ssed. In the report mentioned Mr. Mueller stated that
the total amount he had received by prayer and faith for the various
objects of his institutions, since 5th March, 1834, had been
L1,309,627; that no fewer than 8727 children had been under his care;
and that he had room at his Homes for 2050 orphans.

A LABOURER IN THE VINEYARD.

THE STORY OF ROBERT MOFFAT.

"Oh, mother! ask what you will, and I shall do it."

So said Robert Moffat as he stood with his mother on the Firth of
Forth waiting for the boat to ferry him across.

He was sixteen years old, and having got a good situation as gardener
in Cheshire was bidding farewell that day to home and parents, and
about to face the world alone.

His mother had begged him to promise to do whatsoever she asked, and
he had hesitated, wishing to know first what it was that she wanted.
At last, however, remembering how good and loving she had always been,
he had consented. Her request was a very simple one, but it was very
far reaching.

"I only ask whether you will read a chapter in the Bible every morning
and another every evening."

"Mother," he replied, "you know I read my Bible."

"I know you do," was her answer; "but you do not read it regularly, or
as a duty you owe to God, its Author."

"Now I shall return home," she observed when his word had been
pledged, "with a happy heart, inasmuch as you have promised to
read the Scriptures daily. O Robert, my son, read much in the New
Testament! Read much in the Gospels--the blessed Gospels! Then you
cannot well go astray. If you pray, the Lord Himself will teach you."

Thus they parted--he starting on his life's journey with her earnest
pleadings ringing in his ears.

Travelling in those days (1813) was so slow that it took him a full
month to get to High Leigh in Cheshire; and on the way he narrowly
escaped being captured by the pressgang and made to serve on a British
man-of-war, which was short of hands. The vessel in which he was going
south was indeed boarded, and one man seized; but Robert says, "I
happened to be in bed, and keep it there as long as they were on
deck".

He kept manfully the promise he had made his mother. Notwithstanding
the difficulty he experienced in his busy life of setting aside the
necessary time for reading two chapters a day from his Bible, he
nevertheless faithfully did it.

At first this practice seemed to bring him trouble. It made him feel
that he was a sinner, but ho