contemplated in Lancashire, under the inspection of the magistrates, from whence the boys are to be sent to situations promised for them in the Colonies, and the same plan will probably be adopted for this male Refuge.

It may be as well to mention that the funds for the first establishment of the female Refuge have been provided by an individual whose name is not to appear. And it is intended to devote two-thirds of the proceeds of a Bazaar, to be held in Chester, next January, to the establishment of the male Refuge, and afterwards, as far as they will go, to the support of both the institutions, which are approved and recommended by the Bishop of Chester, the Chancellor of the Diocese, and many others of the Clergy and Gentry of the County and City of Chester.

THE TRACT DISTRIBUTOR IN PRISON.

By oppression, as arbitrary as implacable," the judges seated to render justice in the name of the Lord," had perverted all the rights of toleration and compassion, in condemning to prison and to fine a Christian of France, whose crime was the giving to two or three poor sinners, a religious tract, which could enlighten them on the things of heaven, and lead them into the way of peace. An inhabitant of the canton de Vaud, has told us, that M. Pache, of the town of Morges, a man of a peaceable and gentle spirit, being at Aix les Bains, in Savoy, gave, or only lent, to those who served him there, one of those tracts in which the fatal error of a religion of human works is overthrown by the scriptural declaration of the religion of Heaven, of the doctrine of grace. This Protestant was watched close by -, and the occasion of ill-using a Huguenot was eagerly seized, by an authority jealous of that of the Pope, by those priests who above all things hate the Bible, and all language which reminds of it, and all instruction which directs to it. M. Pache was then secretly denounced to the senate of the province, and his seizure decreed; and the sentence which was to strike him, was pronounced in that council at the same time that the order to bring the criminal was sent out.

The Christian had been able to escape. In the same hour that the gens-d'armes presented themselves aththe hotel where M. P. lodged; he was taking exercise in the garden, and as the sweetness of his manners, and the kindness of his words, had rendered him dear to the people of the house, a valet ran to tell him they sought him in the rooms, and that he had time to fly. M. P. answered that it was surely a mistake, that he was not guilty of

* Supposing, however, that the proceeds of the Bazaar should not exceed six hundred pounds, three hundred are guaranteed to the Rev. Mr. Haworth, for his Schools at Christchurch, Chester.

any fault against the laws of the country, and it would be suf ficient for him to show himself, to dissipate the error of the agents of the police. But He, who orders all things for His glory, wished to make it appear in one of his servants, and by it confound the malice of the " disciples of Rome." The Christian was then seized, conducted to Chamberry before his judges, and by them sent for three years to the prison, where the different villains of the country are confined, and which at that time contained forty of all degrees of infamy, corruption, and impiety. It was there that the work begun which He, who is excellent in counsel, and wonderful in working, had in view, and that the stone which the wicked had rolled, put itself in motion to fall back upon them.

It is the custom of the prisoners to relate to each other, mutually, and with pride, what they call their " faits d'armes," their prowess, and to enter with complacency upon the details of their crimes, in order to instruct each other more and more in the "depths of Satan," and to strengthen the courage of those who, still young or timid, are but apprentices in the art of theft, or killing and corrupting their neighbours. Thus did they hasten around the stranger, and quickly asked him to relate his history, to tell what gained him the horrors of a dungeon, and an entrance into the society, of which he had become a member for so long a time. "I have done nothing," replied the Christian, "which is worthy of punishment, and especially of that which I endure here." They cried out upon his foolishness in concealing his doings, and new questions were multiplied. The reply was the same as at first; and as it was necessary at last to relate his arrest, the procedure, defence, and, finally, the sentence of the senate; the Christian gave an account of his country, his religion, of the nature of his faith, confessed openly the name of the Lord Jesus, the Friend of sinners, and spoke at length of that grace, which the Gospel proclaims even to malefactors, by faith in the blood of the Son of God.

They then understood him, but it was to hate him, to have a horror of him: it was the voice of the love of God which had made itself heard in this nest of crime; and crime roused itself against the message of peace and of pardon, and from that bour, all the malefactors conspired against the believer, declared that they despised him, that they abhorred him; and only showed to him in all their proceedings, the most active indignation, the most incessant persecution. The servant, then, was not better received than his Master had been; like him hated without cause; he was like him, the "despised" and "man of sorrows." The situation of M. P. became so much the more painful, as obliged to divide his bed in a dark, damp, and loathsome dungeon, with a murderer, he only found in his companion the most vile, the most disgusting, the most impure conversation, the most shameless villain, whose acts, violence, and brutality, reached such a height, that the Christian, after having sought sleep upon the rotten floor of the

dungeon, was constrained to bring complaints to the commission of prisons against the man, or rather the monster, with whom he was associated. The commission replied to him, that he had merited more than all that; but that without consideration for him personally, that good order might be maintained in the prison, the man of whom he complained should be transferred to an inferior and subterraneous dungeon.

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This sentence threw the culprit into despair. "I am lost," exclaimed he, as soon as this decision was pronounced to him, I am a dead man; that dungeon is an infected and murderous grave; and I know that I shall fall sick there, and perish in a few days:" and his tears and sighs succeeded to his infamous discourse and bravados. The Christian then understood what charity required of him, and he pleaded before the commission the cause of his enemy; he supplicated, and he prevailed; but in granting him as a favour that his companion should remain with him, they intiinated to him that this favour was only accorded to him on the express condition that he would never more complain, since, in future, all remonstrance on his part would be repulsed. M. Pache made this engagement, and he brought this favourable reply to his enemy, on whose head he had just heaped "the burning coals of his charity." Wisdom was then justified, the criminal was cast down to the earth, as overwhelmed under the weight of this act of mercy. His heart broken, he abjured, from that hour, the enmity which he had vowed against the Christian; and his sentiment of shame and respect gained, as by a sudden and solemn contagion, all the other enemies of Christ. All the prison, which was astonished by such an action, and could not understand that he who could avenge himself of his enemy, not only had not done it, but that he had spoken for him, and had been his benefactor The Gospel then was glorified; and it ought to be so still more. In the conversations which M. Pache had with the commissions of the prison, he strongly represented to them all the abuse, the danger, and the fatal issue of the mode of conduct which they pursued towards the prisoners, who, left to themselves without any instruction whatever, and without occupation, demoralized each other more and more, confirmed one another in the most infamous conduct, and could not but leave the prison much more defiled and more perverse, than they were on their entry into this detestable place. M. Pache was heard, and taking advantage of the interest which he had just obtained, he spoke as quickly of the necessity of teaching the prisoners to read, and of furnishing them afterwards with books suited to their condition, and which should direct their souls to God and His holiness. This last point was denied admission, but they granted that the instruction of reading would be suitable; and as the Christian offered himself at once for this work, it was permitted to him to begin it, always provided, he did not make use of any but those books with which the commission furnished him. But who will say what the Lord can do, when He decrees the work of His goodness. That same night some pious person, perhaps one of the commissioners, whose conscience was secretly

touched, sent down to the narrow window of M. Pache's dungeon, the book of the "Imitation of Christ." The volume was perceived concealed by him between the double gratings of the window; and it was with this book that he put himself to the work, as soon as he found himself again in the common room. Without doubt the disciple of the Bible would have far preferred receiving the word of the Lord, to a book which is far from being in all parts conformed to it. But how much was this book superior to those which an entirely worldly administration might have furnished to him. M. Pache then blessed the Lord, and the " master of the school" had very soon around him a band of scholars; who till the age of thirty or forty years had never learned even the alphabet of their language, much less to read the confessions of a sinner, and the replies which the doctrine of the Gospel makes and confirms to them.

Thus passed several months; labour had taken the place of idleness, love of reading of indolence; and the book was taken to be read the fourth time by those who formerly had never heard it spoken of, when the order to release M. Pache was obtained; and this disciple of Jesus, this humble and zealous child of wisdom, was to leave those to whom his charity had just made, on the part of God, one of the most useful gifts, and to whom, in all his instruction he had announced, explained, and demonstrated, those same truths of grace, the announcement of which, in some pages of a little tract, had been the cause of his incarceration by men, but-admirable providence!—of his mission, on the part of God, into the darkest haunt of profligacy.

He who writes these lines-which are doubtless but a sketch of a picture of great price-received at his house, some time after the release of M. Pache, a man of mature age, who declared to him that he had been imprisoned with M. P., that he had learned to read of him, and said that then he carried in his travelling bag a New Testament, which he read every day.

Let the Christian who has just read this account, glorify the Lord; let him pray to Him, in order that the good seed may prosper in the hearts of these prisoners so marvellously visited by God; and above all, et him strengthen himself by a sincere faith in Him who confounds the wisdom and craftiness of the world, who sends his light wherever it pleases Him, and who, if he permits Satan to afflict Job, only does so for the ultimate confusion of his adversary, and for the triumph of that wisdom which, celestial in its principle, is so also in its works, and which justifies itself even in the eyes of those who deny and blaspheme it. C. MALAN.

AN EVENING MEDITATION.

I love to watch yon little western cloud, so brightly colour'd by the setting sun : See, how it lessens, lost each glorious hue! touches the veil of twilight-and is gone! Oh grant my soul, kind Heaven, a doom like this-so soft, so mild, to quit these

bonds of clay;

To shine awhile in Friendship's partial eye-then, like yon happy vapour, pass

away!

MEMOIR OF SARAH JANE ALEXANDER.

(Published by B. Wertheim, 14, Paternoster Row.)

We have received, from the Rev. Mr. Alexander, who was formerly a Jewish Rabbi, now a Clergyman of the Church of England, the Memoir, which he has published, of his youthful daughter, who was early removed from this earth, called home by Him who sent her to be for a short season, a stranger and a pilgrim here. We cannot better prove the interest we have taken in the simple and touching history than to give a very long extract from it, and to beg our readers to buy the little volume, for their children if not for themselves. One edition has already been sold.

In the "Record" Newspaper of June 20, 1839, appeared the following notice under the head of "Deaths." "Early this morning, at Palestine Place, Cambridge Heath, aged twelve years and eight. months, Sarah Jane Isabella Wolff, eldest daughter of the Rev. M. S. Alexander. Having glorified God by rejoicing in tribulation, during three weeks' painful illness, she sweetly fell asleep in Jesus." A short notice of her last illness and death also appeared in the August number of the monthly Publication of "The London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews," containing a few particulars, furnished by her father at the request of the Editor, who had known her from her infancy, and witnessed her happy state of mind during her last days, and which notice the Editor thus introduces: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints,' and therefore such events cannot be uninteresting to the Church. With mingled feelings of sorrow and joy we have to record the death of a Christian Israelite, a daughter of Abraham, both according to the flesh and by faith. Her death excited a deep feeling amongst several of her youthful friends about her own age, as well as a general sympathy amongst the congregation, both Jew and Gentile, of the Society's Chapel, and with a view to their improvement, the following particulars were furnished by her father at the Chaplain's request. But although the letter communicating them was not originally intended for publication, it is now inserted here, in the conviction that it will prove interesting to many friends at a distance." It was subsequently ascertained on several occasions, that the Editor's conviction was well grounded. Many friends in the country, who had read this short account, expressed an earnest desire to have some more particulars respecting the life and death of this dear child, which principally induced her parent to draw up the following brief Memoir. In submitting it to the press, the writer humbly trusts that the perusal of it may be blessed to the young, as an additional warning "to seek their Creator in the days of their youth," seeing that "in the midst of life we are in death," and that "all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, and the flower fadeth." But it is his earnest prayer, that all, into whose hands this simple,