of them that were drunkards and whoremongers, and were given to other wickedness, declare that the word has been blessed to them." Again he writes: "I have great reason to believe that the Lord is with me in my work. Many are under great concern for their souls, who have lived for forty, fifty, sixty, and eighty-five years, in unconcern." He could persevere, notwithstanding many obstacles and refusals. His long-suffering abounded as did his Master's. A dying infidel, whom he visited, on three successive occasions showed his hardness so resolutely as to read the newspapers when Mr. Paterson began to pray. But the fourth visit was the turningpoint. "I'll pray for you once more," said the missionary. The newspaper was accordingly raised. "But before he had prayed a few minutes, the paper fell from his hand. When the prayer was concluded, he was bathed in tears, and so also was his wife." The heart had opened. The missionary was urged to come back, and by degrees the infidel believed, and died saying, "None but Christ for me."

It is only by such painstaking labours that the masses of the people who have sunk so low in ungodliness can be reached. The gospel, simply told, truly illustrated in the life, and pressed home to every conscience with earnestness and prayer, is the divine means of elevating the degraded. Men of God who know the truth and feel its power, who burn with a zeal for God and love for souls, are most likely to have success in the work. Alexander Paterson possessed the grandest qualification, and devoted himself to the work with all the energy of one who would save his brother. Hence, when the typhus fever cut him off in 1851, many tears were shed in the Canongate, and the people felt that they had lost a father and a friend. These were his last words: "Perfect peace!'-'O death! where is thy sting?'-'Who shall deliver me?'-' Thanks be unto

God who giveth us the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ.'"

His was a Christian home. He trained his family in the fear of the Lord, and had good fruit in their well-doing. One son continues his father's labours in the Canongate, and another is a medical missionary at Madras. His friendships were Christian. The letters that passed between him and Robert Edie, Dr. Chalmers, and others, abundantly attest the ruling passion of his soul. And as he was himself, so did his correspondents become to him. Dr. Chalmers found constant refreshing in his intimacy with the humble missionary. The convert was the minister's copy. The great idea in the life of the one possessed the other. The lives of both were spent to elevate and evangelize the masses.

READER! you may dwell in an ungodly neighbourhood, are you doing anything for Christ and the salvation of souls? It is a solemn thing to profess the faith of a Christian. Much real godliness, communion with Christ, and obedience to the will of the Lord, must belong to you. Much responsibility for the souls of others is entailed. You are placed among them, it may be, for the very purpose of letting your light shine before men, that they may learn the way to heaven. "It is recorded of a Yorkshire shoemaker,” says Mr. Baillie, “that after his own conversion, he was known to have been honoured of God to bring to Christ no fewer than a hundred souls. His method was peculiar. He selected a particular neighbour or friend; he concentrated upon him his special prayers, and anxieties, and urgencies; and he did not rest until either the Lord gave him that soul, or the door was manifestly shut." Such zeal and labour are seldom without success. Alexander Paterson found his reward. He watched over souls with interest and care, with prayer and exertion, till he saw them following Jesus. Reader! do

you know the value of salvation ?-then pity a wandering sinner, and make an effort to bring him back to God.

This book may reach some ploughmen. Let me therefore address a word to such. Alexander Paterson was a man like you, but he found peace to his soul through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you yet believed? He made a "Bothy" a religious place, and was the means of saving the souls of his fellow-servants. Be not afraid to let your light shine before your fellow-ploughmen. They will respect you the more for your consistency. You may do them good by it, and be the means of their salvation.

CITY MISSIONARIES! the example of this humble but honoured labourer speaks to you, saying, "Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." "He was a man of strong faith,” said one who knew him well, and whose ministry he aided as an elder. "Such was his confidence in the promise and grace of God, that he never despaired of any. This animated all his labours with a spirit of remarkable hopefulness, and surrounded him with a sunny cheerfulness, which could not fail to shed some of its radiance on the objects of his Christian solicitude."

Sow in the morn thy seed,

At eve hold not thy hand;

To doubt and fear give thou no heed,

Broad-cast it o'er the land.

And duly shall appear,

In beauty, verdure, strength,

The tender blade, the stalk, the ear,

And the full corn at length.

Thou canst not toil in vain;

Cold, heat, moist and dry,

Shall foster and mature the grain
For garners in the sky;

Thence, when the glorious end,
The day of God is come,

The angel-reapers shall descend,

And heaven cry-"Harvest home!

J. MONTGOMERY.

CHAPTER VIII.

SARAH MARTIN, THE DRESSMAKER.

"She hath been a succourer of many."-ROM. XVI. 2.

IT was of a woman that our blessed Saviour said: She hath done what she could,"-an eulogium as high as might be pronounced. And of that woman's work He also spoke : "Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her." Woman had a great share in ministering to Christ when he tabernacled on earth. He was born of a woman. He was followed by devout women. They wept for him as he bore his cross along the dolorous way. They confessed him at Calvary. They assisted at his burial. They got the earliest tidings of his resurrection, and one of them first beheld him alive again. And this was meet. Sin had most degraded the weaker vessel. She had the saddest and most humiliating effects of the fall. Among heathens made a slave or a doll, she has been devoted to drudgery or to passion, and neither educated nor fixed in her proper social sphere. But

Christ has pitied her state, and removed her burden, and wherever his gospel is received, she most of all is blessed. Christ has made her soul as valuable, and her services as useful, as those of the stronger sex. Hence the history of Christianity affords many illustrious examples of women who have laboured in the gospel. In every age of the church there have been Priscillas, and Phoebes, and Dorcases, who were useful in their Saviour's cause. Priscilla, St. Paul calls his "helper in Christ Jesus;" Phoebe, a succourer of many;" "Mary, who bestowed much labour on us ;" "Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord;" "the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord." Honourable women not a few!

Of many such in modern times, some in high and others in humble life, biographies have been written. I present the portrait of a lowly female, "who laboured much in the Lord," as an example to the numerous class of mothers and daughters in Israel who may read this sketch. Let me premise, however, that the great field for Christian women is Home, and that many who may never be able to do much beyond it, have earned the highest places among the saints, by reason of the godly families they have trained and sent forth to bless the world. The greatest benefactors of our race have traced their character and principles to their Christian mothers.

SARAH MARTIN was born near Great Yarmouth, in June, 1791. Her father was a village tradesman, but as she lost both her parents in her youth, she was brought up by a widowed grandmother. Under her she received good impressions and a fair education, but was early led to hate the Bible and godliness. At fourteen she was sent to learn dress-making, but not until her nineteenth year was she awakened to a sense of her sin. She had gone to town one