ought to be
able to read him up and down, every way!

Be all reality, no counterfeit. Do not pass for current coin what is
base alloy. Let transparent honor and sincerity regulate all your
dealings; despise all meanness; avoid the sinister motive, the underhand
dealing; aim at that unswerving love of truth that would scorn to stoop
to base compliances and unworthy equivocations; live more under the
power of the purifying and ennobling influences of the gospel. Take its
golden rule as the matchless directory for the daily transactions of
life--"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to
them."

"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."

Twenty-seventh Day.

ACTIVITY IN DUTY.

"I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day; the
night cometh, when no man can work."--John, ix. 4.

How constant and unremitting was Jesus in the service of His Heavenly
Father! "He rose a great while before day;" and, when His secret
communion was over, His public work began. It mattered not to Him where
He was: whether on the bosom of the deep, or a mountain slope--in the
desert, or at a well-side--the "gracious words" ever "proceeded out of
His mouth." We find, on one touching occasion, exhausted nature sinking,
after a day of unremitting duty; in crossing, in a vessel, the Lake of
Tiberias--"_He fell asleep_"! (Matt. viii.) He redeemed every precious
moment. His words to the Pharisee seem a _formula_ for all, "Simon, I
have somewhat to say unto _thee_"!

Oh, how our most unceasing activities pale into nothing before such an
example as this! Would that we could remember that each of us has some
great mission to perform for God, that religion is not a thing of dreamy
sentimentalism, but of energetic practical action; moreover, that no
trade, no profession, no position, however high or however humble in the
scale of society, can disqualify for this life of Christian activity and
usefulness! Who were the writers in the Bible? We have among them a
King--a Lawgiver--a Herdsman--a Publican--a Physician! Nor is it to high
spheres, or to great services only, that God looks. The widow's mite and
Mary's "alabaster box of ointment" are recorded as examples for
imitation by the Holy Ghost, while many more munificent deeds are passed
by unrecorded. We believe that God says, regarding the attempt of many a
humble Christian to serve Him by active duty, "I saw that effort, that
_feeble_ eff