win them back to trust and confidence in the kindness and love of teachers and friends; and looking at the interests at stake, surely we may say that these are endeavours which a Christian public _is bound_ to second, especially when the seconding costs so little, and is attended, as we have seen, with so great results. If any of the readers of our Journal would see this same wise and humane policy exhibited in actual life, let him visit the Foster Home, (at what is known as the Preston Retreat,) or the Children’s Home in Moyamensing, and he will see how much seasonable care and kindness will do, towards counteracting the downward tendencies of poverty and social corruption. The following stanzas happily express the grand idea of social reformation. SPEAK TO HIM KINDLY. Oh! speak to him kindly--the boy has a heart, Pray think, ere you bid him in anger depart; His tatters and rags will not darken your door; Perhaps its not _his_ fault he’s dirty and poor! Would you wonder to find him a rogue or a fool, With Distress for his master--the Street for his school?-- Some feeling of pride in his bosom may beat, Though he stands at your door without shoes to his feet. Do you question his story, and turn on your heel? _Starvation_ can teach him to beg and to steal; Would you drive him to pilfer by scorn and rebuke? Oh! a beggar has virtues as well as a duke. Remember a man’s not the wisest and best Because of the star that may shine on his breast: The poorest on earth may nobility own, And a king be a villain in spite of his throne! Yes! there’s found in the garret again and again A power that softens e’en poverty’s chain; A spirit of honest endurance, that brings More comfort than throbs in the bosoms of kings. Then turn not away from that fatherless boy-- His soul is not dead to the feeling of joy; A kind word on his path like the sunshine will fall, And his dull eye light up to repay you for all. Oh! treat him not harshly--but win if you can; The boy in his rags will one day be a man! That urchin before you--so haggard and pale May live in a workhouse, or die in a jail! But virtue and truth may be found in him still. Then turn not aside--you may save if you will: Can you leave him to grow up a knave or a sot, With a home or a school not a mile from the spot? Then speak to him kindly--’twill cost you no more-- Oh, drive him not hungry away from your door! But give him, in pity, a morsel to eat, A coat for his back, and some shoes for his feet. The humble though homeless by Jesus are prized, Remember that He was both poor and despised-- And oh! think on his words, ere impatient you be, “_Inasmuch as ye did it to these, ’twas to Me._”