OUR BLESSINGS MORE THAN OUR CROSSES.-CONsider that our good days are generally more in number than our evil days, our days of prosperity (such, I mean, as is suitable to our condition and circumstances) than our days of adversity. This is most certain, though most of us are apt to cast up our accounts otherwise. How many days (of at least competent) health have we enjoyed for one day of grievous sickness! How many days of ease for one of pain! How many blessings for a few crosses! For one danger that hath surprised us, how many scores of dangers have we escaped, and some of them very narrowly! But, alas, we write our mercies in the dust, but our afflictions we engrave in marble; our memories serve us too well to remember the latter, but we are strangely forgetful of the former. And this is the greatest cause of our unthankfulness, discontent, and murmuring.Bp, Bull.

SIN IN THE WILL." When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed," says St. Paul," I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him" (Acts, xxii. 20). God chiefly inspects the heart; and if the vote be passed there, writes the man guilty, though he stir no farther. It is easy to murder another by a silent wish or a passionate desire. In all moral actions God values the will for the deed, and reckons the man a companion in the sin, who, though possibly he may never actually join in it, does yet inwardly applaud and like it.-Cave.

THE CHRISTIAN CONFLICT. -The Christian has advanced but a little way in religion when he has overcome the world, for he has still more powerful and importunate enemies-self, evil tempers, pride, undue affections, a stubborn will. It is by subduing these adversaries, that we must chiefly judge of our growth in grace.-Rev. R. Cecil.

LET those who are instrumental in bringing one sheep into the fold of Christ on earth, remember that they add one harp to the chorus of heaven.-Rev. W.

Marsh.

Poetry.

GOD'S PROVIDENCE.

BY CHARLES BAYLY.

(For the Church of England Magazine.) On, think not God is only here,

To guard and bless thee on thy way;
His gracious eye is where,
every
Alike intent by night and day.

Experience bids thee firmer trust,

Dear friend, wherever thou may'st be, In Him who, merciful and just,

Has ever lov'd and car'd for thee. Then go content where duty calls,

Firm on his love and word rely; Remember, not a sparrow falls," But God Almighty sees it die. Think, then, if with such tender care

The Lord regards the feather'd race, How dear to him his people are,

Who humbly seek his pardoning grace. Nor God alone shall watch thy way; Angels with trembling hope look down, And will thy devious course survey,

Prome.

Till thou hast won the promis'd crown.

"THY KINGDOM COME."

BY ALEXANDER STAMMERS. (For the Church of England Magazine.) HASTEN, O Lord, the long-expected time When every nation at thy throne shall bend; When from each kindred, people, clime,

Hosannas loud the liquid air shall rend; When gods of gold and silver, wood and stone, As once Philistine Dagon, down shall fall Before thy awful presence, Thou alone

Be all-ador'd, acknowledg'd all in all; When man no more shall yield to carnal sense The honour that alone belongs to thee; When vile affections shall be banish'd hence,

And those once blind thy radiant light shall see : Then shall each warrior drop the martial spear, No more be heard the deep-ton'd cannon's roar; Widows shall cease to shed the plaintive tear

For those they lov'd, o'erthrown in barbarous war. Love then shall reign supreme. Man nought shall learn But arts pacific; battle's din shall cease; And states, by mutual hatred sway'd, shall turn, And form strict union in the bonds of peace. Haste, Lord, O hasten that propitious morn, When thy believing servants shall rejoice To see thy universal kingdom dawn,

And hear thy praise from earth's united voice. No more shall Ephraim envy Judah's lot,

Judah shall vex her sister-land no more; But Jew and Gentile then shall be forgot, And Jesus' kingdom stretch from shore to shore. Ulloxeter, Sept. 17th, 1839.

LAYS OF PALESTINE.-No. IV.

BY T. G. NICHOLAS.

(For the Church of England Magazine.)

"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my
soul after thee, O God."-Psalm xlii. 1.
THE trembling hart, with toils beset,
Pants for the cool bright rivulet;
So longs my soul, great God, to see
Thy greatness, power, and majesty.
When morning gilds with orient beam
Each lofty bower, each rippling stream;
When western skies encrimson'd glow,
My tears in large abundance flow,
While heathen hosts, insultingly,
"Where is thy God?" unceasing cry.
When on these things I silent muse,
Mine eyes their copious floods diffuse;
For with the multitude I went
To hymn thy praise with glad intent,
And 'neath thy temple's sacred wall
To keep the solemn festival.

Why sink, my soul, in deep distress,
While cares afflict and foes oppress ?
I yet will in my God rejoice,

His praise shall swell my raptur'd voice:
His love hath been, and e'er shall be,
A fortress, a defence for me.

THE JUDGMENT.

ALMIGHTY JUDGE, how shall poor mortals brook Thy dreadful gaze on that appalling day, When thou shalt take each man's peculiar book, Where all his deeds are set in dark array?

I cannot tell how others hope to gain

Their peace and pardon, and deliverance win;
Is there one page so free from spot or stain
That their own merits shall absolve their sin?
My trust shall be, when thou demandest mine,
To let thy holy Gospel speak for me;
Then wilt thou find all my transgressions thine,
And borne in thine own body on the tree.

HERBERT.

Miscellaneous.

GOVERNORS AND THEIR GRAVES AT SIERRA LEONE. -Whilst at Sierra Leone I visited the grave of Denham the traveller, who after his many wanderings in Central Africa, died a Lieutenant-Colonel and Governor of Sierra Leone. He lies in the new burial

ground behind the barracks, under a young plumtree; and beside him lie also three other governorsSir Neil Campbell, Col. Lumley, and Major Temple. A house built by Sir Charles Macarthy, who fell in the Ashantee war, looks down from a neighbouring hill on the field of the dead." 6. Besides the above, General Turner, who lies under the plum-tree in the old burial-ground, is to be added to the list of governors who have died since 1825. Poor Denham, after long braving the climate of Africa, said that his fate was sealed when he was appointed governor here. He then imprudently exchanged his residence from Government House to a wooden building beside the creek, the mud of which at low-water was most offensive. He also took to physicking himself, became soft and fleshy, and gradually sunk under the fever. His grave is covered almost entirely with grass and bushes, and I was obliged to remove them before I could see the simple superstructure of brick and lime raised over the mouldering remains of a traveller of first-rate enterprise. The governors of Sierra Leone have, in general, when they arrived, been men past the meridian of life, and whose constitutions were not sufficiently vigorous to struggle through either form of the seasoning fever-" the lion," the severe attack-or "the jackal," the milder variety of the disease. As I before remarked, they are harassed with excess of duty and responsibility; and also, like most Englishmen, they will not alter their previous habits, and despise the advice of old residents. Thus, Sir Neil Campbell, an officer of high reputation, said to the colonial surgeon, "Doctor, there are two things which I wish you to do: tell me when I am really in danger, but give me no calomel whatever." A few months after assuming office he was attacked with fever. The surgeon immediately gave him twenty grains of calomel (disguised), and told his honour to keep the house. Next day the surgeon saw him dressed and out walking! But the same night he was laid on his back, and was quickly transferred to the fatal plumThe last governor, Major Temple, said, when he arrived in the dry season, "It is all nonsense to talk of the unhealthiness of Sierra Leone. I have been in much worse in the Greek Islands. The reason why the climate here is so deadly to Englishmen, is to be found entirely in their indolent habits and dissipation." Accordingly, his honour was very temperate, though formerly he had been a free liver, was of a gross habit, and past fifty years of age. He was very attentive to his duties, was much liked and esteemed, and would have been a great benefactor to the colony

tree.

if he had lived. But whether the season was foul or In fair, he took exercise in the middle of the day. the rains he has been known to ride forty or fifty miles with his daughter; and the day before he was taken ill, in the fatal month of August, contrary to all advice, he set out to ride before a tornado, and got drenched to the skin.-Captain Alexander's Narrative of Western Africa.

THE ASIARCHS.-Asiarchs, the official designation of the pagan pontiffs of Asia Minor. In the Acts of the Apostles (xix. 31), the Asiarchs are particularly mentioned. In the commotion which Demetrius the silversmith excited at Ephesus, when the citizens were exclaiming, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians!" and the whole city was in confusion, two of St. Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, natives of Macedonia, were seized by the people, and were dragged into the theatre. St. Paul intended to proceed thither, for the purpose of making a public defence of himself and his two friends; but the Christian converts there would not permit him, while "certain of the chief of Asia,” or Asiarchs, which is the literal meaning of the word in the original, "who were his friends, sent unto him, desiring him that he would not adventure himself into the theatre." From this circumstance, it has been supposed by some that the public games were then celebrating in the theatre; and it is not unlikely that St. Paul and his companions would have been in danger of being thrown by the populace to wild

beasts. The Asiarchs united the functions of the

magistracy with those of the priesthood; they were entrusted with the care of the temples and sacred edifices; they had the charge of all religious solemnities, and were obliged to celebrate at their own charges the public games in honour of the gods. The expense of the office was considerable, and consequently the Asiarchs were always persons of great wealth and reputation. The Asiarchs were selected from the principal provinces and cities of Asia at the commencement of the Asiatic year, or about the autumnal equinox. In proconsular Asia, assemblies were convened in all the towns, from each of which a deputy was sent to a general assembly of the whole; and of ten persons returned to the proconsul, one was appointed by him to the office of Asiarch. The Asiarchs wore a crown of gold, and a toga ornamented with gold and purple. They were continued under the Christian emperors, although the games were abolished, and the temples supplanted by churches. "Sometimes," says Mr. Arundell, "the dignities of high-priest, and prætor, and Asiarch, were united in the same individual. When St. Polycarp was seized at Smyrna during the celebration of the public games, probably for bearing too faithful a testimony against them, the people tumultuously demanded of Philip the Asiarch that he would let loose a lion to devour the Christian. Philip excused himself, on the ground that the spectacles of the amphitheatre were at an end. This Philip was of Tralles, and united the offices of Asiarch and high-priest. The etymology of the name would lead to the belief that the Asiarch was the governor-in-chief of the province of Asia; and perhaps in the earlier period of history he might have been so; but latterly he was only a public officer, invested with a dignity partly magisterial, and in part sacerdotal, who presided over the games of a particular province."—Edinburgh Scriptural Gazetteer.

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ON THE ORIGIN, NATURE, AND PROGRESS
OF DIVINE WORSHIP.
BY THE REV. W. G. MOORE,
Rector of West Barkwith, Lincolnshire.

I.

THE worship of a supreme Being has been the practice of every age and country. Whatever the mode of worship, or the object worshipped, the fact is clear, and a most important one it is, that man, believing in the existence of a Deity, leaned upon him with that feeling of dependence with which a feeble creature would naturally regard its Protector and its Guide; that he either felt the necessity of communion with him in order to make his felicity perfect, or sought to avert that indignation which conscience told him he had incurred. The intercourse which existed between our first parents and their Maker seems to have been carried on by personal interviews, as well as by prayer and praise. So long as they remained obedient to the Divine command, the path from earth to heaven was cheerfully pursued; man was an angel in the garb of flesh, waiting for the time when he should be allowed to put off this mortal coil, and join those blessed spirits whose society he had been permitted to enjoy in the fairer world on high. God was not then afar off, not seen dimly through the cloud of sin and sorrow which now hangs heavily over his prospects; but he was one with whom from morn to dewy eve" he held sweet converse; -prayer was the connecting link between man and God, that which proved him capable of better things, though he followed worse. The capability of drawing nigh to Him who gave him birth, who crowned him with his loving-kindnesses and tender mercies, who

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gave him dominion over the earth, air, and sea, it was this which gave him moral elevation, which raised him so vastly above those creatures whose end was but to vegetate and die.* We read, during the sojourn of Adam in paradise, of no slaughtered victims, whose smoke ascended as a sacrifice to heaven, apt emblem of the forfeiture incurred of life and happiness; there was then no allusion made to a bleeding Saviour, nor to the necessity of an atonement; no need for the cry of contrition, though that of humility would ever become him. Now, alas, the case is widely different, the wants and weaknesses, the temptations and trials of our fallen state, demand our constant application at the throne of the Almighty, not only for mercy to pardon, but for grace to help in every time of need. There was, therefore, it is evident, this remarkable distinction between the worship offered by an innocent and a guilty creature, - the former was spontaneous, natural, free, unburdened by ordinances of any description; while the latter was attended by the presentation of gifts, by the offering of sacrifices, and by numerous ceremonies, all which it is impossible to imagine were self-appointed, or the natural dictate of a mind conscious of right. And if those expensive rites and ceremonies which once obtained, and were divinely appointed (generally during the period from Adam to Moses, and specially from that of Moses to the coming of our Lord); if they are now abolished, that circumstance points to the commencement of a new dispensation,

Some have imagined, that had not man become degenerate, all animated nature, as it shared in the misery of his fall from God, would have shared in the happiness consequent upon his steady obedience to him, and would have been ultimately raised to a higher grade in the scale of existence. Z

and an apparent approach to a purer form of worship; but it does not fail to exhibit in still deeper colours human guilt and Divine benevolence. The atonement of Christ, as the one sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world; the necessity for his mediatorial office, and of his intercession with the Father, inculcated in the New Testament,-shew more clearly than all the institutions which contained or embodied the creed, and constituted an essential part of the faith and practice of the Old Testament saints, that man was a guilty creature, and needed pardon; that God was merciful, and waited to be gracious. It is indeed impossible, on any other supposition than that man did once enjoy personal communication with God, or delighted in presenting to him the tribute of prayer and praise, and that by some grievous offence he was deprived of such a glorious privilege; it is impossible, I say, on any other supposition, to account for the prevalence of worship in any form, such worship at least as, being onerous in its demands, and rigid in its requirements, was very far removed from the simple offering of innocence and a mind at ease. But if we look at the very nature of that worship which became a duty when the garden of Eden was closed to our first parents, does it not strike us as being exactly such as would be instituted upon a breach taking place between man the creature and God the Creator, particularly when we consider that the life of the one party had become forfeit, that Satan claimed him as his servant, and death as his prey? From the very institution of such a mode of access to God as by sacrifice, the necessity of that blood of sprinkling was signified, which should not, like the blood of Abel, call for vengeance, but, speaking far better things, should bring peace to, by making atonement for, the soul. It further signified, that as the blood was accounted the life, man's life was demanded; he was like the victim, with flowers encircling its head, moving on to inevitable death. In the way appointed by the Almighty for approach to him are clearly represented distance and alienation; we are thereby impressed with the truth, that man had been a wrong-doer, that he and his Maker were no longer one. Nor can we imagine that those feelings of distance and alienation were the effect of any humbling view which he might take of his relative position with regard to his Creator-from reflecting how great, and good, and holy was God, and how poor and abject was man; this might indeed account for the humility of his posture when bowing before the footstool of the Most High, but neither for his backwardness in approaching it, nor for the prac tice of presenting an offering as a propitiation.

There is no necessity that the poorest subject, whose heart knows its own innocence, should come reluctantly to the throne of his sovereign and offer gifts, in order that mercy might be extended toward him: it was clearly guilt that made man a coward, and forbade his presuming to enter the Divine presence without a sacrifice which testified that he felt himself obnoxious to wrath, or without some offering which intimated his persuasion that every blessing was forfeited, and that the supply of his daily necessities was matter of free gift, not of right. The origin of any other form of worship than that of prayer and praise, the simple dictate of innocence and peace, must be ascribed to an impression stamped upon the heart, that there was One to whom man must look as the great sacrifice for sin: and now that clearer light has fallen upon the Divine decrees, now that we can see with the eye of faith the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world presenting himself before the altar of justice as the Victim for man's transgression, and the Intercessor for those gifts and graces which are needful for his guidance into the way of salvation,-we know that the heart and the affections are the offerings due from a weak, sinful, and dependent creature to an offended but placable Creator..

Now, immediately after intimation is given of human apostacy, we find man bending the suppliant knee, and offering the fruits of the earth and the firstlings of the flock; we see the representatives of the human race acting like criminals under a sentence of wrath, deprecating the righteous vengeance of their Judge; we see them rendering an acknowledgment which innocence would never have dreamed of making, and an atonement which justice could never have demanded; and, to pass by the well-known practice of Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we must look upon it as something beyond an extraordinary coincidence merely, that in every age and nation prayers have been made and sacrifices offered to God the Avenger. The Assyrian sage, who directed his practised eye along the paths of the heavens; the Egyptian magi, who were conversant with all the arts and sciences of antiquity; the Grecian philosopher, who explored the world in his search after wisdom,-all alike made it their aim to find out God, to draw near to his seat. If we turn to the wanderer in the desert or the forest, we find him rendering a willing homage to that great Spirit, whose power he acknowledged in the boundless expanse too big for mortal eye to comprehend, or in the unbroken solitude of his own fastnesses. Prayer alone, or simply, it may reasonably be supposed, would form a part of man's natural and delightful employment in his primeval state.