racter; it will expand and ennoble your mind; it will purify and transform your spirit. It will enlighten, when nothing else can illuminate; it will cheer, when nothing else can invigorate; it will save, when nothing else can deliver.

PERSONAL DEVOTION.

No Christian can be comfortable or prosperous without retirement. Popular ministers may preach, converse, or pray in company, to the edifying of others, and yet decline in their own souls for want of self

examination, humiliation, and secret prayer, suited immediately to their own case. Nay, the most able preachers will generally cease to be very useful, if their personal religion is neglected, or hurried over in a formal manner. This the fervent Christian knows. He will, therefore, redeem time for retirement at the expense of many inconveniences; and the friends of popular ministers should consider this, and not too much intrude upon the regular and needful hours for retirement of those persons in whose company they most delight. In prosecuting the work of God, our own inclinations, and those of our beloved friends, must often be thwarted; we must not" spend our time" with them when duty calls us another way, or when a prospect is before us of doing more essential good.Thomas Scott.

Lessons

THE PRESS-GUTTENBERG.

In the city of Strasburg, on the eastern frontier of France, there stands, in the principal square, a large bronze statue of Guttenberg, the inventor of the art of printing with movable types. It is a full-length figure of that fortunate individual, with a printingpress at his side, and an open scroll in his hand, with this inscription: And there was light. Upon the several sides of the high pedestal on which the effigy stands, are four tableaux in bas-relief, designed to represent the effect of the art of printing on the general progress of the world. In one, stand the names of the most distinguished scholars, philosophers, and poets of all times; in another, the names of those who have been most eminent for their achievements in the cause of human freedom; conspicuous among which is an allusion to the Declaration of Independence, with the names of Washington, Franklin, Hancock, and Adams. On the third side is a representation of philanthropy knocking off the fetters of the slave, and instructing the tawny children of oppression in useful knowledge; and on the fourth is Christianity, surrounded by the representatives of all nations, and tribes, and people, receiving from her hand, in their own tongue, the word of eternal truth. Christianity! Heaven-born Christianity! Divine philosophy! look down with indifference or disdain on that bearded man, at work with tools in his smutty shop, away on the Rhine! Affect to overlook and undervalue him as a mechanic? A mechanic! Why, out of those bars of wood, and pounds of metal, and ounces of ink, he is constructing a machine to make the nations think. He is constructing wings for Christianity herself, which shall bear her, with the music of her siver trumpet, to all the abodes of men.

COWPER'S STUDY AT WESTON
UNDERWOOD.

The poet, in corresponding with the Rev.

Mr. Hardis, in 1791, thus describes his study at the Lodge:

"When I dwelt at Olney, I lived the life of a solitary; was not visited by a single neighbour, because I had none with whom I could associate; but since I have removed to Weston the case is different. Here I am visited by all around me, and study in a room exposed to all manner of inroads. It is on the ground floor, the room in which we dine, and in which I am sure to be found by all who seek me.

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They find me generally at my desk, and with my work, whatever it be, before me; unless, perhaps, I have conjured it into its hiding place before they have had time to enter. This, however, is not always the case; and, consequently, sooner or later, I cannot fail to be detected.

"Possibly you, who, I suppose, have a snug study, would find it impracticable to attend to anything closely in an apartment exposed as mine; but use has made it familiar to me-and so familiar, that neither servants going and coming disconcert me; nor even if a lady, with an oblique glance of her eye, catches two or three lines of my manuscript, do I feel myself inclined to blush, though naturally the shyest of mankind.”

CHINESE AMAZEMENT AT ENGLISH FASHIONS.

Europeans who go to China are apt to consider the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire very odd and supremely ridiculous, and the provincial Chinese at Canton and Macao pay back this sentiment with interest. It is very amusing to hear their sarcastic remarks on the appearance of the devils of the West, their utter astonishment at the sight of their tight-fitting garments, their wonderful trousers and prodigious round hats, like chimney-pots, the shirt-collars adapted to cut off the ears, and making a frame around such grotesque faces, with long noses and blue eyes, no beard or moustache, but a handful of curly air on

each cheek. The shape of the dress coat puzzles them above everything. They try in vain to account for it, calling it a halfgarment, because it is impossible to make it meet over the breast, and because there is nothing in front to correspond with the tail behind. They admire the judgment and exquisite taste of putting buttons behind the back, where they never have anything to button. How much handsomer do they think themselves with their narrow, oblique, black eyes, high cheek bones, and little round noses, their shaven crowns and magnificent pigtails hanging almost to their heels! Add to all these natural graces a conical hat, covered with red fringe, an ample tunic, with large sleeves, and black satin boots with white soles of immense thickness, and it must be evident to all that a European cannot compare in appearance with a Chinese. PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE POPE.

Pio Nono, though "king of the kings of the earth," was attired with severe simplicity. His sole dress, save skull-cap and red slippers, was a gown of white stuff, which enveloped his whole person from the neck downwards, and looked not unlike a camlet morning dressing-gown. A small cross, which dangled on his breast, was his only ornament. The fisherman's ring I was too far off to see. In person he is a portly, good-looking gentleman; and could one imagine him entering the pulpit of a Scotch Secession congregation, or an English Methodist one, his appearance would be hailed with looks of satisfaction. His colour was fresher than the average of Italy, and his face had less of the priest in it than many I have seen. There was an air of easy good-nature upon it, which might be mistaken for benevolence, blended with a smile, which appeared ever on the point of breaking into a laugh, and which utterly shook the spectator's firmness and good faith of its owner. Pius stooped slightly-his gait was a sort of amble-there was an air of irresolution over the whole man; and one was tempted to pronouncethough the judgment may be too severethat he was half a rogue, half a fool. He waved his hand in an easy, careless way to the students and Frenchmen, and made a profound bow to the English party.- Dr. Wylie.

DEGRADATION OF TURKISH
WOMEN.

An incident occurred on our way to the annual meeting of our mission which has impressed me more than any one thing with the deplorable condition of Turkish women. We spent a night at Kara Hissar, a Moslem village. An hour or two after our arrival our hostess came in, bringing a present of a large plate of walnuts and raisins. She seemed possessed of more modesty and refinement than most Turkish women, and was evidently one of the first women of the place. After a few moments she entered into conversation with Mrs. B. She was surprised that so much attention was paid her, and was still more astonished when she learned that

she travelled with her husband, and was treated by him as an equal and companion, and not as a slave.

In her amazement she asked, "Are you immortal?" Such was the contrast between Mrs. B.'s situation and her own, that she thought she had attained to a heavenly state. If our condition is heavenly, what must theirs be? With what joy will they embrace the Gospel. Will not Christian women pray much for their deluded and degraded sisters? The day of their deliverance draweth nigh. May the Lord hasten it in its time.

SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S RELIGION AND MORALITY.

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While he exhibited in his life and writings an ardent regard for the general interests of religion, he was, at the same time, a firm believer in revelation. He was too deeply versed in the Scriptures, and too much imbued with their spirit, to judge harshly of other men who took different views of them from his own. He cherished the great principles of religious toleration, and never scrupled to express his abhorrence of persecution, even in its mildest form. Immorality and impiety he never permitted to pass unreproved. When Vigani told him loose story about a nun," he gave up his acquaintance; and when Dr. Halley ventured to say anything disrespectful to religion, he invariably checked him, with the remark, "I have studied these things-you have not." He considered cruelty to "brute beasts" as a violation of Christian morality; and such was his tenderness for the lower creation, that he could not tolerate the sports of hunting or shooting animals. When Mr. Conduitt one day was speaking favourably of one of Sir Isaac's nephews, he urged it as an objection against him, "That he loved killing of birds."-Sir David Brewster.

CAUSES OF IDIOCY.

The near relationship by blood of the parents seems to be the cause of, or at least it is the precedent fact to, many cases of idiocy. We do not suppose that this connection is of itself the cause of idiocy. But if there are any weaknesses, or defects of body or mind, or tendencies to disease or oddities in the family, they may be overpowered, or cease to appear, in the next generation, if those who have them marry with strangers, and mix their blood and life with those who have not these peculiarities; and thus the children may escape the imperfections or liabilities that otherwise might have been entailed upon them. But when two persons of the same blood and character unite together in marriage, their peculiarities are doubled in power by being combined in their children; and the odd or weak traits which are subordinate in the parents may predominate in their offspring. The parentage of 359 idiots was ascertained. In seventeen families the parents were near blood relations. In one of these families there were five idiotic children born; in five, four each; in three, three each; in two, two each; and in six, one each.

SLANDER.

Slander is a gift exclusively human. So little of mere animality is there in it, that it is practised only in fullest perfection amongst the most refined and civilized of the human species. A common-place person slanders only his enemies, and that, too, on the strong provocation of rivalry, or some other powerful and pressing interest; but to fashionable idlers slander is daily bread; and there are never two or three of them gathered together but it is the staple of their ordinary discourse. If it were requisite to give an accurate definition of what constitutes polite conversation, one might describe it as turning wholly on persons, and never venturing upon the discussion of things. Go into twenty fashionable drawing-rooms or boudoirs, and in nineteen of them you will find the theme of discourse to be neither literature, politics, nor science, but the merits (that is to say, the demerits, for the absent are ever in the wrong) of some person who has just left the room, or has incidentally been brought upon the tapis.

AN ANECDOTE OF WHITFIELD. Upon the death of his wife he preached her funeral sermon. The text was, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose," Romans viii. 28. In noticing her character, he mentioned her fortitude, and suddenly exclaimed, "Do you remember my preaching in those fields, by the old stump of the tree? The multitude was great, and many were disposed to be riotous. At first I addressed them firmly, but when a desperate gang of banditti drew near, with the most ferocious and horrid imprecations and menaces, my courage began to fail. My wife was then standing behind me, as I stood on the table. I think I hear her now. She pulled my gown (he then put his hand behind him and touched his gown), and, looking up, said, George, play the man for your God.' My confidence returned. I then spoke to the multitude with boldness and affection; they became still, and many were deeply affected."

·

COVETOUSNESS.

Of the peculiar baseness of the vice of covetousness we need no other proof but this; that as the prime and more essential property of goodness is to communicate and diffuse itself, so in the same degree that anything encloses and shuts up its plenty within itself, in the same it recedes and falls off from the nature of good. If we cast our eyes over the whole creation, we shall find every part of the universe contributing something or other, either to the help or ornament of the whole. The great business of Providence is to be continually issuing out fresh supplies of the Divine bounty to the creature, that lives and subsists like a lamp fed by continual infusions, and from the same hand which first lights and sets it up. So that covetousness is nothing so much as a grand contradiction to Providence, whilst it terminates wholly within itself.-South.

IMAGE WORSHIP IN THE GREEK CHURCH.

It is well known that Papists defend the worship and adoration of statues; yet there may be some who suppose the Greek Church is nearer the Bible on this point. But, alas! the difference is not worth naming. All their churches are filled with pictures, which are worshipped. Every house, too, has its little corner, on some shelf, where the pictures are placed to which prayers are offered, and before which incense is burned. True, Greeks always try to prove a difference between the worship they pay to pictures and that they render to God; but in practice there is no such difference. No one can fail to worship their images without incurring their curse. An expression used in all their churches is, "Let their lips be dumb, who worship not thy holy image, O thou mother of God." Why, then, call this church a church of Christ?

WHY COMMON SENSE IS RARE. It is often said that no kind of sense is so rare as common sense; and this is true, simply because common sense is attainable by all far more, and is a natural gift far less than most other traits of character. Common sense is the application of thought to common things, and it is rare because most persons will not exercise thought about common things. If some important affair occurs, people try then to think, but to very little purpose; because, not having exercised their powers on small things, their powers lack the development necessary for great ones. Hence, thoughtless people, when forced to act in an affair of importance, blunder through it with no more chance of doing as they should, than one would have of hitting a small or distant mark at a shooting match, if previous practice had not given the power of hitting objects that are large and near.

THE POET COWPER ON WAR.

A letter of William Cowper, relative to a collected edition of his poems, and containing the following passage, has recently come to light" Wherever there is war there is misery and outrage; notwithstanding which it is not only lawful to wish, but even a duty to pray for, the success of one's country. And as to the neutralities, I really think the Russian virago an impertinent puss for meddling with us, and engaging half a score of kittens of her acquaintance to scratch the poor old lion, who, if he has been insolent in his day, has probably acted no otherwise than they would in his circumstances, and with his power to embolden them."

DEATH.

The serious thought of death teaches ministers how to preach, and the people how to hear. It awakens the preacher to awaken the hearers. It is a mercy that we have tongues to speak, and you have ears to hear. Death teaches us the wisest estimate of all the wealth, and honour, and greatness of this world; for it showeth them all to us in their final state, and what they will prove to us in our greatest need.

In the reign of George the Second, a Dr. Middleton visited Rome, proposing to give his attention, for the most part, to the ancients. Ere long, he was startled by discovering that he would gain the best idea of the old Pagan customs by attending to the modern Romish ones! He says: Nothing concurred so much with my original intention of conversing solely with the ancients, or so much helped my imagination to fancy myself wandering about in old heathen Rome, as to observe and attend to their religious worship; all the ceremonies of which plainly appeared to have been copied from the rituals of primitive Paganism; as if they had been handed down by an uninterrupted succession from the priests of old to the priests of new Rome." This is a startling fact; and it shows that the usages of which proud Rome desires our sanction are the inventions of mere men, and those none of the best, instead of being— what they must be to demand our obedience the institutions of the Gospel.

The above assertion the Doctor proceeds to verify, and he instances some of the rites which once prevailed in Pagan, and now prevail in Papal Rome.

1. The Papists burn incense in their churches. So did the Pagans. The ancients seldom mention a heathen temple, or altar, without calling it incensed or perfumed. And in some of the principal churches of the Papists, "where you have before you, in one view, a great number of altars, and all of them smoking at once with streams of incense," how natural it is to imagine yourself transported into the temple of Venus, as described by Virgil:

"Her hundred altars there with garlands crown'd,

And richest incense, smoking, breathes around

Sweet odours."

"In the old pieces of sculpture where any heathen sacrifice is represented, we observe a boy, in a white habit, attending on the priest, with a little box in his hands, in which the incense was kept for the use of the altar. So,

in the Church of Rome, there is always a boy in a surplice, waiting on the priest with the thurimbulum, or vessel of incense."

So opposed was this offering of incense to the practice of the early Christians, that when they were "offered the alternative of death, or throwing the smallest grain of incense into the fires of the altar," (see Jamieson's "Primitive Christian," part II., chap. 5) they chose the latter.

2. It is well known that the Papists use holy water-a custom directly derived from their Pagan ancestors, whose amula, says Montfaucon, "was a vase of holy water, placed by the heathens at the entrance of their temples to purify themselves with."

The very composition of this holy water was (according to Dr. Middleton) the same among the heathens as it is among the Papists; being nothing more than a mixture of salt with common water. The sprinkling brush, in form, was also much the same as that used at present.

The ancient Christians regarded the use of holy water impious and detestable; the Papists call it edifying and improving-preserving from the devil, and potent in healing diseases.

Even the heathen poet, Ovid, could afford to laugh at such superstition as this. He wrote:

"Oh! easy fools! to think that a whole flood Of water e'er can purge the stain of blood!"

In one respect the Papists reach a greater height of absurdity than the heathens, for they bless their cattle, by sprinkling them with this aqua sacra !

3. Like the Pagans, the Papists have lamps and candles in their churches; and, as amongst them, they are often given as votive gifts by private persons. One of the early writers ridiculed this custom: "" They light up candles to God, as if he lived in the dark!"

4. So with votive gifts. The Papists give them on the same occasions as did the heathens, and the offerings are frequently of the same description.

5. It is obviously the same with regard to the adoration of saints and

images. The heathen Romans practised the same superstition; though in the earlier days of Rome, even Pagans denounced it as "impious and detestable."

It is done in the same manner : "Lighting up candles, burning incense, hanging up garlands," etc. These last were even done in the earliest days of Greece, as we learn from Homer's "Iliad."

It has also been proved that old heathen temples are now Christian (?) churches; and statues of Pagans, under new names, are worshipped as Christian saints. The Doctor states: "In the church of St. Agnes they showed me an antique statue of a young Bacchus, which, with a new name, and some change of drapery, is now worshipped under the name of a female saint. They usually manage to have a similitude of names between the old and new idol, and sometimes apply to the new the qualities of the old; so that, with some slight alteration, the heathen temples suit the Popish services. Thus, the

Romanists have a church dedicated to St. Martina, where the temple of the heathen god, Mars, once stood, with this inscription:

"Mars hence expelled, Martina, martyred maid,

Now claims the worship which to him was paid."

To give an idea of the plan adopted in the manufacture of saints, the case of Veronica is worthy of notice. It was said that at the crucifixion, a holy woman, of this name, lent to the Saviour a handkerchief wherewith to wipe his brow (his hands were nailed fast to the arms of the cross all the while!), which he returned, impressed with a marvellous representation of his features. This wonderful handkerchief was kept at Rome, and it induced Pope Urban VIII. to exalt Veronica to the rank of a saint. Some time after, it was discovered that the imaginary name of this holy woman was formed by the words Vera icon, or true picture, the name given by old writers to the handkerchief!

6. As to the adoration of the host, we cannot find a parallel absurdity amongst the Pagans. It was a heathen who said, "Was any man ever so insane as to take what he feeds upon for a God?"

7. Going out from the temples, there is the same resemblance to be traced

between Pagan and Papal Rome. There are the same niches, with images, in the streets; the same statues, placed in the same manner, in the public roads; and temples, placed in the same manner, on the summits of mountains, rocks, and precipices.

The reverence with which huge, wooden, road-side crosses, hung with offerings, are regarded, reminds one of the veneration of the old Romans for the trunks of trees, and recalls to mind Ovid's description of an oak: "Reverend with age a stately oak there stood, Its branches widely stretch'd, itself a wood! With ribbons, pictures, garlands, covered o'er ;

The fruit of pious vows, from rich and poor."

With regard to their processions, the description of those among the Pagans tallies very exactly with those frequently beheld at the present time.

As a parallel to the heathen fables of the Palladium, and the "image which came down from Jupiter," there is," in one of the churches of Rome, a picture of the Virgin, which, it is pretended, was sent down from Heaven." 8. Among the Papists we hear of images which have spoken, or shed tears, or sweated with blood. So, the heathens declared that the image of Fortuna often spoke; that the statue of Apollo wept for three days and nights; and that the images in Juno's temple were seen to sweat with blood. "Indeed," says Dr. Middleton, "there is scarcely a prodigy, or lying wonder,' or a fable in the heathen historians, but what are imitated and transcribed into the Papal legends and histories of the saints; and which are most devotedly believed by the lie-believing people."

9. The Pagan high-priest, who had both civil and ecclesiastical power, was called Pontifex Maximus. The Pope bears the same name. The great variety of the Popish religious orders seems to have been formed on the plan of the heathen colleges of the Augurs; and the Vestal Virgins furnished the hint for the foundation of nunneries.

Thus closely can the resemblance be traced; and, I opine, the secret of the similitude is to be found in these words of Dr. Middleton: "All these, ancient and modern, are the effects of priestcraft, to plunder the credulous and superstitious people."