his work. "He sat from hour to hour at his little table, his books spread around him, the Holy Bible in the most conspicuous place, and a large card before him, on which were written in a bold style the three words, ALLURE, INSTRUCT, IMPRESS, to remind him of his work and the way in which it was to be done."

Here is an example fitted to admonish the age. We have a literature which each one of these words can describe. The alluring floods the land, by means of shilling novels and penny tales, or parts of romances, and dissipates the minds of thousands. The instructive is well provided, and awaits the study of every inquirer in each branch of science, philosophy, and religion; but few are drawn by its attraction. The impressive has a large authorship, but a small circulation, and seldom reaches those beyond the membership of the church. A kind of literature containing all the three is the desideratum of this reading age. Old Humphrey has struck the proper key. Who will carry on the strain? To reach the million, writing like this is necessary. A cheap, and healthy, and Christian literature, hawked from door to door by men qualified for the work, we would hail as a most hopeful sign of the times.

The declining years of Mr. Mogridge were like his previous life-calm, godly, useful. He laid not down his pen until he was nearing his change. In 1854 he was far spent, and removed to Hastings, where for three previous seasons he had resided with benefit. But his time was come, and he was ready. Ripened by grace, he was gathered to his fathers, like a full shock of corn in his season, on the 2d November 1854, in his sixty-eighth year. From the vale of tears and shadows he passed to the cloudless land, where he could indulge for ever those "Sunny Musings" about which he had written thus::

"Do you never, Christian reader, look up to the bright blue sky, and think of the brighter world beyond? And do you never fancy the forms of Christian friends now inhabitants of glory as ready to welcome you to that blissful abode? Let me take an upward glance for you:

"I see within a temple bright
The shining ones appear,

In sparkling robes of living light

And crystal raiment clear;

And Jesus on the threshold stand,

With looks of love and outstretched hand.

They seem as when on earth erewhile,

Except their shining dress;

And then they wear a beaming smile
Of heavenly tenderness.

Their love-lit eyes are plain to view;
Their eager hands are stretched to you.

As yet you may not wing your way

To that eternal zone;

Your earthly joys are not complete,
Nor yet your duties done.

Perform your Saviour's kind commands

Be patient in his holy hands.

And wait a while, and you shall soar

To that celestial crowd,

With songs in your Redeemer's praise,

And hallelujahs loud;

And meet where sorrow never grieves,

E'en like these flying golden leaves."

CHAPTER III.

DAVID NASMITH, THE CLERK.

"Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city."-LUKE xiv. 21.

THERE are two kinds of usefulness in the church of Christ, in any one of which a devoted labourer will find ample scope for exertion and influence, but of which one operates to a much larger extent, and is reproduced in many more than the other. The first is personal effort in any good work, and the second is the tact of inducing others to engage in philanthropic labours. The one is a single labourer, the other is multiplied by as many as he introduces to the Master's vineyard. Alexander Paterson was a city missionary, who, by his arduous, self-denying, and persevering labours, accomplished much for the spiritual well-being of the Canongate in Edinburgh, and by his holy and edifying example affords a model to those who long to do something for their Lord. There are, indeed, few such as he; but there are numbers who are occupied in similar spheres among the outcast and degraded population of our great cities. DAVID NASMITH was a labourer of a different order. It was his high privilege to institute city missions, and set many wheels in motion in the machinery of Christian enterprise, which now acts in streets and lanes of towns throughout the British empire, America, and France. He was the centre of an ever-widening circle which, ere he died, encompassed evangelical Christendom.

His biography has been written by the vigorous and eloquent pen of Dr. John Campbell, and affords materials for stimulating all who bear the name of Jesus to ask, with Saul of Tarsus, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

Nasmith was born in Glasgow in 1799, and early apprenticed to a manufacturer there. After his period of apprenticeship was over, he became a clerk. Brought under serious impressions in his tender years, he professed discipleship to the Lord Jesus in his sixteenth year. Having felt the love of Christ in his own soul, he burned to make it known to others. He became a Sabbath-school teacher, and long laboured in that most interesting sphere of Christian usefulness. He was a teacher of the right stamp. He was a converted man. It is strange that any others should engage in the work; yet, alas! how often is it the complaint of ministers that persons giving no evidence of grace are occupied in the instruction of the young on the Lord's day. Thus is the exercise of the school made merely secular improvement, and the consciences of the young are blunted to spiritual things. An ungodly teacher cannot be expected to win souls. The subject of our sketch spoke as he felt; and, because he believed, he travailed in birth for souls; and when the Lord makes up his jewels, many will bear the mark of David Nasmith's handiwork.

In 1821, he was appointed secretary to the Religious Institution Rooms in Glasgow, where he had the business of twenty-three societies to attend to, and for this purpose gave up his situation at the desk of the manufactory. He was the man for the work, and proved eminently useful in the Lord's cause. After five years' consideration of the state of the masses who were perishing for lack of knowledge in that rapidly increasing city, where the population of parishes were outgrowing in numbers the possible efforts of ministers,

he founded the City Mission, for the employment of a lay agency for the instruction of the ignorant in the truths of the gospel. It was conducted on the principles of an evangelical alliance. The churches, as such, had not then, nor indeed have they yet, fully considered the importance of territorial missions, though Dr. Chalmers had given his brilliant and successful example of the only way by which a degraded district can be elevated; the work had therefore to be done by earnest and liberal individuals. This was the case with all the great missionary institutions of the country, though the church corporate ought to evangelize abroad as well as at home.

Hence city missions were the expression of the zeal of earnest individuals united together by the love of souls. One man suggested the course of action, and, multiplied by his like-minded coadjutors, it spread over the city, and extended far and wide. In Glasgow, Mr. Nasmith had success in the philanthropic enterprise, and by the end of the first year there were eight missionaries labouring among the most sunken population of the city.

His health giving way, he resigned his situation in Glasgow, but not his labour for Christ and the good of souls. In a tour through Ireland, he established city missions and young men's societies, which have been greatly blessed in carrying the gospel among the benighted and careless in that country. He then went to the United States, and formed sixteen city missions, the American Young Men's Society, and other philanthropic associations. For this purpose he visited forty-three different large towns. In Canada, fifteen societies were the result of his tour of benevolence. The Paris City Mission was his suggestion. So was also that kindred society in our own "million-peopled city," as the excellent secretary of the City Mission has aptly termed our