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stairs-a task, however, to which he seldom subjected himself. His breakfast was hearty, consisting of hot rolls well buttered, with a plentiful supply of tea or coffee. His dinner was substantial, and frequently consisted of a variety of dishes. At supper, he generally ate hot roast-meat, and always drank wine, though never to excess. Though nearly blind for a number of years, he was always cheerful in his manners and entertaining in his conversation, and was much beloved by all who knew him. He had neither gout, stone, paralysis, rheumatism, deafness, nor any of those disagreeable infirmities which mostly attend old age; but died peaceably in the full possession of all his faculties, mental and corporeal, save his eyesight. most long livers, he was very short of stature.

Like

BLESSINGS OF THE REFORMATION.

|FTER the Reformation, Neil Ramsay, Laird of Dalhousie, having been at a preaching with the Regent Moray, was demanded how he liked the sermon?" Passing well," said he. "Purgatory he has altogether done away with; if to-morrow he will do away with hell, I will give him half the lands of Dalhousie."

GILDED BEARDS.

HERE was a French Bible, printed at Paris in 1538 by Anthony Bonnemere, wherein is related "that the ashes of the golden calf, which Moses caused to be burnt, and mixed with the water that was drunk by the Israelites, stuck to the beards of such as had fallen down before it; by which they appeared with gilt beards, as a peculiar mark to distinguish those which had worshipped the calf." This idle story is actually interwoven with the thirty-second chapter of Exodus,

and Bonnemere says in his preface, this French Bible was printed in 1495, at the request of the most Christian Majesty Charles VIII.; and declares further, that the French translator “has added nothing but the genuine truths, according to the express terms of the Latin Bible, nor omitted anything but what was improper to be translated!" so that we are to look upon this fiction of the gilded beards as matter of fact. Another story of the same force is inserted in the chapter above mentioned, viz., that, "upon Hur refusing to make gods for the Israelites, they spat upon him in such abundance, that they quite stifled him."

DISINTERESTED, VERY.

a

MET," says Lord Eldon in his "Anecdote Book,” “ prelate, who was at that time bishop of a see not very richly endowed, coming out of his Majesty George the Third's closet at Buckingham House, as I was going into it. The King asked me if I did not very much like sincerity? I answered, 'Yes, sir.'-' So does that prelate,' says the King, 'for he has just assured me that he is perfectly content with his present preferment: he should wish, indeed, he said, to have Salisbury instead of it, but he added that he so wished for no other reason whatever, but merely that he might have the honour of giving me a breakfast in my way to Weymouth. Can you,' he added, 'believe that, though a bishop says it? I can't.'"

DR HOWARD'S ACQUAINTANCE.

HE Rev. Dr Howard, when collecting a brief with the parish officers of St George's, called, among the rest of the inhabitants, on a grocer with whom he had a running account. As he was always in arrear with his tradespeople, the reverend gentleman, to prevent being first asked for

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a settlement, inquired if he was not some trifle in the grocer's debt. On reference to the ledger, there appeared a balance of seventeen shillings in favour of the shopkeeper. The doctor had recourse to his pocket, and pulled out some halfpence, a little silver, and a guinea; the grocer, eyeing the latter with a degree of surprise, exclaimed: "Good heavens, sir, you have got a stranger there!"—" Indeed, I have, Mr Brown,” replied the wit, returning the guinea into his pocket, "and before we part we shall be better acquainted."

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PEDANTRY AND PUNS.

R COLLINS and Dr Field, being to dispute before King James I., promised each other to lay aside all extravagances of wit and punning, and to buckle to a serious argumentation. But they soon broke their agreement, for Field thus began: Sic disputas, Collendissime Collins," and Collins replied, "Sic disputas, Ager Colende." This Richard Field, prebendary of Windsor and Dean of Gloucester, was considered one of the best disputants in Oxford. When James I. heard him preach for the first time he said, “This is a Field for God to dwell in" so that Collins had a royal precedent for his pun. Nor could old Fuller let pass such a tempting occasion to pun; consequently, speaking about Field, he describes him as " whose memory smelleth like a field the Lord hath blessed."

one

SERMONS NOT TO BE HURRIED.

HE Bishop of Exeter some twenty years ago pronounced against extempore preaching. Deans of former times wrote their sermons over and over again. Mr Horner says:-"The editor of Massillon's Lent Sermons' regards it as a prodigy that he finished a discourse in so short a time as ten or twelve days. This eminent preacher sometimes re-wrote a

single sermon fifteen or even twenty times. A distinguished scholar in our own land re-wrote the most useful of his sermons thirteen or fourteen times, and laboured in connexion with a literary friend two whole days on as many sentences. Another divine, who has been called the prince of our pulpit orators, spent a fortnight on a single discourse, which eventually accomplished more good than four thousand sermons written by other pastors at the rate of two a week. On the blank leaf of one of Dr Griffin's manuscripts, it appeared that his discourse had been preached ninety times. Thus it had been touched and retouched, reviewed and re-written, till, so far as the author's power availed, it was perfected."

QUAKER PREACHING.

EWEL, who is more generally known by his Dutch and English Dictionary than as an English writer, was the grandson of a Brownist who emigrated from Kidderminster and settled in Utrecht, at Holland. His mother, Judith Tinspenning, visited England, and was much esteemed there among the Quakers. He relates a curious anecdote of her :"She was moved to speak at the meeting at Kingston, where William Caton interpreted for her. At another time, being at a meeting in London, and he not present, and finding herself stirred up to declare the loving-kindness of the Lord to those that feared Him, she desired one Peter Sybrands to be her interpreter; but he, though an honest man, yet not very fit for that service, one or more friends told her they were so sensible of the power by which she spoke, though they did not understand her words, yet they were edified by the life and power that accompanied her speech, and therefore they little mattered the want of interpretation. And so she went on without any interpreter." The good Quaker relates this anecdote with perfect simplicity, and yet he thought church-music an abomination.

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A GOOD EXPOSITION.

HE Archbishop of Canterbury, in the time of James I., had a house near Croydon, pleasantly situated, but so much surrounded by wood that the view from the highway was completely intercepted. This the archbishop caused to be cut down. Not long after, the Lord Chancellor, Bacon, happening to pass that way, he saw the house, and asked his man whose it was. The servant replied, "It is my Lord of Canterbury's place."-" Impossible,” replied Bacon, "for his seat is surrounded with wood."-" True, sir, so it was, but lately he has most of it ordered to be cut down."-"By my troth," answered Bacon, "his lordship has done like a good churchman, for before methought it was a very dark and obscure place, but now he has expounded and cleared it up wonderfully well."

T

A SHE-PREACHER.

HE late Robert Hall, the famous pulpit orator of Bristol, was once asked by a friend, when seated in a confidential chat in his study, "What do you think of Mr — ?” -"Why, sir,” replied Hall," Mr- - is a remarkable man, a very remarkable man in his line; mark me, I say in his line, sir." —“And, pray, sir, what may you consider to be his line?" -"Why,” replied Hall," Mr is a remarkable good shepreacher, sir, a she-preacher, sir; soft preaching is his line, sir."

READING SERMONS.

HE practice of reading sermons must not be unreservedly condemned. It is frequently more a matter of necessity than choice. Dr Sanderson, so well known for his "Cases of Conscience," had an extraordinary memory, but was