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vancement may be traced in the presentation of that request. There will be a peculiarity about it that will proclaim him to be a holier man now than when he first offered that supplication; and the general tone and spirit of his devotional exercises will show that he has gained a nobler altitude, and is pressing forward towards the mark of the prize of his high calling in Christ Jesus. It will be obvious in the case of such a man that he realizes somewhat of that to which the apostle refers: "Boldness and access with confidence."

Thus it has been with some of the most distinguished servants of Christ. It is said of Luther that his friends were struck with the holy boldness, utterly removed from anything like presumption, with which he approached God in prayer. Whitefield, too, was remarkable for the nearness of his approaches and the freedom of his access to God. There is one feature in the supplications of these holy men which strikingly symbolizes with that which prominently appears in the prayers of some of the most distinguished men recorded in sacred Scripture-that is, pleading with God. They prayed with the conviction that they had laid hold upon God and had power with him. They reiterated their supplication with such fervid importunity as to bear away the blessings they desired. And when we meet with individuals of advanced, eminent piety, it developes itself to us in the prominence of pleading in their supplications. In prayer they are not like those who feel that they have first to get near to God themselves; they feel, and communicate the impression to those who listen to them, that they are with God, and have pressed near even to his throne. Hence there is the absence of that hesitation and doubtful mode of expression which we oftentimes hear in prayer, and the fulness and freeness and power which indicate that God is felt to be at hand and not afar off. This is one only amongst many points of view in which advancement in devotion may be contemplated, but it is one of great prominence and interest to all true Christians.

Dear readers, examine yourselves on this subject. Compare your prayers now with the prayers you were wont to offer in the early stages of your religious career, that you may ascertain whether there has been any advancement. Look to be humbled, aroused, and urged forward. Let your watchword here be, AdvanceThere is lamentable weakness and

ment.

decrepitude here. We want a healthy,

vigorous, high-toned, masculine devotion in the church. This is the church's might. Dear brethren, take these thoughts on prayer we have offered, and lay them up in your hearts. Do not be satisfied with. dwelling upon one or other of them merely, but let your minds frequently take the entire range of this interesting and important subject. Be instant in prayerceaselessly devotional. In the light of the church's feebleness, the world's wretchedness, and the Saviour's injured honour, ponder God's declarations: "Ye have not, because ye ask not, or because ye ask amiss." "Thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." J. W. R.

WHAT IS DEATH?

WHAT is death? inquired the youthUgenio. Death, replied Geraius, is the destined termination of all things mortal. We are its lawful prey, and so is all we see around

us.

By its oft repeated visits this soft carpeting of green we tread, these lovely and attractive flowers we so much admire, and that verdant foliage, whose thick shade we seek, droop, wither, and decay. When these stately trees have ceased responding to the calls of genial springwhen those numerous flocks which in the distance clothe the wide-spread pasturage are gone-when man, the noblest of the great Creator's works below, returns whence he was taken,-it is the work of death. Death works on all things mortal, and in its work knows no distinction.

See yonder mower, how he throws his scythe into the standing grass. Grass we are pleased to call it, but if you mark it more minutely, you will perceive there is not only grass, but towering weeds, and a vast profusion of variegated flowers. Now mark, the mower makes no distinction; at every stroke, grass, flowers, weeds, all prostrate fall before him. So with the mortal race-fruits and flowers, stately trees, and humble shrubs, animals of every kind, fowl of every wing, fish of every fin, and man in all his grades. The easy rich, the toiling poor, the thoughtless youth, the sober aged, the proud noble, and the humble plebeian—all are its prey.

It was not always so.

Once death had no possession here. Then nature's face with smiles was ever radiant. The vast variety of created existences that peopled earth's habitable parts were full of joy. The king of day then rose in splendour

and retired in loveliness-the queen of night unclouded ruled its silent watches -the morning stars together sang, and all "the sons of God shouted for joy." But man sinned! Death, sin's wages, followed, and so closely followed, that when he sinned, he died.

Come, look at man as he came from his Creator's hand. Behold him; he is formed after the image of the King of heaven. Extensive knowledge, the highest created rectitude, and spotless purity are the characteristics of his soul. Could you read his thoughts, they are in heaven. His every action is conformed to his Creator's holy law. His heart's desire is for communion with his God. But lo, he disobeys! The image of his God is lost; all good is lost, and ill is in possession. Depravity pervades his soul, darkness clouds his intellect, perverts the reason and obstructs the movements of his conscience. Stubborn perversity inclines his will, and enmity to God rules powerfully in him to do evil. God can have no fellowship with such. Abandoned, cursed, condemned, he is but a wreck of that noble creature man. Nay more, he is a demon, he delights in ill. This, Ugenio, was death,-death of all good within his spirit, or spiritual death.

See him again, in consequence of sin, laid low on that solitary couch. Keen anguish, you perceive, distorts his haggard countenance. How emaciated he appears! His flesh and bones, and skin, in part, are gone. His pulse is low, his eye is set. How long it is between the heavings of his aching breast! Burning thirst augments his pain; and hark! a gurgling noise is in his throat. His whole frame quivers. It is a shock of nature. gasp! O how painful! Another, another yet! There, that's the last. His soul is gone. His body only lies there now; and this is death-the separation of the soul and body, or temporal death.

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Nor is this all. When the soul, in all its guilt, has left that mortal frame, it must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. There, with its compeers in transgression, having received its final doom, Depart, ye cursed," it shall with howling fiends be forced to find its place in flames of inextinguishable fire, to suffer pains unutterable for ever and for ever. This, Ugenio, shall be death, the second death, or death eternal.

WALTER SCOTT AND WILLIAM
WILBERFORCE.

In the diary of the great and good Wilber

force we find the following passage in reference to the Waverly Novels, which were just then in course of publication:

"I am always sorry that they should have so little moral or religious object. They remind me of a giant spending his strength in cracking nuts. I would rather go to render up my account at the last day, carrying up with me "The Shepherd of Salisbury Plain," than bearing the load of all those volumes, full as they are of genius."

Without entering here into the vexed question of the lawfulness of writing and reading romances, we must be permitted to express our earnest sympathy with this beautiful and truthful sentiment.

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Walter Scott, the man so full of generosity, of hearty genial humour, and of hospitality, we have a warm admiration. His genius every one must honour. To him we are indebted for many delightful hours. the living tapestries of his unrivalled romances we have seen the shape and spirit of the stirring days of chivalry, "bodied forth with a strange and picturesque beauty. We have laughed with "Caleb Balderstone" and "Dugald Dalgetty"and mourned with stout old Davie Deans over that sad calamity for which "he wrestled in privacy and on his knees and followed that most perfect of his heroines, "Jeanie Deans," up to London, and listening to the sweetly eloquent appeal for her sister's life, have found ourselves ready "to gush out with tears." And yet after reading all his most celebrated productions, with a hearty admiration for the splendour of their conception, we were tempted to ask ourselves-why all this vast expenditure of so much that was rich and precious, and that, too, without even the outward show of devotion manifested by her who expended so much of her substance in order to anoint her Master's feet? Were there no great living truths for him to defend? Were there no contests waging with error that called for the aid of his powerful arm? Were there no burning wrongs for him to expose and labour to correct-that he should have squandered the treasures of his mighty intellect in devising cunning romances for a winter evening's entertainment?

Contrast his career with that lofty philanthropist whom we have just named, who although his inferior in point of natural gifts, has yet rendered his own life sublime. Wilberforce, like Scott, was a man of great geniality of temper-like Scott, he seemed to "touch life at a great

many points." But he did not live merely for the amusement of his fellow-men. He lived for their higher good. He had a quick eye for all the wrongs and sufferings of his fellow-beings, and a warm heart for their relief. All day long his cottage at Clapham was thronged by men -not like those who crowded the doorway of Abbotsford, in order to pay homage to high intellect alone-but by those who came to ask of him alms for some of "God's poor," or to devise some plan to enlighten the ignorant of London, or to supply the Bible in some destitute region, or to suppress the infamous traffic in the bodies and souls of men on the coast of Africa. For thirty-three long years, through sneers and taunts and discouragements-with a lofty moral heroism, unsurpassed, since the days of the Apostle of the Gentiles, he had waged a war upon this monstrous traffic-and when the triumph was at last gained, and Sir Samuel Romilly announced, amidst the cheers of the House, that William Wilberforce would that night lay his head upon his pillow a more honoured man than the

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SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. "Joseph of Arimathea * * craved the body of Jesus."-Mark xv. 43.

IN the accounts of our Lord's crucifixion, there are several circumstances which exhibit differences from the customary practice of the Romans, and which were in fact so many points of accommodation to the peculiar notions of the Jews; and which operated rather favourably for the condemned persons.

In the first place, the Romans usually left the crucified ones to linger on in their tortures till life became extinct; and this commonly did not happen till the third or fourth day, and some even lingered until the seventh. Soldiers were stationed, to prevent interference or relief from friends, and a guard was even afterwards maintained, that the bodies might not be stolen away and buried. For the Romans left he bodies to consume on the crosses, as

formerly on gibbets in this country, by the natural progress of decay, or from the ravenings of birds, or (if the crosses were low) beasts of prey. But as such lingering deaths, as well as the continued exposure of the body, were most wisely and mercifully forbidden by the letter and spirit of the law of Moses, which directed that criminals "hanged on a tree" should be taken down before sunset, the Roman soldiers in Judea were instructed to extinguish, on the approach of sunset, what remained of life in those upon the cross. We see that the two thieves were thus dispatched by their legs being broken; and the body of Christ would doubtless have been thus treated; but it had been foretold that not a bone of him should be broken; and he expired before this became necessary. The spearthrust which was given him by the soldier was doubtless to ascertain whether he were really dead or only in a swoon; and the resulting evidence that life had departed from him rendered further measures unnecessary; indeed the wound then inflicted being in the left side, piercing the pericardium-as evinced by the outflow of blood and lymph-would have been sufficient, and was no doubt intended, to produce death, if Jesus had not been dead already. See John xix. Piercing the side is said to have been one of the common methods of accelerating the death of crucified persons, as well as the breaking of their bones. It is said that, on such occasions, a fire was sometimes kindled under the cross, to suffocate the crucified with the smoke; or even in the case of very atrocious offenders, that wild beasts were let loose upon them.

Even among the Romans, permission was sometimes granted to the friends of the crucified person to take down and inter the body; the power of granting which was vested in the judge or supreme magistrate. And sometimes, on great festivals, such as the emperor's birth-day, bodies were removed and interred, even without the solicitations of friends. The Jews, as instructed by their law, buried all executed criminals, but honourable graves were not allowed to them. was a place in which all such were buried, and where they were classed according to the form of their execution, which, in a general way, indicated the nature of the crime for which they suffered. Here they lay till their flesh was consumed; when, but not before, the friends might, if they pleased, collect their bones and lay them in the sepulchres of their fathers. It is

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clear, therefore, that the object of Joseph's application was to prevent this treatment of his Lord's remains, by obtaining from Pilate, who alone could grant that favour, the disposal of the body. It was necessary that this application should be

prompt and decided, or else the corpse, when taken down, would have been hurried away for interment in the public burialground for crucified criminals.-Pictorial Bible.

Lessons by the Way; or, Things to Think On.

ASTRONOMICAL WONDERS.

LORD ROSSE's telescope or speculum is six feet in diameter. Now Herschel calculated that his seven feet telescope (seven feet focal distance) could penetrate into space 20 times further than the naked eye; his ten feet 28 further; his twenty feet, 75; his twenty-five feet, 96; and his great forty feet, of four feet diameter, 192 times further. Consequently, if the naked eye discerns a star five hundred millions of miles distant, Herschel's great telescope would show stars invisible to the naked eye no less than ninety-six thousand millions of miles further into space. Lord Rosse's telescope of six feet, it is calculated, will show stars five hundred times further, or six thousand times more remote than a star of the first magnitude, or at the foregoing rate of judging Herschel's, five millions of millions of miles beyond such a star, in the infinity of space. Yet beyond this in the milky way multitudes succeed to multitudes beyond telescopic view, and masses of nebulous light from the same cause are observed beyond all defined stars, while in other regions of the sky those glorious spheres do not appear of such immeasurable depth. Lord Rosse's telescope has unfolded the secret which Herschel in some cases imagined to be caused by a lucid fluid. These brilliant spots of light, or nebula, are stars of all magnitudes, thronging star beyond star, bathed in the intensity of each other's glory. What is singular, too, these brilliant groupings assume remarkable figures; some, approaching a circular form, throw off filaments or streams of starry orbs on all sides. Others approach a figure of 8 in form, while one is like the convolutions of a huge shell or scroll, the more brilliant parts being clusters of the meanest stars, the fainter and less defined portions consisting of more distant orbs, until they soften off their own light, and it dies into surrounding gloom. All are worlds of vast magnitude, blending their glories into a mass infinite in extent to human comprehension. In this way the nebulosity in the constellation of Orion, that puzzled Herschel, has been discovered by Lord Rosse to consist of stars, whose light, it is probable, did not reach the earth in sixty thousand years, if the earth existed when they were formed. Thus, to quote the author, "In the masses of nebulous stars circular or compact galaxies of all orders of glory may now be traced, leading from the splendid cluster up to Hercules, as their lowest point, and up through schemes of being, in which sun is nearer sun, until their entire skies merge into one blaze of light, and one throng of activities; not like ours, coldly studded with points far apart, whose mutual influences are sundered by huge abysses."

TWO WORLDS CONTRASTED.

The

Con

THERE is a fulness about the promises of future life that contrasts strangely with the trials of this present time. The inhabitant of the blessed city shall never say, I am sick. God shall wipe away all tears from off all faces. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. water of life, flowing from the throne, is not only clear as crystal, but it rolls a full swelling river. The tree in the midst of the paradise, on either side of the stream, not only yields the fruits of life, but yields them every month; and even its leaves are for the healing of the nations. There is no night there. Not a cloud intervenes between the raptured saint and the sunlike glories of God and the Lamb, and never do the curtains of evening close round that celestial day. trast this unmingled joy with "the sufferings of this present time," and how "beyond compare" is the "glory that shall be revealed!" Every woe here is mitigated by some accompanying blessing. There are thorns along the Christian's path, but the roses bloom among them in fragrance and beauty. There are clouds in his sky, but the sun breaks through, and darts golden rays to scatter the darkness. Storms gather, and thunders roll round his head, but they pass away, and the bow of hope is pencilled on the retiring cloud. How light then "the sufferings of this present time," mitigated and softened by Him "who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," compared to the unclouded peace and glory of heaven, to the fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore at the right hand of God!

IT IS A PARTING-NOT A LOSS. THOU hast lost thy friend; say rather, thou hast parted with him. That is properly lost which is past all recovery, which we cannot hope to see any more. It is not so with this friend for whom thou mournest. He is only gone home a little before thee; thou art following him. You too shall meet in your Father's house, and enjoy each other more happily than you could have done here below. How just is that charge of the blessed apostle, that we should not mourn as men without hope for those who sleep in Jesus. Did we think their souls vanished into air, as a heathen poet profanely expresses it, and their bodies resolved into dust, without all possibility of reparation, we might well cry out our eyes for the utter extinction of those we loved. if they do but sleep, they shall do well. Why are we impatient at their silent repose in the bed of death, when we are assured of their awaking to glory?-Bishop Hall.

But

INDIAN DETERMINATION.

A MISSIONARY, at a town on the river Thames, in Upper Canada, had induced the Indians to give up drinking the fire water. On hearing that they had refrained from tasting it, the trader with whom they generally dealt became very angry. He went to them with a bottle in his pocket, and reasoned with them on their stupidity. He held up the bottle before them, poured out a glass of it, tried them one by one to taste it, and used all the arts he could command to get them to do so, but without success. "Well, then," said he, "when the missionary's back is about, (for the missionary was going to leave a short time after it,) when the missionary's back is about, you'll be at your old trade again ;" and seeing no further reasoning of any avail, with that he left. The missionary did leave, and soon after this fire-water dealer got hold of four of these men, and, taking them to his own house, went through all his arts of entreaty to get them to taste; but no. "Well," said he to himself, "if I can't get them to drink it before me, I'll go and place a keg in the track they have to go through the woods; they'll drink it privately among themselves, and I'll soon get a visit from them after they do so." He lost no time in carrying out his plan. The keg was placed in the path, and by-and-by the men set out through the woods, one after the other, for the foot paths there do not admit of their going two abreast. They had not gone far when they came upon the keg, and the first who did so exclaimed, "Oh! my friends, the devil is here!" The second who came up rejoined, "Oh! yes, for me smell him!" The third, shaking it with his foot, said, "Oh! yes, for me hear him, too!" and the fourth, having more nerve than any of them, gave the keg a kick with his foot, and knocked it down the hill, and the four marched off like brave warriors after having vanquished their enemy.-Jones, the Indian Chief.

PIETY IN WOMEN.

PIETY is lovely wherever found, in youth or age, in man or woman. But in the latter it hath two-fold power. Naturally amiable, she becomes doubly so under the hallowed influence of the grace of God. It lends a charm-strong, winning, irresistible. Yes, blend the two, each lovely in itself piety and female excellence-and you have the loveliest object on earth.

See her in her family, with her partner and little ones, teaching the latter to lisp the Saviour's name. Then follow her as she retires with them, hand in hand, to the still closet, and in the fulness of her soul breathes the prayer which none but a mother's heart can feel and form. See her in the sabbath-school; see her visiting the poor on errands of mercy; at the sick bed softening the sick pillow, and soothing the fevered brow. Then turn ye and catch a glimpse of her fragile form, moving with a confiding trust in her earthly, but most of all in her heavenly love, across the dark billows, with her calm eye turned toward the land of darkness, her heart panting to fill the ear of the untaught pagan with the accents of Jesus, and tell us if religion ever appears so attractive as in woman.

RE-UNION OF SAINTS.

IF the mere conception of the re-union of good men in a future state infused a momentary rap

ture into the mind of Tully-if an airy speculation (for there is reason to fear it had little hold on his convictions) could inspire him with such delight, what may we be expected to feel who are assured of such an event by the true sayings of God? How should we rejoice in the prospect, the certainty rather, of spending a blissful eternity with those whom we loved on earth; of seeing them emerge from the ruins of the tomb, and the deeper ruins of the fall, not only uninjured, but refined and perfected, "with every tear wiped from their eyes," standing before the throne of God and the Lamb "in white robes, and palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, Salvation to God, that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever." What delight will it afford to renew the sweet counsel we have taken together, to recount the toils of combat and the labour of the way, and to approach, not the house, but the throne of God, in company, in order to join in the symphonies of heavenly voices, and lose ourselves amid the splendours and fruitions of the beatific vision-R. Hall.

JUAN FERNANDEZ, SELKIRK'S ISLE. AFTER leaving the beach you arrive at a large strip of level land; the remains of the houses, or rather huts, of a Chilian settlement abandoned, in a state of ruin, were scattered about on either side; also the remains of an old jail or lock-up. On passing the huts, this level land is found to extend to twenty or thirty acres. There were vast quantities of rose-bushes in full bloom, with immense beds of mint, so tall that you could hide in it without being discovered. The fragrance of this valley was enchanting to us. The small hills surrounding it, thickly covered with middling-sized timber in rich foliage, and a small rippling stream running through it, all added to its beauty. In strolling up the hills we soon discovered that the smaller timber had a very loose hold in the earth, which was mostly red mould, as some of our men, in laying hold of them to assist themselves up, came back accompanied by the tree. The entire island is a succession of small hills and valleys, each with its little stream; and those rivulets, often uniting, came dashing over the cliffs with great force. On it we discovered some bullocks, goats, and dogs, all in good condition, but very wild, dashing through the thickets like deer when disturbed.-Dr. Coulter's Adventures in the Pacific.

HOW TO PRAY.

LORD, this day I disputed with myself whether or no I had said my prayers this morning, and I could not call to mind any remarkable passage whence I could certainly conclude that I had offered my prayers unto thee. Frozen affections, which left no spark of remembrance behind them! Yet at last I hardly recovered one token, whence I was assured that I had said my prayers. It seems I had said them, and only said them, rather by heart than with my heart. Can I hope that thou wouldst remember my prayers, when I had almost forgotten that I had prayed? Or rather, have I not cause to fear that thou rememberest my prayers too well, to punish the coldness and badness of them? Alas! are not devotions thus done, in effect left undone? Well Jacob advised his sons, at their second going into Egypt, "Take double money in your hand; per

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