THE FIRESIDE.

upwards of seventeen hundred years ago, she said, addressing herself to one of the asses, goading it, "Go on Robin! as it is long since, I hope it is not true." And away she went. Though there is a considerable alteration for the better, in the religious aspect of our country, in that part where the above circumstance occurred since the time alluded to, yet it is to be feared there are many in our land who rise in their knowledge of the gospel but a few degrees higher than the old ass-driver now mentioned. Let the thought rouse the christian teacher to greater attention and activity.

The Fireside.

SENSATIONS OF SLEEP.

One of our English writers has thus well described the sensation of going to sleep:

"It is a delicious sensation, certainly, that of being well nestled in bed, and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs have been just tired enough to render the remaining in one posture delightful; the labour of the day is done. A gentle failure of the perceptions comes creeping over; the spirit of consciousness disengages itself more, and, with slow and hushing degrees, like a mother detaching her hand from that of her sleeping child, the mind seems to have a balmy lid closing over it, like the eyes; it is more closing-'tis closed. The mysterious spirit has gone to take its airy rounds."

And is not death a sleep, and dying sleeping? Many who have fallen asleep in Christ have found it to be so, and could say, as they composed themselves to their last long earthly sleep:

"Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are;
Whilst on his breast I lean my head,

And breathe my life out sweetly there."

:

An aged christian woman, who had many fears during life-time of meeting the King of Terrors, when smitten by him, said, "And is this death? I always expected it would be something terrible. I never feared the consequences of death. I only feared the struggle. But I feel as if going to sleep." And so she did. How good the advice here given:

"Let the mantle of worldly enjoyment hang loose about you, that it may be easily dropped when death comes to carry you into another world. When the corn is yellow and hard, it is ready for the sickle: when the fruit is ripe, it falls off the tree easily. So when a christian's heart is truly weaned from the world, he is prepared for death, and it will be the more easy for him. A heart disengaged from the world is a heavenly one, and we are ready for heaven when our heart is there before us."

THE PENNY POST BOX.

The Penny Post Box.

AMERICAN SLAVERY AND BRITISH SUFFERERS.

T. B., of O. S., has sent us a note to the effect that, whilst we should rejoice that Mrs. Stowe, in her "Uncle Tom's Cabin," has done so much to open the eyes of the world on the evils of slavery, we ought to look at home. He says, "there is a spirit abroad in this our happy England, almost, if not quite, as deadly as that exercised by the veriest slave-owner that ever existed, in the men who grind down the wages of those they employ, not giving them sufficient for the support of themselves and their families, just that they may pamper some of their own selfish appetites." And then he refers to the poor needle-women in London, and other places, as specimens of English oppression.

That there are such things done in "happy England" cannot be denied, and we regret that they cannot; and that the bible condemns strongly all such injustice, is clear as sunlight to our eyes; but we deny that anything of this kind, done by men of a bad and selfish spirit in England, is at all to be compared for one moment with slavery in the United States. T. B. should read the "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin," and then compare the two evils. Here in England, we have no personal slavery, and that is the question. No man can call our bodies his freehold property. Political, commercial, or social slavery, to a certain extent, we have, but these are fast dying away, and would die sooner if people would only bestir themselves. We know how difficult it is for those who are down to get up; and we know that this is the case with the Leicestershire frame-work-knitters, and the London needle-women. But when one employment fails, a thrifty man or woman will seek another. So long as they take frames into their houses the knitters will be the worst-paid men in the empire, for thus boys and girls do the work of men. And then as to these poor women, we pity them much; and yet we wonder that many girls will yet seek such work, when there is such a want of domestic servants, that a good housemaid can scarcely be got at any price. Let us have all these cases fairly stated, and then let the blame rest where it ought. As for making laws for wages, it is a bad plan, and is only a mockery of justice. Every person, with health and strength, has the remedy in his own hands in a free land like ours; and if he has not health and strength he ought to be helped liberally and not grudingly. But if he has, and will not work, neither should he eat.

The great obstacle in all such cases is the poverty of the poor creatures, which has left them in a dispirited and helpless condition. All good-natured and kind-hearted people ought to talk with them, and lend them a helping hand to get into a better position. Jesus Christ had compassion on all such.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Facts, Hints, and Gems.

TRUE DIGNITY.-Those who are advanced before others in greatness should always go before them in goodness.

DOZING. The time spent in dozing between sleep and awake is all waste. It does no good. Always get up. BUYING. Some people buy with. pre-out asking the price. Never do so. Always ask the price: not only of food and raiment, but also of any offered pleasure or enjoyment.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

The Children's Corner.

ORIGINAL PIECES BY THE YOUNG.

ON A LOCK OF MOTHER'S HAIR, Which retained its glossy blackness even to old age.

I VALUE much this raven lock;
Of all my little earthly stock
It claims my choicest care;
If I express the reason why,
A scalding tear-drop in my eye
Replies, 'tis mother's hair.

She was to me so kind and dear,
No wonder I this lock revere,
She trained me with such care;
She gave herself and all to God,
Pointed to heaven and led the road,
In talk, and walk, and prayer.
She's gone; and I am left alone
To mourn her loss, to sigh, and groan,
To weep, but not despair.

Hope whispers, she is now at rest,
Hath gained the kingdom, where the blest

Know neither want nor care.

My tears flow on-such tears are sweet;
Mary with tears washed Jesus' feet,
And wiped them with her hair.
My mother, too, was Mary named,
And her kind love for me hath claim'd
That I preserve this hair.

REDEEMING THE TIME.

J. C.

ALTHOUGH the time now gone and past
Will ne'er be ours again,

Yet by the past we may improve
The time that does remain.

If we with retrospective view
Our conduct oft survey,

And mark where we from what was right
Have erred or gone astray.

Where we have trod the downward road,
Let us our feet refrain;

And strive, with all our heart and mind,
The narrow path to gain.

Let us now seek God's will to know,
And strive that will to do;

And what is pleasing in his sight,
More earnestly pursue.

To make his statutes our delight,
And on His word depend;
To trust on Jesus' grace and love,
Till time with us shall end.

A. M.

ON HEARING THE CLOCK STRIKE.

THE clock now strikes, another hour is gone,

And time once past to us comes back no

more;

And thus from hour to hour time marches

on,

And death is one hour nearer than before.
Even before the clock shall strike again
Some will be called to quit this mortal
state,

And those who longest in this life remain,
Succeeding hours will measure out their