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tating what he had seen his father often do, found a light. With his lantern, and watched by his sister's eye, he climbed bravely up to the dizzy peak, and there, after long effort, and only when his little arms were weary, and his little hands could scarce any more do their work, he kindled the beacon at last. How his eye and brow shone in its splendour, as he saw it revolving round him calmly and gloriously. It flamed like a star across the deep. Many a fearful heart leaped up gladly at the gleam—many a prayer of thanks was breathed, and haply, many a brave life that night was saved. The little boy and girl sat beneath their noble light all through the long dark hoursthey sat and watched, their beating hearts close close together, their soft prayers going away on the mighty winds up to heavenly places, and then, as morning began to steal on over sky and water, their work and watch done, they fell gently and happily asleep.

Little reader, a little arm can kindle a great light—it can kindle the light of prayer-it can kindle love in the heart, like God's love-it can kindle the beacon of God's Word-it can kindle, even in the worst times and places, so pure and beautiful a flame, that many souls, near darkness and death, through its warning, may yet escape and be saved. W. R.

DESCENDING OF LOVE.

LOVE, it has been said, descends more abundantly than it ascends. The love of parents for their children has always been far more powerful than that of children for their parents; and who among the sons of men ever loved God with a thousandth part of the love woich God has manifested to us?-Hare.

ALMOST HOME.

A WANDERER, weary and worn, covered with the dust of travel, and suffering from many privations, sees in the distance the curling smoke ascending from his homestead, and, choked with feelings almost too big for utterance, exclaims, while tears of joy are rolling down his cheeks"I'm almost home."

The playful child, having wandered from its fond parents, trembles for fear of approaching danger as darkness gathers around its footsteps; yet as it sees some well-known object,

shakes its curly locks and clasps its glad hands, exclaiming "I'm almost home."

The mariner, after a long and toilsome journey, descries, in a far distance, the outline coast of his native land, and sings aloud with joy, while his heart is full to breaking— "I'm almost home."

The Christian, after having fought many hard battles, buffeted many hard storms, endured many trials, resisting many temptations, suffered from many afflictions, and grieved over many short-comings, feels gradually approaching the hand of disease, and, being admonished thereby of his speedy dissolution, lifts his glad eye heavenward, while his heart melts within him as he exclaims in triumph-" I'm almost home."

Christian professor, thou, too, art almost home! Art thou wearing this world as a loose garment, so that it may be thrown off at a moment's notice? Are thy affections and desires fixed on things above? And art thou daily becoming more weaned from the things of time and sense? Or, like thousands on every side, art thou taking thy rest here, and living as though thou wert at home already? Be on thy guard-have thy lamp trimmed and burning, for at midnight the cry may sound in the ear-"Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him."-Christian Treasury.

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THE SPIRIT'S CONQUESTS.

THE Spirit is an Almighty Spirit. He can change the stony heart into a heart of flesh. He can break the strongest bad habits, like tow before the fire. He can make the most difficult things seem easy, and the mightiest objections melt away like snow in spring. He can cut the bars of brass, and throw the gates of prejudice wide open. He can fill up every valley, and make every rough place smooth. He has done it often, and he can do it again.

The Spirit can take a Jew, the bitterest enemy of Christianity, the fiercest persecutor of true brlievers,-the strongest stickler for Pharisaical notions,-the most prejudiced opposer of Gospel doctrine, and turn that man into an earnest preacher of the very faith he once destroyed. He has done it already. He did it with the apostle Paul.

The Spirit can take a Roman Catholic monk, brought

up in the midst of Romish superstition,-trained from his infancy to believe false doctrine, and obey the Pope,steeped to the eyes in error, and make that man the clearest upholder of justification by faith the world ever saw. He has done so already. He did it with Martin Luther.

The Spirit can take an English tinker, without learning, patronage, or money,-a man at one time notorious for nothing so much as blasphemy and swearing, and make that man write a religious book, which shall stand unrivalled and unequalled in its way by any since the time of the apostles. He has done so already. He did it with John Bunyan, the author of "Pilgrim's Progress."

The Spirit can take a sailor, drenched in worldliness and sin, a profligate captain of a slave ship, and make that man a most successful minister of the Gospel,-a writer of letters which are a store-house of experimental religion, and of hymns which are known and sung wherever English is spoken. He has done it already. He did it with John Newton.

All this the Spirit has done, and much more, of which I cannot speak particularly. And the arm of the Spirit is not shortened, His power is not decayed. He is like the Lord Jesus,-the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. He is still doing wonders, and will do to the very end.-Ryle,

JACOB'S WELL.

BUT that which gives to this locality (around Mount Gerizim) its most sacred interest, is the continued existence here of the well where our Saviour held His memorable conversation with the woman of Samaria. I have no doubt whatever of the identification of this well; the various local proofs which point to that spot, and the uniformity of the tradition, furnish an amount of testimony respecting the question too strong to be set aside. The Saviour was journeying at the time from Judea to Galilee (John iv. 4, sq.), and, as He passed through Samaria, would cross naturally the plain of Mukhna. It was noon-day, "the sixth hour," and, being wearied and thirsty, He sat down at the mouth of the well. There, too, I sat down, and taking the record of the "gracious words which proceeded from His lips" on that occasion, I read it, amid the surrounding objects, not only with new interest, but with a

perception of the points of connexion between the narrative and the outward scene, which left on my mind no doubt that it was the place where Jesus conversed with the Samaritan woman. The well is near the western edge of the plain, just in front of the opening between the hills where Nablus, the site of Shechem, is situated. Before me, therefore, as I sat there, was the town from which the people came forth, on the report of the woman, to see and hear the prophet for themselves. Behind me were the fields, then waving with grain, but at the earlier season of the year when Christ was there, recently ploughed and sowed, which rendered His illustration so natural: "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields" (referring to the people), "for they are ripe already to harvest." My curiosity to taste the water I could not gratify, on account of the old difficulty; "the well is still deep, and there is nothing to draw with." I threw a stone into the mouth of it, and could hear it rumbling away in the distance, as it bounded from side to side, until it sank at last in the water at the bottom. It has been ascertained to be at least seventy-five feet deep, bored through the solid rock. "In this mountain our fathers worshipped," said the woman, and the Jews say "that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." How abrupt, how vague, is this reference to a mountain, as it stands in the report of the conversation! But it all becomes definite, intelligible, as we read the history on the spot. There is Gerizim just at hand, at which the woman pointed at the moment, or glanced with the eye, as she uttered these words. In short, John's narrative of the occurrence at the well forms a picture, for which one sees that the perfect framework is provided, as he looks around him, in front of the hills which enclose the modern Nablus.

A church stood anciently over this spot so hallowed once by the presence of the Saviour. The common tradition supposes it to have been built by Helena, the mother of Constantine. It was erected certainly at an early period; for Jerome, near the close of the fourth century, in his sketch of Paul's pilgrimage, says that she came to Shechem, and entered the church that stood over Jocob's well. The ground there is slightly elevated, like a platform, shewing the space which the edifice occupied, and building stones lie scattered around, formerly wrought, no doubt, into its walls or foundations. The original mouth of the well is no longer visible on the outside; a vaulted roof having been built over it, through which it is neces

sary to descend in order to reach the proper entrance of the excavation. The aperture is barely large enough to allow a person to crowd his body through it. The neighbouring Arabs, ever on the watch to observe the approach of strangers, take care to keep a heavy stone over the opening, so as to obtain a reward for assisting to roll away the barricade.-Hackett.

LOVING GOD.

PEOPLE seem to think that love toward God must be something totally different in kind from the love which we feel toward our fellow-creatures-nay, as though it might exist without any feeling at all. If we believed that it ought to be the same feeling which is excited by a living friend upon earth, higher and purer, but not less real or warm, and if we tried our hearts, to see whether it is in us, by the same tests, there would be less self-deception on this point, and we should more easily be convinced that we must be wholly destitute of that of which we can shew no lively token.-Hare.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF PRAYER.

IF you are really desirous to benefit the young, you must abound in PRAYER. The universal instinct of humanity has ever recognised prayer as the true and only way to get our human wants satisfied. No logic can subdue the force of this witness. Wherever the human race is found, the instinct of prayer is in full play-rude, it may be, and uninformed, but still prompting the cry to God-still sending the soul up before the Great Giver for supplies of grace and mercy.

But the Bible has recognised and sanctioned this mode of obtaining help; and has purged the latent instinct of its ignorance and uncertainty. It is prayer that reaches the measureless fulness of God's grace, which, though lying about us, and lapping us from very infancy, cannot be brought into living contact, or sent through the inner life with its sublime, transfiguring force, save by prayer. See to it, then, oh parent! oh teacher! that as you work, you pray. Your soul must speak out, not only in earnestness to the children, but in more intense earnestness still to God. Thorough earnestness in action is indeed indispensable; you cannot else succeed in leaving the deep

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