I will compare my miseries on earth with my joys in heaven, and the length of my miseries with its eternity; so shall my journey seem short, and my burden easy. The Same..

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.

THE application of steam vessels to tow barges, &c. along canals and rivers (where there are only currents, not tides), instead of horses, is beginning. A vessel for such purpose, and also for the conveyance of passengers and light luggage, has lately been launched on the river Wye. Its general station is near the bridge of the city of Hereford. It is only of 12-horse power.-London Paper.

An elm-tree, the property of Mr. Goodyer, recently blown down at Bury, near Amberley castle, containing forty feet of timber, was a few days since sawed across in the midst, when the nest of a tomtit was discovered, in a perfect state, in which were five eggs, as fair to the eye as if deposited but a few days. The solid mass of timber which enveloped this curiosity must be the growth of many years. No mark could be discovered of the original entrance. The nest, at the nearest point, is five inches from the outside of the timber.-Hants Chronicle.

A few days since, between three and four o'clock in the morning, a most lamentable and fatal accident occurred near Farningham, to Mr. Benton's luggage van, which runs from Ashford to London. It appears that on arriving at Farningham-hill, the van overshot the top of the hill, and Mr. Benton, who was sitting in the dickey behind, immediately jumped down and called to the driver to pull up, in order to skid the wheel. He was, however, unable to do so, and the horses being much fatigued, the weight of the van propelled them down the Goss with great velocity, and when nearly at the bottom the horses fell, and the pole sticking in the ground, the van upset, the back part turning completely over the front. The driver was thrown off and killed on the spot. The hoof of one of the horses was completely severed from the leg, and the poor animal was otherwise so much injured that it was found necessary to kill it. The other horse was much injured, and the van nearly destroyed. The young man, who by this dreadful accident has lost his life, was very steady and sober in his conduct, and was on the point of being married. Coachmen cannot be too careful in seeing that the wheel is locked before they go down a steep hill.-Maidstone Journal.

Extracts from the Public Newspapers. 143

At Anan, a fine promising boy, about four years of age, during the absence of the person to whose care he was intrusted, got to a tea-kettle containing boiling water, and was amusing himself by blowing down the pipe, when a quantity of the liquid was unfortunately ejected into his throat. The most excruciating pain immediately ensued, and though his guardian returned in a few minutes, and medical aid was instantly obtained, the child died on the following night, after suffering the greatest agony. We remember seeing a child in a dying state from sucking hot tea out of the spout of a tea-pot.-Dumfries Courier.

A few days ago, a poor man named Morison, in Denny, being hungry, as was supposed, hastily put a piece of tripe in his mouth, and in attempting to swallow it before it was duly masticated, it stuck in his throat, and before medical assistance could be procured he expired. If all persons, whilst eating, took care to masticate (or chew) their food well, what they eat would do them a great deal more good, because it would be in a proper state for the action of the gastric juice in the stomach; what is not properly chewed does no good, and may do a great deal of harm.-Stirling Journal.

Lately, in the parish of Arnold, a person, who had been in the habit of using a gun, went out into the fields for the purpose of shooting, and, the piece not going off, he began to examine it, when some children, attracted by curiosity, assembled around, and, while he was probing the touch-hole, the gun went off and wounded three of them, one of whom died imme diately. The accident happened in a field at the back of the toll-house, near the White Hart Inn. A Coroner's inquest has been since held on the body, and a verdict returned of "Accidental death."-Nottingham Journal.

We read, in the newspapers of last month, an unusual number of accidents by fire. It is impossible to be too careful in preventing children from going too near the fire; there is always great danger in leaving them in a room with a fire in it by themselves.

An Inquisition was taken at the Committee-room of the Westminster Hospital, on the body of Joseph Groves, a boy aged two years and a half. It appeared, from the evidence of the landlady where the parents of the deceased resided, that about eleven o'clock she was alarmed by the screams of the deceased, who was in the parlour; she ran up stairs from the kitchen, and, on entering the room, found him in a blaze of fire, and shrieking dreadfully. She immediately began to tear his clothes off (which were in a flame), and finding him so dreadfully burnt, he was taken to the hospital. The mother had left the child in the room by itself a few minutes before, while she went up to the second pair to speak to a lodger, and during her absence the child must have got to the fire. A Juror observed, that it was a great pity but she had rolled the unfortunate child in a sheet or blanket, and endeavoured to smother the flames, instead of pulling off its clothes; at the same time he did not mean to impute any blame.-London Paper.

A young woman, named Parvin, residing in the suburbs of Chichester, was found dead in her bed. It is reported that she fell a victim to the taking of a medicine recommended to her by a woman, a neighbour, as a cure for the jaundice, with which the deceased had been afflicted. Nobody should take a medicine that they are unacquainted with, without taking advice that may be depended on.-Brighton Herald.

At Melford, the wife of a soldier, named Mott, having occasion to go to a shop for some trifling article, left two children at home by the fire, one a boy of three years old, and the other five, and in less than ten minutes the younger one was so much burnt, by his clothes catching fire, that he lived only till eleven the next morning. So dreadfully was the poor infant burnt, that it presented one of the greatest spectacles ever seen, not a single part having escaped injury but the feet.-Bury Post.

The unfortunate young gentleman, son of Gregory, Esq. residing in the City-road, who was so dreadfully burnt about the body, in consequence of a quantity of fire-works which were crammed in his trowsers' pockets being set on fire, while amusing himself with some more youths in the Goswell-streetroad, died, after fourteen days of severe suffering.-London Paper.

A female, about twenty-two years of age, a lodger at No. 19, Bennet-street, Westminster, met with a most shocking accident while standing with her back to the fire, which caught her clothes. Her screams soon brought the landlady and some other lodgers to her assistance, but not before she was so dread. fully burnt that she was forced to be conveyed in a hackney coach to the Westminster Hospital, wrapped in a sheet, in the most excruciating agony. In a few hours she became insensible; and although every thing possible has been done for her, there is not the slightest hope of her recovery.-Morning Herald.

Mary Ann Brook, a servant to a farmer at Tidenham, Gloucestershire, was sentenced, at the late county Sessions, to three months' imprisonment and hard labour in the Penitentiary, for admitting a man, with whom she kept company, into her master's house, and for giving him some provision, knowing the same to be her master's property.—Morning Herald.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communication of Clericus; A. R. Y.; A Housekeeper; P. B. P.; F. V.; Veritas; C. K.; A. F. N.

THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

APRIL, 1828.

REMARKS ON THE FOURTH CHAPTER OF EXODUS.

IN our last chapter, we had the beginning of a conversation which God condescended to hold with his servant Moses; here, the account of it is finished, and we are further told of Moses meeting his brother of his return to his father-in-law-his receiving more directions from God-the circumcision of his son-and the favourable reception of his message by the Israelites.

Read the chapter down to the 17th verse, and you will be struck with the great unwillingness of Moses to undertake the task appointed him by God. "Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee."-" O my Lord, I am not eloquent."-O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send."-Why this backwardness? Was he doubtful who gave him the commission? Or, was he generally unwilling to serve the Lord? By no means. But the sin which doth so easily beset us"-unbelief, was the cause of his reluctance. If he had given full credit to the assurance of God" I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey,"-his sinNO. 4.-VOL. VIII. H

ful love of ease would have been turned into an earnest desire for the promised blessings,-and, when the Lord added (chap. iii. 12.) that he should be the instrument of this great deliverance, faith in the declaration would have stirred him up to devote himself joyfully to the work. But he hesitated, he wavered, he thought of the unwillingness his brethren had formerly shewn,-he dwelt upon his own unfitness for the employment, when he should have fixed his eyes on the Almighty power which was pledged to give him the victory when he should have considered that " God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should repent."-Do you, reader, wonder at this unbelief? And are you quite sure that the same leaven is not working in your heart? Why do you take so much pains to get your character cleared, if dishonesty or falsehood is laid to your charge, while you remain easy and contented though found guilty before God of unholiness, Sabbath breaking, taking His name in vain, and a thousand other crimes? It is because you do not believe Him, when he says you are condemned, and will be punished for these things.Why are you so anxious to make some comfortable provision for the future, by your industry and economy, while you neglect to make any provision for the eternity which lies before us? Surely it must be, because you do not believe that your state there will be fixed according to your character here.Why are you at so much pains to feed and clothe your poor perishing body, while you let your sou! starve for want of the Word of God, which is its proper food, and lie in shivering nakedness before its Judge, for want of the robe of righteousness prepared for all who will come to Christ for it? Because you will not believe it is in any danger of being lost for want of these necessaries. Why are you so anxious for medicines and remedies when you are ill and in pain, while you refuse to go to that blessed