am full of confidence, and this is my confidence-there is a hope set before me-I have fled, I still fly for refuge to that hope. In him I trust, in him I have consolation; I have no doubt of my being a child of God, and that life and death, and all my present exercises are directed in mercy by my adored heavenly Father."

Finding his disorder continued to increase, on July 14, 1751, he preached his last sermon to his beloved flock, from Rom. xiv. 8-"For whether we live, we live to the Lord; and whether we die, we die to the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." And having been advised by his physicians, as the last resource, to undertake a voyage to Lisbon, he left Bristol September the 17th, and arrived at Lisbon October 13, 1751. He had not been long in that strange land before the rainy season setting in with uncommon violence, cut off all the hopes of his friends. On the night of October 24, he was seized with a colliquative diarrhea, which soon exhausted his little strength, though his mind continued in the same

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vigor, calmness and joy, which he had felt and expressed during his whole illness. To Mrs. Doddridge, who still attended him, he said, that he had been making it his humble and earnest request that God would support and comfort her, and the only pain he felt in the thought of dying, was his fear of that distress and grief which would come upon her, in case of his removal. But, he shortly add, "So sure I am that God will be with you to comfort you, that I think my death will be a greater blessing to you, than ever my life has been."

Many were the devout sentiments which during the night he uttered-declaring that the Lord was his God, and that he hada cheerful, well-grounded hope, through the Redeemer, of being received to his everlasting mercy. On the following day he fell into a gentle doze, which continued till about an hour before he died; when in his last struggle, he appeared restless, fetched several deep sighs, and quickly after obtained his release from the burthen of the flesh, on Saturday, October 26th, 1751, in the 50th year of his age.

The Man of One Book.

D'ISRAELI, in his "Curiosities of Literature," says that "every great writer appears to have a predilection for some favourite author;" and he contends for the advantages of such a predilection in preserving taste, and elevating the sentiments to the standard of the adopted model. Demosthenes was so delighted with the history of Thucydides that he recopied it eight times. Brutus constantly perused Polybius even in his busiest seasons; and was employed in abridging him a few hours before the eventful battle in which he lost his life. Scipio Africanus became a hero by poring over Xenophon. Lord Clarendon, when writing his history, habitually studied Livy and Tacitus. Voltaire had usually on his table the writings of Racine. Fenelon was constantly employed upon Homer. Grotius always carried about with him a pocket edition of Lucan, Leibnitz was so familiar with Virgil that even in his old age he could repeat whole books from memory. Malherbe took Horace to the field with him, laid him on his pillow, and called him his breviary. Quevedo was so fond of Cervantes' Don Quixote that, in reading it, he often could scarcely restrain himself from committing his own compo

sitions to the flames. The Earl of Chatham formed his eloquence on the model of Barrow, and had read him so often as to be able to repeat from memory his elaborate sermons. Tully's Offices was the perpetual study of Lord Burleigh, Davila that of Hampden, and Cicero that of Sir William Jones.

Such is D'Israeli's specimen of "men of one book." With what important lessons is it fraught! Man, feeble man, even when he grows to be a giant among his fellows, and ranks with the great and the learned, bows of necessity to the guidance of some one other mind than his own, and clings to his adopted leader with the tenacity of a pupil to his tutor, a child to its nurse! But what selection does he make? Can he look up, with a truly great writer of old, to a Being of infinite intelligence and say, "O God, thou hast taught me from my youth; and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works:" "My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?" Alas! no. crave to have some other model-some other refiner of taste and corrector of feel. ing and enlightener of the understanding and strengthener of the judgment-than the Bible. But can they agree as to any one book" which is better? No; heathen

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antiquity, Spain of the dark ages, France of the infidel epoch, the regions of history, romance, the drama and the belles-lettres, are all explored that each great man may adopt for himself a model different from the chosen models of his fellows. But who can reflect on "the one book" of preference -the cherished guide who is often transcribed, and, in old age, voluminously repeated from memory, the Cervantes of one admirer, the Horace of another, the Racine of a third-and not utter a groan to see

the human mind prostituting itself to buffoonery and folly, and coolly deriding, despising, or at best neglecting, the lively oracles of God? How gloriously different a picture of "a man of one book" does the apostle Paul draw, from that of any in the gallery of the literary painter: "From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus!"

The Saxon Kingdom.

ALFRED THE GREAT.

P You will like to hear about King Alfred. I have many pleasant things to tell you. I said you may remember, that when he was a little boy, he went with his father to ROME. There the Pope Leo anointed him as future king, just as the prophet Samuel anointed King David.

At Rome he gained much knowledge, but he learned much more when he came back to his mother. I'am sure she was a good mother, for she took very great pains with him. Every day she used to show him one of her prayer-books, and all its beautiful printings. He liked to look at the red, and blue, and black letters in it; and although it was a Latin book, and one which he could not understand, he soon learned to read it. His mother then gave him some more books, so, he read them all, and became very fond of reading.

He also liked to listen sometimes to some of the men who would come and play harps, and sing songs; just as you like now to sit at the parlour window, and hear the men play the "tink-a-tink things," as Ada calls them.

Ada. And to give them a penny afterwards.

P. Ah! but the old bards whom Alfred listened to, sung him fine songs. He stared at them, and opened his little mouth, and listened long, as he heard them sing about Saxon heroes, and the glories of men who were brave. Soon, he learned to sing those songs himself, and to play the tunes on the harp-and often when he sat down in the evening to sing and play, he thought that he would be a great king too, and that men should one day talk about his glory.

But, when he grew older, he began to think how he should make this glory, and

what "a glory" was. Then, as he thought, he found that there was a true glory-very different from the one he could make by fighting. He found out that the glory of killing belonged, not to kings, but to brutes, for, not any man could even fight so much, or get so much of that kind of glory, as a lion. Indeed, do you know, that now, when men speak of the glory of the bravest King of England, they only say he was as fierce as the King of the brutes—for he was "Lion-hearted."

W. And a man's heart is the best part of him!

P. But Alfred looked up higher; and, from the world above, he found deeper thoughts-He was to be a King! Then he tried to know the glory of the King of kings. Do you know what that is?

The glory of the King of kings is, to send "PEACE on earth, and good-will towards men," and to live in the hearts of those who love him, so this is the proper glory for all kings.

This, too, was Alfred's glory-to bring peace-to do good to his people-to be praised by those who loved him-and such glory, like that of The Eternal One, will last for ever.

Now, hear of what he did. In the year 871, he was made King of England, when he found it to be overrun with Danes, as I told you before. These men were almost masters of the island, and they would not go away unless he could drive them out. It does not seem to me right that he should fight or kill them-but, it appeared, then, to be the only thing he could do. He fought very many battles with them, but greater swarms of Danes came over, until the Saxon people were so frightened, that many of them choose rather to be slaves, than to defend their country. Alfred was therefore obliged to give way.

But, in the midst of all his troubles he

never forgot the glory of doing good. I have heard that, one winter, when he and his wife had only a single loaf in their house, a pilgrim knocked at his gate to beg for bread. Alfred then gave the poor man the half of his only loaf, and, turning to his wife, he told her, that "GOD, who could feed five thousand with five loaves, could make that half loaf to be sufficient for them."

At length, he was in great danger from the Danes, who wanted to kill him, and he was obliged to hide himself in secret places. So he put on the dress of a country ser. vant, and engaged himself to a poor farmer to take care of his cows. I dare say you have heard before, how he was told by his mistress to mind some cakes, and was scolded for not cooking them well. His mind was so full of thoughts of his kingdom that he forgot his new duties. He thought of nothing but how he should save his people from the cruel Danes-until he was roused by the farmer's wife, who said that the cakes were spoiled, and he was a lazy fellow.

Whilst he was thus obliged to hide, news were brought to him that there was hope of defeating the Danes, who had become very careless, because they thought he was dead. Then he dressed himself as a harper, and entering the camp of the Danes, he sang them some songs, and pleased them very much. He saw in the camp, the Danish chief, GUTHRUM. He noticed that he and other chiefs of the Danes spent their nights and days in feasting and drinking, thinking themselves safe from all harm. Then he noticed, and perhaps he counted, all their tents, and found out which would be the best place to make an attack.

So, one night, he collected all his friends, who made up a large army—they fell on the Danes suddenly-awakened them-astonished them- and defeated them. They killed many, and made the others prisoners, with their great chief Guthrum. Very soon afterwards, Alfred subdued all the Danes in the island.

He might now have punished them; but he knew that true glory came not from doing harm, but from doing good. So, instead of leading Guthrum to death, he taught him the way of eternal life. This chief aud many other Danes learned about Jesus Christ, and became Christians, whilst the rest were allowed to return to their own country.

Then, Alfred began to make glory of himself by his good deeds to others.

He had enough to do, and was never idle. He knew that time was a good thing, so he

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divided his time very carefully. He gave one part of the day to prayer and study, another part to business, and another part to exercise, food, and sleep. He wished to be very exact and particular, so he caused candles to be made, each of which burned a certain number of hours, and thus he kept an account of his time. I have heard, too, that in order to make the candles burn steadily, he invented lanterns.

W. That shows that he was very exact. P He knew that learning was a good thing, and would do the people good, so he advised all the nobles in the land to teach their children to read. He sent to Italy and France for books; he sent vessels with men to get knowledge from other countries, and made one or two voyages himself; he sent for learned men to teach, and caused many more schools to be built. He began the first college for young men at Oxford, and thus founded what is now called the Oxford University.

He led the people on, and shewed them that he was in earnest by his own love of hard work. He translated part of the Testament (the four Gospels) from Latin into English, and studied Grammar, History, Geometry, Architecture, Music, and Poetry.

He knew that order was a good thing, and he, therefore, made many good laws. He wished all his people to be properly taken care of, and to be protected from robbery, so he placed guards in all parts of the country, and men like our policemen; and I have heard that he was so strict in making peoplehonest, that if golden bracelets were hung in the highways, no robber would dare to touch them.

He repaired the mischief which the Danes had made. He rebuilt part of London, and many other cities which they had burned. He caused stone houses and churches to be built-for, hitherto, they had been made chiefly of wood.

In this way, and in many other better ways, he tried to prevent evil and to do good. He made the people more happy than they had been since the days of the Romans,- -so he felt happy too.

The greatness he gave to his kingdom came back to him, and he was called Alfred the Great. The goodness he showed to his people came back to him, and he was called "The good King Alfred." The good which he did has not yet been forgotten, and his glory will last for a long, long while, because he tried to copy the " of kings," whose glory will last for ever.Pleasant Pages.

King