PART SECOND.

BROWN'S Sitting Room. MRS. BROWN seated at a table doing fancy work. MR. BROWN reading the evening paper.]

MR. B. Oh! by-the-bye, did you answer Mr. Sparkle's letter?

MRS. B. Yes, I sent a note immediately after you left, and he replied at once saying that he would gladly comply with our request. We may expect him here any minute. (Enter EMMA).

EMMA. Mr. Sparkle and his friend Mr. Lively, please,

ma'am.

MRS. B. Show them in at once, Emma. (Exit EMMA.)

[Enter SPARKLE and LIVELY.]

MR. B. (rises and shakes hands with SPARKLE). Good evening, Mr. Sparkle, glad to see you. Many thanks for your earnest letter.

SPARKLE. Good evening, allow me to introduce my good friend, Mr. John Lively, who has come to speak at our first Gospel Temperance Meeting.

MR. B. How do you do, Mr. Lively? (They shake hands.) Glad to make your acquaintance. (Presents him to MRS. BROWN). This is my wife, Mrs. Brown, Mr. Lively. (They shake hands).

MRS. B. Pray be seated, gentlemen. I hope that you will feel that we are all friends-Christian friends I ought to say. JOHN LIVELY. Yes, Christ's friends, and so friendly one with another, and towards all mankind I trust.

MR. B. (TO SPARKLE). Well, sir, with regard to the subject of your letter. Do not think me unkind, if I ask you why you think it needful to depart from the usual course of Christian effort. It seems to me that we have plenty of empty pews in our churches and chapels. What is wanted is that the people should come and fill them. How are we to get them? SPARKLE. That is just the difficulty. The people do not come to our regular services, and so we intend to go to them with the Gospel in one hand and the pledge book in the other, and by our own example and by teaching we hope to wean them from their evil habits and win them for Christ.

LIVELY. We want to let them feel that we care for them as fellow creatures, as the children of one common Father. We desire to show them that this life is something more than a mere existence, that it is a time of preparation for that

A Christian's Duty.

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future state which shall develop the highest possibilities of the soul. We want them to learn that life is the seed time of the soul, the harvest of which will be reaped in eternity.

MRS. B. A noble work truly, and one which should have the hearty sympathy and the earnest co-operation of every Christian man and woman in the country. Surely it must be a Christian's duty to help to raise the fallen, to "rescue the perishing."

LIVELY. Right glad I am to hear you say so, my dear madam, and I hope that you will come forward and give a helping hand.

MRS. B. I shall be glad to help in any way that lies in my power. But what can I do?

SPARKLE. Oh! there is plenty of work in the Lord's vineyard for willing hands. You might start a series of mothers' meetings in the district, teach a class in the Sunday School, and our Band of Hope Ladies' Committee would be glad of your presence and assistance. At the mothers' meetings you could try to encourage the mothers to train up their children in habits of temperance, frugality and Christian usefulness. Of course we should not expect you to take up all this work at The best plan would be for you to choose which you would like to begin first, and then take the others up afterwards as opportunity served.

once.

MRS. B. Thank you, Mr. Sparkle, your advice is most excellent, and I will try to act upon it forthwith.

LIVELY. Pardon me for observing that we seem to be leaving our good friend Mr. Brown here out in the cold altogether.

MR. B. Do not make yourself uneasy on my account, I beg. Should Mrs. B. become so busily engaged in good works, she will take care that I am not allowed to go scot free, I am

sure.

LIVELY. Well, sir, we want men of your standing and influence to give us their help. And I hope that without either argument or persuasion from us you will come forward, and help us in our work.

MR. B. Well, my friends, I must confess that until tonight I have looked upon your movement with some suspicion. I thought that the regularly-established Christian agencies were enough for the requirements of the community. But now I see that there is a special work to be done, requiring special agencies to do it. You propose to go out as it were into the highways and hedges, to seek out the lost, the

neglected, the despairing, and tell them of the salvation that Christ has purchased for them. I honour your work now that I know what it is. Come to me whenever you are short of funds. It is not much that I can do in the way of personal service, as my time is taken up by a large and increasing business. But we will be present at your next meeting, and here is a ten-pound note towards the expenses of the mission, and you may put both our names in your pledge-book before you go away.

MRS. B. O Edward, I am so glad that you have decided to take the pledge.

SPARKLE. Thank you, Mr. Brown, thank you most heartily, and before we separate allow me to say that I think we shall all agree, that now you have indeed got the true idea of

I

A CHRISTIAN'S DUTY.

ONLY A FLOWER.

BY W. A. EATON,

(Author of "The Fireman's Wedding.")
PLUCKED a rose one sunny day,
And placed it in my breast;

I watched the children at their play,
Down where the sunbeams rest.

And where the overhanging trees

Had formed a friendly shade,

With bright curls fluttering in the breeze,
There stood a blue-eyed maid.

And softly in her ear I spake,

"I plucked this rose for you!"

And she the fragrant flower did take;
Her cheeks were crimson too.

I met that blue-eyed maid again,
The moon shone bright above,

And there, to ease my bosom's pain,
I told her all my love.

We met beside the altar rail,

I gazed on her with pride,

Then moved aside the snowy veil,

And kissed my beauteous bride.

Ah! years have passed away since then,

And my sweet faithful wife

Has ever striven to cheer me when

I faltered in the strife.

(Exeunt.)

"Tis too late for me," said a poor old drunkard when urged to reform; "'tis too late for me, but, oh! for God's sake save the boys!

"TIS

TIS too late for me," was the poor drunkard's cry: "I've fallen too low for forgiveness or peace, For the Demon of Drink holds my soul o'er the brink, And never can I gain reprieve or release.

I've a ruined frame and a crime-blackened name,

A sunless old age and a desolate even,

In exchange for my life, my home, and my wife,

My childhood's deep trust and my soul's hope of heaven. If some had only warned me to beware

Of the first fatal glass that tempts and destroys, I'd have taken a vow. It's too late for me nowToo late, but, oh! for God's sake save the boys!" 'Tis a grand, God-like mission to rescue the souls That are wandering in mazes of darkness and sin, To lead them up higher, with courage inspire

Each faint-hearted, struggling one victory to win. But by far 'tis a higher, a holier work

To protect the dear children while yet they are pure— To bid them beware of the Drink Demon's snare, Whose glittering meshes their young feet allure.

O mothers and fathers! keep vigilant guard;

The black wolf's abroad, cruel, treacherous and bold, And its fangs may devour in one careless hour

Some innocent lamb of your precious home-fold.

O Christians and patriots! discern ye not how
God's Church is defied by this demon-beast wild-
How Old England's proud fame and glory-crowned name
Are tarnished, imperilled, guilt-dyed, and defiled?
Will not Great Jehovah's dread thunderbolt crush
The nation that looses this hydra-head beast
'Mong its people to roam, till there's ne'er a home
That is not despoiled for its horrible feast?

Avert the dark doom! hunt the monster to death
With weapons God gives for the battle of right!
Preach, teach, vote and pray, wage the war night and day,
Till the last howl is heard from this Moloch of might.
"Too late" it may be for the agèd ones now;

"Too late! is their wail, while the red fang destroys, And our agonized moan cleaves its way to the Throne: "God save our dear country by saving the boys!"