further he advanced the more easy seemed his progress. For many years he has been enabled to instruct others by his writings and experiments; and, while he gratefully acknowledges the goodness of God in giving both ability and success, he stands as a fair example, that "Where there is a will there is a way."

How is it that Ned Turner and his wife are seen every Sunday morning taking their whole family to the house of God, and spending every part of the day in holy leisure, as much as if they had servants to do their work; while Waters and his wife tell us they are obliged to drudge hard all day long, and can't see the inside of a church from one year's end to another? The thing is this: Turner and his wife know the value of the sabbath, and their hearts are set upon enjoying and improving it. Many contrivances are employed through the week to enable them on the sabbath to lay aside all manner of work; but their success and enjoyment prove that "Where there is a will there is a way.

May it not be added, "Why is it that some persons are found to excuse themselves in sin and neglect of religion, by saying they cannot change their own hearts; they cannot possess themselves with grace; they cannot even pray to God acceptably, unless he give them his Holy Spirit ?" All this is true; but what does it prove? not that they are excusable in their neglect, or that they will escape the punishment due on account of it, but that they have no real desire after those unspeakable blessings which they profess themselves unable to obtain. If they really felt themselves lost and undone without access to the pardoning mercy and gracious favour of God, through Jesus Christ, they would give themselves no rest until they attained it. They would use every appointed means of grace, as though all depended on their own diligence, and they would cry mightily for that aid, without which their endeavours must prove effectual. Salvation is not to be attained by a few faint, lazy wishes, but by an agonizing effort to enter in at the strait gate; by earnest, importunate, persevering cries at the footstool of mercy, 'Lord, save, or I perish! I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.'

in

LITTLE BY LITTLE.

Did you

THINK how almost all that is good comes to us. ever see a farmer planting and sowing? Down in the moist earth goes the seed, grain by grain, little by little. God sees the farmer at his work, and he kindly sends the gentle rain, drop by drop; and not one of these little drops ever forgets its errand-the pleasant errand upon which the good God sent it to the earth. "I have found you out," says the raindrop to the tiny grain of wheat, "though you are dead and in your grave. God has sent me to raise you up." There is nothing impossible with Him; so when the raindrop has done its errand, a spark of life shoots out from the very heart of the tiny grain which is dead and buried, and little by little it makes its way out of the tomb, and stands, a single blade, in the warm sunlight. That is nobly done; and if the great God pleased, he could make that little blade strong and fruitful in a single moment. Does he do this? No. Little by little does the stalk wax strong, and its leaves grow slowly, leaf by leaf. Is it not so with everything that is good? like another way better? Impatience would.

Should we

It is only a few days ago that I heard a little girl say, "I am tired, tired, tired! Here is a whole stocking to knit, stitch by stitch! It will never be done."

"But was not this one knit stitch by stitch ?" I asked, taking a long one from her basket and holding it up. "Yes."

The little girl was counting, instead of knitting her stitches. No wonder that she was tired.

Did you ever see a mason building a house of bricks? "Poor man!" Impatience would say, Impatience would say, "What a hopeless undertaking!-to start from the earth and go so far towards the sky, brick by brick!" Oh no, not hopeless at all. People can get nearer the sky than that, and upon the same principle, too, step by step.

The world has wandered far away from God. He meant that we should be happy; but mankind have chosen the paths of disobedience and misery, and so lost their way— the way to holiness and peace. Christ came to be our way, so that we might not be for ever lost. But even in this we have to go step by step. This necessity of doing things little by little, step by step, drop by drop, need be no

way

But we

discouragement. Listen now, and see if you do not hear a voice saying, "Try, try, try." Who ever saw a patient, persevering person try, and not succeed at last? So, then, step by step, which is God's way, must be the best way. Let us see that we do every day what we can. must remember one thing: the buried grain of wheat would never start into life if God did not send it help; and it is by the same help that it increases day by day. As the little raindrop-God's beautiful messenger descends into its tomb, so in the darkness and death of sin the Holy Spirit comes to us. If he breathe upon our hearts, we live to do good; without him, we do nothing good. Let us obey this Spirit, and all good will be ours at last, though we gain it little by little.

LESS AND MORE.

Two prayers, dear Lord, in one-
Give me both less and more;

Less of the impatient world and more of thee;

Less of myself, and all that heretofore

Made me to slip where ready feet do run,

And held me back from where I fain would be

Kept me, my Lord, from thee!

All things which most I need

Are thine thou wilt bestow

Both strength and shield, and be my willing guest;
Yet my weak heart takes up a broken reed,
Thy rod and staff doth steadily forego,

And I, who might be rich, am poor, distressed,
And seek, but have not rest.

How long, O Lord, how long?

So have I cried of late,

As though I knew not what I well do know :
Come thou, great Master Builder, and create
Anew that which is thine; undo my wrong-

Breathe on this waste, and life and health bestow:
Come, Lord, let it be so!

Let it be so, and then—

What then? My soul shall wait,

And ever pray-all prayers, dear Lord, in one-
Thy will o'er mine in all this mortal state
Hold regal sway. To thy commands, Amen
Break from my waiting lips till work is done,
And crown and glory won!

A. D. F. RANDOLPH.

Ir devolved upon me to send back the books which my sister had borrowed of the Wakes. I did this on the following day, in spite of Lucy's earnest and tearful remon strances. She could not bear, she said, that her friends should be so badly treated, after all their kindness. Nothing moved by this, however, for I was too angry with Lucy to heed her entreaties,-I persisted in the determination; writing a coldly polite note, as I should then have termed

JUNE, 1867

it, in which I thanked Mrs. Wake for her past attention to my sister, but informed her that, from circumstances which had come to my parents' knowledge, in connection with the returned books, they had found it absolutely necessary to prohibit Lucy from repeating her visits to The Grange. I added that, thinking it best to be candid, I might as well say that my sister's new religious ideas were very distasteful-distressing indeed-to our parents; and that I, therefore, trusted no more endeavours would be made in any quarter to deepen those impressions on Lucy's mind; as if we should discover that the baneful influence were still exerted, our parents would feel compelled to send my sister from home.

I am not sure that these were the exact terms in which I wrote; but I have given their purport. On the following day I received a reply.

When I now think of the kind and Christian courtesy of the answer I received, I am surprised at myself as well as ashamed, that I was not then ashamed of my own communication. There was no anger, nor attempt at retaliation or recrimination. Our neighbour acknowledged my note, and thanked me for my straightforwardness. She was deeply grieved-so she wrote-that our familiar intercourse should come to so sudden an end, but she felt it right to submit to the restrictions I had imposed; only she hoped that I should some day think better of her than to believe that she had intentionally caused any division of interest or feeling in our family. She could not regret, however, that she had for a little while been brought into affectionate communion with her dear Lucy, although she would faithfully promise not to seek a renewal of that intercourse clandestinely. The note closed with an expression of her kindest regards and best wishes, and earnest prayers for every member of our family, especially for my sister whom she dearly loved.

I laid aside the short epistle with indifference after I had communicated its contents to my parents; and for some time no more visits were paid from The Grange to the farm, nor from the farm to The Grange. Except once, when, shortly after the date of the above correspondence, my father made a formal call on Mrs. Wake to reimburse certain extra expenses which we found, or believed, that lady had incurred on Lucy's behalf. On this occasion my father was received with much genuine kindness; but it did not move him from his purpose to be quietly