ting that "if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned" (Cant. viii. 7). "Think ye that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy "? (Jas. iv. 5). Christ dwelling in us by His Spirit is jealous of our wandering affections, for "love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave” (Cant. viii. 6). Christ is the Bridegroom of the soul, and He asks us for our undivided love-gifts will not satisfy Him. "He will not regard any ransom, neither will He rest content, though thou givest many gifts" (Prov. vi. 35). When will these dull hearts respond to love like this? When shall we believe that Christ alone is able to make us happy? The believer who has learnt the truth at last wonders he could have been blind so long. Now he sees that Christ is all-sufficient.

"My heart is resting, O my God,
I will give thanks and sing;
My heart is at the secret source
Of every precious thing."

66

Communion with Christ is now his joy. When his Beloved withdraws Himself the day is dark till He returns. 'Many candles," says an old writer, “cannot make a day; the sun must do it." Nor can health and wealth and pleasure or aught else content the believer until the Sun of Righteousness shine forth from behind the cloud, and the Lord lift up upon him the light of His countenance. Thus satisfied with Christ, the world loses its attracting power. "I will go," says the believing soul, "to the altar of God, even to God my exceeding joy" (Psa. xliii.).

VI. Finally, if we would live the life of faith, the Glory of Christ must be our End.

"He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory; but he that seeketh His glory that sent him, the same is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him" (John vii. 18). The glory of His Father was the one darling object of the Saviour's heart.

Like the ploughman who, to drive his furrow true, fixes his eyes on the mark at the end of the course, the eyes of Christ looked right on, and His "eyelids straight before Him." He sought not His own glory (John viii. 50). He received not honour from men (John v. 41). Dependent upon God, He was independent of all around Him; and when His ministry on earth was closed, He could lift up His eyes to heaven and say, "Father, I have glorified

Thee on the earth, I have finished the work that Thou gavest me to do" (John xvii. 4).

So Christ's glory must be our end; for to glorify Him is the very cause of our creation (Rev. iv. 11). "The flesh will propound other ends, and seek to make us swerve," but day by day let us keep before us the glory of our Master. Self-seeking, self-interest, how easily it enters even into Christian service! How ready we are to please the Church instead of the Head of the Church!-to work for our own honour, instead of for the honour of our Master! O self, self, what a Proteus thou art! reappearing in ten thousand forms, "feeding" (as one has said of pride) "on grace as well as garbage," content if thou hast adulation, no matter what its source. Ah! this discovery of self and its extinction, it is this that constitutes the very discipline of life. Put self to death, turn thoughts of it into thoughts of Christ; only thus can it be kept at bay. A heart brimful of Christ will have no room for self. Oh, what a searching test is this! Let the Sunday-school teacher ask herself, as she goes to her class, the district visitor as she sets forth to visit, the tract distributor as he scatters his seed, the preacher as he ascends his pulpit: what is my aim and object? Am I doing this for Christ or am I doing it for self-for Christ's honour or for mine-for my advancement or for His? A useful minister was accustomed, before he fulfilled a duty, thus to question with himself:-"Now, my soul, honour bright, is this for the glory of your God?"

Yes, Christ has entrusted His honour to our keeping; surely it should be precious in our eyes. Let us be faithful to our trust. "We are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men."

Enemies watch for our halting, waverers wait to be encouraged to join our ranks. Oh, let them see that to us Christ is a reality, and His glory dear. Let them see that we are not living to ourselves, but unto Him. Then through all the coming days Paul's joyous confidence may be ours:

"According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.

"For to me to live is CHRIST, and to die is gain." Amen.

ROBABLY no industry extant ever attained within an equally short time such colossal proportions as the paraffin oil trade of Scotland, of which the late James Young, Esq., was the founder. Thirty or forty years ago, the term paraffin was known only to scientific men, as the name of a chemical product evolved from the distillation of beechwood and Rangoon tar. But the quantities of it so obtained were too infinitesimal to be of any value as an article of commerce. Its commercial utility was therefore nil, and it was regarded more as a scientific curiosity than in any other light. Yet it was a dream of several eminent chemists, that paraffin, or some substitute for it possessing kindred properties, might be obtained for illuminating purposes.

Such was the state of matters that prevailed in the earlier half of the nineteenth century. We who live in the other half can scarcely realize the difficulties under which our fathers laboured in the matter of obtaining artificial light. Gas was not then the commonplace luxury that it has since become. Accessible enough in large cities, it was conspicuous by its absence in many second and third-rate towns. In the country, tallow candles, sperm oil, and "fat sticks" were the only auxiliaries to the light obtained from the fire on the hearth. Civilization imperatively demanded that science should unfold from her hidden treasures other and more satisfactory means of illumination. The "man of the time" was wanted, and was found.

James Young was the son of a joiner who carried on business in the Drygate of Glasgow --one of the most thickly populated districts in the east-end. The sire had not the means wherewith to bestow upon the son more than the rudiments of an ordinary English education. Taken from school at an early age, the latter was destined by his father to follow the trade of a joiner, at which he worked for a considerable time. But he found ways and

means

'To breast the blows of circumstance."

His spare hours were diligently employed in the study of chemistry. His instructor was Professor Graham, afterwards Master of the Mint, and one of the first to shed upon the chemical chair in the Andersonian University of Glasgow, the exceptional lustre it now enjoys. Graham was not slow to perceive that his pupil was a more than usually apt scholar. He therefore took the utmost pains in his tuition, and was so satisfied with the results, that eventually Mr. Young was made his class-assistant.

From the joiner's bench to the chemical class-room and laboratory was neither an easy nor a natural transition; but it was one to which James Young proved himself in all respects equal. Graham, indeed, had such a high opinion of his capacity, that when he was appointed Professor of Chemistry in London University, he made arrangements for the renewal of the association which existed in Glasgow between himself and his former pupil. To London, then, Mr. Young removed, when little more than twenty years of age, and he continued to assist Graham in the laboratory and class-rooms of London University as he had done in the Andersonian University of Glasgow, until he was invited to become manager of Muspratt's Chemical Works, at Newton, near Liverpool.

At these works the manufacture of alkali and bleaching powder was then carried on to a larger extent perhaps than anywhere else in the kingdom. Mr. Young's appointment involved a large amount of responsibility, but he was not found wanting in any of the qualifications essential to the proper discharge of his duties. Anxious to mature his experience still further, he was induced to accept a managerial position in Tennant's Chemical Works, Manchester, after he had been four and a half years with Muspratt. Tennant's concern was the largest of its kind in the world. The firm not only carried on large works at Manchester, but they had still larger establishments at Glasgow and Newcastle.

While he resided in Glasgow, Mr. Young made the acquaintance of Dr. Lyon Playfair.

D D

Playfair had observed the practical and inquir ing turn of Mr. Young's mind, and thus selected him as the proper man to investigate the properties of a petroleum spring which had been discovered in a coal mine in Derbyshire, belonging to his brother-in-law. Mr. Young

readily accepted the commission. On examining the spring along with Dr. Playfair, he found petroleum dropping from the roof of the mine over the coal. Believing that he had got hold of a good thing, he took a lease of the mine, and worked the petroleum until it became exhausted. He had previously advised his employers in Manchester to take it up, but they replied that it was too small a matter for them to go into, and declined the offer. It was in the year 1848 that Mr. Young quitted Manchester to embark on this venture. He produced two different kinds of oil-one a thick oil for lubricating purposes, and the other a thin oil for lamp burning. As the petroleum spring became exhausted, Mr. Young made numerous experiments, with the view of finding an artificial substitute for the natural oil-his experience having demonstrated that there was a great demand for a product of this sort.

It is a curious fact that Mr. Young, like many great discoverers and inventors, conducted the experiments that led up to his patent without any knowledge of the results attained by those who had all but snatched the laurels that are undoubtedly his from his possession. It has been so with such men as Watt, and Roebuck, and Stephenson, and Neilson-indeed, nearly all our great inventors have been more or less anticipated in their discoveries. There is, therefore, nothing singular in the fact that Mr. Young was not the first to attempt the production of paraffin as an article of commercial utility. But it is more strange and worthy of being remembered that he was in entire ignorance of the researches of those who had, in their attainments, approached nearest to the end for which he laboured. Reichenbach had actually discovered paraffin about the year 1830; and Liebig, in his "Familiar Letters on Chemistry," dated 1843, stated that "it would certainly be esteemed one of the greatest discoveries of the age, if any one could succeed in condensing coal gas into a white, dry, solid, odourless substance, portable, and capable of being placed upon a candlestick, and burned in a lamp." When he

wrote these words, Liebig had evidently a thoroughly just conception of the form that paraffin should assume, although he was in ignorance of the modus operandi by which it could be produced. From the tar of beechwood, in which Reichenbach discovered it, there was no possibility of obtaining paraffin in sufficient quantities to make it an article of commercial value and utility; and the rationale of its distillation from coal was as yet unknown when Mr. Young applied himself to elucidate this "greatest discovery of the age."

From his own internal consciousness Mr. Young evolved the conclusion that petroleum or its substitute might be produced by the action of heat on the coal, and the vapour going up into the sandstone to be condensed. After carrying on experiments for over two years with only English coal, he became more and more convinced of the practicability of his idea. The results he obtained were very diverse. He had no guide, and he sometimes got one thing and sometimes another. But the ultimate result was, that out of a cannel that came to be mixed with the soda-ash for making the alkali, he got a quantity of liquid that contained paraffin.

At last he had fairly "struck ile," but much remained to be accomplished before his discovery was perfect. In the summer of 1850, Mr. Bartholomew, of the City and Suburban Gas Works, Glasgow-successor of Neilson, who invented the hot blast-knowing the experiments on which Mr. Young was engaged, showed him specimens of the famous Boghead cannel coal, which is peculiarly rich in paraffin. From the Boghead coal a considerable quantity of paraffin was obtained, and, satisfied at last that he had mastered the problem he had so long sought to solve, Mr. Young took out a patent for his discovery.

Forming a partnership with two friends, Bathgate, in the centre of the Torbane Hill coalfield-a district peculiarly rich in cannelwas selected as the site of the works for the manufacture of paraffin.

At this time there was not a single establishment in Scotland where paraffin was produced in any form whatever. The shale from which the mineral products which bear Mr. Young's name are evolved was at an alarming discount. In many localities it was thrown out as so much rubbish, as it does not answer so well as other qualities of coal for iron-making pur

poses. On this account Mr. Young and his partners were able to place highly advantageous contracts for the acquisition of supplies. One of his earliest orders was for 10,000 tons at 128. per ton. Twelve years later it was selling at 30s. per ton, and fifteen years later it was worth from 75s. to 90s. per ton, or almost as much as pig-iron.

While his patent lasted Mr. Young had all but a monopoly of the paraffin trade, and hence he and his partners were enabled to realize enormous profits. But they were not allowed to enjoy undisturbed possession of the monopoly. Numerous individuals took advantage of the knowledge that paraffin had been known to Reichenbach and others to dispute the validity of Mr. Young's patent, and one firm after another established works for carrying on its manufacture without regard to Mr. Young's patent-rights. Against these firms Mr. Young felt himself bound to proceed; and in several successive trials he gained heavy awards for damages and costs, fully establishing his right to the patent.

Wonderful results sprang from Mr. Young's little venture at Bathgate. Originally the works, as we have indicated, were of very limited extent; but the manufacture, in Mr. Young's hands, became both successful and profitable in the highest degree, so that he was soon able to extend them. In the month of October, 1864, Mr. Young's patent-rights expired, and the partnership also came to an end. In the same month, therefore, the Bathgate Works were brought to the hammer in Edinburgh-the upset price for the land (25 acres), buildings, and plant being fixed at £50,000; but no one was bold enough to offer that sum. Two years later, however, the works were transferred to a limited-liability company at the price of £450,000-Mr. Young having himself carried them on and greatly extended them in the interim. The new concern adopted the name of "Young's Paraffin Light and Mineral Oil Company," Mr. Young taking stock in it to the amount of one-fourth.

Another large establishment, the Addiewell Works, was now projected at West Calder, as an auxiliary to the Bathgate Works. These were planned on a very extensive scale. The land occupied extended to some three or four thousand acres, forty of which formed the site of the works.

The industry founded by Mr. Young in 1851

thus rapidly attained bulk and importance. Within the comparatively short space of twenty years, the mineral oil trade attained such a magnitude that it gave employment to over 7,000 workmen, who earned something like £10,000 in weekly wages. The little factory became, in fact, the parent, not only of the mineral oil trade of Scotland, but also of that of America, for oil had never been distilled to produce an article of commerce until he commenced to work his patent.

Although Dr. Young was not for the last sixteen or seventeen years directly engaged in the business of the works, he never failed to bestow a great part of his time in furtherance of the interests of his favourite science. In connection with his beautiful mansion at Wemyss Bay, on the Forth of Clyde, he carried on a chemical laboratory, in which he was daily to be found when at home. Only within the last few years he gave to the world an exceedingly beautiful invention for the more economical manufacture of soda. He was also much interested in the subject of electric lighting, and tried many experiments with the view to its practical application for ordinary purposes.

From his early connection with Anderson College, Dr. Young was led to take a special interest in that institution, and spent a great deal of time in promoting its interests. From 1870 till 1877 he was chairman of the trustees, and after his retirement he gave a donation of £10,500 for the foundation of the Young Chair of Technical Chemistry. He testified the respect he entertained for his friend Professor Graham by erecting at his own expense the statue to the Master of the Mint which occupies a prominent position in George Square, and many of his acquaintances in early days received substantial proofs of his friendship. He was closely associated with Dr. Livingstone all through his life, and supported and encouraged him in his self-sacrificing labours in connection with the exploration of Africa. Before leaving on his final expedition, Dr. Livingstone placed his family under the care of Dr. Young, and how faithfully he justified the trust reposed in him is well known. After the return of Mr. Stanley when the celebrated traveller was lost in the "dark Continent," be fitted out at his own expense the expedition which succeeded in recovering his body. He was one of the trustees of Livingstone, and we