Iscah was Milcah's sister-thus
Grandaunt of Rachel, Jacob's wife.
Joseph their son was generous

To brethren who had sought his life.

ABI was Hezekiah's queen,

And if we trace his great grandshire, It was he who once had mighty been, Presumptuous, leprous king Uzziah.

(Genesis xi.)

(2 Kings xviii. 2.)

Answer to No. IX., page 204,

'Twas Obadiah who foretold a time
When Jacob should be fire and Joseph flame,
And Esau but as stubble; and when
Deliverance and holiness shall be on Zion.

(Obadia.h)

'Twas Ruth who left the country of her birth, Trusting Naomi and Naomi's God.

(Ruth i.)

'Twas Phinehas, son of the priest whose holy zeal
In cutting off offenders, was rewarded
With promise of an everlasting priesthood.

(Numbers xxv.)

'Twas Adam who, created in God's image, By disobedience lost his first estate.

'Twas Haman who prepared the gallows For Mordecai and was hung thereon.

(Genesis iii.)

(Esther vii.)

"Twas ORPAH, who, returning to her people and her gods,

Lost the rich blessings which attended Ruth.
E'en wealth and honour, and a name among
The honoured line from which the Saviour sprung.

(Ruth i.) JANET.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

ANSWERS to the Questions in the September Number, deferred till our next.

A CONTRAST.

A FEW years after the London Society had commenced its labours, an excellent minister was sent by the Committee to visit the Jews in various places, and to enquire into their state. In the report of his progress, he mentions having arrived at a place whose inhabitants, amounting to upwards of two thousand, were nearly all Jews. As the Sabbath was just beginning he went to the synagogue, which was filled with both grown-up people and children. In beholding their worship, an increasing desire was excited in his mind that this people, so grievously blinded, might soon know the things which belong to their peace, and learn to worship God in spirit and in truth. "Particularly,” he adds, "the sight of such a number of children, and the unmeaning repetition of words with their lips, constrained me to pray that the time might soon arrive, when they, like the children in the Temple of Jerusalem, should exclaim, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!

The pious wish of this Christian Pastor has been heard on high, and could he now visit the Jews, in many places he would find hundreds of their children singing Hosanna to the Son of David! and many a Christian Hymn besides.

At the time when he visited the Jews, there were but few of their children under Christian instruction,-now what do we behold? In our schools in London alone, as many as 650 Hebrew children have been received and educated in the faith of the Lord Jesus. In the Duchy of Posen, eleven schools open their doors to receive poor Jewish children. In some of these you may hear them rejoicing on account of the birth of Jesus, as around their Christmas trees, singing Christian hymns, they celebrate that glorious event. At Constantinople, at Bucharest, at Smyrna, at Cairo, and in Jerusalem itself, you may hear the songs of Hebrew children in praise of Jesus. What hath God wrought!-may well be the language of those, who, remembering the former days, meditate upon the great work which HE, through the instrumentality of his servants, has accomplished.

THE CROSS OF CHRIST.*

THE Cross of Christ is an object of such incomparable brightness, that it spreads a glory round it to all the nations of the earth, all the corners of the universe, all the generations of time, and all the ages of eternity. The greatest actions or events that ever happened on earth, filled with their splendour and influence but a moment of time, and a point of space; the splendour of this great object fills immensity, and eternity. If we take a right view of its glory, we shall see its spreading influence, and attracting looks from

* From Maclaurin's “Vail of the Flesh,” republished by a Layman.

times past, present, and to come; from heaven, earth, and hell; angels, saints, and devils. We shall see it to be both the object of the deepest admiration of the creatures, and the perfect approbation of the infinite Creator; we shall see the best part of mankind, the Church of God, for four thousand years looking forward to it before it happened; new generations yet unborn rising up to admire and honour it in continual succession, till time shall be no more; innumerable multitudes of angels and saints looking back to it with holy transport, to the remotest ages of eternity. Other glories decay by length of time; if the splendour of this object change, it will be only by increasing. The visible sun will spend his beams in process of time, and, as it were, grow dim with age; this object hath a rich stock of beams which eternity cannot exhaust. If saints and angels grow in knowledge, the splendour of this object will be still increasing. It is unbelief that intercepts its beams. Unbelief takes place only on earth, there is no such thing in heaven or in hell. It will be a great part of future blessedness, to remember the object that purchased it; and of future punishment, to remember the object that offered deliverance from it. It will add life to the beams of love in heaven, and make the flames of hell burn fiercer. Its beams will not only adorn the regions of light, but pierce the regions of darkness. It will be the desire of the saints in light, and the great eye-sore of the Prince of darkness and his subjects.

Its glory produces powerful effects wherever it shines. An Ethiopian may look long enough to the visible sun before it change his black colour;

but this does it. It melts cold and frozen hearts; it breaks stony hearts; it pierces adamant; it penetrates through thick darkness. How justly is it called marvellous light! It gives eyes to the blind; and not only to the blind, but to the dead! It is the light of life; a powerful light. Its energy is beyond the force of thunder; and it is more mild than the dew on the tender grass. But it is impossible fully to describe all its effects, unless we could fully reckon up all the spiritual and eternal evils it prevents, all the riches of grace and glory it purchases, and all the divine perfections it displays. It has this peculiarity to it, that as it is full of glory itself, it communicates glory to all that behold it aright. It gives them joy unspeakable and full of glory here, and an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory hereafter.

It communicates a glory to all other objects. It adorns the universe; it gives a lustre to nature, and to Providence; it is the greatest glory of this lower world that its Creator, the Lord of Glory, was its tenant from his birth to his death, yea, that he rejoiced in the habitable parts of it, before it had a beginning, even from everlasting. (Prov. viii. 31.)

It is the glory of the world that he who formed it, dwelt on it; of the air, that he breathed it; of the sun, that it shone on him; of the ground, that it bore him; of the sea, that he walked on it; of the elements, that they nourished him; of the waters, that they refreshed him; of us men, that he lived and died among us, yea, that he lived and died for us; that he assumed our flesh and blood, and carried it to the highest heavens, where it shines as the eternal ornament and