thedral library at Seville, which is ancient and extensive, including much theology, and on a most liberal footing as regards freedom to read and study its volumes, there is but one entire copy of the Hebrew Bible in a separate form, and another with the notes of Kimchi on the minor prophets; yet, strange to say, Spain is the country of the first complete Polyglott Bible.

Neither in the libraries of Seville nor of Madrid could a single work be found deserving of the name of Critica Sacra. Even the philological works were of the poorest character. Amat, learned as he is, had not even heard of Lightfoot and Schoetgen; and many, very many, of the priests had not even a Latin Bible in their possession. The professor of Hebrew in the University of Madrid had only three pupils. How forcibly does all this remind us of the state of things in the dark ages, and how disgraceful to the Church of Rome, with all her wealth, and power, and boast of learning! After all, it is not wonderful; the men who undervalue the Bible and forbid their people to read it, cannot value it for themselves, and, in depreciating the Scriptures, they necessarily depreciate the literature which owes its value to its connection with them. A want of learning in a Church-general theological ignorance-is one of the punishments of disparaging the Word of God at once natural and righteous.

Carelessness and irreverence, as might have been anticipated, form a prevailing feature in the character and proceedings of the priesthood. How can it be otherwise? Human nature will weary of heartless forms, and long to be done with them, especially as self-righteousness is satisfied if the work be done, no matter what is the spirit in which it is executed. "I saw a baptism," says Mr Rule, at Astorga, the see of Bishop Amat,"" administered in the evening in the parish church of St Louis. As it was to be well paid for, it was performed in high style. There was in perfection the whole mummery of spittle, breath, salt, oil, holy water, wax candles, merry music, costly robes, and processions from the baptistry to the altar." Though the scene was thus imposing, and demanded time, yet, such is the weariness of mere form, "the priest transacted the business with indescribable irreverence and haste, and the process of baptism was performed on the child's head over the font, as if it had been a surgical operation rather than a Christian sacrament." Shortly afterwards our author adds: "It is wearisome to hear, in England, of Catholic divines and heavenly-minded ascetics, when here you find them just the reverse of all that is imagined of them, acting a heartless pantomime." Of the extensive Infidelity which prevails among them, there can be no question. Blanco White, one of their number, recently deceased, in his Practical Evidence against Catholicism," expressly declares, from extensive acquaintance, that there is no man in the number of any weight in point of talent, who is not an Infidel. Speaking of the year 1820, Mr Rule says the press teemed with Infidel books: "The French Infidels were unwearied in propagating their notions, and succeeded in creating a taste for their books, by publishing translations of the worst of them. The practice is still continued. These wretched productions are read with avidity; and the literature of Spain is,

379

by consequence, totally corrupt." It is well understood that the young priesthood had translations of Voltaire and Volney bound like their Breviaries; so that, while supposed to be studying the books of devotion, they were really devouring French Infidelity. The immorality of the priesthood and of the people generally, in the sense of licentiousness, as the fruit of the Romish system, is a delicate topic to allude to. We are afraid to wound the modesty of our readers, however desirable it may be to expose the atrocities of Popery in a day in which she boasts of purity. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to child murder, the sad fruit of immorality.

Mr Rule supplies us with the following almost incredible details of infanticide in Spain, which vividly remind us of the infanticide of India or of China. He visited the Casa de Expositos, the Foundling Hospital at Seville, and though the population of the city be only ninety thousand, he found that upon an average there must be nearly eleven thousand poor infants thrown upon its hospital alone every year. In the course of a few years the number had doubled. The mortality is tremendous. Such facts are not easily ascertained-not, in Spain, from any desire to conceal the shame, but from the very carelessness and concern with which the whole matter is regarded. It is not thought worth while to keep any accounts; but as nearly as Mr Rule could estimate, there must have been deaths, in the year, to the extent of eight hundred and ninety-five. What is this but infanticide? And these numbers do not bring out the whole crime. "The real amount,' he adds, " of infanticide in that city alone is incalculable, so general is the licentiousness of the people. One constantly hears examples of the most unnatural cruelty. A woman, without the smallest compunction, puts her infant to death because she will not be kept at home by that child.'”

Let it not be supposed that this is a solitary case. In every town of Spain there are receptacles, prepared at the public expense, for such children as have been referred to. Every town has its Casa de Expositos. The governor of the establishment at Madrid stated, that in the year 1837, from nine hundred and sixty to one thousand children had been deposited with him. Strange to relate, next year only fifty-six of the number had survived. Our author justly remarks, "the subject demands investigation." Infanticide prevails among all classes. It appears to stand in intimate connection with, 1. The celibacy of the clergy;

2. The abominations of the confessional; and, 3. The unscriptural rules and covetous practices of the Church of Rome with regard to marriage.

Such are the miserable results of man attempting to be wiser than God-of attaching to celibacy a character of holiness which does not belong to it, and so of departing from the written Word. And this has been the fruit of the same false principle in every age. Witness the moral, or rather the immoral, character of the much-boasted Church of the Fathers. In these days, when Popery is first misunderstood, and then nationally encouraged and patronized, it is the duty of all who love the truth of God to expose its false pretensions, and especially to tear the veil from

THE EMIGRANTS.

[These stanzas are supposed to be sung by a party of those voluntary exiles for conscience' sake who, in a profligate age, left their country, to enjoy religious freedom in regions beyond the Atlantic. The scene is laid near the Bermudas, or Summer Islands, as they were then called.]

WHERE the remote Bermudas ride
In ocean's bosom unespy'd,
From a small boat that row'd along,
The listening winds received this song:-
"What should we do but sing His praise
That led us through the watery maze,
Unto an isle so long unknown,
And yet far kinder than our own?
"Where He the huge sea-monsters racks,
That lift the deep upon their backs,
He lands us on a grassy stage,
Safe from the storms and prelates' rage.

"He gave us this eternal spring,

Which here enamels every thing;
And sends the fowls to us, in care,
On daily visits through the air.

"He hangs in shades the orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night,
And does in the pomegranate close
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.

"He makes the figs our mouths to meet,
And throws the melons at our feet;
With cedars, chosen by His hand,
From Lebanon, He stores the land.
"He cast-of which we rather boast-
The Gospel's pearl upon our coast,
And, in these rocks, for us did frame
A temple where to sound His name.
"Oh! let our voice His praise exalt,
Till it arrive at heaven's vault,
Which, thence perhaps rebounding, may
Echo beyond the Mexique Bay."
Thus sang they in the English boat
An holy and a cheerful note;
And all the way, to guide their chime,
With falling oars they kept the time.

MARVELL.

THE PREACHER ON DRESS;

OR,

THE BIBLE AND THE FASHIONS.

(From the "Cripplegate Lectures.") DIRECTION I.-Be not ambitious to appear the first in any fashion. Affect not to take the mode by the fore-lock. Keep some paces behind those that are

not over those bounds prescribed by God, by nature, and decency. It is time enough to think of following. when the way is well beaten before us. A modest Christian, in conscience as well as courtesy, will not think scorn to let others go before him.

DIRECT. II. Follow no fashions so fast, so far, 02 to run your estates out at the heels. Tuo te pede molire. Costly apparel is like a prancing steed: he that will follow it too close, may have his brains knocked out for his folly, or rather his empty skull shattered; for the brains are supposed to have gone long before. Advise first with conscience, what is lawful; then with your purse, what is practicable. Consult what you may do, and next what you can do. Some things may be done by others, which you may not do; and there are some things which you might lawfully do, if you could conveniently do them."All things" indifferent "are lawful" in themselves; "but all things are not expedient "to some under some circumstances; and what is not expedient, so far as it is not so, is unlawful.-1 Cor. x. 23.

If you will drink by another man's cup, you may be drunk, when he is sober; and if you will clothe at another man's rate, you may be a beggar, when he feels not the charge. But how many have run themselves out of their estates into debt, and from the height of gallantry sunk to the depth of poverty, forced either into a jail or out of their country. whilst they would strain to keep pace with a fashion that was too nimble and fleet for their revenues!

DIRECT. III.-Follow lawful fashions abreast with your equals. But be sure you get right notions ho are your equals. Some may be less than your equals in birth, who are more than so in estates: pedigrees and titles will not discharge long bills and reckonings. And some may be your equals in both, who are not so in that wherein equality is most valuable. Walk, then, hand-in-hand with them who are "heirs together" with you "of the grace of life" (1 Pet. iii. 7), who are partakers with you of the same "precious faith " (2 Pet. i. 1)--with those who have the same hopes with you "of the common salvation." Jude 3. Why should we zealously affect a conformity to them in apparel, from whom we must separate in a little time for eternity?

Abraham was a great prince; and yet he "dwelt in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise."-Heb. xi. 9. And if a tent would serve him and them, why make we such ado for palaces? Abraham had a promise that he should be heir of the world" (Rom. iv. 13); and yet he confessed he was but a stranger, a pilgrim, a sojour ner, even in the Land of Promise (Heb. xi. 13); and was always in a travelling garb and habit, ready at an hour's, a minute's, warning to dislodge, and follow whither God should call him. Why, then, do we clothe as if we were at home, citizens of this world; when we are but tenants-at-will, and have here "no certain dwelling place?"-1 Cor. iv. 11.

DIRECT. IV. Come not near those fashions whose numerous implements, trinkets, and tackling require much time in dressing and undressing. No cost of apparel is so ill bestowed as that of precious time in apparelling; and if common time be so ill spent, what is the solemn, sacred time laid out in such curiosity! How many Sabbaths, sermons, sacraments, prayers, praises, psalms, chapters, meditations, has

this one vanity devoured! Let me recommend the counsel of holy Mr Herbert to you:

"O, be dressed! Stay not for t'other pin! Why, thou hast lost A joy for it worth worlds! Thus hell doth jest Away thy blessings, and extremely flouts thee, Thy clothes being fast, but thy soul loose, about thee!"

O the wanton folly of our times, when, as one expresses it, "it is almost as easy to enumerate all the tackling of the "Royal Sovereign," as the accoutrements of a capricious lady!" and perhaps it requires not much more time to equip and rig-out a ship for the Indies, than a whimsical madam, when she is to sail in state with all her flags, streamers, pennons, bound for a court voyage. With less labour did Adam give names to all the creatures in Paradise, than an attire herald shall give you the nomenclature of all the trinkets that belong to a lady's closet. And yet all this is but to consume a whole morning to put on [that] which must waste the whole evening to put off.

DIRECT. V. In all apparel, keep a little above content, and somewhat more below envy. He that will ever nigh either extreme, shall never avoid offence, either for sordidness or superfluity. Let not your garments smell either of antiquity or novelty. Shun as much an affected gravity as a wanton levity: there may be as much pride in adhering to the antique garbs of our ancestors, as there is in courting the modern fooleries. A plain cleanliness is the true medium between sluttishness and gaudiness. Truth commonly lies in the middle between the hot contenders, virtue in the middle between the extreme vices, and decency of apparel in the middle between the height of the fashion and a mere running-counter and opposition. Only because our corrupt hearts are more prone to the excess than the defect, I laid the rule, to keep a little more below envy than above contempt.

DIRECT. VI.-Get the heart mortified, and that will mortify the habit. Let grace circumcise that, and that will circumcise the long hair and sweeping train, with all the impertinent superfluities that wait on vain-glory.

The most compendious way of reforming persons, families, nations, and Churches, is to begin at and deal with the heart; as the shortest way to fell the tree is by sound blows at the root. Could we lay the axe to heart-pride, the branches would fall, the leaves wither, the fruit fade, with one and the same labour. It is an endless labour to demolish this castle of pride by beginning at the top: undermine the foundation, and all the glory of the superstructure falls with it. As a pure living spring will work itself clean from all the accidental filth that is thrown into it from without, so the cleansing of the heart will cleanse the rest. And when the Spirit of Christ shall undertake this work-to convince the soul effectually of sin-of the sin of nature, and the nature of sin-all these little appendices and appurtenances of vanity will fall and drop of course. For this was our blessed Saviour's method: "Cleanse the inside of the cup or platter, and the outside will be clean also."-Matt. xxiii. 26. And if we could (as supernatural grace only can)" make the tree good," the fruit would be good by consequence.-Matt. xii. 33.

DIRECT. VII.-Let all your indifferences be brought under the government and guidance of religion. Indifferent things in their general natures are neither good nor evil; but when religion has the main stroke in managing and ordering them, it will make them good, and not evil. Advise with God's glory what you shall eat, what you shall drink, and what you shall put on; that will teach us to deny ourselves in

381

some particulars of our Christian liberty: "Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do "else, "do all to the glory of God."-1 Cor. x. 31. Than which, all the masters of the art of eating, all the mistresses of the science of dressing, cannot give you a more approved directory.

DIRECT. VIII.-Use all these indifferent things with an indifferent affection to them—an indifferent concern for them and about them. Treat them, value them, as they deserve. Clothes commend us not to God, nor to wise and good men: why are we then so solicitous about them, as if the kingdom of God lay in them? The apostle, in consideration that "the time is short," would have us "use this world as not abusing it," because "the fashion of this world passeth away."-1 Cor. vii. 29, 31. Yet a little while, and there will be no use, because no need, of them. But God and the world are commonly of contrary judgments; and "that which is highly esteemed among men is " oftentimes an "abomination in the sight of God."-Luke xvi. 15. Lukewarmness is a temper hot enough for what is neither good nor evil. How great, then, is our sin, who are stone-cold in those matters wherein God would have us "fervent

in spirit"-but where he would have us cool and moderate, all of a flame!

Holy Job confessed, that when he was reduced to beggary, he was somewhat better than when he was born: "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither" (Job i. 21); that is, to the earth, the common mother of us all. And so the apostle : "We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out."-1 Tim. vi. 7. And why, then, all this ado to spruce-up a rotten carcass for the short time that we are to tarry here? We brought nothing in, but filth and guilt; and if we carry out these, we had better never have come in. Naked we came hither; and if we go naked hence, it had been better to have stayed behind. To what end, then, all this waste? and all this superfluous cost is but waste. A little will serve nature; less will serve grace; but nothing will satisfy lust. A small matter would serve him for his passage and pilgrimage that has God for his portion: anything would suffice for this short parenthesis of time, were we but well harnessed out for eternity. Consider, Christians! God has provided "meats for the belly, and the belly for meats;" clothes for the body, and the body for clothes: but God will "destroy" them all, as for those low ends and uses for which nature or vanity does now employ them.-1 Cor. vi. 13. Therefore, says the apostle: "Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content."-1 Tim. vi. 8. Simple food, plain apparel, will answer all the demands of nature; and what is more than this is either evil, or comes of evil, or leads to evil. If it be food, nature is satisfied; inquire no further: acknowledge God in it, crave his blessing on it, bless him for it, and glorify him with it. If it be raiment, inquire no further; God sent it-he indulged it; own his bounty, and bless the donor. Neither the length of life, nor the comfort of life, consists in the abundance of what thou enjoyest.

Let it have a just place in your consideration, to humble you, that God once borrowed man's greatest bravery from the beasts. He made them "coats of skins." Gen. iii. 21. That he clothed them, spoke his mercy; that he clothed them with skins, intimated their vileness. Now, have we since that mended the matter, who borrow our choicest materials for clothing from a worm? If man himself (in the notion of the philosopher) and his life be but ong oxias, "the dream of a shadow," and his clothing the produce of a worm; I wonder how he can be proud of it,

אנוש רמה ובן אדם תולעה : (6 .Job xxv)

or draw matter of pride from it. "A shadow" is nothing; "a dream of a shadow" is something less than nothing: and yet such is man. A worm is vile; and such is all the glory of man in his ruff and pageantry. Nay, man himself is no better: "Man, that is a worm; and the son of man, which is a worm" Here are two words rendered "man "the one signifies "sickness and misery;" the other, "earth and dust." And here are two words rendered "worm "-the one comes from a root that signifies "to lift up the head;" the other signifies "purple and scarlet "-to teach us that man, at his best state, when he lifts up his head highest, is but a wretched worm. Some are longer, some are brighter, worms than others; some, perhaps, may be glow-worms; but all are worms-earth-worms, clothed by the worms, and at last shall be a feast for worms. Art thou proud of thy make ?-Remember thou art but a worm. Art thou proud of thy outward shape ?-Remember, thou art a debtor still to the worms; and be proud if thou canst. Only know that "man that is in honour, and understandeth not" who made him, why he made him, and that answers not the ends of his Creator in his creation, "is like the beasts that perish."-Ps. xlix. 20.

Let it have its due weight in your hearts, that you have another man, a new man, an inner man, to clothe, to adorn, beautify, and maintain. Think not, with the Atheist of Malmsbury, that you have enough to do to maintain one man well; for you have two. And shall all the care, all the cost, be bestowed on the case, the cabinet, the shell, when the jewel is neglected? Think with yourselves, when you are harnessing out for some sumptuous feast, when the "gold ring and the gay clothing" go on, to conciliate respect in the eyes of others: "Have I on my wedding garment? Am I ready for the marriage of the Lamb? Have I on the white garment, that the shame of my nakedness appear not before a pure and holy God?"-Rev. iii. 18. Look into the Gospel wardrobe: Christ has provided complete apparel to clothe you, as well as complete armour to defend you; and he commands you to put on both. Would you have a chain for your neck which outshines the gold of Peru; or a tiara for your head which shames that of the Persian kings? "Hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother," and you have it.-Prov. i. 3, 9. Would you have clothing of wrought gold, and wear those robes [which] "the King's daughter" glories in, when she is brought in to the King of glory, that he may take pleasure in her beauty?-Ps. xlv. 11-13. Would you wear that jewel "which in the sight of God is of great price," beyond those celebrated ones of Augustus or Tiberius? Then get the "ornament of a meek and quiet spirit."-1 Pet. iii.

4.

66

Would you have that which dazzles the diamond, and disparages the Orient pearl? "Adorn your souls "with modesty, shame-facedness, sobriety, and good works, as women professing godliness."-1 Tim. ii. 9, 10. Would you have the whole furniture of the Gospel?--You have it provided by the apostle : First put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, lying."-Col. iii. 8; Eph. iv. 25. Anger ferments to wrath," "wrath" boils up to "malice," "malice" swells up to "blasphemy," and all these break out into "lying." And "put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering: forbearing one another, and forgiving one another." -Col. iii. 12, 13. And for an upper garment, "be clothed with humility" (1 Pet. v. 5); and that your clothes may not sit loose and indecently on you, but close and fast, gird yourselves with the girdle of truth.-Eph. vi. 14. And would you have all in

one?"Then put on the Lord Jesus Christ."-Rom. xiii. 14.

Here, then, is your real ornament, your truly gorgeous apparel: if you have but faith to apply it, skill to use it, decently to put it on, and comely to wear it. In a word: would you have the faithful mirror, that will impartially discover all your spots, all your stains, and help you to judge whether they be"the spots of his children" (Deut. xxxii. 5), such as are consistent with the truth and power of godli ness, and which will not only reveal them, but wash them away? Then take the glass of God's Word; therein view and dress your souls every day: but be sure you forget not what manner of persons that glass has represented you to your own consciences: but "be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your ownselves."-James i. 22-24.

Weigh it seriously, what a long train of sins waits upon this stately lady, vain-glory. Pride never walks the streets alone, nor without a vast retinne of lusts to adorn her pageantry. He that will be profuse in one instance, must be covetous in another; riotous spending is accompanied with penurious sparing. A great fire must have great store of fuel to feed it; and an open table requires abundance of provision to maintain it. Pride must be maintained by oppression-fraud-cozenage. If the tradesman's wife lashes it out in the streets, the husband must fetch it in one way or other in the shop: they that spend unmercifully, must gain unconscionably. The mill will not grind, unless some lust brings grist unto it. A gentleman anticipates his rents in the country: he comes up to town, to vamp his lady and fine daughters with the newest fashion. He ransacks the court and city for the fashion-searches the shops for materials to furnish out the pomp. He returns home: and then his poor tenants go to rack: the sweat is squeezed out of their brows, the blood screwed out of their veins, the marrow out of their bones, that they may pay the unconscionable reckonings and monstrous bills that his own prodigality has drawn upon him.

L

Nor is it one single sin that fills the train of pride. God is robbed of his worship, the poor of their charity, the creditor of his just debts, posterity of those portions which parents are bound to lay up for their children. Pride drinks the tears of widows and orphans-revels with the hard labours of the in- | digent-feeds on the flesh of thousands. "A vast estate is enclosed in one small locket; a necklace of almost eight thousand pounds hangs on one single string; a slender neck carries lordships and manors; and the thin tip of the car wears a jewel or pendant that would defray the charges of housekeeping for a twelvemonth." This is the evil of what the apostle calls "costly apparel."-1 Tim. ii. 9.

THE PLEASURES OF CONTENTMENT.

I HAVE a rich neighbour that is always so busy that he has no leisure to laugh; the whole business of his life is to get money, and more money, that he may still get more and more money. He is still drudging on, and says that Solomon says: "The diligent hand maketh rich." And it is true indeed; but he considers not that it is not in the power of riches to make a man happy for it was wisely said by a man of great observation: "That there be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side them." And yet God deliver us from pinching poverty; and grant that, having a competency, we may be content and thankful! Let us not repine, or so much as think the gifts of God unequally dealt, if we see another abound with riches; when, as God knows, the cares that are the keys that keep those riches hang often so heavily

at the rich man's girdle that they clog him with weary days and restless nights, even when others sleep quietly. We see but the outside of the rich man's happiness: few consider him to be like the silk-worm, that, when she seems to play, is at the very same time spinning her own bowels, and consuming herself. And this many rich men do-loading themselves with corroding cares to keep what they have already got. Let us, therefore, be thankful for healthened competence, and above all, for a quiet conscience.-Izaak Walton.

WIND-STORM IN AMERICA. WHILE at Washington, I first witnessed the windstorm, which is common in this country. It is peculiar-sometimes awful. The morning had been hot, and the sky fair; I had been to the Senate, and was now resting and writing in my chamber. Quietly the soft and refreshing breezes went down; a haze came over the sun, so that it shone as behind a gauze curtain. Every noise was stilled, except that of the frog, which was unpleasantly audible. The sky got silently darker and darker; the atmosphere became oppressive; and not a breath of air was felt. Suddenly, in the distance, you would see things in commotion; and, while everything was yet quiet about you, you might hear the distant roaring of the wind. Then the cattle run away to their best shelter; then the mother calls on her heedless children; and the housewife flies from story to story, to close her windows and shutters against the entrance of the coming foe. Now the dust, taken up in whirlwinds, would come flying along the roads; and then would come the gust of wind, which would make everything tremble, and set the doors, windows, and trees flying, creaking, and crashing around you. You would expect the torrent to fall and to roll; but no, there was neither rain nor thunder. It was wind, and wind alone; and it wanted nothing to increase its power on the imagination. It raged for a few minutes, and then passed as suddenly away, leaving earth and sky as tranquil and as fair as it found them. It is not easy to account for this very sudden destruction and restoration of an equilibrium in nature. The phenomenon, however, supplies a fine illustration of some striking passages in Holy Scripture.-Dr Reed.

NEW HERESIES OFTEN OLD.

WE find by experience, that as there be some doctrines more especially known and published in their respective times and ages, so likewise several ages and many times and places have their peculiar errors, either new ones first forged, or old ones new burnished. The devil makes it his business, and even sets his wits upon the tenters, to furnish the world with variety of lies, suitable to the various humours and interests of men; and when one error is detected, begins to smell rank, and go out of date, through the power and prevalency of the truth, he carefully provides another to succeed it; and if a new one be not at hand, as if his invention failed him, he many times conjures up some old dead one, and makes it walk about in a new dress, and pass for some new or newlyrevived truth, when, indeed, it is but the apparition of a long-since buried error. As merchants are wont to observe what commodities please most in such and such places, and at such and such times, and accordingly take care to supply the markets; so the devil looks what wares will vend best in such a country, at such a season, what will be the most grateful to the lusts and interests of men, and then will be sure to supply them with those most which he sees take most. And though we do not say, that every private

383

believer is bound to be a school divine-to be exact in all the niceties and controversies which may arise about matters of religion; yet, sure, every one that is capable of it should labour so to understand the doctrine of religion, as to be able to know what is truth, and what is error; and to be so established in the belief of the truth, as that, though he cannot answer all the quirks and captions of a wrangling sophister, yet he may see a reason (as before) for what he believes, and for his firmly adhering to it.Edward Veal.

A SOFT ANSWER.

THE celebrated Aboo Yusuph, who was chief judge of Bagdad, in the reign of the Caliph Hâdee, was a very remarkable instance of that humility which distinguishes true wisdom. His sense of his own deficiencies often led him to entertain doubts, where men of less knowledge and more presumption were decided." It is related of this judge, that on one occasion, after a very patient investigation of facts, he declared that his knowledge was not competent to decide upon the case before him. 'Pray, do you expect,' said a pert courtier, who heard this declaration, that the Caliph is to pay your ignorance?' I do not,' was the mild reply; the Caliph pays me, and well, for what I do know; if he were to attempt to pay me for what I do not know, the treasures of his empire would not suffice.'"-Malcolm's Persia.

THE DIFFERENCE OF COUNTENANCES. IN what extreme confusion must the world for ever have been, but for the variety which we find to exist in the faces, the voices, and the handwritings of men! No security of person, no certainty of possession, no justice between man and man; no distinction between good and bad, friends and foes, father and child, husband and wife, male and female. All would have been exposed to malice, fraud, forgery, and lust. But now man's face can distinguish him in the light -his voice in the dark; and his handwriting, can speak for him though absent, and be his witness to all generations. Did this happen by chance, or is it not a manifest as well as an admirable indication of a divine superintendence?-Derham.

Miscellaneous.

SIR AMYAS PAULET, when he saw too much haste made in any matter, was wont to say: "Stay awhile, that we may make an end the sooner."-Bucon.

HE that smarts for speaking truth hath a plaster in his own conscience.-Fuller.

WE find in God all the excellences of light, truth, wisdom, greatness, goodness, and life. Light gives joy and gladness; truth gives satisfaction; wisdom gives learning and instruction; greatness excites admiration; goodness produces love and gratitude; life gives immortality and insures enjoyment.Jones of Nayland.

A MAN'S nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other.-Bacon.

If the idle man were compelled to count the tickings of a watch for one hour, he would be glad to pull off his coat the next, and work like a Negro.

LAZINESS grows on people; it begins in cobwebs, and ends in iron chains. The more business a man has, the more he is able to accomplish; for he learns to economize his time.-Hale.