RED-LETTER DAYS OF THE CHURCH'S YEAR: 167 was Ramoth-Gilead. "Boy or girl, eh?" he asked, in a somewhat agitated voice. The parents had opened the Bible haphazard, according to the village tradition, and selected the first name the eye fell on. It was but a year ago a little child was christened Tellno, in a town within six miles of Manchester, at the suggestion of a cotton-spinner, the father, a workman of the name of Lees, having asked his advice"I suppose it must be a Scripture name," said his master. "Oh yes! that's of course." "Suppose you choose Tellno," said his employer. "That'll do," replied the other, who had never heard it before, and liked it the better on that account. The child is now Tell-no Lees ["Lees "being the Lancashire way of pronouncing "Lies"], the father too late, finding that he had been hoaxed. Sirs," was the answer given to a bewildered curate, after the usual demand to name the child. He objected, but was informed that it was a Scripture name, and the verse Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" was triumphantly appealed to. This reminds one of the Puritan who styled his dog "Moreover" after the dog in the Gospel: "Moreover the dog came and licked his sores." ST. RED-LETTER DAYS OF THE CHURCH'S YEAR. SEPTEMBER. T. MATTHEW the Apostle (September 21), was a native of Galilee. As he himself relates in his Gospel (ix. 9), he was called by Christ to be His disciple whilst engaged in his occupation of toll-collector, or customs officer, at Capernaum. It is supposed that he collected the duty or toll laid upon goods brought in boats across the Sea of Galilee. Matthew is doubtless identical with the Levi of St. Mark ii. 14, where we are further told that he was the son of Alphæus; and of St. Luke v. 27, 29, where we are told that he made a feast upon the occasion of his being called. Jesus deigned to be present at this feast, and at this the scribes and Pharisees murmured at His disciples, saying, "Why do ye eat with publicans and sinners." Jesus answered,." They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Matthew's position was evidently one of wealth and influence; but he gladly gave up all to follow Christ, content to share with Him the trials of poverty, hardship, and persecution. St. Matthew continued with the Master till His crucifixion, and was an eye-witness of His miracles, and heard His discourses. He preached the Gospel in Judæa until his death; but whether or not he suffered martyrdom is not certainly known. The Gospel of St. Matthew is held to be the first of the four, as may be inferred from its position in the New Testament. It was originally written for the Jews, in Hebrew; but the version from which ours is derived is in Greek; into which language it was probably translated either by St. Matthew himself or under his direction. The fact that it was originally for the Jews is manifest from the circumstances that in it Jewish customs and expressions are not explained; the Scriptures, which would be very familiar to the Jews, are largely quoted; Jewish teachers are the subject of many discourses; and Christ is set forth very distinctly as the King of the Jews. September 29: St. Michael and All Angels.—Of St. Michael we are told that he was an archangel-" one of the chief princes" (Daniel x. 13), who watched over the Jewish nation; and in Rev. xii. 7 we read that he and his angels "fought against the dragon"; and St. Jude alludes to him (verse 9)—“ Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke thee." This allusion of St. Jude's refers to Zechariah iii. 1, 2. The name means "like to God." Archangel means chief angel; and the existence of a chief angel necessitates the existence of other angels. As to the existence of angels we have the express testimony of the Scriptures, as well as the belief in them which has prevailed in all ages; but of their nature and attributes we are as yet permitted to know very little. "Now we see as in a glass, darkly; but then face to face." We do not worship them; but their exaltation as the ministers and instruments of the Most High, who are permitted to stand in His presence, commands our reverential respect. The belief in guardian angels which some people entertain seems to receive some slight sanction in the Collect for the day "O Everlasting God, Who hast ordained and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order, Mercifully grant, that as Thy holy Angels alway do Thee service in heaven, so by Thy appointment they may succour and defend us on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." WHO taught all the muscles that are concerned in sucking, in swallowing our food, in breathing, etc., to act their part in such regular order and exact manner? It was not custom, surely. It was that same powerful and wise Being who made the fabric of the human body, and fixed the laws by which the mind operates upon every part of it, so that they may answer the purposes intended by them.-Dr. Thomas Reid. THE MAN AND THE WOLF. A STORY FOR A CHILD. BY BAYARD TAYLOR. LITTLE one, come to my knee ! Hark, how the rain is pouring O'er the roof, in the pitch-black night, Hush, my darling, and listen, Then pay for the story with kisses : Father was lost in the pitch-black night, In just such a storm as this is! High up on the lonely mountains, Where the wild men watched and waited; Wolves in the forest, and bears in the bush, And I on my path belated. The rain and the night together Came down, and the wind came after, Bending the props of the pine-tree roof, And snapping many a rafter. I crept along in the darkness, Stunned, and bruised, and blinded- There, from the blowing and raining, Little one, be not frightened; I and the wolf together, Side by side, through the long, long night, His wet fur pressed against me; And when the falling forest No longer crashed in warning, Darling, kiss me payment! Hark, how the wind is roaring! Father's house is a better place When the stormy rain is pouring! FAMILY TIES. BY THE AUTHOR OF “CHISLINGTON CHIMES." CHAPTER V.-VANITY AND VEXATION. DEEPLY absorbed as she was in conversation with the tall dark young man, Rosina Ross at once became conscious that the little crowd of gaping children had dispersed, and that her sister Jeanie had parted company with Sergeant Copeland and the venturesome Tommy. With anxious manner and in hurried tones she told the young man that her sister had caught sight of them, and was waiting for her. Thereupon the young man abruptly turned round, and, with some confusion of countenance, raised his fashionable hat in the most fashionable style to Jeanie, shook hands with Rosina, and walked off in the direction of the Manor House, his own residence and that of his father, Sir Job Stocker. This Wilfrid Stocker was Sir Job's only son-indeed, his only child; for Wilfrid was the firstborn, and his mother had died while he was a helpless infant. If anything can be urged in excuse of the manifold flaws in Wilfrid's. character, it is that he was what he was because he had never known a mother's influence that gentlest and yet most powerful factor in the moulding of a man's moral being. He had been a "spoilt child." Not that he had experienced any excess of parental indulgence at the hands of his father. Far from it. He and his father had seen very little of each other, and understood each other not at all. They were almost strangers yet. Sir Job's heart was too full of vulgar ambition to allow room for more than the merest trace of any other interest. He worshipped wealth and influence, and all his instincts and faculties were either dwarfed or wholly absorbed by this dominating vanity. Affection he regarded as a form of weakWealth and position he had attained to; but their acquisition had not prevented him from becoming a soured and disappointed man; for the appetite that he had cherished was one of those which grow by what they feed on; and now, while bitterly conscious that he had passed the zenith of his career, vain ambition still gnawed at his heart, and filled him with hungry pangs which he knew could never be appeased. His life was "full of emptiness," and he had been taught by experience-though he would not take the lesson to heart -that ness. "The glories of our mortal state Are shadows, not substantial things." He would not bring himself to acknowledge the shadowy nature of such glories; his misery and vexation arose from the fact that his appetite for vanity had grown beyond his power to feed it further. He did not realize that the only hunger and thirst which are blest to |