Sweet day of rest, most kindly given To love within thy courts to be, RETURNING HOME. "The night cometh when no man can work."-John ix. 4. My day's toil is ended, and I return to my home, thankful that I have a home to go to, and a meal, though homely, to refresh me. The sight of my family cheers me; my children run to meet me, each eager to tell me what they have learnt at school. After supper they bring their bibles, and look out their texts, and read a short portion of the scriptures. All sit still, and attend, for it is the great God who speaks to us in the Bible; and he only can bless it to our good, and make it the word of life to our souls; and we ask Him to bless it so to us. We join in a hymn and prayer, and committing ourselves to the Lord, we lie down to rest, and, under his protection, find our humble cot a quiet resting-place. When my day of toil is o'er, Home my willing footsteps bend; When they make the Lord their friend. That family shall happy prove, Who seek his grace, and share his love. THE DAY OF TROUBLE. "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt g'orify me."-Ps. l. 15. TRIALS in this world I must expect, but they call on me to seek the Lord as my refuge and portion1. Then nothing can really hurt me; for He is a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress2. He hears their cry; He saves and protects them, soul and body3. Let me, then, trust in the Lord at all times, and pour out my heart before Him. Let me cast my burden on the Lord, and He will sustain me. If I am in want, He can 3 See Ps. Ixii. 13, 14. 1 Ps. cxlii. 5. 2 Is. xxv. 4. If supply all my need'. If sorrowful in soul," He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds "." heart and strength fail, yet will I look to the Lord as "the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." Blessed portion! what can I need more? In and through God my Saviour I have all; more than worlds could give! Surely, then, I need be careful for nothing; but, in the path of faith and duty, cast all my care on Him who cares for me, and trust that the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, will keep my heart and mind, through Jesus Christ. I cast my burden on the Lord, No grief of body or of soul, Exceed his power and grace; My griefs He will relieve or bless, From the Labourers' Manual. ALLOTMENTS OF LAND. TO THE EDITOR OF THE "COTTAGER'S MONTHLY VISITOR." East Dean, near East Bourne, Nov. 25, 1843. SIR, Having just had the pleasure of receiving a letter from Rev. D. C. Legard, of Little Leigh, Cheshire, inquiring after my agricultural schools, in consequence of what he saw respecting them in the "Cottager's Monthly Visitor for July, I am tempted to offer you for insertion a letter I lately received from one of these schoolmasters on the subject of spade husbandry : "Having seen the statement of Mr. Trimmer, F.G.S., in the Highland Agricultural Society's Quarterly Journal for October, 1843, on land, labour, and capital, 'that ten acres is the smallest quantity of land on which a family could support itself,' I take the liberty of saying that I have for nearly four years, on the side of the South Downs, in the parish of Willingdon, near East Bourne, Sussex, supported my wife and four children in comfort on five acres only, with the help of the little boys to whom I teach reading, writing, and accounts, their collects and catechism, for three hours before noon, in return for three hours' work on my land in the afternoon five days in the week. They average only eight years of age; and if I were able-bodied, I should not need their help. "I here state what a man would want to begin with: Two cows at 91. per cow Seed-wheat six bushels, at 7s. per bushel.... COW... Clover-seed for one acre of the wheat Seed-potatoes for one acre.... Seed-oats for half an acre Swede turnip and mangel wurzel for half an acre.... 15. for the man to subsist upon till the cows come on. "Nov. 16.-Signed GEORGE CRUTTENDEN, Master of the Willingdon Self-supported Agricultural School, of which further particulars are printed in the Farmer's Almanac, 1844." G. Cruttenden is one of my allotment tenants, whose evidence will be found in the report, last session, of the allotment committee in the House of Commons; and I can add, that finding ten acres were more than one man could cultivate with his spade only, I reduced last year two ten-acre tenants to five acres each, who are going on well. Nov. 1843. A SURE REFUGE. M. A. GILBERT. “ Who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." SINFUL man's happiness depends not on the things of this world, but on the things that are eternal; and they who seek happiness in this world, and that which is to come, must seek it in the plain way that God in his love has appointed; for He has given us his blessed word to instruct us in the knowledge of his dear Son, in whom standeth our eternal life, and whose service is perfect freedom. The blessed Jesus, through his death and glorious resurrection and ascension, has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers; "and this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil;" resting in that false delusion, that God will not punish them, because He has so wonderfully made them. But, oh! let us consider the love of God in giving his Son to die for us in our stead, and in giving us reason and our faculties to seek the way, the truth, and the life! And it is a due sense of this that we must have before we know ourselves; "the love of God" must be "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost." We must first see and know our own sinfulness by the fall of our first parents from holiness to sin; by which means death passed upon all men, for all have sinned; and then thankfully remember, that "as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive;"" for he was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification." In the chapter from whence these words are taken, the apostle Paul, animated by the Holy Spirit, in all the earnestness of a faithful servant of Christ, is contrasting between the old dispensation and the new; the love of God to our father Abraham, and the very same love now to each one individual. Abraham believed God; and by the same belief are we to be made new creatures in Christ. "Believe," saith the apostle, "in thine heart; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness;" "the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ." "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. Now it was not written for his sake alone, but for us," to show how we might have his righteousness imputed to us also. And St. Paul sums up the whole chapter by declaring that the blessings contained in the word of God belong to us, "if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." "God so loved the world that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." God promised this blessing to our first parents, that his Son should be delivered up for us all; and in the fulness of time He was delivered up to die, the just for the unjust. He was delivered up by wicked men: "Then delivered he him therefore to be crucified 3." "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus, whom ye delivered up'." "He is despised and rejected of men." "He was oppressed, and he was afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth." His love filled heaven and earth; and shall not his love fill our hearts with love? shall it not move us to strive together in love to Him for what He has done for us? "He was," saith the prophet, "wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." What He did, He undertook for us freely. Hear his words: "Thou couldest have no power against me, except it were given thee from above." He then freely undertook it, and offered Himself up a full and perfect sacrifice for our sins: often had He told his disciples that it would be so, and comforted them when, in the prospect of such an hour, gloom and sadness filled their hearts. Yes; the Prince of Peace, the King of Glory, came down from his glory which He had with the Father before the world was; yea He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death upon the cross, to purchase with his own most precious blood peace and reconciliation with the Father. "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God," satisfy for a guilty world and sinful creatures; for 3 John xix. 6. 4 Acts iii. 13. 6 Heb. ix. 14. |