such unexpected quarters, that she could not but believe that in a very special manner, THE LORD DOES PROVIDE. She lived on God's promises ;-they were her soul's meat and drink. Firm as the rock on which her dwelling was placed, was her belief, unshaken by the hope deferred of the past, that He who had never left her nor forsaken her, would yet, some day grant her to see the face of her son; and then would she say, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace!" (To be continued.) PRAYER IN LITTLE TROUBLES. WE are often greatly affected by things that seem to be too small for prayer. If we had to speak of some grand success, or some sublime calamity, if "a host were to encamp against us," if famine were to stare upon us, or if some massive obstacle were to rise like a mountain in our path, we should think those matters worthy of an errand to the throne; but "the trivial round, the common task," the vexations, the annoyances, and "the insect stings of life"-we hardly like to trouble the Master with the story of these; or if we do, it seems to befit the solemnity of prayer to mention them not in plain language, and by particular description, but only in the dialect of ceremony, and in some inferential way. But, "this our way is our folly." Duly consider what Chalmers calls "the power of the littles." Look at little things in their combination. "One single snowflake," it has been said, "is a little thing, but a whole day of snowflakes may block up the roadway, obliterate the landmarks, gather on the mountains, descend like an avalanche into the plains, and thus overwhelm cottages in its fall." In like manner, one single care is a little thing; but a whole day of cares, a week of cares, a life of little cares,—we call that sum-total a great thing. The least fact has infinite relations; and as the year is made up of moments, and the world of atoms, so is life of little things. Look at little things separately. Could each one be traced in its single influence along the line of its future history, the mind would faint at the thought of its amazing greatness. A little wheel in a vast machine, may, if neglected, throw the results of that machine into destructive confusion. A little miscalculation in some process of high mathematical thought may issue in an enormous and damaging mistake. A little spark may fire a prairie; a little leak may sink a ship; a little seed may hold a future forest growth of good or evil. A dislodged stone in your pathway may seem to you to be a thing too trivial for notice, yet it may draw down the notice of an angel. That stone may cause a fall, the fall a fracture, and the fracture death; therefore it is written," He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Some slight unchronicled incident in your experience may colour your life for eternity. Apply these considerations to the subject of prayer. While that While that poor widow is kneeling on a ragged strip of carpet in her garret, with her heart full to breaking because the barrel of meal is almost empty, the cruse of oil almost spent, and she has just been gathering "two sticks," meaning to light a fire, and dress what remains, that she and her child may eat of it, and then die (1 Kings xvii. 8-16), would you silence her? Would you say, "He to whom you speak about a little flour and a little fire is at this moment calling constellations into light, or bidding worlds to pass away: trouble not the Master"? Do you think the high and lofty One will be regardless of that poor prayer? Not because He is unwilling to notice it, for His name is Love; not because He is unable, for it is only imperfection that can do but one thing at a time, and that is sometimes compelled to say to a suppliant, "I am doing a great work, and cannot come down; trouble me not now." No! while He rules in the armies of heaven, He thinks of me; while He kindles a sun, He shows the same perfection of thought for the meanest thing as for the most majestic; while He governs innumerable nations of spirits, His attention is never distracted for a moment, even from the sparrow in its nest or the spider on its line. He would not be the Infinite Master did he not watch with clearest notice, and adorn with exactest care each thread of moss that streaks a stone, each flower that lifts its head in the spaces of the wilderness, the smallest insect that floats about it, and the smallest mote which that insect waves aside with its wing. He is Master of the universe, because He is Master of all its particulars. His general providence involves His particular providence. Great things are but aggregates of little things, and He attends to the great by attending to the small. Such convictions made Sir Fowell Buxton say-" I feel permitted to offer up my prayers for everything that concerns me, and I am inclined to imagine that there are no little things with God. His hand is as manifest in the feathers of a butterfly's wing, in the eye of an insect, in the folding and packing of a blossom, in the curious aqueducts by which a leaf is nourished, as in the creation of a world, and in the laws by which the planets move. I understand literally the injunction- In everything make your requests known to God;' and I cannot but notice how amply these prayers have been met." Silenced for ever be the spirit that would say " Trouble not the Master, for the help you ask for relates to matters too insignificant for His dignity to notice." Only a little spirit can slight a little thing. Never let me trifle with trifles. Trifles educate me, trifles wake my temper, trifles colour my views of truth, trifles influence my thoughts of God, trifles affect my power of prayer, trifles combined make the very sublimities of life. I will take to the Master these small perplexities, these little interests, these obscure, indefinite cares that weigh my spirit down, but which are too little to excite the sympathy of man, for they will not be little in the sight of God. It is His glory to notice things like these; and by His care for the little, He proclaims His majesty and maintains His throne.-C. Stanford, M.A. CHILDREN'S SORROW. A WORD will fill the little heart And yet how many weary hours How much they suffer from our faults! How often, too, mistaken zeal An infant's misery makes! We overrule and overteach, We curb and we confine, And put the heart to school too soon, No only taught by love to love, L. E. LANDON. THE PRAYER.-A young lady was taking a pleasant walk one summer day in a deeply shaded woodland, and, being weary, sat down to rest on a secluded mossy bank, near the summit of a hill. Presently she heard a voice, as of one engaged in earnest conversation; and, on advancing a step or two, she saw good Mr. Mcoming leisurely up the hill, the reins hanging loosely over his horse's neck. "What can he be talking about so earnestly to himself?" she thought; but directly she heard the voice of prayer; and the words which God's providence caused to be especially impressed upon her mind were these: "O Lord, have mercy upon the dear youth of this place." The good old man rode on; but the voice of prayer was heard after he had disappeared from her view in the leafy depths of the forest. The young lady was struck with the thought, "Is this the way Christians go about the town, and mingle with the world? Do they pray thus for our souls? I have hardly ever prayed for my own. From that day she began to pray, and became the first-fruits of a glorious revival. HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. LYING IN BED. It is often a question amongst people who are unacquainted with the anatomy and physiology of man, whether lying with the head exalted or level with the body is the most wholesome. Most, consulting their own ease on this point, argue in favour of that which they prefer. Now, although many delight in bolstering up their heads at night, and sleep soundly without injury, yet we declare it to be a dangerous habit. The vessels through which the blood passes from the heart to the head are always lessened in their cavities when the head is resting in bed higher than the body: therefore, in all diseases attended with fever, the head should be pretty nearly on the level with the body; and people ought to accustom themselves to sleep thus, and avoid danger. TO OYSTER-EATERS. When too many oysters have been incautiously eaten, and are felt lying cold and heavy on the stomach, we have an infallible and immediate remedy in hot milk, of which half a pint may be drunk, and it will quickly dissolve the oysters into a bland, creamy jelly. Weak and consumptive persons should always take this after their meal of oysters. THE TEETH. Keep them very clean; brush them every night with soap and water and a little chalk. If a hollow tooth aches violently, take a mild dose of medicine, put a pinch of carbonate of soda into the mouth and let it dissolve; afterwards put a very little bit of cotton, dipped in strong mastic varnish or laudanum, into the hollow tooth. WALL PAPER Should be wiped with a soft duster, or rubbed with slices of stale bread, which will take off the dingy coat that forms upon it, especially in smoky houses. Beware of green paper on your walls. The colouring of some kinds of green paper is produced by means of arsenic, which comes off from time to time in a very fine dust, and gets mixed with the air of the room, and so gets into the nose, eyes, throat, and lungs, and does much mischief in a very quiet way, and without suspicion. TO RENDER SHOES WATERPROOF. Warm a little bees-wax and mutton suet, until it is liquid, and rub some of it slightly over the edges of the sole where the stitches are. BREAD POULTICE. Scald a basin; put into it crumb of bread in slices; pour boiling water on it; cover it long enough to soak; drain the water off, but do not squeeze it; chop it up with a fork; put it into a bag of old linen; and apply it when you can bear the heat of it on the back of your hand. FOR THE EARACHE. Four drops of oil of amber, and two drachms of oil of sweet almonds. Four drops of this mixture to be applied to the part affected. THE FIRE. Raking out the fire before going to bed is a very dangerous practice. It is the known cause of a great many fires; and it is said that in the colliery districts (where, from coals being cheap, there is not the same motive for the practice), fires are less common than in other parts of the kingdom. We have read history to little purpose if we have not observed that there are periods when corruption seems to acquire a peculiar and fearful sway in our world; and these sad changes are generally attributed to the influence of some distinguished leader or leaders in wickedness, who impress their own corrupt image on the generation in which they live. But if we trace the evils to their true source, we must go farther back than to the men who stand thus prominent in producing them. Had I time, I would here show, that all those great changes from bad to worse which have rendered nations so corrupt as to consign them to ruin, have been effected through the corrupting influence of mothers, acting on those in childhood, who in manhood became the leading men of their day. Such, the holy Scriptures inform us, was the real cause of that awful wickedness which brought the waters of the deluge on the earth. It was not till "the sons of God took to them wives of the daughters of men" (thus contracting unhallowed and forbidden alliances), that "the wickedness of man became so great in the earth, that it repented the Lord that he had made man, and he said, I will destroy man which I created from the face of the [MARCH, 1868. VOL. V. No. 3.] |