violence, are determined, at all events, upon the kingdom of heaven? Where are the multitudes of English Christians answerable, in some measure, to the number and nature of those privileges and advantages, which as a Church and nation we have so long enjoyed? Are they not even yet a little flock," and may not our admiration well be great, when we can fairly hope concerning any family, that the reign of heavenly grace is set up in every heart?

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My dear readers, whatever your present state and character may be, consider, I pray you, the utter and hopeless ruin of all those who are found at the last fighting against the Lord God of hosts. "As for those, mine enemies, who would not that I should reign over them, bring them hither, and slay them before me." O then, "fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on eternal life."

S. B.

PARENTS, TRAIN YOUR CHILDREN TO A HABIT OF

PRAYER.

"Be

PRAYER is the very life-breath of true religion. It is one of the first evidences that a man is born again. hold," said the Lord, of Saul, in the day He sent Ananias to him, “Behold, he prayeth." (Acts ix. 11.) He had begun to pray, and that was proof enough.

Prayer was the distinguishing mark of the Lord's people in the day that there began to be a separation between them and the world. "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Gen. iv. 26.

Prayer is the peculiarity of all real Christians now. They pray, for they tell God their wants, their feelings, their desires, their fears, and mean what they say. The nominal Christian may repeat prayers, and good prayers too, but he goes no further.

Prayer is the turning-point in a man's soul. Our ministry is unprofitable, and our labour is vain till you are brought to your knees.-Till then we have no hope about you.

Prayer is one great secret of spiritual prosperity. When there is much private communion with God your soul will grow like the grass after rain; when there is

little, all will be at a stand-still, you will barely keep your soul alive. Show me a growing Christian, a humble Christian, a strong Christian, a flourishing Christian, and sure am I, he is one that speaks often with his Lord. He asks much, and he has much.

Prayer is the mightiest engine God has placed in our hands. It is the best weapon to use in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble. It is the key that unlocks the treasury of promises, and the hand that draws forth grace and help in time of need. It is the silver trumpet God commands us to sound in all our necessity, and it is the cry He has promised always to attend to, even as a loving mother to the voice of her child.

Prayer is the simplest means that man can use in coming to God. It is within reach of all; the sick, the aged, the infirm, the paralytic, the blind, the poor, the unlearned; all can pray. It avails you nothing to plead want of memory, and want of learning, and want of books, and want of scholarship in this matter. So long as you have a tongue to tell your soul's state, you may and ought to pray. Those words, "Ye have not, because ye ask not," (James iv. 2,) will be a fearful condemnation to many in the day of judgment.

Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies in your power to train them up to a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them if they become careless and slack about it. Let it not be your fault, at any rate, if they never call on the name of the Lord.

This, remember, is the first step in religion which a child is able to take. Long before he can read you can teach him to kneel by his mother's side, and repeat the simple words of prayer and praise which she puts in his mouth. And as the first steps in any undertaking are always the most important, so is the manner in which your children's prayers are prayed a point which deserves your closest attention. Few seem to know how much depends on this. You must beware lest they get into a way of saying them in a hasty, care

less, and irreverent manner. You must beware of giving up the oversight of this matter to servants and nurses, or of trusting too much to your children doing it when left to themselves. I cannot praise that mother who never looks after this most important part of her child's daily life herself. Surely if there be any habit which your own hand and eye should help in forming, it is the habit of prayer. Believe me, if you never hear your children pray yourself, you are much to blame. You are little wiser than the bird described in Job, "which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in the dust, and forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them. She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not her's: her labour is in vain without fear." Job xxxix. 14—16.

Prayer is, of all habits, the one which we recollect the longest. Many a grey-headed man could tell you how his mother used to make him pray in the days of his childhood. Other things have passed away from his mind perhaps.-The church where he was taken to worship, the minister whom he heard preach,— the companions who used to play with him,-all these, it may be, have passed from his memory, and left no mark behind. But you will often find it is far different with his first prayers. He will often be able to tell you where he knelt, and what he was taught to say, and even how his mother looked all the while. will come up as fresh before his mind's eye, as if it was but yesterday. Reader, if you love your children, I charge you, do not let the seed-time of a prayerful habit pass away unimproved. If you train your children to any thing, train them at least to a habit of prayer. Rev. J. C. RYLE.

It

INSTINCT IN ANIMALS.

AN amusing fact, amongst the many proving the extraordinary powers of animals in finding their way back to places from which they have been removed, is told by Mr. Jesse, as having been related to him by a gentleman on whose veracity he could fully rely.

An officer of the 44th regiment, who had occasion when in Paris to cross one of the bridges across the Seine, had his boots, which had been previously well polished, dirtied by a poodle dog running against them. He in consequence went to one of the men stationed at the corner of every street in Paris, and on the bridges, and had them cleaned. The same circumstance having occurred more than once, his curiosity was excited, and he watched the dog. He saw him roll himself in the mud of the river, and then watch for a person with well-polished boots, against which he contrived to rub himself. Finding that the shoeblack was the owner of the dog, he taxed him with the artifice, and after some hesitation, he confessed that he had taught him the trick, in order to procure customers. The officer being much struck with the dog's sagacity, purchased him at a high price, and brought him to England. He kept him tied up in London for some time, and then released him. The dog remained with him a day or two, and then made his escape. A fortnight afterwards he was found with his former master, pursuing his old trade on the bridge.

Nor are instances of this kind of sagacity confined to dogs. The following is attested by more than one officer acquainted with the facts at the time.

In March, 1816, an ass, the property of Captain Dundas, R.N., then at Malta, was shipped on board the Ister frigate, Captain Forest, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel having struck on some sands off the Point-de-Gat, at some distance from the shore, the ass was thrown overboard, to give it a chance of swimming to land; a poor one, for the sea was running so high, that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few days afterwards, however, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened in the morning, the ass presented himself for admission, and proceeded to the stable of Mr. Weeks, a merchant, which he had formerly occupied, to the no small surprise of that gentleman, who imagined that from some accident the animal had never been shipped aboard the Ister. On the return of the vessel to repair, however, the mystery was explained, and it turned out that Valiante, (so she was afterwards

called,) had not only swam safely to shore, but without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way from Point-de-Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than 200 miles, which he had never traversed before, through a mountainous and intricate country, intersected by streams, and in so short a period, that he could not have made one false turn. His not having been stopped on the road, was attributed to the circumstance of his having been formerly used to whip criminals upon, which was indicated to the peasants, who have a superstitious horror of such asses, by the holes in his ears, to which the persons flogged were tied.-Jesse's "Gleanings."

THE SABBATH.

THROUGH eighteen centuries the Sabbath has descended to us. That it has survived, seems a proof of its Divine original; and the same Providence which has watched over the canon of Scripture, and preserved that, must be regarded as the source of the Sabbath observance now. Wherever the Scriptures have gone, the Sabbath has gone too. Wherever the Bible has been honoured, the Sabbath has been honoured too. The respect paid to one has ever been the measure of reverence paid to the other; and the Sabbath has never been honoured where the word of God has not been the standard of religion. In the Church of Rome, for instance, we find the Sabbath lost sight of in the multitude of festivals ordained by man's authority; and in the same church we find the Scriptures withheld from the people, and tradition raised to a level with the word of God. Even in Protestant countries the analogy holds good. There are countries where the word of God is less honoured than the word of man-where the Scripture is read while the congregation is assembling, that they may listen to the preacher's sermon; and in those countries the Sabbath is sunk to the level of a festival, a day of amusement, and is no longer a day holy to the Lord. In our own country, we may observe a similar correspondence. There have been times of Sabbath desecration, times when its desecration was authorized by law; and those times are notorious for general profligacy and indifference to the word of God.