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Nor is this all. The least part of the benefit arising from such institutions is the e material assistance which they render. This may be the only benefit anticipated by those who use them; but of far more importance are the qualities they cultivate and the habits they assist in forming,s

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It is our custom to publish a report at the end of each half year, a copy of which is sent to every house in the village, and we may judge how very many little acts of self-denial must have been practised, from the fact that the sum of 141. 4s, was entered during the first six months in not less than 886 separate deposits. How many a penny must have found its nd its way into the Bank which would otherwise have been spent unprofitably! How many little lessons of economy must have been learnt in the most effective way

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But if these inany separate deposits form, as it were, landmarks, which enable us to track the usefulness of the institution in the past, who shall track its influence for the future over the homes of men who have learnt from childhood by its means to know the self-respect and taste the enjoyment of being saving and prudent? It is not possible to estimate the happy results that must spring from that quiet hour on Saturday evenings, when upon a chair and a three-legged stool, two willing workers are seated at a little table in a corner of the school-room conducting our Bank business, and the children come dropping in one by one, with their books in their hands, and a prudent senior now and then amongst them. The cause of Penny Banks has been advocated by others with more ability and a much wider experience than I can bring. The best information upon the subject may be found in No. 2 of the Rev. J. Erskine Clarke's excellent "Papers on the Social Economy of the People." Each one, however, may add his little testimony to the common stock; and in doing so, I need not write only in faith, and imagine the good that may arise in the future. Many a little story, small in itself, might be told, which shows how the Penny Bank seems almost to act the part of a kind d friend, who has been watching for the critical moment in which he could come forward and give unexpectedly the most welcome help. "It seems like a gift, sir," one or two have said to me, who have found a little sum o come in most seasonably, which, but for the Bank, they never would have had at hand to help them.

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So it must have seemed to John M, upon whom club-night came, as a time of inevitable payment comes upon too many, to find him unprepared. John is a member of "our Club," one rule of which is, that one quarter's payment may be left unpaid, but that if a second quarter-night should pass without the accounts being squared by the time the books are closed, the name of the defaulter shall be struck off, rendering him subject, before he can re-enter, to a payment of the neglected sums, a fresh examination for a medical certificate as to health, another entrance fee, and some months' probation before he can claim the benefits of the club in case of his falling sick. Poor John! What was he to do? In vain did he run in all directions to find a friend, combining in his person these two requisites,, viz., the possession of a spare six

• Published by Bell and Daldy.

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shillings and sixpence, and good nature enough in his composition to lend it to John. But in a fit of unwonted providence he had, some considerable time before, put a few pence occasionally into the bank, how much he knew not. Off flies John, as a last resource, to the secretary. The accounts are examined, and there, happy fellow, stands the sum of six shillings. The six shillings are advanced, the extra sixpence is easily borrowed, and the money paid just in time. John, then, has reason to speak a good word for the Penny Bank; it made him his own best friend in the sharp hour of need, by helping him to help himself.

So it was also with my little friend Harry B, only that his need was not so sharp. Walking up the village one dark night between eight and nine o'clock on a winter's evening, I heard a peculiar slouching step, which I thought I recognised, and caught sight of the figure of a little boy of about fourteen years of age. ali

"That you, Harry?"

"Yes, sir."

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"Where have you been?"

"To B, sit."

“To B, at this time of night? Nobody ill, I hope ?"

-And then_Harry went on to inform me that he had been to invest 38. in a bran new pair of leathern gaiters, and 41d. in a pair of braces. I remembered, as he detailed to me the nature and cost of his purchases, that on the previous Saturday evening he had drawn the sum of 3s. 6d. out of the Bank. I understood, therefore, the tone in which he gave the information ; but any one could have told in the dark by the sound of his voice that there was something peculiarly satisfactory connected with that pair of gaiters; the fact is, they were a kind of present, a present from the Penny Bank, or rather through his good friend, the Bank, from Harry to himself.

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It was by a sort of accident that I was able to connect so closely in this case the purchase and the withdrawal of the purchase-money; for I not only do not take money or keep the books myself, but I am not in the room while business is being transacted. The time is not convenient for me (between seven and eight on Saturday evenings), and I am fortunate enough to have two parishioners who cheerfully undertake the work.

But whilst these two friends work the internal machinery of the Bank, there are quiet outsiders who further the good cause in their own way. There is, for instance, my old friend whose misgivings about the "Free and Easy" are recorded in the first of these papers. He is very fond of the Penny Bank. He is a sort of Penny Bank missionary. He sticks up in his window the half-yearly printed reports, pasting them against the panes at a convenient height, so that passers-by may be able to read them. Now and then, when he sees a stranger so engaged, he enters into conversation with him, and sends him away with a desire to have" something of the sort where he lives." Instead, therefore, in our last circulation of reports, of merely leaving one at his house, as we have heretofore done, we left a dozen or twenty with him, and I doubt not they

will be well used. It is better, in the long run, to trust to the steady undercurrent of such influences than to try and get up any general excitement by way of recommending the Bank. While, therefore, we draw attention from time to time to its existence a and advantages by by our reports, we have gradually al abstained from all measures and practices tending in any way to produce an artificial development. ad

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One result of this is curious, and did not make itself apparent to me until I had occasion to consult the books in connection with this paper. I have referred above to the large number of deposits of which the first half-year's gross receipts were composed. The report for that period happened to be lying at my side, and I copied out the numbers from it. A similar calculation had not been made in the succeeding reports. I was much surprised, therefore, in counting up the deposits for the last six months, to find that they were much fewer in number, while on the other hand, in gross amount, they were" more than double those of the first six months. The inference to be drawn appears to me a satisfactory one, viz., that with many of the depositors prudent saving is + becoming not only a fixed, but an increasing principle. They put in more. The Bank becomes more a necessity to them. It is forming in them habit which will in most of them never be broken. On the other hand, the work not being forced, I, there is the usual percentage of falling off. By dispensing with the forcing apparatus, the true vitality of the work is seen. & 1970 (botquozs zyabou?) yeb s ́eslim ovi- als no -91It appears to me that not only in this matter, but in its general management, the more nearly a Penny Bank can be conducted on the principles of a bank for the higher classes, the greater its real benefit. It cannot, of course, be open for as many hours, s", although we pay out money at any time';' But the more easily the working classes can use it, and the more quietly they ey can make their entries and drawings, the more ster Sterling will be the character of the work which it effects. id novig ban dood

There are certain pleasant columns in our book, where a sum hás been entered with a regularity either unfailing, or scarcely interrupted from the time when the first entry was made. Once form a habit of this kind, and like af habits, as a general rule, it will grow. voy motni taum

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For many a fourth Saturday evening did one steady lad make his appearance, after his monthly wages had been received, with the sum of four shillings! We used to say, "It is George's night,” and George always came. At last we missed him, and he continued to be an Labsentee for some time. He has reappeared lately with a larger sum for his first deposit, and an expression of regret that he ever discontinued his payments. The old habits seem to have power upon him, much as an anchor and cable bring up a ship. George's employment keeps him late, and he makes his appearance nearly at the end of the hour; but our proper rear-guardman is Philip. Vs: 2 dew pa aqusos al 4)

Just upon the stroke of eight, or sometimes a minute or two after, the door opens, and Philip enters, always cheerful, and always with those three little books in his hand, and the same words, as he lays them upon the table. "Fourpence each, if you please." Philip is a journeyman

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baker, working daily with little intermission from four o'clock in the morning to eight at night. "Hard work, Philip," said we one night to him. Very hard work, sir. I am certain sure a man is best at work, but sometimes I think mine's most too hard." But one result of Philip's hard work is that he never misses at the Bank, and Philip's children never miss at the Sunday-school. A close connection, I imagine, there is between the columns of the Bank-book on Saturday night, and the columns of the Sunday-school register on the next day morning.

There is good auxiliary work, depend upon it, going on in the Penny Bank, for good habits are the best soil in which to sow good seed. For help in its management we are largely indebted to one parishioner, the honorary secretary of "our Club." When I first thought of establishing a Penny Bank, I cast about for a helper, who would steadily keep to the work when he had once undertaken it. It is the willing horse that bears the extra burden, and so I knew where to look.

. “John,” said I, one cold evening, about two years ago last Michaelmas, meeting him just outside the village; "I have a project in my head." "What is it, sir?r

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Something in which you can help me as the clergyman, your neighbours, and, not least, yourself. I know you feel glad to be employed; and for the good of others, I want you to bind yourself to manage a Penny Bank."

John walks twenty-five miles a day (Sundays excepted) over a very rough road, and works at the trade of a shoemaker besides; and therefore, when seven o'clock on Saturday night comes, John has as fair a right as any man to claim the liberty of sitting down at his ease, and closing the week by his own fireside.

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But without hesitation, John accepted the work, and for two years, in conjunction with another good friend and fellow-labourer, has kept our books and given his constant attendance at the school. The fact is, his heart is in it. A good night at the Penny Bank is to John something like what a successful speculation, bringing in some few tens of thousands of pounds at a haul, is to some great London or Liverpool merchant. "I must inform you," he writes on one occasion to an absent friend, "that we get on well with the Bank. The first night of your absence we took 17s. 2d.; the second, we took 12s.; and the third, 21s.; and six new depositors in the three nights. I am very pleased to be able to send you such good news, but I think most of the depositors, with others, begin to see the benefit of it, and I hope we shall have six more by the time you return. I am so pleased that I am able to assist. I never feel happier than when I am doing something for the Bank or Club. I often wish I had the means some have. I think my time would be always occupied."

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It is occupied, and well. Seventy copies of the "British Workman and "Band of Hope" does John by his own efforts circulate every month a little scheme of usefulness which he originated and carries on himself. He never loses an opportunity of trying to reclaim a fellow-creature from drink and its consequences, and he is the unwearied and earnest

honorary secretary of “our Club,” having five years ago declined to receive any salary, and having done the work since then truly, as the saying is, for love, get 1 Tbs in

John is a useful man. We could ill spare him ourselves; but wherever there is a Penny Bank we shall be glad to hear that it has a secretary like John) git ito ni Lotul

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By the Rev. NEWMAN HALL, LL.B.

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There are some professors of Christianity who regard the necessity of self-denial as a valid objection against certain schemes of philanthropy. They ask why they should deny themselves an innocent gratification, merely because others are so foolish as to abuse it, In reply we ask whether, if the giving up of a trifling sensual enjoyment would tend to promote the moral and spiritual welfare of multitudes, such sacrifice would not be in harmony with the cross-bearing spirit of Christianity?

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In our own country, at the present day, drunkenness is ac knowledged to be the chief promoter of pauperism, disease, insanity, crime, and irreligion. There are several hundred thousand drunkards in the midst of us. The assertion may be safely hazarded, that every reader of this tract knows some one, in his own immediate circle, more or less a victim to this vice. It is acknowledged that the drunkard must abstain altogether as a means of avoiding intemperance. He must deny himself the smaller, to guard himself against the greater indulgence. But the drinking customs of our country expose him to constant temptation. Would not his danger be less if those customs were changed? Would he not find abstinence easier, if there were a prevailing fashion of abstinence to shield him? Would not your advice be more powerful if you yourself abstained? If you had a son or a brother thus in peril, would it be so easy for him to abstain if you placed the wine before him and drank it yourself? Should not love prompt you to give up the trifling gratification for the much higher joy of rendering self-denial easier to him?

This is the simple principle of our Temperance Societiesvoluntary abstinence from intoxicating beverages, if not for our own sakes, for the sake of others. The principal objection urged is this "We are not called upon to give up an innocent indulgence, because others are so foolish as not to keep within proper limits." The ground of this objection is an evidence of our cause being in harmony with the fundamental law of Christ

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