Temperance Facts, Anecdotes, and Figures. FROM THE EDITOR'S NOTE-BOOK. XV. THE ONE TOO MANY. HIS is the significant inscription on a public-house signboard, which we came across during a ramble in Lancashire a few years ago. The locality is not very far from the residence of the eminent statistical authority, Mr. Wm. Hoyle, who has recently been showing that there are a great many more than "one too many" public houses. According to Mr. Hoyle, there are at the present time about 185,000 houses in the United Kingdom where intoxicating liquors are sold, or one drink-shop to every 36 houses throughout the kingdom. If the houses were put end to end, and fourteen yards of frontage allowed to each, they would form a street of houses 750 miles long. Such street would stretch from Land's End in Cornwall, to John O'Groat at the extreme north of Scotland, and would reach 140 miles beyond that. Or, if we take another view of the drinking system, and concentrate all the public-houses, beershops, etc., together in one county, say the county of Stafford, which is the most densely populated of all the midland counties, it would swallow up all the houses in Staffordshire, with its population of 860,000 people, and some 15,000 more houses would be needed before all the drinksellers were accommodated.-Hand and Heart. XVI. SIR MATTHEW HALE'S ADVICE. SHORTLY before his death Chief Justice Hale wrote to his grandchildren : "I will not have you begin or pledge any health; for it is become one of the greatest artifices of drinking, and occasions of quarreling in the kingdom. If you pledge one health, you oblige yourself to pledge another, and a third, and so onwards; and if you pledge as many as will be drunk, you must be debauched and drunk. If they will needs know the reason of your refusal, it is a fair answer: That your grandfather, that brought you up, from whom, under God, you have the estate you enjoy or expect, left this in command with you, that you should never begin or pledge a health."" XVII. THE POWER OF THE PENCE. FROM the First Annual Report of the Plymouth Coffee-house Company, we learn that the balance-sheet is a very satisfactory one for the three houses now in operation. Taking the Borough Arms alone, £2,855 68. 1d. have been received over the counter in the twelve months just closed. This sum represents 685,273 penny cups, or other transactions; and taking the two other houses into consideration as well, nearly a million similar transactions have taken place over the company's bars. XVIII: SIR CHARLES NAPIER'S TESTIMONY. FROM the published correspondence of Sir Charles Napier we extract the following: "To Private James N--y, "I have your letter. You tell me you give satisfaction to your officers, which is just what you ought to do, and I am very glad to hear it, because of my regard for every one reared at Castletown, for I was reared there myself. However, as I and all belonging to me have left that part of the country for more than twenty years, I neither know who Mr. Tom Kelly is, nor who your father is; but I would go far any day in the year to serve a Celbridge man, or any man from the barony of Salt, in which Celbridge stands; that is to say, if such a man behaved himself like a good soldier and not a drunken vagabond, like James J-e, whom you knew very well if you are a Castletown man. Now, Mr. James N--y, as I am sure you are, and must be a remarkably sober man, as I am myself, or I should not have got on so well in the world as I have done, I say, as you are a remarkably sober man, I desire you to take this letter to your captain, and ask him to show it to your lieutenant-colonel, with my best compliments to have you in his memory; and if you are a remarkably sober man, mind that, James N--y, a remarkably sober man, like I am, and in all ways fit to be a lance corporal, BILLY AND ME; OR, OUT IN THE HAY. I will be obliged to him for promoting you now and hereafter. But if you are like James Je, then I sincerely hope he will give you a double allowance of punishment, as you will deserve for taking up my time, which I am always ready to spare for a good soldier, but not for a bad one. Now, if you behave well, this letter will give you a fair start in 141 life; and if you do behave well, I hope soon Major-General and Governor of Scinde, because I have always been a remarkably sober man." Billy and Me; or, Out in the Hay. HERE the pools are bright and deep, Where the grey trout lies asleep: That's the way for Billy and me! Where the blackbird sings the latest, Where the mowers mow the cleanest, T There to trace the homeward bee- And this I know: I love to play The Foundation of True Teaching. of Christ, our only Saviour, and Him crucified, is the only foundation of true teaching. I should dread to speak a word which should lead a single soul to look to his own good works, or repentance, or anything in himself, as in any sense, or "Father JOHNNY, don't you think you have got as much as you can carry ?" said Frank to his brother, who was standing with open arms, receiving the bundles his father placed upon them. "You've got more than you can carry now." "Never mind," said Johnny, in a sweet, happy voice; "my father knows how much I can carry." How long it takes many of us to learn the JAMES HOGG. under any reservation, the cause of his acceptance with God; and I should fear no less to put any other thing, name, or notion, whether devised by man or an abused ordinance of God, between Christ and the soul as the Giver of all its life, the Bestower of God's grace, and SO the Continuer no less than the Author of its spiritual being."The late Bishop Wilberforce. Knows.” lesson little Johnny had by heart—“ Father knows how much I can carry!" No grumbling, no discontentment, but a sweet trust in our Father's love and care that we shall not be overburdened! The Holy Spirit alone can teach us how to trust God as little Johnny did his father; for He alone can "reveal" to us "the love of God which passeth knowledge." Let us ask Him to do so, on our knees-"LORD, TEACH THOU ME!" THE YOUNG FOLKS' PAGE. The Young Folks' Page. XXI. THE CENTENARY CALL. OME from the wilderness, Come from the city's press, Come, with glad voices, and raise them to- Come with the infant's song, Let age the strain prolong; Come with the organ's peal, Come with the trumpet's swell; Come ye to praise the Lord, come ye to pray. Where the weeds wildest grow, Where streams are black and slow, Full of sap, nobly nod; There, to the earth and skies, There let us praise the Lord! there let us pray! Praise to the loving Lord! Great is the army of Teachers to-day! Pray that they still may be Firm in their loyalty; Still may they nobly stand, Come ye to praise the Lord! come ye to pray! XXII. THE SEA-BOY'S GRAVE. A TOUCHING story is told of one of Raikes' scholars under the title of "The Sea-Boy's Grave." The writer relates that he once voyaged home from the West Indies in a ship on board of which were a notoriously wicked sailor and a cabin boy who had received instruction in one 143 of Raikes' Gloucester schools. The boy's name was Pelham, but among the crew he was known as "Jack Raikes." In the course of the voyage the sailor was struck down with fever; and, as he daily grew worse, it was feared that he would die, unrepentant and without hope. "Jack Raikes," however, obtained leave to nurse him. He watched over him with womanly tenderness, told him of the Saviour he had learnt about at school, and prayed with him constantly and earnestly for salvation in the Saviour's Name. After a while the hard heart melted, and bitterly were the sins of a past misspent life deplored. Then came to this poor seaman, in quick succession, the consciousness of the Saviour's forgiving love, and a triumphant entrance into God's kingdom of glory. A few days afterwards a storm came on. The stout ship, while nearing her destination, was driven far out of her course. With relentless fury the tempest hurried her to destruction on a sunken rock off the northern coast of Scotland; and the sailors, as a last hope, took to the boats. The boat in which "Jack Raikes" found a place was soon overturned by the angry waves, and, next morning, his body was among the number of those that strewed the neighbouring shore. The writer of the narrative, who got safely to land with a spar to which he had lashed himself, thus describes the appearance of poor Jack: "His countenance wore a sweet and heavenly expression, and, stooping down, I robbed his bare head of a little lock of auburn hair that lay upon his temple. His effects -alas! how poor, and yet how rich-were spread upon the table in the room, and consisted of a little leather purse in which were a well-kept half-crown and a solitary sixpence. His Bible, which he had ever counted his chief riches, and from which he had derived treasures of wisdom, was placed by his side. I took it up, and observed, engraved on its clasps of brass, these words: The gift of Robert Raikes to J. R. Pelham.' 'O Raikes,' thought I, 'this is one gem of purest light indeed: still, it is but one of the many thousand gems which shall encircle thy radiant head in that day when the Lord of Hosts shall make up His jewels.'"-From "What Do We Owe Him?" The Bible Mine Searched. BY THE RIGHT REV. THE LORD BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN. 1. THERE is one thing which Christ is never recorded a promised blessing to His people-what is it? 2. Who was taken to the city of Babylon when it was at the height of its greatness, yet never saw its wonders? 3. Is there anything to mark the turning-point in Enoch's life, when he really became a man of faith? 4. When did the ear recognise Christ when the eye had failed to do so? 6. Where did the money come from which supplied the first charitable institution of which we read in the Bible? 6. How can we show that the Holy Ghost is God from the history of Noah's flood? 7. Why was the ministry of our Blessed Lord confined only to the Jews? 8. What proof have we of St. Paul's strong sense of moral obligation in his natural state, as well as when he was in a state of grace ? 9. When was the gift of a crown offered in return for the gift of bread ? 10. Where do we find in one verse of Scripture the strongest testimony to the personality, the agency, the apostasy, and influence of Satan ? 11. What heathen king gave command that God's people should pray for the Royal family? 12. What were the excuses made by the educated and uneducated Jews in Old Testament times for neglecting the Scriptures ? ANSWERS. (SEE MAY No., PAGE 119.) I. Luke xix. 41., xxiii. 28. II. Exod. xxxii. 10. III. Luke xvi. 31. IV. Num. xxxi. 48–50. V. Prov. vi. 20-23. VI. John iv. 4. VII. Exod. xvii. 6; Judg. vi. 21; Job xxix. 6; Ps. 1xxxi. 16. VIII. Prov. xxx. 18, 19. IX. Deut. viii. 10. X. Ps. Ixiii. 3. XI. John xxi. 9; compare John xviii. 18. XII. Deut. xxvi. 6. "From Robert Raikes the Man of Gloucester," a musical memoir. (London: 56, Old Bailey). A capital help for Centenary Celebrations, |