choose that her customers and their peculiarities should be too much, or more than could be avoided, talked of in the workroom.

"I was only thinking, ma'am, how much good might be done by having plenty of money."

"Having plenty of money will do no good to any person, by itself," remarked the lady.

"No, ma'am; but I mean that having money helps anyone to be of so much use in the world."

"If the heart be in the right place, not otherwise. Well, you have told me your thoughts-some of them; shall I tell you what I am thinking at this moment?"

"If you wouldn't mind, ma'am," said the young dressmaker, looking up from her work, and then returning to it as she spoke.

"I do not mind. I am thinking that among other persons you, for instance, Lucy, have the power, if the will be present, to be as useful in the world without money as many persons are who have plenty of money—to use your own expression."

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Me, ma'am! only a poor dressmaker? How can I be useful in the world?" asked Lucy.

Here the conversation broke off, so that the question was not answered then. It was so long a time before it was answered that Lucy had almost forgotten having asked it.

A YEAR AFTER.

Sunday and New Year's Day came together-that is, they were one and the same day that year; and Lucy was specially invited to take tea with her kind-hearted Christian employer. Being thus by themselves, there was no barrier to free intercourse.

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Lucy," said Mrs. Gee; "you asked me a question a year ago which I did not answer.

"Did I, ma'am?"

"It was on the occasion of Miss K-'s marriage; and you asked how a poor dressmaker could possibly be of any use in the world, in comparison, of course, with one who is largely blessed with means of doing good."

"Did I say that, ma'am? But I do not think I could have really meant to complain of being what I am," said Lucy, hesitatingly.

'No, no; you did not altogether complain, my dear; though there might have been a shade of discontent on your heart, just then. However, I am glad to think it soon passed away. But your question still remains; and I will answer it now. I could have answered it then ; but I preferred to leave it for a while. You have had a year's experience since that time, and are a year older in your Christian, as well as your natural life; and my answer, in fact, will be drawn from those experiences of yours. For I wish to show you, my dear Lucy, how you have practically refuted your own argument."

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My argument, ma'am ?”

وو

"Yes; your argument was what I have just stated,— that a young person in your position has no opportunities for usefulness to God and her fellow-creatures."

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"I am afraid I have thought so sometimes," said Lucy; 'or, at least that the opportunities are very small and trifling."

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Very well, my dear; then I wish to show you that they are neither small nor trifling."

"Small and trifling, I mean, in comparison with those of others," said Lucy.

"Yes, Lucy, in comparison with those powers of usefulness belonging, for instance, to that rich young lady whose bridal dresses you had been helping to make, a year ago. Well, we will say nothing about her and her powers, because it is not for us to judge of them; but it is for us to judge of ourselves. Now, let us think. In the first place, have you not been useful to your parents?"

"It is very little that I have been able to do for them when I think of what they have done for me," said Lucy, with tears ready to start from her swimming eyes.

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Very true, my dear. I know that they were kind and loving; that they trained you in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; that they gave you a good education; and that if unforeseen circumstances and reverses had not taken place in their history, they would have done better for you than making a poor dressmaker' of you. These are your own words, Lucy, or I would not use them," said Mrs. Gee, with a genial smile. But," she continued, they did the best they could for you under the circumstances, and endured some privations for your comfort and advantage. I admit all this; and admit, too, that no

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return you can make is too great. And, my dear, you have made and are making that return. You willinglynow that you are able-do much to sustain them in comfort: you do what you can. You cheer their declining years; you make home happy: your first thought is for them in all that concerns yourself. And yet you have asked- How can a young dressmaker be useful?' Useful, Lucy! Why, you know that the heaviest blow that could be inflicted on them would be, in any way, to lose you, your cheering presence, your efficient help."

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Oh, please Mrs. Gee; dear Mrs. Gee, do not say any more!" Lucy cried.

"I must, my dear Lucy; for I have not half answered your question yet: but I will turn to something else connected with it. You spent some of your leisure time in visiting your poor neighbours-not to gossip with them-" "Oh, but I am afraid I do gossip sometimes, sadly," said Lucy, deprecatingly.

Well, you were not gossipping when you took the word of life to that poor ignorant dying woman, who had never heard intelligently of Christ and his great salvation; and by whose bedside you sat when even hired nurses avoided her, -so loathsome her disease had made her,while you poured the knowledge of the gospel into her soul, so that God being pleased to bless your efforts and answer your prayers for her salvation-she at last died rejoicing in the truth that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. And yet, Lucy, you say, 'How can a young dressmaker be useful?' How! Why, in the way your Saviour was himself useful-in seeking the salvation of the perishing and lost." "But it was not I," said Lucy, earnestly: "it was God's own word; and his blessed Spirit; and his great mercy in Christ Jesus."

"Yes, my dear; and so the most successful minister of the gospel must say. The language of all sincere Christians, however much they may labour for Christ, and however many souls they may be instrumental in saving, will be, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us; but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.' But dare any one who has been made instrumental in saving a soul from death say I am of no use in the world: how can I be useful?" "

"But how can any Christian help doing all they can for

Christ, knowing what Christ has done for him?" asked Lucy, softly.

"That is another question entirely, Lucy. Of course, where the love of Christ is shed abroad in the heart by God's Holy Spirit, and it is not choked with the cares or the pleasures of this world, that heart will make what returns it can, and still feel and say, I am an unprofitable servant; I have done only what it was my duty to do:' but if the Lord is pleased to accept and bless the efforts of even an otherwise unprofitable servant, his blessing makes that servant useful."

"But when one's time is so much-so very much taken up with the things of this life, the opportunities of usefulness are, must be, few and small. I think ma'am, that this is what I felt when I asked that question a year ago." "I dare say it is what you felt, Lucy. You felt that if you were a rich lady instead of a poor dressmaker, you would have more time and money both at your command for usefulness in the cause of Christ. Well, we will come to this in a minute or two; but there is something else that comes before it. You are a Sunday-school teacher, Lucy."

"A very inefficient one, I am afraid," said Lucy.

"We are all inefficient in whatever we undertake for the Lord, until he gives efficiency," said the elder Christian; "and then we are not inefficient. What did the apostle Paul say? Not that we are sufficient of ourselves-but our sufficiency is of God, who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament;' and again, in another place, he reminds us that neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.' Now, dear Lucy, God has evidently been pleased to bless your efforts as a teacher of the young and ignorant very largely, so that many of your scholars have even now good reason to be thankful that you taught them. There are some, you know, who have obtained respectable situations in life, and are filling them with credit, who would otherwise have been unable to make any advance in their young life; while through you they have gained a knowledge of those Scriptures which are able to make wise unto salvation. And yet you ask, How can I-a young dressmaker-be useful?' as though this were not usefulness."

"Oh, dear Mrs. Gee, you make me feel ashamed of myself, that I should have spoken so hastily; for though

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I cannot think of anything I have ever done or can do, as you speak of it, yet I see that even a poor dressmaker' need not be altogether useless. But yet." "Stop, my dear; I have not quite finished my lecture," continued her friend;-"you have companions, you know; and there is a field for usefulness which no one can measure. And though, I am afraid we have all reason to lament our backwardness in this respect, yet I cannot but think that the intercourse of a Christian girl-even though she is but a dressmaker, as you say—must have a beneficial effect on those around her. I am sure that your influence has been good in this way in our work-room, and yet you ask me how you can be useful? as though such a thing were altogether out of the question.

"And now about your opportunities for usefulness being few and small compared with theirs who have time and money at command. Well, this may be so or not, according to circumstances; but let me remind you, Lucy, that it is according to what we have, and not according to what we have not, that our Saviour expects service of us. At the same time, I believe that each of us may be as usefully employed in his cause, while transacting the daily business of the world in which we live, as though we had no business in the world to transact. It is in the common work of life that Christian character and Christian usefulness often shows out most brightly. You remember those verses we sometimes sing together:

Oh, could we learn that sacrifice,

What lights would all around us rise!

How would our hearts with wisdom talk,

Along Life's dullest, dreariest walk!'"

"And now, dear Lucy," said the kind and wise Christian friend, "I will not trouble you with any further lecturing; for I have answered your question, and that is enough. I could, however, tell you of one whom I very well knew some years ago-who, when an active man of business, was active too in Christian works of usefulness. But he used to lament that so much time had to be given to the world, and that so little could be spared for what more directly related to the cause of Christ and the gospel.