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Selections from different Authors.

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without its going off. Let those rooms which are not used, be shut up as the dusk of the evening comes on, for, at that time, many houses have been robbed; particularly when the area gate has been left unlocked; therefore be careful to have it locked before dusk. Be particular in fastening up the street door the last thing; let the chain be put up, and the bolts sent quite home, and fixed by the catches. Indeed, take every precaution to keep thieves from getting into the house. If you live with single ladies you must be doubly diligent in fastening up the house, for two reasons; first, because thieves are more likely to break in; and secondly, as you will have no gentlemen to overlook you to see that you have fastened all up safely, if the house be robbed, through negligence, it will be of very serious consequence to your character. There is one point in fastening up a house at night that is very little attended to, and that is the locking the inside doors. It is commonly thought that if the outside doors and windows be fastened, it is enough; but it is of great use to lock the doors of every inner room, then if a thief comes in at a window he cannot get any farther without picking the lock of the room door; and all this takes time, and gives a greater chance of saving your master's property, and detecting the thief.

SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT AUTHORS.

EVERY way, both in his thoughts, affections, and actions, the sinner is afar off from God.

Now the moral and civil man hears this, and turns it off as nothing concerning him, he is as near to Godas the best and indeed, in some sense, he is so. St. Paul could say to his Athenians, "He is not far off

from every one of us *" every creature hath equally his living, moving, being, from God; but, as for any relation to God, in respect of holiness, of grace and mercy, of glory; this man is as far off, as earth is from heaven, yea as heaven is from hell. For, even by nature, we are, the best of us, the sons of wrath; and, if we had no more than even our birth-sin, this alone would estrange us sufficiently from God; but, besides this, our actual sins set us off yet farther; and, if we had no sins of commission, as we have numberless, for in many things we sin all, yea, in all things we sin all; yet those of omission cannot but put us into an utter distance. For, if he who is sometimes called a moral man could be supposed to do nothing actually against God's will, yet his thoughts are not upon Him, being wholly taken up with the world; his affections are not towards Him, being wholly set upon the world, and these earthly things; his best actions are not regulated by the royal law of righteousness, but by the rules of civility and common humanity and the end which he proposeth to himself in them, is not the glory of God, but his own honor or advantage. -Bishop Hall.

That which constitutes a Christian is "faith, hope, charity" these three.-Much human learning is not essentially necessary to constitute a Christian. Indeed a man may be a profound Theologian, and not be a Christian at all. He may be learned in the doctrines and history of Christianity, and yet be a stranger to the fruits of Christianity. He may be destitute of faith, of hope, and of charity.

Let us not then confound the fruits of religion, (namely, its influence on our moral conduct, its peace of mind, and hope of heaven), with the circumstances of religion. True religion is that which its great Author himself hath declared. It is a practical know

*Acts xvii, 27.

Extracts from the Public Newspapers.

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ledge of the love of God the FATHER, "who sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved;" of the atonement of God the Son, through whom we receive remission of our sins, and are justified in the sight of the Father; and of the influence of God the HOLY GHOST, by which we are made meet "to become partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light."Buchanan.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS.

Ar the sitting of the Magistrates at our Town Hall, Elizabeth Creasey was convicted of unlawfully playing with dice during Windsor fair, and she was committed to the county gaol at Reading for two months hard labour.-Windsor Journal.

An inquest was lately held at Lancaster, on view of the body of Margaret Green, an infant aged nine years, who, it appeared, went on the afternoon of Sunday the 23d ult. to play in the fields; and there got some sour docks and dog-berries, and ate them; also some toadstools from a ditch bank; of which also she ate, and was soon after seized with strong convulsions, and, though every possible means were used to recover it, the poor child died in a few hours. Verdict-" Died by the visitation of GOD!"

Lately, as two little boys, one eight and the other six years of age, the children of a shoemaker, named Spendilow, were playing together in their father's house at Wood Newton, near Oundle, the elder child took up a loaded gun (with which the father had been scaring birds, and which he had laid down while he' drank his tea,) upon which the younger child said "don't shoot me," but had scarcely uttered the words, when the other presented the gun at him, and discharged the contents into his body. The poor little fellow lingered in great agony until about six o'clock the following morning, when death put a period to his sufferings.-County Paper.

Value of Religious Instruction.-Captain Parry says, that in the difficult enterprizes in which he has been employed, he always found those who had the fear of God before them, to be the bravest and best men. During the long and dreary winter which he passed in the Northern Regions, schools were esta blished on board the ships, and the system of education was not confined to instruction in reading and writing only, but to the

religious improvement of the men and its salutary effects were observable in their conduct whenever occasion presented. The gallant captain says, that wherever any enterprize of difficulty was to be attempted, he had always selected men who were remarkable for their attention to religious duties, and in no one, instance had he occasion to doubt their courage or their perse, verance. Were he to be employed in a similar undertaking again, he would, if possible, have no man on the expedition who had not a proper feeling of religion.

The Tallipot Tree.-A leaf of this extraordinary tree has lately been brought over from the island of Ceylon, of which place it is a native, and is now in the possession of the Rev. Richard Fletcher, of Hampstead. The leaf is in a good state of preservation; it measures 11 feet in height, 16 feet across its widest spread, and from 38 to 40 feet in circumference. If expanded as a canopy, it is sufficient to defend a dinner party of six from the rays of the sun, and in Ceylon is carried about by the natives for that purpose.

At a recent meeting of the London Medical Society, Dr. Blake stated that the extraction or excision of teeth was unnecessary. He was enabled, he said, to cure the most desperate cases of tooth-ache, (unless the disease was connected with rheumatism) by the application of the following remedy to the diseased tooth: "Alum, reduced to an impalpable powder, two drachms: nitrous spirit of æther, seven drachms; mix, and apply them to the tooth." Mr. Fay, the American Dentist, who was present, admitted that, in ninety-five cases out of a hundred, where Surgeons and Dentists are applied to for the purpose of extraction, relief might be obtained without that, or even excision.-London Paper.

Selling improper Prints.-A man named Betmare was indicted at the Middlesex Sessions for selling books with indecent prints. The prosecutors were the Society for the Suppression of Vice, a Society which has existed between twenty and thirty years, and which, as the learned Counsel observed, had had a most blessed effect in clearing the streets of these most infamous and immoral publications. The chairman said that the Society, which had taken up this matter, had, in interposing in such cases, rendered important services to the country. The court sentenced the prisoner to hard labour for six months in the house of correction. Morning Post.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have received the communications of T. T. W.; Veritas; Apiarian; E. M.; S. H.S. H.-P. L. Z. and Clericus have just ar rived.

THE

Cottager's MonthlyVisitor.

FEBRUARY, 1827.

REMARKS ON THE FORTY-FOURTH CHAPTER OF GENESIS.

V. 1-3. JOSEPH's object appears to have been to try his brethren, and especially to see whether they were sincerely attached to Benjamin and their father. He could not have hit upon a scheme better suited to discover this. Had they hated Benjamin, and disregarded their father's feelings, they might have shewn it without appearing to be actuated by any other motive than a love of justice.

V. 5." Whereby indeed he divineth."-Divining was finding out a secret by magic, or some curious art. It seems that a cup was sometimes used for this purpose ;-how that could be, is neither very easy, nor very necessary for us to know: nor is it likely that Joseph really used divination: but he desired his steward to speak in this way, in order to awaken the more effectually the fears of his brethren, by making his cup appear of great importance to him, besides its real value. But was this right? By no means. Joseph erred. Though a good man, he was a man of like passions with ourselves. There is but one perfect example-the Lord Jesus Christ,-in Him no fault or blemish could be found. He could appeal to those who watched him most narrowly, and say, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" But in many things we offend all; and " if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body." Now, of all the offences into which that NO. 2.-VOL. VII. Ꭰ .

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