Images de page
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

really the most You smile at mother, as she use without the

THE NEEDLE AND THE THREAD. 'MAMMA!" said a little girl, watching her mother's busy fingers," which is useful, the needle or the thread?" such a question, and so did the replied that", one would be of no other, in sewing;' but at the same time she thought how often a strife had been raised upon the same point, among those who depend upon each other as much as do the needle and thread. The rich and the poor, the statesman and the merchant, the man who works with his hands and he who works with his brain, could neither do without the other. And so it is in the Church; each has his own place and work, however small or humble he may be. I read not long since of a poor old coloured woman who had for years been confined to a bed of suffering. She was visited by a good rich man, who said to her, "Betty, does it not seem to you very strange that God should keep you here so long, when you can do nothing in the world ?" "Ah! massa, "said the good old woman, "you no understand! Heavenly Father have something for me to do. You can give a great deal of money, Massa B- -, but it will not do the church much good, without poor old Betty's prayers!" and old Betty was right. It is just as Paul said "The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. Neither again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you! Let us each be content with the place and the work which God, even in Providence, has given us; and never despise any one whom we think is in a lower station, or has fewer gifts than ourselves. He may be making the best use of those gifts,-be far more useful in the world than we.-Children's Guest.

[merged small][graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

robin's nest, or that of any other bird, induce you

to resolve that you will "steal no more :"

"To the ground the vain provision falls!
Her pinions ruffle, and, low drooping, scarce
Can bear the mourner to the poplar shade,
Where, all abandoned to despair, she sings
Her sorrows through the night, and on the bough,
Sole sitting, still at every dying fall

Takes up again her lamentable strain
Of winding woe, till wide around the woods
Sigh to her song, and with her wail resound."

66

Here is no poetic licence;" but, if you think there is, the following well-written "plain prose of the amiable Mr. Jesse will satisfy the possible doubt: "I had an opportunity," he writes in his "Gleanings in Natural History," "this summer of witnessing the distress of a robin, when, on returning to her nest with food for her young, she discovered that they had disappeared. Her low and plaintive wailings were incessant. She appeared to seek for them among the neighbour

ing bushes, now and then changing her mournful cry into one which seemed like a call to her brood to come to her. She kept the food in her mouth

[graphic][ocr errors]

for a short time, but, when she found that her cries were unanswered, let it fall to the ground." -Our Own Fireside.

PRIESTISM IN IRELAND.

OFF the west coast of Galway lies a small, thinlypopulated island called Innisboffin, which if the correspondent of the Daily Express may be relied on, was lately, in fact is, the scene of one of the most extraordinary instances of priestly tyranny and popular debasement ever recorded. An English physician, Dr. Paynter, who has leased some mines on the island, unfortunately had a difference with the parish priest about the propriety of the latter holding a procession in honour of the Manchester martyrs. His reverence immediately ordered his flock not to supply Dr. Paynter's family with food, to take them to the mainland in their boats, or to

give them any aid whatever. They were quickly being starved out, and a poor woman who brought them some provisions was so severely flogged by the priest, that it is likely she will be a cripple for the rest of her days. At last the unhappy family were relieved by the police from the mainland, a small body of whom were appointed to reside on the island for Dr. Paynter's protection. But no lodgings could be got for them. "No, not for a

وو

guinea an hour, without leave from the priest,' said the natives, in reply to their application. A similar fate befell a gentleman who visited on some Government business, who was told he should have neither food nor lodging without a pass from his reverence, and was stoned by the people as his boat left their inhospitable shore.

88

THE STOLEN ORANGES.

Not long ago a Sunday-school teacher was following two boys of his school up Cheapside, who seemed in earnest conversation together. He saw a third boy a little before them, who, in passing a fruitwoman's barrow, while her head was turned another way, stole two oranges, and then ran off. The two Sunday-school boys followed the little thief for some distance, and when they had overtaken him, they spoke to him with so much earnestness and propriety on the subject, that they induced him to walk back and restore the poor woman the stolen oranges. It is the duty of every scholar not only to refrain from "picking and stealing himself, but also, if in his power, to prevent others.

[ocr errors]

WORK IS NOBLER FAR THAN PLAY.

MAKE the most of every blessing,
Cultivate contentment here;

There are treasures worth possessing,

For the men of every sphere.

Though thy lot in life be humble,
And thou toilest day by day;
Battle onward, never grumble,

Work is nobler far than play.

What, though fortune crown thy neighbour,
Riches cannot banish care,
And there's dignity in labour,
Which the idler cannot share.
Those who toil uphold the nation,
Keep its greatness from decay:
In each honest occupation,

Work is better far than play.
On the scaffold upward climbing,
Deep within the mines below,
'Mongst the hammers loudly chiming,
And where molten metals glow.
In the fields were birds are singing,
On the vessel's deck so gay,

There are voices ever ringing,
Work is nobler far than play."

66

W. TALBOT.

AN APPEAL.

JUST one hundred and forty-four years ago, a Benedictine nun was burned at the stake for heresy in Palermo, and to cover the expense an annual fine has been exacted from her family up to this time. The representative of the family now appeals to the Italian Parliament for relief from the imposition.

« PrécédentContinuer »