At a certain town meeting in Pennsylvania, the question came up whether any persons should be licensed to sell rum. The clergyman, the deacon, the physician, strange as it may now appear, all favored it. Only one man spoke against it, because of the mischief it did. The question was about to be put, when there arose from one corner of the room a miserable woman. She was thinly clad, and her appearance indicated the utmost wretchedness, and that her mortal career was almost closed. After a moment's silence, and all eyes being fixed upon her, she stretched her attenuated body to its utmost height, and then her long arms to their greatest length, and raising her voice to a shrill pitch, she called to all to look upon her.

"Yes!" she said, "look upon me, and then hear me. All that the last speaker has said relative to temperate drinking, as being the father of drunkenness, is true. All practice, all experience, declares its truth. All drinking of alcoholic poison, as a beverage in health, is excess. Look upon me! You all know me, or once did. You all know I was once the mistress of the best farm in the town; you all know, too, I had one of the best-the most devoted of husbands. You all know I had fine, noble-hearted, industrious boys. Where are they now? Doctor, where are they now? You all know. You all know they lie in a row, side by side, in yonder churchyard; all

every one of them, filling the drunkard's grave! They were all taught to believe that temperate drinking was safe-that excess alone ought to be avoided; and they never acknowledged excess. They quoted you, and you, and you (pointing with her shred of a finger to the minister, deacon, and doctor,) as authority. They thought themselves safe under such teachers. But I saw the gradual change coming over my family and its prospects, with dismay and horror. I felt we were all to be overwhelmed in one common ruin. I tried to ward off the blow; I tried to break the spell, the delusive spell, in which the idea of the benefits of temperate drinking had involved husband and sons. I begged, I prayed; but the odds were against me.

my

"The minister said the poison that was destroying my husband and boys was a good creature of God; the deacon who sits under the pulpit there, and took our farm to pay his rum bills, sold them the poison; the doctor said a little was good, and the excess only ought to be avoided. My poor husband, and my dear boys fell into the snare, and they could not escape; and, one after another, were conveyed to the sorrowful grave of the drunkard. Now look at me again. You probably see me for the last time. My sands have almost run. I have dragged my exhausted frame from my present home-your poor house-to warn you all; to warn you, deacon! to warn you, false teacher of God's word!" And with her arms flung high, and her tall form stretched to its utmost, and her voice raised to an unearthly pitch, she exclaimed, "I shall soon stand before the judgment seat of God. I shall meet you

there, you false guides, and be a witness against you all!”

The miserable woman vanished. A dead silence pervaded the assembly; the minister, the deacon and physician, hung their heads; and when the president of the meeting put the question, "Shall any licenses be granted for the sale of spirituous liquors?" the unanimous response was, "No!”—Memoir of Geo. N. Briggs, Ex-Governor of Mass.

Published by the Tract Association of Friends, No. 304 Arch Street, Philad'a.

FAITHFULNESS IN LITTLE THINGS

BY FENELON, ARCHBISHOP OF CAMBRAY.

THE opportunities for displaying great deeds of good

ness are rare, and when they do present themselves, there are many powerful stimulas to kindle magnanimity and perseverance. But the little occasions to stand firm in the cause of truth come upon us inadvertently; and almost every moment they render it necessary for us, without ceasing, to maintain a warfare against pride, slothfulness, and a domineering, lordly disposition; against precipitancy, impatience, etc., opposing our corrupt wills everywhere and in all things. If we will be faithful herein, our fallen nature must die to all its propensities.

Supporting a life of godliness is like unto successful management and economy in outward and domestic affairs. If attention is not paid to minute matters, frugally to save and avoid unnecessary expenses, there is a greater probability, step by step, of a declension, in point of property, than by large undertakings, which naturally excite caution. He who learns, by Divine assistance, to make a right application in small matters of a spiritual nature, will not fail to accumulate much treasure as well as he who is attentive in temporal concerns. Great things are only great because many

small materials are brought and combined together: he who is careful to lose nothing will generally increase his wealth. It is well for us to consider that it is not so much what we do as the motives of love in which our actions originate, and surrendering our own wills; this it is alone which renders our good works acceptable in the Divine sight. People judge of our actions according to outward observation, but with God those things are nothing which in the eyes of men shine with great lustre, for He requires a sincere intention, a will ready to bend to his will on all occasions, and an upright, entire forsaking ourselves.

Our faith is tried more powerfully in common occurrences, and less exposed to a mixture of pride, than in uncommon and remarkable concerns. We also find that we are many times more attached to certain little things than to matters of moment; for instance, some would find it much easier to give generous alms than to deny themselves a favorite diversion. Man is very liable to become beguiled by little things, because he looks on them as matters of indifference, and imagines himself free from any powerful attachment to them; but when God commands him to forsake them, he finds by painful experience how inordinate and unwarrantable his attachment to, and practice of them was; besides, through our inattention to small duties, we frequently give offence, and stumble our families and those about us, for people cannot believe that we fear God with uprightness when our conduct in small concerns is immoderate and careless; for how can an observer reconcile the idea of our being strong and scrupulous observers of important duties, that require the greatest sacrifices, when matters of small account have an undue ascendency over us; but the greatest danger herein is, that the soul, through careless indifference in lesser things, becomes gradually accustomed to unfaithfulness, grieves the Holy Spirit, and by degrees learns to account it a matter of small consequence to go counter to the

will of God: on the contrary, true love esteems nothing indifferent; everything capable of pleasing or displeasing God appearing great: not that true love drives the soul into a slavish, fearful scrupulousness, but it allows of no particular set bounds to faithfulness; it moves the mind in simplicity to pass by those things that God doth not require, but does not hesitate about those things he does require, be they great or small; so that our obedience in small matters does not originate from a forcible terror on the mind-it all arises in and by a current and power of love, free from those slavish fears and consultations accompanying restless, anxious and distressed souls. Man is drawn into the way of his duty through love to God; for even in the time of greatest trial, when the spirit of truth unceasingly urges the submissive soul step by step in the observance of small duties, and seems about to divest it of all freedom, behold it finds itself on a wide plain, and enjoys the depth of peace and freedom in Him. Oh! how happy is that soul.

Finally, it is particularly necessary for those who are naturally of an inadvertent and unwatchful disposition to be mindful. Man, by paying little regard to small duties, becomes accustomed to make no account of them; he does not enough consider the lead and tendency thereof; he does not enough view the almost imperceptible ascendency and assimilation of these things in and with his fallen propensities; he forgets the compunction and remorse these things have heretofore occasioned; he had rather indulge an imaginary idea of his establishment, and depend on his own judgment (which has, however, ofttimes deceived him), than to settle down into a constant, diligent, attentive watchfulness. We are apt to say, It is a little thing, it is nothing, yea, it is nothing! But it is such a nothing on which thy all depends; such a nothing as thou so inordinately lovest as to cleave to it in preference to the will of God; such a nothing which thou wilt despise