his way through the grass, the briers, and the brushwood. It was on one of the former occasions that he waved his cap, as I said before, and cried out, " Huzza! huzza!"

Now it happened, just at the moment when he said his ship was the Royal George, that a man, rather elderly, dressed in a blue jacket and trousers, like a sailor, and carrying a bundle on a stick over his shoulder, was passing over the little footbridge that crosses the brook; for there is a bridle-road there, that cuts off the bend in the turnpike-road. The sailor, seeing how

Alfred was occupied, and hearing what he said, very good-naturedly joined him, and began talking about ships.

"I think," said the sailor, "that you called your little craft the Royal George; may be that you have heard of the man-ofwar of that name, that went down at Spithead about threescore years ago? If so be that you have never heard of that misfortune, I will tell you all about it. Your ship has run aground, I see; but, as the breakers are not over rough, she is not very likely to go to pieces."

Alfred was vastly pleased at the thought of hearing all about the wreck of the Royal George from a sailor, and very attentively did he listen to every word. The sailor told him that the Royal George was an admiral's ship, of more than a hundred guns; that she had on board more than a thousand people; that she was tilted up on one side, to have her hull mended; that a sudden squall came on, and down she went, with the admiral, officers, men, and women, that were on board, leaving them no time to say their prayers. "Whether at sea, or on land," said the sailor, should keep our log tidy; for we may founder in the blink of a purser's lantern."

"we

Soon after the sailor had left, a sudden gust of wind blew the little ship over, so that she lay in the water on her beam-ends, as

a seaman would say. With no little difficulty Alfred at last recovered his vessel, thinking, within himself, it was a good thing that his Royal George had not a thousand souls on board, like that of which the sailor had told him. As Alfred walked home, with his ship in his hands, he thought of what the sailor had told him; and though he could not have explained exactly the meaning of keeping a log tidy, and foundering in the blink of a purser's lantern, he knew very well the general meaning which the sailor intended to convey, to be, that we all ought to be careful how we live, seeing that we know not how suddenly we may be called on to die. This brought to his mind the text, from which he had heard a sermon preached the day before; "Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come," Matt. xxiv. 42.

GREAT JOY.

(Continued from page 44.)

My young friend, are you a true Christian ? I do not speak to any one else but to you. He who possesses an interest in Christ, may be poor and despised in this world; but he has true riches, and he knows that a glorious mansion is prepared for him in the city of our God he may be oppressed with

pain and sorrows here; but he can think with joyful hope of that blessed land, "where the inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick, and where sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Affliction and adversity may surround him; but, though the tempest rages, and the waves beat high against his frail bark, he fears not, for he knows that his Saviour is with him, and that if he commands the winds and the waters, there shall be a great calm.

And when his mortal body shall put on immortality; when, rising above all the gloom and darkness of a fallen world, he shall enter the pearly gates, and tread the golden streets of the celestial city; when his eye shall "see the King in his beauty," and he shall "behold the land that is very far off;" then, and not till then, will he know what an 66 exceeding weight of glory" is reserved for the heirs of salvation, at the right hand of their exalted Lord.

Reader, have you an interest in this Saviour? It is an important question, and one which demands your most earnest and serious attention. You are not ignorant of the way of salvation. Month after month, in the pages of this magazine, by precept, by example, in words of kind encouragement and solemn admonition, have you been urged to seek Him through whom alone you can obtain eternal life. And

yet, perhaps, you have remained, till the present hour, careless and indifferent about your everlasting interests. Oh! if it be so, let me entreat you to delay no longerdecide, decide at once for Christ-determine, ere you lay down this little book, that you will give your heart to him; and then go and pour out your soul in fervent prayer at the throne of grace. Go, and tell the Divine Saviour that you are a great sinner; but that you are willing to give up every sin, to abandon every other refuge, and to rely solely on his atoning blood for the pardon of your many sins.

Go

very earnestly, remembering that you are asking for a blessing of unspeakable value, and go in humble dependence on the influences of the Holy Spirit, without which you can do nothing. And he who is waiting to be gracious will hear your prayers; he will give you his Holy Spirit, to change your heart and sanctify your affections; he will make you his child: then, upheld by Almighty love, you shall be safe for time and for eternity.

O my reader, by the shortness of time, by the solemnity of death, by the vast importance of those everlasting interests which are depending on your decision, and by all the awful realities of that day when you will stand before God in judgment, I