makes great sacrifices to amuse and instruct him, for she knows that his social nature requires gratification, and if he does not find it at home she fears he will be tempted to seek it abroad, where the influences will be less salutary. This most precious sister not only strives to mould his affections aright, but by many happy devices, she endeavours to quicken his perceptions, to regulate his judgment, expand and strengthen his intellect, to cultivate his imagination, and to form his tastes on the correct and delicate model of her own. More than all, she would lead him to fear God, and keep his commandments. Would that every boy in this fair village had such a sister. Boys!-Eschew the filthy weed. Preserve your purity. Save your money. Husband your time. It is shocking to see a knot of Sunday-scholars standing or strutting about, puffing cigars. Let the pitiful, ugly, shameful spectacle never be witnessed on British ground! THE DROWNED ORPHAN. CONNECTED with the Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction of Seamen, is a Sailors' Orphan Institution, containing, at the present time, about 130 children, who are clothed wholly or in part, and educated, at an annual expense of £230. One who was formerly in this school has been removed from this earth to that place where widows never weep nor orphans cry. His name was John Tether, aged sixteen years. He was in the Institution about three years and a half, when he left, became an errand-boy, and was variously employed, to assist his poor mother in providing for three fatherless children. At the commencement of 1852 he became cabin-boy on board a vessel trading up the rivers. He was thoughtful, obedient, and gave great satisfaction to his master. He loved to attend the house of God. He was deeply im pressed at a watch-night service last December, began to meet in class, and at one of those meetings he obtained peace with God, by believing in Jesus. A change was soon seen in his actions, and he who was before dutiful now the cabin, to read the New Testament, became pious. He often retired into and to pray. The Sunday before his death, he attended three services at the house of God, and also a prayermeeting, on which day he took particular pains to induce his sister to go with himself and mother to chapel, saying it might be the last time. His mother saw him safe on board his vessel on Sunday evening, March 28th. On Monday morning he rose to his work, but about breakfast-time in vain. Drags were obtained, and his he was missed. Search was made, but body was soon found. His hands were clasped tight to his chest, as if he had been conscious of his position, and had committed himself to Him who was with him even at the bottom of a dock. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” H. T. M. LOVE YOUR PARENTS. LET all children remember, if ever they are weary of labouring for their parents, that Christ laboured for his; if impatient of their commands, that Christ cheerfully obeyed; if reluctant to provide for their parents when old, Christ provided for his mother amid the agonies of the crucifixion. THE FLY AND THE TAPER.* "DEAR mother," said a little fly, "I'm going to take a walk;" I think it happen'd, by-the-bye, When flies knew how to talk. "My darling," said the elder dame, "Be careful of your feet; And don't, like many of your name, Eat anything too sweet. "A thousand foes are peeping out, From man with life, to flame without, With weapon raised to kill, All bent to work us ill. "I think you'd better stay with me, And just to while the time, *The two following exquisite pieces of side," by Maria Goodluck,-a nice little verse are from "Poems from my Firevolume for children. I'll show you, if you like to see, As if some sugar'd cream he spied, He join'd a dozen little things, And rubb'd his eyes and shook his wings, He stole the sugar, sipp'd the tea, "How beautiful!" he said; And then he rush'd across to see A crumb of butter'd bread. "How very kind the men are grown!" The little stranger cries; "Tis true politeness, I must own, To cater for the flies. "How daintily the table 's spread! No doubt 'tis meant for us; They work to earn our daily bread, And spare us all the fuss." While basking in the sun, he saw A very lovely cat; And then she stretch'd her velvet paw, She ate a fly; "Oh, dear," he sigh'd, For spider, cat, or lime. At length he spied a taper bright, He flew towards the brilliant light, "How very brilliantly it burns! And round and round the flame he turns, Still drawing nearer too. Another look, another still, And round the flame he plays, Until he found that light could kill, And thus this little tender thing Thus Youth escapes the open foes That o'er his progress rise; Then to the fount of pleasure goes, THE FATHER'S LAST CHARGE. "My children," said an old man gray, "My course is almost run, My fourscore years are pass'd away, And all my work is done. "Come round my bed, my sons, and stand To hear the words I speak, Then close my eyes, and take my hand, "In fourscore years full many a sight "My pall is spread, a place for me Few, faint, but true my words shall be, "Let Justice mark with rule and line, "Let Virtue be your guiding star, And Truth your shield and sun, Dig not where gold or rubies are, If sweet Content be won. "Lift up your eyes, and see the hand His arm still grasping sea and land, "Bright morning is the time for toil, Thus speaks creation through the soil, From bee and bird to rose. "Seek friendship with the good and wise, Nor judge by outward show; In Folly's temple friendship dies, "The living things of earth and sea, Then should not man, their master, be A tender friend to all? "When troubles rise, then bend in prayer, 'T will turn the sword away; When blessings flow, and life is fair, 'Tis just to praise and pray. "Prize every hour that wanders past, And scan their value by the last, The Cabinet. FORGIVENESS OF SIN. "Your sins are forgiven you."-1 JOHN ii. 12. ALL men need forgiveness, because all men are sinners. He that does not know this, knows nothing in religion. We take to sin naturally, from the very first. No child ever needs schooling and education to teach it to do wrong. No bad companion ever leads us into such wickedness as our own hearts; and yet "the wages of sin is death." We must either be forgiven, or lost eternally. We are all guilty sinners in the sight of God. We have broken his holy law. We have transgressed his precepts. There is not a commandment in all the ten that does not condemn us. If we have not broken it in deed, we have in spirit. Tried by the standard of the fifth chapter of Matthew, there is not one of us that would be acquitted; and yet "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment." We must either be forgiven, or perish everlastingly. See, then, your need of forgiveness. Sin is a burden, and must be taken off. Sin is a defilement, and must be cleansed away. Sin is a mighty debt, and must be paid. Sin is a mountain standing between us and heaven, and must be removed. The first step towards heaven is to see clearly that we deserve hell. There is but one alternative before us, we must be forgiven, or be miserable for ever. See, too, how little many persons know of the design of Christianity, though they live in a Christian land. They fancy they are to go to Church to learn their duty, and hear morality enforced, and for no other purpose. They have yet to learn that the leading mark of Christianity is the remedy it provides for sin. This is the glory and excellence of the Gospel. It meets man as he really is. It takes him as it finds him. It goes down to the level to which sin has brought him, and offers to raise him up. It tells him of a remedy equal to his disease-a great remedy for a great disease—a great forgiveness for great sinners. Reader! consider these things well, if you have not considered them before. It is no light matter whether you know your soul's necessities or not. It is a matter of life and death. I beseech you, become acquainted with your own heart. Sit down and think quietly what you are in the sight of God. Bring together the thoughts, and words, and actions of any day in your life, and measure them by the measure of God's Word. Judge yourself honestly, that you may not be condemned at the last day. Seek to find out what you really are. Learn to pray Job's prayer, "Make me to know my transgression and my sin," Job xiii. 23. Until you are forgiven, your Christianity has done nothing for you at all. Granting, then, for a moment, that you want pardon and forgiveness, what ought you to do? Which way will you turn? Everything hinges on the answer you give to this question. Will you turn to ministers, and put your trust in them? They cannot give you pardon: they can only tell you where it is to be found. They can set before you the bread of life; but you yourself must eat it. They can show you the path of peace; but you yourself must walk in it. The Christian minister has no power to forgive sins, he can only pronounce who they are that are forgiven. Will you turn to ordinances, and trust in them? They cannot supply you with forgiveness, however diligently you may use them. By them faith is confirmed and grace increased, in all who rightly use them; but they cannot justify the sinner, they cannot put away transgression. You may go to the Lord's table every Sunday in your life; but unless you look far beyond the sign to the thing signified, you will after all die in your sins. You may attend a daily service regularly, but if you think to establish a righteousness of your own by it in the slightest degree, you are only getting further away from God every day. Will you trust in your own works and endeavours, your virtues and your good deeds, your prayers and your alms? They will never buy for you an entrance into heaven. They will never pay your debt to God. They are all imperfect in themselves, and only increase your guilt. There is no merit or worthiness in them at the very best. "When ye have done all those things which are commanded you," says the Lord Jesus, " say, We are unprofitable servants," Luke xvii. 10. Will you trust in your own repentance and amendment? You are very sorry for the past. You hope to do better for the time to come. You hope God will be merciful. Alas! if you lean on this, you have nothing beneath you but a broken reed. The judge does not pardon the thief because he is sorry for what he did. To-day's sorrow will not wipe off the score of yesterday's sins. It is not an ocean of tears that will ever cleanse an uneasy conscience, and give it peace. Where, then, must a man go for pardon? Where is forgiveness to be found? Listen, reader, and I will tell you. There is a way both sure and plain, and into that way I desire to guide every inquirer's feet. That way is, simply to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your Saviour. It is to cast your soul, with all its sins, unreservedly on Christ,-to cease completely from any dependence on your own works and doings, either in whole or in part, and to rest on no other work but Christ's work, no other righteousness but Christ's righteousness, no other merit but Christ's merit, as your ground of hope. Take this course, and you are a pardoned soul. "To Christ," says Peter, "give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins," Acts x. 43. "Through this man," said Paul at Antioch, "is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things," Acts xiii. 38. "In him," writes Paul to the Colossians, 66 we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins," Col. i. 4. The Lord Jesus Christ, in great love and compassion, has made a full and complete satisfaction for sin, by his own death upon the cross. There he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, and allowed the wrath of God, which we deserved, to fall on his own head. For our sins he gave himself, suffered, and died,—the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty,—that he might deliver us from the curse of a broken law, and provide a complete pardon for all who are willing to receive it. And by so doing, as Isaiah says, he has "borne" our sins; as John the Baptist says, he has "taken away' sin; as Paul says, he has "purged" our sins, and "put away" sin; and as Daniel says, he has "made an end of sin," and "finished” transgression. (Isa. liii. 11; John i. 29; Heb. i. 3; ix. 26; Dan. ix. 24.) And now the Lord Jesus is sealed and appointed by God the Father to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give remission of sins to all who will have it. The keys of death and hell are put in his hand. The government of the gate of heaven is laid on his shoulder. He himself is the door, and by him all that enter in shall be saved. (Acts v. 31; Rev. i. 18; John x. 9.) Christ, in one word, has done all, suffered all, that was needful to reconcile us to God. He has provided a garment of righteousness to clothe us. He has opened a fountain of living waters to cleanse us. He has removed every barrier between us and God the Father, taken every obstacle out of the way, and made a road by which the may return. All things are now ready, and the sinner has vilest |