revenge shall array herself to go forth, and anguish shall attend her, and from the wheels of their chariot ruin and dismay shall shoot far and wide among the enemies of the King, whose desolation shall not tarry, and whose destruction, as the wing of the whirlwind, shall be swift. Then the gay glory of time shall depart, and sportful liberty be bound for ever in the chain of obdurate necessity. The green earth, with all her blooming beauty and bowers of peace, shall depart. The morning and evening salutations of kinsmen shall depart; and the ever-welcome voice of friendship, and the tender whispering of full-hearted affection shall depart, for the sad discord of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the tender names of children, father and mother, and wife and husband, with the communion of domestic love and mutual affection, and the inward touches of natural instinct, which family compact, when uninvaded by discord, wraps the livelong day into one swell of tender emotion, making earth's lowly scenes worthy of heaven itself;--all, all shall pass away; and, instead, shall come the level lake that burneth, and the solitary dungeon, and the desolate bosom, and throes and tossings of horror and hopelessness, and the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched.-Irving. Pardon in old age.-Hath God said any where, that He will not accept of old sinners who come to Him? God hath often made promises in universal terms; and is there any such exception put in? Doth Christ say, "All that thirst let them come to Me and drink, except old sinners? Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, except old sinners, and I will give you rest? Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out, if he be not an old sinner?" Did you ever read any such exception anywhere in the Bible? And why should you give way to exceptions which you make out of your own heads, or rather which the devil puts into your heads, and which have no foundation in the word of God? Indeed it is more rare that old sinners are willing to come than others; but if they do come, they are as readily accepted as any whatever.-Edwards. MORNING DISCIPLINE. WHEN first thine eyes unveil, give thy soul leave Yet never sleep the sun up: prayer should Dawn with the day; there are set awful hours Until thou hast a blessing; then resign Prevail'd by wrestling ere the sun did shine: Keep well thy temper, mix not with each day; Which must be carried on, and safely may; COTTAGE COOKERY. TAKE half a pound of beef, mutton, or pork, cut it into small pieces; half a pint of peas, four sliced turnips, six potatoes cut very small, two onions or leeks, put to them seven pints of water. Let the whole boil gently over a very slow fire two hours and a half. Then thicken it with a quarter of a pound of oatmeal. After the thickening is put in, boil it a quarter of an hour, stirring it all the time; then season it with salt and pepper.-N. B. Less oatmeal will be sufficient for those who do not like this dish very thick. Rice Pudding.-Take two quarts of skim milk, half a pound of rice, and two ounces of brown sugar, a little shred suet, salt, and ginger; will make an excellent rice pudding.-N. B. The ginger must be ground, and not more in quantity than will lie on a sixpence. M. B. EXTRACTS FROM PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS. Emigration to Australia.-THE following is an extract from a letter dated Oven's River, Port Philip District, December 6, 1847 :-"I and others suffer most materially in our domestic comforts, as well as in our business, from the great scarcity of labour. We cannot procure house servants in the bush at any rate of wages, and we are consequently compelled to perform the most menial offices ourselves, whilst the demand for shepherds and other descriptions of farm servants is so great and urgent at every station around us, that we are forced to put up with any treatment a servant may feel inclined to use towards us, as he well knows he has only to go to the next farm to get employment. I am sorry to say this state of things renders this class of people extremely insubordinate, and is ruining the best servants that I have had for years; they become careless and inattentive to their duties, and you must imagine that it is no slight struggle one has to restrain indignation which one dares not express, when one sees a farm servant, to whom wages of 301. a year are given, besides rations, &c., treat his charge with the greatest neglect, and tell you most insolently that if you don't like it he will go elsewhere. My blood boils when I read of the starving thousands at home, who, now in the depth of misery, might at once, if they were but sent here, be placed in plenty and comfort, and on the high road to become employers of labour themselves. Hundreds of families would in this district alone be eagerly employed at once. I grieve to say, too, that being obliged at present to employ the smallest children in out-door work, tending sheep, &c., they receive no education or religious instruction; and it is most heart-rending to reflect upon their growing up in this state, ruined by the unhappy circumstances in which absolutely a scarcity of labourers places them." Another correspondent writes-" Labourers, more labourers, is the cry. Wages are from 281. to 351., with rations, &c., for shepherds and hut-keepers, and men are not to be had. I know not what would have been done but for the convicts from Van Diemen's Land and the conditionally pardoned men who have come hither, graziers giving them a free passage over. The Pentonville people, too, have been greedily hired, but free emigrants are what is required. For every convict there should have been five or six free emigrants introduced, in order to neutralize the poison, and with a due proportion of women. Female servants are much needed, and I am told that housemaids are getting as much as 251. and 30%. per annum; and many families are obliged to do without servants, for they are not to be had." An Open Gaol.-A spectacle of rare occurrence in these degenerate times, and of highly gratifying character, was presented to the inhabitants of Thetford on Saturday last. The keeper of the borough gaol suspended a white flag from the topmost window of the prison house, and, throwing open all the doors, afforded an opportunity to those whose feelings might be too tender to view the victims of vice and crime in the solitary cell, to inspect the interior of the place without an inhabitant. All whose curiosity or feeling of gratification induced them to inspect the place, united in an expression of the highest satisfaction with the arrangements and the cleanliness and wholesomeness of the place; and it is not too much to venture to say, that this state of things may have been brought about by the salutary, though stringent, conduct of the keeper, in connexion with the vigilance of the police. May the gaoler and the matron long enjoy their solitude!— Bury and Norwich Post. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received the communications of F. A.; M. B.; S. B.; E. D.; a Layman; and a Country Subscriber. If a man would be happy, he must take care not to get into debt. If a man owes money, nothing that he has can be called his own; he is living upon other people's money, and he must always be afraid of looking in the face of a creditor. It is not only a case of misery, it is a case of dishonesty, against the Will of God, and against the good of our fellow-creatures; the Scriptures therefore say, "Owe no man anything." The rule applies to persons in every condition, to the rich as well as to the poor. Indeed, a man who is in debt cannot properly be called rich, though he may have a very large estate; but a man who is called poor is as though he were rich, if he pays his way, and can contrive to have a little over. He lives upon what is his own; whilst a man in debt lives upon what is not his own. If a man orders what he cannot pay for, he is doing the same as if he had taken another man's property. If he were to go into a shop, and see something on the counter, and put it in his pocket, he would be reckoned a thief. But if he orders the same article, and does not pay for it, it is the same injury to the shopkeeper as if he had stolen it, and it is therefore as dishonest. The Scriptures, indeed, speak VOL. XXVIII. U much of the sin of covetousness; and a man who gives his mind to making money, for his own sake, or for the sake of his family, has his thoughts so tied down to this world, that he cannot give himself to God's service, or make the service of God his chief delight. He worships Mammon, money is his idol; and the Scripture tells us plainly, that covetousness is idolatry. But the reverse of wrong is not always right; and a man who is not careful for the proper maintenance of his family, but leaves them a burden to others, he is acting unjustly, and in a manner which Holy Scripture condemns. My family Bible has a note to this effect1: "Those that leave their families under a load of debt beyond their means, know not what misery they bring on them. It is the duty of all who profess to follow the Lord, while they trust in God for their daily bread, not to tempt Him by negligence or extravagance, nor to contract debts; for nothing tends more to bring reproach upon the Gospel, nothing creates more prejudice against it, nothing distracts men's minds more while they live, or distresses their family more when they are gone. Many hardships should therefore be endured, many pleasant things given up, rather than occasion such fatal consequences. Yet, in the mysteries of Providence, this may sometimes prove the case with those who are eminent for piety; and the unsuspecting character of good men sometimes exposes them to the designs of the artful." SARAH M. 4. IN the corner of that old churchyard under the elmtrees, and close by the pathway where the graves are most crowded, lies all that is mortal of Sarah M. In the early part of the year 1836 I was in the habit of visiting a poor woman, considered to be in the last stage of consumption. My attention was also arrested by the daughter who was still suffering from the effects of rheumatic fever; but she was considered recovering from the attack. There was something peculiarly interesting in Sarah M.'s appearance, though in manner she 1 2 Kings iv. 7. Scott, Henry, and others. |