SUNDAY NEWSPAPERS. THESE publications I conceive to be a most serious and a growing evil amongst us. In any way that they may be conducted, it is a heavy ground of complaint against them, that, on the day when the world should be shut out from our thoughts and regards, they force it back upon us in all its coarseness and deformity; that on the day when the heats and animosities of contending parties should be allayed, they are kept alive, and even irritated to the highest pitch of inflammation; that on the day when those who have devoted the rest of the week to vain and frivolous pursuits most need to be recalled to God, they are diverted, by narratives and discussions on the idlest subjects, from study and from serious meditation on the things that concern their peace. All this is a serious evil, even where these publications are conducted on principles the least exceptionable that can be expected. But it is notorious that the newspapers which are issued on the Sunday are of all others the most outrageous in their principles, the most intemperate in their language, seeming to combine and concentrate in themselves all the bitterness that can be extracted from the weekly press; while not a few tend directly to the subversion of all order, all government, all morality, all religion. Of these too many constitute almost the sole study, on the Lord's-day, of whole classes of the people; not merely keeping them away from divine worship, but poisoning their minds with the principles of disaffection and irreligion, and unfitting them for the due discharge of their social and domestic duties. I am well aware they are, for the most part, too low and coarse in their style to find admittance to the tables of the opulent and refined, who not seeing them, are scarcely aware of their mischief, or even of their existence. But while I point out the evil, and entreat the higher orders to check it to the utmost extent of their influence and power, I would urge them to discountenance all Sunday newspapers, whatever may be their political principles, however they may be recommended by talent or by wit. The very best cause cannot but be injured by any attempt to support and promote it in an unchristian manner. These publications, to say the least, are of bad example, and give countenance and excuse to others worse than themselves. But they are wrong in principle, fundamentally wrong. [Sermon on the Lord's-day, by The Very Rev. George Chandler, Dean of Chichester.] ON THE OBLIGATION OF THE RICH TO THE question whether the rich support the poor or the poor the rich, has been frequently agitated by those who are not aware that, while each does his duty in his station, each is, reciprocally, a support and a blessing to the other. All are parts of one harmonious whole; every part contributing to the general mass of happiness, if man would but endeavour to repay his debt of gratitude to his Creator, and by a willing habit of usefulness, to promote the happiness of himself and his fellow-creatures. In this way the higher classes of society may, by superiority of power and education, do more service to the other parts of the community than what they receive; the welfare of the poor being then, in truth, more promoted and assured by the gradations of wealth and rank, than it ever would have been by a perfect equality of condition, even if that equality had not been in its nature chimerical and impracticable, or, if practicable, had not been hostile and fatal to the industry and energy of mankind. Rank, power, wealth, influence, constitute no exemption from activity or attention to duty, but lay a weight of real, accumulated responsibility on the possessor. If the poor are idle and vicious, they are reduced to subsist on the benevolence of the rich; and if the rich (I except those to whom health and ability, and not the will is wanting) are selfish, indolent, and neglectful of the conditions on which they hold superiority of rank and fortune, they sink into a situation worse than that of being gratuitously maintained by the poor. They become paupers of an elevated and distinguished class; in no way personally contributing to the general stock, but subsisting upon the labour of the industrious cottager; and whenever Providence thinks fit to remove such a character, whether in high or in low life, whether rich or poor, the community is relieved from a useless burden.. -SIR THOMAS BERNARD. ADVANTAGE OF DISTRICT VISITING, EXEMPLIFIED IN A VARIETY OF FACTS. THE following case is strongly illustrative of the benefits of the District Visiting Society, for, whatever good effect the words that were addressed to the poor woman may have had, they certainly, as far as I can judge, would never have been spoken had not our society been in operation. There exists too much diffidence among the poor to call in a minister, and indeed if there did not, what minister could answer the numerous calls that would be made upon him; but placed as the visitors are in constant intercourse with the poor, many cases are communicated to them, which, but for this means, would never have been brought under the notice of any person capable of administering spiritual instruction or consolation. Although nothing can be said with certainty respecting the state of the person here alluded to, yet there is much ground for hope, in the manner in which it has pleased God to make use of the agency of this society. Having been requested by a person in my district to visit a poor dying creature, who (as the petitioner expressed it) did not appear to know she had a soul to be saved, I was directed to a small back room, in which I found a young woman, about twenty-two years of age, in the last stage of a consumption. She evinced no anxiety as to the state or destination of her immortal soul, although she confessed that all hope of recovery was gone, and so utterly insensible did she appear, that I feared I should be obliged to leave her without awakening one inquiring thought for the future. I asked her some few questions, which she did not appear willing to answer, and also read a portion of Scripture, such as I thought most suitable to her case, but to which she paid very little attention, and I left her much in the same state; she however requested me to come again, expressing also a desire to see a minister. On my visiting her the next day she appeared considerably more concerned, and desired to be raised in the bed: asked me to read to her, which I did, endeavouring in the most simple and concise manner possible, to set before her the way of salvation. I repeated to her the willingness of the Saviour to receive all who come to Him, as contained in the text, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." She was deeply interested, and the 66 she ap greatest anxiety was depicted on her countenance; peared as though her existence, nay, her very salvation, depended upon my words; and so piercing was the look with which she regarded me, that I could scarcely endure it. On my expressing a fear of tiring her, she cried, in a tremulous tone but earnest manner, No, no; I like to hear you talk;" then gaining a little confidence, seeing I was interested for her, she told me she had been religiously brought up by her father, and particularly by an aunt, during whose life she had regularly attended chapel three times on the Sabbath, and enjoyed the privilege of joining in family prayer morning and evening, but confessed that, since her marriage, (nearly two years,) she had not once been to any place of worship; her husband was an irreligious man, and since the death of her aunt, she had entirely neglected the service of God, and sought her pleasure in the world, and she appeared to suffer much remorse from having thus forsaken Him who had been the guide of her youth. I again repeated some texts of Scripture to her, expressive of the readiness of the Saviour to pardon all who simply come to Him, and exhorted her to cast herself solely on the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. Her restlessness and agitated looks expressed the anxious state of her mind, but she appeared to put faith in, and derive comfort from, the word of God that I read to her. This was the last and certainly most encouraging interview I had with her. When I again visited her, the disorder had so far gained the ascendancy as to render any conversation useless. She has now gone to appear before her Maker and Judge, to give an account of the deeds done in the body. I cannot here refrain from making a few observations upon the imprudence of those parents or guardians of young people, who, for the sake perhaps of advancing their worldly interests, allow them to come to London, without a guide or protector to warn them of their danger, and thus plunge them into the midst of the dissipation of a great metropolis. Had this poor misguided creature remained in the retirement of her native village, her days might have been prolonged, and her end peace; surrounded by pious friends who would have guided her feet into the paths of truth and holiness; instead of which, young, beautiful (for even when the chilling hand of death was upon her, her countenance was deeply interesting), married at the age of twenty to a man void of religion, surrounded by every description of vice, far from her observant pastor, far from her village church, her watchful friends, and everything that might awaken a thought of holier and happier days, can it be wondered at that she fell into a neglect of God, and into a state of indifference as to her eternal interests, and died unknown and unpitied by all but that God whom she had forsaken, but who, in her greatest extremity, did not entirely cast her off? There is but little hope in her death, but we trust that the Lord, who "de sireth not the death of a sinner," may have witnessed her repentance, and said to her soul, "Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace." CASES OF DESTITUTION. WHEN frequent imposition has occasioned much incredulity as to the existence of extreme poverty, though it is not agreeable, it may be useful to give some instances as proofs of the Elamentable truth that many are perishing, almost unknown, for want of assistance, and that there are cases in which instantaneous and effective relief must be afforded. * * * * Visited the wife of a water-cress seller; she was in a kind of cellar, which, from its situation, was precluded from a free current of air, and in such a state of extreme filth, it was scarcely supportable even for a few minutes. She had been confined to her bed a fortnight, and ashamed of being found in so miserable a state, had suffered no one to come near her. Two wretchedly dirty, sickly children sat by the smoking embers. The man affectionately entreated his wife to speak, but in vain, she had no power. I wished to have medical advice, but felt not a moment was to be lost, and I gave her, without delay, some arrowroot and wine. She speedily revived sufficiently to speak; nourishment was given her through the night, and next morning she was able to bear being removed to the workhouse. A most comfortable bed being sent for her, and every care taken of her there, in a fortnight's time she was able to go into the country, but her constitution had received too great a shock ever entirely to rally, and she has become consumptive. * |