"A few days since I visited the family, and found his wife to be a very interesting woman. As I entered the room, the children told their mother I was from the church. She seemed glad to see me, and told me of the many trials she had met with. She was a stranger in the city, having recently come in from the country, where they had lived in comfort, but since then have been greatly reduced. She wept sore, as she told me that her husband had no employment at present. He looks over the papers every day, but as yet can find no situation. I begged her not to be discouraged, but put her trust in the Lord, and He would not forsake her. She said she felt much encouraged from the interest her husband had taken in matters of religion, and regretted she had never made a profession herself. Before I left I prayed with her, and when I bade her good-by, she put her arms around my neck and wept, saying it was the Lord who sent me to her, and asked me to come soon and often. "That same evening her husband attended our prayer-meeting, and it was remarked by several present how very attentive and interested he appeared." Fidelity in the performance of duty is always rewarded by getting assistance from kind Christian friends. The last five cent loaf is divided among the children. It is a terrible picture to study. A storm without, starvation within, and a father sick in the hospital. Can you imagine a more heartrending scene than the one so graphically portrayed by this missionary woman? Picture the moral heroism displayed in her tender appeals for help to this death-stricken household. Bible illustrations are always the best: "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil: my cup runneth over."--Ps. xxiii. 5. "There is no want to them that fear Him. They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing."--Ps. xxxiv. 9-10. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."--Matt. vi. 33. "My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."--Phil. iv. 19. "Godliness with contentment is great gain. Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy."--1 Tim. vi. 6, 17. "I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on: is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things."--Matt. vi. 25, 30-32. * * * * * * DISCOURAGEMENT AND ENCOURAGEMENT.