nakedness" and yet, through Divine grace," he had learned in whatever state he was, therewith to be content."

SECTION 7.

A YOUNG prince being asked, what was the first thing which he learned, answered: "To speak the truth."

A man, who was reproached with being cowardly, because he would not venture his money in a game at dice, said: "I confess I am exceedingly timorous; for I dare not do an evil action."

A wise man was asked, what people can gain by telling falsehoods; he replied: "Not to be believed, even when they speak the truth."

An excellent son and brother, who had a sister nearly of the same age as himself, having, when he was sixtyseven, lost a very aged mother, said: "I never was reconciled to my mother;" (because there never was between them the least dispute which needed reconciliation ;) “and I have never had any difference with my sister."

The first Christians so well remembered, and endeavoured to practise, their Lord's command of "loving one another as he had loved them," that the heathens who beheld how peaceably, and affectionately, they lived together, used to say: "See, how these Christians love one another!"

When we are afflicted, we ought, instead of murmuring, to reflect how much greater our affliction might have been, than it really is.-Doctor Hammond was troubled with a complication of disorders. When he had the gout, he used to thank God that it was not the stone; and when he had the stone,

that he had not both these distempers at the same time.

A pious man, on the death of a friend, said: "She was, indeed, the best friend I had on earth: but my Friend in heaven is still where he was; he will never leave me, nor forsake me."

A nobleman having lost his wife, said of her: "She was an excellent Christian woman: never idle; always quiet." A great prince used to say: "He who forgets God, works without profit; and he will never obtain the blessing of Heaven."

What a beautiful world is this in which we live; and how many good and pleasant things there are in it! "Ought we not," (as a sensible and pious child observed,) "to love that God who made all these things, and gave them to us?"

Two little girls, who were cousins, being at play, began to quarrel; but presently one of them, who was, in general, a very good child, said to her cousin: "Do not we know that Christ died for us; why then should we fall out?"

"What makes every body love you so well?" said an affectionate father to his daughter, a sweet little girl: "Indeed," said she, "I cannot think; unless it is because I love every body."

A very sensible man, who had a profligate son, used frequently to inquire, whether he drank; and being told that he did not: "Then," said he, "I still have

hopes of him."

Dr. Johnson, in his last illness, said to an eminent painter: "Let me beg of you, to read the Bible; and never to use your pencil on a Sunday."

A dutiful and affectionate son, having lost his mother,

said to one of his friends: "I do not believe that any body, who knows me, will charge me with having neglected my duty to my mother; but since her death, I have recollected, with sorrow, many little instances, in which, I think, I might have shown her still more respect and affection.”

A poor woman being asked if she had a Bible, said: "I bless God I have one. What should I do without my Bible? It was the guide of my youth; and now, it is the comfort of my old age. It has convinced me that I am a sinner; and it has revealed to me an allsufficient Saviour."

SECTION 8.

THE learned and pious judge Hale, in a letter to his children, writes thus: "The due observance of the Lord's day, and of the duties of it, has been of singular comfort and advantage to me; and I doubt not it will prove so to you. I have found, by a strict and diligent observation, that a due observance of this day, has ever had joined to it, a blessing upon the rest of my time; and the week that has been so begun, has been blessed and prosperous to me: and, on the other side, when I have been negligent of the duties of this day, the rest of the week has been unsuccessful and unhappy in my worldly employments. And this I do not write inconsiderately, but from a long and sound observation and experience."

We ought never to utter the name of Almighty God, except when we are reading, or thinking, seriously of him, or praying to him. "The honourable Mr. Boyle," says bishop Burnet, in his account of that learned and pious man, "had the most profound veneration for the great

God of heaven and earth, that I ever observed in any man. The name of God was never mentioned by him, without a pause and stop in his discourse."-Let us too stop, and reflect a moment, before we pronounce "the glorious name of the Lord our God!" for fear we should transgress his commandment," by taking his holy name in vain."

"Be dutiful and obedient to all your superiors," said a good father in a letter to his children; "to your grandfather and both grandmothers, and other relations and friends who are over you; but especially to your mother, to whose care and government, God has wholly committed you, in my absence. Do not grieve her by any wicked actions, but comfort her by your good behaviour; and I shall rejoice to hear of it. Frequently read the Holy Scriptures; not as a task, or burthen laid upon you, but willingly. Account the Bible the best of all books: read it most; and lay up the truths of it in your hearts. Avoid the company of wicked children, and playing on the sabbath-day; abhor swearing, lying, and all evil ways: so shall you grow in favour with God and man. Love one another. You that are elder, help to teach the younger; and you that are younger, do not scorn the teachings of the elder."

Sir John Eardley Wilmot, on being appointed lord chief justice, said to one of his sons, a youth of seventeen years of age: "Now, my son, I will tell you a secret worth your knowing, and remembering. The promotions I have had, particularly this last, have not been owing to my superior merit or abilities, but to my not having set up myself above others; and to my constant endeavour to pass through life, void of offence towards God and man."

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A gentleman, who used sometimes to visit the earl of Bute, was one day railing bitterly against some persons of his lordship's acquaintance, across a table on which lay a Bible. Lord Bute, after having listened a very short time to his visiter, cried out: Stop, sir; pray, what book is that which lies before you ?"—"A Bible, my lord."-"Well, sir; that book directs you to keep your tongue from evil speaking, and from slander : how can you presume to disobey its commands?"

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SECTION 9.

It is very pleasing, especially to teachers, to see children who go to the same school, kind and obliging to one another.-A boy, who was a scholar in a Sunday school, at Gloucester, broke by accident, one of the lamps in the street; and had no money to pay for it. The matter was much talked of amongst his schoolfellows. At length one of them proposed that they should all bring a halfpenny apiece; and thus they should raise enough to pay the money. The thing was determined upon; and the money was accordingly raised.

What a comfort it is to parents, especially when they are old, or sick, or in any distress, to have kind, dutiful, and affectionate children!-A boy, about ten years of age, having lost his father, and his mother being ill at an hospital, was sent to the workhouse, at Shrewsbury. He was set to work, that he might earn, as soon as possible, his own livelihood. He behaved well; and minded his work. Very soon he had fourpence given to him as a reward; and he was told that he might do with the money, just as he pleased. As soon as he had