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BENEFIT, OR FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.

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mon fund, while they are in health, a small proportion of their earnings, on condition, that when, from any of the causes above mentioned, they are unable to work, they shall receive, in return, a certain weekly allowance for themselves and families, from that common fund. Occasionally, also, they stipulate a payment to their families, when they die, to meet the expenses of their burial. A well regulated union of this kind is a great blessing to the people. The allowance made to them when in want of it, is not of the nature of charity: it is a bought interest, and is as much their's as is their chest of drawers or their eight-day clock. Yet there is much in it of the kind and Christian-like feeling of charity; for, while they are healthy and strong, it goes to relieve such of the other members as happen to be sick or infirm, and it comes back to themselves when they are in distress, and when they can do nothing in return for it. In both views, it is a beneficent and manly sort of provision for the evil days. But what is there of human good which is exempt from human imperfection? Friendly Societies are liable to several evils. None of these are necessary to this kind of institutions. They are merely incidental, and are mentioned therefore, more to warn against the abuse, than to throw difficulties in the way of the increase, of Friendly Societies. One is, that they are too often managed in spirit shops, where there is a sad temptation to leave some portion of the allowance that should, by rights, be wholly applied to the poor family at home. Another is, that sufficient care is not always taken to have proper security from the keeper of the fund, who too often fails or disappears with his treasures. But the chief is, that in fixing the allowances, those wise calculations are not made, which alone can adapt these, in amount, to the real risks which the Society incurs; and as an error, where one arises, is generally made on the side of kindness, the Society is ruined by the heavy pensions it has inadvertently agreed to pay. Guarding, however, against these evils, (and it is easy to guard against them all,) Friendly or Benefit Societies are a real and great blessing to the labouring classes. They and SavingBanks come mutually in aid of each other; and that

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CHARACTER OF KNOX THE REFORMER.

man who has a little interest in both has, in a worldly view, something always to relieve him in the midst of the anxieties of life; for which, after all, worldly resources are, at their best, but a poor palliative religion being the only sure and universal remedy. *

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CHARACTER OF KNOX THE SCOTTISH REFORMER. : THAT Knox possessed strong natural talents, is unquestionable. Inquisitive, ardent, acute, vigorous, and bold in his conceptions, he entered into all the subtelties of the scholastic science then in vogue, yet, disgusted with its barren results, sought out a new course of study, which gradually led to a complete revolution in his sentiments. In his early years he had not access to the finished education which many of his contemporaries obtained in foreign universities, and he was afterwards prevented, by his unsettled and active mode of life, from prosecuting his studies with leisure ; but his abilities and application enabled him in a great measure to surmount these disadvantages, and he remained a stranger to none of the branches of learning cultivated in that age by persons of his profession. He united in a high degree the love of study, with a dis position to active employment. The truths which he discovered, he felt an irresistible impulse to impart to others, for which he was qualified, by a bold, fervid, and impetuous eloquence, singularly adapted to arrest the attention, and govern the minds, of a fierce and un polished people. From the time that he embraced the reformed doctrines, the desire of propagating them, and of delivering his countrymen from the delusions and corruptions of popery, became his ruling passion, to which he was always ready to sacrifice his ease, his interest, his reputation, and his life. An ardent wattachment to civil liberty held the next place in his breast to love of the reformed religion. That the zeal with which he laboured to advance these were of the most disinterested kind, no candid person who has paid attention to his life can doubt for a moment, whatever opinion he may entertain of some of the means which

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CHARACTER OF KNOX THE REFORMER.

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253 he employed for that purpose. In fact, he thought only of advancing the glory of God, and promoting the welfare of his country." Intrepidity, independence, and elevation of mind, indefatigable activity, and constancy which no disappointments could shake, eminently qualified him for the hazardous and difficult post which he occupied. His integrity was above the suspicion of corruption, his firmness proof equally against the solicitation of friends and the threats of enemies. Though his impetuosity of courage led him frequently to expose himself to danger, we never find him neglecting to take prudent precautions for his safety. The confidence reposed in him by his country. men shows the high opinion which they entertained of his sagacity, as well as of his honesty. The measures taken for advancing the Reformation were either adopted at his suggestion, or submitted to this advice; and we must pronounce them to have been as wisely planned as they were boldly executed. His ministerial functions were discharged with the greatest assiduity, fidelity, and fervour. No avocation or infirmity prevented him from appearing in the pulpit. Preaching was an employment in which he delighted, and for which he was qualified by an extensive acquaintance with the Scriptures, and by the happy art of applying them in the most striking manner to the existing circumstances of the church and of his hearers. His power of alarming the conscience and arousing the passions, has been frequently mentioned; but he also excelled in unfolding the consolations of the Gospel, and in calming the hearts of those who were either agitated by a sense of guilt, or suffering under the ordinary afflictions of life. When he discoursed of the griefs and joys, the conflicts and triumphs, of genuine Christians, he declared what he himself had known and experienced. The letters which he wrote to his familiar acquaintances breathe the most ardent piety. The religious meditations in which he spent his last sickness were not confined to that period of his life; they had been his habitual employment from the time that he was brought to the knowledge of the truth, and his solace amidst

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MAGNIFICENCE OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY.

all the hardships and perils through which he had passed. With his brethren in the ministry he lived in the utmost cordiality. We never read of the slightest variance between him and any of his colleagues. While he was dreaded and hated by the licentious and profane, whose vices he never spared, the religious and sober part of his countrymen felt a veneration for him which was founded on his unblemished reputation, as well as his popular talents as a preacher. In private life, he was both beloved and revered by his friends and domestics. He was subject to the occasional illapses of melancholy and depression of spirits, arising partly from natural constitution, and partly from the maladies which had long preyed upon his health, which made him, (to use his own expression,) churlish, and less capable of pleasing and gratifying his friends than he was otherwise disposed to be. This he confessed, and requested them to excuse; but his friendship was sincere, affectionate, and steady. When free from this morose affection, he relished the pleasures of society, and, among his acquaintances, was accustomed to unbend his mind, by indulging in innocent recreation, and in the sallies of wit and humour, to which he had a strong propensity, notwithstanding the graveness of his general deportment. Although, in the course of his public life, the severer virtues of his character were more frequently called into action, yet have we met with repeated instances of his acute sensibility; and the unaffected tenderness which occasionally breaks forth in his private letters, shows that he was not a stranger to "all the charities of human life," and that he could rejoice with them that rejoiced, and weep with them that wept."

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MAGNIFICENCE OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY.

WHAT lonely magnificence stretches around!
Each sight how sublime! and how awful each sound!

FIDELITY IN LITTLE.

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All hush'd and serene, as a region of dreams,
The mountains repose 'mid the roar of the streams;
Their glens of black umbrage by cataracts riven,
But calm their blue tops in the beauty of heaven.
Here the glory of nature hath nothing to fear-
Aye! Time the destroyer in power hath been here;
And the forest that hung on yon mountain so high,
Like a black thunder cloud on the arch of the sky,
Hath gone, like a cloud, when the tempest came by.
Deep sunk in the black moor, all worn and decay'd,
Where the floods have been raging, the limbs are dis-
play'd,

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Of the pine tree and oak, sleeping vast in the gloom,→→→
The kings of the forest disturb'd in their tomb.
E'en now, in the pomp of their prime, I behold,
O'erhanging the desert, the forests of old!
So gorgeous their verdure, so solemn their shade,
Like the heavens above them, they never may fade
The sun light is on them, in silence they sleep-
A glimmering glow, like the breast of the deep,
When the billows scarce heave in the calmness of morn.
Down the pass of Glen-Etive the tempest is borne,-
And the hill-side is swinging, and roars with a sound
In the heart of the forest embosom'd profound,
Till all in a moment the tumult is o'er,

And the mountain of thunder is still as the shore,
When the sea is at ebb; not a leaf nor a breath,
To disturb the wild solitude, steadfast as death.

FIDELITY IN LITTLE.

CHRISTIANITY holds out both encouragement and consolation to genuine believers in every rank of the people; who, whatever their external or apparent disadvantages are, and though they have only the means of "being faithful in a very little," serve the Lord Jesus Christ in singleness of heart, fearing God; and who,

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