downwards forming a centre and point suspended from the roof; the large posy which, as a mark of peculiar honour, hung from the green boughs over the high backed arm-chair, in which 'Madam' sat to distribute the rewards and bestow her praise, reproof, or counsel; with the numberless other bouquets fitted in here and there among the green branches or attached to the door posts. All the children who had left the school and who might be in service near, were invited on this occasion, permission being asked of their mistresses, and enquiry made as to their conduct. These in their holiday array, with faces as bright as the summer's day, were busy round the school-mistress's great oak-table, cutting up loaves into slices of bread and butter, and covering the trays with pieces of plum-cake, at which long undertaking some of the farmer's daughters would assist. Meanwhile the happy children had assembled, wearing their chosen flower, the boys a red rose, and the girls a white, or sprig of jessamine, their teacher's bouquet made by them uniting both. The mothers with their little children, too young as yet for school, soon followed, each looking for the welcome to re-assure them as they entered. A few were there of those whom God hath gifted to adorn the higher walks of life, shedding the gladdening influence of their graceful kindness upon all.

The rewards were distributed according to the different merit of each child, their names being written in a book with a short summary of the conduct of each appended. Books and clothing, bonnets and furnished bags were the prizes generally given, but an especial favourite reward, and one ranked among the highest, was a little white deal trunk, with a brass handle and a lock and key, to hold the books and treasures of its

K

young possessor. The servants who were still in their first place, and whose conduct was good, received also a small present, a book or some useful article. The children of the poor, exposed as they often are on every side to constant temptation, greatly need these helps on first leaving their home and their teachers, to come in single contact with an evil world whose charms and snares are new to them. They are by these means still linked for a time with their school, and this may prove a blessed check to them, helping them in the first instance to refuse the evil and choose the good, and so rendering their after-path more easy to them. If it only assist the weak resolution in one instance, the reward were amply sufficient; the very hope brings sweetness with it and endears the easy labour on their behalf. When all was given and all was spoken, and the children, for their parents' interest, had been allowed to repeat together some passages of scripture, and to answer a few questions, the cheerful meal began. The tea was made at the rustic tables, the children bringing their little mugs with them, while now and then the happy laugh of subdued but fearless gladness responded to the kindly pains that had called it forth. The entertainment of children who are not spoilt by over-indulgence, may always be procured at little effort, for their elastic and unburdened spirits readily reply to the lightest call; their own bright freshness reflecting itself and rejoicing unconsciously in its own light. The children having had all they wished, went forth to play in the green meadow before the barn, while the mothers, such of the fathers as could be there, and other poor and invited guests, hitherto only spectators, drew round the tables to partake in the refreshments, and in the kind notice of the stranger visitants, which doubled

all the pleasure.

These afterwards found their refresh

ment at the farm-house, one remaining to make tea for the superior village guests, at a table then spread for them in the centre of the barn.

By this time the evening was closing, the men home from their work, all re-assembled at the church to have, as one poor woman well expressed it, 'the best food last,' to return to their homes, not only pleased and grateful, but many among them enriched with the seeds of eternal truth, not we trust to pass away and perish, but to take root downward and bear fruit upward, to the praise of the glory of His grace, who hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him.

CHAPTER VIII.

ON VISITING THE POOR, WITH REFERENCE TO THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH.

THE thought has often been brought painfully before my mind, that we are slow in turning to full account the advantages we possess in the services of our Church for the spiritual education of the poor. Surely we can only expect that the inward and spiritual grace, the accompaniment of the outward form, will be sought and received by those who are instructed in the nature of the grace they seek; and yet if we put the majority of the poor in our villages to the test by asking them a few questions, we shall I fear, discover that the simple and expressive form is but as a dead letter, neither understood nor heeded a channel in which no living water is expected to flow; therefore, though they walk by its margin, they depart as they came, to return to the week-day world, their vessels empty, their feet unwashed, their spirits unrefreshed; and thus numbers without number of the poor pass through childhood, manhood, and old age, and go down to the grave not knowing the things that belong unto their peace, until they are for ever hid from their eyes.

Whatever our station and sphere in life may be, it

can hardly prove unprofitable to us to turn for a little while to a consideration of the services of our Church, with a reference to the poor, if its only result be that in worshipping with them, as we do in almost every congregation in our land, we may bear them more consciously in our remembrance in the general petitions in which those scriptural services lead us to express our desires at a throne of grace. 0 may the blessed Spirit of grace and supplication, who has so often stooped to breathe the living energy of prayer through those cherished and sacred forms, vouchsafe to teach us how we may help the poor and ignorant to a more enlightened use of them, and for the time to come so graciously remember us and them for good, that while we seek to awaken the mind to an understanding of, and attention to, the words of prayer and the objects to which they refer, he may at the same time be pleased to quicken the heart to a sense of its necessities and privileges, in order that it may indeed be led to worship God in spirit and in truth.

You will find that the poor who are not divinely taught, will often have a strong feeling of the necessity of 'keeping their Church,' and they will attach much importance to the sermon, while they do not appear to connect any definite idea with the prayers, nor to feel any interest in them or value for them. Of course this is to be explained by the fact that they are alike ignorant of the need and of the sweetness of communion with God; but it does not therefore follow, that we must wait in silence as regards those sacred prayers, as much their own as ours, as needful to them as to us, until the sense of need and the love of God are awakened within them; rather may we make those prayers one means of attaining this end! You will find that the poor