if he were distributing bounty with a large hand to the poor. Such a motive hallows and dignifies the commonest pursuit. It is strange that labouring men do not think more of the vast usefulness of their toils, and take a benevolent pleasure in them on this account. This beautiful city, with its houses, furniture, markets, public walks, and numberless accommodations, has grown up under the hands of artizans and other labourers; and ought they not to take a disinterested joy in their work? One would think that a carpenter or mason, on passing a house which he had reared, would say to himself, 'This work of mine is giving comfort and enjoyment every day and hour to a family, and will continue to be a kindly shelter, a domestic gathering place, an abode of affection, for a century or more after I sleep in the dust, and ought not a generous satisfaction to spring up at the thought? It is by thus interweaving goodness with common labours, that we give it strength and make it a habit of the soul."

Dear reader, if thy lot be obscure, thou hast the greater cause for thankfulness. Follow thy Divine but meek and lowly Master, in the path of thy daily duties; and remember that HE and His holy angels are thy friends and companions, and will exalt thee, just in proportion as thy aim is to become like them, by sanctifying thyself for the sake of others. (John xvii. 19.)

XXXVIII.

BENEVOLENCE.

MR. EDITOR,—I have been much gratified by the insertion of your correspondent Eliza's letter in your Evangelical Magazine; because I have long been convinced that nothing tends to weaken the heavenly spirit of evangelical charity, luminously set forth, as it is, in that true exemplification of neighbourly love contained in the parable of the Good Samaritan, more than a fashionable exercise of natural benevolence, after the measure of the mere natural mind. Human nature, we all know, is apt to run into extremes. Youth has been defined to be the age of confidence-a plant, said the first William Pitt, of slow growth in an aged

bosom. For instance: A state of crying destitution is discovered. A charitable institution is established to relieve the district from its pressure. The well-disposed, unemployed youth of the neighbourhood, particularly those of the tender and more feeling sex, are enlisted, full of ardour, in its service. In the course of time, the consequences depicted by your correspondent, one after another, make their appearance; and the labourers in this part of the Lord's vineyard, become disgusted and weary of their toil, even though they should have been so singularly fortunate as to escape all heart-burnings occasioned by the irregularities of their fellow-labourers. The danger then is, of their rushing into the opposite extreme of hard heartedness and misanthropy.

Now, what is the remedy for results to be so much deprecated? Or, rather, what is the antidote? What else can it be, than that the natural benevolence, or the good affections implanted by nature in the female and every other bosom, must be first submitted, and afterwards exalted to an union with those purer affections which come not by nature, but by drawing nigh unto Him, who has graciously promised that He will then draw nigh unto us? Nor is the change to be wrought by an exertion of feeling alone. The activity of the merely human abilities must be brought into submission to the guidance of that heavenly wisdom which teaches in the pages of Revealed Truth, that genuine spiritual charity, or the brotherly love of the gospel, is discriminating, and holds the Samaritan, or him who showed mercy, to be the neighbour to be loved; and consequently, that the only charity for the depraved is, to curtail their powers of mischief, and, as there is an opening, to put them in the way of doing better.

Your fair correspondent seems to have taken this view in the conclusion of her letter. I would fain strengthen her in it, by assuring her that it will be found no less important in the exercise of the private charity to which she is inclined to resort, than of the public charity which she is disposed to forsake.

In my own neighbourhood, a labourer was, some years ago, taken into a gentleman's service. He had a wife and twelve children. Having been previously much straitened, he proved his thankfulness for the work, by exerting himself to the satisfaction of his employer. The wages here differ in winter and summer; but even the winter wages are much higher than those of summer in many parts of England. The consequence is, that a day's work means a great deal more than where the wages are lower. Such being the case, the summer wages were put on, as a matter of course, by the employer, when the time came round for the change, though the labourer expressly declared himself content with the winter wages. Out of the summer wages it was proposed that he should make the usual weekly deposit in a Provident Society of the district. This was accordingly done; and with the money returned to him at the close of the current year of the society, he was enabled to free himself from previous debts. The time for winter wages had then returned. But as there was no abatement of diligence and faithfulness, the employer proposed that the summer wages should continue, and that the excess above the winter wages should be regularly deposited in the Savings Bank. This too, was done, during the winter;

and then the summer recurred as before.

So far, so good, you will say. But mark the difficulty of substituting new for old habits. The man was not thrifty, and the wife, who was cashier, still less so. Hence the destitution, hence the misery from which he had been rescued. By all acquainted with the mode of living in the neighbourhood, the wages were admitted to be ample for every needful supply, Provident Society and Savings Bank included. So thought the eldest sons too: for they felt themselves at liberty to spend their summer wages earned from home, and return penniless in winter to the paternal roof, there to be fed out of the paternal earnings. But how came the hard-working man not to have hard-working sons? Why did he not drive them out, when they would not work? For part of the very reason that Dr. Busby was

not driven out of his preferment, in the time of the Church's humiliation. The fathers governed the country, the mothers governed the fathers, the boys governed the mothers, and the Doctor governed the boys. Luckily for the father, the country, so far as the employer's ground was concerned, was governed by him instead of the father. Therefore, to a petition for leave to break in upon the store at the Savings Bank, the employer said, No; that is sacred to old age and sickness; you must drive out your idle sons. This was the only charity which the immediate exigency allowed. Then another expedient was tried. Debts were incurred with different tradesmen, under the agency of madam. With a little diligence, this ingenious system was detected; the amount of debts ascertained, and stopped out of the wages; and the tradesmen, after they had been made to wait a reasonable time, as a penalty for giving credit improperly, were all paid. Moreover to sharpen the wits in support of good habits, the excess of summer over winter wages, after deducting the weekly deposit with the Provident Society, was required to be invested in the Savings Bank, in summer as well as winter; and this rule has been strictly enforced.

To make a long story short,-Roger is willing to keep his place; he works as hard as ever. At the commencement of the winter quarter, he received back 26s., deposited with Master at ls. a week, to pay his half year's rent; 20s. more deposited in like manner at 2s. a week, to buy winter fuel; and at the same time, more than 46s. from the Provident Society, for the purchase of clothing. Roger has found it cheaper and less vexatious, to anticipate expenses by a previous deposit with Master, than, as the vulgar saying has it, to eat the calf in the cow's belly. And, to wind up the account, Roger has an untouched Reserve-fund of £15 in the Savings Bank.

Such is the condition of a man rescued from a state bordering on starvation. To produce it, has required firmness near akin to severity; and if Master expects commendation for charitable feeling, let me whisper in your ear, he

is a great simpleton, and a stranger to the true import of evangelical charity. Roger, I believe, is sincerely grateful for having been taken care of, against his will; yet he can hardly be expected not to "cast one longing, lingering look behind" at the dust of the earth for which the Savings Bank is accountable.

I fear the wealthy are not always very reasonable in that same article of gratitude from the poor. We hear often of the ingratitude of the Irish poor; which I take to mean that they have not always voted at elections in a way to please their benefactors. Charity is sometimes very near akin to Loyalty. With many benevolent persons, the one means the purchase of the free-will of the poor. With many politicians, the other stands for a thick and thin adhesion to their own party. Do but as they wish, and it is astonishing what a multitude of pauper sins the charity of the rich will cover. Be clever at executing the dirty work of loyal politicians, and there is scarcely any law the breach whereof they will not wink it-except the laws against poaching.

And now we are on the subject of charity, I must let you into a secret. You must know, that during the last total eclipse of the moon, one of its fairies-for the "good people" are not confined to this earth-took the opportunity of the gloom to whip across the expanse, and surprise me with some lunar caustic touching other good people there. It seems that certain religionists, called Quiverers, have gained a footing in that luminary. They are noted for discharging shafts tipped with gold, more especially for the good of their needy brethren. Some of the meagre sort are to be found in a district called Ebor, and are so noted for the sharpness of their arrows, that you might almost fancy they drew name and Hebrew acuteness from the patriarch Eber himself. This district adjoins and is tributary to one more wealthy, bearing the high-sounding name of Terra Major Occidentalis. Strange to say, a rage for agriculture has sprung up in the moon, simultaneously with the like passion among the English. A turnip-headed boys-school, was set on foot by some distant quiverers;

K