And this we ought to carry through all departments, for God has given to each man certain powers, and these should be improved. We are not at liberty to leave neglected the high gifts which God has given us. The intellect which God has bestowed should not lie dormant. And I cannot but think that we have parted with a noble example in this respect. How vigorous was her spirit of self-improvement! How stimulating was her influence on all who came within her reach! How urgent she was with young men that they should aim high, and not sit at ease satisfied with inferiority! and what a fine example did she herself set them! What a contrast did she present to the listless, fanciful, and indolent novel reader upon the sofa! How manfully did she grapple with one language one after another! I cannot enumerate those that she had acquired, but this we all know that she qualified herself to become the valued correspondent of the first linguists of the day; and now, if, beside her grave, we could have breathed a wish of such a kind, it would have been that she could have left us, as a legacy, some small fraction of the rich stores of her accumulated knowledge! But it is not merely an intellectual work that has to be considered, for, after all, what are all intellectual acquirements if we be not in Christ? Nay! we may extend the question further and inquire, what would all our labour in such a case avail us before God? And if we be not forgiven in Christ Jesus how shall any one of us stand in his presence? Can intellect justify? Can talent justify? Can self-improvement justify? Nay, more, can philanthropic effort justify? Can benevolence justify? Can religious activity justify? Can energetic labour for God justify? Beautiful, indeed, are all such things when springing forth as the rich fruits of heavenly grace in the soul of the justified believer; but nothing better than filthy rags if employed as a covering for the dark moral guilt in the soul of the sinner. No, brethren! If the inquiry is made, how must the soul be saved? How can the sin be blotted out? How can the sinner stand justified in the Lord’s presence? there is but one answer, and that is, _it must be in Christ_. No intellect and no activity will ever lift us above the old promise, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” All our hope is in the substitution of the sinless Saviour for the sin-stricken sinner, in the transfer of guilt from the guilty criminal to the guiltless substitute; and if a man be a stranger to Christ, though he have all the philanthropy of a Howard, or all the intellect of a Newton, he will be found condemned before God for the inherent corruption of his heart and character. Well, therefore, does the Apostle urge us to “Work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure;” and most earnestly will every wise man pay good heed