drawn by a donkey, and containing quite as many females as males, being predominant." After the frequent testimony to the uncleanliness and disorderly state of the Costermonger's household, we were agreeably surprised to alight upon the statement of one of our Readers in one of the largest and poorest districts in the east of London, that the homes of some of the Costermongers were "patterns of cleanliness," that their wives and children were "well dressed," and that the latter 66 were sent to school." "These," he adds, and here he clears up the mystery, "are all total abstainers," and, having given up drinking, have become kinder to their wives and families, and orderly members of society. Many instances might be given, if that were needed, of the blessing which total abstinence from intoxicating drink has been to the poor-and too often cruelly temptedLondon Costermonger. Let one case suffice. The man has been a total abstainer for upwards of four years. Before that time he was "the most cruel and wicked man to be found in the neighbourhood." His poor wife, who is a consistent Christian, says that she and the children were obliged to make their escape, when he had been drinking, or they would have been killed. He is now a respectable man, is kind to his wife and children, and allows them to attend Church, which, in his drinking days, he never would permit. He lately assured the Scripture Reader that abstinence from drink had alone saved him from utter and irretrievable ruin. THE POOR PHARISEE; OR, MUCH HEARING, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 COR. iii. 11. T is perfectly marvellous-or would be so, but for the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart-how many sermons may be heard, how long and regularly the House of God may be attended as a matter of form, how very exemplary one may be in the ordinary affairs of life, and yet the heart remain "hard" as a piece of the nether millstone-"dead" in trespasses and sins. Hence the great value of house-to-house visitation, of "holding forth the Word of Life" from room to room throughout our districts. To the poor in every sense, to the poor of all descriptions, the Scripture Reader bends his steps with that word which is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Here he meets the church or chapel goer, there the despiser of God's house, both alike, perhaps, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, knowing not that all "our" righteousnesses-whether of regular habitual service, or of mere outward morality—are "as filthy rags." Hence, too, the great advantage of the conversational, or familiar mode of instruction, which enables our Readers, after reading solemnly, as in God's presence, the words of Eternal Truth, to press home to the conscience the particular portion which seems specially adapted to each individual case. Not long since, there lived in one of the most important and most densely populated of the central parishes of London an honest, industrious, careful woman, remarkable for her exemplary conduct in all the affairs of life. Not one, probably, in the whole congregation could boast of a more regular and constant attendance at the house of God. At the chapel of which she had formerly been a member, so habitual was her attendance that she had not missed, to her knowledge, a single Sunday service for sixteen years. More recently the regularity of her attendance at church was the remark of many persons who neither knew her name nor where she lived. During all these years of attendance upon the ordinances of public worship she could not have heard fewer than three thousand sermons. But, alas! this very regularity of service was made a snare to her. She found a resting-place in her services, instead of her Saviour. She had come to church, but not to Christ; and was consequently like the foolish man in Christ's Sermon on the Mount, building her house " upon the sand." When our Reader first visited her, she stated as the ground of her hopes, that "she had always lived a very regular life, owed no man a penny, and did not see she had anything on her conscience," with much more in the same strain, all of which might be summed up in the words of the Pharisee, "God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are." She who had attended "all the means of grace," what lacked she yet? Could she be among the lost sheep-the prodigals-the slumberers-the wanderersthe blind? Impossible! Such a thought never entered her head. Now this was a case which seems to us to bring out most strikingly the importance of house-to-house, or, as it might very properly be called, face-to-face visitation. Here was a woman trusting to her regularity in attending the house of God, and to her own moral rectitude in the sight of man, for the salvation of her soul. And in all human probability. she would have gone on trusting in her own righteousness, had she not been brought face to face with the man of God, who at once pointed out to her, lovingly but earnestly, the rottenness of the foundation upon which she was building. "Other foundation," he assured her, "can no man lay than that is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST." But she was very unwilling to doubt the firmness of the foundation on which she had built, or to recognise anything but "gold, silver, precious stones" as built upon it. Many a visit was paid with but little or no result. The Reader, however, was careful to select, from time to time, those portions of Scripture, for reading and conversation, which spoke more particularly of God's holiness and justice, and of man's fallen, depraved, and lost condition, both by nature and by practice. The former demanded the punishment of sin, and passed the sentence, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die;" "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." We need, therefore, a perfect righteousness as a title to heaven. We must be presented in the presence of God, if presented at all, without spot, and blameless. For “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.” This righteousness can alone be found in Jesus, but will assuredly be found in Him by all who come to Him as sinners. It is "unto all and upon all them that believe." The Spirit graciously applied the truth of God as brought out in these readings and conversations, and led her to look more into herself and into the Word, showing her both what she was and what she was not. One morning, as our Reader entered, she exclaimed, "Oh, I am so glad to see you! All last night and this morning the thought has been constantly on my mind, 'Can it be possible that such a sinner as I have been, can ever be admitted to heaven?'" This was different language from that to which he had been accustomed. The light had evidently been shining into her heart, as it did into the heart of Saul, and she was ready, like him, to acknowledge herself to be not only a sinner, but the chief of sinners. It was now the Reader's happy privilege to direct her to the blood of the Atonement-to that blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin. He showed her how rich and positive the promises are to all who confess their sins and feel their need of God's forgiving love. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." He then read the fifth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, showing that those for whom the Saviour died were "the ungodly,” “sinners,” "enemies;" and that " if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." She was not one hastily to receive any statement or doctrine at the mouth of the Reader. She would search the Scriptures daily whether these things were so, and read for herself of the love of God in the gift of His Son, and the love of Christ in the work of the Atonement. At length, seeing these things clearly revealed in God's own Word, she embraced them as precious truth, and threw herself, as a poor helpless sinner, on the love and mercy of God in Christ Jesus, exclaiming, "Lord, save me, or I perish." "O sovereign love! to Thee I cry, Save me from death, from hell set free,—— Thy throne, Thy mansion make my heart, Thus was this poor woman—who three years before had told more than one person that "she did not see she had anything to repent of," and "wondered how the Rector (who had spoken to her faithfully about her soul) could have such a bad opinion of her; she thought she must have some very wicked neighbours"-brought as a great sinner to the feet of the Saviour. She who had been co satisfied with all she had heard and done, was now satisfied that all her righteousnesses were as filthy rags. How different were her views now, from what they once were, of sin, herself, and her Saviour! She had found an Almighty Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him, instead of the little saviour for little sinners, which, she once thought, was all she needed. And this must be the experience of every true child of God. It was the experience of the Brahmin who had visited nearly all the shrines of Hindoo idolatry in Northern India, seeking rest, and finding none. At length, having found the Pearl of great price, he was asked, "Did not your fastings, your prayers, your austerities tend to remove the veil of darkness from your mind?" Listen," he replied: one night the full moon shone out in all her splendour, each star gave forth its most lustrous light, and every burning mountain was in a blaze; they had all combined their powers to turn that night into day; BUT IT WAS NIGHT STILL, UNTIL THE SUN AROSE. And so it was with me: until the beams of the Sun of Righteousness arose in my heart, all inferior lights left me still wrapt in night." 66 66 From this time her light increased, as her health and strength declined. Christ and His finished work were, to her, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Faith seemed to have chased away all darkness and all fears from her mind. And when for the last time our Reader kneeled by her bedside, she showed most conclusively how warmly she entered into all the petitions; how entirely she was resting on Christ as all her salvation and all her desire; and with what quiet assurance she was waiting to be ushered into His presence, where there is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore. "Not the labours of my hands "Nothing in my hand I bring; THE HAIRDRESSER AND HIS SON; OR, THE POWER OF THE WORD. "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void."-ISAIAH lv. 11. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."-MATT. iv. 4. HE Word of God is a living power: 66 are taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus." Men do not sufficiently realize this, or surely they would prize the Bible more, and endeavour, in season and out of season, to scatter more widely that seed of life which God's Spirit ever uses, and which is never sown in vain. The following fact will be read with interest, and we trust will be the means of encouraging many of our Readers "to sow beside all waters." Some time since it pleased God to send a deep sorrow into the family of a hairdresser residing in street. His son, a fine |