their nearest female connexions. They can securely confide in one who is under its sober influence, and whose duties and pleasures lie within the same sphere. They feel no jealousy of a sentiment, which, however intense, interferes with no legitimate affection; but which makes a woman more tender, more considerate, and more sympathising, than the most ardent passion of romance would do, or the most studied polish of the world. But her piety must be sterling. It must be no latent form of a still restless ambition, that has exchanged the glitter of fashion for the tinsel of profession; that still finds its pleasure in a crowd; and, weary of the turmoil of the world, seeks some new and more exciting stimulus. This may indeed pass current for piety; and as it borrows from religion its lustre, so does it often recompense it with the tarnish of its finits. But that sentiment is ever suspicious that leads woman from home, rather than to it; that prefers extraneous to domestic duty; that takes her to the conversazione rather than to her chamber; to her co.idante rather than to God. On the contrary, what more beautiful picture is there than that of the religious and retiring woman, who is struggling perhaps with domestic trial, and standing perhaps alone in sectiment and in duty? Her path is one of difficulty; but neither makes her trials a theme of gossipping eplints, nor avails herself of the faults of others exite pity for herself. And if want of congeniality in those most near to her is her sore burden-if even opposition is the appointed exercise of her faithshe neither seeks notoriety by the cry of persecution, nur looks to the applause of others as a compensation for her trials at home.-Mrs. John Sandford.

"THESE ALL DIED IN FAITH."- Behold here the secret of dying! Bad men die reluctantly; life is extorted from them as if by main force. The believer dies willingly; his will is sweetly submitted to his Father's will: he makes it a religious act to die. Just as Jesus himself commended his human soul to his Father, saying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke, xxiii. 46), so his believing disciple commends his soul to Jesus, and through him to the Father. Here, I repeat, is the secret how to die happly. To those who know not that secret, it is a fearful thing to die. It is a serious matter for any; but to the worldly-minded and ungodly, if not past feeling, to die must be, as one of the heathen philosophers confessed it. of all formidable things the most formidable." Only mention a neighbour's death in a gay circle: lo! you have thrown a gloom over the whole assemblya are evidently sorry that the topic was introduced. The ancient Romans would not mention death in plain words if they could avoid it, but only by circumlocution and implication. The heathens at this day in like Einner shun all conversation on death, as most repugmant to their feelings; they account it the height of cruelty to speak of the probability of a sick man's death, even to his relatives. Even serious Christians are often in bondage through fear of death. It is such venture; a mistake may be so fatal; to go before frod is so awful; judgment will bring to light such secrets, that many think, How can I die? Yet you al; nust. Be persuaded, give your soul to Jesus now; do it again from day to day; and then, when your ing day is come, again approach the Saviour and ,"Lord, I hear thee calling for my spirit-in the Eid of death I recognise thy hand of love; thou askest for my soul; take it, for it is thine; do with it as thou wit: I have given it to thee to be washed in thy blood -1d sanctified by thy Spirit.”—Rev. J. Hambleton.

THE LORD'S DAY.-He, and he only, is the safe and y man who truly calls the Sabbath a delight. If - do so, we may entertain a comfortable hope, that are in a state of preparation for the everlasting Path of the blest. In the mansions of our Father, yer, and praise, and holy contemplation, and the

society of glorified spirits, and the presence of the great God, and the performance of his good pleasure, and the ministration of mercy, throughout worlds and systems unknown and undiscovered, shall constitute the happiness of those admitted to that heavenly rest. Now each returning Sabbath affords a shadow of these good things to come. But it is not by the best possible employment of one day in seven, that we can be fitted for the happiness of the blessed. The Lord's day must become the leaven of this present life, or it will never be the foretaste of a better life to come. Our Sunday thoughts, and words, and works, must diffuse a sweet but powerful influence through all our other days. Like a fountain of living water, they must flow through every portion of our conduct. Like that mystical stream which attended the Israelites through the wilderness, they must never desert us till we reach the Canaan above.-Bishop Jebb.

Poetry.

PLEAD THOU MY CAUSE.*

"We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."-1 John, ii. 1.

PLEAD thou, O plead my cause;
Each self-excusing plea
My trembling soul withdraws,

And flies to thee.

Where justice rears her throne,
Ah! who, save thee alone,
May stand? O spotless One,

Plead thou my cause!

Ah! plead not aught of mine
Before thine altar thrown;
Fragments, when all was thine-
All, all thine own.

Thou seest the stains they bear.
O since each tear, each prayer,
Hath need of pardon there,

Plead thou my cause!
With lips, that dying breathed
Blessings for words of scorn;
With brow, where I had wreathed
The piercing thorn;
With breast, to whose pure tide
He did the weapon guide,
Who hath no hope beside,

Plead thou my cause!
Plead, when the tempter's art,
To each fond hope of mine,
Denies this faithless heart

Can e'er be thine.

If slander whisper, too,
The sins I never knew,
Thou, who could'st urge the true,
Plead thou my cause!

O plead my cause!
Plead thine within my breast,
Till there thy peaceful dove

Shall build her nest.

From Hymns appended to a small volume of "Prayers for Young Persons." By the author of "Prayers for Children." London, Hatchard, 1837.-This is a very excellent manual. The tone is in strict accordance with scriptural truth. We feel convinced that it will be an important help to youthful devotion. -ED.

Thou know'st this will-how frail;

Thou know'st, though language fail, My conflict in this vale-

Plead thou my cause!

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY.
INCARNATE Word, who, wont to dwell
In lowly shape and cottage cell,
Didst not refuse a guest to be
At Cana's poor festivity:

Oh, when our soul from care is free,

Then, Saviour, may we think on thee;
And, seated at the festal board,
In fancy's eye behold the Lord.

Then may we seem, in fancy's ear,
Thy manna-dropping tongue to hear,
And think,-even now, thy searching gaze
Each secret of our soul surveys!

So may such joy, chastised and pure,
Beyond the bounds of earth endure ;
Nor pleasure in the wounded mind
Shall leave a rankling sting behind.

BISHOP HEBER.

THE CHURCH OF OUR FATHERS.* HALF-SCREEN'D by its trees, in the Sabbath's calm smile,

The church of our fathers, how meekly it stands!
O villagers, gaze on the old hallow'd pile-

It was dear to their hearts, it was rais'd by their hands.

Who loves not the ground where they worshipp'd their God?

Who loves not the place where their ashes repose?
Dear even the daisy that blooms on the sod,
For dear is the dust out of which it arose!
Then say, shall the temple our forefathers built,
Which the storms of long ages have batter'd in vain,
Abandon'd by us from supineness or guilt-
O say, shall it fall by the rash and profane?
No! perish the impious hand that would take
One shred from its altar, one stone from its tow'rs!
The pure blood of martyrs hath flow'd for its sake,
And its fall-if it fall-shall be redden'd with ours!

Miscellaneous.

R. S.

LITURGIES. Four reasons why extemporaneous prayer in the congregation could not have been the practice of antiquity. 1. Because throughout primitive biography, although eulogies are bestowed abundantly on the talent of individual Fathers as preachers and authors, no mention is ever made of their ability in extemporaneous prayer. 2. Because no clear instance of extemporaneous prayer in the congregation is recorded. 3. Because no notice occurs throughout the writers of antiquity of any diversity in this respect among different Churches, so that one Church should have a liturgy, and another be abandoned to the discretion of the minister. 4. Because no opposition is mentioned to set forms in any part of the world.Bennet.

From the Churchman,

THE MOTH. "Which are crushed before the moth," Job, iv. 19.-It is probable that this means a mothworm, which is one state of the creature alluded to. It is first enclosed in an egg, from whence it issues a worm, and after a time becomes a complete insect or moth. The following extracts from Niebuhr may throw light on this passage, that man is crushed by so feeble a thing as a worm. "A disease very common in Yemen is the attack of the guinea-worm, or the Vena medinensis, as it is called by the physicians of Europe. This disease is supposed to be occasioned by the use of the putrid waters which people are obliged to drink in several parts of Yemen; and for this reason the Arabians always pass water, with the nature of which they are unacquainted, through a linen cloth before drinking it. When one unfortunately swallows any of the eggs of this insect, no immediate consequence follows; but, after a considerable time, the worm begins to shew itself through the skin. Our physician, Mr. Cramer, was, within a few days of his death, attacked by five of these worms at once, although this was more than five months after we had left Arabia. In the Isle of Karek I saw a French officer named Le Page, who, after a long and difficult journey, performed on foot and in an Indian dress, between Pondicherry and Surat, through the heart of India, was busy extracting a worm out of his body. He supposed that he had got it by drinking bad water in the country of the Mahrattas. This disorder is not dangerous, if the person affected can extract the worm without breaking it. With this view it is rolled on a small bit of wood as it comes out of the skin. It is slender as a thread, and two or three feet long. It gives no pain nor trouble as it makes its way out of the body, unless what may be occasioned by the care which must be taken of it for some weeks. luckily it be broken, it then returns into the body, and the most disagreeable consequences ensue palsy, a gangrene, and sometimes death.-Scripture Elucidations.

If un

STUDY OF HEBREW.-The knowledge of the original language of the Old Testament is a branch of study highly requisite for those who would "rightly divide the word of truth." When we bear in mind that the law and the prophets form so great and valuable a portion of the Scriptures, which are written for our learning, that upon the right interpretation of that part of holy writ depend many most important dectrines, that the idiom of the Hebrew language so frequently modifies the phraseology employed in the New Testament, imparting to the language a meaning unknown to the Greeks themselves; we cannot but lament that the study of Hebrew literature, in earlier times so general throughout our Church, should since have fallen into so much neglect. We trust that a brighter day has begun to dawn; and we may hope that the time is not far distant when such an acquaintance with the original language of the Old Testament as will at least enable the student to understand the criticisms which he meets with upon passages of the Hebrew Scriptures, will be regarded as an essential preparation for the work of the ministry. Visitation Sermon, by Rev. T. Chevallier.

CENSORIOUSNESS.

THERE is a fault, unhappily, common even amongst professing Christians, which not only offends against the love that ought to be borne by one towards his brother, but actually tends to break the links which connect civil society. I allude to the unseemly practice of censoriously blaming the character and conduct of others. Peace and good-will are frequently thus destroyed, friends are separated, and a scandal is raised even against religion itself.

The spirit and precepts of the Gospel are decidedly opposed to such a fault. The servants of Christ are to consider themselves united by the most endearing ties they are followers of the same Lord, they are members of the same body; and therefore a kindly sympathy is to pervade them all. If one member suffer, all the members should suffer with it; if one member be honoured, all the members should rejoice with it. They are to bear one another's burdens, and so to fulfil the law of Christ; and even if any individual evidently commits a sin, his brethren are not to constitute themselves severe judges of his fault; but rather, with affectionate forbearance, to restore him in the spirit of meekness; considering themselves, that if they had been subjected to the same temptation, they would, it is likely, have equally sinned. It would exhibit the Gospel in a very lovely light if its power were seen transforming men's minds; so that they who had been heretofore "hateful and hating one another" were now one in Christian fellowship and forbearing kindness. It would be again said, as of old, "See how these Christians love!"

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and doubtless many might thus, under God's blessing, be won over to the faith. They would see that. there is a reality in religion, a practical effect, which must flow from some efficient cause, even the mighty power of Him who is the "author of peace and lover of concord."

But there are multitudes who act as if no obligation of the kind I have referred to were laid upon them. They delight in discovering the unfavourable side of another's character; they impute unworthy motives to him; they retail, often with exaggeration, any story they may have heard to his prejudice; and then take credit to themselves, sometimes for penetration, sometimes for superior excellence; as if they were far above him whom they have ventured to assail. For this is often done under the disguise of a jealous concern for religion; and the words of scandal are uttered with an affected lamentation, that the cause should have been so injured.

Now all this is in direct opposition to the precepts of our Saviour: " "Judge not, that ye be not judged;" "Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." And accordingly we find that those individuals who have most closely trodden in the steps of Christ have been very reluctant to offend against this law of brotherly kindness. A very remarkable example of Christian forbearance in this respect once came under my personal knowledge, which I may be permitted to mention. A lamentable instance had occurred of the cor

D

ruption of the human heart, in the fall of an individual, who had made a long profession of religion, into open sin. Acts of immorality were brought to light as having been repeatedly committed, which made it needful that his brethren should cease to have any intercourse with him. Very many, of course, were ready to assail him, and to hold up his character and his profession also to reproach. I happened to be conversing on the subject with an eminent and revered clergyman, who is now a saint in heaven, who was as remarkable for his penetration as honoured for his meekness; and he confessed to me that for eleven years he had seen enough in the fallen man's temper to lead him to fear that his heart was not right with God; but, added he, "I never breathed my thoughts about him to any living being, no, not even to the wife of my bosom." And I may add, that that beloved individual could never be moved to any thing resembling indignation, except by an attempt to censure others. It could only be an attempt in his presence; for a censorious remark was sure to meet from him a prompt and effectual check. Let this be taken as a pattern for Christians in general to follow.

The fault of which I am speaking arises from a heart unhumbled with a proper sense of its own sinfulness. He who has felt that in himself dwelleth no good thing; who knows that he is a transgressor saved by grace; who has experienced how hard it is to combat the remaining powers of the "old man" within him; who finds that his best deeds are imperfect, his holiest desires alloyed with evil, such a man will see too much to lament in himself to be very ready to censure others; he will be penetrated with a too lively feeling of the immense debt forgiven him by his Lord to be very harsh upon his fellow-servant. He is sensible that it is only the mercy of God, and not any innate virtue, which has restrained himself from the grossest breach of the divine commandments: it is the Lord that makes him to differ from others, and he has nothing which he has not received. Where, therefore, a censorious spirit is seen, it is an unhumbled spirit; and consequently there can be but little of that high attainment, that perpetual childlike dependence upon the Lord's help, that tenderness of heart, that self-abasement, that glowing love, which especially characterises him who has advanced the farthest in the ways of godliness. It is one of the surest marks of that lukewarm state which our Lord so pointedly reprehends.

unkind thoughts against any in our hearts. We must have a constant eye upon our own infirmity, recollecting how frequently we have ourselves yielded to temptation, and sensible that our own strength is perfectly inefficient to keep us from still greater departures from God and if we maintain a close communion with Christ, we shall drink in too much of his mild and gracious spirit to find any pleasure in remarking on the falls of those who profess to be his servants. We shall be jealous of his honour, and feel only grief if he is wounded in the house of his friends.

A tender forbearance towards an erring brother may very well consist with a perfect detestation of sin. It does not follow, because we make allowance for the frailty of our common nature, that we are to think that frailty innocent. In fact, we may hence have the clearest apprehension of it. He that endeavours to bind up a wound is far better aware of the danger and extent of it than he that at a distance mocks at the sufferings of the wounded man; and thus our blessed Lord exhibited in his own conduct, in the closest union, a holy hatred of sin, which could be expiated only by his death, and a kind pity for the transgressors, in whose behalf he even prayed while they were murdering him, that that offence might be forgiven. We must follow his example in this respect. While, from a knowledge of what sin has done to us, we seek to view it with a perfect hatred, let us, with forbearing love, not presume to judge our brother; to his own Master he must stand or fall. Let us not be ready to find fault; let us mark the extenuating circumstances in his case; let us seek to rule our tongue, which is so ready to speak evil; and let every professing Christian strive not merely to be free from censoriousness himself, but to give no countenance to it in others. I.

DESCRIPTION OF JERUSALEM.* ABOUT the year 705, Jerusalem and its holy places were visited by Arculfus, from whose report Adamnan composed a narrative, which was received with considerable approbation. He describes the temple on Mount Calvary with some minuteness, mentioning its twelve pillars and eight gates; but his attention was more particularly attracted by relics, those objects which all Jerusalem flocked to handle and to kiss with the greatest reverence. He saw the cup used at the last supper, the sponge on which the vinegar was poured, the lance which pierced the side of our Lord, the cloth in which he was wrapped, also another cloth, woven by the Virgin Mary, whereon were represented the figures of the Saviour and of the twelve apostles. Eighty years later, Willibald, a Saxon, undertook the same journey, influenced by similar motives. From his infancy he had been dis

tinguished by a sage and pious disposition; and on emerging from boyhood, he was seized with an anxious desire to "try the unknown ways of peregrination, to pass over the huge wastes of ocean to the ends of the earth." To this erratic propensity he owed all the fame which a place in the Romish calendar and the authorship of an indifferent book can confer. In Jerusalem he saw all that Arculfus saw, and nothing more; but he had previously visited the tomb of the seven sleepers, and the cave in which St. John wrote the Apocalypse.

Bernard proceeded to Palestine in the year 878. He travelled first in Egypt, and from thence made his way across the Desert, the heat of which recalled vividly to his imagination the sloping hills of Campania when covered with snow. At Alexandria he was subjected to tribute by the avaricious governor, who paid no regard to the written orders of the sultan. The treatment which he received at Cairo was still more distressing: he was thrown into prison, and, in this extremity, he asked counsel of God, whereupon it was miraculously revealed to him, that thirteen denarii, such as he had presented to the other Mussulman, would produce here an equally favourable result. The celestial origin of this advice was proved by its complete success. The pilgrim was not only liberated, but dited letters from the propitiated ruler, which saved tim from all farther exaction.

The crusades threw open the holy places to the eyes of all Europe; and accordingly, so long as a Christian King swayed the sceptre in the capital of Judea, the merit of individual pilgrimage was greatly diminished. But no sooner had the warlike Saracens recovered possession of Jerusalem, than the wonted difficulty and danger returned; and, as might be expected, the interest attached to the sacred buildings, which the eyes of rank were no longer worthy to behold, revived in greater vigour than formerly.

In 1331 William de Bouldesell adventured on an expedition into Arabia and Palestine, of which some account has been published. In the monastery of St. Catherine, at the base of Mount Sinai, he was hospitbly received by the monks, who shewed him the bones of their patron reposing in a tomb, which, however, they appear not to have treated with much respect. By means of hard beating, we are told, they brought cat from these remains of mortality a small portion of blood, which they presented to the pilgrim, as a gift singular value. A circumstance which particularly astonished this man of easy faith, would probably have produced no surprise in a less believing mind: the blood, it seems, "had not the appearance of real hood, but rather of some thick oily substance;" nevertheless, the miracle was regarded by him as one of the greatest that had ever been witnessed in this world.

A hundred years afterwards, Bertrandon de la Broquiere sailed from Venice to Jaffa, where, according to the statistics of contrite pilgrims, the "pardons of the Holy Land begin." At Jerusalem he found the Christians reduced to a state of the most cruel thraldom. Such of them as engaged in trade were locked up in their shops every night by the Saracens, who epened the doors in the morning at such an hour as seemed to them the most proper or convenient. At Damascus they were treated with equal severity: the rst two persons whom he met with in this city Anocked him down; an injury which he dared not resent, for fear of immediately losing his life. About

tirty years before the period of his visit, the destroying arms of Timur had laid a large portion of the Syrian capital in ruins, though the population had again increased to nearly one hundred thousand. During his stay he witnessed the arrival of a caravan consisting of more than three thousand camels. Its entry employed two days and two nights; the Koran, Trapped in silk, being carried in front on the back of a camel richly adorned with the same costly material.

This part of the procession was surrounded by a number of persons brandishing naked swords, and playing on all sorts of musical instruments. The governor, with all the inhabitants, went out to meet the holy cavalcade, and to do homage to the sacred ensign, which at once proclaimed their faith, and announced the object of a pious mission, thus successfully concluded. Broquiere found the greatest respect paid to every one who had performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and was gravely assured, by an eminent moulah, that no such person could ever incur the hazard of everlasting damnation.

We merely mention the names of Breidenbach of Mentz, and of Martin Baumgarten, who, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, achieved a journey intc the Holy Land. The latter of these, while passing through Egypt, was most barbarously treated by the Saracen boys, who pelted him with dirt, brickbats, stones, and rotten fruit. At Hebron he was shewn the field" where it is said, or at least guessed, that Adam was made;" but the reddish earth of which it is composed is now used in the manufacture of prayer-beads. The work of Bartholemeo Georgewitz, who travelled in the same century, gives a melancholy account of the miseries endured by such Christians as were carried into slavery by the Turks in those evil days. The armies of that nation were followed by slave-dealers supplied with chains, by means of which fifty or sixty were bound in a row together, leaving only so much room between as might allow them to walk. The hands were manacled during the day, and at night the feet also. The sufferings inflicted upon men of rank, and those belonging to the learned professions, were beyond description; extending, not only to the lowest labours of the field, but even to the work of oxen, being sometimes yoked like these animals in the plough. Separated from home by great rivers and arms of the sea, it was extremely difficult for those who were sent into Asia to effect their escape; whence, in many cases, the horrors of captivity had no other limits than those of the natural life. No wonder that Bartholemeo recommends to every one visiting those parts, to make his will, "like one going, not to the earthly, but to the heavenly Jerusalem."

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Laurence Aldersey, who set out from London in 1581, was the first Protestant who encountered the perils of a voyage to Syria. In the Levant, a Turkish galley hove in sight, and caused great alarm. The master, being a wise fellow, began to devise how to escape the danger; but while both he and all of us were in our dumps, God sent us a merry gale of wind." As they approached Candia, a violent storm came on; and the mariners began to reproach the Englishman as the cause, " and said I was no good Christian, and wished I were in the midst of the sea; saying that they and the ship were the worse for me." He replied, "I think myself the worst creature in the world, and do you consider yourselves also." These remonstrances were followed by a long sermon, the tenour of which was, "that they were not all good Christians, else it were not possible for them to have such weather." A gentleman on board informed Aldersey that the suspicions respecting him originated in his refusal to join in the prayers to the Virgin Mary; a charge which he parried by remarking, that "they who prayed to so many go a wrong way to work." The friars, resolving to bring the matter to an issue, sent round the image of our lady to kiss. On its approach, the good Protestant endeavoured to avoid it by going another way; but the bearer "fetched his course about," and presented it. The proffered salutation being then positively rejected, the affair might have become serious, had not two of the more respectable monks interceded in his behalf, and enforced a more charitable procedure.

Of the people of Cyprus he remarks, that they "be very rude, and like beasts, and no better: they eat