defied, whose name I have blasphemed, and whose ways I have shunned and rejected. I own my sentence just; but I hope to be pardoned by my heavenly Judge, before I go hence;-I feel, deed, that I am a miserable sinner, coming to God through Jesus Christ for pardon. I own I deserve to be spurned from his presence, and consigned to eternal misery; but I humbly venture to plead for mercy for the sake of my Redeemer,-and if I perish, it shall be at his feet, still crying for mercy." From those who visited John Lawrence in prison, especially the chaplain, it appears that his whole time was occupied in a very becoming manner; when not engaged in devotion, he was employed in writing letters either to his friends or to his old companions in sin. He wrote to all he could remember of the latter class, and pressed upon them to take warning from his awful end, and stop in their sinful pursuits before it should be too late. He felt strongly the evil of drinking, and the dangers of visiting the ale-house; he acknowledged that before he committed the murder, he had been drinking for three days, and had spent all his money. He attributed his ruin to the beer-shops; and he distinctly said, "that of all his companions, he did not know of one who must not date his ruin to the same cause; for such places," he adds, " are the nurseries of all manner of crimes." He was now convinced also of the evil of bad company, and regretted deeply that he had not listened to the counsels of his best friends. He earnestly hoped that his sad fate would be a serious warning to all his friends and acquaintance to shun bad company.

His regard for Sunday-scholars was very great; for, only a few days before his execution, he wrote an address to them to the children of the same Sunday-school wherein he was taught when a boy. He exhorts them as follows: 66 My dear young school children, it is my earnest prayer for you all that you will be attentive to what your kind teachers and ministers say to you on behalf of your souls; for if you neglect their advice, you will one day or another sincerely repent it. You see

"Oft we see a young beginner

Practice little pilfering ways;
'Till grown up a harden'd sinner,
Then the gallows end his days."

The fatal morning at length arrived; the prisoner rose early, and spent his few last hours in earnest devotion. At the appointed hour the criminal, in company with the chaplain and the various officers, proceeded towards the scaffold, the prison-bell and the bell of the church were both solemnly tolling; there was a large concourse of people assembled in front of the scaffold to witness this affecting scene. On reaching the fatal spot, Lawrence took a final farewell of all around him; the hangman then drew the cap over his face, and placed the rope round his neck; during the time the chaplain continued reading parts of the burial service, in all which the criminal with an audible voice joined. Twelve o'clock was now arrived; at that instant the signal was given and the bolt was withdrawn, and the unhappy man dropped into eternity with the words of prayer on his tongue; his last own words were, "O God forgive me; the Lord have mercy on my soul !"

My dear young readers, here is a fearful warning to all youths, especially to such as will have their own

way. Here is the end of one who would not regard the good advice of kind parents and teachers; who chose the company of the ungodly; who broke the laws of man and God; who went on from bad to worse, until, at the early age of twenty-four, he is hurried into eternity as a murderer!

Surely, this distressing example will not be easily forgotten by you. May you give up yourself without delay to that Saviour, who has promised to bless you in this life, and in the life to come to make you happy for evermore. T. C. East Grinstead, Dec. 1847.

THE WAY TO PAY OFF THE NATIONAL DEBT, WITHOUT ANY PERSONAL INCONVENIENCE OR PECUNIARY SACRIFICE.

"THERE is one rule of godly discipline, deduced from Holy Scripture, directed by the church, imperative on the clergy, incumbent on the laity, and practised from the beginning by all sincere Christians, which, if revived in the spirit of faith and obedience, would benefit the health both of body and soul, and would go far to relieve us of all our difficulties. Were this practice of the Bible and the church adopted by the clergy alone, it would produce nearly 100,000l. a year, without taking one shilling from their means; were it practised by 100,000 persons, it would produce 500,000l. a year; 1,000,000, obedient to this godly discipline, would give 5,000,000l. per annum; were 2,000,000 to obey it, 10,000,000l. a year would be the result, and the national debt would be discharged in about twenty years. Such is the amazing pecuniary power, independent of its moral power, of this neglected, almost forgotten, discipline of the church. But perhaps your Lordship is, ere this, desirous of hearing what this wonderful principle is, which could secure such desirable and astonishing results:

"Fasting, abstaining from flesh meat and its general accompaniments, amongst the better sort, of wine or spirits, beer, &c., on every day the church directs (about 100 in the year); eating, instead of a good, perhaps luxurious dinner, a little bread, or any vegetable, and offering what our dinner

would have cost us (a shilling, at the least, but say a shilling,) on the Lord's table, and dedicating it to his service and our country's good."-" Real and Rational Church Reform," in a Letter to the Right Hon. Lord Ashley, by the Rev. J. H. Thomas, B.A., Incumbent of Millbrook Chapel-of-Ease, near Devonport.

It is much to be wished that the clergy would set about it. The national debt is a sore burden; and were churchmen to remove it, this one act would do more than centuries of arrogant pretension to conciliate the regards of the British People.-EDITOR.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AND THE CHURCH OF ROME NEARLY RELATED.

THE greatest part of the tenets, and most of the ceremonies of both churches, are so nearly allied, as to be considered by other Protestant sects as sisters of the same family, and ought, therefore, to be in constant harmony with each other. Though we have not the same number of sacraments, yet, except one, we observe the forms of all the others; and, although auricular confession is not enjoined, it is strongly recommended; and even in our service of the Visitation of the Sick, the complete absolution of the Catholic priests, copied word for word from their ritual, is to be found. This same remark holds equally good with the greatest part of our liturgy. Their canon law is still, in a great measure, the rule of our judications. We have our spiritual consistorial courts, decrees, and ceremonies from them. We have our subordinate church-governments, our

primates, prelates, archbishops, and bishops, deans, prebendaries, canons, and other dignities; provinces, dioceses, parishes; cathedrals and common churches; benefices, tythes, perquisites, Easter-dues, and free-will-offerings." -Speech of the Duke of Sussex, in the House of Peers, April 21, 1812, (p. 21.)

YET remember, brethren, that a design postponed is virtually abandoned; that what to-day we defer, we decree to be impossible to-morrow; that there are pressing claims on the activity of every hour which no other can enable us to execute; that intention is the seed of action, that delay is the blight and mildew of the soul; that the moment of deliberation is the crisis of our fate; that all things are within the compass of a determinate and steady purpose, and nothing unattainable to him who, relying on the grace of heaven, is prepared to say-not heartlessly and in the midst of reservations and conditions, but with the singleness and concentration of a spirit collecting all its force-" I am satisfied-I am resolved -I will begin.”—Dr. M'All.

CHINA.-Were any one to sit down this day, and to count sixty in a minute for twelve hours every day, it would take him more than twenty-two years to enumerate the population of China. Could we bring 1000 individuals under instruction every day, and give them only a day's teaching each, it would require a 1000 years to bring all the Chinese under the sound of the gospel; and if even ten of every thousand were daily converted to God, 100,000 years must elapse ere the salvation of all were accomplished.Milne.

THERE is an analogy between the world of nature and the world of grace. In the latter, as well as in the former, there is a spring and a summer-an infancy and a manhood. The first breathings of Divine love on the heart are often faint and fitful. They come like the first breeze of spring, fraught with warmth, and bearing the promise of future fruit, but passing over a dead and barren region to which they seem unallied and uncongenial. They are generally succeeded by wintry gloom

and tempest, which, from contrast and disappointed hope, they render only more dismal. But still gentler breezes breathe, and longer light, and a warmer sun shed their genial influences, til the whole soul glows and is renewed, and the germs of a Divine nature springing into life, reveal the creative power of that Spirit which erewhile moved on the face of the deep, and gave order and beauty to the formless void of the material world. The work proceeds amidst alternate sunshine and showers; the warmth and illumination increase; the virtues and graces grow and expand; what was waving becomes steady; what was feeble becomes strong; what was sterile luxuriant; the dark brightens; the deformed is clothed with beauty; where there was deadness there is animation; where there was taint and corruption, there is health and soundness. The child rises to manhood, the spring is past and summer reigns. The sun of righteousness shines in all his glory, and the soul is buoyant with spiritual life, and teems with fruit.-Dr. Duncan.

THE amusement for which we cannot thank the Almighty, cannot be an innocent pleasure.-C. Fry.

TRUE piety is based on a clear recognition of human depravity, and the consequent need of pardon and renewal, a believing view of the Saviour's atonement, and a humble reliance on the sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit.—Ibid.

HAPPINESS is much in our own power; depending more upon what we are, than what we have.-Ibid.

WHY should a finite reason, darkened by the fall, wonder at its own incapacity to comprehend what God has said. Ibid.

No reasonable being acts without a motive.-Ibid.

MAN is incapable, as a rational being, of living without an object; and he is responsible, as a moral being, for choosing well among the many objects that are set before him.-Ibid.

If any one, under the influence of a fervid piety, feels disposed to leave the station in which Providence has placed him, on account of the obstacles it opposes to his principles, he should well

I ask a love which cannot stay
Within one narrow heart;
But, spreading like the light of day,
Shall form of all a part.

"Lovest thou me?"
love,

By loving those for whom

GIVE! GIVE!

I left my glorious throne above,

And met the cross-the tomb!
I gave my life to save "my sheep,"-
I leave them to thy care;
And bid thee here thy vigil keep,

While I your homes prepare.

"Lovest thou me?" still, still he asks

Of thee and me the same; And still will this last greatest proof

Of true affection claim:

"Go, gather my wand'ring, dying lambs;

Seek them where'er they dwell; Lead them to clear and living streams, And prove thou lovest me well."

The more you live.

God's love hath in us wealth upheap'd
Only by giving is it reap'd.
The body withers, and the mind,
If pent in by a selfish rind.
Give strength, give thought, give deeds,
give pelf,

Give love, give tears, and give thyself.
Give, give, be always giving;
Who gives not is not living.

The more we give,
The more we live.

HISTORY OF JOHN D. To the Editor of the Penny Magazine. SIR,-The story of " Poor Jack," in the February number of your PENNY MAGAZINE, reminded me, that some years ago, it was my privilege to witness a striking instance of the sovereignty of divine grace, in the conversion of a sinner at the "eleventh hour." As the circumstance, at the time, produced a deep impression on my mind, I find, by reference to my papers, that I have preserved a memorandum of some of the particulars. Should you deem the following" simple annal" of the religious experience of one of "the poor," worthy of a place in either of your Magazines, it is at your service. There is nothing of tha. romantic incident connected with it which rendered the narrative of Poor Jack" so interesting to your juvenile readers. On the contrary, it only presents in its outward aspect the ordinary event of a working man falling sick, dying, and leaving behind him a widow and children to struggle through the world, as best they may, amidst toil and poverty.

But in a spiritual view, I cannot but think, that it furnishes another illustration of the riches of Divine mercy

in plucking "a brand from the burning," and adding another trophy to the conquests of redeeming love.

John D- was about fifty years of I had been acquainted with him ever age, had a wife and several children. since I was a boy, in consequence of his working at a manufactory where I had occasion to see him on business

once or twice a week. He was naturally a simple-minded, good-tempered, honest man, but one who made no

pretensions to religion; seldom, if ever, attended a place of worship, and made no scruples in occasionally spending an the public-house. He had learnt to evening with his fellow-workmen at read, but was very ignorant. In fact, he was a person who, in point of intellect, almost realized Pollok's description, when he says

"A man, who never had a dozen thoughts In all his life, and never changed their