way homeward trembling like an aspen leaf. As she lifted the latch of her cottage-door she heard a strange sound upstairs, the sound as of a man's voice engaged in earnest importunate prayer. His distress of mind continued, and his thankful wife prayed with and for him constantly. On the following Sunday he accompanied her to the sanctuary, and was an anxious seeker after salvation. He remained in this state for some months, burdened with a guilty conscience, and fearing the just punishment due to his sins. The time came, however, when the burden rolled away, and his soul was set at liberty. He was a diligent attendant on the means of grace, and it was while there that he found peace of conscience. The promises, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool"; and "Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out," were blessed to his soul, and he was enabled to cast himself wholly and solely on the Saviour of sinners.

but

The change was abundantly manifest. Robert Arnold was no longer a despiser and persecutor. The people of God were his people, and their God his God. Very often his faith was sorely tried; sometimes work and food were both short, while affliction laid its grim hand on him; all this only drove him nearer to his Saviour. Robert Arnold became known and beloved in the village as a prayerful, humble, meek Christian, watching against his besetting sins, until by grace he had conquered them, and honouring his Master by a consistent walk and conversation. So the persecutor became a believer, and the lion was turned into a lamb.

E. R. P.

increase in the income, they found it more and more difficult to "owe no man anything." However, they adhered to their early resolution, and many a time they went without little comforts rather than purchase things for which they were not in a position to pay. They did this cheerfully so long as themselves only were affected, for they preferred privation to debt; but it was a sore grief to them when the children, who seemed always to be wanting something, had to be denied. Surely no other children were like hers, the mother was sometimes tempted to think, for with all her stitching and patching, and mending, early and late, she could hardly keep their clothes darned and decent.

But shoes and boots were her great trouble. She was no cobbler. All her thoughts, and all her skill as a needlewoman failed her where pegs and nails, and wax and bristles were needed. So she beheld, with not a little dismay, the growing necessity which was pressing upon Tom, and out of which he hoped to get the long-coveted clogs. When he asked her, she told him she could not buy them then; he must be patient, and she would get them as soon as possible. There was no help for it, so Tom said no more, but with as good a grace and as cheerful a face as possible, he quietly resigned himself to the situation.

About two days after this, Mrs. Henderson paid her customary evening visit to her mother's, to see an invalid sister. As she was seated at the window of the house, she was surprised to see Tom running with all his might up the street. She watched him with not a little alarm, fearing lest the unexpected messenger should be the bearer of evil tidings, and that in her absence some ill had befallen her home. She was not kept long in suspense. Tom turned into the front garden, and, seeing her at the window, waved his cap and shouted: "Ma, He's sent 'em! Ma, He's sent 'em!" Then bursting into the room, all but breathless with running and excitement, his eyes sparkling with delight, his rosy cheeks rosier than ever, and his whole face radiant with a child's pure joy, he held before his astonished mother a pair of

T was one of those dismal days, partly heavy fog and partly sticking cold, when, if there can ever be an excuse for cross despondency, one might be excused for feeling what some folks call "down in the dumps;" and it was in one of those

glad and grateful, and went to bed happy. The parents, too, were thankful; thankful for the joy of their son, and doubly thankful for the youthful piety and faith which he had manifested. They did not doubt that through them, as the agents of His will, God had rewarded the faith of their child.

Neither do we doubt it. True, there was nothing startling or uncommon in the event. But we surely err if we see answers to prayer only when there is something unusual about them. We must not reject the Divine hand in the common events of life thus. Tom's father told us that when he saw the clogs "the thought struck him" that they would just fit his son, and that he acted on the impulse and bought them. Just so. It was altogether an unusual thing for him to do. He had received no intimation from wife or child that the clogs were desired or needed; but passing through the market-place he happened to see them, and "the thought struck" him. That was his view of the question, and, as far as he then knew, it was the whole question. Ultimately he knew the facts as we have narrated them, and believed, as we do, that the link which connected his action with the supply of his boy's need was God.

In this way, in the way of suggestion and influence on human minds, we are persuaded God frequently proceeds to answer the prayers of His people as may be most expedient for them. Doubtless it is our duty to pray. And doubtless one of the effects of earnest and frequent prayer is its soothing and purifying influence on the soul. But this is not all. The Father in heaven is able to do for us "above all that we ask or think." He is able. He is

willing. He does so. Conscious of my ignorance, conscious of my proneness to call evil good and good evil, and to ask for the evil mistaking it for good, and to refuse the good thinking it to be evil, it is wise and right that I should ever say, "Thy will be done." He is "too wise to err, too good to be unkind"; so in humble faith

and simple prayer I lay my thoughts and desires before Him, according to His holy will.

My friend, will you do the same? Do it constantly; do it nothing doubting, and often shall you thankfully exclaim: Lo, "He's sent 'em ;" for true it is that—

"More things are wrought by prayer Than this world dreams of."

J. W. E.

"Forward!"

"Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward."-Ex. xiv. 15.