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if you would be rich. Is it not worth while to strain a point ?" Or, there is a higher and more influential station in society to be attained, and from thence it will be possible to reach hundreds and thousands to whom at present we are unknown. "Surely it is lawful," suggests the unseen enemy, "to acquire such a valuable position, although a little duplicity-(I beg pardon, simulation is the word)—a little simulation, a little subserviency, and a clever little trick or two, be necessary to secure it." Or, there is influence to be exerted in society by oratory or by literature; and if a man can arouse the public by a little folly, if he can tickle them into a good humour by going or only seeming to go with the stream, until at length that manyheaded and many-tongued public shall listen to what he says or read what he writes with respect, if not with avidity, may he not bribe the blind trumpeter Fame to sound his name abroad, and may he not work the many-mouthed Press to advertise his skill in a highsounding strain?

Obedience :-Do we really like that word ? Undoubtedly we shall like both the name and the act if we truly love the Being to whom our allegiance is due. "I want a suitable sphere," cries the aspirant after sublunary greatness. He consults the divine oracle and finds, not a plaything, but a requirement-obedience. He finds human life a course appointed, not an excursion invented. He finds human destiny an award judicially allotted, not a prize or a blank in a lottery. To "obey" and to "hearken," to "labour" and to "wait"-these are the proper business of man: his sphere, present and future, is with God.

"But is there not a place for every one, and should not every one be in his place?" Certainly; but the place for the soul is not like the coffin we make for the dead body, nor yet like the house made for the living one, nor even like the town or city in which we live. It is simply a path in which God condescends to lead, and in which it is our happiness to follow. Hence the words of the apostle John-" Be ye followers of God as endeared children."

Father John is a believer in what' for want of a better term, he calls spiritual instinct. There are high and mighty purposes, plans, and methods in Divine providence, in relation to which we play a peculiar part as instruments in the hands of God. In addition to the chief end to be effected by our lives, and which it is our privilege to know and to secure, others of a subordinate, but mysterious and remote character are unconsciously attained in the service of God. The poverty, the loneliness, the sorrow, the affliction, or the temptation which tries us, and the common-place duties in which we engage may, in certain respects, appear to us useless; but of such things we are utterly incapable of judging, "God is his own interpreter," and when he pleases, and so far as he pleases, he will make them plain. But even if, in reference to some points, he withhold such knowledge from us, either because it must be throughout all ages "too high for us," or because such an arrangement is best in his estimation, should we complain? Let us rather work on at his command, offering all our works to Him; being assured that although to a great extent we are unconscious agents, building for ourselves and for others an unseen Present, and an unknown Future, an unerring Providence causes all things to work together for the best for us while we love God. By and by, a higher spiritual reason will dawn upon us, and our spiritual instinct will be of a loftier kind; but to know, as God knows, why I am a native of a Christian country, and why millions of my fellow men are born in heathendom,why I am placed in my present circumstances rather than in others, is a problem I cannot solve. As the bee constructs its cell ignorant of geometry, as the beaver builds its dam and forms its abode, untaught in hydrostatics and mechanics, and as the spider suspends its web without knowing the science of engineering, so does the man who has faith in God produce results, while under divine control, in relation to which his conduct may be described as spiritual instinct.

LESSON ON THE USE OF LAW. THE following capital illustration of an oral lesson on Law, which was given by the teacher to the elder boys of an elementary school, has been published in the Educational Record :

Each time I come to school I pass a watchmaker's shop; inside the window are several gold watches, while outside there are many people passing, all of whom, no doubt, would like to have some of these watches; the only thing that separates them from the people is a thin piece of glass, yet no one attempts to break through this to get at the watches; can you tell me why?

Because they know it is wrong.

Is it the fear of doing wrong that keeps all from trying to steal them? No, sir."

Then what does keep those from doing wrong who do not mind doing what they know to be wrong?

They are afraid of being caught put into prison.

and

What do you call such a fear?
Fear of punishment.

Right; but who have the power of punishing thieves?

The magistrates and judges.
And what gives that power?
The law.

If there were no law for punishing theft, could there be any fear of punishment ?

No, sir.

shopkeeper's goods, the farmer's crops, the trees, shrubs, and flowers of public parks, and property of all kinds. From these illustrations they were able to answer the following quèstions:

Now tell me, as clearly as you can, what is the principal use of law?

The chief use of law is to protect property, both private and public.

We have spoken of material property only; are there any other kinds of property that need protection?

Yes, sir; our lives, and our characters, and our peace.

And it does this, as you. all know, by punishing those who commit_murder; and those who maliciously speak evil of us; and those who make rows. A better word than rows?

Disturbances.

Now use the word "wealth" instead of "material property," and tell me more fully what are the uses of law?

The uses of law are to protect persons, wealth, lives, and character; and to keep order.

And how does it do this?

By punishing those who break the laws, and so making others afraid to do so.

What people are those who require to be restrained from doing wrong by fear of punishment?

The bad people.

We have been speaking of law only as a means of protection; is there no other way of protecting our rights?

Every man could protect his own. What! even if a man were attacked by one stronger than himself?

Men could join together to protect each other's rights.

That is sometimes done, when there is no constitutional law, and I will tell you how the plan succeeds.

I then gave a short account of the state of things as they existed at the diggings of California and Australia, showing how insecure life and property are in the absence of law. From a few illustrations, gathered chiefly from the newspaper, I showed how frequently offenders escape punishment, and how often too, when caught, the

In this way the children were led to see that national prosperity is as dependent on the goodness of the laws, as on any of the sources of wealth.

We have now seen that property of all kinds is secured by the laws; tell me what benefits arises out of this security?

We are prosperous and happy.

Do you think you derive any benefit from the goodness of the laws?—(No answer.) Think a little; how do your fathers get money to buy food and clothing, and to pay rent for you? By working.

Out of what part of their wealth do masters pay their men? Out of their capital.

And we have seen that capital cannot exist, unless protected by law; therefore, without this protection there would be no factories to work in, no machinery to work with, no raw materials to work upon, and no money to pay for labor.

Now tell me whether you derive any benefit from the laws? Yes, sir.

How?

We get food, clothes, and shelter, that we could not get without.

And therefore we say you have an interest in the existence of the laws; so have I so has every one. This being the case, what is it every one's duty to do, when the laws are in danger of being broken?

To do all they can to prevent their being broken. Why?

Because law is for the good of all.

"OLD BEN ROPER. BENJAMIN Roper, or rather, "dear old Ben," as he was most familiarly called, was a preacher among the Primitive Methodists. Ben had not been regularly ordained as a minister, for he was a bricklayer by trade, and followed his work to within a few days of his death; but, having "been called to be a partaker of grace," he had almost from the day of his conversion "taken to preaching," as he used to say, ex

horting people in his simple way to become followers of Jesus.

Well, Ben was a Primitive Methodist, and having been converted, he became a preacher, as we have before stated. In stature, Ben was five feet, five inches, and the blasts of sixty winters had somewhat wrinkled his brow, whitened his hair, and slightly bent his back. One Sunday preceding Christmas-day, not many years ago, Ben was "planned" to preach in a

little village two miles distant from the town in which he lived.

It was a cold winterly day, the snow lay on the ground, hard and crisp, and Ben, staff in hand, trudged cheerfully to his "appointment," arriving at the village a few minutes before the time fixed for service. The "chapel" had been used as a cow house, the manger had been taken away, the rafters in the roof and the sides whitewashed, and a few benches put in as seats. The "pulpit," as it was called, resembled more an oblong box set upright, with the top end and lid removed, than anything else; there was a ricketty board in front, on which the Bible lay, and a shelf inside, about a foot from the ground, on which the preacher stood. A few tin slides containing lighted candles, were stuck against the walls, and a huge fire in a grate, round which a number of children were grouped, warmed the place. Yet souls had been converted to God in that primitive-looking meeting-house, and if it had been built of marble and the roof spiked with gold, it could not have been invested with more endearing associations in the hearts of those who were wont to assemble within its walls.

Ben arrived while the people were singing, "just practising a bit" they called it; and though the man who gave the hymn out did so in a husky voice, and with a strange addition and subtraction of the "h's," and though the tune might have been a little louder than was appropriate for so small a place, yet there was such a degree of earnestness about the whole-no straining after effect, but a singing in which all joined, from "dear old Ben," after he had got into the pulpit, to "little Janey," the youngest of the children who were sitting by the fire, and whose childish voice could sometimes be heard chiming in at the conclusion of a verse -that the most stoical might have been deeply impressed.

Ben chose for his text 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. The sermon was an extempore one necessarily, for Ben could neither read nor write, though he could recite whole chapters, and seemed never at a loss for an appropriate verse to quote on all occasions. His knowledge of the Scriptures Ben attributed to his wife, who read at their daily devotion, and

he prayed; she also took the trouble to teach him verse after verse, until he had committed to memory several chapters. But Ben's wife was now dead, and this was the first sermon he had preached since his sad loss. The sermon, we must say, was not learned, nor clever, nor replete with illustrations borrowed from a variety of sources; but it was good, earnest, and simple; there could be no mistake about the doctrine inculcatedit was sound. And, perhaps, it was its simplicity and earnestness which caused it to sink so deeply into the hearts of his hearers, and to bring forth such good fruit after many days.

The sermon over, Ben got out of the pulpit, and was instantly surrounded by the children, whom be patted on their heads.

"The Lord be praised!" said an old man, extending his trembling hand to Ben, as he spoke; "the Lord be praised for what we've heard to night!"

Bless the Lord!" said Ben, grasping the hand-Ben had got into a habit of saying, "Bless the Lord!" very frequently-"bless the Lord, His name be praised!"

Ben was somewhat exhausted with his labour, so he accepted the old man's invitation to have "a dish of tea," with him and his wife, before he went home, and Ben passed out of the little meeting-house, with many a fervent "God bless you!" from the poor people who had heard him.

Jacob Harper was only a poor man, but he had a heart rich with grace, and as the preacher and his host trudged to the dwelling of the latter, their conversation was simple but heavenly.

"I kept the kettle boiling," said Harper's wife to Ben; "I know'd you'd be coming. So, Janet's gone, aye-(Janet was old Ben's wife)— hoo's better off now, Ben."

"Bless the Lord! hoo is," said Ben; "but it's wearying without her. Hoo says, a bit afore hoo died, 'Ben,' hoo says, 'thee'l not be long after me;' and then hoo says, 'Ben, Ben,' says she, 'tell us about Jacob's lather;' so I told her, and then hoo says, 'Ben, Ben,' hoo says, 'the lather's coming down, Ben;' and then hoo died. Five and thirty years hoo'd been my wife, and its lonesome like now to be with

out her, for I'm an old man ye sees, and my work's nearly done, bless the Lord! I've tried to serve him more years than I served the devil-forty years this very night I first know'd Him, and He's been very good to me ever since-" his pent up feelings overcame him, and the old man stopped to give them way.

"Many and many a mile," he added, after a pause, "I've walked to speak about him to the people; twenty miles and more I've walked on the Sunday, and preached three times-bless the Lord! but my journey's nearly over now the harvest always was great, but the labourers always was few; Lord, Lord, send more labourers into the harvest!" The old man again burst into tears.

It was a solemn scene, those two poor old creatures, out of their poverty, ministering to the bodily and spiritual comfort of "dear old Ben." (Oh!

ye rich in purse, but needy in heart, ye are poor indeed-poverty stricken -compared with some of those who give their cups of water and crusts of bread to fellow disciples.) The "dish of tea" was drank; and then, kneeling on the cold, bare floor, Ben prayed. -It was the last prayer he offered up in the presence of others, for three hours later he was found, with his head resting on a stone by the roadside, dead; a smile had overspread his rigid features, and his face was turned upward, as though he, too, had seen the ladder coming out of heaven, and the angels descending to beckon him away. His friends, of whom he had many, though they were very poor, raised a stone over his grave, and had engraved upon it these words:-"The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few."—J. B. M., in the Primitive Methodist Magazine.

Lays, Melodies, and National Airs. The words written expressly by the Rev. E. D. Jackson, B.C.L. Arranged in a familiar style with an accompaniment for the Piano Forte, by R. Andrews. London: Partridge & Co. Parts I. and II.

MANY of the best airs popular in this country are here prettily arranged, and adapted to words against which very little exception could be taken by the most scrupulous parents who wish their children to learn and practice music. Part I. consists entirely of solos with accompaniments, arranged with simplicity and care; and besides presenting the music in a pleasing and attractive form, such as would gratify any family circle, it furnishes excellent practice for a very numerous class of performers, who, without professing to be proficients, love to cultivate and enjoy good music. Part II. advances farther into the intricacies of fingering (though there is nothing that might not be attempted by any pupil of six months with a fair prospect of success), and is arranged for part singing. Several of the pieces are of a sacred character, and the whole of the words are moral in tone and correct in sentiment.

The Wicket-Gate entered, and the Bridgeless
River Crossed. The Early Experience and
Peaceful Death of Mr. Thomas Wilson.
Fruit in Old Age. A Journal of Visits to
the Dying Bed of John Payne.
Jesus revealed to a Babe. The remarkable
Conversion and Happy Death of William
Devonshire.

Grace in the Young: An Account of Emily
D, London: W. H. Collingridge.

SMALL biographies, exemplifying va rieties of Christian experience, of the true stamp of genuine piety, though related with considerable mannerism, and so made somewhat distasteful to minds of a different school to that of the writers.