gins, ignorant of the joys and hopes of life, were gathered at his command.. The history of Joseph, Daniel, Paul, and Christ prove that industry and piety God hath joined together; let not man put asunder. A religion that will not bear the rough of life is not worth the having.

Religious principle underlaid Daniel's success, and was the corner-stone of his greatness. It was the basis of that courtesy, integrity, and industry that made him so great. It gave him courage for every duty. By it he battled his foes and wielded the great power of the realm. He was not offensive in his piety, nor did he fail in his duty anywhere. The king was absolute, but he rebuked him for his sins. He was not present at Belshazzar's impious feast, though it was given to his lords, and Daniel was the prime minister. His religion grouped and harmonized his traits of character and gave him success. He made friends of all classes by his excellent spirit, and won all hearts. He was exact in all his duties, and obliged the princes to give accounts, that the king should have no damage. He provoked no opposition. He made no unnecessary foes. He made no secret of his devotion. The princes who sought his ruin knew that they would find him in his chamber at the hour of prayer, kneeling before his God. He moved along the pathway of duty with majestic firmness. He was faithful to his king, but no royal decree could drive him from the altar of his God.

It is the theory of the world that business success and high religious integrity can not go together. Men affirm that fortunes are not made on Bible rules.

They do in associations what they would not do as individuals. They are "as honest as the times will allow," and consider "all is fair in trade." No one defends the morality of these maxims. But they are urged as the basis of success. But do all succeed who adopt them? Is not success the exception, and failure the general rule? It is estimated, on a careful and wise calculation, that in our large cities ninety-nine out of every hundred fail, and that property seldom descends to the third generation. The merchants in this country who have been permanently successful for fifty years can be counted on ten fingers; and, without exception, the houses represented by those men have been celebrated for business integrity and reliability, in which the purchaser obtained the very article that he bought. The United States Observatory purchases most of its instruments and lenses from celebrated houses in England, France, and Germany. These instruments are immediately mounted without examination or trial. The repute of the house is a guaranty for the article. That repute is capital. One bad instrument would spoil the market. The stamp of Rogers on a piece of cutlery, the name of Day & Martin on a bottle of blacking, passes them around the world. The uniform excellence of these articles creates the renown and fortune of their makers. Axes from the celebrated Douglas factory, in boxes packed by the maker, are found in the woods of Missouri and in the forests of California, untried till used by the hardy pioneer; but each article is known to be good, for that house could not afford to send out an imperfect article: the excellence of its

work is its fortune. We have many men among us who commenced life poor; who left home with no fortune but good principles and the blessing of a mother; who added, to integrity and industry, piety. Such men rose steadily and surely to a fortune. Some of them have been succeeded in business by brothers or children, who took the code of the world for their guide instead of the code of God. In a few years they have scattered all that had been gathered; soiled a fair name; fell suddenly from affluence to want; fled from familiar faces to hide their shame abroad, or sought to drown it in the poison-bowl, or filled a grave by taking life by their own hands. All history proves that where there is no principle there is no permanent success.

Our own nation illustrates the truth that the principles that led Daniel from the position of a slave to the highest honors of the land are applicable to.us. We speak of the men of the "old school." Such founded this nation. They had character, principle, and piety. They came from the plow, the anvil, the lapstone, and the printing-case, as well as from the store and college. They worked their way up as Daniel worked his. They were a match for the statesmen of the Old World. They met and conquered veteran soldiers on the battle-field. They created a flag, and defended it with their own cannon. They sent out the declaration of freedom, that rang over hill and dale, whose sound carried hope into dungeons, and made tyrants in their palaces turn pale. Tried by all tests, ours is the strongest nation to-day on the face of the earth. Neither domestic

treason nor foreign assaults can destroy our Government. The waves of rebellion, mad and mountain high, can not overwhelm it. It stands as the Eddystone light-house-hid for a moment by the angry billows which roll over it, it comes forth, lifts its tall peak to the sky, and, throwing its steady and certain beams over the waters, guides the tempest-tossed mariner on his perilous way, into the haven of civil and political repose.

XXVI. THE BLACK TENTS OF IDUMEA; OR, DEATH NOT THE GREAT ENEMY.

"There are mansions exempted from sin and from woe,
But they stand in a legion by mortals untrod;

There are rivers of joy, but they roll not below,

There is rest, but it dwells in the presence of God."

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UNDER the black tents of Idumea sat four men in silence and sorrow. Upon one of the wealthiest men of the East, one whom God had seemed to hedge about with every temporal good; whom he blessed in all the works of his hands, increasing all his substance in the land; who was happy in his children and in his position of honor among all the people; who was "perfect and upright, a man who feared God and eschewed evil," upon him a sudden and terrible calamity came. Messenger swiftly followed messenger with evil tidings, till all seemed lost, and strong temptation beset him to "curse God and die."

Each from his own place, came three friends to mourn with and comfort the man of the East, when "they heard that all this evil was come upon him.” So changed was his appearance that his friends knew him not when they saw him afar off. "They lifted up their voices and wept, as they drew near; they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven." In silence the company "sat upon the ground for seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word" to the sufferer.