The writer remembers, when a boy, leaving his native town, which was a river seaport, in a sailing packet, at eight o'clock one morning, to go a voyage of about fifty miles down the river Trent, into the Humber; and the packet did not arrive at Hull until eleven o'clock the next morning. Many a time, since, has he gone the same voyage in five hours by the steam packets; and sometimes in less.

These vessels are sometimes so fitted up (as in the picture) with masts and sails also, that if the wind should be favourable, they may have its help too; and then they go along with great rapidity.

At first, these steam vessels were only used on rivers, or from one sea-port to another, along the coast. Now they are built as large as a man-of-war ship, with very powerful engines; and they traverse, not only the seas of Europe, but the vast ocean itself. Large steam packets now go out regularly to America and the West Indies, and round Spain down the Mediter ranean Sea to Egypt, down the Red Sea to the East Indies, and from India they have gone as far as China, which is at the other side of the world!

So you see what great things sometimes come out of little things. Who could have

thought that, when that little boy sat by the fire-side, watching the steam of the kettle, and his mother spoke cross to him, that he was inventing a new power which should accomplish such wonders!

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And as it is in nature and science, so it is in religion. Who would have supposed that, when our blessed Lord told a few poor fishermen and tent-makers to go and tell all men that he had died for their sins, that the telling of that truth would soon 'turn the world upside down?" But it did. Do you ask, "How could this be?" Let me remind you that nothing is so powerful as truth. Steam is powerful; but the gospel is "the power of God."

And such things have taken place in our day. Who would have thought that that rough-looking lad sitting on his form in Mr. Toller's Sabbath-school at Kettering, would become the undaunted advocate of the poor African, and one of the most active agents in securing the emancipation of 800,000 of that down-trodden race from all the horrors of slavery? William Knibb was that Sabbath scholar.

My little reader, if you fear God in your youth, he may employ you to do some great thing for him in the world, for which millions may bless you. Yes, if you fear him

in your youth; for usually God appoints those who fear him in early life to the high honour of serving him. Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Obadiah, Josiah, Daniel, and nearly all the great and good men mentioned in Holy Writ, as well as those who have done great things in the world since their time, feared God in their youth.

As earnestly, then, as James Watt sought out the power and use of steam, set yourself to find out what God would have you to do.

And remember the memorable sayings of one, once a poor country lad, whom God honoured by permitting him to translate the Bible into the languages of millions of men

"ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD.

EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD."

'Tis infamy to die and not be miss'd,
Or let all soon forget that thou didst e'er exist!
Rouse to some work of high and holy love,
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know,-
Shalt bless the earth while in the world above;
The good begun by thee shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow;
The seed that, in these few and fleeting hours,
Thy hauds unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,
And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's immor-
tal bowers!

NEVER WASTE BREAD.

THE Dutch are a reflecting people, fond of proverbs; and one of them, according to the report of a gentleman who had lived long among them, defined education thus"Every word a precept, every action an example." The Scotch, in their practice, seem very strictly to follow this plan; for with them example to the young is anxiously attended to, and instruction introduced upon every fitting opportunity. "Mind the bairns! mind the bairns !" would a late Presbyterian pastor settled in London say,

when calling to chide any laxity in attending worship; and

"The father mixes a wise admonition due,"

says Burns, in one of the most true and beautiful pictures of Scottish life ever drawn.

They give their instructions in various ways-by example, by precept, and by story. In humble and middle life in particular all are thus educated; for in these ranks generally the young person has nothing to look to but his or her good conduct; and often when strangers consider the young Scotchman or Scotchwoman as naturally wary and calculating, they are only following precepts, or reflecting on examples, anxiously impressed upon them by friends now far distant, and whose precepts have from that circumstance a sort of sacredness, for they are associated with all the deep and moving memories of home.

One of their earliest precepts is against unnecessary waste of anything; not from the natural and proper consideration that it is waste, and consequently an unnecessary and improper expense, but from the yet higher consideration that, however they themselves might be able to afford that waste, it is unlawful because others are concerned; as the rich cannot waste any