lection of a life spent in giddy conformity to the silly fashions of a thoughtless and wicked generation; but in that of a life spent soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.-Bishop Watson.

How dangerous to defer those momentous reformations which conscience is solemnly preaching to the heart. If they are neglected, the difficulty and indisposition are increasing every month. The mind is receding, degree after degree, from the warm and hopeful zone; till, at last, it will enter the arctic circle, and become fixed in relentless and eternal ice.-Foster.

Do not despise present blessings because they seem to be inferior to those you hope to possess in the future, but which you may never enjoy. True humility is to despise one's self, to despise no one, and to care little about being despised.-Alleine.

Humility is the greatest, the most essential beauty of all created beings. To be conscious of our littleness, and to delight and triumph in that God who makes us what we are, is, indeed, not only the beauty, but also the bliss of creatures.-Howells.

Those who live on the smiles of their fellow-men will often go supperless to bed; but he that lives on the smiles of his God will always have a rich repast.

There are many who will cleave to the Lord in adversity who will forget him in prosperity.

If we were only half as earnest in trying to win souls as Satan is in seeking to destroy them, we should oftener succeed.

Holy Scripture is a garden and also a paradise; it abounds in flowers, which not only yield a fragrance, but also bear fruit for the nourishing of the soul.-Chrysostom.

MY FATHER'S WILL.

A PIOUS old man was one day walking to the Sanctuary, with a New Testament in his hand, when a friend who met him said, "Good morning, Mr. Price."

"Ah! Good morning," he replied, "I am just reading my father's will as I walk along."

"Well, what has he left you?" said his friend.

Why, he has bequeathed me a hundredfold more in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting."

This beautiful reply was the means of comforting his Christian friend, who was at the time in sorrowful circumstances.-S. S. Times.

SUBMARINE WARFARE.

THE life of all fishes is one of perpetual warfare, and the only law that pervades the great world of waters is that of the strongest, the swiftest, and the most voracious. The carnage of the sea immeasurably exceeds even that which is permitted to perplex our reason on the earth. We know, however, that without it the population of the ocean would soon become so immense, that, vast as it is, it would not suffice for its multitudinous inhabitants. Few fishes probably die a natural death; and some seem to have been created solely to devour others. There is probably none which does not feed on other species, or on its own.

A hogshead of herrings has been taken out of the belly of a whale. A shark probably destroys tens of thousands in a year. Fifteen full-sized herrings have been found in the stomach of a cod. If we allow a codfish only two herrings per day for his subsistence, and suppose him to feed on herrings for only seven months in the year, we have 420 herrings as his allowance during that period, and fifty cod-fish equal one fisherman in destructive power. But the quantity of cod and of ling, which are as destructive as cod, taken in 1861, and registered by the Scotch Fishery Board, was, say the Commissioners, over 81,000 cwts. On an average, thirty cod-fish make one hundredweight of dried fish, and 2,400,000 will equal 48,000 fishermen. In other words, the cod and ling caught on the Scotch coast in 1861, if they had been left in the water, would have devoured as many herrings as were caught by all the fishermen of Scotland, and six thousand more, in the same year. But as the cod and ling caught were certainly not one-tenth of those left behind, we may fairly estimate the destruction of herrings by those voracious fish alone as at least ten times as great as that effected by all the fishermen of Scotland.

Sea-birds are scarcely less destructive to fish than fish are to each other. The Solan-goose can swallow and digest at least six full-sized herrings per day. It has been calculated that in the island of St. Kilda, assuming it to be inhabited by 200,000 of these birds, feeding for seven months in the year, and with an allowance of five herrings each per day, the number of fish for the summer subsistence of a single species of bird cannot be under 214,000,000. Compared with the enormous consumption of fish by birds, and by each other, the draughts made upon the population of the sea by man, with all his ingenious fishing, are comparatively trivial.—Quarterly Review.

EAR Editor, The "Gatherings from Memory, No. 5," at page 342 of: the Christian Messenger for 1870, have so interested and refreshed my spirit that I cannot forbear sending you a few lines corroborative of some statements therein contained. I happened, many years ago, to know most of the persons therein named, and have, at present, the plans of the period by me, bearing many of their names. You speak of the "Sharp" family. They were great favourites of mine. The manly satisfaction with which Joseph, the father of the Rev. J. Sharp, in Australia, witnessed the opening services of the new chapel at Sunny Brow, in the erection of which he had had no little share, is still fresh upon my memory. And, indeed, many other incidents in connection with those remarkable days start up vividly before me, and inspire me with a hallowed hope of one day meeting with many worthies long since removed from that part of the country to their eternal home. "Old Andrew," the father of the "Sharps," known in those days as "Auld Andrew," was indeed, as you say, "a celebrity; " and a few facts may

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help to show how eminent a man he was in our Israel, and may perhaps stir up and encourage some humble Christian to strive earnestly to fill up the niche assigned him to the glory of God.

"Auld Andrew's" piety was deep-toned, mellow, and uniform. His reading was limited; for he said to me, on one occasion, "I'll give onny-body leave to come and catch me, if they can, a-reading onny beeaks but t'Bible and our hymn-beeak." But what he did read he could bring to bear upon others with remarkable force. He was ever ready with a word of encouragement to the feeble, of warning to the impenitent, and of hope and comfort to the seeking soul. No public Primitive Methodist meeting held in the neighbourhood of "Auld Andrew's" residence was considered complete without his presence, and no gathering of his own class-mates would ever have dreamed of finding him absent at the appointed time. To the preacher, in the public service, his pious countenance, his tears of joy, his warm Amen and general bearing were a help not easily dispensed with; and none but those who were in the habit of worshipping with him can form any idea of the void which was occasioned by his decease. He was, at that time, the oldest member in that society of ours. He had seen some others come and go, rise and fall; but divine grace had enabled him to plant his feet upon the rock with such firmness that nothing could shake.

Scarcely two months previous to his decease a dreadful explosion took place in a coal-pit contiguous to the one in which he was accustomed to work. I was in the village at the time of its occurrence. Forty men and boys were in an instant destroyed, many of whom were blown to atoms. The consternation of the neighbourhood was intense; the agonies of the bereaved knew no bounds; and, for many days, could find no relief.

Many of the men destroyed were known to be very wicked characters, and "Auld Andrew," with an anguish indescribable, yet with a satisfaction which none could appreciate like himself, was seen to raise his hand heavenward with holy confidence, while tears chased each other down his cheeks in quick suc cession as he exclaimed, "There's not yan o' them can go t' t' bar o' God and say, 'Auld Andrew never warn'd us to flee fra t' wrath to cum.' A've warnd em au,' day and neet, monny a time." And repeatedly he would burst into tears, and, sobbing as though his heart would break, he would again exclaim, "A've warn'd em' au' wiv tears e my e'en monny a time." This alone was a noble evidence of his consistent life.

You speak, dear Editor, of his influence at camp-meetings and love-feasts. Truly it was remarkable. I heard him once say at a love-feast, "Talk about love-feasts, ma friends, why a've a love-feast wiv ma blessed Jesus fav or six times every day i't' bowels at yarth." (In the bowels of the earth.)

On another occasion, whilst every eye in the assembly was attracted to him, said he, "There's a monny people as can talk a great deal about the theery o' religion, while they nau nothin' about the sperience of it. Tell me o' the sperience of it, friends. I like the sperimental part o' religion. Give me the sperimental part, and onny-body may tak' the theery."

Very shortly before his death he thrilled us at a love-feast, in which he spoke his experience with astonishing clearness and power, winding up with these remarkable words, "I am the Lord's, and mind if onny o' you who are here should hear tell that Auld Andrew has deed suddenly, or as got killed i't' coal-pit, you may set it

down in your pocket-beeaks that he's gone shoutin' yam te glary" (home to glory.) Big tears coursed down his sainted and up-lifted cheeks, which shone at the time as though they had been varnished as he spoke, and he sat down, his speech having produced an effect which I can never forget while memory retains its power. A few months after, at his class-meeting, his fervour, his longings for heaven, and the whole tone of his demeanour were so remarkable that his most intimate friends, long accustomed to his extraordinary piety, were constrained to say to each other, "Surely Auld Andrew is nearly home, for he never seemed so ripe for heaven in all his life as now." And, I believe, the following evening of Tuesday, December 11th, 1838, as he was ascending the shaft of the coal-pit on his way home a stone fell upon his head, and he spoke no more."

His sorrowing widow, shortly after, received his lifeless body. The news dew with amazing rapidity. Hundreds smote their breasts and wept, and from many a lip fell the words, " He is safely gone to heaven." A large number of persons, including all ranks in the neighbourhood, followed his remains to the grave, where the officiating clergyman paid a marked tribute of respect to the memory of "Auld Andrew,” and exhorted his hearers to follow his steps. Fakenham, Norfolk. HENRY ALDERSLADE.

GATHERINGS FROM MEMORY.—NO. IX.

HABITS AND RECREATIONS.

It is a favourite sentiment of our free-thinking fellow-creatures that our characters are formed for us mainly by the operation of circumstances. But there is much of the false and dangerous in this statement, and you will do well, especially in your young days, to shut your ears to all talk which would lead you to act in opposition to the plain precepts of God's Word. I am far from denying the power of circumstances; my own experience teaches me the contrary. But this also I know, that I was never assisted by temptation to evil, but I could have pushed it aside and acted in a way opposite thereto. Let me notice one or two facts which will cast light upon this subject. Nothing is so important as an equitable temper, and over this circumstances have great power; but over them again we have a power that can rise and rule. Bad temper is not a habit; at first it is a weakness or infirmity of the constitution. Now, circumstances act upon this infirmity as wind upon fire; but any one who has looked into his own inner life knows that he has a power of restraint which, when called into action, at once allays or keeps back the storm of passion which is ready to break out. The shame and condemnation which he feels who has not used this power, but has suffered his temper to break out in a fury of bad language, say, in terms which cannot be mistaken, "You have been guilty of a wrong you could have avoided." We were once amazed in our printing-office by the utterance of a Doctor of Divinity. He was awaiting proof-sheet of a paper for him, in which were many Greek and Hebrew words. A man who was hurrying on with the job let a whole line of Hebrew fall into "pie," on which he uttered passionately some foul expression. On apologizing to the Divine, judge of our astonishment when he coolly replied, “O, never mind, it is no use having tempers if we do not use them!" Instinct is oftener a safer guide than theory. It was so in this case; for most of us who heard this dangerous sentiment felt that he whose it was was in the wrong.