Ipswich. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. No sin or pain can find an entrance there, This is my hope my friend, so let death come, Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. GLASS. R. W. G. How superior, then, are our accommodations to those of our ancestors, in the admission of light into our THE Phoenicians are said to have acci-dwellings by this beautiful article. dentally discovered the mode of the formation of glass, when a ship's crew were cooking their provisions on the sands. Having brought some pieces of saltpetre from the ship, which was laden with that article, they formed of them a fire-place; and having kindled a fire, a clear liquor (glass) was observed to run out from beneath the pile. But recent discoveries among the tombs of Egypt have brought out some curious specimens of glass manufacture, such as even modern art is not able to imitate; some of which are supposed to be 3500 years old. Glass is said to have been introduced into England in 663, by Benedict, Abbot of Wearmouth, who glazed the windows of his monastery; but no regular manufactory was opened till 1557. In those days glass windows were moveable, and were only used by the nobility during their residence at their castles. They were not used by the people generally till the time of the Stuarts. Before this, lattice work, or panels of horn with wooden shutters, were their usual windows. Hints. SOME MEN are of such a temper that they need always to have their hand on the engine or there will be a blow-up. HE MAY NOT KNOW IT, but every man is an author, engaged in writing, in imperishable characters, the history of his own life every day. How will yours read in the light of eternity? DONT BE TOO POLISHED. If you try you will find it hard work. God did not polish the rocks, or cover the earth with velvet. Be natural; not rude or rough, nor yet over nice. NEVER ALLOW YOURSELF to go beyond the truth. If you do you may, without knowing it, get into the habit of telling lies as glibly as the father of lies, who always teaches his chil dren in this way. SYMPATHY with the sufferings of others always pays good interest. The few tears we shed for them come back into our own hearts in a refreshing shower. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. RIDICULE is contemptible. Never indulge it. And if assailed by it, disregard it; and you will be like that tin-roof on which the hail comes rattling but cannot enter. DONT DEAL WITH MEN who play at snatch and grab, or at pinch and squeeze. That is the best way of teaching such scamps that honesty would be better policy. A HOT AND HASTY TEMPER in man or woman is like a tallow candle in a hot candlestick, which burns itself at one end and is melted at the other. Dont touch it, or you will grease your fingers. Gems. GOD WILL CERTAINLY hold you up if you will only bear your whole weight on him. He may not do so just in the way you wish or expect; but he will do it. AS LONG AS WE LIVE We shall meet with things which seem so dark that we cannot see through them. But God can; and he can send light through them down to us. TEARS dim our natural eyes; but faith turns them into powerful telescopes, through which we see "the land that is very far off." CHRISTIAN GRACES are the outgrowth of the seed of the word sown in our hearts, and blossoming under the influence of divine love by the power of the Holy Ghost unto eternal life. DONT DECEIVE YOURSELF. If you have any religion in you, it is only so much as is seen in your life and conduct. If it is in it must come out and show itself in good words and good works. PRAYER Sometimes becomes too deep for words; but never too deep for God to see and answer in his own way and at his own time. JESUS CHRIST set his disciples to work. He did not shut them up in monkeries or convents. Sometimes he let them "rest awhile," but only to get strength to work again. THE GIFTS OF GOD are very good. We ought to take them thankfully and joyfully. They are as his sunshine, and so be glad; but if clouds should come, be patient and wait. Poetic Selections. THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS DEATH. Life's drama must contain; 'There's no such thing as death:' That which is thus miscalled Now piercing through the night, 'There's no such thing as death;' All sere and brown, to earth, There's no such thing as death;' As comes the perfect flower; "Tis faith exchanged for sight, And weariness for power. There is a sense in which these beautiful lines are true, and there is a sense in which they are not. They can only be true of those who can say when falling asleep in Jesus, O death, where is thy sting? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!' A THOUGHTLESS youth, who had long disregarded the advice of his parents, at length consented to accompany them to hear a minister who was to preach at the place of worship which they attended. The subject of the discourse was the Heavenly State, which was described in the most glowing and attractive imagery. On returning home, the young man, after admiring the preacher's talents, said, turning to his mother, "I was surprised to observe that while the smile of joy was visible in the countenances of all around, you and my father appeared distressed, and more than once in tears. I was the more astonished, because I thought that if any one could claim an interest in the subject, you were the persons." "Ah! my son," replied the anxious mother, "I did weep, not because I feared for myself, or for your dear father, but I wept for you. It was the fear that you, my beloved child, would be for ever banished from the blessedness of heaven, that caused me to give vent to my grief." "I imagined," said the father, turning to his wife," that those were your reflections; the same feelings and fears made me weep also." These pointed remarks pierced the hard heart of their careless son, led him to repentance and the cross of Christ, and terminated in his saving conversion to God. Perhaps some young person who reads this may have pious parents who have long prayed for him. Is it so? And are you still unwilling to think about religion as you ought? If it is so, just think of what you are doing. You love your parents, no doubt, and yet you are depriving them of one of the greatest pleasures they can enjoy in this life. For they could have no greater joy than to see you walking in the truth. They know what great good will then come to you, and they know, too, what unutterable misery must be yours if you live and die in your sins, careless of your soul and your Saviour. The most shocking sight in the judgment day will be to see the ungodly children of godly parents cast out. Think of that. THE LONDON RAGGED SCHOOLS. We believe that all our readers will be glad, very glad indeed, to read what follows, written by one who has taken much pains to ascertain the facts: 66 "What would London have been had Ragged Schools never been established ?" asked the chaplain of Brixton gaol, at a recent conference. Out of 600 male prisoners, he had found that the number who had been at ragged schools was very small," while out of 1,700 females who had been in prison, 850 had no knowledge of either reading or writing: the 600 who knew anything at all having acquired their knowledge during a residence, at various times, in prison. There are two facts which in the outset we place before the reader. The first is, that as a rule, adult thieves have begun their career in boyhood-in other words, that very few begin a course of crime after sixteen years of age; and the second fact is this, that, notwithstanding the rapid increase of population, juvenile crime has largely diminished in London as compared with the past. That the Ragged School Union, in its direct and indirect influence, has largely contributed to such a result will be amply proved by the facts which we are about to detail. But every thoughtful person must feel assured, that if the young "Arabs of the city" could be brought under the influence of education and moral training,-if they could be taken off the streets, into which they had been sent by drunken and profligate parents to beg and to steal, and so on Sunday and week-day have their hearts and consciences plied with truth, and, moreover, could be gradually put into the way of earning their own living,then this out-cast class would surely become, to a large extent, a blessing, and not a curse to society. In the Ragged School system we have seen the christian miner sink a shaft into a stratum deeper and lower than was ever penetrated before. Sunday-schools and day-schools had not gone down so deep, nor can they do it at this hour. "Bright jewels of the mine" they have indeed brought up, but the Ragged School has found in that lower depth gems brighter still: the very contrast of what these children once were, and what they have become, intensifies our thankfulness and joy. At first, when, nearly twenty years ago, Lord Shaftesbury and his little band of early THE LONDON RAGGED SCHOOLS. coadjutors went to work, their enterprise was regarded as Quixotic and impracticable. The London Ragged Schools were commenced in 1844; one of these was in the Devil's Acre, Westminster, another in St. Giles's parish, and another in Field Lane. Three years after the above date, I remember an examination of the Field Lane school in a small room of an old and tumble-down house in West Street, Smithfield. But ere long its conductors purchased and fitted up a large building, which had been used as a smithy. In the upper room, decorated for the occasion with spring's freshest flowers, and crowded to overflowing, Field Lane had its annual meetings, at which nobles, prelates, magistrates, &c., were wont to plead with earnest eloquence for the girls and boys who had better been orphans than the children of brutal and criminal parents. Industrial Classes are connected with many of the London Ragged Schools. We know one school where the boys are famous at patching and mending, and at making up for themselves coats, waistcoats, and trousers, originally worn by their seniors,—an ingenious process in its way, reminding us how, in the Royal Navy, a seventy-four gun ship is sometimes "cut down" to a frigate. As for the girls, they are taught to sew; they make up garments for themselves and others, besides mending their own clothes and also the family linen in the evening at home. These girls, before entering the Industrial School, were altogether ignorant of sewing. The industrial scholars in connection with the Ragged School Union, independent of those received, boarded and provided for in refuges, now number 2,840. As to the number of schools and children, the following are the latest statistics of these schools:: The number of Sunday Schools is now 180, with The number of Day Schools 201, and scholars This gives a total of scholars 23,360 17,983 8,325 49,668 But, as many scholars attend on both Sunday and week-day, the Committee take the week-day attendance only as the probable number of those who enjoy the benefits of these schools, that is to say 26,000. The lamentable fact remains-as fully brought out at the Conference on Ragged Schools-that there are 25,000 of the class for which these institutions were intended, totally |