Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

him. He looked at him from head to foot, but could not recall him to his mind. No wonder; it was fourteen years since he had seen him, and then only for ten minutes. The man said to him, "I wish to be a Christian." He replied, "What do you know about Christianity?" He said, "Ask me some questions, and I will tell you what I know." The missionary asked him some questions, and he answered them all very correctly. Of course the missionary was very much surprised, and he inquired of the man how he had gained his knowledge of Jesus. He replied, "Did you not, when you passed by my village, fourteen years ago, give me some tracts? They taught me that Christ is the only Saviour, and I was unhappy as long as I was a heathen. I have for some time left off idol worship; and I should have come to you before now to tell you that I believed in Jesus, but I have been chained to my house." He then showed the wounds which the fetters had made on his hands and his feet. The missionary was glad, and after some further conversation with him, in the course of a few weeks baptized him in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Thus you see that seed cast upon the waters may be buried from our sight awhile, but it will spring up at last. Much seed has been sown in India which has not yet sprung up. Missionary Repository.

NO MIDDLE PLACE.

THERE are many persons who, if asked, will candidly acknowledge that they know they are not fit to go to heaven; conscience tells that they are not "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints." Yet if you ask them if they expect to go to hell, they will immediately reply, we hope not. Now this is very strange. What are we to say to such people? they, by their own confession, look for some middle place. They are not fit for heaven, and they hope they will not go to hell. Why the fact is, they have not thought about it. They have a dreamy, sleepy idea of some other world, but it is neither of the two other worlds mentioned in the Bible. It is a world of their own fancy, a middle place, and those who reach it are free from the torments of hell, and yet'1 never enjoy the happiness of heaven. Oh! what a spirit of delusion! What a device of Satan! "He that is not with me (says Christ) is against me."

"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned," Mark xvi, 16.

GEMS.

ACTIVITY AND INDOLENCE.-None so little enjoy life, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. The active only have the true relish of life. He who knows not what it is to labour, knows not what it is to enjoy. Recreation is only valuable as it unbends us. The idle know nothing of it. It is exertion that renders rest delightful, and sleep sweet and undisturbed. That the happiness of life greatly depends on the regular prosecution of some laudable purpose or calling, which enlarges, helps, and enlivens all our powers is proved by this: let those in active usefulness retire to enjoy themselves, they become a burden to themselves.

HOME DUTIES.-Our duties are like the circles of a whirlpool, and the innermost includes home.

GOOD MOTHERS AND BAD DAUGHTERS.-There be four good mothers who have four bad daughters; truth hath hatred, prosperity hath pride, security hath peril, and familiarity hath contempt.

Hale.

PLEASURE. The seeds of repentance are sown in youth by what is called pleasure; but the harvest is reaped in age, by pain.

RELIGION.-Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it-anything but live for it.

THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT.-He that will often put this world and the next before him, and look stedfastly at both, will find the latter growing greater, and the former less.

CONTRAST.-The death of Judas is as strong a confirmation of Christianity as the life of Paul.

THE WISE COURSE.—We should embrace Christianity; for a just and benevolent being will never punish us for believing what there is so much reason to believe; so that we run no risk by believing it, even if it be false; but a dreadful one by rejecting it if it be true.

TIME FOR REFLECTION.

When the multitude applaud you, seriously ask what evil you have done? when they censure you, what good?

ILLUSTRATIONS. God's children are like stars, that shine brightest in the darkest night; like gold, that is brighter for the furnace; like incense, that becomes fragrant by burning; like the camomile plant, that grows fastest when trampled on.

TEMPTATIONS. Satan's fiercest temptations are usually directed against the most gracious hearts; he is too crafty a pirate to attack an empty vessel.

THE DEVIL'S PROPERTY.-The sinner is the devil's mill, always grinding; and Satan is careful ever to keep the hopper full.

PROFANE SWEARING.-Most sinners seem to serve the devil for pay; but profane swearers are a sort of volunteers, who get nothing for their pains.

THE THINGS THAT MAKE DEATH TERRIBLE.

When Garrick with great self gratulation showed Johnson his fine house, gardens, and paintings, expecting some flattering compliment, the only reply was, "Ah, David, 'David, these are the things that make death terrible."

THE DIFFERENCE.-Wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day when it comes.

THE BETTER COURSE.-It is better to go with the few to heaven, than with the multitude to hell, and so be lost for the sake of company.

THE HISTORY OF LIFE.

I SAW an infant in its mother's arms,
And left it sleeping:

Years passed-I saw a girl with woman's charms
In sorrow weeping.

Years passed-I saw a mother mourn her child,
And o'er it languish ;

Years brought me back-yet thro' her tears she smiled
In deeper anguish.

I left her-years had vanished; I returned
And stood before her;

A lamp beside the childless widow burned;
Grief's mantle o'er her.

In tears I found her whom I left in tears,
On God relying;
And I returned again in after years,
And found her dying.

An infant first, and then a maiden fair-
A wife-a mother-

And then a childless widow in despair:
Thus met a brother.

And thus we meet on earth, and thus we part,
To meet-oh! never!

Till death beholds the spirit leave the heart,
To live for ever!

[graphic]

THE ABENDBERG CRETIN INSTITUTION.

THE following is a short account of a late visit to the benevolent institution for the cure of cretins, or idiot children, founded by Dr. Guggenbühl, on the Abendberg Mountain, near Interlaken, in the canton of Berne, in Switzerland; the foregoing engraving being a representation of the dwelling occupied by the Doctor and the objects of his care, together with some of the romantic scenery about it, sketched on the spot.

"Early one morning," says the narrator, " during the late sultry summer, we mounted the steep and woody Abendberg, and were rewarded, not only by a variety of the loveliest views of the lakes of Brienz and Thoune, but by a picture of the moral sublime worth even more. It is here that the excellent Dr. Guggenbühl has shut himself up with his twentyeight pupils, some of the wretched cretin children so common in these valleys. He attributes the malady greatly to local position, involving as it does bad air and bad water, and therefore has taken his protégés high up a mountain above the injurious mists and clouds, and devotes his powers to the discovery of physical, religious, moral, and intellectual methods of introducing them to a higher state of being. MARCH, 1847.

D

"As one of his reports says, 'God has blessed the work.' Many of the children who were brought to the institution mere little animals, so to speak, have left it reasonable creatures, happy, it is hoped, in the consciousness both of a present and a future state. He has been able to ameliorate the condition of all; only a certain proportion are cured, and hardly any become equal to those who have never been so afflicted, but they are well prepared for public schools, to which one merry little fellow whom we saw seemed quite ready to go. They are a wretched set to look at, particularly those only lately arrived, variously deformed; but very many looked bright and happy, and conscious of growing intelligence. We saw them first in their play-ground, where all sorts of gymnastic games were arranged for them to strengthen their poor distorted limbs. There were poles to climb, and ropes to swing upon, and go-carts for the little ones; for the Doctor likes to receive them as early as two years old, and teaches them to walk and talk-two of their most difficult exercises.

his

"The first ideas the children are able to apprehend are those connected with religion; music is also a mysterious voice to them which they dearly love. They have some notion of prayer, even very early in their education; indeed, what first roused the doctor into an ardent pity and love for these unfortunates, was the sight of a poor cretin at Lucerne, mumbling a half-forgotten prayer before an image of the virgin. "The tenderness of his manner and gentleness of his voice to poor little ones, drew out their hearts to him, and their minds too, as in the case of one miserable-looking child, of whom he would ask questions about the pink with which she was affectionately playing with his face, its smell, colour, etc. This seemed a difficult lesson; but when he asked, 'My child, where is our heavenly Father?' she pointed upward, with a bright smile. And do you love your heavenly Father?' Yes;' and again she pointed to heaven, and again she smiled. It was interesting to watch him in this way, trying to call forth intelligence (like drawing out an electric spark) which she had brought into the world—and lost. He teaches much by pictures; the room in which we were was hung with engravings from Overbeck's and Thorwaldsen's works, full of earnest feeling and real beauty.

،، We went over the house, saw the shower-baths, which the children take every afternoon, where, while the tepid water is playing gently all around them, galvanism is applied to

« ElőzőTovább »