are spittoons, for men of all classes have such a propensity for spitting, owing to their love of chewing tobacco, and the great prevalence of a disease in the nostrils and throat called catarrh, that no woman with any sense of decency would allow her apparel to sweep the ground. This fearful catarrh is common to both sexes and all classes; the refined and the coarse, the young child and the aged, suffer in more or less degree; very, very few are entirely free from it. I confess if it is half as hard to endure as it is nauseating to hear and see the constant clearing of the throat and nostrils; anyone suffering from it ought to have our pity.

You can purchase a ticket at the city depôts for almost any station or any route you choose, and you can break your journey by staying at any place on the way, or if you like you can dispose of your ticket when so much of your journey has been accomplished as you desire. Some of the lines of rail are very long. The Erie is one of the longest, and employs 15,000 persons, and every hour of the day and night there are about 100 trains running upon its lines. Some portions of this railway have to run upon a shelf cut out of solid rock 50 feet or more above the banks of the Delaware. It also has upon its route two magnificent bridges, one built of solid stone 1200 feet long and 110 feet high, called the Starucca Viaduct, and another built of wood, upon stone piers, which rises to the height of 234 feet. Any timber in this can be moved and replaced without injuring the foundation. It is called the Portage Bridge. So you see that where natural obstacles exist to prevent the erection of an easily made, mean-looking wooden highway an American engineer can work nobly for the use of generations to come.

Cabs and Hansoms are not used here yet, and the hacks which stand in the place of them are as large as a roomy family carriage, and similar in build to one.. Their charges are so much for each person according to the distance, and if you send for one to take you to the train or elsewhere it will just as likely as not call at two or three places for other passengers. In England, as you are aware, your payment of fare entitles you to the entire use of the cab; here you pay for your seat merely, unless you make other arrangements, but it is seldom that any one person cares to be charged for the exclusive use of so large a carriage and a pair of horses, for they always drive a span. They have an excellent method of forwarding money, jewellery, and any personal effects, valuable or otherwise, by the express system. These companies are something like our parcel deliveries, but on an immense scale, and with this difference, that they forward money to any amount, giving you a receipt and becoming responsible for its safe arrival at its destination, an agent always accompanying the parcels while in transit by road, or rail, or water. They have a funny way, too, of calling all waggons and teams "express" if used for the removal of furniture, baggage, or any similar purpose, so when a lady says I will send an express for my trunk she does not mean one that will go at the speed of a mile a minute. A small pocket-pistol is the

very common companion of all classes of men, and is always carried loaded, and they do not hesitate to use it promptly in self-defence, passion, or revenge. In New York they shoot one another upon the least provocation, and deaths from this cause are there of very frequent ROSEMARY.

Occurrence.

[ERRATUM.—In Letter IX., page 242, line 30, for "the world," &c., read "the year seems to grow brightest," &c.-ED.]

THE HOMES OF OUR CHILDREN.

ELLEN'S HOME.

Na suburb that is fast losing its rural character by the approach of houses and streets from the town to which it belongs, is to be found the home of the girl who is the subject of this story and the little heroine of the place.

People do not always know either heroes or heroines, nor seem inclined to know them, while they live. You have heard of Thomas Hood the poet, who was for a long time in poor health, and also so poor in circumstances that he sometimes wanted the comforts he could not always get, but when he died his friends and admirers put a tombstone over his grave, so that it has been said, "He asked for bread, but they gave him a stone."

However Ellen was a heroine, and I will tell you the story of her I have to tell :

The mother, and only parent living, lay sick for many a weary month; disease had laid its wasting hand upon her, and from her bed she had to superintend the household affairs and attend to the wants of her five children. She had great pain and many troubles to bear; there was the constant running in and out of the house of the little ones, sometimes with complaints and in tears, and sometimes she was troubled with others complaining. The little money that fell to her share had to be carefully used that the children might have bread to eat. These things would no doubt increase her pain of body and mind, and but for her children make her long for that "rest which remaineth for the people of God."

Daily the children lifted up their simple prayers at her bedside, and the children's teachers at the Sabbath school, with Christians near, did not forget the widow in her sorrow, but some made her sorrow their own. Commending her soul and her children to our Heavenly Father, she died.

Time passed on, the grave was closed but not forgotten. The school trip came, and Ellen and her brothers joined her companions and

their teachers; they ran and sang, and made the country lanes and hillsides joyous with their youthful glee. All were happy. A teacher would joke with her about her housekeeping-she was as the mother now; she declared modestly if he doubted her ability she would make him a pudding; which was at least food for mirth.

At home the task of caring for her younger brothers with the earnings of another lay heavy on her.

Many a woman would have given in, and few girls would have lived a day under the roof of the household she managed so well. Certainly there are some girls who feel as if they could do all this and more; but try them. If they take a small charge in some strange house, how often they fail; they want to go home, they want to see their mother, and so by running out and stopping, they are more trouble than they are worth. Now, my fair little readers, this is true even of Sunday-school scholars who long to go to place, as it is called. See to it.

One Sunday the last prize that Ellen could take as a scholar was given a Bible neatly inscribed with her name; a few parting words from the superintendent and then to her home duties.

Some girls having such a charge would have broken down under her daily task, or, as is too often the case, become a tool in the hands of thoughtless neighbours, who borrow and keep anything they want or see. Bravely she did and does her duty. The house is clean and well kept, the little ones washed and sent to school, their daily prayers are heard, and our Heavenly Father hears the orphans' cry."

THE EDITOR'S TABLE.

QUERIES AND ANSWERS.
1. Can Apostates be Restored?

SIR,—The 4th, 5th, and 6th verses in 6th Hebrews would make it appear that there are some apostates who can never be restored; if I mistake not, this is very different from the teachings of all our ministers. As one of those who take a great interest in the JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR, and especially in the "Editor's Desk" department, I shall feel obliged to you for your opinion on the subject.—I am, Sir, faithfully yours,

Batley, July 5, 1875.

J. J. BURNLEY.

ANSWER. It is difficult to give an exposition of the verses referred to by our correspondent in the limited space at our command. What particularly concerns us, however, is to ascertain the sense in which we are to take the word impossible. For the word may be taken with some modifications. When our Lord told His disciples that it was

easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God, they were exceedingly amazed, and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Our Lord's reply was, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." The impossibility of restoring apostates, alleged by the apostle, is not in our apprehension to be taken in an absolute sense; that is, it is not an impossibility of God's enacting. "There is no unwillingness on the part of God to receive back repenting apostates. Infinitely far from that. Every repenting sinner, whether he has been an apostate or not, will be welcomed with open arms by the prodigal's Father-welcomed with ineffable eagerness and delight. Neither is it the idea that God's Spirit will cease to strive with the impenitent; He will most long-sufferingly and patiently strive with all, whether apostates or not, as long as life its term extends.' The day of grace does not close until the day of life is closed."

Yet the difficulty in the way of an apostate's recovery is so very great that there is extremely little hope for real apostates. This warrants Paul to speak of it as an impossibility—that is, a moral, not an absolute, impossibility to renew them again to repentance. These words show us where the impossibility lies-in their moral nature. By their apostasy they "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." This is not to be taken as a sin for which there is no forgiveness, either in this world or the world to come; but it is in many, in most instances, a sin unto spiritual death.

And, further, from this language we learn what the sin of apostasy really is. It is not simply falling into sin through weakness or unwatchfulness; apostasy is more than sin-it is wickedness. It is the open and avowed renunciation of Christ as our Lord and Saviour, after we have "been enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God and the power of the world to come." In what a fearful state of mind must he be who commits the sin described after such an experience! His desperate ingratitude merits judicial blindness and obduracy; God might justly give him over to a reprobate mind. But the 7th and 8th verses forbid us to put this construction on his case. Vitalizing influences are not withheld, but the ill nature of the soil neutralises them all, so that, morally considered, the case is a hopeless one, or next to that. For how shall a heart that has become so callous be subdued and softened? "What can you do what can you say to win it again to Christ? What can the Spirit do? What could the Spirit say? Would He tell again the old wondrous story of the Cross? That has become a stale tale. In all ordinary cases it is to be feared, there remaineth nothing but 'a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary.'

35.-Covering. See 2 Sam. xvii., 19; Gen. viii., 13; Lev. xiii., 45; Ezek. xxviii., 13; 1 Cor., xi., 15; Job xxvi., 6.

36.-Two. 72 and 127.

37.-Eunice, Lael, Ittai, James, Asaph, Hosea; Elijah and Elisha.

QUESTIONS.

43.-Mention a Psalm to which the name of Heman is prefixed? 44.-Which is the longest verse in the Bible?

45.—Mention a passage in which the personal pronoun "I" is used ten times in three verses.

46.-In the Book of Psalms the wicked are described in various ways. A certain description occurs but once. What is it, and where is it?

47.-How many times a year did the Jewish law require the male Hebrews to go to Jerusalem to worship?