hers, and said, "Your dear children are happy, far beyond what even you could have desired for them. They are in the hands of God! and He is with you in all your trouble. Underneath you is His everlasting arm supporting you. This is His doing. He must do well; whom he loveth he chasteneth.'

"I know it, I know it!" she exclaimed. "Thank you sir, for those blessed words. Yet ungrateful as I am, I cannot yet love His correction. I fear I do not say from my heart, thy will be done'—not mine. I have yet another precious child sick at home, the pride of my heart-and a blessed daughter she has been to me-but 1 believe she must go, for death is in her sweet face. I thought, when I left her this morning, I should hear her speak no more, but I was forced to seek a morsel of bread for her and myself. And why should I desire to hear more words from her in this world? they cannot be better than her last. "Dear mother," she said, and smiled, all suffering as she was, 'perhaps I shall be gone to heaven before you come back; but I shall find Jesus Christ there, and I will pray him to come and comfort you, and take care of you."

Oh, sir! you are a kind Christian; if you have little ones at home, do not love them too well! May you find them again in health, and never know how hard it is to see their little dying agonies, and kiss their cold lips for the last time! Yet do not think I complain; I have much, much more than I deserve. Sometimes I have thought my heart would break, but it was wicked to doubt-for God has never failed, in my greatest need, to raise up friends; and when I think of a happy eternity to come, I feel that the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared to it."

She ceased-and shall I be ashamed to own it, my tears flowed fast; yet I secretly blessed the Christian's God, who can make his servants to triumph even over misery like this. "Godliness is," indeed, "profitable unto all things; having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Our little voyage was done. The time had been short. Yet our hearts were warmed with a kindness as of many years standing. With the sincerest interest and respect I assisted my poor friend to disembark: and at parting put a few shillings into her hand, for the use of her invalid. "There," she exclaimed, “did I not say right? the friend in need is sent me again. Sir! He will bless you, who receives the cup of cold water as given to himself. I will praise Him for you and for me: He will hear the blessing of her who was ready to perish. Oh may He bless you, now and for ever!"

She returned to her sad home and her dying child sorrowful, yet always rejoicing." I, to my solitary inn, where, in the visions of the night, my meditations were sweet, for they rested on the reward of Christian sorrows meekly borne, on purified affections,-on holiness, and happiness, and heaven! Some struggling rays of comfort break through the deepest gloom; even this dark valley, one by one, the rolling, threatening clouds disperse -the Sun of Righteousness, himself, breaks forth at last, and all is meridian day!

A RESTORED FEMALE.

H. M. P.

ABOUT four weeks ago, the matron of the Asylum, 57, White Lion Street, told me that one of their

inmates, a girl about eighteen years of age, was removed to the hospital under very dangerous circumstances, and wished to see me. Having a case under visitation in that establishment, I promised to call; they also informed me that they had reason to hope, not only from her own statement, but from her conduct, that an entire change had taken place in her; she attributes this change to an exposition she heard me deliver in the asylum, from the words, God is love."

On my first entry into the ward in which she lay I knew her not; her head was shaved and covered with flour, and swollen so large she could not see me: her features, which are ordinarily good and intelligent, presented a mass of unmeaning deformity, which rendered it very painful to look upon her. Knowing how easy it is to believe what we wish to be true, I took Brother Allen with me for his opinion; she almost immediately knew my voice, and stretched out her hand to shake hands with me, thanking me for calling to see one so unworthy. She told me that the night after she heard the exposition before alluded to, she retired to pray, and that was the first time she ever poured out her soul to God in earnest, or felt her wants. I did not deem it prudent to stop long on this visit, as she was very weak. Some of the medical men entertained no hope of her recovery. She begged me to pray for her. When I asked her if she had any message to send to the matron, she replied, "What message can I send? I was indeed a stranger when they took me in, they have been more than mothers to me; if I could send my thoughts to them, they would be cold, compared with what they have done for me, and I cannot put those thoughts into words." It was very

affecting to see the gutters which her tears had made in the flour. Brother Allen is of opinion that she is sincere, and subsequent visits have confirmed this opinion in myself. She is fast recovering.

Report of an Agent of the City Mission.

THE MOTHER THE BEST GOVERNESS.

UNFORTUNATELY, the present state of things in, what is called, good society, requires an unnatural predominance to be given to a very inferior branch of education, the teaching of accomplishments; and, what is more unfortunate, it is the interest, whatever may be the wishes, of most governesses, to fall in with this system. The external (and how often mechanical!) actions of playing, singing, dancing, and painting, are held to be absolutely necessary,

and consequently to require the most time and attention; whilst the HABITS of thinking connectedly, reasoning soberly, sympathizing properly, and of acting in a manner consistent with the high prerogative of being moral and religious agents, are, for the most part, left to nature, or accident to teach, or else a secondary place is given to them in the course of instruction. Why is this? Because these quiet and internal accomplishments do not give that power of attraction and self-display which those external actions do, when the young lady has to make her début, in society. That event she is taught to consider as the great event of her existence; and to excel therein, in the way the world requires her, is to be the end of the greater part of her education!

Now it is for the interest of a governess that her pupil should excel in those attractive accomplishments, for the simple reason, that they are the very

means on which most governesses depend for advancing themselves into other situations. To have turned out an accomplished girl, the admiration of every party, is found to be much better than advertising and seeking for letters of recommendation. Many a fond mother is dazzled, and anxiously inquires for, and strives to engage for her own daughters, the superintendent, if not the teacher of such attractive qualities. Thus the mischief goes on; mothers do not see the great harm of it, because it is the system or fashion of the day; too easily concluding that it cannot be so very far wrong, seeing that it is so generally the case; whilst, on the other hand, governesses will not see the harm of it, because, the natural responsibility for such things not resting upon them but upon the parents and on society, in order to meet the demands of the world, in the pressure of emergencies, and with the natural desire to benefit themselves, they endeavour to bring out those acquirements, which will make for their own good, as well as that of their pupils. Of course there are bright exceptions to all this in many a family; but I have to speak now as to what appears to be generally the case.

As there seems to be no chance of this system being materially changed, the question is, how can it be improved? There is only one way: parents must be more careful in selecting their governess, and must work with them more than they do now. If it were a general practice for mothers to take some share in the education of their daughters, a great change would take place. Things would go on in a more natural course; accomplishments would not be given up, but they would not assume the first place in education. The grand object would then be to