A Short Charge to a Young Minister ou his First Settlement.

BY ANTI-SHAM.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-Like the Israelites, you are to-day preparing to go forward through a way that you have not been heretofore. Many have gone through it with honour and great usefulness, and have come out of it with great reward. It is a grand service to which you are devoting yourself; the senate and the bar may have more glittering gold, but they have infinitely less of enduring glory. Many have set out in this way and have signally failed: some, by the wreck of moral character; some, by the failure of their supposed talents. As it is not all gold that glitters, and flashing meteors, however brilliant, often go out, leaving the stars they obscured shining steadily behind them, so precocious talent sometimes collapses, and ministerial wrecks may occasionally be seen along the ministerial road. This, however, may be a sight for human pity only; but he who fails for lack of moral ballast is a sight bitter enough for Christly tears. On this topic of moral ballast a word to the wise is enough; on the point of failing talent or capability for the work, perhaps it is difficult for any of us to understand when we are a failure; but if it can be given to a man to know that he has mistaken his vocation, then let him be brave enough to return to his former calling, or to enter any other that may open to him, rather than remain in one for which God has not gifted him.

In no other sphere of action, perhaps, is individuality so beautiful and grand, as well as unspeakably important. We are most of us imitators in some measure, and doubtless you, like most others, will have plenty of models. Of "advice gratis" you will have plenty; many will say, do so and so, or, avoid such and such. Ministers, the divinely appointed teachers of the world, are regarded by very many as the proper subjects on whom to bestow their superadvice. Of course no wise man will despise advice, but every wise man will take the generality of it with at least one grain of salt; he will sift it well, and use what little corn he may find in it. Now I would say, settle it at once in your own mind whether you will be an ape in the pulpit, or a man. If you determine to be an ape, choose your models and set to work, and ere long you will furnish Dr. Darwin with another illustration of his doctrine, by showing how, by natural selection, an ape can become an ass. But if you determine to be a man, you will remember that your voice, and your head, and your pulpit manners should be your own, and no one else's; no other man's voice and manners or if you prefer it, mannerisms-can fit you any better than the coat of a giant could fit a dwarf. If you object to this comparison as placing the imitator in the position of the dwarf, I am glad that you see it so, for only dwarfs will be guilty of a vice which prevents hearers seeing Christ by reminding them too forcibly of the fable of the ass and the lion's skin.

If you wish to shine with clear light, be natural, and mark out a course for yourself that will be fitting for you; and let the voice, and actions, and eccentricities, with odds and ends of mannerisms, of any and every other man alone. If you think I am cynical or pleasant, be assured I am terribly in earnest when I say you must be an imitator-you ought to be one; but if you must, be natural to yourself, and imitate God only and His Son Jesus Christ. He is a pattern worthy of every man; any other model is utterly unworthy of your individuality.

Every man throws on to his surroundings the sunshine or the shadow that exists in his own soul."-Dr. Peddie.

A man can't die wrongly when he has lived rightly.”—Dr. Armitage. "Concrete the truth and make it shine."-Dr. Vincent.

Little Churches.

THE Boston Congregationalist, referring to a quotation of a remark which the Rev. Baldwin Brown has stated was once made by Mr. Binney-"We have nothing to gain by multiplying little churches and little men❞—says:

"Now we do not mind saying-in the face of both these eminent brethrenthat we believe in little churches and little men. It is our impression that by far the larger portion of the solid work of the Gospel on earth is done by these belittled, if not despised, little churches and little men. We do, in soberest truth, estimate very highly the value to heaven, and to earth, of the labours of those country pastors whom Mr. Binney and Mr. Baldwin Brown might impatiently dismiss as 'little men.' They may have but 'little' skill in languages, or in dialectics; their libraries may be painfully meagre, and their pulpit efforts, even, may be not only unadorned, but sometimes thin and dry. But, as a body, they sincerely love God and Christ, and the souls of men. They are deep-read in the Bible, if not in the fathers or the school-men; and they often much more than make up in their familiarity with human nature and human life as it is, for all their deficiencies of a scholarly sort; so that before the people they do really outpreach the divines of midnight oil and many books. They are men of prayer, and prayer prevails. They are men of self-denial, and self-denial is itself eloquence. They have always, before their own people who know them and are known of them, the inestimable advantage that they are palpably able to wing their shafts with the declaration of Paul: 'For I seek not yours, but you.' For all these reasons, their spiritual harvest at the end of the world may, in many cases, be relatively larger than that of the most eloquent and popular great man, who has habitually numbered his audiences, if not his converts, by thousands. One point more. We are greatly mistaken if there does not proceed from many a 'little' church with a 'little' man for a pastor, a more forceful influence for the world's conversion than from many a more 'important' and affluent source."

A Boy's Leisure Hours.

FOR THE YOUNG.

WHAT a boy does with his leisure is most important; what he gets in school is mainly drill or exercises; it is a gymnasium to him; he must eat elsewhere. What he does with his spare hour determines his destiny. Suppose he reads history every day, or scientific books; in the course of a few years he becomes learned. It matters little what he undertakes-Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Sanscrit, all disappear if he uses his spare time on them.

A boy was employed in a lawyer's office, and had the daily paper to amuse himself with. He commenced to study French, and at that little desk became a fluent reader and writer of the French language. He accomplished this by laying aside the newspaper, and taking up something not so amusing but far more profitable.

A coachman was often obliged to wait long hours while his mistress made calls. He determined to improve the time; he found a small volume containing the Eclogues of Virgil, but could not read it, and so purchased a Latin Grammar. Day by day he studied this, and finally mastered all its intricacies. His mistress came behind him one day as he stood by the horses waiting for her, and asked what he was so intently reading. "Only a bit of Virgil, my lady." What, do you read Latin ?" "A little, my lady." She mentioned this to her husband, who insisted that David should have a teacher to instruct him. In a few years he became a learned man, and was a useful and loved minister in Scotland.

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A boy was hired to open and shut the gates to let the teams out of an iron mine. He sat on a log all day by the side of the gate. Sometimes an hour would pass before the teams came, and this he employed so well that there was

THE BOY WHO CHANGED HIS NAME.

265 scarcely any fact in history that escaped his attention. He began with a little book on English History that he found in the road; having learned that thoroughly, he borrowed of a minister Goldsmith's History of Greece. This good man became greatly interested in him and loaned him books, and was often seen sitting by him on the log, conversing with him about the people of ancient times.

All of these show that in this country any one can learn that wants to. If he is at work, he still has three hours he can call his own. Let him use those wisely, and he can fill his mind with stores of knowledge.

The Boy who Changed his Name.

"MOTHER, can't you see it on my forehead ?"

"My dear Walter, you are excited, and very weak just now; don't talk, there's a good lad."

Can

"Mother, I think I am better and stronger. I'm not so hot as I was. you see His name there ?" and a bright smile lit up the face of the dying boy as he slowly raised his finger to his cold pale brow.

His mother had thought his mind was wandering; but that look, filled with intelligence and heavenly light convinced her she was wrong.

"Don't you remember what we heard on the sands last summer, mother, when the teacher told us those in heaven had the name of Jesus in their foreheads ?"

"Yes, dear, but do not exhaust yourself by speaking of it."

"Yes, mother, I must; I must tell you; because if I die you will be so glad to know. Don't you recollect teacher said, too, that he believed those that loved and trusted and served Jesus had that name in their foreheads now; and that those who forgot Him, and took their own way, had another name on their foreheads, the dark ugly one of 'Sinner;' and if the light were only strong enough we should be able to see now on every one's brow their right name written, either Jesus," or 'Sinner."

The young spirit paused for breath, and his mother would have stopped his further speech, but with the same bright sparkle in his eye he added, "and then he asked us all, 'What name, boys and girls, is on your forehead to-day? Is it Jesus? Are you His child? Or is it Sinner? If it is Sinner, get it altered. If you are willing to have your sins forgiven, and to take God's way in the future instead of your own, go to the Lord Jesus, quietly and earnestly, and tell Him so, and He will blot out from your foreheads the name Sinner,' and write His own sweet name there instead.' And then he added, 'WHO WILL CHANGE HIS NAME TO-DAY;' and I thought, mother, he looked at me, and I said in my heart, I WILL. When I got home I went straight to my room and looked up into His face and told Him I wanted to be His child, to do His will, and not my own; and asked Him to take away my sins, and blot out in His own precious blood that dark ugly name, and put His own name on my forehead instead. And do you know, mother, He did. I knew He had forgiven me; and when I came down stairs I almost expected you to tell me you could see His name there!"

The boy paused again from weakness.

"Yes, Walter," said his weeping mother, "I did see Him, in an altered boy; in the daily effort to conquer your easily besetting sins and to be kind and helpful to me and your sisters; and I thought I saw Him in an eye more full of love both to Him and us."

"Thank you, mother dearest, perhaps that was what the teacher meant. I am so glad that you could see that I changed my name. Kiss me, mother. Good night, I am going to sleep."

A few days passed away, and a little grave was opened, and a little piece of clay was lowered into it; but the young bright life had gone upward into the country where the light is better, and where all could read at a glance the name of Jesus on his brow. S. D. RICKARDS.

Scraps from the Editor's Waste-Basket.

I. "MR. BRIGHT ON THE GALLOWS." -Such is the ominous heading of an article in one of our religious weeklies. Eighteen years ago we heard of a lady moving in "high life" who in vigorous Saxon devoutly expressed her wish that the Radical and destructive member for Birmingham might be suspended. Should the above title "catch her eye," she may think that her wish is at last realized. We are glad, however, to be able to assure our readers that the article on the above startling subject is only concerned with Mr. Bright's advocacy of the removal of the "gallows" from the list of legitimate instruments of justice. Still, it cannot be denied that the "heading" is expressive.

II. CHAPEL DEBTS IN AMERICA. "The debt of the Bristol church was 4,770 dollars. Recently a sister in the church died, leaving to the church 500 dollars (less 25 dollars tax). On Sunday evening, Bro. Edward Kimball met with the church; under his lead 2,376 dollars was rasied. The work will be prosecuted this week; there is no thought of stopping short of a complete triumph. Pastor Conard and the church are much encouraged." That kind of story is appearing week after week in the American Baptist papers. Now the Americans have sent us many good things, and some men, good and otherwise. We have had their D.D.'s and their washing machines, and certainly one of the former we do not want to hear again, and we leave the domestic authorities to speak about the latter. But why can't America send us "Bro. Edward Kimball"? No man is more needed than one who could rouse the Christian people to a generous attack upon their chapel debts. "Bro. Edward Kimball" may be sure of the heartiest welcome. We English people certainly do not yet know how to give our money to God; and in no direction do we make this more palpable than in the matter of our handling of chapel debts. We hope for the arrival of this much needed Evangelist.

III. OUR NEW HYMNAL IN WALES.Taking part in the opening of a new and pleasingly constructed and elegantly finished chapel, beautifully situated, at Brecon, a short time ago, I was delighted to find that our NEW HYMNAL had, after abundant comparison with others, received "the First Prize," and has been

adopted for regular service. Still more glad was I to hear copious testimony to its great helpfulness during the year it has been in use. It only needs to be known to be appreciated, and to become a means of true blessing.

Mr.

IV. WHO SAID IT, AND WHAT WAS SAID?-One would like to know more about the history of the following speech. What did Mr. Sullivan say? Who make the speeches in the House of Commons? the reporters or the members? Sullivan was reported one way; he says he spoke another. See: he writes:"I did not say 'the amendment had not been moved because of the loss of revenue.' The author of this strange phrase may perchance know what he means by it, but I do not. I did not say that I never heard a speech from 'any statesman of so low a standard of political morality.' I said, 'I had not for many years heard a statesman make a speech which was projected from so low a level of political morality.' I object to father the gross insult to Lord Hartington, as 'a statesman of so low a standard of morality,' which your reporter would attribute to me. I did not say, 'If the Heathen Chinee was in the gallery, would take my morality from the Heathen Chinee rather than from the scandal on morality I had heard from the Treasury Bench.' I said, 'I do not know if the Heathen Chinee is in the gallery. If he is, he must be edified by our superior Christian morality, which puts revenue above justice. For my part, having listened to that passage quoted by my hon. friend the member for Merthyr from the despatch of a Chinese Minister, I would prefer the moral principles therein nobly expressed to the cynical doctrines I have just heard from the Treasury Bench.'"

V. THE BEST NATIONAL INVESTMENT. "The result of my investigations," writes Heine, "into the national wealth of the Jews, is very praiseworthy for the race, and confers upon them the greatest honour. Israel is indebted alone for its riches to that sublime belief in God to which it has remained faithful for centuries. The Jews revered a Supreme Being who rules invisibly in heaven, while the heathen, incapable of exalting themselves to the purely spiritual, made for themselves all sorts of gold and silver gods, and revered them on earth. Now, had

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