CONTENT AND NOT CONTENT.

HEB. XIII. 5, AND 1 COR. XII. 31.

How are we to reconcile the words "Be content with such things as ye have," with those other words "Covet earnestly the best gifts?" It is sometimes said that the one verse applies only to material things, and the other only to spiritual-but is this explanation really satisfactory?

Is it true that the verses mean that we are to be content with our material but not content with our spiritual possessions? If so, then we must conclude that the agricultural labourers do wrong in asking for higher wages. The wages they have been accustomed to receive are, on almost all hands, allowed to be miserably insufficient; but that does not matter-they ought to be content with the things which they have. The building of model lodging-houses, too, is altogether a mistake-the dwellings of the poor may be overcrowded and unhealthy, but still they ought to be content with such things as they have. The statesman who studies to promote the prosperity of his country, the man who tries to effect some new improvement or discovery, and the girl who buys a new dress because her old one is worn out, are all transgressing the Apos tolic command. We ought not to wish for anything more or better than we have, and attempts at material improvement have no business to be made!

St. Paul said that he had learned in whatsoever state he was therein to be content (not "therewith," as A.V.) What did he mean by this? Did he mean that whatever condition he might be in he was always satisfied with it and its surroundings? If so, then why did he

not let the viper stop on his hand instead of shaking it off?

Or did he mean that he had such a deep inward source of content and satisfaction that he could be content in all circumstances however little he might be content with them—that, “as unknown and yet well known, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing," so he was " content and not content?"

Is not the reason given for the command to be content, the key-note to its meaning? Be content. . for He hath said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee;" and in Him all things are ours. What does it matter then if there are many things which, for the present, we must go without? He is with us always, He has all riches laid up for us, and just because we are so rich in reality, we can afford to be poor in outward seeming. It is not that we are to be content with the things that we have in themselves, in such a sense that we shall not want to add to or improve them, but that we are so to realize our wealth, to be so filled with peaceful content by the thought that He is with us always, that we cannot possibly cherish either a covetous or a discontented spirit.

And if, as regards material things, there is a sense in which we must be content and not content, is it not equally true as regards the things of the mind and of the spirit ?

How often we hear it said, "Oh, if I had so and so's talents." "How I wish I had this gift or that;" and then if any one suggests that we ought to be content with such mental endowments as have been bestowed upon us, the answer is ready, "No, we ought not to be content, we ought to covet earnestly the best gifts." Are not both thoughts true? If the man to whom two talents only were given, had spent his time and strength in mourning that he had not five, what good would he have got out of the talents he had?

Is not the truth this, that we should be content with such powers as we have, however small they may seem to us, because He is with us, ordering all our lot, and His will for us must be the best will that is possible for us to conceive; but though content with the powers which are His gift to us, not content, not ever content, with the degree in which we are making use of, exercising, developing, and thus increasing them. Content with them as capital, but never so content with the returns they bring us as not to strive to make them more fruitful and productive. And in spiritual things, too, surely we are called to be content as well as not content. To realise the wonderful truth that He is with us always and will never leave us or forsake us, must be to have the heart filled with an unspeakable content, while yet there is ever a growing longing that His perfect will for us may be more perfectly fulfilled in us; that we may "know as we are known."

Do we not best reconcile the texts, not by making one refer to material and the other to spiritual things, but by accepting in its widest sense the united teaching of both ?

In accordance with this thought, perhaps I cannot more fitly conclude this paper than by appending the following lines by a much-loved friend :

CONTENT AND NOT CONTENT.

A hush of gladness, my dear one,
Steals over my heart to-night,
Though the future lies dimly before me,
And the shadows hinder sight.

A sense of deepest contentment
Enfoldeth my heart like a dream,
And the promise my Master whispers
Comes like a morning beam,

"Oh child! I am with thee for ever,
Never to leave or forsake."

So I rest with His arms around me
And His strength is mine to take.

But as I rest on His bosom

And gaze on His wondrous face,
There is ever a yearning within me
For a deeper share of grace.

So, filled with content and longing,
I ask Him for gifts untold,
And His smile is to me an answer

That makes my faith grow bold.

For I know He will fill my hands
With gifts that His love hath bought;
If empty He sees them stretched out to Him
And clasping within them nought.

So content, and yet not content,

I rest and yet wait for Him;

For I know there is light beyond the clouds
And my light is low and dim.

But soon He will change it all;

The brightness that gleams through rifts For the glory that has no cloud between, For His free unhindred gifts.

So I wait with a longing heart

That is still at perfect peace,

Perhaps I must wait till the morning break
And the earthly shadows cease?

VEGA.

ON THE MORMONS.

PART IV.

My task draws to a conclusion. I have endeavoured to call the attention of my readers to some of the peculiar tenets of the Mormons. I have attempted to give a picture of their struggles, persecutions, and their final emigration, and it now remains to allude to two short visits made by me to Salt Lake City, the first in the early spring of 1871, and the second in May, 1874.

The railroad to San Francisco runs through the territory of Utah, so that a passing visit is easily made en route to the Pacific coast. Ignorant of all particulars concerning this grand highway, about the last thing I anticipated on leaving home was paying a visit to California. It required very strong efforts on the part of my friends to induce me to set out upon what, in my innocence, appeared to me a most hazardous enterprise. Still I was assured that by this means only could one obtain an idea of the extent of territory now being peopled by restless but energetic emigrants; and my advice now to every one visiting America, is to make the trip. The history of the construction of this grand highway, one of the wonders of the world, is so remarkable, that a slight allusion to it forms a fitting introduction to the account of a visit to any place along the route. The scheme originated in California, and was earnestly pushed forward as a means of encouraging emigration to that rapidly developing State; and it was on the western side that ground was first broken by the Central