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injures the soul. His name is Sin, and he is in league with Satan to do mischief.

Do you ask me what evil there is at the fair? You should rather ask what evil is not there; for evil so abounds that it may be seen in all directions. Gaming, cheating, drinking, cursing, swearing, and taking God's holy name in vain, quarreling, fighting, mingling with bad company, and stealing, are but a part of the evils of a pleasure fair. You may not mean to do such things; but if others have been tempted by the evil one to do them, why may not you? Sin, like other things, has a beginning; go not, then, in the way of temptation. You will not be burned while you keep from the fire; you will not be drowned while at a distance from the water; and, in like manner, you are never so secure from sin as when away from temptation. It is a necessary prayer even for Christians, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

Now do, my dear children, listen to me, and take kindly what I say. To get any good at the fair is out of the question, though you may get a great deal of evil there. If the truant children, the thoughtless servants, the drunken husbands, and the weak-minded wives, that have been to the fair were to tell you truly the trouble it has brought upon them, you would see that it was not the place for you. If you wish to misspend your time, to throw away your money, to mingle with bad company, to encourage others in vice, to set a bad example yourselves, and to do what God has told you not to do, the fair will be the very place to go to; but if you have any love for your own peace, any wish for the happiness and respect of your parents and teachers, and any desire to fear to break God's commandments, keep away from the fair.

"Enter not into the path of the wicked,

and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away" (Prov. iv. 14, 15)

I have heard of a child who went to the fair being thrown out of a roundabout and killed; of a boy who went there being tempted by his companions to rob his master, for which crime he was transported; of a servant who, by getting into bad company, lost her place and character, and, going headlong to destruction, broke the hearts of her afflicted parents: but I have never heard of any one, man, woman, or child, being made better or happier by going to the fair.

Many years ago, a young man having made up his mind to attend a neighbouring fair, asked his master's permission to go there, when his master very properly and kindly told him that, if he went, he would lose his time, spend his money, and most likely get into bad company, in which case, led on from one vice to another, it might end in his destruction.

Notwithstanding all that his master said, the young man was determined to go; so he begged hard for leave, and obtained it. He put on his best clothes, wrapped up some provisions in his pockethandkerchief, for he thought he would not be tempted into the tavern-booths, and set off on his excursion. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways death" (Prov. xiv. 12). How many a pleasure-taker by his heedless folly has brought ruin on his head; running into destruction as the moth into the flame, or the fly into the web of the spider!

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When the young man came to the bridge over the river on his way, he paused a moment, and began to reflect a little on what had been said by his master. The sun was shining, crowds of people were passing forwards with smiling faces,

and he had never been to the fair before; yet still what his master had said came uppermost in his mind. "It may all be very pleasant," said he to himself, "to go to the fair and to enjoy myself, but how will it be with me afterwards? I shall lose half-a-day's wages any way, and that will not please me when Saturday night comes; and if, as my master says, I get into bad company, it may be the beginning of bad habits, and bad habits may be my destruction." Without reasoning more about the matter, he gave up going to the fair, hurried back to his employment, put on his common clothes, and set diligently to work at his business.

His master was so well pleased at his good conduct, that when Saturday night came, he not only paid the young man the whole of his week's wages, but also put into his hand a golden guinea; for guineas were the coins then in use, not sovereigns. Take that," said he, as a mark of your master's respect; the more you reflect on the past, the more you will be pleased with the part you have acted, and never will you repent having given up going to the fair.”

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It is a good sign when the young listen to the counsel of those who advise them for their good; and a bad sign indeed when they reject and despise it. A teachable and tractable child is like a grateful flower that is pleasant to every one, while a disobedient and rebellous child is as a stinging nettle, which is hateful to all.

I can hardly think that you will now encourage any thought of going to the fair, seeing that by doing so you will prove to be your own enemy." From a Superintendent to Sunday Scholars.

*

* After all, the all-important thing is to have grace, so that the heart finds such pleasure in spiritual things that the fair would be a misery instead of a happiness.-ED.

PROTESTANT SONGS.

"If God be for us who can be against us ?"

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Against the pow'rs of Rome they fought,
Led by the Captain to the field;

From man they look'd, to God they sought,
He was their Helper, Strength, and Shield.
Rule, etc.

Confiding in the Lord most high,

The Written and Incarnate Word;
They raised the Gospel Banner high,
Its pow'rs made known, at home, abroad.
Rule, etc.

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