During the Prayer Meeting after evening service, in answer to a request, that any who felt convinced of sin and had a desire to seek for, and obtain salvation, would come forward to a place specially devoted to penitents, four young females, belonging to the senior class in our Sunday-school, were seen to rise from where they knelt, and walk up to the form indicated, and there, to the joy of those prepared to point them to the Saviour of sinners, they humbly prostrated themselves before the mercy-seat.

I dare say I'm not singular in this respect, but I must confess that there is nothing in the whole service of God's house which so deeply affects me as the voluntary coming of poor sin-sick sinners, seeking for pardon and peace, to the sinner's unchangeable friend. It proves, despite the trial and the cross, that they are really in earnest, that they want salvation, that they would be Christ's disciples; and, also, that when thus influenced, natural feelings of shame and fear and pride have lost their usual force and power, and that the human must bend to the divine.

To the mere looker on, to the person who never felt the power of deep conviction, who has managed to force off God's all-pervading spirit, to throw, as it were, a thick impervious covering over his sensibilities; these signs of penitence, this strange conspicuousness of behaviour, may seem only evidences of delusion, of frenzied imagination; but they are real and genuine, notwithstanding. As has frequently and justly been remarked, this stepping out of the ordinary course of thingsthis singularity-is substantial evidence that a good work is going on in the soul, and that it is half performed while on the way to the penitent form.

The picture presented in the case of those four young girls, just budding into womanhood, but old enough to understand what they were doing, and the object they had in view in thus breaking through the decorousness of fashionable formality, as with modest mien and downcast eyes they passed along the aisle, was one that angels might gaze upon with delight. There was nothing bold or unfeminine in the movement; they yielded to the dictates of an inspiring spirit, and obeyed the call of those who had trod the path before them. They wanted salvation, and they came openly and publicly to Christ to ask it-nor would their coming be in vain. I enter not into any speculations as to whether they were each alike impressed with a sense of their condition, or how it was that they came together to give themselves to God; it is quite enough to know that variety of character and disposition, of feeling and affection, creates no barrier to God's saving power, and that the tide of his constraining love gives the heavenward impulse to sinners of every grade and condition, when once they throw themselves into the rushing stream.

We care not for the remarks of outsiders, or those who dare to speak critically of the mystery of godliness, which only the initiated understand. The youth of these maidens was no impediment to their salvation-little children may find the loving Saviour. O, what do they know about sin? What experience have they had in the world and its temptations? What knowledge can they have of the human heart, its deceitfulness and desperate wickedness? And, therefore, what can they really feel of conversion from nature to grace? Here it is that mere human wisdom fails; and because science and philosophy fail to give a reply, because they are speechless on this subject, it is set down as a creation of disordered imagination if we speak of a present salvation, an instantaneous transference from darkness to light. If they were young, and had not entered into a course of flagrant transgression, had not forged the chain of evil habits and base desires around and into their very souls; if there were no heavy load to be removed, no strong fetters to be broken, no massive prison gates to be thrown open; if the change to be wrought in them might not be as perceptable as in the case of those matured in wickedness, grown old in depravity-yet there was enough to be accomplished to warrant their coming to the penitent form and to justify the efforts made in their behalf-they required plunging into the purple flood to effect that which no schooling or intellectual training could impart a dedication of their future lives to the worship and service of God. We do not train our children nor educate our scholars in the doctrines of the Bible and the precepts of morality with the idea that therefore they won't need the sprinkling of the blood of atonement, or that they can even come to Christ, and say, "Lord, we are not as other men are; we have been kept from bad companions, have not been allowed to indulge in wicked practices, we are very good, almost good enough of ourselves; but that we may be properly finished we came to thee just to put the last touch upon us, and do what we have tried but failed to do by our own efforts; thou must be our Saviour it is true, yet very little is required, there won't be any difficulty in our salvation, we have done already the rough work ourselves." Oh! no, no! we insist upon morality, that they may pass comfortably and honourably through life; but that it will have the slightest influence upon their salvation, or recommend them to the notice of their Saviour, we neither believe nor teach. Therefore we encourage and insist upon a coming to Christ, upon a dedication of ourselves to God, a laying upon the altar of sacrifice our body, spirit, and soul.

Without a doubt these four girls were earnest and sincere in their approach to the mercy-seat. They came-were not brought. The advice and prayers of the elder females who pointed them to Calvary

and directed their gaze thitherward, did not seem to be irksome or unnecessary. There were not (as I have often noticed in the case of those who have been led to the penitent form more because they could not say "no" to the kind request of a brother or sister than that they felt a desire to be saved) those puzzled side glances to discover when they would be allowed to depart. With hopeful spirits and tearful eyes they knelt at Jesus' feet, and he, who pardoned a great sinner whom he found in a similar position, would not cast away those who thus come to bim for salvation. The prayers and singing of those around them, though not intensified and excited to rapture by the shout of triumph from liberated captives, were earnest, faithful, and full of confidence. In this instance it would be wrong to measure success by immediate results, or that young disciples should test their conversion by the experience of those who have been liberated from a burden of many years gathering, and who can dance for joy as the healing balm flows over their sin-infected and diseased spirits. This act of consecration might, in a certain sense, be compared to the ceremony of Confirmation occasionally performed by our brethren of the Establishment, with this difference, that while many of the young people merely attend that service as a matter of form, the former were moved to their coming by a conviction that they were sinners, and that they needed a renewed heart to fit them for a Christian life of usefulness.

Now, with respect to the peculiarly Methodistic institution of the "Penitent Form," I would just observe, that while many find it almost impossible to approach it, preferring the secret, silent, undisturbed utterance of their penitential prayers-the unobserved flowing of brokenhearted tears, and to whom the outspoken, and, in some cases, the triumphantly-disorderly commingling of exhortation, advice, and caution is rather confusing than edifying, I prefer it to the superseded custom of praying with and for penitents wherever they are found. It concentrates action. In my younger days, the appropriated form being either unknown or impracticable, I have delightedly and admiringly watched three or four groups or circles of penitent-directors all engaged in various parts of our chapel at one and the same time-one singing, the next praying, and another, as they felt the glory in their souls, shouting aloud for joy-which at times tended in a sense to confuse and distract the suppliants. We claim no virtue for the form, but latter experience has proved it to be a wise ordinance, a useful institution.

A word or two, in conclusion, as to the probable results of this act of dedication to God. Leaving out of the question the snares and temptations from which it will save them-keeping their feet from sliding into paths of folly and vice; throwing a shade over all the glitter and glory

and seductiveness of earthly things, forbidding or preventing the formation of intemperate desires for vain and trifling amusements, for unsatisfying pleasures and recreations-I may state that it will form and influence their character for life, giving them decision and force, which are likely to be more enduring than if the result of a secret resolve to be on the Lord's side. Experience and observation lead to this conclusion. Most of my youthful acquaintances who began the Christian life thus or similarly, continue still to this day in the good old way. O it is sad to think of the many psalm and hymn singing people, those who attended our schools years ago, and went as they came, so far as personal religion is concerned, that now help to crowd our courts and alleys, and swell the number of those who form the off-scouring of the earth. Had they given their hearts to God, taken upon them the Christian profession, and been renewed by the Holy Ghost, how different their lives would have been. For one thing they might have selected other partners in life, have married young men or women who feared and served the Lord, and, although such are not always free from trial, though not always travelling a smooth path, then whatever their providential lot should be, the blessing of God which maketh rich, which sanctifies every dispensation to our good, would have been their better part for ever. Let us hope, however,-and may the hope cheer our Sunday-school teachers in their toil-that the word of God which has been sown in them, the word that liveth and abideth for ever, though now choked with the cares of life, with poverty and vice, will yet burst out and grow and bring forth fruit. Why, even unbelievers have an idea that the religious training of our youth will end in good. I was one evening sitting in St. James's Hall, in this town (then the Teutonic) waiting for the appearance of G. J. Holyoake, whom I had gone to hear deliver a lecture. Two men just behind me were engaged in conversation, and some of their words falling on my ear, I became an interested, though apparently unconcerned, listener. They were talking about a popular infidel lecturer who had at one time been a Christian minister, and they came to the conclusion that, no matter how valiant he might then be in spreading secular opinions, the time would come when he would renounce them all, and once more be as zealous in promoting the cause of Christ. "And," said one, "the children now-a-days are so deeply impregnated with Christian principles, so thoroughly imbued with the Bible, in Sunday-schools, that, do what they might, and however much unbelief might appear to influence them in active life, they were sure after all to become Christians." "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

H. S.

THE TREE OF A THOUSAND USES.

IN a library at Venice there is a work of Cicero, the great Roman orator, written on the inner bark of a linden-tree. I am sure you would like very much to see it, and wonder why any one took the trouble of writing on so coarse a material; but the purpose for which this bark was employed is only one of hundreds of uses to which the linden can be applied.

Do you know the linden-tree, with its fragrant gold-tinted blossoms, and its pleasant cool shade? It is often planted in cities where its thick branches screen so well the houses from both sun and dust, while they shelter swarms of bees, who come to gather the honey-drops from their leaves. In the beautiful months of June and July, a great many children can be seen in Switzerland, some climbing the linden-trees, others standing under their shade, all busy pulling and gathering their blossoms.

Virgil, the great Latin poet, of whom you will learn when you are older, has written some beautiful lines about the honey made from the linden flowers. It is, indeed, even now considered the best, and it is always interesting to observe the industrious little bees humming their good humoured song all the time they work; thus giving little children, and old ones too, a lesson of cheerfulness ever to be remembered.

The drink made of the linden blossoms is used instead of tea by the inhabitants of whole mountain districts. That is the reason why children there watch with eager eyes their first opening; and a pretty sight it is to see the little ones, accompanied by their mother, or in merry troups, as they go, on some bright afternoon, to fill their baskets with the sweet scented flower, happy enough if during their harvesttime they have not been mistaken by the bees for some of the blossoms themselves, and have been stung.

The linden-blossoms are also used for medicinal purposes, and are sold by the village children to those who go round the country every autumn in order to purchase them, as well as other wild dried flowers.

Not less useful are the bark and the wood of that pretty tree. The inner bark is manufactured into matting, used for packing or protecting fruit trees from the frost in winter.

You may have seen some pretty little boxes, penholders, and cardcases called "Tunbridge Ware." These are made of the wood of the linden, which is very smooth and close-grained. In St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, I have seen some exquisite clusters of fruits and flowers, carved also from the same wood by a celebrated English sculptor.