breaking the Sabbath is attended with danger-danger it may be to your bodies; if not to these, certainly to your souls. O, then, remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.

2. Having spent the former part of the day properly is no safeguard to you, if you spend the latter part of it in sin. There are many children who spend the morning and afternoon in the school room and the place of worship; who spend the evening in the fields, in the streets, or on the water. In the former part of the day they are learning the way to heaven, in the latter part of it they are walking in the road to hell. This was very likely the case with some of the poor unhappy children. Two of the boys, at least, were in a Sunday school, and had very likely been in their classes in the former part of the day. Think, Sunday scholars, think, what an awful thing it would be if you should some Sunday spend the morning and afternoon with good people in the school; the evening, with the wicked, in the pursuits of sin; and the night, with the lost, in the bottomless pit..

3.-Having a great many with you will be no security to you when you are doing that which is wrong. It is very likely that many of these boys and girls would have been afraid to get into the boat if they had been alone. They would have thought of what their teachers, or parents, or ministers, or friends had said to them about the danger attendant upon the ways of transgressors, and their fears might have preserved them from their dangers and sufferings. But there were fourteen of them in all, and the waterman made fifteen. Perhaps many of them were laughing and jesting, and appearing happy; and it is not much to be wondered at, that in the midst of so many, some of the timid should have gained courage, and some of the fearful should have lost their apprehensions of danger. But the number could not hide one of them from the eye of God, nor save one of them from the consequences of sin. Let every little boy and girl remember that God can see children when surrounded by multitudes, as well as when alone, and can punish them for sin when in a crowd as easily as when they are by themselves.

4.-By doing that which is wrong, you not only endanger your own safety, but you are doing that which may rob your parents and friends of their happiness, and plunge them into the greatest distress. Oh, how many tears were shed, how many sighs were heaved, how many cries were uttered, how many hearts were almost broken by the improper

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conduct of these children on the 19th of May. Look again at the picture; see the anguish that is depicted in the countenances of the distressed relatives and friends. And oh, what must have been the agony of one family when they saw one boy brought home almost dead, and learned that his younger brother was cold and lifeless at the bottom of the water? Would you not be very sorry to give pain to your ministers and teachers? Would it not grieve you to fill the hearts of your brothers and sisters with distress and bitterness? Would it not agonize you to think that you should break your mother's heart, and send your father down with sorrow to the grave?

Then take care and never break the sabbath, if you have not done it; if you have, pray to God to forgive you, and never do so again. Keep away from all wicked companions; strive and pray against the indulgence of all wicked feelings, and leave off all wicked pursuits. Repent of sin, believe in Christ, fear God, and keep his commandments; and this will be the way to be safe and happy yourselves, and a source of comfort to your parents and friends.

Derby.

Your sincere friend,

JOHN CORBIN.

POPISH RELICS AND POPISH NONSENSE.

At Rome there is shown the very stone, professedly, a slab of alabaster, upon which the soldiers cast lots for the seamless coat of Christ; the very rock which was burst in sunder at the crucifixion; the very table at which our Lord eat the passover; the very curb-stone of the well of Samaria; and a miraculous communion stone table through which there is a hole, several inches in diameter, caused as follows, A priest was offering on it who had doubts as to transubstantiation, he doubted whether the wafer was converted into the real body of Christ; but he accidentally dropped the wafer on the table, and in the twinkling of an eye the marble table was perforated-of course he could doubt no more. Here is also a piece of the true cross of Christ; two thorns from his crown; one of the thirty pieces of silver; the finger which Thomas put into the Saviour's side; a piece of the sponge handed to Jesus on the cross; part of the vest without a seam; part of the veil and hair of the Virgin Mary; some earth from Calvary stained with Christ's blood; a piece of the stone on which the angel stood as he saluted Mary; and a tooth of St. Peter.

Conversations on British Church History.

CONVERSATION THE FIRST.

RELIGION BEFORE CHRISTIANITY.

The evening sun had just disappeared behind the western hill, when Cerdoc was seated on the grass surrounded by his children. Great Britain, three hundred years after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, was, in situation and shape, much the same as it now is—an island surrounded by sea, with hills and valleys and bays and rivers-but the general appearance of the country was very different. There were no cities and towns with their well ordered streets and mansions, and heaven-directing spires, such as we now behold; even their most crowded places were comparatively clusters of rude huts, with here and there a building approaching the more stately, which the Romans had taught the natives to erect. Woods covered a great part of the land; ditches to carry off the water were few, and there was nothing worth the name of a road, except the Roman paths for soldiers called Wattling streets. The people were more attentive to the flocks than to the corn fields, and though improved in dress and other comforts, they were generally in a state that we should think mean and wretched. Yet the woods and fields were green and beautiful; the air breathed and the sun shone much as you now enjoy them, the shores resounded with the hoarse murmur of the ever speaking waves, -the sound of many waters;'-and the lowing of the oxen, the bleating of the sheep, and singing of the birds, were as musical as you now hear them on a quiet summer's evening.

It was such an evening when the children of the pious Cerdoc begged their father to tell them what religion the Britons had before the gospel of Jesus Christ, which he so often explained, had been sent among them. 'Well, Caradoc,* said the father to his eldest son, 'when you have read Ephesians ii. 11-13., and you and the rest of the children have promised to attend and to try to understand what I shall say, I will tell you a great deal in a short time.' Caradoc read the verses, and Claudia and all the little circle promised to attend.

Well, then, my dear boys and girls, you must know,

*The British name for Caractacus, a renowned king of the ancient Britons.

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that as the first people who settled on our island came from the north of Europe, so they brought with them that religion which was generally professed by the Celts and the people who lived in those parts. This religion was called DRUIDISM.' What a hard word, father, said Wynfredda, please tell us what Druidism means? Particular religions, my dear girl,' said Cerdoc, are often called after the name of their chief priests or ministers, and the abominable idolatry' of our early fathers had this name from that of DRUID. This word most likely is taken from the Greek Drus, which means an oak, since the priests dwelt and sacrificed under this stately tree. I wish, indeed, that whenever you see an oak you may thank God you are not led by Druids; and feel the force of Isaiah i. 29. Read that verse, Caradoc.' Why, father,' exclaimed Griffith, 'did Isaiah know anything about the old Britons?' haps not, child, although his neighbours the Phoenicians probably sailed for tin to Cornwall before his time; but you see how God can have his word written so that it suits very different people, as much as if it had been made for one class only.

'Per

These men

'I will now tell you more about the Druids. were held in the highest veneration by the ancient Britons, and had a most astonishing power over all classes of their countrymen. They were not only priests to regulate and perform the religious rites of the nation, but also philosophers and judges. Like the wise men from the east they knew a great deal of astronomy, arithmetic, mechanics, botany, medicine, and rhetoric; and because they were much above the people in knowledge, and also cunning men, they were supposed, at least, to be great magicians. They wore long garments, and when performing religious rites, their robe was white, with a neck ornament of gold called the Druid's Egg.

'But, father,' said Griffith, 'please to tell us more about their religion; was it not very imperfect and very cruel?" 'It was indeed,' answered Cerdoc, both imperfect and cruel, as all religions must be which the Bible does not approve, and which leave the naughty heart of man to quiet his conscience by torture, either on himself or on a fellow creature. Just repeat Psalm lxxiv. 20; thus the woods and caverns of the Druids were indeed the abodes of cruelty. They knew nothing about the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world; and though their general offering on discovering the mistletoe was a bull, there is

no doubt that sometimes men were killed in horrid sacrifice. Prisoners taken in war, thieves and other offenders were thus devoted to the gods, and when these were not to be had, the innocent were offered in sacrifice, stripped naked, and fastened to an oak, and the fatal weapon was plunged into their bowels amidst the shoutings of the deluded people.'

'But,' enquired Wynfredda, 'could any people think to please God by murdering their fellow men? I am sorry to say,' replied her father, that this horrid practice was not confined to our country, but that in many heathenish places, and down to the present moment, such murders have been common. The companions of Cortés counted 136,000 skulls of men sacrificed and presented to the gods, in one building in Mexico! O, that poor ignorant savages were taught what religion God approves. See Micah vi.

"These Druids seemed to believe that there was one God, whom they called Odin, and that the soul of man lasts for ever: but then having no Bible, they had a very confused notion of these things, and thought there were many other inferior gods, and that the soul of man at his death passed into some other body. Perhaps some thought there was a world of spirits, but it is only in the Bible you can learn anything correctly about heaven and hell.

"The Romans introduced some of their gods, and induced our fathers to build Temples for their worship. Thus