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Editor's Drawer.

SENATOR NYE carries in his pocket-book a note from the late President Lincoln, written in lead pencil on the fly-leaf of a book, which runs as follows: "Dear General :-Come up to-night and swap jokes.-LINCOLN."

A COLORED preacher, commenting on the passage, "Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves," said, that the mixture should be made in the proportion of a pound of dove to an ounce of serpent.

AT one of the ragged schools in Ireland a clergyman asked the question, "What is holiness ?" A poor Irish convert, in dirty, tattered rags, jumped up and said, " Plase your riverence, it's to be clane inside."

A BEAUTIFUL PRAYER.-As one of the Scottish kings was dying, an attendant heard his last sentence: "Lord, I restore Thee the kingdom wherewith Thou didst entrust me. Put me in possession of that whereof the inhabitants all are kings."

A LONDON correspondent says, that Queen Victoria visits Prince Albert's tomb every day at Windsor, places a basket of fresh flowers near it, reads a chapter in the Bible, kneels down, and offers up a prayer, that she may meet him in the world to come.

A WORTHY deacon, in a town somewhere or other, gave notice at a prayer meeting the other night, of a church meeting that was to be held immediately after, and unconsciously added: "There is no objection to the female brethren remaining." This reminds us of a clergyman who told in his sermon of a very affecting scene, where "there wasn't a dry tear in the house."

A YOUNG lady in Pennsylvania, at an evening party, found it apropos to use the expression, "Jordan is a hard road to travel;" but thinking that too vulgar, substituted the following: "Perambulating progression in pedestrian excursion along the far-famed thoroughfare of fortune cast up by the banks of the sparkling river of Palestine, is, indeed, attended with a heterogeneous conglomeration of unforeseen difficulties."

DEAN SWIFT'S RESOLUTIONS.-The following resolutions were drawn by Dean Swift, to be observed "when I come to be old:" Not to marry a young woman. Not to keep young company, unless they desire it. Not to be peevish, morose or suspicious. Not to tell the same story over and over to the same people. Not to be covetous-the hardest of all to be kept. Not to be over severe with young people, but to make allowance for their youthful follies and weaknesses. Not to be too free of advice, nor trouble any but those who desire it. To desire some good friends to inform me, which of these resolutions I break or neglect, and to reform accordingly. Not to talk much, nor of myself-very hard again. Not to hearken to flatterers, nor conceive I can be beloved by a young woman. Not to be positive or opinionative. Not to set up for observing all these rules, for fear I should observe

none.

If you have occasion to use a wheelbarrow, leave it, when you are through with it, in front of the house with the handles toward the door. A wheelbarrow is the most complicated thing to fall over on the face of the earth. A man will fall over one when he would never think of falling over anything else. He never knows when he has got through falling over it either, for it will tangle his legs and his arms, turn over with him and rear up in front of him, and just as he pauses to congratulate himself, it takes a new turn and scoops more skin off him, and he commences to evolute anew, and bump himself on fresh places. A man never ceases to fall over a wheelbarrow until it turns completely on its back, or brings up against something it cannot upset. It is the most inoffensive-looking object there is, but is more dangerous than a locomotive, and no man is secure with one, unless he has a tight hold of its handles, and is sitting on something.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES says, this is the way women prepare to play on the piano:

"It was a young woman, with as many white flounces round her as the planet Saturn has rings, that did it. She gave the music-stool a whirl or two and fluffed down on it like a twirl of soap-suds in a hand-basin. Then she pushed up her cuffs as if she were going to fight for the champion's belt. Then she worked her wrists and hands to limber 'em, I suppose, and spread out her fingers till they looked as though they would pretty much cover the key-board, from the growling end down to the little squeaky one. Then those two hands of hers made a jump at the keys as if they were a couple of tigers coming down upon a flock of black and white sheep, and the piano gave a great howl as if its tail had been trod on. Dead stop-so still you could hear your hair growing. Then another howl, as if the piano had got two tails, and you had trod on both of 'em at once; and then a grand clatter and scramble, and strings of jumps, up and down, back and forward, one hand over the other, like a stampede of rats and mice more than like anything I call music."

"IT'S VERY HARD."-" It's very hard to have nothing to eat but porridge, when others have every sort of dainty," muttered Charlie, as he sat with his wooden bowl before him. "It's very hard to have to get up so early on these bitter, cold mornings, and work hard all day, when others can enjoy themselves without an hour of labor! It's very hard to have to trudge along through the snow, while others roll about in their coaches!"

"It's a great blessing," said his grandmother, as she sat at her knitting, "to have food when so many are hungry; it's a great blessing to have a roof over one's head when so many are homeless; it's a great blessing to have sight, and hearing, and strength for daily labor, when so many are blind, deaf and suffering!"

"Why, grandmother, you seem to think that nothing is hard," said the boy, still in a grumbling tone.

No, Charlie, the e is one thing that I think very hard."

"What's that?" cried Charlie, who thought that at last his grandmother had found some cause for complaint.

"Why, boy, I think that heart is very hard, that is not thankful for so many blessings!"

LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION.-A gentleman advertised for a boy to assist him in his office, and nearly fifty applicants presented themselves to him. Out of the whole number, he in a short time selected one and dismissed the rest.

"I should like to know," said a friend, on what ground you selected that boy, who had not a single recommendation ?"

"You are mistaken," said the gentleman, "he had a great many. He wiped his feet when he came in, and closed the door right after him, showing that he was careful. He gave up his seat instantly to that lame, old man, showing that he was kind and thoughtful. He took off his cap when he came in, and answered my questions promptly and respectfully, showing that he was polite and gentlemanly. He picked up the book which I had purposely laid upon the floor and replaced it on the table, while all the rest stepped over it or shoved it aside; and he waited quietly for his turn, instead of pushing and crowding, showing that he was honest and orderly. When I talked with him, I noticed that his clothes were carefully brushed, his hair in nice order, and his teeth as white as milk; and when he wrote his name, I noticed that his finger-nails were clean, instead of being tipped with jet, like that handsome little fellow's, in the blue jacket. Don't you call those letters of recommendation? I do, and I would give more for what I can tell about a boy by using my eyes ten minutes, than all the fine letters he can bring me."

EXTRAORDINARY RESULT OF KINDNESS.-A servant of the Rev. Rowland Hill suddenly died, and his master preached his funeral sermon to a numerous audience, in the course of which he mentioned the following anecdote: Many persons present were acquainted with the deceased, and have had it in their power to observe his character and conduct. They can bear witness that I speak the truth, when I assert that, for a number of years past, he has proved himself a perfectly sober, honest, industrious and religious man,. faithfully performing, as far as lay in his power, the duties of his station in life, and serving God with constancy and zeal; and yet this very man, this virtuous and pious man, was once a robber on the highway. More than thirty years ago, he stopped me on the high-road, and demanded my money. Not at all intimidated, I argued with him. I asked what could induce him to pursue so iniquitous a course of life. "I have been a coachman, sir," said he, "but am now out of place, and not being able to get a character, can get no employment and am therefore obliged to resort to this means of gaining a subsistence." I desired him to call upon me; he promised he would, and kept his word. I talked further with him, and offered to take him into my service. He consented; and ever since that period he has served me faithfully, and not me only, but he has faithfully served his God. And instead of having finished his life in a public ignominious manner, with a depraved and hardened mind, as he probably would soon have done, he has died in peace, rejoicing in hope, and prepared, we trust, for the society of just men made perfect.

A GERMAN PAPER contains a reply from a clergyman who was traveling, and who s opped at a hotel much frequented by what are termed "drummers." The host not being used to have clergymen at his table, looked at him with surprise; the clerks used all their artillery of wit upon him, without eliciting a remark in self-defense. The worthy clergyman ate his dinner quietly, apparently without observing the gibes and sneers of his neighbors. One of them at last, in despair at his forbearance, said to him: Well, I wonder at your patience! Have you not heard all that has been said against you?"

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Oh, yes, but I am used to it. Do you know who I am?"

"No, sir."

"Well, I will inform you. I am chaplain of a lunatic asylum; such remarks have no effect upon me."

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Many of our readers know Dr. Guthrie, through his writings. Four volumes of his sermons, a volume on " A Plea for Raggedschools," one on the "City, its Sins and Sorrows," and other works of his have been published. In 1865, when his increasing bodily infirmities unfitted him for the duties of his large congregation, he began the editing of the Sunday Magazine, an instructive and entertaining monthly, which is extensively read in this country. In the beginning of March he entered into the saints' everlasting rest. I confess to an admiration of Thomas Guthrie. Not by reason of any extraordinary depth of thought, for of that he had but little, but by reason of his warm loving heart, his sympathy with the lowly and unfortunate, his fearless hostility to wrong, and his firm advocacy of right.

He was born in 1803, in the little town of Brechin, Scotland. Then the Presbyterian Church in Scotland had less life and less strife than for thirty years past. His father was an industrious thrifty gentleman, combining the merchant and the banker in his calling. A straight-forward honest Scotchman, who had learned his catechism well, and carried the "Chief duty of man" into his weights and measures, and exchanges of money. A good deal of genial Scotch humor he had, a vein of fun running clear through his character. His son Thomas was not born great, neither had he greatness thrust upon him. The little country village gave the boy an ample play ground, and such early school privileges as the rural districts of Scotland then afforded. In the Grammar School of the place he partly prepared himself for the University of Edinburgh. He then possessed little to point him out as an heir of genius and fame. No brilliant flashes were perceptible in his mental work.

Indeed some must have deemed him devoid of talent. His external

appearance was against him. "He was a long, lanky, stragglinglooking-lad, with great awkward bones, prominent, homely features, a large nose, uncouth hair, and clothes that seemed as if they had been thrown on with a pitchfork." He was an earnest, hardworking plodding student, who came by all he had through much labor and tribulation, and in the end showed little marked success.

Not that he shirked duty, or shrank from work. A large class of students hope their genius, of which they have but little, will in the end atone for all their faults and failings in their course of study. The time they owe to their regular studies is devoted to light and miscellaneous reading and spent in idleness. At their graduation they may get their diploma, which in their case means nothing more than a nicely printed parchment. It represents no well disciplined mind, as the result of a well-improved course of study.

He

Thomas Guthrie was an earnest and industrious, if not a brilliant, student. When he had completed his theological course, he studied Medicine in Paris. For he expected to spend his pastoral life, in a thinly populated district, among the poor and the lowly. held that a pastor, able to relieve and treat the bodily diseases of such people, far removed from a physician, or too poor to employ him, might combine the care of body and soul, and render them a double service.

On his return to Scotland he served for nearly two years in his father's banking-house. In 1830 he was called to his first parish, in his native county. In this humble field he labored for a number of years. Perhaps expected to spend his life here. The bulk of his members were plain country people, of good sense but little learning. He threw his whole soul into his work. Indeed, as a whole-souled man he did this wherever he labored. Whatever his hands found to do, he did with his might. He sought to bring the blessed Gospel down to the understanding of the lowliest people. And he did this without detracting from the grandeur of its themes. His style from this time on was simple, and child-like, without being childish.

As is always the case with men who make the best of their post of duty, his fame as a preacher and pulpit orator soon reached Edinburgh. The great city, the Athens of Great Britain, gives him no rest until he accepts a call from the Old Grey Friars Church. In three years his popularity demanded the formation of a new parish. St. John's was built, of which he took charge in 1840.

He took a prominent part in the division of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and was one of the founders of the Free Church. He strove to apply the Gospel to the pressing practical wants of society. In thrilling eloquence he depicts the "Sins and Sorrows"

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