BE KIND TO THE BEGGAR.

Be kind to the beggar

You meet by the way, Whose cheeks are all furrowed, Whose hair is turned gray;

For once he was happy

As mortal could be;
From life's wasting cares he
Was perfectly free.

O'er joys fell a shadow:
His children so dear
In the dark valley slumber,
And his wife lies near;
His cottage, where flowers

Bloomed brightly around,
In the depth of the winter

Was burned to the ground.

Now houseless and friendless
He begs in the streets,
Soliciting pennies

From all that he meets.
With grief in his bosom,
A tear in his eye,
O, give to the pilgrim
Who's now passing by.

Your Maker, who looketh
At every good deed,

Will not let you suffer
If ever in need;

But true friends will gather
Around you to bless, —
Your wants to supply, or
Your temples to press.

Then give to the needy,

Give all you can spare ; Give food for the body,

And raiment to wear; And God, your kind Father, Will bless from his throne; Such children he always

Delighteth to own.

GIVE AS GOD HATH GIVEN THEE.

GIVE as God hath given thee,
With a bounty full and free;
If he hath, with liberal hand,
Given wealth to thy command,
For the fulness of thy store,
Give thy needy brother more.

If the lot His love doth give
Is by earnest toil to live,

If with nerve and sinew strong
Thou dost labor hard and long,
Then, e'en from thy slender store,
Give, and God shall give thee more.

Hearts there are with grief oppressed;
Forms in tattered raiment dressed;
Homes where want and woe abide;
Dens where vice and misery hide;
With a bounty large and free,
Give, as God hath given thee.

Wealth is thine to aid and bless,
Strength to succor and redress:
Bear thy weaker brother's part,
Strong of hand, and strong of heart;
Be thy portion large or small,
Give, for God doth give thee all.

"WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?"

THY neighbor?-it is he whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless;
Whose aching heart, or burning brow,
Thy soothing hand may press.

Thy neighbor?-'tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,
Whom hunger sends from door to door-
Go, thou, and succor him.

Thy neighbor?-'tis that weary man,
Whose years are at their brim,
Bent low with sickness, cares, and pain -
Go, thou, and comfort him.

Thy neighbor?-'tis the heart bereft

Of every earthly gem;

Widow and orphan, helpless left

Go, thou, and shelter them.

Where'er thou meet'st a human form

Less favored than thy own, Remember, 'tis thy neighbor worm, Thy brother or thy son.

THE ABUSE OF FICTION.

One's indignation is excited at the immoral tendency of such lessons to young readers.-JOHN FOSTER.

To abuse the imagination is to abuse the most delicate and susceptible of the mental faculties; for it is the common parent of the beautiful and true, as also of the vicious and corrupt. Every action, whatever may be its moral quality, is first preceded by the conception and meditation of it. And out of the heart "are the issues of life."

Works of fiction are addressed to the imagination. To excite and please this faculty are the objects which they propose to accomplish. They must awaken and gratify it, or they are failures. And a book which neither interests nor pleases is a very harmless affair.

Its uses are Great truths,

Fiction has its uses and its abuses. of a high and commanding order. important lessons, and pleasing entertainment, are often rendered the most attractive and beneficial, when a rayed in its garb. Poetry, sentiment, and philosophy, have been immeasurably indebted to its magic power. But it is not of its uses that we now propose to speak.