cost but little, a week's beer amounted to considerable, and he would
discontinue the habit, and appropriate the old beer expenditure upon
flowers. He has faithfully kept his proposal, and often as we sit by our
window, he points to the blooming balcony, saying, 'There is my summer's
beer.' The consequence of this sacrifice is that I am a grateful and
contented wife; and I do assure you (I being judge) that since beer is
turned into flowers, my husband is the most agreeable of mankind.

Yours very truly."

* * * * *


Original.

NEVER FAINT IN PRAYER.

"Men ought always to pray and not to faint."


So important is a spirit of prayer to mothers who are bearing the heat
and burden of the day, that we give for their encouragement a few devout
meditations by Rev. W. Mason, on the above passage. And though penned
towards the close of the last century, they have lost none of their
freshness or fragrance.

Christ opposes praying to fainting, for fainting prevents praying. Have
you not found it so? When weary and faint in your mind, when your
spirits are oppressed, your frame low and languid, you have thought this
is not a time for prayer; yea, but it is: pray _always_. Now is the time