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attached to the doing of it, do we need to look within to that other and quieter life where work has to be done by ourselves alone, and whose only reward is the consciousness of duty well performed. We hear very spiritstirring accounts now of the large results of feminine enterprise among the ragged homes of our great cities, or the rude encampments of England's stalwart, toil-hardened labourers, and we are apt to think that, unless "something to do" is found for us on this more elevated platform of social usefulness, our capabilities are, therefore, lying unused and valueless. Not so. Let not the young lady whose ministrations have hitherto been confined to the neighbourhood of her own home, or even to the members of her own little family circle, think that either of these spheres is too small to afford scope for the exercise of the finest powers of her character. It is in little things, coming round so often, that the good or ill performance of them becomes habitual to us-daily duties, daily opportunities of kindness, daily acts of self-forgetfulness, and thought for the weal of others-that the real life grows, that all that is best, truest in us finds room to expand. It is here that we may paint the loveliest picture, and here that we may the worthiest story; albeit, the picture may have but little gorgeous tinting upon it, and the story lack interest and incident to all, save those who are reading it from hour to hour in our words and actions. Do we look for work, then? Let us not scan with envious eye the long array of feminine names which stud the pages of ladies' reports and committees; let us not rush to the first visiting agency or working party that chances to be open to find scope for our activities, but rather let us pursue for a while, in the quiet and retirement of our own hearts, our own homes, the great work of selfculture, carefully learning out the lessons of dependence and faith, of humility and patience, until, little by little, beyond the narrow boundary line of common working life there shall open, as we are ready for them, new tracks of usefulness, and even the meanest belongings of daily toil shall be gilded with heaven-sent beauty and fitness.

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To bring down the spirit of nobility and consecration into our per sonal life, rather than to bustle through a pompous round of showy activities, is what most of us need to do, and if there be in us the capability of great doing, He, by whom all work is given, and for whom all work is done, will, in due time, show it to us. He suffers nothing to be wasted among the household of his own children, least of all the power to serve Him.

So, then, to cultivate ourselves is the first step towards true usefulness; and before we have paid due attention to this, it is needless to ask for other work. It has been said before that no department of personal culture should be neglected which may increase our influence over others, and so prepare the way for future good. Among these, intellectual improvement stands very high.

How soon, even in those highly dowered in other respects, and gifted with great powers of activity, do we miss the grace of cultivated intellect, and withhold, sometimes not willingly, and yet very pertinaciously, that respect which otherwise they would command. But, on the other hand, when we meet with graceful and varied mental taste, the power to welcome

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and appreciate each new thought, and clothe in fitting words those halfformed ideas which have floated in our minds-how it strengthens the bond of friendship; what a fresh and winning grace it adds to even spiritual excellence, how it commands everywhere for its possessor the meed of deference and attention, and invests the lighter adornments of life, when found in connection with them, with tenfold fascination and interest. To say nothing, then, of the present enjoyment which it yields to those who pay attention to it, intellectual culture may be placed next to religion itself as a means of gaining and sustaining a worthy influence over others.

It is here we might notice the beautiful harmony and union of diverse excellences which should prevail on the characters of such as would be truly useful. We speak not so much now of outward activity as of social usefulness and influence for good upon those in our own sphere of life. Here, in some sort, we must be all things to all men, that so we might gain some. Taste in the little matters of adornment and accomplishment, that others be not offended by our lack of elegance-tact in the perception of individual character, lest unwittingly we jar on certain peculiarities, and so grieve where we sought to please-a willingness to harmonize, so far as in us lies, with passing moods of feeling, and so give the grateful impression of sympathy to those who need it-intelligence to command the respect and win the admiration of those for whom, as yet, spiritual beauty has no charm-genuine, carefully-nurtured religious feeling to bind these together and keep them in their true places-quietness of spirit, and patience for the many calls made upon them, all these are needed for true and lasting influence. The lack of any of them jars painfully on a cultivated mind, and makes it less ready to accord that respect, or receive that impression which would otherwise have been given.

Here, then, lies work enough before us in preparing for work, in merely making ourselves ready as fit instruments for the Master's use. It is this sort of work, unseen, and at present unrewarded, that lies so very near to every one of us, that asserts its claims between our busy hearts and those great and holy spheres of usefulness which stretch beyond us. This is the "something to do" which for most of us, in our quiet homes and social circles, needs to be taken heed to.

Not selfishly, or for its own sake, dces personal culture ask to be attended to. It is the stepping-stone to all usefulness; it lies at the very groundwork of anything and everything that we can ever do for the good of others. Spiritual excellence and intellectual worth, these are the portals through which we must enter upon all work. Those other lesser gateways of useful. ness, which we have already mentioned, stand open before us, and lead us into tracks of influence both precious and lasting. Following these, conscientiously, as our eyes are opened and our hearts enlightened, we shall not fail of busy and delightful occupation. And treading worthily in them, not in our own strength, or for our own glory, there shall at last come down upon our spirits, in the midst of all heaven-given labour, that quietness of heart, that patient waiting of hope, that rest which remaineth for the people of God.

SOPHIA.

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MARY ANNE HOWELLS' BIBLE DIFFICULTY.

"Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."-Ps. cxxxvii. 9,

MOTHER, I cannot think what these words mean,” said Mary Anne Howells, one Sunday evening after she had come in from church, and was taking off her bonnet.

"What words, my dear child?" said her mother.

"Why, those words which the minister read in one of the Psalms this evening, about that man being happy who took and dashed the little ones against the stones. It seems such a cruel thing to do, that I cannot understand why the Bible calls him a happy man who does so; look, mother, here's the place; I thought to myself in church I would find it out when I got home, for you to explain it to me; it is the 137th Psalm, and the ninth verse."

Now, Mrs. Howells, though a pious woman, and a woman who read her Bible, and could understand it as well as most people, felt that she was not able to explain this verse as she would like to her little girl; so she said, "I cannot, Mary Anne, tell you exactly the meaning of those words, for they have often struck me as having a strange sound; and I should like myself as well as you to know exactly what they do mean. When Mr. Baker comes on Tuesday to give the cottage lecture, we will ask him; of this, however, we may be very sure, that there is nothing wrong in them, and that the Bible does not mean to call a man happy because he is a cruel man."

"No, mother, I did not think that; only it sounds so strange to hear the Bible call any one happy, who could do such a horrible thing as to dash little infants against the stones!"

Mary Anne Howells was a little girl who was very fond of reading her Bible; she went every Monday to a Bible-class, and when there, would often long to ask the clergyman to explain to her those parts she had been reading, and could not understand, but she had not courage to do so before others; she was, therefore, very glad indeed that her mother intended to ask Mr. Baker, when he came, the meaning of this verse.

Tuesday evening came, and with it Mr. Baker's lecture, which was held in Mrs. Howells' cottage; but it happened that evening Mary Anne was obliged to be away.

Mr. Baker explained the parable of the Marriage Supper, in which he pointed out the sin and danger of so many people turning their backs upon the invitation and call of God to come to the gospel feast. The people seemed all very attentive, and went away very gravely and quietly. After they were gone, Mrs. Howells began to speak of her little girl's difficulty, and added, “Indeed, sir, I should like to have the meaning of the verse explained to me, for it has often puzzled me, and I should be glad to make it plain to my little girl.”

"I am very glad,” said Mr. Baker, when he had found and read the passage aloud, "that you ask me to explain anything which seems hard to understand in the Scriptures; there is too much backwardness, with many, to do this; and thus it frequently happens, people put quite a wrong mean

MARY ANNE HOWELLS' BIBLE DIFFICULTY.

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ing on many parts of the Bible for the want of a little timely explanation. I have been asked before about this verse, and certainly, as it reads, without knowing the circumstances under which it was written, it sounds like a very trange passage to be in God's Word. But all the difficulty vanishes, when it is remembered that the expression is a prophecy against Babylon. The Psalm was written by a prophet of God, at the time the Jewish people were undergoing their seventy long years of captivity in Babylon, where many of them were very badly and cruelly treated. They had sinned against God in their own land, by worshipping the gods of the heathen, and so God had delivered them into the hands of the heathen to punish them, as we read in 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17, 20, where it says: Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or him that stooped for age: He gave them all into his hand. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.' Now," continued Mr. Baker, "although the Jews were punished in this way for their sins, they were God's people still, and after the seventy years of their captivity had expired, God brought them back into their own land again; but in the meanwhile God was not pleased that their enemies should treat them so hardly and cruelly, and therefore, whilst they were still in Babylon, one of his servants was inspired to write this Psalm cxxxvii., and after beginning with a sad lamentation of the captive condition their own sins had brought them into, he foretells God's intention to bring punishment upon their captors, and predicts future judgments upon them for their sins; and thus, in the last two verses, the prophet exclaims, under the inspiration of God, 'O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones;' which, put into other words, means, 'O thou nation of Babylon, the time is coming when thou art to be destroyed; and he whom God will raise up to inflict this just punishment will be happy, because he will be God's servant to carry out his sentence against thee. Thou hast taken and dashed our little ones against the stones; happy shall he be that recompenseth unto thee thy deed, which thou hast done unto us.' He will be happy, inasmuch as he will be God's servant to execute his righteous judgment, even as Jehu was commended and made prosperous by God, for executing his judgments upon the house and family of wicked Ahab. We read in 2 Kings x. 30, what the Lord said unto Jehu: Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in my heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel.""

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Mr. Baker then turned to Isaiah xiii., and showed Mrs. Howells, from verse 16, that the same prediction against these wicked people of Babylon had been uttered more than one hundred years before the 137th Psalm was written. The prophet Isaiah foretold, "Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not

regard silver: and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah." Mr. Baker then turned to Daniel v., and showed that this began to take place on the night of Belshazzar's impious feast, verse 30: "In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom, being about three score and two years old." "Thus you see," added Mr. Baker, “although God makes use of the wicked to punish the sins of his people, yet He will not let the wicked go unpunished; for He says in Jeremiah xxv. 29: ' Lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished.' The happiness,'" concluded Mr. Baker, "which the verse speaks of, is not that sort of happiness which springs from the sweet sense of the love and favour of God inwardly enjoyed, and which can only be the case with those whose sins are forgiven, and who love their Saviour, and wish to live to his glory; but it means, that that man who is raised up by God to carry out his just anger and righteous displeasure against his enemies is happy, because in that way he is doing God's work, and is, as St. Paul tells the Romans (Rom, iv, 13): The minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil.'"

Just as Mr. Baker had finished explaining this to Mrs. Howells, Mary Anne came in ; and as her mother said she now quite understood the way in which to take the verse, and would explain it to her child, he did not go over the matter again; but he said to Mary Anne, "Mary Anne, do you think it was wrong for the Israelites to go and fight against the people of Canaan, and kill so many thousands of them, and destroy so many of their cities, and at last to drive them out, and take possession of their country, and make it their own, and live in it ?"

Mary Anne thought a little time, and then said, "No, I do not think it was wrong in them to do what God told them to do; for I remember God told Abraham that He would give him and his seed the land;' and that when He bid Moses go and lead them to the borders of the promised land, He said, 'They were to fight against those nations, and subdue them, and that He would deliver the inhabitants into their hand,' and that 'they were to go in and possess the land.'"

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Yes," said Mr. Baker, turning to Deuteronomy ix. 5, “and here you will see the reason why. For the wickedness of these nations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' And if you look at chap. vii,, verse 14, you will see that God promises to bless them above all people, and make them great and prosperous, if they faithfully followed his commandments, and executed his judgments; that verse in Psalm cxxxvii., which puzzled you so much, has the same kind of meaning, and affirms, that he whom God would raise up to punish the people of Babylon for their cruelty to the Jews, should be happy in being the servant of God for that very thing, in executing upon them just punishment. We

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