it ought to be; and it is curious to observe it is just this the Apostle enjoins when he commands men, whatever they do, to "do it heartily, as unto the Lord." CAUSES OF DISEASE. "DISEASE," I have said, "is the work of man, not of his Maker." In support of this assertion, we may reason: 1. From final causes. That pain, sickness, and premature death were ends contemplated in the work of creation, is a supposition at variance with all that Nature elsewhere teaches of the benevolence of the Creator. 2. From Facts. Wild animals and reptiles are almost or wholly exempt from disease, although many of them inhabit regions more filled with miasms (!) than any of the abodes of men. Tamer animals, subjected more to the influence of man's modes of life, are liable to some few diseases. Instance, fowls and pet animals, as deer, rabbits, &c. The most highly domesticated are subject to the most numerous and fatal diseases, and to some, even, that are contagious. Instances, horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, &c. And the maladies of the human race are found to surpass those of the brutes in number, complication, and fatality, to a degree fully as great as that in which man's habits are more artificial and unnatural than theirs! Still farther, those among the human species who lead the most artificial life, are ever the most subject to disease. There, then, is proof, written in sunbeams! There we have a regular series of results-step by step departing from the condition of simple nature; and by the same steps departing from the highest strength and happiness, and sinking into an atmosphere of pain, disease, and premature death. Diseases, then, are not chargeable on "chance," or "nature," or "Providence ;" they are the results of unnatural habits and conditions of life. Of these unnatural habits and conditions, I will enumerate the most important: 1. Over-taxation o, the body or the mind, in the form of excessive bodily or mental labour, the anxieties and perplexities of business, excitement of the feelings, deep emotions, excessive indulgence of the passions. All This last cause alone produces more incompetency for successful exertion, and leads to more disease-a hundredfold more than is ever dreamed of by the mass of the community! these causes wear out, consume and subtract from the powers of life faster than, by rest and nourishment, we can add to, repair and re-invigorate them. 2. Indolence, or a want of due exercise of the entire body, or of certain limbs or organs. To over-tax some parts, then, and under-tax others at the same time, is doubly to invite the inroads of disease. Of these, by 3. Mechanical causes. far the most prolific of evils, is an unnatural mode of dress. This may injure in numberless ways:-by cramping organs, compressing or ligaturing limbs, overheating some parts, exposing others to cold, dragging upon weaker parts, checking circulation, respiration, and free motion, and favouring unnatural postures, narrowness of chest, and every species of deformity. The subject is well worthy of all the attention now being paid to it. 4. Hereditary predisposition, or the transfer of a diseased condition from a parent to a child. It is through this the "children's teeth are set on edge!" It is through this, in a good degree, that all along the pathway of infancy and childhood, a portion of our whole existence, naturally the brightest, the fullest of promise, our dear little ones are made to drop suddenly from our grasp, and people our graveyards with corpses before their time! 5. Insufficiency of food is a source of disease in some countries, but very seldom so in our own. 6. Depression of mind, through an effect of some morbid condition, often becomes in its turn a cause of deepseated and fatal disease. The most important class of all the causes of disease I shall leave for con sideration in my next. My readers will see that I have barely room for texts, but they can amplify these into sermons by a little reflection. A FRIEND of Man. MAXIMS OF WISDOM. BY DR. FRANKLIN. Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labour wears, while the used key is always bright. Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. The sleeping fox catches no poultry. He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night. Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. There are no gains without pains. At the working-man's house, hunger looks in, but never enters. Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell or keep. One to-day is worth two to-morrows. Handle your tools without mittens a cat in gloves catches no mice. Creditors have better memories than debtors. For age and want save what you may, No morning's sun lasts the whole day. Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt. If you do not hear wisdom she will surely rap your knuckles. He that hath a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath a place of profit and honour. A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. HEARTY READING. CURIOSITY is a passion very favourable to the love of study; and a passion very susceptible of increase by cultivation. Sound travels so many feet in a second; and light travels so many feet in a second. Nothing more probable; but you do not care how light and sound travel. Very likely; but make yourself care; get up and shake yourself well, pretend to care, make believe to care, and very soon you will care, and care so much that you will sit for hours thinking about light and sound, and be extremely angry with any one who interrupts you in your pursuit, and tolerate no other conversation but about light and sound, and catch yourself plaguing every one to death who approaches you, with the discussion of these subjects. I am sure that a man ought to read as he would grasp a nettle,-do it lightly and you will be molested; grasp it with all your strength, and you feel none of its asperities. There is nothing so horrible as languid study; when you sit lookWhat maintains one vice would ing at the clock, wishing the time was bring up two children. He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive. The eye of a master will do more work than both his hands. Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open. A little neglect can do a great mischief-for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost. A fat kitchen makes a lean will. If you would be rich, think of saving as well as getting. over, or that somebody would call on Beware of little expenses-a small you and put you out of your misery. leak will sink a great ship. If you would know the value of money go and try to borrow somefor he that goes borrowing goes sorrowing. Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy. Lying rides on debt's back. It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright. The only way to read with efficacy, is to read so heartily that dinner-time comes two hours before you expected it. To sit with your Livy before you, and hear the geese cackling that saved the capitol; and to see with your own eyes the Carthaginian suttlers gathering up the rings of the Roman knights after the Battle of Cannæ, and heaping them into bushels; and to be so intimately present at the actions you are reading of, that when any one knocks at the door, it will take you two or three seconds to determine whether you are in your own study, or on the plains of Lombardy, looking at Hannibal's weather-beaten face, and admiring the splendour of his eagle eye this is the only kind of study which is not tiresome, and almost the only kind which is not useless; this is the knowledge which gets into the system, and which a man carries about and uses, like his limbs, without perceiving that it is extraneous, weighty, or inconvenient. The Fragment Basket. POPERY AND THE BIBLE. The Pope has issued a rescript that whoever is found guilty of bringing to Rome, or trying to carry to Rome, any copy of the Word of God in the Italian language, he shall be sent for four years to the galleys! Pretty well this even for the Pope ! Popes and Infidels seem to be pretty well matched in their competition or putting down the Bible; but the Pope as yet has the start, for he decrees that the people shall not read, in their own tongue, the wonderful works of God. Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, Yes; but not in Italian, though in Italy. And, oh! how merciful to the souls of the poor-the galleys for four years! To know what Popery is, go to Rome, its seat. A GREAT MAN'S PREFERENCE. I envy no quality of mind or intellect in others-not genius, power, wit, or fancy; but if I could choose what would be most delightful and most useful to me, I should prefer a firm religious belief to every other blessing, for it makes life a discipline of goodness, creates new hopes when all earthly hopes vanish, and throws over the decay, the destruction of existence, the most gorgeous of all lights; awakens life even in death, and from corruption and decay calls up beauty and divinity; makes an instrument of torture and of shame the ladder of ascent to Paradise; and far above all combination of earthly hopes, calls up the most delightful visions-palms and amaranths, the gardens of the blessed-the security of everlasting joys, where the sensualist and sceptic view only gloom, decay, and annihilation.-Sir Humphrey Davy. VOCAL AND MENTAL PRAYER. In private prayer it is permitted to every man to speak his prayers, or only MINISTERIAL RUIN THROUGH A was early converted, and for years walked worthy of the Gospel. His grace and gifts gave promise of his being an able minister of the New Testament. But he soon declined, and resented reproof. Devotion to the pipe issued in gross intemperance and other sins. Deposed from the ministry, "he became a public profligate, a profane swearer, a reeling drunkard, and streetfighter. His wife died broken-hearted. He opened a low beer-shop, in which he soon expended the little property he possessed." In the "clay-pit" he obtained "a scanty support for himself and his children." He fell from bad to worse, and, sustaining injury in his employment, the part mortified, and he died, in great agony of mind, a lost man.-The Christian Miscellany. GOD IN EVERYTHING. There is nothing upon the earth which does not show either the misery of man, or the mercy of God; either THE DREAMS OF YOUTH. How the bright dreams of early youth Lure the fond eye with visions gay, And clothing them in robes of truth, Seem fadeless in Hope's welcome day! The gossamer that dew-gemm'd spreads Its airy web in June's bright morn, Where Fancy with ner footfall treads On flowers of blissful thought inborn. Dreams that in joyous bowers repose On pillow'd ease in vestures fair, In downy sleep which Zephyr throws Round the young heart devoid of care; That spring an arch in Fancy's sky All radiant with her richest hue, Aud on it mount and seem to fly Untiring in its depths of blue. These pass! Life is not all a dream They fade! How fleeting are they all! On their light wings they die, and seem Bright nothings, when to earth they fall! 'Tis well! Dreams charm the infant's sleep Dreams oft allure to Life's employ; I would not in a monk-cell keep The bright young heart GoD made for joy. Yet think not thou that Life to thee Shall pass a summer-dream of bliss! Clouds and dark storms thy lot may be-An earnest life, young friend, is this; Full of great deeds of life or death Full of great scenes of joy or woeFull of vast hopes that strive for breathFull of great thoughts that heavenward go. Seek bliss where bliss alone is thine Seek it in CHRIST-Eternal Fount! Then shall thy path with glory shine, And Hope on holier wings shall mount. "Pray without ceasing."-ST. PAUL, Filling all the morning air; O'er a world of sin and care; With her silver sheen so fair; Pour out thy heart in thankful prayer. Thus, as down Time's stream thou'rt drifting, And the scenes of life are shifting, To the goal bright gleaming there; While from sin thy heart thou 'rt sifting, Never cease thy strain of prayer! W. WOODVILLE. The Children's Gallery. "THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS IS HARD." I WANT to tell you a true story. I went to the jail the other day to visit a young man only twenty-four years of age, yet he had been sentenced to prison twice. Before the last sentence had expired he made his escape by sawing off an iron bar; but in a few months he was caught, and lodged in the jail where I saw him. He was very pale, and he will soon die, as he is in a consumption. I asked him of his early life, and what did he tell me ?-That his father died when he was only eight years old, and he soon began to be disobedient to his mother, and to care for nothing she said to him. He kept company with bad boys, and soon commenced stealing-little articles at first, such as apples, peaches, &c.; and then, as he grew older, he broke into houses and stores with others at midnight, and became a thief and robber. Seeing a Bible resting between the iron bars of his window, I said to him, "You have found God's holy word to be true, that the way of transgressors is hard ?'" He seemed quite penitent, and as we knelt in that stone cell, and I raised my voice in prayer for him, he was so much affected that he wept like a child. His earnest wish was to return once more to his mother, and to die in his childhood's home. His life was fast ebbing away, and he needed friends to take care of him. But this wish was denied him. An officer was sent for him, and irons were put around his thin wrists, and, sick and dying as he was, he was hurried back to his former cell in the state prison, nearly three hundred miles off. And there in that gloomy cell, away from all his friends, with no kind mother to tend him, he will die. Boys, always mind your mothers! Always read the Bible, and remember what you read. Avoid the company of bad boys, whether at home or at school. Always remember those four short words in the Bible, "Thou, God, seest me." Had that young man remembered them, and also that verse, "If sinners entice thee, consent thou "Yes, sir," he replied, "I have just not," he would now probably have been been reading it in the Bible." a good and happy man. I asked if he had been to meeting often during the past eight or ten years? HEATHEN CHILDREN. 'No, sir,” said he; "I was afraid A FEW months since I was travelling of God!" I inquired if his bad associates endeavoured to put God out of their minds. "Yes, sir,” he replied, "and I have tried to do it too, but it would come back again to my mind." I in a beautiful part of the country, and I happened to meet with a missionary who had lately come from Africa, and has since returned. Having a deep interest in the welfare of the young, made many inquiries about the children in that country. He told me that his hope of success in spreading the Gospel was centred in the young. Their |