ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. MR. CONSCIENCE.-At a Bible Meeting, in New South Wales, the Rev. George Turner said:-" About forty-five years ago an English clergyman visited Ireland, and took with him a number of Bibles for sale. A youth came to beg for one, being too poor to be able to pay for it. The clergyman gave it him, told him to read it, and pay for it when he could, and added, that Mr. Conscience would call for the money. After some time the lad left Ireland for England, and forgot all about it, and in time came to this colony. A few days ago he was asked to go to the Ryde Bible Meeting, but refused, on the plea of not having time: he was told, that he ought to give something to so good a cause. The man, no longer young, went back in spirit to the days of his youth, and bethought him of the English clergyman and his loan Bible. 'Surely,' said he, 'this is Mr. Conscience come for the money,' and there it is, Sir,' said Mr. Turner, putting a sovereign on the plate, which had been brought to him by this individual the day before." THE WOMAN AND THE SHEPHERD BOY.-The late Robert Robinson, of Cambridge, once said; "We had in our congregation a poor aged widow, who could neither read the Scriptures, nor live without hearing them read, so much instruction and pleasure did she derive from the oracles of God. She lived in a lone place, and the family where she lodged could not read; but there was one cottage near, and in it a little boy, a shepherd's son, who could read; but he, full of play, was not fond of reading the Bible. Necessity is the mother of invention. The good old widow determined to rise one hour sooner each morning than usual in order to earn an additional halfpenny by spinning, to be expended in hiring the shepherd's boy to read to her every evening a chapter; and to her proposal he readily agreed. This little advantage made her content in her cottage, and even say, 'The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places." 999 COWPER'S VIEw of Death.—"I have not time to add more," says Cowper the poet, in a letter, "except just to add, that if I am ever enabled to look forward to death with comfort, which I thank God is sometimes the case with me, I do not take my view of it from the top of my own works and deservings, though God is witness that the labour of my life is to keep a conscience void of offence towards him. Death is always formidable to me except when I see him disarmed of his sting by having sheathed it in the body of Jesus Christ." BOERHAAVE'S ADVICE.-The celebrated Boerhaave, who had many enemies, used to say, that he never thought it necessary to repeat their calumnies. "They are sparks," he said, "which, if you do not blow them, will go out of themselves. The surest method against scandal is to live it down by perseverance in well-doing, and by prayer to God, that he would cure the distempered minds of those who traduce and injure us." THE FIRESIDE. The Fireside. THE INDULGED CHILD.-A mother related the following instance, illustrating the relation between submission to parental authority, and conversion or submission to the will of God. She had several children, and seemed properly to understand the importance of training them to prompt and cheerful obedience, and, as a consequence, they were early converted to God. One of these children, however, had been from infancy subject to fits, general weakness, and derangement of the physical system. It was the general injunction of her physician, that she should be kept as quiet as possible, and that her will should not be crossed. The mother acted accordingly, and all her whims and desires were freely indulged; but instead of rendering her calm and quiet, this course made her peevish, fretful, and stubborn. After making it a subject of study and prayer, the mother determined to subdue her will, and govern her as she did her other children. She called to her the girl, and confessed to her that the course she had been pursuing towards her was wrong, and told her that now she must obey her or she should punish her. She soon required a certain duty at her hand; but as the child was not accustomed to obey, she paid no regard to the requirement. The mother commenced chastising her, and said that, for some time it seemed as though the child would be the conqueror but fully resolving on securing obedience, she persevered until the child yielded. She was penitent, begged her mother to forgive her, and promised in future always to obey her. She then saw that she had not only sinned against her mother, but against God. A few nights after this occurrence, the mother said she was awakened at midnight, with the cry, "Mother, pray for me, for I am a great sinner." She arose, knelt beside her, and commended her to God, and the little girl begged of God, as she had before done of her mother, to forgive her; and arose with the evidence that her sins were forgiven. In a short time she became violently ill, and failed rapidly. One day she called her mother to her bed, extended her band and said, "Mother, I thank you that you subdued my temper the other day; if you had not, I should have died in my sins and gone to hell; but now I feel that you have forgiven me, and God has forgiven me; and I am going to heaven." She then embraced her mother in her arms, and kissed her, and bade her farewell, saying, "I shall soon meet you again in heaven," and sweetly fell asleep in Jesus. If parents do not obtain the mastery of the will, and keep it, they place an almost insurmountable obstacle in the way of their children ever being saved. The chil dren are either never converted, or if converted are given to per THE PENNY POST BOX. petual backsliding, and make little or no progress in piety; while those whose wills have been subjected to parental authority in early life, are likely to be early converted, and afterwards to prove steadfast in their allegiance and obedience to God. The Penny Post Box. "ABOUT THESE HUSBANDS OF OURS."-You will see by what I call myself at the bottom of this paper, that I am what some would call a poor hard-working woman. Well, I dont care for that; for though I have often worked the skin off my fingers! I think I have not yet worked all my brains out of my head. And I confess that sometimes I have been simple enough to think that there is as much common sense in my poor head as in the heads of some lady-folks or even in the heads of their sons or husbands who make the laws of the land. However, I am sure that no half-a-dozen old washerwomen in this town would make such silly laws as they do sometimes. And then to be so long about their work too! Why; if we did not go about our work better than they do, we should never get a wash out of the way. I have often thought I should like to tell these great folks a bit of my mind, but I did not like, for I thought they would only laugh at me; but there is one thing which I have just heard they are now talking of doing, that I cannot away with, and which provokes me to wipe off the suds from my hands and sit down and write to you about it. It is "about these husbands of ours." They say that they mean, not only to put the men in prison who thrash their wives, but they mean to whip them too. Now I cant do with this. Suppose there is one drunken scamp in a hundred that deserves this, and more than this, why make a great law about it, and so encourage a woman to go and inform of her husband. Do you think that is the way to make up a quarrel? I say it is not. I know something about it. I have been married to my old man this 40 years, and when we were younger we used to have a bit of a tift now and then. Perhaps I let my tongue run too fast, and then he might give me a bit of a push or cuff; but what of that, I was'nt going to make a fool of myself by going to the Justice about it-not I! And there was no 'casion, for we both of us felt sorry when it was over. I did, I know; and I believe he did too, and 1 am glad we did make it up in that way, for here we are yet-I and my old man, who no more wishes to part with me, than I do with him. So I shall not vote for whipping husbands. A WASHERWOMAN. FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS. Facts, Hints, and Gems. Facts. BED-ROOM VENTILATION. -Now, whether forty persons breathe in a confined atmosphere for one minute, or one person for forty minutes, the effect produced must be the same. One person, then, respiring a confined atmosphere forty minutes, or, if you like, two persons respiring a confined atmosphere twenty minutes, convert, as it were, the vital principle of no less than eighteen gallons of this atmosphere into a deadly poison. Eighteen gallons of air rendered injurious instead of life. giving by two persons in twenty minutes! 54 gallons so changed in an hour! eight times fifty-four gallons-upwards of four hundred and thirty gallons-of air not only deprived of all creative power, but absolutely poisoned, by two persons during a moderately long night's rest! Need anything more be said to show the importance of bed-room ventilation? Is it necessary to state that the sickening odours, so perceptible at the first, in the morning, in any ill-ventilated sleeping apartment, arise from the fact that a considerable volume of carbonic acid, with the vapour of perspiration and other animal exhalations, are mingled with the atmosphere of the chamber? Science proves that all these products are deadly poisons. Nature expels them from the system, because they poison the system. Yet we insist on enclosing them within four walls. We shut up doors, windows, and even chimneyplaces, that not a particle may escape. Nay, we surround our beds with close drawn curtains for the express purpose, it would seem, of preventing ventilation-for the express purpose of hugging close the poisonous atmosphere of our own bodies, and so re-absorbing into our systems the very atoms which, by the laws of God, have been cast out because they are detrimental. Hints. PRIDE IS EXPENSIVE.-It costs much to the man who indulges it, who also taxes his companions to keep up its pomposity and insolence. You must always pay dear for the company of the proud. SPEAK OF ABSENT PERSONS as if they were present and heard all you said. Then if you do not say all you think, you will think more about what you do say. Books, like friends, it is said, should be few and well chosen, such as we can turn to again and again; for like true friends they will never fail us. But where shall we find such books and friends? have one book and one friend that never fail me. PRIDE will prevent our loving others, as well as prevent others from loving us. On the other hand a humble man loves and is loved. WAR between civilized nations is nothing better than an organized barbarism. WHAT A FOOL is he who denies himself to save all for his heir, for by so doing he is only making his own speedy death more desirable. THE GIFT OF SPEECH in man is an inestimable blessing; without it there had not been among men neither society nor commonwealth, no more than among brutes. THERE IS NO VICE that so sinks a man into infamy and covers him with shame among his fellows as falsehood: for call it by what name you will it is perfidious, hateful, abominable. FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS. DOING WELL.-There is much truth in that saying, "We may do as well as we will, if we will to do well." VANITY. Of all human follies, this, in woman, and in man too, is a favourite, to keep which alive many other things will be sacrificed. Gems. THE BLOOD OF CHRIST is the only sovereign remedy for the disease of sin. And he who trusts any other remedy, will not only increase the malady, but be the death of his own soul. EVERYTHING IN RELIGION is the gift of God; an act of grace on his part. Jesus Christ is his unspeakable gift, and Eternal life is the gift of God through Him. TRIAL OF FAITH.-This is best tested by a holy life. Set it down as a fact, both for yourself and others, that where there is little holiness there is little faith. IF WE KNOW GOD, we shall walk with him; if we walk with him, we shall enjoy him, and if we enjoy him we shall serve him cheerfully. NOTHING INFLUENCES to obedience like the love of Christ; therefore let us pray the Holy Spirit to shed it abroad in our hearts. ACTIVITY IN GOD'S WAYS is conducive to spiritual health, exercise being as necessary for the soul as the body; if we were to do less we should suffer more, and sometimes if we were to do more, we should suffer less. CHRIST IS THE WAY, in which God comes to us to display his mercy; and he is the way in which we go to God to obtain mercy: there is no intercourse between heaven and earth but through Christ. THE VILEST SINNER, the poorest of human beings, can please the Son of God more than an angel, that is by presenting himself to be saved by him; for nothing pleases the Saviour like poor sinners coming to him to be saved with an everlasting salvation. HUMILITY always leads to dependence on Christ, and dependence on Christ always deepens our humility; the more humble we are, the more steadily and entirely we shall trust in Jesus. Poetic Selections. TRUE REST. IN vain I seek for rest I pant the more for God; The toils of man are vain, COMPLETE IN CHRIST. SIGHT to my blindness, to my meanness wealth; Life to my death, and to my sickness health; To darkness light, my liberty in thrall; What shall I say-Christ is my ALL IN ALL. THE NIGHT IS COMING. PRAYER FOR LIGHT. Thy light to me impart; Author of faith to thee, A DYING PRAYER. |