POETRY.

on their return to this country, that these are the scenes and exploits they are celebrating and applauding. And what effect does all this produce on the country where this "bloody game" is enacted? Is it such as to entitle the principal actors to be hailed with admiration little short of worship, as if the choicest benefactors of their species?

a

And what did all this human butchery cost? Let us seeThe Bombay Times remarked in 1847-"In 1837, with nett revenue of £15,000,000, sterling, we had a nett surplus revenue of £1,250,000. This in the course of ten years, would have given £12,500,000, had it not been absorbed in war charges. In 1843, our revenue rose by considerably above £1,000,000, and the following year by nearly £2,000,000, this gives up to 1847, £7,000,000 more, which, but for war, we should have had to dispose of in improvements: or £17,000,000 in all, to which add £9,000,000 of borrowed money, or say £12,000,000 up to the present date, and we shall have a total war expenditure of £31,000,000 sterling- the bulk of the wais being alike unjust, needless, and fruitless."

Poetry.

THE DYING SOLDIER.

From the ties of life

Unnaturally rent, a man who knew
No resting place, no dear delights at home,
Belike who never saw his children's face,
Whose children knew no father; he is gone,
Dropt from existence, like the wither'd leaf
That from the summer tree is swept away,
Its loss unseen. She hears not of his death,
Who bore him, and already for her son
Her tears of bitterness are shed: when first
He had put on the livery of blood,

She wept him dead to her.

We are indeed

Clay in the potter's hand! one favour'd mind
Scarce lower than the angels, shall explore
The ways of Nature, whilst his fellow-man
Framed with like miracle the work of God,
Must as the unreasonable beast drag on
A life of labour, like this soldier here,
His wondrous faculties bestow'd in vain,

POETRY.

Be moulded by his fate* till he becomes
A mere machine of murder.

And there are

Who say that this is well! as God has made
All things for man's good pleasure, so of men
The many for the few! court-moralists,
Reverend lip comforters, that once a week
Proclaim how blessed are the poor, for they
Shall have their wealth hereafter, and though now
Teiling and troubled, though they pick the crumbs
That from the rich man's table fall, at length
In Abraham's bosom rest with Lazarus.

Themselves meantime secure their good things here,
And feast with Dives. These are they, O Lord,
Who in thy plain and simple gospel see

All mysteries, but who find no peace enjoin'd,
No brotherhood, no wrath denounced on them

Who shed their brethren's blood,-blind at noon day
As owls, lynx eyed in darkness!

O my God!

I thank thee that I am not such as these,
I thank thee for the eye that sees, the heart
That feels, the vcice that in these evil days,
Amid these evil tongues, exalts itself
And cries aloud against iniquity.

Southey.

"PEACE ON EARTH."

MUSE! take the harp of prophecy: behold!
The glories of a brighter age unfold;

Father of mercies! speed the promised hour;
Thy kingdom come with all restoring power;

Peace, virtue, knowledge, spread from pole to pole,
As round the world the ocean-waters roll!

Hope waits the morning of celestial light;

Time plumes his wings for everlasting flight;
Unchanging seasons have their march begun;
Millennial years are hastening to the sun;

Seen through thick clouds, by faith's transpiercing eyes,
The new creation shines in purer skies.

All hail!-the age of crime and suffering ends,

The reign of righteousness from heaven descends;
Vengeance for ever sheathes the afflicting sword;

Death is destroyed, and paradise restored:
Man, rising from the ruins of his fall,
Is one with God, and God is all in all.

*Query? the State.

Montgomery.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Anecdotes and Selections.

THE TWO SHOPKEEPERS.-A young man rented a shop in a neighbourhood where it was common to keep shops open on the sabbath. He resolved that his should be shut, and that he would confine his business to the week-time. An old shopkeeper in the neighbourhood told him that he must keep his shop open on the sabbath, or he would fail; for many people were not at leisure to do their trading at any other time. He, however, persevered in his determination. The sabbath came, and with it many customers. He told them he should be happy to see them any other day, but he could not accommodate them on the sabbath. Some were angry, and said they would supply themselves at other shops. They did so; and not a few of them at the shop of the old man who had admonished the young one of his danger. Both, however, continued to prosecute their business, each in his own way. The young man acquired property, and became wealthy. The other, after a time, began to decline, and continued to go down till he had lost all. He became poor and helpless; was supported by the hand of charity, and lived in one of the tenements belonging to the very man whom he had warned of the danger of keeping the sabbath.-Sabbath Documents.

CARELESS USE OF THE BIBLE.-Perhaps it is not too much to affirm, that one reason why so few christians are now "mighty in the Scriptures," is to be found in the manner in which the Bible is used by them. It is read, but not searched, and crude notions abound, because men have not "compared spiritual things with spiritual." It is assumed as an indisputable truth, that it is possible to become spiritually wise, without any very vigorous exercise of our faculties to understand what the will of the Lord is. No greater mistake could be committed. We shall "find wisdom" only when we "seek her as silver, and search for her as hid treasures." No earnestuess of prayer will supersede this necessity. The divine illumination, which we seek from above, will serve only to reveal to us the truths which are already written for our profit; and it is upon our diligence and skill in bringing together the various references made in scripture to any particular subject, that our increase in true wisdom must depend. God's grace is not designed to furnish an apology for indolence, or for a thoughtless perusal of His revealed truth.-Gould.

"LORD REMEMBER ME!"-The Butler forgot Joseph, and left him to pine away in prison; but God remembered him, and brought him out to be Governor over all the land. Jesus Christ remembered us in our low estate, and came down to deliver us.

When

THE FIRESIDE.

hanging on the cross a living sacrifice for our sins, the dying thief cried, "Lord remember me;" and although suffering intense agony, he turned to him at once, and said, "To-day thou shalt be with me in paradise." What a kind and gracious reply was this! And Jesus Christ is ever the same. Look to him my fellow-sinner; see him bleeding and suffering for thy poor guilty soul! Go at once, and he will hear and forgive thy sins, and save thy soul. He will, depend upon it. He never did refuse one yet; and he will not

refuse thee.

LOSS OF TIME.-Coming hastily into a chamber, I had almost thrown down a crystal hour-glass. Fear, lest I had, made me grieve as if I had broken it. But, alas! how much precious time have I cast away without any regret. The hour-glass was but crystal, each hour is a pearl; that but like to be broken, this lost outright; that but casually, this done wilfully. A better hour-glass might be bought; but time lost, once, lost ever. Thus we grieve more for toys than for treasure. Lord, give me an hour-glass, not to be by me, but to be in me. "Teach me to number my days." An hour-glass, to turn me, "That I may apply my heart unto wisdom."

ABHORRENCE OF SIN.-The mariners at sea count it the sweetest perfume when the water at the bottom of their ship doth stink. For hence they conclude that it is but little, and long since leaked in; but it is woeful with them, when the water is felt before it is smelt, as fresh flowing in upon them in abundance. So it is the best savour in a christian's soul, when his sins are loathsome and offensive unto him. A happy token that there hath not been of late in him any insensible supply of heinous offences, because his stale sins are still his new and daily sorrow.

The Fireside.

TUCK UP YOUR APRON.

WE met with this little tale in the "Olive Branch." Thomas and Mary had not been long married, when, like all other people, they found that little things would arise to disturb them. Thomas was an overlooker in a factory.

"One morning Thomas entered rather more slowly than usual, and seered in less buoyant spirits. Mary feared he was unwell, but he assured her he was not; in fact, he was only more thoughtful. Having finished his meal rather quicker than usual, he said in a kind tone, Mary, I have been thinking of something.' Mary rose from her seat, and shut the door, which, as is not uncommon in cottages, had been left open, and sat down, saying, 'tell me, Thomas,

THE FIRESIDE.

what thou wert going to say.' Thomas replied, 'when I went to the mill this morning, I found James Wood, the engineer, complaining that his stoker had not come, and we lost a long time, and I got out of temper, and had to try all I could to prevent coming home angry. Now, Mary, this is what shall be done, when things go awkward, and I get cross at the mill, and cant get over it, I will take up corner of apron, and tuck it in at opposite corner at top, so you will see when I come in, and not say one word good nor bad. I shall be right when I come in after, and it will come to nothing; and if you get ill vexed, do you tuck up your apron so, and that time I'll say nothing at all.' Mary agreed to the proposal of Thomas, and for some months, if anything ruffled either, it soon died out, just as fire will when no fuel is supplied.

The best arrangement may need improvement, and you must know, sir, that an unlooked for event showed that Thomas Brown had not covered every contingency.

Coming home to dinner after a more than ordinary perplexing morning, several hands at a neighbouring wake the previous evening, and not returning to their work, and derangement of machinery occurring at the same time, Thomas had placed his apron so that its triangular appearance might give warning, and so prevent collision, when, to his surprise, he found Mary's apron giving the same signal! Here was a fearful moment. Were they, who had been so happy, now to quarrel? Mary had tried to hinder some neighbours' children from fighting, and the parents of both had scolded her for interfering, although, if she had not, they would have iujured each other. Mary was much vexed that her good offices were so ill-requited, and unwilling that her ill-humour should tease her husband, she had tucked up the corner of her apron. Thomas now stood before her; he looked steadily at her for a moment or two, and then said, 'How now, Mary?' Mary put on one of her sweetest smiles, although a tear stole down her cheek, and in an instant she loosed the corner of her apron, and there it appeared in its full dimensions, the emblem of quiet yielding and domestic peace.

'Oh! Mary, we shall do yet,' exclaimed Thomas, as he took her in his arms and gave her a kiss, untucking his own apron at the same time. His irritation had ceased, and his Mary and his home were all they had been to him, and more; beforetime they had allayed his feelings of anger, now they quickly transformed them into sensations of delight.

A few years have now served to confirm the excellency of Thomas Brown's adaptation of his apron as a peace-preserver; and, although two or three young ones have been presented him by his Mary, and her time has consequently been less at his service, it is noticed that they are the happiest couple in the village, and their children the cleanest and tidiest, as well as the most orderly at divine worship, and the most regular at school."