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"get you gone, you young rascal; you are but just come from your cradle, and will you take upon you to judge in sacred things, which the most learned cannot explain ?" "Did you never read," rejoined the boy, "these words, out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God perfects praise ?"" Upon which the preacher quitted the place in angry confusion, breathing threatenings against the poor child, who was instantly thrown into prison. What became of him afterwards we are not told.--McCrie's History of the Reformation in Italy.

ALIX.

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Many persons in this highly-favoured country, appear to be but little aware of the suffering and degraded state in which many thousands of their fellow-subjects are continued from year to year, in some of the more distant parts of the British Dominions. The West India Islands, the Cape of Good

Hope, and the Island of Mauritius are peopled principally by Africans (and their descendants) who were forced from their native Country and sold for slaves. Before the abolition of the Slave-trade by England, 50,000 Negroes were annually imported into the British Colonies, to supply the continual waste of labourers.

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The Negress America was a soft, inoffen sive, good-working creature. She had a little girl in the manager's house. The manager's wife had put a churn at the creek's side; it was missed, and was probably carried down by the tide. The child was blamed for letting it go, and the mistress had her severely punished with a tough bush-rope. America came to the house when she heard of it; not to find fault with the woman, but to reprove her child.

The

manager's wife got angry with her, and drove her away. When the manager came home, he directed America to be tied down. She wished to speak to him; but he refused to speak to her until he had flogged her. As

soon as the punishment was begun, he ordered the boy to bring fire to light his pipe; and when she had received ninety-five lashes, he asked her why she had been saucy to his wife. America replied, "I was not so: I was only angry with my child." He then gave her seventy-five lashes more: after which she was taken, and both her feet made fast in the stocks, for a fortnight or more, lying with her wounds upon a flat form of hard wood, and none of her friends permitted to give her any thing to eat. The Reverend Mr. Wray says: "I saw, out of my window, poor America come limping, from her wounds, up to my house. I wish

could describe her looks and gestures when she approached us. We looked with amazement and terror, upon the long furrows which the whip had made, and which were now scaled over; but from which, by the the use of a pin, matter would have dropped. The sight was dreadful: every stroke had cut deep, and fetched blood. The tyrant (for I can call him nothing else) stands over the drivers, with a stick in his hand to flay them, if they do not lay on severely. Only conceive, for a moment, two strong men, with heavy cart whips, corded, flogging a poor unfortunate woman, stretched on the ground naked, with her hands and feet tied to stakes, receiving upward of one hundred and fifty lashes, with one driver on one side, and the other on the other!"

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ANOINTING WITH OIL.

"I confess (said Captain Wilson) that since my return from India I have been forcibly struck with many things which prove the Scriptures to be an Eastern book.

For instance, the language of one of the Psalms, where David says, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over,' most likely alludes to a custom which continues to this day.

I once had this ceremony performed on myself in the house of a rich Indian, in the presence of a large company. The gentleman of the house poured upon my hands and arms a delightful perfume, put a golden cup into my hand, and poured wine into it, till it run over; assuring me at the same time, that it was a great pleasure to him to receive me, and that I should find a rich supply in his house.

I think David expressed his sense of the divine goodness by this allusion."

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GRATITUDE.

A young Englishwoman was sent to France to be educated in a Protestant school in Paris. A few evenings before the fatal massacre of St. Bartholomew, the 27th of August 1572, she and some of her young companions were taking a walk in some parts of the town where there were sentinels placed, perhaps on the walls; and you know, that when a soldier is on guard he must not leave his post until he is relieved; that is, till another soldier comes to take his place. One of the soldiers, as the young ladies passed him, begged them to have the charity to bring him a little water, adding that he was very ill, and that it would be as much as his life was worth, to fetch it himself: the ladies walked on much offended at the man, for presuming to speak to them; all but the young English woman, whose compassion was moved, and who leaving her party procured some water, and brought it to the soldier; he begged her to tell him her name and place of abode, and this she did. When she rejoined her companions, some blamed and others ridiculed her attention to a common soldier; but they soon had reason to lament, that they had not been equally compassionate; for the grateful soldier contrived on the night of the massacre, to save this young Englishwoman while all the other inhabitants of the house she dwelt in were killed.

Little children, think of this story, if you should feel too proud or too idle, to do a kindness to a fellow-creature.-Markham's History of England.

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