PURITY OF INTENTION.

A MOHAMMEDAN teacher was once asked by one of his disciples, what was the most important branch of morality. "Purity of intention," he replied. He was asked the reason. His answer was, "Because it delivers us, not only from hypocrisy, but from doubt, and perplexity of mind, in all that we undertake."-D'Herbelot.

If a Mohammedan could speak thus of purity of intention as a branch of morality, how much more apparent must be its value, when considered by the Christian as a part of religion, and as connected with the promised influences of the Holy Spirit! "If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."

REFLECTIONS ON 1 CORINTHIANS 11. 9.

(To the Editor of "The Youth's Instructer.”)

"Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

MY eye has seen sights most delightful; has gazed upon scenes most magnificent; has viewed objects most sumptuous. I have admired the beautiful flowers which deck a well-cultivated garden in summer; and have been delighted whilst examining the beautiful and variegated colours with which they are decorated, painted by the pencil of nature. I have been lost in wonder whilst, from an eminence, I have viewed the wide-spreading landscape, composed of hill and dale, wood and river. I have admired the solemn architecture of the ancient cathedral, the beautiful imitations of nature furnished by the painter, and the imposing spectacle of the Sovereign in public processions of state. All these things the eye may witness. But " eye hath not seen the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

My ear has listened to the sounds both of nature and of art; the sweet murmur of the rivulet, as it gushes along its pebbly channel, together with the melodious notes which

proceed from the feathered tribe, echoing through the pleasant plantation on the morning of spring. I have been aroused whilst listening to the eloquence of the orator; charmed while attending to the recitations of the poet. And I have been almost rooted to the spot on which I stood, as I have hearkened to the harmonious notes of a well-regulated band, or to the solemn tones poured forth by the sublime organ, now swelling or diminishing, approaching or receding. But ear hath not heard the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

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Many and various have been the conjectures that have arisen in my mind concerning God, and heaven, and heavenly things. Gold in all its forms, and precious stones in all their variety, have lent me their aid. I have endeavoured to combine every appearance of material beauty and grandeur. But all has been in vain. The eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, no, "neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." Is it not then our privilege, as well as our duty, to love God, that we may know by experience, what can be known in no other way?

[WE are not, we confess, over and above partial, as the common phrase is, to reflections at all after the manner of "Meditations among the Tombs,” or “in a Flower Garden." The judgment, generally, requires more attention than the fancy. We insert the above, partly as suggesting a useful train of thought; and partly to encourage our young readers and friends by furnishing them, occasionally, with something from amongst themselves. At the same time, we would add that reflection has always a wider range, and a more useful one, when text is compared with text. St. Paul quotes from Isaiah, who, after writing the passage given by the Apostle, adds, "Thou MEETEST him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways." Let this, again, be compared with John xiv. 21-23. How glorious may be the present experience of the true believer in Christ, walking humbly with God!-ED. Y. I.]

A YOUTH WHIPPED FOR READING THE BIBLE. [IN 1538, Henry VIII. allowed a translation of the Scriptures to be printed and circulated. Strype, in his “Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer," mentions a curious circumstance connected with their reception by the people at large. We wish to give the readers of the "Youth's Instructer" instructive incidents of recent occurrence when we can: but we cannot make incidents; and therefore, rather than not give one at all, we go back to the days of the "bluff Harry." We live in happier days. There is no danger of arousing parental anger by reading the Bible: if displeasure be excited at all, it will be for neglecting it.—ED. Y. I.]

Ir was wonderful to see with what joy this book of God was received all England over, with what greediness God's word was read, and what resort to places where the reading of it was. Every body that could, bought the book, or busily read it, or got others to read it to them, if they could not themselves; and divers more elderly people learned to read on purpose. And even little boys flocked among the rest to hear portions of the holy Scripture read. One William Maldon, happening in the company of John Fox, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and Fox being very inquisitive after those that suffered for religion in the former reigns, asked him if he knew any that were persecuted for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that he might add it to his Book of Martyrs. He told him he knew one that was whipped by his own father in King Henry's reign for it. And when Fox was very inquisitive who he was, and what was his name, he confessed it was himself; and, upon his desire, he wrote out all the circumstances. Namely, that when the King had allowed the Bible to be set forth to be read in all churches, immediately several poor men in the town of Chelmsford, in Essex, where his father lived, and he was born, bought the New Testament, and on Sundays sat reading of it in the lower end of the church. Many would flock about them to hear their reading; and he among the rest, being then but fifteen years old, came every Sunday to hear the glad and sweet tidings of the Gospel.

But his father observing it,

once angrily fetched him away, and would have him to say the Latin matins with him; which grieved him much. And as he returned at other times to hear the Scripture read, his father still would fetch him away. This put him upon the thoughts of learning to read English, that so he might read the New Testament himself; which when he had by diligence effected, he and his father's apprentice bought the New Testament, joining their stocks together; and, to conceal it, laid it under the bed-straw, and read it at convenient times. One night, his father being asleep, he and his mother chanced to discourse concerning the crucifix, and kneeling down to it, and knocking on the breast, then used, and holding up the hands to it, when it came by on procession: this he told his mother was plain idolatry, and against the commandment of God, where he saith, "Thou shalt not make any graven image, nor bow down to it, nor worship it." His mother, enraged at him for this, said, "Wilt thou not worship the cross, which was about thee when thou wert christened, and must be laid on thee when thou art dead?" In this heat the mother and son departed, and went to their beds. The sum of this evening's conference she presently repeats to her husband; which he impatient to hear, and boiling in fury against his son for denying worship to be due to the cross, arose up forthwith, and goes into his son's chamber, and, like a mad zealot, taking him by the hair of his head with both his hands, pulled him out of the bed, and whipped him unmercifully. And when the young man bore this beating, as he related, with a kind of joy, considering it was for Christ's sake, and shed not a tear, his father, seeing that, was more enraged, and ran down and fetched an halter, and put it about his neck, saying he would hang him. At length, with much entreaty of the mother and brother, he left him, almost dead.

REVIEW.

Two small works have been this month published at the Conference Office, which we have great pleasure in noticing, and which we earnestly recommend to our young readers, as furnishing a useful addition to the juvenile library.

VOL. VII. Second Series. F

1. A Parental Portraiture of Thomas Hawkey Treffry, who died at Falmouth, aged eighteen years. By the Rev. Richard Treffry. Third Edition. 18mo., pp. viii, 148.

2. Scenes in the West Indies; and other Poems. By Adeline. 18mo., pp. 122.

THE first is a piece of biography which we cannot see without a melancholy interest. Not often is a father called to be the biographer of both his children, and those such children as Thomas and Richard Treffry. But well did our venerable friend perform his task. "Being dead, he yet speaketh;" and by these Memoirs of his gifted sons, calls upon the young to redeem the time, to improve their talents, and by yielding themselves up to God, to prepare for useful lives, or for the mysterious and (as we are sure they must be) delightful occupations of eternity. In his "Treatise on the Eternal Sonship of Christ," Richard proved himself to be the sound and able theologian; and had Thomas lived, it is plain that in literary talent he would not have been below his brother. They are now all gone. The parent has rejoined his children; and in the heavenly family they now enjoy a blissful reunion which death shall not intrude to interrupt. The readers of the "Youth's Instructer " will find this brief biography a valuable memorial of departed worth; and in reading it, they will see that even lofty talents are both invigorated and brightened by consecration to the service of God.

Our readers, we doubt not, have often noticed with pleasure the signature of "Adeline" in our poetical department. Her compositions have not, indeed, the masculine strength characterizing all the writings of the venerable Charles Wesley, but they have a delicate and elegant beauty which seldom fails to mark the pen of the female. She has evidently a quick perception of the beauties of external nature, and all that she writes evinces the depth of feeling which the contemplation of them produces. Her verse, too, is flowing and musical, and a fitting vehicle for the thoughts which it conveys. We are glad to see the present collection. Several of the pieces have been printed in our own pages; but others are now connected with them, forming a small but handsome volume, which, for the lovers of quiet, elegant poetry, chiefly, indeed, expressive of feeling, but of feeling excited and sustained by truth, ought to be a very acceptable present. In our poetical department for the present month, we insert one piece," Elijah," as a present specimen of the poetry of the volume. It is eminently characteristic of the author. Even an event of such mystery and grandeur, as visioned forth before her own mind, rather appears as a scene of mild and attractive beauty. And this fact may suggest, in passing, a useful observation. What the mind bodies forth for contemplation, is always modified, to a most important extent, by our own habitual temperament. Whatever the events were, considered in themselves, yet, as presented by us for the inspection of others,