no end, by which, certainly, none are edified; and, alas! it is too often the individual who can do nothing better than this, who is the most ready to speak first and longest. And then there is the mumbled prayer by those who are afraid of their own voices, which is alike unedifying, for people who are unable to speak audibly should not pray in public.

We have come to think that at least in an organized body, such individuals should be spoken with in private, and instructed concerning their mistakes, and requested for a time to keep silence before the rest, and in private to fix their minds on some one subject as a habit in audible secret prayer. Perhaps Christians in general do not sufficiently seek some daily opportunity for this. Many do, but more of us might do so.

The power of intercessory prayer is at this time manifestly brought before men's minds, for when we think how wonderful are many of the answers now given for the conversion of relatives and friends, we must be sure that the ear of Heaven is open if, indeed, we had not fully believed it before.

We are mourning at this time the loss of one of our praying friends from whom only two months since we received the following letter. A loving contributor and collector for the total expenditure of one of our London Bible Missions,* she had arrived at the great age of eighty-eight, with sight almost undimmed, and mental faculties the same. She passed much of her time in prayer for our work and the workers, and wrote thus

"Whether I sleep little or much I wake at five, and after that do not wish to sleep. I invariably find my Saviour near to me, and can speak out to Him, being always alone; so I have two hours' sweet communion. My prayer, I think, first rises for dear, about whose health I am always anxious, and then I go to Hgo to H――street (where, indeed, I am often in the day), and ask that my dear friends may have the fresh baptism of the Spirit to invigorate them for all duties, that every hour may be marked by the Presence; that every thought of their hearts, every movement of the pen, every interchange of conversation, and all persons brought into contact may be regulated

* "Falstaff-yard," supported by Cheltenham friends.

by that same spirit; that suitable and needful wisdom may be afforded to accept or decline all offers or requests, as God shall please; that trials arising out of any surrounding circumstances may be overruled for good; that mountains may become molehills, and that the Lord may, in every difficulty, meet His dear servants and bring forth His own glory; that in all the variety of the labours of love there may be given that discrimination so essential to the prosperity of the Mission; that all the workers may be gentle and teachable; and that they that wait upon the Lord may continually renew their strength."

And now this voice of prayer has been hushed by death. Its very last utterance was a burst of prayer, and praise, and trust, and then ten minutes' silence, and the dear pilgrim entered into the joy of her Lord. We would ask amid a large circle of unknown friends, especially of those confined to a couch of suffering, for the continuance of prayers like these. We do believe that the prosperity given to this Mission for so many years has been in answer to the prayers of numberless donors, whose gifts have been those of love to their Lord and His Word; and now, under a sense of the loss of one beloved and persevering remembrancer in the early morning hours, our eyes are lifted up unto the Lord Himself, to HIM Who ever liveth to make intercession for those who come unto God by Him, and who is able to save them to the uttermost " (Heb. vii. 25) from the last and uttermost shortcoming that will need His intercession, for will not all His disciples, to the end of their course, need that He should wash their feet? As Mr. Rainsford powerfully expressed it in an address at St. James's Hall :

66

"Between the bath here and the robing-room in heaven the believer contracts defilement on the road, but the Saviour undertakes to wash that away also. This is the very business for which He ever lives at the right hand of God. We have need of the daily cleansing of the girded Saviour. I do not understand walking in the LIGHT OF GOD's presence and not discovering the dreadful spots and stains in himself which that light exhibits to the man who walks in it."

Surely it must be so, for even in our prayers (our actual intercourse with God) 66 we know not what we should nray for as

we ought," and over our very intercessions, the Spirit itself maketh intercession with groanings that cannot be uttered, and this "intercession for the saints is made, we are told, according to the will of God" (Romans viii. 26, 27), therefore what need had the Church ever to ask for the intercession of saints gone up on high intermediately?

And yet while on the day we lose them they are taken to be "with Jesus in paradise," how can we think that they forget their interest in His fast-coming kingdom? Those we have lately lost have left us in a wondrous crisis; and while they have no more need of daily bread or of daily forgiveness-have no more to tell of temptation or of trespasses, and are now and for ever beyond the grasp of the "Evil One "--what new meaning to them have the words "Our Father, who art in heaven"? And it cannot but be that with angelic hosts they pray that His "kingdom may come and His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven." They knew of the prayer of faith going up from all round this world to the same end. They know now more than we do of the power that is meeting that prayer-the power of the Holy Ghost--which the Father hath promised to those who ask it, without ceasing, in the name of Christ their Lord and ours. Perhaps our departed ones deem it now the only power that was on earth worth seeking, and then worth using, hour by hour, for the conversion of souls.

We live in days when God is showing Himself no respecter of persons with regard to this great gift; and we must have power with God in secret prayer, as Mr. Moody tells us, before we can have power in His service. Therefore, in the days which are seen to be days of grace abounding in these our favoured islands of the West, whence the light of the Word of God has already so largely gone forth to other lands; again, we entreat Thee, in the name which is above every name, the name of our risen Jesus, "Lord, teach us to pray, each one afresh, so that we may win more souls for Thy kingdom."

AFFLICTED YET COMFORTED.

"Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom, which He hath promised to them that love Him?"

This text was forcibly brought to mind during my visits

one afternoon, and it may be to the glory of God's grace to record a few instances of how He does enable His suffering children, often in the midst of much poverty and pain, to glorify Him by patience and even joyfulness.

woman.

In one long gloomy-looking street I climbed the staircase of the first house, and entered a small top back room, where, on a bed covered over with a piece of green baize, lay an aged For nineteen weeks she has been confined to her bed, and her strength is now greatly reduced by almost constant suffering, but her face lighted up while we spoke together of the love of Jesus, and of His "strength which is made perfect in weakness." She told me how often, as she laid awake and alone at night, she spent the time in prayer, and then felt Him very near, and while all was still in the first dawn of the early morning, she loved to watch the first ray of light as her back window looked to the East, and how beautiful it was. Her husband died very happily about two years since, and now she is waiting the Master's call, "patient in tribulation and rejoicing in hope❞—her great delight, her Testament and book of large type hymns, which she calls her treasures, and always keeps close by her on the bed. Whenever a Christian friend goes in to read or pray with her, she says it is "like a meal," and she feeds upon it for hours afterwards, for often the pain is too severe for her to read herself.

In the wide low attic of a high house, just opposite, three sisters lived together, one passed away to the better land about a year since, and another is now just waiting her summons home. The younger of the three, a widow, who has been a constant member of the Mothers' Meeting, is the tender and devoted nurse of the poor invalid. Abscesses forming in the throat almost prevent her from either speaking or swallowing, and her thin pale features and wasted form tell of much suffering, but an expression of peace is there. As I sat by her and slowly repeated several texts, "The Lord is my Shepherd," and "My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength," &c., "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee," &c., she followed in a whisper, assenting to all, and then clasped her hands together. Her sister said her prayer was, "Not my will, Lord, but Thine be done."

In a little back parlour of the same street is another dear old woman, one of the "Mothers" who, when able to crawl out, was never absent from her usual seat, but had now been laid up some weeks with rheumatic fever. Her testimony, too, was a very bright one of what the Lord had been to her in her hours of pain. "I did love Him before," she said; "but I never felt Him so near as now." The happy smile on her face witnessed to the truth of her words. I should add that in all these cases our Bible-woman Nurse's visits have been of the greatest use and comfort. They all spoke faithfully of her kindness to them.

A few doors further on I met with perhaps even a more striking instance of the Lord's love and faithfulness. An old man, blind with one eye, and lame with both feet, and in an underground kitchen, filled with clothes hanging to dry, as the wife takes in a little washing to support them both; but though poor in this world, rejoicing in the knowledge of his Saviour and resting in His love. Until about two years since, this man was just as careless and indifferent as the multitude around. An accident, by which he fractured his leg, and was taken to the hospital, was the first thing which seemed to soften him. While he was in a Convalescent Home afterwards he began to read a New Testament which was given to him, and the light dawned upon his soul. When he returned to his home he was like a different creature; instead of being trying and irritable, he had become patient and gentle. His interest in the Word grew more and more. It seemed as though the Lord Himself were his teacher, and truly "Who teacheth like Him?"

A few weeks after this, he was standing on a chair to help his wife hang up her linen, when the chair slipped and he broke the other leg! Here was a fresh exercise of patience, but it was cheerfully borne. In due time he returned a second time from the hospital, walking on a crutch, but still thankful to have a little liberty again. His love for his Bible deepened as time went on, and it was always a pleasure to read it with him, and listen to his expressions of interest in the beautiful stories of the Old Testament and the Gospels.

One day he had been reading to himself the Book of Job, and said he could not help crying as he read of all that Job