is, there is no time for the

which do not concern them.

past, and for things

Labour has the first

place in their affections, and a future state is their treasure laid up. And it is a pleasing fruit of daily and Sunday School labours, to see the youth who have quitted them giving a decided preference to religious books, that is, stories whose substance and bent is moral and religious; for these, having relation to their eternal expectations, console them during a life of labour, which, while they are born to it and love it, is also a life of realities, and which leaves no time for the fictitious and frivolous.

The language I have used will serve to point out the class of youths, (I speak of females as well as males,) to whom I refer; those children of grace, who, by the glory of the Gospel extended to them, have been taught to value their immortal souls, and been made to feel the exalted privileges conferred upon them, as being made the sons of God and heirs of eternal life. These are that holy seed of which, for their purity and for their numbers, England ought to be proud, and they

are the golden fruits of that scriptural education which is the glory and crown of the English peasantry.

The abuses which some have made of their education, and which more have made during a period of their life, is no contradiction to the foregoing observations. If their wildness is constantly accompanied with self-reproof, and if a bitterness attends the "forsaking the guide of their youth," and if by the grace of an enlightened conscience they are brought at length to return, the truth has wrought the same effects on them as on the others, though its benignant power has been later in its effectual operation.

I am not here advocating the exclusive use of the Scriptures; for the power of the truth is the same upon all gracious souls, and is not hindered by variety of reading, unless during any period these additional studies have engrossed the mind to the exclusion of subjects of greater weight and interest, namely, the preparations for eternity.

Since we all of us labour as the servants of the Most High God, all our other reading must be

subservient to religion; we must study and improve our minds only, that we may serve our Lord and Master the better,-by bringing forth more fruit.

PLAISTOW,

March 30, 1840.

SELECTIONS.

Bishop Jeremy Taylor.

(Holy Living, Introduction.)

Ir is necessary that every man should consider, that since God hath given him an excellent nature, wisdom, and choice, an understanding soul, and an immortal spirit; having made him lord over the beasts, and but a little lower than the angels; he hath also appointed for him a work and a service great enough to employ those abilities, and hath also designed him a state of life after this, to which he can only arrive by that service and obedience; and, therefore, as every man is wholly God's portion by the title of creation, so all our labours and care, all our powers and faculties, must be wholly employed in the service of God, even all the days of our life: that, this life being ended, we may live with him for

ever.

If we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature-how many years are wholly spent before we come to any use of reason -how many years more before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes-how imperfect our discourse is made by our evil education, false principles, bad examples, and want of experience -how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping, in necessary businesses, and unnecessary vanities, in worldly civilities and less useful circumstances, in learning arts and sciences, languages, and trades:—that little portion of hours, which is left for the practices of piety and religious walking with God, is so short and trifling, that, were not the goodness of God infinitely great, it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of Him eternal joys in heaven, even after the well spending those few minutes which are left for God and God's service, after we have served ourselves and our own occasions.

CARE OF TIME.

(Holy Living, ch. i. § 1.)

It is worth considering, that the fruit which comes from the many days of recreation and