Popery almost unmasked; and the "Lyra," and "Froude's Remains." The evil is now spreading so widely, reaching so high, and tainting to so low a depth, that a crisis cannot be far off. May it please God to open the eyes of this nation to the fearful precipice we are nearing! This pamphlet will assist to unravel many strange things to which a clue is needed.

We have to notice some pleasing little books published by Robertson, Dublin, consisting of "The Broken Pledge," "The Inconsistent Pharisee," "The Happy Family," "The Captain and his Crew," "The Early Roses," &c. Also some well selected Reward Books, published by Wight, Cheltenham, and Dewe, Leamington; the latter has published an interesting Memoir of " Ann Sayle," by Mrs. Philpot.

WE have also seen a parcel of " Astronomical Cards, in question and answer, compiled from the best authorities," which are well adapted to instruct and assist the youthful student in that noble science.

THOSE of our readers (we hope they are many) who love floriculture, may be interested in knowing that a very plain, practical, spirited and independent weekly periodical, entitled “The Gardener,” has been started; published by Groombridge. The few numbers we have seen please us: there is much rough good sense, and a remarkable absence of technical pedantry, in the paper.

THE PROTESTANT.

us.

THERE is a point, uncle, which perplexes me much; Among the worldly wise, almost to as great an extent as among spiritual people, it seems to be felt that we have arrived at the verge of some important crisis, and that peril in many forms impends over Abroad, there is much of an explosive character perceptible; at home, insurrection has been quelled by physical force, but no one dreams that a single incentive to insurrectionary violence has been removed. Any thinking man, looking on the country as regards our external and internal condition, would be inclined to adopt scripture phraseology, and to say, "Without are fightings; within are fears." Is it not so ?'

Assuredly it is: but wherein consists your perplexity?'

'I cannot understand the ground of their confidence or the source of their hope, uncle. Such they must have, or the world would not go on as it does. Men who really expected to see their country become a scene of devastation, women who believed their children would be exposed to the horrors inseparable from a state of internal anarchy, or of conflict with invading foes, or even that, by the pressure of great national distress, they would be stripped of their possessions and brought very low; such people could not pursue with undiminished

eagerness the routine of idle amusements; could not feast and revel, and despise the Lord's ordinances, and close their ears to the cry of the poor, and evidently make it their practical creed, "To-morrow shall be as to day, and yet more abundant," unless they had some strong hold of confidence, which I cannot understand; seeing how plain it is that they regard not the Lord, neither seek to him, as a refuge from the coming storm.'

It is ever thus, my dear, when destruction hovers over a people; and the nearer their calamity approaches, the stronger is that feeling of false security. God sends warnings too plain to be misunderstood: men perceive and acknowledge their tendency, but harden their hearts against the message. God, longsuffering and gracious, abundant in mercy and truth, repeats the warning, and man doubly strengthens himself to resist conviction. At length the seal is put upon eyes wilfully, perseveringly closed to the proffered mercy. They who so long hardened themselves, the Lord hardens; no miracle then can move them they see the deliverance vouchsafed to the weakest of his trusting people, but it avails not, and the wrath so long defied descends on their heads. They perish.'

Well, blessed be God! it is still the time of warning with poor England: the accepted time; the day of salvation. We must hope and pray that many, very many may be led to know the day of their visitation, and to flee not only from the temporal, but from the eternal wrath to come."

Ay, but prayer must be accompanied with efforts to the same end. I do not see among believers an earnestness, a diligence proportioned to their sense

of coming danger.

They have a strong tower, a

chamber wherein to hide until these calamities be overpast, but do they sufficiently bestir themselves in the task of persuading others to seek the same security? I think not: I trace a sort of practical fatalism among God's people, an acquiescenee in the destruction of their fellow-creatures, utterly at variance with their proper character. True, they may, like their blessed Master, weep over the city whose approaching doom they see; but let them solemnly ask themselves how often, and how perseveringly, and how diligently have they sought to bring those unhappy wanderers under his sheltering wings? Do we not gather ourselves into cliques, enjoying our own privileges, and leaving ungodly acquaintances to perish in their sins?'

'I have known some pious people, desirous to escape that reproach, mix very much in worldly society; but I cannot say that I ever knew any good to come of it.'

When, where, and how did they so mix?'

'By visiting, in a quiet way, and asking their worldly friends sometimes to meet Christian people at their houses.'

Making it always before each visit a matter of earnest, special, united prayer to God, that such intercourse might lead to the conversion of the unbeliever; and keeping it in view as the main, the sole object of all that was spoken?'

'Indeed, uncle, I don't know: I should rather fear not.'

'Well; if I wanted to reclaim a friend from drinking, it strikes me that I should not sit down with him to a bottle, and freely replenish my own glass

the while. But to say truth I am hardly less perplexed by the indifference of Christian people to the peril of their neighbours than you are by that of the latter to their own. Even among those who do discern, and clearly too, the signs of the times, you will find, in the great majority of instances, the believer in our system of interpretation, more anxious to convert his equally awakened neighbour to his own scheme, than to press upon doubting Christians the nearness of the Lord's approach; or to beseech the unconverted to look unto Him and be saved.'

I confess it, uncle. I see a grievous loss of time, thought, talent, and opportunity, and not unfrequently of temper also, on that favorite point. I do not mean the great point of our Lord's speedy coming to close this dispensation, and to establish a glorious reign among men ; for that I hold as a doctrine which they who receive it are bound to bring before others: but I allude to the squabbles concerning dates, in which it is impossible that any man should prove himself to be accurate; and to the various minutiæ respecting which we can very well afford to wait till the event makes all plain. It is to me as though the Christians, prepared to flee from Jerusalem on the approach of Titus, had occupied themselves in disputing over rival plans of the topography of Pella, when they should have employed every moment left, in winning as many as possible from the multitude around them to become partakers of their faith, that they too might share the refuge which God had provided for his people.'

'I often ponder on those words, "When the Son of man cometh, sball he find faith on the earth?" There is a lurking disbelief in spiritual people of