"Visited several of my members. One-a new-made widow-is learning to lean upon her Heavenly Friend. It was cheering to hear her speak of her sanctified loss. This afternoon, took the remainder of the tracts, but had not much opportunity of speaking. Have had many expressions of sympathy and kindness from these poor people. How much those lose who do not mingle with the poor and needy !"

The next extracts from Mrs. Banks' fragmentary diary are taken from different dates during subsequent years :—

This afternoon forty-four mothers present. Read 'The Two Old Men,' and the third chapter of Daniel. Very great attention; many wept; and I trust the Holy Spirit will seal conviction on many hearts. Heard a sad account of the drunken habits of several women-not attendants at our meeting-and their profane conversation. My heart aches. Arise, O Lord! Let a blessing attend efforts for their conversion. The mass of people is indeed oppressive.

66 Ellen P. died, leaving a blessed testimony of the truth and faithfulness of God's promise to save to the uttermost. The Mothers' Meetings well attended during November generally attentive. Another young man died of consumption this month. He has been led to seek salvation, and is, I trust, with the Lord. Others are discouraging, especially and Our Monday evening meetings poorly attended; but was interested to hear from Mrs. S. that a woman had called her in and told her how much surprised they were to hear their daughter praying in her chamber. They wept, and said, 'We never taught her to pray,' and inquired about what was said at the meeting, as they thought she must have learnt it there.

"I am often deeply affected at the concern and affection which the women manifest if I am at all poorly, and this from those in whom I should have least expected it.

This morning, visited thirteen families. One woman, who had been kept from Tuesday's meetings by her husband's illness, said how she longed to come again; it was quite food for her, and revived and cheered her so much. . . . . Another pleasing young woman told me how, in her affliction, she had sought the Lord; 'and,' she said, 'this morning, as I was scrubbing my chamber floor, something troubled me; but I asked the Lord to help me, and I was relieved and blessed.' At another house they were at dinner. I was coming away, but they said, 'Won't you read to us?' I sat down, and truly enjoyed our intercourse. The man has been very ill, and, up to this affliction, has lived in sin; but God has sanctified his pain to the salvation of his soul. Before I came away, he wished for prayer. Truly, it was good to be there.

Seventy-four women were at the meeting to-day; all very attentive. May the seed sown spring up, and bring forth fruit!

"— About seventy young people present, and, on Tuesday, eighty women. "At the writing-class to-night forty-four were present. "Visited from house to house this morning with Mrs. Everywhere there seems a spirit of inquiry. Some promised to come to the meeting to-night. We went into from fifty to sixty houses, and in every house we were kindly received, and they listened when we spoke to them about their souls. In the evening seventeen men were at the meeting-several that we had invited in the morning. There was great attention, and some were very much affected whilst we read and talked with them.

..

At Class, another poor woman came to-day to join herself to the Lord. In the evening, a hundred present."

There is a great satisfaction in reading these secret records; for we

know well how thoroughly they agree with our late friend and fellowworker's daily life. Such constant self-sacrifice and unremitting labour as hers could not result from an intermittent zeal, or a piety which contented itself with reaching merely an average degree of devotion. For such a growth and bearing of fruit, there must have been a deep rooting: and these private communings with her own soul show us how deeply the roots were struck.

There is not much more to be added now. Mrs. Banks had enjoyed the benefit of a good education, and had evidently taken care to strengthen, with well-chosen supplies, a naturally vigorous mind. Her temperament was bright and cheerful, her sympathies quick and strong, her judgment clear, and the tendency of her mind thoroughly practical. Thus she had natural endowments peculiarly fitting her for the work in which she was so long, so devotedly and so successfully engaged.

For some years past, her health had not been strong; and she often went through her duties in much feebleness and weariness of the flesh. Sometimes she was compelled to rest altogether. But these intervals of repose were few and brief, and were immediately succeeded by effort as strenuous as before.

Her last days and hours differed, in no respect, from her ordinary life, as it had been lived for years. We have no certain ground for supposing that she had any foreboding of her approaching death. When every day found her waiting and serving, any day would find her prepared. When the last came, she knew not that it was the last; but she knew it was to be lived to God, because He claimed it, and her whole heart rejoiced to yield wholly to the claim. Thus she rose as usual in the morning of February 5th, 1874. She gathered strength for another day's service, in her customary communion with God, and went out, with unclouded cheerfulness, to transact some business in the town. In the afternoon she attended the Mothers' meeting-an employment in which she took such great delight. The Scripture passage which she read there was that which gives an account of our Lord going to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the grave. She specially commented on the words, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth," and gave utterance to the evident joy which filled her soul in regarding death as but a sleep in Jesus. After the meeting, she went about visiting some sick persons, and then, as was her custom, took tea at the Mission-rooms. About seven o'clock her girls' writing class assembled, and, when this was over, she met her Society-class. Thus the last hour of her life was spent in Christian communion. Before the Class separated, she gave out the hymn :

"What are these arrayed in white,

Brighter than the noon-day sun ?
Foremost of the sons of light,

Nearest the eternal throne?

These are they that bore the cross,
Nobly for their Master stood;
Sufferers in His righteous cause,

Followers of the dying God."

Then, after prayer, came the loving "Good-night," and, accompanied by a little girl, she went on her way home-her way home: yes-home, to be "for ever with the Lord." Out into the muddy street, filled, that night, from wall to wall, with thick blinding fog, she went homewards. She walked but a few steps, covering her mouth, and telling her little companion not to talk to her: then her old asthma could struggle with the dense, choking mist no more; and, saying that she felt ill, she asked to be allowed to rest in a house which she was then passing. The good people of the house, alarmed at her condition, endeavoured to administer relief. But it was in vain. They had entertained, if not an angel, unawares, yet one whose footstep then trembled on the threshold of Paradise: for as she sat there, amongst strangers, she quietly passed away. Her journey was ended-she had reached Home.

HOLINESS ESSENTIAL TO USEFULNESS.

BY THE REV. T. RICHARDS.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. . . . . Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." -PSALM li. 10, 13.

UTILITY is a law of the universe. The various forms of existence touch and influence one another. This law operates with especial force in relation to man. "None of us liveth to himself." But when the grace of God touches the heart, that which before was general law becomes doubly imperative, and no faculty or talent can claim exemption from holy, earnest service.

The nature of the good man's work is specified. He must not neglect the body. It is blessed to feel that we have caused the heart of the destitute to sing for joy. But his real mission is to the soul. He is to "teach transgressors" God's "ways," so that "sinners shall be converted" to Him. To be well equipped for this work is our highest concern, for the heaviest labour will be wasted if misdirected or if unskilfully applied.

The Psalmist casts strong light on this subject when he prays, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Here is a prayer for purity in a high degree. "The old heart is so bad that nothing can be done with it. No amount of patching will make it of any worth. Therefore create a heart and give it me." And what follows? "Then "—when this prayer is answered-" then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee." Our task in this

paper is to inquire in what way holiness will contribute to usefulness; how a man holy in an eminent degree is more likely to be useful than a man holy in a low degree.

No man can with good will set about the task of saving men from sin, who has not correct and penetrating views of the evil of sin. There are things that can only be known by experience. No mere description can give any idea of pain, for instance. And so with sin. We may read of it, hear it denounced, see its workings in the wretchedness, shame and degradation of those who yield to it; hear the distant mutterings of the wrath that is to follow; but all this is insufficient without a clear discovery of its working in our own soul, and in contrast with the inexorable demands of God's law. And the holier a man is the more complete this discovery will be. What is holiness? It is, first of all, the healthiness of the moral sense. The eyes are opened to see things as they really are. In a school of philosophy, happily but sparingly patronised, sin is denied. According to its teaching, no act is criminal, no suffering penal. What we regard as sin is only a part of life's discipline; but the fall of the child in its attempt to walk; but the dull foil to set off the sparkling virtue. Others, orthodox enough as to sin's existence, do not recognise its dire culpability. Gross immorality is "gallantry," drunkenness is being " 'overcome," unblushing fraud is "sharp practice," and so the foulest enormities are glossed over. The holy man has escaped both He has had a bitter experience of sin. The metaphor of two prisoners chained together, the one dead yet still attached to the living man, answers fully to his consciousness. Sin is felt to be an abominably corrupt thing, yet he cannot get away from it, or persuade himself that it is not a hateful thing. His senses are too keenly truthful for that. He detests it, and shrinks from it as foul and repulsive, yet cannot shake it off. The penitent in passing from nature to grace has often appalling experiences, so as to exclaim :

these errors.

"I tremble lest the wrath divine,

Which bruises now my sinful soul,

Should bruise this wretched soul of mine

Long as eternal ages roll."

And who so qualified to sympathise with those in danger as the one who has just escaped danger? Who so eager to snatch the imperilled from the burning house as he who has been rescued from it; has heard the roaring flame, and felt something of its scorching power? This will give vehemence to endeavour; and intense earnestness is one condition of Without it we shall neither arrest men's attention nor secure

success.

God's blessing. But before it, difficulties will melt away. The warmth of the worker will extend to those wrought on, and in the most unpromising fields glorious harvests will be reaped.

An intelligent apprehension of the divine purpose is also a necessary

acquisition, for without this we shall only work from inferior considerations. The divine purpose in reference to man is his restoration to happiness. The statement is broadly made that God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." The holy soul has sympathy with the intensity of the divine longing after the salvation of man. And there is nothing that weighs with the good man so much as the purpose of the Almighty. The faintly-expressed desire of a dear dying one has come upon the household with all the authority of an imperial enactment, and altered the hue of the entire remaining life. In a far higher degree, the purpose of God influences the conduct of the holy man. He loves to do a thing because God loves to have it done, and because it will expedite His designs.

But beyond this; the divine purpose becomes the human purpose. By some wonderful process of infusion the divine will is imparted to the holy soul. He wills what God wills, and this not from any outward restraint; not from the operation of any external law, but from an inward impulse, the spontaneous operation of the mind. And the holier a man is, the more he is like God, the stronger this impulse becomes. And are not men anxious to give effect to their own purposes? A man engaged in carrying out his heart's purpose is a happy man. Life and heart are in harmony. He says, "This is what I have longed for. My labour is my joy." This will be the holy man's experience, and is a considerable guarantee of success.

The Lord's work involves teaching. The ignorant and inexperienced require instruction and direction. Now an ignorant or an uncertain teacher is worse than none. He misleads and beclouds. The best preparation for an instructor is experience. One month in a counting house does more in the matter of book-keeping than whole years of prim double and single entry at the school-boy's desk. So, in reference to the things of God a man cannot teach what he does not know, and the knowledge necessary for the task is acquired in the arena of actual conflict. How can a man tell the way to the Cross if he have never trodden it? or put faith before the bewildered penitent if himself an unbeliever? But in proportion as a man is holy, he drinks into the divine spirit, and will have clear perceptions of divine things. The method of salvation will be understood, the seeker's difficulties will be anticipated, and the best directions given for removing doubt, encouraging faith and defeating the wiles of the wicked one. As a matter of fact spiritually-minded men are the most successful in the work of instruction. There is a vividness about their teaching. They speak that they do know. It is not the man reading of the wreck. It is the man from the wreck-that has endured the awful suspense, has experienced the perilous transit across the raging flood, that has been landed dripping and exhausted before the moist eyes and amidst the throbbing hearts of excited and sympathising