rence. Thus shall God the Holy Spirit renew that man whom the Father hath pardoned, and the Son atoned for; thus shall He cleanse those from the pollutions of sin whom the Father's mercy and the Son's death have delivered from the guilt and condemnation of it. you Dear brethren, to know these two things aright is life eternal. We have destroyed ourselves, but in God is our help. May God Almighty shew you what you are, and You are make you what you ought to be. (whether you know it or not) guilty; may He make you feel your guilt. You are polInted and defiled; may He make feel it. You are weak and helpless; may He make you feel it. But there is in Him free pardon of your guilt; may He lead you to seek for it. There is in Him deliverance from the power of sin; may He lead you to seek for it. There is in Him strength to keep you in every difficulty, and grace to help in every time of need; may He lead you so to ask that O Israel, return you may receive, &c. unto the Lord thy God, " for thou hast fallen by thine own iniquity." Take with you words, and turn unto the Lord; say unto him "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips (the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving); for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy." THOUGHTS ON HISTORICAL PASSAGES OF I. THE remark of the evangelist, that our blessed Lord "taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes," will be confirmed by every one who carefully reads the records which his Gospel contains of the converse he deigned to hold with those whom he came from heaven to redecm. The multitude who had listened to the words of heavenly teaching that fell from his lips on the sacred mount, might well be astonished at his doctrine; so different from that which proceeded from those blind leaders who then sat in Moses' seat. Never before had they heard such an exposition of that law, which is indeed holy, just, and good; never before had they understood its obligations, or felt the personal character of its precepts. They indeed had learned the letter; some of them even on their very garments had inscribed its commands; but none had imbibed its spirit. By their traditions they had made the commandment of God of none effect; they had debased its excellence, and alloyed its purity. The wonder and astonishment of the surrounding multitude, as they listened to the holy and sinless Jesus, whilst he unfolded to them the true nature and spiritual tendency of the moral law, we, at this day, can "And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, And Jesus put Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean." -Matt. viii. 2, 3. not duly estimate. The veil which so long had dimmed their mental vision, for a time must have been uplifted, and, for a season at least, they must have acknowledged that no man whose mission was not divine could have spoken as he spake. It was after our Saviour had ended his sermon, and had come down from the mountain, that he was pleased to perform the miraculous cure of the poor leper, whose wretched condition rendered him an outcast of society, and had driven him from his home and his kindred." And, behold, he came and worshipped Jesus" -approached him in full assurance of the divine power with which he was invested. It may be, he himself had either heard or been told of the wonderful display which had just been made in the ears of all the people; or he may have observed the consciencesmitten Jews as they departed, and have heard the rumour, which must have gained a rapid circulation, that he taught as one who had authority of God, and not of man. We may picture to our minds the miserable leper, writhing under the tortures of his grievous distemper, listening, if he possessed the privilege, with intense eagerness to every word as it proceeded from his mouth; catching, as it were, every drop of the heaven-sent shower, wherewith to cool his aching brow and quench his burning thirst. In the anguish of his soul he feels the truth of every maxim, and is convinced that he who thus could shed such a stream of heavenly light upon the two tables of the law was no other than the Son of God. At once he might have felt an irresistible impulse to rush through the astonished crowd, and fall at Jesus' feet, and supplicate his pity and implore his omnipotent aid-did he not know and feel that his very presence amongst his fellow-creatures was defilement. But when they had dispersed, and the opportunity of engaging attention presented itself, immediately he hastened to pay his homage, and shew his faith in Jesus as the "Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." He worshipped him. Short, but energetic, was his prayer; few were his words; but enough did they contain to prove (had such been necessary to one who knows the very secrets of the heart) his confiding trust in the power of him before whom he stood, to cure him of his leprosy. "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean." The meek and placid eye of the Redeemer rested for one instant upon the piteous object; he beheld his misery, he knew his faith; and Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, saying, "I will; be thou clean;" and immediately his leprosy left him. Though stripped in outward guise of all his heavenly majesty, though he breathed this air and trod this earth, yet was he still the Sovereign of the universe-still equal to his Father as touching his Godhead-still the mighty Disposer of events, as before he had been the Creator of all worlds -and now, as then, he did but speak, and it was done, he commanded, and it stood fast. Therefore it was that he spake with authority, and said, without reference to any other power than his own, "I will; be thou clean." The words were spoken, and the leper was cleansed; in one moment the most loathsome disease that clings to humanity is mastered and dispelled; the current of blood is changed and purified, it flows in health and vigour through every vein. Be thou clean; or rather, as the original more fully implies, be Á single thou thoroughly and completely cleansed. word is enough; the arm of omnipotence was out. stretched to save-the word of almighty mercy was uttered-the most miserable became the happiest upon earth. What a moment of enviable, of almost heavenly bliss was this, in which the Galilean leper heard the words, and felt himself again restored from living death to health and strength and joy-from the misery of the roaming outcast to the arms of bereaved kindred, a widowed mother, or a sorrowing wife! Had the wondering multitude, under the impressions produced by his awakening sermon, witnessed immediately afterwards this interposition of divine mercy, we should with reason be led to expect a partial gathering together of some of Israel's sons; but at this early period of our Lord's ministry it pleased him to veil his glory, it comported not with his present purpose to manifest his miraculous power openly before all the people; in this respect his hour was not yet come. He charged the man, and said unto him, "See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them." Before the time in which he was to lay down his life a ransom for the world, it was necessary that he should give full proof of his divine mission, and instruct his disciples in his doctrine. It was therefore from motives purely prudential that he commanded silence and secrecy, concerning the mighty deed which he had wrought. "Go, shew thyself to the priest." It was an ordinance of the Levitical law, that he who was cured of leprosy should present himself before the priest, that he might be pronounced by him to be clean. Thus Jesus was above the law, yet he transgressed it not. How justly might he have dispensed with this requirement! yet does he not. Though the law binds not the Maker, yet does he willingly bind himself. This was but a branch of the ceremonial law, yet would he not slight it. "How carefully, therefore," observes Bishop Hall, "should we submit ourselves to the royal laws of our Creator, to the wholesome laws of our superiors, while the Son of God would not but be so punctual in a ceremony!" Though the priest was corrupt, yet his function was sacred; though they denied him his rightful authority, yet did he acknowledge that of the priest. He was to offer the gift prescribed in such cases for a testimony unto them, either as a proof and witness that he did not destroy the law of Moses, or else as a testimony that he was the Christ. They themselves allowed that one of the characteristics of the Messiah would be his power to heal that very disease; therefore their obstinacy in rejecting his office was without excuse. This, therefore, was their condemnation, that they preferred darkness to light, because their deeds were evil. POSITION OF DISSENT.* IT has been, indeed, the fashion of late, with some among us, to talk as if the exclusive patronage of one Church by the legislature inflicted disgrace and degradation upon the dissenters. It was even said, that toleration is "the abhorrence of the dissenter," and that they would be satisfied with nothing less than absolute equality as a religious body with the Church -an equality which was to be obtained, not as is now proposed, by the endowment of dissent (a notion which was then spurned at), but by the withdrawal from the Church of all state-patronage. It seems, however, that so far from gaining friends to the voluntary system by the controversy they thus excited, they lost ground considerably by it; and therefore, equality being the great, the all-engrossing object in view, they seem quite ready to fall in with any plan that From "Church Rates, Colonial Church, and National Education. A Reply to the Answer of the Edinburgh Review, &c. In Two Letters to the Editor." By the Rev. William Goode, MA., of Trinity College, Cambridge, Rector of St. Antholin, London. Letter II., pp. 37. London, Hatchard and Son, 1839. The two letters of Mr. Goode are written in a spirit so thoroughly Christian, that we conceive no really conscientious religious non-conformist can find a hook whereon he may hang a railing accusation. His arguments carry with thein the force of demonstration, and he deserves the thanks of every member of our Church for the bold, decided, and, at the same time, mild and Christian manner, in which he has treated the subject. The letters merit serious perusal; a perusal which we would recommend to all who view churchmanship as bigotry, and an uncompromising attachment to establishments as a proof of imbecility for as such they have lately been generally represented." shall bring about in any way such a result. Unlike their forefathers, they would willingly see popery itself taught under state-patronage, to secure their favourite object. They appear, indeed, blind to the nature and consequences of the contest in which they are engaged. Who are the great enemies of Christian truth in the land? Popery and infidelity. Who are among the foremost of the assailants of the Church, and at the same time favour and support the dissenters? Popery and infidelity. Is this, or is it not, a practical proof that the Church is, as some candid dissenters have themselves allowed, the great bulwark against popery and infidelity; the destruction of which would be followed by the tyranny of one or the other of those great enemies of God and man? And yet there are those infatuated enough to reason, "Because the churchman enjoys more state-patronage in his religion than I do, though I cannot and would not take his place, I am determined that, come what may, there shall be no longer this inequality; and therefore I will join with popery and infidelity to pull the Church down." From those who are in such a state of mind, it would be vain to expect satisfaction with any plan such as the Church or the majority of the nation could conscientiously accept or acquiesce in. But there are others not prepared to raise themselves at the expense of truth, and upon the ruins of the national faith. There are those who, though conscientiously dissenting from the Church, have no wish to set the country on fire to reduce all to the same level. I would say then to such, as I would say to churchmen in similar circumstances: Bide your time. If you are right, and your opponents wrong, God will bless your legitimate exertions in the cause of truth. But do not interrupt the peace and tranquillity of the country, in order to force those who believe you to be involved in serious error to aid in the propagation of your views against their own convictions. When you have obtained the majority in the country and the legislature, then by all means let the minority in their turn quietly acquiesce. But there seems to prevail just now in some minds a notion that what is taken for religious purposes from the contributions of the nation, must in fairness be divided proportionably to the demands of all the different religious sects that exist in it. That is, because of the infatuation under which many labour, poison and good food are to be distributed to them with scrupulous impartiality. The physician and the quack are to be equally encouraged, because there are some who prefer the latter to the former. Surely the absurdity of such reasoning is transparent. It is urged, again, that such plans must be adopted out of respect to the consciences of dissenters. But is a legislator to aid in the propagation of important or vital error and falsehood, out of respect to the consciences of those who embrace it? For instance, sup pose the fanatic who lately disturbed the peace of the county of Kent, had collected a body of followers without offending against the public peace. Is a legislator to vote for aiding the spread of such a delusion, out of respect to the consciences of those who embrace it? If not, the line must be drawn somewhere. The question therefore is, where is it to be drawn; and by what rule are we to draw it? And no man who recognises the fact of his responsibility to God in his capacity of legislator for the promotion of the true religion, can doubt how such a question is to be answered. Let me add, also, that the steady recognition of this fact will alone lead to any thing like consistent legislation on this subject. If the matter be viewed as one of expediency, if it be looked at in a political light, the conduct of men will vary with all the varying events and circumstances of the times. It is only when it is viewed as a religious duty, a duty for the performance of which each individual legislator is, as an individual, responsible to God-a duty, therefore, equally to be performed | when circumstances seem adverse as when they are favourable, that there will be any thing like a consistent and permanent support given to the cause of truth. And here is the great trial of the Christian legislator; whether, when immersed in the vortex of political life, and accustomed in other matters to shape his course by the circumstances and events of the day, he can here make one fixed principle of action his alone guide, and, undeterred by circumstances, keep one object steadily in view; whether, in a word, he will act with a single eye (whoever and whatever may be his opponents) to the performance of his duty to God, as one charged with the defence and support of God's truth. Is there any thing unintelligible, any thing unreasonable, in the supposition that the legislator should reason thus? My duty towards God requires me to promote the instruction of the people in what I believe to be the true religion, the faith that will bring salvation. Can I then vote for their instruction in what I believe to be fatal, or at least most dangerous error? Nay more, can I, in the fulfilment of this duty, aid even those who, though they may not be involved in such errors, are, for the sake of non-essential points, rending that Church, which God intended to be one, into numberless fragments, all at variance with each other? What may be the opinion of the majority of the legislature, is a question which in this case ought to have no influence in determining the vote of the individual, though in that opinion when expressed, supposing it to be consistent with the principles of religious freedom, all are bound to acquiesce. Such is the plain, straightforward, honest reasoning, to the justice of which one might suppose that all parties would accede. But no; the notion seems to have possessed the minds of many, that all the various "religious denominations" in the country have an equal claim upon the legislature for support. Men are not satisfied with allowing what they believe to be schism and error to be propagated by the voluntary exertions of its adherents, but it must be supported, taught, and endowed out of the national purse. Mark what is implied in this! It is implied, that the God of peace and order is satisfied that his Church should consist of a number of unconnected units, a complete Babel of rival sects and parties, having neither government nor discipline in common, but all independent of each other, and all entitled to set up a form of doctrine and discipline to their own taste, and at the same time be recognised by the others as the "religious denominations" of the world. For if this division is not agreeable to the will of God, then are some of those parties acting contrary to his will. While, then, it is true that each party may blame the others, and none can justly claim infallibility, is it not an anomaly perfectly unaccountable, that members of our Church should act as if they believed that those who have separated from us are blameless? And the truth is, that in many cases it arises from the latitudinarian notion, that men are not responsible for their belief. Now, I am not about to discuss the question here, what form of doctrine and government was left by the apostles in the Church. But I ask you, whether there was not some such form left, and in what light the apostolical writings teach us to regard those who from heresy or disorderly walking were cut off, or separated themselves, from churches formed after the apostolical pattern? Nay, what think you of our Lord's own address to the church in Thyatira,—“I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed-unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and the hearts," &c. (Rev. ii. 20, &c.) I do not quote this as speaking of the duties of the secular power, nor do I make any application of it to any party in the country. But I ask you this question, Suppose the legislature of Thyatira to have been similar to our own, and the question in discussion to be, How shall we fulfil our duty to God, as a legislature, in providing for the religious instruction of the community? How ought those who belonged to the orthodox Church to have acted? Why, according to you, the orthodox Church, the followers of Jezebel, and the various other parties to be found there, such, perhaps, as the Nicolaitans of Pergamos, whose doctrine our Lord tells us he hates (Rev. ii. 15), are "the religious denominations of the country," and it would have been most illiberal for the members of the Church-sect, not to have voted that all those various errors should be taught in the national schools, at the expense and under the sanction of the state. I defy you to shew, that this is any exaggeration of the state of things to which your principles would lead. And think not to avoid the difficulty by accusing me of comparing this party with an apostolical Church, and the other with the followers of Jezebel, and so on. I do nothing of the kind. But I quote the case as an illustration of the true nature of your principle. If it is a duty which the state owes to God to provide for the religious instruction of the community, it is its duty to give its aid only in the promotion of that which it believes to be the truth; and this duty is fulfilled by individual legislators in their acting according to their professed belief. And I will only add, God grant that we may not, as a nation, so "commit adultery" with error, as to be cast by the just judgment of God into "great tribulation." The Cabinet. LOSERS OF SOULS.-All they who wrong others to enrich themselves; all that rob upon the highway, pick pockets, or break open houses; all that forge deeds, forswear themselves, or suborn others to do so in lawsuits; all that willingly cheat, defraud, or over-reach their neighbours, in buying or selling their goods; all that pilfer and steal, or so much as withhold and conceal that which they know belongs to another; all that are able, and yet will not pay what they owe, but lie in prison, or hide themselves, or at least pretend they cannot do it; all that smuggle the king's customs, or corrupt his officers, and by that means keep to themselves what the law hath made due to him; all that refuse or neglect to relieve those of their relations or others which are really in need, and so withhold from them the maintenance which God hath appointed for them; all that oppress and gripe poor workmen in their prices or servants in the wages which are due to them; all that work upon people's necessities, and extort from them more than the laws of the land allow of; all that follow such unlawful trades as tend to the corrupting of youth, and to the nourishing of vice and wickedness in the world; all that by false weights or measures, by lying or over-reckoning, or by any trick, impose upon those they deal with; and all that are conscious to themselves, that by these, and such like unlawful ways, they have got other men's money, goods, or estates in their hands, and yet will not restore them again to their right owners as far as they are able ;-these all as plainly lose their souls for this world, as if they should make a solemn contract or bargain with the devil, that upon condition they may have such and such things at present, he shall have their souls for ever; for so he will, and leave them in the lurch too: he will serve them in their own kind; as they cheated others, he will cheat them, and put them off with nothing but dreams and fancies, instead of the great profit and advantage they expected.-Bp. Beveridge. SELF-DECEIVERS.-Thither are to be reduced as deceitful workers, those that promise to God, but mean not to pay what they once intended; people that are confident in the day of ease, and fail in the danger; they that pray passionately for a grace, and if it be not obtained at that price, go no further, and never contend in action for what they seem to contend in prayer; such as delight in forms and outsides, and regard not the substance and design of every institution; that think it a great sin to taste bread before the receiving the holy sacrament, and yet come to communicate with an ambitious and revengeful soul; that make a conscience of eating flesh, but not of drunkenness; that keep old customs and old sins together; that pretend one duty to excuse another; religion against charity, or piety to parents against duty to God; private promises against public duty; the keeping of an oath against breaking of a commandment; honour against modesty; reputation against piety; the love of the world in civil instances to countenance enmity against God: these are the deceitful workers of God's word; they make a schism in the duties of religion, and a war in heaven worse than that between Michael and the dragon; for they divide the Spirit of God, and distinguish his commandments into parties and factions; by seeking an excuse, sometimes they destroy the integrity and perfect constitution of duty, or they do something whereby the effect and usefulness of the duty is hindered; concerning all which this only can be said, they who serve God with a lame sacrifice and an imperfect duty, a duty defective in its constituent parts, can never enjoy God; because he can never be divided; and though it be better to enter into heaven with one foot, and one eye, than that both should be cast into hell, because heaven can make recompense for this loss; yet nothing can repair his loss, who, for being lame in his duty, shall enter into hell, where nothing is perfect, but the measures and duration of torment, and they both are next to infinite. -Bishop Taylor. CONNEXION BETWEEN THE SOUL AND BODY.Scarcely can I conceive, even to myself, this union between my body and my soul-how it is that I bear upon me the stamp of divinity, and that at the same time I grovel in the dust! Is my body in health, it wars against me; is it sick, I languish with it in sympathy. It is at once a companion that I love, and an enemy that I dread-it is a prison that frightens me, a partner with whom I dwell. If I weaken it by excess, I become incapable of any thing noble; if I indulge it, or treat it with too much consideration, it revolts, and my slave escapes me. It fastens me to the earth by ties I cannot break, and prevents me from taking my upward flight to God, for which end alone I was created. It is an enemy that I love-a treacherous friend whom it is my duty to mistrust. To fear, and yet to love!-at once what union and what discord! For what end, with what secret motive, is it that man has been thus organised? Is it not that God has seen it fit by this means to humble our pride, which might otherwise have carried us to the height of disdaining even our Creator, in the thought that, being derived from the same fount of being, we might be permitted to regard ourselves as on terms of equality with him? It is then to recall us incessantly to the sense of our entire dependence on him, that God has reduced our bodies to this state of frailty, which exposes us to perpetual combats; balancing our nobleness by our baseness; holding us in suspense between death and immortality, according to the affection which inclines us to the body or the soul; so that, if the excellences of our souls should inspire us with pride, the imperfec tions inseparable from our bodies may bring us back to humility.-St. Gregory Nazianzen. A NEGATIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS INSUFFICIENT. -Glorify thyself no longer, that thou doest harm to no man ; he robs his neighbour that relieves him not; he spoils his friend, that in some cases doth not supply him. And though it is well (a good decree), if we can say with St. Paul, "I have wronged no man ;" yet he only is perfectly blameless in this kind, who doth not this evil to his neighbour, that he omits to do him all the good he can. Thou didst not burn thy neighbour's house (a strange piece of uncouth righteousness!); but dost thou receive him into thy own, now he is harbourless? Thou hast not oppressed or impoverished thy brother; it is well; but is thy abundance the supply of his want in this present exigence, thy superfluity the ransom and redemption of his extreme necessities? If not, remember that Dives is in torments, not for robbing Lazarus, but for not relieving him; and the dreadful decretory sentence proceeds, at the last day, not for oppressing the poor, but for not feeding, not clothing, not visiting them.-Archbishop Sancroft. Poetry. HYMN. BY THE REV. G. BRYAN. (For the Church of England Magazine.) SWEET is the feast of Jesus' love, And bright the banquet shines Of things below and things above, From Truth's exhaustless mines. Pardon, and peace, and life, and light, In holy paths abound; And grace shall guide their footsteps right, Who in those paths are found. The lowly seek the living way, And humbly walk therein, Fast to the world of endless day, And from the world of sin. And swifter still, now those are gone, And yet, to years, to moments, give Thine anxious thought, thy watchful care; 'Tis life for God alone to live, The foe to meet, the cross to bear; To thee may future birth-days bring Miscellaneous. ASTRONOMY.-The discoveries of astronomy, instead of having an opposite effect, warm my heart. I think of eighty millions of stars in one nebula, and of two thousand nebula, and I feel elevated and thankful to bear part in this magnificent creation, to be the child of Him who is the Governor of these boundless dominions. I find unspeakable pleasure in the declarations so often reiterated in the word of God, the unvarying truth of the supreme Being. To me there is something inexpressibly sublime in the assurance, that throughout the whole immeasurable extent of the all but infinite empire of God, truth always extends, and, like a masterkey, unlocks and opens all the mysteries of wisdom, and goodness, and mercy of the Divine dispensations. -Wilberforce's Life. JACOBITES, OR SYRIAN CHRISTIANS.-Before I proceed to give an account of our journey, let me mention another people, of whom only a few reside at Jerusalem; they are called the Jacobites, or Syrian Christians. They call themselves also the Bnee Israel, the children of Israel, whose ancestors were converted by the apostle St. James; but they count their apostolic succession from Peter the apostle, as bishop of Antioch; and in the appendix you will find the names of their bishops from the time of St. Peter to the present time uninter ruptedly, for there is no church in the East who has not most faithfully preserved her apostolic succession. There cannot be the least doubt that their claim to being descendants of the Jewish Christians of old is just. Their physiognomy, their mode of worship, their attachment to the Mosaical law, their liturgy, their tradition, so similar to the Jewish tradition, the technical terms in their theology, all prove that they are the real descendants of Abraham. They are, however, monophysites; and they explain the oneness of the human and divine nature of Christ in the following manner:-Glass is made of sand, but the whole is only glass, no longer sand; thus the divine nature of Christ has absorbed the human nature in such a manner that both are become one. They believe the real presence of the body and blood of Christ, without knowing transubstantiation. They pray seven times a-day, according to the words of the Psalmist, "Seven times a-day do I praise thee." Their patriarch resides at Merdeen, in Mesopotamia, in the convent of Deyr Safran; but they have, beside him, four patriarchs upon Mount Tor. Bar Thom, their patriarch, was 130 years of age when I saw him in the year 1824 at Merdeen: he was in possession of all his faculties. They pray for the dead; but deny the existence of purgatory, and so also do the Greeks, Armenians, Chaldeans, and Abyssinians. They are great venerators of Ephrem Syrus, Dioscoros, and Jacob of Nisibin. They condemn Nestorios and Eutyches, whilst they are infected with the heresy of the latter. A great number of them have been converted to Romanism; these converts are called by the rest Maghlobeen, the conquered, or beaten, or schismatics. The Syrians have converted a great many of the devil-worshippers, and of the Shamsea, worshippers of the sun, to their creed.-Wolff's Journal. EASTERNANECDOTE-An Arab came into the mosque of the prophet, while the holy commander of the faithful, Ali, was there. The Arab performed his devotions hurriedly and hastily, not going through the ceremonies as the institutions of religion command, nor reading duly prescribed portions of the Koran. As he rose up and was going out, his excellency the khalif cried out to him, and flourishing his slippers over his head, said, “Stay, and perform thy prayer fully, for this thy performance will not be taken into account." The Arab, from fear of the slippers of the khalif, stood and went through his devotions a second time, in such a manner as is right and proper, finished them with humility and abasedness. When they were finished, the khalif said, “ Is not this last prayer better than the first?" The Arab replied, "No, O commander of the faithful; for the first prayer was from the fear of God, and the second from the fear of thy slippers."-Asiatic Journal. ABON HANNIFAH, chief of a Turkish sect, once received a blow in the face from a ruffian, and rebuked him in these terms, not unworthy of Christian imitation: "If I were vindictive, I should return you outrage for outrage; if I were an informer, 1 should accuse you before the caliph: but I prefer putting up a prayer to God, that in the day of judgment he will cause me to enter heaven with you." THE VILLAGE CHURCH.-The villagers have a feeling of property in their own parish-church. Generally venerable for extreme antiquity, and firm as the hills around it, it stands as a part of their native land, and to endure, with the country, to all ages. It appeals, moreover, to all the affections, by motives which penetrate the inmost heart; bringing before the worshipper his birth, his domestic happiness and duty, the memory of departed friends, and his own death. Within, he sees the font at which he was baptised, and the altar templates the graves of his friends, and the spot which where he knelt at his marriage. Around it he conone day will probably be his own. These are charms which speak to every bosom. Every one also feels that a picture of English scenery is incomplete without the old grey tower, or the village spire, upon which the eye rests, as the loveliest picture of the landscape: and who can hear the distant bells, in the cheerfulness of a summer's morning, or the stillness of a summer's evening, without feeling their soothing power enter his very soul?-Ostler on the Church. London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. |