HILE the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest,

"WHI

cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease;" and as with the earth, so with man; for as long as man shall live upon the earth, the seed-time and harvest of the human heart, whether for good or evil, the cold of sin and the heat of welldoing, the summer of prosperity and the winter of adversity, the day of rejoicing and the night of sorrow, shall come and go as surely as the seasons which God's faithful promise has made for ever sure.

It is probable-I earnestly trust that it may be more than probable that many a Young Englishwoman who has read thus far will be prompted to inquire when the seed time of the human heart may be, and what may be the seed that is sown therein. It is by no means difficult to reply to such a query. For human nature, the chief seed-times are undoubtedly the beginnings of times and seasons, the recurrence of those epochs of time when the heart seems softer and more susceptible of better influences than on ordinary occasions. I am not now alluding to those seasons of great sorrow which, in God's mercy, come indeed, but come not often to any one of us; but to the recurrence of those periods which mark the lapse of life and time, as mile-stones mark our progress on the way from place to place. Advent, Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, New Year's-day, birth-days, wedding-days, deathdays, times of parting and times of meeting again, are seasons of reconciliation and renewal of love and friendly

intercourse, which are all opportunities of beginning a new life, or to do better for the future, which are mercifully offered to us, and of which we should never be slow to take advantage, as we can never know which or what may be the last that shall be granted to us.

And what are the seeds that are to be sown at these times of sowing? Can the question want an answer? Scarcely, I think, for the brain-power must be dull and slow indeed in those who have not divined, long ere this, that the good seeds which are dropped in the heart's soil at such seasons as I have enumerated are good intentions, or, as some may choose to call them, good resolutions. It remains to a great extent with the sower whether these seeds, like the good seed in our Saviour's parable, shall be lost ere they have had time to germinate, even as though devoured by the fowls of the air; or put forth leaves, and struggle for a time as sickly plants deprived of light; or be choked by undue cares on the one hand, or worldly prosperity on the other; or bring forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty-fold, and some a hundred-fold. God will give the increase, undoubtedly, if the sower show signs of caring for the seed which he has sown in thought, but if not, they will no more come to perfection than seed which is scattered in a garden, and left to struggle as best it may among the weeds that spring up with it, and rob it of its sustenance.

Good intentions are, for the most part, the results of an awakening to a sense of wrong-doing-a feeling that