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began to write with great attention. One of the company observing this, took the liberty of asking him what he was writing. "My lord," said Locke, "I am endeavoring, as far as possible, to profit by my present situation, for, having waited with impatience for the honor of being in company with the greatest geniuses of the age, I thought I could do nothing better than to write down your conversation; and, indeed, I have set down the substance of what you have said this hour or two." This well timed ridicule had its desired effect, and these noblemen, fully sensible of its force, immediately quitted their play, and entered into a conversation more rational, and better suited to the dignity of their characters, and it may be added, better fitted to improve time, than so unprofitable a diversion.

Perseverance.

"But

A PERSON, who suspected that a minister of his acquaintance was not sufficiently Calvanistic, went to him and said, "Sir, I am told that you are against the perseverance of the saints." "Not I, indeed," answered he, "it is the perseverance of sinners that I oppose." that is not a satisfactory answer, sir. Do you think that a child of God cannot fall very low, and yet be restored?" He replied, "I think it will be very dangerous to make the experiment."

The Black Ewe.

SOME time ago, as a gentleman was passing over one of the extensive downs in the west of England, about midday, where a large flock of sheep was feeding, and observing the shepherd sitting by the road side preparing to eat his dinner, he stopped his horse and entered into conversation with him to this effect. "Well, Shepherd, you look cheerful and contented, and I dare say have very few cares to vex you. I, who am a man of pretty large property, cannot but look at such men as you with a kind of envy." "Why, sir,” replied the shepherd, "'tis true, I

have not troubles like yours; and I could do well enough were it not for that black ewe, that you see yonder amongst my flock. I have often begged my master to kill or sell her, but he won't, though she is the plague of my life; for no soonerdo I sit down to look at my book, or take up my wallet to get my dinner, but away she sets off over the down, and the rest follow her; so that I have many a weary step after them-there! you see she's off, and they are all after her!" "Ah, friend," said the gentleman to the shepherd before he started, "I see every man has a black ewe in his flock to plague him, as well as me!"

James Saunders.

THE REV. T. T. Biddulph of St. James' Church, Bristol, mentioned from the pulpit, about 1818, that a boy, some years before, behaved so ill in St. James' Sunday School, that neither kindness nor severity appeared to have any effect upon him. At length, the teachers were very reluctantly obliged to expel him, and had almost forgotten the circumstance. Lately, as a clergyman, (who was then a teacher in the school,) was sitting in his study, in a distant country village, a sailor knocked at the door. On being admitted he said to the clergyman"I suppose you have forgotten me, sir?"

"Yes," said the Rev. Henry Poole, "I have, if I ever knew you."

"Do you remember a wicked boy by the name of James Saunders ?"

"Oh, yes," said he, "I have much cause to remember him; he gave me much trouble and anxiety. What do you know of him ?”

"I am the lad."

"You are grown so, and so much altered, I could not have believed it. Well, James, what account can you give of yourself?"

"A very sorry account, sir. When I was expelled from the school, I left the city, and wandered, I scarcely knew or cared where. At length I found myself by the sea side. Weary of living by lying and stealing, I got on ship board; and after sailing in various parts of the world

I was shipwrecked, in a hurricane, in the bay of Hondu After swimming until my strength failed me, I gave myself up for lost. In the middle of a dark night I came to my senses, and found myself on a rock, half covered with water. I looked round and called for my shipmates, and found that two of them were situated like myself, every moment expecting a watery grave. For the first time since I left school, you, sir, darted into my mind. I thought of your kindness, of my base ingratitude, and some of the sacred truths you took so much pains to fix in my memory; particularly that passage in Numbers xxiii. 9, "From the top of the rock I see him." In my extremity, I looked to the Savior of whom I had heard so much, but whom I had so long slighted and despised. I knelt down, up to my waist in water, and cried mightily that God would be the rock of my heart, and my portion forever. I found your words true, 'that praying breath was never spent in vain.'

"At day break we discovered some pieces of the wreck, on which we ultimately succeeded in reaching the shore. Then, many precious truths which you had taught me from the Bible, came into my mind, though I had almost forgotten during my career of iniquity, even that there was such a book. I thought, sir, you would be glad to find that all your care and anxiety on my account was not lost. I therefore walked from my ship to thank you in the best manner I can, for your former kindness to me."

Knowing the cunning adroitness of the lad, Mr. Poole was half inclined to discredit him. He inquired the name of his captain, to whom he wrote, and ascertained that since this young man had sailed with him, his conduct had been so correct and exemplary, that whenever he knew James Saunders was on deck, he made himself perfectly easy, knowing that the duties of the ship would be faithfully attended to.

Many months afterward, Mr. Poole received a letter from the captain, saying that poor James Saunders, in a distant part of the world, was seized with a fever; that during its progress he sent for the sailors, read to then. while he was able out of the Bible, exhorted them to cleave to the Rock of ages, which never moves to take

example by hiin, though one of the vilest of sinners, who had found mercy and grace to help in every time of need, and commending them all to Jesus, he fell asleep in Him without a struggle-a monument of saving grace and redeeming love.

The new school-room at Bristol, accommodating from five to six hundred children, being in debt several hundred pounds, some gentlemen of the committee, and other friends of the institution had lent the money wanted, in sums to suit their convenience, and had received bills for their respective amounts bearing interest. The next day after relating the above incident, Mr. Biddulph received from a member of his congregation, a letter enclosing one of those bills for fifty pounds, requesting Mr. B. to burn it, as the above anecdote had amply paid both principal and interest of it. Another of the congregation, who held three similar fifty pound bills, sent them with a like request. Surely this is an encouragement for every person connected with Sabbath schools, to persevere amidst discouragements.

This case furnishes a signal instance of the prevalence of prayer, and the utility of storing the young mind with portions of Scripture, even though it should appear to be casting the precious seed on stony ground. It may, in God's own good time, bring forth abundantly, to the praise of our adorable Immanuel, to whom be all the glory.

Sunday-school teacher! "In the morning sow thy seed in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper this or that." When thou art ready to retire with trembling, disgust or dismay, think of James Saunders, and go forward, leaning on your beloved Redeemer.

Thomas Scott.

THOMAS SCOTT, the author of the invaluat le Commen tary on the Scriptures, is nearly as well known in the United States as in England. Thousands of families in this country possess that work; thousands of individuals, by means of his labors, have better understood the Bible; and a multitude, it is believed, will meet the good man

in the kingdom of God, parents and children, who have heard read morning and evening his judicious exposition, and solemn practical reflections, and, who, through the blessing of God upon the truth, have been turned to the wisdom of the just, through his instrumentality. A sketch of the life of such a man--and a sketch only do we propose to give-may with propriety have a place in this volume, especially as it shows what an amount of good a single individual may accomplish, and that individual rising up from obscurity, and making his way to influence and usefulness, through a series of formidable and disheartening obstacles.

"My father," says Doctor Scott-for we will let him tell his own story, as far as practicable-" was a grazier, a man of small and feeble body, but of uncommon energy of mind and vigor of intellect; by which he surmounted, in no common degree, the almost total want of education. His circumstances were very narrow, and for many years he struggled with urgent difficulties. But he rose above them, and, though never affluent, his credit was supported, and he lived in more comfortable circumstances to the age of seventy-six years. He had thirteen children, ten of whom lived to maturity; and my eldest brother was twenty-three years older than my youngnst sister. Having been taught principally by my mother, to read fluently and to spell accurately, I learned the first elements of Latin at Burgh, two miles off, at a school, to which, for a while, I went as a day scholar. But at eight years of age, I was sent to Bennington, a village about four miles north of Boston, where my father had a grazing farm, that I might attend a school in the parish, kept by a clergy man. Here I continued about two years; and in addition to writing, and the first rudiments of arithmetic, I learned a little Latin."

About this time his eldest brother, a surgeon in the British Navy, died. Anxious to have a son in the medical profession, his father selected Thomas, and placed him at school at Scorton, with that object in view. For a time he applied himself with commendable diligence to his Latin studies; but was so deficient in ideas, that, according to his own account, he "was then, and for some years afterwards greatly at a loss to write a common letter

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