richly endowed and poorly endowed, side by side; and then lays his finger on the heart and purse of every man that has, and says, "Give." Let the strong bear burdens for the weak, the high descend to the low, and lift them up; those who have gifts become debtors to those who have them not. "Give," says God, and his imperative finds its meaning in the doing. The need of this world in all its untold forms turns and creeps toward wealth like the house-plant toward the morning sun, to seek help; and when it stands before us in the wretchedness and helplessness which every day meet us, or rises in vision in the idolatry and degradation of millions in heathen lands, God says, "Ye are full: your brother is empty." Can't you take the hint? 66 'Freely ye have received, freely give." God wishes to enlarge you, develop you into an affluent soul, and make you feel how divine and blessed it is to give. "To give is to live to deny is to die."

This principle of getting and giving was beautifully illustrated by that band in Jerusalem, after the Day of Pentecost, who were of one heart and one soul, eating their bread with joy and singleness of heart. Though it took a transitory form in the selling of houses and lands, and a common treasury-a form which was not required, or ever afterward enforced yet the principle implied in the words, "No man said that which he had was his own," is the principle of the Church in all ages. It stands while it confesses and practises, and falls and goes to pieces when it denies this. Great grace demanded a great gift; and the Jerusalem church was able, with the exception of one family, to give it. We read of a widow in whose gift Christ took a great interest, because it amounted to so much, not to the

It had

treasury, but to the woman. in it a heart, a sacrifice, a meaning, which He could not overlook; and He made the gift and giver immortal. Why she gave so much we know not; but Jesus did. We know that the giving of her whole living meant want in her home, a crumb instead of a loaf; but Jesus saw, I doubt not, that it meant love to God and His service, a sacrifice of the lower wants of life for the sake of the desires of the soul, a giving which was up to her full ability. Now, Christ did not insist that others should give as she did, except the young man who was commanded to sell all, and give to the poor; but wishes us to know that He loved that act on her part. It was so beautiful and precious, that He made a record of it which would never fade away. He caught up those two mites which were falling among the shekels, and put them away in His heart, because they had a meaning in them. Let us see to it that our giving has a meaning in it, and is commensurate with our ability.

There was Zaccheus, the man of little stature and great heart, and Jesus loved him. When Jesus went into his house, and the love of Jesus into his soul, he felt blessed for ever. But, instead of allowing his good feelings to evaporate in mere emotion and good resolutions, he talks business at once, and proposes to give half his goods to the poor. He measures his gift by his receipts that day in grace. He struck a death-blow to the selfishness which had arrayed him against God and man, and developed so many evils.

You will readily recall the widow and her memorable gift of the alabaster box, and those choice sayings, “Freely ye have received, freely give;" "It is more blessed to give than to receive;"

and that pictorial scene of the Judgment Day, when doing or not doing will be the test of real life and character; and all those incidents, precepts, and commands which are found in God's Word. "To do good and communicate, we must not forget."

Now, when Jesus Christ redeemed us from the debt of sin which was sinking us down into despair, we became His for ever. This was the Covenant we made. We dedicated ourselves, our future life and gains, to Him in a whole-hearted, living service. When Jesus accepted us, He laid our gifts back on our hands with fullest confidence in our vows, and said, "Hereafter manage all for my interest, your real good, and report finally to me. Occupy till I come.' Hence we are to labour for Him: not living six days for ourselves, and one for the Lord; not striking ten blows on the anvil for the family, and one for the Church; not sowing ten acres for selfish gain, and for one benevolence; not spending nine-tenths of life for the world, and one-tenth for God: but life, gain, and labour, all for the Lord. When we spend, we are to spend all for the Lord. We are to feel that we and our families are objects of His care; He takes pleasure in all that tends to health, happiness, true refinement, and the education of the mind; and we contribute to that which pleases Him when we meet those wants; but if we spend uselessly, extravagantly, and wastefully, we squander what is not our own, and displease our Redeemer. But, above and beyond all this, we are to feel others are objects of His care, as precious and dear to Him as we are; they have not our advantage, ability, and prosperity; and He has put those things into our hands] for their good,

that we may share with them, meet their wants, and secure for them those things which Christ takes pleasure in seeing us enjoy. But right here we fail, and break our covenant. We live in a circle too small. We are too much occupied with persons called I, Me, and My. We have little breadth of perception. The wants of others do not grow into our dull, unsympathetic natures; the great sorrowing, moaning heart of humanity does not surge up against our souls, and quicken our sympathy. We allow the means which Christ has given us to grow up around us like thick walls to shut out the cries and groans of others; we allow it to pamper our pride, injure our souls, retard the spiritual life of our children, and accumulate on our hands, and thus contravene Christ's purposes, and become a swift witness against us. Not only are we to expend all for the Lord, but to do it with a benevolence that breaks over and rolls beyond home and neighbours. Our gifts should go out into the world as far as any promise of God goes. Missionaries should be sent as far as the great commission of Christ sends them. "Christ journeyed farther than any foreign missionary the world ever knew."

Then let us get all we can in the name of the Lord, and keep giving as fast as we get. So long as we can be sure that the money we are making is "expanding with the expanding soul," it is good, and that continually. Happy the man whose good desires ripen into fruit, and whose selfish thoughts perish in the blossom; but woe, woe eternally, to the man whose good desires perish in the blossom, and whose selfish thoughts ripen into fruit!From the "Baptist Missionary Mayazine."

THE

"Guillaume came by the last train on Saturday night, and left by the 1.40 train on Sunday afternoon. He was much pleased to make the acquaintance of your parents. As you may suppose, there was but little time for conversation. He appears to see quite a réveil in Brittany. He says the number of invitations he receives from strangers for preaching is really extraordinary. He says that even in localities where there has never been any preaching, he finds from two to seven hundred people gathered, and the silence is so great that you might hear a pin drop. Last week, responding to one of these invitations, he found a large concourse of people assembled, and was about to begin the service, when two gendarmes and the mayor stopped him to question him on whose authority he held the meeting. He answered, courteously, 'Gentlemen, if you will give me a few moments, you shall know all;' and making his way to the door preached for an hour to more than 700 persons. He had begun by turning to the passage: Go ye into all the world.' When he had finished, the gendarmes and mayor shook him by the hand, and said, 'We approve of what you have been saying; these meetings can certainly do no harm.' At another meeting the cornet had been sent by the priest to make a disturbance. Seeing that it was planned annoyance, he

called to the man to come near, and then began: My man, I know you have been paid to come here and make a disturbance, and also, to give you the courage to do such dirty work, the curé gave you to drink. Well, my poor fellow, I want to remind you; that one of these days you must die, maybe this very night God will call you away, and then you must render account of your doings before Him.' After speaking thus for a few minutes, the poor wretch sat down and never moved; the rest of the audience seemed greatly impressed, so much so that they remained with their hats off during the preaching, and even took their pipes out of their mouths. Guillaume says he never saw that before. It appears that two priests especially have been trying to annoy him, and even to assault him, laying wait round his house at night with sword-sticks. Having been warned secretly several times not to leave the house at night because of evil intentioned persons, and having found the information exact, he took occasion to ask the Procureur, since when these priests had taken out a permit to carry arms. The Procureur said no declaration had been made to that effect by priests, and the authorities would soon be down upon them, and see what this meant.

"The Vicaire, it appears, had even

invited Mr. LeCoat, by letter, to meet him near a certain ditch to enter into explanation. Guillaume replied, that honest persons were not afraid of having their doings known, and that he was ever ready to meet him in a fit place and in broad daylight, but a bye-path and dusk were only chosen by evil-intentioned persons. He seems very happy at the state of things, but sighs for women agents. He says we want women-teachers-good mothers, &c. The few poor women occupied in the work have so little instruction. They have added to their family an orphan from the Commune, one of Madame de Pressensé's girls, sent to them because she was unmanageable. For the few days she had been with them they had not to complain, but she seemed hard. All her answers are in dry steel monosyllables; but, as Guillaume says, perhaps little affection has been shown to her. continues to give satisfaction, but his immense growth is detrimental to his studies. It appears, a few nights ago Guillaume had occasion to send him on an urgent commission; the lad saw through the darkness a tall figure holding a pitchfork in a menacing position. As it was in a very lonely part of the road, the boy at first felt rather uncomfortable, but remembering that spirits do not walk about like that, he made a spring at the fork and

Tiunter

wrenched it out of the fellow's hands -the coward took to his heels, and Tiunter returned triumphantly with the trophy. Although they have made inquiries in every direction to find the owner of the fork, no one as yet claims it. It probably belongs to some one who was seeking not Tiunter but his master. So much for some of the details he gave us. The Sundayschool was average, the lesson was the first six verses of the 21st chapter of Acts. Guillaume questioned well, and I am glad to say the children, especi-ally Lily, answered very satisfactorily. Between the Sunday-school and service we sang a hymn. The service began by the reading of the 7th chapter of first Samuel. Guillaume took for the subject of his discourse the last part of the second verse. made some comparison between the réveils taking place in various parts of the world and that which was manifesting itself in Brittany. He developed his text well, and spoke with much native eloquence. I heard such remarks as this after the service: 'Why, it's another Luther!' 'I declare he is a second Spurgeon!' 'He is a wonderfully gifted man,' &c. And all that in spite of inferior French. You will, I know, gather strength for your work in perusing these details, very imperfectly reproduced."

He