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"For where is the man who has the marks of covetousness ever so plain upon him, who will confess he is a covetous man? Yet it is very plain to those whose eyes are single to the Lord, that there are too many such, though they will not confess it. It was, we find, a great temptation in the days of old; and therefore, our blessed Lord bade them take heed, and beware of covetousness. His holy apostles told the believers it was idolatry; the love of money was the root of all evil; and that covetousness ought not to be so much as named among them; with many such like expressions in Scripture, all which show that it was an abominable evil in the sight of the Lord then, and it is the same now."

He was himself a faithful steward over the temporal things committed to his care, and used them as one who was fully sensible that he would have to give an account of his stewardship.

The fervency of his spirit, and his circumspect walking, eminently qualified him for usefulness in religious society. Accordingly he was much engaged among his brethren, to encourage and strengthen them, to live and act consistently with the profession they were making to the world. His station in the church was not that of a minister, but an elder; yet, in the expressive language of conduct, he was, in the best sense of the term, a preacher of righteousness.

In 1692, he was, with others, appointed to visit the meetings and families of Friends in his own neighborhood, to endeavor to promote a reformation in their manner of living, and some other things that were thought to be out of order among them.

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him nothing, and he would be as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal."

"Notwithstanding religion does not consist in bodily conformity or plainness of apparel, but is in and from the heart, as also, on the other hand, pride is in the heart, and not in the outward clothing, yet true religion leads into simplicity in all outward things."

The effect of going forth on an errand of love, as Joseph Pike did, in the spirit of humility, and with clean hands, is thus narrated in his journal, in which he states that they (the committee) visited all the families of Friends in Cork. "In doing which, we first sat down with them together, and as we found a concern to come upon our minds suitable to their respective states and conditions, we gave them advice and counsel, and particularly to keep close to the witness of God in themselves, the gift and measure of His holy Spirit, by which they might come to know and experience a growth in the Lord's holy truth, whereby the inside would be made clean, and then the outside would be made clean also.

"After we had spoken what was in our minds relating to spiritual things, we then proceeded to other things relating to conversation, and behaviour, &c., as occasion offered. And I can, in great humility of mind, say, the Lord owned us in our service by the attendance of his living presence, which in several places broke in upon our spirits, and some of their's also, bowing their hearts into great tenderness. Some, who had not been so faithful, nor so orderly in their conversation as they ought to have been, were so reached by what was spoken, that in much brokenness of Previous, however, to entering upon this ser- mind, they acknowledged the same, with desire vice, Joseph Pike, and a friend who was to be a that, for the time to come, they might be more fellow-laborer with him, made a close investiga- faithful to the Lord, and walk more circumspectly. tion into their own households, to put things in And, indeed, we had very melting seasons in order, before going forth with counsel and advice many places, all which greatly strengthened and for others. The consequence was, they found confirmed us in our service and labor of love; the work of reformation was to begin at home, and I do not know that we met with any oppoand some extravagant, and merely ornamental sition or stubbornness in all the places we visitwork and furniture in their houses, was to be re-ed, but a general condescension in all, to put moved, and replaced with that of a plainer and more useful kind. He says, "we thoroughly reformed our houses; and if any should think that we placed religion barely in outward conformity and plainness, such are greatly mistaken : so far from it, that if we should outwardly conform in everything in which the Holy Scriptures direct us unto, or that godly elders are moved of the Lord to advise, yet, if our hearts are not right in His sight, and we do not witness a growth in His holy truth, all the external conformity and plainness in the world, though good in itself, will avail us nothing as to Divine acceptance no more than, as the Apostle tells the believers, that if he gave his body to be burned, or his goods to the poor, &c., yet, if he wanted charity, (which is the love of God,) all would profit

away superfluities in apparel and household furniture, which was accordingly done some time after. So that there was a pretty thorough reformation in this city."

And in regard to this kind of labor, he also says, "and this way of particular dealing has sometimes proved more effectual than public preaching, which we have experienced in these visits: some being reached by close dealing, and have, with sorrow, confessed their offences. Thus it proved with David, who read and understood the outward law, and well knew he had transgressed against it; yet he was not brought by the law, which was public, to so near a sense of his great sin as when Nathan came, and said unto him, Thou art the man! Then it was that he was brought to a true sense of his great

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transgression, and confessed the same; and, upon | Lord! He did not leave nor forsake me in the

his repentance, the Lord forgave him."

Thus was this truly dedicated servant of the Lord concerned through life to occupy the gifts committed to his care, to the praise and honor of Him who gave them, as well as for the benefit of his fellow-beings.

In the latter part of his journal, he thus speaks of his object in writing it, and humbly acknowledges, that for every good work in which he was engaged, the praise is due unto the Lord alone, who gave him strength and ability to perform it. "And now, in the conclusion of this narrative of my life, wherein I have not studied elegancy of speech, while I endeavor to make things very plain, which is more my intention than to set forth fine words, I can, in sincerity of soul, say that I have not written anything with a design to exalt myself, or gain the applause of men, but from my being pressed in spirit, in order to leave it behind me for the instruction and information of my children in particular, and others who may read it.

"And in whatever I have done, or in whatever I was concerned, as to religious matters or worldly affairs, that in any way appears commendable, I did but my duty therein, as all others ought to do, according to their respective stations; for I neither could nor can do anything of myself, which I confess to the whole world, that would be acceptable to the Lord without his divine help and assistance. I have nothing to glory in, as to myself, save my infirmities. And in looking back through the whole course of my life, I cannot but admire, and in humility of soul commemorate, the gracious and merciful dealings of the Lord to me, to this day, both spiritually and temporally, far beyond my deserts; for which my soul and spirit, and all that is within me, bows with deep reverence and thankfulness, rendering unto Him alone, the Lord of Heaven and of the whole earth, the honor, praise, power, and dominion forever!"

In the early part of his life, he frequently went abroad; but for several years previous to his death, his bodily powers were so feeble, that he was unable to travel far from his own residence; yet, when favored with ability, he was always ready for any good word or work which was laid upon him.

In the latter part of the year 1726, he took a violent cold, and was soon after so affected with the asthma, as to be obliged to sit up in a chair for about six weeks. He was also severely affected with the gout, and with the palsy in his right hand and tongue. He was thus for some time entirely unable to converse. But under these severe and complicated trials, his faith and patience failed not; and in writing of them, he thus commemorates the mercy and goodness of the Lord towards him. "But oh! for ever magnified and praised be the holy name of the

time of my great weakness and extreme pain of body; for His dew rested almost continually upon me, and the sweet incomes of His living and comfortable presence supported me under all; so that my bed of suffering was very often made as a bed of pleasure."

After this aged servant of the Most High had thus patiently endured these sufferings for a season, it pleased the Lord to raise him up again, and he continued weak in body, but strong in spirit for about two years longer, when he was suddenly removed by death, and passed away in a remarkably easy mauner, in the seventy-third year of his age.

The spirit in which he had long waited for this event is clearly manifested in the following testimony, which he penned in old age, when dwelling on some of the Lord's merciful visitations to his soul in younger life.

"The remembrance of such seasons is renewed within me at this time, for which my soul is melted into tenderness, with humble thanksgiving and praise to His holy and divine majesty, that he has kept me alive in spirit now to old age, to bear this testimony for Him, from my own experience, that His holy truth waxes not old, as doth a garment; for although I am decayed in body, and through the weakness thereof, seem to be near the brink of the grave, yet to the praise of the Lord, I can say, I am as strong in Him, and in the power of His might, and feel my spirit as zealous for His holy name and testimony, as at any time of my life; for which all that is within me magnifies and extols, even with my mouth in the dust, the holy and eternal name of the Lord of Heaven and earth, who liveth for ever and ever!'

CHILDHOOD.

BY D. BATES.

Childhood, sweet and sunny childhood,
With its careless, thoughtless air,
Like the verdant, tangled wildwood,
Wants the training hand of care.
See it springing all around us-

Glad to know and quick to learn;
Asking questions that confound us :
Teaching lessons in its turn.
Who loves not its joyous revel,

Leaping lightly on the lawn,
Up the knoll, along the level,

Free and graceful as a fawn! Let it revel; it is nature

Giving to the little dears
Strength of limb, and healthful featuse,
For the toil of coming years.

He who checks a child with terror,
Stops its play, and stills its song,
Not alone commits an error,
But a great and moral wrong.
Give it play, and never fear it-
Active life is no defect;

Never, never break its spirit

Curb it only to direct.
Would you dam the flowing river,

Thinking it would cease to flow?
Onward it must go forever-

Better teach it where to go. Childhood is a fountain welling

Trace its channel in the sand, And its currents, spreading, swelling, Will revive the withered land. Childhood is the vernal season; Trim and train the tender shoot: Love is to the coming reason

As the blossom to the fruit. Tender twigs are bent and foldedArt to nature beauty lends; Childhood easily is moulded; Manhood breaks, but seldom bends.

FORGIVENESS.

How shall I act! O gracious God,
Towards my fellow man,
To fit me for a dwelling place
Within thy favored land?
How shall I calm my weary soul
When to despair 'tis driven?
"Forgive," a sweet toned voice replied,
And thou shall be forgiven.

Then should thy foes encompass thee,
And thy good name deride,
Oh, hearken to that angel voice;
Let kindness be thy guide.
Let not thy soul from quietness

By these harsh acts be driven;
Forgive, forgive the spirit cries,

And thou shalt be forgiven.

And though from anger, for the wrong,
Seven times thou shouldst refrain,
And though thy soul should be oppressed,
Yea seven times again;

Be not at last through weariness
To fierce resentment driven;
Remember thou must still forgive
Or never be forgiven.

Let angry passions disappear

Like moonlit clouds away,

Like snow that falls where water glides,
Like mist of early day.

Let not thy love by angry foes
From its repose be driven :

But O, forgive, and rest assured,
Thou too shalt be forgiven.

CURE FOR HARD TIMES.

When the good governor Talcot presided over Connecticut, a poor simple man came to him one day, complaining very bitterly of the hardness of the times, and the scarcity of money, and that he was unable to get any, and wondered they did not make money, and would have him use his influence to have a bank made.

After hearing the good man through, he turns to him, and asked him, if he had any pork or beef to sell? No. Any wheat or grain of any kind? No. Any butter, cheese, wool or flax?

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Let us run in debt less, spend less, and pay more, be more frugal and industrious, and we shall soon find our affairs mending; our debts, both public and private lessening, and money become plenty. For the scarcity of money is a disease that will work its own remedy, and make a plenty as in other merchandize. But it must be in a way of industry and frugality- and whenever money becomes plenty in any other way, it does more hurt than good, as it creates idleness and wickedness among a people, of which we have already too much.

COCO PALM. (Continued from page 479.)

Coco bread and coco water, coco almonds, coco butter, coco brushes, coco baskets, coco brooms, coco bowls, coco boxes, coco bonnets, coco cups, coco candles, coco carpets, coco curtains, coco charcoal, coco cream, coco cabbage, coco combs, coco fans, coco forks, coco hats, coco jaggary, coco linen, coco lamps, coco mats, coco masts, coco nets, coco oars, coco oil, coco paper, coco pickles, coco pots, coco pudding, coco ropes, coco spoons, coco sandals, coco sauce, coco ships, coco torches, coco wood, coco vinegar, coco arrack, coco toddy! Nothing less than a treeful of monkeys could call out the word coco often enough! Cocos are both food and drink. The coco-palm alone can furnish almost everything necessary for a home, and can absolutely and completely supply everything needful for a ship. While, in a drawing-room, after doffing their coco bonnets, one lady may fan herself with a coco fan; another may sit down upon a coco chair, and write on a coco desk, upon coca paper, by the brilliant light of coco oil in a coco lamp, which stands upon a prettily inlaid coco table. No wonder the authors of the oriental romances had such wild and gorgeous fancies when their imaginations were fed with such marvels. The wonderful bottles of the wizards of the stage are poor plagiarisms of the prodigies of this single tree. After furnishing kitchens and drawingrooms, and after equipping boats and ships, and after supplying food and drink to infants and adults, and hats and bonnets to gentlemen and ladies, here is an enchanted thing which pours forth by natural magic, milk and water, cream and vinegar, and wine and arrack and toddy.

The geographical distribution of the palms begins where the range of cereals ceases, and a similar domestic interest invests both these families of plants. Like oats in northern, and wheat in southern Europe, palms are familiar house

hold things on the tropical shores-only surpassingly more useful, more interesting, and more wonderful. The coco-palms are blended with the whole lives of these coast folks. When the Portuguese were boasting about Portugal to certain Indians, and telling them they ought to go and see it, the Indians asked:

"Does the coco-palm grow upon your shores?" The answer being in the negative, they said. "We shall not go there to seek our bread, for this one tree is worth all Europe."

The Tahitians say that the first coco-palm came from a human head which sprouted in the earth. When the wise dark mothers repeat this myth to the children around their knees, a good meaning, a practical truth may perhaps be detected sparkling in the depths of their black eyes. There are no seeds equal to human heads in fertility. Hominal nuts are the most fecund of all nuts. No doubt the coco resembles much more macaca maimon, and the name may come forom the maki mococo, but monkey heads are all sterile. There is nothing like the hominal nut for producing useful plants. Tahitian fathers and mothers, pondering upon this truth, would see clearly how the success or failure of their children in life depends upon the learning of this lesson. The boy who mastered it best would become the man with the most fruitful trees. The English farmer has begun to have some inklings of this truth since the epoch of free trade, with excellent results in regard to the cultivation of the cereals. Most certainly it is the human head which germinates and sprouts when the coco-palm yields bread and wine and houses and ships.

When an infant is born in Malacca, the father plants a coco-palm; which belongs henceforth to the child. The young palm begins to yield fruit at five years old, is in full bearing about eleven, and enjoys its maturity from the age of twenty to fifty; when it ages slowly, reaching the term of from ninety to a hundred years before it dies. Naturally, the natives of the coco shores identify their lives with the lives of their trees: from the prosperity or misfortunes of which they augur their own fate. The ideas of M. Flourens and other physiologists, who think man was intended to live a century, are confirmed by the experience of the inhabitants of the tropics. AbdAllah ben Abd-el-Kader, in his narrative of his Voyage along the Eastern coast of the Peninsula of Malacca in 1838, relates an anecdote which is illustrative of the double biographies of the Indians and their palms. He entered into a village in the Kalanthan country, where grew cocopalms, dourains (Durio Zibethinus), and all sorts of fruit trees. While walking, he observed an old woman about the height of a child of twelve, her back bent with age, her skin all wrinkled into ridges, and her hair, which was not four fingers long, as white as carded cotton. She

was near a spring, and carried a pitcher full of water. He told Temana and Grandpre to wait for him a little, because he wished to talk with the old woman and learn her age. She replied;

"I have already seen one coco-palm die; after which, I have planted another, which is already grown old, and does not give me any more than a few rare and little fruits." By this she intimated that she was about a century and a half old.

Indeed the good and evil of human nature mingle more or less with this invaluable tree. When the natives of New Caledonia made war upon the inhabitants of neighboring islands, they used to make a point of destroying all the fruit trees, and especially the coco-palms, of their enemies. Among themselves, the owner of much cultiveted land and of many coco-palms was deemed a great chief. The Tiko-pians, wishing to preserve the Mitre island, or Fatacca, for the shark-fishing, are careful to destroy all the coco-palms upon it, lest their neighbors should be attracted by seeing them to come and occupy it. The improvident and reckless inhabitants of many islands, having allowed themselves to depend almost exclusively upon their fruit trees for sustenance, are sometimes reduced to famine by hurricanes and bad seasons. When thus overtaken by calamity, the more desperate of them embark in canoes, and, committing themselves to the currents and the waves, in the hope of finding more favored shores, depart to be heard of no more. Europeans, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English have, since they began to voyage in the tropical seas, set useful examples to the natives of intelligence, industry, and foresight in the culture of the coco-palms. Britons have especially distinguished themselves by planting their heads in the soils of the shores' palms. Dr. Charles Reynaud records numerous cases in which English-speaking men have planted cocos where they were unknown before, and have obtained four or five fold more fruit from their well-tended trees than were yielded by the neglected palms of the natives. Ceylon appears to be the only place where the steamengine is applied to the extraction of coco oil.

Persons who have only seen the coco-palms of Ceylon or the Mauritius, must not estimate the vital forces of these trees by their limited observation. The wild vitality of the coco-palms is only seen on the shores of the coco-islands between the fifteenth of northern and the twelfth of southern latitude. Their natural soil is the coral sand. Polypes, or little animals, of a structure so simple that they have been said, not quite correctly, to be nothing but stomachs, or sacks alive, possess the faculty of secreting lodgings for themselves with their bases and sides. The calcareous secretions join each other and form what are called animal plants, which were long

mistaken for plants of which the animals were only the flowers. These animals are innnmerable as the sands of the sea-shore, and many islands have been formed by them. The waves of the sea pound the exposed coral reefs into dust, which is thrown as white sand over the compact reefs, and forms the coral or madrepore shores. On the shores already made, the cocopalms are shedding their fruits all the year round, and what Bernardin de Saint Pierre deemed a summons to a banquet, the fall of the nuts, is really a phase in the wheel of coco life. The nuts are washed away by the waves, and are carried by the currents, until growing heavy and saturated with sea-water, they are left to germinate upon far-distant coasts and newlyformed islands. Cocos have sometimes been borne by the currents as far north as the coasts of Scotland and Norway. The first coco I ever saw was washed ashore upon the sands at Aberdeen. The fall of the nuts is the preliminary of the process of seed-sowing, which is effected by the machinery of the ocean currents. The cocopalms love the newest coral sands-the secretions of animals at work everywhere and at this hour, and their very soil is impregnated with animality. The madrepore sand is interlaced to form the bases of the noble palm column, and the frequent rains pour down their sides while warm currents and hightide waves of the tropics lave the long roots of a tree, which may be said to be naturally far more a product of the ocean than of the earth.

(To be continued.)

THE CAMEL EXPERIMENT.

A letter from Lieut. Beale, of the Army, to the Secretary of War, dated at El Paso, in July, furnishes gratifying intelligence of the entire success of the experiment authorized by Congress for introducing camels as means of transportation across the distant plains and deserts that lie on the route of many of our outposts. He states that though laboring under all the disadvantages arising from ignorance of the habits and mode of packing the camel, the party had traversed a long distance and rough region through Texas, without an accident, and with the beasts in much better condition than if the service had been performed by mules. At starting, each camel was packed with seven hundred pounds, and the journey was pursued in this way, until the forage of which the burthen was mostly composed, was gradually reduced. This experience encourages the confident belief that the rest of the transit will be accomplished without difficulty and with corresponding success. If so, the value of the experiment, as a permanent auxiliary to transportation for the army, and doubtless, eventually, for the purposes of remote commerce in New Mexico and the adjoining territory, will be demonstrated satisfactorily.

All the camels, with three exceptions, em ployed in this expedition, are females, while the regular burden camel of the East is of the male species, and capable of carrying nearly twice the weight of his mate. So that this disadvantage must be added to others in estimating the results thus far. It was particularly noticed that the camels consumed, and seemed to prosper upon, a sort of food rejected even by mules, and which grows in rank luxuriance in the most barren of the American deserts. This food is known as the greased wood, a small bitter bush, with no known use whatever except in being now valuable as camel forage. They would eat grass when staked out, but if left to follow their own instincts, would leave the best ground, and browse greedily on bushes of any kind in preference. The apprehension entertained at the starting of the expedition, that the feet of the animals would give out in crossing the gravelly road from San Antonio to El Paso, was not verified in any particular. The whole route between those two points is stated to be terribly trying on unshod feet, being covered with a small gravel of coarse, angular, and flinty formation, which acts on the feet like a steel rasp. All the camels journeyed without injury, while every unshod horse and mule struck lame. This dif ference is attributed not so much to the spongy substance which forms the foot of the camel, as to the regularity and motion with which the foot is raised and put down.

What we have heretofore known of the nature of the camel, has been fully established in the present expedition. He is docile, patient, manageable and much more easily worked than the mule. He kneels willingly down to receive his load, and waits to be packed without any resistance. During part of the journey, the camels were sometimes without water for twenty-six hours, with the mercury scoring 104 degrees, and when offered drink at the end of that time, they seemed indifferent to it, and some of them refused. It is quite manifest from these facts, that this useful animal is destined to become a denizen of our western plains and a means of civilization in promoting regular and prompt intercourse between remote points in the vast deserts which stretch away on the frontiers of New Mexico, and have heretofore raised serious barriers to transit between the Mississippi and Pacific.

THE NEW TERRITORY OF DACOTAH.

The last Congress, it will be remembered, formed a new Territory under the name of Dacotah. The Independent, published at Sargeant's Bluff, says the Territory includes a great part of the valley of the Sioux, the valleys of the James and Vermillion rivers, and large tracts of beautiful bottom lands lying on the Missouri. In regard to the climate, it becomes milder to

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