A Page for the Young.

"I AM NEVER ALONE."

An old man sat in his easy chair. He was alone. His eyes were so dim that he could not read the printed page-he had long ceased to hear any common sound, and it was only in broken whispers that he could hold communion with those around; and often hours passed by in which the silence of his thought was not broken by an outward voice. He had outlived his generation: one by one the companions of his boyhood and youth had been laid in the grave, until none remained of all those he had once known and loved. To those to whom the future is one bright path of hope, and happiness, and social love, how unenviable seemed his condition, how cheerless his days!

I have said he was alone. A gentle and thoughtful child stole into his silent room, and twined her arm lovingly around his neck. "I feared you would be lonely, dear grandfather," said she, "and so I came to sit awhile with you. Are you not very lonely here, with no one to speak to, or to love?" The old man paused for a moment, and laid his hand upon the head of the gentle child. "I am never alone, my child," he said. "How can I be lonely? for God is with me; the Comforter comes from the Father to dwell in my soul, and my Saviour is ever near to cheer and instruct me. I sit at His feet, and learn of Him; and though pain and sickness often come to warn me that this earthly house of my tabernacle is soon to be dissolved, I know that there is prepared for me a mansion, the glories of which no tongue can tell, no heart conceive. The love of God is like living water to my soul. Seek in your youth this fountain; my child. Drink deep of its living waters; and then when your hair shall be whitened for the grave, when all sources of earthly enjoyment are taken away, you too can say, I am never alone."

Let this testimony of an aged and devoted servant of Christ sink deep into the heart of every child who reads these lines. Seek while in youth the source of that consolation which can be your joy in sickness, in trial, and in solitude, your stay when all earthly helps have failed. Then will it be your blessed privilege to say, "I, too, am never alone."

"I cannot feel," said a dying man to me once, as I spoke to him about the great things of God. "Yes; I know it all, but I cannot feel." I spoke to him of the danger of sin, of the love of Christ, of the promises of the Bible, the joys of heaven, and the terrors of hell. "Ah, Sir," said he to me, with a melancholy voice which, after nine years, rings in my ears, "I know it all, but I cannot feel!"

What a melancholy sound! How like the funeral knell which swings "with solemn roar" just as the prisoner is ascending the fatal scaffold! How like the half-stifled "farewell" of the shipwrecked mariner, as he is about to sink hopelessly beneath the swelling surge!

"I cannot feel." Ah, how many have uttered this same expression just at that solemn moment when all the great and glorious things of eternity, which are enough to arouse the loftiest emotions, are preparing to burst upon the soul.

"Cannot feel!" No; the heart has been blunted by sin, the mind stupified by indolence, and the passions exhausted by self-indulgence. You have sown the wind, and are reaping the whirlwind; you have neglected the day of grace, and that day is past.

"Cannot feel!" But whether you feel or no, the day of retribution is approaching. God "hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness." The day is hastening apace, when "the judgment will be set, and the books will be opened." Oh, unconverted sinner, you will feel then. You will call upon the rocks and the mountains to hide you, but you will call in vain. You will cry, perhaps, for mercy; but the day of mercy will be past. Now is the accepted time. THIS is the day of salvation! "Think of the things which make for your peace, before they are for ever hidden from your eyes!"

THE APPEAL;

A Magazine for the People.

"I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say."

A PAGE FOR THE YOUNG. THE WILLOW, POPPY, AND VIOLET.-Cover, p. 3.

PREPARATION FOR DEATH.-Cover, p. 4.

PRICE ONE HALFPENNY.

LEEDS:

JOHN HEATON, 7, BRIGGATE;

LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO., ARTHUR HALL & CO.,

I do not believe that a filthy home can be a happy one. Happy! What, a dwelling "dirty inside and out, containing a dirty wife, and a set of dirty children, living, together with the husband, in the midst of filth, feeding on dirtily cooked food, and clothed in dirty rags," is this the picture of a happy family, think you? Oh, no. Depend upon it, reader, that just in the proportion that such a miserable state of things prevails, is an unhappy home indicated. I do not mean to say that cleanliness is happiness; but I do mean to affirm that it is a great promoter of happiness. Let me dwell, for a minute or two, on this subject, and one or two others, which are nearly related to it.

Let me say a word or two about your dwellings. Unhappily, I know very well, that a choice of habitation is not always in our power. It is, indeed, greatly to be regretted, that so many industrious families are obliged, from some cause or other, to live in the crowded lanes and courts of towns and cities, or in the ill-contrived, damp, undrained cottages of hamlets and villages. Where it is at all practicable, such places ought to be left at once. But even there, much may be done to lessen inconvenience, and to promote comfort. Let the following plain recommendations, respecting both houses and bodies, receive the candid attention of all whom they may concern:

"It is impossible for health to be preserved unless the air be pure. A close, confined apartment, in which several persons are crowded together, and into which the fresh air is seldom admitted, is the very receptacle of discomfort and disease. To secure the admission of fresh air into every room of every house, the windows should be daily opened both at the top and bottom,-the top, to let the foul air that is in the room escape; the bottom, to let in fresh, pure air. In bed-rooms, this should be done early in the morning, and remain so through the day. Doors should occasionally be set open, that a current of fresh air may pass entirely through the house. Bed-clothes should be spread open early in the morning, and left so some hours.

66

Every room should be swept and dusted daily, care being taken, not merely to make a decent surface, but thoroughly to cleanse under beds, drawers, tables, and other furniture; and to clean out all closets and lumber-holes. In summer, floors should be scoured at least once a week This should be done early in the morning, that they may be quickly and thoroughly dried. In damp weather, dry cleaning is better than frequent wetting. Ceilings and walls should be washed with lime. Lime is very wholesome and purifying, and, happily, very cheap. It takes but little time or skill to whitewash a house, and takes but a short time to dry.

"Daily, or even more frequent washing of the face and hands, is very far from reaching the proper standard of personal cleanliness, and yet it is quite as much as many people deem necessary. Every part of the body should be daily exposed to the purifying action of water. It is well that this matter is more generally understood than it was formerly, and that baths, stationary or moveable, begin to be regarded as a necessary household appendage to a comfortable residence, while the public baths and washhouses supply the accommodation, at an easy cost, to all classes. It cannot be too strongly impressed on working people, whether their calling be active or sedentary, that they should avail themselves of the convenience thus placed within their reach. Even though their supply of food should be scanty, the trifling fee for admission to a bath or wash-house is well bestowed, as thorough cleanliness of person greatly conduces to digestion and nourishment.

"Those who have not access to a regular bath, should fling over their shoulders a sheet partially wrung out of cold water, and rub over the sheet briskly for several minutes, then lay it aside, and rub dry with a coarse cloth. Or every part of the body may be rubbed with merely a wet towel or sponge, and afterwards rubbed dry. Those who once adopt this practice, will not easily be persuaded to relinquish it. It is, at all times, conducive to health, vigour, cheerfulness, and general comfort; and, there can be no doubt whatever, is among the most powerful resistants of disease.

"As to the apparel, all linen and cotton garments should be frequently washed, and thoroughly aired; woollen garments brushed, shaken, and exposed to the air. Infants and children should be trained to habits of cleanliness, and never suffered to retain soiled linen about their persons. Foul linen should not be suffered to accumulate. After being laid aside as dirty, the sooner it can be washed the better. If kept at all, it should not be suffered to remain in a sleeping or dwelling room."

Much more to the same effect might be added to these very important directions; but what has been written, will, we hope, be received and remembered. Be assured that an attention to the smallest matters connected with health and cleanliness, will have a mighty, though subordinate influence in making happy homes; and if all would but do the best they can to promote their own health, and that of their children, by scrupulous cleanliness in habitation and person, we should be spared some uncontrollable feelings of pain and pity, and we should be also spared many affecting and afflicting scenes of home sorrow and desolation.-Plain Letters to Parents of Sunday Scholars.

THE "GREATEST HAPPINESS" PRINCIPLE.

99

Vast numbers of working-men, at least in such busy towns as that we live in, have heard of this far-famed principle. It was laid down as the pole-star of Legislation and Government by the greatest of modern political philosophers, to seek the "greatest happiness of the greatest number," '-an expression afterwards curtailed of the latter words, as adding nothing really to its meaning; and now, by half the lecturers and speech-makers of the day, we are told, as an undoubted fact, that every politician ought, as a true patriot, to set before him the "greatest amount of happiness as the object of all his efforts. A benevolent and plausible idea, we grant. It appears to us, however, to be exposed to two very serious objections, which are, indeed, but one, both arising from the actual condition of human nature. First, that happiness never can be conferred by the powers which Government commands. The grand distinction of Government from all associations, to promote human comfort and well-being,—the difference between its agents and the teachers and speakers of every other organization, is, that Government works by physical force, and force can never be the fountain of happiness. Happiness is a condition of the mind, a condition which force cannot create. Force, in the hands of justice, can be properly employed to prevent those injuries and evils which flow from forcible injustice; it can remove, in this way, many obstacles to the attainment of happiness; but beyond this all Governments have always, in the long run at least, failed, and will ever fail. To abolish wrong laws, protect us against wrong doers, and remove, by national power, hindrances beyond that of individuals or localities, and thus to leave us free to seek our own happiness; this, we take it, is all that Governments can do,- certainly, all which a wise people will allow them to do. This is, in fact, the view which that admirable statesman, Lord Clarendon, has been urging repeatedly upon the people of Ireland, during his most able administration of that country.

And then, secondly, we think that the "greatest happiness" principle is as unsound, as a principle of action, for individuals as it is for Governments. It is not by aiming at happiness that we most frequently obtain it, not by increasing wakefulness to our personal interests that we secure the highest enjoyment. Look at the gay pleasureseeker, on the one hand, or the grave accumulator of money, on the other, and are they happy persons? Are they so happy as those who, forgetting personal ends, aim chiefly to make others happy, or strive to fulfil the duties of their different situations in life? The best ser

vant and the best master, the best child and the best parent,—these are, socially speaking, the happiest persons,-happiest in their own minds, and happiest in the regard they obtain from others. We might add much illustration here; but perhaps these hints will suffice.