day said to him, "John, do you know the use of the Bible?" He said, "No, mother." "Then, John, be sure you ask your father," was the advice his mother gave him. Soon afterwards, when his father came home, John ran up to him, and said, "I should like to know, father, what is the use of the Bible?" His father said, "I'll tell you another time, John." The boy appeared disappointed, and walked away, wondering why his father did not an swer the question directly. A few days after, the father took his son to a house, where was a woman very ill in bed, and began to talk to the poor afflicted woman, who said that she had suffered a great deal of pain, but hoped that she was resigned to the will of God. "Do you think," said the father, "that God does right to permit you to feel so much pain?" "Oh, yes," answered the woman; "for God is my heavenly Father, who loves me, and I am sure that one who loves me so much, would not permit me to suffer as I do, if it were not for my good." He then said, "How is it that you find your sufferings do you good!" She replied, "My sufferings are good for my soul, they make me more humble, more patient; they make me feel the value of the Savior more, and they make me pray more, and I am sure all this is good for me." John had been very attentive to this conversation, and the tears stood in his eyes, while the afflicted woman was talking. His father looked at him, and then said to the woman, "My good woman, can you tell me what is the use of the Bible?" In an instant, John cast his eyes towards the woman, while his face showed that he was extremely eager to hear her answer. The woman, with a stronger voice than before, said, "Oh, sir, the Bible has been my comfort in affliction." "There, John," said his father, "now you know the use of the Bible; it can give us comfort, when we most need it." The Sins of our Youth. Two aged disciples, one eighty-seven years old, one day met. "Well," inquired the younger to his fellow-pilgrim, "how long have you been interested in religion?" "Fifty years," was the old man's reply. "Well, have you ever regretted that you began so young to devote yourself to religion?" "O no," said he; and the tears trickled down his furrowed cheeks. "I weep when I think of the sins of my youth. It is this which makes me weep now." Another man of eighty, who had been a christian fifty or sixty years, was asked if he was grieved that he had become a disciple of Christ. "O no," said he, "If I grieve for any thing, it is that I did not become a christian before." We visited a woman of ninety, as she lay on her last bed of sickness. She had been hoping in Christ for a half century. In the course of conversation she said, "Tell all the children, that an old woman, who is just on the border of eternity is very much grieved that she did not begin to love the Savior when she was a child. Tell them youth is the time to serve the Lord." Said an old man of seventy-six, "I did not become interested in religion, till I was forty-five; and I have often to tell God, I have nothing to bring him but the dregs of old age." Said another man, between sixty and seventy years of age, "I hope I became a disciple of the Lord Jesus, when I was seventeen ;" and he burst into a flood of tears as he added, "and there is nothing which causes me so much distress as to think of those seventeen years-some of the very best portion of my life-which I devoted to sin and the world." And the penitent, broken-hearted David, as he looked back and thought of his early days, exclaimed, "Remember not, O Lord, the sins of my youth." The Result of Trust in God. IT is related of Rev. Oliver Heywood, a non-conformist minister, that on a time he was reduced to great straits, his little stock of money was quite exhausted; the family provisions were entirely consumed, and Martha, a maidservant, who had lived in his family for several years, and who had often assisted them, could now lend no more from the little savings of former years. Mr. Heywood trusted that God would still provide for him, who had nothing but the divine providence to live upon. He said, When cruise and barrel both are dry, When the children began to be impatient for food, Mr. Heywood called his servant, and said to her, "Martha, take a basket, and go to Halifax, call on Mr. N., the shopkeeper, and say, I desire him to lend me five shillings: it he will be kind enough to do it, bring us some bread, some cheese, and such other little things as you know we most want; be as expeditious as you can in returning home, for the poor children begin to be fretful for want of something to eat; put on your hat and cloak, and the Lord give you good speed; in the mean time, we will offer up our request to Him who "feedeth the young ravens when they cry, and who knows what we have need of before we ask him." Martha observed her master's direction; but when she came near the house, where she was ordered to beg for the loan of five shillings, through timidity and bashfulness her heart failed her. She passed by the door again and again, without having courage to go in and tell her errand. At length Mr. N. standing at his shop door, and seeing Martha in the street, called her to him, and said, "are you not Mr. Heywood's servant ?" When she, with an anxious heart, had answered in the affirmative, he added, "I am glad I have this opportunity of seeing you: some friends at M have remitted me five guineas for your master, and I was just thinking how I should contrive to send it. Martha burst into tears, and for some time could not utter a syllable; the necessities of the family, their trust in Providence, the reasonableness of the supply, and a variety of other ideas entering in upon her mind at once, quite overpowered her. At length she told Mr. N. upon what errand she came, but that she had not courage to ask him to lend her poor master money. The gentleman could not but be affected with the story, and told Martha to come to him when the like necessity should press upon them at any future time. She made haste to procure the necessary provisions, and with a heart lightened of its Jurden, ran home to tell the success of her journey. Though she had not been long absent, the hungry fannly had often looked wishfully out of the window for her arrival. When she knocked at her master's door, which must be locked and barred for fear of constables and bailiffs, it was presently opened, and the joy to see her was as great as when a fleet of ships arrives laden with provisions for the relief of a starving town, closely besieged by an enemy. The children danced round the maid, eager to look into the basket of eatables; the patient mother wiped her eyes; the father smiled, and said, "The Lord hath not forgotten to be gracious; his word is true from the beginning. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." Martha related every circumstance of her little expedition as soon as tears of joy could permit this; and all partook of the homely fare, with a sweeter relish than the fastidious Roman nobles ever knew, when thousands were expended to furnish one repast. Had you been present when this pious family were eating their bread and cheese, and drinking pure water from the spring, you might have found the good man thus addressing the wife of his bosom :-" Did I not tell you, my dear, that God would surely provide for us? Why were you so fearful, O ye of little faith! Our heavenly Father knoweth that we have need of these things. Jesus said unto his disciples, "When I sent you without purse or scrip, lacked you any thing? and they said, 'Nothing, Lord.'” A Bible at College. A FATHER of a family, residing not far from Columbia, was about sending his son to the South Carolina College. But as he knew the influence to which he would be exposed, he was not without a deep and anxious solicitude for the spiritual and eternal welfare of his favorite child. Fearing lest the principles of the Christian faith, which he had endeavored to instil in his mind, would be rudely assailed, yet trusting in the efficacy of that word, which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, he purchased, unknown to his son, an elegant copy |