THER THE OLD COW. HERE was one old cow that always stayed behind the rest. John the cowman would throw open the farmyard gate at the usual time; and almost as soon as the gate was open, and the first sound of his voice was heard, all the other cows would leave off grazing, and walk slowly towards the yard to be milked. Not so old Molly. Either she was deaf, or pretended to be. "Coop, coop, Molly !" John cried, but still she went on cropping the grass. Smack went his whip again and again, but still she did not move. Often he had to go the whole length of the field, and get behind her, and drive her home before him, before he could get her to stir. "Lazy old thing!" muttered John, one evening, when she had given him a walk to the farthest corner of the field; "Lazy old thing! What a deal of trouble you give! Why can't you come when you're called?" John did not see that his master was just on the other side of the hedge. "Take care, John," said he, "that you're not like her. You've often been called, but I doubt whether you have come yet. GOD has called you many a time; and you know it. He has been very patient with you; you have tried him more than ever old Molly has tried you. Don't be like the old cow any more." John drove the old cow home, without a word. I hope he did not forget what his master had said. Children's Page. A GOOD BEGINNING. A LITTLE boy said to his sister as they walked home from school, "I wish I may live to be old." Their teacher had been telling them of the death of a schoolfellow, and this led the little boy to speak as he did. It was a natural wish for him to express, but he did not think that this world is not the best and brightest spot in the great kingdom of God. There is a fairer, and God holier, and happier spot and made them white in Still you wish to live a long life in this world -live to be quite old. Let us see what it is you desire. Look at that aged man, as he totters along the street. He leans upon a staff, with which he tries to steady his steps. His eyes are so dim that he cannot see a friend who is passing on the other side of the road. His ears are so deaf that he cannot hear that bird now singing on the tree. The hair of the old man's head is white. His face is 83 wrinkled and care-worn. Go, take his hand, and or whether we die, we should die unto the Lord; so that, whether we live or die, we may RO be the Lord's. The way to spend life aright is to begin with early piety. Give yourself to the Lord in the days of childhood, and all shall be well. He takes delight in the cheerful offering of the young heart. Who, then, would give him only the dregs of old age? He wants your love in all its freshness. He wants the first ripe fruits. He asks for your service before "the days come when you shall say you have no pleasure in them." Ꭱ ONE BRICK ON ANOTHER. OBERT was one day looking at a large building which they were putting up, just opposite to his father's house. He watched the workmen from day to day, as they carried up the bricks and mortar, and then placed them in their proper order. His father said to him, "Robert, you seem to be very much taken up with the bricklayers: pray what may you be thinking about? Have you any notion of learning the trade ?" "No," said Robert, smiling; " but I was just thinking what a little thing a brick is, and yet that great house is built by laying one brick on another." "Very true, my boy. Never forget it. Just so is it in all great works. All your learning is one little lesson added to another. If a man could walk all round the world, it would be by putting one foot before the other. Your whole life will be made up of one little moment after another. Drop added to drop makes the ocean. "Learn from this not to despise little things. Learn also not to be discouraged by great labours. The greatest labour becomes easy, if divided into parts. You could not jump over a mountain, but step by step takes you to the other side. Do not fear, therefore, to attempt great things. Remember, the whole of that great building is only one brick upon another." ask him if he is quite well. He will tell you of pains in his limbs, and that he is not so strong as he used to be. Ask him where are the friends he once knew. He will point to the grave-yard. Many of them are long since dead. He is almost alone and a stranger in the world. But if that old man is a Christian, he has still got his Bible, and the presence of his Saviour, and a good hope of heaven. He is a happy man, though he is poor and old. He looks to Jesus for the pardon of all his sins, and can trust him with his soul. The great matter is, not for us to wish to live to be old; we must leave that to God, as he shall see best; but we must seek to live well, and to some good purpose. We must measure our lives, not by days and years, but by the good that is done and enjoyed. Whether we live, we should live unto the Lord; "MY SON, IF SINNERS ENTICE THEE, CONSENT THOU NOT." A learned and pious man of the name of Beza was one of the great reformers of religion about three hundred years ago. "I have lived long, and have sinned long," said he; "yet, among the many things for which I must bless God, the first and chief is that at the age of sixteen he brought me by his grace to love and serve him. Thus he has kept me from many sins, into which I should have fallen, and which would have made my life and death less happy." Make, then, a good beginning. While you are yet young, seek to know Jesus Christ, who for you bore the painful death of the cross. He calls you, with a voice of mercy, to forsake sin and follow him. He "Come unto me; says, believe, and be saved." Will you not say with young Samuel, "Here am I; speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth"? THE TWO ROADS. THERE is a road that leads to death: Oh! walk not there. Sinners may say with flattering breath, The path is fair; But mark thou what the Scripture saith, "My son, beware." Wisdom doth speak; oh heed her voice, She calls to thee! "My son, let me direct thy choice; I'll guide thee, and thou shalt rejoice "Dangers with growing years increase: ༣ ། IT OLD MOSES. T was on a fine morning in the month of May, I left the dwelling of a friend residing near the foot of the North Mountain, in the great valley of Virginia, and took a ride for the benefit of my health. Leaving the more thickly settled parts of the country, I followed the course of a small stream for some miles, without seeing the habitation of man. At length I espied, near the end of the valley, and at the foot of the mountain, an aged negro at work on a small farm. His head was whitened by age; and the deep wrinkles in his face, and a stoop in his shoulders, showed that he had seen many years, and suffered many hardships. Glad to see and converse with a human being after my solitary ramble, I alighted from my horse. "Old man," I began, "you seem to be enduring the sentence pronounced on fallen man, getting your bread by the sweat of your brow." "Ah, massa," said he, wiping the falling drops from his face, "I have no reason to complain. I have a great many blessings left yet. I have Jesus Christ and his gospel, and that is enough for poor old Moses." "As you seem to be quite shut out from the world here, I suppose you have but few temptations in this lonely place?” "Ah, massa," said he, "wherever I go I carry this bad heart with me," putting his hand to his breast, "and this it is which lets in the world. I have to pray have found him to be good. He has bound up my heart when it was broken, he has come to my bed when I was sick, he has borne with my sins; he has not cast me off because I was poor and old, and did not love him as much as I ought; and then, he died for poor Moses' soul. he is not a hard master. take away my wife, and my children; he may burn my house, and lay me on a sick bed, and smite me with his own dear hand: still I would love him, and say it is all Oh, no, He may "But are you never tempted for good." As he said this, a to forsake the Saviour?" tear stole down his cheek. "I know that my heart is very deceitful, and Satan keeps trying to get old Moses; but my Master in heaven says, 'By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.' This is my hope, that He who has begun a good work will finish it. When you plant corn, massa, you don't go away and leave it, and let the birds pull it up, or the grass and the weeds kill it; so, when God plants the good seed in the sinner's heart, he does not go away and leave it to die." "You say you are tempted sometimes?" "You have preaching here, I suppose?" 66 Yes," said he; and after telling how far the place of worship was, he went on: "Sometimes when I go to preaching, my heart feels cold and dead on it; but then the massa preaches so good, that my soul gets happy; and then the Bible preach, and woods preach, and everything preach; and when my hand is at the plough, my soul is in heaven." "You have a Bible, then? "Yes, I have; I learned to read thirty years ago, and now when it rains all day on a Sunday, I read, and sing, and pray, and find that Jesus Christ can come to the old cabin of poor Moses." The day, in the meantime, wearing away, and other engagements pressing on me, I bade the old man farewell, with the confident hope of meeting him in heaven. "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him." THE ONE WANT. MAN A may want liberty, and yet be happy like Joseph; a man may want peace; and yet be happy like David; a man may want children, and yet be blessed like Job; a man may want plenty, and vet be filled with comfort like Micaiah; but he who is without Christ wants everything that can do him good. Christ is all and in all. Hunger cannot be satisfied without the bread of life, which is Jesus Christ; and what shall the hungry man do without bread? Thirst cannot be truly quenched without that living water, which is Jesus Christ; and what shall the thirsty do without water? The captive cannot be delivered without the Redeemer, Jesus Christ; and what shall the prisoner do without his ransom? Fools (as we all are naturally in Divine things) cannot be instructed without Jesus Christ, as their wisdom; and without him, therefore, we perish in our folly. All building without him, is upon the sand, where it will quickly fall to the ground. All labour without him, is in the fire, where it will be infallibly consumed. He is the way; without him we are wanderers. He is the truth; without him we live in error. He is the life; without him we are dead in trespasses and sins. He is the light; without him we are in darkness, and know not whither we go. He is the vine; they who are not grafted into him are withered branches, prepared for the fire. He is the rock; they who are not built upon him will be carried away by the flood of Divine anger. He is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the author and finisher of our faith. He, therefore, who hath not Christ hath no beginning of good, nor shall he have any end of misery. -Owen. EVERY ONE OF YOU. JOHN BUNYAN, the strolling tinker of Bedfordshire, who became a preacher of the Gospel, and wrote the famous "Pilgrim's Progress," understood, by the change that was wrought in his own heart, the power of Divine grace. In one of his sermons he represents the fulness of the salvation offered in Christ, and which he had himself proved, by the following dialogue : When the murderers of Christ cried out, on the day of Pentecost, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Peter replied, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you." I shut out no one of you; for I am commanded by the Lord to deal with you as it were one by one, by the word of his salvation. Objection.--But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life. May I be saved by him? l'eter.-Every one of you. Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you. I Objection. But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he stood before his accusers. was also one that mocked him when in anguish he hanged bleeding on the tree. Is there room for me? Peter. For every one of you. Objection. But I was one of them that in his extremity said, "Give him gall and vinegar to drink." Why may not I expect the same when anguish and guilt is upon me? Peter-Repent of these, your wickednesses, and there is remission of sins for every one of you. Objection. But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him. I rejoiced to see him mocked by others. Can there be hopes for me? Peter.-There is for every one of you. "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." "Oh, what a blessed "every one of you" is here! How willing was Peter, and the Lord Jesus by his ministry, to catch these murderers with the word of the Gospel, that they might be made monuments of the grace of God. How unwilling was he that any should escape the hand of mercy. Yea, what an amazing wonder it is to think that, above all the world, and above everybody in it, these should have the first offer of mercy! TAXES. WE constantly hear people complaining how heavily we Englishmen are taxed. And so we are. It is calculated that if the money annually raised in taxes were divided into equal shares and given back to the people, it would afford more than £2 5s. to every man, woman, and child in the United Kingdom. No doubt this is a monstrous sum to be raised after year year. There is no other country in the world where the people give so much of their earnings to the Govern ment. But then one reason is, that there is no other country in the world where the people are so rich. We have plenty of poor amongst us, it is true; but we must not forget that the taxation of England is so arranged as to fall lightest on the poor. Nay, it may seem strange, but it is true that, if a man likes, he may live in this country without paying any taxes at all. There is no tax upon bread, none upon butcher's meat, none upon clothes, nor on the stuff of which his clothes are made. There is no tax on the bricks or the wood of his cottage; and though there is a tax on houses, it does not. come down to the rent the working man usually pays. There is a tax on coffee, and tea, and sugar; but our forefathers did without these things, and we might if we chose. We do not, however, recommend that these articles should be given up: they are nourishing and healthful; and all the taxes a working man pays on them are not more than most of us would cheerfully pay for the peace and security which Government provides for us. These, however, are not the taxes that press on the working man. There is the tax on beer, the tax on spirits, the tax on tobacco; these are the burdens of the labourer and the artisan. But mind-they are burdens willingly taken up. No man need pay them against his will. He has but to give up the use of the articles, and he may laugh at the tax-gatherer. And why should he not give them up? There are thousands of our countrymen-and their number is every day increasing-who have done so; and they all say that they are healthier, stronger, more cheerful, and richer than they were while they used them. It has been calculated that the price of these articles which is paid by working men-not reckoning what is paid by the rich-would educate all the children in the country, support all the aged and infirm poor, maintain the hospitals, and pay for all the missionaries we send abroad. What does it buy now? How much of sorrow! what heaps of vice! what a great load of ignorance, poverty, and early death! Let every man understand clearly, when he talks of the heavy taxes, that he need not pay the most part unless he likes; that by far the larger portion he pays is laid upon his luxuries, and particularly on those luxuries that do him a great deal more harm than good. house was the squalling children, while his regularly at six, but she lay in bed till the last Richard Cooper, also a workman at the same foundry, went to his breakfast at the same hour. No sooner did he open the door leading into his LET everything be done in the garden that kitchen, than a little girl, tidy and clean, ran The See the value of order and cleanliness. They carry with them comfort and pleasure to all concerned, and hence they are duties. God's law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," is broken by everything done so as to make others uncomfortable and unhappy. Let the blessed law of love to God and to man rule in the heart through Jesus Christ, and it will lead to personal peace, and to orderly, cleanly, and happy homes. the weather will admit of. Look well to the protection of all plants or crops that may suffer from the frost. Dig and trench all and shrubs, and cuttings of gooseberries and vacant spots, and wheel in dung. Plant trees currants; and observe always to open the ground well before you plant. Prune apple, pear, and plum trees, and also your fruit bushes. If a gooseberry bush is left to itself it soon gets thick and matted, and so full of wood as to shut out the sun and air. Thin the tree well, and cut out the wood from the middle; aud will have the branches covered you with fruit, and of a much larger size. The young trees should be kept down by shortening the shoots. Cleanse your trees also from moss; and from insects and blight. This may be done on a mild, wet, foggy day by throwing quick-lime over the branches; wherever it strikes it will kill the moss, which can then be scraped off. Towards the end of the month, if the weather is mild, you may sow radish, spinach, lettuce, and parsley; beans may be sown in warm situations, if those sown before have been injured by the frost; so also with the earliest sorts of peas. In the flower garden remove the decayed leaves, and search frequently for slugs. All hardy, herbaceous plants may now be planted. THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 164, PICCADILLY, PRINTED BY R. K. BURT, HOLBORN HILL. |