Lord to follow Him, and soon afterwards regularly attended the ministry of a dear friend (the Rev. Mr. Golding, then officiating at Stonehouse Chapel), to whose spiritual instruction I am greatly indebted. Having also been brought into immediate connexion with many Christian friends, my mind became more and more established, which led me finally to embrace the Christian faith as my future hope for time and for eternity.

"To my Jewish friends, whose kindness toward me I shall ever remember, I beg to take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks; and though I am sensible of being an outcast from them, yet I trust I shall never be unmindful of them before a throne of grace in my feeble prayers, that the Lord may bless and keep them, that the Lord may cause his face to shine upon them, and be gracious unto them, that the Lord may lift up the light of his countenance, and give them peace,' even the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.' Amen. " M. S. ALEXANDER."

WHY SHOULD WE COMPLAIN OF OUR CLIMATE?

SIR, In the last Number of your excellent little work there is an essay, headed "Why should we complain of the Times?"-now I go a step beyond, and say "Why should we complain of our Climate?" Let us compare it with that of other countries, and we shall find we have reason to be thankful to a merciful Providence for having blessed us with a more equal distribution of rain and sunshine, heat and cold, than almost any other people: and yet what murmurs do we hear, what complaints do we make against a wet season, a dry season, a hot season, or a long frost! I am led to make these reflections, from having lately received a letter from a relation, who has now been living nearly three years in a very distant part of the world, called "Central America;" he has always described the country as most beautiful, flowers growing wild that we should here cherish in a hot-house, and trees of more gigantic growth than can be imagined by those who have never been out of England; the soil, too, is most luxuriant, producing two crops a year: with all

these advantages the climate is very unhealthy from the constant moisture produced by almost incessant rains; and the inhabitants are much subject to fevers and agues during great part of the year; the houses are all low built, only one story high, in order to lessen the danger in case of earthquakes, and it is to a calamity of this nature I would draw the attention of your readers, by laying before them an extract from the above-mentioned letter, which is dated from San Josè, the capital of Costarica, 14th Sept. 1841:

"We have had lately some shocks of earthquake, which have caused great consternation, but happily in this place have not been attended with fatal effects. A little after six o'clock on the morning of the 2nd instant, the first shock took place. I was dressing at the moment, and immediately rushed to the door; some wood work from the top of which falling down smashed to atoms my wash-hand basin, and gave me a slight blow on the leg. However I soon found my way to the square, where I encountered a motley assemblage, some with merely blankets round their shoulders, women screaming, dogs howling, and every sign of confusion and dismay. This was an awful moment! The houses, though much shaken, had not fallen, and we were every instant expecting another shock. The next was less violent, and fortunately did no damage, but for nine days and nights we were kept in continual alarm by slighter tremblings of the earth. We passed the nights in our clothes, with the doors open to the street to favour our escape, if it should be necessary. My house is so much damaged that I have not ventured to sleep in it since, and I understand it will be taken down. I have probably mentioned in my former letters that the houses here are only from 12 to 15 feet in height, as some precaution against the danger of earthquakes, but as I live opposite to a church, I did not view without apprehension the tower, which is 100 feet high. In Cartago, five leagues from hence, the effects were dreadful in the extreme. In less time than I can write it, a city of 10,000 souls was laid in ruins! What are all the evils of war compared with such tremendous devastation! It seems wonderful how so few lives should

preser

be lost! The inhabitants were indebted for their vation to their early rising. All the houses were levelled to the ground, and not more than 40 or 50 persons killed and wounded. You may imagine the distress of the survivors, without a roof to shelter them, and exposed to the mercy of the elements. They have pitched their tents in the streets and squares, miserable huts, roofed with hides or leaves, a very slender protection, when the rain is coming down in torrents for 8 or 10 hours successively. Many of them will no doubt perish from fevers. The poor will suffer much from the dearness of food; the chief article, maize, having been much damaged by the cattle getting into the fields, in consequence of the enclosures having been destroyed by the earthquake. The cause of all these calamities has been the eruption of a volcano, three leagues beyond Cartago. The last earthquake took place in the year 1822, but the mischief was confined to the destruction of a few houses. The people here, as you may suppose, conducted themselves like good Catholics (i. e. Papists). Images of saints were carried in procession through the streets, public prayers were offered daily, and women were walking about doing penance, by carrying huge stones on their heads!"

Now, Mr. Editor, while we are grateful to Divine Providence, that these awful convulsions of nature are known to us only by description, how much more grateful ought we to be to God that we enjoy the true light of the Gospel as revealed to us by his blessed Son, free from superstitious errors; and that in times of national calamity, or private misfortune, we have been early taught that the most acceptable service we can render to our heavenly Father is to pour out our hearts before Him in public worship or secret prayer! and not to seek, like these poor benighted Papists, to turn away the "fierce anger of the Lord," by parading images through the streets, or carrying heavy stones on our heads. M. S.

THE NEW YEAR.

THE opening of a new year is always an interesting season, and it is our own fault, if it is not also a profitable

one. It calls loudly upon us to look into our hearts, to consider our ways, to examine into the reality of our religion, the extent of our faith, the depth of our love; in short, to commune with our own hearts in our chambers and be still." While there is much in such a time at which to rejoice, and though it is usual for mirth and gladness to go round, yet to every reflecting mind there is also something in it to sadden, and it will be a profitable time to us, if by grace it produces in us that "godly sorrow" which "worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of," and, at the same time, that "joy in the Lord "which is the Christian's "strength." The child of God at such a season, on looking at the lapse of time, must mourn that he has as yet done so little for the glory of God, and for the good of his fellow-creatures. May the consideration lead him to seek for pardon for the past, and for grace, that the future may see him more zealous and active in his Master's service, more pure in heart, more self-denying, and more dead to the world! But at the same time, while he looks back on the way by which the Lord hath led him, he must wonder at the mercy and love which have spared him and so abundantly blessed him. May this consideration excite in him a spirit of praise! Reader, does the return of this season produce in you any such feelings as these? You have just come to the end of a year, and another, with its long train of events impenetrably veiled from your sight, has opened upon you. If the mercies which have distinguished the past year should be continued to you during the new year, you will have to say, "What can I render to the Lord for all his benefits towards me?" But if it should be otherwise, if pain and sickness, grief and affliction, are in store for you, rest assured that "as your day is, so shall your strength be;" for has the Lord ever yet forsaken you when in trouble? I am persuaded every Christian will emphatically reply, He has not. Oh, then, let your resolve be to "thank God and take courage!" Let the goodness you have hitherto experienced encourage you to hope for a continuance of it. Enter upon the new year boldly, cheerfully, confidently, assured that whether acting, labouring, or suffering for God, He will be with you; and that the

time is not far distant when you, and all whom you have ever loved, "shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall you be ever with the Lord."

EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS, &c.

B.

INTERESTING CIRCUMSTANCE.-Last week one of our parochial clergy met on the Ludlow road, near this city, a young girl, about 16 years of age, weeping bitterly. She did not ask for relief. In reply to questions put to her, she stated that she had walked that day from Cleobury Mortimer, a distance of 18 miles, without a morsel of food; that she was on her road to Bath to seek an aunt, intending to sleep at Worcester, but knew nobody there, and had no where to go to; that some days previously she had left Bolton, in Lancashire, having been sent from home by her mother, a widow, who was on the point of being married again; that she had sold her gown to pay for her lodgings; had once belonged to Mr. Slade's Sunday School, &c. The simplicity and apparent honesty of her tale excited the compassion of the clergyman. As night was approaching, he felt it would be cruel to leave this houseless stranger to wander in the streets, and placed her under the care of a respectable woman, where she was supplied with food and lodgings. It was found that although she had sold her gown through want, and had gone all day without food, she had preserved, carefully wrapped up in her pocket-handkerchief, the prayer-book and hymn-book she had received at the Sunday School. The clergyman wrote to Mr. Slade to make the necessary inquiries, and received a satisfactory answer, 5s. being kindly inclosed to assist the poor girl on her way. Some benevolent ladies subscribed to pay her fare by the van to Bath, for which place she left to-day to seek that refuge from her aunt which had been refused by her unfeeling mother.-Worcester Journal.

It

PRECAUTIONS TO SAVE CHILDREN FROM BEING BURNT.In the winter season it is our painful task to have to record every week cases of young children burnt to death. These sad calamities are generally to be ascribed to the carelessness of mothers, in leaving their children without protectors in rooms where there are fires. Wherever that practice exists, there will be the greatest danger, owing to the natural fondness of children for playing with fire. The use of a simple fire-guard, made of wire, would save many lives. Linen pinafores are much less liable to take fire than cotton. ought also to be known, that in case of the clothes of a child taking fire, the best means of extinguishing the fire is by throwing the child on the ground, and wrapping it in a blanket, rug, or woollen cloth of any kind. As long as the child is in an upright position, the flames from the clothes burn fiercely, and mount up to the head, owing to the natural tendency of flame to rise upwards; if the child were laid down, the flame would instantly become feebler, and it would be much more easily extinguished. To smother the fire by wrapping the child in a woollen cloth, is a far quicker and safer mode than to tear off the burning clothes piecemeal. After a burn no application is better than a plentiful sprinkling of flour.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of Ecclesiasticus; P.; M. S.; F. S.; B.; M. P.; and E. D.