metropolis. Among the 700,000 who attend no place of worship, the agents of this mission have been instrumental in saving many souls. Mr. Nasmith also established the Monthly Tract Society, and the Female Mission, besides other important and benevolent institutions.

This was labour for Christ, and, like John Howard in his prison reform, David Nasmith did it all gratuitously, though, unlike that eminent philanthropist, he had no private fortune. After he resigned his situation, a small fortune that his wife possessed, and occasional presents from Christian friends, formed his only support. He had often struggles to provide for all his necessities; yet, when he died and left his widow and children to the care of the Lord whom he served, £2420 were the means raised by the gratitude and affection of the Christian community for their support. Thus was the saying that is written fulfilled: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed."

In 1839 the labourer was called to his rest and his reward; but the work which he was honoured to establish still lives in the self-sacrificing labours of that noble and useful company of city missionaries, who, in the dark places of our large towns, are endeavouring to turn sinners from the error of their way. These excellent and devoted labourers are not regarded with so much kindness, nor encouraged and sustained as their character and calling demand; but a day is coming when a right estimate of, and a suitable reward to, these estimable men, shall be made by the Judge of all, before the assembled church.

The mind of David Nasmith was creative and energetic in the walk of Christian usefulness: in this respect he belongs to a class not so common as the merely operative. But when

we behold so many in this great commercial country creating for themselves a business, being the architects of their own fortunes, and establishing connections far and wide, it shows that were they powerfully influenced by the grace of God and the love of souls, they would be as ingenious and extensively useful in their benevolence.

Mr. Nasmith was by no means possessed of high endowments, but he had much character; he had not brilliant genius, but he had practical sagacity; he was not a dreamer, but a man of business; he was full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, burning with the Christian passion of a love for perishing souls; he set himself earnestly to work, and accomplished much for Christ and the evangelization of the heathen at home, both in England and America.

MEN OF BUSINESS! let this portrait of a brother suggest to you the propriety, nay more, the necessity, of doing something for Christ and perishing souls. Clerks at the desk! how do you employ your evenings and your Sabbaths? Might you not imitate David Nasmith's stimulating example, and live to do good to souls? You are probably ambitious of rising; here is an object worthy of your regard. If you indeed know the Lord Jesus, and serve him, endeavour to interest others in his great salvation. "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, WHEN HE COMETH, shall find so doing." "Who will deny," says Mr. Isaac Taylor, "that at this moment extraordinary efforts are needed on behalf of the outcast thousands of the people, whom we have suffered to grow up in the heart of our Christian land, more profligate and more perverted than Hindoos?" The lack of means of grace and evangelistic effort among the masses of our great cities is appalling, and should arouse all who love the Lord Jesus to aid in supplying the want. It is calculated that in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland nearly

eight millions of the people regularly absent themselves from the house of God. We are glad to observe a revival of interest in home missionary work among the churches of Christ, a sense of the need of special agencies and extraordinary efforts to be put forth by ministers and private Christians. Already the people exhibit some appreciation of these philanthropic labours. They are disposed to hear the gospel in the open air. They eagerly receive religious tracts. They welcome Christian visitors to their homes. Were these things promoted still more by a kindly and earnest agency of living disciples of the Lord, we might see the working classes again in the house of God from Sabbath to Sabbath. We must be up and doing. Activity characterizes the age. The enemies of Christ are very active in endeavouring to corrupt the people. Infidel lecturers are employed to itinerate. Impure literature is circulated by millions, and greedily devoured. Sabbath profanation is attempted under specious disguises; and by means of cheap excursions by rail, tea-gardens, the opening of public-houses, and music in parks and casinos, tens of thousands are perverted from the ways of righteousness. Let the church of God awake and come to the work. The fields are white unto the harvest, and the gathering storm is near. While there is mercy, let us hasten to the harvest field, and by prayer and pains fill our bosoms with sheaves saved from the destroying flood.

"Time passes onward with returnless wing;
And action too, like time, may seem to pass,-

To pass, and be no more.

For influence never dies!

But 'tis not so;

And every act,

Emotion, look, and word, makes influence tell

For good or evil, happiness or woe,

Through the long future of eternity!"

CHAPTER IV.

CAPTAIN HEDLEY VICARS, THE MILITARY OFFICER.

"A good soldier of Jesus Christ."-2 TIM. ii. 3.

I bless thee for the quiet rest thy servant taketh now;

I bless thee for his blessedness, and for his crowned brow,—

For every weary step he trod in faithful following thee,

And for the good fight foughten well, and closed right valiantly!

THE military profession has always been renowned for honour and bravery. Fame has wreathed its distinguished ornaments in the highest places of human history. Most of the greatest men of antiquity were warriors. The chief monuments of nations commemorate heroes. The historic page is crowded with armed men. Painting and poetry have drawn much of their inspiration and their permanence from the tented field and the valiant soldier. Tradition is laden with stories of the great and the brave. Alexander, Cæsar, Napoleon, and Wellington, are "familiar in our mouths as household words." Nor is the church of God devoid of interest in the army. Some of its honoured members wore the uniform of war. Many whom the word of God delights to honour were men renowned in arms. Joshua, David, Jonathan, and Cornelius, whose names are held in everlasting remembrance, spent most of their lives in military service while adorning the doctrine of God with piety. And since Christianity spread among men, the army has not ceased to yield its testimony to the faith in the godly lives of soldiers. However inconsistent war may be with the gospel of Christ, and however unfavourable a camp may be for the practice of piety, many illustrious believers have glorified God in both.

In the present time the British army has not a few,

both

in commissions and in the ranks, who are good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and who have made the melancholy story of our Crimean campaign redolent with the fragrance of Christian biographies and labours of love.

HEDLEY SHAFTO JOHNSTONE VICARS is one of these. His biography reveals a life in a British regiment that will not readily find a parallel in Christian records. It was brief, but it was brilliant. The growth of grace and deeds of usefulness comprehended in its one decade of years, rarely characterize long lives of Christian profession and activity. He was the son of an officer of the Royal Engineers, and born at Mauritius, on December 7, 1826. He was favoured with that priceless blessing, pious parents, who earnestly endeavoured, by prayer, instruction, and example, to train him "in the way he should go." These efforts seemed for some time to prove unavailing; for, as the boy advanced to youth, he was thoughtless, averse to study, and prone to indulge in the social excesses of young men. "When the boy was twelve years old," says his biographer," his father's dying hand was laid upon his head, with the earnest prayer that he might be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, and so fight manfully under his banner as to glorify his holy name." Left to the training of his excellent mother, he exhibited much filial love and tenderness, which grew with his years, though, until he reached his twenty-fourth year, he gave no evidence of serious spiritual concern. Faith had to wait for its reward.

He received his commission on Christmas, 1843, and in 1844 joined the 97th regiment, in the Isle of Wight. He accompanied it to the Ionian Isles, where they were quartered for four years; and to Jamaica, where they remained from 1848 until 1851. During the greater part of this period Mr. Vicars seemed to forget the lessons of home instruction, wrote more seldom to his friends, and went into excesses