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When trade is languishing they have less to waste, and they spend what they get on their own homes ; but when trade is brisk they carry their earnings to strangers, and leave their own to weep. Many that got safely through hard times, have perished in the time of prosperity; because they were not prepared by religion, for the sober, enjoyment of plenty. If therefore we had the best government that ever managed the affairs of a nation; if we had the best laws that ever man devised, or God himself enjoined ; if providence should give us peace with every people, and fill every house with plenty; all would not be enough to make us happy, unless we were a wise and righteous people. The indulgence of one vice would baffle all the skill and benevolence both of heaven and earth, and force our friends to stand and weep over our destruction. If we had not a single vice but drunkenness, it would keep us down, in spite of all that could be done to lift us up. A good pilot is a good thing, and good sailors are good things, but neither pilot nor sailors will be able to bring the bark safe over the seas, unless the carpenter attend to his work in the hold, and keep the bottom of the vessel in repair. If the carpenter should leave one leak unstopped, it will sink the ship, let the sailors and pilot do what they can. The more sails and the better wind, the sooner the hold will fill, and the ship with her crew sink under the waves. The carpenter's work is underneath, and the ignorant passenger and the conceited sailor are both prone to forget him; but it is he that keeps them above the waters after all. And it is so in the ship of the state. The premier is our pilot, and our legislators are our sailors; our sails are parchment, written within full of laws and statutes, and time is the wind that blows us along. The pilot may steer clear of whirlpools and rocks, and the sailors may manage the sails with skill, and the winds may be fair; but where are the carpenters, and what is the state of the timbers ? Some talk of nothing but sailors and sails, and the course which

the pilot is steering, but what are all these if the timbers are loose, and the carpenters out of their place? Our carpenters are the moral reformers, who stop the leaks and knit the planks together; and though the fashion of late has been to overlook their labours, both among the sailors and passengers, yet to them it is owing that Britannia is still above water. Others may praise when they please, but I will speak well of the carpenters. We owe more to our teachers of youth, for preparing the ti.nbers for a good new bottom, and to our Temperance men, for stopping the leaks, and to our Christian friends, for knitting the timbers together with brotherly love and piety, than to all our warriors and statesmen and kings since Britain became a ration. Still cling to your posts, brother carpenters, and keep to your work, and our vessel shall do well. And as it happens with other ships, good pilots and good sailors will trust them, selves on a sound bottom, while a crazy bark must have only the refuse of sailors and pilots; so it is with the bark of the nation. Let the ship be repaired, and we shall have better sailors, A reformed people will never lack a reformed government. Tyrants cannot live among an enlightened and virtuous peo ple; they must either be transformed or flee. There is not a power on earth can do us wrong, if we will only do right ourselves. Let us free ourselves from the bondage of ignorance and sin, and there will not be a power in the universe that can bind us a moment, "If the truth make us free, we shall be free indeed." A tyrant would as easily extinguish the sun, or en slave the winds, as afflict or oppress a nation of sober and Christian men, Behold then, my young friends, if you are panting to see our country happy, the course you must take. Reform yourselves, and reform one another, and the work is done. Choose for your Leader the "Prince of peace," fight for your nation with the weapons of truth and charity, and the coming generation shall live in an age of freedom and plenty and joy, earth shall at length present to the

view of Heaven a happy nation, and, when heroes and kings are forgotten, you shall be loved as the friends and the saviours of men.

DRINKING.

But however injurious excess in eating may be to the body, or the purse, it is not so criminal, in many respects, as that of living only to be a thorough-fare of wine and strong drink. For he who places his supreme delight in strong drink, and is uneasy till he has drunk away his senses, renders himself soon unfit for every thing else: frolic at night is followed by pains and sickness in the morning: and then, what was before the poison is administered as a cure; so that a whole life is often wasted in this expensive frenzy; poverty itself only cutting off the means, not the inclination; and a merry night being still esteemed worth living for, though fortune, friends, and even health itself have deserted us; nay, though we are never mentioned but with contempt and disgrace, and to warn others from their vices that have been our undoing. The only effectual security against intemperance in drink, is to fly temptation, taste not, handle not the cup which leads to intoxication; for when once its moderate use becomes habitual, in vain our best resolves against intemperance.

Young Man's own Book.

W. PENN'S MAXIMS.

POSTERITY. We are too careless of Posterity, not considering that aswe are, so the next Generation will be.

If we would amend the World, we should mend Ourselves; and teach our Children to be, not what we are, but what they should be.

We are too apt to awaken and tune up their Passions by the Example of our own; and to teach them to be pleased, not with what is best, but with what pleases best.

It is our Duty, and ought to be our Care, to guard against that Passion in them, which is more especially our own Weakness and Affliction: For we are in great Measure accountable for them, as well as for ourselves.

We are in this also true Turners of the World upside down : For Money is first, and Virtue last, and least in our Care. It is not How we leave our Children, but What we leave them.

To be sure Virtue is but a Supplement, and not a Principle in their Portion and Character: and therefore we see so little Wisdom or Goodness among the Rich, in proportion to their Wealth.

FRIENDSHIP.-Friendship is the next pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at Home, or have no Home to find it in, we may seek it abroad.

It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Virtue.

There can be no Friendship where there is no Freedom. Friendship loves a free Air, and will not be penned up in strait and narrow Enclosures.

It will speak freely and act so too; and take nothing ill, where no ill is meant; nay, where it is, 'twill easily forgive, and forget too, upon small Acknowledgments.

Friends are true twins in soul; they sympathize in every thing, and have the same Love and Aversion.

One is not happy without the other, nor can either of them be miserable alone.

As if they could change bodies, they take their turns in Pain as well as in Pleasure; relieving one another in their most adverse conditions.

What one enjoys, the other cannot want.

Like the Primitive Christians, they have all things in common, and no Property but in one another.

INDUSTRY-APPLICATION.-Industry is certainly very commendable, and supplies the want of parts.

Patience and Diligence, like faith, remove mountains. Never give up while there is hope; but hope not beyond reason, for that shows more desire than judgment.

It is a profitable wisdom to know when we have done enough much time and pains are spared, in not flattering ourselves against probabilities.

TEMPORAL HAPPINESS.-Do good with what thou hast, or it will do thee no good.

Seek not to be rich, but happy. The one lies in bags, the other in content, which wealth can never give.

Published by I. Davis, 22, Grosvenor-street, Stalybridge; Banks and Co., Exchange-street; Heywood, Oldham-street, Manchester; J. Livesey, 28, Church-street, Preston; R. Groombridge, 6, Payner Alley, Paternoster-Row, London; and may be had of all Booksellers.

No. 4. will be published on Saturday next, January 20th, 1838.

I. DAVIS, PRINTER, STALYBRIDGE,

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MARRIAGE AND THE CELEBRATION OF MARRIAGE.

Life would be a weary thing without society, and society would be a poor consolation without friendship, and friendship is never perfect but in marriage, and then only does marriage bring with it all its sweetness and blessings, when its endearments are enriched by religion, and mixed with the forethoughts and hopes of heaven.

The first marriage in the Methodist New Connexion Chapel, Mossley, was celebrated on Christmas day. After singing and prayer the Minister, J. Barker, delivered the following Address :

As this is the first occasion on which we ever met to celebrate a marriage in this place, it may not be amiss before we proceed farther, to make a few observations on the subject of marriage, and on the way in which marriages ought to be celebrated. Marriage was instituted by God, in the Garden of Eden, and stands the first among the ordinances of Heaven in reference to the human race. The history of its institution is given

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