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made the care of the soul the one thing needful, and sought the Saviour's mercy with your whole heart, you will then find life, and obtain favour of the Lord; but if you have hated knowledge, and would not choose the fear of the Lord, you will then eat of the fruit of your own way, and be filled with your own devices.

THE OLD HOVEL.

DO you see that old shattered hovel yonder, about a hundred yards from the farm-house? there it stands, and there it has stood ever since I can remember any thing. Many a game of play have I had in the days of my boyhood behind the hay ricks at Farmer Mitchell's, and many a time have I taken shelter from the storm in that old hovel.

You may, perhaps, think that it was new then; that the boards looked fresh; that the thatch had no holes in it; and that the farmer's carts and wheelbarrows were placed in it for security but no; it was much the same as it is now, except that there were not so many cobwebs in the corners, that the boards were not quite so black, and that the thatch had only half as many holes in it.

When I was sent to a boarding school, some changes were taking place in the village; but when I returned home, after six months absence, though the old pit was filled up, and the old pound taken quite away, yet the old hovel was standing there still; there it was with its half thatched top, peeping over the little hedge, as ugly as ever.

Soon after this I went to live at my uncle's, where I was treated with great kindness for as long as two or three years, never returning home all that time, the distance being so great. At last I did come back again.

During my absence the tan-house had been new fronted, and the two cottages by the sand-holes had been turned into one. A new finger-post stood at the cross ways on the common, and a new sign and signpost were put up at the Fighting Cocks. "Oh," thinks I, "the old hovel has been down this many a day;" but no sooner did I pass the blacksmith's shop and get a view of farmer Mitchell's rick yard, than I saw the old hovel standing just where it did, and in much the same situation. There was an old worn out cart-horse, that I suppose the farmer did not like to

have killed, standing at the entrance of the old hovel; one seemed just to suit the other: they looked as though they belonged to other times. The new sign, the smart front of the tan-house, and the white painted finger post were too smart for them; "Well," thinks I, "though the old hovel is still standing, it must be almost done for: one of these days down it will come."

This is a changing world, and if you look at a family of a dozen people ever so happy, it is ten to one but in a few years they will be divided and living in half a dozen different places; that is, if they are all then alive: "For what is our life? it is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

I had not remained at home more than twelve months, before I went abroad to a foreign country, and remained there seven years, till the hot sun made my skin almost as brown as a berry.

Glad enough was I to embark for old England, and gladder still when, from the deck, I'first caught sight of the chalky cliffs of my native land. No time did I lose in reaching home. Impressions made on the youthful mind are deep; much as I loved my parents, and delighted as I was to return to them, the old hovel occurred to my remembrance as I entered the village.

Letters had informed me when abroad, of the great alterations made since I left home, and, indeed, I hardly knew the place wherein so many of my boyish days had been passed.

The church spire had been new shingled, and the weather-cock regilt. A grand house had been built by squire Vernon near the clump of firs on the hill, the thatched cottages on the bank side were now all roofed with red tiles, farmer Mitchell's house had a new bow-window looking into the garden, and the old broken cross on the green was taken away. "Well," thinks I, observing these changes, 66 I suppose I shall hardly be able to point out the spot where the old hovel stood; no doubt it tumbled down shortly after I left the village." What was my surprise on looking over farmer Mitchell's fold-yard gate towards the rick-yard, to see the ugly black top of the old hovel ! I scarcely believed it possible; yet, there it was; there it is now, and for aught I know there it will be for years to

come. Improvements have taken place in other things, but none in the old hovel: trees, cottages, and houses have been pulled down; yet there stands the old hovel, as you see, still, with its cobwebbed corners, broken boards, and shattered black thatch, uglier than ever.

It's an odd thing, but so long have I been accustomed to look upon the old hovel, that, ugly as it is, I shall regret it when it falls. Down it must come, that's certain! it will soon be a heap of ruins, for it is little better than that now. But while hovels and houses decay around us, it will be well to think more than we do of an eternal habitation. Like the old hovel, the tenements about us, and the frail bodies we inhabit, may endure a few more summers and winters, but, at last, they must perish in the dust. Let us look then to our Creator and Redeemer for his mercy and his grace, that when our earthly tabernacles are dissolved we may have "a building of God, a house not made with hands," but "eternal in the heavens." us look, by faith, " for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

Let

WANT OF SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION PRODUCTIVE OF CRIME.

THE report of the Rev. John Clay, the chaplain of the Preston house of correction, presented to the visiting magistrates in October last, is a document of much interest. In the 17th table of the Report, he gives the following affecting information of the moral condition of the prisoners, which shows that the friends of religious education have much still to accomplish in this country.

Degrees of religious knowledge.

466 prisoners were quite ignorant of the simplest truths. 821 were capable of repeating the Lord's prayer. 36 were occasional readers of the Bible.

14 were frequent readers of the bible.

12 were acquainted with the principles of religion. He says, "I have stated in a former Report, that it is difficult to define the limit which marks total ignorance of the simplest truths of religion. To be as distinct, however, as I can upon this subject, I will state that the 466 prisoners were unable to answer the plainest question relative to our

Holy Redeemer, while they showed an equal degree of ignorance as to the origin or meaning of the sabbath: 114 of them were unable to repeat the Lord's prayer; and the remainder, in most instances, miscalled the words of it in a manner which showed their complete ignorance of the

sense.

"It is, I think, especially worthy of remark, that the number of prisoners uninstructed in the truths of religion coincides almost exactly with the number of those who are altogether incapable of reading; showing very forcibly the extent in which ignorance and irreligion are commensurate. On the other hand, the converse of this proposition is not equally true. General education (if any thing can be so called which excludes an acquaintance with the thing most needful) too often outstrips religious knowledge and religious principle; and it is probable that not in a prison alone shall we find the capacity to read and write with fluency, when compared with a competent acquaintance with Christian truth, in the proportion shown by the tables furnished, namely, of 18 to 12. Ignorance of letters, however, and ignorance of religion being so nearly equal in amount, does it not follow that instruction in both is equally neglected, or unprovided? the greatest portion of criminality to be found among young prisoners may be referred, I fear, to parental indifference or incapacity; but it must also be remembered that parents in these districts, even if desirous of exercising a wholesome control over their children, have really little or no leisure to devote to the work; were it even reasonable to expect from them the ability for an undertaking which requires unceasing care and exertion from the best and wisest. While parents of the labouring class are following their daily occupations, their offspring too frequently are left to their own guidance; they may be sent to school, but there is no security for their attendance there, however anxious upon the subject a parent may be. My inquiries, indeed, among young delinquents, lead me to the fact that most of the children of the operative classes throw off altogether the control of father and mother by the time they have attained twelve or thirteen years of age. Let it be considered, too, that even under the most favourable circumstances, when as good an education has been obtained as any school designed for the benefit of the labouring classes will supply,

even then the child is removed to the workshop or manufactory at an age too early for a love of knowledge to have been acquired, or for religious principle to have become firmly rooted. Often when I have inquired of a young culprit as to his ability to read, the reply has been, I could once;' a reply which, I think, obviously points to error or insufficiency in the mode or kind of instruction which had been given. The great problem, the conditions of which are, such useful instruction as shall make 'increase of appetite to grow with what it feeds on,' and the whole plan to be built upon the most careful inculcation of Christian principles, remains yet to be solved; and will certainly require in the working of it a combination of experience and energy only to be brought into full operation, perhaps, under the care of a wise and parental government,

which

- Shall admit

An obligation on her part, to teach

Them who are born to serve her and obey."

THE SIGNS OF A FLESHPLEASER, OR SENSUALIST. 1. WHEN a man, in desire to please his appetite, refers it not to a higher end, namely, the fitting himself for the service of God, but rests only in the delight.

2. When he looks more carefully after the prosperity of his body, than of his soul.

3. When he will not forbear his pleasures, though God forbids them, and they hurt his soul, or when the necessities of his soul do call him more loudly another way, but he must have his pleasure whatever it cost him, and is so set upon it, that he cannot deny himself.

4. When the pleasures of his flesh exceed his delight in God, and in the things of God.

5. When a man studies to make provision for the pleasures of the flesh, and this is first and sweetest in his thoughts.

6. When he had rather talk, or hear, or read of fleshly pleasures than of spiritual and heavenly delights.

7. When he loves the company of merry sensualists better than the communion of saints.

8. When he accounts that the best calling, and condition, and place for him to live in, where he has the pleasure of

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