THE FIRESIDE.

informer; I hear there is to be a meeting at to-night, and I am going to give information against the persons assembled." Mr. Hammon, on hearing him name the place where he was going to preach, with admirable address and intrepidity, immediately replied, "I am a man-taker also, and am going to the same meeting." "Are you?" said the informer; "then we will go together, and share the spoil." To this Mr. Hammon assented. On their arrival at the place of meeting, they found the hearers assembled, and after sitting some time, Mr. Hammon remarked to his companion, “Here are the people, but where is the minister? Unless there be a minister, we can never make a conventicle of it. I propose, therefore, that either you or I preach.” This the informer declined. Mr. Hammon then said, "If you wont, I must." And to the utter astonishment of his new associate, commenced the service, and afterwards preached with such energy and effect, that the informer's mind became powerfully impressed with the discourse. From that time he laid aside his profession, and became ever after an honest man.

FAITH OBEDIENT.-They that expect to enjoy what God promises, will be sure to perform what God enjoins. Holy trust takes it for a maxim, that he that contemns the commands of God as his sovereign, has no share in the promises of a God as all-sufficient. If we trust in the Son with a faith of confidence, we shall be sure to honour the Son with a kiss of obedience. Thus the Psalmist: "I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments."

The Fireside.

KIND WORDS.

THEY do not cost much. It does not take long to utter them. They never blister the tongue or lips on their passage into the world, or occasion any other kind of bodily suffering; and we have never heard of any mental trouble arising from this quarter. Though they do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.-1. They help one's own good nature and good-will. One cannot be in a habit of this kind without thereby pecking away something of the granite roughness of his own nature. Soft words will soften his own soul. Philosophers tell us that the angry words a man uses in his passion are fuel to the flame of his wrath, and make it blaze the more fiercely. Why, then, should not words of the opposite character produce opposite results, and that most blessed of all passions of the soul, kindness, be augmented by kind words? People that are for ever speaking kindly, are for ever disinclining themselves to ill-temper.-2. Kind words make other people goodnatured. Cold words freeze people, and hot words scorch them, and

THE PENNY POST BOX.

sarcastic words irritate them, and bitter words make them bitter, and wrathful words make them wrathful. And kind words also produce their own image on men's souls; and a beautiful image it is. They soothe, and quiet, and comfort the hearer. They shame him out of his sour, morose, unkind feelings; and he has to become kind himself. There is such a rush of all other kinds of words in our days, that it seems desirable to give kind words a chance among them. There are vain words, idle words, hasty words, spiteful words, silly words, and empty words. Now kind words are better than the whole of them; and it is a pity that, among the improvements of the present age, birds of this feather might not have more of a chance than they have had to spread their wings. Kind words are in danger of being driven from the field, like frightened pigeons, in these days of boisterous words, and warlike words, and passionate words. They have not the brass to stand up, like so many grenadiers, and fight their own way through the throng. Besides, they have been out of use so long, that they hardly know whether they have any right to make their appearance any more in our bustling world; not knowing but that perhaps the world was done with them, and would not like their company any more. Let us welcome them back. We have not done with them. We have not yet begun to use them in such abundance as they ought to be used. We cannot spare them.

The Penny Post Box.

HAPPINESS AT HOME.

WHAT a man's home is, his whole life will be, as a general rule. And the principles, the ideas, the plans, the motives, the hopes and fears which govern him there, and constitute the atmosphere of his dwelling, will go out with him into all his intercourse and business. If all is well at home, we need not watch him in the market. If he is a true man there, he is a true man everywhere. If wise and prudent there, he will not need to be made any more a 66 Iman of the world." If he can succeed in redeeming life's most familiar scenes from dullness and unprofitableness, the world abroad will be all fresh and full of entertainment. If he be not a dull stranger in his own home, he will find himself at home wherever he goes. If there be a sufficiency of comforts, and abundance of mental, moral, and social resources in one's own dwelling, there will be no unnecessary anxiety, no feverish hurry, no hard drudgery in one's business abroad. One will work cheerfully for small profits, if he be rich in the love and society of his own home. If discontented there, he will be discontented everywhere. So long as the fire of love burns brightly on the domestic altar, he will not be frozen by the selfishness of the world,

FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY.

Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry.

POETIC SELECTIONS.-THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

Poetic Selections.

MORTALITY.

THE house is old, the house is cold,
And on the roof is snow;
And in and out, and round about,
The bitter night-winds blow;
The bitter night-winds howl and blow,
And darkness thickens deep;
And O, the minutes creep as slow
As though they were asleep.

It used to be all light and song,
And mirth and spirits gay;

The day could never prove too long,

The night seemed like the day!

The night seemed bright and light as day,
Ere yet that house was old;
Ere yet its aged roof was gray,

Its inner chambers cold.

Old visions haunt the creaking floors,
Old sorrows sit and wail;

While still the night-winds out of doors
Like burly bailiffs rail!

Old visions haunt the floors above,

The walls with wrinkles frown; And people say who pass that way

"Twere well the house were down.

SOMETHING LEFT UNDONE.

LABOUR with what zeal we will,
Something still remains undone;
Something uncompleted still
Waits the rising of the sun.

By the bedside, on the stair,

At the threshold, near the gates,
With its menace or its prayer,
Like a medicant it waits-

Waits, and will not go away;
Waits, and will not be gainsaid.

By the cares of yesterday

Each to-day is heavier made.

Till at length it is, or seems,

Greater than our strength can bear; As the burden of our dreams,

Pressing on us everywhere.

And we stand, from day to day,
Like the dwarfs of times gone by,
Who, as northern legends say,
On their shoulders held the sky.
-H. W. Longfellow.

The Children's Corner.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

AN old author thus rhymes a divine truth—

"In heaven shall dwell all Christian men,
That know and keep his biddings ten."

To aid our young readers to remember these sacred "biddings ten," we transcribe for their use the lines following, originally written in one of the registers of an old parish in England, by one Richard Christian, the vicar. They belong to the year 1689, and are written in the quaint spelling of the time, which, modernized, reads

"Have thou no other God but me;

Unto no image bow thy knee.
Take not the name of God in vain;
Do not the Sabbath day profane.
Honour thy father and mother, too;
And see that thou no murder do.
From vile adultery keep thee clean;
And steal not, though thy state be mean.
Bear no false witness, shun that blot;
What is thy neighbour's covet not.

Write these thy laws, Lord, in my heart,
And let me not from them depart."

FEARFUL ACCIDENT IN THE REGENT'S PARK.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 15th, a fearful accident took place on that part of the Ornamental Water in the Regent's Park immediately opposite Sussex Terrace, by which a large number of persons have lost their lives. On this part of the lake, which is the broadest, several thousand persons had been skating during the forenoon without any accident taking place, although the ice was looked upon by the experienced icemen on duty as very unsafe from its being principally snow ice. About half past three o'clock in the afternoon there were near the same spot about 500 skaters, among whom were many ladies, there being at the same time on the banks from 2,000 to 3,000 spectators. Suddenly, and without any warning, the ice at the sides of the bank became loosened, and was drawn from the edge. Within a minute the whole sheet of the ice over the full width of the lake gave way, and split up into fragments of a few yards square. A general rush was made for the banks. Unfortunately this broke up the soft ice into still smaller pieces. Numbers of persons fell through the crevices into the water, which is at least twelve feet deep, and several appeared at once to be sucked under the ice. At least 200 persons were struggling in the water, and screaming for help. A few, with great presence of mind, threw themselves flat upon the surface of the pieces of ice, and were thus not only instrumental in saving the lives of many of those in the water, but preserved their own until assistance came to them. screams of those struggling and sinking in the water, and the shouts of the people on the banks, added to the horror of the scene. The icemen, of whom the full number were on duty, did all that it was possible to do under the circumstances, and three of them narrowly escaped from drowning, having, when in the water helping the people out, been seized by others drowning and pulled under the ice. Several of the park-keepers and spectators rendered all possible aid, and more than 100 persons within a few minutes of the accident were got on shore, and a great number of whom were so much exhausted that they had to be taken to the Humane Society's tent and placed under medical treatment. While this was going on several persons who were in the water in the middle of the lake, and whom it was impossible for the icemen to reach, the ladders and boats being rendered

The