attention than it generally receives. The book which, as yet, Christians least understand; the book which awaits the solution of its prophecies by their fulfilment; the book which is not only last in order, but eminently belongs to the last times, last in relation to the great events that shall usher in the full triumph of Christianity; this book might almost seem written for the synagogue, and cannot but be recognised by every learned Jew, when converted to the faith of Christ, as the writing of one who, like the beloved disciple, was familiarly known at the High-Priest's palace.

Borrowing, for a moment, the perception of a Jewish reader, and refraining from controversial disquisition as to the meaning of the passage, seeing that it has long taxed the ingenuity of the wisest commentators, let us note a literal peculiarity of the following sentences :-" And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred threescore and six." (Rev. xiii. 17, 18.)

Wisdom, or art, would be called by the same name () in the lips of a Jew. The art now required is to count the number of a name, or, in other words, to find a name that shall contain the number given; and the name is, of course, to tally with a description contained in the context. The reader is recommended to peruse this description carefully; and if a Jew should see these observations, he is requested to consider whether there be any people in the world that has been subjected to the ban and to the persecution there predicted, so cruelly and so generally as his own. And there is only one people in the world that has continuously persecuted them; and that people, while we write, carries out the same persecution in Rome itself, to the very letter of the Apocalypse. What language do these oppressors use? For it is by their sacred and universal language that they are here distinguished. They use Latin, suffering no other to be employed in the highest solemnities of their worship, and in the authoritative documents of their Pontiffs. This is Latin. Latin, not as an adjective, but as the name of a language, is

called in the synagogue —and the number of this name, that is to say, the numerical value of its component letters, is 666. This computation is not new, nor is it presented to the readers of the "Youth's Instructer" as a discovery, for it has been current for more than a century, and was suggested centuries before; but it recalls the fact that this manner of combining words and numbers is in daily practice with the Jews. This appears on the title-pages of their books; where, instead of exhibiting numbers, either at length or by figures, they find a word that will contain the date, and must frequently have to exercise great ingenuity in making such a choice as will not only serve the first purpose, but be in itself elegant, and even highly suggestive. Out of many Hebrew title-pages lying within reach, we take the following:

A book printed at Leghorn in the year 1753, or, as the Jews count, 5513-14. The date is thus given:

,In the year NoNE BESIDES ME * : בשנת אין זולתי לפ"ק

lesser computation." The two middle words are to be counted letter by letter, ✯ (1) × (10) † (50) † (7) ↑ (6) ↳ (30)

♫ (400) ↳ (10), making 514, the thousands being dropped in 'lesser computation." The Christian date being also put, in obedience to the civil or ecclesiastical authority of Leghorn, it results that the book was printed some time between the middle of September and the end of the year 1753. A Prayer-book is printed in London, in the year "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see wONDERS." The symbolic word

-wonders, indicates the year 5567; from which deducting 3760, as must always be done, to reduce the Jewish to the Christian year, it turns out that the book belongs to 1807. The same principle of indicating, rather than expressing, numbers, prevails in all notation of dates; and thus you may find the notices hung up in the synagogues for a Sabbath, or for a week, distinguished by the first word of the parashah, or appointed lesson for that Sabbath, instead of the name of the month, and number of the day. A similar custom prevailed in other Eastern countries. This being once remembered, we cease to wonder at the strangeness of the passage before us, and understand that it is written for a

people to whom the method is familiar. May it please God to show them the difference between what is Roman and what is Christian, and may they be soon brought to acknowledge His condescension in preparing this portion of His inspired volume with so manifest an adaptation to their usage and to their conceptions.

THE LEPER.

"AND, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."-Matt. viii. 2.

CONCERNING the previous history of this leper the Evangelist is silent, and the reader is left to conjecture what it might have been. Perhaps he was a young man. Suppose this; and suppose that he had been the light and joy of his parents' hearts, and the brightest ornament of some happy family circle. In such a case, it is difficult to conceive of the deep distress into which that family must have been plunged when they first discovered the symptoms of leprosy on the noble youth, the pride of his father's house. Who can describe the bitter anguish that would wring the heart of the doting mother, or the silent grief pressing into the very dust the soul of the affectionate father, when they first saw the spot of leprosy on the expanding brow of their beloved boy?

Suppose him to have been a favourite child. He had been dearer to them than any other member of their family. He had exhibited in childhood an amount of piety and of mental power not possessed by any of the other children. This had raised the hopes of his fond parents. They had watched over him with all the tenderness of parental care. They had laboured to improve his piety, and to enlarge his mind. With many tears they had sought for him the blessing of "the Most High," and they had looked forward to the time when he would become the staff, the comfort, the honour of their old age. "Their life was bound up in the life of the lad." But now all those long-cherished hopes are at once blasted. They have discovered upon their child the white spot, which is the sure beginning of that awful plague! In vain they try to wash it away. In vain they water it with their tears. In vain they endeavour to persuade themselves into the

called in the synagogue -and the number of this name, that is to say, the numerical value of its component letters, is 666. This computation is not new, nor is it presented to the readers of the "Youth's Instructer" as a discovery, for it has been current for more than a century, and was suggested centuries before; but it recalls the fact that this manner of combining words and numbers is in daily practice with the Jews. This appears on the title-pages of their books; where, instead of exhibiting numbers, either at length or by figures, they find a word that will contain the date, and must frequently have to exercise great ingenuity in making such a choice as will not only serve the first purpose, but be in itself elegant, and even highly suggestive. Out of many Hebrew title-pages lying within reach, we take the following:

A book printed at Leghorn in the year 1753, or, as the Jews count, 5513-14. The date is thus given :Po 18 : "In the year NONE BESIDES ME, lesser computation." The two middle words are to be counted letter by letter, & (1) (10) † (50) ↑ (7) ↑ (6) 3 (30)

(400) ↳ (10), making 514, the thousands being dropped in "lesser computation." The Christian date being also put, in obedience to the civil or ecclesiastical authority of Leghorn, it results that the book was printed some time between the middle of September and the end of the year 1753. A Prayer-book is printed in London, in the year "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may see woNDERS." The symbolic word

-wonders, indicates the year 5567; from which deducting 3760, as must always be done, to reduce the Jewish to the Christian year, it turns out that the book belongs to 1807. The same principle of indicating, rather than expressing, numbers, prevails in all notation of dates; and thus you may find the notices hung up in the synagogues for a Sabbath, or for a week, distinguished by the first word of the parashah, or appointed lesson for that Sabbath, instead of the name of the month, and number of the day. A similar custom prevailed in other Eastern countries. This being once remembered, we cease to wonder at the strangeness of the passage before us, and understand that it is written for a

'people to whom the method is familiar. May it please God to show them the difference between what is Roman and what is Christian, and may they be soon brought to acknowledge His condescension in preparing this portion of His inspired volume with so manifest an adaptation to their usage and to their conceptions.

THE LEPER.

"AND, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."-Matt. viii. 2.

CONCERNING the previous history of this leper the Evangelist is silent, and the reader is left to conjecture what it might have been. Perhaps he was a young man. Suppose this; and suppose that he had been the light and joy of his parents' hearts, and the brightest ornament of some happy family circle. In such a case, it is difficult to conceive of the deep distress into which that family must have been plunged when they first discovered the symptoms of leprosy on the noble youth, the pride of his father's house. Who can describe the bitter anguish that would wring the heart of the doting mother, or the silent grief pressing into the very dust the soul of the affectionate father, when they first saw the spot of leprosy on the expanding brow of their beloved boy?

Suppose him to have been a favourite child. He had been dearer to them than any other member of their family. He had exhibited in childhood an amount of piety and of mental power not possessed by any of the other children. This had raised the hopes of his fond parents. They had watched over him with all the tenderness of parental care. They had laboured to improve his piety, and to enlarge his mind. With many tears they had sought for him the blessing of "the Most High," and they had looked forward to the time when he would become the staff, the comfort, the honour of their old age. "Their life was bound up in the life of the lad." But now all those long-cherished hopes are at once blasted. They have discovered upon their child the white spot, which is the sure beginning of that awful plague! In vain they try to wash it away. In vain they water it with their tears. In vain they endeavour to persuade themselves into the