A visit was also paid to Ailsie, the widow of the elder George Lisle. What an affecting scene was again presented! A loud wail of agonizing sorrow was uttered upon the entrance of her friends; for the poor woman had lost, by the fatal accident, her husband, two sons, and two brothers. Her daughters clung to her with affectionate tenderness, and tried to comfort her; but she said, "O but give me time—I must have time." In the corner of Ailsie's room lay her mother, a very old woman, more than one hundred years of age, who has been confined to her bed for several years, and is able to do but little besides rocking the cradle of her great-grandchildren with a string. An event somewhat similar to the one that has just occurred, and by which a whole family were swept away, took place off Hartley thirty-eight years since; -and this poor woman is the widow of one of the sufferers. On the present occasion, she looked about the room with a sort of astonishment, as if hardly comprehending what was going forward, and then lay back and moaned.

The day after this interview, George Lisle, jun., was buried; when, to the surprise of those who attended the funeral, his mother had become wonderfully calm, and remarked to a kind friend who called on her, "O Mr. ——, I was not this way yesterday; but I prayed very earnestly all night, until three o'clock in the morning, for the Lord's help and strength, and now I feel quite different - happy and resigned. I've given them all up to the Lord's will; and I should like to be taken up to the room above, where I may see my poor boy taken away! I can bear to see it now; and I have, this morning, been selecting the hymns I should like them to sing." Turning to one of her friends, she remarked, "Mind you sing them nicely." She then repeated a great many passages of Scripture, remarkably appropriate to her own case.

When the young man's coffin was lifted on the shoulders of the bearers, and as the company moved from the house, one of these hymns was sung, and the villagers joined the funeral band, and seemed much affected. A large company of fishermen and pilots followed the remains to Tynemouth, where the clergyman met them under the archway of the Castle, and they were then slowly borne to their last resting-place, at the southern extremity of the ground, where the burial service was read.

Six of the bodies of these poor men have been cast up at different intervals; the last was not found until ten weeks had elapsed from the period of the fatal accident. Though time after time the relatives have thus had their feelings painfully excited in such a melancholy revival of their sorrow, yet thankfulness has been predominant in their minds on these occasions; their repeated remark being, "The Lord has been good in sending us his body."

How little we are apt to think, when these poor people are toiling over their fish, that such acute sympathies are theirs, or how much of vital religion is to be found in some of their hearts! When speaking to a lady under affliction, a Cullercoats fish-woman one day remarked, "Often, when I am calling my fish in the street, my heart is lifted up in prayer to God ;" and upon another occasion, upon its being remarked to one of them how much the quantity of fish varied in the different boats, though the means used for procuring them were the same, she rejoined, "You see, ma'am, that man's the fisher, but God's the sender."

"Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him ?"

Epitaph.

HERE LIE THE BODIES OF

GEORGE LISLE, aged 57,

AND

His two Sons, GEORGE LISLE, JUN., aged 34, and ROBERT LISLE, JUN., aged 24;

ALSO,

His Brother, ROBERT LISLE, SEN., aged 50,

ALL FISHERMEN, OF CULLERCOATS,

Who formed part of a boat's crew of seven men, lost on the bar of Cullercoats Haven, when going off to pilot a vessel, on the morning of the 2nd of February, 1848.

Art thou a Christian? When Death's angel meets thee,
Stretched on thy bed, or 'mid the salt sea foam;
Cheer up! cheer up! 'tis as a friend he greets thee,
Thy Father's messenger, to call thee home.

Art thou a worldling? Then, oh, then, remember,
That, as the tree shall fall, so must it lie;
And-no less solemn truth-as leans the timber,
So does it fall! Oh, then, prepare to die!

Stereotyped and Printed by J. M. Burton, Ipswich,

A

TEMPERANCE CATECHISM

FOR

SUNDAY-SCHOLARS.

TO THE CHILDREN OF MY CLASS AT OUR SUNDAY SCHOOL.

My dear Children,

As even you in your short lives have seen that drunkenness is the cause of a very great deal of the poverty and distress you see around you, and as God declares in the Holy Scriptures that no drunkard "shall inherit the kingdom of God," I am anxious to lead you to consider what you can do to forward the great and good work of temperance reformation. For this purpose I have written a few questions and answers upon the subject; and if, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, they should lead you humbly and prayerfully to put away from you for ever those intoxicating drinks which have occasioned the ruin of so many both in body and in soul, I shall think myself richly repaid for the effort they have cost me.

Always believe me to be, my dear children,

Your affectionate

TEACHER.

CATECHISM.

Q. What sin is that which more than any other leads to poverty, distress, and crime?

A.

Drunkenness.

Q. How does it lead to poverty?

A. By leading men and women to waste money in drink which ought to be spent in wholesome food and clothes.

Q. How does drunkenness cause distress in families? A. It hardens the heart, it makes people selfish and unfeeling to one another.

Q. How does drunkenness lead to crime?

A It leads people to commit sins which if they were sober they would not dare to do.

Q.

What reason have you for believing this?

A. Many Judges have declared that in nearly all the crimes brought under their notice, drunkenness has been more or less connected with them.

Q. If you use intoxicating drinks at all, can you be sure that they will not bring you to poverty, distress, and crime?

A. No, I cannot; people do not become drunkards at once; the love of strong drink increases gradually; and thousands who began by taking a very little, have been ruined both in body and soul by excess.

Q. But are not intoxicating drinks necessary for our health and strength?

A. Above 1400 medical men have signed a declaration to the effect, that "the most perfect health is compatible with total abstinence from all intoxicating beverages, such as ardent spirits, wine, beer, ale, porter, or cider, and that total abstinence from these drinks would greatly contribute to the health, the prosperity, the morality, and the happiness of the human race.

Q. Did not St. Paul advise Timothy to take wine? A. Yes, he recommended him to use 66 a little wine for his stomach's sake and his often infirmities ;" but this is no argument for people using much wine, whether they have any infirmities or not.

Q. Is it probable that the wine recommended by St. Paul was of the same kind as those now used?

A. "All the wines used in England have brandy in them; and brandy with other distilled spirits were unknown until some centuries after the christian era; Pliny, who lived in the time of our Saviour, states that there were 395 kinds of wine which would not burn," ,"* whilst all our wines will burn. It is therefore evident that the wine recommended by St. See No. 2 and No. 76 of the Ipswich Temperance Tracts.

Paul to Timothy was something very different from the wine and spirits used amongst us.

Q. Do not clergymen find drunkenness a great obstacle to their success in the preaching of the gospel?

A. Yes; drunkenness helps to fill prisons, workhouses, and lunatic asylums, but it keeps our churches comparatively empty.

Q. As you have seen that intoxicating drinks are not necessary, and that they are the fruitful source of so many evils, is it not well for christians to set the example of abstinence from them altogether?

A. I believe it is well, for though I might always use them temperately myself, my example might encourage others to use them who would not do so.

Q. If St. Paul had lived amongst us, and had seen how England with all her privileges is degraded by the drunkenness of her people, do you not think that he would have been a total abstainer from all intoxicating drinks?

A. I do; because in the 14th chapter of his Epistle to the Romans he says: "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak."

Q. Does St. Paul in any other place declare his determination not to indulge himself, even in lawful things, lest he should be the occasion of another falling into sin?

A. Yes; in the 8th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians and 13th verse, he says: "If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend."

Q.

What motive should influence us, in joining the total abstinence society?

A. The same motive which influenced St. Paul-selfdenial for the sake of others.

Q. What two good objects have the total abstinence society in view?

A. The reformation of drunkards and the preventing of sober people from becoming drunkards.

Q. Have we any reason for supposing that our abstaining from all intoxicating drinks would be displeasing to God?

A. If abstinence from these things had been displeasing to God, we may be sure that he would not have commended the Rechabites for their refusal to drink wine.