evening devotional exercises. Be much at your Bible: let that blessed book be a light to your feet, and a lamp to your path. Remember you are now in the vigour of youth, and are surrounded with temptations of every kind adapted to the carnal mind: you have great need to mount a double guard; constantly watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. I advise you, as a parent and a minister, to read frequently the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth chapters of Proverbs; these, properly considered, will guard you against many snares, and foolish and hurtful lusts, into which young men are prone to fall.

You may be assured, that if you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all other things will be added unto you. Pray for humility, prudence, diligence, and piety; and be as desirous to grow in the favour of God as in the favour of men. Remember what Dr. Watts says:

"Were I possessor of the earth,
And called the stars my own,
Without thy graces and thyself,
I were a wretch undone."

I hope you remember the Sabbath day and reverence it. Read the Bible frequently, and recollect there is a throne of grace for every poor sinner to approach, and forgiveness with God through Jesus Christ, and that this remission is full, free, and everlasting.

Avoid the vicious. I hope you can adopt the language of the patriarch; "My soul, come not thou into their

place; mine honour, be not thou united unto them; their lives are madness, and their end perdition." Nothing can make human beings miserable but vice; nothing can make them happy but holiness. The wise shall inherit glory, but shame shall be the promotion of irreligious and incorrigible fools. Now, my son, take the advice of 1 Chron. xxviii. 9, and then you will do well for both worlds; but if you pursue an opposite conduct, you will never make any great figure in this world, and you will forfeit your crown in the coming state.

Never neglect the means of grace: attention to these is as necessary to

our growth in knowledge, faith, comfort, and holiness, as it is for a farmer to manure, plough, and sow his land, in order to raise a crop.

I should be thankful to see you once more in the flesh, if it be the Lord's will; if not, my dear son, live near to the Lord, and then we shall meet in another and a better world.

May you escape those snares that Satan, the world, and the flesh are constantly laying for your soul. I am continually praying for you, and I have strong hopes that my prayers will for this be answered, if you connect your own with them.

Diligence, faith, prayer, and patience, will perform great things; when you pray, take the promises of God and the sacrifice of Christ with you to the throne of grace, and you are sure to meet with an answer.

Your affectionate father.

in His wisdom; and, above all, to "wait till the 'suppose' comes, and then make the best of it." Depend upon it, earth would seem an Eden if we would follow happy Nancy's rule, and never give place in our bosoms to imaginary evils.

"TOO BIG TO PRAY."

I TARRIED for a night with an old friend, who had always seemed indifferent on the subject of religion. His wife was pious, and endeavoured to impress the minds of her children with proper views of God and eternity. Her little boy, of two or three years, when about to retire to rest, knelt down by his mother, and reverently repeated a child's prayer. When he rose from his knees, he turned to his father, with a seeming consciousness that he had performed a duty, and addressed him, "Father, I have said my prayers: have you said yours? or are you too big to pray?" I thought it was a question that would reach that father's heart, and it might yet be said of him, "Behold, he prayeth."

I have since noticed many who were too big to pray. I knew a young man, a student of brilliant talents and fascinating manners; yet he would sneer at piety and pious men. He was considered a model by a certain class around him. In a revival meeting it was supposed that the Spirit of God had reached his heart. He professed to see his danger, and resolved to reform. Then he thought of his companions who had witnessed his past life. They would say he was weak-minded and fickle. He would lose their respect.

He could not come down from his high position. He could not take up the cross through good and evil report, and his serious impressions passed away, perhaps for ever. He was too big to pray.

I knew a man who had passed the middle age of life. His children had grown up around him, while he had been careless and unconcerned about their eternal welfare. A change seemed to have come over him, and he felt that duty called on him to pray in his family. But how could he assume such a task before his household, which would be astonished at such a strange event. He shrank from the effort, and finally relaxed into his former coldness and indifference. He was too big to pray.

I knew a physician who held a high rank in his profession. The urbanity of his deportment, joined with an intelligent mind, made him a pleasant companion. But he was sceptical in the doctrines of the Bible. He witnessed the happy death of one who triumphed in the last trying hour, and his infidel opinions were shaken. 'Almost, he was persuaded to become a Christian." But the pride of his heart was not subdued. He could not humble himself at the foot of the cross. He was too big to pray.

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How many thousands there are around us, who have been elevated to high places in our land, who would not dare to be seen upon their knees, supplicating the Majesty of heaven. They are too big to pray.

Now, in all such cases, there is something wrong. The heart once fairly pierced by the sword of the Spirit, there will soon be prayer.

The fear of God will speedily overcome the fear of man. This is proved by all history and all experience. Where the Spirit descends in power, men in multitudes, with the royal Psalmist, will on all sides be crying out, "Come, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul."

AN OBSERVER.

BE GENTLEMEN AT HOME. THERE are few families, we imagine, anywhere, in which love is not abused as furnishing the license for impoliteness. A husband, father, or brother, will speak harsh words to those he loves best, and those who love him best, simply because the security of love and family pride keeps him from getting his head broken. It is a shame that a man will speak more impolitely, at times,

to his wife or sister, than he would to any other female, except a low and vicious one. It is thus that the honest affections of a man's nature prove to be a weaker protection to a woman in the family circle, than the restraints of society, and that a woman usually is indebted for the kindest politeness of life to those not belonging to her own household. Things ought not so to be. The man who, because it will not be resented, inflicts his spleen and bad temper upon those of his hearthstone, is a small coward, and a very mean man. Kind words are circulating mediums between true gentlemen and ladies at home, and no polish exhibited in society can atone for the harsh language and disrespectful treatment too often indulged in by those bound together by God's own ties of blood, and the still more sacred bonds of conjugal love.

It is recorded on the page of Holy Writ, "The memory of the just is blessed." No one who was intimately acquainted with the subject of the following brief sketch, can fail to look back upon his devoted, earnest, and useful life, with feelings of deep interest and love. He was one of those disciples in the walks of humble life, who go about their Divine Master's business without much noise or show; but who are always aiming at the great end of their existence, the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world, the conversion of sinners,

and the spread of Divine truth. In early life, he had the advantage of the influence, instruction, and example of a pious mother, whose constant care was to train up her offspring in the way they should go, and to store their minds with the seed of gospel knowledge, believing that it would spring up and bring forth fruit in due season. up, however, to manhood, before the fruits appeared. From his own account, he seems, in youth, to have frequently associated with evil companions, contrary to his pious mother's wishes. On one occasion, as he

He grew

related at a social meeting at the Sabbath school, many years after, notwithstanding her remonstrances and entreaties, he determined to go with a number of these evil companions to the races. She told him, with a heart full of grief, and her cheeks wet with tears, that when he was gone, she would go into her closet, and there pour out her soul in prayer on behalf of her ungodly son; at the same time giving him a passage of Scripture to think upon while in the midst of his sinful pleasures. To the races he went, but in witnessing the follies and sinful amusements which surrounded him, his mother's voice still seemed to sound in his ears; no peace or enjoyment could he find there; and the thought, that at that moment his pious mother was pleading with God on his behalf, for the time at least, almost overcame him; but conquering the emotion, he went into one of those dens of infamy where all kinds of wickedness are perpetrated. He asked his companions what that place was, to which they replied, it was "Little Hell." "And truly," said he, "it was a very hell to my own mind." He left, and returned home, resolving that he would go no more, but reform and lead a new life. He then became a teacher in the Sunday school belonging to Refuge Chapel, now known as Albion-street Chapel, Ashton-under-Lyne. He there became the subject of deep religious impressions, under the preaching of ministers who came from Manchester and other places in the neighbourhood. Amongst these good men, he would often speak of the late Rev. William Roby. He then, he says, became a

self-righteous Pharisee; he thought that his good deeds would outweigh his evil ones. In this state of mind he seems to have remained till the Rev. J. Sutcliffe, from the college at Idle, became his pastor, about the year 1816. Soon after this, a sermon of his, from the words, "Thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting," dispelled all his vain hopes, and led him to feel that he was a guilty sinner in the sight of God; that no righteousness of his own could be of any avail; and that only the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, and received by faith, would save his soul. He was thus led to place all his hopes alone on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. A short time after this, he was united to the church, and became a zealous, earnest, and successful Sunday-school teacher, which office he filled with honour for very many years. He was ultimately elected superintendent of the school of which he had been so many years a consistent teacher. Nothing gave him so much delight as to see the fruits of Sabbath-school instruction in the young people giving themselves to Christ; for this he laboured, for this he prayed earnestly, both in public and in private, for it was his firm conviction that patient, persevering, and prayerful effort must go together, and would never go unblest.

Though he had to labour hard for the maintenance of a large family, yet he never made that an excuse for neglecting his religious duties. He was ever at his post at the appointed time, with a face beaming with love to his Divine Master and His cause, and with love to the souls of his youth