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of their days, to active Christian service, and only a wave of united prayer can throw these objections aside, and free the large band who are so willing. A bright young Christian came to me this week. She is tired of meetings to which she is constantly taken, but never allowed to work in the inquiryroom at them, hindered from taking up the least bit of work, till at last she cannot even ask for it. Almost to "kill time," she has taken up a secular corresponding agency."

Now, that it is "considered improper" by the world that you should do anything for Christ, is entirely true, and always true; and therefore it was that your godfathers and godmothers, in your name, renounced the "vain pomp and glory of the world," with all covetous desires of the same -see baptismal service-(I wonder if you had pretty names-won't you tell me?) but I much doubt if you, either privately or from the pulpit of your doubtless charming church, have ever been taught what the "vain pomp and glory of the world" was.

Well, do you want to be better dressed than your schoolfellows? Some of them are probably poor, and cannot afford to dress like you; or, on the other hand, you may be poor yourselves, and may be mortified at their being dressed better than you. Put an end to all that at once, by resolving to go down into the deep of your girl's heart, where you will find, inlaid by Christ's own hand, a better thing than vanity; pity. And be sure of this, that, although in a truly Christian land, every young girl would be dressed beautifully and delighfully-in this entirely heathen and Baalworshipping land of ours, not one girl in ten has either decent or healthy clothing, and that you have no business now to wear anything fine yourself, but are bound to use your full strength and resources to dress as many of your poor neighbours as you can. What of fine dress your people insist upon your wearing, take-and wear proudly and prettily for their sakes; but, so far as in you lies, be sure that every day you are labouring to clothe some poorer creatures. And if you cannot clothe, at least help with your hands. You can make your own bed; wash your own plate; brighten your own furniture, if nothing else. "But that's servant's work?" Of course it is. What business have you to hope to be better than a servant of servants? "God made you a lady ?" Yes, he has put you, that is to say, in a position in which you may learn to speak your own language beautifully; to be accurately acquainted with the elements of other languages; to behave with grace, tact, and sympathy to all around you; to know the history of your country, the commands of its religion, and the duties of its race. If you obey His will in learning these things, you will obtain the power of becoming a true "lady"; and you will become one, if while you learn these things you set yourself, with all the strength of your youth and womanhood, to serve His servants, until the day come when He calls you to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." You may thus become a Christ's lady, or you may, if you will, become a Belial's lady, taking Belial's gift of miserable idleness, living on the labour and shame of others, and deceiving them and yourself by lies about Providence, until you perish in hell with the rest of such, shrieking the bitter cry, “When saw we Thee?"

METHODISM AND PREACHING.

WHATEVER a candidate be or be not, if he is to be acceptable to the Methodist people and to the Methodist Conference, he must be able to preach. Amiability of disposition, personal godliness, high intellectual endowments, mental culture, great administrative powers, large gifts of eloquence, and encyclopædic stores of knowledge are not sufficient. All these will help the minister in his work; but if he cannot preach he is not called to minister with us. As a rule, where sacerdotalism prevails the

sermon is lightly esteemed; but Protestantism has always recognised the supremacy of the pulpit." It is in accordance with the foundations of our faith," says Coquerel, "to consider the sermon as the essential element of acts of worship and of our ordinary religious meetings." In these observations reference is not made to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, which has an importance of its own; but with regard to the parts of public worship, the capital act of our religious services is preaching. When the Papacy arose in its hideous proportions, a sad change took place. The power of the pulpit gave way to stage mimicry and the follies of the Mass. Popery in its powerful days always frowned on preaching. It put the mighty preacher Savonarola to death, and even at this day the blasphemies against and curses upon the faithful heralds of the Gospel for many a century are only just dying away. Romanism has wielded an immense power at the altar, and exercises a fearful influence in the confessional, but until very recent times it has never encouraged the preacher.-Gervase Smith, in his charge to the newly-ordained ministers at the Wesleyan Conference.

THE MINISTRY WANTED AT THE PRESENT DAY.

MEN of influence, and men of might; of large views and generous purpose; who are up to their age, have understanding of the times, who know what to do and how to do it; who can speak to their contemporaries, old and young, as those that understand them, and are really of the same generation with themselves; whose speech shall be felt to be genuine and true -native-not learnt by rote, or artificially repeated; and whose writings shall be suggestive, creative; anticipative of the future, and not merely the everlasting repetition of antique common-places; men, who shall so meet, guide, stimulate, the young, earnest, enthusiastic, inquiring, as to swell and direct that undergrowth of force in the rising race, which can best be relied upon for any great future results.

We need two or three sorts of ministers. We want the studious, accomplished, and erudite; and we want the practical, popular, and persuasive. But neither will do alone. The earnest preacher does great good -writes useful, serviceable books, gathers congregations, and keeps things up to a certain point; but he cannot advance matters, nor is he able to influence, beyond a moderate level in society. Those who possess varied accomplishments, men of elegant culture and full learning, standing by themselves, or exclusively produced, will do still less. Many such are incapable of speaking with point or power; some settle into teachers and schoolmasters, others sink into literary hacks; and others soar into regions of thought, which attract the world, but surprise, repel, or scandalise the Church.-T. Binney.

THE REQUIRED CHARACTER OF A SERMON.

THERE are two points from which a preacher may derive his leading conception about preaching-idealism and adaptation. What a discourse should be considered simply as a piece of discussion or representation, is one thing; what it should be, considered as an appeal made to a certain condition of mind in the persons who are to listen to it, is another. The former method of preaching may be in its place with the scholar when addressing scholars; but the latter is imperative on the popular teachers when addressing the people, if he would speak to them with effect.-British Quarterly.

What do our clergy lose by reading their sermons? They lose preaching, the preaching of the voice in many cases, the preaching of the eye almost always.

The difference between a speech and an essay should be something like that between a field of battle and a parade.

Real force of style must be effortless, and consists mainly in its simplicity and appropriateness.-Guesses at Truth.

There are some preachers who can manage to deliver a sermon and leave out Christ's name altogether. Surely the true believer will stand, like Mary Magdalene, over the sermon, and say: "They have taken away my Lord, and I known not where they have laid Him."-C. H. Spurgeon.

Poetry.

THEY ARE NOT LOST.

THEY are not lost! oh, no, they are not lost!

Friends who have passed through death's mysterious portal;
O'er death's dark river they have only crossed,
And gone before us to the land immortal.

They are not lost, and yet such is the seeming
That sometimes o'er the spirit casts a spell,

Since they are gone where broader light is streaming,
And higher songs than earth's with rapture swell.

They are not lost! oh, no, they are not lost!
Although on earth no more we hear their voices,
For they have joined the bright celestial host,
Where the glad angel worships and rejoices.
They are not lost, although we may not meet them
As we have seen them in departed years;
They live, although no more on earth we greet them,
Where life eternal is undimmed with tears.

They are not lost! oh, no, they are not lost!
Death is the gateway to the life immortal;
Though the dark waves are ever round it tossed,
An angel sentinel stands at the portal.
Beyond its shadow into endless morning

Their pathway leads when mortal fetters break;
On faith's strong pinion, far beyond earth's scorning,
Triumphant rise, where joys celestial wake.

They are not lost! oh, no, they are not lost!

Hope's gentle whisper to our hearts is saying:
Earth's joys may perish, scenes we've loved the most,
Still life's fair clime its deathless palsms are swaying.

In that blest land they live and love for ever,

Beyond the scenes where time's rough surges roar ;

As one by one they cross death's silent river,
They are not lost, but only gone before.

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