prayer to the Divine Being, to this effect: "O, Lord, who art the author of all mercy, and the giver of every good and perfect gift, do thou be graciously pleased to bless the small sum of money to be given to him who is now before thee, that it may conduce to his present and eternal welfare. For Jesus Christ's sake."

"Now, sir," said Rowland Hill, as he finished his brief supplication to the Throne of Grace, "Now sir you may take the money."

The party a second time took up the two ten pound notes, and was in the act, as before, of folding them up, when Mr Hill interposed by requesting him to wait a moment, adding that he had forgotten one thing.

It may easily be supposed that by this time the individual was a good deal confused. His confusion was increased a hundred fold when Mr. Hill remarked, "But, my friend, you have not yourself asked for a blessing on the money. You had better do so now."

"Sir," faltered out the other, scarcely able to support himself, "Sir, I cannot pray. I never prayed in all my life."

"You have the more need to begin now," observed the reverend gentleman, in his own cool, yet rebuking man

ner.

"I cannot, sir; I do not know what to say."

"Make the effort, however short your prayer may be." "I cannot, sir. I am unable to utter a single sentence." "Then you cannot have the money. I will not lend twenty pounds to a prayerless person."

ness.

The other hesitated for a moment, and then closed his eyes, and with uplifted hands, he said with great earnest"Oh Lord, what shall I say to Thee and Mr. Hill on this occasion?" He was about to begin another sentence, when the reverend gentleman interrupted him, by observing, "That will do for a beginning. It is a very excellent first prayer. It is from the heart. I have not uttered a more sincere or fervent petition to God for the last fifty years. Take the money, and may God's blessing be given along with it." As he spoke Mr. Hill took up the two ten pound notes, and transferring them to the half bewildered man, cordially shook him by the hand, and wished him a good morning.

Mothers.

MR. ROSCOE, that eminent philanthropist, has remark ed that to the instructions of his kind and affectionate mother, he might safely attribute any good principle, which appeared in his conduct, during life-that to her he owed the inculcation of those sentiments of humanity, which became a ruling principle in his mind—and tha she did not neglect to supply him with books, as she thought would contribute to his improvement. His character of beneficence was eminently the fruit of ma ternal virtue.

The mother of Christian Frederick Swartz, on her dying bed, informed her husband and pastor, that she had dedicated her son to the Lord, and obtained a promise from them, that the infant should be trained in the remembrance of this sacred destination, and if he should in due time express a desire to be educated for the ministry, they would cherish and promote it to the utmost of their power. Swartz became the missionary apostle to India, and died when about seventy-four years old, having been instrumental, it is supposed, in the conversion of thousands of souls.

The early, though ripe piety of John Urquhart seems to have been the result, through the divine blessing, of early consecration to God, and corresponding means employed by his parents for his spiritual good. It is remarked, by Mr. Orme, his biographer, that the parents of this bright and interesting youth felt the importance of devoting their offspring to him, and of bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. To his mother, in particular, Urquhart was indebted for his earliest ideas and impressions; and of her tenderness and attention to him he retained during his short but brilliant course the liveliest and most grateful recollections. The prayers breathed over his cradle, and the instructions given him in infancy, seemed to have been richly blessed in the production of a piety so sweet and uncommon, even in the history of piety.

Dr. Bateman, an eminent English physician, who was converted from a sceptic to a saint, was a striking instance of the salutary influence of a religious education, on the

character and mind, even at a comparatively late period of life. His parents were of the "excellent of the earth," and he owed much to their care. After the death of a talented father, who had carefully instructed him in reigion, the place of the former was supplied with great judgment and affection by a pious and devoted mother. The effects of her moral guardianship was clearly traced in that exemplary filial reverence and obediedce, which Dr. Bateman exhibited through life-That awe for religion, which was one of the earliest sentiments of his childhood, saved him from open immorality, amidst all his unbelief—a state of mind into which he had unhappily fallen-and prepared the way for the ultimate triumph of divine grace.-The seed had been planted in the virgin soil; it had been watered with many tears; the divine blessing had been sought with fervent prayers, and God was pleased at length to "give the increase." The change was complete, as it was marvelous, and constituted him, during the short remainder of his days, one of the happiest of believers.

The writer will mention another case of the efficacy of maternal faithfulness, and prayer, in reference to an abandoned son. A distressed mother once remarked, “I have only one painful trial." A person who heard the sentiment, presuming that she refered to the moral state of her graceless son, observed that parents must feel intense agony of mind in the prospect of having their children separated from them in the eternal world. "I have not that prospect to agonize my mind," said the mother; "I have three already in heaven; and I doubt not but the grace of God will reach the heart of my prodigal son. I cannot doubt it. It would be a sin to doubt it. I have felt such a spirit of prayer coming upon me at times in his behalf, that I have wrestled for his conversion, as Jacob wrestled with the angel, and though I have heard no voice saying to me, "it shall be unto thee even as thou wilt;" yet I have departed from the throne of mercy in peace, and found my path strengthened with power from on high. My faith is so strong and so uniform in its exercise, that it has cast out all fear from my breast, and I can rejoice in the prospect of meeting all my children in my Father's house." The believing expectation of this

devoted mother was not disappointed. As she lay on her dying bed, her only remaining child, who had been a rover on the sea, returned to pay his parent a visit. Af ter a very touching and tender meeting, "you are near port," said the hardy looking sailor, "and I hope you will have an abundant entrance." "Yes, my child, the fair haven is in sight, and soon, very soon, I shall be landed "On that peaceful shore,

Where pilgrims meet to part no more."

"You have weathered many a storm in your passage, mother; but now God is dealing very graciously with you, by causing the wind to cease, and giving you a calm at the end of your passage." "God has always dealt graciously with me, my son. But this last expression of his kindness, in permitting me to see you before I die, is so unexpected, that it is like a miricle wrought in answer to prayer." "O mother," replied the sailor, weeping as he uttered the remark, "your prayers have been the means of my salvation, and I am thankful that your life has been spared, till I could tell you of it." With devout composure she listened to the story of his conversion; and at last, grasping the hand of her son, she pressed it to her dying lips and said, "Yes, thou art a faithful God, and as it has pleased thee to bring back my long lost child, and adopt him into thy family, I will say :-'Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation."

Mystery, Reason and Faith.

NIGHT comes over a ship at sea, and a passenger lingers hour after hour alone on the deck. The waters plunge and welter and glide away beneath the keel. Above, the sails tower up in the darkness, almost to the sky, and their shadows falls as it were a burden on the deck below. In the clouded night no star is to be seen, and as the ship changes her course, the passenger knows not which way is east, or west, or north, or south. What island, what sunken rocks may be on her course- -or what that course is or where they are, he knows not. All around to him

is mystery. He bows down in the submission of utter ignorance.

But men of science have read the laws of the sky. And the next day this passenger beholds the captain looking at a clock and taking note of the place of the sun, and with the aid of a couple of books, comprised of rules and mathematical tables, making calculations. And when he has completed them, he is able to point almost with a hand's breath to the place at which, after unnumbered windings, he has arrived in the midst of the seas. Storms may have beat and currents drifted, but he knows where they are, and the precise point, where a hundred leagues over the water, lies his native shore. Here is reason appreciating and making use of the revelations (if we may so call them) of science.

Night again shuts down over the waste of the waves and the passenger beholds a single seaman at the wheel, and watch, hour after hour, as it vibrates beneath a lamp, a little needle, which points ever, as if it were a living finger, to the steady pole.

This man knows nothing of the rules of navigation, nothing of the courses of the sky. But reason and experience have given him faith in the commanding officer of the ship-faith in the laws that control her course-faith in the unerring integrity of the little guide before him. And so without a single doubt he steers his ship on, according to a prescribed direction, through night and the waves. And that faith is not disappointed. With the morning sun, he beholds far away the summits of the grey and misty highlands, rising like a cloud in the horizon; and as he nears them, the hills appear, and the light at the entrance of the harbor, and, sight of joy! the shining roofs among which he strives to detect his

own.

The African Preacher.

THERE lived in his immediate vicinity a respectable man, who had become interested on the subject of religion, and who had begun with some earnestness to search the scriptures. He had read but a few chapters, when he be