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there are always people who, like Bunyan's Timorous and Mistrust, will tell such a man that there is "a Lion in his way;" people who will start difficulties and objections, bring forward instances of men who have failed in this and failed in that, and cover the poor man's path with all manner of hobgoblins. Perhaps it is to little purpose that one tells a timid man to try to be courageous. It is a good deal easier to plant fear in a bold man's heart than to pluck it out of the heart of a coward. But cowardice does not always proceed-does not often proceed—from that humble opinion of a man's self which is always to be respected. There are many who, with plenty of self-conceit, and with the belief that they could do anything if they tried, are shamefully afraid of every little inconvenience and annoyance they might meet with. "Like the poor cat i' th' adage," they are "loth to wet their feet." It would be well if they could be shamed out of their effeminate ways into the cultivation of manly habits.

Turning now to questions of moral and religious duty,in regard to these, at all events, no cry of "there is a Lion in the way" should ever be allowed to stop us in our course. If it be only the path of secular progress that is in question,— the way to wealth,—the way to knowledge,—the way to fame, -perhaps it is not a matter of much consequence whether this man and that man do or do not set out upon such paths and persevere until they win the prize. But the path of duty prescribed for us by our God and by our consciences is quite another thing. I know that there are "Lions" along that path; difficulties, plenty of them there, and sometimes dangers too, for fear of which men often halt or turn back. But let us see how some brave men have faced the "Lions" that infested their path of duty, how they have met the difficulties and the dangers that lay in the way of their doing what they believed

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to be right. There were many "Lions" in the way of Moses, for what but "Lions" were the whole people of Israel when they rebelled and threatened to stone him; but the man of God, putting his trust in God, braved them all and set them at defiance. There were many "Lions" in the way of Elijah, when Ahab and his minions sought to take his life; but he never flinched from his duty, which was to rebuke those wretches for their sins. There were many "Lions" in the way of our blessed Saviour, when priests and people gnashed upon him with their teeth, thirsted for his blood, and shouted "away with him-crucify him ;" but he allowed himself to be killed by them rather than retract his testimony for the truth. Surely Catholic as well as Protestant must admire the courage of Martin Luther, when, urged not to enter the town of Worms lest his enemies should destroy him, he grandly answered,Although there were as many devils at Worms as there are tiles upon the roofs I would enter it." When a person in authority named Justice Keeling told glorious John Bunyan that he must be had back to prison and lie there for three months, and added—" then, if you do not submit to go to church to hear Divine service and leave your preaching, you must be banished the realm, and after that, if you shall be found in this realm without license from the king, you must stretch by the neck for it, "the undaunted tinker answered "I am at a point with you; if I were out of prison to day I would preach the Gospel again to morrow, by the help of God." "Lions in the way!" Yes, verily ! Such were the men who met with “Lions” indeed; not dead ones, but living; not chained ones, but free, and full of rage and power; and the men who undauntedly faced them, and, still more, the men who, facing them, were torn to pieces by them, are the honour and glory of There are no such "Lions" in the way of our duty;

our race.

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they have all died out; those barbarous "justices are no more, and the barbarous laws they were commissioned to enforce have been repealed. In this country, at all events, the "Lion" of persecution is dead, and we don't expect that his roar will ever again be heard, or his bite ever again be felt in England. Still, in the way of our duty, there are some small nasty crcatures which, if we don't wish to do our duty, we try to make ourselves and others believe are "Lions." 'If I tell such or such a truth I shall give offence;' 'if I don't consent to do dishonourable and dirty things in business I shall be poor;' 'my employer expects me to do what my conscience abhors, but, if I don't do it, I shall be turned out of my situation;' 'I know that it is right to keep the Sabbath day; there is something in my heart that tells me I ought to be a Godly man; but then, if I make any profession of religion, my companions and acquaintances will laugh at me, call me a Methodist and a canting humbug, and I shall have the life of a dog amongst them.' Ah, my friend is not all this cowardice,-base, miserable cowardice? Do you call these difficulties and unpleasantnesses "Lions" in your way, these cats with their mewing, and curs with their snarling, and geese with their cackling, and snakes with their hissing? And you call yourself a man! You would wax mighty angry if anyone called your pluck in question;-think of yourself and say whether you can call yourself courageous when you dare not do your duty. What if there were real "Lions” in your way? Do you not feel that it would be right, manly, noble, to face them all and fight them all, and conquer them or be conquered by them, so long as you were trying to go in the path of duty which God's word and your own conscience point out to you?

But "there is a Lion in the way,”—in every man's way; at

least the Scripture tells us this "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring Lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." In every temptation to do wrong we meet with meet with this "roaring Lion." He often assumes other forms and looks like a lamb, and, like the "Lion" in the Midsummer Night's Dream, he subdues his roar so that it is like the cooing of a sucking dove; but still he is the "Lion," the adversary, the destroyer, and all the more dangerous when in such treacherous disguises. But what further says the good old Book that tells us of this beast? Does it "be afraid of him?" say No. Does it say "run away from him?" No; but it says-"resist him, stand fast in the faith;" "resist him and he will flee from you,"-stand out against him and he will depart. Dr. Livingstone says that the African Lion, when encountered, "stands a second or two gazing; then turns slowly round and walks as slowly away for a dozen paces, looking over his shoulder; then begins to trot, and, when he thinks himself out of sight, bounds off like a greyhound." And so the "Lion" of temptation will make off if only you stand firmly upon the ground of conscience, saying to yourself "how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" Says an old proverb-"Away goes the devil when he finds the door shut against him."

one of the

Yes there are "Lions in every man's way; more of them in one man's way, fewer of them in another's,"Lions" of difficulty and "Lions". of temptation; but it is noblest efforts of our minds to kill the one class, souls to resist the other.

and of our

GEORGE PHILIP AND SON, PRINTERS, LIVERPOOL.

"STRAINING OUT GNATS AND SWALLOWING

CAMELS."

It is supposed, and with good reason, that where our version of the Bible represents our Saviour as saying to the Scribes and Pharisees" Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," there is a misprint, which, having in the first edition escaped notice, has been continued until now. In previous versions the words were-" which strain out a gnat and swallow a camel," and this is undoubtedly the true reading. For reasons which we need not now discuss, the Jews were, by their law, forbidden to eat certain kinds of creatures. Amongst the forbidden creatures were all manner of creeping things. And the stricter sort of Jews, fearing that there might be small creeping things in the water or the wine, or whatever else they drank, passed it through a strainer made of fine linen; thus they strained out the gnat, and drank with a good conscience. The camel was also a creature which the law pronounced unclean, and which the Jews were not to eat. What would you say then of a Jew who, very careful to strain the gnat out of the water or the wine which he drank, would sit down and make a hearty dinner off the flesh of a camel? You would of course call him a hypocrite.

Now it is very possible that the men to whom Jesus spoke when he made use of this proverb would not, in literal truth, either strain out the gnat or swallow the camel; this latter, of course, they could not do at a gulp; but I mean that they

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