word, he ran home to his mother; who, conscious of his innocence, went back to demand an explanation, and was met with an apology-the misplaced note had turned up again. Altogether he spent eleven years at Launceston in the service of two masters, both of whom were satisfied with his youthful services.

As a consequence of his fondness for gymnastic feats he bore many a scar through life. In the attempt to leap from a swing-boat while in motion, he missed the opportune moment, was caught by the rebounding boat, thrown violently down, and his spine permanently injured, and through his foolhardiness became a life-long sufferer. Walter was once seen by his mistress to fling down a money bribe with which a man sought to secure some dishonourable service. He was generous beyond his means. With his first payment in his second situation he sent home a sack of flour and a chest of tea. For his sister and her husband he laid out all his savings in the purchase of a dray and a pair of horses when they were in difficulties. To a poor man who had no claim upon his bounty he gave £10 when he was only receiving £100 a year. As a youth he was dutiful, diligent, frank, honest, and generous, yet he lacked the "one thing needful." The accident to which reference has been made threatened to bring his life to a premature close. For months but slight hopes of his recovery were entertained. During his illness he was visited by Rev. N. Turner, a Wesleyan missionary, who was able gradually to convince him of his sinfulness, and then to disclose to him the Sinner's Friend. When he was permitted to come forth from the chamber of affliction he could say that threatened death had been the gate of life to him.

As soon as he was converted he commenced the consecutive reading of the Scriptures, making personal applications as he went along, for example, he learnt from Jacob's vow to systematically dedicate one tenth of his income to the Lord.

One thing that showed the sterling character of his piety was this. When trade was unusually depressed he worked like a slave to serve his master, and insisted upon the reduction of his salary until business was better.

From the time of his conversion he resolved to follow the Lord fully. Hence he sought to grow up into Christ in all things. He knew no division of duties into secular and sacred. All was to be looked upon as equally sacred, and every engagement made a means of grace. Yet he did not neglect those means of spiritual culture by which others had profited. He was most assiduous in his observance of all those helps which are specially identified with Wesleyanism; and in addition thereto, that he might keep up a constant self-scrutiny, he commenced a Journal, which he persistently posted up for twenty-three years, and the entries from which, intended for no human eye beside his own, reveal the strictness of his introspection, and the severity of his spiritual struggles, and the fervency of his aspirations, together with an account of his daily doings during half a lifetime. His object in writing up his Journal from day to day was, in his own language, "With the view of recording events which may prove interesting in the future, and of correcting those failings and errors which may be hindering the writer's course." There is a force of expression, and a robustness of thought,

and an absence of morbidity, in the extracts given in his biography, which make them very interesting and refreshing to read. Take a few samples to show how he endeavoured to be instant in season and out of season.

Sunday.-"I rose late this morning, and felt great condemnation in consequence; for we hold a prayer-meeting on Sabbath mornings at six o'clock, for the purpose of supplicating God's blessing on our labours as Sunday school teachers. The more I teach children, the greater impossibility I find of doing it effectually without first obtaining wisdom and simplicity from God"

Monday." Attended the love-feast this evening and was refreshed. I called again, with two friends, on R. B, who appeared to be drawing very near to death. Our hearts were, for the first time, gladdened by his declaring that he believed God had forgiven him. We prayed with the dying man."

Wednesday." At a sale. Found the conversation, jokes, etc., of a most corrupting nature. O that I may ever watch and pray for that grace which will enable me to withstand when the enemy comes in like a flood." "One feels a strong disposition to get away from the bustle and 'strife of tongues,' and from the 'filthy conversation of the wicked.' Yet while we steadfastly set our faces against these things, we must not seek by solitude to evade duty, and flee from the cross.'

His father, mother, and a favourite sister, had quickly followed each other to the eternal state. Walter felt that it was no longer well that he should be "alone;" so he took to himself a wife, who in all ways proved a "help meet" for him. He wrote on his wedding-day, "What a happiness that we both are endeavouring to walk in the way of life, and I believe each anxious for the other's spiritual welfare. We became convinced of our fallen condition through the same instrumentality. May the gracious God enable us to love each other as He in His own word commands us, and by that Word may our whole course of life be guided!" Very soon after his married life thus commenced, clouds began to gather. Trade fell so flat, that he felt that his father-in-law's business was no longer equal to the support of two families, and therefore, as the younger man, he must make a fresh venture on his own account. So he left Van Dieman's Land, and embarked for Melbourne, saying, "If Thy presence go not with us, carry us not up thence;" but the Divine presence did go with them, making the crooked places straight, and giving them such temporal prosperity as they had not dared to expect. But it did not come all at once. There was the planting of the acorn, and the anxious waiting for the first symptoms of vitality, and the careful watching and tending through laborious years of self-denial, before the oak was rooted and grounded. Still, gradually Walter Powell's painstaking endeavours were crowned with marked success, and he became one of the first merchants in Australia.

When he became a merchant in Melbourne, the population only numbered some 7,000. His push, tact, and principle soon made him a favourite among the adventurous colonists, and his trade grew with the growth of the city, which before his death increased to above 108,000 inhabitants. His worth once recognised, he was welcomed into the service of the church, and was soon filling those various offices which

fall to the lot of large-hearted and liberal-handed laymen. At this time he was doing the work which would fill up the time and tax the resources of half-a-dozen ordinary men. He shrunk from no responsibility on the plea of pressure of business, necessity for rest and recreation, lack of vigorous health, love of home life, or desire for mental culture; any one of which would have formed a sufficient excuse for a less thoroughgoing Christian. No; he meant to do as much as he possibly could for the glory of God and the welfare of his fellows while he was in the world; and it may be that he shortened his days by his intense and abundant labours.

After beginning modestly enough, and forming a fair connection, Mr. P. braved the perils of the deep. His object was to get acquainted with the heads of English firms, and also gain some knowledge of his native land. Having succeeded in his mission, he returned to Melbourne a little before the Australian gold fields were discovered. Everybody that could rushed off to the diggings. The city was deserted; and then people commenced to pour through Melbourne from all parts, delirious with the idea that they would soon all be wealthy. Walter Powell had the good sense to stop at his store and sell shovels and pickaxes at a premium, and so he suddenly grew rich. But mourning came to his home, while money filled his till. Two sons were born and buried in two years. No fewer than eight deaths in one branch or other of his family occurred within twelve months, which threw great financial burdens upon him, which he gladly undertook; for while riches increased, he had many admonitions not to set his heart upon them. His habits of systematic beneficence and spontaneous generosity were strengthened, not impaired, by sudden success. By wise husbandry and judicious investments, he made for himself a sound position by fair trading, while many lost all in pursuit of a phantom fortune. He felt that he was a steward of the wealth that passed through his hands, and with great discrimination he gave away hundreds and thousands of pounds in making provision for the present and prospective physical and spiritual wants of the people. He was instrumental in raising an Immigrants' Home, to which all the destitute were welcome, as they pressed anxiously to, or returned dejectedly from the diggings. He was prompt to provide additional church accommodation for the thousands who were crowding into the colony, and to send the gospel to the gold fields, to counteract as much as possible the prevailing lawlessness. He was instrumental in establishing one of the most useful institutions in the colony, viz., the Wesleyan Book Depôt, to which he gave £500. He also did more than any other man towards the founding of Wesley College, giving to the building fund £1,500, besides earnest personal service. These words will show by what motives he was actuated, "By the providence of God, I am placed in a most responsible position. I must work!-work for the Church, and, should the way be made plain, for the State also. No more shrinking, no more self-indulgence; but earnest, sincere, decided effort for the glory of God and the good of man. The ambition is noble-to do good and to be abundantly useful. May God, the source of all strength, give me grace and wisdom, and plainly indicate my path, and pardon my offences !"

He so trained and tried and trusted his employés, that he could leave

A UNION CHURCH.

173 two of them in charge of his colonial business for months and years, and then, as a recognition of their services, make them partners in the concern. By such arrangements he was able to do his own business in this country, and on the Continent, and in the United States, and reap all the advantages of dealing personally with principals, and obtain all the benefits which cash payments procure over credit. By adopting this plan he was able again and again to pass safely through periods of panic without losing many pounds. While in England he had the opportunity of entering into partnership with a wealthy Tasmanian acquaintance in London. He embraced the offer, and then, like another Warren Hastings, felt that his ambition was satisfied, seeing that he had become a thriving merchant in the very neighbourhood from which his father had been driven by adverse fortune. In two years' time he became sole proprietor, and wrote in his diary, "May the God of all grace be honoured by the new firm in all our transactions; His will done, and His blessing secured!"

He broke down at the age of forty-six, when he ought to have been in his prime. He was heavily weighted all his life long through his youthful indiscretions. He was a great sufferer, and so he had great sympathy with sufferers, though he failed, like many energetic, enterprising natures, to take care of himself. He found this out when he was quite used up. He wrote to a friend, "My crime is that I have tried to do too much. I have wrought in my business and in the church like a strong man, when I ought rather to have nursed myself. I could not believe my doctors that I was killing myself, till one day head and hand refused to work for me any more. That convinced me that I must relinquish all my offices in the church, and set about repairing myself." But it was too late. Soon his sun set in a clear sky, while it was yet day. Beautiful as had been his life was his death. Grasping the hand of a minister who sat by his bedside, he said, "I have not to go to heaven to be with Christ; He is here (laying his hand on his heart); He is here-it is Christ in you-heaven within. I have Him here." His medical attendant said, "I have attended men of rank and men of genius-men who have made a stir and a noise in the world; but no man ever so impressed me as that man."

ROBERT SILBY.

A UNION CHURCH. WHAT IS IT?

A CORRESPONDENT wishes to know "what a Union Church is, and thinks it is time some definite ideas were attached to the words." He is right, for the terms are used in the most confusing way. So far as we have found, the description applies only to those churches where the pastorate is open to Baptist and Pædobaptist alike; and the two modes of baptism, viz., immersing and sprinkling, are practised; and the two subjects—believers, and children incapable of belief-are alike admissible to the rite. That, and that only, is a Union Church. A church that admits unbaptized believers to full membership, but has only one mode of baptism, viz., immersion, and one subject of baptism, viz., the believer, and restricts its teaching to that mode and subject, is not a Union Church, and ought never to be called such. It is what is called an 66 open fellowship" church, and admits within its society all who give credible evidence of conversion to God by faith in Christ Jesus, but teaches all such believers the duty of obedience to our Lord's command concerning baptism.

No. V.-The Crèche.

It is not to be supposed that all the articles labelled German Pancakes, French Hats, and Swiss Confectionery, are the actual manufactures of Germany, France, and Switzerland. Enough that these wares are made after the style of the peoples whose names they bear. Just so is it with the various anecdotes related of and the amusing sayings ascribed to Scotch, Irish, Negro, Quaker, and other personages. There's many an "Irish bull" that isn't Irish at all, at all; and in large part the jokes attributed to other nationalities are, like artificial teeth, made to fit the mouths in which they are placed. For instance, we have seen it recorded that a Frenchman, having come to this country, noted with astonishment the wonderful care of the English people for babies; for as he passed by the beautiful grounds of a florist, in which two or three children happened to be playing, he beheld a sign-board bearing the inscription, "Nursery Gardens."

Now a Frenchman might very easily suppose a nursery garden to be a place for the training of infants; but he certainly would not be likely to note the fact with astonishment. To him such an institution would appear very natural. For more than a quarter of a century they have had in France and also in Belgium

DAY NURSERIES.

In Paris there is a vast nursery-under the control of government-in which abandoned infants, the children of the poor, and the offspring of criminals, are taken care of, nursed, fed, doctored, and trained in the most approved and scientific fashion. Infants that with us fall a prey to foul air, ill-treatment, bad food, improper nursing, uncleanliness, and drugging with patent medicines, are there taken under the wing of the Assistance Publique department, and saved from disease, or the gutter, or the prison. 'Tis said that owing to this system the visitor in Paris will look in vain for such sickly, squalid, and wretched-looking infants as are to be found in the purlieus of Ratcliff, Westminster, and Seven Dials. Whether this be so or not, the French are certainly to be credited with a regard for poor little children, to which our system of poor-relief makes no manner of approach, and which has only very recently been imitated in this country by the benevolence and enterprise of private persons. The spacious nurseries in the Rue d'Enfer have hundreds of cradles, which are filled day by day, partly with resident infants, and partly with those brought every morning by their poor mothers, who leave them to be cared for while they go to work, and then fetch them home at night when the work is over. The rooms are lofty and spacious, the floors scrupulously clean, the long rows of swinging cots beautifully white, the toys all that could be desired to delight the infant mind, the sisters or nurses numerous and efficient, and the wet-nurses a merry, laughing, healthy lot of young women, gathered from all parts of the country. Outside are gardens, in which the children may bask in the sun; shady walks, where they can find refuge from the heat; and playgrounds where they may exercise their limbs and lungs. No wonder that under such a system the children are