Ellen Mason was there in a neat clean pink dress and white apron. Somehow, Nannie had never felt so kindly towards her, and the others, copying after Nannie, were very kind to the little lame girl.

Tom, too, was always ready to give her a swing; and, as for Ellen herself, her face was beautiful with happiness.

That night, Nannie, when she finished her evening prayer, added softly, "I thank thee for helping me to be like Jesus to-day."

Cousin Tom was having a confidential chat with his mother.

"I tell you what," said he, "Nannie is a splendid little girl; she can preach almost as well as uncle Charles can. If a fellow could be like her in some hings, he wouldn't be sorry."

And his mother thought perhaps Nannie might some day lead her wild son to Jesus.

In the cottage at the foot of the hill, the widow Mason knelt at the bedside of her sleeping child, and prayed, "0 God, I thank thee that thou hast remembered thy fatherless one to-day, and put it into the heart of a child of thine to make her happy."

Mr. Clare in his study offered this prayer, "I bless thee, dear Redeemer, for the token this day given me, that thou art leading my darling nearer to thyself."

Nannie heard none of these words, but Jesus did!

"BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN

SPIRIT."

So then, the more we misgive ourselves, and the more we accuse ourselves, and the less we trust in ourselves, and the less we think of our attainments, whether without Christ or with Him, the nearer we are to heaven. The simple, childlike, selfrenouncing, self-abhorring spirit is commonly (in its fulness) the very last of God's gifts, of the Holy Spirit's graces in the Christian. In early life, in strong manhood, alas! too often to a late old age, there is still a lurking hope that at least we are something, or we are just going to be something, in and of ourselves sin itself is often deplored as a humiliation rather than as an unbelief; it has disappointed us about ourselves, even more than it has been an ingratitude to Christ, or an affront and an impiety towards

God. The entire willingness to be nothing and to receive everything; nay, not even to receive as though when given the grace would be ours, but rather to have nothing and to be nothing still; to be only in Christ, only a creature covered up and hidden and lost in Him; that is a blessedness against which many a hopeful person has kicked inwardly almost to the last. He will ask his Father for the portica of the goods which falleth to him, rather than stay within the Father's door, just sustained, just lodged, just fed. day by day, but, of his own, and for his own, having and willing to have nothing. To the poor in spirit belongs, our Lord says, the kingdom of heaven. It is theirs. Theirs already, by a In that very right all their own.

poverty of spirit resides the title. In this life they possess it. For they, alone of all men, live their citizenship. They know that without their King

they are beggars; without their franchise they are outlaws; without their home above, they are homeless and shelterless and comfortless exiles. Whatever others can do, they cannot do without their kingdom. They declare plainly, at each step of life's journey, they are seeking a country. And therefore God is not ashamed to be called er God: for He hath prepared for

a city. And as they get nearer bts golden gates, and have nothing tween it and them but that narrow eam of death which a Saviour once Tassed for them, it may well be that the ownership of which the text speaks becomes at last scarcely more a faith than a sight; they can catch the very sends of the heavenly song, and decern the bright forms of those who were once faithful unto death, and now follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.-Dr. C. J. Vaughan.

THE MEANEST MIGHTY WITH

GOD.

NOTHING is more remarkable in the Bible than to see how God, as if to teach us to trust in nothing and in Done but Himself, selects means that eem the worst fitted to accomplish His end. Does he choose an ambassador to Pharaoh? it is a man of a stammering tongue. Are the streams of Jericho to be sweetened? salt is cast into the spring. Are the eyes of the blind to be opened? they are rubbed with clay. Are the battlements of a city to be thrown down? the means employed is, not the blast of a mine, but the breath of an empty trumpet. Is a rock to be riven? the lightning is left to sleep above, and the earthquake with its throes to sleep below, and the instrument is one, a rod, much more likely to be shivered on the rock than to shiver it. Is the world to be converted by preaching, and won from sensual delights to a faith whose symbol is a cross, and

whose crown is to be won among the fires of martyrdom? leaving schools and halls and colleges, God summons His preachers from the shores of Galilee. The helm of the Church is intrusted to hands that had never steered aught but a fishing-boat; and by the mouth of one who had been its bloodiest persecutor, Christ pleads His cause before the philosophers at Athens and in the palaces of Rome. And when He chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish to confound the wise, what. God meant to teach us was, that we are to look above the instruments to the great Hand that moves them; and that, whether it was a giant or a devil that was to be conquered, the eyes of the body or of the soul that were to be opened, walls of stone or, what are stronger, walls of ignorance and sin that were to be overthrown, men are but instruments in His handthe meanest mighty with Him, the mightiest mean without Him.

THE PRESENCE OF GOD OUR REST.

WE are as immediately dependent upon God as were those tribes in the trackless, shadeless waste. Our life is, moment by moment, as much at His mercy, our bread is as much the gift of His power, as was theirs; whether our supplies come in some flash of miracle, or through a million intervening agencies, they come from Him, and from Him alone. When He gives the showers and sunbeams that melt the snow-wreath, tempt forth the tender leaf, and mature the golden grain; when He gives us work to do and power to do it; when He gives those affections of parent or friend which nurse us in our feebleness, or feed us in our want, He gives us our daily bread as truly as if He gave it from the clouds. • Hitherto the Lord hath helped us." "The God before whom our fathers did

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walk, the angel which redeemed us from all evil, hath fed us all our life long unto this day."

But now, perhaps, you have your misgivings. Bleak sights without, bleak thoughts within; winter in the scenery, winter in the soul, winter everywhere, may combine to make this a dreary day to you. Times may be hard; old age may be coming on; and freezing fears of helpless debt may turn your heart into ice. But only let the Lord be " your shepherd," and you will not want. Christ's messages to the poor disciple who is troubled for the future were meant especially for you, and have as much particular directness of appeal as if spoken in confidence to you alone. You may say, "I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh on me;" and you are present to His thought, not as one leaf in the forest, one wave in the sea, or one poor human unit in the aggregate of life, may be present to the generalizing and indiscriminate thought of man, but as a child is present to the thought of his father.

Since it is so, and since God's promised help no longer comes through miracles, but through appropriate means, use what means may be acces

sible, "and whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." We are to cast, not our work, but our care upon the Lord, for He careth for us; and if He careth for thee," says Leighton, “be thyself at rest; for why shouldst thou care, and He care too?"-. Charles Stanford.

MODERATE DESIRES.-He that is much habituated to delight in God is not apt to foolish, extravagant desires. This is the sense of such a one, "Not my will, Lord, but thine he done." He may desire the same thing that others do, yet not with the same peremptory and precipitant desire, but with a desire tempered with submission, and with a reserved deference of the matter to the Divine pleasure : "This thing, Lord, I desire if thou seest good." So that the general object of such a one's desire is only that which in the Divine estimate is fit and good for him; and though he desire this or that particular thing, yet not as it is this thing, but as supposing it possible this thing may be judged fit for him by the Supreme Wisdom, whereto he hath referred the matter. John Howe.

THE STORY OF HAWADIYA.

HAWADIYA lived at Korigammana, a village not far from Kandy, in the Island of Ceylon. His parents were strict and ignorant Buddhists. From a child he was sickly, but was very fond of reading and writing. As his years increased, he began to study medicine under a native doctor; but soon after his twentieth year, he was

attacked with a disease which, for two years before his death, made him to lie helpless on his mat. When the station was commenced in 1863, he was unable to attend the services, but was visited by Mr. Perera, and received from him and others Christian tracts.

In May, 1864, his illness became so severe that he gave up all hope of recovery, and sent to ask that a service might be held in his house. This was

Cone several times. Some rays of Ight had already entered his mind, for when his father and mother wished send for a priest to perform Buddhist tes, he was greatly averse to it. In his feeling he was joined by his elder rother. The teacher of the school Fas therefore sent for. At that time Le asked for a prayer to use, written

large characters, as his sight was refective. This was given, and much aversation and prayer were had with in, but with little apparent effect. After this, the teacher gave Hawadiya prayer consisting of such short senLes as, "God be merciful to me, a sinner," and one day read and left with him a translation of part of that precious little book, "Come to Jesus." This he read, and divine grace led him to accept the invitation it gives.

"It was not," says the teacher, all Jan. 24, 1865, that I ascertained that the Holy Spirit had begun His work in him. That day he seated himself upright, and began to say: God has been very gracious to me. He is with me. God is my Father and my Friend. Jesus Christ is my elder Brother; the Holy Spirit is my Teacher,' and similar things. When I said, 'What evidence is there that God has been gracious to you?' he replied, The fact that God sent me this sickness, and sent me a Christian teacher, and that I have been enabled to learn about God, and believe in the Christian religion.'

He now began to exhibit great anxiety for the welfare of others. Before his conversion, he had always been afraid of demons, a superstition common among his countrymen; but he used to say, 66 I am not afraid now, God is with me." His time was chiefly spent in prayer and in reading God's word. The teacher visited him frequently, mostly in company with some of the villagers. He would say, “I am a transgressor. I have no merit. I do not deserve heaven. I believe in Christ. I have been forgiven. I have been cleansed by the flowing of Christ's blood. I am not afraid to die. I am going to heaven. I shall go to

heaven, because Christ died on the cross for me. I shall go by His merit, and by the flowing of His blood." His hope was thus built on Jesus, and he often expressed it.

As his end approached, his desire to depart and be with Jesus grew stronger. One evening, at the close of a little prayer meeting, he called his relatives around him, and touchingly drew from them promises as to the disposal of the land when he was gone, that they might have no disputes, and that his adopted brother, to whom he was greatly attached, might be provided for. Then he said he should be glad to commit his spirit to the Lord. He was asked if he had not done so already. yes!" he replied, "but I should like to die while you are all here." "Why," the teacher said, "do you think you can get any help from us?" "O no," he said, "I have Christ's merits." The next evening he expressed the same wish. Some one suggesting that it was because of his great pain, he said, "O no! the pain I now suffer, I could bear many years; that is not difficult. If I live longer, that also will be God's will; but what I say is, ‘O God, if thou dost take me speedily, I shall like it better.'

On

The end longed for soon came. the night of the 4th April, after reading his loved Psalms longer than usual, about midnight he became speechless, and before daybreak he fell asleep in the Lord. The same evening he was laid to rest in the plot of ground near the schoolroom. Usually the villagers huddle away their dead in some unfrequented corner of their gardens, and, from superstitious fear, none will come to help or comfort the bereaved. But the first burial of a believer in the village was a more Christian and honourable one. About twenty men assembled, some of them at least devout men, we may hope, and carried Hawadiya to his burial. They were told of the Resurrection and of Heaven, and exhorted to follow him who had gone as the first-fruits of that village unto God.

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DOMESTIC.

HEYWOOD, LANCASHIRE.-On Saturday, Oct. 13, a tea-meeting, of unusual interest, was held in connection with the Baptist church in this town. The Rev. James Dunckley, pastor of the church, occupied the chair. Upwards of 200 friends sat down to tea. Henry Connah, Esq., of Manchester, engaged in prayer. The chairman then gave a cordial welcome to several old friends who had come some distance to be present on the occasion; after which he said: "I have now to inform you that this place of worship is altogether out of debt. During the cotton famine, our esteemed treasurer had to advance £73 13s. 6d. In addition to this, there was a debt of £63 upon the chapel; but within the last four or five months I have obtained not only the £73 13s. 6d., which some of you were afraid I should not be able to get, but I have obtained the £63 also. We have helped ourselves, and we have been helped by several gentlemen, to whom our thanks are dus. Henry Kelsall, Esq., has given us £10; L. T. Kemp, Esq., £10; our old friend James Burford, Esq., of Manchester, has given us £15; and our esteemed friend the treasurer (Mr. John Brearley) has given us £15. Mr. James Dunckley has been the pastor of this church between eight and nine years. During his ministry the cause which for nearly thirty years had been dependent upon the County Home Mission has become self-sustaining; and now through his devoted efforts the chapel and schools are altogether free from debt. The meeting was addressed by Messrs. Connah, Brearley, Moore, Rothwell, Davies, and Smith, all of whom spoke in the most affectionate and respectful terms of their friend and pastor.

SUNNYSIDE, LANCASHIRE.-On Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 29 and 30, recognition and ordination services were held in connection with the settlement of the Rev. T. Evans, of the North Wales Baptist College, as pastor of the Baptist church, Sunnyside, Lancashire. On Saturday afternoon, tea was provided in the Assembly-room, Crawshawbooth, when about 200 persons sat down. After tea a public meeting was held, at which Mr. J. Spencer, of Goodshaw, presided, who, after making an appropriate address, called upon the following ministers to speak :-Revs. P. Prout, of Haslingden, J. Smith, of Bacup, S. Vasey, of Lumb, R. Evans, of Burnley, W. G. Fifield, of Goodshaw, H. Jones, President of the North Wales Baptist College, W. C. H. Anson, of Carol-terrace, and J. Maden, of Gambleside. On Lord's-day morn

ing, at ten o'clock, the Rev. A. Nichols, late pastor of the church, conducted the devotion part of the service; after which the Rev. J. Smith proposed the usual questions to the minister, and offered the ordination prayer; and the Rev. H. Jones preached on "the duty of the pastor." In the afternoon the Rev. W. G. Fifield delivered an address on “The Nature and Constitution of the Christian Church," and the Rev. P. Prout preached sermon on "the duties of the church to the minister." In the evening a sermon was preached to a large congregation by the Rev. H. Jones. All the services were well attended.

WESTON-SUPER-MARE.-On Wednesday, Sept. 12, the new Baptist chapel erected for the congregation hitherto worshipping in the Assembly Rooms, was opened for Divine ser vice. At eleven o'clock a devotional meeting was held, over which the pastor of the church (Rev. Robert Lewis) presided. Praver was offered by the Rev. H. W. Lillington, Westen; the Rev. F. H. Rolestone, Chipping-Sodbury the Rev. John Penny, Clifton; the Rev.. P. Chown, Bradford; the Rev. W. Dinis, Burnham; Mr. D. F. Wyatt, Clifton; and Mr. J. Rossiter, senior deacon of the church. At one o'clock dinner was provided in the spacious schoolroom below the chapel, for more than 100 guests. In the afternoon the Rev. J. Penny read the Scriptures and prayed: after which the Rev. Hugh Stowell Brown, of Liverpool, preached from 2 Thessalonisns iii. 13. The service was concluded by the Rev. R. C. Pritchett, Independent minister resident in Weston. Before the evening ser vice 400 persons assembled in the school room for tea. In the evening, the Rev. J. P. Chown, of Bradford, preached to a crowded audience from Revelation xxii. 8. The services of the day terminated with prayer of fered by the Rev. W. H. Tetley, of Coleford. On Sunday, the 16th, sermons were preached, in the morning by the pastor of the church, from Psalm cxxi. 1.; and in the evening by the Rev. James Culross, M.A., of Stirling from John xx. 20. The collections, in the aggregate, exceeded £256. The total cost, when completed, will be about £2,600.

TURRET GREEN CHAPEL, IPSWICH.-05 Wednesday evening, Sept. 19, this place of worship, which had for some time been closed whilst extensive alterations and additions were being made, was reopened. The Rev. T. M. Morris, minister of the place, preached an appropriate sermon to a large congregation On the following evening (Thursday) a o gregational tea-meeting was held, between four and five hundred persons being present.