THE PENNY POST BOX. 66 The Penny Post Box. READY-AYE-READY! As I perceive that you sometimes admit selections as well as original pieces into your Penny Post Box," I send you an extract from an Australian Paper, signed "Iota." How pleasing to think that in that land, on which one hundred years ago the foot of a christian never trod, there are now thousands who love the Saviour. May we not regard those colonies as vast missionary establishments? 66 Except those who are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord, all must die! A thousand millions of our race are every generation swept into the grave! Every day thousands are grappling with Death, and are overcome by him! How near may he be to any when least looked for! As Bernard says, "Death walks before the face of an old man, but he may be close behind the back of a young man.' Reader, he may be near to you. Should an ambassador from the King of Glory arrive this hour with this message to you, the King summons you at once into his immediate presence: for you Time may be no longer.' How would you receive it? Would you receive it? Would you smilingly reply, 'Good is the word of the Lord. I am ready. Aye, ready!' When John Owen was dying, he said, 'Ah! the long wished for time is come. I shall now see the glory of Jesus, as I never have seen, never could see it here.' George Herbert dying, said, 'I am ready to die. Lord, my flesh and my heart faileth; forsake me not for the merits of Jesus Christ my Lord.' Brainerd said, with dying breath, 'I am almost in eternity. I long to be there. My work is done. Oh! to be in heaven, praising and glorifying God with holy angels.' Haldane raised himself up a little, and said distinctly, When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we appear with him in glory. I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness.' Bradford the martyr said to his fellow sufferer at the stake, 'Be of good comfort, we shall this night have a merry supper with the Lord.' Sanders, in similar circumstances, said, 'Welcome, Cross of Christ! Welcome everlasting life! These men, dear reader, were ready-aye-ready. And how is this readiness to be realized. This is the greatest of all questions, and the answer is, by the consciousness of pardoned sin. 'If sin be pardon'd, I'm secure, Death hath no sting beside." The clear title to heavenly glory, is the King's free pardon, and the bestowment of the wedding garment in which to appear in his presence. Both are provided for the sinner at the Cross of Christ. He that believeth in Him shall never be ashamed.' 'He that believeth in Him hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. passed from death into life.' The sinner, believing in Jesus, is at once and, if faithful, for ever complete in Him; his one only claim for the favour of God his Father, his one title for admission to his Father's presence, and into his Father's home, is by the blood and righteousness of Jesus; therefore it follows that for his place at the marriage supper of the Lamb in glory, he is ready-aye-ready!" Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Farts. MORE ABOUT LOCUSTS. WE have told you of the ravages of locusts in India; Captain Andrews, when in South America, on a journey from Buenos Ayres, says : the prickly pear, and torch-thistle upon which these giant grasshoppers showed no inclination to impale themselves. What an awful visitation to the country over which they pass, is the flight of these insects. On the next morning not a green blade nor a leaf met the eye, where yesterday nature revelled in luxuriance and beauty. Happy is England, which this scourge never visits! It cost us full three hours to get clear of these marauders. We calculated that they must have extended fully twelve miles from north to south." Hints. A VAIN PERSON is a nuisance; for he is always obtruding himself on the notice of others, little thinking, perhaps, that they would far rather have his room than his company. "We breakfasted upon goat's milk, and started early in the morning. After a few leagues were past, we got into a fertile country, though now barren. This seeming contradiction is explained by stating, that a flight of locusts had laid it waste. I had never before witnessed such a sight. Of all the plagues of Egypt, I now think that of locusts must have been the most horrible. This pest, which we had previously seen before us, like a dense cloud upon the horizon, became, upon our arrival in contact with it, a serious impediment to our progress. The locusts struck the faces of our horses and mules with such force, and in such numbers, that they could scarcely grope their way along. Every bush was alive with them, and in an instant looked dried up and dead from their devastations. Their appearance, three or four feet above the ground, resembled corn under the action of the wind, when glowing in a meridian sun, or the waving of a summer's sea. Our landlord had told us in the morn-lieve him at once. ing that a flight of locusts had passed by without visiting him, forgetting that his ground afforded nothing for them to settle upon, but rocks, and A MODEST PERSON carries with him wherever he goes an introduction to a hearty welcome; for his presence never causes interruption or disturbance. A MAN OF TRUTH manages his matters cheaply; for he need not spend any of his precious time in proving what he says. All who know him be SILENCE IS WISDOM, when to speak would be folly. One look of disapprobation will often do more than many words of reproof. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. MEN THAT PLAY TRICKS are downright fools after all. Every trick they play to accomplish their own selfish designs only weakens the confidence of others in their character. SINCERITY PLAYS NO TRICKS. It never squints, but looks you full in the face. It never stammers, but speaks right out. It never skulks, but stands upright at all hazards, come what may.. A NOBLE-MINDED MAN is always glad to hear of others doing well; he is a perfect contrast to that mean fellow who is inwardly glad when he hears that one of his neighbours has got into trouble. EVERY MAN IS A SOVEREIGN, though only a daily or weekly labourer, who can look all round his own house and say, "I am monarch of all I survey,' for I worked, and bought, and paid for all that is in it. Am I not a King?" Gems. IF NEED BE GOD visits his children with afflictions; which, were they not needful, he would no more do than a loving mother would give physic to her healthy child. THE POWER OF SIN Over the believer is never more strong than when it compels him to love the world more than his Saviour. MAN'S GREAT DISEASE is the love of sin. Christ is the only physician who can repel and subdue it. His medicines may be bitter, but if willingly taken are sure to cure. ALL THE GIFTS OF GOD are like those bought and bestowed on us when children by a loving earthly parent to show his love to us. Shall we, then, love the gifts better than the Father who gives them. OUR POOR BODIES MUST DIE; the babe in its mothers' arms-the wife in her husband's. But no soul ever did or ever will perish, when upheld by the everlasting arms of Jesus. SUFFERING WITH CHRIST.-" If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." What does this mean? Who can tell? Will not one minute with Christ in glory be more than enough to compensate for all we suffer with him or for him here? CHRIST DRAWS MEN by setting before them what he is himself, and what he has bought for them in heaven; thus exciting in them a desire to be like him, and be with him for ever in his glory. THE GENTLENESS OF CHRIST made him great. Think of that; and when you feel a kind of fretful impatience with evil doers, put on the gentleness of Christ as an ornament and a defence. Poetic Selections. ONE BY ONE. ONE by one the sands are flowing, One by one thy duties wait thee, Let thy whole strength go to each, Let no future dreams elate thee, Learn thou first what these can teach. One by one thy griefs shall meet thee, Shadows passing through the land. So each day begin again. Every hour that fleets so slowly When each gem is set with care. Or for passing hours despond; Look too eagerly beyond. THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. A TEACHER'S TALE. TO THE YOUNG IN SABBATH SCHOOLS. YOUNG FRIENDS, will you listen awhile, Which some may deem rather uncouth. But the object I have is no less, Though my thoughts may be penn'd without rule, Than on you to deeply impress The worth of a good Sabbath school. Give your heart unto Christ while yet young, I remember how once I behav'd, When first I went out to a place; I was tempted one Sabbath to rove, But I paus'd, and concluded to yield. Thus you see how it is to begin To depart from our Saviour and God, For it cost me much sorrow and pain, I found it in Christ; and this day, To teach others where once I was taught. A WORLD UPON WHEELS. It is not easy to describe with accuracy any period of history; but it is peculiarly difficult to depict our own living age. We are almost certain to exaggerate some features, and there are others which cannot obtain due prominence till the progress of events has brought out their importance. care and accurate information in order to England of Edward III. or Henry VII., it describe the England of Queen Victoria. We only seek to indicate a few of its more obvious features, with their bearing on the duty of Christians. Hence, if it needs appreciate aright the is a still harder task to We do not attempt it. The present time is pre-eminently locomotive. As Mehemet Ali said to Sir John Pirie, when urging more speed of the overland route: "England goes by steam. Pouf, Pouf! whirr, whirr ! you English are all upon wheels." It is so easy, so tempting to travel, that no one stays at home. If any one were coming to London in the autumn, he would find all the streets and houses, but not so many people. In the same way, all the world visits London. In every place of public resort you see the strange attire of some far-come outlandish race- -Icelander, Japanese, Parsi, New Zealander; and you overhear strange dialects, Basque, Sclavonic, or something stranger still, of which you cannot make out one syllable. Your next-door neighbour is perhaps a Russian or a Greek, a Dutchman or a Dane; and whilst in every large town of England you can find a little Scotland, and a larger Ireland, the neighbourhood in which we are at this moment writing so abounds in Hebrew inhabitants, that it has been nicknamed "the Land of Promise." Morally, if not Physically, we have solved the problem of perpetual motion; and if the ocean be the highway of the world, England is its great hotel. A circumstance not without its drawbacks: for such is the sad weakness of our nature, we copy from our neighbours their worse ways rather than their better. A Scotchman settling in an English town is at first scandalised by the ill-kept Sabbath; but relishing neither the liturgy at church nor the organ in the chapel, he stays at home, and by and-bye wanders about the fields, and ends at last by being himself a Sunday trader, and, in order to justify it, an infidel to boot. Or a young Englishman is sent to a German university, and the strange life of alternate study and |