them with unshaken reliance. The confidence reposed in them should be regarded as sacred. "Amidst the various objects of education," says a modern writer, "the cultivation of confidential habits is too often overlooked even by affectionate and attentive parents. They are, perhaps, obeyed, respected, and beloved; but this is not sufficient. If, in addition, the parent can be to the child the familiar friend, the unreserved confidant, the sympathizing partner in its joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, a hold on the mind is obtained which will continue when authority ceases, and will prove a safeguard through the most critical period of life.' G. A. R. [Some further remarks will be made on this subject next month.] PRAYER UNDER GROUND. A WORK, published in 1843, gives very full information respecting coal mines and miners in England. It appears that the miners have been, to a lamentable extent, a degraded and a neglected population. But in some districts benevolent persons have laboured for their good. The following extract gives an account of a meeting for prayer in a coal mine. Surely the worshipper might say, "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord." "I was so desirous of witnessing these proceedings, that I resolved to ask whether I could be allowed to attend. Having permission, I stripped off my coat and hat, and being attired in a thick flannel shirt and a white felt hat, descended just before dinner. After being provided, at the bottom, with a candle stuck into a piece of moist clay, I followed my guide along the rail or tramway, every now and then stumbling against a huge stack of coal, with a horse harnessed to a rolly, standing on the line of railway, till we came to a place where three tramways met, and the space was considerable, all cut out in the solid coal, which also formed the roof, perhaps nine feet from the floor. In the centre of this open space were the dinners of the men, each tied up in his handkerchief, and the kegs of beer, and mugs to drink out of. By degrees the company arrived from different quarters, and each man, as he joined us, stuck his clay candlestick upon a projection in the wall of coal around us, so that our apartment became gradually illuminated. The head workman now took from a niche cut out in the side of the wall, a Bible and hymn book (Wesley's), and by the light of the nearest candle selected a hymn, and read out the first two lines, which were sung in chorus, in right good earnest, by the congregation, and so two verses were performed. Then all dropped on their knees on the ground, and with bare heads attended to the head workman, who, kneeling with his face to the wall, pronounced a really eloquent and fervent extempore prayer, followed, after their dinner, by a passage of Scripture, read and explained in simple language, the whole concluding with another prayer and a hymn. "This custom of daily prayer seems not to have been confined to this mine. But at many of the mines a most degraded and vicious class of beings was found. "The danger in working the thick veins of coal seems to be very great. Statistics show that in Staffordshire, of one thousand one hundred and twenty-two miners above fifteen years of age, who died in the course of five and a half years, six hundred and ten were killed by accident, or more than one-half! At the Netherton colliery, in 1842, there were fifty-nine accidents, many producing serious injury, and four fatal injury. The average life of the miners in that district was found to be about thirty-seven years." SATURDAY NIGHT AND THE SABBATH. "Another six days' work is done," MAY be the joyful exclamation of the labourer at the close of the week, in the prospect of a coming rest. Even as an earthly blessing, were it confined to the ungodly worldling, how true is it that "the sabbath was made for man!" Saturday night is the beginning of the labourer's season of joy. He feels that he is permitted for awhile to cease from toil. He can cast aside the cares of the world, and join the cheerful family circle. He may be oppressed with fatigue, but when he throws his weary limbs upon his couch, it is with the assurance within, that his night's rest is not to be succeeded by a day's toil. "The rest of the labouring man" is ever sweet, but peculiarly so on a Saturday night. And, when he rises in the morning, his heart swells with an earnest feeling of joy that the season of toil is over, and the season of rest arrived, of which the indulger in luxurious idleness through the week has no knowledge. Constant idleness becomes a burden, scarcely equalled by unremitting labour; yet how sweet is one day of rest in seven, to him who gains his bread by the sweat of his brow! And, if every labourer have cause of gratitude to God for instituting the sabbath, what should be the joy of him who "remembers the sabbath day to keep it holy?" 66 When God had completed the work of creation, the morning stars sang together for joy," and God rested from his labours, and blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. In commemoration of this "great day of the Lord God Almighty," every seventh day was observed as a sabbath of rest. When, by oppression under the incessant labour of the Egyptian bondage, this hallowed day had been to a great degree forgotten, God saw fit to break the chains of servitude, and to bring forth his people "with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm," again to enjoy their liberty and the fruits of their labour, and gave them a commandment to celebrate their deliverance weekly by keeping a sabbath of rest. Not merely an earthly rest was this, to relax the tension of their nerves and sinews, but the command was, Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, etc.; but on the seventh thou shalt rest. And when the whole world was groaning under the bondage of sin, Jesus wrought out the great work of redemption, and triumphantly rose from the dead, manifesting himself as the first-fruits of the resurrection, which his followers have since celebrated by the weekly observance of a sabbath of So that while the worldling may rejoice in the return of a day of bodily rest, it remains for the Christian to say with an ecstasy of joy unspeakable, rest. "Welcome sweet day of rest That saw the Lord arise; R. H. AN IRRELIGIOUS FATHER. How different will be the character of children trained under pious parents, from those where the head of the family is merely a moral man! His character for probity and honour may be high; in his domestic relations he may be courteous, kind, and dignified; but if his morality is not based on the gospel, no sound of prayer will be heard in the home; no remembered happy sabbaths will bless the future years of his family. Such a prayerless father was called to the death-bed of his son one night, when the departing youth thus addressed him : "Father," said the young man, 66 the doctors tell me I must die; they say they can do no more for me." "I know it, my son.' "Well, father," continued the expiring youth, "I have one, only one favour to ask you; will you grant it ere I die?" "I will, my son, if it be possible. Ask me anything that I can do, and it shall be done." "I want you, father, to kneel down by my bed and pray for me 66 'My son, I cannot, I cannot." "Do, father, pray for me! You never prayed for me in this world; pray for me while I can yet hear." "I cannot, my son! Oh! I cannot!" “Dear father, you never taught me to pray to the Lord Jesus, and now I die; you never prayed for me. This once! Oh! do not let me die without my father's prayers!" In an agony of weeping the father rushed out of the room. The otherwise kind and indulgent parent had thus long neglected his own soul, and the soul of that beloved son, and now he could not find a heart to grant his dying request for a father's prayer to the God of heaven. How will such fathers meet their children in the awful judgment? Happy children, who can look back on the holy lives and fervent prayers of both parents, and look forward with a good hope through grace, that a meeting place awaits them in the home of the skies, where the family circle shall no more be broken up. A PIOUS DAUGHTER. CHILDREN have been the means of conveying religion to those from whom they ought to have derived it. "Well," said a mother one day, weeping, her daughter being about to make a public profession of religion, "I will resist no longer. How can I bear to see my dear child love and read the Scriptures while I never looked into the Bible: see her retire and seek God, while I never pray; to see her going to the Lord's table, while his death is nothing to me!" "Ah!" said she to the minister who called to inform her of her daughter's intention, wiping her eyes, "yes, sir, I know she is right and I am wrong; I have seen her firm under reproach, and patient under provocation, and cheerful in all her sufferings. When in her late illness she was looking for dissolution, peace shone in her face. Oh that I were fit to die! I ought to have taught her, but I am sure she has taught me. How can I bear to see her joining the church of God, and leaving me behind perhaps for ever? From that hour she prayed in earnest that the God of her child would be her God, and was soon seen walking with her in the way everlasting. Is it mere supposition? More than one eye in reading this allusion will drop a testimony to the truth of it. "We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." May God bless us, and make us blessings. SHAME KILLED HIM. SOME years since a certain man was accused of a very base act; he was charged with opening a letter which had been put into the post-office, and divulging some family secrets which that letter contained. He denied the accusation. A committee was appointed to investigate it and make a report. I was present when the report was made. In the presence of a considerable number of persons, the chairman of the committee came forward and said, "We have investigated the charge alleged against the gentleman, and find it to be true." I saw the man the moment his character was thus blasted for ever. After one frantic effort with a pistol to take the life of the person who had thus exposed him, he dropped his head; he could not bear to look upon man or woman any more; and, returning to his lodgings, he laid himself down upon his bed, and died of a broken heart. Shame killed him. And now, if the divulging of one base act in such an assembly on earth occasioned him such overwhelming, heart-breaking shame, oh! what intolerable shame must come upon the sinner when every base act, when every impure thought, when every unlawful deed shall be revealed before God, and angels, and men! Methinks, in anguish, he will exclaim, Oh that I had never had a being! or, Oh that I could now hide me beneath the rocks and the mountains! "Shame shall be the promotion of fools! ” PREPARATION FOR DEATH. WHEN you lie down at night, compose your spirits as if you were not to awake till the heavens be no more. And when you awake in the morning, consider that new day as your last, and live accordingly. Surely that night cometh, of |