separation of father and mother from the child of their own flesh. I do not at all forget this; the wrench must indeed be terrible; but the necessities of life cause most children to be separated from their parents as soon as they are old enough to go into the world. It is true that they see one another occasionally; but it is not the occasional visit so much as the recollection that they are near that makes separation bearable. Then remember that your child is near; it has gone where you are invited to join it; it awaits your coming in that blessed world where separation shall be no more. This life is but a pilgrimage; we are journeying through a country beset with dangers; we are still in the wilderness amid countless enemies: beyond the Jordan, on the other side of the grave, is the land of promise, the home of the blessed; and a loving Father has taken your babe in His own merciful arms: by His almighty power He has placed it in the promised haven without crossing the wilderness; He has taken charge of your precious treasure, and deposited it beyond the reach of danger; and now He bids you come and join it. He has created for you a new tie, by which your heart is drawn towards heaven. Will you not heed this new token of a Father's love, and seek with greater zeal the beautiful home in which all will be once more united? Your child is not lost, but gone before. Dear friends, seek to follow it.

II

The Best Riches.

E must needs be rich whose poverty and crosses are made riches to him. God never takes away or withholds outward blessings from His children, but He makes it up in better-in inward. They gain by all their losses, and grow rich by all their wants; for how many are there in the world that had not been so rich in grace, if they had had abundance of earthly things! So that, though they be poor in the world, they are rich in

grace, "rich in faith," as St. James saith: the greatest grievances and ills in the world turn to a Christian's profit, as sickness, shame, and death. The Spirit of God is like the stone that men talk so of, that turns all into gold; it teaches us to make a spiritual use, and to extract comfort out of everything, the worst things we can suffer in the world. "All things are ours." The Spirit of God helps us to make good use even of Satan's temptations, to cleave faster to the fountain of good.-Sibbs.

Nought hast thou, poor Child of Sin.

"This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29.

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Go, and do Thon likewise."

ES, he's a good man-he is; he don't make no fuss, but he don't mind what he does."

Such were the words which fell on our ears

as we were coming out of a place of public

worship in a seaside town a few Sundays ago.

The speaker was a woman, apparently of the small-shop

keeper class, and the person alluded to was a minister of the gospel.

From what we knew of him ourselves we could readily believe that he was a good man, who made no fuss," or, in other words, that he was one of that comparatively small section of society whose actions speak louder than their words.

The fact of this trait in his character being singled out for remark shows how noticeably rare in these days is that virtue of cheerful self-denial which leads a man to give up his own wishes, or his own ease, without making a parade of it, and takes another's way as heartily and gladly as if it were his own.

So many nowadays live entirely for their own pleasure, caring merely, like the Athenians of old, "to tell or to hear some new thing," and so intent upon their own pursuits, that they do not even see their neighbour fainting under his burden by the wayside, much less raise a finger to help him.

Strangely enough, a few days afterwards we saw with our own eyes a little episode which proved the truth of the woman's assertion that, little "fuss" as this gentleman made, he "did not mind what he did" to help others.

Returning from a short excursion inland, we happened to be in the same carriage with him. In the adjoining compartment sat a poor woman with a large bundle, tied up in the usual manner with a blue handkerchief. She looked tired, worried, and uneasy, and applied to her fellow-passengers for information as to the distance of a Convalescent Home, to which she was going, from the station to which we were now drawing near. She was told it was "about a mile," which seemed a long and weary way to one who had but recently risen from a bed of sickness.

The night was dark, and by the time we reached our destination it was already late. There were several public conveyances standing by the platform, but she was too poor to hire one. There seemed nothing for it but to toil all that

"long and weary way," carrying her heavy bundle, and uncertain of the direction which she ought to take.

Just as she had taken up her bundle and was about to start, our friend, who had evidently overheard her piteous inquiries, went up to her, and, laying one hand kindly on her shoulder, with the other took the bundle from her, offering to walk with her and show her the way to the Home. All through the crowded streets he carried the bundle, adapting his pace to hers, and not leaving her till he had seen her safe inside the doors of the establishment.

It was a practical application of the words, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ," and showed that "he did not mind what he did" on behalf of others.

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And is it not said of our great Exemplar that even He "pleased not Himself," and that He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister?" Christ spent His life in self-sacrifice," caring not what He did," if it was to benefit the souls or bodies of those amongst whom He lived. None were too sinful, none too poor or degraded for Him to notice with pity which did not end in idle sentiment. The most loathsome disease did not scare Him away, or prevent His touching the poor sufferer with His healing hand. He stooped to poverty, He ministered to sickness, He abased Himself to the very lowest depths of our fallen humanity, that He might lift it to something higher and purer and more Divine. In His humility He even washed His disciples' feet, that He might give to them, and to all future generations, this lesson: "If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you."

If we know these things, happy are we if we do themnot in the literal manner in which some have interpreted the Master's command, making a solemn mockery of it by washing twelve poor men's feet, previously well cleansed and