What a scene when the child began to breathe again! and when the anxious mother was summoned to receive her boy from the dead. "Now," said she, "I know thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth." When the church fights its battles on its knees, it prevails. Only let us, who say we believe in God, put our faith into petition, and obtain answers, then Infidelity will hide its head. Mr. Finney tells that when he first began to attend a place of worship, it was as an honest inquirer after truth. The members of the church noticed his coming to the prayer meetings with regularity, and presently it occurred to them that the young man might be anxious about his soul. Accordingly they asked him if he would like them to pray for him. He somewhat roughly declined, for, said he, "You don't get any answers to your prayers for yourselves. You have been for months praying to be revived, and you are not any better." Perhaps he was right, though rude. We may have in our midst those who would believe the Bible if they saw that we had only to ask to receive. Let every father bear this in mind when he leads the devotions of his family. Nothing is so likely to save our children from infidelity as their knowing that we receive when we ask, and that our knock brings an open door. If only the family altar were the meeting place between God and man, Atheists might sneer and chatter, but they would never be able to cause our children to listen, for would not they say, "I know my father is a man of God, and the word of the Lord in his mouth is true." Reader, is the family altar at your house a bridge from earth to heaven, or is it a sham, and a helper to those who say, Prayer is an exploded superstition? PREACH REPENTANCE. Is there any truth in the allegation that we do not preach Repentance as much as we ought to do? There is a soft sort of preaching abroad which we Methodists should abhor, namely, a gospel which has no dread of hell in it. We do not say that we should spend much time in proving the eternity of punishment, but certainly the thought of the fate of the impenitent should be in solution in the preacher's mind, and then, like the bitter herbs eaten with the Paschal Lamb, penitence will make the gospel relishing. We have little doubt that THE DOCTRINE OF THE CROSS IS AND MUST BE, TASTELESS TO THOSE WHO DO NOT SORROW FOR SIN.