SELECT SAYINGS. The cross, on which Christ was extended, points in the length of it, to heaven and earth, reconciling them together; and in the breadth of it, to former and following ages, as being equally salvation to both. Archbishop Leighton. : Behold Jesus hanging on the cross: his face torn and mangled his body covered with marks of scorn; swelled with strokes of violence; bedewed from head to foot with bloody gore: behold him, even in this condition, exert the most wonderful act of power we or angels can conceive. Hear him say to the thief, who made his prayer to him, and placed his whole dependence upon him, hear him say, "this day thou shalt be with me in paradise! I will carry thee up with me into heaven, as a trophy of my victory over Satan; and will shew thee there, as part of the spoils that shall adorn my triumphs over hell."-He snatches this abandoned sinner from the brink of destruction, as an earnest of the full recovery of all who should ever trust in him. He saves one, that seemed not only void of grace, but beyond its power; and sanctifies that heart in an instant, which had probably been for a long course, wallowing in sin. THE CRUCIFIXION. Venn. I ask'd the heavens- What foe to God hath done I ask'd the sea; the sea in fury boil'd, And answer'd with his voice of storms-"'Twas man ; I ask'd the earth;-the earth replied aghast, To man, gay, smiling, thoughtless man, I went, MONTGOMERY. A HYMN. "There remaineth a rest to the people of God." A heart that knows the bitterness of woe; I'd lead to contemplate sublimer strains; There is a rest, where sickening doubts ne'er gloom, There are unknown, the trophies of the tomb, There is a rest, where kindred souls shall meet, But ah, if there the intercourse of soul "Tween those who ma le but one while here below, Be sweet; much more shall richer pleasures roll, From his affection, who did all bestow! There shall the dearest of all friends, be known, Hull, 5th December, 1823. A CONSTANT READER. John xiii. 22.-Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus LOVED. Printed by A. Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale FRIENDLY VISITOR. No. LXVIII. MAY, 1824. VOL. VI. POLL PEG. About a mile from the village of Desford in Leicestershire, at the end of a steep and rugged lane, there stands a wretched cottage, which I one day went to visit. The room was dark and dirty; there was nothing on the walls, but the bare beams too ill joined to keep out the weather, with cracks in vain stopped by rent and moulded paper. A table and some broken chairs were all the furniture, except what seemed intended for a bed. Quite grey, and very old, and scarcely clothed, a woman was sitting by the fire-place, unconscious, as it seemed, of all that passed around her. Her features were very large and harsh-her white hair, turned back from the forehead, hung uncombed upon her shoulders her withered arm, stretched without motion on her knee, seemed lifeless-her eye was fixed on the wall before her-an expression of suffering, and a faint movement of the lips, alone told that she had life in her. Placed with her back to the door, she w.. not aware of my approach; and while I paused to listen and to gaze, I might have concluded that here at least was a place, where happiness could not dwell. But it was not so. From the pale, shrivelled lips of this poor woman, I heard a whispering expression of enjoyment, I could distinguish the words, "Delightful," "Happy." As I advanced into the house, the old woman looked at me with kindness, bade me be seated; and 'till questioned, shewed very little desire to talk.Being asked how she did, she at first replied, "very E ill;" then hastily added, "my carcase is ill-but I am well, very well." And then she laid her head upon a cold, black stone, standing out of the wall near the fire-place, as if unable to support it longer. I remarked that it was bad weather. "Yes," she answered-then hastily correcting herself "No— not bad-it is God Almighty's weather, and it cannot be bad."--Are you in pain ?" I asked :-" Yes, always in pain-but not such pain as my Saviour suffered for me; his pain was worse than mine; mine does not matter." Something being said about the misery of her cottage, she smiled, and said she did not think it so; and wished all were as happy as herself. Being asked if that was all the bed she had, on which to sleep, she said she seldom slept, and it was long that she had not been able to undress herself; but it was on that straw she passed the night. I asked her, if the night did not seem long. "No, not long, (she answered) never long; I think of God all night; and when the cock crows, I wonder that morning comes so soon."—" And the days you sit here all day in pain, not able to move. Are the days not long?""How can they be long? Is not He with me? Is not all up, up?" (An expression she often used, to describe the joyful state of her mind.) On saying she passed much time in prayer, she was asked for what she prayed. To this she replied, "Oh! to go, you know; to go when he pleases-not till he pleases." To express the comfort and ease she found in prayer, she once said, it seemed as if her prayers were all laid out for her, ready in her bed. But time would fail to repeat the words in which this aged saint spoke of her gratitude to the Saviour who died for her-her enjoyment of the God who abode with her-her blessed hope of that heaven to which she was hastening—and her perfect contentment with her earthly portion. The outline of her history, as gathered at different times from her own lips, was this:-Her husband's name was Peg; her own being Mary, she was mostly called Poll Peg; and had long been known in the village, as living in extreme poverty, and going about to beg bacon at Christmas. Her youth had been passed in service. She was now a bout eighty years old. Later in life, she had kept sheep upon the forest hills; and in her simplicity, would speak of her days of prosperity, when she had two sheep of her own. She could not read, but from attending Church had become familiar with the language of Scripture. The first earnest religious feeling she had, was once when she was walking alone in the fields. She bethought herself of her hard fate -a youth of toil, and old age of want and misery": and if she must go to hell at last, how dreadful was her portion! Struck with the awful thought, she knelt down beneath the hedge to pray. Not very long after this, the old woman was taken ill. She was unable to move from the straw, at that time her only bed, in a loft over the room where she sat. There she lay, ill sheltered by the broken roof, and worse by the rags that scarcely covered her; exposed to the weather, without money to support, or friend to comfort her. It was in this condition, that her mind, dwelling most likely on the things that in health were neglected, received the strong and lasting impression of a dream. She thought she saw the broad and narrow roads as described in Scripture. In the broad road there were many walking; it was smooth and pleasant, and they got on fast; but the end of it was dark. On the narrow road, she herself was treading, and some few others; but, the way was rugged-some turned back, and others sat down as unable to proceed. She herself advanc ed 'till she reached a place more beautiful than any |