The Fragment Basket. ADVICE THROUGH THE KEYHOLE. THERE was once a young shoemaker, who became so much interested in idle tales that his shop was filled with loungers, talking, and discussing, and disputing about one thing and another from morning till night; and he found it often necessary to work till midnight to make up for the lost hours during the day. 66 One night, after his shutters were closed, and he was busy on his bench, a boy passing along put his mouth to the keyhole, and mischievously piped out, Shoemaker, shoemaker, work by night, and run about all day." "Had a pistol been fired off at my ear," he said, “I could not have been more startled. I dropped my work, saying to myself, True, true, but you never shall have that to say of me again.' I never forgot it. To me it was as the voice of God, and it has been a word in season throughout my life. I learned from it not to leave till to-morrow the work of to-day, or to be idle when I ought to be working. From that time I turned over a new leaf." poor, and you inflict a general desecration of character upon them. Taste and honour, and a native love of truth, may be sufficient guarantees for the performance of duties to the breaking of which there is no temptation. But they are not enough for the wear and exposure of ordinary life. They make a feeble defence against such temptations as assail and agitate the men who, on the rack of their energies, are struggling for subsistence. With them the relative obligations hold more singly upon the religious; and if the tie of religion, therefore, be cut asunder, the whole of their morality will forthwith go into unhingement. Whatever virtue there is on the humbler levels of society, it holds direct of the Sabbath and of the sanctuary; and when these cease to be venerable, the poor cease to be virtuous. You take away all their worth when you take away the fear of God from before their eyes; and why, then, should we wonder at the result of a very general depravation among them, if before their eyes should be held forth, on the part of their earthly superiors, an utter fearlessness of God? The humbler, it ought not to be expected, will follow the higher classes on the ground of social virtue; for they have other and severer difficulties to combat, and other temptations over which the victory would be greatly more arduous. But the humbler will follow the higher on the ground of irreligion, only they will do it in their own style, and, perhaps, with the more daring and lawless spirit of those who riot in the excesses of newly-felt liberty.-Dr. Chalmers. PRAYER. PRAYER, like Jonathan's bow, returns not empty. Never was faithful prayer lost at sea. No merchant trades with such certainty as the praying saint. Some prayers, indeed, have a longer voyage than others; but then they return with a richer lading at last.-Gurnall. Poetry. THE VOYAGE OF LIFE. On the lake the storm is blowing, ་་ Still my throbbing heart's emotion, THE HEART IS A BELL. YOUR heart is beating day by day; If it could speak, what would it say? The hours of night its pulses tell, Have you, my children, considered well, What means this little, restless heart? It is a little bell, whose tone Is heard by you and God alone: At your soul's door it hangs, and there His Spirit stays with loving care, And rings the bell, and deigns to wait To see if closed remains the gate. He rings and waits. O! then begin At once your prayer: "Lord, enter in." So when its time on earth is past, Your heart will beat no more at last; And when its latest pulse is o'er, 'Twill go and knock at heaven's door; And stand without and patient wait, To see if Christ will ope the gate, And say, "Here endless joys begin, Here, faithful servant, enter in! I was on earth thy cherished guest, And now in heaven I give thee rest. Receive at length thy full rewardEnjoy the blessings of thy Lord." Evening Post. Personal Religion. DECISION. BY BREWIN GRANT, B.A. Outline of a Discourse addressed to the Glasgow Young Men's Sabbath Protection Association. "If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."JOSHUA XXxiv. 15. 66 THIS was a reasonable, noble, and manly appeal of Joshua to the people of Israel, that they should now make up their minds what they intended doing-openly and deliberately choose whom they would serve if they were not disposed to abandon their idols-if "it seemed evil to them to serve the Lord," they were to "choose, that day, whom they would serve;" whether the gods whom their fathers worshipped on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land they dwelt;" but whatever their decision might be, his course was clear-" as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Here is an example well worthy of our imitation, both in the rational and independent way of appealing to others, and in the conscientious determination on our own account, for ourselves and our house, that, at least, whatever others may do, our own line of conduct is decided upon; while the response of the people to this appeal should commend itself to all who have hitherto been undecided-" We also will serve the Lord; for He is our God." Let us, then, consider this whole case, and regard the appeal of Joshua as one made to ourselves; and the answer of the people as one made by ourselves; and an answer given in the true spirit of earnestness, but with a devout reliance on the help of His grace, whom we promise to serve, to aid us in our service, and keep us loyal to our pledge and duty. I. First notice the independence of the appeal, in throwing men on their own responsibilities; letting them clearly understand that it is their own concern, and not any favour bestowed on those who recommend religion to them. For sometimes religion is treated as if it were a canvassing for an election, and as if every vote and adherent were some gain to a party. This makes it scorned and despised; as if to receive its principles, or to profess its hopes, were to confer an obligation on man, which can be given or withheld at pleasure. While those who advocate its claims seem sometimes to make religion go abegging, instead of walking forth in queenly majesty, uttering the sovereign commands of Heaven, and summoning the world to submission, as well as offering to the world salvation. It is true that there is a beseeching and imploring attitude of pity and benevolence which the Gospel assumes towards some, praying them, in Christ's stead, as though God did beseech them by His messengers, to be reconciled to Him. But when this fails, when men assume a false independence, or a hardened indifference, the subject is placed coldly, calmly, and severely before them, as a question quite indifferent to those who urge it, and only the concern of those who are addressed. When men with impudent hardihood say, we will not have your religion; we do not believe your Bible; the only answer is—That is your own look-out; we wish for your sakes that you did; but if you disbelieve and reject the offers of the Gospel, you are the losers; you deprive yourselves of all the blessings which the Saviour has purchased, but you do not escape the responsibility which He will enforce; if you choose to peril your immortal soul, to despise the great mercy displayed on the cross, be assured of this, that we shall never abandon it. Nor will it fail because you despise it; "the foundation of God abideth sure;" and for our part we shall hold to it, and wish you would join us; but, "if it seem evil to you to serve the Lord," choose for yourselves you will serve," "but as for us and our house we will serve the Lord." "whom This is the first and leading characteristic of Joshua's appeal, the independence of the address, in throwing the people upon their own responsibility; to neglect religion at their own risk, “ if it seem evil," to attend to their own concerns. II. The second principle in the address is to treat religion as a question of reason on the one hand, and of free choice on the other. The reason is, what it brings in its own nature, as something that not only demands attention, but deserves it; the free choice is what this reason is to bring us to. Here Joshua lays the whole case before them; tells what God has done for them; shows how true He has been hitherto to His promises, in bringing them into that land as their inheritance. Josh. xxiii. 14—16. He now puts it to them, which they will serve the gods of the Amorites, who had failed to defend the people against Israel; or that Jehovah, who had been as good as His word in keeping the promise of bringing them out of Egypt into this goodly land, who would equally be true to His threatenings to expel them also if they rebelled against His laws. In like manner God has fulfilled His promise that He would send Jesus to save us; and this is a proof that He will send Jesus to judge us; and He hath given a second "assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him from the dead." Thus the same appeal is made to our reason; we are led into the land of Canaan-into the promised inheritance of Gospel privileges. God has provided the Passover Lamb for us, carried us through the desert of ignorance and heathen wandering, and brought us into the possession of all the means of grace, that, by the "obedience of faith," we may secure all this blessedness as our eternal inheritance. "If we believe not, He abideth faithful;" He is true to His promises, for they are performed; and He will be true to His threatenings and warnings if these promises are despised. The same free choice is placed before us in the Gospel; and after we are called by every moving consideration to accept the Saviour, if we refuse, the condemnation is, "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." Whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely." 66 If we perish, the guilt is on our own heads, since "God hath so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him,"-freely and heartily relies on His atoning, interceding, and sanctifying work,—".might not perish, but have, everlasting life." It is a matter of reason and free choice. We are the more bound, for our own sakes, to accept this opportunity of a free choice of salvation; because, III. There is no middle course; it is either life or death, heaven or hell; we cannot trim between; we cannot unite God and mammon, Christ and the world; we cannot serve both; but we must serve one; the only question is, which shall it be? We are to "fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth," without any mixture, without any secret service of other gods; we are to put away all strange gods, as a pledge of our sincerity; "for |