help it, a single farthing of whatever he might obtain. The first thing that drew his attention, was a heap of coal shot out of carts on the pavement before a house he offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed: he received a few pence for the labour, and then, in pursuance of the saving part of his plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, which was given him: he then looked out for the next thing that might chance to offer, and went with indefatigable industry through a succession of servile employments in different places of longer and shorter duration, still scrupulously avoiding as far as possible the expence of a penny. He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance his design, without regarding the meanness of the employment, or the degradation of appearance by this course he had gained, after some time, money enough to purchase, in order to sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to understand the value. He speedily but cautiously turned his first gains into second advantages retained without a single deviation his extreme parsimony; and thus advanced by degrees into larger transactions and incipient wealth. The final result was, that he more than recovered his lost possessions, and died an inveterate miser, worth sixty thousand pounds. So strange and contradictory is the character of man !!!

PROTESTANTS REPROVED.

" I REMEMBER," says Mr. Matthew Henry, "when I was a young man, coming up to London in the stage coach, in King James's time, there happened to be a gentleman in the company that then was not afraid to own himself a Jesuit: many rencounters he and I had upon the road, and this was one he was praising the custom, in popish countries, of keeping the church doors always open, for people to go in at any time to say their prayers. I told him that it looked too much like the practice of the Pharisees, that prayed in the synagogues, and did not agree with Christ's command. Thou, when thou prayest, enter not into the church with the doors open, but into thy closet, and shut thy doors.' When he was pressed with that argument, he replied, with some vehemence, • I believe you Protestants say your prayers no where; for (said he) I have travelled a great deal in the coach in company with Protestants, have often laid in inns in the same room with them, and have carefully watched them, and could never perceive that any of them said their prayers, night or morning, but one, and he was a Presbyterian.'" Superstitious and self righteous as the Papists are, they are very attentive to the form at least, while it is too true that many Prostestants, so called, never pray at all. Fas est doceri ab hoste.

f

THE PUGILISTS.

A SERIOUS young man in the army, not having a place in the barracks in which he was quartered wherein to pour out his soul unto God in secret, went one dark night into a large field adjoining. Here he thought no eye could see, nor ear hear him, but God's; but He, "whose thoughts are not as our thoughts," ordained otherwise. Two ungodly men belonging to the same regiment, in whose hearts enmity had long subsisted against each other, were resolved that night to end it (as they said) by a battle; being prevented at day-time for fear of punishment. They chose the same field to fight as the other had chosen to pray. Now the field is very large, and they might have taken different ways; but they were led by Providence to the same spot where the young man was engaged in his delightful exercise. They were surprised at hearing, as they thought, a voice in the field at that time of night; and much more so when they drew nearer, and heard a man at prayer. They halted, and gave attention; and, wonderful to tell, the prayer had such an effect upon both, as to turn that enmity they before manifested against each other into love. They took each other instantly by the hand, and cordially confessed that there remained no longer, in either of their breasts, hatred against each other.

PUNCTUALITY.

NOTHING begets confidence sooner than punctuality. In business, or religion it is the true path to honour and respect, while it procures a felicity to the mind unknown to those who make promises only to break them, or suffer themselves to be so entangled in their concerns, as to be incapable of being their own masters. Whoever wishes to advance his own interest, and to secure the approbation of others, must be punctual.

"Punctuality," says Dr. Johnson, “is a quality which the interest of mankind requires to be diffused through all the ranks of life, but which many seem to consider as a vulgar and ignoble virtue, below the ambition of greatness, or attention of wit; scarcely requisite amongst men of gaiety and spirit, and sold at its highest rate when it is sacrificed to a frolic or a jest."

It is said of Melancthon, that, when he made an appointment, he expected not only the hour but the minute to be fixed, that the day might not run out in the idleness of suspense.

Of Sir William Blackstone we are informed, that in reading his lectures it could not be remembered that he ever made his audience wait even a few minutes beyond the time appointed. Indeed, punctuality, in his opinion, was so much a virtue, that he could not bring himself to think perfectly well of any one who was notoriously defective in this practice.

The late Rev. Mr. Brewer, of Stepney, when a student under the tuition of the Rev. Mr.

Hubbard and Dr. Jennings, was always punctual in attending the lectures, at the tutor's house; where the students, who then lodged and boarded in private families, were expected to assemble at set hours. One morning, the clock had struck seven, and all rose up for prayer: but the tutor looking round, and perceiving that Mr. Brewer had not yet come, paused awhile. Seeing him now enter the room, he thus addressed him: "Sir, the clock has struck, and we were ready to begin; but as you were absent, we supposed it was too fast, and therefore waited.” The clock was actually too fast by some mi

nutes.

Those," says Mrs. H. Moore, "who are early trained to scrupulous punctuality in the division of time, and an exactness to the hours of their childish business, will have learned how much the economy of time is promoted by habits of punctuality, when they shall enter on the more important business of life. By getting one employment cleared away, exactly as the suċceeding employment shall have a claim to be dispatched, they will learn two things

that

one business must not trench on the time which belongs to another business, and to set a value on those odd quarters of an hour, and even minutes, which are so often lost between successive duties, for want of calculation, punctuality, and arrangement. A habit of punctuality is, perhaps, one of the earliest which the youthful mind may be made capable of receiving; and it is so connected with truth, with morals, and with the general good government of the mind,