prohibits these: 1. Lest there should be such commerce with Egypt as might lead to idolatry. 2. Lest the people might depend upon a well-appointed cavalry, as a means of security, and so cease from trusting in the strength and protection of God.

Deut. xx. 19.-It was a merciful provision to spare all fruit-bearing trees, because they yielded the fruit which supported man's life. And it was sound policy, also, for even the conquerors must perish if the means of life were cut off. It is diabolical cruelty to add to the miseries of war the horrors of famine; and this is done where the trees of the field are cut down, the dykes broken to drown the land, the villages burnt, and the crops wilfully spoiled. O, execrable war! subversive of all the charities of life!

Judges iii. 2.-Had they (the Israelites) been faithful to God, they would have had no need of learning the art of war; but now arms became a sort of necessary substitute for that spiritual strength which had departed from them. Thus God, in his judgments, leaves one iniquitous nation to harass and torment another. Were all to turn to God, men need learn war no more.

1 Chron. xxii. 8. "Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight."Heathen, Jews, and Christians, have all agreed that soldiers of any kind should have nothing to do with Divine offices. Shedding of human blood but ill comports with the benevolence of God, or the spirit of the Gospel.

Job xxiv. 12. "Men groan from out of the city."-Dr. Clarke, after describing the poverty and misery of a district in London which he was once appointed to visit, gives, as one of the causes, the "oppressive systems of public expenditure in the support of ruinous wars, and the stagnation of trade and destruction of commerce occasioned by them to which must be added the enormous taxation to meet this expenditure.”

Psalm xviii. 34. "He teacheth my hands to war."-The success which I have had in my military exercises I owe to the Divine help. How few of the conquerors of mankind can say so! And how few among those who call themselves Christian warriors dare to say so! War is as contrary to the spirit of Chris

tianity as murder. Nothing can justify Christian nations in shedding each other's blood! All men should live in peace; and all men might live in peace: and the nation that is first to break it is under a heavy curse.

Psalm xxxiv. 11. "Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord."-I shall introduce the translation and paraphrase from my old Psalter; and the rather, because I believe there is a reference to that very improper and unholy method of teaching youth the system of heathen mythology before they are taught one sound lesson of true divinity; till, at last, their minds are imbued with heathenism; and the vicious conduct of gods, goddesses, and heroes, here very properly called tyrants, becomes the model of their own; and they are as heathenish without as they are heathenish within.

Trans. Cum mes sones heres me: dred of Lard I sal you lere.

Par.-Cum mes, with trauth and luf: sones, qwam I gette in haly lere: heres me. With eres of hert. I sal lere you noght the fabyls of poetes; na the storys of tyrauntz; bot the dred of our Larde, that wyl bryng you til the felaghschippe of aungels; and tharin is life.

I need not paraphrase this paraphrase, as it is plain enough.

Psalm cvii. 36-38. "And there he maketh the hungry to dwell," &c.What a fine picture is this of the first peopling and planting of America, and of the multiplication and extension of that people!of the Divine blessing on their industry; and the general and astonishing prosperity of their country. May they never again know what is spoken in the following verse!

Verse 39. "Again they are minished." -Sometimes by war, or pestilence, or famine. How minished and brought low was the country already spoken of, by the long and destructive war which began in 1775, and was not ended till 1788! And what desolations, minishings, and ruin have been brought on the fertile empires of Europe by the war which commenced in 1792, and did not end till 1814!

And how many millions of lives have been sacrificed in it, and souls sent unprepared into the eternal world! When God makes inquisition for blood, on whose heads will the blood of these slaughtered millions be found? Alas! O, alas !

Verse 40. "He poureth contempt upon princes."-How many have lately been raised from nothing, and set on thrones! and how many have been cast down from thrones, and reduced to nothing! And where are now those mighty troublers of the earth? On both sides they are in general gone to give an account of themselves to God. And what an account!

Ibid. "Where there is no way."Who can consider the fate of the late emperor of the French, Napoleon, without seeing the hand of God in his downfal! All the powers of Europe were leagued against him in vain; they were as stubble to his bow. He came-he

saw-and he conquered, almost every where, till God, by a Russian frost, destroyed his tens of thousands of veteran troops. And afterwards his armies of raw conscripts would have overmatched the world, had not a particular providence intervened at Waterloo, when all the skill and valour of his opponents had been nearly reduced to nothing! How terrible art thou, O Lord, in thy judgments! Thou art fearful in praises, doing wonders.

The dreary rock of St. Helena, where there was no way, saw a period to the mighty conqueror who had strode over all the countries of Europe.

Psalm exxxiii. 1. "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Unity is, according to this scripture, a good thing and a pleasant; and especially among brethren, members of the same family, of the same Christian community, and of the same nation. And why not among the great family of mankind?

On the other hand, disunion is bad and hateful. The former is from heaven, the latter from hell.

Psalm exliv. 4. "Man is like to vanity."-Adam la Hebel demah, literally, Adam is like to Abel, exposed to the same miseries, accidents, and murderers; for in millions of cases the hands of brothers are lift up to shed the blood of brothers. What are wars but fratricide in the great human family?

Proverbs xiii. 10. "By pride cometh contention."-Perhaps there is not a quarrel among individuals in private life, nor a war among nations, that does not proceed from pride and ambition. Neither man nor nation will be content to be less than another; and to acquire the wished-for superiority, all is thrown

into general confusion, both in public and private life. It was to destroy this spirit of pride that Jesus was manifested in the extreme of humility and humiliation among men. The salvation of Christ is a deliverance from pride, and a being clothed with humility. As far as we are humble, so far are we saved.

Isaiah xxvi. 21. "The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."-Crimes of cruelty and oppression which have passed away from the eyes of men, God will bring into judgment, and exact punishment for them. O what a reckoning will the kingdoms of the earth have with God for the torrents of blood which they have shed for the gratification of the lust of power and ambition!

Isaiah lviii. 1. "Cry aloud, spare not."-This chapter has been often appointed to be read on political fast-days, for the success of wars carried on forGod knows what purposes; and originating in-God knows what motives. Politically speaking, was ever any thing more injudicious?

Verse 4. "Ye fast for strife and debate."-How often is this the case! A whole nation are called to fast to implore God's blessing on wars carried on for the purposes of wrath and ambition!

Micah v. 5. "And this [man] shall be the peace."-This clause should be joined to the preceding verse, as it finishes the prophecy concerning our blessed Lord, who is the Author and Prince of Israel; and shall finally give peace to all nations by bringing them under his yoke.

Zech. ix. 10. "I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem."-No wars shall be employed to spread the kingdom of the Messiah; for it shall be founded and established, "not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts." Chap. iv. 6.

Luke ii. 14. "Peace, good-will toward men."-Men are in a state of hostility with Heaven and with each other. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." He who sins, wars against his Maker, and

"Foe to God was ne'er true friend to man." When men become reconciled to God through the death of his Son, they love one another. They have peace with God; peace in their own consciences; and peace with their neighbours: good

will dwells in them, and works by them. Well might this state of salvation be represented under the notion of the kingdom of God, a counterpart of eternal felicity.

Rom. iii. 17, 18.-Look especially at men in a state of warfare; look at the nations of Europe who enjoy most of the light of God; see what has taken place among them from 1792 to 1816; see what destruction of millions, and what misery of hundreds of millions, have been the consequence of Satanic excitement in fallen, ferocious passions! O SIN, what hast thou done!

How many

myriads of souls hast thou hurried unprepared into the eternal world! Who, among men or angels, can estimate the greatness of this calamity! this butchery of souls! What widows, what orphans are left to deplore their sacrificed husbands and parents, and their own consequent wretchedness! And whence sprang all this? From that whence come all wars and fightings; the evil desires of men; the lust of dominion; the insatiable thirst for money; and the desire to be sole and independent.

Eph. iv. 32.-He that would lead a quiet life, and "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," must be as backward so take offence as to give it. Would all act on this plan, and surely it is as rational as it is Christian, we should soon have "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good-will among

men."

Eph. vi. 15.-The Gospel is termed the " Gospel of peace," because it establishes peace between God and man, and proclaims peace and good-will to the universe. Contentions, strife, quarrels, and all wars, being as alien, from its nature and design, as they are opposed to the nature of Him who is love and compassion to man.

Heb. v. 12.-What a reproach to Christians, who hold the Bible to be a collection of the oracles of God, and who not only do not consult it in the momentous concerns of either this or the future life, but go in direct opposition to it. Were every thing conducted according to these oracles, we should have neither war nor desolation in the earth; families would be well governed; and individuals universally made happy.

James iv. 1. "Come they not hence, even of your lusts?"-The principle

from which all the wars that have afflicted and desolated the world have proceeded. One nation or king covets another's territory or property; and, as conquest is supposed to give right to all the possessions gained by it, they kill, slay, burn, and destroy, till one is overcome or exhausted, and then the other makes his own terms; or, several neighbouring potentates fall upon one that is weak, and after murdering one half of the people, partition the fallen king's territory among them, just as the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians, have done with the kingdom of Poland!—a stain upon their justice and policy which no lapse of time can wash out.

Το

1 John iii. 12.-Men should not act to each other as Cain did to his brother Abel. He murdered him because he was better than himself. But who was Cain? Ἐκ τοῦ πονηροῦ ην, he was of the devil. And who are they who through pride, lust of power, ambition, gain, &c., murder each other in wars and political contentions ? Εκτοῦ πονηροῦ ειοι. attempt to justify the principle, and excuse the instigators, authors, abettors, &c., of such wars, is as vain as it is wicked. They are opposed to the nature of God, and to that message which he has sent to man from the beginning"Love one another." "Love your enemies." Surely this does not mean, blow out their brains, or cut their throats. O, how much of the spirit, temper, and letter of the Gospel have the nations of the world, and particularly the nations of Europe, to learn!

Rev. xiv. 13. "Which die in the Lord."-These are the only glorious dead. They die, not in the field of battle, in either what are called lawful or unlawful wars against their fellowmen: but they die in the cause of God; they die under the smile and approbation of God; and they die to live and reign with God for ever and ever.

Rev. xvi. 9. "And they repented not."-No moral national amendment has taken place in consequence of the calamities [of war] in that unhappy country, [France; nor indeed any of those nations engaged against her, in that long and ruinous contest which has now terminated, (1817,) without producing one political, moral, or religious advantage to herself or to Europe.

THERE are several tribes on the Russian frontier, who have never submitted to the laws of the emperor. They are mountaineers, and are said to be fierce, haughty, and cruel. Near the foot of one of these mountains, in a village named Karass, the Scottish missionaries pitched their tent, and commenced their labours; and by this means had frequent intercourse with the tribes referred to. In course of time, these sons of the mountains brought several Cabardian and Circassian children, whom they had stolen or taken captive, and offered them for sale to the missionaries. After some consultation with friends, the missionaries bought them, with the intention of instructing them in the arts of civilised life, and of training them in the knowledge of Christ; some of whom turned out well, and became very useful. These children were named after ladies and gentlemen in Britain, and were denominated, "the ransomed."

Several years ago, I received a letter from one of them, whose name, I think, was Andrew Hunter, full of lamentation and woe. It stated, that the mountaineers had come down upon them in the night, and pillaged the station, carrying away their horses, and sheep, and cows, and leaving little besides their furniture and their children. But what chiefly grieved my correspondent was, that, in consequence of his cows being stolen, his children were famishing. "Oh! Sir," said he, "please to get me a cow; one will cost twenty-five roubles, (about one pound sterling,) and if you could help me with two or three cows, it would be the greatest kindness you could show to my famishing family."

This was a loud call: it was irresistible; and I immediately set to work for "the ransomed." One gentleman who attended my ministry had been at Karass, and knew the mission families. He was an Armenian by birth, and was converted to God by reading one of the first Bibles which the British and Foreign Bible Society published in that language. I first called on him, when the following conversation took place :

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"Good morning, Mr. Jakbatoff." "Good morning, pastor." "I want to consult you about a passage of Scripture." What passage ?" "Proverbs iii. 8, 9, Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty,'" &c. He immediately took his Armenian Bible and an English Bible, and turning to the chapter, examined the verses very minutely, and exclaimed, "O yes, Sir, exactly the same in both Bibles.' 'Well," said I, "that is pleasing. Now give me your opinion of its meaning." Meaning!" said he, "it means this :-If we honour God with what he gives us, then he will give us more.' "Very correct," said I, but do you think God means what he says ?" O, pastor, how can you ask that question? God always means what he says." "Very well, I am glad that we agree in our comments on this verse. Now I will read you a letter." So I read him about the Cabardian, and his children, and his cows. He heard with deep attention, and, smiling, said, "I think I know what you mean.' "Admirable !" I replied. "Yes, yes," said he, "I will give you money for a cow," and he gave it. Next I called on an English merchant, and related to him all the particulars of my visit to the Armenian. He laughed heartily at Mr. Jakbatoff's application of the commentary, but added, Is any thing meant by all this for me?" 66 Let your conscience decide, Sir," I replied. "Well, well," said he, "I will also give you a cow," and he gave it. Then, to finish the business, I called on a third, and mentioned the proceedings of the morning to him, and he gave me a third cow.

I never asked these dear friends for a farthing, but stated the case, brought them to their Bible, and left the word of God to produce its own blessed and powerful effect on their consciences.

O, if the readers of this fact would interpret the Scriptures as my Russian friends did, how happy it would make them, and what blessings would they soon become to others!

RICHARD KNILL.