But if, through idleness or self-indulgence, we have allowed the precious hours and days to pass empty away; if our Bibles have been neglected, and our time frittered away on trifles; if we have done and given nothing for the spread of the Gospel, the advancement of the Lord's cause—then has the Lenten season been lost. If we have formed no good habits to carry us through the rest of the year, if we are ready to plunge into new frivolities, or to take up the old ones with a new zest after a few weeks of abstinence, then it is worse than lost. We might better not have had it. For every privilege misused, every means of grace unimproved, does but harden the heart and blunt the conscience. Without wishing to be censorious, it does seem to me that a good many Christians do up their religion in Lent, so as to have little left for the rest of the year. For six weeks they are to be seen in the Sunday-school, at the missionary meeting, at the week-day service; but look for them after Easter, and you will find their places vacant. "Yes, I went to the meetings in Lent," said one; "but now that the world is going on again, there are so many claims on my time!" One could not help wondering a little what claims the world had on the time of a Christian after Easter any more than before. But let us beware of judging our neighbors; we shall have quite enough to do in examining our own consciences and bewailing our own sinfulness, that we may come well prepared to the blessed feast of Easter. We shall all see plenty to regret in the weeks that are past. Let us see to it that the coming days—the days of our Lord's humiliation and death—are so employed as that the feast of His joyful and glorious resurrection may find us ready, in the marriage garment prescribed by Holy Scripture, to be meet partakers of that Holy Table. Isa. liii. 1 Cor. xi. 17. THE END.