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THE USE OF FLOWERS.
"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow."-Matt. vi. 28.

OD might have bade the earth bring forth
Enough for great and small-

The oak-tree and the cedar-tree,
Without a flower at all.

He might have made enough,-enough

For every want of ours,

For luxury, medicine, and toil;

And yet have made no flowers.

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Then, wherefore, wherefore were they made,
All dyed with rainbow light;
All fashioned with supremest grace,
Upspringing day and night;

Springing in valleys green and low,
And on the mountains high,
And in the silent wilderness,
Where no man passeth by?

Our outward life requires them not;
Then wherefore had they birth?
To minister delight to man,
To beautify the earth;

To whisper hope, to comfort man,
Whene'er his faith is dim;
For who so careth for the flowers,
Will care much more for him.

THE SIN OF UNBELIEF.

Mary Howitt.

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F we would see sin to be exceeding sinful, we must look at it as pardoned; we must believe that it is our Lord, our Husband, against whom we have sinned. never hate sin so much as when I hear my precious Lord saying, "I have blotted it out." I never feel so ashamed of my uncleanness as when Jesus says, "Thou art all fair, my love: there is no spot in thee."

Do not, I entreat of you, give way to a doubting frame of mind: it is not sufficiently wrestled against, it is not sufficiently hated by the children of God, as that which so grieves and dishonours their blessed Master. It will wear the cloak of humility; it will speak so plausibly, that it oftener meets with approbation than with that reapprehension which is its due. It may promote a legal bondage, but not filial obedience; it may keep alive that fear with which devils tremble, but none of that holy awe with which cherubim and seraphim veil their faces, and worship round the throne.

Would you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling? Do it with the assurance that it is God who worketh, and will work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

Labour to make your calling and election sure; and fight against a doubt as you would against an open sin. I do believe it is that sin that goes nearest to the heart of Jesus, and which most dishonours Him. Whatever our frames and feelings may be, whether in our most lively or most desponding hours, we who believe are alike "complete in Christ."-Miss Plumtre.

"WE ARE MADE PARTAKERS OF CHRIST, IF WE HOLD THE BEGINNING OF OUR CONFIDENCE STEADFAST UNTO THE END."--Heb. iii. 14.

FIDELIA FISKE.

HE venerable Dr. Anderson said of Fidelia Fiske, "In the structure and working of her whole nature she seemed to me the nearest approach I ever saw, in man or woman, to my ideal of our blessed Saviour as He appeared on the earth." She was descended from Rev. John Fiske, who emigrated from England to America in 1637, concerning whom Cotton Mather says, he was the son of "pious and worthy parents, yea, of grand-parents and great-grand-parents eminent for zeal in the true religion." In the family, for at least three hundred years, the line of the holy seed has been preserved. The wife of one of the Fiskes, who lived about a century ago, frequently set apart whole days to pray that her children might be a godly seed, even to the latest generation. In 1857, three hundred of the descendants of this praying mother were members of Christian Churches. Let parents observe this, and pray much for their children.

Fidelia was born in 1816. Her father was a New England farmer, who lived near Shelburne, and was "mighty in the Scriptures." Fidelia was early remarkable for the thoroughness with which she learned everything assigned to her. She had always been more or less impressed with Scripture truth; but it was when she was thirteen years of age that she was converted. Her Sabbath-school teacher one day faithfully addressed her class on the importance of personal religion. Fidelia went from school in great distress, mourning over the sinfulness of her heart. She lay on her bed at night weeping. For months she concealed her anxiety. At length her mother suspected the state of the case, and inquired. "Mother, I am a lost sinner," was the reply. She soon found joy and peace in believing in Jesus. Soon she began to plead with her companions to seek the Saviour, and before long became a teacher in the Sabbath-school, urging her pupils both at school and at their homes, "to win Christ and be found in Him."

In 1839, she entered Mount Holyoke Seminary, an institution for the instruction of ladies, which had a high reputation for religion as well as education. It was then presided over by Miss Lyon, one of the most gifted, and one of the holiest of women, whose life Fidelia afterwards wrote. "Our school is large, consisting of about two hundred, and embraces a most interesting circle of young ladies. Three-fourths of them are hopefully pious. Last year, about forty who came among us strangers to God, were numbered among the followers of the Lamb before they left us. Our seasons of prayer and religious conversation are deeply interesting; and we hope the Spirit of God is, indeed, in the midst of us."

In 1842, Dr. Perkins, missionary to Persia, came to Mount

Holyoke and asked for a young lady to go with him as a missionary to Persia. "If counted worthy, I should be willing to go," wrote Miss Fiske. On her last visit to her home, before leaving, she wrote to her cousin,-" Give your children unreservedly to your God: it is your great privilege. I was recently exceedingly interested in knowing the facts of one pious mother's consecration of her little ones to the Lord in their early years. She had been out to a missionary meeting, where she was led deeply to feel the claims of a dying world. She asked herself, 'What can I do?' Of worldly substance she had little; but as she entered her dwelling and saw her three lovely children engaged in their play, she said, 'These will I give to my God.' She retired to her closet, and there, in a covenant not to be forgotten, she surrendered them to her Father. In due season, one by one, He called for them. The eldest, a daughter, married one of our most devoted home missionaries, and now labours amid the desolations of the west. The second was called to a foreign land. Her life was short, but it proved a blessing to benighted souls. The third, a son, has just finished his studies, and in a few weeks will leave for Persia, there to spend his life in labouring in the cause of Christ.”

In March, 1843, she sailed with Dr. Perkins, Rev. Messrs. Stoddard and Bliss, and their wives, for Persia; and in due time arrived at Oroomiah, where she laboured for sixteen years among the Nestorians. When the missionaries went to Persia, there was just one Nestorian female who could read. The houses and habits of the people were filthy. Lying and profanity were almost universal among men, women, and children. There were not five Christians known in the whole Nestorian nation. Miss Fiske was exceedingly anxious to commence a school for females, but the difficulties were great. In due time, however, she succeeded. In 1846, there were many conversions both in the boys' and the girls' school. "The first Monday of the new year," says Miss Fiske, "was observed by the mission as a day of fasting and prayer. We had spoken of passing that day in wrestling for souls;' but we had only begun to seek, not to wrestle, when we learned that souls were pleading for themselves. For three weeks after the revival commenced we had but little company. The time seemed to be given us to labour expressly for our pupils, and it was to us like one continued Sabbath. Every place in our house was consecrated by prayer, and all our work was for souls. At the end of three weeks, Nestorians from without began to flock around us, and now our dear pupils were true helpers. I often had as many as ten or fifteen women to pass the night with us. I stayed with them till midnight, and then, from my room, heard them pray all night. I love to remember those nights of watching with the Lord Jesus for those precious souls."

In the beginning of 1849 there was a still more extensive revival. "The Holy Spirit had come like a rushing, mighty wind. Most

of the school had assembled in one room, and there the pious girls were pouring out their souls in importunate prayer; and the impenitent, with scarcely an exception, were borne down under a sense of their sins, and were crying for mercy. The interest

extended to many outside of the two seminaries." All the girls in the female seminary over twelve years gave tokens of being converted, and many of them were from that time bright and shining lights in that dark land.

In 1850 there was another awakening. "The efforts of the older girls for the salvation of the younger ones, and for the scores of women who were constantly resorting to our dwellings, were of a deeply interesting character.

In 1855 there was still another time of intense earnestness. "Before leaving the school-room on Tuesday afternoon, I said, 'If there is one of our dear family who feels that she must make her soul her first care, I should be glad to see her in my room at the ringing of the bell this evening.' That bell rang; I sat alone in my room; the door opened, and one came in, then another, and another, till I could no longer say, 'And still there is room,'but could only say, 'In my Father's house there still is room.' Twenty-three were there with bowed heads; and never while I remember to pray for the dear Nestorians shall I forget the solemnity of that meeting."

The secret of all this usefulness was, "prayer and pains, with faith in Jesus Christ." Dr. Kirk said, " Fidelia Fiske had made the greatest sacrifice. She had given up her will; and when you have done that the rest is easy. To burn at the stake for a while, to be torn on the rack, to be devoured by wild beasts, is as nothing when you have torn out your own will and laid it upon God's altar." Dr. Laurie says, "Miss Fiske's power was lovingness. And this was the steady outflow of her daily life; rather it was the outgrowth of Christ in her; for He abode in her, and she in Him. In her presence Christ seemed not far off; and afterwards. you felt like saying with some of old, 'Did not our hearts burn within us?' Yet with all this there was not the least affectation of superior goodness; no talk about eminent holiness, as though others did not know so much about it; but it was as if Christ's own love flamed from Him through a human heart, that we might admire its beauty and praise the Lord."

It will easily be understood that sixteen years of constant labour told on Miss Fiske's health; and she was obliged to leave and return to America, hoping, however, to go back and lay her bones in Persia. One Sabbath, shortly before she left, she was very weak, and thought she would be unable for the day's work. "Finding there was some one directly behind me, I looked, and there was one of the Nestorian sisters who had seated herself so that I might lean upon her. I objected; but she drew me back, saying, 'If you love me, you will lean hard. Did I not then

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