residing here, instead of travelling with me as formerly. My drunken habits still kept us in a state of extreme poverty and wretchedness.

In the month of December last, a member of the Total Abstinence Society gave me some temperance tracts, and conversed with me on the subject, and invited me to the meetings held in the British school. He pressed me to consider whether it would not be for my benefit to try the system. He also urged upon me the duty of attending some place of worship on the sabbath.

This conversation made a deep impression on my mind; and, on the following sabbath, I went to a place of worship, the first time for more than twelve years. The perusal of the tracts tended much to enlighten my mind respecting the properties of intoxicating drinks, and I resolved to attend the next temperance meeting, which happened to be the anniversary of the Stratford Auxiliary, held in the British school the day after Christmas day, 1838. At the close of the meeting I signed the pledge, and from that time to the present, I have not tasted intoxicating liquor.

The benefits I have derived from joining this society, it is impossible for me to describe. My health is greatly improved, and I now possess peace of mind, instead of the horrors I often endured during the many years that I was the miserable slave of intemperance. Thank God! I have now a comfortable fire-side. My wife, who was once heartbroken and wretched, is now cheerful and happy. My children now find a home in their father's house, are decently clothed, and are receiving a scriptural education. My wife, and my children, one aged fourteen and the other sixteen, have followed my example in joining this society. I anticipate the blessing this may prove to them in after life; for if they adhere to the principle, as I trust they will, they must escape such evils as I have endured from the effects of intoxicating drinks. I am now in constant employment as a labouring man.

Since I joined this society, I have regularly attended a place of worship on the sabbath, and other means of grace during the week. Bless God! I value these opportunities now; and I do delight in praising him for all his goodness towards me, in having snatched me as a brand from the burning.

From the Second Report of the Stratford Temperance Society.

OCCASIONAL MEDITATIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. UPON THE REPORT OF A GREAT LOSS BY SEA.

THE earth and the water are both of them great givers, and both great takers: as they give matter and sustentation to all sublunary creatures, so they take all back again, insatiably devouring, at last, the fruits of their own wombs. Yet, of the two, the earth is both more beneficial and less cruel; for, as that yields us the most general maintenance, and wealth, and supportation, so it doth not lightly take aught from us, but that which we resign over to it, and which naturally falls back unto it; whereas the water, as it affords but a small part of our livelihood, and some few knacks of ornament, so it is apt violently to snatch away both us and ours, and to bereave that which it never gave: it yields us no precious metals, and yet in an instant fetches away millions; and yet, notwithstanding all the hard measure we receive from it, how many do we daily see that might have firm ground under them, who yet will be trusting to the mercy of the sea: yea, how many that have hardly crawled out from a desperate shipwreck, will yet be trying the fidelity of that unsure and untrusty element. O God, how venturous we are, where we have reason to distrust! how incredulously fearful, where we have cause to be confident! Who ever relied upon thy gracious providence and sure promises, O Lord, and hath miscarried? TRACT MAG., THIRD SERIES, NO. 98, FEB. 1842.

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Yet here we pull in our faith, and make excuses for our diffidence; and if Peter had tried those waves to be no other than solid pavement under his feet, whilst his soul trod confidently, yet, when a billow and a wind agree to threaten him, his faith flags, and he begins to sink. Lord, teach me to doubt, where I am sure to find nothing but uncertainty; and to be assuredly confident, where there can be no possibility of any cause of doubting.

UPON A MEDICINAL POTION.

How loathsome a draught is this! how offensive, both to the eye, and to the scent, and to the taste! yea, the very thought of it is a kind of sickness; and, when it is once down, my very disease is not so painful for the time as my remedy how doth it turn the stomach, and wring the entrails, and work a worse distemper than that whereof I formerly complained! and yet, it must be taken for health; neither could it be so wholesome, if it were less unpleasing; neither could it make me whole, if it did not first make me sick.

Such are the chastisements of God, and the reproofs of a friend harsh, troublesome, grievous; but in the end they yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.

Why do I turn away my head, and make faces, and shut mine eyes, and stop my nostrils, and nauseate, and abhor to take this harmless potion for health, when we have seen mountebanks to swallow dismembered toads, and drink the poisonous broth after them, only for a little ostentation and gain? It is only weakness, and want of resolution, that is guilty of this queasiness. Why do not I cheerfully take, and quaff up that bitter cup of affliction, which my wise and good God hath mixed for the health of my soul?

UPON THE SIGHT OF A DORMOUSE.

At how easy a rate do these creatures live that are fed with rest! so the bear and the hedgehog, they say, spend their whole winter in sleep, and rise up fatter than they lay down. How oft have I envied the thriving drowsiness of these beasts, when the toil of thoughts hath bereaved me of but one hour's sleep, and left me languishing to a new task! and yet, when I have well digested the comparison of

both these conditions, I must needs say, I had rather waste with work than batten with ease; and would rather choose a life profitably painful than uselessly dull and delicate. I cannot tell whether I should say those creatures live which do nothing, since we are wont ever to notify life by motion. Sure I am their life is not vital; for me, let me rather complain of a mind that will not let me be idle, than of a body that will not let me work.

THE OYSTER.

Bp. Hall.

WHEN you throw away your oyster-shells, it may be you regard an oyster as an ugly uninteresting fish; but it is not so with the naturalist. There are many species of oysters, some of them very curiously and beautifully formed. The thorny oyster is a very singular one; it would almost remind you of a hedgehog, being covered with fibres which bristle out of it on all sides.

There is a pretty looking oyster called the chama, which has a byssus, or beard, which it projects from its shell, and by this means lays hold upon a rock, and remains secure, while the waves of the ocean are dashing around it. Thus the chama is safe amid the rudest storm, its shell protecting it from being injured, and its hold on the rock securing it from being carried away by the current.

The God of mercy, who has provided a shell for the oyster, has also provided armour of protection for the Christian, knowing him to be set in the midst of “ many and great dangers." With the "helmet of salvation," the "breastplate of righteousness," and the "shield of faith,” he shall be able to stand in the evil day, nor shall the waters of trial and temptation carry him from his position. The God who has provided a rock of shelter for the oyster, has also ordained an everlasting Rock of security for the Christian, and given him a byssus, by which he can lay hold of it, even the hand of faith; and those who by the hand of faith lay hold of this Rock, even the Rock of ages, "shall not perish," but have "eternal life." The oyster is not quite destitute of motion, though it generally remains nearly in the same place. But we may well wonder in looking at it, how an oyster can manage to move about at all. It contrives, by an accumulation of mud, to prop itself nearly

upright, and patiently waits for the tide to tumble it over; this is the only means by which it can turn from one side to the other.

Christian, art thou of a restless and impatient disposition? When things go wrong with thee, art thou for running here, and running there, and taking matters into thine own hands to mend them? Thy Bible bids the sluggard go to the ant for instruction; so come now in thy turn, and take a lesson from the oyster.

In thy affliction, await the turn of the tide; Providence will by and by place thee in a new position, by which thy case shall be mended. "For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; in returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength," Isa. xxx. 15.

Be not dismayed at the circumstances that rule thee, but quietly wait upon the Lord.

MARGARET, A FRENCH PRINCESS.

AN INSTANCE OF THE USEFULNESS OF TRACTS IN THE SIXTEENTH

CENTURY.

THERE was one soul especially, at the court of France, that seemed prepared for evangelical influence. Margaret, sister to king Francis 1., perplexed and wavering in the midst of the corrupt society that surrounded her, looked for some support, and found it in the gospel. Some ladies of her court communicated to her the nature of the doctrines put forth by the new teachers; she received their writings and their little books, called tracts in the language of the times: she heard of the primitive church, of the pure word of God, of worship in spirit and in truth, and of Christian liberty, which shakes off the yoke of superstitions and human traditions, and clings solely to God. Ere long, the princess saw Lefevre, Farel, and Roussel; she was struck with their zeal, their piety, their walk, and everything belonging to them; but it was, above all, Briconnet, the bishop of Meaux, with whom she had long been intimate, who became her guide in the path of truth.

Thus, in the midst of the brilliant court of Francis 1., and of the dissolute household of Louise de Savoie, was effected one of those conversions that in all ages are the