drunkenness, laziness, and other usual causes sleeping in the day time. Where is his breeding He ought to respect the company: what an offe sive rudeness to sit down and sleep before then Above all, where is his piety and fear of God

"Where is your respect for your minister says another. "For six days he labours, and the seventh he brings into the pulpit what he h in secret prepared. Unhappy man! Thy heare tell thee to thy face, that thy labours for a we are not worthy their attention for an hour. O how often has it been, that, when the faith zealous man of God has had his heart warm w his subject, and has fondly thought each atten ant's feelings were in unison with his own, th by your indecent yawning, your filthy snorin or repeated nodding before his eyes, his pleasu hath yielded to surprise, his surprise to grief, a his grief to discouragement, until he has poss sed sufficient fortitude to close the sentence had begun; and a season which promised univ sal delight becomes, through your indolence, t menting to the preacher, and unprofitable to tentive hearers.

As Mr. Nicoll, of Exeter, was once preachi he saw several of the aldermen asleep, and the upon sat down. Upon his silence, and the no that presently arose in the church, they awo and stood up with the rest; upon which he ard and said, "The Sermon is not yet done; but n your are awake, I hope you will hearken m diligently," and then went on.

It is said, that Dr. South, one of the chapla of Charles the Second, preaching on a certain before the court, which was composed of

profligate and dissipated men in the nation, ved, in the middle of his discourse, that had gradually taken possession of his hearThe doctor immediately stopped short, and, ing his tone of voice, called out to Lord rdale three times. His lordship standing My lord," says South, with great compo"I am sorry to interrupt your repose, but st beg of you that you will not snore quite d, lest you awaken his majesty.'

s related of Dr. Young, that, as he was ing in his turn at St. James's, he plainly ved it was out of his power to command ention of his audience. This so affected the gs of the preacher, that he sat back in the and burst into tears. And of Bishop Abis said, that once, on such an occasion, he ut his Testament, and read Greek. e Bishop of Massilon, in the first sermon r preached, found the whole audience, ups getting into the pulpit, in a disposition y favourable to his intentions. Their nods, ers, or drowsy behaviour, shewed him that vas no great profit to be expected from his g in a soil so improper. However, he soon ed the disposition of his audience by his er of beginning. "If," says he, "a cause ost important that could be conceived were tried at the bar before qualified judges; if ause interested ourselves in particular; if es of the whole kingdom were fixed upon ent; if the most eminent counsel were emI on both sides; and if we had heard from fancy of this yet undetermined trial; would

pectation, to the pleadings on each side? Wou not all your hopes and fears be hinged on the nal decision? And yet, let me tell you, you ha this moment a cause where not one nation, b all the world, are spectators: tried not before fallible tribunal, but the awful throne of heaver where not your temporal and transitory interes are the subject of debate, but your eternal happ ness or misery; where the cause is still undete mined, but, perhaps, the very moment I am speal ing may fix the irrecoverable decree that shall la for ever; and yet, notwithstanding all this, yo can hardly sit with patience to hear the tidings your own salvation. I plead the cause of heave and yet I am scarcely attended to." What admirable address! O ye sleepy hearers, read and reform.

SLANDER.

WHILE in the present state, we must prepa for and expect the attacks of slander and malev lence. If we be ever so poor and obscure, t tongue of calumny will find us out; or ever wise and conspicuous, the spirit of invective w assault us. "Cherish good humour (says one paint pleasure in your face, endeavour by yo pleasing deportment to communicate happine to all about you; be, if I may speak so, the li and soul of society and it will be said you a not solid; you have the unworthy ambition becoming the amusement of mankind. Put an austere air; engrave on your countenance, I may speak thus, the great truths that fill yo soul and you will be taxed with pharisaism an

sy; it will be said that you put on a fair to render yourself venerable; but that unhis appearance very likely you conceal an , irreligious heart. Take a middle way; your conduct by times and places; weep m that weep, and rejoice with them that and you will be accused of lukewarmEck your company, confine yourself to a cle, make it a law to speak freely only to lect friends, who will bear with your weakand who know your good qualities; and be accused of pride and arrogance: it said, that you think the rest of mankind y of your company; and that you predom and taste are excluded from all soexcept such as you deign to frequent. y where, and, in a spirit of the utmost conon, converse with every individual of manad it will be said you are unsteady; a city, ce, cannot satisfy you: you lay all the uninder contribution, and oblige the whole try to satiate your unbounded love of

ersian soldier, who was heard reviling ler the Great, was well admonished by er. "Sir, you are paid to fight against ler, and not to rail at him." May we not mankind at large, that they are bound to - their enemies, and not to rail at them? ng the Romans there was a law, that if -ant who had been set free slandered his master, the master might bring him into - again, and take from him all the favours bestowed on him.

Augustine had a distich written on his tab which intimated, that whoever attacked the c racters of the absent were to be excluded. Su a distich, in modern times, I think, would be ry serviceable.

When any one was speaking ill of another the presence of Peter the Great, he at first list ed to him attentively, and then interrupted hi "Is there not, " said he, "a fair side also the character of the person of whom you speaking? Come, tell me what good qualit you have remarked about him." One wo think this monarch had learnt that precept "Speak not evil one of another."

The famous Boerhaave was one not easily m ved by detraction. He used to say, "The spar of calumny will be presently extinct of themselv unless you blow them." It was a good rema of another, that "the malice of ill tongues c upon a good man is only like a mouthful smoke blown upon a diamond, which, though clouds its beauty for the present, yet it is eas rubbed off, and the gem restored with little tro ble to its owner."

The late Rev. Mr. Pearce, of Birmingham, w a man of an excellent spirit. It was a rule wi him to discourage all evil speaking; nor wou he approve of just censure, unless some go and necessary end were to be answered by Two of his distant friends being at his house t gether, one of them, during the absence of t other, suggested something to his disadvantag He put a stop to the conversation by answerin "He is here: take him aside, and tell him of by himself: you may do him good."