THE ORDER OF MERIT.

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

I. Candidates for the honours and prizes of the Order shall be under sixteen years of age, but Competitors who arrive at that age after registering shall not be debarred from further competition. II. Candidates for Admission shall send to be registered

(1) their names in full; (2) their address in full; (3) the date of their last birthday, and their age then; (4) a small registrationfee of 4d. in stamps, to cover the expense of posting cards, certificates, &c.

III. Competitive Examinations shall be held for the Candidates for Admission, and those who obtain the highest marks shall be admitted as Members of the Order of Merit in the Third Class, and shall receive Cards of Membership.

IV. Competitive Examinations shall be held for Members of the Third Class, and those who obtain the highest marks shall be admitted to the Second Class, and receive Certificates of Honour.

V. Competitive Examinations shall be held for Members of the Second Class, and successful Competitors shall be admitted to the First Class of the Order, and receive First Class Certificates of Honour.

VI. Competitions for Prizes shall be held between Members of the First Class.

N.B.-1. New competitors may register at any time.

2. All competition papers must begin with

(1) the Name of the writer; (2) the Address; and (3) the Age last birthday-age being taken into account in giving marks.

3. All communications should be addressed to THE
EXAMINER, 2, LUDGATE CIRCUS BUILDINGS, LONDON,
E.C. Papers should not be sent by book-post.
ADMISSIONS AND ADVANCES.

69

U phaz
Malchus

Ebenezer .

Luke iii. 1.

Rom. xvi. 15.

Gen. iv. 14.

Gen. ii. 14.

1 Kings xiv. 25. Acts xxi. 29. James iii. 8. 2 Kings xxii. 14. Job xxxviii. 31.

Jer. x. 9.

John xviii. 10.

1 Sam. vii. 12.

LOVEST THOU ME?' (John xxi. 15).

Correctly answered by Herbert A. Naish, Lilian E. Cushon, Minnie Margretts, Frederick Johns, Christopher C. Dove, William E. Cushon, Eva Mary Cushon, Jessie H. Penn, Ernest J. Hartley, Ethel Marshall, James E. Langley, Una E. Wilson, Eli E. Benjafield, Amy Wilson, Lillie Armstead, James John Jones, Alice Thomas, Gertrude A. Pilley, Matilda Bradford.

SCRIPTURE ENIGMA.

1. One commended by Paul as a servant of the Church;

2. The place where Samuel the Prophet was buried;

3. A Jew, born in Alexandria, who was noted for his eloquence;

4. A child of promise;

5. One of the women who was present at the death of our Lord;

6. The first priest who is said to have used a pulpit;

7. The best time to begin to serve God; 8. A bird mentioned several times in Scripture noted for its strength of wing;

9. Paul's amanuensis when he sent his letter to the Romans;

10. The son of Raguel the Midianite;

11. A singer in the temple appointed to use the cymbal;

12. A king who learnt a lesson of temperance from his mother;

13. A Prince of Midian who was slain upon a rock; 14. A son of Solomon who became King of Judah; 15. One of the gods of the Philistines.

The above initials will give an ascription of praise to God.

70

LUTHER'S SNOW SONG.

N a cold, dark night, when the wind was blowing hard and the snow was falling fast, Conrad, a worthy citizen of a little town in Germany, sat playing his flute, while Ursula, his wife, was preparing supper. They heard a sweet voice singing outside:

'Foxes to their holes have gone,

Every bird unto its nest;

But I wander here alone,

And for me there is no rest.'

Tears filled the good man's eyes as he said 'What a fine, sweet voice! What a pity it should be spoiled by being tried in such weather!'

I think it is the voice of a child. Let us open the door and see,' said his wife, who had lost a little boy not long before, and whose heart was opened to take pity on the little wanderer.

Conrad opened the door, and saw a ragged child, who said:

Charity, good sir, for Christ's sake!'

'Come in, my little one,' said he. You shall rest with me for the night.'

The boy said, 'Thank God,' and entered. The heat of the room make him faint, but Ursula's kind care soon revived him. They gave him some supper, and then he told them he was the son of a poor miner, and wanted to be a scholar. He wandered about and sang, and lived on the money people gave him. His kind friends would not let him talk much, but sent him to bed. When he was asleep they looked in upon him, and were so pleased with his pleasant countenance that they determined to keep him, if he was willing. In the morning they found that he was only too glad to remain with them.

They sent him to school, and afterwards he went into a monastery. There one day he found a Bible, which he read, and learned the way of life. The sweet voice of the little singer became the strong echo of the good news: 'Justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.' Conrad and Ursula, when they took that little streetsinger into their house, little thought they were nourishing the great champion of the Reformation. The poor child was Martin Luther.

The following is the song which Luther sung on that memorable night :-

'Lord of Heaven! lone and sad,

I would lift my heart to Thee;
Pilgrim in a foreign land,

Gracious Father, look on me,
I shall neither faint nor die,
While I walk beneath Thine eye.

'I will stay my faith on Thee,

And will never fear to tread
Where the Saviour-Master leads;
He will give me daily bread.
Christ was hungry, Christ was poor-
He will feed me from His store.

'Foxes to their holes have gone,

Every bird unto its nest; But I wander here alone,

And for me there is no rest. Yet I neither faint nor fear, For the Saviour Christ is here. 'If I live, He'll be with me;

If I die, to Him I go.

He'll not leave me, I will trust Him,
And my heart no fear shall know.
Sin and sorrow I defy,
For on Jesus I rely.'

MISSIONS.

THE HINDU CHILD'S EXPERIENCE.

MISSIONARY tells us that he was once walking in his garden, when a poor Hindu boy, who belonged to the Mission school, came after him, and in a very

gentle voice said:

If you please, sir, make me a Christian.' The Missionary was quite surprised by what he heard, and said to the little heathen boy: 'I cannot make you a Christian, my dear child, but God can. You must ask God to forgive your sins for Jesus Christ's sake, and to send His Holy Spirit to live in your heart.'

Not a long time after, the same little boy came to the Missionary, and said with a soft voice and a sweet smile on his face :

"The Lord Jesus Christ Himself has come to live in my heart.'

How is that?' asked the Missionary.

'I prayed,' said the boy, as you told me; and I said, "O Lord Jesus Christ, if you please, make me a Christian." And He was so kind as to hear me, and to come and live in my heart ever since.'

L

A PLAN IN LIFE.

HAT is your plan in life?' I asked a small boy, turning from his big brothers, who were talking about theirs, to which I had been listening. 'What

is yours, Neddie? › 'I am not big enough for a plan yet,' said Neddie; but I have a purpose.'

'That is good. It is not every one who has a purpose. What is your purpose?'

To grow up a good boy, so as to be a good man, like my father,' said Neddie. And, by the way he said it, it was plain he meant it. His father was a noble Christian man, and Neddie could not do better than to follow his steps. A boy with such a purpose will not fail of his mark.

'Did you never sit by your cheerful parlour fire,' said the teacher, 'on some dark evening, and hear a loud knocking at the door? Going to answer the summons, have you not sometimes looked out into the darkness, seeing nothing, but hearing the pattering of some mischievous boys, who knocked, but did not wish to enter, and therefore ran away? Thus it is often with us. We ask for blessings, but do not really expect them: we fear that Jesus will not hear us, will not admit us, and so we go away.'

'Ah! I see,' said the earnest-faced boy, his eyes shining with the new light dawning in his soul; 'Jesus cannot be expected to answer runaway knocks. I mean to keep knocking until He cannot help opening the door.'

'HE DOES IT FOR ME.'

T takes a brave soul to bear all this so grandly,' said a tender-hearted doctor, stooping over his suffering patient.

She lifted the heavy eyelids, and looking clear and steady into the doctor's face, replied,

It is not the brave soul at all. Jesus does it all for me.'

WILLIAM TYNDALE.
No. IX.

TYNDALE READING THE SCRIPTURES TO

MERCHANTS OF ANTWERP.

ROM 1533 to 1535 Tyndale seems to have lived a comparatively quiet life at Antwerp. News from England gave him pain. He heard of the persecution and martyrdom of friends, and of the continued hatred of his foes. But he knew that God was with him, and that His holy cause must ultimately prosper; therefore he went on with his work quietly but diligently.

Besides spending much time in translating

the Bible and in other writing, he continued to visit the sick, the poor, and the friendless, on two days each week, and to relieve them. He gave away much money to the needy. This sort of work he called his pastime.

But on Sundays he met Antwerp merchants and read with them and explained the Holy Scriptures. This he did first in one merchant's room and then in another. These services were highly prized by his hearers, as well they might be; for Tyndale was not only a learned man, but he was a holy man, and he had a sweet persuasive style of speech when speaking of spiritual religion.

There is no doubt that Tyndale himself greatly enjoyed these services. He had ceased to attend Romish worship. He went no longer to matins, evensong, or mass.' But he felt the need of communion with saints and of some public or social worship. So the longings of his heart and the craving of his soul would be satisfied when Sunday after Sunday he joined the good men of Antwerp in the study of the Scriptures and the worship of God.

In this Tyndale set a good example. Englishmen who have been taught the pure Christian religion are often compelled to leave their homes and live in foreign lands, where the Saviour has few followers. Too often they have failed to keep up their weekly worship, and have fallen into the careless, irreligious habits of their neighbours. How much better is it when such persons, like Tyndale, gather around them those who are willing to join them in song, in prayer, in Bible study.

In 1534 he sent forth another edition of the five Books of Moses. But his great work of that year was the entire revision of his New Testament, and the issue of a second edition. This work has been called 'Tyndale's noblest monument.' It cost him immense labour, and it was one of the greatest gifts that England ever received.

Tyndale received encouragement too. It was no longer treated as a crime if an Englishman possessed a Bible. Persecution began to die down. Tyndale began to hope that the day would come soon when the Scriptures might be publicly read in the churches in our native language as they are now in the lessons. All this came more quickly than he expected. The supremacy of the Pope of Rome was formally abolished by act of Parliament; and the laws against heretics were relaxed. Tyndale's bitter enemy, More, was made a prisoner and sent to the Tower; and Queen Anne Boleyn had interfered on behalf of an English merchant who had got into trouble through circulating the New Testament.

There is no doubt that poor, unfortunate lady, while Henry's favourite queen, had kindly feeling towards the persecuted reformers, and did what sho could to help them.

And so for a time things looked brighter, and William Tyndale rejoiced in hope.

Tyndale Reading the Scriptures to Merchants of Antwerp.-See p. 71.