the singing. A boy to whom I had often spoken, and who had an open, merry expression of face, was in the habit of placing himself not far from the snorer, and I now requested him to sit more immediately behind him, and to touch him from time to time in order to keep him awake. At first the lad refused to do this, but the promise of a groschen led him to comply. During the whole service I could see the contest carried on between the little fellow and his somnolent neighbour, and by a glance of my eye I tried to encourage the former to keep up the rousing process. On the following Sunday the rustic came again, and so did the boy, whom I begged to continue his good offices as before, but he declined ; and when I held out the bribe of the groschen, told me that the peasant had already given him two, on condition that he should not be disturbed. When the service was over, throughout the whole of which the man had slumbered unmolested, I went up to him in the churchyard, and asked him what motive he could have for coming to church; to which he answered, quite unconcernedly, 'There are too many flies in the house for a man to get his rest, but in the church it's fine and cool; in winter there's never any need why I should

come.

The reader, we daresay, will recollect Dean Swift's admirable sermon on sleeping in church. The humour of "opium is not so stupefying to many persons as an afternoon sermon."

LET WELL ALONE.

Malherbe, having dined with the Bishop of Rouen, who was a dull preacher, was asked by him to adjourn from the table to the church, where he was then going to preach. "Pardon me," said Malherbe, "but I can sleep very well 'where I am."

A CLEAR CASE.

At King's College, Cambridge, one Sunday morning, when not above two of the Fellows had been at chapel with the the Provost, Dr. Snape, the latter, at evening service said to Dr. Wilmot, the Vice-Provost, a man of wit, who wrote upon the English particles, "Upon my word, Mr. Vice-Provost, there was a scandalous appearance at chapel this morning! "Why do you apply to me?" said Wilmot; "I did not con

tribute to make it."

A THIRD WIFE.

Dr. Middleton having taken a third wife, the relict of a Bristol merchant, Bishop Gooch called to make a matrimonial visit, when he told Mrs. Middleton that "he was glad she did not dislike the ancients so much as her husband did." She replied that she hoped his lordship did not reckon her husband among the ancients yet. The bishop answered, "You, madam, are the best judge of that."

BAPTISMAL BLUNDER.

Lucifer the light-bringer-is a very good name, but few parents would desire to give it to a child; indeed, if the attempt were made the sponsor would probably meet with the treatment which was once suffered by mistake. "Name this child," said a parson. "Lucy, sir," replied the humble sponsor. "Lucifer! I shall give him no such name; I shall call him John!" and John the girl was for the rest of her life.

LADY HUNTINGDON'S CONNEXION.

We dare say the reader will recollect the large chapel in North-street, Brighton, to build which Lady Huntingdon sold all her jewels. Some years later she was in perplexity how to raise money for a chapel she wished to build at Birmingham. She was accustomed to keep in her house the sum of 3007., to defray the expenses of her funeral; and it was her wish to be buried in white satin. This money was considered so sacred that on no account was it to be touched. On this occasion she said to Lady Anne Erskine, her friend and companion, "I want 3007.; I have no money in the house but that put by for my funeral; for the first time in my life I feel inclined to let that go." Lady Anne said, "You can trust God with your soul-why not with your funeral?" The Countess took the money; and the very day she did so a gentleman, who could know nothing of the circumstance, sent her a cheque for precisely 3007.

Lady Gertrude Hotham, Lord Chesterfield's sister, was an active Methodist: her brother, the Earl, being very ill, she went with her Primate, Lady Huntingdon, to try to tempt

him to one of their seminaries in Wales, hoping to get at his soul by a cranny in his health. They extolled the prospects, and then there were such charming mountains! "Hold, ladies," said he, "I don't love mountains; when your Ladyships' faith has removed the mountains, I will go thither with all my heart!"

HAT AND HEAD.

A deputation of Quakers was waiting in an anteroom at Carlton Palace, to present an Address of Congratulation to the Prince Regent, when one of the pages advanced to take off the hats of the Quakers. Dr. Waugh, the Nonconformist, who was standing by, and who loved a joke, said to the foremost Quaker, in an audible whisper, "Persecution, brother;" to which the brother significantly replied, while pointing upwards ( to the portrait of Charles I.), "Not so bad to take off the hat as the head."

WESLEY AND THE MORAVIANS.

In the vessel which conveyed John Wesley and his associates to America were several families of the Moravians, or (as they call themselves) the United Brethren, who, under the patronage of Government, were proceeding to join some of their society already established in Georgia. During the voyage, which was tedious and stormy, Wesley had been greatly impressed and affected by their humility, meekness, and patience. Southey tells us that "Those servile offices, which none of the English would perform for the other passengers, they offered themselves to undertake, and would receive no recompense; saying, it was good for their proud hearts, and their Saviour had done more for them. No injury could move their meekness; if they were struck or thrown down, they made no complaint, nor suffered the slightest indication of resentment to appear. Wesley was curious to see whether they were equally delivered from the spirit of fear, and this he had an opportunity of ascertaining. In the midst of the psalm with which they began their service, the sea broke over, split the main-sail, covered the ship, and poured in between the decks, as if, he says, the great deep had already swallowed us up. A dreadful screaming was

He

heard among the English colonists: the Moravians calmly sung on. Wesley afterwards asked one of them if he was not afraid at that time. He replied, 'I thank God, no.' was then asked if the women and children were not afraid. His answer was, 'No; our women and children are not afraid to die." "

This good opinion was confirmed by all which Wesley observed in their conduct and manners after his arrival in the new world.

WESLEY'S RECLAMATIONS.

With all the enthusiasm, and the incidental evil consequences, of Wesley's system, he might boast of much direct and evident good produced, of many sinners reclaimed, of many ignorant persons enlightened, of many disappointed and broken hearts relieved by the balm of religion. Southey relates that a woman, overwhelmed with affliction, went out one night with the determination of throwing herself into the New River. As she was passing the Foundry, she heard the people singing: she stopped, and went in; listened, learnt where to look for consolation and support, and was thereby preserved from suicide.

Wesley had been disappointed of a room at Grimsby, and when the appointed hour for preaching came, the rain prevented him from preaching at the Cross. In the perplexity which this occasioned, a convenient place was offered him by a woman, "which was a sinner." Of this, however, he was ignorant at the time, and the woman listened to him without any apparent emotion. But in the evening he preached eloquently upon the sins and the faith of her who washed our Lord's feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head; and that discourse, by which the whole congregation were affected, touched her to the heart. She followed him to his lodging, crying out, "O, sir, what must I do to be saved?" Wesley, who now understood that she had forsaken her husband, and was living in adultery, replied, "Escape for your life! Return instantly to your husband!" She said she knew not how to go; she had just heard from him, and he was at Newcastle, above an hundred miles off. Wesley made answer, that he was going to Newcastle himself the next morning; she might go with him, and his companion should take her behind him. It was late in October: she

performed the journey under this protection, and in a state of mind which beseemed her condition. "During our whole journey," he says, "I scarce observed her to smile; nor did she ever complain of any thing, or appear moved in the least with those trying circumstances which many times occurred in our way. A steady seriousness, or sadness rather, appeared in her whole behaviour and conversation, as became one that felt the burden of sin, and was groaning after salvation.". "Glory be to the Friend of sinners!" he exclaims, when he relates the story; "He hath plucked one more brand out of the fire! Thou poor sinner, thou hast received a prophet in the name of a prophet, and thou art found of Him that sent him." The husband did not turn away the penitent; and her reformation appeared to be sincere and permanent.

OPPOSITION TO METHODISM.

It may well be supposed, that exertions of a nature so novel as those made in the early days of Methodism, were not likely to be carried on in England without great and violent opposition. Nor was this opposition confined to the bloodless weapons of argument or verbal censure. Furious mobs arose against them in many places both of England and Ireland; and the magistrates, in some instances, showed a scandalous neglect of their duty, and even encouraged whatever excesses had the suppression of Methodism for their object. Whitefield, while preaching in Moorfields, was not only assailed with all the usual missiles of a brutal rabble, but was attacked with a drawn sword by a person with the appearance of a gentleman; and Wesley was twice in very serious danger, once at Walsall, in Staffordshire, where some of the mob cried out " Crucify him!"-once in Cornwall, where a crowd, headed by the crews of some privateers, broke into the house where he was visiting a sick lady, with avowed intentions of killing him, which were only prevented by his firm and quiet manner of addressing them.

In Ireland some of his helpers were exposed, if possible, to still greater danger: a mob paraded the streets of Dublin armed with swords, staves, and pistols, wounding many persons, and offering five pounds for the head of a Methodist; and a Grand Jury, instead of affording justice to the injured party, preferred bills against Charles Wesley and nine of his