the wave extends, no such destructive agency is found. There the most fragile shell remains uninjured, and the zoophyte expands its filmy arms, and fears no evil. In the ocean, in curious contrast to the condition of political society, the upper portion is unceasingly restless, and its tendency is levelling and destruc. tive, but the under portion is conservative and calm.

“There is a very wide difference between the effect that is produced when any. thing is sunk in the still water of the deep, and that which results when it is exposed to the continuous action of the waves. The one is so small that it is hardly appreciable; the other is so great, as clearly to show the force of the billows to be one of the most formidable agencies in nature. Abundance of facts might be adduced to show that this is the case. A ship containing treasure sprung a leak, and sank in water so deep that the influence of the billows could not affect it. The depth, however, to which it sank, did not exceed the distance to which daring divers may descend. Sometime afterwards a diver went down to examine it, and found not only the vessel entire, but the glasses standing on the cabin table as the steward had left them. In such an instance as this we see the effect of a simple submergence under the deep. On the other hand, when a ship, even of the strongest construction, runs aground on a sand-bank, though it may not have sustained the slightest injury from the concussion, if a gale springs up before it can be got afloat again, it will be broken in pieces, and its strongest timbers will be scattered in wild confusion on the shore.

"If the volcanic cones of Auvergne had been subjected to the continuous action of the billows,-in other words, if they had formed for any length of time a part of the ocean's shore, they would undoubtedly have been swept away; but they may have been sunk once and again beneath the deep without a single cinder having been moved."

These are specimens of the successful way in which Mr Brodie demonstrates the groundlessness of the conclusions which Sir Charles Lyell professes to have established. We most cordially commend

this able work to our readers, and trust a treatise which is so seasonable will have an extensive circulation. It can be obtained for a small sum; and its perusal will be instructive to all, and very gratifying to the true friends of the Bible. It cannot but mortify the enemies of Revelation that the Goliath, on whose power they had built such high hopes, has been laid so completely prostrate by one so modest and unpretending as the minister of Monimail.

False Christs and the True; or the Gospel History maintained, in answer to Strauss and Renan. A Sermon, by the Rev. John Cairns, D.D. Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas. 1864.

THIS discourse requires no commendation, having received, at large, the approval of those to whom it was preached, and more than once re-delivered by special request. It bears the stamp of a mind capable of grasping and of analysing the subtle scepticism of Strauss and Renan. After presenting, in a graphic comparison, the difference between the works of the above-named authors, Dr Cairns proves, to a demonstration, that Renan's Life of Jesus is false to its authorities, the gospels-false to human nature-false to every just conception of God-and false when tried by the undeniable facts of history.

We could not advise any of our ordinary readers to peruse this modern Life of Jesus; but this review partly unfolds what the book is, and shows, with the band of a master, how its false philosophy and sceptical perversion of the life of Jesus may be exposed and overthrown.

Original Poetry.

SCOTLAND.

What though no palm trees deck thy groves,

Nor birds of brilliant plume;
No pearls beneath thy waters lie,
Nor spice thy breeze perfume;
Yet, Scotland, thine are richer gems
Than glow in monarchs' diadems.

Thou hid'st by mountain, stream, and glen,
Bright scenes of beauty rare;

Thy song-birds' thrilling melodies

Float on the summer air;

And nestling flowerets fragrance breathe,
And moss-grown banks with beauty wreathe.

But on thy hills a nobler plant,

'Mid storms and tempests nurs'd,
Grows, wider spreading day by day;
Still fresh as when at first

It struck its roots in Scottish earth,
To bless the land that gave it birth.

'Tis Liberty-thy sacred trust,

And blood-bought heritage:
Thine since the day when royal Bruce
Did with thy foes engage,
And back proud England's onset turn
In the fierce strife at Bannockburn.

Thine is a tear-dimmed history,

And writ on many a page
In blood of those who fell beneath
The tyrant's cruel rage,

And handed down, from sire to son,
The freedom they so dearly won.

Thy solemn martyr memories
Still linger in thy homes;

And many a moor and mountain cave
Tells, in low whisper'd tones,

How hoary age and gentle youth

There, falling, once upheld the truth.

Blood, darker than the heather's bloom,
Has stained the purple moor,
And, mingling with the mountain rill,
Crimson'd its waters pure,
Where persecution's cruel hand
Once slew the fairest of the land.

It slew the men, but could not kill
The truth for which they died:
That ever lives, since, dying, they
Its enemies defied;

And, kneeling on the grassy sod,
Their martyr spirits pass'd to God.

Then guard that truth with jealous care,
And wave its banner high;
Thine only source of liberty

Which, losing truth, must die.

That which thy faithful sons have bought,
See, Scotland, that thou sell it not.

Thrice happy land! if, through the truth,

Thy children are made free,

And the crown-rights of Christ, thy King,
Are still maintain'd by thee.
This, Scotland, is thy brightest gem,—
The jewel of thy diadem.

Selected Poetry.

CONSIDER THE LILIES, HOW THEY GROW.

The lilies fair are found

On shadowy ground,

The shady haunts of sunny clime,

And breathe the balm of summer time;

Refreshed by morning dew, and vail'd from noon-tide glow,
They taste the softest light and air, and this is how they grow.

Up-drawn from verdant sod

By look from God,

These holy, happy flowers pervade

The sloping lawn, the forest glade;

And charmed by zephyr's wing, and lull'd by streamlet's flow,
They calmly muse, they brightly dream, and this is how they grow.

The dark mould cherishes their petals, white like snow,

With heaven-apportioned nutriment, and this is how they grow.

I have considered them,
The flexile stem,

The blossoms pending airily,
Beneath their leafy canopy,

With witching fragrance, spotless here, and thus I feel and know
That God imparts their loveliness, and this is how they grow.

Extracts.

Dublin University Magazine.

ANTIQUITY.

ANTIQUITY-What is it else (God only excepted) but man's authority born some ages before us? Now, for the truth of things, time makes no alteration; things are still the same as they are, let the time be past, present, or to come. Those blessings which we reverence for antiquity, what were they at their first birth? Were they false ?-time cannot make them true. Were they true ?-time cannot make them more true. The circumstance, therefore, of time, in respect to truth and error, is merely impertinent.-John Hales.

THE ONLY SAFE WALK.

"AND ENOCH WALKED WITH GOD." This is the only walk in which we can never go astray; and happy is he who, amidst the innumerable paths by which he is summoned, is led to the proper walk. To walk with God, we must take heed to every step of His providence and grace: we must have a holy fear of not keeping close to Him; though He will never leave us if we do not leave Him. We must maintain a sacred communion with Him, and have our conversation in heaven rather than on earth; we must be perpetually receding from the world, and withdrawing from its attachments. We must feel our hearts glow with a greater degree of love to Him, and, by the influence of His holy Spirit upon our affections, become gradually more assimilated to the Divine nature. We must take His word for our directory-His promise for our food-and His blessed Son for our sole reliancemaking the foot of the cross our only resting-place. If we thus walk with Godthrough the wilderness of life, He will walk with us when we reach the dark valley of the shadow of death; and though we cannot hope for the same translation as Enoch, still, like him, we shall not be on earth, because God hath taken us.-John Mason Good.

SACRIFICES FOR RELIGION.

IF your religion requires nothing, it amounts to nothing. If there is no letting go, and giving up, of the world-no sacrifice of time, talents, of pride, selfishnessthere will be no benefit derived from it; and in proportion to the sacrifice will be the benefit. We must "buy the truth and sell it not." There must be a "living sacrifice" for it. "Yes," says one, "but we are to buy it without money and without price." To be sure, there is no specific sum of money required for it, or, indeed, any money. The poor may have it without money; yet he may be properly said to buy it as well as the rich. He cannot have it for nothing; and if he offers a sacrifice which costs him nothing, he will receive a religion worth nothing.

"But how is this?" says one. "Christ has told us it is a 'treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."" It is the pearl of great price, which the

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finder could buy only at the sacrifice of all that he hath (Matth. xiii. 46). So it must be. No man can obtain true religion but by giving up all that he has in his possession and affections. If he has money, he must make an entire surrender of that, as well as of everything else. Himself, and all that belongs to him, must be dedicated to God. Now, if I am required to make such a sacrifice, it is futile: it is mere mockery for me to offer unto God that which costs me nothing.—Morning Star.

A WORD FOR THE SCEPTIC.

OH, PRECIOUS GOSPEL! Will you, with merciless hand, endeavour to tear away from our hearts this best, this last, and sweetest consolation? Would you darken the only avenue through which any ray of hope can enter? Would you tear from the aged and infirm poor the only prop on which their souls can repose in peace? Would you deprive the dying of their only source of consolation? Would you rob the world of its richest treasure? Would you let loose the flood-gates of every vice, and bring back upon the earth the horrors of superstition or the atrocities of atheism? Then endeavour to subvert the gospel; throw around you the fire-brands of infidelity; laugh at religion, and make a mock of futurity; but be assured that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. I will persuade myself that a regard for the welfare of their country, if no higher motive, will induce men to respect the Christian religion. And every pious heart will say, "Rather let the light of the sun be extinguished than the precious light of the gospel.”—Dr A. Alexander.

REFORMATION PIETY.

THEY who are fond of running a tilt against the virtues of the Puritans, for ever harping on the old iterated, worn-out theme of gloom and sternness, would do well to reflect upon the ease and commonness, as well as the meanness, of such derogatory criticism. It is no wonder that a sensual world and a self-indulgent spirit carp at the sterner graces of our Puritan ancestors. "Indeed," said the great Edmund Burke, on a great occasion, "the whole clan of the severe and restrictive virtues are at a market price almost too high for humanity." Yet those were the characteristics of a Puritan piety; and beyond all question, self-denial is, and to fallen beings ever must be, the ground of all virtue. The inheritance which, in the exercise of "the severe and restrictive virtues," our noble forefathers procured for us by suffering, can be preserved by us, or imparted to the world, only through a participation in the same discipline. Luxury on our part, and sarcasm on our father's piety, will never do.

The piety of the Bible is winning, not repulsive; but it is not winning to a worldly mind, and never can become so. The mind must have begun to renounce its worldliness before true piety can be other than distasteful to it. It may say that it is only the caricature of piety, the pretence of frames, experiences, and noisy revivals, that it hates; but still it remains true, not only that the carnal mind is enmity against God, but that the whole atmosphere and manner of life, opinion, and conduct, produced and required by a consistent piety, are distasteful, displeasing. Hence the demand for a compromise. You must abate something of the strictness of your standard, the man of the world says, or put some of the qualities that will attract the publicans and harlots into it, or else you will never win me, and the fellows of my stamp. You never can gain the rouè and the libertine by severity. We never expect to do so; nevertheless, the piety of the gospel must draw up the world, not come down to its level.

Compromises may be the order of the day in matters of political law, constitution, and expediency; but, under all circumstances, we go for an uncompromising piety. And true piety is the same in all ages, all countries, mingled with foreign and false