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ished except the master and carpenter, there was one of the ships whose master was often at the prayer meetings, and his vessel was always open for these social exercises. The gale was so severe, and the ship so much injured by it, that she became almost a wreck, and quite ungovernable; the master gave up all for lost, as every human effort seemed in vain, and nothing but a watery grave awaited them. There were two little boys in this vessel; one cried very much, and said he should be drowned; the other said, "Don't cry, Jack; I am not afraid-it is now eight o'clock, and they are praying for us on board some ship in the Thames; you know they always pray for us when we are at sea." The captain heard the remark; it seemed to invigorate him; he and all hands used every exertion; and it pleased God to abate the severity of the gale, and in thirty-eight hours afterwards they were safely moored in the river, when they hoisted the signal flag for prayer, and had a meeting for praise and thanksgiving for their great deliverance. A friend who was on board at the time, and spoke to the lads, said to the one who made the above remark, "Was it you, Dick, that cried during the gale, and was afraid of being drowned?" "No, it was Jack; I was not afraid. Don't you always pray for our ship in London ?" "Yes, and did'nt you pray?" "Yes, I did." "And what did you say, my lad?" "I said, 'Oh Lord! save my master! Oh Lord! save the ship! Let Daniel's God save the ship!' 1""" I trust you always pray." "Yes, ever since the prayermeeting was held on board our ship; I never get into my hammock without having first prayed; but Jack won't, although I tell him he ought.”

Chap. ix, ver. 2.-And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Professor Wodrow relates the following anecdote of Mr. Donald Cargill.—" Mr. Cargill was under very deep convictions of sin before his entry into the ministry, and while a student; and that with grievous temptations and fiery darts mixed in with it, and his too great reservedness, and not communicating his case to such as might have given him counsel and support under it, drove him to terrible excesses; in short, he came to the very height of despair; and, through indulging melancholy, and hearkening to temptations, he at length came to the resolution of putting an end to his miserable life. He was then living with his father, or some relation, in the parish of Bothwell, and, in the horrible hurry of these fiery darts, he went out once or twice to the river of Clyde, with a dreadful resolution to drown himself. He was still diverted by somebody or other coming by him, which prevented his design at that time. But the temptation continuing, and his horror by yielding to it increasing, he fell upon a method, in the execution of which he thought he should not be prevented. On a summer morning very early, he went from the house where he dwelt to a more unfrequented place, where there were some old coal pits, and coming up to one of them, was fully determined to throw himself in; but, when very near it, a thought struck him, that the coat and vest he had upon him, being new, might be of some use to others, though he was unworthy to live, and deserved to be in hell; and so he stepped back and threw them off, and then came up to the very brink of the pit; and when just going to leap in, these words entered his mind, Son, be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.' He said it came with that power and life upon his spirit, which it was impossible for him to express, and he did not know whether it was by an immediate impression on his mind, or a direct voice from heaven, (which last he was inclined to think,) but it had such an evidence and energy accompanying it, as at once put an end to all his fears and doubts, and which he could no more

resist, than he could do the light of a sunbeam darted upon his eye."

Chap. ix, ver. 36.-But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

"Five hundred millions of souls," exclaims a missionary, "are represented as being unenlightened! I cannot, if I would, give up the idea of being a missionary, while I reflect upon this vast number of my fellow-sinners, who are perishing for lack of knowledge. Five hundred millions! intrudes itself upon my mind wherever I go, and however I am employed. When I go to bed, it is the last thing that recurs to my memory; if I awake in the night, it is to meditate on it alone; and in the morning, it is generally the first thing that occupies my thoughts."

Chap. x, ver.28.-And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Anaxarchus the philosopher, having sharply reproved Nicroceon, and being ordered by him to be beaten to death with iron mallets, said, "Strike, strike on; thou mayest break in pieces this vessel of Anaxarchus, but Anaxarchus himself thou canst not touch." So Socrates is reported to have cried out, when persecuted: "Amyntas and Meletus," said he, "can kill me, but they cannot hurt me."

Chap. x, ver. 31.-Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

The Rev. Mr. Nosworthy, who died in 1677, had, from the persecuting spirit of the times, been imprisoned at Winchester, where he met with much cruel usage. After his release, he was several times reduced

to great straits. Once, when he and his family had breakfasted, and had nothing left for another meal, his wife, lamenting her condition, exclaimed, "What shall I do with my poor children?" He persuaded her to walk abroad with him, and seeing a little bird, he said, "Take notice how that little bird sits and chirps, though we cannot tell whether it has been at breakfast; and if it has, it knows not whither to go for a dinner. Therefore be of good cheer, and do not distrust the providence of God; for are we not better than many sparrows?" Before dinner time they had plenty of provisions brought them. Thus was the promise fulfilled," They who trust in the Lord shall not want any good thing."

Chap. xi, ver. 3.-Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

At a solemn disputation which was held at Venice, in the 17th century, between a Jew and a Christian, the Christian strongly argued, from Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks, that Jesus was the Messiah whom the Jews had long expected from the predictions of their prophets. The learned Rabbi who presided at this disputation was so forcibly struck with the argument, that he put an end to the business by saying, "Let us shut up our Bibles, for if we proceed in the examination of this prophecy, it will make us all become Christians."

Chap. xi, ver. 30.-For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

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"I remember a passage of his," says Matthew Henry, in writing the account of his father's life," in a lecture in the year 1674, which much affected many. He was preaching on that text, Matt. xi, 30. My yoke is easy;' and after many things insisted upon, to prove the yoke of Christ an easy yoke, be at last appealed to the experiences of all that had drawn in that yoke: 'Call now, if there be any that will answer you, and to which of the saints will you

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turn? Turn to which you will, and they will all agree that they have found wisdom's ways pleasantness, and Christ's commandments not grievous; and (saith he) I will here witness for one, who, through grace, has in some poor measure been drawing this yoke now above thirty years, and I have found it an easy yoke, and like my choice too well to change.'

Chap. xii, ver. 11.-And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into the pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

A native of one of the South Sea islands came and told the missionaries, that while he was attending public worship, a pig broke into his garden; that on his return, he saw him devouring the sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, taro, and other productions, but that he did not drive it out, because he was convinced it would immediately return, unless he repaired the broken fence, and that he supposed was a kind of labor prohibited on the Sabbath. He therefore allowed the pig to remain till he was satisfied, and did not mend the fence till the following morning. He, however, wished to know, and the people in general were interested in the inquiry,—whether, in the event of a similar occurrence at any future period, he should do wrong in driving out the animal, and repairing the fence. He was told that the most secure way would be to keep the fence in good repair, but that, if pigs should break in on the Sabbath, they ought by all means to be driven out, and the breaches they had made so far repaired, as to secure the inclosure till the following day.

Chap. xii, ver. 34, 35.-Oh generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, out of the

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