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venerated brother, defines the creed, and gives direction to the religious tastes and habits, of the Wesleyan Methodists.

1709. February 9th. The parsonage-house at Epworth destroyed by fire; Mr. John Wesley, not quite six years old, narrowly escaping, by one man standing upon the shoulders of another, and rescuing him out of the window; the remembrance of this extraordinary deliverance is "preserved in one of his early portraits, which has, below the head, the representation of a house in flames, with the motto, 'Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?'

1714. Mr. John Wesley entered as a scholar at the Charter-House, under the tuition of Dr. Walker; for which place he ever after retained a strong predilection.

1716.-Mr. Charles Wesley sent to Westminster-School, under the care of his eldest brother, then Usher in that establishment; his expenses being, for some time, in part borne by Garrett Wesley, Esq., a gentleman of large fortune, in Ireland, who, on Charles refusing to accompany him thither, bequeathed his estates to his kinsman Richard Colley, afterwards known as Richard Colley Wesley, grandfather of the Marquis of Wellesley, and of the Duke of Wellington.

1720.—Mr. John Wesley entered as a Student at Christ Church, Oxford, under the direction of Dr. Wigan.

1725. September 19th.-Mr. John Wesley ordained Deacon, by Dr. Potter, then Bishop of Oxford.

1726.—Mr. Charles Wesley removed from Westminster School, and elected to Christ Church College, Oxford.

March 17th.-Mr. John Wesley elected Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; being regarded as a man of talents, a critic in the learned languages, and in logical skill eminently conspicuous, so that in November of this year he was chosen Greek Lecturer, and Moderator of the Classes.

1727. February 14th.-Mr. John Wesley takes his degree of Master of Arts; and in August enters upon the curacy of Wroote, serving his father in this capacity nearly three years. 1728. September 22d.—Mr. John Wesley is ordained Priest at Oxford, by Dr. Potter.

P.

SAGACITY OF A DOG.

(To the Editor of the Youth's Instructer.)

In the summer of 1841, the weather being hot, and the surface of the ground covered with grass, dry and slippery, a friend of mine made an excursion to the top of a very high down, taking with him a favourite Newfoundland dog. Having reached the summit, and being fatigued with his journey, he sat down to rest himself, when he immediately began to slide, and found himself unable, from the steep nature of the down, and the slipperiness of the grass, to stop his progress. But no sooner did the dog perceive his master's danger, than he ran to his assistance, and grasping his coat, set himself so firmly against the side of the down with his hind-legs, as to break the force with which he would otherwise have been precipitated to the bottom. In this way he continued to hold him until both master and dog reached the bottom of the down in perfect safety; where, otherwise a broken neck, or the dislocation of some other joint, might have been the issue, the down being so very high, and the distance to fall so great. As it was, a torn coat was the only inconvenience which was experienced. W. E. M.

A YOUNG MAN VOID OF UNDERSTANDING. "I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding."-Proverbs vii. 7.

OBSERVE the elements which compose so striking and affecting a character.-A want of understanding in the young is indicated by rashness and inconsideration; by a headstrong temper, impatient of control; by insolence of manners; by turning with indifference from the admonitions of the aged; by a want of care in the choice of companions; by an unlimited indulgence of the selfish passions; by indiscriminate censures on state matters; by a disregard of the Sabbath; by irreverence during divine worship; by lavishing away their substance; by uttering ridiculous and unseemly expressions in discourse; by displaying a magisterial and haughty spirit;

by delivering themselves up to sloth; and by a life of giddiness and levity.

The causes of the formation of that character.-It may be traced to the proneness of the human heart to evil; to the deceitfulness of sin; to the relaxation of parental authority; to the craft of designing and interested men; to the entertainment of vain and artificial notions of life; to the want of experience, by habits of thought and reflection; to pernicious and dishonourable avocations; and to the loss of pious guides and guardians.

The lessons which the contemplation of such a character teaches. It teaches parents what pains they ought to take to train up their children; how exceedingly proper it is to encourage those serious impressions that are made in the youthful mind; and the duty of the young to pay an immediate attention to their souls and eternity.

W. SLEIGH.

THE KING, THE PRIEST, AND THE MASON.

AN ANECDOTE.

In the reign of Pedro, King of Portugal, a mason having been slain by a Priest, the King, dissembling his knowledge of the crime, left the affair to the ecclesiastical courts for their decision. The Priest was suspended from saying mass for one year. Upon this, the King privately gave leave to the mason's son to revenge his father's death, which he did by taking the life of the Priest. The young man was apprehended, tried, and condemned to die; but the King commuted the punishment to a year's suspension from meddling with stone or mortar. He then fully established the royal authority over the Clergy; and when their crimes were capital, punished them with death. He was requested to refer these causes to a higher tribunal; by which the judgment of the Pope was meant. "I will indeed do so," replied the Monarch; “I will send them to the highest of all tribunals; to that of Him who is both their Maker and mine."

VOL. VII. Second Series. B

LITERARY ARTICLE.

ONE of the literary peculiarities of the present day, so common as to be characteristic of it, is the publication or republication of works in such a form as that they may be sold at a much cheaper rate than if they were given to the public in the forms which have hitherto been usual. A favourite method is that of the royal octavo size, double-column page, lines closely arranged, and a type comparatively small. By such means, a work which in the ordinary way would appear as perhaps a two volume octavo, clear and large type, and lines widely apart, each volume sold at the price of from ten to twelve or fifteen shillings, the publishers are able to sell for a fourth of the price, and thus to afford to a much larger number of readers the opportunity of possessing and reading books of great worth, otherwise inaccessible to them. We have thus seen several of Sir Walter Scott's Poems, originally published at not less than half-a-guinea, advertised for from a shilling to eighteen pence; Hannah More's "Practical Piety" for a shilling; all Dr. Young's Poetical Works for five shillings; Foster's "Popular Ignorance for eighteen pence; Mason's "Self-Knowledge may be had for sixpence; Graham's beautiful poem, "The Sabbath," for fivepence. Mr. Ward has published a whole series of valuable theological works in the same manner. And when to the cheapness, the number of Sabbath-school and other similar libraries is added, we may indeed say now that he who does not read, does not because he will not. And we do really fear that, after all, there is a great deal of that worst sort of ignorance, WILFUL IGNORANCE, in the land.

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To young persons, whose eyes are good, these opportunities are invaluable. By a little management they may, in a short time, fill one shelf, and that shelf be equal to a very respectable library in former times. We think we cannot begin the year better than by adverting to this subject. These are days of "education;" but little good is done by school education if it be not followed up by self-education in after-years. Will our readers allow us to consider them, not as mere purchasers of what we prepare for them, but as our pupils and friends, whose interests we have most anxiously in view? and likewise to consider "The Youth's Instructer tended (among other objects) to guide them, not systematically, indeed, but by occasional hints, keeping the subject in view, in their studies?

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In these days they ought to read. Books are easily procured; and by the wise and decisive redemption of their time, leisure may be obtained for reading them. And unless they read much while young, they will not only not have the taste for it when old, but not the power of reading to such advantage as if they had stored their minds in earlier life. Youth gathers up the materials on which the stronger judgment of riper years may work all the more profitably. Let not young people spend all their spare time in the activities of

for our support, and if to obtain our nourishment we were obliged to cultivate the earth in this rigorous season, our complaints might have some foundation; but He has begun by filling our magazines, which are sufficient to supply all our wants, and permit us to enjoy a degree of repose suitable to the season."-Time's Telescope.

"Almighty God, thy power we sing;
And to thy goodness tribute bring
For all thy works of love:

Thy wisdom crowns thy boundless might;
Thy kindness brings thy truth to light,
As clear as orbs above.

"How full are earth, and sea, and air!
How great thy love! what constant care
Of all the host is shown!

On great and small thy bounty flows,
And all creation richly glows

With goodness all thine own."

The first half of the month.-The squirrel, the hedgehog, the dormouse, the bat, and the tortoise, continue in their torpid state. The fox wanders to the hen-roost in quest of food.

"The verdure of the plain lies buried deep
Beneath the dazzling deluge, and the bents,
And coarser grass, upspearing o'er the rest,
Of late unsightly and unseen, now shine
Conspicuous, and, in bright apparel clad,
And fledged with icy feathers, nod superb:
The cattle mourn in corners, where the fence
Screens them, and seem half petrified to sleep,
In unrecumbent sadness."

Chaffinches, titmice, and yellow-hammers are seen in company with sparrows in farm-yards, especially in snowy weather; flocks of fieldfares appear on the trees; and

"Aloft, in mazy course, the golden wren

Sports on the boughs, nor fears the' approach of men."

The redbreast (motacilla rubecula) at this season is peculiarly fond of the habitation of man, and, unless the weather is extremely cold, even cheers the wintry gloom with his song.

"Dear little tenant of the flowery grove,

Sweet warbler at my frost-embroider'd pane,
When Winter rules despotic hill and plain,
And hush'd the feather'd suitor's lay of love,
And wandering minstrels seek more genial clime;
Come, sweetest bird, that little heed'st the storm,
And, perch'd near lonely cottage-casement warm,
Full blithely sing'st, scorning the iron time;

Come, with thy sparkling eye of purest ray,
And throat that might Virginia's songsters dare
With hers in brilliant plumage to compare;

Come, cheer the wintry as the summer's day;
And, like a faithful friend, be thine to bless,
When sunbeams dazzle, or when clouds oppress."

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