never have enough to begin with. Their plans and projects are either too large for their present means, or the object which they most approve is not yet presented. Or perhaps they prefer bequeathing a large estate to the cause of benevolence at their decease. Can it be said that such a man devotes his estate to God? He surrenders it to death, when he could no longer maintain the siege. Death is the donor. And an appropriate inscription on his monumental marble would be, "The triumph of death over avarice." The ruling passion is strong in death. God assigns the lover of money his portion with the vilest transgressors. "Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, or of God." LIBERALITY. A very aged and poor female of the name of Philip, in the parish of Quethiock, Cornwall, who has long been dependent on parish relief and private bounty, has just become unexpectedly possessed of property to the amount of many thousand pounds, on the death of a relative from whom she never had any expectations. The old woman, although very infirm in health, and eighty years of age, is in perfect possession of all her mental faculties, and the use to which she has applied a portion of her newly acquired property, proves that she is not unmindful of the Scriptural injunction, to be willing to communicate; and also that she has great sense of justice, for her first act was to call upon the parish authorities for an account of their disbursements on her behalf, from the time she first became chargeable, and on receipt of such account, she gave directions for the immediate payment of the full amount. On Michaelmas day last, she assembled her poor relations, who with their children, numbered ninety-seven persons, and distributed among them nearly £500. SIMPLE TRUTH. The following fact occurred at the farm of Abingdon, in the parish of Crawford-John, Scotland, and must have been well nigh a century from the present day. It was then, as it is in a greater or less degree still, the practice among the farmers to lodge the way-faring poor, and as the farmers' room is often but small, and the characters of such random guests sometimes doubtful, they are furnished with blankets and straw in some of the outhouses, where, however, they are very comfortably sheltered. It was in the practice of this generous hospitality, that the character of the humble subject of it was revealed to view. Says the narrator to his brother, "I remember an anecdote of my mother's, which Sir Walter Scott would have valued. A poor wandering simpleton or idiot, came to her father's house one winter evening, and sat by the kitchen fire. It was soon noticed that he was unwell. On being asked What ailed him?' his reply "Am unco cauld." After giving him warm gruel, he was put to a comfortable bed in the kiln. At a late hour, one of the maid-servants came in, saying that "The poor thing in the kiln was aye muttering and speaking to himsel.' My mother and others went to listen, when they distinctly overheard him repeating over and over again the following bit of rhyme;— was, Three o' Ane, And Ane o' Three: 6 The next morning dawned, but the soul of the poor wanderer had gone to the bosom of that Ane o' Three,' on whose mercy he relied. My mother, the relator adds, "could not relate the anecdote with dry eyes." Is there not in the simple language of this poor wanderer, the distinct recognition of the doctrine of the Trinity, and of the mediatorial work of the Saviour, together with his divinity as that "Ane o' Three," to whom the simple soul committed itself, in full confidence that, in its own appropriating language, he "will save me!" Such a testimony, the testimony of the heart, is worth a thousand arguments put forth in the pride of reasoning, and addressed exclusively to the understanding. It reminds us of the Saviour's striking language, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." FORTUNE TELLING. I do believe that few persons have the least notion of the extent to which fortune telling is resorted to, even in these days of light and knowledge: and I greatly fear that it is not merely the poor giddy maid-servant who thus consults the gypsy fortune teller at the kitchen door, but that many even in high life thus disgrace their Christian name and profession, and manifest the ungodliness that is in them. I say ungodliness, for what more completely sets aside the God of heaven, and all the promised guidance and comfort of his Holy Spirit, than the having recourse to these wicked people. The very course they pursue shews the wickedness of their system. I have lately become acquainted with a dreadful instance of the effects of fortune telling; and in the hope that it may act as a warning to any who are tempted to consult the black art, I shall give it to my readers with all its horrors. If such wretches ever come true in their predictions, we may rest assured that they are under the guidance of the Devil, and not of God: and who would wish to throw himself under such an influence? Sometime ago, two well-bred young ladies, in Somersetshire, sought the aid of the gypsies to enable them to look into futurity. The cunning wretches gained the confidence of these young ladies, by their accurate account of past events in that particular familyno doubt, gleaned by them of servants and others in that neighbourhood. The predictions too, though of an unfavourable nature to one of them, excited in the minds of these poor deluded girls an unholy desire to know the means by which that infernal power was obtained. They asked the witch to teach them the black art; and the witch consented to teach one of them, provided that one did solemnly declare her resolute determination to adopt all the means which the witch should order. The most sprightly, vivacious, thoughtless, and beautiful of the two made this rash promise. The witch imposed, as her first condition to the doomed noviciate, that two guineas should be paid to her. The two guineas were advanced without difficulty. The next step was, that the young lady should learn to read and to repeat the Lord's Prayer backwards. This impious task was accomplished, and repeated to the hag! The next step was an enquiry whether she had received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; because if she had, no further progress could be made; and if she had not, she must take it in the manner that would be suggested to her. She acknowledged that she had not yet taken the Sacrament, but she would ask her mother to let her do so, which her mother, after much entreaty, permitted, without the least suspicion of the diabolical use to which that sacred rite was to be applied. Having obtained her mother's consent to be a partaker at the Lord's Table on the next occasion of its administration, she joyously repaired to the hag to learn the next lesson; but she would not then communicate it to her. She artfully insisted that it could be of no effect, unless it was told her at the solemn hour of actual midnight as Saturday expired and the Sabbath commenced of the very day on which the poor girl was to drink "the cup. To this the doomed one acceded. The hour at last arrived, and the lesson was taught: "The Lord's Prayer is to be repeated backwards in church. You will drink of the cup, but the bread you will not eat, but keep it until you leave the church, and the first animal that you meet alone in coming from the church, you will put that bread into its mouth. Do this, and you will know your own fate, and the fate of every body." These horrible requirements were complied with. A TOAD met her alone, with open mouth, as she crossed the church-yard. Its mouth received the consecrated bread. An unspeakable horror seized her; with difficulty she reached her home, not to sleep in it again till she slept the sleep of death! worn down from robust health to a perfect skeleton with the intensity of her misery. GOOD WORK IN IRELAND. Dingle, September 26, 1839. You will be glad to hear that our congregation has increased to 220, and that the spirit of inquiry is still unabated. Our school numbers 74 children, and such is the progress which they and their parents have attained to in the knowledge of Divine truth, and so much does it spread through them, that the country around is losing the horror with which they hitherto regarded Protestantism, and is imperceptibly stealing into the same light; and I have no doubt that hundreds would be glad to make an open profession of it, if the step did not involve them in the loss of subsistence, and consequent starvation. Many heads of families have come to us, saying, that they had work and subsistence as Roman Catholics, but that if we could secure them the same in any way, they would be glad to join us. We cannot but regret our inability to do so; nevertheless we are comforted in knowing that many who do not, and never may join us publicly, are enlightened by the truth thus spreading, and some are brought to know it in its power to their salvation. An old man died lately in the neighbourhood, whom we had never seen. He had heard the truth from a relative of his own, one of our congregation; and on his death-bed refused to have the priest sent for, saying that "he had his own Priest with him, even the High Priest Jesus Christ," and expired shortly after, repeating the text, "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. Since the commencement of this work, it has pleased the Lord to call to himself six of the converts, and most happy am I to say, that each departed not only in the profession of the Gospel, but, I have every reason to believe, experiencing its power in their salvation; and Mr. Moriarty had the privilege of preaching to numbers in his native tongue at their funerals. These facts have made a deep impression on the people, who till now fancied that every convert would send for the priest at his dying hour. It would be hard to say, at present, to what extent the work may progress: when the Lord begins to work, who can let it. There has been added lately to the congregation, a respectable family of nine in number-father, mother, and seven childrenwho were once the most violent opposers and persecutors, and at whose house the priests were in the habit of breakfasting, after the celebration of Mass, for the last nineteen years. As soon as Mr. Moriarty is able to reside on the spot, I hope to be able to report a still more cheering progress, as then all our machinery can be brought into full operation. The services of the church are, for the present performed in the new school house, which is already finished. Almost all the young and old have learned the general confession, responses, &c., in which they audibly join, and we can see the truth reflected in their persons, as well as in their lives and conversation. I would here call special attention to two important facts. First, The peculiarity of the congregation, consisting altogether of converts from the Church of Rome, knowing no other tongue but the Irish, and ministered to exclusively in that tongue. And, secondly, The fact of this very place and congregation being the centre and citadel of an open and extensive field of missionary labours, extending even to the remote Blasket Islands. We see the Lord's hand with us manifestly in the case of these islands. About three years ago, I sent a reader there to attempt something, but the people were then so wild, and ignorant, and superstitious, that they were going to throw him over a cliff. Lately again I made the attempt, and the event has been beyond our most sanguine expectations. We have been most kindly received by the people, and Mr. Moriarty has, in the course of several visits, declared the truth to almost every one in the islands. We have rented a house, and sent a most pious and judicious man, one of the converts, to act in the double capacity of schoolmaster to the young and reader to the old, and they have received him and treated him as a brother, to use his own words, although their landlady, who is a Roman Catholic, grievously persecutes them, and the priest, who has been there twice lately, has cursed them by land and sea for seven generations. We have truly reason to say that the Lord is overruling every thing for good as it regards the furthering of his work. The |