may get emboldened, and the Word of God may be dealt with as a mere book of man's making. I plead for the Bible in pleading for the Prayerbook; for as I look upon the latter as the best interpreter of the former, if men get to dislike the good interpretation, they may get to dislike that which it interprets. Preserve your Prayerbook and that will help to preserve your Bible.

It might however happen, that after the Prayerbook was gone, men might dread to touch the Bible, lest by adding words or taking them away they might provoke God's vengeance; but there is a way of destroying the Bible, even when it outwardly remains unchanged. Let me observe, that when I speak of the Bible, I do not speak simply of the letters or syllables or the words which it contains, or the paper on which it is printed, but I mean those truths of Christ's Gospel, that divine teaching, those heavenly doctrines, which are expressed therein. I mean that true and living meaning which the words. are designed to convey. If men make the Bible mean what it is not designed by God to mean, if they put a wrong sense upon its words, then I say they really destroy the Bible, though every word and syllable and letter remains the same. Look upon a dead and a living man side by

side; they both have eyes, limbs, mouth, forehead, hands, tongue; outwardly they are the same; but the one has lost the living soul. So is the Bible rightly understood and the Bible wrongly understood; the words in the former case have life, in the latter case the Bible is as good as dead.

Now this is what I dread. I dread the Bible being wrongly read; I dread a wrong meaning, a wrong sense, being given to its true words; for when this is done, the Bible is as good as gone; it is a lifeless Book; nay, it is wrested to men's destruction. This it is which makes me feel so anxiously for the Prayer-book; for it not only helps, as a sort of outwork, to preserve the Bible, but it helps to preserve its true meaning, its true sense, its true interpretation. The doctrines of Christ will be more easily weakened and explained away when the Prayer-book is once gone.

Thus then, first for its own sake love the Prayer-book, and next love it also for the Bible's sake. It is a great guide to us, a good guardian of the truth; it has helped the Church through many storms; it has brought great blessings to our spiritual house; and if we now hear rumours of war against it, and whispers

of a desire to have it changed, we may well take alarm, and at once prepare by God's help to defend it with all our might; for we may be sure that perilous times are come; we may be sure that when such a Book begins to be disliked, there is peril to the faith, peril to the Church, peril to the cause of true religion; we may be sure that the greatest, the highest truths of Christ will not long remain untouched, that wrong doctrines are on the rise, that lax faulty interpretations of God's Word will spring up more and more. And so I say to you again, love your Prayer-book in such a time; defend it, cling to it, struggle to preserve it, pray God to guard it from thoughtless or evil hands, think more about it, prize it more, use it more; do not merely gaze at it and look at it and say, "how excellent a Book of Prayer it is;" but pray its prayers, embrace its creed with your very heart; use it earnestly. The more you use it, the more will you love it; and if there be a war against it you will fight for it with spiritual weapons as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. The Church needs such soldiers now, for the days are evil, men are given to change and love new things.

TWO-PENCE FOR THE CLOTHING CLUB.

IN our village of Stauntons, we have a famous Clothing Club, men and women pay twopence weekly, and children a penny, which is spent at the end of October in each year, in the purchase of clothes, bedding, hats, and shoes. Reuben Martin came to live at Stauntons, and his wife Mary at once got her name enrolled at the club, and put down Reuben's name, and one of the children; when Saturday night came, he reckoned up his wages, and how they were to be spent; rent, firing, bread, "and the two-pence for the club," said Mary.

"What's that for?" asked Reuben; "I am in a friendly club, that's enough for me, and I have to pay three shillings a quarter for that."

"But this is a clothing club," said Mary, "and we shall have it out in clothes at the shop after next October."

Oh

yes, I dare say we shall," said he, "there is always something wanting, and now you have just got another two-pence from my money, and there will be no beer for supper. "but

"Perhaps not, sometimes," said Mary,

I have had a good week, and so I bought the beer, Reuben, to night."

Saturday night again came round and they began to reckon up the expenses; Reuben had quite made up his mind to forget the club, but at the end of the reckoning Mary called out "and two-pence for the club, Reuben."

"Bother the club, Mary, that must go, I cannot pay it to night.'

"No, Reuben," said Mary, "it must not go, for the rule is that those who do not pay regularly receive no benefit, but have only their own money back again; I hope to get a shilling, perhaps eighteen-pence, added to our money."

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'Well," said Reuben, "there is the two-pence, Mary, but there will be no beer to-night."

No, that is quite certain," said Mary, “for there has been very little work, every thing is very dull."

Mary was sorry she could not get any beer for Reuben's supper, but she knew how important it was to be regular in her payments, and