To the Editor of the Christian Gleaner. MADAM,-With the following fable, by the late excellent Jane Taylor, you are, no doubt, well acquainted. It inculcates in a forcible and pleasing manner the wisdom of improving time, and of patiently and cheerfully meeting, as they rise, the duties and trials of every moment. However wide its present circulation, it has not yet equalled its merits. By giving it insertion in your useful miscellany, you will confer a benefit on many of your readers, and oblige one who (improved by its valuable hints) hopes no longer to deserve the name, STULTUS, but

Oxon, Sep. 1826.

STUDIOSUS.

We lose no time in complying with the request of our esteemed correspondent; and for the information of readers, who most probably, like ourselves, are no Latin scholars, we have consulted a dictionary for the signification of the words he has adopted, by which we find that Stultus signifies a fool, a simpleton; and Studiosus, a diligent and attentive man.-Ed.

THE DISCONTENTED PENDULUM,

(From "The Contributions of Q. Q."—Vol. II. p. 9.),

AN old clock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped.

Upon this, the dial plate, (if we may credit the fable,) changed countenance with alarm: the hands made an ineffectual effort to continue their course: the wheels remained motionless with surprise: the weights hung speechless; each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation; when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence. But now a faint tick was heard below, from the pendulum, who thus spoke :

"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth is, that

I am tired of ticking." Upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged that he was on the point of striking.

"Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate, holding up

its hands.

"Very good!" replied the pendulum, "it is vastly easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as every body knows, set yourself up above me,-it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! You, who have had nothing to do all the days of your life but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen! Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut for life in this dark closet, and wag backwards and forwards, year after year, as I do."

"As to that," said the dial, " is there not a window in your

house on purpose for you to look through?”

"For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here and although there is a window, I dare not stop, even for an instant, to look out. Besides, I am really weary of my way of life; and if you please, I'll tell you how I took this disgust at my employment. This morning I happened to be calculating how many times I should have to tick in the course only of the next twenty-four hours: perhaps some of you, above there, can give me the exact sum."

The minute hand, being, quick at figures, instantly replied, "eighty-six thousand four hundred times.”.

"Exactly so," replied the pendulum: "well, I appeal to you all, if the thought of this was not enough to fatigue one? and when I began to multiply the strokes of one day by those of months and years, really it is no wonder if I felt discouraged at the prospect: so after a great deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks I to myself, I'll stop."

The dial could scarcely keep its countenance during this harangue; but, resuming its gravity, thus replied:"Dear Mr. Pendulum, I am really astonished that such a useful, industrious person as yourself should have been overcome by this sudden suggestion. It is true you have done a great deal of work in your time. So we have all, and are likely to do; and, although this

may fatigue us to think of, the question is, whether it will fatigue us to de: would you, now, do me the favour to give about half a dozen strokes, to illustrate my argument?"

The pendulum complied, and ticked six times at its usual pace--"Now," resumed the dial, “may I be allowed to inquire, if that exertion was at all fatiguing or disagreeable to you?"

"Not in the least," replied the pendulum;-"it is not of six strokes I complain, nor of sixty, but of millions."

66

'Very good," replied the dial: "but recollect that although you may think of a million strokes in an instant, you are required to execute but one; and that however often you may hereafter have to swing, a moment will always be given you to swing in."

"That consideration staggers me, I confess," said the pendulum.

"Then I hope," resumed the dial-plate, "we shall all immediately return to our duty; for the maids will lie in bed till noon if we stand idling thus."

Upon this, the weights, who had never been accused of light conduct, used all their influence in urging him to proceed when as with one consent, the wheels began to turn, the hands began to move, the pendulum began to wag, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever; while a beam of the rising sun that streamed through a hole in the kitchen shutter, shining full upon the dialplate, it brightened up as if nothing had been the

matter.

When the farmer came down to breakfast that morning, upon loooking at the clock he declared that his watch had gained half an hour in the night.

MORAL.

Ir is said by a celebrated modern writer, "take care of the minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves." This is an admirable hint; and might be very seasonably recollected when we begin to be "weary in well doing," from the thought of having a great deal to do. The present is all we have to manage: the past is irrecoverable; the future is uncertain; nor is it fair

to burden one moment with the weight of the next. Sufficient unto the moment is the trouble thereof. If we had to walk a hundred miles, we still need set but one step at a time, and this process continued would infallibly bring us to our journey's end. Fatigue generally begins, and is always increased by calculating in a minute the exertion of hours.

Thus, in looking forward to future life, let us recollect that we have not to sustain all its toil, to endure all its sufferings, or encounter all its crosses at once. One moment comes laden with its own little burden, then flies, and is succeeded by another no heavier than the last; if one could be sustained, so can another, and another.

Even in looking forward to a single day, the spirit may sometimes faint from an anticipation of the duties, the labours, the trials to temper and patience that may be expected. Now this is unjustly laying the burden of many thousand moments upon one. Let any one resolve to do right now, leaving then to do as it can, and if we were to live to the age of Methuselah, he would never err. But the common error is, to resolve to act right to-morrow, or next time; but now, just this once, we must go on the same as

ever.

It seems easier to do right to-morrow than to-day, merely because we forget that when to-morrow comes, then will be now. Thus life passes, with many, in resolutions for the future which the present never fulfils.

It is not thus with those, who "by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality:" -day by day, minute by minute, they execute the appointed task to which the requisite measure of time and strength is proportioned: and thus, having worked while it was called day, they at length rest from their labours, and their "works follow them."

Let us then, "whatever our hands find to do, do it with all our might, recollecting, that now is the proper and the accepted time."

Sources of Support.

(From Memoirs of Rev. J. Taylor, of Queen's Head, near Halifax.)

I HAVE needed much support—and blessed be God, I have enjoyed and do enjoy much. Gratitude to the God of all consolation, impels me to record to his glory, a few of the sources of that support, which has helped me through many difficulties before enumerated.

In the midst of outward embarrassments, difficulties and calumnies, I have derived much support from Prov. xiv. 14-"A good man is satisfied from himself.”— 2 Cor. i. 12-" Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience," &c.

When I have been ready to sink under labours and opposition, I have recollected Heb. vi. 10-12. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love," &c. James v. 10.-"Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken to you in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience"-and especially the 11th and 12th chapters of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the ancient saints are placed before us, as instances of suffering, patterns for imitation, and evidences of the faithfulness of God.

When I have been discouraged with the little success which has attended my labours in the ministry, Isaiah xlix. 4, 5, has encouraged me to persevere. "I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God. Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength."

When ready to murmur at the neglect or ingratitude of my associates, in not making suitable returns for my services, I have been enabled to look to another source for an abundant reward, by reading 1 Pet. v. 4."When the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away:"and Dan. xii. 3, 66 They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."