practice, forever, for I never, as I remember, played with them more, but as soon as I came home, offered my new and untouched pack of cards to the fire. I am certain the use of them is of evil consequence, and draws away the mind from heaven and heavenly things."

Mary Alexander states: At this time, while young, I was favored to receive much comfort in reading the Holy Scriptures, which I often took up when alone, to my consolation and encouragement. Then deeply did I lament, that any of my precious time had been spent in perusing publications of an unprofitable tendency; such as plays and romances; and I was made sensible that nothing I had ever been in the practice of had so much alienated my mind from the love and fear of God, or led me so far from the simplicity of the pure Truth as books of this kind. How often did I wish I could warn the whole world of their pernicious effects, and especially the young people in our Society. Penning this remark, brings to my remembrance how in an instant I was entirely weaned from ever desiring again to look into a book of this description. It was by a few words expressed by a beloved friend when I was about reading to her one night after we got up stairs, and were retiring to bed. She queried with me, and I believe under Divine influence, "Dear Mary, is such a subject likely to profit us upon our pillows?" The question so forcibly struck my mind, that I very willingly laid down the volume and to the best of my remembrance, I never more read a page in that, or anything of the like kind. I have often thought those few words were indeed, "Like apples of gold in pictures of silver."

A writer in "The British Friend," says: The plain language of Friends, like their plain dresses, has been of much use in preserving them from the follies and temptations of the world. The character of Friends as a society is well known, and it is also well known that they regard as wrong a great many actions that people generally look upon as harmless; and so it happens that the mere fact of a person being known, as a Friend often prevents him from being tempted to do things which otherwise he would be expected and asked to do. In

the same way, a man who is known to be a member of a total abstinence society, will seldom be pressed to drink intoxicating liquor.

The use of the pronouns "thee" and "thou" in ordinary speech, is a peculiarity of Friends, but it is not peculiar to them alone, although, perhaps few people, if any, have like the Friends, looked upon it as springing from religious principle, and therefore have not attached so much importance to it. But, probably few people are aware that all members of the Hungarian Parliament must address one another as "thou." This rule was promulgated by Francis Deak, who looked upon it as the only way of abolishing caste prejudices in Hungary. One of the Hungarian noblemen got into serious trouble through writing a letter to a colleague in which he addressed him as "you" instead of "thou."

In Hungary, and I believe in most countries in Europe, if not in them all, "thee" and "thou" are used only in addressing people of a lower worldly rank, or familiar friends. This used to be the custom in Great Britain also, and is to some extent even yet, especially in remote country districts. The Highlanders, in speaking Gaelic, make the same distinction, and so do our far-away Shetland countrymen in speaking English.

At the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, the lawyer who conducted the prosecution against him "thou'ed" him in a very bitter speech, saying in the course of it: "I thou thee, thou traitor."

Thomas Elwood joined Friends in his youth, very much against the will of his father, who persecuted him sorely for adopting the Quakers' unfashionable and impolite peculiarities, such as refusing to take off his hat in his father's presence, and addressing him as "thou." Poor Ellwood had all his hats torn off his head by his enraged parent, and was obliged to go about bareheaded; and after his hats were all gone, and it became impossible for him to offend more in that way, he was hardly a bit better off, for he could not speak to his father without offending him:

I durst not, writes Thomas, say you to him, but thou or thee, as the occasion required, and then would he be sure to fall on me with his fists. At one of these times, I remember, when he had beaten me in that manner, he commanded me, as he commonly did at such times, to go to my chamber, which I did, and he followed me to the bottom of the stairs. Being come thither, he gave me a parting blow, and, in a very angry tone, said: "Sirrah, if ever I hear you say 'thou' or 'thee' to me again, I'll strike your teeth down your throat!" I was greatly grieved to hear him say so. And feeling a word rise in my heart unto him, I turned again and calmly said unto him: "Would it not be just if God should serve thee so when thou sayest Thou or Thee to Him?" Though his hand was up, I saw it sink, and his countenance fall, and he turned away and left me standing there.

Samuel Neale, when a young man, accompanied Garratt Van Hassan on a religious visit in Ireland. He says:

On our return we called at Christians'-town, and stayed a few nights there, where I met with a remarkable occurrence: I had been used in former times to walk out with my gun and dog; it was a retired way of amusing myself, in which I thought there was no harm; and reasoning after this manner, though I was very thoughtful about leading a new life, yet I now went out as formerly. I remember I shot a brace of woodcocks, and on my return home it rained, and I went to shelter myself by a stack of corn; when it struck my mind as an impropriety thus to waste my time in this way of amusement, so I returned rather heavy-hearted. Dear Garratt and I lodged together; and the next morning he asked me if I was awake, I told him I was; "I have something to say to thee," said he; I bid him say on. "It has been," said he, "as if an angel had spoken to me, to bid thee put away thy gun; I believe it is proper that thou shouldst put away that amusement." To this purport he spoke; and that same night I dreamed that it was said to me, intelligibly in my sleep, that if I would be a son of righteousness, I must put away my gun, and such amusements; it made a deep impression on my mind, and I concluded to give up everything of the kind, and take

up my daily cross and follow the leadings of the Lamb, who takes away the sins of the world.

John Thorp, the day before his peaceful close, related to his family the following circumstance, which occurred in his youth. He said:

When a boy, about fourteen years of age, my attachment to music was such, that when walking in the lanes and fields on an evening, I frequently gratified myself by singing aloud; and indulged therein, even after my mind became uneasy with the practice, until, in one of my solitary evening walks, and when in the act of singing, I heard, as it were, a voice distinctly say: "If thou wilt discontinue that gratification, thou shalt be made partaker of a much more perfect harmony."

Such was the powerful and convincing effect of this solemn and awful communication, that, he added, he never afterwards indulged in the practice.

He also mentioned the case of another, who, prior to joining the Society of Friends, had been a great singer, of whom John Richardson remarked: "He was the greatest singer in that part of the country where he resided, and sung then the songs of Babylon by the muddy waters thereof; but having drunk deep of the brooks of Shiloh, which run softly into the newly converted soul, he could sing and rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ."

When John Churchman and John Browning were travelling in Talbot County, Md., an elderly man asked them if they saw some posts standing, pointing to them, and added, the first meeting George Fox had on this side of Chesapeake Bay was held in a tobacco-house there, which was then new, the posts that were standing were made of walnut; at which J. B. rode to them, and sat on his horse very still and quiet; then returning again with more speed than he went, J. C. asking him. what he saw among those old posts, he answered:

I would not have missed of what I saw for five pounds; for I saw the root and grounds of idolatry. Before I went, I thought perhaps I might have felt some secret virtue in the place where George Fox had stood and preached, whom I believe to be a good man; but whilst I stood there, I was secretly informed, that if George Fox was a good man, he was in heaven, and not there, and virtue is not to be communicated by dead things, whether posts, earth, or curious pictures, but by the power of God, who is the Fountain of living virtue.

A lesson which, if rightly learned, would wean from the worship of images and adoration of relics.

The winter after, John Churchman being out on a religious visit with two Friends in Maryland, attended Sassafras Meeting, of which John Browning was a member, but had then been deceased about a month. He [J. C.] called to see the widow and children, and she gave him in substance the following account of J. B.:

My husband was not long sick, but said he believed he should not recover, and charged me to endeavor that his children should be brought up in the way of Truth, which Friends profess, and if they incline to have trades, to put them apprentice to real Friends, not barely nominal ones (which she said she was willing to do, though she had never yet joined to Friends), and desired she would not trust her own judgment, and named some Friends with whom she should advise in choosing masters. Then said, when I am dead, bury me by my father and mother, in the graveyard belonging to our family; and thou knowest that I put a large gravestone at my father's grave, and there is one ready for my mother's grave, which I did not put there, because I began to think they were more for grandeur than service. I sent for them from England (not at the request of my father), they are mine, and now I have a full testimony against such formal tokens of respect; therefore when I am buried, before the company leave the grave, inform them what my will is, and desire their help to take the gravestone from my father's