gratifying is it now to see her begin to hail the approach of the District Visitor, open her Testament, and request portions of Scripture to be selected for her private reading and meditation. She also reads the tracts, and her deafness seems so mitigated, that she certainly hears with less difficulty, and while she reads aloud the blessed promises and invitations of her Lord, hope seems to beam on her otherwise harsh and rigid features. Awakened in some degree to a consciousness of her own sins, and the nothingness of her own merits, she speaks with more kind feeling of her son and daughter, and the people in the house remark an alteration in her temper and behaviour. Thus, while we are wandering over much barren land in the honoured service of our adored Master, how graciously does he condescend to animate us, by occasional manifestations of his wonder-working grace, refreshing our souls, confirming our faith, and strengthening our love. * * In a poor and very wicked district we found an aged couple, whose appearance and cleanliness made us hope that they might be respectable. The old man, who was venerable in his appearance, was reading a large Bible; they took our tracts, but did not seem disposed to enter into conversation. After having several times renewed our visits, the old woman made some little request to us, I forget what, and burst into tears; the old man then for the first time spoke out, and reproved her, saying, she ought not to distrust God, who had carried them on so far, and would not forsake them; they were both agitated, and we did not consider that the time to trouble them with many inquiries, though we soon called again. Here I cannot help remarking, that I have known much harm done by want of consideration for the feelings of the poor; all are not reckless; the broken heart has a morbid sensibility, and they who wish, like their Divine Master, to "go about doing good," should remember His exquisite sympathy; then would the character of the District Visitor be rendered gentler instead of sterner, and the objection would be silenced which is often occasioned by an austere manner, that the witnessing scenes of wretchedness hardens the heart. When we had gained our poor old friend's confidence poor she gladly told her complicated tale of woe, the whole of which is too long to repeat. Some time previously they had in the bank 800l. The poor woman lost her sight, and the man had a rheumatic fever; the person intrusted with the charge of their shop, which was in a good situation, cheated them dreadfully! and the result was, they were involved in debts which made it necessary for them to part with everything to pay them. By means of an operation, the woman recovered the sight of one eye. She appeared much comforted in being visited, and we felt comforted in visiting her; but it pleased Him whose ways are not as our ways, to bring a new trial upon her, and to afflict her with a cancer, for the removal of which, another dreadful operation was judged necessary. She could not bear the thought of going to a hospital and leaving her husband. An eminent surgeon, to whom the case was mentioned, kindly undertook the charge of her, and though an infidel himself, he could not help remarking her quiet conduct. She had a more than ordinary dread of pain, naturally perhaps occasioned by the vivid remembrance of the previous operation: but she was greatly supported by the remembrance of what had then afforded her comfort. Limited space, &c., prevent my doing justice to this tried Christian's conduct. The night before the operation, she took leave of us all; one remark struck me particularly, “Well, Maʼam, if I never see you again-if I should die-O I shall not think I get to heaven one day too soon!" One of our District Visitors, now entered into his rest, went to her early in the morning, and continued conversing, praying, or reading with her till the surgeons arrived. When I saw her afterwards, she was so full of thankfulness to God for his goodness, and gratitude to those about for their kindness, that for fear of exhaustion, I was obliged to stop her before she had half finished her conversation. She rallied for a time, but died a few months afterwards. I was absent at the time, but was told her end was peace. The poor old man lost the use of his limbs and his sight; he was supported by his son, who in about a year suddenly died, leaving a widow and five children, one a cripple, totally unprovided for. The moment I heard of the son's illness, I went to visit him, and it was indeed an overwhelming scene. I was too late to see the man alive; the widow was sitting at the head of her husband's corpse, her little ones running, or rather crowding, about her, unconscious of their great loss, and the old man confined to his bed; but their faith failed not; they felt it was their Father's hand, and that it was good for them to be afflicted. I suggested the expediency of the old man's removal to the workhouse. O no, said the woman, though he cannot see, he can talk, and his conversation is such a comfort to me, I cannot part with him, I cannot let him go; I will share my last piece of bread with him. A small subscription was raised, and they were enabled to get on. After a few months the poor old man's faculties seemed to fail him, and he got into a distressing state of despondency, but still he clung to the Saviour. One day when I visited him, he did not notice me; I tried to rouse him, saying, "Do not you know me? I think you do; try, recollect." Groaning, he replied, "No, I do not know anything, I only know I am a great sinner; yes, I know too, I have a great Saviour." That Saviour did not forsake him in his dying hours. He departed in faith and hope. He died on a Sunday, and my Sunday-school class prevented my being with him, but the Visitor who did go, came to me rejoicing, and saying, “All is right now, the sun has shone forth upon him." ON PROVIDENT FUNDS WITHOUT PREMIUM. THE establishment and extension of Provident Funds having been recommended as a material point of a well-regulated system of District Visiting; the question becomes daily of more importance as to the principle upon which they should be conducted. In some instances with which we have been acquainted, the difficulty of raising the sum required to pay the premium promised to the depositors has been found so great as almost to paralyze the exertions of the Society, and in others, it has been deemed so utterly impracticable as altogether to discourage the attempt to establish a provident fund. We have therefore great satisfaction in giving insertion to the following communication from a respected correspondent, rector of a populous parish, to which we have added the opinion of Dr. Chalmers, on the same subject, extracted from a letter which he addressed to Mrs. Fry, on District Visiting and also that of the authoress of Essays on the Principles of Charitable Institutions. : "With reference to Provident Funds, I will trouble you with a few remarks. In my own parish a benevolent lady established some years ago a saving club. Deposits were made for rent, articles of dress, shoes, &c., &c., by children as well as adults; no premium was allowed, but the sum deposited was paid back in cash; the interest obtained in the savings' bank was laid out in dispensary tickets for poor objects. This plan became quite popular. My parish, which contains about one-tenth of the population of the city of Worcester, deposited more than 2201. per annum. While the other parishes, who offered a bonus upon the deposits to be laid out in clothing, &c., were very unsuccessful. The people grumbled and were discontented when the deposits were returned in clothing, though with a heavy loss to the society. If all the other parishes had deposited as largely as mine, the society must have become bankrupt, on account of the bonus offered. The visiting committee determined therefore to try our plan; I find that it has succeeded. Our depositors, instead of asking for a bonus, offered to subscribe a small sum out of the deposits towards defraying incidental expenses. They felt independent in not receiving any bonus, yet thankful for the trouble taken by their kind female friend. They declared that the return of the deposit amounted almost to a free gift." Dr. Chalmers says, "I doubt if a stipulated premium for the deposits will do, especially in Scotland. Indeed, I should feel a great insecurity as to the final result of the whole enterprise if I thought that such a device were indispensable for the stability of the system in England or anywhere. At the most I hope it will only be required as an initial and temporary expedient for nursing the people into a habit of accumulation, after which, the extraneous inducement held forth at the outset will be found unnecessary. My own preference would be for making the trial without it, even from the very commencement of the operation; for trusting to the efficacy of that kindness and moral suasion wherewith the visitors would recommend the practice, and point out the good of it; at the same time offering a place for the sure custody of their accumulated savings, and then trusting afterwards to their own experience of the benefit when they had become alive to the charm of property, and felt both the security and the importance which they derived from it. This does not hinder any E visitor, having the charge of twenty-five or fifty families, from trying the effect of a premium in a few extreme instances which might appear to require it; but this should form part of his unseen and extraordinary management. It should not, in my estimation, be an ostensible feature of the system; and neither should the allowance be higher than the market rate of interest. I would altogether despair either of a general or a permanent result, if it rested on any external or precarious support of this kind. Your admirable system does not need, I think, this kind of forcing and fostering. The great engine for its establishment is the constant assiduity of visitors plying their new-formed acquaintances, and at length their friends with the general considerations of morality and prudence, and on the strength of these alone, building up a habit which will afterwards be sustained by their own experience of its benefits; and all this without any deviation from the general economy of things, or any violence done to it, whether by unnatural bribes, or unnatural and higher rates of interest than they obtain throughout the country at large." "In one or two instances, the experiment has been tried, and with complete success, of making these institutions (excepting a provision for house-room, stationery, &c.) wholly self-supporting. "A lady at Bath commenced a penny savings'-bank, with a determination to give no premium; and, to the astonishment of many friends who had predicted the failure of the project, she had in a few years no less than nine hundred names entered on her books. At Worcester, a premium had been originally granted; but was afterwards discontinued in consequence of a falling off in the subscriptions, yet no diminution occurred in the number of depositors. The fact is, that the poor themselves generally think much less about the premium, than of the benefit which they derive from having their own money laid up in safety for them. The clergyman of a country parish lately remarked, on distributing the clothing to the members of a penny club, that he feared there would be some reduction next year in the premium:Oh, sir, never mind,' was the general reply; 'if you only take care of our money, and give us our own again, we want nothing more.' "A very large, or uncertain premium, especially one |