Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 3.pdf/337

 bottom of the cup. Life still smiles amid certain joys; and future prospects of use present themselves, it may be distinctly, to urge us onward, and prevent weariness in well-doing. But woe to that wretched being who, like the gorgeous Eastern king, sated with magnificence and pleasure, has tasted of everything that the world can give, and has arrived at the dire conclusion that all is vanity."

We repeat, then, the great maxim of the Lord, "Have salt in yourselves," This is the readiest means of acquiring that self-government, and of leading us to do our duty to our neighbour; which, next to our duty to God, puts us in possession of true peace.

But this salt, this Divine Truth, by which we are so efficiently instructed in our duty, must be sought for where alone it can be found: not among the jarring creeds, the irritating contentions, the censures, the condemnations, the motes in our brother's eyes, that so much offend us; not amidst the bigotries, the divisions, the strifes as to which shall be greatest; not amidst the conflicting passions, which, under fair names, mar the Divine image, and destroy the unity of the church;, in the reduction of those truths to practice by a life of love and usefulness, and by a careful study of our own states, that we may keep within the sphere of our own duties, that we may have salt in ourselves, while we have peace one with another.

It is to the Word of God that our attention must be primarily directed. It is the "kingdom of God and His righteousness" that we must first seek. Obedience being paid to this injunction, all needful blessings will be added, and as much of happiness as is needful in