see what we could not see before; for, as it is said in the Bible, "that which maketh manifest is light." The mother sees her way to get her husband's supper ready, and when they have had it, to work a little, if she is a tidy notable woman, at mending Jem's trousers which he has torn in climb-| ing up a tree,-for boys and goats will climb, or darning the stockings through which some forward toes have come that are not contented to stop quietly at home, but are determined to make their way out and look about upon the world. That candle gives light enough to enable little quiet Henry and Jane to learn what they have got to learn by heart for school tomorrow. That one candle might look down with pleasure on a great deal that is good and pleasant in that cottage, and, if it could feel such things, might well be pleased also that the light which it gives makes those there to do what they are doing for they could not do it without

him.

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I well remember once going into the country from Whitechapel to a small cottage for country air and rest. first night we were there, our friends had laid in what we wanted for our need after our journey, but they or we had forgotten to order candles. It was simply laughable to hear what was said by those who could not see what they were eating; and though we managed to feel our way to our mouths, we learnt that it is better to see it, and one candle would have enabled us to do that.

In Eastern countries there are two things which are found in every housea millstone and a candle: for every one wants bread and light. They could not have bread without flour, nor flour unless the wheat is ground; so they grind the wheat every day to make the daily bread, as, in some other countries of the East, they always grind or pound the coffee fresh and

smell and the fresh oil and all the goodness of the coffee-berry. It is the business of two of the lowest maid-servants, in a great Eastern house, to grind the wheat. They sit to grind on the ground with the millstones between them: the lower one fixed, the upper being pushed round and round, by pegs fastened in it, from one of the servants to the other. So also there is a candle as well as a millstone in every house. When, therefore, God's angel foretells the utter destruction of Babylon (Revelation xviii. 23), he says, "The sound of the millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee." Those two things which every house needs shall not be found there.

You would think it a very strange thing, when one of your children had lighted the candle, to see her take a bushel, turn it upside down on the table, and put the candle under it: for you want it that you may see by it.

What is a candle? It is made up of a twisted strip of cotton which we call the wick; and this is dipped over and over again in a quantity of melted fat or tallow, and when this has dried we have a candle. We light the wick, the flame melts the fat near and round it, draws it up, and so keeps the flame burning as long as the wick is fed, and then it dies out.

Every true Christian is a candle. God has lighted him. He loves God as his own kind, forgiving, and forbearing Father. That He is kind to him, every night's sleep, every day's health, every meal he eats, every breath he draws, proves. That He is a forgiving Father, he knows well; for he knows that he has committed many sins, and still falls often into faults; yet, for His Saviour's sake, God has forgiven and still forgives and bears with him. This love to God is a flame that burns within his own heart, and makes the man shine and

and then wherever else he may be. He must give light because he has it. It is not a matter of choice with the candle whether it will shine, neither is it with a true Christian,-he must. The truly Christian father or mother cannot but give light to all that are in the house. Their children must see it first, and their neighbours next; and the good man's cottage, as angel eyes see it, glitters with as true a light from God, amidst the darkness of this evil world, as it does to the traveller's eye as he passes by it in the dark night, and sees the candle like a tiny star shining in the window. Our hearts, like the candle-wick, need to be continually fed with grace, that the flame of love and the light of goodness may not go out; and He who lighted us at the first will give us a continual "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ," if we only ask Him.

The humblest Christian has no more notion HOW FAR his light will reach than the smallest candle has. I have seen a

single candle placed on the floor of our beautiful cathedral when there was no other light there; and the rays from it showed the groined roof, the carved bosses, the vast windows, the pillars and arches of the nave, the screen of the choir, the transept, and threw its light over to the Lord's table in the choir. Our Bishop pointed this out to me, and we thought of what Shakspeare wrote,

"How far the little candle throws its beams; So shines a good deed in a naughty world." Yes; such a man as he was who died with his twenty-one companions in the Pelsall mine; such men as many of those were who laboured so nobly and so unweariedly to rescue them, are candles of the Lord," which "let their light so shine before men, that (while) they see their good works they glorify their Father who is in heaven."

Hear then what your candle says from his pulpit-the candlestick-for he preaches well if we will only hear him.

III. AMERICAN INCOMES.

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STATEMENT was recently published, to the effect that the average earnings of every man, woman, and child in the United States reached 800 dollars, about £160 a year, thus giving to every family of five persons an average annual income of £800. This seemed too magnificent to be true; and more accurate statistics have, as might be expected, reduced the estimate very considerably.

Averages of this kind are necessarily misleading, by distributing the large fortunes of the few among the many. Intending emigrants who are dazzled by the notion of an 99 average family income of £800 a year, will certainly find it more profitable to learn that incomes on the wrong side of the average

are by no means astonishing. The annual earnings of a factory hand are stated to be about £70, and of a common labourer or domestic servant about £65.

This sounds high, according to English. ideas, but as the cost of living in America is considerably higher than here, the value of wages ought to be estimated accordingly. Under these circumstances the English servant or labourer seems to be at no disadvantage compared with the American. In the statistics quoted, "agriculturists, persons engaged in the railway service and fisheries, in cotton, woollen, and leather manufactures, and in the production of iron," are classed together, and their daily pay put down at about 6s. for 300 days in the year.-Globe.

IV. THE TRADES OF ANIMALS.

Bees are geometricians. Their cells are so constructed as, with the least quantity of