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a bed of pain. Then for some years she was able to go about with the support of a stick. This was followed by the nine years' confinement to the house. Little did the boys who in their recklessness made the slide suppose that the cost of their play would be to one human being at least a quarter of a century of privation and pain.

"Is life worth living," perhaps some one asks, “if an accident like that may dim the fair prospect, and mingle suffering with all future days?" But what a narrow view we should be taking of the affair if we only saw health shattered and comfort wrecked by the frolics of a few thoughtless boys. There is a divine side of the thing to be looked at, and when we see it, the rising murmur is hushed and human life is wonderfully transfigured. Our heavenly Father is continually magnifying His grace amidst the mishaps and evils of earth. And when we feel the pressure of outward circumstances most, we may reflect

"But God o'errules all human follies still,

And bends the tough material to His will."

God did not let that fall upon a slide have a dreary, miserable ending. The sufferer was His servant, and in the patience with which she was enabled to bear her long affliction He made her a witness to the worth of that gospel which too many in the heyday of health and strength despise. At times she felt as if her life was useless, but the hallowing influence of it went farther than she thought. It was a real joy to be able to speak helpful words to her, and to recall to her attention the good promises of God. Those promises appeared to the speaker all the more glorious as that afflicted disciple bore her weight upon them, and testified that they did not fail. As the closing scene drew near she endured great agony with beautiful resignation, and when the eyes could no longer see, and the tongue no more speak, the visible assent to the grand truth that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,"

1 Hebrews xiii. 8.

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was an impressive witness to the power of the gospel. It is not given to finite intelligence to estimate the value of the influence exerted on those who are privileged to read a living epistle like that. These epistles abound, and though the busy world may pass them by unnoticed, they form no inconsiderable proportion of those spiritual forces by means of which this sin-stained earth may become again a garden of the Lord.

As

Thus by a chance that happeneth one servant of God is enabled to begin a public ministry of unusual power. by chance also another is doomed to a kind of captivity, painful and monotonous. There is more than the accidental in each case. In both God is honoured, and the best interests of mankind are promoted.

"They also serve who only stand and wait."

The picture of quiet endurance will well bear looking at, and these words of that old preacher are worth laying to heart. "As a sinner thou needest salvation, and it is to thee, as a sinner, that salvation is offered. Cast, therefore,

thy all on Christ; rest on Him as the sure foundation, and remember that He has promised, 'Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out.' There is no other refuge— no peace to be found but in fleeing to this-no comfort, no hope elsewhere." Is it by chance thine eye hath lighted on these lines? May they be an introduction to a nobler life on earth, and to eternal blessedness in heaven.

E. C. P.

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The Resurrection of Christ.

From ANGELUS SILESIUS.

THANK God; Ye Him with heart and voice,

HANK God, ye Christians all; rejoice

For now hath He His Godhead's might
Brought through His only Son to light.
Sing "Triumph, Triumph" all below,
For Jesus hath o'erthrown the foe.

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ALK by faith, not by sight."-2 Corinthians v. 7.

"WAL

"Walk in the Spirit."-Galatians v. 16.

"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."-Ephesians

iv. I.

"Walk in love."—Ephesians v. 2.

"Walk as children of light."-Ephesians v. 8.

"Walk circumspectly."-Ephesians v. 15.

"As ye have received Christ, so walk ye in Him."—Colossians ii. 6. "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without."—Colossians iv. 5. "Walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing."—Colossians i. 10. "Walk worthy of God."-1 Thessalonians ii. 12. "Walk honestly."-1 Thessalonians iv. 12. "Walk in the light."-1 John i. 7.

"Walk after His commandments."-2 John 6.

E. A. K.

“Watchman, what of the Night?"

From C. H. ZELLER.

EATH is reigning far and near,

DE

See the bones all dead and dry;
Scarce a gleam of light doth cheer-
Darkness overspreads the sky.
Watchman, tell us of the night;
Cometh soon the morning light?

As I look on Israel,

All to death is drawing nigh;
Ah! Thy folk, Immanuel,

Whom Thou with Thy blood didst buy;

See how cold, how far from Thee,

As a battle-field they be!

As I look o'er Christendom,

Still it sits in gloom and night;

Here and there it's sky illume,
Few and feeble streaks of light.

But how many millions are,
From the heavenly kingdom far!
When shall Spring, Lord, come again,
After winter's long drear day;

Come and break it's icy reign,

Live now to the dry bones say!
Sun of righteousness arise,
Gladden Thou our waiting eyes!

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HROUGHOUT the province of Echigo," writes a lady traveller in Japan, "I have frequently seen a square piece of cotton cloth, hung by the four

corners to four bamboo sticks standing upright in the bed of a stream. Close by is seen a long narrow tablet inscribed with characters. Within the cloth is a wooden dipper. As I passed one of these erections close to the road, I saw a Buddhist priest pour a dipper of water into it, which strained slowly through.

"He told me that the tablet bears the Raimiyô, or posthumous name of a woman. The pouring of water into the cloth is a prayer. The custom is called the 'flowing invocation.' It is very affecting, for it denotes that a mother, at the birth of a child, has passed away to suffer in the 'lake of blood'-(the Buddhist hell), for some sin committed in a former state of being, and that her soul must remain in anguish till the cloth is so worn out that the water poured upon it by the compassionate passers-by falls through at once. I have never passed this 'flowing invocation' without seeing some wayfarer fill and empty the dipper. Rich people can buy a cloth manufactured on purpose, which, scraped thin in the middle, lets the water through in a few days; but the poor man has to content himself with a closelywoven cotton cloth, which wears out with painful slowness. Both these materials must be purchased at a Buddhist temple. No wonder the saying is current among these heathen people, 'The judgments of Hades depend upon money.'"

How brightly, in contrast with such gloomy superstitions,

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