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warm embrace; and this, every day of his life and every hour of his day. Good works become the delight of his existence, and the very idea of remuneration, of reward in any imaginable shape (save that of internal satisfaction) would diminish the happiness he enjoys.

"Ye are not your own!" said St. Paul. If God demanded from us at any moment all that he has given, what should we have left? What physical, mental, spiritual attributes would remain? Would not our very existence cease? Can the truth of the apostle's assertion need a stronger demonstration than is found in the answer to these queries? If we are not "our own," the power to serve, the capacity to comfort, the faculty to "be kind," are not "our own," but are among the precious gifts entrusted to us by the great Giver, as the ten talents were placed in the keeping of the faithful servant. What right have we then to claim the return even of gratitude, since we are using that which is not "our own," but our Master's? since we are only the media chosen for dispensing that Master's beneficence? since we must render up an account of the equitable and liberal distribution of all that has been placed in our hands? With the conviction that we are not "our own," ever present, who could ask a return for the kindnesses he is Heaven-commissioned to bestow, and which are not "his own," albeit they are distributed through his agency? If a thought