are easily wasted, but minutes make hours, and days, and years. A man who wastes five minutes a day robs his master of nearly three days' work in the year. Yet if he were to take three days for himself all at once, he would not expect his master to pay him. And I fancy in some workshops and shops of other kinds too there is often a good deal more than this wasted in idle gossip or worse.

Again, integrity requires that we should do our work honestly. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," is the injunction of Scripture. And it certainly is not doing it with our might when we either leave it undone or do it imperfectly and carelessly. I have known some servants who seem to take a pride in their work, and have a pleasure in doing it as well as they can; who will do more than is required of them rather than less. And I have known others who didn't seem to care how their work was done as long as they could get through with it, and get it over, so that they might have plenty of time to themselves; and who if they had the chance, or thought nothing would be said about it, would leave things undone, hoping thus to get off doing them altogether. Now this is not honest, and no servant, whatever his or her employment, can claim this noble quality of integrity who does so. This is as

much robbery as the robbery of time or of money. You promise to give your master so much work for his wages, and you would think it very hard and very unjust if he gave you less than he had promised. So is it hard and unjust to him if you do not give him his work. Oh what an increase of happiness for masters and servants too would there be if while masters rendered to their servants that which was "just and equal," servants would remember the other words of the apostle, "With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.' "Scamped work, badly done work, is dishonesty.

And this includes little things as well as great things. There is a saying that "trifles make the sum of human things," and every one will admit that if a man is faithful in little things, he is a man you may depend on about greater things. So our Lord says, "He that is faithful in the least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much." God takes care of little things. How beautiful is the way-side flower! What wonderful skill is there in the commonest insect? And he * Eph. vi. 7.

numbers even the hairs of our heads. Our Lord, when he was upon earth, after he had fed five thousand men besides women and children by a miracle, so that out of five loaves and two fishes he made enough for all, ordered his disciples to gather up the fragments, that nothing might be lost. Ah! how much might be saved in many a household, in many a business, if we were thus faithful and honest and careful about little things. Fragments of time; fragments of food; fragments of workable material; how much would these come to if they were gathered up carefully instead of being thrown to waste. And integrity will do this. When old Simmons died his master said of him, and everybody who knew him knew it was literally true, "I don't believe," he said, "he ever wasted me the value of a shaving." It will be a grand thing for us if that can be said of us all.

But it

There is another thing too where I think integrity is needed, and where I have often found it to fail: that is, that we are bound to show it in our dealings with all alike. Some people "stick it on" when they have a rich man to deal with, because they think he can afford it. has nothing to do with it whether he is worth a hundred thousand pounds or only a hundred pence. Right is right in one case as well as in another. A fair price is a fair price for the rich as well as for the poor, and a man of integrity will not try to charge any man more for his labour or his goods because he is rich. Everything "stuck on" in that way is robbery, and nothing less than robbery. The fact is, integrity has for its basis the golden rule to do to others as we would be done by, and to deal with them as we would like to be dealt with ourselves; and if this is the case then we shall deal with them also in such a way as not to be ashamed of anything in our doings or dealings being known. A Christian tradesman, a Christian workman, a Christian servant, should in little things as well as great, towards rich and poor, as to his use of time, as to his work, be like that noble knight of old of whom it was said that he was "without fear and without reproach." And we can only be so by a habit of strict integrity. It is a sad thing for a man to be afraid of being "found out;" to have some transactions which he would rather keep in the dark; or for a servant or workman to be afraid lest his or her employer should look too closely into their work. My old friend Simmons was never troubled

with fear of that sort. "There may be cleverer workmen than I," he would say, "that I don't deny; but I ain't afraid of my work being examined. I know it's honest work."

There is one more aspect of this noble quality, integrity, and if we really possess that we may hope that we have the foundation for integrity everywhere and in everything. There is a kind of integrity which relates only to outward actions, those which are likely to come under the notice of others. But there is a higher kind of integrity necessary to the full perfection of that quality-I mean integrity before God. Man looketh to the outward appearance, God looketh to the heart."* Not only should our acts and words be true, straightforward, above-board, honest and open as the day; but our thoughts also. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life," was the wise man's exhortation. And yet more significantly did the psalmist say at the close of that wonderful Psalm, the 139th, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." If we are true before him, we cannot be false before men. If we do our work, fulfil our calling as in his sight and to obtain his approval, we shall so do it as not to fear man's scrutiny. If we can say with regard to any duty, in the spirit of humble and thankful sincerity, "I have done my best in the sight of God," it will be a small matter to us to be judged by man's judgment. Only let us take heed that our appeal to his heart-searching eye be genuine; let us beware lest even this be an act of self-deception. There is the possibility of appealing to him to vindicate what we dare not submit to the investigation of our fellowmen. We must beware of this. And in order to do so, we must live in the habit of bringing our lives, our thoughts, our words, our actions, into the clear light of his presence, that we may judge of them according to his truth, and not according to our own wishes. May He who knows the heart, and from whom no secret thoughts can be hid, help us thus to search and try our ways and turn to the Lord! It is a searching prayer, "Cleanse thou me from secret

faults."

COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE.

ON these subjects much advice is given, and very little taken. If asked at all, it is generally not until the mind is made up, the affections engaged, and perhaps the honour pledged. Good Mr. and Mrs. Sutton were very often consulted on this business by the prudent young people in our neighbourhood. The first question they generally asked was, "Have you consulted your parents, and what do they think of it? for you cannot expect happiness if you marry without the full consent of your parents, and the parents of your intended partner." Very often the answer was, "I have spoken to my parents, and they advised me to consult you." Most of the parents had a high opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Sutton's judgment; and somehow they had such a way of making young people themselves see and own if there was anything imprudent or wrong, as induced them to give up the matter of their own accord, which was easier than for the parents directly to forbid it.

My brother Richard, I remember, was in a terrible hurry to get married before he was out of his apprenticeship. Father and mother did all they could to persuade him to wait awhile, and it was well for him that they succeeded. Mr. Sutton, too, talked kindly to him on the subject. "Don't be too hasty, young man; 'tis easy to marry in haste, and repent at leisure. I would advise you not to think of marrying till you are settled in a fair way of getting a living. You don't wish to be a burden to your parents, but to be able to provide for yourself, and those dependent on you; and for some years to come it will be much better for you to have one plough going than two cradles. You may think that love and a little will be quite enough, but let me tell you, love and nothing will be but sorry fare. If you and your lass really love one another, you will find it easy and pleasant to work and save, that you may have something about you to make your home comfortable, when it is prudent for you to marry."

My brother promised to wait a year or two. He set about in good earnest, every leisure hour he had, to work and save for future comfort. But in less than three months' time he came again to Mr. Sutton in great trouble, and told him that Fanny was getting very shy of him, and had been seen walking with the squire's groom; and now what was to be done?

"By all means let her go," replied Mr. Sutton, “and reckon it a very good miss for you. If she is tired of waiting, let her go on without you; and when she is gone, comfort yourself with remembering that there are as good fish left in the sea as ever were caught out of it."

This seemed hard doctrine at the time, and Dick was half inclined to break his promise, and go after Fanny with an offer to marry directly; but prudence prevailed.

After flirting about with three or four different young men, Fanny at last married William Stephens the sawyer, and a poor dressy dawdle of a wife she made him. As for Richard, he soon found that he could do vastly well without her, and, I believe, he forgot all about marrying for four or five years, until he met with a steady, respectable young woman, whom all his friends approved, and who turned out an excellent partner to him and a good mother to his children.

A second question our friends used to ask the young people who came to consult them, was this: "What is it in the person of whom you speak, that makes you think you should love him (or her) better than all the world beside? You ought to be able to do this; for it is a very foolish action either to marry without love, or to love without reason. Is it beauty? Beauty is only skin deep, and sometimes covers a heart deformed by vice and ill temper. Beauty is a poor thing, unless it accompanies something far better than itself, and that will long outlive it. To marry only for beauty, would be like buying a house for the in the windows. Favour is deceitful, and beauty nosegays is vain; but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised,' and chosen too by the wise man who seeks a helpmate. Would you marry for money? In seeking after a comfortable yoke-fellow, good conditions are more to be sought for than a great dowry.' 'Better have a fortune in a wife than a fortune with a wife.' Is it for genteel attractive manners, and polite accomplishments? Don't be imposed upon all is not gold that glitters.' Beauty, and property, and pleasing manners, and polite accomplishments, are all very good make-weights to a bargain that is good independently of them, but would make a wretchedly bad bargain of themselves. In marrying you want not only what will look well, and excite admiration when all goes on smoothly, but you want what will afford real comfort and support in the time of adversity."

:

6