1836.] THE BIBLE OUR ONLY SURE GUIDE. 27 renewing of your minds, prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. This is the lesson given by the great and generous Master of the Churches. May we enjoy its fulness of blessing throughout eternity! REV. H. F. FELL, Sent by F. C. CHRISTIAN WATCHFULNESS, THE Christian is described in the Scriptures as "the temple of the living God" Now where the holy God takes up his abode, surely that heart must be sanctified, and set apart from every common use, and wholly devoted to his service. But can God and the world reign in the same heart, or as it were reign by turns? Shall we admit the Lord of glory in the morning, and shut Him out in the evening? for we are well assured that He will not go with us to any scene of folly or dissipation. That cannot be a proper place for a Christian, where religion is the thing that must not be named; and where even something in our hearts will tell us, that such subjects are out of place. Besides, it seems but mocking our Father which is heaven, to say, one hour, "lead us not into temptation," when we have coolly made up our minds to rush into it the next. From the evil of such a temptation, can we hope that he will deliver us? "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning: and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately." Now you would not choose that your Lord should come for you, while engaged in amusements of a worldly, sinful, or even doubtful character; nor would you feel, that he found you watching; nor would you be ready to open immediately;" you would rather ask time to collect your scattered thoughts, and trim your wasted lamp.-Chiefly from a Letter by Miss Graham. 66 Sent by S. P. THE BIBLE OUR ONLY SURE GUIDE. WHAT right, it may be asked, have we to suspend or modify, according to our own notions of expediency, the laws of that religious faith which we profess to receive as coming to us from God? It is by this very mode of relaxing the strict letter of our duty, that the whole system of public morals becomes deranged. Men do what they see their neighbours do. They follow the example of others, and are quoted again as examples in their turn. They look abroad, when they should look into their Bibles, and into their own breasts. It is by each individual supposing that his own solitary example can be of no avail, and considering rather his position in society, than his connection with his Maker, that something very like heathenism continues to linger in countries nominally professing the religion of the Gospel. There is one, and only one, safe practical rule for every Christian to pursue. Let him keep watch over himself: let him strive by God's grace to maintain his own Christian purity; nor, because his neighbours may neglect their duty, think himself, therefore, justified in dispensing with his own. The example of such a person, though, in fact, but a secondary consideration, each man's foremost object being the working out of his own salvation, will assuredly be a light and blessing to all around him: should it have the effect of inducing others to pursue the same course, the temporal benefit is at once gained, and the peace of society at once established: should it fail in producing that result, still he who thus performs his duty to the utmost, has one great consolation, that, be the usages of the world what they may, he is no longer answerable for the continuation of those crimes, of which, by adopting the contrary principle, he would have made himself a partaker. Dr. Shuttleworth. See Original Family Sermons. - Sent by AN ANONYMOUS CORRES PONDENT. OPPORTUNITIES OF USEFULNESS. How often do we sigh for opportunities of doing good, whilst we neglect the openings of Providence in little things, which would frequently lead to the accomplishment of most important usefulness! Dr. Johnson used to say, "He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do any." Good is done by degrees. 1836.] PLAN TO ENABLE A LABOURER TO KEEP A COW.29 However small in proportion the benefit which follows individual attempts to do good, a great deal may thus be accomplished by perseverance, even in the midst of discouragements and disappointments. Crabb's "Gipsies' Advocate." PLAN FOR ENABLING A LABOURER TO KEEP A COW. MR. EDITOR, THE unquestionable success of the allotment system would lead us to hope that it may be extended yet farther, with no less benefit to the agriculturist than to the labourer. I beg to submit to you a scheme for the reduction of village poor-rates; its object being to enable every labourer to keep a cow, and so place him above parochial relief. And I shall feel greatly obliged by any animadversions which you or your correspondents may think proper to bring forward. Before making the experiment in any village, there ought to be established an insurance, for the purpose of indemnifying cottagers against the loss of their cows. Several of these, in my own neighbourhood, (doubtless in many others,) have been found highly beneficial. In one of them, with which I am connected, every member, paying five shillings entrance, and fifteen-pence quarterly, is entitled to receive eight pounds on the death of a cow, provided a committee of the members impute no blame to the owner. This is far better than the old petitioning custom, to which there are many very serious objections, such as loss of time, loss of independence, inadequacy of contributions, (arising frequently from previous instances of fraudulence), and many other like evils. Let us suppose, then, such an insurance established, and that a land-owner has two grass closes at liberty, of about thirty-five acres each; the present rent, say thirty shillings per acre. Suppose, also, twenty honest and industrious labourers desirous of occupying the same, which is allowing three acres and a half for each cow'. The fields to be pasture and meadow alternately; and the ' This quantity of land, I am told, if divided, would find one cow both pasture and hay. allotments (to prevent all disputes in mowing) to be defined by short posts driven into the ground. So far, so good. No expense in making fences, &c. But, how are the cows to be raised? Thus on condition of every occupier paying 40s. per acre, (or 37. 10s. half yearly,) the landlord to find him ten pounds towards purchasing the cow, and also to pay her entrance, as aforesaid, and quarterly insurance money. Let us see how far the landlord can do this, without detriment to himself. In the first place, 2051. the purchase and entrance money of the £. .... Secondly, the annual insurance of the cows will amount to Total outgoings The proposed annual rents, 20 allotments, (or 70 acres,) at 40s. the acre, amount to...... The present, at 30s. the acre, to. s. d 10 5 0 5 0 Remains for losses, contingencies, &c. ... 14 0 4 So that, the rent being increased one-third, twenty labourers are provided with cows, their entrance and insurance money is paid, and the owners are no longer chargeable to the parish. As for the payment of the rent, is not the cow good security? And the poor-rate money, now expended uselessly in sending crowds of people on the roads, will it not find employment for the cow keepers on the farmers' land? Will not, therefore, the labourer and agriculturist be mutually benefited by the above application of only seventy acres? These questions, sir, are submitted to the judgment of yourself and your readers; in the hope that whatever is erroneous in the above scheme, will receive its due ex 1836.] PLAN TO ENABLE A LABOURER TO KEEP A cow. 31 posure. We have reformed the Poor Laws, as affecting the idle and incorrigible: wherefore should we not also reform them, with benefit to the willing and industrious? Why should not every steady hardworking man have his Cow? What can the above appropriation of seventy acres matter to the principal cultivators of a parish, which is probably twenty-five or thirty times that size? The recent parochial bankruptcies in Bedfordshire and elsewhere, are a startling lesson on the late ruinous poor-rate system. The aged and infirm, it is our duty to maintain by contributions. But let all able-bodied men, according to their capacity, have land. Give every father of a family a stake in our agricultural interests. Remove, as much as possible, that grievous burden from the soil, which benumbs the energies of the farmer, while it depresses all spirit of industry and independence in the labourer. Alfred. We think the above proposition well worthy the consideration of the friends of the labouring classes. We had, on the first reading, some little hesitation as to the propriety of publishing it in our work, as it applies rather to the patrons of cottagers, than to cottagers themselves. We have, however, laid aside our scruples,because we know that our work, though we have more particularly the cottagers in our mind whilst we are preparing it, has, in fact, a very extensive circulation among the higher classes,-moreover, the letter does apply in part to cottagers, and is intended for their good,-and is well put together. We confess that we have ourselves considered one excellence of the allotment system to be, that its operation is not extensive, that the portion of land is not greater than a man or his family can attend to without losing a single day's work:-the produce of a small garden should be a clear gain to a labourer, in addition to his weekly earnings from his employer. When the portion of land has been extended from a rood or two to a few acres, the same success does not seem generally to have attended the experiment: the occupier gets to be something like a little farmer, and cannot manage the land without considerable expense and risk; and being, moreover, induced to give up his daily work and wages |