any that had been before him. Such is a man's ambition to have his name in an honorable and conspicuous place. But there is a place for the record of names more honorable than all, and within every one's reach.

If a man is unknown on earth while he lives, and yet lives a righteous and godly life, that is his treasure, and never can be destroyed. His real self cannot be touched. That is the only part of him which does not die. It will live on and shine on. Death is only the stripping of a husk, the removal of the rind, and men discover and live upon the fruit and the beauty of character. They are forced to bow down to his memory, and declare a century afterward that that is a sample of God in the soul of man. That which is esteemed best as life goes on in the flesh is to be mostly thrown away. The package is examined in the next world before it is received.

No procession to the grave may be the introduction to the most brilliant triumphal procession in heaven. Life's value and reward is its perpetuity here and hereafter.

Cut-glass may flash brilliancy, but the permanency and depth of the diamond's light is its

treasure.

Life here passes quickly and vanishes away. It seems like a vapor, but it is more, because influence is permanent and enduring. Boyhood goes, youth goes, manhood goes, old age is upon us. Faculty weakens and loses all power sometimes, mind decays, body has no vitality, but through ages and the eternal years, what a man is and does remains. The energy of influence is not lost. Does it not increase?

They attempted to frighten Savonarola and drive him from the path of duty, but he faces Lorenzo with the declaration that the Lord is no respecter of persons, and he must repent even if he is a prince. They next threaten him with banishment, but he adds: "I fear not sentence of banishment, for this city of yours is like a mustard-seed upon the earth, but the new doctrine shall, triumph and the old shall fall, although I be a stranger and Lorenzo a citizen, and indeed the first in the city. I shall stay while he shall depart." Then with a vision of the prophet, he declared that great changes were coming in Italy. Lorenzo, and the Pope, and the King of Naples all were near unto death, and his courageous soul had seen aright and witnessed to the truth, for very soon after Lorenzo and Innocent

VIII. died, and Charles VIII. invaded Italy. A few weeks after this astonishing prophecy Lorenzo was

pon his death-bed at his country home. The last offices of his false religion afforded his guilty conscience no relief and gave him no hope. He had

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st confidence in all men, for they were so depraved and cowardly as to obey every wicked wish of his. He said, No one ever ventures to utter a resolute No' to me." He even said his confessor was false. To whom could he go. There was only one man in all Italy who had not lost his influence over him. That man was his enemy,-no, the enemy ot his unholy life. That man of conquering influence was Savonarola, the man who never yielded to his threats or flatteries. He said in the last moments of his life, " I know no honest friar but him." He was sent for, Lorenzo made confession of three sins, for which he desired absolution. He became excited and frightened. Savonarola calmed him, and said: "God is good; God is merciful. Listen. Three things are required of you." "And what are they?" he anxiously asked. Savonarola raised the fingers of his right hand and began. "First, it is necessary that you should have a full and lively faith in the mercy of God." "That I have most

fully." "Secondly, it is necessary to restore that which you unjustly took away, or enjoin your sons to restore it for you." This requirement appeared to cause him surprise and grief; however, with an effort he gave his consent by a nod of his head. Savonarola then rose up, and while the dying prince shrank with terror in his bed, the confessor seemed to rise above himself when saying, “ Lastly, you must restore liberty to the people of Florence." But Lorenzo, collecting all the strength that nature had left him, turned his back angrily upon him without uttering a word. Accordingly Savonarola withdrew from his presence without granting his absolution. Lorenzo remained torn by remorse, and soon after breathed his last that same day.

The mightiest man now in the kingdom was Savonarola. The people looked to him, and he was true as steel. He denounced evil, and urged reform with even greater severity. He taught the true liberty and fought tyranny. He became eventually the ruler of Florence, though not in name. The people called for him to make their new government. All this was only temporary, and soon the old cry arose, Crucify him, crucify him," and all his great influence vanished like a boy's

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bubble, and was lost. Ah, no, Savonarola's influence was greater when he was dead than when he was alive. His eloquence has thundered through all the years since. His cry for liberty and pure religion is still heard upon earth, and will be heard until every shackle, seen and unseen, is broken, and the Christ, whose echo he was, shall have made all men free and all worship pure.

Influence challenges every destroyer. Witness Shaftsbury among the outcasts of London. Witness John Howard in the prison and dungeons of Europe. Witness Florence Nightingale on the battlefields of the world. Witness Grace Darling among the shipwrecked and in every ray of light from the rockbound coasts of the sea. Witness Carey going from England, and Judson from America, and Livingston from Scotland, and a noble line of missionary heroes and martyrs of whom the world was not worthy. Hearken, and you can hear the echo of the hammer upon the door of Wittenburg and the stroke of the oar in the hand of the galley slave from Scotland.

The mightiest force in the world of influence is the companionship of Jesus Christ. His is not intellectual or even moral, but the whole circumfer