of God, to give an account of every thought, and word, and action. To what place did you expect to go when you died?" "Why, to heaven, certainly," said she "So does everybody," he replied. If you ask the drunkard, and the Sabbath-breaker, and the liar, they all hope to go to heaven. But on what grounds did you found your hope?" "Why I never did any body any harm; I had always been dutiful to my parents, and an affectionate sister, and kind to my neighbours." "O," said the young minister," that is delightful so far as it goes! It is pleasing to think of one who has a dutiful daughter, and a kind sister and neighbour. But had you no other grounds for hope?" "No," she replied: "were they not sufficient?" He made no direct reply; but said, "I am very thankful you did not die." "Why," she inquired sharply, "do you think I should not have gone to heaven?” “Yes,” said he, "I am sure you would not! You were hoping to go to heaven without Christ! The Bible knows nothing of sinners being saved without Christ. You were resting on a false foundation; and had you died, that foundation would have given way, and you would have fallen through it into perdition." She was impressed and arrested, and begged the young minister to instruct her. He explained to her the way of salvation; and God blessed what he said to her conversion. Having now obtained light in her own soul, she could not be at rest while her friends were still in darkness. "O that my father were here! I am sure he knows nothing of all this!" In two days she left the house where she was visiting, and returned to her home. She soon found an opportunity of speaking to her father. He was surprised and alarmed, and gave her this decided answer: "I desire that you will never speak to me on this subject again. It has never before been brought into my family; and I beg I may never hear of it more." She spoke next to her mother, who also was surprised and distressed, and said, "I am your mother, I am not to be schooled by you. Let me hear no more of this." She then tried her brothers and sisters and had to endure a long season of persecution; every one wondering what had happened to Betsy. But she gradually won them over by her sweet and amiable deportment. At length she obtained permission from her father to have family worship; and twenty persons assembled, night and morning, at that house, while she read the scriptures and prayed. A minister in the neighborhood had the happiness of admitting into his church nine

ploughmen from the estate on which the farm stood; and they all dated their conversion to the efforts of the farmer's daughter.

The young minister who has figured in this anecdote went abroad as a missionary, and long acted a distinguished part, for Christian usefulness, on the continent of Europe. On his return to this country, he paid a visit to the farm. The father, who had now grown to be an old man of eighty, came out to meet him; and while his silver locks flowed down on his shoulders, he exclaimed, “Now, sir, we are a whole family going to Heaven through Christ. And dear Betsy has been the instrument of accomplishing it all."

Vicissitude.

WILLIAM ELLIOT, a native of London, passed through many changes of situation during life, and died at the advanced age of ninety-seven years. He experienced many a vicissitude, and tried many a shifting method of obtaining worldly happiness, under the influence of the carnal principles and adventurous spirit which characterize a large portion of civilized society. In the early part of his life, he was an eminent distiller, but he suffered losses, and eventually became a bankrupt. He next went to sea, expecting to push his way by boldness and enterprise; and, having fallen into the hands of pirates, he escaped to an uninhabited island, where he spent five years in solitude, subsisting on the spontaneous productions of the climate. After a series of adventures, he succeeded in getting back to his native land, and commenced to traverse the country as a strolling player. Tiring of his new occupation, he next kept a lottery office, and afterwards practised as a quack-physician; and, having failed to obtain what he thought sufficient encouragement, he then became a horse-dealer, and speculated in the state-lottery, eventually drawing a prize of ten thousand pounds. He at length possessed what he esteemed a fair fortune, and abandoned himself to fashionable pleasures; but, actuated by an uncontrollable love of speculation, he addicted himself, at first fashionably, and afterwards professionally, to the practice of gaming; and he became speedily reduced to extreme indigence, and was arrested for debt, and shut up, during many years, in Fleet prison. After re-acquiring liberty, for which he was indebted to the insolvent Act, he commenced to labour as a common porter. His strength, however, was not long in

failing him, and he took up the occupation of a street-beggar, and spent in it the concluding years of his life. Strangely, as some persons may think, yet naturally, and almost as a necessary result of the elements which composed his character, he declared, that of all the situations he had filled, of all the pursuits in which he ever engaged, that of a common beggar yielded him the greatest amount of happiness.

Here was a man, whom prosperity in business, commercial ruin, exile, solitude, providential deliverances, fluctuations in pecuniary enterprise, acquaintance with the most various modes of life, acquisition of wealth, reduction to poverty, imprisonment, hard labour, and beggary;-here was a man whom all these varieties of ex

45

perience, this throng of powerful preceptors, failed to teach so much as one lesson of true practical wisdom. The reason is obvious: he acted to the full, on principles of earthly discretion,-on principles such as our carnal knowledge suggests for becoming prosperous and happy,-and cared nothing for those sublime, but spiritual lessons which carry with them the promise of this life and of that which is to come. Oh how blessedly are those protected, if not from vicissitudes, at least from the follies, and shame, and suffering, which so often attend them, who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,' calmly relying on the Divine love for the supply of every want, believing that the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment!'

AN ANECDOTE.

ONE of the earliest scholars in a Sundayschool in Kent, was the only child of his mother, and she was a widow. Perhaps he had been a spoiled child, for his life was wild, capricious, and wicked. In the Sunday-school, where he was placed for instruction, he made no improvement; and it was only respect for the aged widow which prevented him from being expelled. At length the conductors were driven to dismiss him. The boy was cast out from all the means most likely to save him, and he enlisted to be a soldier. He was sent to America during the unhappy and regretted war, which we last conducted against that country.

When he entered the army, he became as notorious, as marked, and as profligate abroad, as he had been obstinate and selfwilled at home. His mother still survived to weep over him, and to pray for him; She found a sergeant, the son of a neighbouring farmer, who was going out to the regiment in which her son was, and she obtained a small Bible, and sent it to him, and who can help supposing that she embalmed it with her tears, and followed it by her prayers? The boy had resisted many efforts to do him good; but who could tell whether this effort might not prove availing? The sergeant embraced an early opportunity of taking him aside, and said,

"Is the old

woman alive?" was the careless, unnatural reply. "Yes she is," rejoined the sergeant, "but I suppose by this time she is no more; she was very ill, and has sent you a small present." I hope it is some money," was his answer. "Ah," said the sergeant, "my lad, it is something better than money; it may prove better than gold and silver, if you use it aright; it is a Bible." He looked at it with chagrin. "Your mother has sent you one dying request, and that is, that you will look at this Bible, and read, at least, one verse every day." He took the Bible, and handled it, as if he were afraid or ashamed of it; sorely chagrined that he had got nothing which he esteemed better. "Well," he said, "it is not much to look at a single verse every day." He casually opened the book, and said, "Why this is very strange; here the only verse just falls under my eye, that ever I was able to learn at the Sunday-school-'Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laiden, and I will give you rest.' Oh that is very strange! Pray who is this that says, 'Come unto me?' "Do you not know," said the sergeant, "that it is Jesus Christ? It is He who says, 'Come unto me.' is waiting to receive such poor sinners as you and me." A few more words passed; and, as the sergeant turned aside, he looked back, and saw the soldier, with both his hands placed over his eyes, and the big tears gushing from between his fingers.

He

The man began to read the Bible, and

he soon became as distinguished for piety, as he had previously been for sin; and the change which took place on him was very obvious to his associates. The battle of Orleans soon occurred; and, after the violent struggle on the plains below, the sergeant, who escaped, was passing the field of blood, and saw the poor soldier lying dead under a tree. He had been shot in the neck; but he had evidently been reading the Bible after he was shot: for he was laying pillowed upon it, and it was opened at the very verse which I have recited. The gentleman who stated this fact, said that he had had the Bible frequently in his hands, and that it was saturated with the blood of the dying soldier.

Value of Scriptural Education. "THE advantages of a free and liberal education, where the Book of God has assigned to it a prominent, because a most proper place, cannot be too highly estimated. What, it may be asked, would the masses of our population be without the moulding influences of those educational institutions, based on scriptural principles? It is a matter of rejoicing that such institutions are overspreading our land.

"It must be admitted as unquestionable, that the intellectual, moral, and religious character of individuals and communities depends, in no inconsiderable degree, on the nature of the education imparted; and therefore, as the rising generation will, after the lapse of a few years, occupy. stations, and exert an influence in the several localities where their lot may be fixed, how important does the education of

our youthful population become, and how necessary that it should be placed on a sound and scriptural basis-if that influence is to be elevated and guided by right views and principles.

The first Object of Education.

THE first object of education is to train up an immortal soul. The second, (but second at an immeasurable distance,) is, to do this in a manner most conducive to human happiness; never sacrificing either the interests of the future world to those of the present, or the welfare of the man to the inclinations of the child; errors not dissimilar in complexion, though so awfully different in the importance of their results.

Learning.

We have been often told, that "a little learning is a dangerous thing," and we may be just as well assured that a little bread is not the safest of all things; it would be far better to have plenty of both. But, the sophism of those who used this argument, is, that they represent the choice between little and much, whereas our election must be made between little and none at all. If the choice is to be between a small portion of information or of food, and absolute ignorance or starvation, common sense gives its decision in the homely proverb-"half a loaf is better than no bread." If optimism be unattainable, every thing that is good should not be immediately laid aside.-London University Magazine.

A Little Child.

SUSAN A. Kollock, daughter of the Rev. S. K. Kollock, of Norfolk, Virginia, was only eight years of age when she died. A most interesting scene occurred one Sabbath, that will never be forgotten. She expressed an anxious desire to see her father, who was, at the time, engaged in preparing for the sanctuary. She renewed her requests until he was sent for. When he entered the room, she said, 'Papa, I have sent for you to pray with me.'- Certainly, my dear, we will all unite in praying with and for you.' After prayer, in which she said

father said to her, 'My dear Susan, you will not be long with us, God is taking you away.' 'Yes,' she replied, but I am going to heaven.' 'But how do you expect to get there? Have you done any thing to deserve heaven?' 'No! only through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God." Do you, my dear, really love Jesus Christ?' 'Yes, I do.' 'Why?' 'Because he died for me upon the cross.' And why do you wish to go to heaven?' 'Because God is there, and Christ is there.'

Thistlewood.

A Remarkable Man.

Ar a temperance meeting held not long ago in Alabama, Colonel Lehmahousky, who had been twenty three years a soldier in the armies of Napoleon Bonaparte, addressed the meeting. He arose before the audience, tall, erect, and vigorous, with the glow of health upon his cheek, and said, "You see before you a man seventy years old. I have fought two hundred battles, have fourteen wounds on my body, have lived thirty days on horse-flesh, with the bark of trees for my bread, snow and ice for my drink, the canopy of heaven for my covering, without stockings or shoes on my feet, and with only a few rags for my clothing. In the deserts of Egypt I have

marched for days with a burning sun upon my naked head, feet blistered in the scorching sand, and with eyes, nostrils, and mouth filled with dust, and with a thirst so tormenting that I have opened the veins of my arms and sucked my own blood! Do you ask how I could have survived all these horrors? I answer, that next to the kind providence of God, I owe my preservation, my health and vigour, to this fact -that I never drank a drop of spirituous liquor in my life; and," continued he, "Baron Larry, chief of the medical staff of the French army, has stated it as a fact, that the 6000 survivers who safely returned from Egypt, were all of them men who abstained from the use of ardent spirits.”

The

ment.

A WORD FOR ALL.-The mind which will not be content with its own condition is its own torment. People are only miserable because they are not where they would be -because they do not what they would do -because they have not what they would have. Wish not to be where you are not,to do what you cannot do;-to have what you have not; but rather, be willingly where it is necessary that you should be, do without opposition what you are obliged to do, be content with what you possess: and you are at least as happy as those who command you and surpass you in riches, in power, and in prosperity.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON.-It is said of this illustrious individual, who pursued his researches so profoundly into the laws of nature, that he never pronounced the name

of God without moving his hat, and otherwise expressing the most devout respect.

ERROR.-It is common to men to err; but it is only a fool that perseveres in his error; a wise man, therefore, alters his opinion,- -a fool never.-Latin Proverb.

LORD BYRON AND PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

While at Venice these distinguished poets were frequently together during the greater part of the night engaged in conversation or in study. On one of these occasions, "I wonder," said Shelley, "what the world will say of us when we are dead and gone?" "Say," replied his Lordship, "why that we were two important triflers and eminent madmen!

Printed by JOHN KENNEDY, at his Printing Office, 35,

Portman Place, Maida Hill, in the County of Middlesex, London.-March., 1850.