bench, he said, 'There! sit there! That is your seat as long as you occupy it punctually. If any one shall disturb you, say that old Rivers, the Reverend Joseph Rivers, placed you there; and I should like to see the man that dares disturb you after that!' and he flourished his cane with an emphasis which seemed to shew that the consequences of so rash an act would indeed be

serious!

Such, sir, was my introduction to the Parish Church, and such is the favour. the inestimable blessing—which I owe to the Old Church Clock! How often have I wished that the same blessing could be extended to the multitudes of young men that pour annually from the country into this great metropolis of manufactures and commerce, even if it were accompanied with the sharp discipline of old Mr. Rivers' cane, which I experienced! Sir, thousands are lost-lost for ever. from the want which I felt, and from which the Old Clock delivered me

want of church-room! It gives them first the plea to spend the Sunday in idleness; and a Sunday so spent is but a preface to one of vice and dissipation. Would that there were a dozen Old Churches in this vast hive of human beings! Well, sir, that seat I have occupied from that day to the present hour-full five-and-forty years! They have been years of trial, and sometimes of trouble to me; hut I have always found my best consolation there. During my days of toil and labour I was never absent from the Sunday services; and now that a moderate competency and the advance of years give me grounds for retirement from busy life, the daily services find me a constant and delighted attendant. I find the daily temple worship the best possible preparation for that service which I trust may soon be my occupation in a higher sphere; the best soother of the passions; the surest relief in sorrow. Within those walls I have escaped all those anxieties which spring from religious doubts and differences, and have said the same prayers, and listened to the same doctrines during the lapse of half a century. The daily service flows on, in my ears, like my native

I

DUDDON - always the same, yet ever fresh and new. have seen sects rise and fall, and various forms of dissent flourish and decay; but they have no more moved my mind than the fleeting lights and shadows, sunbeams and storms, which pass successively over that venerable fabric, can disturb its foundations, or even shake one pinnacle from its towers. In those free sittings, so well thronged by pious worshippers, what changes have I lived to behold! I have seen the grey head of many a faithful soldier of CHRIST laid low, while its place in the ranks has instantly been filled up by one as zealous and almost as grey as that which has been removed. Nay, the shepherds of the flock have been smitten, as well as the sheep. I followed to the grave my old friend, Mr. Joseph Rivers, to whose blunt kindness, and friendship for my master Robert Walker, I was so deeply indebted; and much was I gratified to see the flood of tears that was shed by the poor over the old man's grave! It was a

proof to me that men know how to value honesty and integrity, even though it be clouded, as it sometimes is, by a hasty manner and a rough outside. And I have followed to the grave one to whom I looked up with a feeling of deeper reverence and gratitude- the pious Christian the courteous gentleman - the late venerable Head of our Church in this place. He was to me not only a teacher, but, I may almost venture to say, a companion and friend. How often have I hoped and prayed that he might be permitted to out-strip me in length of days, as far as he did in his Christian walk! But it was not so ordained! Truly may I say of him, in the words of Scripture, That other disciple did out-run Peter,—and came first to the sepulchre!''

6

The silent tears rolled down the old man's cheek as be paused for a moment to meditate on the tomb of his pastor.

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My tale," he soon added, "is now at an end. It is probably, as I said, but of little interest to any one but myself, and you who have so kindly listened to it. Yet I shall not have told it to you in vain, if it lead you to

recollect that the poorest man you meet has his little history, could he be induced to tell it; and his deep interest in the Church, could he be led to think so. At all events," he concluded, with a smile, "you will not, I am sure, now blame me much, should you meet the Old Man once more on the Victoria-bridge, on a Saturday night, and find him setting his watch by (even should it be a few minutes too slow) - THE OLD CHURCH CLOCK."

THE END.

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.-ST. MATTHEW, xvi. 24.

NOT by the Martyr's death alone

The Martyr's crown in Heaven is won ;
There is a triumph-robe on high

For bloodless fields of victory.

What though, untaught the flame to feel,

The lion's den, the torturing wheel,

Himself his only enemy,

He learns a living death to die ;

What though, nor executioner,

Nor scourge, nor stake, nor chain be there;
To those prepared with CHRIST to die,
'Tis all supplied with charity.

Grant, CHRIST, that so to Thee we turn,
That we to die through life may learn;
And thus beyond brief life, with Thee
May see a glad eternity.

Eternal FATHER of the Word,
Eternal SON, as GOD adored,
Eternal SPIRIT, equal Three,
Be equal glory given to Thee.

The Child's Christian Year.

JANE PHILLIPS.

JANE PHILLIPS was the daughter of respectable parents in the parish of Stockport. When a little girl she was sent to the great school there, where she was taught to read and write, and by the time she was sixteen years of age, was among the best scholars in the school: and yet, although she had learned to read and write, she was very badly educated. I dont know why old Roger Phillips sent his daughter to this school,- send her indeed he did not, but he allowed her to go, which in such a case is much the same,-I dont know why he allowed her to go there, for he called himself a Churchman, and he generally went to church on Sundays, and the great school, as every body knows, is a dissenting school; and surely Churchmen ought not to send their children to dissenting schools. Old Roger was very particular in his observance of the LORD's day; he would not allow anything of work to be done in the house on a Sunday, except what was necessary to be done; and, as every body at Stockport knows, they teach writing and cyphering at the great school on the Sundays, which, Roger says, he thinks as bad as if they taught sewing and knitting. ever, I suppose he was like many other parents in those days, he did not think much about such things; and as long as Jane went to her work on the week days, and was tidily dressed on the Sundays, he was satisfied.

How

Betty, his wife, was a little more particular. She often talked to him about it, and said that she considered it very wrong that Jane should be tempted to become a dissenter, and to break the Sabbath as she did, and she wished much that her father would insist upon removing her, and send her to a Church school at once. "You are a Churchman," she would say to him, "and your fathers before you; I am a Churchwoman; we were

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baptized at church, we were married there, and shall be buried there; and I dont like to think that our daughter should go anywhere else." Betty's remonstrances were unavailing; old Roger said that all places were alike, and that all Christians were going to the same place; an assertion which his wife denied. "For all places," she said, were not alike; the church therefore was not the meeting-house, nor was the meeting-house the church; and although folks might think they were all going the same way, it was not so plain that they were; for" as she added shrewdly, "there is a right way and a wrong way, Roger, every where, and when some are in one, and some in t'other, it cant be said that they are both going the same way, although, may be, they think they are.'

Well, Jane continued to go to the great school, and in time she became a teacher, and a very nice tidylooking girl she was. Sunday after Sunday I used to see her pass by my little window, with her bundle of books in her hand, and thought to myself, what a pity it was that such a promising lass should be led astray, and be seduced from the holy Church into which she had been baptized. I dont know exactly what they teach them at this school, but one day I met Jane at her father's house, where I had occasion to call, and I soon found out that the kind of spirit fostered at dissenting schools is not the same as that which is taught at Church schools. Eh dear! I said one or two things in the course of conversation, whish brought out such remarks from Miss Jane! Old Roger was saying that he did not exactly understand the third chapter of St. John, for that the Sunday before, Parson Parker had told them at church in his sermon that it had reference to holy Baptism. "Of course it has," said I; "does not the Prayer Book in the Baptismal Service show that?" "The Prayer Book indeed," said Jane with a sneer; "and pray what has the Prayer Book to do in teaching people? it aint the Bible." "No," said, I, "it ain't the Bible, no more is the Bible the Prayer Book, but then it is given to us by the Church to teach us what the Bible means." "The Church," uttered Jane,