THE PENNY POST BOX.

The Penny Post Box.

GOOD COUNSEL TO A NEWLY-MARRIED PAIR.

Your readers are, I hope, aware that the late excellent Mr. Charles of Bala, was the cause of the formation of the great Bible Society. The following letter was written, I daresay, between sixty and seventy years ago, by him, and sent with a Bible presented by him to a worthy couple just after their marriage. I hope, for the good of others, you will publish it, for its excellent tendency will be easily seen. After addressing them on their new situation, Mr. C. says of his present: "It is unperishable, and is proof against the devouring effects of all the book-worms in the world. But its outward garb is no object to be looked upon when compared with its inward contents. It is the word of grace! The word of life! It is able, when believed, to save our souls. It contains the great testimony of God respecting his Son; a perfect rule in all situations; and an all-sufficient support in all difficulties and sorrows. In your new situation you will want two things daily; viz., direction and support. You are called to new duties and to new trials in your change of circumstances. To expect otherwise is only deceiving yourselves. I doubt not but both of you are endowed with every requisite qualification to render the marriage state happy; but still I beg leave to doubt your being two angels united together. Permit me to believe that you are a son and daughter of fallen Adam, and, as such, that you are full of infirmities and failings; each will need help, patience, and forbearance. Yes, less than Divine help will be inadequate to your individual wants. Doubtless it will be your highest wisdom, as it is your duty, to walk near the Lord. 'Him, therefore, shalt thou serve; and to him shalt thou cleave.' To live without God in the world must indeed be a miserable life yea, though in the midst of abundance. Let his grace, his faithfulness, his service, and his cross, be your comfort and boasting through life. Others have tried him in every possible circumstance and condition in life: they have found him sufficient for them, and a very present help in trouble. Follow ye them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. My advice is, get as much good as you can, and do as much good as you can. The Bible informs you how to obtain the one, and how to perform the other. Let it be daily your closet companion, and the well-spring to which you mean to look for all your comforts. Its stream will never dry, and its treasures can never be exhausted. It contains the charter of our incorruptible inheritance, as well as a description of all its unfading glories. Look therein, my dear friends, till earth and all its vain trifles vanish out of sight, and celestial scenes ravish your hearts. I need add no more; my little present will tell you everything; yes, the deep things of God. I will forbear that you may listen to its voice." W. S. L.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Facts, Hints, and Gems.

Facts. BIRTHS AND DEATHS.-In London, in every seven minutes of the day, a child is born; and in every nine minutes one person dies, on a yearly average.

THE CHOLERA, which had not visited that city in former years, swept off, in 1853, in a few weeks, 4,000 of the 130,000 inhabitants of Copenhagen.

Hints

CONTENTMENT.-Jeremy Taylor says: "If men knew what felicity dwells in the cottage of a godly man, how sound he sleeps, how quiet his rest, how composed his mind, how free from care, how easy his position, how moist his mouth, how joyful his heart, they would never admire the noises, the diseases, the throngs of passions, and the violence of unnatural appetites, that fill the house of the luxurious and the heart of the ambitious."

EMBROIDERY OF MUSLIN is now done extensively by machinery. One grown person and two children will direct the working of 130 needles. TO CONTRACT DEBTS when he is The machine costs £200. not likely to pay, or to be unwilling STRANGE PUNISHMENT.-History to pay when he can, is alike dissays that Hatto, archbishop of Mentz, in a time of famine, crowded a number of poor people into a barn and burned them, alleging they were only as rats who devoured the corn. He was afterwards found devoured of rats in his own castle!

THE NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY affords eleven miles of seat room for about 40,000 persons. Its carriages convey 40,000 tons, and the tires of all the wheels would extend to 72 miles if welded into one length.

THE WAVES OF THE ATLANTIC OCEAN are sometimes twenty feet high, 160 feet long, and have a velocity of from twenty-five to thirty miles per hour.

CURIOUS DIRECTION.-A letter was lately put in the Durham post office with the following address "John Todd. Has a wooden leg, and lives somewhere about Bitchburn, nigh Crook. Find him out, postman." And he did find him.

THE SOAP PLANT grows wild in California, rising about a foot high. When the plant fades away a ball of natural soap is found, superior to any artificial soap that can be made.

honourable in any man, but for a christian to do so is a great disgrace.

READING BOOKS opens a back door out of the bustle of the busy world into a delicious garden of rich fruits and lovely flowers.

INTEGRITY is a high virtue in any man, but especially in a working man, whose character is his capital. A man of sound integrity will always be trusted.

PUNCTUALITY is the oil that makes the machine of business move on smoothly. Without it there will be grating, and jarring, and stopping, and little work done.

SELF-DENIAL has its own reward: and the conquest of evil habits is the most glorious triumph.

SET IT DOWN AS A FACT, that he who lives in extravagant luxury, will very likely die in beggary.

CHARITY is like a strong box to hold the good deeds of others, and like a sieve to let their failings through.

GAIN GOTTEN UNJUSTLY will always make a hole in the pocket of him who gets it, and slip out sideways.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

were.

The Children's Corner.

THE LITTLE COTTAGER.

"The cottage homes of England!
By thousands on her plains,

They are smiling o'er the silvery brooks,
And round the hamlet fanes.
Through glowing orchards forth they peep,
Each from its nook of leaves,
And fearless there the lowly sleep,

As the bird beneath their eaves."

HERE, in the picture, is little Jessie the cottager's daughter. Her work in the house being finished, and the table spread ready for her father's supper, when he returns from his hard day's toil, she has brought out her knitting, and sitting on the green bank, her little fingers ply the needles, whilst the kitten plays with the ball of worsted as it rolls at her feet.

Yes: and little girls should always be thus accustomed to tidy and industrious habits. It would be a fine thing for them in after life if they Not that we would have little folks always confined to their tasks. We do not mean that. We would allow them all proper opportunities for innocent amusement. They ought, however, to be taught how to do many things which they will be expected to do when they grow up. Let a little girl alone, and never teach her how to sew, or knit, or darn-how to clean a table or a chair-or wash the tea things-or boil the potatoesor make a bed-and what will she be fit for? Why she will be a poor dawdling thing-fit for nothing. And if she should ever be married, her husband and family will very likely be poor and uncomfortable, and dirty, and wretched, and all through her slovenly and untidy habits.

But on the other hand, if a girl takes to tidy ways, and is careful and industrious, she will soon be found out. There are many ladies looking about for such girls, and would be glad to have them in their service. Such a girl will know better than to spend her money in fineries in order to show herself off, and try to make people believe she is a lady, when she is only a servant girl. No: she knows better than that. She dresses in plain good clothes; and all her clothes are good, and she keeps them in good repair. "A stitch in time saves nine," her mother said, and she remembers that. She does not spend all her wages, but every year saves something. And then if she too is married, she makes her husband and her family happy by her careful, and prudent, and industrious habits.

And when such a girl is modest and good-tempered, she is sure to get a good place and keep it. And more than this, if she fears God and loves her Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, she will be a blessing in the family -the children will all love her, and her master and mistress will honour her, and above all God will bless her with his own blessing!

THE BOOK OF THE PEOPLE.

NAMES are sometimes awkward things, and may mislead people. We give below some parts of a lecture by Mr. Owen, at Wolverhampton-not by ROBERT OWEN, the weak-minded but benevolent old infidel, but by J. B. OWEN, who makes out a good case in favour of the good old book which God himself gave for the good of all people, of all times, ard of all lands. Every attempt, apart from the Bible, to educate mind or civilise man, has been hitherto a failure. Chateaubriand, on his deathbed, said, the aspect of the world troubles me, and I see no remedy for the impending convulsion but one, that is the Bible living in the hearts of all the people that acknowledge Christianity. Another Frenchman, Guizot, in his acknowledgment to the people of Yarmouth, of the asylum which had been afforded to him in this country, said, 'keep your faith, be faithful to the examples, to the traditions of your ancestors, and I trust God will continue to pour on you and your country the most abundant blessings.' And what is our faith? It is in the Bible, recognised by the nation as the word of God. We honour other books and other powers; but the Bible above all books, and Christ above all powers. Taylor, of Norwich, a Socinian, and a man of great scholarship, informed John Newton of Olney, that he had read through the book, but could not find justification by faith in it. Newton explained it by an anecdote:- He was sleeping in his study one night, when he was awakened and found himself in total darkness, the fire nearly out. He thrust the candle in to get a light, the melting tallow produced a little blaze, but it would not light. He passed his finger up the candle and found the extinguisher on it; this he removed, and it lighted immediately. said he to Taylor, 'you will never get at the truth until you remove your doctrinal extinguisher, and believe in the divinity of the Son of God.' If any read the Bible without profit, the extinguisher is on: would you realize its benefits, it must be with the manly and vigorous plunge of the pearl diver, who is lost sight of in the depths, but at last brings up not an empty conch, but a shell containing in its bosom a pearl of great price.' The character of the Bible is observable throughout. The opening chapter is like a picture book, likely to attract and engage the interest of a child. Even the child is attracted by the illuminated story of the creation of the sun,

No. 98.

Now,'

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