have explained each verse, and shown them the instruction to be drawn from it; the point I have chiefly enforced is, that they should endeavour to become the people of God. God, I have told them, has clearly shown us that he desires our welfare; nothing prevents us from being happy in these haunts of solitude and simplicity, if we walk before God. Let each fulfil his own part, that all may live in a way to please Him, and to imitate the examples He has given us in the holy scriptures."-"I have abandoned," he continues, "the common mode of preaching; I abstain from all flowers of rhetoric, and address my hearers in the tone of friendly conversation. I try to make them feel the bliss of innocence, the joys of purity and faith, the blessings of souls redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ. I have often changed the forms used in worship, to prevent their becoming mere formalities; I have endeavoured to keep up the spirit of the service, to make the worship of God full of animation, sincerity, and simplicity. I address my flock, as a father speaks to his children, or a brother to his brethren."

In another place, he observes," The heart is deceitful and heavy. Like a plummet, it would fall continually, if not continually drawn up. Two things, I have found above all others necessary to awaken our minds, and to nourish in our hearts the true spirit of christianity; they are the reading of the word of God, and prayer. Those are the two grand means of supporting spiritual life.”

As soon as his parishioners had learned to read, the pastor set about supplying them with Bibles. He obtained a number of selections from Basle, some of which he sold at a very low price, and others he divided and stitched into parchment covers. These he placed in the schools, and allowed the pupils to take them home. It so happened, that one of the Bibles found its way into a Catholic village in the neighbourhood, where it was severely denounced by the priest. The interdict, however, only heightened the desire to taste the forbidden fruit; and an anecdote is related which shows how keen was the appetite for it, when once it had been excited :-A Catholic having found some

excuse for visiting the house of one of Stuber's parishioners, was observed, while he conversed on various common-place topics, to look with great curiosity into all corners of the room. At length, he noticed a thick volume lying on a shelf, which he took down and opened. As he expected, it was the Bible. He then asked if such a book could be purchased for five shillings? and being answered in the affirmative, he instantly threw down the money, snatched up the book, and rushed out of the house.

Stuber was obliged

Stuber formed a public library, consisting of about a hundred volumes, which his successor considerably increased. He also made some attempts at agricultural improvement, and introduced clover and saint-foin. How deeply Oberlin was indebted to him for the wonderful revolution he accomplished, will appear from what follows. by ill health to relinquish his labours in 1766. He was afterwards appointed curate of Strasburg, where he remained till his death. He united the virtues of a good husband, a tender father and a faithful friend. As a citizen and member of the municipality of Strasburg, he was noted alike for his love of liberty, and his hatred of anarchy. The head of a numerous family, he moved in a distinguished circle, which his virtues drew around him, and his wisdom adorned. He cultivated the arts and sciences with great diligence; was an acute and judicious observer both of facts and of opinions, readily detecting the weak side of an argument; but he was eminently tolerant, charitable, and kind. He finished his long and useful labours in this world in 1797, at the age of 75 years. From his correspondence with Oberlin, the following are extracts :

"The best advice I can give you, is to care chiefly for the souls of your flock. I would not have you too anxious to render them eager in the pursuit of worldly good; for as they become Christians, they will naturally become active, industrious, and provident. You must not allow them to be either idlers or the slaves of mammon. I advise you, therefore, to leave them, for the present at least, pretty much to their own devices, and to labour in charity and love, for the salvation of their souls, firmly believing, that by so doing, you will obtain the greatest blessing. Having once obtained their confidence, and a pro

portionate degree of influence, I would exert it to the utmost of my ability, to their advantage, both in the instruction of the young and the conversion of the old, seeking to win their affections by an earnest desire to promote their spiritual welfare. If you adopt this method, my dear friend, God will take care of the rest. Necessity will compel your people to employ themselves, and they will think a thousand times better of their own schemes, than of any that you can propose to them.”

3rd February, 1768.

The building of a House of Education for the children of the Ban-de-la-Roche, being again indefinitely postponed, I have thought whether it might not be sometimes practicable to place the children of bad parents, in families where they would be taken care of. Should you approve of the suggestion, ascertain how much must be given with such a child. The foster parent could employ it in his service, but not so as to interfere with the child's education.

"Another plan. If the children could be got to attend school regularly, a great advantage would be gained. At present, all the rewards have only benefited the masters. Let us invent some plan by which both the children and their parents, who are already jealous of the teachers, may find a profit. Let us try to assist them in paying their part of the charge, which is really a burden to them. I should propose that a child who has not once missed coming to school for a whole month, should receive, in winter, twopence ; in summer, fourpence. The amount should be given to the parents, in tickets, applicable only to the payment of the schoolmaster, or the purchase of books, pens, paper, &c. If several children of the same parents attend the school, something less should be allowed to each. I am aware that this might come to a considerable sum, but if the plan suit you, and you wish to see it realized, I will advise you of the needful means of trying it for at least one or two months.

‘Again, another scheme. Establish in each village a mistress for knitting, and pay her according to the number of stockings the children under her care have knit.

2nd June, 1768.

"I wish also to remind you, that, without great care, external activity may prove detrimental to christian piety. You are converted; but if, at the same time, you have many schemes to follow, many things to do and to think of, you may find yourself insensibly led away from the true place of rest, and your heart gradually cooled to heavenly things. It is thus that one may be separated from God by the very things that seem to be done to serve him. The danger is augmented in a solitary life, in the absence of christian friends to keep alive our religious feelings. I exhort

you, therefore, above all things, to strengthen yourself in the Lord and in his Spirit, that you may be always fervent, separate from the spirit of the world, and filled with the life of God. Thus you will be enabled to accomplish all things, for then God will be with you; he will guide and protect you, and bless and prosper whatever you take in hand."

XII.

CHEAP SHOPS.

The tendency of tradesmen to speak "by the card" is made manifest by the enormous extent to which goods in the present day are ticketed. At one establishment articles are being "given away," whilst at the next door the proprietors are undergoing the daily torment of an "alarming sacrifice." One would imagine that self-immolation was a popular pastime with the tradesmen of London. Nearly every window announces the determination of the proprietor "to sell considerably under prime cost;" from which it would seem that keeping a shop was a piece of disinterestedness, by which one man determines to victimise himself, and occasionally a few creditors, for the benefit of the public in general. These sacrifices, however, do not seem to be wholly without their reward, for the tradesmen who resort to them very frequently prosper, in spite of their recklessness of their own interests. Thus, while the tickets in the windows bespeak a "ruinous reduction," the premises themselves display a splendid enlargement," and when sacrifices are to be performed, the temples are often decorated in a style of gorgeous magnificence. That sacrifices are made there can be no doubt; but it is another question who are the victims.—

Punch.

To buy at the cheapest market and sell at the dearest, is a rule, the justice of which is seldom called in question. There is, however, another rule, to which the maxim of trade must submit,—the evangelical law, What things soever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. How far this law is observed by the keepers and customers of Cheap Shops, is a question worth their considering.

Such a rule has little sympathy with the spirit which grinds the faces of the poor, and strives to prosper by underselling the fair trader.

The announce

Mutual benefit is the soul of business. ments of "ruinous prices," if true, are an injury to legitimate trade; if false, they are a fraud upon the public. In either case, the customer's saving, whether real or supposed, cannot be honestly obtained, and those who prefer feeding the

flames of voluntary martyrs, to providing fuel for honest men to cook their dinners with, are little or no better than receivers of stolen goods.

Until religion enforces the fundamental principle of justice between man and man, in the daily transactions of life, whatever stir it may make in preaching and controversy, whatever it may do for the relief of misery at home, or the conversion of heathens abroad, it will be but as “sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal :"-Vox et præterea nihil.

For want, not of benevolence, but of justice, poverty tends to increase. The destitute prefer half a loaf to no bread, and the employer, enabled to get his work done for the half loaf, will not give a whole one. In vain the steady labourer pleads for justice: the answer is ready, "There are plenty willing to work for less." The price of labour is reduced to the starvation point. But even this is not enough! As if infatuated with the notion of Cheapness, as the summum bonum of public prosperity and private economy, the guardians of the poor must needs lend their aid to complete the ruin of industry! Paupers, kept by the industrious, must be set to work at prices inadequate to sustain life! A happy expedient for supporting Cheap Shops out of the poor-rates! Yet many a tradesman's wife, and lady of fashion too, would rather pay double the tax to support her fellow-creatures as paupers or beggars, than lose the imaginary advantage of buying things cheap, and the pleasure of making "a bargain."

How completely opposed is all this to the spirit of Religion to that which gives good measure, pressed down, and shaken together and running over !

Verily, in the trading world, Greek meets Greek, and the result of the mutual over-reaching, while it verifies the fable of the fox and the crane, proves that although the children of this world are wiser, in their generation, than the children of light, yet the wisdom which makes human prosperity to depend upon mutual justice and good-will, is better than the short-sighted cunning of self-love.