morning the father and mother had said to those children: 'Get ready for church, for we think that the gentleman who always smiles to the baby is a minister. When he passes you may follow him, and see where he preaches.'

"The children were quite willing to follow the suggestion of their parents, and after I had passed, the door opened, and the children stepped upon the pavement, and kept near me, till I entered my church, when they followed me, and seats were given them.

"When they returned home, they sought their parents and eagerly exclaimed: 'He is a minister, and we have found his church, and he preached a beautiful sermon this morning. You must go and hear him next Sunday.'

"It was not difficult to persuade the parents to go, and guided by their children they found their way to the church. They, too, were pleased, and other members of the family were induced to come to the house of God. God blessed what they heard to the good of their souls, and seven members of this family have been led to become Christians, and join the church, and, I repeat what I said before: 'they were all brought in by a smile.'"

What a little thing a smile is! And yet, here we see how God made use of so small a thing as this, to make seven persons Christians, and to save their souls forever! Of the God who can work in this way, it may well be said that he loves to work by little things. It is the way in which he is working continually.

How eagerly, then, we may try to learn and to practise what has been very sweetly expressed in

THE MITE SONG.

"Only a drop in the bucket,
But every drop will tell,
The bucket would soon be empty,
Without the drops in the well.
"Only a poor little penny,
It was all I had to give;
But as pennies make the dollars,
It may help some cause to live.
"A few little bits of ribbon,
And some toys—they were not new,
But they made the sick child happy,
And that made me happy, too.
"Only some out-grown garments;
They were all I had to spare;
But they'll help to clothe the needy,
And the poor are everywhere.
"A word now and then of comfort,
That cost me nothing to say;
But the poor old man died happy,
And it helped him on the way.
"God loveth the cheerful giver,
Though the gifts be poor and small;
But what must he think of his children
Who never give at all?"

God loves to work by little means. We see this when we think of the men whom Jesus chose to be his apostles. The first thing about this subject is—the men.

The second thing to speak of, in connection with this subject, is—THE WORK—they had to do.

What this work was we find fully stated in the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew. In this chapter Jesus told the apostles all about the work they were to do for him, and how they were to do it. In the seventh and eighth verses of this chapter we have distinctly stated just what they were to do. "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand; Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils."

On this occasion Jesus sent his apostles to do the work committed to them, not among the Gentiles, but only among the Jews; or as he calls them—"the lost sheep of the house of Israel," v. 5,6. But, after his resurrection, and just before he went up to heaven, he enlarged their commission. His parting command to them then was—"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." St. Mark xvi: 15.

When Jesus, their Master, went to heaven they were to take up and carry on the great work that he had begun. Those twelve men were to begin the work of changing the religion of the world. They were to overturn the idols that had been worshiped for ages. They were to shut up the temples in which those idols had been worshiped. They were to "turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." Acts xxvi: 18. They were to go up and down the world, everywhere, telling the wondrous story of Jesus and his love. And in doing this work they were to be the means of saving the souls of all who believed their message, and in the end of winning the world back to Jesus, till, according to God's promise, he has "the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession." Ps. ii: 8.

This was the grandest and most important work that men were ever called upon to do. The apostles spent their lives in doing this work; and then they left it for others to carry on. The work is not finished yet. And, if we learn to love and serve Jesus, we may help to carry it on. We may be apostles, too, though in a lower sense than that in which the first twelve were apostles. An apostle means—one sent. But Jesus sends into the vineyard to work for him all who become his loving children. And, in this sense it is true that all who love and serve Jesus are his apostles. He says to each of us—"Go, work to-day, in my vineyard." St. Matt, xxi: 28. And in another place he says—"Let him that heareth, say, Come." Rev. xxii: 17.

And when we are trying to tell people of Jesus and his love, and to bring them to him, then we are helping to carry on the same great work that Jesus gave his apostles to do. Let us look at some examples of persons who have been apostles for God and helped to do the work of apostles.

"Aunt Lucy." I heard the other day of a good old woman in the State of Michigan, known as Aunt Lucy. She is eighty-four years old, and lives all alone, supporting herself principally by carpet-weaving. All that she can save from her earnings, after paying for her necessary expenses, she spends in buying Bibles, which she distributes among the children and the poor of the neighborhood. Thirteen large family Bibles, and fifty small ones, have thus been given away—good, well-bound Bibles.

A neighbor, who has watched this good work very closely, says that two-thirds of the persons to whom Aunt Lucy has given Bibles have afterwards become Christians. In doing this work Aunt Lucy was an apostle.

"The Charcoal Carrier." One Sunday afternoon, in summer, a little girl named Mary, going home from a Sunday-school in the country, sat down to rest under the shade of a tree by the roadside. While sitting there she opened her Bible to read. As she sat reading, a man, well known in that neighborhood as Jacob, the charcoal carrier, came by with his donkey. Jacob used to work in the woods, making charcoal, which he carried away in sacks on his donkey's back, and sold. He was not a Christian man, and was accustomed to work with his donkey as hard on Sunday as on week-days.

When he came by where Mary was sitting, he stopped a moment, and said, in a good-natured way:

"What book is that you are reading, my little maid?"

"It is God's book—the Bible," said Mary.

"Let me hear you read a little in it, if you please," said he, stopping his donkey.

Mary began at the place where the book was open, and read:—"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work."

"There, that's enough," said Jacob, "and now tell me what it means."

"It means," said Mary, "that you mustn't carry charcoal, on Sunday, nor let your donkey carry it."

"Does it?" said Jacob, musing a little. "I tell you what then, I must think over what you have said."

And he did think over it. And the result of his