may not be misjudged by thoughtless and ignorant neighbours as being wanting in proper respect for the memory of their departed friends. And are there no clerks, with very limited incomes, no small but respectable tradespeople, no professional men hard pressed to make the greater appearance their position requires of them than is the case with the mechanic's household, who would be thankful to be exempt from the additional burden of having to put their families into mourning when prolonged illness and heavy doctor's bills have already overtaxed their slender resources ? Have those no obligation resting upon them who can follow this fashion without being reduced to such straits to lend their countenance and help to their more needy brethren and sisters? Is not each one of us morally bound to do her utmost to extend any juster, truer view of things she thinks she has herself obtained? Is there no "bearing of one another's burdens" in this, as in other respects, enjoined upon us? And if we may thus share the mental burdens of our fellows it may be that they will prove indeed to be no lighter to carry than are other more palpable ones ! Now, will it seem to those under whose notice this paper may fall that the subject of which it treats is after all but a small matter to place in such a serious light? If we weigh well the burdens of debt which the practice of wearing mourning brings in its train, the wasted time and thought, the unwise expenditure of money it involves, with the vast amount of untruthfulness to which it too often leads,-can we call these things small and unimportant in their influence upon the welfare of the community at large, and of its individual members? Yet in this thing, as in others, let us ever bear in mind the spirit of the apostolic precept: "Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him." And so, whilst we cling, faithfully and without wavering, to the course which alone appears to be the right one for ourselves, whilst others seek no less faithfully to know and follow a Higher Guidance than their own, if others see not yet with us in a matter which we believe to be of no small importance to the general weal, let us patiently wait until "God shall reveal even this unto " them! SUSAN KING. THE SOUND OF THE SEA. "Thank God for His gift of Sea!" * How a word brings it back, The sound of the rushing Sea! Whose great waves over their watery track In the days of long ago, When the heart like them could bound, O mighty voice of waves Still echoing in mine ear, Booming afar in thy lonely caves : O Sea! that hath no peer- Sufficient to thyself, dost bow But at thy Maker's throne. * See Friends' Quarterly Examiner, Seventh Month, 1879. Earth has no sacred spot Left now in her deepest shadesHow low or how high it matters not, There man's rude step invades ; Roughly the veil he tears From her most secret shrine Alike to deal with thine ! Ages have come and gone, Will come and go the same, He rules the Earth where he treads thereon, But the Sea can no man tame. Proudly his way he cleaves. Through the everlasting Hill ; The Lightnings, caught and trained, But foiled before thy face, O Sea, he stands to-day : Nor till from their primeval base Wilt thou give up the key That locks thy treasure fast; Only to Him who fashioned thee Until then unsubdued : Is it this thou art fain to say Let loose as the steed from reign, And from Earth's tired face were swept All trace of her woes away, Of the blood that was shed, the tears that were wept Not one lingering stain would stay; And should heavenly watchers bow O'er a world-wide, surging sea, Far calmer than that which greets them now Baptised in the cleansing wave, Close gathered to Ocean's breast, What matter how fast the billows drave Over a world at rest! When we hear the unceasing wail Which the peaceful Heavens enfold, How long shall the strife endure? Will it hush 'neath the mighty deep? While safe through the waters the washed and pure, As through fire, their garments keep. Nothing the floods shall drown It becometh their King to save; (If such doom for the Earth shall be), Is it wherefore, where Death shall be slain at last, We are told-there is no more Sea? JANE BUDGE. A THREE DAYS' VISIT TO BIRMINGHAM. RECEIVING a warm invitation from an earnest Christian family at Birmingham, we arrived there on Saturday, December 6th, with a view of combining in the three days at our disposal, a visit to our valued friends,--an inspection of the varied work carried on under the auspices of the "Severn Street Schools"— and especially of sharing in the deeply interesting occasion of a party given to 1,000 of the aged poor of Birmingham. This paper is designed to gave a brief sketch of what we saw, and of how the many laudable efforts to do good in this vigorous Midland town" strike a stranger." On Sunday morning, at 6.45, my friend and proffered guide-himself superintendent of a large school at the Bristol Street branch-called to conduct me to Severn Street. Rapidly we walked over the crisp snow in the early dawn, with the thermometer standing at 5o Fahrenheit (or twenty-seven degrees of frost), until we reached the breakfast-room, which we found brightly lighted and warmed, furnished with hot tea and accompaniments, and occupied by thirty or forty teachers, many of them young men, who had braved the intense cold of this dark December morning to extend the hand of sympathy and help to their less favoured brethren. I took my seat next to one of the veterans of the cause, William White, who told me he had presided at that tea urn for twenty-one years of these early Sunday breakfasts. Earnestly did I wish Godspeed to him and his fellow-workers, who have so long engaged in this noble work, and desire that they might, in watering others, be abundantly watered |