THE PENNY POST.

CURE FOR DRUNKENNESS.-The following singular means of curing habitual drunkenness is employed by a Russian physician, Dr. Schreiber, of Brzese Litewski. It consists in confining the drunkard in a room, and furnishing him, at discretion, with brandy diluted with two-thirds of water; as much wine, beer, and coffee, as he desires, but containing one-third of brandy; and the food-the bread, meat, &c., are steeped in brandy and water. On the fifth day of this regimen he has an extreme disgust for brandy; he earnestly requests other diet; but his desires must not be yielded to, until the poor wretch no longer desires to eat or drink; he is then certainly cured of drunkenness. He acquires such a disgust for brandy, that he is ready to vomit at the very sight of it.

RECIPE FOR GOOD HUMOUR.-Rise betimes in a morning, and go early to rest, that the body may be preserved in health: let your reflection be, how short are your hours before you, if devoted to business, study, social enjoyment, or other rational recreation; and then find time, if you can, to indulge in spleen and ill-humour. AVARICE is a passion as despicable as it is hateful. It chooses the most insidious means for the attainment of its ends; it dares not pursue the bold flight of the soaring eagle, but flits about dark places like the bat.

MUTTON HAMS.-Large quantities of salted legs of mutton have lately been imported from the United States, for the purpose of being cured as mutton hams.

DESERTERS. It is stated that 2,500 men desert every year from the British army.

FIGHTING. We praise men for fighting, and punish children for doing the same.

SUN-RISE AND SUN-SET.

CONTEMPLATE when the sun declines,

Thy death with deep reflection;

And when again he rising shines,

Thy day of resurrection.

The Penny Post.

THE VILLAGE CEMETRY.

DEAR SIR,-Having nearly reached to that period of life mentioned Psalm xc. 10, I feel that I may be allowed to indulge in contemplation and retrospection. A few weeks since, it was my unexpected happiness to find the entrance open to a village cemetry, in which I read, with no small interest, names, mostly middleaged, a few aged, and many very youthful, most of whom were personally well-known to me. A neat flat stone recorded, aged 77, the relict of a venerated commentator on the Holy Scriptures, with a few well-selected lines chosen by him-on my right hand a kind,

THE FIRESIDE.

pious, humble husband, friend, father, and deeply-exercised christian, soon followed heavenwards by his faithful and beloved wife— J. F. and M. F., worthy christians; happy interviews I had with these in the autumn of 1839, they were gone hence in '40-on my left-hand, R. T., T. R., R. O., A. W., and others, aroused successive trains of the most tender, melting, and solemn feeling, which nothing but the glorious things spoken in "the Book of Truth" prevented from issuing in tears of unavailing sorrow, which those shed who "have no hope;" and which once was the writer's case, but "O! to grace how great a debtor!"

I could add W. H., M. R., H. T., and many more; but soon my attention was fixed on a grave then preparing for a very aged woman, the mother of a neighbouring village pastor; in a little time the funeral approached, and the ceremony of burial proceeded. I was deeply interested by the simple, faithful, and appropriate address delivered to the attentive and rather numerous auditory. This brought to my recollection a former pastoral connexion, conjunction in holy effort for many years, varied ties of holy friendship, sweetened by a hope of the blissful re-union of bodies and spirits glorified, and I felt the truth of the lines

"Though bodies part awhile,

Our souls are not disjoined."

Mrs.

With the pastor, who closed with a brief heart-felt prayer this simple funeral service, I retired to that house of God, where for almost forty years he has preached the truth as it is in Jesus, and many are the living witnesses to his happy success, and greater far the now adoring multitude before the Throne. I afterwards heard of an awful case. told me of an uncle of hers, about 40 years old, well taught, but a despiser of all sacred things till the tokens of death came-then conscience was awakened. Satan seemed to make sport of his fears, and his cries were doleful, “ I am going to hell! I'm lost! Pray for me-oh, pray for me!" An affectionate youth, weeping, attempted to pray; but ere his christian relatives could reach him, he was hurried away, to the distress of those who "cared for his ruined soul." Such was the tale told me; an awful confirmation of that scripture," The wicked is driven away in his wickedness." If this scrap be acceptable, you may again hear from SEPTIMUS.

The Fireside.

ITS GREATEST DISTURBER.-One of the happiest places on earth is a comfortable and peaceable fireside, around which father, mother, and children, can gather when the labours of the day are ended, and feel happy in each other's company. What a pity that such a place should ever be disturbed!

The Greatest Disturber of the comfort and peace of any fireside

THE FIRESIDE.

is Intemperance; indeed, there cannot be a comfortable and peaceable fireside where this monster shows his face.

For you may set it down as an unalterable fact, that if the father be an intemperate man, he is also an ill-natured man. The mother and children, in such a case, cannot sit quietly by the fireside, for fear that the father should come home in one of his cross fits and disturb them all.

But how came that father to be an intemperate man? for it is always wise to enquire into the causes of things, that we may get at the root of the mischief.

It may have been his own fault entirely. He may have no one else to blame. Or it may have been the fault of others. Once he was not a slave of drunkenness. No: he was sober, and thoughtful, and happy; and wondered, perhaps, when he saw a reeling drunkard, that any man should be such a fool as to put an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains. But enticed by companions, he yielded to the vile temptation, and now he is as vile as they.

It may have been the mother's fault. She may have been the cause. But how? Why, by not making his own home comfortable, or by driving him from it by her sad temper and noisy tongue. No excuse for him, certainly, that he should do wrong because his wife does. And yet it is a fact, that many a wife has been the first cause of making her own fireside miserable, by driving her husband to one in the beer shop or the public house, where he can be out of the sound of her scolding voice.

Fathers, then, if they wish to have a happy home of their own, should avoid the use of strong drink, lest they be drawn into drunkenness. For the same reason they should avoid the company of men who love strong drink. And mothers should be very careful to do all they can to make their own firesides quiet, and comfortable, and happy, that the father may not be driven any where else. For there will be no peace or comfort at home if he be.

Another thing, parents, to keep away this Disturber, should take care to set nothing on their own table for themselves or their children to drink but pure water. One of the best men we ever knew always did so, and he had a happy and well-ordered family, and all his children grew up to be good and useful men and women. But the best thing of all that can be done to keep out this Disturber of firesides, or to drive him out when he has got in, is, always to read a portion of the word of God every morning at breakfast time. Mothers, you should see to this, for it belongs to you. Always make it a rule to lay the Bible on the table with the breakfast things. Set it down that all the things are not laid on the table until it is. If you have not tried this plan, try it to-morrow morning, and go on with it for one month; you cannot think what a good feeling it will produce, in making all quiet and still, keeping down all bad tempers, and driving away all disturbance from that which ought ever to be one of the happiest places in the world to you-your own Fireside!

THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

The Children's Corner.

THE PIOUS VILLAGER.

THERE is a peculiar sweetness in that epithet given by an apostle to the pious poor, "the brother of low degree,” and the exhortation that follows is strikingly appropriate to express the effect which the gospel produces on the minds of that class of christians, "let him rejoice, in that he is exalted." For it is surprising to observe, that as soon as divine grace enters the soul of one of the very lowest grade of society, it not only produces that great change of heart and conduct, which is the ordinary characteristic of its work, but it also softens down the asperities and enlarges the faculties of the rudest and most neglected mind. It exalts him at once to a superior stand in society, and endows him with a degree of intelligence and cultivation of which he seemed before utterly incapable.

Perhaps the following brief narrative may not unaptly illustrate the truth of these remarks.

In one of my early walks, I sometimes noticed a little lonely cottage, half hid in a range of fir-trees, which skirted the grounds of a gentleman of fortune. I had been deterred from calling there by reports which I had heard concerning its inmates. The man, indeed, who resided in this house, bore an excellent character; but his wife, who was evidently much disliked in the village, was said to be all but deranged. For sometime I suffered this slightly-grounded prejudice to deter me from paying a visit to the cottage. How careful ought we to be against the inroads which an unjust and hastily-conceived bias will often make on brotherly love and christian charity! At length, however, one fine morning in March, accompanied by a friend, I went. The husband, a fine looking young man, had just returned from his work, and was sitting down to his simple meal; his little girl was on his knee, another child lay in the cradle beside him, and his wife sitting opposite with a bible on her knee, was reading a chapter from the Gospel by John, aloud, while her husband ate his dinner. Everything in the apartment bore the appearance of cleanliness and comfort; and a more engaging, more interesting scene I have seldom witnessed. They rose, and welcomed us kindly; and on conversing with them, we found it was their custom, as he went so early to his work as to hinder the possibility of their joining together in morning worship, to have family prayers every noon