MR. George Müller, of Bristol, who has long been to Christians a living example of faith and the efficacy of prayer, has recently, in a funeral sermon for his beloved wife, lifted, a little, the veil of their domestic privacy, and shown us the secret of real conjugal happiness.

First, he believed that a good wife was from the Lord, and therefore sought such a blessing from Him alone. Nor had he ever the slightest reason to doubt that his beloved wife was God's gift. "Thousands of times," he tells us, he said to her, "My darling, God Himself singled you out as the most suitable wife I could possibly wish to have." He thus speaks of her:-"I mention as her chief excellence, that she was a holy, devoted Christian. She had for her one object of life, to live for God; and during the thirty-nine years and four months that I was united to her, her steady purpose to live for God increased more and more. She was also, as a Christian, of a meek and quiet spirit. If all Christians were like her, the joys of heaven would be found on earth far more abundant than they are now. In her God had been pleased to give me a Christian wife, who never, at any time, hindered me in the ways of God, but sought to strengthen my hands in God; and this, too, in the deepest trials, under the greatest [OCTOBER, 1870.

VOL. VII. No. 10

difficulties, and when the service in which she helped me brought on her the greatest personal sacrifices. Then as to her education, she was just all I could have wished. She had had a very good and sound education, and she knew, besides, the accomplishments of a lady. She was a very good arithmetician, and, for thirty-four years, habitually examined, month by month, all the accountbooks, and the hundreds of bills, of the various Orphan Houses. But, in addition to the education of a lady, she possessed, what in our days is so rare among ladies, a thorough knowledge of useful needlework of every kind, and an excellent knowledge of the quality of material for clothes, linen, etc., and thus became so eminently useful as the wife of the Director of Orphan Houses, where hundreds of thousands of yards of material had to be ordered by her, and to be approved or rejected. She could do fancy work as other ladies; but she did not thus occupy her time. The knowledge which is useful to help the needy, to alleviate suffering, to make a useful wife, a useful mother, how far above the value of doing fancy work!"

In this see the benefits of a wise education when consecrated to the service of God.

"In the gift of such a wife," says Mr. Müller, "a good foundation for real conjugal happiness was laid. And were we happy? Verily, we were. With every year our happiness increased more and more. Our happiness in God and in each other was indescribable. We had not some happy days every year, nor a month of happiness every year, but we had twelve months of happiness every year, and thus year after year. Often and often did I say to that beloved one, 'My darling, do you think there is a couple in Bristol, or in the world, happier than we are?' Why do I refer to all this? To show what a remarkably great blessing to a husband is a truly godly wife, who also, in other respects, is fitted for him."

"But while I own, in the fullest degree, that the foundation of true spiritual happiness in our marriage life was laid, in that my dearest wife was a decided Christian, and fitted for me by God in other respects, and thus given to me by Him, yet, at the same time, I am most fully convinced that this was not enough for the continuance of real conjugal happiness during a course of thirtynine years and four months, had there not been more. I, therefore, must add here the following points :

"1. Both of us, by God's grace, had one object in life—and only one-to live for Christ. Everything else was of a very inferior character to us. However weak and failing in a variety of ways, there was no swerving from the one holy object of life. This godly purpose and the godly aim, day by day, to carry out this purpose, greatly added to true happiness, and, therefore, to an increase of conjugal happiness also. Should this be wanting in any two Christians who are united by marriage ties, let them

not be surprised if real conjugal happiness is also wanting. 2. We had all the thirty-nine years and four months the blessing of having abundance of work to do, and we did that work; by God's grace we gave ourselves to it; and this abundance of work greatly tended, instrumentally, to the increase of our happiness. Our mornings never began with the uncertainty of how to spend the day, and what to do; for as the day began, we had always an abundance of work. I reckon this an especial blessing. Many Christians even make the mistake of aiming after a position in which they may have all their time on hand. 3. But great as habitually our occupation was, and especially during the last twenty-five years, we never allowed this to interfere with the care about our own souls. Before we went to work, we had, as an habitual practice, our seasons for prayer and reading the Holy Scriptures. Should the children of God neglect this, and let their work or service for God interfere with caring about their own souls, they cannot, for any length of time, be happy in God; and their conjugal happiness, therefore, must also suffer on account of it. 4. Lastly, and most of all to be noticed is this: we had for many years past, whether twenty or thirty years or more I do not know, besides our seasons for private prayer, and family prayer, also habitually our seasons for praying together. For many years my precious wife and I had, immediately after family prayer in the morning, a short time for prayer together, when the most important points for thanksgiving, or the most important points for prayer, with regard to the day, were brought before God. Should very heavy trials press on us, or should our need of any kind be particularly great, we prayed again after dinner, when I visited her in her room; and this at times of extraordinary difficulties or necessities, might be repeated once or twice more in the afternoon; yet very rarely was this the case. Then in the evening, during the last hour of our stay at the Orphan Houses, though her or my work was never so much, it was an habitually understood thing that this hour was for prayer. My beloved wife came then to my room, and now our prayer, and supplication, and intercession, mingled with thanksgiving, lasted generally forty minutes, fifty minutes, and sometimes the whole hour. At these seasons we brought perhaps fifty or more different points, or persons, or circumstances before God. The burden of our prayer was generally of the same character, except when prayers were turned into praises, or when fresh points were added, or when peculiar mercies or blessings, or peculiar difficulties and trials, led during a part of the time to a variation. We never thus met for prayer without having, on various accounts, cause for thanksgiving; but, at the same time, our seasons for prayer never arrived without our having abundant cause for casting our burden upon the Lord.' These seasons for united prayer, I mean in addition to the family prayer, I particularly commend to all Christian hus

bands and wives. I judge that it was in our own history the great secret for the continuation not only of conjugal happiness, but of a love to each other, which was even more abundantly fresh and warm than it had been during the first year, though we were then exceedingly fond of each other."

We will conclude this sketch with Mr. Müller's counsel to the unmarried.

"To enter upon the marriage union is one of the most deeply important events of life. It cannot be too prayerfully treated. Our happiness, our usefulness, our living for God or for ourselves afterwards, are often most intimately connected with our choice. Therefore, in the most prayerful manner, this choice should be made. Neither beauty, nor age, nor money, nor mental powers, should be that which prompt the decision; but 1st, Much waiting upon God for guidance should be used; 2nd, a hearty purpose to be willing to be guided by Him should be aimed after; 3rd, Pure godliness, without a shadow of a doubt, should be the first and absolutely needful qualification to a Christian, with regard to a companion for life. In addition to this, however, it ought to be, at the same time, calmly and patiently weighed whether, in other respects, there is a suitableness."

POTATO BLIGHT AND BOY BLIGHT.

W

HEN the potato crop was first blighted, men of science sought for a cause, and one of them said, an insect which he called a "VASTATOR" was imbedded in the haulm, sucked out the sap, and prevented the potatoes from growing to maturity.

Of how much greater consequence is the boy blight than the potato blight, but how few are there who manifest that concern for which the custom and consequences of smoking so loudly calls, although every one who gives the subject consideration must know that TOBACCO, which drains the system of saliva, and poisons the blood of growing boys, as much deserves to be called a VASTATOR, as the insect in the potato haulm.

Smoking "stunts the growth of the young-stunts their physical vigour stunts their intellect," wastes their time and money, creates thirst and leads them into many temptations which they have not the power to resist. Oh that some magic wand could convert that curling smoke into legible words before their eyes, and tell them of the loss of time, of money, of nervous and muscular power, and wasted energies, by such a practice!

"My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.-A wise son maketh a glad father; but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."-Prov. i. 10; x. 1.

THE CONVERSION OF JOHN PRICE.

ANNAH PRICE, a poor girl, had been taught in a Sunday-school. The serious impressions made upon her mind were soon visible, and led to her saving conversion to God. This was an important event as it regarded herself: but the good effects of her going to the

Sunday-school did not stop here. Her father, though in his earlier years he had received a better education than the most respectable of the poor usually have, had become one of the most profligate men in his native village, and, step by step, as bad as the worst of them. The ale-house at night received most of the earnings of the day; and if any remained after the guilty revels of the week, they were nearly all spent on Sunday in the same haunt of vice. His wife never reproached him, and only endeavoured to lure him from such society and such practices by the comforts of home, such as she could provide out of her hard earnings. But his home was the place of his greatest misery: for there he had time to reflect, and there he was surrounded by the wife and children whom he was daily injuring.