admire both would argue a total absence of taste, and an insensibility not to be coveted by anybody. Your ladyship is a powerful auxiliary to the Methodist cabinet; and I confess, notwithstanding my own private feelings and sentiments, I am infinitely pleased at your zeal in so good a cause. You must have twenty pounds for this new tabernacle, but I must beg my name not to appear."

And it was unto him according to his desires; his name was never enrolled among those who loved their Lord, while his corrupt principles and maxims are handed down to us in a volume of "Letters to his Son," a book which illustrates the well-known yet often-to-be-repeated lesson, that bright talents can make no amends for bad morals. "Death" he declared to be "a leap in the dark," and dark and dreadful did he find the leap to be. As the pains of dissolving nature increased upon him, and human help was vain, his cold and mocking scepticism could offer neither present alleviations nor future hope. "The blackness of darkness, accompanied by every gloomy horror, thickened most awfully around his dying moments," says lady Huntingdon, who vainly tried to administer the only consolation which could avail.

Far different was the impression which lady Fanny Shirley on her sick-bed made upon the surrounding attendants. Once, as a reigning beauty at court, Chesterfield had addressed to her some of his most famous epigrams; after that she chose that better part which could never be taken from her. "I am quite at a loss to explain how lady Fanny is enabled to bear such a severity of suffering with so much tranquillity, and so few symptoms of restlessness and murmuring," said her physician to Mr. Venn; can you account for it, sir?"

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Sir," answered Venn, "that lady happily possesses what you and I ought daily to pray for, the grace of her Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost."-Leisure Hour.

Sparks from Hell, or

"Cover it."

ONG ago, I remember when I, a little girl, was playmate with my brother and his companions, there was one rather dangerous sport in which we took great delight. Our favourite play-ground was a fir-wood behind the garden, and there in the sandy soil, and amongst the gnarled roots, we kindled fires and built ovens.

Never was any feast so delicious as the potatoes we baked among the ashes, or the half scorched apples we roasted on the embers. Even the sloes and wild plums, the very remembrance of which now sets my teeth on edge, were esteemed by us as dainties, after we had cooked them with our own hands in our much-beloved fires. As I was the only girl, I was made generally useful, and my strong linen pinafore, held by the corners, formed a most convenient receptacle in which to gather sticks and fir-cones to feed the fires, or potatoes and apples to roast in them.

On one occasion, whilst I was stooping over the fire, feeding it with fuel, a spark from the burning wood lighted unseen in the folds of my dress beneath the pinafore. It smouldered away in the thick tweeled cotton, and burnt through to the clothes beneath, till at length my attention was attracted by the smell of burning and an extraordinary feeling of heat in my bosom. I hastily drew up the pinafore, and, at the same moment, the air caused the fire to break forth into flame. I remember feeling horrified at the damage done to my dress, and holding my pinafore as well as I could out of harm's way, I began to run towards a stream, which flowed through the wood at some distance from us. But one of my companions springing after me, drew the pinafore close over the flames, and, at the expense

of his own little hands, poor fellow, put out the fire, and very likely saved me from serious injury. I shall never forget the sudden breaking forth into flame of the smouldering fire, nor my little friend Johnnie's sensible cry. "Stop and cover it, cover it."

Now, my dear children, I don't know whether fires and cookery are fashionable amusements amongst children nowa-days. I hope not, for, especially with girls, they are very dangerous ones; but even, although not played with, there is always a certain amount of danger in fire. I wish you would try to remember, if, by any chance, you or your companions are set on fire, Johnnie's advice "Cover it, cover it." If nothing better can be done, throw yourself on the ground and roll on it, but never run, for the motion and the air will only make the fire burn more fiercely. But I hope you will never need to apply the advice in this way. There is another kind of danger from fire to which you are constantly liable, and it is that which I have in my mind in telling you this story.

Do you remember what James says about the tongue being "a fire," and "set on fire of hell?" and speaking of the mischief which a few words may do, he says, "Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." Now, there is no way in which the tongue does this more effectually than in kindling and spreading strife.

It kindles strife, by unkind, unjust, angry words. These are sparks from hell, and lighting from your tongue on another's heart, oh, what a flame of angry, unholy passion they may kindle there.

It spreads strife and feeds strife, by repeating evil words spoken of others. "Where no wood is there the fire goeth out, and where there is no talebearer the strife ceaseth." Never repeat to another any unkind, evil word you have heard spoken of him. Never repeat of another any wrong, unlovely thing you have seen in them. "He that covereth

a transgression seeketh love, he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends."

Neither carry sparks to kindle fire, nor wood to feed fire. Wherever you see a spark from hell has lighted, and is burning in another's heart, do what you can to cover and quench it.

Most boys love to feed bonfires. When they see a fire burning, they run here and there gathering fuel to make it burn brighter and fiercer. So some children cannot see two inclined to quarrel without doing all they can to feed Satan's flame. Love covers and hides the faults of others; and, in place of stirring up strife, does all it can to put it

out.

But what if a spark from hell light in your own heart? What if an unkind word or deed kindles a fierce flame of passionate anger there? And I think some of you must know how catching that fire is, and how rapidly a very little matter lights up a burning flame within. What are you to do then? Well, the only safe thing for you is just to cover it, and fast too, before it gets beyond your reach. Cover it from others. Don't let it flare out in angry words in return. If you do, it will soon be a blazing fire, beyond your power to cover. Don't cover it from God. Show it to him-confess it—ask him to cover it, and so to quench it. The fiercest sparks from hell are put out and quenched, when the soul is washed in the blood of forgiveness and the living water of the Holy Spirit: The forgiven soul cannot help forgiving. It loves much, and where love dwells, resentment, and hatred, and anger have no abiding place. Love covers even a multitude of sins, and forgives an unoffending brother, not only seventy times a day, but seventy times seven.

My dear children, I am sure that every day, and often every day, you have opportunity of either putting out sparks or fanning them. "A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up enger." How often have I seen a

child taunting and provoking another to wrath, whose rising colour and sparkling eye showed how the sparks from hell were kindling. Fanning sparks to a flame is doing the devil's work, covering and quenching them is the work of God's children. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

The soul, where anger and resentment are suffered to rage, is consumed by this fire of hell. It is tortured, too, in this flame. It is filled with misery.

Be alarmed if you feel, within, the stings of an unforgiving spirit. Rest not till it is quite subdued, and you are enabled from the heart to forgive. Many a scorched and scathed human ruin-ruined in body, soul, and mind-testifies to the awful nature of this fire, where it gets the mastery, and has not been covered and quenched in its earliest sparks.

Now, will you try, in school, at play, in the nursery, everywhere, to be on your guard against sparks from hell? The golden rule is a capital thing to have always at hand to cover sparks with,-"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." You can't bear to have your naughty words and deeds spoken of. Don't speak about those of your companions. You like always to be kindly and gently spoken to. Learn to be kind and gentle in your speech to all. "Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," and so you will show yourself to be one of the children of God, who is kind even to the unthankful and the evil.

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'An ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a burning fire."

"Hatred stirreth up strifes, but love covereth all sins." -Family Treasury.