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TO CHURCH.

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"WELL, my friend, so as you are deaf you think it of no use to keep your Church; you think it waste labour to go up on Sundays to the House of God, because you cannot hear the prayers, or the Bible, or the sermon. What is the good,' you say, 'of Church to me? I may as well stay at home, and say my prayers and read my Bible there; a deaf person like me is best at home; it is very fit for those to go who have got good ears, but as mine are fast sealed, I can get no good.""

Now if you can get no good, then certainly you had best bide at home; it would be labour in vain; let your seat be empty; do not, if such were the case, attempt to go. But this is the question, Are you sure you can get no good? Are you sure that it is useless and profitless for the deaf to go to Church? Are they obeying God's will by staying in their own homes? Are they let off the duty of worshipping God with His other sons and children in His sanctuary? Can the deaf stay at home without sin? That is

the point. We know that it is a sin in others to neglect God's House. Are the deaf free from this act of service? We know that others, when they go in a right spirit and frame of mind, find an especial blessing in the House of Prayer, draw near to God, are strengthened by His Spirit, and come away profited and enriched. Are the deaf unable to share this blessing, or to gain any measure of grace therein?

This, I say, is the point. If it is not a duty of the deaf to go to Church, if it brings no blessing to the deaf, if it is no sin to stay away, then truly you may safely and innocently remain at home. But in my judgment, it is a duty for the deaf to go to Church; they lose grace and strength and heavenly help, when they stay away; they commit sin and despise the Lord.

For, first of all, remember when you go to the House of God, you go to God Himself; you go not only to hear His Word, or to hear His minister, but you go to Him who gave the Word and sent the minister. The Church is the House of God, where God is, where your heavenly Father is to be found, where your Saviour is present, where the Holy Ghost abides.

You there draw near to God, while He draws near to you; you there go to meet your

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Lord, and there your Lord comes down to you. His ears will hear your voice, though you cannot hear the voice of men, you go to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Nay, if the Church were empty, if none else would go, it would do you good to go; for God, I repeat, is there. He is there to pardon you, to strengthen you, to bless you. Besides this, is it not our duty to pray together as brethren? And cannot the deaf do this? Though you cannot hear the voices of your fellow-worshippers, you can offer worship with them, and with your heart join in their prayers. God will not refuse the prayer of the deaf; and why should the deaf withhold themselves from God? Why are they to shut themselves out of His holy House? Will God say, "That man is deaf; therefore I will not come near him, I will not bless him, I will not accept his prayers, I will not forgive him."

I beseech you, therefore, to go to the House of God. Pray when the congregation prays; if you can read, read the chapters in the Bible to yourself when the clergyman reads them out to the congregation. Try and meditate upon the things of God, and turn different texts over in your mind when the sermon is going on. Draw near to the blessed Sacrament of the Lord's

A WORD TO THE DEAF ABOUT COMING TO CHURCH.

Supper, which will refresh you inwardly, and to which the deaf are as earnestly bidden to come as those that hear.

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I know that in some respects it is a trial for the deaf to go to Church. It makes you wish to hear, and feel you deafness more. service seems to pass on without you; you seem in some way separated from the rest; you would like to hear the Psalms, to be profited by the sermon, to keep with the congregation in the prayers. You feel alone and left out. You have some real loss, and the loss comes home to you. I feel for you in all this; I see what your trial is; it must be hard to be with the congregation and yet not to join in the service as they do. But still, though you have these trials in Church-going, do not stay away; the Lord knows your trial; He has sent you your deafness, and He will reveal Himself to your soul if you only seek His face; He will pity you, and make up to you by better gifts for that gift of hearing which He has withheld; His voice will sound in your heart, and if you are earnestly seeking to be saved, He will teach you His truth and He will be with you in His House of Prayer.

HONESTY, OR

PAYING EVERY ONE HIS OWN.

"I PAY every one his own, Sir," said a man to me one day, in a tone which made me think that he felt hurt by a remark which I had just made about the duty of being strictly honest. I had not meant to imply that he was not honest, although I had wished to put him upon examining himself in the matter of honesty; but the expression he used and the eagerness with which he uttered it attracted my attention, and I could not help reflecting in my own mind how much meaning it contained. I contented myself however with replying gravely, " It is much to say, Robert, that we pay every one his own: more, I suspect, than most of us think for when we say it. It means that we render to all their dues : to God what is due to God, to our neighbour what is due to our neighbour, aye, and to ourselves what is due to ourselves. It is much to

say that we pay every one his own."

I was pleased with my friend's answer. "Sir,"

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