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Sir Thomas Gresham.

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Q. What commandment did our Lord give to his disciples just before his death?

A. John xv. 12. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Q. Prove from Scripture that we must love not only our friends, but our enemies.

A. Matt. v. 44. "I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you."

Q. What was the example which our blessed Saviour set us in this respect?

A. 1 Peter ii. 23. "When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to Him that judgeth righteously."

Q. What was the prayer which he offered up for his murderers when he was hanging on the Cross?

A. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Q. And what is the peculiar mark by which he tells us his disciples are to be known?

A. John xiii. 35. “ By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."

Taken from Dr. Watts's Hymns for Children, with Questions and Answers, by a Lady. (Rivingtons.)

SIR THOMAS GRESHAM.

SIR THOMAS GRESHAM (who built the Royal Exchange,) was the son of a poor woman, who left him exposed in a field; but the chirping of Grasshoppers leading a boy to the spot, his life was preserved, and hence he adopted that insect for his

crest.

FOR THE AGUE.

TAKE three quarters of an ounce of Peruvian bark, one table-spoon full of black pepper, (ground,) one table-spoon full of brown sugar, one nutmeg, (grated,) and one tea-spoon full of poppy syrup. These ingredients to be united together with a sufficient quantity of rum and brandy, to make the whole into a soft electuary. The whole must be taken, in different doses, in the course of twelve hours; and no part to be taken until one full hour after the fit of ague has left the patient. These directions to be strictly attended to. Care also must be taken to avoid taking cold at the time of administering the dose, and afterwards. The above is a proper quantity for any person of ten years of age and upwards -half the quantity for a younger person. This has in general been found sufficient to produce an excellent effect. M. H. T.

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WHEN I was last in London, just coming out of my door, on a Sunday morning, to go to Church, a man with a basket in his hand, asked me to buy some fruit of him. I did not become a purchaser, and, that he might not be tempted to bring his basket to my door another Sunday morning, I could not help telling him that I never did buy any thing on a Sunday, and that, moreover, I wondered that he should think of offering his goods to sale on that day; that he was thus prevented from attending public worship, and was, besides this, doing what ought not to be done on the Sabbath-day. The man agreed with me, that selling on the Sabbath-day was entirely contrary to the commands of God. At

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the same time, he appeared as if he was not conscious of doing wrong. There seemed to me something rather strange and contradictory in this. I looked at the man, and hesitated what to think of him. I then fancied that I saw, in his face, something of that particular character which generally distinguishes the Jewish countenance. I asked him whether he was a Jew; he answered that he was: that Saturday was his sabbath, and that he would, on no consideration, sell any thing on his sabbathday, and that every shop belonging to a Jew was scrupulously shut on the Sabbath-day. I immediately felt as if I had accused the man unjustly, for he, at least, acted according to his own notions of what was right. I was then almost inclined to hope, that the many persons whom I saw selling fruit, and cakes, and sticks, were all Jews, and that there was not one of them who was acting contrary to the reEligion which he professed. I saw many, however, who had not the least of the Jewish countenance about them; and, on further enquiry, I found that the greater part of them were Christians, that is, they called themselves Christians. One was, indeed, a little boy with a charity-school dress on. As I took some interest in the charity-school of that parish, and as I knew very well that the friends and subscribers to that school would have been seriously hurt to have seen their charity so much abused, I took the liberty of asking the boy whether his schoolmaster knew that he was selling fruit on the Sunday? Whilst I was speaking, the boy's mother came out of a house just by, and, with very angry looks, began to enquire what business I had with what her boy was selling? "A soft answer," thought I to myself, "tu neth away wrath," and therefore I addressed her as gently as I could on the importance of parents leading their children in the right way. She had no answer to make: but I could not help reflecting of how little use it was

for teachers to exert themselves in school, if parents will not do their parts at home.

I once heard a great traveller say, that "Christians were the worst people in the world." Now this seemed strange to me, and I said, that the Christian religion contained better rules of living than any other religion, and that therefore Christians ought to be the best people in the world. The gentleman fully agreed with me, and said, that Christians would be, by far, the best people in the world, if they acted according to their own religion. But Christ, Sir, he added, called his real followers a little flock, and I cannot help seeing that it is so still. A few good men try to live by the rules of their religion, and to teach others to do the same: and some of these, perhaps bishops, and other clergy and missionaries, go to distant lands, and tell the heathen nations what the religion of Christ is, and how it requires them to live, and how to govern their conduct, and their dispositions, and their conversation; they tell them how happy, and how pure, and how kind it will make them, and they give them bibles to shew them that all this is true, and that the way to be happy here and hereafter is to believe in the religion of the Gospel, and to live according to it: and all this is very good. But then these heathens see the great mass of those who are called Christians living in a way exactly contrary to what the good men and the good books teach them: they must therefore think that Christians do not themselves believe what they would teach others: and, moreover, by looking at the example of those who are called Christians, they cannot see that they should get any good by becoming Christians. In truth, and a very melancholy truth it is, the greatest of all hindrances to the Christian cause, is, the bad lives of those who profess it. A man who is called a Christian, will perhaps drink, and swear, and quarrel, and use every exertion, fair

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or unfair, to get money, even sell perhaps a fellowcreature, or he will commit any profligacy for the sake of indulging his own pleasures, or he will scoff at and ridicule any one who wishes to lead a life according to the faith of the Gospel, and the commands of God. Now how can we expect that any of the distant nations should be inclined to embrace a religion when its followers are such as these? In fact, such examples are the greatest of all hindrances to the spreading of Christianity both at home and abroad.

All we can say is, these are not Christians. They have the name, indeed, because they were born in a Christian country, and were baptized in the name of Christ: but a real Christian is something very different from this. I know that this way of seeing things is often called want of charity! There is, however, no real charity in concealing the truth. "Charity hopeth all things," and does truly hope that "those who are in error may be brought into the way of truth;" but charity does not call "evil good, and good evil," and must not deceive where it ought to instruct. But, whilst numbers do go in the broad way which leadeth to destruction,-blessed be God, there are others who are seeking to tread the path which leadeth unto life. When a man is once brought to see what true religion is, when he sees what Christianity is, as written in the Scriptures, then he is no longer staggered at seeing so many going astray, and so few in comparison really in earnest in their Christian profession: he then knows that the evil nature of man is grievously averse to the holy religion of the Gospel, and he sees the need of divine grace to make a man a true Chris tian: and he finds, that, if multitudes do go wrong, it is not the fault of the religion they profess, but of themselves; and that it is just what our blessed Lord foresaw and foretold.

This teaches the Christian to watch and pray
NO. 9-VOL. VII.

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