man that I am, I have frequently and grievously sinned against Thee. For thus, O Lord, and thus, have I done. (Here call to mind the sins you have committed in your past life.) And to this very day, O Lord, do I trespass against Thee, and nourish bad thoughts, and say things I ought not. O Lord help me, O Lord forgive, for Jesus Christ's sake.

But I must forgive, (Thou sayest,) if I would be forgiven. O Lord, I do freely forgive all who have done me any harm. I do resolve this day to put from me all anger and malice, to bear no one any ill will, to be more careful about giving offence and taking offence, and to be friendly and kind to all. O Lord, be kind and merciful unto me!

VII. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us

from evil.

O LORD, I am very weak: I very soon fall into sin. Put me not, I beseech Thee, to too great a trial. I have read how Thy Holy Child Jesus "was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." Oh Lord be merciful unto me. Lead me not into so great temptation. Keep me from running' into temptation myself, foolishly. Do not suffer wicked

men to tempt me above that I am able. Help me to resist all wicked thoughts. Keep me from sinning against Thee. From all evil, from bad habits, from a hardened heart, from bad company, from Thy everlasting wrath, from terrible death, good Lord, deliver me!

VIII. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

GOD is King, and if we are His faithful subjects we may reckon upon His help and protection. All power belongs to Him, and He is able therefore to give us all we ask. And if He grants our prayers, and delivers us from sin, and brings us to heaven, the glory of it will be to Him, for ever and ever. And then we end with "Amen;" summing up our whole prayer in one little word, Amen; as much as to say, This is my prayer. This is what I want. O Lord grant it."

These thoughts, I say, are what a Christian man ought to have when he is saying over the Lord's Prayer. You ought to say it over slowly, and give yourself time at the end of every petition, to consider what it means, and what it is you are praying for. If you get into the habit

of doing this, your prayers will not seem like the same things they were before. They will do your soul tenfold more good. They will help you on wonderfully toward heaven.

And only consider how great a privilege you now possess in being able to cry "Abba, Father," in being allowed thus in terms of love to approach the Lord of heaven and earth; being "by nature children of wrath, even as others,' what great grace it is to be allowed to kneel down in prayer, to hold communion with God, to speak to Him, to draw near to Him, and above all in drawing near to Him, to speak to Him as sons, as sons by adoption, to call Him "Father." O the virtue of the Cross! O the value of the sufferings of the Only-begotten of the Father! O the power of His death who made Himself as one of us, who took upon Him our flesh, who became man and died man's death. By His death we have obtained life; by His Cross we have been made sons of God; He came by water and blood; by water and the Spirit have we been engrafted into His body, adopted into the family of God, made heirs of God and jointheirs with Christ.

How carefully should we use our gifts, how reverently, how thankfully. We are now able

to cry "Abba, Father." Will it be always so? Are all who have died able to say so now? Are not many already cast out of their place as sons? Are not many poor lost souls now yearning to use that prayer which we are able to offer up at this present time? Are not many now in the place of torment who once knelt down and said,

Our Father, which art in heaven ?" Think of this, guard your gifts; use them; live holily, walk as members of the household of faith, as children of God, for then will you be able for ever to have God for your Father, for ever to keep the place of sons, and to sit down at the feast in heaven which the sons of God, the obcdient ones of His children, partake for ever.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

A WORD TO THE PAUPER.

You have been overtaken with want; in the time of your want you applied for relief, and here you are in the Union, with food to keep you alive, with clothes to cover you, with a roof over your head to shelter you from the cold and wet.

you;

Now I will not enquire how it was that you became so poor; I will not ask whether you have been always steady or unsteady, sober or drunken, industrious or idle. I know that you have suffered want, and I will not search into the cause. As one who has thus suffered I feel for I am bound to feel for you; our Blessed Saviour has charged us to have pity for the needy, to look with compassion on the poor; as a disciple of Christ I do indeed feel for you, my friend, and enter into your trial and am grieved at your distress. distress. It is of course pleasanter to have a good comfortable home, a home quite to oneself, where one can go out and in as one likes. And yet let me speak some words of