tifies that this hope is not vain, is this passage, which is contained in the same Bible: God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John iii. 16.) I am one of the world, and may, therefore, be saved by faith." "Still, until you enter Paradise, it is necessary for you to get the means of subsistence in this world; and I declare to you, that if you ally yourself with these Protestants, your whole subsistence will be destroyed, for no one will want to have any dealings with you." "I put my trust in Him who giveth our daily bread; and if God is for me, what harm can they do me who are against me?" The Letter Bar. JUVENILE DELINQUENCY. AN APPEAL TO CHRISTIANS. Begging was declared years ago, and may be reiterated with undiminished emphasis in the present day, to be practised more in London than in any other city in Europe. In one of the Reports presented to the House of Commons, "it was stated in evidence that two houses in St. Giles (which is the principal resort of beggars) are frequented by considerably more than 200 persons, who hold in them a kind of club, from which all who are not of their profession are excluded; that children are let out by the day, and that the hire paid for deformed children is sometimes as high as 4s. per day, and that a regular school is kept in the same district, where children are instructed in the arts necessary to their success as beggars." THE subject of what is termed and thieving, deception and plunRagged-Schools has, to a consider- der. able extent, of late occupied public attention. Numbers in the Metropolis and elsewhere, of this neglected class, have been gathered together, and endeavours to impart to them intellectual and moral culture successfully prosecuted. It is an established fact that there is no quarter of society that presents so interesting a portion of human intellect. These poor boys and girls from their youth up have been, in a great measure, cast upon the wide world. From the time they could move, or speak, or cry, they have been thrown into the streets, and left to shift for themselves-it might almost be said to beg, or steal, or die! The result is, that they have been from the first at a sort of open-air infant-school, conducted monitorially, the elder teaching the younger. Without the artifice of system, they have yet been grouped together, the elder and more skilful leading and tutoring the younger and less expert in the art and mystery of mendicancy, with its unfailing attendants-lying So soon as the little urchin can lisp the cry "puir wean," or its tiny limbs carry its stinted body, it is thrown out of its dirty den into the streets, to beset the doors of the more blessed, or to interrupt the passengers on their busy thorough fares, with importunate appeals to Some are fatherless; others have charity, in a tone of whining from lost their mother; some have pracwhich he can never afterwards divest tically lost the only parent death himself. If he returns to the cel- has spared by a second marriage of larage without the expected amount either father or mother; many have prey, a sound beating, inter-progenitors who are not parents, as spersed with curses, may be his cruel desertion demonstrates. Others, welcome. He never hears of a God, again, have fathers and mothers, except as a name of imprecation. whose ignorance, destitution, or He seldom has heard of Heaven, but vicious habits render them totally often of its opposite, as the place to incapable of discharging their pawhich any outbreak of paternal ire rental responsibilities. summarily consigns him. A Bible he never saw in the house, and though it were put into his hands, he could not spell its simplest text. The Sabbath he knows only as a day when the shops are shut, and all business arrested save that of the whisky-shop. The church-bells are rung, and he observes a portion of the people better dressed than on other days, but in his sphere it is a day noted only as one of greater idleness and sensuality than other days. What can be expected from such a childhood?- from such a culture in the spring-day of life? The situation in which multitudes of poor children are thrown upon the world is such as furnishes the strongest inducement to evil. Hunger is a stinging prompter. Orphanage must be next specified as one of the accessory causes of juvenile depravity. This source of destitution and fountain of crime is, perhaps, the only one in which parents are not chargeable with guilt. But the calamity is retrievable, and its tributary character to sin is owing entirely to our selfish indifference. Many of the frequenters of low lodging-houses are orphans in the largest acceptation of that term. The absence of so many from home while engaged on sea, as sailors, or the protracted absence of fishermen, virtually place many, with both parents living, in the list of those who have lost a father or a mother. Of late, too, the extensive practice of husbands emigrating and leaving their families, frequently with no other means than those in prospect, is a fruitful source of a kind of orphanage. How complicated, indeed, is this matter! Death is busy at its fearful game everywhere. An epidemic, an explosion in the collieries or in the steamboat, the loss of a fishingsmack, or a wreck, will suddenly become the occasion of destitution to scores and hundreds of children. The annexed statistics will show the number of children who are annually thrown upon the world from one particular cause. From returns made last year, it appears that within the short period of a single month 148 persons lost life by explosions in the collieries. The result was, 66 widows, 1,217 orphans. Such a disastrous catalogue is not a rare exception. Turn whichever way you will, and official reports from prisons, or penal reformatory such company. It is pitiful to see one who is so largely indebted to God's beneficence, as a disciple, and one whose profession implies so much, and one whose hopes embrace so large and glorious an inheritance hereafter, it is pitiful to find charity with him a small affair. It ought to be one of the largest of his Christian graces. Indeed, Paul would have disciples abound in it so much, that it would be like a mantle covering and binding together all other Christian graces—the very "bond of perfectness." We wish this disciple had hearkened to Paul. What a noble position he might have held, compared with the sorry spectacle he now presents! Now, because all these things are true, we do not see how we can call the person anything else than a small disciple. We looked about for a better name, but could not find one. The Scriptures speak of growing in grace, and of rising "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;" but it has not been so in this case. We have to tax charity heavily to hope he ever began to grow at all. We trust there is some life in what so nearly resembles a dead body. But all the indications are so small, that we cannot but have anxiety. We should like to make a personal address to all the small disciples who read this article. But we have misgivings about its being of any use, because the really small disciple is the last person to suspect his own diminutiveness. He would not dream this article had any relation to him. Hence the shot would fly harmless over his head. We will leave him, therefore, hoping that to some of our readers this account of the small disciple will be of some advantage. "I HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE." -church, So said a member of the to one of the appointed collectors for Foreign Missions. And yet he professed to be a disciple of Jesus Christ to be governed by the self-denying principles of his Gospel. Nothing to give!-And yet he talked of the preciousness of the Gospel to his soul-of the hopes he entertained of salvation through its blood-purchased provisions; but he has nothing to give to extend those hopes and joys to those whom he professes to love as himself! Nothing to give !-And he sometimes attends the monthly prayermeeting, and prays that God will send the Gospel to the ends of the earth! He has said many times during the year, "Thy kingdom come," and pretended that it was prayer. If shillings were as cheap as words, the treasury of benevolence would be full. If Christians were as liberal with their purses as they are with their prayers, there would be no lack of means for sustaining the missionaries of the cross in every land. Nothing to give !-That means, The missionaries may starve, and the heathen may go to hell, before I part with any of my money for their relief. Nothing to give !-And he wears decent apparel, lives in a comfortable house, sits at a plentiful table, and seems to want for nothing necessary to the comfort of his family. Nothing to give! -And the heathen are stretching out their hands in imploring petition for the bread of life, and warm-hearted Christian ministers, and even Christian women, are standing upon the shores of our own land, and looking across into the darkness, and weeping for the means to carry them there, that they may minister to the spiritual necessities of those perishing millions. Nothing to give !-Yet God, in his providence, is constant and munificent in his benefactions. Every day his treasury is opened, and fresh blessings are freely dispensed. God never answers to the claims of his creatures upon his daily benevolence, "I have nothing to give." What we have to bestow comes all from him; and no conceivable reason can be imagined why we should cease or hesitate to give while he furnishes the means. Nothing to give !-Then you ought specially to labour that you may earn something to give away. "Oh, is not this asking too much? What! work on purpose to devote the wages to benevolence? Engage in hard manual labour for the purpose of devoting the proceeds to charity? Does not that savour a little of fanaticism?" Precisely the fanaticism of St. Paul,-" Let him la bour, working with his own hands the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." "That man may last, but never lives, Who much receives, and nothing gives; Whom none can love, whom none can thank Creation's blot, creation's blank." THE ABUNDANT ENTRANCE. WE may take an illustration from a vessel returning after a long voyage, and being received and welcomed by expectant friends. She has been, let us suppose, absent for years; has been toiling and trafficking in every sea; touching at the ports and trading in the markets of many lands: she is approaching, at last, her "desired haven," the harbour from which she set out,-whence loving thoughts went with her, as she started on her perilous way, and where anxious hearts are now wishing and waiting for her return. She is descried in the distance; the news spreads; all is excitement; multitudes assemble; pier and quay, beach and bank are crowded with spectators, as the little craft pushes on, and every moment nears her destination. There she is!-worn and weather-beaten, it is true; covered with the indications of sore travel and long service, and with many signs of her having encountered the battle and the breeze. But all is safe! Her goodly freight is secure and uninjured; her profits have been large; the merchandize she brings is both rare and rich. She is coming along over a sunny sea,-leaping and dancing as if she were alive. Her crew are on the deck, and with straining eyes and palpitating hearts are looking towards the shore. A soft wind swells the sails; the blue heavens are bending over the bark, as if smiling on her course, while the very waves seem to run before her, turning themselves about with conscious joy, clapping their hands, and murmuring a welcome! How she bounds forward! She is over the bar! She is gliding now in smooth water, is passing into port, and is preparing to moor and to drop her anchor for the last time! While she does so, there comes a shout from the assembled spectators-the crowds that witness and welcome her approach-loud as thunder, musical as the sea! Gladness and greeting are on every hand. Eloquent voices fill the air. The vessel has received "AN ABUNDANT ENTRANCE;" her crew have been met with sympathetic congratulations,are surrounded by eager and glad friends, hailed with enthusiasm, embraced with rapture, and accompanied to their home with shouting and songs! Biography. MARTHA LAYCOCK. THE subject of the following Memoir she was baptized, and became a About the latter end of 1851, she gave birth to a daughter, who lived only a few days. After this event, she never regained her former health and strength. Early in the year 1852 she became much weaker, and had all the symptoms of consumption. The best medical advice was immediately sought, but it was only to learn that there was very little hope of her recovery. During the early part of her illness, she often wished that she was able to attend to her work, and imagined that she was a burden to her friends. This seemed to make her case more hopeless still, and she continued in this state of mind for several weeks. About the middle of April she went to Yorkshire, to try if her native air When about fifteen years of age, would do her any good; but after until the family removed to Staley bridgein Lancashire, where she united herself with the Sunday-school in connection with the Independent chapel, Melbournestreet, until the family removed to Ashton-under-Lyne. Here she began to attend the Sunday-school in connection with the Particular Baptist church, then assembling in the gasworks, but now in a very commodious chapel in Welbeck-street. During the ten years that she attended this school, she received several presents from her teachers and friends. |