A Lay Commentator

At the time when the late Mr. Lacy was pastor of the Baptist church at Portsea, some of the brethren, chiefly those of the dockyard, constantly ushered in the morning of the Lord's day at six o'clock by meeting in the vestry for social prayer, exhortation, and conference on some portion of scripture, alternately.

At one of these conference mornings, the text led to charity; all spoke in their turn, if they.chose. When it came to Charles Benjamin, his comment on the text was as follows: "I shall say nothing more than this. We have been talking of charity; it would be good to put it in exercise. Here is our brother, Ephraim Forth. He goes to dock every morning in this cold weather without a great coat; and here is my shilling towards buying him one." The good men took the hint; and Ephraim was enabled to purchase the necessary coat the next day and went to dock warmed if not quite filled.