some forbidden pleasure in the Sodom of sin which you had left, desired in your heart to go back, and serve Satan, and leave the holy and good God, who gave you your being at first, and has since given you all needful blessings.” "Remember Lot's wife," my dear little friends, and look onward towards the glorious heaven to which Jesus directs you, and wish not to return to the plains of sin, which shall soon be swallowed up in the "lake which burneth everlastingly with fire and brimstone.”

N. S.

A STORY ABOUT A FOX. "Papa, what a curious account this is of a fox : have you seen it?” asked Charles, holding up a Number of “The Christian Miscellany ” in his hand. "Yes, my dear,” replied his papa: “I read it in the book from which it is extracted; where there are several more equally curious.” “O papa," exclaimed Charles and his sister Mary, who were both always delighted if they could get their papa to tell them a story, “do tell us one."

"No, I cannot do that at present; but I will tell you something Mrs. M. related to me when at B- last week, that had occurred only a few days before I was there, which places the artful sagacity of the fox in a strong light.

“Mrs. M. had a large brood of chickens just hatched; and not having a hen-coop at liberty, nor a place suitable for them, in order to prevent their wandering about and getting lost, she placei them along with their mother under a larg washing-tub in the yard. Thinking they weri quite safe, she gave herself no further trouble abou them, until, some time after, she heard an unusua noise proceeding from the temporary abode of thi hen and her family. On arriving at the spot she wa just in time to witness the escape of a large fo: over the garden-wall, with the last of her chicken in his mouth, the poor hen alone remaining making the most distressful cry imaginable, ani using all her efforts to escape from her prison tha she might see what had become of her little ones.”

“Why, how had the fox managed to get them? asked Charles : “I suppose he could not lift the tub."

“O no," replied his papa, “ that was out of the question. Mrs M. thought he had been prowling about in the neighbourhood, and, having watchei her arrangement, had tried in the first place to re move the tub; but finding his endeavours by main force to be unavailing, he set his wits to work, and like an experienced sapper and miner had made a hole in the earth, with his fore-feet, close to the tub, large enough for a single chicken ta get out;, and as each of the little creatures, wishfu to escape from confinement and taste the sweets of liberty, made its appearance, Mr. Reynard quietly snapped it up, leaving no traces of his morning's work but a few feathers scattered about.'

"Thank you, papa, for your nice story,” said Mary; “but is the fox a native of other countries beside our own ?"

"Why, Mary,” cried Charles, “you forget reading in the Bible about Samson's foxes, and about the Saviour's saying, “The foxes have holes :' of course if they were in Judea then, they will be there now.”

“Not so fast, Charles,” replied his father: " there is no 'of course' in the matter: many animals that were known to be inhabitants of different countries, even so lately as the last fifty or a hundred years, are now quite extinct, or, at the most, very rarely to be met with. For instance, the blood-hound in Ireland is quite gone; wolves, too, were very numerous in England some hundreds of years ago, but you will not meet with any now, save in a menagerie of wild beasts. However, the fox is still plentiful in Palestine; also in Europe, and the temperate parts of Asia and America: it is seldom if ever found within the tropics. The colour of its fur is generally red; though I believe the foxes of the Arctic circle, like many of their companions of other species, change the colour of their coats to white during the severities of a northern winter.

"Wherever the fox is found, it maintains the same character for cunning as it does in our own country, and has become the type of persons noted for artifice and deceit in their dealings : 'As sly as a fox,' is an expression in general use to distinguish such people.

“I hope, my dear children, you will' pursue ? different line of conduct: always be candid and straightforward; and remember, that, in the end 'honesty is the best policy ;' for whatever you may appear to gain in a worldly point of view by fraud and finesse, you will lose in the disappro bation of your own conscience, of all' good people and, most of all, in the favour of God. 'Bread of deceit is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.'” (Prov. xx. 17.)

| H. Ý, H.

MEMOIR.

SARAH SEDGWICK. Sarah Sedgwick entered the Broughton-road Wesleyan Sunday-school, Salford, when about seven years of age, and continued there for many years, an attentive and regular scholar. Her affectionate disposition an.l good temper endeared her to the Teachers of the various classes through which she passed. As she grew up she became very delicate, and a severe cough sometimes prevented her attending to her work, and also detained her from school. On these occasions, she endeavoured to let her Teacher know why she was not present, and generally added, “I should like to be there.” The poet, in the following words, expresses the sentiment which appears to have influenced her mind :

“I have been there, and still would go,
'Tis like a little heaven below.”

Perhaps some of the readers of this account are ready to think, that so good a girl, and so attentive a scholar, was fit for early death. But you shall hear what she at length thought. Let the young people favoured with similar privileges, listen.

Sarah had read her Testament, had heard of Jesus, who came “ to seek and to save that which is lost;" and she thought she believed this declaration. But a poet has said, with some truth,

"The death-bed's a detecter of the heart.” Sarah's health declined still more. She had to give up her employment. And in a little time she took to her bed, on which she spent twenty weeks of severe suffering; but with so much patience, that you would have been surprised to witness how she was enabled to bear the pain she was called to endure. At first, she thought she would like to go to heaven when she died. She hoped to go: she prayed she might go. But she was made to feel that she was a sinner, by the convincing Spirit of God; and her Bible told her nothing that is unholy can enter there. She now prayed that God, who had sent his Son to die for sinners, would forgive her, and for the sake of Jesus Christ make her fit to die. Well, that God who has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee,” heard her prayer, and spoke peace to her troubled mind.

When her Teacher called to see her, she said, "I am not afraid to die now. I am happy. Jesus