the Foundation-stone which God Himself laid in Sion-I build my everlasting hope. I have come to Jesus and He has given me rest, according to His Word. For it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

A FRIENDLY LETTER ADDRESSED TO CABMEN, FLYMEN, AND OMNIBUS MEN.

M

Y DEAR FRIEND,―There was a world of meaning in the favourite saying of one of yourselves-while his face lit up with a smile expressive of the joy he found within: "Thank God, I am a Christian, and mý horse knows it too!" Does your horse know that you are a Christian? That faithful intelligent animal of yours, who would work for you as long as he can drag one leg after the other; what would he say if he could speak? Now I want very briefly, and as a sympathising mutual friend, to point out a few things which I conceive your horse would say if he could speak, and I pray you, take them in the kindly spirit in which they are meant as hints to benefit both yourself and him.

1. As to the treatment of your horse himself. He is a noble animal-see that you use him well. Never jerk your horse's mouth in order to quicken his pace, or for any other purpose whatever. Use no bearing-rein, and never flog or speak roughly for stumbling or shying. If you can command the pace or the distance, never urge faster or farther than you know he can manage.

2. Your worst temptation is "Drink. How many a horse, ruined through ill-treatment, as well as how many a broken-hearted wife and child, might sadly say :-"My master was kind and good to me, till he was overcome by drink, which has let loose all his worst passions, and turned him into a very devil incarnate." I am quite aware of the difficulties that beset you at every step if you wish to keep sober. Many gentlemen are very thoughtless about the result of offering drink when calling you to "draw up' at a half-way house. They forget that several others may have "treated" you before, and that the next glass may make you quite drunk, and endanger the lives of others, as well as your own.

Indeed, a cabman said himself, it would be much better if the men had the courage to ask for the money for a cup of coffee when they were offered a glass of ale. The cabmen's "shelters," some of which are opened to omnibus men as well, established in different parts of London and in some of the large towns, where you can be warm and comfortable and served with the best tea and coffee at the lowest charge, make it much easier for you than formerly to withstand the temptation of the public house. When we consider that many of you have to pay for your cab, for one day only 12s. 6d. to £1 before you can touch a penny for yourselves, surely it is nothing else than downright robbery to spend that on drink which the starving children at home are wanting for food and clothes. I could say much more on this head

of the many who once owned cabs themselves, but are now only the servants of others through their love of drink, and of others who, to satisfy their appetite, have overcharged, been summoned, and at last lost their licenses, but I shall tire you out. Only be on your guard against the bad custom of "standing treat" as it is called, from the one who first gets away with a fare, and remember that 8s. to 10s. per week spent in drink by the 10,000 cabmen in London would, in one year only, amount to £260,000,

quite enough to build a fine lot of almshouses for your old age, if

all that money were saved.

3. Your horse needs a day of rest as well as yourself, and therefore, remember, if only for the sake of the bodily advantage that you would both gain, to "keep holy the sabbath day." I know that some masters will not employ men with a six days' license, and many men are therefore tempted to take out one for seven days, and thereby risk their soul's eternal walfare by the loss of that day which God has given for the good of body and soul. The testimony of many men who have tried the six-days' license for a year, is, that they have been better off than when they worked the seven days. "I scarcely ever saw my children," said a cabman, "except in bed. Once I could not go to church because I was at work; but now, instead of driving other people there, I go myself, on shanks' pony (i.e. his legs) and take my children with me, which every father ought to do, if he wants them to be respectable and good." Surely no man requires a holy day of rest more than you do, working from 15 to 17 hours a day; and ah! had you heard it, could you ever have forgotten the despairing cry of the dying cabman: "No Sabbathsno Sabbaths," as he thought of that precious jewel of days, which, like Esau's birthright, he had so lightly allowed to be taken from him for ever!

4. Lastly, beware of the danger, when on a rank, of joining with others in swearing and talking against the Bible and the church of God. "Blessed is he that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly." Thank God, a pious cabman is no longer an unreality. There are some hundreds of total abstainers in London; and, better still, as many truly Christian men. "Many a weary hour" said one of these to me, drawing from under the cushion of his cab a well-worn Bible, "have I been refreshed and comforted with the promises contained in this blessed book, and the thoughts of the home beyond." Another told me he carried tracts, and often placed one on the seat of his cab for his "fare" to read; while yet a third I saw, pinned up a text I gave him inside, so that all might see it.

What these have done, by God's grace, you can do, and by the same help, you can determine so to live that your very horse may acknowledge the change, and feel and know that you are a Christian indeed. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." (Isaiah i. 18.)

"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. vi. 23.)

Yours faithfully,

HOW TO KEEP SUNDAY.

V. M. S.

THE SABBATH is the oldest institution in the world. It began in Eden before the fall of man, and has been kept, no doubt, ever since. But when Jesus by rising from the dead declared Himself to be the Lord, the day was changed. Since then the first day of the week has been kept instead of the seventh, to remind us of redemption as well as creation. It is the LORD'S DAY. He claims it for Himself.

This is really an old heathen

But we generally call it SUNDAY. name, given to the day when men worshipped sun, moon, and stars. And yet I like that good old name-Sunday. On this

day the light of salvation first shined in its fulness on the earth. The Sabbath, with its church-going bells, preaches to us the Gospel. It tells us Christ is risen. Salvation is accomplished. Sin is atoned for. It invites, it demands our faith in Jesus as the Saviour of the world. It is fitly called Sunday, the sunniest, brightest, happiest day of all, to those who have found salvation in Him who was raised from the dead.

Remember this, it is not to be a gloomy but a happy day; not dark but bright; a real SUN-day. The happiest and most cheerful day of the week. The best of all the seven. "This is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." It shews us where true happiness is to be found. In holiness. In heaven, where all are only happy, all are only holy. And the more closely we copy heaven on earth, the more largely shall we drink of its joys. The man who counts holiness to be sadness, would be gloomy in heaven. For Heaven is all Sabbath.

Set apart some time on Sunday for secret prayer. Pray for yourself and for others, and especially for those who are serving in the ministry of the Word. Have an hour with your Bible, alone with God, reading its bright pages, treasuring up its golden promises, searching out its hidden riches, marking its holy precepts, turning the rays of its heavenly light upon your heart and upon your ways. Never let a Sunday go by without praying to thy Father which is in secret, seeking to be filled with His Holy Spirit, and meditating quietly in His Holy Word. The best works and most zealous labours of love you can engage in, can never release you from this. Even Satan will put you on public work, if he can keep you thereby from private prayer. On Sunday especially-enter into thy closet.

Remember again, that though Sunday is a day of rest, it is not to be a day of idleness. Be up betimes in the morning, in time for public worship, in time to have breakfast with the children before they go to the Sunday School, in time to read a chapter and to pray, in time if you like for a quiet walk before the bells, have ceased to ring. It is a pitiful way of spending Sunday, to be lounging about the lanes or at the corners of the streets, talking about horses and dogs, and never thinking about the great God in whose hand your breath is. The day is the Lord's, not yours.

Have everything ready for Sunday, the clothes brushed, the boots cleaned, the doorstep washed, the house in order, and everything bright and clean and sunny. If your husband is a working man and has not a comfortable dinner on week-days, see that he has one on Sundays. Only get as much as you can ready for it

on Saturday, and have on Sunday no work but what is really necessary.

Join yourself to some Christian congregation, and attend the services if possible both morning and evening. Mother, take baby with you; if he happens to cry you can slip out quietly; but most likely he will drop off to sleep, so that you can worship and listen. Never send your little ones to church by themselves, they nearly always get awhispering and disturbing all around them. Father, come with your boys; when it is church-time don't say Go but Come. If you have a family of little ones and someone must stay at home-Husbands, take turns with your wives, so both will get to the Service. Bear ye one another's burdens. Sunday is most especially a day for HOME. See that the light and warmth of the Sabbath sun shines there.

Let your children feel that there is rest and religion in the house. The fourth is especially a family commandment; it speaks of thy son, thy daughter, thy servant. You may make Sunday a happy as well as a holy day, even in a family of young children. You need not always be talking to them about God and the things of God. Chat with them and laugh with them in their own childish way. There is nothing contrary to Sabbath holiness in this. Only have no boisterous games, no toys or tops out on Sunday. So you will teach even the very little ones that God has put a difference between this day and other days.

Instead of their weekday toys, have one or two good picture books. You will not need many, for children never tire of looking over and over again at the same pictures. Take in one or two good Magazines for Sunday reading. Teach them a text or a hymn. Tell them a Bible Story. What child was ever tired of Joseph and his brethren, or Daniel, or Samuel ? When they are old enough, let them get their Bibles and read a chapter verse by verse round the table. Children always like that. Ask them about what they have learnt at school, and what was the text at church. If they can sing, have them round the fire with their hymn books; and as you sit with them singing the songs of Zion, if you and your wife are not happy, all I can say is-you don't deserve to be.

Let all books and papers that have to do with work and the world be put out of sight. Never let a newspaper be seen in your house on a Sunday. Never let your Sunday be a day for writing letters, or looking over accounts, or discussing politics, or buying and selling, or talking about business and markets, and profits and prices. Never use it as a day for pleasuring trips abroad or