is an instance of disinterested earnestness in a good and holy

cause.

Be "in earnest," my readers, but let your earnestness be directed towards a high and noble and worthy object. I have sometimes noticed on one of those close, thick summer days, when the sky is dull and leaden, that the sun will now and then pierce through with fiercer and more glaring heat than on ordinary occasions, as though to make up for the brevity of his visit. The earnestness of some persons much resembles the action of the sun on these hot summer days. They are "in earnest " now and then, by fits and starts. They are incapable of pursuing steadily and perseveringly any one object. They perhaps become interested in some particular study, and for a few days or weeks are "in earnest” about it; they will scarcely allow themselves time to eat, and drink, and sleep; all proper physical exercise is neglected; they are, as we should say, entirely wrapped up in this particular study; but no sooner do they get into the mere rudiments, than something else attracts their attention, when they go off in pursuit, utterly neglect and ignore their old study, and go hip and thigh into the new. Thus their plans and pursuits are ever varying; they become as changeable as the wind; they get a smattering of many things, and are competent in none; those by whom they are surrounded lose confidence in them; they either become bombastical-and thus endeavour to hide their deficiencies-or they grow desponding, and too often give up in despair. But this is not being "in earnest," it is only a feverish desire for attainment, without the necessary patience and endurance.

He who is truly "in earnest," cannot be thwarted or turned from his object; he first counts the cost of his undertaking, and then, be the obstacles and difficulties what they may, he overcomes with a firm. will and patience, which seem inexhaustible.

It was not wild phrensy, it was earnestness, which, when Martin Luther was advised not to enter a certain city where

duty called, led him to say, "Though every tile on the houses in that city were a devil, and they all stood in my pathway, and barred my passage, I would break through and enter in.” It was not mad enthusiasm, but cool, determined earnestness, which led Stephenson to set his opinion up against that of the great and wise of the land, and in the face of scorn, derision, and contempt, to insist that it was possible to make a locomotive which should go at the rate of sixty miles an hour.

But let us come nearer home. Suppose any of you, my young friends, feel inclined to engage in any particular study or pursuit; say you have thought much of it, you think the object to be gained is a worthy one; you have, in fact, fully decided to pursue this stated course-it will not be wisdom to rush helterskelter into it. It will not prove that you are in earnest to go at it pell-mell. No, true earnestness will induce you to consider calmly and reasonably such questions as the mode of study you will adopt, the various divisions into which you will divide your labour, the number of hours you can spare daily, and about how long it will take you to gain each step. You will thus have before you a sort of map of your route, you will determine for yourself fixed principles of action, and will be able to go to work truly "in earnest."

It is this calm, calculating earnestness which is not appalled at any difficulty, but endures and overcomes, until the goal is reached.

The writer once spent a night alone upon the deck of a vessel at sea. There was no sound but that of the surging, boiling billows, and the ship dashing its way through. There was no sight of land, for all was dense darkness, except just where the moon seemed to throw a silver bridge or pathway across the water. Altogether it was deeply impressive; but that which appeared grandest and most beautiful was the break of morning: first came the pale, trembling morning star, in its quiet, soft, and silent beauty, and then, by-and-by, its flickering light faded, and faded, and faded, until at last it became lost and merged in the greater light of the majestic sun.

Ah! my friends, there are many worthy objects and aims in this life as beautiful as the morning star, calling for earnest attention; but, like the sun, there is one desire, one object, one attainment, which should absorb, include, and comprehend all others. That one desire is after holiness, that one object is Christ, that one attainment is an undying faith in Him, which shall be with us in life and in death, and at last land us upon a shore where the untold ages of eternity shall be spent "in earnest" devotion to "Him who ruleth and reigneth."

J. M.

Old Clothes.

(From the "Times".)

WHEN the hawker working the suburban districts comes by with his barrow blooming with flowers, and petitioning for old clothes, old hats, and old boots, &c., in exchange for them, the bargain seems so one-sided that most people are only too glad to begin the barter. We all get so sick of frowsy old clothes, that it seems almost a mercy to get rid of them at any price; but to be able to translate them into geraniums and fuchsias, &c., to exchange musty, fusty gabardines for fresh odours and rainbow hues, is more than anybody ever expected to do.

The coster who initiated this subtle method of weeding our wardrobes must have had a special insight into female character, ever ready to exchange the solid and useful for the brightly decorative-at all events, this almost poetical method of filling old clothes' bags deserves to be mentioned as one of the most abundant means of building up a trade which has now assumed enormous proportions. The great dealers into whose hands our cast-off skins ultimately fall have arrived at the dignified position of merchants. The value of their exports to foreign countries makes no inconsiderable item in our annual trade returns. The streams of old clothes that hour by hour

are seductively drained, either by floral exchange, attractive advertisement, or by the downright pestering of "Old Ikeys," culminate in the great old clothes' mart in Houndsditch, where Hebrews most do congregate.

This inodorous spot has been so often described in popular works, that people are now pretty familiar with it, by name at least. But having described the fierce contest which ensues over the mounds of old clothes therein daily deposited, our social statisticians seem to have had enough of them, and have proceeded no further. But the true interest in the story of old clothes begins just at the point where they leave off. To the question of what becomes of them, we might answer that the greater part of them are now about to set out upon their travels, to enter new circles of society, and to see life, both savage and civilized, under a thousand new phases.

Those that are intended to remain in this country have to be tutored and transformed. The "clobberer," the "reviver," and the "translator " lay hands upon them. The duty of the "clobberer" is to patch, to sew up, and to restore as far as possible the garments to their pristine appearance; black cloth garments pass into the hands of the "revivers," who rejuvenate seedy black coats, and, for the moment, make them look as good as new. The "translator's" duty is of a higher order; his office is to transform one garment into another—the skirts of a cast-off coat, being the least worn part of the garment, make capital waistcoats and tunics for children, &c. Hats are revived in a still more wonderful manner; they are cut down to take out the grease marks, relined, and appear in the shops like new ones. The streets surrounding the old clothes' market are full of shops where these "clobbered" and "revived" goods are exposed for sale, and really a stranger to the trade would not know but that they were new goods. There is a department of the market itself also dedicated to old clothes, male and female, "clobbered" and "revived." It is a touching sight to see the class of persons who frequent the men's market, and turn over the seedy black garments that

are doing their best to put on a good appearance-the toilworn clerks, who for some social reason are expected to apparel themselves in black, and the equally careworn members of the clerical profession, chiefly curates, whose meagre stipends do not permit of the extravagance of new suits of clothes.

The ladies' market is a vast wardrobe of silk dresses, but if we are to believe the saleswoman, the matrons of England are more thrifty than we gave them credit for. "Servants come here to purchase, sir! No, indeed, sir, ladies worth hundreds of pounds," was the reply we got to our inquiries as to the class of purchasers. Black cloth clothes that are too far gone to be "clobbered" and "revived," are always sent abroad to be cut up to make caps. France takes the best of these old clothes for this purpose. The linings are stripped out, and in this condition they are admitted duty free as old rags. Russia and Poland, where caps seem to be universally worn by the working population, are content with still more threadbare garments to be cut up for this purpose.

The great bulk of our cast-off clothes of all kinds, however, find their way to two markets-Ireland and Holland. The old clothes' bags of the collectors may, in fact, be said to be emptied out in the land of Erin, as far as the ordinary order of clothes go, while to Holland only special articles of apparel are exported. Singularly enough, the destination of the red tunics of the whole British infantry is the chests of the sturdy Dutchman. There seems to be some popular belief or superstition in that waterlogged country that red cloth affords the best protection against rheumatism; consequently these jackets all find their way to the land of dykes. The sleeves are cut off, and they are made to button in a double-breasted fashion; thus remodelled, they are worn next to the skin like a flannel waistccat by all careful Dutchmen among the labouring classes.

The Irish chiefly favour corduroys, and we suspect the wornout legs of British pantaloons of this material are cut off, and converted into breeches for Pat. Where he gets those won