FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Facts, Hints, and Gems.

Facts. POPULATION OF LONDON.-It appears by the census that not half the adult population of London was born in the metropolis. If the recruits were marched back to their native soil, London would be left with less than half the grown-up men and women that are in it. The Irish in London were found to be 108,548 ; the Scotch, 30,401. Of every

Hints

EMPLOYMENT, which Galen calls "nature's physician," is so essential to human happiness, that indolence is justly considered as the mother of misery.

AS THRASHING separates the corn from the chaff, so does affliction purify virtue.

FALSE FRIENDSHIP, like the ivy,

100,000 persons born in England, decays and ruins the walls it em271 were found to be in Scotland braces; but true friendship gives when the census was taken; but of new life and animation to the obevery 100,000 persons born in Scot-ject it supports. land, 4,723 were in England; or, as THE GOOD WIFE is none of your the Registrar-General has it, "The dainty dames, who love to appear in tendency of people born in Scotland a variety of suits every day new; as to enter England is seventeen times if a good gown, like a stratagem in as great as the tendency of the Eng-war, were to be used but once. But lish to enter Scotland." There were 56,665 foreigners resident in Great Britain; half of them were in London, which contained above 1000 Russians at the time of the

census.

HAWK AND WEASEL. Recently, in the north, a hawk pounced upon a weasel, and was carrying off his prize in triumph, when the bird was observed to spread out his wings, and both came gradually to the earth. The hawk was dead, but the weasel, after turning round once or twice, began deliberately to make a meal on the dead body of his

enemy.

WASHING.

THEY that wash on Monday,
Have all the week to dry;
They that wash on Tuesday
Are not so much awry;
They that wash on Wednesday
Are hardly free from blame;
They that wash on Thursday
Wash in very shame;
They that wash on Friday
Wash in haste and need;

And they that wash on Saturday,
Oh! they are sluts indeed!

our good wife sets up a sail according to the keel of her husband's estate; and if of high parentage, she doth not so remember what she was by birth, that she forgets what she is by match.

THE MORE HONESTY a man has, the less he affects the air of a saint; the affectation of sanctity is a blotch on the face of piety.

WANT OF PRUDENCE is too fre

quently the want of virtue; nor is there on earth a more powerful advocate for vice than poverty.

BE A PATTERN to others, and then all will go well; for as a whole city is infected by the licentious passions and vices of its leading men, so it is likewise reformed by their moderation.

IDLERS cannot even find time to be idle, or the industrious to be at leisure. We must be always doing or suffering.

A MISER grows rich by seeming poor; an extravagant man grows poor by seeming rich.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Every little English boy or girl surely knows, and can repeat portions of, these delightful productions. Dr. Watts wrote many large and learned works, but he never made so great and so happy an effort as when he wrote his "Divine and Moral Songs."

But whilst this great and good man did all this that he might teach the young the fear of the Lord, and the value and loveliness of early religion, he did not forget that they were children. He was not sour and illtempered with them. He loved to see them happy; and, like our Lord Jesus Christ, he took notice of them. He knew that children were fond of play, and he did not say that they should not play at all, but encouraged them to indulge in innocent and healthful pastime.

We love to see children playful and happy. Why not? Our Saviour never reproved them for this. He referred to their juvenile pastimes without censure. He knew what was in them. "And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Now we do not intend to say that our Lord meant it to be understood that little children were sinless, but compared with many men and women they were harmless, and unsuspecting, and confiding; and that they who followed him must be so too, or they could not come into his kingdom.

As our Lord did not condemn them, neither do we. We believe that children may indulge in harmless and healthful play without sin. But let them not forget that what is not sinful in itself, may be made sinful by the way in which we do it. To play where there is danger is wrongto indulge ill-temper in play is very wrong-but to play on the sabbathday is very wrong indeed.

Learn then, my little friends, when, and where, and how to play; and don't forget that books, as well as play, can make you happy, and that a time is coming when you must work too, as well as all the rest of us, or you will soon, perhaps, have no bread to eat, and no clothes to wear, and no good house to live in.

ESCAPE FROM THE BURNING SHIP.

It was near midnight when they all escaped in the boats from the burning vessel. The captain says:

"It would be impossible to describe the grandeur and horrors of that night. Let fancy paint, if it may, so many hapless beings huddled together unpreparedly, exposed without shelter to the cold night sky, and expecting every moment to be swallowed up. Ocean was ever fretting, and curvetting, and plunging beneath us, as if it had wrathfully resolved to cast us from its crested mane.' The sky all above and around was one scene of blackness, unbroken by one opening in its cloud, and unblest by the radiance of one solitary star. Behind the boats-in the region whither we were drifting, everything was dark as the grave. Light indeed attended us throughout that lone midnight, but it was the glare of destruction, which, as it contended with the surrounding darkness, only increased its horror. The flames long played in magnificent grandeur, kindling the dark sky above, and reflecting their lurid gleam from the ridge of every billow, as if they mocked our misery by their majestic triumph. And ever and anon came some terrific explosion-probably of the ship's spirits which struck like a death-knell upon our hearts, proclaiming that the work of ruin was well-nigh accomplished.

In this condition of extremity, one only hope remained to us-one last grand anchor-hold to preserve us from despair. We remembered Him who maketh darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies;' we thought of Him as the 'confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea, who stilleth the noise of the seas, and the noise of their waves.' And there, 'out of the depths we cried unto Him.' Mingling with the voice of the wind and waters, and rising above their murmurs, the sound of our praise and supplications ascended on the midnight air, and was heard before the throne. It was a sacred relief to our heavy hearts to feel that the eye of God still watched over us in our misery, and that his ear was open to our cry and although we knew not the dark path that lay before us, yet we sought it with His words on our lips: 'The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea than the mighty waves of the sea.'

No. 100.

109

ESCAPE FROM THE BURNING SHIP.

'Joy cometh in the morning;' but it was not so with our forlorn company. Daylight of the 30th December dawned only to reveal our mutual wretchedness, and to aggravate our distress. Our hapless vessel vanished in the distance as daylight appeared, and our hearts fainted to discover that no friendly sail was visible within the range of the horizon for our rescue. Left alone in that vast solitude of sea and sky, it only now remained for us to seek our safety by making for the nearest land, or to die in the endeavour. We were but in the beginning of sorrows,' and our first business was to commit ourselves to God. Gathering our boats as closely as possible together, we joined in singing the 38th Psalm, 1-5th verses, and by prayer poured out our complaint before God, and shewed before him our trouble.' Being comforted by this exercise, we immediately thereafter commenced active preparations for our melancholy voyage. Our first object was to rig a mast and sail in each boat. We had only oars to form our masts, and a top-gallant studding sail and royal for sails. With some small lines, shrouds and stays were soon made; and by six o'clock in the morning all the three boats were under sail for our destination. I then commenced to overhaul our stock of supplies, and found that we had two small cheeses, two hams, only about twenty-four gallons of water, and seventy or eighty pounds of bread, which was damaged by salt water; with a half gallon of rum, a half gallon of brandy, and a few bottles of wine. This supply was by no means adequate to sustain life among such a company for many days. I therefore called the boats together, and told the people that we could not expect to make the land in less than ten or twelve days, and it might take a day or two more; that our stock of water and provisions was far short; and that, therefore, we must come at once on short allowance. I am happy to say that all acquiesced in the proposition, and, indeed, shewed throughout the happiest spirit of subordination and harmony. Our small allowance was then distributed, consisting of a little bread, which was repeated in the evening, and only three table spoonfuls of water to each per day. At noon I got an observation for the latitude. We again engaged in the worship of God, and sought to keep the boats in close company. But as day declined the weather looked wild; and the men in the small boat being afraid of her capsizing through the night, I had to divide her company between the long-boat and skiff, and cast her adrift. persons were thus in the skiff, and nineteen in the long-boat,

Nine