eserves our admiration as much as the missionary or the
minister of the Gospel--each and all such are servants of the great
King.

By far the greater portion of our lives is spent at the desk or the
counter, in the office, shop, or field; so that it is of the first
importance we should keep the strictest watch on our actions in our
work as well as in our leisure moments.

One of the most successful men in commerce and politics of the century
was Mr. W.H. Smith. Strange to say, the desires of his early days were
entirely opposed to business life. At the age of sixteen he greatly
desired to proceed to one of the universities, and prepare for
becoming a clergyman, but his parents being opposed to such a step he
gave up the idea in deference to their wishes.

It was a great disappointment to him to do this--yet he was able to
write, "It is my duty to acknowledge an overruling and directing
Providence in all the very minutest things, by being in whatever state
I am therewith content. My conclusion is, then, that I am at present
pursuing the path of duty, however imperfectly; wherever it may lead,
or what it may become, I know not."

Thus did William Henry Smith see the door of the Church closed upon
him with no vain regrets, but in a spirit of submission to his
father's wishes. Writing of these days many years later, when as
a Minister of the Crown he was in attendance upon her Majesty at
Balmoral, he says: "I thought my life was aimless, purposeless, and I
wanted something else to do; but events compelled me to what promised
to be a dull life and a useless one: the result is that few men have
had more interesting work to do".

In his earlier years W.H. Smith made a list of subjects for daily
prayer, embracing repentance, faith, love, grace to help, gratitude,
power to pray, constant direction in all things, a right understanding
of the Bible, deliverance from besetting sin, constancy in God's
service, relatives and friends, missionaries, pardon for all ignorance
and sin in prayer, etc., etc.; and it was one of the characteristics
of his nature that he felt prayer both in youth and age to be _a
necessity_.

It was a busy life in which Smith was launched at the commencement of
his career.

His father had already laid the foundation of the newsagency business
which is now of world-wide fame. Every week-day morning, summer and
winter, throughout the year, sunshine or rain, fog or snow, father
and son left their home f