ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS.

Anecdotes, Selections, and Gems.

Anecdotes.

LIEUT. GOV. PHILIPS.-Many years since, when the late Lieut. Gov. Philips, of Andover, Massachusetts, was a student at Harvard College, owing to some boyish freak, he quit the University and went home. His father was a grave man, of sound mind, strict judgment, and of few words. He inquired into the matter, but deferred expressing any opinion until the next day. At breakfast he said, speaking to his wife, "My dear, have you any tow-cloth in the house suitable to make Sam a frock and trousers ?" She replied yes." Well,” replied the old gentleman, "follow me, my son." Samuel kept pace with his father as he walked near the common, and at length ventured to ask "What are you going to do with me, father?" "I am going to bind you an apprentice to that blacksmith," replied his father; "take your choice; return to college, or you must work." "I had rather return,” said the son. He did return, confessed his fault, was a good scholar, and became a respectable man. If all parents were like Mr. Philips, the students at our colleges would prove better students, or the nation would have a plentiful supply of blacksmiths.

THE DYING DUKE.-Great talents, great learning, great wit, and great riches, combined with exalted station, have sometimes proved a great and dreadful curse to their possessor. This was most

strikingly true in the person of the renowned Duke of Buckingham. He was the richest man, and the greatest wit, in the court of Charles II. But his vices and extravagances reduced him to a most pitiable condition on his death-bed. Worn out by his vices, and weary of the world, and with a dreadful eternity just opening before him, he wrote from his dying bed to Dr. Barlow, of whom he had a high opinion, in the following affecting language:—“Oh, doctor, what a prodigal have I been of the most valuable of all possessions-time! I have squandered it away with a persuasion it was lasting and now, when a few days would be worth a hecatomb of worlds, I cannot flatter myself with a prospect of half a dozen hours." THE SCOFFER SILENCED.-The late Dr. Mason once said to a young infidel who was scoffing at christianity, because of the misconduct of some of its professors-"Did you ever know an uproar to be made because an infidel went astray from the paths of morality ?" The infidel admitted that he had not. "Then don't you see," said Dr. M., "that by expecting the professors of christianity to be holy, you admit it to be a holy religion, and thus pay it the highest compliment in your power!" The young man was silent.

LIFE AND DEATH.-" Life is sweet and death bitter," said Sir Anthony Kingston to Bishop Hooper at the stake. "True, friend," replied Hooper, "but the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come more sweet."

ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS.

USE OF FAITH AND PRAYER.-A poor woman who lived on the edge of a wood, in a lonely situation, being asked if she was not afraid to live alone in such a place, replied, "No, I have few cares and no fears; for faith shuts the door at night, and prayer opens it in the morning"

SHORT ALLOWANCE.—It is said that the celebrated Whitefie'd, when advanced in life, finding his physical powers failing him, undertook to put himself upon what he called "short allowance." He preached once only on every day in the week, and three times on the sabbath!

THE WAY TO KEEP AT PEACE.-The late Rev. John Clark, of Frome, was asked how he kept himself from being involved in quarrels. He answered, "By letting the angry person always have the quarrel to himself."

Selections.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PENITENTS.-"For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him," Rom. x. 12. Some peni.. tents are too prone to despond, and to say with gloomy minds, “What ground have we to hope for mercy? Our rebellions are so great, and so many, and our hearts are so depraved, besides we have sinned against gospel light, and the convictions of the Spirit, and that too after so many promises and resolutions to forsake sin. How dare we then to pray for grace, or hope for salvation? It is true there is some change wrought in our hearts; we now mourn for sin, and detest the crimes in which we once took delight; and we should be glad to be delivered from the guilt and dominion of those lusts that have grieved the Holy Spirit, and alienated our hearts from God, but looking at our hard hearts, our numerous crimes, and the holy law of God, we have reason to fear that his mercy is clean gone for ever, and that he will be favourable no more." Now I have a message of comfort to such sorrowing and desponding souls. God's eye is upon, and his heart is towards them. Let them continue to seek for mercy, and pray for grace, for "the same Lord over all is rich to all that call upon him." He is rich in wisdom, and he will instruct them; rich in power, and he will help them; rich in grace, and he will renew, and pardon, and save them; rich in his willingness to hear and answer their prayers, and to supply all their wants He has promised, and he will perform. He cannot deny himself. Let them remember his mercy to suppliants of old. Abraham, Moses, Elijah, David, the blind man, Canaanitish woman, publican, and the thief, can declare his readiness to hear and answer prayer. He taketh pleasure in a penitent sinner praying for mercy in the name of Jesus Christ. Oh, then, ye timid souls, draw near. Ask and ye shall receive. Come boldly to the throne of grace, that ye may obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. J. C. N.

ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS.

Seek all in GOD.—Augustine says, "Thou mayest seek after honours, and not obtain them; thou mayest labour for riches, and yet remain poor; thou mayest dote on pleasures, and have many sorrow3. But our God, of his supreme goodness, says, 'Who ever sought me, and found me not? Who ever desired me, and obtained me not? Who ever loved me, and missed of me? I am with him that seeks for me. He hath me already that wisheth for me; and he that loveth me is sure of my love. The way to come to me is neither long nor difficult.""

LEAVE ALL TO GOD.-Let it be our constant care to be ready for heaven, and let us leave it with God to order the circumstances of our removal thither, and that with so much deference to his wisdom that if He should refer it to us to choose, we would refer it to him again. Grace teaches us in the midst of life's greatest comforts to be willing to die, and in the midst of its greatest crosses to be willing to live. The Saviour was acquainted with grief, and we must expect to be so too.

COME BY CHRIST.— Mankind have tried experiments, and sought out inventions, long enough. It is time that they were prepared to listen to the voice of their Father in heaven, crying to them, not only from his word, but from every leaf and line of the great book of providence, and saying, "None can come to me but by Christ. Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

BE NOT AFRAID.-Christ was deserted a little before the glorious morning of light and joy dawned upon him. It was a little while, after his sad cry, before he triumphed gloriously; and so it may be with you; heaviness may endure for a night, but joy and gladness will come in the morning. Let God steer for you in the storm. He loves to be trusted.

TEMPTATION. That temptation that at first is but a little cloud as big as a man's hand, may quickly overspread the whole heaven. Our engaging in sin is the motion of a stone down hill, "it strengthens itself by going," and the longer it runs, the more violent. Beware of the smallest beginnings of temptation. No wise man will neglect or slight the smallest spark of fire, especially if he see it among barrels of gunpowder. You carry gunpowder about you; oh, take heed of sparks!

SENSIBILITY OF DANGER.-Nothing is more awful, or more calculated to make one shudder with horror, than to see any one in imminent danger of injury or death, and seem not to be aware of it. We shrink, and writhe, and scream out in alarm. The impenitent are in awful danger, and yet they seem not to know it, or care about it. Oh for a voice to alarm them, and an arm to pluck them from interminable ruin!

GETTING ON.-The great cry with everybody is, Get on! get on! just as if the world were travelling post. How astonished people will be, when they arrive in heaven, to find the angels, who are so much wiser than they, laying no schemes to be made archangels.

ANECDOTES, SELECTIONS, AND GEMS.

Gems.

THE HOPELESS CHARACTER.-Who is one of the most hopeless men upon earth? That man who has sat, sabbath after sabbath, under awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls; who has been so accustomed to hear the most momentous of all truths that they now make no impression on his heart, and in whom the habit of disobedience to the call of God is inveterate. To such the word of God says, "Woe unto thee."

GODLINESS is a great revenue. If it be closely followed, it brings in the greatest income. Indeed, some men are religious for the world's sake; such shall be sure not to gain: but they who are religious for religion's sake, shall be sure not to lose, if heaven and earth can recompense them; for "godliness hath the promise both of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

NEGLECT OF SALVATION.-"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" mark, if we neglect: he doth not say, if we reject and renounce it if we scoff at, and deride it-if we oppose and persecute it; no, but if we neglect it.

JUDGING OTHERS.-When disposed to utter a harsh judgment of a christian brother, it is a good rule to pause a moment, look inward, and delay the judgment until conscience says it may be pronounced, honestly, sincerely, consistently.

LITTLE SINS.-There are no little sins. There was a time when all the evil that has existed in the world was comprehended in one sinful thought of our first parents; and all the evil now, is the numerous progeny of one little sin.

ATHEISM.-God never wrought miracles to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it.

A SAD TRUTH.-When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.

Facts and Hints.

WORTHY OF CONSIDERATION.-A well-known writer says-"we pay best, first, those who destroy us-generals; second, those who cheat us -politicians and quacks; third, those who amuse us-singers and musicians; and least of all, those who instruct us-ministers, authors, and schoolmasters."

ART OF BEING HAPPY.-If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another. Many run about after felicity like an absent man seeking for his hat-while it may be on his head or in his band all the time.

A CURIOUS FACT.-It is stated by some statistical bunter that the sum annually expended for bread by the population of Great Britain and Ireland amounts to £25,000,000 sterling-while the money expended in distilled and fermented drinks amounts to upwards of £50,000,000.

READING.-The most industrious persons find time to read, and it is only the idle and trifling who can find no time to improve themselves by reading.

AN EPITAPH.

What thou art reading o'er my bones,
I've often read on other stones:
And others soon shall read of thee,
What thou art reading now of me.

THE FIRESIDE.

The Fireside.

LITTLE JOHNNY; OR, THE PEACEFUL CONTEST.

'Twas not long ago, it matters not where,

I heard of the following novel affair:

A man and his wife, both good meaning people,
Had different views respecting the "steeple;"
The wife loved a form, the husband loved none,
They agreed thus to differ, and so they went on,
Till a little time after, when, lo! and behold!
Young JOHNNY appears, their hopes to unfold.
The father exclaim'd with a tone of surprise,
That such real beauty ne'er feasted his eyes;
The mother got better, and boldly declared,

Not a child in the world could with her's be compar❜d.
We'll excuse the young couple, no doubt they thought so;
Most parents thus think we very well know.
Had matters stopp'd here, all calm and serene,

I need not have told the following scene:
I know in these days you'll not be surprised,
To hear that the child must anon be baptiz'd;
The father objected and call'd it unsound,
And said that in Scripture it could not be found:
The wife quite enraged at her infidel mate,
Declared that it should, whate'er be her fate;
She summon'd the prophets to make it appear,
And confirm'd it by Moses, who brought up the rear;
Avowing the old-fashioned word "Circumcise,"
Was the same with what we represent by "Baptize."
Her passion was great, but her arguments small,
For the errors of "church" her mind did inthral.
After much had been said on both sides the question,
The mother delay'd not to make it a christian;

So odd mother one and odd-fathers two,
Went off with the child without more ado.

When arrived at the church they met with the parson,
Who took up his book and began with his lesson,
Repeating the question already surmis'd,

"In this faith, now my son, wilt thou be baptiz'd ?"
But just as this question accosted their ears,
Unlucky for them, the father appears;

Which the odd-folks observing could not speak a word,
Nor yet when the parson re-echoed it loud.
The father advancing, said, "Johnny, my boy,
Either answer his Reverence, or else tell me why;
He speaks to you civil, you are sure much to blame,
So early in life to expose us to shame."
The parson was ruffled, and looking quite wild,
Said, "Answer direct for the dear little child;
You came here to promise and vow in his name