THE TONE OF VOICE.

Ir is not so much what you say,

As the manner in which you say it ;
It is not so much the language you use,
As the tones in which you convey it.
"Come here!" I sharply said,

And the baby cowered and wept ; "Come here!" I cooed, and he looked and smiled, And straight to my lap he crept.

The words may be mild and fair,

Or the tones may pierce like a dart :
The words may be soft as the summer air,
Or the tones may break the heart.

For words but come from the mind,
And grow by study and art;

But the tones leap forth from the inner self,
And reveal the state of the heart.

Whether you know it or not

Whether you mean or care,
Gentleness, kindness, love, and hate,
Envy and anger are there.

Then would you quarrels avoid,

And in peace and love rejoice,
Keep anger not only out of your words,
But keep it out of your voice.

-Youth's Companion.

THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN.

I WAS some few years ago (writes Mr. Maguire) sojourning at a very beautiful and much-frequented English watering-place. I met with an earnest Christian tradesman of the town whose labours in the cause of religion are many and great. Although his occupation was not in selling books, yet he had,

in a prominent place in his shop-window, an assortment of Bibles with an illuminated card containing this announcement: "LUTHER'S SWORD SOLD HERE!" With one of these "swords" that Christian soldier, whom I shall here call by the name of Mr. Carr, fought and won the following battle :A band or 66 troupe" of young men, with hands and faces blackened, and dressed in very grotesque costumes, arranged themselves before this gentleman's door one day for an exhibition of their peculiar "performances." These people used to be called "Ethiopian Serenaders." After they had sung some comic and some plaintive melodies, with their own peculiar accompaniments of gestures and grimaces, one of the party, a tall and interesting young man, who had the look of one who was beneath his proper station, stepped up to the door, tambourine in hand, to ask for a few "dropping pennies" of the people. Mr. Carr, taking one of the Bibles out of his window, thus addressed the youth

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See here, young man, I will give you a shilling, and this book besides, if you will read a portion of it among your comrades there, and in the hearing of the bystanders."

Here's a shilling for an easy job !" he chuckled out to his mates. "I'm going to give you a public reading!"

Mr. Carr opened at the fifteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, and, pointing to the eleventh verse, requested the young man to commence reading at that verse.

"Now, Jem, speak up!" said one of the party, "and earn your shilling like a man.”

Jem took the book, and read: "And He said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the

portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.'

There was something in the voice of the reader, as well as in the strangeness of the circumstances, that lulled all to silence; while an air of seriousness took possession of the youth, and still further commanded the rapt attention of the crowd.

He read on: "And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living."

"That's thee, Jem!" ejaculated one of his comrades. "It's just like what you told me of yourself and your father."

The reader continued: "And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.""

"Why, that's thee again, Jem!" said the voice. "Go on!"

"And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.'

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"That's like us all," said the voice, once more interrupting; we're all beggars and might be better than we are! Go on! let's hear what came of it."

And the young man read on, and as he read his voice trembled: "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father.'"

At this point he fairly broke down, and could read no more. All were impressed and moved. The whole reality of the past rose up to view; and

in the clear story of the Gospel, a ray of hope dawned upon him for the future. His father-his father's house-and his mother too; and the plenty and the love ever bestowed upon him there; and the hired servants, all having enough; and then himself, his father's son; and his present | state, his companionships, his habits, his sins, his poverty, his outcast condition,-all these climbing like an invading force of thoughts and reflections into the citadel of his mind, and fairly overcame him.

came

That day-that scene-proved the turning-point of that young prodigal's life. He sought the advice of the Christian friend who had thus providentially interposed for his deliverance. Communi

cations were made to his parents, which resulted in a long-lost and dearly-loved child returning to the familiar earthly home, and, still better, in his return to his heavenly Father.*

"Yes, there is one who will not chide nor scoff,

But calls the lost to homes of heavenly bliss

Beholds the prodigal a great way off,

And flies to meet him with a Father's kiss!"

We should hope mere reformation and outward profession are not all that is meant by this expression. Saving religion is a solemn reality—a reality that none possess who live and die without being, as the prodigal, though once "dead, alive again;" though once "lost, found." The quickening power or the Holy Ghost makes the dead sinner live, and living faith in Jesus makes the lost sinner found. Dear young reader, are you dead or alive? Are you in the far country-a worldling in the world? Oh, terrible the doom that hangs over your head! May you be so awakened that you shall "begin to be in want" of what the "far country can never give; and so enlightened and drawn as to "arise and go" to Jesus, and I am sure this will end in your being lovingly received by Him whose own promise is, "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."-ED.

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