Life's Roll-Call.

universe . What is termed individual responsibility comprehends the law of equity iu all relative obligations . None can avoid it , because it rules the princip les of justice and right , in every one of life ' s relationships . Even the

romance of life may not obscure it , as stern realities all make their impress as if written with an iron pen and laid in the rock for ever . The rapid transitions of our years can not obliterate the turpitude of our crimes

or bedim the g lory of our virtues , for the one covers us with a mantle of darkness , while the others cling to us like the ivy to the wall , with even a deathless tenacity . Errors in life are but a common inheritancefor all men err , all are weakand at

, , times do wrong , often when they do not intend it . From infancy to age , when the life roll is called , we answer from the positions which are given us , conscious as we are in most instances of our own

integrity . For the general way we do not condemn ourselves , even when we see our own sinfulness , when we know our own wrongs , and are aware of our numerous shortcomings . Men are but grown-up children , and even in childhood we always count one in the make-up of the world ' s

numerals . Though we are then weak and helpless and incapable of an act of' individual responsibility , we are that early endowed with power , and sustain no insignificant position in the world's roll call of life . We are then on the arena already , where

divinity shines in us and through us , and where we have rights and powers of development and possess attractive innocency and loveliness ivhich none but the inhuman "will ever ignore . Even then the eyes of loveenduring loveare fastened on us

, , , and often the pencil of thought , with the inspiration of poetic fire , paints our being and tells our life story as a mournful sample of what sooner or later befalls us all .

How truthfully and beautifully one has written of such young life , when he says : I saw an infant in its mother ' s arms , And left it sleeping ; i ears passed—I saw a girl with woman's charms In sorrow weeping :

Years passed ; I saw a mother with her child , And o ' er it languish ; Years brought me back . Yet through her tears she smiled , In deeper anguish .

I left her ; years had vanished—I returned And stood before her . A lamp beside the childless widow burned , Grief ' s mantle o ' er her . In tears I found her whom I left in tears , On God relying , And I returned again in after years And found her dying .

An infant first , and then a maiden fair , A wife , a mother . And then a childless widow in despair Thus met a brother . 'Tis thus we meet on earth , and thus we part To meet , O , never 1 Till death beholds the spirit leave the heart To live for ever . "

JNo , not even the hel pless infant is left out in the roll call of life . It is , in itself , endowed with entity , simple , beautiful and immortal , and represents the highest actual purity of this world of sin . In after years , when the child grows to young manhood , its identity is none the

less concealed , for the young man is his father's hope and his mother ' s pride , and his name , under the influence of parental prestige , begins to assume importance even in the books of life . 'Tis then we see that " the boy is father to the man , " and on him

we call the life-roll with renewed promise and assurance . AVe know it is sad , but then it is true , that many at this point are most mysteriously numbered among the missing . Somehow they drop out , as we often see

them , even from the ranks of the Mystic Tie , but for what cause we know not . Many need guardianship in manhood as well as in youth , and the watch-care of churches and fraternal societies has doubtless been made a blessing to millions .

The thoughtful , the reflective , may stand firm anywhere . They have studied the philosophy of self-reliance , and they are always ready to answer the roll . They