"We have shared our earthly sorrows, Each with the other here;

We shall share our heavenly gladness Each with the other there.

We have mingled tears together,
We shall mingle smiles and song;
We have mingled sighs together,
We shall mingle smiles and song."

without counting restorations and enlargements, very nearly one-third of all the churches in the kingdom have been built in this century. The restorations and enlargements are still more numerous, but we have not exact figures.

Thus much for the numbers. Next as to the cost. Of the 3204 entirely new churches, 1596, or nearly half, were aided by the Church Building Society. Supposing that the same rule holds regarding restorations, etc., then the whole church building work will be just double what the Society has aided. Now the total cost of all work aided by the Society is £9,000,000. Hence the church building, etc., of the present century has cost at least £18,000,000. This too takes no account of Mission Churches, of which the Society has aided 160, without returning the total cost.

The formation of new Parishes is another great work which has been rapidly carried on during the last thirty or forty years. In 1831 there were about 10,000 parishes: now there are about 13,200. Thus, for every three parishes of forty years ago we now have four. To estimate the importance of this work we must bear in mind that every additional parish involves additional outlay for church and schools and all the other items of parochial expenditure.

Then there is the endowment of these new parishes by private liberality. This appears to have reached the large sum of £1,653,446, received by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners up to October 31, 1873. About £120,000 a year seems to be the amount now received from

private benefactors for endowments of new parishes. We must add further, that during the last forty years about 5100 new parsonages have been built.

But we should make a great and serious omission if we forget the School work of the Church of England. The following figures are taken from the Education Report of the Privy Council for 1873, and will at once show to whom the country is indebted for the means of elementary education during the last thirty years.

From 1839 to December 31st, 1873. England and Wales. Subscribed. Parl. Grant. For building Church of England Schools ... British & Foreign Schools Wesleyan Schools Roman Catholic Schools

...

...

£3,585,164 £1,356,487

220,033 151,942 99,650

106,120

81,317

42,167

But here again, huge as this capital of three and a half millions of voluntary subscriptions at the present moment sunk in school buildings may seem, the annual voluntary subscriptions for their maintenance are quite as striking. It appears from the same Education Report that the annual subscriptions of Churchmen reach the amount of £389,769, against Diss enting subscriptions of £84,771.

The members of the Church of England are certainly not lacking in energy and liberality at the present time; and we think our readers will agree that our facts and figures give a tolerably satisfactory answer from a very practical point of view to the question, "What is the Church doing ?"

I. UMBRELLAS.

HE great missionary to China, Dr. Morison, states that mention is made of umbrellas and parasols in books printed in China more than fifteen hundred years ago; and the celebrated traveller, Layard, relates that he dis

a representation of a king in his chariot, with anattendant holding an umbrella over his head. In India we also find the umbrella has been in use in remote ages, and principally as a mark of Royalty, its shape differing very little from those in modern use. In Burmah, the princes use a very large umbrella, and it requires a separate attendant to carry it; and his position is a recognised one in the Royal household. One of the titles of the king is as

lord of the twenty-four umbrellas." The Emperor of China, who never does anything on a small scale (if he can help it), has no fewer than twenty-four umbrellas carried before him when he goes out hunting. It is used in that country as a defence against rain as well as sun, and is principally made of a sort of glazed silk or paper, beautifully painted.

I need not tell you that to this day the East demands a large share of our productions; and umbrellas are shipped to Bombay and Calcutta and other markets in tens of thousands of dozens annually.

It

We find umbrellas mentioned as in use, or at least known, in England, 150 years ago. In Cambridge we read that early in the last century umbrellas were let out on hire for so much per hour, like sedan chairs. Jonas Hanway, the founder of a hospital in London, has the credit of being the first person in London who had the courage to habitually carry an umbrella. He died in 1786. is said that he carried an umbrella for thirty years, and the date of their introduction for general use may be said to date from 1756. No one who has not given attention to the history of the umbrella and its collateral branches, would believe that no fewer than three hundred patents have been registered as improvements during the last century. A good umbrella is a sure test of a man's respectability. A man may go to kirk or to market with a shocking bad hat or pair of boots, and keep in his status in society; but not with a bad umbrella.-Mr. Wilson, at the annual Soirée of the Glasgow Umbrella Trade.

by the seller. William III. denounced wooden buttons, also buttons of cloth or stuff; Quecn Anne demanded that "no tailor or other person, shall make, sell, set on, use, or bind on any clothes, any button or button-holes of cloth, etc., on pain of £5 per dozen;" and George I. followed in the same track. Indeed the thing got to be such a nuisance, that the Gentleman's Magazine took it up, and tried what ridicule would do, since common sense had failed. It was in 1721 that the most stringent laws against cloth buttons were passed, for the encouragement of the metal trade; and these were carried to such a height that a tailor could not obtain payment for a coat which he had made with cloth buttons. The question was tried, and the tailor cast as a misdemeanant and law-breaker. In fact, all clothes with cloth buttons on them, exposed for sale, might be seized and forfeited; and even a private person, if he wore cloth buttons or bound buttonholes, might be informed against and fined 40s. per dozen; half the money to go to the informer. These metal buttons had a certain currency value, too, for during the long war the shanks used to be cut off, and the moulds passed as halfpence, to the confusion of a man's finances and the detriment of his wardrobe. It would be difficult now-a-days to make any such use of modern buttons, for they are made of glass, porcelain, linen, thread. and bone, mother of pearl, bronze, steel, cast-iron, marble, guttapercha, silk, cloth, velvet, aluminium, zinc, silver, gold, copper, and tin, and, doubtless, many other materials.

What more can be said about buttons ? Pages might be filled; but space, or rather the want of it, forbids more than the mention of buttons upon foils, buttony mushrooms, bachelor's buttons; and last, but not least, in its ill-effects, the button which closes the pocket when an appeal is made in behalf of some charitable institution or suffering fellowmortal. G. L. W.

OU do no work," said the scissors to the rivet, we don't want you!" 'Where would your work be if I

66

"There's nothing done by the sharpest without union."

We commend this lesson of practical wis

Glass?

HAT home is there without some LookingThe palace has its magnificent plate in which the whole figure can be seen; the poorest cottage has its little threecornered bit of broken glass in which only a part of the face can be seen.

The poorest looking-glasses of our time are probably better than the best of old times, for they gave a very imperfect likeness of the face. As St. Paul writes, 1 Cor. xiii.: they saw "through a glass darkly:" that is, by means of a mirror they saw not the face itself, but a broken and distorted image of it. In heaven we shall not see things in this way, but as clearly as when we see each other "face to face."

These mirrors of polished metal were anciently worn at her waist by every woman. The laver in the tabernacle-that is, the great basin in which the priests washed before they went to God's altarwas made "out of the looking-glasses of the women," who gave up these useful and almost necessary things for the service of God whom they loved. David was thinking of this laver when he wrote, "I will wash my hands in innocency, O Lord, and so will I compass Thine altar."

Why do people want a Looking-Glass ? Women want it to arrange their hair and dress. Men want it to do the same, and shave or trim their beard. Do they never

R

use it for any other purpose? Do none ever look into the glass to admire their own faces? Are the years of their life which are spent in this way spent well?

If any one had a glass which made plain people good-looking, which took away spots and freckles, what a sale there would be for those glasses! There really is a glass which does this. But it does it, not by altering the face at first, or taking away the freckles and spots, but by showing the face exactly as it is.

In the end it does alter the face: and yet people do not like this glass. They do not wish to see the face of their soul as it is. They do not like to know that they are sinful and selfish-thinking only or chiefly of themselves, and very little of God and their neighbour; quite unlike Christ, who thought chiefly of these, and lived to do the will of God, and to do good to men. So they dislike the Bible, which is the true glass; they put it away, and say, "I do not like it. It cannot tell the truth when it makes me look like that. I will not look into that disagreeable glass."

But those who look into it find that, while it shows them what they are, it shows them Christ-what He is. They learn to love Him, to admire Him, to wish to be like Him, to try to be like Him, and pray to be like Him; and so, "beholding as in a glass the glory of God, they are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of God."

Sign.

not only of yourself, but of your wife and your home. Oh that all working men's wives had husbands like this honest-looking coalheaver, who, instead of "reeling" home on the paynight, brings to the wife flowers to beautify

HAT is to be done?" cried a tumultuous assembly of mice, their eyes glittering, their whiskers trembling, and their tails quivering with agitation.

"Let us hear the case at length," said an old, sober member, who assumed the place of leader.

"It is this," cried a brisk, fiery-eyed young one, coming forward with great vivacity: "The cook, who never was fond of us, has of late taken the most violent antipathy to us; chiefly, I believe, on account of the large family that Mrs. Downy-indiscreetly, I must say-brought up in the flour-bin, having made a hole in the corner of it that she might effect her purpose. Well, owing to this, the destruction of our whole community is vowed. There are engines with iron teeth set close to our holes, which, nimble as we are, and sharp-sighted too, we have the greatest difficulty in avoiding. Then there are small apartments placed in our way, with the most fragrant delicacies-such as toasted cheese and frizzled bacon-at the open doors; through which you have no sooner entered for a taste than they close upon you, and there you are, ready for the cat! But still more dangerous is her last plan. She puts in every corner tit-bits that no mouse, unless gifted with the wisdom and sobriety of your worship, could pass; and-I tremble as I tell it these are sprinkled over with some

horrible stuff that brings on agonizing death immediately!"

The whole assembly shuddered. One told of his children, another of a mate, a third of some intimate friends who had fallen victims; and again the cry arose, "What is to be done ?"

"I should suggest great care in passing by the enemy at the holes. Care and discretion seem to me to be all that we want," said one.

"And I suggest," said another, “that we exercise prudence: smelling everything well before we taste it, and not eating too much for fear of the consequences."

"And I," said a third, "advise that we practise self-denial. Surely we can look at those delicious morsels, enjoy their fragrance, and pass by them! Where is the mouse that is not equal to this?"

A murmur of praise ran through the assembly; but it was noticed that the grey old president sat unmoved, and looked very grave.

"May we know your worship's opinion?" said the chief speakers.

"It is

"Certainly," said the old mouse. this: care, and discretion, and prudence, and self-denial, are fine things, and wanted always; but if you, my friends, wish to be safe -if you will take my advice-you will keep out of the dairy."-Original Fables, by Mrs. Prosser.

Searched.

6. What great truth was only made known by the Father to our Lord after His ascension into heaven?

WRITTEN EXERCISES.

Give instances where "Forgetting" is named in the Old Testament, and "Remembering" in the New.

ANSWERS (See December No.).

1. Moses. Ps. xc. 10. See Title.

Jer.

2. As Man He sat wearied on the well; as God, He told the woman all that ever she did. xvii. 9, 10; St. John iv. 6, 18, 29.

3. Theudas, and Judas of Galilee.
4. Apollos. Acts xviii. 24-28.
5. The fifth commandment.

Eph. vi. 2.

Acts v. 36, 37.

Exod. xx. 12;

6. Moses was a servant, Christ a Son. Heb. iii.