seeing, and admiring, and wondering at the beautiful objects and curious natural phenomena you may encounter, but make it your business to search for information, either from books, or from those who have made such pursuits their study, so that you may be fitted to give glory to God intelligently, and in your turn to stimulate others to the perception and the admiration of His creative power.

Attention to God's inanimate works alone, were, however, but a partial fulfilment of country work. Although outwardly less degraded than wynd or cellar, there exists nearly as much moral and mental degradation in the picturesque cottage, or in the lonely hamlet; and sometimes the fairest scenes of nature are chosen habitations of sin and misery. Help to the needy,—the rescue of the miserable who abound in every neighbourhood, the consideration for dependants who, though pleasing and respectful in manner, may yet greatly require an elevating hand, will of course come within the sphere of a country lady's work, in which her influence is even more decided and extended than that of her town neighbour. Frequently the only person of united means and will within a few miles, the lady at the "great house" has an almost unbounded personal influence over her poorer neighbours. Whether they make known their expectations or not, it is to her that the sick look for help, the impoverished for money,—the young women for service, or recommendation and advice for it,—and the whole neighbourhood for that kindly and familiar intercourse with their superiors which they prize so highly, and which may be made so useful to them. Even the mistress of a smaller dwelling than the large "country house" has a greater number depending upon her individual aid, than in towns where work is so much generalized by associations and societies,

-she comes into contact with the poor, untrammelled by the presence or the views of others, and, while equally their benefactress, has more leisure to be their friend.

Country Work will also take a wider range, and, calling into exercise feminine tact and powers of arrangement, it will aim at the highest type of improvement, which, going beyond the

outward adornment, or pecuniary benefit of an estate, secures the hearty co-operation of the lower classes in their own comfort and elevation. It is not uncommon to see the tiny but picturesque cottage fitted into some favourite nook, or finishing some lovely vista, and a whole family crushed into it from a more commodious dwelling, without the slightest regard to their convenience; or we have show villages furnished with useless luxuries and comforts, which are only a source of annoyance and irritation to those who have just emerged from the hut and the hovel, wretched to our view, but much more in accordance with their own feelings and wants. Feminine influence will be rightly used in procuring more thoughtful and better applied help,--and in adapting improvements to the progressive state of those who are to be benefited, thus taking away gradually all dislike to the innovations of light, and air, and space, and cleanliness.

There is another portion of a lady's country work of which we must say a few words, and that is, her influence over the husbands, fathers, brothers, and friends who hold the position of "country gentlemen." Amongst this class many are to be met with, who, originally well educated, and gifted with respectable if not superior talents, have fallen into that state of deterioration, which is absolutely unavoidable, when country sports, instead of being kept in their proper place, as amusements, are magnified into the object and end of life. A country gentleman, the heir expectant to a large estate, was lately heard to expatiate on the difficulty he had found in arranging the employment of his time throughout the year. He did not live in a county that was regularly hunted, nor was there much curling in the neighbourhood,—golf, which presents such a resource for the destitute in some favoured places, was unknown, and the cricket ground was too distant. But beginning with the grouse on the glorious 12th of August, and then in succession studying the partridges, the pheasants, the woodcocks (drainage had left but few snipes), and the wild-ducks, he got through the winter pretty well, and by advancing a little the spring and summer fishing, he contrived to fill up the time till the happy

August "moor days" came round again.

Such was the cycle

of his work. Such was his understanding of the words, Occupy till I come.' Similar deterioration, though in a lesser degree, may be found resulting from an undue absorption in farming and other country pursuits, which in themselves are most useful and laudable. The effect of this is either directly prejudicial to woman, or it acts injuriously in preventing all communion of tastes and pursuits between her and the masculine members of her household. With whom, therefore, does the power of amending this social and individual evil rest so entirely as with the gentler and more refined sex? Who can so skilfully substitute the intellectual volume, for the Sporting Magazine, or the Farmer's Calendar,-who can so judiciously give just the requisite degree of interest in the favourite sport, claiming and obtaining in return a kindly and rational interest in their own more elevated pursuits,-who can foster the languid aspiration and recall the long lost enthusiasm more successfully than the wives and the sisters of fox hunters and farmers?

We have given but a very hurried and superficial sketch of a few of the duties and snares belonging to a sphere which may be made at once so honourable and so delightful; but we have said enough, if any are persuaded to seek the cultivation and exercise of that energy, which is peculiarly needed to counteract the enervating tendencies of tranquillity and repose, and to put a higher spirit into the enjoyments which are so liberally scattered around. The "perfect gifts" of Creation call with a loud voice for the "work," which will make their enjoyment still sweeter,--adding a significant beauty to the sunset,a healthier balm to the breeze,-a more solemn loveliness to the moonlit hills and valleys.

XXIII.

SABBATH WORK.

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord."—ISAIAH lviii. 13, 14.

THE title of this chapter must sound strange to the ears of those who look upon the Sabbath only as a day of enforced and unwelcome rest, of languid yawns, of vacant hours, and of fervent desires for the termination of the weekly day of penance. The original element of the day was Rest, but rest includes happiness; that were a miserable rest for a man which permitted his mind to be a prey to weariness and vexation,—that were a thing with a name, but without a substance, which offered rest and withheld happiness. Therefore has the Lord expressly made provision for this want, and promises "delight" to those who "call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable." We do not intend to enter upon any Sabbatarian controversies, but simply to point out the different kinds of "Work" which would make the hallowed day assume its right place as the "Pearl of the Week," and make its observance an intelligent, active, and happy duty, instead of the slavish ceremony which it too often is. This is doubly important when we consider how large a portion of time would thus be redeemed

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from waste, and restored to happiness; each person who lives seventy years-has lived ten years of Sabbaths!

We shall notice first, Preparatory Work. We can bring no melody from the harp-strings all jarred and unstrung by the damp and rust of a period of disuse, they need to be attuned before the rush of music can be swept from their chords. In like manner the heart that is damped and exhausted by the cares, and bustle, or distracted by the amusements of a long and late Saturday, can never breathe cheerful and inspiring music on the Sabbath, and can only give to its services a Pharisaical spirit of formal and discordant observance. The Jewish "day of preparation"* might afford a beneficial lesson to the Christian; it might fitly lead him to commence the spirit of the Sabbath on the previous day, by so arranging circumstances that no undue flurry of worldly business, or unnecessary society, or even physical fatigue, shall interfere with the remembrance that the morrow" is the day which the Lord hath made-let us be glad and rejoice in it."

Then we have Personal Work. Each portion of consecrated time ought to be a mile-stone in the narrow way, а Sabbathday's journey towards heaven." To those who on week-days are in a state of constant occupation and over-fatigue, and whose hours of retirement may at any time be interrupted and shortened, how blessed to stand still and see the salvation of God,to draw water out of the wells of Salvation without check or hindrance, to commune with their own hearts, and with their own Saviour, and to "search" into the hidden mine of Scripture, like the " more noble" Bereans.†

Then we have Sanctuary Work; not to be viewed as a mere excitement in an otherwise blank day, or as the amusement of

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"public place," where friends and strangers may be commented on, when other resorts are forbidden,-not as a work done for us by our pastors, with which we have no concern, save perhaps to approve or criticise,but as part of our own individual and solemn work to which a special promise is attached, "I will make them joyful in my house of prayer." Have we † Acts xvii. 11.

* Luke xxiii. 54.

+ Isa. lvi. 7.