Postulant.-Amen. The same ceremony was gone through with the other postulant; and both, accompanied by the superioress and assistant, then quitted the altar, and disappeared through the door-way from whence they had originally emerged. At this point the choir burst forth in the 113th Psalm, "In exitu Israel." The ceremony of blessing and sprinkling the habits (each neatly folded in a small basket) then took place; after which they were carried off by the sacristan. The veil was next blessed in like manner; and by this time the postulants, now novices, had assumed the habit, and were re-conducted into the chapel. Their reappearance was a point of superstitious interest, all eyes being fixed upon them. Hideous as is the costume, a black dress, with a white veil over the head,-they looked interesting. Their names have been given as Miss McMally and Miss Mothram, both of London. As they approached the altar, the following antiphon was sung :"Who is she that cometh up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved? Thou art all fair, my beautiful. Come, my spouse, from Libanus; come, thou shalt be crowned." The novices were next invested with the cincture by the superioress. The assistant then took off the veil which the novices already wore, and the bishop, putting the blessed white veil on their heads, said, "Receive the white veil, the emblem of inward purity, that thou mayest follow the FAITH ILLUSTRATED.-Could any mature Christian give a truer idea of justification by faith than is in the following reply of a little child? In "Kind Words for Children," Newcomb says: I remember talking with a very little girl, to whom I put the question, "Are you a sinner ?" She promptly replied, "No, Sir." "But," said I, "have you never done anything that was wrong?" "O yes," she replied; "great many times." Lamb without spot, and mayest walk with Him in white, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." The investiture with the cloak followed, and both novices were then sprinkled with holy water. The choir here commenced the "Regnum mundi," and the novices sang the words, "My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my words to the king." They were rather tremulous at first, but in time their voices gained strength, and they were distinctly heard throughout the chapel. At the close, both fell prostrate, their heads resting on the altar-steps, while the choir sang the hymn, "Veni Creator." After prayer, the novices were again sprinkled with holy water, and assisted to rise. They were then led to the superioress, to whom they knelt, and, rising, were embraced. Both novices then proceeded to bow to, and embrace the entire religious. At the same time the choir burst forth in "Ecce quam bonum" (Psalm cxxxii.), and this virtually ended the ceremony of the reception. The benediction was, as usual, given after the ceremony. This is a service which is performed every Sunday after Vespers, and on Wednesdays. It consists in the congregation asking and receiving a blessing. The music performed in this was the customary "O Salutaris," the "Litany of the Blessed Virgin," "Tantum ergo," and "Laudate Dominum." It concluded with the elevation of the host. The Counsel Chamber. BE FRIENDLY. ""TIs well to walk with a cheerful heart, Wherever our fortunes call, With a friendly glance and an open hand, And a gentle word for all. "Since life is a thorny and difficult path, Where toil is the portion of man, We all should endeavour, while passing along, To make it as smooth as we can." There is no assertion of Scripture more strongly corroborated by experience and observation than this: "A man who would have friends must show himself friendly." As much as to say-Would you act on the self-interest principle of securing the friendship of others, for its own sake, there's no surer way of accomplishing your object than by cultivating a friendly disposition, by cherishing and manifesting an affectionate interest in the welfare of all. That little girl, mentioned by Dr.Doddridge, understood something of human nature, who, when asked why everybody loved her, artlessly replied, "I suppose because I love everybody." There is much of true philosophy in Tupper's "Proverbial Sayings ;" for instance, the following: each and every creature of His make. The best friend is He that even the wicked have. He's "The sinner's friend, But sin's eternal foe." The works of Creation, the indications of Providence, and the pages of Inspiration are full of evidences of His unbounded friendliness to the children of men. While His Son Jesus, our Saviour, has proved Himself to be a "Friend who sticketh closer than a brother," shall we not square our lives by the heavenly pattern, the Divine model, and warm our hearts by a contact with such celestial fires as burn in the bosom of the Infinite? Religion itself is the highest order of friendship. Abraham was the friend of God. He who is a friend will never want a friend. EXPERIENCE. WOMAN WITHOUT RELIGION. A MAN without religion is at best a poor reprobate the football of destiny, with no tie linking him to infinity and the wondrous eternity that is before him. But a woman that is without it is even worse-a flame without heat, a flower without perfume. A man may, in some sort, tie his frail hope and honours with weak and shifting ground, and tackle to his business of the world; but the woman without that anchor which they call faith, is a drift and a wreck. A man may clumsily continue a kind of responsibility or motive, but can find no basis on any other system or right action than that of spiritual faith. A man may craze his thoughts and his brain to thoughtlessness in such poor harbourage as fame and reputation may stretch before him-a woman, where can she put her hope, while passing through trials, storms, and tribulations, if not in heaven? And that sweet truthfulness-that abiding love-that enduring hope, mellowing every scene of life, lighting them with the most pleasant radiance-when the world's cold storms break like an army with cannon-who can bestow it all but a holy soul, tied to what is stronger than an army with cannon? Who, that has enjoyed the love of a godly mother, but will echo the thought with energy, and hallow it with a tear? The worldly being has no points where Divine grace can reach him. Take away the object of his ambition, and he is soured; add to it, and he becomes intoxicated. Send him sickness, and he only writhes like a wounded snake. But the unsealing of the human heart by cutting off its earthly objects of love, turns the foundation of that love direct to heaven. The bereaved soul looks its heavenly Parent in the face because of its chastisement. Sacred, indeed, then, is that heavenfire whose presence gives happiness on earth, and even whose extinguishment serves to open the vision of eternal glory and reward in heaven. UP AND TO WORK! ALTHOUGH you were a backward scholar, you may yet become a bright man. The loss may be fully repaired. Nothing is impossible to devout labour, carried on with vigorous perseverance. "What is the use of thee, thou gnarled sapling?" said a young larch tree to a young oak. "I grow three feet in a year, thou scarcely as many inches; I am straight and taper as a reed, thou straggling and twisted as a loosened withe." "And thy duration," answered the oak, "is some third part of man's life, and I am appointed to flourish for a thousand years. Thou art felled and sawn into paling, when thou rottest, and art burned after a single summer; of me are fashioned battle-ships, and I carry mariners and heroes into unknown seas." ." The richer a nature, the hardier and slower its development. Two boys were once of a class in the Edinburgh Grammar School-John ever trim, precise, and dux; Walter ever slovenly, confused, and dolt. In due time, John became Bailie John of Huntersquare; and Walter became Sir Walter Scott of the universe. The quickest and completest of all vegetables is the cabbage. With ordinary parts, such as belong to the bulk of mankind, none need despair of the qualifications necessary to eminent usefulness. The diversities which appear among men are much less the result of nature than of culture. Up, then, A PLODDER. up, and to work! The Letter Box. MR. EDITOR,-There is in my lo- | fleshly lusts, and exercise self-denial. cality a habit, I may call it an evil, very prevalent, on which I beg leave to say a few words. I hope they may help to cure some, and to prevent many. From the United States, where the habit is every where in the ascendant, I lately received the following letter, which I earnestly commend to all your young-men readers. A FATHER. THE CHRISTIAN A SLAVE TO My Brother! I wish to show you that your habit is at war with religion, name and thing. 1. Religion bids you to be cleanly and gentlemanly in demeanour.But, tell me, is the common use of tobacco a cleanly and becoming practice? Snuff it, and it makes your nose a mere dust-pan; chew it, and it soils your lips and teeth, and makes your mouth a nauseous distillery; smoke it, and it pollutes flesh and breath, earth and air, makes the chest a sort of volcano, and the mouth a crater venting smoke and fire. Is this gentlemanly or decent? When Governor Morris returned from France, a Doctor of Divinity, notorious as a smoker, said to him, "Mr. Morris, do gentlemen smoke in Paris?" "Gentlemen!" said Mr. Morris, "gentlemen, doctor, smoke nowhere!" -Is not this a hurtful lust, a vile appetite, an unreasonable self-indulgence, totally at war with purity and self-denial? Says Dr. Harris, "Tobacco is a lust of the flesh, an agent of Satan, by which he is now destroying more bodies and souls than by any other agent." Said a good man, "My tobacco is a lust, which is getting the mastery of me; I will drop it if it takes the flesh from my bones." He did so. Brother, I pray you do likewise. 3. Religion bids you, as a steward of God, to make a proper use of money. -Your habit is expensive, and worse than useless. If you are well, this poison can do you no good; hence, every cent you spend for it is a waste which dishonours God; it is "money for that which is not bread." If you have used it for some time, a child can show you that you have squandered an immense amount of money-money needed to raise drooping hearts, and to fill the world with light and love. 4. Religion bids you to use time, strength, and life, to the best purpose.-The Earl of Stanhope main-tains that the victims of this narcotic spend one-twentieth part of their time-two years of forty-in its indulgence. What right have you, my brother, to waste years or months in this manner? Is this "redeeming the time?" What 2. Religion bids you crucify right have you to enfeeble your body by this emasculating drug, when its energies, in full force, should be given to God, and the good of our perishing race? What right have you to use a drug whose (tendency is completely anti-vital, and which may cut short your life ten years, or twenty? 5. Religion bids you give the world a good example.-It has been said that ninety-nine victims in a hundred acquire this habit from infectious example. Be this as it may, the example of men in your position is unspeakably powerful and pernicious. It has power to sweep multitudes of young men down to death. "Father," said a little boy, 66 why do you chew tobacco?" "Because I love it," was the reply. The son chewed it, learned to love it, and thus ruined his health and embittered his whole life with disease. I saw a little boy with a cigar, puffing like a steam-engine. "Why do you smoke?" I inquired. "Father smokes, and I'll smoke, Sir," was the reply. The cry on every hand is, "Cure fathers, cure church members, cure men of influence; when they drop it, we will 'follow suit.'" 6. Religion bids you to be a thorough temperance man.-Rum and tobacco are twin demons. Tobacco creates an unnatural appetite, which craves alcoholic stimulants, and the gratification of this appetite leads to drunkenness. Smoke shops and dram-shops, sots on rum and sots on tobacco, have usually been identical; and temperance can never triumph whilst tobacco intoxicates the million. Come, my brother! no longer declaim against alcohol whilst a slave to tobacco; no longer make yourself the song of the drunkard by intoxication on your quid or pipe. 7. Religion bids you to be pure and Christ-like.-To use tobacco is defiling, is demoralising. It is a heathenish abomination, and you cannot respect yourself as its victim. Do you think you please Christ by using it? Do you think Christ would have allowed John to lean on His bosom, had he used it? Do you think the apostles used it? Are you willing this should be written on your tombstone: "Here lies a Christian, who cut short his days by the use of Tobacco?" Is this epitaph becoming for a Christian ? 8. Religion bids you to be entirely devoted to God.-The use of this pernicious drug forbids this. If you used it early, and have used it long, it has become with you the king of appetites. You love it better than honey, or milk, or bread, or wine, or the choicest fruits. It is usually the last thing which engages your heart at night, and it is among the first things which claim your fond regards in the morning. Birds may fill the air with music, flowers may load it with perfume, the sun may surpass himself in the beauty of his brightness; but you cannot enjoy the one or the other very much, nor God, their glorious author, till you have appeased a giant appetite which has dominion over you. "Be not deceived!" my brother. Think not that you love God with all your heart when this idol has such supremacy in your soul. Talk not of aspirations for "holiness," "full assurance," and "sanctification," |