sire to escape being found out, they plainly show that they are doing what they are ashamed of, and that, in fact, they know they are stealing. Now these persons could not practise this dishonesty, if there was a right principle within them; and if they did reflect, when they consider themselves secure from mortal sight, that there is an EYE that watches all their actions, and from whom no darkness can hide them; ONE whose presence ought to be felt more by them than if all the world looked on them. This same Allruling Power hath said, "Thou shalt not steal." He hath pronounced that "Thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of GOD *."

It is dreadful too, to think that children of the tenderest age are taught this practice; they are sent out to collect wood for the fire, without one charge to pick up that only which they find upon the ground, and to touch no other. Nay there are some parents who will even beat their children if they return home without a good supply, thus exciting in the child a strong motive to steal. If such be the teaching at home, of what use can be the lessons they are taught at school? What effect can God's commandments, which they are taught at school, have upon their hearts, when at home they are taught, and almost compelled to break them.

The example of the parent has the greatest possible influence on the mind of a child. The parent is the first object it loves and reveres, the first also for whom it feels any awe, or is under any control; and it is so in every rank of life. Parents should therefore, as they value the temporal and eternal welfare of their children, make it their first duty to set them a good example. A child should constantly have it impressed on his mind, that God's eye is upon him, and that however trifling the fault he commits, and however unknown and unseen by its

* 1 Cor. vi. 10.

parents, it is known, and is seen by the Father of all in heaven, to whom its parents and all the world are answerable for their actions.

(Sent without a signature.)

LIFE AND DEATH.

THIS life, what is it? Like the passing smoke, or like a cloud, it vanishes away. Who can tell the number of his days? Who can count on his existence being prolonged an instant beyond the present moment? Not one!-And if then this life is so uncertain, is it the part of a wise man, is it the part of a prudent man, to live only for this life, to set his affections only on things below, forgetting that he has here no abiding city, and neglecting that knowledge, that preparation, on which will depend his eternal happiness or his eternal misery.

How then ought the few fleeting years of our life on earth to be employed? Is it to be in heaping up riches? In gaining to ourselves honours? In obtaining for ourselves the esteem of man?

What will riches profit us after death? will they buy for us a seat in Heaven? What will honours gain us? Will they obtain for us a nearer approach to God? What will the praise of our fellow sinners avail us? Will they make us more acceptable in the sight of God? Alas no! Riches, and honours, all worldly goods and worldly friends, all will be as nought after we have ceased to breathe on earth.

The riches then that we ought to seek after, are the riches of the Gospel. The honours we ought to aim at the attainment of, are those unfading honours, which they shall obtain who love God. The friendship we should seek after, is that of our God, who has promised that He will never leave nor forsake those who come to Him; whose promises

are for ever sure, not like those of men, fleeting as the breath which gives them.

How much more are these enduring goods deserving of all our efforts to obtain them, than spending all our time and our strength in seeking for those which are more uncertain than our life, and which can avail us nothing when our life is ended.

There are few who would deny this-but alas, how much fewer are there who live as if they believed it! as if they had a thought about eternity at all! Too many live rather as if here were their abiding city, as if here were to be their eternal home; till at length death convinces them that this is all vanity and vexation. The last hour is not the time to prepare for that world which has never entered the thoughts before, or if it has occasionally intruded itself, has been driven out as an unwelcome visitor.

Let us, while time is granted to us, prepare to meet our God. Let us ever remember the solemn warning of our Saviour-Watch!

T.

SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT
AUTHORS.

A STATE of temperance, sobriety, and justice, without devotion, is a cold, lifeless, insipid condition of virtue; and is rather to be styled philosophy than religion. Devotion opens the mind to great conceptions, and fills it with more sublime ideas than any that are to be met with in the most exalted science; and, at the same time, warms and agitates the soul more than sensual pleasures. Addison.

A true saving faith, at the same time that it informs the understanding, influences the will and affections. The Christian man believeth with the heart. Dr. Glocester Ridley.

Extracts from the Public Newspapers.

285 By Christian faith, a man becomes acceptable to God, and gradually improves in piety and virtue. Abp. Secker.

A mere sense of the fitness of moral virtue may often be a check to many sins. But religious faith hath unspeakable advantages beyond that which is moral only. For the serious persuasion that there is upon us in the eye of that Witness "who seeth in secret;" of that Omnipotent Sovereign who is equally benevolent, wise, just, and holy, must wonderfully animate to every thing good, and deter from every thing evil. Abp. Secker.

The best preservation from falling is humility and holy fear. If we stand in the day of trial, it is the fear of falling which must enable us to stand. Let us take heed that we fall not by being too secure, and thinking that it is impossible to fall.

Burkitt.

It is by grace that we stand; it is God who keeps us from falling into sin and destruction; but the same power that gives us safety gives us likewise those Christian graces which themselves seem to be our security. The Same.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.

LATELY died, in the 95th year of his age, Richard Lord, commonly called Dick o'Matts. He was never known to be tipsy, drink spirits, or quarrel, in his life, and was never twenty miles from the place of his birth. He read the Bible without spectacles the day before his death. He was father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfather, and great great great grandfather to 120, all of whom are living, and most of them attended the funeral.-Morning Herald.

Lately, at Woodhead, near Glossop, two girls, (twins) about three years of age, were left in the house by themselves; one of them, in the absence of the mother, went into the weaving shop, in which was some oatmeal in a dish, mixed with arsenic, for destroying rats; the child ate some of it. In a little time she

began to be unwell, and although medical aid was soon obtained, it was of no use. The little sufferer died in about twelve hours after taking the poison.-Derby Reporter.

Gin Drinking.—An inquest was lately held at Brighton on the body of James Palmer, a porter at a coach-office. It appeared that the man had been drinking a quantity of gin which had been given to him by a coachman named Bristow. About five minutes after he had finished a can of gin, his head fell on his shoulder, and his countenance changed. He was placed on a chair, and a surgeon was sent for, but it was too late; the man was in a dying state, he could not swallow. An emetic was forced down his throat, in hopes of producing sickness, but it did not succeed, he died in a few minutes. It seemed as if he had been urged to drink the gin. How strange it is that men should indulge in what sooner or later must be their ruin, and that others should take a pleasure in urging them on! What must be the reflexions of the man who was the cause of such a death! The jury returned a verdict—" Died from excessive drinking." Two men belonging to the Preventive Service stationed at Seasalter drank so freely of spirituous liquors on Sunday last, at a public-house in that parish, that one of them died in the course of the day from the effects of it. The other, after being copiously bled, recovered.-Sussex Advertiser.

A boy, in Rose-street, was so severely burned about the face by the explosion of a squib, that, in all probability, he will lose the sight of one eye. The same day a boy in the Canongate, and another in South College-street, were dreadfully burned, the one in the face, and the other in the face and hands, by explosions of gunpowder. Thursday morning, another boy, in Gosford's close, was examining the lock of a loaded pistol, before he was out of bed, when it went off, and shot away part of his hand. He was taken to the Infirmary, the hand being shockingly mutilated.-Edinburgh Observer.

Another instance of the danger to which chimney-sweeps are liable in their occupation occurred yesterday in a vent in the Gallowgate. About one o'clock, a young boy, not more than seven or eight years of age, was sent up a vent in a house several stories high. When he had proceeded a considerable way up, a large stone was loosened from its place by his foot, and, falling down, stuck firmly in the middle of the vent, being too large to get through. The boy ascended a little further, but found it impossible to get out at the top, from the narrowness of the aperture. He endeavoured to return again, but the large stone bad so effectually choked up the passage, that to get past it was quite a matter of impossibility. In this dreadful state the poor boy remained till five o'clock, making the most fruitless attempts to get out. He became at last so much exhausted, that farther exertion was out of his power. George Horn, a Sergeant of Police, getting intelligence of the circumstance, very humanely obtained the assistance of a smith, and dug a small hole through the gable of the house, through which he conveyed to the little climber some refreshment. Being unwilling, however, to damage