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ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

POPERY ALWAYS PERSECUTING. Some people would fain make us believe that popery has changed and is no longer disposed to persecute. Facts prove the contrary. The darkest ages could not have revealed a darker spirit than that which has been recently peeping forth. A leading Romish journal boldly affirms that a man has no more right to choose his religious views than he has to take his neighbour's purse or life. He is bound to receive Popery without examination or right of choice. The same journal candidly acknowledges what would be the Pope's course should he get the ascendency in England:-"You ask, if he were lord in the land and you were in a minority, if not in numbers, yet in power, what would he do to you? That, we say, would entirely depend upon circumstances. If it would benefit the cause of Catholicism, he would tolerate you; if expedient, he would imprison you, banish you, fine you-possibly he might even hang you. But be assured of one thing; he would never tolerate you for the sake of the 'glorious principles of civil and religious liberty.""

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THE FAITHFUL PREACHER. Dr. Gilly says:-"An anecdote was told me by a well known Irish character, Thaddeus Conolly, who used to spend much of his time in wandering through Ireland, and instructing the lower classes in their native language. "I went," said he, one Sunday into a church, to which a new minister had been lately appointed. The congregation did not exceed half a dozen, but the preacher delivered himself with as much energy and affection as if he were addressing a crowded audience. After service, I expressed to the clergyman my surprise that he could hold forth so fervently to such a small number. Were there but one,' said the rector, my anxiety for his improvement would make me equally energetic.' The following year Conolly went into the same church, the congregation was multiplied twenty-fold; a third year he found the church full.”

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A HINT TO YOUNG MEN.-A really christian young man must always exercise a considerable influence in the home where he dwells. Mankind, judging from experience, seldom look for religion in the young; so that when it is found there, it has all the effect of a surprise. Some travellers on a coach were disputing on the claims of the Bible to belief. One of them embraced the side of infidelity, while another stoutly maintained the truth. Most of his fellow-passengers sided with the infidel, and he was about to enjoy a triumph, when a young man, who had previously been silent, took up the argument, and opposed his views with as much modesty as earnestness and zeal. The infidel was evidently more abashed by the opposition of the young christian, than encouraged by the approbation of the rest; and afterwards he said to him, "I did not expect to find so much religion in you who are so young; I fear there must be more in it than I thought."

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

SABBATH-DAY OBSERVANCE.-Upon what grounds ought the observance of the sabbath to be protected and enforced by legislative sanctions? It cannot be too often repeated, or too sedulously explained to the working classes, that whenever and wherever the sabbath is regarded merely as a holiday, then and there it will soon be made a working day. Everybody knows that on the Continent the sacredness of the day is nearly forgotten, and those who regard the Sabbath at all, go to mass in the morning, and to the theatre in the evening. But, then, the result is, that the working classes are deprived of the day altogether. A friend of ours was recently in Brussels. It was the Sabbath-day, and he took a guide to show him the way to the church he wished to attend. As they passed down one street, the guide asked him if he would not like to go into a large building they were passing, and inspect one of the principal manufactories of the place. "What, to-day," he exclaimed, "are they at work ?" "Oh, yes!" was the answer, "they work on Sundays as on other days." Thus, while to the middle and higher classes the day was merely a holiday, to the slaves of toil it was a working day. The day of rest was unknown or unobserved.

HEAVEN BEGUN ON EARTH.-How can we expect to live with God in heaven, if we love not to live with him on earth? If thou lovest to worship God here below, God will take thee up to worship him above. Thou shalt change thy place, but not thy employment. Heaven is a day without a cloud to darken it, and without a night to end it. We would be seated in the heavenly Canaan, but are loth to be scratched with the briars and thorns of the wilderness. In heaven there is the presence of all good, and the absence of all evil. Grace and glory differ but as the bud and blossom. What is grace but glory begun? What is glory but grace perfected? We may hope for a place in heaven, if our hearts are made suitable to the state of beaven. If there be any grief in heaven, sure it will be for this, that we have done no more for God on earth.

HOLINESS AND HAPPINESS.—If heaven doth not enter into us by way of holiness, we shall never enter heaven by way of happiness. If you would lay up a treasure of glory in heaven, lay up a treasure of grace in your hearts. If your souls are rich in grace, they will be rich in glory. The more you do for God in this world, the more God will do for you in the world to come. As heaven is kept for the saints of Christ, so are they kept for heaven by the Spirit. In heaven all God's servants will be abundantly satisfied with His dealings and dispensations with them; and shall see how all conduced, like so many winds, to bring them to their haven; and how even the roughest blasts helped to bring them homewards.

SIN HARDENS THE HEART.-Men are ready to imagine that punishment for sin is long in being inflicted, and their hearts are hardened in them to do evil. They little think all the time that no

THE FIRESIDE.

small portion of that punishment is inflicted already, and is a sure indication of the fate that awaits them yet. They are without God, and thus without hope in the world. This was the first portion of their judgment that followed their transgressions. God forsook the soul. Light and life, inseparable from Him, were withdrawn, and man was left the prey of darkness and of death. Only Christ can restore him to light and life.

The Fireside.

RESPECT DUE TO WIVES.-Do not jest with your wife upon a subject in which there is danger of wounding her feelings. Remember that she treasures every word you utter. Do not speak of some virtue in another man's wife to remind your own of a fault. Do not reproach your wife with personal defects, for if she has sensibility, you will inflict a wound difficult to heal. Do not treat your wife with inattention in company, it touches her pride-and she will not respect you more or love you better for it. Do not upbraid your wife in the presence of a third person; the sense of your disregard for her feelings will prevent her from acknowledging her fault. Do not entertain your wife with praising the beauty and accomplishments of other women. If you would have a cheerful wife, pass your evenings under your own roof. Do not be stern and silent in your own house, and remarkable for sociability elsewhere.

A WIFE'S INFLUENCE. "I noticed," said Franklin, "a mechanic, among a number of others, at work in a house erected but a little way from my office, who always appeared to be in a merry humour, and had a kind word and a cheerful smile for every one he met. Let the day be ever so cold, gloomy, or sunless, a happy smile danced on his cheerful countenance. Meeting him one morning, I asked him to tell me the secret of his constant happy flow of spirits. 'No secret, doctor,' he replied, 'I have got one of the best of wives, and when I go to work she always has a kind word of encouragement for me, and when I go home she meets me with a smile and a kiss; and she is sure to be ready; and she has done so many things during the day to please me, that I cannot find in my heart to speak unkind to anybody.' What influence, then, hath woman over the heart of man, to soften it and make it the fountain of cheerful and pure emotions! Speak gently, then; a happy smile and a kind word of greeting, after the toils of the day are over, cost nothing, and go far towards making a home happy and peaceful."

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I HAVE put this as the title of my letter, and I will tell you how I came by it. I was passing by a saddler's shop the other day as a young man was coming out of it, whose face was rather too much the colour of mahogany; when he reached the doorway he stopped, and turning round to some one in the shop, said, "Oh, it was at that Sunday morning boozing. I know all about it." Sunday morning boozing, thought I, Sunday morning boozing-what can the man mean? I was not, however, long in discovering that it meant a Sunday morning drunken do. I went on thinking about it, and my thoughts travelled very fast. I will try to arrest them and bring them within compass. And can this man, thought I, be a specimen of a class in this England of ours in this day, when schooling and books are common to all. Is it not a burning shame, to say nothing about religion, that a man can stand and talk about à Sunday morning boozing as an ordinary thing for mind, “it was at that Sunday morning boozing"-that particular one, implying many others. But why booze on Sunday mornings? why, but to brace themselves up again after the debauch of the previous night? And is it so that many of our hard-working men must needs, when their weeks work is done, go and sit till midnight on the ale-bench, and then having staggered home, and rolled upon their beds, get up again as stupid as asses on Sunday morning, and have a boozing to enliven their besotted faculties! Such men are a disgrace to the land they live in, and unworthy of bearing its name. We pity the women who are their wives, and we pity the children who are dependent on such fathers for support. As for such a father's example, it is one of the most awful curses one can imagine. I say all this, leaving out religion but—bringing it in-only think of the holy day of God being turned into a time for boozing. On "Sunday morning," too, when thousands meet to worship God as rational, redeemed, grateful beings, these men meet to have a booze-a drinking bout! How awfully wicked is such conduct! Surely, drunkenness in these days of peace and prosperity is one of the greatest, if not the greatest, sin in our land. And we have reason to fear, lest for it our land may be visited in some awful manner, before such men can be brought to adopt more sober habits, and learn to hallow that day which, in the estimation of all good men, is "the best of all the seven.' I wish, if any of your readers should know of one of his neighbours who is a Sunday-morning boozer, that he would, when he can catch him quiet and sober, just read this to him, and ask him what he thinks of it.

A LISTENER.

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ORIGIN OF NAMES.

GOD. The name of the everblessed is expressive of the great fact, that he is the fountain of all good.

DEVIL. This malignant enemy of God, and all goodness, is a compound of vile, ill, evil or, an abbreviation of do evil-d'evil. CEMETERY. This signifies a sleeping-place, and is as christian as it is poetic-figuring both a rest and an awakening or resurrection. HEAVEN. This was formerly heofen, or beared up, indicating an elevated place.

HELL. This has, also, an apt. signification, namely, a place helled over, hidden, or covered in obscurity LADY.-This was derived from Laford, or loaf giver at first; and then, as an old writer says, "It is an honourable appelation for all principal women."

TOWNS AND CITIES. Many of these in England were given by the Saxons, after places in Germanyfor instance, our metropolis from Lunden in Sconia, has become London.

OTHER TOWNS AND CITIES were named after circumstances. York, for instance, was from Eber, a wild boar; and wyc, a refuge, indicating a refuge from wild boars. Eberwyc, has become York.

ALBERT is an abridgment of Ethelbert, who, some say, was our first christian king; but they should say our first popish king. Ethel, means noble or gentle, and bert, means birth of gentle birth.

OTHER NAMES of our forefathers, like those of the Hebrews, were very significant. As Alfred-peace; Frederic-rich in peace; Edward a keeper of his oath; Rosamundrose-mouth; Winefrid—a winner of peace.

Hints.

FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. “The man who has injured you will never forgive you," says the Spanish proverb.

« Forgiveness to the injured doth belong, He ne'er forgives who doth commit the

wrong.

A LIFE OF MERE PLEASURE Kills | all real enjoyment. Nothing is more wearisome than mere pleasurehunting.

FRIENDSHIP is one of those good but it must, like gold, be genuine, things that all the world praises; or it will be worthless.

GAMBLING.-This is such a vicious thing, that it is impossible for a gambler to be a wise man or a good man, for all his powers are perverted to evil.

THE HEART OF A WISE MAN is like a well polished mirror, which reflects all objects placed before it, but is not sullied by them.

SORROW.-We cannot help feeling sorrow, but we need not sink under

it.

For a night it will last, but the morning of joy will come.

HE THAT WILL NOT FORGIVE OTHERS, breaks down the bridge over which he will need to pass himself.

INSEPARABLE COMPANIONS are

cruelty and pride-humility and love-impudence and falsehood.

PRIDE is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy.

IF BY INTEMPERANCE a man destroys a healthy constitution, he is as much guilty of self-murder as if he drowned, or shot, or hanged himself-the only difference being that by intemperance he kills him. self by inches instead of doing so

at once.

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