"Which house is yours?" he inquired, as, after passing the churchyard, they drew near two small brown houses, with trim gardens in front and rear. "Is it that one with the vine?"

His new friends smiled as they replied in the affirmative, for it pleased them to exhibit their home in its summer beauty. And truly it was a cottage which spoke well for its owners. The little garden was in itself a study, with its two bee-hives and its arbour, its fruit-trees and its flowers, its trim walks and its long potato plot; and as for the house, there was scarcely such another in the parish.

"Do you like these two front windows?" inquired William. "I made them myself."

They were only small-paned casements, but they were so exactly suited to their position, and so luxuriantly curtained by delicate rose-trees, that Gower thought much of them.

"I manage to get through a lot of this sort of work, morn ings," said the host, as they crossed the threshold.

"What time, then, do you get up?" asked Croker: "I never wake."

"Well, half-past four is about my time in summer, and the boys come down when I do; but the girls and their mother sleep an hour longer," said William.

"Why my wife gets up first," said Croker, smiling.

"And goes to bed last, I'll answer for it," interrupted Mar garet, who was now preparing supper. "I'll tell you what it is, Mr. Croker: if you go on as you've begun, my poor cousin'll be in her grave by this time twelve months. It's of no use to mince the matter; she's working herself to death."

་་

'Well, she will do it," said Croker, angrily. "I often tell her not to work so hard."

"And what does she say to that?" inquired Margaret. "She says the children and the house must be cared for." "And so they must; and you ought to help her to do it." "I earn all the money," said Croker: "what more can I do?" "Why, you can cheer her with your company; and you can help her to train your children well; and you can trim up your house instead of boosing at the Tiger' every evening."

"You speak very plainly," said Croker.

"I must," said Margaret. "I have tried you with smooth words at your own house several times. Won't you have any supper?"

'No, thank you," said Frank; "I never eat when I'm angered. Good even to you."

He turned away as he spoke, and left the cottage.
"Shall I go after him?" said Margaret to her husband.

"No, he will do much better alone," said William. "You have convinced him that he is wrong, but he won't acknowledge it. Poor fellow, you hit him hard!"

"Never mind, if it does him good," said Margaret.

rather a loud peal of thunder to waken some folks."

"It takes

It was late that night when Frank Croker reached his home; and Hester was half asleep when he laid his hand upon the latch and softly entered.

What change had come over him, that he passed an arm around her waist and kissed her forehead? Had he, at last, begun to understand?

It was even so. Frank Croker was an altered man. Two years have passed since that eventful night, and he still perseveres in spending his evenings at home. And though he gives, as yet, no evidence of that change of heart without which there can be no hope for eternity, there is much reason to believe that his constant attendance on the means of grace, and the daily Bible-reading which Hester has persuaded him to begin, will be the means of his conversion to God.

LEAVES FROM AN ABSTAINER'S NOTE BOOK.

A BAD EXAMPLE.-The Rev. Mr. Tate held a vicarage in the diocese, and was prebendary in the Cathedral of Exeter, their united incomes yielding him about £1250 a-year. After enjoying the income for about six years, he has been made a bankrupt, with debts to the extent of £16,000. Among the items, £300 is set down for wine, and £10 for pints, quarts, and half-gallons of "half-and-half” at a public house.

A Word to Parents.---A young lady was lately reckless enough to reach over the table-rock which overhangs the roaring falls of Niagara, that she might pluck some flowers which grew upon its edge, but as she stooped she lost her balance, and, dreadful thought! was dashed from that awful height to the abyss below. We almost think we hear her wild death shriek and feel her giddy whirl. By and by, a father comes to the spot, to gaze on that scene of unrivalled sublimity. The flowers attract the notice of his little child, and she too steps forward. But, quick as thought, the paternal hand drags her back, while with all the eloquence of a father's voice, he tells the fatal story. Fathers and mothers! thousands of little ones have gone down a more awful gulf. Will you sport on its brink as if danger there were not? Or will the hand that drags back from temporal death furnish the means of more dreadful ruin ?— Rev. W. Reid.

WORK FOR CHRISTIANS.-If anybody wishes to be an apostle to the

Gentiles, or, as we now call it, a missionary to the heathen, he need not wait to learn half-a-dozen languages, or spend a fortune at a college, or purchase an outfit, or cross one or two oceans, or run the risk of being eaten by savages. He has only to walk a couple of miles in any direction in this great metropolis, or, if that be too much, go to the nearest mews or back lane, and he will find plenty of stray sheep whom no pastor ever sought out, with whose hearts 10 man of God ever communed, who have indeed heard of the Church, and have been baptized, nay, married (?) and churched in its fabrics, but who know about as much of its faith as if they were the intended objects of the projected mission to Central Africa.-Times, July 10, 1860.

GOLDEN WORDS.--Youth should indulge no vices, for vice is the disease of the soul; youth should love instruction, because an uneducated man is no better than a monkey. He who acquires most knowledge rises nearest to his Maker, from whom his soul springs. Instruction should be grounded on solid moral education, and on this the social edifice should rest. Do you care for honour? Honour can only be acquired by virtue and instruction; nations, like individuals, when weak are insulted and enslaved. Bear with other people's weaknesses; submit to no insults; love instruction; instruction is bread and independ ence; it availed me in foreign lands to place me above want.-General Garibaldi.

BEFORE RISING TO SPEAK.-Mr. Pitt was nervous before rising to speak; hence, perhaps, his recourse to stimulants. A surgeon, eminent in Brighton, some years ago told me that when he was a shopboy in London, he used to bring to Mr. Pitt the dose of laudanum and salvolatile which the great statesman habitually took before speaking. The laudanum perhaps hurt his constitution more than the port wine, which he drank by the bottle; the wine might be necessary to sustain the physical spirits lowered by the laudanum. Mr. Fox was nervous before speaking; so I have heard was Lord Plunket. A distinguished member of the Whig party, now no more, and who was himself one of the most sensitive of men, and one of the most attractive of orators, told me that once in the House of Commons he had crossed over to speak to Mr. Canning, on some question of public business, a little time before the latter delivered one of his most remarkable speeches; and, on taking the hand Mr. Canning extended to him, he exclaimed, “I fear you your hand is so cold and damp." "Is it?" auswered Canning, smiling; so much the better; that shows how nervous I am; I shall speak well to.night."-Sir E. B. Lytton, in Blackwood's Magazine for April.

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are ill,

THE CHURCH At a public meeting in Port Glasgow, the Rev. Wm. M'Lachlan, of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, stated that application for church-membership had lately been made to him by a publican, and while they did not refuse communion because of his being a spiritdealer, yet they desired his business should be conducted in such a way as he confessed his inability to do, and the consequence was they parted. The reverend gentleman remarked, that if all churches would do their duty in this matter, it would be a blessing to society. League Journal.

A JUVENILE TEETOTALLER.-A company of children in one of the interior towns concluded to found a city, and as a beginning, each boy had an occupation sssigned to him, such as was supposed necessary to advance the interests of their embryo capital. In assigning the various occupations, one little fellow was told he must keep an hotel; to this he objected, but on being pressed finally consented, provided he might be allowed to make it a Temperance house. This did not suit his comrades, who insisted that it was out of the question to keep a public-house without selling liquor; but our young Teetotaller, after consulting his mother on the subject, still insisted on the objection to selling rum, and being a great favourite among his companions, was finally allowed (in imagination), to carry on business as he saw fit. This may seem very trifling, but mark its effect. A man given to strong drink in the vicinity, hearing of the discussion, was so much struck by the seemingly trifling affair, that he abandoned the use of intoxicating liquors, and became a staunch advocate of Temperance, to the great joy of his family and friends. The influence of this trifling occurrence inay yet be felt in heaven.-American Union Temperance Fournal.

FACTS FOR WORKERS.

SOME SAD FIGURES.-The census returns (1851) clearly show how great and overwhelming a proportion of the whole deficiency of England is assignable to our great modern towns, since it seems that out of the total number of 1,644,734 additional sittings reckoned to be necessary, 1,318,082, or 80 per cent., are required for 72 boroughs or parishes, or rather for 60 of the most recent, while the especial claim of London is shown by 669,455, or more than one-half, being required for its wants alone. This gives a vivid picture of the destitute condition of our great town population, and speaks loudly of the need there is for new and energetic plans of operation, having special reference to towns. The absence of that local interest which leads to individual benevolence, and the evident inadequacy of all that can reasonably be expected from the great employers of industry, appear to call for the combined exertions, either from the whole inhabitants of a neighbourhood, or of the Christian Church at large, as the only other method for relieving such deplorable deficiency. In the moiety of London occupied by the Mission, the shops open on the Lord's-day would give a frontage to all the leading thoroughfares of London. They would constitute 30 continuous miles, of open shops; and if the other half of London is of like character, which it may be fairly assumed to be, it extends the line to 60 miles.-Annual Report of City Mission.

WHAT THE POLICE KNOW. It is a fact known to the police, and not to the police only, but to every man who has had an opportunity of observing the state into which the masses are falling, that there never was a time when the temper of the lower orders in this country was less satisfactory than it is now. There are whole streets within an easy walk of Charing cross-there are miles and miles of lanes and alleys on either

side of London bridge, where the people live utterly without God in the world—where there seems to be no knowledge of the difference between right and wrong-no belief whatever in a future state, or of their responsibility to any other authority than that of the law, if it can catch them. We could name entire quarters in which it seems to be a custom that men and women should live in promiscuous concubinage, where the most frightful debauchery goes on night and day in the lowest public-houseswhere the very shopkeepers make a profession of Atheism, and encourage their poor customers to do the same. -Quarterly Review.

A GOOD WORKER.-During the last ten years Mr. Smithard has been fully employed, both winter and summer, in lecturing in all the counties of England and portions of North Wales, not in connection with any particular organisation, but going wherever the openings of Providence manifested themselves. Mr. Smithard's sympathies for, and intimate knowledge of, the working-classes, as a visitor to their homes, together with his voice and style of speaking, give him great advantages as an open-air speaker. He spoke to large masses of people every fine Sunday afternoon on the Quay side at Hull for upwards of four years, and during three summers he delivered one hundred and forty-nine addresses in Liverpool, the expense of which was generously borne by Mr. Smith Harrison and Mr. Joseph Crossfield. Mr. Smithard has added much

to the attractiveness of his in-door meetings by his abilities as a vocalist. He is not a cultivated singer-to this he makes no pretension-but wisely avoids everything in music but the plain and simple forms of vocalisation, preferring those Temperance songs which have a good chorus, in which the assembly can most heartily join; and this opens the hearts of the people by putting them in a good mood for listening to the unpalatable truths of teetotalism. Mr. Smithard usually sings five melodies with pianoforte accompaniment, and speaks an hour each night.-Weekly Record.

ANNALS OF THE BAND OF HOPE UNION.

NORTH OF ENGLAND AUXILIARY.

The following Circular explains itself:

"BAND OF HOPE UNION, "June 6th, 1862.

"Dear Sir,-An extensive correspondence has induced the Committee of the Band of Hope Union, and the friends of the Band of Hope Movement in the North of England, to resolve upon holding a series of Meetings at Bishop Auckland, Hurworth, Richmond, East Cowton, Catterick, Hack forth, Reeth, Middlesbro', &c., and a Conference and Public Meeting in the Central Hall, Darlington, on Tuesday, June 24th,

1862.

"The Conference will be held in the morning at 10.30, and in the afternoon at two o'clock. The Conference will enter freely into the present position, modes of operation, and future prospects of the Band of Hope Movement in the North of England, and the desirableness of forming an auxiliary in connection with the Band of Hope Union.