ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS. THE BIBLE. HAIL sacred volume of eternal truth, Thou staff of age, thou guide of wandering youth; THE LOVE OF GOD. 'Twas love unequall'd! Love divine, | Nor reach its length, nor grasp its That God should give his Son To ransom us, who were by sin Lost, ruined, and undone! breadth These all our powers confound! Facts. Its depths immense-profound! A. M. THE WAY OUR MONEY GOES.-The Ecclesiastical Commissioners have voted for bishop's palaces, Ripon, £13,689 - Gloucester, £22,897— Lincoln, £52,708-Rochester, £25,557-Worcester, £7,000-Oxford, £6,469.-Alas, poor Peter! "Silver and gold have I none." POOR'S RATES.-Under the present laws some rich estates, called extra-parochial, pay nothing-many close rich parishes pay very littleand the poorest parishes pay the highest. This system is like a house turned topsy-turvy-standing on its chimneys. It must fall, and the sooner the better. BAD HABITS are said to be more firmly rooted in women than men. We often hear of men reformed from drunken habits, but seldom of women. We know one remarkable case. INTEMPERANCE is a rude monster; it defies God, and insults man-it laughs at religion, and jokes with death-it sports with a wife's woes, and children's wants. Oh, it is a most inhuman monster! AN IRISH PAUPER.-A man at Longford, who had for some time obtained out door relief, was found to have £34 in his possession. THE JEWS NOW IN JERUSALEM all live upon the charity of their brethren in Europe. Hints. A REAL CHRISTIAN finds no difficulty in loving Jesus Christ more than husband or wife, or brother or sister, or father or mother, or house or land, or clothing or furniture, or gold or jewels, or all the world if he had it. ARE YOU SINCERE in seeking for religion? First ask God to teach you to know yourself, then ask him to teach you to know Him. That is the way to get on right. PROMISES. Be careful what and how you promise. He who is slow to promise is most likely to keep his word. Never depend on a man who is quick to promise. DO SOMETHING FOR GOD every day, as long as you are in the worlddo something. Tell some man, woman, or child, of the Saviour. AN IMPIOUS OLD MAN is an awful character-the most awful in the world. And yet he is not irrecoverably lost. Try, O try, to save him! THE FIRESIDE.-THE PENNY POST. The Fireside. CLEANLINESS.-Cleanliness may be defined to be the emblem of purity of mind, and may be recommended under the three following heads: as it is a mark of politeness, as it produces affection, and as it bears analogy to chastity of sentiment. First, it is a mark of politeness, for it is universally agreed upon, that no one unadorned with this virtue, can go into company without giving a manifold offence; the different nations of the world are as much distinguished by their cleanliness, as by their arts and sciences; the more advanced in civilization they are, the more they consult this part of politeness. Secondly, cleanliness may be said to be the foster-mother of affection. Beauty commonly produces love, but cleanliness preserves it. Age, itself, is not unamiable while it is preserved clean and unsullied; like a piece of metal constantly kept smooth and bright, we look on it with more pleasure than on a new vessel cankered with rust. I might farther observe, that as cleanliness renders us agreeable to others, it makes us easy to ourselves, that it is an excellent preservative of health; and that several vices, both of mind and body, are inconsistent with the habit of it. In the third place, it bears a great analogy with chastity of sentiment, and naturally inspires refined feelings and passions; we find from experience, that through the prevalence of custom, the most vicious actions lose their horror by being made familiar to us. On the the contrary, those who live in the neighbourhood of good examples, fly from the first appearance of what is shocking: and thus pure and unsullied thoughts are naturally suggested to the mind, by those objects that perpetually encompass us when they are beautiful and elegant in their kind. In the East, where the warmth of the climate makes cleanliness more immediately necessary than in colder countries, it is a part of religion; the Jewish law, as well as the Mohammedan, which in some things copies after it, is filled with bathings, purifications, and other rites of the like nature; and we read several injunctions of this kind in the Book of Deuteronomy.-Addison. The Penny Post. A WORD TO WORKING WOMEN.-[The following address was accompanied by this modest note-"If you think these lines worthy a place in the Pioneer, and at all adapted for the encouragement of the class to which it is addressed, you will oblige by inserting them, but if not you will consign them to oblivion. I feel much interested in your little cheap publication, and endeavour to circulate it as far as I can."] I have been very much pleased to observe the encouragement which you give to working men to exercise their thoughts and pens for the good of their brethren. Perhaps you will permit a working woman to address a few words of encouragement to her sisters, who are often much discouraged because of their peculiar trials and troubles. My dear sisters :This world is a wilderness, a thorny way, but I think many of us make it much worse than it needs be, by treading on thorns which we might THE PENNY POST. : avoid, and by overlooking many sweet flowers that grow by the way. I will suppose that you are, like myself, bearing the burden of a numerous family, and as if the care of them were not enough, your husbands earnings are scanty, and you are obliged to do something yourselves to help to provide for the "little ones." From Monday morning until Saturday night you are full of anxious thoughts about how you shall find food aud clothing for them, and pay the rent, and make all ends meet. Sometimes things seem very awkward, and you fancy no one has so many troubles as you have. And, perhaps, at other times, to make things worse, the husband is cross, and the children are unruly, and you can hardly keep them under. Ah, how different is all this from what we expected just before we were married. What a sad and gloomy change from our youthful prospects. Well may some of us long for heaven, for "there the weary are at rest." But allow me to ask, do we enjoy all the rest we might enjoy here? Let me speak plainly and first, I ask, do we make the sabbath a day of real rest-for I am afraid some do not? Do we secure every opportunity for joining in public worship, by leaving nothing to be done on that day that could have been done the day before? Perhaps some of you do not know how refreshing to the mind and the body public worship always is to those who regularly attend to it. Beside, before we are fit for the rest of heaven we must be free from sin. Do we now desire to be good and holy? Do we deny ourselves of all sinful habits and customs? There must be no mistake about this. If we desire to go to heaven it should be that we may see God, and dwell for ever with him; that we may see Jesus, and be made just like him; that we may enjoy the company of all the saints and angels who dwell in that holy place; but to enjoy that company we should shew that we relish such company now. Ah, my friends, heaven will be no heaven to us if we do not enjoy religion whilst we are on earth. We must have religion here, or we cannot be crowned by it in heaven. Let me advise you all to seek it as your chief good, and when you find it you will also find that it will enable you to get through the troubles of this life far more comfortably and easily. O how cheerfully would you then labour, how thankfully would you bless God for all his mercies, how joyfully would you look forward to heaven as your rest. Your mind would not then be distracted and burdened by anxious cares; it would be filled with peace -the peace of God which passeth all understanding; then you would be happy when you thought of Him who loved you and died for your gins, whom not having seen we love, and in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Would not this be heaven begun below? Dear sisters, let us struggle on a little longer. 66 Trials may come of every sort, They may be sore, they must be short; O then let us take encouragement and cultivate a spirit of pious gratitude to Him who has done so much for us Soon will all the cares and troubles of our mortal life be ended. Happy shall we then be, everlastingly happy, if by the grace of our Lord and Saviour we are permitted to enter into that rest which remaineth for the people of God. Ipswich. M. W.-A WORKING WOMAN. THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. A PLEASING SIGHT.-What a pleasing sight to a benevolent mind is a number of sabbath-school children, "In decent order, and in neat array,' passing along the road from their school-room to the house of God! What a cheerful appearance do most of our towns and villages present on the morning of the sabbath! Instead of a number of dirty, ragged children, playing about the streets, or wandering into the adjoining fields, we now see the dear little creatures all sweet and clean, drest in their best apparel, and cheerfully hastening away to their beloved sabbathschool; the language of their little hearts being, "I have been there and still would go, And when we follow them there, and listen to the singing-the prayers and the reading of the Scriptures-when we see the kind teacher collect around him his class of little immortals, and hear him, with the utmost simplicity and affection, talk to his infant charge of the love of Him who left heaven's glories to die for sinners, and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not," Oh, we cannot help saying, "what a pleasing sight!" And then, when we think of the numbers that are taught in England, Ireland, and Scotland, every sabbath-day, and not only here, but in America, and every part of the world, what a scene presents itself to our view! Let us imagine ourselves on some vast eminence, and blest with the power of vision to behold all these millions of children collected together every Lord's-day by thousands of pious teachers, each of whom is like a sun in the centre, pouring a flood of light from the Holy Word, upon their dark and un taught minds. What a grand, "what a pleasing sight!" And then to crown the whole, what numbers, enlightened by the Word, and born again by the Spirit of God, have either adorned the gospel through future life on earth, or have been early called to brighter scenes. See one of these little ones who has been brought to the Saviour, rejoicing on a sick-bed in hope of his glory. Bidding weeping parents, or brothers or sisters adieu, and entreating them to be comforted, her youthful spirit quietly resigns mortality, and is wafted by a convoy of angels to the realms of glory. There she meets with the angelspirits of thousands of sabbathschool children, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and therefore are they before the throne! What a glorious, "what a pleasing sight!" Young reader, shall you ever behold it? HYMN OF PRAISE. FOR SABBATH SCHOOL INSTRUCTION. FROM thee, our bounteous God, We every good receive; Thou giv'st us clothing, friends, and food, And by thy grace we live. Thy pitying eye beheld How we in darkness lay, From thee this institution came, That we might read and pray. O let us greatly prize These kind instructions given; For now we read thy holy book, That guides our feet to heaven, O may thy Spirit bless This learning to our good! And may our benefactors find The favour of their God! May we and they at last, And when the toils of life are past, At thy right hand appear; All meet in glory there. THE PENITENT PRISONER. BY THE LATE REV. J. HINTON, BAPTIST MINISTER, OXFORD. (Concluded from page 76.) 66 On the Lord's-day morning before he suffered, I preached to a deeply attentive congregation, from Zech. iii. 2. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ?" As soon as I left the pulpit I went to the prison, and repeated the far greater part of the sermon to the condemned man, who appeared to derive from it additional consolation. Observing that his coffin now stood in his apartment, I went up to it, and Davis followed. I read over it 2 Cor. v., "For we know that if this earthly house," &c., while he mingled prayer and praise with almost every verse. I then left him for about an hour. On my return, I found that two of his relations had been admitted to take their leave of him; and as I entered, they were singing, "Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched." The seats were all occupied except that melancholy one, the coffin. On this I cast a mournful eye, and took it as my seat: the condemned man observed me, and instantly springing towards me, threw himself into my arms, in a flood of tears, and with a countenance full of gratitude and hope. His relations and Mr. Steane continued singing, "He is able, He is willing;" When and we all felt as though Heaven gave full sanction to the delightful sentiments. When the hymn was finished, Daviš said, "The prison is a palace to-day: this is surely somewhat like heaven-do not let us weep any more. Oh! blessed be God, for giving such a sabbath as this for my last." his relations were gone, I spent an hour with the prisoner alone, and put to him the closest questions I could think of, respecting his faith in the great truths of the gospel, the sincerity of his repentance, and the nature of his hope: to all which he gave answers collected, rational, and scriptural; discovering a sound understanding, and a heart filled with faith and devotion. After repeated and earnest prayer to God, intermingled with praises, he broke out into these expressions of joy: "Blessed be God, I am happy now! Death cannot come too soon. God will forgive; Christ, my surety, has died. Kind Redeemer! to take such a poor lost sheep to his fold; |