wailed his lost son, and mourned over the departure of the child of his old age; and yet it came at the appointed period. "At evening time it was light." You must wait with hope and patience, till you shall read in your inner and external life, the happy development of God's gracious designs.

Or, if you never read it there, doubt not, but earnestly believe that wise, and holy, and loving. purposes will receive their full accomplishment in your chequered and painful history. Cling with the full confidence of a loving faith to the comprehensive and cheering assurance, that "All things work together for good to them that love God." All things? Yes; those sad disappointments, those arduous strug gles, those pecuniary difficulties, and those heartrending bereavements, which you recall with such deep emotion, are as indispensable in the working out of God's long-formed plans of mercy and goodness, as those bright pleasures, those happy hours, and those prosperous circumstances, on which memory dwells with such regretful delight. Your troubles help to form the path-the only path-which can lead you to a happy futurity.

"All these things are against me!" Was this the language of the venerable patriarch, when he was folded in the embrace of his long-lost son, and when he beheld his glory and exultation as ruler over all the land of Egypt? Nay, in that blissful and dreamlike hour, the spirit of heaviness was exchanged for the garment of praise; and the tried servant of the Most High felt how wise were all God's arrangements, and how mistaken had been his own ideas.

And such shall be the experience of all troubled and faint-hearted Christians. The time will comeeither in this world or the next-when they shall plainly see the true bearing of all earthly events; when they shall recognize the beautiful adaptation of the darkest providences to the end which God had in

view, that end being his own glory and their good. Till that time arrives, they must be content to leave many tangled webs of life unravelled, many myste rious dispensations unexplained. Faith, mighty faith, will preserve them from despondency now, and teach them to anticipate a bright and explicit revelation hereafter. All that at present perplexes them shall eventually be made plain.

Take courage then, dear reader, and patiently endure unto the end. Cast not away your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. Firmly believe, that the afflictions which you meet with here, and which appear, perhaps, rather to increase than to diminish as time rolls on, are not the antagonists, but the promoters of your joy.

Your sorrows are preparing you for peace; your apparent disappointments are the means by which your best desires are to be fulfilled; and your spiritual conflicts are the introduction to coming victories. Rely simply upon the love and wisdom of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Difficulties there are in providence-in grace-in everything, but difficulty is only another name for ignorance. Where you can understand, admire: where you cannot, adore and trust. Leave God Himself to interpret the strange and perplexing events of your life; to explain the many paradoxes which you meet with here: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God;" for the Lord "will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; He will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight."

"With peaceful mind the path of duty run;
God nothing does, nor suffers to be done,

But what thou wouldst thyself, couldst thou but see
Through the events of things as well as He."

H. M. W.

EVENINGS WITH THE EDITOR.

EVENING THE FIFTEENTH,

Emm. ONE of "Cousin Kate's" best works.

Ed. What is ?

Emm. LILY GORDON.*

Ed. Why?

Emm. Because it is clearly written, full of very wise hought, and travels in a new path.

Ed. A new path! Are you sure of that, Emmeline; for really writers, and especially story writers, travel in very beaten tracks.

Mrs. M. And so many tracks have been beaten by so many feet, that it seems to me scarcely possible for writers now to do otherwise

Aug. Nevertheless, Emmeline asserts that this "Cousin Kate" has found out a new road. Pray what is it?

Emm. Well, it seems to me a new one. It bears upon the difficulties of an inexperienced girl when placed at the head of her father's house, and required to manage several domestics. She comes from school to be housekeeper; and, and as might be expected, makes a great many blunders.

Aug. I should think so. Pity she had not learned to make tarts rather than crochet, at school.

Emm. The very thing which a benevolent governess is described in this book as herself regretting. Indeed, she did try to give her pupils the theory of housekeeping; but laments that life at school cannot be rendered a practical preparation for life at home.

Mrs. M. How does Lily get on?

Emm. Badly at first, but gradually succeeds. She has many trials of temper, and is a long time learning that, "It is woman's happiness to serve." Scattered here and there are many passages, beautiful for their wisdom and insight into human nature. I have been frequently reminded, while reading this book, of the "Shades of Character;" the story is not similar, but the style is not unlike.

Mrs. M. You could not give it higher praise.

Ed. You have also been reading FLORENCE EGERTON,† I believe-What is your estimate of it?

* Edinburgh: Kennedy.

+ London: Seeleys.

Emm. It shows how sunshine and shadow are cast over life, even a child's life; is a story prettily told; and is one of those books which so interweave religion with the narrative, that no skipping will disconnect it; and it therefore must leave a useful impression upon the young reader's mind It is one thing to show how a child becomes better, and quite another thing to strive so to write, that the reading of the book shall make the readers themselves better. I am glad to find that books having this intent, are on the increase. The "Wide, Wide World," is the most popular example of the class; but there are others, less widely known, it may be, which are doing the same work as truly and as zealously.

Mrs. M. But Emmeline has not sketched the history of Florence.

Emm. Nor does she mean to. It spoils the reader's pleasure to have the narrative in outline. Let our dear friends borrow these books from the library; that is, if they have no kind relatives to make them presents of them.

Aug. Enough, for the present, of fiction; here is stern, fearful truth-THE PROTESTANT IN IRELAND.* It describes a tour made in 1853, and contains a recital of the usual incidents of travel; reflections such as may be expected from a Protestant's observation of Popery in Ireland, "that omnipresent mischief," as Baptist Noel well styles it; and notes corroborating the writer's views and statements. It is written with much good will towards Ireland, with a hearty detestation of a false religion, and affords ground for hope that a bright future is dawning over the Emerald Isle. The perusal will interest the friends of the sister country.

Mrs. M. A HOME BOOK FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES† may be commended as a varied and attractive collection. The book speaks for itself in verses such as this

"They gather round the table;

They gently open me.
Hymn, ballad, tale, or fable-

Dear mother-shall it be?

Such groups as THESE

I'm bound to please;
And I do it lovingly."

Aug. How ridiculous! THE LIFE OF A BABY.* Has some fond mother met with a miracle in her child?

Emm. Augustus, I am ashamed of you. You should not

* London: Seeleys. † London: Ward & Co.

talk in this way. It is really a very pretty little book, told in simple language, and, although its incidents are not many, as of course they could not be in a baby's history, showing clearly enough, that out of the mouth of babes praise is perfected.

Mrs. M. This little sixpenny memoir has no less than four portraits of its infant subject, the last as she lies in her peaceful slumber of death.

Aug. Pray turn from remarkable babies to REMARKABLE MEN.* Here are sketches of Washington, Bruce, Alfred, Tell, Wellington, Wallace, Luther, Henry IV. of Germany, Graham of Montrose, Cranmer, Frederick, and the Prince of Orange. The narratives are well chosen and clearly described; and as a book of history and adventure, will suit the rising generation very well.

Emm. Here, Augustus, is another useful book for your friends the boys-THE TWO BROTHERS.*

Aug. My friends, indeed!

Emm. Dont be offended, I meant no harm. If you will not condescend to glance through Mr. Power's little book, it may not be amiss that I may state that I have done so, and that my verdict is favourable. It sketches the paths of virtue and of vice, and reminds me of Hogarth's two apprentices. It furnishes, within a small compass, a considerable amount of adventure, and points a very good moral. It is attractive and religious. Wont it do, Augustus ?

Aug. Very likely. And now, Emmeline, I will make you a present of WORK: "Plenty to do, and how to it."

Emm. We have already reviewed it.

Aug. The first series you have, but not the second.

Emm. Well, you can't know anything about its merits, as it is a young lady's book. It must wait till I get time to look over it. Mrs. M. Not necessarily, for I have glanced through it. Its subjects are the Work of Little Children-Young_LadiesTeachers and Taught-Household-Employers and Employed -Country-Sabbath—Thought—Proving. It ends, appropriately, with "Rest." Like the former series, it is grave, affectionate, earnest and wise; and we cannot form a better wish for our young friends than that they would strive to follow the Christian counsels of Margaret Brewster.

Aug. Dr. Kitto's concluding volume of his Daily Readings-the ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. How sorry I am that he has finished the series.

* London: Binns & Goodwin. + Edinburgh: Constable & Co.

Edinburgh: Oliphant & Son.