millions. Who, then, can refrain from saying that "war is the slaughter-house of mankind, the hell of this present world?" Such alarming statistics touch our hearts to the quick, and make us feel most deeply. Thucydides shed tears when he heard Herodotus repeat his history of the Persian wars at the public festivals of Greece; and the dreadful calamities attendant upon war are sufficient to make any one shed tears. They are enough almost to make us say, in the language of one of England's sweetest poets:

"Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more!"

We may well pray, therefore, for the dawn of that happy time, the elysian period, when the sword shall be beaten into the ploughshare, and the spear into the pruning-hook, and men shall learn war no more. Not only should we pray for the dawn of the day of universal peace and amity, but we should labour for it, by spreading the principles of true philanthropy-the principles of love one toward another. War has its origin in that spirit which, in private circles, leads to quarrels, contentions, and disruptions. It may not seem much for brethren and sisters to set each other at defiance and act in hostility to one another, but that is the very spirit which animates nations, when, with full equipment, they hurry to spill each others' blood.

"Let

What we should do, then, is to repress this spirit, that the opposite quality may shine forth in our lives. "Above all things, says the scripture, "put on charity, which is the bond of perfection." brotherly love continue." "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another." "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking, be put away from you, with all malice; and be ye kind one toward another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." It is by thus cultivating love and concord between individuals that we may expect the illustrious day when the battle-field shall wave with golden corn, and peace mantle with its sunny smiles every part of the world.

After all, the interests of peace may be most largely served by the spread of the gospel. Men cannot be brought to do their duty one towards another until they receive the gospel. Then let us spread the gospel, as the surest means of conciliating nations and cementing them together in the bonds of true brotherhood.

What is better than peace between nations, or peace between individuals, is peace with God. A soldier dying in the Crimea requested to have the passage read to him which says, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you;" when that was done, he said, "I have that peace; I am going to the Saviour; God is with me; I want no more;" and with those words upon his lips he expired. May all our readers have peace with God, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

CHEMISTS tell us that a single grain of the substance called iodine will impart colour to seven thousand times its weight of water. It is so in higher things-one companion, one book, one habit, may affect the whole of life and character.

Three Typical Prayers.

I. THE wanderer is returning. Twenty years have passed away since Jacob left his home, exiled by his own wrong doing. He went away with nothing but a staff, he comes back "two bands," with children and servants, and flocks and herds. But his sin is with him still. It has been lying in wait all the while he has been with Laban; and now "it has found him out." He has often tried to explain it away, or soften it down to his own conscience, or forget it altogether; but now, in the light of the news just brought, "Behold thy brother Esau cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him," all its shameful atrocity starts up before him he sees it as it really is. He knows that all that company is not needed to give him the kiss of welcome home again. He feels not only the sin has found him out, but its punishment will speedily overtake both him and all his loved ones, and so, as he cannot fight Esau, he puts his cause into God's hands; he sends both his bands over the brook, and alone he enters into that closet, the floor of which was the green grass, and the ceiling Heaven's firmament, and the walls. the thick midnight darkness all around, and-prays.

In that prayer, constantly repeated over so many hours for deliverance from Esau, Jacob was able to plead God's distinct instructions to him to return, and His equally distinct pledge of defence-the God that said unto him, "Return unto thy country, and I will deal well with thee." And so, while the Angel put his hand on Jacob's sinew, and lamed him for life, Jacob was able to put his finger on the angel's lips, and overcame Him with His own words, "Thou saidst." On the direction and the promise he stood and conquered. He began his prayer a threatened weakling, he ended it a prince with God and with man.

II. The enemy has become a friend. Blaspheming Saul is changed into prayerful Paul. And to nerve his heart so that he may look on Cæsar without shrinking, and face life's troubles and pains without flinching, and give up all earth's possessions and prospects without regret, he is given a sight of the throne of heaven, and of Him who sits thereon; some of the exceeding weight of glory is for a moment or two of wondrous ecstasy put upon his shoulder; some of eternity's rest and sunshine revealed in those transcendent words which it was never lawful for him to utter here. But with all this glory of the soul there is given him a thorn in the flesh, and it frets and worries him. His proud and sensitive nature shrinks from this perpetual irritation, and he, too, prays -prays thrice that it might be taken away. But he was able to plead no promise; in his wrestling he could not put his finger on the lips of the Lord Jesus, and he had to keep his thorn, albeit its rankling was assuaged by the Saviour's grace, which Paul found so sufficient for him, that he was able to glory in his infirmity and rejoice, thorn and all.

III. The Redeemer of mankind has just entered His last great conflict. It is the night before His crucifixion. He has finished all His words of love and promise to His disciples, and He goes to meet the traitor and his band, and be led forth to ignominy and death. The curse of a guilty world is hanging heavy on Him; the floods of His Father's wrath are roaring and swelling over His gentle spirit; the dark dread

night of misery before His enemies is present to His all-seeing vision; the cross which all His life has been present with Him as a shadow, starts up now in front of Him as an awful, soul-crushing reality. And He, too, prays-prays thrice that if it were possible that infinitely bitter cup might pass from Him. But His Father's will and His

Father's words were all the other way; He had come into the world to drink this cup; He was born a man that He might carry man's sins up on to the accursed tree; and so, with an effort that shook His whole nature, He added, "If this cup may not pass away except I drink it, Thy will be done." And this submission to His Father's known will, this conquering of the shuddering shrinking humanity which would have revolted against the shame and the horror of the cross was the moment of His strengthening. He found His Father's smile sufficient for Him; sufficient help to go through all the terrible ordeal which lay before Him, and all hell staggered under the blow which that giving up dealt against its hold over our poor humanity.

These three prayers are types of all the petitions which Christians present to their Father in heaven.

1. Where the petition is based upon God's promise.

2. Where the petitioner does not know what God's will is concerning his prayer.

3. Where the petitioner asks for deliverance from a trial he believes God has sent.

In the prayer of Jacob we see the certainty of success in the persistent prayer of any one of us who can plead, for its acceptance, God's command and God's promise.

In that of Paul, where no such promise or command could be pleaded, as God knew best what would be most for the welfare of those amongst whom Paul worked, and also for the benefit of Paul himself. Paul gladly acquiesced in his Master's refusal of his request. We may learn from this that where God has not revealed His will, a refusal of our prayer, with grace sufficient given to bear the thorn, may be the best and kindest answer God can give both for ourselves and others.

From the prayer of the Lord Jesus we gather that when we know, or believe we know, what our heavenly Father's will is, if we venture to ask for a deliverance from a cross, however terrible, which that will lays on us, we must add, "Yet, not our will, but Thine be done."

From all three we may learn that men ought always to pray, and that it is right to ask God for what we want, thus making our requests known unto Him, even though He should think it right to say no. And we may also learn that no real prayer is ever overlooked or forgotten; that whether in the yes which grants our request, or in the grace sufficient for us" with which He accompanies His refusal, He blesses and strengthens every soul that waits on Him in spirit and in truth. S. D. RICKARDS.

I THINK the influence of a good man or a good woman teaching ten or twelve children in a class, is an influence for this world and the world to come that no man can measure, and the responsibility of which no man can calculate.John Bright.

Our alsall Chapel.

THE roof is going on. The building will soon be covered in. Everything is solid, good, and enduring. Such are the tidings that reach us concerning our Home Mission Chapel for 1878-9 from our AssistantSecretary, the Rev. J. Fletcher, who has just inspected the work. But the funds do not come to hand so rapidly as we wish. OUR EXCHEQUER IS QUITE EMPTY. Our President, R. Johnson, Esq., has contributed £50. Mr. J. Bakewell has forwarded a sovereign: T. B. W. has forwarded half-a-crown. One friend said I could not resist your appeal. I wish there were hundreds more like him. Friends! Do send help! Remit a packet of five-pound notes. Forward a cheque. Enclose P. O. O's. The right time has come. Do not suffer our action to be fettered for want of funds. Moneys will be gratefully received by Rev. W. Lees, Walsall; T. H. Harrison, Esq., Wardwick, Derby; or the Secretary, JOHN CLIFFORD.

Methods of Christian Work.*

THERE are latent forces in the churches of Christ which need awakening and bringing into active service for our Master. It therefore becomes us to originate plans of work suitable to call forth and develop the energies and talents of the various classes of our church members. The Church needs work as much as the world needs workers. We refer to the following modes of service as calculated to employ a great variety of talent.

I. A Band of Scripture Readers to sick and aged.-Hundreds of our church members might engage in this work with great benefit to themselves and to those who heard them. The youngest believer who can read might thus find something to do for Jesus. Let the band have a leader to watch over and direct it, and let cases of interest be reported at the prayer meetings.

II. A Band of Females to help the sick and needy in their domestic affairs.— Diocesan nurses without diocesan nonsense. Lady good Samaritans, who would prove themselves all the more lady-like because they were not afraid to soil their fingers if thereby they could help a needy soul and please the Master. Let those who are willing to engage in this work signify their willingness to their pastor, that he may know where to go for help of this kind, when he finds a needy case in his visitations. Three classes of people unfit for this work :1, Great talkers; 2, Very fussy people; 3, Unsympathetic people. This work requires much grace; only such as are thoroughly christianised from head to foot, and through and through, ought to be encouraged to engage in it.

III. A Home Mission Band, which would divide the neighbourhood around the chapel into small sections, and appoint a visitor to each section who would call upon all new comers and non-church or chapel goers, and invite them to the house of God. The sections should be small, so that the visitor could soon know every house, and be able to do his work thoroughly.

IV. Cottage Meetings have been of great service in reaching a class that never would have been reached by the ordinary ministrations of the sanctuary. Get some friend to open his house for a meeting, and get the neighbours in by. a special personal invitation, and then make the meeting as social as possible; read and pray and talk together; but be in earnest all through. In some cases it might be well to make arrangements to invite a few neighbours to tea, if they could not be got to the cottage meeting without. Cottage meetings work best in winter months; begin them at once.

V. Open-air preaching is also an efficient means of doing good. There are thousands who will never hear the gospel at all unless they hear it in the open

* Suggested at the London Conference, October 2nd, by Rev. G. Wright, Hitchin.

air.

There are more than 5,000,000 in our own country who go to no place of worship. We must go to them or they will never come to us. We are commanded to preach the gospel to every creature-not only to every congregation, and in every church, but to every creature. Open-air preaching is one of the most likely means to bridge over the fearful chasm that exists between the Church and the busy millions of our nation.

VI. Flower Missions to Hospitals, Infirmaries, and Private Homes.-The church at Hitchin has been engaged in this work. All through the spring and summer a hamper of flowers has been sent for distribution in London, and several young ladies have visited the Hitchin Infirmary every week with bouquets of flowers and short texts of scripture attached to them. Their visits are eagerly watched for and gladly welcomed; sometimes they speak a few kind words, and sometimes they sing hymns of Jesus to the poor sufferers.

Why could not many churches have a flower mission connected with them? ·Country churches might often supply churches in towns and cities;-the country Sunday school children and friends would be pleased to gather and send the flowers; and the poor of our cities, many of whom never see a flower, might be cheered by a small bouquet. The flowers which God has made so beautiful would secure a welcome for the words of God attached to them, and the employment of writing the texts, and doing the work, would be useful to all engaged in it.

Our neighbours perish day by day,
Thousands on thousands pass away;
O Christians to the rescue fly,
Preach Jesus to them ere they die.

G. WRIGHT.

Work at Bimberley.

WHAT LOCAL PREACHERS CAN DO.

Scene-The Market Place, Nottingham. Time-About four o'clock in the afternoon. Dramatis Persona-Mr. Earnest, a Christian merchant; and Mr. Warner, a tradesmen and Baptist local preacher.

Mr. Earnest. Good afternoon, Mr. Warner, hope you are quite well and happy.

Mr. Warner. In splendid health and spirits, thank you, my brother, and the thoughts which were just passing through my mind when I met you had very much to do with the jubilant condition of the latter.

E. Oh, indeed! well, knowing your general desire to make other people happy, may I presume to ask what were those peculiarly pleasant thoughts to which you refer ?

W. Well, I was thinking of the anniversary services which have just been held at Kimberley.

E. Oh, you mean the work which was commenced there last year; I should be glad to know how they are progressing.

W. Well, they have just celebrated their first anniversary, and a very successful time it was with them, I can assure you. On Sunday, the 29th of September, Mr. A. Brittain, of Nottingham, preached, and on the following day there was a tea and public meeting, On the Sunday afternoon, Mr. Almy, of Hucknall, with about twenty-five of his friends, walked over to Kimberley to the service, in order to encourage the friends there; and at the tea and public meeting on the Monday, notwithstanding the drenching rain, there were three traps loaded with visitors from the church at Hucknall, and two from Nottingham. About 120 sat down to tea, and there were between two and three hundred at the after meeting. The speakers were Messrs. Almy, Ward, Richardson, Sharman, Brittain, Bentley, and Lawrence, who did their work well. The chair was occupied by Mr. Donalley, a gentleman from the Methodist Free Church in the place, and we were also treated to some excellent music by a choir composed of friends connected with the little church, together with sym