character of a workman among his comrades, or a boy in his school. It is bound to tell. "Example," says Dr. Smiles, "is one of the most potent instructors, though it teaches without a tongue. It is the practical school of mankind working by action, which is always more forcible than words. Precept may point to us the way, but it is a silent continuous example conveyed to us by habits, and living with us in fact, that carries us along. Good advice has its weight, but without the accompaniment of a good example it is of comparatively small influence, and it will be found that the common saying of 'Do as I say, not as I do' is usually reversed in the actual experience of life." Goodness makes good. As a man who trims his garden in a straight row and makes it beautiful will induce in time all his neighbors to follow him, or at least to be ashamed of their ragged and ill-kept plots in contrast with his own, so is it that the upright, good life of a sincere Christian man will silently tell upon others.

These are some illustrations of the power of influence unconsciously exercised, and the whole subject teaches us (1) Our responsibility. If we are ready to ask, "Am I my brother's keeper?" the answer is, you cannot help being so. It is as easy to evade the law of gravitation as the law of responsibility. A man was lately prosecuted for having waited on his customers in clothes he had worn when attending his children during an infectious complaint. It was proved that he had sown broadcast germs of the disease. It would have been no justification for him to say, What has anyone to do with the clothes I wear? It is my own business. He was a member of the community. His action was silently but surely dealing out death to others. He was punished, and justly punished. We cannot live without influencing others. We say perhaps that "we mean well," or at least we mean to do no one any harm, but is our influence harmless? It is going from us in forms as subtle as the germs of an infectious disease.

  Say not, "It matters not to me,
  My brother's weal is his behoof,"
  For in this wondrous human web,
  If your life's warp, his life is woof.

  Woven together are the threads,
  And you and he are in one loom,
  For good or ill, for glad or sad,
  Your lives must share one common doom.

  Then let the daily shuttle glide,
  Wound full of threads of kindly care,
  That life's increasing length may be
  Not only strongly wrought, but fair.

  So from the stuff of each new day
  The loving hand of Time shall make
  Garments of joy and peace for all,
  And human hearts shall cease to ache.
        M. J. SAVAGE.

(2) The power all have to do good. There are some who think they can only serve God and man in a direct and premeditated way, by taking up some branch of Christian work and devoting themselves to it; and if they have no gift in any special direction, they think they are outside of the vineyard altogether. But it is not so. The sphere of quiet and unassuming Christian life is open to all. It is impossible to measure the extent of our influence. Its

  Echoes roll from soul to soul,
  And grow for ever and for ever.

Like those of the Alpine horn in the solitudes of the mountains, long after the voice that caused them has ceased, they reverberate far and wide. No man lives to himself. He could not do so if he would. (3) The secret of good influence is to be influenced for good ourselves. Our lamp must be first lit if it is to shine, and we must ourselves be personally influenced by coming to the great source of spiritual power. If Christ is in a man, then, wherever he may be, there will radiate from him influences that can only be for good. Out of the life that is in him "will flow rivers of living water."

  Thou must be true thyself
    If thou the truth wouldst teach.
  Thy soul must overflow if thou
    Another soul wouldst reach.
  It needs the overflowing heart
    To give the lips full speech.
  Think truly, and thy thought
    Shall the world's famine feed.
  Speak truly, and thy word
    Shall be a fruitful seed.
  Live truly, and thy life shall be
    A great and noble creed.

CHAPTER IV.

FRIENDS.

By friends we mean those whom we admit to the inner circle of our acquaintance.—All of us know many people. We are bound to do so; to meet with men of all classes, sects, beliefs, opinions. But with most of us there are a few persons who stand to us in a different relation from the rest. We are intimate with them. We take pleasure in their company; we tell them our thoughts: we speak to them of things we would not speak of to others; we confide in them, and in joy and in sorrow it is to them we go. It is of this inner circle, and of those we ought to admit to it, that we have now to speak.

Friendship has been regarded in all ages as one of the most important relationships of life.—Cicero, who dedicates an essay to it says that "it is the only thing on the importance of which mankind are agreed." It has been defined by Addison, the great English writer, as "a strong habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of each other." It has been termed by another "the golden thread that ties the hearts of the world." "A faithful friend" has been called "the medicine of life." Ambrose, one of the Christian Fathers, says, "It is the solace of this life to have one to whom you can open your heart, and tell your secrets; to win to yourself a faithful man, who will rejoice with you in sunshine, and weep in showers. It is easy and common to say, 'I am wholly thine,' but to find it true is as rare." And Jeremy Taylor, the great preacher, calls friendship "the ease of our passions, the discharge of our oppressions, the sanctuary to our calamities, the counsellor of our doubts, the charity of our minds, the emission of our thoughts, the exercise and improvement of what we meditate." The great preachers, philosophers and poets of all time have dwelt on the importance and sweetness of friendship. The In Memoriam of Tennyson is a glorification of this relationship.

The highest of all examples of friendship is to be found in Christ.—"His behaviour in this beautiful relationship is the very mirror in which all true friendship must see and mirror itself." [1] In His life we see the blessings of companionship in good. "He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." He had intimate friends in His group of disciples. Peter and James and John stood to Him in this relation. They were taken by Him into scenes which the rest of the disciples did not behold. They knew a friendship with Him unenjoyed by the others. And of that inner circle there was one to whom the soul of Jesus clung with peculiar tenderness—the beloved disciple. Human friendship has been consecrated for us all by this example of Christ. He offers himself to every one of us as a friend: "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you."

There are two things which specially show the importance of friendship:

(a) It is regarded by others as a test of our character. The worth of a man will always be rated by his companions. The proverbs of all nations show this. "A man is known by the company he keeps." "Like draws to like." "Birds of a feather flock together." If our companions are worthless, the verdict of society regarding us will be that we are worthless ourselves. This verdict may not in all cases be true, but the probability is that it will be true. If we are admitted to the