rising generation, warning them against pursuing a similar conduct, lest it should be followed by similar effects.

THE CRY OF DISTRESS UN

HEEDED.

Reader, permit me to relate an anecdote, which I have heard from that most eminent man of God, the Reverend John Wesley; it may put thee in mind to entertain strangers; At Epworth, in Lincolnshire, where (says he ) I was born, a poor woman came to a house in the market-place, and begged a morsel of bread, saying, I am very hungry. The master of the house called her a lazy jade, and bade her begone. She went forward, called at another house, and asked for a little small-beer, saying, I am I am very thirsty. Here she was refused, and told to go to the work-house. She struggled on to a third door, and begged a little water, saying, I am faint. The owner drove her

away, he would encourage no common beggars. It was winter, and the snow lay upon the ground. The boys seeing a poor ragged creature driven away from door to door, began to throw snow balls at her, she went to a little distance, sat down on the ground, lifted up her eyes to heaven, reclined on the earth, and expired!"

REFLECTIONS.

Here was a stranger: had the first, to whom she applied, relieved her with a morsel of bread, he would have saved her life, and not been guilty of blood. As the case stood, the woman was murdered; and, those three householders will stand arraigned at the bar of God, for her death..

Reader, fear to send any person empty away. If you know him to be an impostor, why, then, give him nothing. But, if you only suspect it, let not your suspicion be the rule of your conduct: give something, however little; because that little may be sufficient to preserve him, if in real want, from present death. If you know him not to be a knave, to you, he may be an angel. God may have sent him to exercise your charity, and try your faith. It can never be a matter of regret to you, that you gave an alms for God's sake,

though you should afterwards find that the person to whom you gave it, was both an hypocrite and impostor. Better to be imposed on by ninety-nine hypocrites out of an hundred applicants, than send one, like the poor Epworth woman, empty

away.

The whole from the Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by A. Clarke, L. L. D.

AN EVENT OF A PUBLIC AND UNCOMMON NATURE.

In this extraordinary affair, the pious, and learned Dr. Doddridge, was particularly concerned, and it deserves to be related as an evidence of his great benevolence, and for the sake of the useful reflections he makes upon it.

"At our assizes, last month, one Bryan Connell, an Irish papist, was convicted of

the murder of Richard Brymley, of Weedon, about two years ago. The evidence against him, at his trial, seemed full and strong; but it chiefly depended on the credit of an infamous woman, who owned she had lived with him in adultery some years. There were some remarkable circumstances, in the course of the trial, in which I thought the Providence of God wonderfully appeared. The prisoner told a long story of himself, but it was so ill supported, that I imagine, no one person in court believed it. I visited him after his conviction, with a compassionate view to his eternal concerns; but instead of being able, by any remonstrances, to persuade him to confess the fact, I found him fixed in a most resolute denial of it. He continued to deny it the next day, with such solemn, calm, but earnest appeals to heaven, and fervent cries that God would inspire some with the belief of his iunocence, that I was much impressed. As he desired to leave with me, at the time of his execution, a paper, in which he would give an account of the places where, and the persons with whom he was, when the murder was committed, I was so struck with the affair, that I obtained time of the under-sheriff, to make an enquiry into the truth of what he had told me. Having sent a wise and faithful friend to Whitchurch and Chester, to examine the evi

dence he appealed to, I found every circumstance which the convict had asserted, proved; and the concurrent testimony of five credible persons, attested, that he was in Cheshire, when the murder was committed. These testimonies I laid before the judge by whom he was condemned, for the deliverance of what, in my conscience I believed, and do still believe, to be innocent blood. But the judge did not think himself warranted to reprieve him ; as the evidence given against him by the wicked woman, was materially confirmed by two other witnesses; and because he thought the most dangerous consequences might attend such an examination of the affair, as I proposed. The convict was accordingly executed. I had laboured with unwearied pains and zeal, both for the deliverance of his life, and the salvation of his soul. What made the case more affecting to me, was, that nothing could be more tender than his expressions of gratitude, and nothing more cheerful than his hope of deliverance had been. Among other things, I remember he said, "Every drop of my blood thanks you, for you have had compassion on every drop of it.' He wished he might, before he died, have leave to kneel at the threshold of my door, to pray for me and mine; which, indeed, he did, on his knees, in the most earnest manner, as he was taken out to be exe