winning frankness, said, 'Tell me about the Saviour.' I began, in my confusion, to tell him of sheep and of goats, of dogs and of horses; for of the Saviour I knew nothing. This amused him for a while, but he soon renewed his petition that I should tell him about the Saviour; and I was obliged to confess that I knew nothing of Him. 'And you so big,' said the child, and know nothing about the Saviour! then you cannot go to heaven.' It was true, indeed, that I had never thought of heaven; but to hear my condemnation from the lips of a child, the thought was dreadful! I went out, and visited my comrades in the village; still I could not shake off my uneasiness; and I determined to let supper-time pass before I went back.

"At nine o'clock I returned. Supper was over, but a portion had been kept for me. I began to eat, when the youngest child, who was just going to bed, ran up to me, and said, 'First pray, then eat!' This was a new thrust. I could not pray; but the child clasped his hands, and prayed for me: 'Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and bless what Thou hast prepared. Amen.' 'So pray,' said the child, and ran off to bed. I sat overpowered with emotion. The servants entered, and family-worship was held. First singing-such singing as thrilled my heart; then a chapter of the Bible was read, and a difficult passage, here and there, was explained. Prayer followed, in which forgiveness of sins, the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and the protection of God, during the night, from the evil one were besought. All seemed like a dream to me. I dared not open my eyes, and yet I felt glad at heart. Then followed kind 'goodnights,' and each left the room with his Bible. The farmer and his wife remained to read a chapter for themselves; and, he seeing me, reached me a Bible, saying, 'perhaps, I would like to

-

read a few more of God's blessed! words.' I thanked him, read a few words, of which I understood nothing, and retired; but, before going to bed, I kneeled down, and prayed: 'God,. Thou God of this house, be my God also.'

me.

"The next day was a decisive one for All went to church except one, who remained, as they expressed it, tokeep watch at home; and that day I held a 'God's service' which I shall never forget. Since then I have lived a new life; and I now love the Lord Jesus with my whole heart, and rejoice in the hope that I shall go to heaven."

Is it not strange that this soldier should have lived so long in a Christian land, should have dwelt in Christian houses, and have seen no indication of the Saviour's presence till he came to this farmer's house, and found Him there? Had he come into your house, would he have found the Saviour with you? Does the light stand with you on the candlestick, or under a bushel? From henceforth make this covenant. with Him, you and your families: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

A LESSON IN FAITH.

It was a time of spiritual awakening in a small manufacturing town. The foreman in a department of one of the factories became anxious about his soul. He was directed to Christ, as the sinner's only refuge, by many, and by his own master among the rest; but it seemed to be without result. At last his master thought of reaching his mind, and bringing him to see the sincerity of God in the Gospel, by writing a note, asking him to come to see him at six o'clock, after he left work.'

"the

He came promptly, with the letter in his hand. When ushered into his

room, his master inquired, "Do you wish to see me, James ?"

James was confounded; and, holding up the note requesting him to come, said, "The letter! the letter!"

"O," said his master, "I see you believe that I wanted to see you; and, when I sent you the message, you came at once."

"Surely, Sir! surely, Sir!" replied James.

"Well, see, here is another letter, in which you are sent for by One equally in earnest," said his master, holding up a slip of paper with some texts of Scripture written on it.

James took the paper, and began to read slowly: "Come-unto-Me-all ye-that-labour," &c. His lips quivered, his eyes filled with tears; and, nearly choking with emotion, he thrust his hand into his jacket-pocket, grasping his large red handkerchief, with which he covered his face; and there he stood for a few moments, not knowing what to do. At length he inquired,

"Am I just to believe that in the same way I believed your letter?"

"Just in the same way," rejoined the master. "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater."

This expedient was owned of God in setting James at liberty. He was a happy believer that very night, and has continued to go on his way rejoicing in God his Saviour, and pointing others to Calvary.

EVERY HOUSE HAS ITS CROSS. A WIDOW lady was almost in despair from the variety of hindrances, vexa

tions, and disappointments she had to endure. She was quite overwhelmed with her domestic crosses, and had scarcely the heart to go on with her daily conflicts. "No other roof," she complained, "is so constantly beset with misery as mine." She had no idea that any neighbour of hers was half so crossed as herself; judging, as she did, from outward appearances. But it pleased God to teach her a most wholesome lesson in a singular way.

On

One night she dreamed that a whole town stood before her, and every house in it bore a cross against its door. one it was a very large one; on the next it was of less size; and on others, though they were very few, it was but a small one. Among all the crosses, however, none appeared to her so inconsiderable and light to carry as that at her own door. She awoke a new creature. What she had seen she understood; and she recollected Christ's saying, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." She fell down upon her knees at once, and prayed God to pardon her for her complaining, murmuring, and repining spirit; and besought Him to release her from it, and fill her with a spirit of patience, submissiveness, and content with His orderings. And she implored Him also to endow her with His strengthening grace to enable her to bear her cross, which from that hour forward she found to be light as compared with the cross her own weakness had given her to bear. "Yes," she exclaimed, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me:' for His 'yoke is easy, and His burden is light.'"

the Bible, the half-magical power of the little word "but ?" Like an enchanter's wand, it suddenly turns light

to darkness, or darkness to light; makes the dweller in dust to awake and sing, or fills the festive hall with horror, as if a handwriting from heaven had appeared on the wall. After considerable trouble, King David's plot against Uriah succeeds at last; the dreaded soldier will appear no more in Jerusalem; Bathsheba is brought to the palace; and, amid the festivity and gladness of a royal wedding, the great crime seems in a fair way to be forgotten. Suddenly, however, as we read the history, the whole scene is changed into gloom; a portentous darkness comes down,-all at the bidding of the word "but," which demands the insertion of a little extra clause in the narrative: "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." In another place we have a striking sketch of a Syrian warrior; a picture of a prosperous man into which every brilliant colour seems to enter. "Now Naaman, captain of the host of the King of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour." At this point, however, the painter seems suddenly to dip his brush in ink, and dash it remorselessly against the brilliant colouring; and in our English Bible it is at the bidding of the same little word the sudden change is made: "But he was a leper." In the concise forms of the Hebrew tongue it is not even necessary to express the "but." The contrast is marked by the single word, “a leper;" standing in its naked expressiveness at the close of the gorgeous description, it needs no disjunctive particle to indicate the change of view; no more than if you were to describe a man as being in the best of health, and, after dwelling elaborately on the healthy state of every organ, were to add in a moment that he had just swallowed a dose of deadly poison.

The most striking cases, however, of

the talisman-power of the word "but " in our Bible, are those in which man's state as a sinner is contrasted with his state of salvation through Christ. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help." "The wages

of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." "These shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Perhaps the most remarkable instance of any, occurs in the beginning of the second chapter of the Ephesians. Nothing can be blacker than the picture drawn there of the natural condition of the members of that Church. They were "dead in trespasses and sins." Dead, however, in a sense that implied neither rest nor peace, because they were possessed and driven by lusts of evil, and spirits of darkness, that, like the devils in the herd of swine, were forcing them to the brink of a terrible precipice. The first three verses of the chapter (omitting the words in italics, "hath He quickened," in the first verse, which at that place rather weaken the sense than improve it) are a dramatic representation of this frightful state. A host of human beings, blind and ghastly as corpses, are hurrying tumultuously along, impelled by wild, infernal impulses, down a steep place to the edge of the gulf. Their doom seems inevitable; they are rushing at such a pace, and with such momentum, that no power on earth can save them. Suddenly, however, an Arm is stretched out from heaven. Man's extremity is God's opportunity. As though it were in a dissolving view, the picture of wild tumult and ghastly ruin gives place all

of a sudden to one of Heavenly life and tranquillity. And the change is again introduced by the same magical word: "But God, who is rich in mercy, for

ORIGINAL

"LAND AHEAD!"

"TWIXT ocean and horizon,

Like a far-off fleet of clouds, So the land-line stretches dimly; And seamen from the shrouds Sing out, as the flapping sails they spread,

"Ho! land ahead! Ho! land ahead!"

The deck is quickly crowded,

And the shout goes gaily round, As, in hazy distance shrouded,

Olden hill-tops, azure crown'd,
Dawn slowly on our steadfast view,
Beyond the breezy billows blue.

Now the rocky coast is looming
In rugged outline grand;
And our signal-guns are booming,

To hail the long-sought strand; From the cliffs hang out the streamers

gay,

Which smilingly beckon us up the bay.

See ye not the wafted greeting

Of friends, who welcomes wave? O! the hope of this blissful meeting Hath kept our spirits brave,

His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ."Sunday Magazine.

POETRY.

Through the weeks that have pass'd so wearily,

In this lingering ship, o'er the lonely

sea.

Lone voyager! homeward toiling,
O'er troubled waters dark,
With winds contrary foiling

Thy feeble, foundering bark,
Turn to the chart,-there is land ahead;
See the coast-lights gleaming, white
and red.

Though the night be long and dreary,
And thy strength be ebbing fast,
Yet faint not, nor be weary,

For the storm is well-nigh past: Look up! through the reft clouds is radiance shed;

The day is breaking,-there's land ahead!

Yonder they wait to greet thee,
Who landed safe before;
With angel-bands they'll meet thee

On the bright, eternal shore;
And, "Lo! I am with thee," the
Master hath said;

Thy tatter'd sail loose,-there is land ahead! Bagslate, near Rochdale.

AIDS TO THE USE OF THE

FIRST CATECHISM. ILLUSTRATIVE FACTS. August 9.-SECTION V., QUESTION X.

Chapel; or Races.

A MIDDLE-AGED woman residing in the south of Yorkshire was very ill. She had, unhappily, led a very wicked life. Though several places of worship were not far from

M. T.

her house, she had gone to none of them. She was, however, greatly afraid of death; for she knew she had sinned very grievously against the holy God into whose presence she must enter at the close of life. Some Wesleyan Methodists visited her, and prayed with her. She certainly wished to go to heaven, if she could no longer stay in this world. But it was doubtful whether she really wished to be saved from her sins, and made "holy in heart and life." She told

her godly visiters, however, that, if she was spared, she would, the very first opportunity, go to the chapel, which was not many yards from her dwelling. The Lord raised her up from that bed of sickness. Before she was well enough to leave the house, she affirmed: "I will be at Doncaster races next week, if I have to hire a coach to myself from my own door." She went to the races. Soon after she sickened, and died. There was little or no hope in her end.

Aug. 16.-SECT. V., QUEST. XI.
Kitty's Difficulty.

LITTLE Kitty had a lesson to learn which she could scarcely master. It was not a sum in long division, or a rule in syntax Kitty had not got so far as that. She was a very little girl. What she often failed to do was to say, "Please." She had not yet got rid of pride, and self-will, and other naughty tempers. One day she could not get her small boot on to her foot, and so she ordered Bridget to pull it on. Mamma overheard, and told Kitty to say, "Please." This the foolish child was unwilling to do. So the little foot was without a boot, and the peevish girl was upstairs when her Papa came to dinner. He went to talk to the child, whom he dearly loved, but whose naughty ways he deplored. In reply to his questions, Kitty said, "O, Papa, it would not come out of my throat! Please' would stay there: it almost choked me; but it will come now.' So she said, "Please, Bridget, put my shoe on my foot." "Mamma! "please' did stay in my throat so long, that it felt big, and almost choked me. But it's out. think it will come out quick next time."

Aug. 23.-SECT. V., QUEST. XII. Hedley Vicars,

WHEN Hedley Vicars was a little boy he was self-willed, and greatly in danger of growing up so. He needed the grace of God. Once, when he was a lad, and was to return to school after the holidays, his mother told him to gather his books and other things together, and pack his box. Instead of doing as he was bid, he idled away his time, and at length placed some old boots, shells, stones, and such like in the box, and then said, "Mother, my box is packed." Hedley might call that fun; but it was very wrong, because it was disobedience to his mother, and gave her needless trouble. But, happily, when a young man, Hedley was truly converted. From that time he strove to live according to God's holy will. He was a Captain in

the army, but he still led a holy life. One of his men said: "Since Mr. Vicars became so good, he has steadied about four hundred men in the regiment. I don't mean that he has made all the four hundred as good as himself; but he has sobered four hundred of the most drunken and wildest men in the regiment." Captain Vicars was slain in battle. But he had lived a Christian.

Aug. 30.-SECT. V., QUEST. XIII.
The Little Dog's Face.

A LAD had been told that it was his duty to obey God's laws, and honour and worship Him. The lad knew that this must be right. He sometimes endeavoured to do that which he could not but approve of. But he had not obtained the grace of God so abundantly as to make this obedience pleasant to him. Now, it so happened that the lad had a little dog of which he was very fond. They were often out together, and held many a consultation together, so far as the dog's abilities would permit. When barking did not convey all the dog wished to express, the wagging of his tail, and the expression of his countenance had to do their part. One day the boy said to a friend: "I wish I could mind what God says, as my dog minds what I say to him." Why, surely, you can do that." "No, I can't. My dog always looks pleased to mind me, and what I say. I ought to be always pleased to mind God, and what He says to me; and I am not.'

66

September 6.-SECT. V., QUEST. XIV. A Capital Trick.

SOME youths were, one day, taking a walk. They were students, and were accompanied in their rambles by their tutor. One of the young men espied a coat and a pair of shoes near a hedge. These evidently belonged to a labouring man who was at work in a distant part of the field; and who was, perhaps, so poor as to prefer working with bare feet in order to save his shoes. The youth said to his comrades, "I'll tell you a capital trick. Let us hide the fellow's shoes. He will soon want to go home. We will watch him from behind the hedge. Won't he stare when he finds his shoes are gone?" This speech was overheard by the tutor. He said to them, "I think I can tell you a better trick than the one proposed." "What is that, Sir ?" "Well, the man is very poor. You have plenty of pocket-money. Suppose you place a large silver coin in each shoe. Then we will stop, and secretly watch him. Will he