I am greatly encouraged and pleased by your letters, and hope I have reason to believe that the good work of grace is really begun in your heart. I would urge you to pray God to give you a true, clear, and full knowledge of your own heart, and of its state before Him; that you may know whether you have that concern for salvation, that earnest desire for holiness, and that appreciation of the means of grace, that are essential to the christian character.

Remember that this is the most important crisis of your existence. Every step you take is now of infinite importance. Every thought, every desire, every word, that occurs at this time, furthers or deters the great work that is going on in your heart. This is the time for which you were born, and to go wrong now involves consequences of eternal importance. You cannot do better than pray. Prayer is the most fruitful of all christian exercises; in fact it is as the root and the sap of the spiritual tree, the essential aliment of the divine life. Prayer will loosen your earthly affections, will assimilate you to God, create in you a greater love of holy things, and fit you for every condition and circumstance of life. Pray for Divine grace, for nothing can be done without it. I am sure of that, for I had to learn by bitter experience that without Christ I could do nothing. Christ must be your only hope; trust on Him, and you are safe for ever! Dont rest until you feel that you love Him above every other object, until you can give yourself fully and unreservedly to him, and be ready to deny yourself and suffer for his sake. And dont be ashamed of owning your Saviour if you are satisfied that he has saved your soul. Surely you will not hesitate to be on his side and profess your allegiance to him who has done so much for you! Then give yourself to his people. Remember if you acknowledge him and confess him before men, he will confess you before his Father in heaven and the holy angels. Put on Christ by baptism; but by no means if you are not conscious of your interest in Him. This would be wrong; it would be both improper and dangerous to your future spiritual welfare. But talk with your Father about this. I am sure he will be kind to you. You cannot have a better and more willing confidant, for he is far more anxious for your soul than I can possibly be. Let me hear from you, and tell me all you feel, and desire, and intend, and I assure you my most earnest prayers shall be to God for you."

"A word in due season, how good!" God must have put it into the heart of this dear youth to write this earnest appeal, for it found his brother prepared, by Divine grace, to receive the wise

and affectionate advice it offers. He now stands as a candidate for baptism and fellowship with a christian church in one of our midland counties. May God bless them both, and make them a blessing!

TAKING UP THE CROSS.

BY SIR ROBERT GRANT.

OH, Saviour! whose mercy, severe in its kindness,
Has chastened my wanderings, and guided my way,
Adored be the power which illumined my blindness,
And weaned me from phantoms that smiled to betray.
Enchanted with all that was dazzling and fair,

I followed the rainbow, I caught at the toy;
And still in displeasure thy goodness was there,
Disappointing the hope, and defeating the joy.

The blossom blushed bright-but a worm was below;

The moonlight shone fair-there was blight in the beam;
Sweet whispered the breeze, but it whispered of woe;
And bitterness flowed in the soft flowing stream.

So, cured of my folly, yet cured but in part,!
I turned to the refuge that pity displayed;
And still did this eager and credulous heart

Weave visions of promise that bloomed but to fade.

I thought that the course of the pilgrim to heaven
Would be bright as the summer, and glad as the morn;
Thou show'dst me the path-it was dark and uneven,
All rugged with rock, and all tangled with thorn.

I dreamed of celestial rewards and renown;

I grasped at the triumph which blesses the brave;
I asked for the palm-branch, the robe, and the crown,—
I asked-and thou show'dst me a cross and a grave!

Subdued and instructed at length to thy will,

My hopes and my longings I fain would resign;
Oh, give me the heart that can wait and be still,
Nor know of a wish or a pleasure but thine.

There are mansions exempted from sin and from woe,
But they stand in a region by mortals untrod;
There are rivers of joy-but they roll not below;

There is rest-but it dwells in the presence of God!

visited Athens, and found "the city wholly given to idolatry.” Turn to the seventeenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, and read of what he saw, and said, and did there.

The picture on the former page represents the ruins of one of their most splendid temples, called the Parthenon. It stood on a commanding eminence called the Acropolis, and was 217 feet long and 98 feet wide. Within it was an ivory statue of the idol Minerva, thirty-nine feet in height, and entirely covered with pure gold, the work of Phidias, their greatest artist. The temple was of the purest white marble, which, by its transparency, supplied the want of windows. Forty-six pillars were placed all around the temple, which were forty-two feet high and seventeen feet in circumference. Five steps on every side formed the basis of the building, and the interior, beside the statue, was ornamented along the walls with the most splendid works of art. On the top of the front also, called the architrave, were historical records of the nation.

In later times this temple has been used as a Turkish Mosque; and for some time it was occupied by Greek Christians as a place of worship. It is now a ruin. So may all temples of idolatry perish from beneath the heavens and from off the earth!

How true are the words of Paul when describing these and other learned idolaters :-"Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever!

THE SUMMER PALACE, PEKIN.

THE Imperial paved roadway from Pekin to the Summer Palace issues at the Se-che gate on the west side, and continues with a few windings in the direction of a group of villages of different names. The stoneway carries you through this group of ugly houses; you emerge on to a broad road with this pavement through its centre; stone garden-walls stand on each side of you to the right and left. They enclose the grounds of nobles and Imperial connexions. You advance across a stone bridge, take a sweep to the left, and the road brings you between two large pieces of water in front of the grand entrance to the Palace of Yuen-Ming-Yuen.

You advance through the portals, and enter upon a large and paved courtyard. In front of you stands the grand reception hall,

a large Chinese building, well adorned exteriorly with paint and gilding, and netted under the fretted eaves to keep the birds off.

You enter its central door, and find yourself on a smooth marble floor in front of the Emperor's ebony throne. The carving on this throne is quite a work of art. The floor of the throne was carpeted with a light red cloth, and three low series of steps led up to it, of which the central series was the widest. The left side of the room was covered with one extensive picture, representing the grounds of the Summer Palace. Side-tables are covered with books and articles of vertu. On the right of the building were houses after houses well furnished with silks, and luxuries of all kinds, most of them having gardens in front. Then were the houses of the retainers. Behind the grand hall was rockery, and in the rear of that again a large pond, so that a pebbled path, leading over a bridge, and taking a semicircular sweep of half the water, had to be traversed before you visited the next hall. The distance was about five hundred yards. This hall was smaller, and not got up with such care: yellow sedan-chairs and one mountain-chair stood close to the throne. On the right and left there were small rooms adjoining, with images of Buddha. Behind, stood another reception hall; in rear of that a third; and, on the left, the Emperor's private rooms, beautifully got up, with tables strewn with all manner of precious articles, many of which were English and French. The rearmost room was the Emperor's bed room, communicating with the room in front by a door covered with a blind. A large niche in the wall, curtained over, and covered with silk mattresses, served for the bed, and a sloping platform enabled His Majesty to mount into it. A small silk handkerchief was under the royal pillow, and pipes and other Chinese luxuries were standing on tables hard by. The Empress's two rooms were on the extreme left; and, these past, you came again on pebbled paths, carrying you past lakes, into grottos, through summer-houses, under magnificent trees, until you quite lost yourself in bewilderment. "The Round and Brilliant Garden" is the signification of the Chinese name applied to these grounds; but they are more like an extensive park walled round, and abounding in all that is most lovely of the Chinese picturesque. Its construction, and the accumulation of the precious property it contained, must have been the work of centuries.

The Birthday Garden is situated about a mile west of the Summer Palace. The Emperor's paved road passes close under its wall, and leads to the Golden and Brilliant Garden, the walls of which enclose two hills, the one surmounted by a six-storied monument, and the