ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Not a seraph but bows at his feet,
Not a harp but is tuned to his praise.
Condescendingly sometimes to me
He himself full of mercy reveals;
Yet how faint is the vision I see,

For the flesh half his glory conceals.
But ere long to his presence convey'd,
All his glories my eyes shall explore;
And no veil intervene with its shade
"Tween my soul and the God I adore.

Anecdotes and Selections.

MARTIN LUTHER.-Disinterestedness was a leading feature in the character of Luther: superior to all selfish considerations, he left the honours and emoluments of this world to those who delighted in them. The following extract from a will he executed some years before his death, proves how little he regarded that wealth, to attain which millions sacrifice every enjoyment in this life, and every hope of happiness in the next! The Reformer says, "Lord God, I give thee thanks that thou hast willed me to be poor upon the earth, and a beggar. I have neither house, land, money, nor possessions of any kind, which I can leave. Thou hast given me a wife and children, I commend them to thee; nourish them, teach them, preserve them as thou hast hitherto preserved me, O Father of the fatherless and judge of the widow!" The poverty of this great man did not arise from his wanting the means of acquiring riches, for few men have had it in their power more easily to obtain them. The elector of Saxony offered him the produce of a mine at Sneberg, but he nobly refused it,-"Lest," said he, "I should tempt the devil, who is Lord of these subterranean treasures, to tempt me." The enemies of Luther were no strangers to his contempt for gold. When one of the Popes asked a certain Cardinal why they did not stop that man's mouth with silver and gold? his eminence replied, "That German beast regards not money!"" It may be supposed that the liberality of such a man would often exceed his means. A poor student once telling him of his poverty, he desired Mrs. Luther to give him a sum of money; and, when she informed him they had none left, he immediately seized a metal cup of some value, which accidentally stood within his reach, and giving it to the poor man, bid him go and sell it, and keep the money to supply his wants. In one of his epistles, Luther says, "I have received one hundred guilders from Taubereim, and Schartts has given me fifty, so that I begin to fear lest God should reward me in this life; but I declare I will not be satisfied with it. What have I to do with so much money? I gave half of it to P. Priorus, and made the man glad."

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

DR. JOHNSON.-Mr. Langton once told Dr. Johnson he was about to establish a school upon his estate, but it had been suggested to him that it might have a tendency to make the people less industrious. "No, sir," replied the Doctor, "while learning to read and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction may be the less inclined to work; but when everybody learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction. A man who has a laced waistcoat is too fine a man to work; but if everybody had laced waistcoats, we should have people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people whatever more industrious than our manufacturers, yet they have all learned to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good, from fear of remote evil, or fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up late, which he could not do if he had no candles. But nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is à valuable art, and ought to be preserved." The opinion of this great scholar is a sufficient answer to the argument of those who oppose the instruction of the lower classes; because, say they, "It will level the different ranks of civil society."

NATHANIEL BRADSHAW, as a minister, was a Boanerges, well adapted to the people of Willingham, whom he found very profane and ignorant; but, in a little time, God was pleased to give him numerous seals to his ministry among them, and he left many good people, and a very good living, for the ease of his conscience, August 24, 1662. He was succeeded by a profane minister, who, meeting him after his ejectment, scoffed at him for his way of preaching. Mr. Bradshaw replied, "Sir, I left four-score and ten praying families in Willingham at my ejectment, and I am afraid your ministry will never make them up a hundred." He was buried in the chancel of Willingham church, as was his successor, Mr. Naylor, the profane person above mentioned. When the sexton was digging a grave for the latter, which was near Mr. Bradshaw's, a high churchman, who was looking on, exclaimed, "Why do you bury him so near that fanatic ?" to which an aged woman, who was present, and who knew their different characters, shrewdly answered, "It cannot affect them while they lie here, and they may be far enough asunder at the resurrection."

GEORGE WHITFFIELD, in the course of his fifth visit to America, about the year 1754, on a journey from the southward, called at St. George's in Delaware, where Mr. Rodgers was then settled in the gospel ministry, and spent some time with him. In the course of this visit, Mr. Rodgers being one day riding with his visitant in a close carriage in which the latter usually travelled, asked him whether he recollected the occurrence of the little boy who was so much affected with his preaching as to let his lantern fall? Mr. Whitefield answered, "O, yes, I remember it well, and have often thought I would give almost anything in my power to know who

THE FIRESIDE.

that little boy was, and what had become of him." Mr. Rodgers replied, with a smile, "I am that little boy!" Mr. Whitefield, with tears of joy, started on his seat, and embracing him in his arms, with strong emotions, remarked that he was the fourteenth person then in the ministry whom he had discovered in the course of that visit to America, of whose hopeful conversion he had been the instrument.

HOWELL DAVIES.-As he was walking early on a Lord's-day morning to preach, was accosted on the road by a clergyman on horseback, who was on the same errand, but from a different motive. The latter gentleman was complaining that the drudgery of his profession was unprofitable, for he never could get above halfa-guinea for preaching. The honest Welshman replied, that he preached for a "crown." The hireling retorted, "You are a disgrace to the cloth." "Perhaps," says Mr. Davies, "I shall be held in greater disgrace in your estimation when I inform you that I am now going nine miles to preach, and have but sevenpence in my pocket to bear my expenses out and in, and do not expect the poor pittance remitted that I am now in possession of; but I look forward for that Crown of Glory which my Lord and Saviour will freely bestow upon me when he makes his appearance before an assembled world."

The Fireside.

DESIGN OF FAMILY BEREAVEMENTS.

MANY years ago a pious and devoted clergyman entered the shop of a prosperous London bookseller, with whom he was on terms of intimate and christian friendship. He inquired for his friend, and when told that he was at home but particularly engaged, sent a message to him to the effect that he wished for an interview with him, if but for a few minutes. This message being delivered, the clergyman was invited to walk up stairs into the bookseller's sitting-room. He entered the room, and found his friend sitting by his child's cot. The child was dying, but with affection strong in death, it had clasped its father's hand, and was holding it with a convulsive grasp. "You are a father," said the afflicted parent, or I should not have allowed you to witness such a scene." "Thank God, thank God," fervently exclaimed the minister, as he instinctively comprehended at a glance the situation of his friend: "thank God. He has not forgotten you! I have been much troubled on your account, my dear sir. I have thought much about you lately. I have been much afraid for you. Things have gone so well with you for so long a time, you have been so prosperous, that I have been almost afraid that God had forgotten you. But I said to myself, Surely God will not forsake such a man as this, will not suffer him to go on so long in prosperity without some

66

THE PENNY POST BOX.

check, some reverse! And I see he has not. No: God has not forgotten you." These were the sentiments of Richard Cecil on the design of affliction; and his friend, Thomas Williams, thankfully and joyfully responded to them. Within three weeks of his death, he related the incident as it is related here, and the feeling of his heart was, "He hath done all things well.” "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons." Heb. xii. 6-8.

The Penny Post Box.

HAVE YOU LOST A CHILD BY DEATH?

To Fathers and Mothers.

THERE are, perhaps, few wounds go deeper into the hearts of a father and a mother than the loss by death of one of their children -a little boy or girl who could just begin to walk and talk, and make itself interesting and lovely. Has the father or mother who reads this ever lost such an one. I have: and I know how deep such wounds go into the heart. I never could feel so much for David weeping for his child as I did after I had endured such a loss. Yet, like him, I was wonderfully comforted by the thought that I should go to it, and I would fain have gone then to see if it were safe; for I felt as if a part of myself had gone into eternity. My family chain was broken. There were nine links in it. One was now snapped, and it could not be repaired any more on earth-only in heaven; and so that made me think more of heaven and less of earth. I believe the Lord broke off that link on purpose to do us all good-father, mother, brothers, sisters-all of us. We had not had one death, and but little sickness. Now both came, again, and again, and again. And every time they came they made us think more of that world where there will be no more death. Well: they are gone! the dearly loved ones are gone, and we must follow. Our Father who is in heaven took them home to himself. I have no doubt of that. They were his, and he loved them more than we did-I am sure of that too. We must now try to follow them whither they are gone, that we may see them and have them again. And this is why they are taken often, that we who live may be reminded that on earth all is frail and uncertain, and that heaven only is the place of immortality and certain lasting enjoyment. May I and mine, and you and yours, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who died to save us from sin, and death, and satan, and hell, be all found at last, “IN LIFE's eternal bundle bound.' A FATHER.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Facts, Hints, and Gems.