a difference between your religion and mine, and, and I am afraid I have no religion at all. Oh, what shall I do?"

"Don't go on like that, nurse," said the kind-hearted Mrs. Bean. "I won't say that you have been mistaken all along, and that you have trusted to your own righteousness. instead of to Christ's; but if you have, you needn't do so any longer; come to Jesus now, just as you are, and tell Him that you want to serve Him and trust Him, and He will not refuse to hear you. Do now kneel down by the bed; there is no one to see you but God and myself, and I will ask God to give you the peace you want."

Very simple, but very earnest, were the words of prayer that the poor old woman poured forth. She asked that the Holy Spirit might descend and bring enlightenment and grace, that all darkness and ignorance might be dispelled from their minds, and in their room there might be the knowledge of God, and wisdom and grace, and every Christian virtue. There are numerous promises in the Bible concerning prayer, and most of them were familiar to Mrs. Bean, and it was her simple trust in these promises that gave her prayer such pathos and earnestness as to draw tears from the eyes of her friend.

"I do believe God will answer that," said Mrs. Manser, as she rose from her knees. "I feel sure He will."

"Yes, God will answer it, nurse. He has brought you to see your weakness, that He may make you strive against it." "I have been very ungrateful all my life, taking all that God has given me without one word of thanks or one thought of love; but if God will help me I will be a different woman from now.”

Just then the cottage door was opened and Miss Hargreaves came in. She expressed her pleasure at seeing Mrs. Manser with her bedridden neighbour, and was still more delighted when the two women told her how they had been occupied, and what they had been talking about.

"I do believe I shall have a happy year yet, Miss Fanny. I feel happier now than I ever have done before; and I

must thank you now, miss, for your plain speaking on New Year's Day, and for sending me to Mrs. Bean's. If it hadn't been for what you have both said, I think I should have gone to my grave an ignorant, discontented woman, and my poor soul would have been lost."

we

"Give God the glory," returned Miss Hargreaves; have only done what it becomes every follower of Jesus to do; and God has been pleased to bless our feeble efforts. It will make me, and I am sure it will make Mrs. Bean, all the happier to feel that we have been, in ever so small a degree, instrumental in doing you good. May He who has so mercifully opened your eyes to see your sinful state ever give you grace to continue to travel in the road you have now begun to tread; and may we all, after spending what more time is allowed to us on earth happily and usefully, meet at last in that world where times and seasons are known no more."

Reader, the grace of God is able to change the hardest heart, to dispel the densest fogs of ignorance, to remove prejudice, superstition, pride, and all that is unholy, and to fill the heart with love, joy, peace, and whatever is pleasing in the sight of Him who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of man.

Would you live a happy year, seek that grace; seek it prayerfully, earnestly, unceasingly, and the promise of God is, "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out."

G. H. S.

S"

To the Snowdrop.

WEET flower of Faith, that cometh forth
Whilst yet from out the icy north

Blow wintry winds. Spring's herald flower,
That waiteth not for sun and shower
To woo thee out. Fair witness thou
To earth of God's unwritten vow,
In mercy given, when frail man stood
Rescued from the o'erwhelming flood,

That through earth's ages should be found
The varying season's changeful round.
Sweet floweret, I would learn of thee
To act in faith, nor wait to see
The signs of God's fulfilled word.
Sufficient this, my ears have heard
The promise given, my heart believes,
And thus believing strength receives,
As one stretched forth his withered hand,
Obedient to the Lord's command,

Not questioning how.

Our feeble sense

Has promises; Omnipotence

Knows not a future; shall be, is;
And true faith sees the promises
Fulfilled, and, like the winter's flower,
Lives, buds, and blossoms by its power.

E. S. H

A Child's Prayer; or, "Remember the Pinny."

A TRUE STORY.

HREE half-pennyworth of coffee, and that lasts me a fortnight, so I am not extravagant, am I?" Such was the poor widow's explanation of the tiny packet she had brought from the shop. She lived now on parish allowance, for her breath was too bad to allow her to work; and alone, for the joy of her life, her "little Nil," as she called her, had passed away after long weakness. Yet not alone, for the mother's heart had at length followed her child to Jesus.

66

"Mr. Mills says I should not pinch myself so," she continued ; that it makes me weak and my breath worse, but out of three shillings a week, when I have paid my sixpence a month for the coal club, and sixpence a month for the clothing club, there is not over much left for victuals. Then I thinks about my rent, and I put by sixpence a week for that, and if I get sixpence given me, I put that by for it too; but still I am often afeard whether I shall make it all up. Then when my daughter Ann, that married over the hill

must thank you now, miss, for your plain speaking on New Year's Day, and for sending me to Mrs. Bean's. If it hadn't been for what you have both said, I think I should have gone to my grave an ignorant, discontented woman, and my poor soul would have been lost."

we

"Give God the glory," returned Miss Hargreaves; have only done what it becomes every follower of Jesus to do; and God has been pleased to bless our feeble efforts. It will make me, and I am sure it will make Mrs. Bean, all the happier to feel that we have been, in ever so small a degree, instrumental in doing you good. May He who has so mercifully opened your eyes to see your sinful state ever give you grace to continue to travel in the road you have now begun to tread; and may we all, after spending what more time is allowed to us on earth happily and usefully, meet at last in that world where times and seasons are known no more."

Reader, the grace of God is able to change the hardest heart, to dispel the densest fogs of ignorance, to remove prejudice, superstition, pride, and all that is unholy, and to fill the heart with love, joy, peace, and whatever is pleasing in the sight of Him who searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of man.

Would you live a happy year, seek that grace; seek it prayerfully, earnestly, unceasingly, and the promise of God "Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out."

is,

G. H. S.

S

To the Snowdrop.

WEET flower of Faith, that cometh forth
Whilst yet from out the icy north

Blow wintry winds. Spring's herald flower,
That waiteth not for sun and shower
To woo thee out. Fair witness thou
To earth of God's unwritten vow,
In mercy given, when frail man stood
Rescued from the o'erwhelming flood,