HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. BREAD AND APPLE PUDDING. Soak a pie-dish full of stale bread in cold water, crust and crumb altogether. When the bread is thoroughly soaked, squeeze it out, but not too dry; have ready a deep pie dish or tin, well greased. Put a layer of bread at the bottom, then a layer of apples pared and cored; then sprinkle over the apples a little coarse brown sugar, and a little spice; put a layer of bread over this, and a layer of apples, and so continue till your dish is full. Cover it up very closely to keep the steam in, and bake for three or four hours in a slow oven. Let it stand till cold, and it will turn out a beautiful pink, glazed pudding. BREAD AND SUET PUDDING. Soak 1lb. of stale bread in a basin with a quart of water; let it stand an hour; strain off the water, but not very dry; beat it up well with a fork. Add lb. of mutton suet, chopped fine, two ounces of sugar, a pennyworth of carraway seeds, and a little salt; tie up in a cloth, and boil two hours, or bake for an hour and a half. BARLEY BROTH. Wash 4 oz. of Scotch barley thoroughly in cold water; take 4 oz. of sliced onions, put them with the barley into five quarts of water; boil it gently for an hour, then pour it into a pan. Have ready in a saucepan an ounce or two of dripping or melted suet, or of fat bacon, finely minced. Put the saucepan on the fire. When the dripping is melted, stir into it 4 oz. of oatmeal. Mix it all thoroughly together. Be very careful to mix well, or else when the broth is made the fat will rise to the surface. As soon as the paste is made, add the broth set aside in corns. RICE STEW. 4oz. of lean bacon cut in pieces, 1 lb. of rice, three onions sliced, a little parsley, and a few pepperBoil all together for an hour in three pints of water. When it is done, put the pot by the side of the fire. The rice will swell and take up the water. You must be careful, however, to use a large pot. Rice requires a great deal of room to swell, and every grain ought to be dry and sepa rated. HERRING STEW. Pare some potatoes, perhaps a couple of pounds; put them, with two or three herrings, into a stone jar just large enough to hold the quantity; fill up the jar with water, and bake it in an oven for an hour or more. It had better be looked to when half done, because if the potatoes have absorbed all the water, the stew may require that a little more water should be added. THE EYES. Never strain your eyes. Avoid a glare of light. When the eyes feel uneasy, it gives you warning that you are using them ill. Don't sit looking into the fire. Don't read when you are sleepy. SOME time since we were called by Providence to change our residence, and the day before our removal from A- -, I walked round the village to say farewell to all the poor people. In my walk I met a young woman, who, in a most agitated state of mind, addressed me in these words, "O madam, I am quite a stranger here: but I know you care for the soul of a perishing sinner; my poor brother is even now dying. Alas! he knows not God; he never enters a place of worship; he is an infidel! We are living a short distance from this village; do, do come and speak to him." Although I was much pressed for time, I could not resist such an appeal. I accompanied the girl to a miserable abode, and followed her to the bedside of the dying sinner. His sister listened for his breathing; she raised his hand, and it fell heavily at his side. "Alas!" said she, "it is too late, he is quite insensible; I am sorry, ma'am, I have troubled you to come." ; "He still breathes," I replied: "nothing is too hard for God, we will speak to him: the entrance of Thy word, O my God, giveth life. We will, even at the eleventh hour, use the Divine word and then we will pray the Eternal Spirit to seal it upon his heart." I then slowly repeated the following texts close to the ear of the VOL. V. No. 10.] [OCTOBER, 1868. poor man. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die."-" All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."-Sin is the transgression of the law."-"Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."-The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."-" Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart, is only evil continually."—"The thought of foolishness is sin."-"Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."-"Turn ye, turn ye,-for why will ye die ?" I next began to pour in the balm for a wounded spirit. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.' "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."-" A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."-"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." -"Look unto me, and be ye saved."-" Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."- By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." -"If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?"-" Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." 66 Then kneeling down with the young woman, I earnestly entreated that God would water His own Omnipotent word with His own life-giving Spirit. I then took leave of the poor girl, begging her to come for me immediately if her brother evinced (before the morrow) any symptoms of consciousness. No messenger was sent, and the next day we left the village. In a few years, the poor girl's sorrow and her dying brother's awful state vanished from my remembrance; but our God has said, "My word shall not return unto me void." About eight years after we had settled at HI was one day sitting in my drawing-room, when my servant said a man wished to see me. He entered the room, and with much respect and the deepest emotion, and with streaming eyes, exclaimed, "O ma'am, how can I express my gratitude to you! I am the man whom you visited eight years since at- I could not move, I could not speak; but I heard every word you repeated from that blessed Book! and it pleased the God, whose name is Love, to make His own truth a savour of life unto life to my dead soul. I have found Jesus to be indeed "the chiefest among ten thousand, yea, altogether lovely ;" and He has enabled me to hold on my way rejoicing. And I have now, after much difficulty, discovered your abode, that I might have the sweet privilege of telling you what your God has done for my soul." Reader, do you visit the sick and dying, and those who are dead in trespasses and sins? and are you often discouraged by your small success? Take courage from this narrative; use not your own words, seek not to conquer with your own weapons, take only the sword of the Spirit, simply repeat the very words of God, and ask of God the Spirit to seal it upon the heart, and your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. THE YOUNG WITNESS. LITTLE girl, nine years of age, was witness against a prisoner who was on trial for a crime committed in her father's house. "Now, Emily," said the counsel for the prisoner, upon her being put into the witness box, "I desire to know if you understand the nature of an oath." "I don't know what you mean," was the simple reply. "There, your honour," said the counsel, addressing the court, "is there anything further necessary to show the force of my objection? This witness should be rejected. She does not know the nature of an oath." "Let me see," said the judge. "Come here, my little girl." Assured by the kind tone and manner of the judge, the little child stepped towards him and looked up confidently in his face, with a calm, clear eye, in a manner so artless and frank that it went straight to the heart. "Did you ever take an oath?" asked the judge. The little girl stepped back with a look of horror, and the red blood mantled in a blush all over her face and neck, as she answered "No, sir." She thought he meant to inquire if she had ever blasphemed. "I do not mean that," said the judge, who saw her mistake. "I mean, were you ever a witness before?" 66 No, sir; I was never in a court before," was the answer. He handed her the Bible, open. "Do you know that book?" She looked at it and answered, "Yes, sir; it is the Bible." "Do you ever read it?" he asked. "Yes, sir; every evening." "Can you tell me what the Bible is ?" inquired the judge. "It is the word of the great God," she answered. "Well, place your hands upon this Bible and listen to what I say;" and slowly and solemnly he repeated the oath. 'Now," said the judge, "you have sworn as a witness. you tell me what will befall you if you do not tell the truth?” "I shall never go to heaven," she replied. "How do you know this?" asked the judge again. Will The child took the Bible, and turning rapidly to the chapter containing the commandments, pointed to this one-"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." "I learned that before I could read." "Has any one talked with you about your being a witness here against this man?" inquired the judge. "Yes, sir," she replied; "my mother heard they wanted me to be a witness, and last night she called me to her room, and asked me to tell her the Ten Commandments; and then we kneeled down together, and she prayed that I might understand how wicked it was to bear false witness against my neighbour, and that God would help me, a little girl, to tell the truth as it was before Him. And when I came up here with father, she kissed me and told me to remember the ninth commandment, and that God would hear every word that I said." "Do you believe this?" asked the judge, while a tear glistened in his eye, and his lip quivered with emotion. 66 Yes, sir," said the child, with a voice that showed that her conviction of the truth of it was perfect. "God bless you, my child!" said the the judge, "you have a good mother. This witness is competent," he continued. "Were I on trial for my life, and innocent of the charge against me, I would pray God for such a witness as this. Let her be examined." She told her story with the simplicity of a child, as she was; but there was a directness about it that carried conviction of its truth to every heart. She was rigidly cross-examined. The counsel asked her many troublesome questions, but she varied from her first statements in nothing. The truth so spoken by that little child was sublime. Falsehood and perjury had preceded her testimony. But before her testimony falsehood was scattered like chaff. The little child for whom a mother had prayed for strength to be given her, to speak the truth as it was before God, broke the cunning devices and matured villany to pieces like potters' vessels. AN AIMLESS LIFE.-Some live without any design, plan, or aım : they pass along life like straws on a stream: they do not go, they are carried. Live for something. |
