THE PITMEN'S PREACHER. It's the Deevil himself has gripped me! He is gripping me hard! O, minister, I'm lost! I'm lost!' Hereupon the excitement in the congregation becomes intense. Women weep, men rise up, and the minister, seizing his opportunity, continues:-, Now, lads, let us all pray and pull together. This poor sinner is in great danger. But Satan can't long buffet him. The Great Captain is with us, and he is too strong for demon and devil!" Straining at and lifting up the imaginary load, the preacher greatly excites himself as well as his hearers. Finally, he appears to succeed in bringing the imperilled and hard-gripped penitent to the surface. Then, with great effect, he utters the words- Lad's, he's safe!-he is saved! There he is! The Rope of Faith never broke yet, and I knew it wouldn'nt break now!' Returning with some of the pitmen from the chapel to their cottages, we see the interiors most tidy, and adorned to the best of their ability. If the man and wife be religious people, a few prints of Methodist ministers are suspended on the walls, while a family Bible reposes on the finely-polished mahogany chest of drawers, flanked by the Pilgrim's Progress, a hymn book or two, and a few magazines and tracts. The grand four-post bedstead in any other than a pitman's cottage would be very remarkable. A pretentious eight-day clock in the corner strikes loudly, perhaps with the addition of a musical chime or a mimic cuckoo. For once the coal-miner's family all dine together at mid-day on a good and substantial dinner. In the afternoon the children attend the Sunday school, while their parents read and heartily sing hymns at home. Happiness is here, and holiness too, even though there be homeliness in all things. No class of workmen stand in more need of a day of rest than colliers, and few enjoy it more than the sober ones of them generally. Pitvillages being far removed from towns and cities, the married men are domestic of necessity, if not from choice; and it is a pleasing sight to witness the quietude and repose of fathers and lads who on other days perform some of the hardest labour in some of the darkest and most noxious of known places. Without such a day of rest, hewers of coal, and drawers and pushers of pit-waggons, would speedily become exhausted, and any contingency is important which affects the physical restoration and the religious improvement of some 130,000 colliers who are dispersed over the various pits of Great Britain." POETRY.-ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS. Poetry. THE PILGRIM'S PRAYER. UPHOLD us, Lord, by Thy strong hand, How blessed they whom Thou dost bless! Its faith and hope, how firm and deep! We need Thy help each day and hour The golden gates of heavenly day. Anecdotes and Selections. A BIBLE AMONG GAMBLERS.-An American missionary on his way to the Sandwich Islands, found, one evening, a company of his fellow passengers seated round a table, on which was the only light burning in the cabin, deeply engaged in gambling. Mr. W., after reflecting some time on the best means of reproving them, took a Bible from his trunk, and politely requested that he might have a seat at the same table for the purpose of reading.. The sight of the Bible at once stopped their swearing; and after gambling in total silence about ten minutes, they all left the table and went upon deck! thus evincing that the silent reproofs of a good man, with his Bible in his hand, were too loud and too pointed for their guilty consciences. SAMUEL WESLEY, Rector of Epworth, and father of John Wesley, writing to his eldest son Samuel, said, “Work and write while you ćan. You see Time has shaken me by the hand, and Death is but a little behind him. My eyes and heart are now almost all I have left, and I bless God for them." To his son Charles he wrote, "You are now launched fairly, Charles; hold up your head, and switn like a man; but always keep your eye on the pole-star; and so God send you a prosperous voyage over the troubled sea of life." THE FIRESIDE, THE PENNY POST BOX. The Fireside. MOTHERS! PRAY FOR YOUR CHILDREN. You should: for I believe there are no prayers more availing with God. It may be questioned whether the fervent prayers of a pious and loving mother were ever unanswered. That they have been and yet are answered we have numerous instances. Here is one :— "A young man, on whose mind the truths of religion had been early impressed by his pious mother's instructions, at length went to sea, and became an abandoned and miserable creature. He was thrown into prisons and workhouses, and into dens of wretchedness and vice; but into all these places his faithful mother followed him with her prayers and tears, till she died, leaving him in prison convicted of crime. Here he was an object of so much dread that one of the keepers never ventured to approach him alone. In about six months, however, the tiger began to grow tame, and his inquiry was, “What must I do to be saved?" For two months he had paced his cell in agony and remorse, save when exhausted nature would sometimes overcome his horrible convictions. When asked what particular cause had led him to his present feelings, he replied, "My mother's prayers and counsels! Her last words to me were, 'William, there is no other name given under heaven among men, whereby you must be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ.' His mother's prayers were at last answered, and this man became a consistent follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Penny Post Box. LETTER FROM THE EDITOR TO TRACT DISTRIBUTORS. As the "CHRISTIAN PIONEER" is not a sectarian publication, it may be circulated by any denomination of evangelical.christians. The Leader is in itself an ordinary tract; beside which there is every month a considerable number of anecdotes, paragraphs, poetry, and select sentences, affording a variety of reading of an instructive character, not to be found in any single tract, which is usually on one subject only. Tract Distributors who circulate over any given district, either by loan or gift, may thus be supplied with a new tract every month. In cases where the distributor would prefer to have the Pioneer in its outward appearance more like a tract, he would only have to strip off the covers, and it would at once assume that form. Many of the Pioneers are now used monthly for gratuitous or loan distribution, and the EDITOR will be glad to find that a much greater number will be required for this purpose during the coming year. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. LUCIFER MATCHES. PERHAPS there has been no invention of our days which has been of greater service to the convenience and comfort of every household in the land than these light-producers. Those only who were wont to use the old round tin boxes, with their apparatus of flint and steel, tinder and damper, can appreciate the advantages of the present mode. On a cold night, when baby was crying, it was no joke then, to get out of a warm bed, and stand shivering in the dark, knocking the skin off your knuckles in trying to get a light. Now we have only to rub and we have it! Of course this excellent invention is liable to abuse by evil-minded persons, who, in too many instances, have abused it to purposes of mischief. Accidents, too, have often taken place through leaving them about in exposed places. But the greatest danger is in their manufacture; they are so very injurious to the health of those who are employed in making them. Hints. IF THE MERCY OF GOD were not greater than our sins we could have no hope. We want thoughts to conceive and words to express its height and depth. GOD IS LOVE, and as the best gift he bestows on us is his own love in Christ, so the best offering we can make to him is to love him in return. NEVER DESPAIR.-It was the Devil who said, "cast thyself down." But the Gospel says, " Do thyself no harm. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou SHALT be saved." NEVER DOES GOD take anything away from his children but he gives them something better in its place; INORDINATE INDULGENCE of any of and if it be the assurance of his our appetites is the surest way to in-favour, it is better than life. jure or destroy them. NOTHING TENDs to make any of us look more ridiculous than when we indulge the vain desire of appearing to be what we are not-like apes in cap and feathers. BE WHAT YOU ARE, in your dress, your manners, your talk, your conduct. Then, whether copper, silver, or gold, your metal will give the right ring, and bear the regal stamp of honesty. THE PARABLE OF THE VIRGINS WAS to teach us that it is an ill time to get grace when we should use grace. Have it ready, and then meet the Bridegroom with joy. OUR LOVE OF BEAUTY increases as the objects we look at increase in beauty; but never will it be fully satisfied until we see the King in his beauty in the land that is very far off. THE LOVE OF GOD in Christ is like HOPE NEVER LEAVES a honest man, the sun, that shines down upon all but stops to cheer him in the darkest men. He loves all as one, and every hours. From the dishonest and dis-one as if he had but that one to set honourable it takes wing and flies away. his love upon.. POETIC SELECTIONS. THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. Poetic Selections. THOUGHTS ON THE CLOSING YEAR. "We all do fade as a leaf."—ISAIAH. I have been trying to write a few verses DROPPING like flakes of falling snow, Like skeletons with arms outstretch'd Nature and scripture both thus teach A lesson sad and brief, That man, in his best state, is but Time sweeps us all, as on the wind, And earthly joys, like fading leaves, But there is Joy that never fades, JESUS, who bought us with his blood, Oh for a sight of that fair land, For there the King in beauty shines, The Children's Corner. A BATTLE THAT WAS NOT FOUGHT. I HAVE heard of two boys who differed about some trifling matter, while at play, and one of them challenged the other to fight. The challenge was accepted, and they went into an adjoining field to settle the quarrel. Jackets and caps were thrown on the ground, and all was in readiness, but each appeared unwilling to strike the first blow. "Now then, strike me if you dare," said the younger boy, with a look of defiance. His companion looked at him, but did not like to strike, and at length said, "Nay, I have nothing to strike you for." "Well then," said the other, who had provoked the quarrel at first, "let us be good friends again, for I have nothing to strike you for either." They dressed, and left the field without striking a blow, and never had another quarrel. One of them now holds a very respectable and useful position as a teacher of youth. How few battles would be fought, either among young people or men, if, in imitation of these boys, the disputants would try to find a reason for the battle before they strike a blow! "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water; therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with," says the good old book, and it is always true. 144 WINKS AND SON, PRINTERS, LEICESTER. |