hey could to make his way easy towards the dark valley of
the shadow of death. Oh, Jack, it is a great thing to fall in with real
Christians at such a time. It makes one think of the poor man in
Scripture who fell among thieves, and had his wounds dressed and care
taken of him by the good Samaritan. Aye, aye, Jack; and I know,
moreover, that the good example and excellent advice in these houses
have been the means, in the Lord's hands, of saving both the body and
soul of many a poor neglected, weather-beaten tar, who would otherwise
have fallen into the jaws of the devouring sharks who are always on the
watch, with open mouths, to prey upon the poor son of ocean, and to
swallow him up without pity or remorse.

JACK. Well, heave ahead, my hearty; I'm the lad that won't flinch. So,
three cheers for the glorious Temperance cause, for Sailor's Homes and
Bethels, and for the mothers, wives, sisters, and sweethearts of all
true-hearted seamen. And let every jolly tar who loves his family and
domestic peace, and wants to do his duty and be respected in this world,
and lay an anchor to windward of another and better world, toe the
plank, and sign the pledge right off the reel. Huzza, huzza, huzza.

THE OX SERMON.

Among the laws given by the divine Lawgiver through Moses to the Jews,
was the following: "If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then
the ox shall be surely stoned; but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
But if the ox _were wont to push_ with his horn in time past, and it
hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but he
hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also
shall be put to death." Exod. 21: 28, 29.

The principle of this law is a very plain one, and a very broad
one--here applied in a specific case, but extending to ten thousand
others. It is this. Every man is responsible to God for the evils which
result from his selfishness, or his indifference to the welfare of
others.

Ages before this law was given, God says to Noah, "Your blood of your
lives will I require: at the hand of every beast will I require it, and
at the hand of man." A stigma shall be fixed upon man or beast that
shall destroy him who is made after the similitude of God. But why, in
the case first supposed, is the owner quit, or guiltless? Simply because
the death is not in any way the result of his carelessness or of his
selfishness. From any thing within his knowledge, he h