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THE NEWSPAPER GIRL.

""SCOTSMAN," sir! second edition;

Trial of the Bank Directors?' said a news-girl, one afternoon lately, as I was hurrying home to dinner, and she held out the sheet, looking imploringly into my face, as if her supper depended on my buying the paper. But I thought I could wait till morning, when my own would make its appearance, so with a determined shake of the head, I refused and passed on. The next minute another passenger had crossed the poor girl's path; perhaps he had a less decided expression of countenance than I had; perhaps he had some special interest in the prisoners at the bar; I daresay he was a younger man than I, and could not so willingly afford to wait at all events, a paper was bought and the penny pocketed. I wondered if it helped to get a meal for the young seller, or if it found its way, through the hands of an idle father or mother at home, to the large public house over the way.

I think I hear some of my young readers saying, 'Well, you might have bought the paper; and to your different guesses about the man, who did buy one, you might have added-Perhaps he had a more feeling heart than I had.'

I am not so sure of that, young friend. I don't believe that newspaper reader, whoever he was, thought half so much about the girl as I did that evening, when, dinner over, and the shutters shut to keep out the keen frosty air, I sat by a bright fire, with an interesting book in my hand, but which I can hardly say I was reading. Now and again that girl's eager face came up before me; don't think I was sorry that I had not bought her paper; not at all: if every one refused news-girls as I did, it might be better for them in the end, though worse for the public house just mentioned.

'What can I do for her and ever so many like her?' I asked myself, as my open book lay unnoticed before me.

You must do something,' said Conscience. 'If you let her alone, to run about the streets and grow up without being properly taught, what is to become of her? You

will see her mentioned one of these days in the columns of those very newspapers she is now selling, as a little thief or criminal of some sort; and will you be free of blame?'

Though Conscience, which made me that long speech, is sometimes very troublesome, I am never happy unless I listen devoutly, and earnestly obey the commands it lays down, (I am sure my young readers have had the same experience); so I answered resolutely, Quite true; I shall do something, and that speedily.'

Well, next morning I set to work. Where there's a will, there's a way.' By a number of plans that we grown up people know how to carry out, my young newspaper friend was soon missed from her old corner, and had entered on a new line of life. In one of our Training Homes where the poor, the destitute, and forsaken find a refuge, and kind friends who teach them what is right, one of the brightest, happiest girls is Marjory. You see I soon found out her name and all about her. Poor thing! she has no mother and a drunken father. Her supper does not now depend upon her getting her newspapers off her hands, nor does the public house get a penny through her.

There are many more newspaper girls still hard at work; you will see them thronging the streets every afternoon. I wonder if my readers could help in rescuing some of Marjory's old companions. Tell your friends at home, and stir them up to work for them; it is wonderful what boys and girls can do, if they only try.

Don't you think Marjory will be thankful all her days that I met her that wintry afternoon.

K.

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In the Bible, Luther learned that salvation is God's free gift to man, received by faith alone; and he could not bear to see the people deceived by the priests. 'I have found pardon;' he says, 'yes I have found it-amid anguish and terror and groans which sin forced from me. I found it by believing that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, even of those who are great, real sinners, and deserving utter condemnation.

I found it in the wounds of the Son of God; and from that hour my soul has been filled with a joy before unknown. I will proclaim to my people the true plenary indulgence of Jesus Christ.'

And he did proclaim it. He wrote ninety-five propositions condemning Romish errors and setting forth the truth. These he nailed to the door of the castle church at Wittemberg, to which crowds were flocking to obtain indulgences. Many read them there, and in a fortnight they were known all over Germany. Godly men were filled with joy: Christ has been restored to us,' they said; 'what need, then, have we of indulgences?'

In a month, Luther's propositions reached Rome, but the Pope condemned them. In his famous bull he ordered Luther's writings to be burned, and Luther himself to be excommunicated and sent to Rome, unless he retracted.

A Pope's excommunication was, in those days, no light matter, and to be sent to Rome, meant to be burned at the stake. But Luther did not hesitate. He could retract nothing, for he knew that what he had written was God's own truth. On the contrary, he resolved on the bold step of burning the Bull which Pope Leo X. had issued, and thus for ever separating from the Pope.

Accordingly, on the morning of the 10th December, 1520, the students who were gathered round the black tablet fastened to the wall of the university, read these words:This day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the Anti-Christian Decretals will be burnt in front of the east gate near Holy Cross. Fail not to attend.'

At nine o'clock Luther came and said to

his friends, Let us break the yoke of Rome, and submit to Jesus Christ alone. I reject the Pope as a heretic condemned by the word of God, as an enemy of the Holy Scriptures, as a contemner, calumniator, and blasphemer of the church, as an Anti-Christ! I am going to burn the Bull. Follow me!'

When they arrived at the appointed spot, an immense crowd had assembled. Some students were preparing the pile; and soon it was lighted. The Canon Laws and some other Roman Catholic writings were thrown into the flames and consumed. Then Luther stepped forward boldly, holding in his hand the terrible Bull of Leo X. Casting it into the fire-he said, with a loud voice, Since thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may everlasting fire vex and consume thee!'

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In a moment the Bull was burned to ashes. 'Our help is in the name of God, who made heaven and earth!' said Luther, and calmly returned to Wittemberg.

Thus did Luther sever his connection with the church of Rome, and so, the 10th of December, 1520, became one of the great days of the Reformation.

MORE ABOUT

M. T. S.

WEE JOHNNIE.' HA AVING read with pleasure the notice of Wee Johnnie' in the January number of the 'Dayspring,' I should like to add a few touches to the portrait of our little hospital favourite, so kindly sketched by a patient in another ward.

I first made his acquaintance in the summer of 1875, at the Sick Children's Hospital, where the little figure propped up by a spine support, looking up from a ponderous volume of history, formed one of the attractions of the place. He always had a smile of welcome for me, as one of the Strawberry Leddies,' and we soon became friends. He confided to me his objection to 'children's books,' and clung fondly to his big copy of Miss Strickland's 'Queens of England,' because it was 'sure to be all true!' He was greatly interested