comfortable cottage still more comfortable. Seek *it, Mary, seek it, with all your heart, and with your soul. all A CALL ON AN UNTIDY WOMAN. This will never do, Molly! Three times have I called upon you, and every time your house has made me think of a pig's sty. Just look at these chairs; they cannot have been rubbed for a week; and see here, I could write my name on this table with my finger, it is so thickly covered with dust. It never will do to go on in this manner; there can be no comfort where things are so unclean, neither for yourself, you husband, nor your children. Molly. Ay, it is easy enough for those to talk who have, perhaps, people to help them, and money to buy soap, brushes, and brooms; but poor folks must do as well as they can. It is as much as I can do to get a bit and a drop for my children and myself; for my husband does but little to help me. If he comes home at night, he soon bounces out again, and sets off to the beer-shop. Visitor. He cannot well do a worse thing, Molly; but are you quite sure that you do not persuade him to go there? Molly. Me persuade him! No, indeed, I take care to rate him well for it, every day of his life. Visitor. Yes; but the reason why he goes to the public-house is, perhaps, because he is happier there than he is at home. Now, an untidy house, and a scolding wife, are two things as likely as any that I know of, to persuade a man to go to the public-house. Come, Molly! try a different plan with your husband; let him see that some attention is paid to him; let him know that his comforts are considered; and let him look on his wife and his children without feeling angry at the one, or ashamed of the other. You may do wonders if you will, Molly; be advised! be advised! Molly. If I was to work like a negro, my husband would take no notice of it at all; he would leave me to scrub my finger ends off, so that he could go down to the Bull, and set his back against the kitchen screen, with a mug of ale before him. He cares no more for me, than he does for that broken platter. Visitor. Do not say so, Molly, do not say so; give him a kind word instead of rating him; stir up the fire, and sweep up the hearth; and if you do not make a different man of him in a month, I shall say that it is his fault, and not yours. Few men are too bad to be mended; and you may take my word for it, that the best way to keep a man from the public-house, is to let him have a more comfortable place at home. I shall leave a little book with you that contains a few good hints, and I do not despair of seeing you and your husband reading it together, some night after he comes home from his work, in quietness, affection, and peace. Time is rolling on apace, Molly; the trees are either felled, or now growing, that will form our coffins, and which ever goes first to the grave—you, or your husband-the one that is left will feel sorrow for having given grief to the other. Take what I have said in good part; and may grace, mercy, and peace dwell in your habitation. A CALL ON A SABBATH IDLER. What! Donald Mac Pherson, neither shaved nor cleaned, though it is near two o'clock! The sabbath bells have rung in your ears, and several places of worship have been open around you, yet here you are, idly lounging about in your dirty clothes, reading a newspaper, neglecting your own soul, and forsaking the worship of Almighty God. Donald, if I could do you a kindness I would, but be persuaded to do one for yourself. Do "remember the sabbath day to keep it holy," Exod. xx. 8; for sabbath days are precious things. Have you never heard . that "time is the stuff that life is made of," and can you tell that another sabbath will be yours? Do not be content to go idling along to perdition; have pity upon yourself— For he who scorns the day of rest Regardless of his soul, . Will shortly hear the trumpet sound, A Scotsman should bear in mind what has been done by his countrymen. The old covenanters of Scotland, in the midst of danger and death, bent their knees and lifted up their hearts to the God of their fathers, worshipping him in spirit and in truth. Ay, when surrounded by their enemies, persecuted and tormented; when wandering among mountains, and dens, and caves of the earth; when hunted like wild beasts, and slaughtered without mercy, they endured all, and would neither part with the word of God, nor neglect the worship of God. What would they have given, or rather what would they not have given, for the quiet sabbaths which you appear to despise! When they assembled, it was in the dreary wilderness. Their church had no walls but the rugged cliffs, and no roof but the blue sky of heaven. They were compelled, even on the Lord's day, to hold their swords in their hands, while they engaged in prayer and praise; for their hard-hearted and bloody-handed enemies were hovering about them; and the watchful sentinel was stationed on the lofty crag, to give timely warning of their approach. These covenanters would have died, rather than have forsaken the assembling of themselves together on the sabbath day. Donald, awake from your guilty slumber, and think on what I am telling you; when the preacher, the grey-headed covenanter, with his hands uplifted, his hair waving in the winds, and his eye fixed on heaven, raised his voice in the silence of the solitary place, the whole congregation listened as with one heart and soul to catch the tidings of salvation that fell from his lips. And why did they listen so attentively? Why? because the love of God, and the grace of the Redeemer, were dearer to them than life; they loved the sound of the gospel of Christ more than they feared the furious blood-thirsty dragoons, whose horses' hoofs came rattling in their ears. O Donald! if you were half as earnest as these covenanters in seeking salvation, you would not need to be told to Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy," Exod. xx. 8. 66 |