, when the Grass in the quiet Richmond Churchyard, and Highgate Cemetery, is now waving over their half-forgotten graves?

But not so with a Christian youth! When the lights of "Vanity Fair" are going out in silence and gloom, to the Worldly man, the Christian youth feels that their departure is but a prelude to the life of Eternal Happiness upon which he has, with God's aid, set his ambition, his heart, and aspirations. "He aims too low, who aims beneath the skies!" "One self-approving hour whole years outweighs,Of stupid starers, -and of loud huzzas!"

CHAPTER XIX.

MODERN INFIDELITY!

"HELL IS BUT A FABLE,-HEAVEN A POET'S DREAM."

(Theory.)

"WHAT have I DONE! WHAT have I BEEN DOING?"

(Reality.)

"Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.”–
Third Commandment.

CHERE is, perhaps, no country in the World which has been more favoured by God, for a long course of years than Great Britain, and no country in which His Holy Name is more frequently "taken in vain," and insulted by Profanity. There are men to be met with,-especially the younger men amongst the working classes,-whose every third word is an Oath! Even the commonest salutation, the commonest remark on what is passing around them,-is an occasion for taking God's name in vain. "Christ!"-"Damn!"-" Blast! "_"God strike!""Bloody,"-&c., come from them in one continuous stream, with almost every sentence they utter! Almighty God is, however, a Being Whose wonderful long-suffering, I am certain, strikes a very wicked man frequently with surprise; he is at times, astonished at God's forbearance; at the time it takes to provoke Him to anger, and how God can bear with him so long as He does.

But with Eternity before us,-an Eternity which, after Millions of Ages have passed, will not even have begun,we may see the reason for God's forbearance! God knows the lives that poor neglected boys are too often brought up to, the example they have had placed before them from childhood, by their Parents and associates,-the language and habits they have been accustomed to from boyhood ;swearing, drinking, and vicious fellow workmen in the workshops; Godless, and prayerless, Parents; God's word never read to them;-with such Examples before them, what else can you reasonably expect hundreds of youths to be? If we had shared their experiences, who knows what we should have been? In youths, however, who know far better, and have had a proper education, it is a far more

solemn thing for them to indulge in oaths, or to take God's name in vain. What God may take, with great longsuffering, from an ignorant and neglected mind, He may not choose to suffer from an intelligent and wilfully profane person.

It is this wilful taking of His name in vain, by intelligent men, for the express purpose of ridiculing Religion, and causing others to despise it and God, which is, in the worst sense of all, what is meant by "taking His Name in vain.”

You are probably aware that there is a Body (greatly increased of late years) calling themselves "Secularists,❞— in plain English, Atheists,-who, in almost every large town in England, have now regular Meetings, often on a Sunday, not for the purpose of worshipping God, but just the contrary, of ridiculing the Old and New Testaments, lampooning religion, and opposing Almighty God in every possible way.

Before presuming to become a Teacher of Religion to others, the writer resolved to know the worst that any could advance against God and the Bible. Opinions may differ on this point, but a blind belief in anything told us from infancy, with no investigation or thought of our own, never did appear to him to present a very hopeful, or rational view of an intelligent Christian. In the mysterious operations of Divine grace and wisdom in the work of salvation, every Christian knows that there are two chief Stages. The first, and elementary stage, is to convince the Understanding, the Intellect, the second is to convince the Conscience, and the Heart. The first is to hear, and to understand, the second, and all important one, is to obey! No intelligent reader of his Bible, and of God's dealings with man, can fail to see that, at whatever cost, God is resolved never to interfere with the Free-will of any created being. Intelligent love and service-an intelligent choice of Him for a Master, is what He desires, and what God may, if asked, incline our heart to give, but He never can, and never will, force any to render it to Him against their own free-will. Although for a youthful,-necessarily unsettled,— mind to read works of an Infidel character, or to listen, unprepared by study and investigation, to an Infidel Lecture, would be simple madness-it is, nevertheless, certain, that an intelligent, and thoughtful, Christian, of a more advanced age, may, with God's aid, not only read carefully the works of the leading opposers of Christianity, but may see clearly their fallacy and unfairness, and how easily they

may be met by an intelligent and painstaking Believer. Amongst the principal Works which have been probably most successful in spreading the deadly Nightshade of unbelief in the world during the past century, may be mentioned those of Voltaire the Frenchman, Thomas Paine, Renan, the late Dr. Strauss the German, Spinosa, Dr. Colenso, Francis Newman (one chapter of whose book called "Phases of Faith," upon our Saviour, being probably the most deliberate insult ever offered to Christ)—and last but, not least, the Leader of modern infidelity in this country, Mr. Bradlaugh of London. In all these gifted men there are three things ever observable; the first is either a deadly enmity to, or a calm contempt for God's Word, the Bible, accompanied by an intense aversion to the plan of salvation opened to us by our Saviour; the second is, their invariable practice of first dethroning God, and then placing themselves and their ideas upon the platform of Infinitude, for the benefit of those who can believe in them, rather than in God;-and the third is the very remarkable fact, that, while each has endeavoured to take religion away from us, not one of them has ever given the world anything in its place! They attempt to destroy, but never to construct. What there is in the assertions of these men to damp, in any way, our love, reverence, and veneration for God, for our Saviour, and for that most wonderful and Holy Book, the Bible, it is difficult to imagine, more especially to those who have read carefully their writings, and heard on one or two occasions their so-called "Free discussions."

There must, it is thought, be a predisposition-a wilful inclining to unbelief in God, in those who prefer their assertions to those of Divine Wisdom. Thousands of the Working Classes will not read the Bible quietly, and patiently, for themselves; it is difficult to induce them to listen to it, or to attend the Sabbath School, or Chapel, where they might do so; they will not study this most wonderful and priceless book-the Bible-for themselves, yet they will go and even pay to hear men like Bradlaugh lecture by the hour against a Book which they have never read, and never will study carefully for themselves! This country owes its supremacy over others mainly to its Religion, and its reverence for the Bible. There are not wanting signs to show that this reverence is becoming sapped, that the working classes of this country are becoming divorced from their allegiance to what they have for years held in reverence.