evening fireside, to inquire, "Have we cast sunshine this day over any weary lot, any darkened home? Have we soothed one of creation's groans?" Let us all strive, then, more and more to shew our love to Him who died for prince and pauper, for our gracious and beloved Queen, and the poor sinner of the Black Ward, and who "comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of GOD."

Life is made up, in its joyfulness, of duties and pleasures, and the "very sense of existence" to me, as to Dr Arnold, is "delightful," but never so much so as when I feel the honoured instrument in my heavenly Master's hands of putting in one tiny bit of brightness and sunshine into the lot of a desolate heart; thus making one large life-mosaic, composed of small deeds of kindness and small acts of love; "neither is anything vast, but it is compacted 'of atoms."

Let me leave with you these glorious words, sounding forth a clarion note to all our moral energies, and teaching us what to strive for, and what to live for :WHAT I LIVE FOR.

I live for those who love me,

Whose hearts are kind and true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,

And awaits my spirit too;
For all human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assign'd me,
For the bright hopes left behind me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story

Who've suffer'd for my sake,

To emulate their glory,

And follow in their wake;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The noble of all ages,
Whose deeds crown'd History's pages
And Time's great volume make.

I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union

'Twixt Nature's heart and mine;
To profit by affliction,
Reap truths from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,

And fulfil each grand design.

I live to hail that season,
By gifted minds foretold,
When men shall live by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted,
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

APPENDIX.

"Owning her weakness,
Her evil behaviour,
And leaving, with meekness,
Her sins to her Saviour."

1

As a new edition of this my little work is coming out this last month of 1859, I should like to insert in this place, the account of a very small undertaking on which the blessing of God seems to rest, and which statement has lately been printed, at the earnest request of some kind friends, under the title of "An Out-stretched Hand to the Fallen."

For many years past my sympathies have been drawn out to the class of "unfortunate girls," who are becoming the pests of our large towns, and often driven, by sad necessity, to the Black Ward of the Union Workhouse, only to return to their evil ways, and, worn out with sin, to die uncared for, because no hand is ever stretched out mercifully to save them, or one word spoken to give them assurance that even after their terrible lives of sin there may be some who look "pitifully" on them. God blessed my first endeavours some seven years ago. Three or four more I have been able to get into Penitentiaries, but have now exhausted my claims on Bath, Clewer, and Pentonville, and still my heart ached over these uncared-for ones-hearing how many of them were yearning for my womanly sympathy. Encouraged by some kindly donations, I determined, with God's blessing, to see how the following simple scheme would work, unlike as it might be to the more elaborate machinery of the large Penitentiaries of England.

I took a house in the town at £6 per annum-not a very ruinous rent! I bought some second-hand beds and bedding; a little needful furniture of chairs, tables, crockery, &c.; some new coarse sheets, blankets, and counterpanes; costing me altogether about £20. Then I placed an old woman, whom I could depend upon, over all; and last month (Nov. 7) I was at the Refuge at seven P.M., having sent out invitations to all of that class to come and meet me there. I had a bright fire, the table laid out with tea, coffee, cake, &c. I welcomed them as they dropped in by twos and threes, till fourteen or fifteen sat round my tiny room. I was quite alone, only a loving old servant with me, who made tea for them. Such hollow coughs met my ear! such hectic cheeks and feverish eyes! Some of them pretty young creatures-others seemingly hardened in long-indulged sin. I heard them say, sotto voce, "This is kind-what a good tea-haven't had such a meal this long time. Mrs S. don't do kindness by halves."

When they were satisfied, I took my chair among them, saying, "Now I am going to talk to you about myself first, then about you." I told them how I had longed for many years past to do something for themof my visits to the Black Ward of the Workhouse("Please, ma'am, you visited me there;" or, "Twere my sister you do speak of;") then of my successful efforts for several of their class, getting them, after long, long years of abandoned wickedness, into the Penitentiaries above named; and how all, even the notorious M. H., the plague of magistrates and prison authorities, seemed now becoming "clothed," and in their "right mind." : By this time the sobbing and weeping had become almost universal. I told them of my present attempt to save some of them-how I had begged for pecuniary assistance to establish this little Home, and how I longed to gather in some, that very night, but that I must have entire obedience to my rules; that as mine was only a simple Refuge, I could not bolt and bar them in, but I should forbid any going out at all after five in the evening. No beer to be allowed, but plenty of coffee, tea, &c., and meat as I could afford to give them. That I was going to trust to their honour, for I believed there was still a tiny corner of right good womanly feeling left in all their sin-degraded natures which would keep them from disobeying one who was trying thus to befriend them.

Amidst the convulsive sobs (like the heartfelt sob of a little child under corporal punishment) I heard, "Thank'ee, ma'am, for trusting us; we couldn't do a dirty thing by such a lady, and we won't neither." I then opened my Bible, reading them the wonderful