22 22 THE VILLAGE SABBATH SCHOLAR. Let us expect troubles and trials while in the world, bear them with patience, and seekto get good out of them. Let us take it for granted, that each of us will find some failing to bear with in the other; never to be both angry at once, to cover one anothers faults: and to forgive one another. Let us study to esteem, respect, and comfort one another, and so to live in love. Let it be our joint and earnest prayer, that the grace of God may be in our hearts, his peace rule there, and his blessing rest on our house. If blessed with children, let us remember they are but loans and may be soon recalled; and when one corrects, the other is not to defend them. Let us bring them up for God; and much rather wish to see them gracious than great. Let us remember that it is only the blessing of God which can make us happy with little, or with much; for, should God be provoked to send an evil spirit between us, we should be miserable, whatever we might possess. Let us depend on the providence of God with greater quiet and confidence than on gathered sums. Hereby we also engage that the worship of God is to be kept up morning and evening in our family, even though the husband be called from home. Moreover, we are never to seek heaven on earth, or expect to find happiness below; and so we must welcome that lot, prosperous or adverse, which God sees fit to send. Let us remember that one of us may be taken away by death before the other, and leave the survivor drowned in sorrow; but let us study so to walk, that we need not sorrow as they that have no hope. Let us remember this is not our rest, because it is polluted; and let us rejoice, that there remaineth a rest for the people of God. Let us endeavour to adorn the doctriue of God our Saviour in all things, and to have our conversation in heaven from whence we expect the Saviour to come. Signed, Peebles, Aug. 13, 1779. Sabbath School Treasury. THE VILLAGE SABBATH SCHOLAR. SOME few years ago, there lived in the village of Rattlesden, a little girl whose name was Sarah Abbott. When she was very young, both her parents died; this loss, however, was in a happy measure made up by the kind attention of her relatives, with whom she resided till her death. It was her privilege to become a Sunday scholar, and also a believer in Christ. The news of the Redeemer's love which she heard from her teacher's lips, was divinely blest to her mind. This pleasing circumstance was not known for some little time; not till after the commencement of that illness which ended her days. On her sick bed, she said, "Ever since I heard my teacher talk of Jesus and his sufferings, I have felt a love to him." Religion had a pleasing influence over her during her affliction, promoting her humility, cheerfulness, and patience; afford ing her consolation and real happiness. She proved the truth of the Saviour's promise; my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength is made perfect in thy weakness." She said, "when I am weak in strength, then I am stronger in Christ. Sarah had not merely read her bible, but also felt a love to its truths. She pointed out several chapters as affording her comfort; particularly Psalms 61st, and the 14th and three following chapters of John's gospel. These were to her "more precius than find gold, and sweeter than the honeycomb." She was not expecting salvation for tears shed for sin, for kindness shown, duties performed, or suffering borne. Hers was a better foundation, the sure foundation laid in Zion. She said, "Christ died for me, and is always inviting me to come to him." Thus she expressed her daily need of Christ; of his blood to cleanse from sin, and his riches to supply her wants. She found a cheering welcome at the cross, for he says, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out.' This, too, was her refuge in every danger, and her unfailing source of comfort. She said, "When I feel unhappy I pray to God, to lead me the Rock that is higher than I,' and then I feel my mind relieved. FIRST DAY OF THE NEY YEAR. 'Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on thee."" When on her sick-bed, she did not forget the Sunday School, but sent a message by her minister to her school-fellows. One Sabbath afternoon, after the public service, it was delivered to them. There was something interesting and affecting about it; a message from a dying Sunday Scholar! She said, "Tell my school-fellows not to love this wicked world, but to love Jesus Christ, and he will save them from their sins." Sarah lived by faith, "looking unto Jesus," and longing to be with him in the mansion of glory: she "had a desire to depart, and be with Christ, which is far better." Her minister one day asked her if she did not wish to get well again? She said, "No." He asked her why? She replied, "Because I shall go to Jesus." But, said he, "how do you know that you shall go to Jesus?" She said, "Because I believe in him " our. 23 Death is a dark word, a mournful sound to many; but there is such a thing as dying happy. Happy are the dead who die in the Lord-die in friendship with the SaviOur young friend said, "I am not afraid to die, for I am happy in Christ; and when death does come, I shall have nothing to do but to die, for God has answered all my prayers." Sarah became ill in her eighth, and died in her tenth year. She suffered much; but as her sufferings abounded, her consolations also abounded. On the night prior to her death, she said, "I am going to Jesus;" and in the morning a little before her death, "I am going to my Saviour!" She now lives in heaven, in the presence of Jesus, and in the society of saints and angels. "Around the throne of God in heaven, Temperance Columu. "Rest thee, my babe !-Rest on!-'Tis hunger's cry! Sleep! for there is no food! the fount is dry! Famine and cold their wearying work have done, My heart must break!—and thou!"-The clock strikes one "Hush, 'tis the dice box! Yes, he's there, he's there! For this for this he leaves me to despair! Leaves love! leaves truth! his wife! his child! for what? The wanton's smile-the villain, and the sot! "Yet I'll not curse him! No! tis all in vain! 'Tis long to wait; but sure he'll come again! And I could starve and bless him, but for you, My child!-His child!-Oh, fiend!" The clock strikes two! "Can he desert me thus? He knows I stay Night after night in loneliness, to pray For his return-and yet he sees no tear! No! No! It cannot be! He will be here. "Nestle more closely, dear one to my heart! Thou'rt cold! Thou'rt freezing: But we will not part! Husband!-I die!-Father!-It is not he! Oh God! protect my child!" The clock strikes three! They're gone! they're gone! the glimme ring spark hath fled! The wife and child are numbered with the dead! On the cold hearth outstretch'd in solemn rest, The babe lay frozen on its mother's breast! The drunkard came at last-but all was o'er Dead silence reigned around.-The clock struck four. EFFECT OF DRUNKENNESS ON THE MORAL SENSIBILITIES. THE drunkard by his beastly indulgences, banishes every moral feeling from his bosom. Those things on which he was wont to look with abhorrence, have to him lost their ugliness and deformity. He hugs that in his bosom which he would once have rejected with disgust. There is almost no action so mean, no deed so dishonourable and base, which he is not ready to commit. His heart is the seat of every bad principle-it is the receptacle of every horrid passion. He hates virtue, and is happy only when mingling in scenes of iniquity and crime. It may be that these remarks will appear to some severe and extravagant. But what is the natural tendency of the drunkard's habits? Visit the jails and bridewells of our country, and the secret will be disclosed in the character of the inmates. And need we wonder at the fact? What is that which represses the blush of female modesty, which arms the youthful countenance with impudence, which gives easy victory to the wiles of the seducer, and familiarizes the noblest soul with poverty and disgrace? May not every prostitute in our country, looking back with regret on a lost reputation, around with confusion on her rags and wretchedness, and forward to an advancing eternity, justly and indignantly accuse intoxication as the cause of her miseries? And how frequently has the dying malefactor, standing on the verge of the eternal world, and shooting his eyes beyond the boundaries of sense, and realizing the dread certainty of a judgment to come-how frequently has the dying malefactor ascribed his career in crime to the first act of frequenting a dram-shop? And what is the evidence of the drunkard himself? On his own declaration, are the principles of virtue as vigorous in his heart now as before? Is he as sensible of delight in contemplating the morally sublime, as much shocked with the morally deformed, as much grieved and disgusted with the depraved and licentious? Alas! it cannot be. The base lust for liquor, which swells his veins and exasperates his spirit, has vitiated his moral taste, and he lies a miserable wreck, drifted up by passion on the beach of contempt and unhappiness. 'Spots they are, and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings.' 2 Peter ii. 13. Printed by JOHN KENNEDY, at his Printing Office, 35, Portman Place, Maida Hill, in the County of Middlesex, London.-January, 1851. THE SOUL'S WELFARE. INSTANCES OF DILIGENCE IN READING THE Read and revere the sacred page; a page Which not the conflagration shall destroy.-YOUNG. JOSEPHUS testifies of his countrymen, that if asked concerning the law of Moses, they could answer as readily as to their own names. The Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures. Timothy knew the Scriptures from a child. Aquilla and Priscilla were so well acquainted with them, that they were able to instruct the eloquent Apollos, and "expound unto him the way of the Lord more perfectly." Erasmas, speaking of Jerome, says, "Whoever learnt by heart the whole Scripture, or imbibed, or meditated upon it as he did?" Tertullian, after his conversion, was engaged night and day in reading the Scriptures, and got much of them by heart. The Emperor Theodosius, wrote out the whole New Testament with his own hand, and read some part of it every day. Theodosius the Second, dedicated a great part of the night to the study of the Scriptures. George, Prince of Transylvania, read over the Bible twentyseven times. Alphonsus, King of Arragon, read the Scriptures over, together with a large Commentary, fourteen times. The venerable Bede is said to have been a great reader of the Bible, and that with such affection, he often wept over it. Bonaventure wrote out the Scriptures twice, and learned most of them by heart. Zuingelius wrote out St. Paul's Epistles, and committed them to memory. Cromwell, Earl of Essex, in his journey to and from Rome, learned all the New Testament by heart. Bishop Ridley thus attests his own practice, and the happy fruit of it: "The walls and trees of my orchard, could they speak, would bear witness, that there I learned by heart, almost all the Epistles, of which study, although in time a greater part was lost, yet the sweet savour thereof, I trust, shall carry me to heaven." Dr. George used to read fifteen chapters every day: five in the morning, five at dinner, and five before he went to bed. Mr. Jeremiah Whitaker usually read all the Epistles in the Greek Testament twice every fortnight. Joshua Barnes is said to have read a small pocket Bible, which he usually carried about him, a hundred and twenty times over. Mr. Roger Cotton read the whole Bible through twelve times in a year. The celebrated Witims was able to recite almost any passage of Scripture in its proper language, together with its context, and the criticisms of the best commentators. The learned Father Paul read over the Greek Testament with so much exactness, that having accustomed himself to mark every word after he had fully weighed the import of it, he, by going often over it, and observing what he had passed in former reading, grew up to such ripeness, that every VOL II. C. 26 THE DOCTRINE WHICH REVives. word in the New Testament was marked. Sir Henry Worton, after his customary public devotions, used to retire to his study, and there spend some hours in reading the Bible. The excellent Sir John Hartop, in like manner, amidst his other vocations, made the Book of God so much his study, that it lay before him night and day. James Bonnet, Esq., made the Holy Scriptures his constant and daily study; he read them, he meditated on them, he prayed over them. M. De Renty, a French nobleman, used to read daily three chapters of the Bible, with his head uncovered, and on his bended knees. Lady Frances Hobart read the Psalms over twelve times every year; the New Testament thrice; and the other parts of the Old Testament once. Susannah, Countess of Suffolk, for the last seven years of her life, read the whole Bible over twice annually. The celebrated John Locke, for fourteen or fifteen years, applied himself closely to the study of the Holy Scriptures, and employed the last period of his life, scarcely in anything else. He was never weary of admiring the grand views of that Sacred Book, and the just relations of all its parts. He every day made discoveries in it, which gave him fresh cause of admiration; and so earnest was he for the comfort of his friends, and the diffusion of sacred knowledge amongst them, that even the day before he died, he patiently exhorted all about him to read the Holy Scriptures. His wellknown recommendation to a person who asked him which was the shortest and surest way for a young gentleman to attain to the true knowledge of the Christian religion, in the full and just extent of it, was-" Let him study the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament. Therein are contained the words of eternal life. It hath God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter." The Rev. W. Romaine studied nothing but the Bible for the last thirty or forty years of his life. poor prisoner being confined in a dark dungeon, was never indulged with a light, except for a short time when his food was brought him; he used to take his Bible and read a chapter, saying, he could find his mouth in the dark, when he could not read. Henry Willis, farmer, aged eighty-one, devoted almost every hour that could be spared from his labour, during the course of so long a life, to the devout and serious perusal of the Holy Scriptures. He had read with the most minute attention, all the books of the Old and New Testament eight times over; and had proceeded as far as the Book of Job in his ninth reading, when his meditations were terminated by death. It has been the regret of several eminent men, at the close of life, that they had not studied the Scriptures with greater assiduity. Salmasius, who was one of the most consummate scholars of his time, saw cause to exclaim bitterly against himself, "Oh!" said he, "I have lost a world of time! Time, the most precious thing in the world! Had I but one year more, it should be spent in perusing David's Psalms, and Paul's Epistles! Oh, sirs," said he to those about him, "Mind the world less and God more." THE DOCTRINE WHICH REVIVES. A "I HAVE just come from hearing a revival preacher," said an ardent student; "and I was gratified-deeply gratified-with the richness of his doctrine and the fervour of his address. He truly appeared to travail as in birth, till Christ were formed in the souls of his hearers." "I infer, then," said a judicious elder, "that Christ was eminently the subject, perhaps the sole subject, of his |