multitude thus torn from sorrowing friends, and buried in watery graves, can never be known or told, till the seas give up their dead.

"It was early during the war that severed the United States from Great Britain, that an armed vessel sailed out of Boston. The day before Christmas was the time fixed for her departure; and though some hearts were sad at not being able to keep that sacred festival with loved ones, seated around the pleasant household board, yet it was a proud sight, when she spread her white sails to the morning sun, and steered from the harbour of Plymouth. She was not large, but strongly built, and balanced herself beautifully amid the waves, like a bird cutting the air. She carried twenty guns, and a crew of more than 100, with provisions for a cruise of six months.

"There were moistened eyes, and a waving of handkerchiefs from the shore, as she weighed anchor and departed. For she bore as goodly a company of bold and skilful seamen as ever braved the perils of the deep. While she hovered round the coast, the skies became troubled, and the north wind blowing heavily, brought a rough sea into the bay. Night came on with thick darkness. The strong gale that buffeted them became a blast, and the blast a hurricane.

"Snow drifted through the clouds, and the cold grew exceedingly severe. The vessel was tossed by the merciless waves, until she struck a reef of rocks. Beginning to fill with water, they hasted to cut away her masts. But the sea rose above the main deck, and the wild surges swept over it.

Every exertion was made that courage could prompt, or hardihood sustain; but so fearful were the winds, and so piercing the cold, that the stoutest men were unable to labour, exposed to their influence, but a short time without being relieved by others. When they found all their efforts to save the vessel hopeless, they thronged together upon the quarter-deck, not to bewail their hapless condition, neither to entreat mercy of God, like men on the verge of eternity. Unfortunately they had got access to the stores of ardent spirits, and many of them were, even then, in a state of intoxication.

"Insubordination and mutiny ensued. The officers remained clear-minded, but lost all authority over the sailors, who raved around them like madmen. The darkened sky, the raging storm, the waves breaking against the rocks and threatening to engulf the broken vessel, and the half-frozen beings who maintained a feeble

hold on life, breathing imprecations instead of prayers, formed a scene truly frightful.

"Some of the inebriated wretches lay in disgusting stupidity; others, with fiery faces, blasphemed their Maker. Some, wild with delirium, fancied themselves in palaces, surrounded by luxury, and abused the imaginary servants who refused to do their bidding. Others, amid the beating of that pitiless tempest, believed themselves to be in the homes which they were never more to see, and with hoarse, reproachful voices, asked for bread, and wondered why the refreshing water-draught was withheld from them by those who were most dear.

"A few, whose worst passions alcohol had inflamed to fiend-like fury, assaulted all who came in their way, raising their shouts of defiance above the roar of the tempest. While intemperance was displaying itself in the most revolting attitudes, death began his work. Every hour some miserable creature fell dead upon the deck, frozen stiff and hard, in the extreme wintry cold. Each corpse, as it became breathless, was dragged to the heap of dead, that there might be more room for the living. Those who had drunk most freely were the first to perish.

"On the third day of these horrors, some boats that had boldly ventured from the harbour of Plymouth, reached the wreck, amid many dangers from breakers and the storm. The hardy mariners were horror-stricken at the scene that presented itself. Corpses, stiffened into every form that suffering could devise, were strewed around. Some were piled in a mass together, like the frozen soldiers on the retreat from Moscow. Others sat with their heads bent to their knees; others, in their dead hands grasped the ice-covered ropes, or the empty spirit cup; while some, in a posture of defiance, or defence, glared like the sculptured gladiator.

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"Every sign of life was earnestly sought for. One boy was about to be thrown among the mass of dead, when it was discovered that one of his eyelids faintly trembled, and he was saved. The survivors were borne to the shore, and the strangers kindly sheltered and nursed by the inhabitants, until they could be removed to their own homes. It was found that only a small band, besides the officers of the vessel, had abstained from ardent spirits. These survived the hardships of the storm and the wreck, though some of them were in a state of exhaustion.

"The angel of temperance, like the prophet with his censer, literally stood between the living and the dead

so that the plague was stayed.' Some who had been less deeply intoxicated, were borne to the land alive, but died in a short time. Others, after long sickness, were restored, but with impaired strength and mutilated frames.

"When the tempest subsided, the boats again approached the wreck, to remove the dead. What a solemn sight, as under a clear wintry sky, they slowly bore over the heaving waters the bodies of those who had so recently parted from their friends in health and exulting hope! Their funeral obsequies were mournful beyond description. Nearly one hundred bodies were placed in the little church, fixing their stony, immovable eyes, upon the beholder, their features hardened into horrible expressions of the last mortal agony. The aged pastor fainted at the sight of this terrible congregation. He soon recovered himself, but his voice was mournful and tremulous, as he performed the last sacred services of religion.

"The bodies not claimed by friends for separate graves were interred in a large pit on the south-east side of the burial ground. And after that generation had faded away, the spot was still pointed out to strangers where the perished crew of that lost vessel await the resurrection.

"Near by, in a humble abode, might have been seen a pale-faced widow, with her young daughter, sedulously attending the couch of a sufferer. The boy lay there, whose trembling eyelid had saved him on the wreck among the dead.

"Mother! it was you who taught me to avoid whatever would intoxicate. Your lessons have saved my life. When my poor comrades became drunk around me, it was as much as I could do to protect myself from them. Some dared me to fight, and struck me. Others held strong liquors to my lips, and bade me drink. My throat was burning, and my tongue parched with thirst. But I knew if I drank I must lose my reason like them, and blaspheme Him who made me.

"One by one they fell down, those reeling and maddened people. Even now their shouts and groans ring in my ears. It was in vain that our officers and the few good men among us warned them, and tried to establish order. They persisted in swallowing draught after draught, until they grew delirious, and died in heaps.

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Our sufferings from hunger and cold were dreadful. After my feet were frozen, but before I lost the use of

my hands, I saw a box under the water, among fragments of the wreck. I tried, with a rope, to bring it up, hoping that it might contain bread. But my weakened arms failed me, and a comrade helped me. After long toil, it came within our reach, and we succeeded in bursting it open. Alas! there was no bread there, only a few bottles of olive oil. Yet for these in our famished condition we were thankful. Now and then we moistened our lips with a few drops of the oil; and even found that to swallow a small quantity allayed the severe gnawing pains of hunger.

"But soon my comrade died, and I lay beside him, benumbed and helpless. Then the roar of the tempest lulled, and I heard strange voices, as if in a dream, and the hurrying feet of those blessed people, who had dared every danger to rescue us. They carefully wrapped in blankets all who were able to speak, or whose slightest motion betrayed life. Almost every drunkard was among the dead.

"And I was so exhausted with labour and cold, and want of food, that I was not able to utter a word, or stretch a finger to my deliverers. Again and again they passed me, where I lay among the dead. Again and again, they bore the living away to their boats. A terrible dread took possession of me, lest I should be left behind. I strained every nerve and muscle to speak, but could utter no sound. The effort almost stifled my feeble breath. I strove to lift my hand. All power of the muscles had forsaken me. It was like some awful vision.

"Then I prayed agonizingly in my heart, "For the sake of my poor mother and sister, oh Lord, save me!" Methought the last man had gone, for I heard no longer any footsteps. Then I said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

"Ah! was there not something like warm breath on my cheek? Was not the hand of a human being laid upon mine? My whole soul strove and shuddered within me; but my body was immoveable as marble. A voice said, "I think this poor lad lives; one of his eyelids trembles." Ah! the music of those words. It was not the trembling eyelid, but your lessons of temperance, dear mother, and the prayer to God, that saved me."

Then the loving sister ran with tears to embrace him, and the widowed mother, bowing her head said :

'I thank Thee, merciful Father, who hath spared my son, to be the comfort of my age."

Mothers everywhere! Do you wish to save your dear

children from the demon of strong drink? Do you wish to prevent their bodies from being laid in a drunkard's grave? And do you wish to save their souls from being hurled to a drunkard's hell? Then teach them in early life, by precept and example, to abstain from all intoxicating drinks. Every one of you should do as did the mother of the sailor boy, and if you do so you shall have your reward. God help you! J. HAWKINS.

PROTESTANTISM AND REFORMATION. PROTESTANTISM is an act of resistance to the encroachments of man upon the freedom of conscience; reformation, a return to the teachings of Jesus Christ, as they have been preserved in his written word.

Protestantism is a negative state, which, alas! can even ally itself to the most deplorable excesses of doubt and impiety. Reformation leads to a sincere faith, deep convictions, and the christian life of the disciples of the Crucified.

The Protestant inscribes on his banner: Nothing but the Bible;" the reformer adds to his: "All the Bible."

Protestantism destroys an edifice which was crumbling to ruin; reformation raises a new one on an immovable Rock. The Protestant resists and seeks; the reformer seeks and finds. The latter cherishes truth, the former detests error. The Protestant, according to the apostle's precept, "examines all things;" the Reformer completes the task, "he holds fast that which is good."

The confusion of these two principles explains our errors and reverses in former times, and it may also serve to explain the state of incoherence which afflicts our churches in the present day.

Say, reader, say in thine heart, art thou but a Protestant who resists, or art thou already a believing Reformer, a humble disciple of him who is at once the way, the truth, and the life." (Translated from a French work, entitled, " Archives Protestantes.")

GOD'S JEWELS.

WHILE in London I stayed with a brother who was a diamond-setter. One day my diamond friend took me into his workshop, where he showed me a little box, something like one of Old Parr's pill-boxes, which con