1835, a day of great enjoyment to all concerned, as well as of sincere thankfulness and hopeful expectation. The School proved most serviceable and convenient, and both teachers and scholars, who had so patiently endured the many disadvantages and discomforts of the old rooms, now thoroughly enjoyed the change, and felt as if they could never enough admire the comparatively spacious accommodation it afforded them. In our next paper we hope to relate the improvements thus made feasible in the working of the Schools, both on Sundays and week days. C. P. To be continued. CHRISTMAS. When the old year is lying, Even at his latest gasp, a dying, And the pale sun with ineffectual beam Gilds but scarce warms the swollen stream, His visage golden, Cancelled and unbeholden, With flounced curtains of snow-burthened cloud; When the fleet birds of insect tribes abhorred, To Southern climes restored, No longer pipe and play About the eaves and by the waters; In the resounding Northern blast, How, in the former time, upon this night Of hoar December, "Lo! the toil of the captive is ended, "And the blind man hath light and may see; "Come, ye thirsty ones, come to the fountains! "And a Saviour, a Light, and a Guide." Oh seraph-carolled beatific voice, Even in these latter days thou biddest us rejoice! Makes our ears tingle and our hearts o'erflow, Albeit we, who climb These high and frozen peaks of time, Are stunned and deafened by the cry Of a miscalled philosophy, That with hard sneer and shameless blare Proclaims humanity's despair. And stamps and tramples in the earth All that we have of heavenly birth. Faith, holy maiden, scarce heard is thine hymn; Love, fiery Spirit, thy glory is dim ; And man lieth down in darkness and sorrow, For he knoweth not whether his night hath a morrow. The priest cannot raise his eyes from the dust, And the well-spring of song is grown over with lust, And in things that are bought and things that are sold. But Thou, O Lord, art faithful and Wilt aid the creatures of Thine hand; And purge the sin polluted flesh. Christ shall be born in us, and we From guilt, and doubt, and fear set free, Shall find our resting place, O Lord of Love, in Thee! F. H. THE SUFFERINGS OF WAR. The following account of some of the sufferings of the French in the war is given by a Quaker, who has gone to Metz to distribute money subscribed by his own society among the starving peasants in that neighbourhood: The sufferings of the French prisoners after Metz were dreadful, exposed without shelter, ancle deep in mud, from Saturday till Monday in pouring rain.' One of his friends saw them " dying by scores sticking in the mud." He himself 'stood for hours at Treves on the platform, and saw them arrive like cattle in trucks, no shelter, most of them had to be lifted out, so ill were they with fever and dysentery, and crying like little children over their sufferings; and these were soldiers of the Imperial Guard of France! The peasants are suffering fearfully from destitution and disease. It will take £10,000 to keep the 18,000 around Metz (villagers) alive till spring, allowing id. a day a head for bread. As they have no ploughs (all burnt for fuel,) no seed, a famine must come next year." The Quakers "are arranging to send out steam ploughs next spring from England to prepare the ground and sow it. The battle-fields cannot be touched. The German authorities have removed the vast bulk of the wounded, and only left the worst cases behind. Great cruelty has been used in sending the poor fellows away before they were fit. I have not any personal opportunity of witnessing the suffering of these poor wounded men, but the tale that strikes me on every hand is too uniform to leave much doubt that they are woefully neglected in many parts of Germany, whatever English papers may say to the contrary. The mere number of prisoners is so great that it is impossible to do otherwise." "Of the individual conduct of the Prussians I must speak in the highest terms. I have now been over an area where tens of thousands of men have been quartered; and have seen some of them in the cottages of the peasants, and the houses of the townspeople. Of course the people of all classes pour out their hearts to us Englishmen, because they know we wish to aid them; we hear day after day the wrongs and losses and hard sufferings they have undergone ; but everywhere and without exception that has come under my own knowledge, the French testify to the orderly conduct of their enemies so far as relates to acts of personal violence. 66 They, the Germans, themselves pine after the homes they have left behind them; the great rough helmeted soldiers will crowd round a house where there is a little baby, to take turns to have it in their arms and kiss it. They will sit down side by side with the poor French peasants and cry bitterly over their far distant homes, and their own little ones whom they may never see any more.” BAPTISMS. SONNING. December 11th, Ada Margaret, daughter of James and Jane Curtis. December 11th, Alice, daughter of William and Jane Deadman. SONNING CHURCH. MARRIAGES. December 11th, James Webb, to Ellen Willats, both of this parish. December 24th, Charles James Smallbones, to Sarah Elizabeth Edgington, both of this parish. SONNING. BURIALS. November 27th, Edward Burges Pauline, aged one month. November 30th, James Holloway, Dunsden, aged 16 years. Church Services. SONNING CHURCH. The Services will be the same as last month until the beginning of Lent. On Ash Wednesday, February 22nd, there will be Service at II in the morning, and at 7 in the evening; and on every Wednesday in Lent there will be Service with a sermon at 7 in the evening. On the first Sunday in Lent, February 26th, and on every Sunday following till further notice, the Services will be at II o'clock in the morning. 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Half-past 6 o'clock in the evening. ALL SAINTS' CHURCH. The Two alterations have lately been made in this Church. upright circular stove which stood at the west end, and which, even when it burnt brightest, was quite ineffectual in warming the Church, has been taken away, and a new underground stove, by Messrs. Rimington, of Skipton, has been put up under the aisle in the centre of the Church. For economy's sake we were obliged to make use of the old flue at the north-west corner of the Church, and we fear there may still be some difficulty in lighting the fire when the wind is north-west. But, so far, the new stove has answered its purpose admirably. The opportunity of workmen being in the Church was seized for making another improvement, lowering the platform upon which the front seats used to stand, and so bringing all the seats in the Church to the same level. We acknowledge with many thanks the following subscriptions to the stove, which cost, together with the fitting up, £50. |