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request of Minnie's many friends she prolonged her visit until time to return to school. It was arranged that Mr. Thomas should accompany her home. The evening before her return a large party was given her, and, as usual, Mr. Thomas was her escort. At supper wine was passed. Minnie refused, but saw her friend take the glass. In astonishment she said:

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'Mr. Thomas, don't drink that—please don't.' He turned, and laughing, said:

Miss Minnie, you seem alarmed. You certainly don't think I can ever become a drunkard ?' and turned and drank the wine. When they parted for the night, with a heavy heart she said: 'Mr. Thomas, I cannot accept attentions from you unless you sign the temperance pledge, and keep it, for I could never trust myself with a man who will drink anything that will intoxicate.'

To all of his entreaties he received the same calm, decided answer. She returned to her home without his company, but he soon followed, and tried all of his persuasive powers, but without avail. Some four years after this Minnie married a man of culture and religious and temperate principles; and with him went to a distant home, and only heard of her old friend once, and that was that he had married her wealthy friend, Hattie P- who said:

'Minnie's loss is my gain; and I should esteem myself of little value if my influence would not keep my husband from becoming a drunkard.'

At the wedding the bride and groom drank each other's health in the sparkling wine. Time sped on, and to Minnie they were years of care, but each one had been laden with much happiness, and were now freighted with many holy and precious memories. Again she visits a friend of olden times, but not now in the sunny South does she find that friend, but in Boston. While there one morning she saw two forlorn-looking little girls leaving her friend's door, with baskets of old clothes and cold food. A look from the younger brought to Minnie memories she could not define. Imagine her grief and sadness when her friend said:

Minnie, those are our old friend, John Thomas's children. Poor John kept on drinking his glass until the habit grew on him. At length he drank so much that he neglected his estates, and adding card-playing and betting to drinking, he became involved, and after a time not only his own vast estates, but Hattie's too, were gone.

He

The Origin of the Postage Stamp.

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then came here a terrible wreck of what you knew him. All he made he spent for drink, and last winter he died here in Boston a drunkard, and died, too, in the street, and was buried in a pauper's grave.' The friend continued: 'I sought out Hattie and the children. I found them in a miserable room, in rags, and suffering from hunger and disease. The beautiful Hattie can live but a few weeks at most, for trouble and want have fixed on her consumption. A few old friends that knew them in their palmy days are keeping Hattie and the children while she lives. The poor-house will soon shelter the children. Yes, John Thomas' children!'

Young lady reader, will you risk what Hattie P

did ?

THE ORIGIN OF THE POSTAGE STAMP.

THE postage-stamp was born in London on the 10th of January, 1840, and England employed it alone for about ten years. France adopted it on the 1st of January, 1849, and Germany in 1850. According to M. Alphonse Esquiros, it was a curious incident that gave rise to the idea of postage-stamps. A traveller was crossing, about forty years ago, a district in the north of England. He arrived at the door of an inn where a postman had stopped to deliver a letter. A young girl came out to receive it; she turned it over and over in her hand and asked the price of the postage. This was a large sum, and evidently the young girl was poor, for the postman demanded a shilling. She sighed sadly, and said that the letter was from her brother, but that she had no money; and so she returned it to the postman. The traveller was a man who rambled about the earth for instruction and observation. Having a good heart he offered to pay the postage of the letter, and, in spite of the resistance of the young girl, he paid the shilling. This resistance made him reflect. Scarcely had the postman turned his back than the young innkeeper's daughter confessed that it was a trick between her and her brother. Some signs marked on the envelope had told her all that she wanted to know, but the letter itself contained no writing.

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'We are both so poor,' she added, and so we invented this mode of corresponding and prepaying our letters.' The traveller, continuing his road, asked himself if a system giving place to such frauds was not a vicious one.

The sun had not set before Mr. Rowland Hill (that was the name of the traveller) had planned to organize the postal service upon a new basis. He said that in England, where family ties are strong, and where the members often live far apart, where, too, the spirit of commerce knows no limits, the correspondence was only limited by the cost of the post; and that by lowering this barrier a great service would be rendered to society without hurting the resources of the treasury. These views were agreed to by the English Government, and on the 10th of January, 1840, not more than penny was paid for letters which circulated over the whole extent of the British Isles. This bold scheme soon surpassed the hopes of the legislators. Ten years later, in 1850, the number of letters increased from 1,500,000 to 7,239,962. Mr. Rowland Hill occupied in England the post of Secretary to the Postmaster-General.

A BRAVE DOG.

A LARGE heavy wagon, which was dragged along at a smart trot by a vigorous horse, was passing lately through the Rue de la Chapelle, at Paris. An infant of three years of age, having ventured on the public road, unconscious of the danger it was running, was just about to be crushed beneath the wheels of the hugh vehicle.

A cry of terror escaped from the bystanders: the fainting mother closed her eyes. How could she save the child? Alas! it was too late. In vain the driver made every effort to stop his horse.

Quicker than thought a magnificent Newfoundland dog, who was sitting on the pavement, darted forth with one immense bound, snapped up the little being, passed like an arrow beneath the wagon between the four wheels, and deposited the poor child safe and sound upon the opposite pavement.

That evening the noble deliverer received numerous caresses and little presents, which the inhabitants of the quarter lavished upon him. He ate at least two pounds of sugar during that day.

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL.

FROM the most remote periods of authentic history we find a spirit of revenge for wrongs or injuries cherished as right and obligatory. At an early period of Israelitish history we find the right of revenge

The Power of the Gospel.

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acknowledged. This occasioned the establishment of the cities of refuge, not to encourage the spirit of revenge, but to regulate it, and also to typify our blessed Lord who is the Refuge for sinners fleeing from the penalty of sin with which they are threatened. Jesus does not merely shelter us from the visitation of punishment, but he delivers from that evil principle which exposes us to the righteous indignation of Jehovah. This evil principle, sin, is that which excites in men the spirit of revenge we have referred to, and which also we find displayed with lamentable frequency among barbarous peoples at the present day. Deeply embedded in their nature, sanctioned by custom, and enforced by fancied right and honour, the principle of revenge has acquired a power that nothing human can suppress and eradicate. But the grace of God is equal to this. Our engraving, page 154, represents a fact illustrative of this. The case is told as follows:

'The son of a Bechuana Chief had been out hunting the ostrich with his servant and others. Suddenly an ostrich passed between him and his servant, when the latter fired his gun, not at all aware that his master was within range of the ball; but, unhappily, the shot entered his shoulder, close to the neck, grazing the jugular vein, and breaking one or two of the ribs. The innocent man-slayer fled, expecting, in accordance with the heathen custom, to be killed; but, at the request of his dying master, who was a Christian, and by order of his chief, he was pardoned, brought back, and told that his life would be spared.

'The heathen party, however, still desired his death. This led the wounded man to fear that he would be killed; so he sent his wife to entreat that the life of his servant might be guarded, and expressed a wish to see him with his own eyes. The fugitive was sent for, but so strongly was he affected on entering the presence of his master, that the meeting was at first too much for both. He retired awhile, and on his return was told by the dying man, with great feeling, that he was not to blame; that every event was under Divine control; and that all was well which God either did or permitted to be done adding, "When I die, do what you can to serve my children." 'On his death some of the heathens again loudly demanded the death of his servant. "No,' replied the chief's brother, he shall not be killed; he is innocent."

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What a blessed change of feeling does the gospel produce, and what an illustration of its power does this incident supply.

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