better attended: persons whose occupation or profession required all their hours of daylight in the summer, now take their places in their much-loved chapel or church. The softened gas-light, the comparative stillness of the surrounding world, the consequent seclusion of the sacred place, and the connected and hushed attention of the congregation, are all circumstances to be looked forward to and welcomed; and so favourable are they to the spread of religion, at least in our home-society, that Christians are now in the habit of considering the early and the latter months of the year as seasons of especial grace, and in which we more confidently look for the conversion of sinners, and the establishment of believers in faith and holiness. We take the liberty of reminding our friends, the readers of the Youth's Instructer,—who are nearly all members of religious families, and we would fain hope religious, or seeking to be so, themselves,-that the winter is an interesting season of duty. The probable coldness of the weather, joined to the darkness of the morning hours, will make rising early a work of severe self-denial; but if selfdenial and redeeming time be Christian duties, it will be noble to assert practically the superiority of the expanding mind over the would-be indulged body; as well as pious to make a sacrifice for God. Christian females, on account of their natural delicacy, will often shrink from the keen and cutting atmosphere, when the appointed hour arrives for going their rounds to present their tracts, or to collect for Bible and Missionary Societies,—a department of toil which usually falls to their lot; but when their health is not likely to be endangered, a courageous promptitude and perseverance will have the happiest effect upon themselves and upon the cause which they serve. Mr. Wesley once said, in reference to a bitter journey he took into the north, in the month of February, 1745: "Many a journey have I had before, but one like this I never had, between wind, and hail, and rain, and ice, and snow, and driving sleet, and piercing cold. But it is past. Those days will return no more, and are therefore as though they had never been. 'Pain, disappointment, sickness, strife, And pain, like pleasure, is a dream."" It is well for us to have high examples; and though we cannot call upon our young friends to emulate the toils of that great man, yet we may exhort them to imitate in their sphere the hallowed cheerfulness with which they were encountered. In winter the privations of the poor are generally great, out-door employment being scarce, and fuel dear; and although the poor of our country are greatly elevated in point of comfort over the corresponding class in other countries, Russia, for instance,-yet compared with the flourishing tradesman, or even with the higher mechanic, the lower labouring classes have to struggle much with their indigence. Nor, as far as legislation is concerned, can it be otherwise in an empire whose very social existence depends upon the harmonious union of high and low, rich and poor so variously are the gifts of Providence distributed, whether of wealth, or influence, or wisdom, that equality among men can possibly have no existence but an ideal one, and that only in the dreams of infidel political theorists. It was high authority which said, "The poor ye always have with you." Here then we want the bland influence of our religious youth. Go, you who are beloved by your families, and esteemed by your Christian companions, and during the months of winter, go, with whatever influence and address God has given you, and form to yourselves a circle of attached and grateful friends in the cottages around you. It is not necessary that you should always, or even often, give money; for money may not always be at your disposal to give. You effect much when you take an affectionate interest in their sorrows, trials, and wants; when you speak encouraging words to their children; when you humbly and modestly remind them of the claims of their God and Saviour; and when occasionally you use your influence to obtain for them, from your respective homes, little comforts, however small or insignificant those comforts may be in themselves. O what floods of temptation from the minds of the poor would a general course like this remove! Too many of them are persuaded that benevolence and love are fled from the earth; but here this persuasion is refuted. You each will make the names of your families venerated in the circles where you reside, and will bind in the strongest social bonds the class to which they belong with that of which yourselves are members,—a result not brought about by enacting human laws, but by carrying those of Christianity into full effect. You each may, according to your piety or talent, become, without any temptation to ambition, the presiding spirit of a given locality, and may be the honoured instruments of peopling the Sunday-schools and the church of God, as well as contributing to an indefinite extent to the amount of domestic enjoyment. Much more might be said on the subject of duty; but we must not trench on the office of the Christian pulpit. Suffice it to say, that duty and enjoyment go hand in hand. The winter has its recreations, and especially those which are connected with social intercourse; and it is by no means to sadden or interrupt those recreations that the writer would quote the well-remembered saying of the Apostle, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;" for he is persuaded that a consciousness of our heavenly Father's complacency, combining itself with all our attempts to please, or desires to be pleased, will, on the other hand, make the cheerful more cheerful, and the amiable more amiable still. Evening parties, in the way that they are often managed, it must be acknowledged, are productive of anything but rational and pure enjoyment. Let us not give offence by saying so, and let us not be deemed cynical; for that is a character which we hold in perfect abhorrence, loving as we do every thing that belongs to young people: and if we give expression to, we will not say indulge in, a few strictures on this subject, let it be attributed to the desire we feel to see our social circles more worthy of the Christianity and intelligence which we are assumed to possess, and more productive of that sacred cheerfulness which every one who feels aright professes to desire. In the first place, too little discrimination is observed in sending out the invitations to an evening party: persons of the utmost disparity in age, and of the most opposite tastes, are brought together ;-the young and the aged, the thoughtless and the meditative, the refined and those who have not been favoured with equal advantages. Even if all are good, they are good in their own way ; and thus when they are introduced into the room, they are each in fear of the other, and a painful restraint is imposed on every one. There is no one present but has his or her favourite soul-stirring theme; but how shall it be adverted to in the face of so many who are supposed to have no ear and no feeling for the subject? There may be in the whole a treasury of feeling and information; but how shall each individual contribute a portion, frowned on, as imagination would suggest, by the uncongeniality of surrounding companions? One or two attempts may indeed be made by those who have most self-possession; but, if they are met with indifference, after this they are made no more, and the individuals resign themselves to listen and contribute to the common-places of the hour. After this tea appears; and it would be very sad if the refined courtesies of Christian politeness and benevolent feeling, which are due to the softer sex should be withheld; but besides this, the conversation which now confessedly becomes more animated, is too often most painfully flippant. A running fire, so to speak, is kept up between certain of the youthful party; an incessant ad captandum skirmish; a catching at words; an ascription of motives; a wilful misunderstanding of sentiments: not those occasional and brilliant turns which the truly talented and good can give to a passing remark, embodying, as they ever will, both mind and benevolence; not those bright and stingless pleasantries which like sunbeams illumine the soul without piercing or annoying the feelings; but an everlasting play with the drapery of conversation, until the less ingenious are wearied beyond measure, like the tortured father who tells his romping boy to play no more; and till those who are only spectators of this wordy tournament hardly know into what tangled thicket the principals have jostled themselves. After tea comes the attraction of music; and a great attraction it is, when not hackneyed and degraded. But the charm is frequently lost from there being too much; every lady being required to take her turn at the instrument, from the most skilful performer with the most perfect piece, to the youngest student with the most lesson-like composition; and every gentleman to accompany, if the music requires it, according to his ability. In a youthful company of unequal talent, persons of good taste are soon satisfied, at least within the compass of an hour; and persons of no taste at all are at first indifferent, and then, if the performances be prolonged, become annoyed, and earnestly wish for the hour of refreshments, which sooner or later arrives, and with it very frequently the flippancy of the tea-table too; and soon after, and without prayer to God, the party separate,-the thoughtless confirmed in their tendencies and habits, and the pious and thoughtful wounded with the conviction that an evening has been irrecoverably lost. In all this there is nothing for the heart. There may be a little for the surface of fancy, or ingenuity; but it is not by either of these that a deep interest is taken in the purposes for which our kind friends so often call us together. To this kind of sociality, as a source of happiness, we may apply the words of the blessed Redeemer: "He that drinketh of this water shall thirst again." The writer would again disclaim the remotest intention of diminishing the enjoyments of the winter parlour: he would rather enhance them, and in Cowper's words would say, "Let no man charge me that I mean |