Pupil.-Has this been the practice of wise and good men in former ages?

Tutor.-Yes. This is evident from the writings of Moses, David, Isaiah, and others. Solomon, also, spoke of trees, of beasts, of fowls, of creeping things, and of fishes. The Saviour himself directed the attention of his disciples to the works of nature. Behold," says he," the fowls of the air! Consider the lilies of the field how they grow!" Pupil. What may I expect from contemplating the works of nature?

66

Tutor. Both pleasure and profit. As God has formed the eye to behold the beauties of nature, it must be both an agreeable and useful employ

ment.

Pupil.-Is not this confined to the learned?

Tutor. By no means, The peasant as well as the philosopher may partake of this pleasure. A moderate share of knowledge is sufficient. The creation is open to the view of all. It only requires observation and reflection.

Pupil.-What may I expect to find in the works of God?

Tutor.-Every thing that is wise, great, good, and perfect. God beheld every thing that he had made, and saw that it was good.

DIALOGUE II.

On the Firmament, and the Heavenly Bodies.

Pupil. Which of the works of God should first engage my attention?

Tutor.-Turn your eyes up to the firmament, that wide, boundless space, in which you may observe the sun, the moon, the planets, the comets, and

the stars.

Selections from different Authors.

381

Pupil. What are the principal qualities of the firmament?

Tutor.-Extent and transparency; it must be very extensive to contain so many heavenly bodies; and transparent, otherwise we could not see them; its extent indeed cannot be computed; and the transparency of the firmament is equally amazing.

Pupil. What stars are those which we see in a clear evening?

Tutor. Some of them are great bodies, like our sun, and probably like it, destined to afford light and heat to a number of planetary bodies that revolve about them. It is on account of their immense distance they appear so very small.

Pupil.-How many of these kind of stars are there in the firmament?

Tutor. It is said the greatest number we can at any one time see with the naked eye, is about a thousand. But with good glasses many more may be discovered, and the larger number in proportion to the excellence of the telescope by which they are examined, so that they may be said to be innumerable.

SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT
AUTHORS.

WHAT should we think of a person who deliberately tells us that he is responsible to Almighty God for every act of his life, and yet expresses his determination to live as if there were no God? who professes to believe that he must hereafter appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and yet declares that he will live as if there were no day of retribution; no second death to be suffered; no life beyond the

grave? Yet what is all this but the practical language of every one who on the great subject of religion is halting between two opinions? Dealtry.

It will be found I believe universally, that the more humble a man is, the less he will be disposed to contend for his own views on the subordinate points of religious disputation. He feels how unqualified he is to decide absolutely upon questions which have exercised, to so little purpose, the most enlarged and powerful minds, and he loves not argument for its own sake; he will enter into no dispute for the pleasure of victory; and, whilst he probably is not without some settled opinion on those subjects, the chief view with which he ever regards them is to humble him still more in the sight of his Maker, to fill him with admiration of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and to lead him to the more devout and earnest cultivation of those holy principles which unite him more closely to his Redeemer, and to all the members of his mystical body. If pride and bigotry could be effectually subdued, the little discrepancies which might still remain among the true followers of Jesus Christ would almost vanish from the sight; we should learn to strive, with one mind, for the faith of the Gospel; we should learn to view each other, not as arrayed under different banners, but as marshalled under the banners of Christ; many of the distinctions which now unhappily prevail would disappear; and by this would all men know that we are Christ's disciples, because we have love one towards another: we should thus according to the spirit of the best times of the church, and of the best examples which those days have bequeathed us, "be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind." The same.

He that believeth on the Son of God, embracing His doctrine and obeying His commands, shall certainly escape the punishment of sin, and obtain everlasting life; but, on the contrary, whosoever

383

Extracts from the Public Newspapers. wilfully and finally rejects this great salvation, abusing the mercy of God and despising this proffered means of grace, will incur condemnation without remedy, and without excuse, because he obstinately withstands the greatest evidence of truth, and the most gracious terms of salvation. Dr. Sam. Clarke.

Life is not given to us merely for our sport. It is something which we are to use for our own benefit, and our Maker's glory. Bishop Dehon.

A good prayer is not like a stratagem in war, to be used but once. No, the oftener the better. The clothes of the Israelites, whilst they wandered forty years in the wilderness, never waxed old. So a good prayer, though often used, is still fresh and fair in the ears and eyes of heaven. Only add new, or new degrees of old, affection thereto, and it will be as acceptable to God, thus repaired, as if entirely new.

Fuller.

Let not the Christian dare to trifle with any sin in his imagination; for God will punish the most secret evil,-perhaps with the most open chastisement. Sunday School Catechist.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.

A CUBE of gold, of little more than five inches in each side, is said to contain the value of ten thousand pounds sterling.—Times.

Some time ago a melancholy occurrence took place at Stoke by Newland, in Suffolk, six individuals having been poisoned in consequence of eating a pudding in which a quantity of arsenic was mixed up by mistake. Soon after partaking of the pudding, Mr. S. the husband of the lady who unfortunately mixed up the arsenic with the flour by mistake, died in great agony, as also did the servant girl who lived with them. The other four persons, one of whom was their grandchild, survived the effects of the poison, but have been left in a very debilitated state ever since. On Monday, 2d inst. an inquest sat on the bodies of Mr. S. and the girl alluded to at the village above named, before Mr. John Wayman and a respectable jury. The following are the

circumstances attending the unfortunate catastrophe:~It ap peared that about a fortnight ago, Mr. S. borrowed of a neighbour about an ounce of arsenic, for the purpose of destroying rats, with which his premises abounded. Having used a small portion of it, the remainder was placed in the pantry, without, however, the precaution of either labelling or tying it up, so as to distinguish it from coarse flour, for which it was subsequently mistaken. The arsenic was lying on a piece of paper near a jar of flour, and on the morning in question, Mrs. S. went to the pantry, and, having used all the flour in the jar in the preparation of a pudding, not having a sufficient quantity to make it into the proper consistence, she unluckily took up the paper containing the poison, and conceiving it to be a little flour which she had previously left out in making starch, mixed it up in the pudding. Immediately after the family had dined they were all taken ill; the deceased persons, having eaten more freely of it than the rest, expired in two hours. A verdict of "Accidental Death" was returned.

Lately died, aged four years and a half, George Augustus, the second son of Mr. Martin Noble Shipton, surgeon, of Birming ham. The circumstances connected with the death of this child are most distressing, and deserving of record as a caution. On the preceding Monday afternoon he was observed by the nurse playing with a brass sofa-nail, but to which there was little of the stud part remaining. He soon gave notice that he had thrust it in his left ear, which he had done in so forcible a manner as defied every attempt to dislodge it. The most alarming symptoms supervened in about forty hours after the injury took place, which speedily terminated in death.-Hereford Journal.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

On Mad Dogs.-Sir,-As hot days excite our fears, permit me to suggest that the precaution adopted in many towns in Flanders is the best that can be practised.

Instead of the common muzzle, which irritates the dog by keeping the mouth close, and prevents drinking, the dogs wear a kind of wire nosebag, strapped tight to the head, which does not confine the mouth, and which permits drinking. With this guard a dog cannot bite. The expense is very trifling. If the police ordered all cart and truck dogs to wear it always, and all dogs that go about to wear it in summer, the public would be secured against every danger.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

A. B.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of A. A. ;-A. F. N.;F. S. E-Ignota;-Monitor ;-together with some selections from different authors.