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LETTER FROM A FREQUENTER OF LONDON CHURCHES.

To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

SIR,

I AM not a Cottage Visitor, but I am a wanderer in this great city of London. On Sundays I am a constant attendant on divine worship. Having no seat in the church of the parish where I now lodge, I am in the habit of frequenting different churches. It is pleasing to observe, that, in nearly all those which I have frequented, there is generally to be seen a very orderly and proper behaviour. The congregation generally appear to unite in the prayers, and seem attentive to the preacher. Now and then I see people sitting, when they ought to be kneeling, but this is not so much seen among the genteel London congregations as it is in some of our country churches.

I should be glad, however, to hear the people join in the responses more than they do, and bear a part also whilst the Psalms or Hymns are being sung. I should like, too, to see the whole congregation in the church before the service begins, as there is often a great disturbance in opening and shutting the pew-doors during the former part of the service, which is, perhaps, as important a part as any. At some churches I have seen many servants, and it is pleasing to observe that people of rank and fortune are thus careful about the religious interests of their dependants.

But in some churches I see what disturbs me. When the sermon is getting towards the end, several of the men-servants will rise up, and leave the church; perhaps they are coachmen, going to get their masters' carriages ready; but some of them look like footmen. It seems a pity that they should

Extract from Pestalozzi,

331

go out, and lose the conclusion of the sermon, which often has something in it worthy of great consideration. Perhaps some of them may think themselves obliged to go out to be ready for their masters; perhaps some of them are not very desir. ous of hearing what is good, and are glad of an excuse to go out. I cannot help thinking that this might be managed better, for I see some churches where no such thing is done. I know you have among your correspondents a coachman and a footman or two, and perhaps they could give you a little hint how this is. In the meantime I shall take the opportunity of looking about me, and making a few enquiries myself. I know some of your readers will think I am Paul Pry; but that is not my name, Sir. I intrude into nobody's house, and, as I am not a fre quenter of play-houses, I should not have known that there was a Paul Pry if I had not seen his figure on the image-boy's board, and heard my landlord's foot-boy talking about him, as he came home last night drunk from the theatre, grumbling that he had spent all his money on gin, and the play. That lad will get into a scrape, I know. I shall give him a word of advice, when he is in a humour to listen.

I am, Sir, your's,

London, June 18th, 1827.

QUESITOR.

EXTRACT FROM PESTALOZZI.

THE Crooked ways of an ungodly life lead to every sort of wickedness. I shall never forget the picture our late vicar drew of sin the last time he taught us to prepare for the Lord's Supper. He compared it to a lake which continual rains swell by degrees. "The rising of the lake," said he,

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so gradual, that you do not perceive it,—still it is daily and hourly rising. The waters become higher and higher, and the danger of their overflowing is no less great, than if they had swollen suddenly after a violent storm. Therefore the prudent and experienced man goes, at the beginning, to inspect the dikes and the dams; and to ascertain if they are in a proper state to prevent the breaking forth of the lake. The inexperienced and heedless, on the contrary, regard not the gradual rising of the lake, until the dams are broken through, and the fields and the meadows laid waste, and the storm-bell* rouses him to seek shelter from approaching desolation. So it is with sin and the ruin it occasions."

I am not very old, and yet I have seen in a hundred instances that this plain-dealing pastor was right, and that every man who perseveres in any sin whatever, so hardens his heart, that he ceases to be conscious of the rising evil, till roused from his lethargy by scenes of desolation and horror.

APHORISMS, OR SHORT SAYINGS.

He keeps the Lord's day best, who keeps it with most religion and most charity.

He who would pray with effect, must live with care and piety †.

Every time that is not seized upon by some other duty, is seasonable enough for prayer: but let it be performed as a solemn duty morning and evening, that God may begin and end all our business, that the outgoings of the morning and evening

In countries where the inhabitants are often obliged to leave their homes to escape destruction by floods, a storm-bell is rung to warn them against the coming danger.

t1 John iii. 22.

Extracts from the Public Newspapers.

333

may praise him; for so we bless God, and he blesses us.

If it be necessary that we resolve to live well, it is necessary that we do so.

A holy life is the only perfection of repentance, and the only sure proof that we cast the anchor of hope in the mercies of God, through Jesus Christ.

He that means to have sickness turn into safety and life, into health and virtue, must make religion the employment of his sickness, and prayer the employment of his religion.

No sermon is received as it ought to be, unless it makes us quit a vice, or be in love with virtue.

Conversion to God is the best preparatory to doomsday.

No man is so very a fool as the sinner, and none are wise but the servants of God.

Bishop Taylor.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS,

FROM the accounts which we hear from the manufacturing districts, and from what has been said in Parliament on the subject, there is good reason to hope that trade is in an improving state. The distressed workmen have, in most places, shewn very great patience under their sufferings.-London Paper.

The progress of that great work, the tunnel under the Thames, some weeks ago met with a check, by the water getting in from above. The breach is now said to have been repaired, and it is hoped that the work will be carried on, and brought to a successful issue.

Caution. A family was not long since poisoned in consequence of some flour, which had arsenic mixed with it, for the purpose of destroying rats, being mixed with the common bread flour; the person who made the bread not knowing that the portion of flour had been so impregnated.-London Paper.

334

Extracts from the Public Newspapers.

On Sunday morning, a boy about six years of age, got access to a bottle of spirits, of which he drank to such an excess, during the temporary absence of his father, that on the return of the latter, he was found lying on the floor totally insensible. He continued in convulsions till ten o'clock at night, when he ex. pired,Glasgow Paper.

During the snow-storm, in spring, an affecting little incident was noticed at Falkirk. A pair of blackbirds had built their nest in a thick bolly bush, and five eggs, "black sitten," soon commanded the ceaseless fostering attention of the female, which, while passing the patient long hours in the task of incu bation (sitting on the eggs) was cheered by the plaintive mellow song of the male from a neighbouring bough, The eggs werc ripened into young birds ere the storm came on, and the genial weather which preceded it promised fair for the bare creatures; but the deep snow that whitened all the fields, and loaded every tree, blasted the hopes of the farmers and the feathered race, and our two blackbirds with their tender charge had to prove the bitter drift. After stealing the crumbs from the basket of many a school-boy, or picking up a scanty morsel upon the highway to keep in the spark of life in their young, the old ones were, after several days, rendered too weak for the unequal task. The male was found lying cold beneath his accustomed bough, and the female stretched dead upon the nest, which, however, contained all the young ones alive, the parent birds having starved themselves to save their defenceless progeny.Stirling Journal.

Caution against Mad Dogs.-It is a custom in Lisbon, enforced by a considerable penalty, during the existence of the hot weather, to require all the inhabitants of the city to place a small tub of water before their doors, as a preventive against canine madness. This custom has produced the most beneficial effects; and though these animals infest the city in immense numbers, scarcely any instances of hydrophobia occur.

Lord Fitzwilliam has extensively circulated hand-bills, to inform the public that, from his own experience, he has ascertained that dogs have gone mad after having been kept apart from all others for full six months. His lordship also says, that the state of the moon had no influence on them whatever; they went mad in its different stages.—Times.

On Saturday last, in the village of Cargo, a combat of a truly novel description was witnessed. A hive of bees, belonging to a professional gentleman of this city, swarmed on Thursday last, after which they were hived in the regular way, and appeared to be doing well. On the Saturday after, a swarm of bees, from some neighbouring hive, appeared to be flying over the garden in which the hive above mentioned was placed, when they in stantly darted down upon the hive of the new settlers, and completely covered it; in a little time they began to enter the hive, and poured into it in such numbers that it soon became com

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