also continued to retain some hold upon the good will of his fellow-workmen. To tell the truth, he was so adroit in the management of such matters, that it would have been next to impossible to be seriously angry with him. When called to work in partnership with another man, he seldom failed to have the best of the bargain; for, as he was a skilful and quick workman, he was pretty sure to be a-head of his partner; and thus could select for his own use all the best parts of the materials; while, as he was the first to get through the job, he could as easily contrive to leave sundry little things undone, which, of course, had to be done by his less active helpmate. He was wont to keep up his strength, while at work, by means of a liberal, but not excessive allowance of porter; concerning the inventor of which, he often affirmed that he "deserved to sleep in the Elysian fields." Thus much for his shop-board exploits; I must now give a brief account of his doings as an acquaintance and a man of business. As to the first of these characters the following story will suffice, to show how he could enact it. Some of his fellowworkmen having proposed to visit him, at the usual time for tailors' visits, namely, on a Sunday morning, he, with much seeming heartiness, sanctioned their proposal, promising to give them a cordial reception. On going to his house, however, they found out their mistake; for, instead of admitting them, he presented himself at one of the first-floor windows, and informed them that he was not at home. To have expected admission after this announcement would have been quite idle; so they measured back their steps, and were obliged to be as contented as possible after such provoking treatment. Whenever this trick was referred to, he was greatly amused, and failed not to have another hearty laugh at the expense of his visitors. In his character of a business man, I cannot present him under an aspect even so favourable as the foregoing. What I have heard I will repeat, just as it was related in his presence; and as he admitted that he had done what he was charged with, and, moreover, made sport of it, I have no doubt of its entire truthfulness. In one instance he sold to an unsuspecting buyer twelve gaiters, which, of course, the purchaser understood to form six pairs of those useful articles. They were, however, adapted for one leg only, and thus there were twelve more required, in order to make the others of service. As he was a total stranger to the buyer, he came off scatheless; and not only pocketed his ill-gotten pelf, but also made himself very merry about the trick. In another case he disposed of the lease and good-will of a house; in which, by the aid of his wife, he had been carrying on the business of a chandler; but as the purchaser omitted to guard against being over-reached, my workmate (as would have been expected by any one who knew him) took advantage of that omission, by taking another house in the same neighbourhood, and drawing thither as many of his former customers as he could persuade to deal with him. At the recital of even this trick, wicked as it was, he always seemed much amused. After having perused these statements, the reader will be prepared for my telling him that my work-fellow, in regard to religious belief, was a nothingist. He would have had it believed that he was a deist; but as this title, when applied to unlearned men, means a practical atheist, I prefer describing him by such a word as I have ventured to use. As I wished to ascertain whether or not he had any moral consciousness, I observed him somewhat closely; but, with all my care, I could never discover that he had any. I do not say that his conscience had become seared or dead, for I believe that he never had one. The germ of the moral sense, in his case, seemed never to have been brought from its embryo state. Thus he naturally became a being superior to a mere animal only in regard to his intellectual faculty, which in him was truly a poor preeminence, as it served no better purpose than that of enabling him the more cleverly to do evil. In putting the finishing touch to this somewhat dark picture, I may observe, that although it is more than thirty years since I saw its original who even then had passed the meridian of life-I think it probable that he is yet on this earth. If so, most sincerely do I wish that long ere now he may have profitably read the Scriptures (of which, without knowing their contents, he was wont to speak most contemptuously), and have learned to honour Him of whom they testify so far as no longer to call him by names to which I may not give utterance. I could easily present other pictures of a similarly unpleasing character; but this alone will, if duly studied, be sufficient to teach more than one deeply interesting and admonitory lesson-Memoirs of a Working Man. FINANCIAL ARRANGEMENTS. THE SCRIPTURE PLAN. THOUGHTFUL readers cannot but obBible to acts of charity; the boldness serve the importance ascribed in the with which the inquirer for salvation is commanded, "Sell that thou hast, and give to the poor;" the pre-eminence in deadliness assigned to the love of money as "the root of all evil;" the earnestness and frequency with which men are warned of its perils, and of the absolute incompatibility of serving God and mammon; the elevation given to the standard of benevolence, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; and the vital connection every where implied between alms-giving and the highest attain. ments of piety, of spiritual power, and spiritual joy. They cannot but be hension that there is a strange contrast startled, sometimes, with the apprehere between the Bible and the Church; that the faithful applying of scriptural truth on this point might make many a professed disciple go away, like the young ruler, sorrowful, or cry, as they did of old when Christ had been preaching on this very subject, "Who then be justified in inferring that this very can be saved?" And they cannot but contrast between the Church and the Bible is a prominent cause of embarrassment in our benevolent enterprises; of the prevailing worldliness of Christians; the limited success of efforts for the conversion of souls; the fewness of those who enter into the deepest expeabsence of that rapidity of enlargement rience of the spiritual life; and the and energy of action which marked the Apostolic Church. But the Bible not only teaches the importance of charity, it lays down principles systematizing it. To secure its Divinely-appointed prominence in advancing the enterprises, the piety, Church, it is necessary to understand the power, and the blessedness of the and to practise the Divinely-appointed plan of SYSTEMATIC BENEVOLENCE. "UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK LET EVERY ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE, AS GOD HATH PROSPERED HIM." to depart from the letter of this law, the spirit of it must be regarded. Having adopted his plan of giving, the giver is required at frequent and stated times to examine his income, assess on it the prescribed proportion, and set aside the amount sacred to benevolence. His appropriations must be frequent, to keep pace with his earnings and with the constant calls of benevolence; stated, that they may not be forgotten. This is inconsistent with giving a large sum, and then for a long time nothing, and with the intention of giving only or chiefly at death. This requires that charitable appro- | and stated appropriations. "On the priations be systematic. It requires first day of the week, let every one lay some plan, deliberately and prayerfully by him." If it is allowable sometimes adopted, assessing on the income a determinate proportion for charitable purposes. It forbids giving merely from impulse, as under the excitement of an eloquent charity-sermon, or the accidental sight of distress. It forbids giving merely at random what happens to be convenient. It transfers the control of charity from the capriciousness of sensibility and the parsimony of convenience, to the decisions of reason and conscience. It regulates impulse by principle. It brings the whole subject into the closet, to be determined by prayer and deliberation, according to the rules of the Bible, in the fear of God, and the spirit of consecration to him. In carrying into effect the plan thus deliberately adopted, charitable appropriations will enter into the calculations as much as the necessary expenditures on the person, the family, or the business; they will be managed with as systematic exactness as any branch of business; they may with advantage be as regularly booked. A line written on a memorandum of his charities, kept by a systematic giver, and found after his death, suggests an important reason for keeping such a record: "I keep this memorandum lest I should think I give more than I do." The text cited requires that charities be proportionate to the income. In the laws regulating the Jewish tithes and offerings, God prescribed precisely what proportion should be given. This was practicable in a system of laws for a single agricultural people, among whom every family was entitled to an inalienable inheritance in the soil; but the Gospel, designed for all nations and ages, could not with equity fix the precise proportion. And it fits the entire character of the Gospel-free grace from God, free love from man-to leave the decision of this point to the unconstrained love of those who have freely given all to Christ; for "God loveth a cheerful giver" But the principle by which the proportion to be given is determined, is most explicitly stated. "Let every one lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him." Nothing can satisfy God's claim less than a consecration to benevolence of an amount proportioned to the prosperity God has given. Do you think yourself benevolent because you give something They who obey the scriptural rules of benevolence, do not wait to be solicited. Like the impoverished but liberal Macedonians, they are "willing of themselves." If a way of conveying their gifts is not at hand, they seek one out, as Paul describes the Macedonians: "praying us with much entreaty that we would receive the gift, and take upon us the fellowship of the minister--much? If you give less than “acing to the saints." Thus, according to the inspired plan, the urgent solicitation is not on the part of the agent of benevolence to draw charity from the giver, but on the givers' part to find the agent to receive and disburse their charities. Let this system be adopted, and the funds of benevolent societies would flow in unsolicited, and the expense of collecting agencies would cease. cording as God hath prospered you," yours is but the benevolence of Ananias and Sapphira. This principle of proportionate benevolence is repeated in various forms in the Bible. "If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability that God giveth." "As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." The scriptural rule requires frequent we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men " "I am debtor" to put forth benevolent efforts "as much as in me is." "Honour the Lord with the first-fruits of all thine increase." There are three points in this requirement of benevolence proportioned to the income. 1. All must give. "Let every one." The Gospel does not release the poor from giving. The smallest income can pay a proportion. Nothing short of the total cessation of God's gifts can exempt from the law, "As God hath prospered him." The Macedonian church were praised for giving in "their deep poverty." The story of the widow's two mites settles for ever the acceptableness to God of offerings from the poor. And one dollar thus given, has often a moral power greater than a thousand. The benevolence of Louisa Osborn, the coloured domestic, who, from the wages of one dollar a week, paid twenty dollars a year to educate a youth in Ceylon, as it has been brought to light by the missionary who witnessed the unusual benefits of her donation to the mission, has thrilled the hearts of American Christians. The widow's two mites, which were all her living, lifted to the gaze of the universe and illuminated by the Saviour's commendation, have exerted and will exert a power which no mine of gold can equal-as if a dew-drop, expending its whole being to refresh one tiny flower, had been transformed, as it exhaled to the skies, into a star, and fixed in the brightness of the firmament to bless the creation for ever. 2. Donations should increase with the increase of ability to give. "As God hath prospered him." This requires the rich to give proportionally to their increasing wealth, though, in order to do it, they must give thousands of dollars where they used to give one. And these great donations are not to be regarded as specially praiseworthy, more than smaller gifts, which cost as great sacrifice, and are proportionally as much. In both cases the giver has but "done what it was his duty to do." 3. The rich must give a larger proportion of their income than the poor. A poor widow with a helpless family cannot give a tenth of her earnings without taking bread from her children. Will any imagine that a man who has wealth, or even a competency, is required to give no larger a proportion of his income than that widow? A poor labourer may be subjected to more inconvenience by giving five dollars, than a man of wealth by giving five thousand. Hence, the greater a man's wealth, the larger must be the proportion of income which he gives. Hence the propriety of a rule adopted by Mr. N. R. Cobb, a merchant of Boston: to give from the outset one quarter of the nett profits of his business; should he ever be worth 20,000 dollars, to give one half of the nett profits; if worth 30,000, to give three quarters; and if ever worth 50,000, to give all the profits. This resolution he kept till his death, at the age of 36, when he had already acquired 50,000, and was giving all his profits. Different individuals, who have aimed at systematic benevolence, have come to different conclusions as to the proportion which they ought to give; and, perhaps, each one to a correct conclusion, in his particular circumstances. Zaccheus gave half of his goods to the poor, besides restoring fourfold his unjust gains. The first converts at Jerusalem, to meet their peculiar circumstances, sold their possessions and made distribution of the avails, as every man had need. Paul repeatedly intimates that he had suffered the loss of all things. Others have adopted plans similar, in the main, to that of Mr. Cobb, already cited. Others, after paying what has been needful for a most economical support, have given all their income. John Wesley is an example. "When his income was £30 a year, he lived on £28, and gave away £2; the next year his income was £60, and still living on £28, he had £32 to give. The fourth year raised his income to £120, and, steadfast to his plan, the poor got £92." Others, again, have given a tenth of the gross amount of their receipts. Such is the scheme of Christian beneficence devised in Heaven, and enjoined by inspired wisdom. Let every man consider that, in neglecting it, he sets at naught the authority and the wisdom of God. Men may deride it; REPTILES MENTIONED IN SCRIPTURE. CALMET enumerates eleven kinds of serpents as known to the Hebrews, the names of which are as follow: 1. Ephe, the viper. 2. Chephir, a sort of aspick. 4. Pethen, a similar reptile. But, viewed in connection with Scripture, the most interesting in the list given in the preceding page is that which stands the seventh in order. Speaking of the happy time revealed by the prophetical spirit, Isaiah remarks, that "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den." The editor of "Calmet's Dictionary" imagines that the naja, or cobra di capello, is the serpent here al'uded to by the holy penman, and which is known to possess the most energetic poison. We cannot, indeed, discover positively whether it lays eggs; but the evidence for that fact is presumptive, because all serpents issue from eggs; and the only 7. Tzepho, or Tzephoni, a basilisk. difference between the oviparous and 8. Kippos, the acontias. 9. Shephiphon, the cerastes. 10. Shachal, the black serpent. 11. Saraph, a flying serpent. The first of these is remarkable for its quick and penetrating poison; it is about two feet long, and as thick as a man's arm, beautifully spotted with yellow and brown, and sprinkled over with blackish specks, similar to those of the horn-nosed snake. It has a wide mouth, by which it inhales a great quantity of air, and, when fully inflated, ejects it with such violence as to be heard at a considerable distance. The shachal, or black serpent, is described by Forskall, as being wholly of that colour, a cubit in length, and as thick as a finger. Its bite is not incurable, but the wound swells severely; the application of a ligature prevents the venom from spreading; or certain plants, as the caper, may be employed to relieve it. Mr. Jackson describes a black serpent of much more terrific powers. It is about seven or eight feet long, with a small head, which, when about to assail any object, it frequently expands to four times its ordinary size. It is the only one that will attack travellers; in doing which it coils itself up, and darts to a great distance by the elasticity of its body and tail. The wound inflicted by the bite is small, but the surrounding part immediately turns black, which colour soon pervades the whole body, and the sufferer expires. viviparous is, that in the former the eggs are laid before the foetus is mature, in the latter the fœtus bursts the egg while yet in the womb of its mother. If the egg be broken, the little serpent is found rolled up in a spiral form. It appears motionless during some time; but if the term of its exclusion be near, it opens its jaws, inhales at several respirations the air of the atmosphere, its lungs fill, it stretches itself, and, moved by this impetus, it begins to crawl. The eggs of this reptile have probabiy given occasion to a fable, which says that cocks can lay eggs, but that these always produce serpents; and that though the cock does not hatch them, the warmth of the sand and atmosphere answers the purposes of incubation. The eggs of the tzepho, of which she lays eighteen or twenty, are equal to those of a pigeon, while those of the great boa are not more than two or three inches in length. As an instance that the eggs of poisonous serpents do not always burst in the body of the female, we may mention the cerastes, which, we are assured, lays in the sand at least four or five, resembling in size those of a dove. On the grounds now explained, we may understand the language of the prophet Isaiah, who says of the wicked that "they hatch cockatrice' eggs; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh forth |