other, and it is computed to have been 64 furlongs, or 8 miles in circumference. Within this palace were the celebrated artificial gardens; consisting of large terraces covered with large flat stones, raised one above another, till they equalled the walls of the city. They were designed to represent a woody country, having large trees planted on them, in soil of sufficient depth for them to grow 50 feet high. On the highest level was a reservoir, with a machine by which water was drawn from the river to water the whole. This novel and astonishing contrivance was perfected by the great monarch," for the purpose of gratifying his queen AMYITIS, that she might behold something in Babylon resembling the hills and woodlands of her native country, MEDIA.

Near to the old palace stood the temple of Belus or Jupiter, forming a square of nearly three miles in compass. In the centre of the temple was an immense tower 600 feet in height! This enormous pile of building consisted of 8 towers, each 75 feet high, and which were ascended by stairs winding round the outside. On this temple of Belus, or, as some say, on its summit, was a golden image, 40 feet in height, and computed to be worth 3,500,000l. sterling. There were besides such numbers of other valuable statues and sacred utensils, that the whole of the treasure contained within this single edifice, has been estimated at 42,000,000/. sterling! These examples will be sufficient to intimate the prodigious wealth and the overgrown power of the Babylonian empire; and they were, doubtless, among the mightiest works of mortals.

Babylon was called-THE GLORY OF KINGDOMSTHE GOLDEN CITY-THE LADY OF KINGDOMS-and THE PRAISE OF THE WHOLE EARTH: but its pride, idolatry, and abominable wickednesses, provoked the righteous indignation of the Almighty, and they have been punished in the heavy calamities of its people, and the utter desolation of its splendid buildings, agreeably to the inspired predictions of the holy prophets. We shall transcribe a few of these predictions, and give a brief history of their fulfilment.

“And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." Isa. xiii, 19-22.

For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of Hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LoRD. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts." Isa. xiv, 22, 23.

"Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel." Isa. xlv, 1-3.

:

is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein; they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast. . - Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows; for she hath sinned against the LORD. Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down for it is the vengeance of the LORD: take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land. -I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware : thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD. The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GoD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans. Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left." Jer. 1, 2, 3, 13-16, 24-26.

"One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he hath cast me out. The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say. Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment, and an hissing, without an inhabitant." Jer. li, 31-37.

The two eminent heathen historians, Herodotus and Xenophon, have given a particular detail of the particulars of the siege of Babylon. In exact accordance with the inspired predictions of Isaiah and Jeremiah, they say, that Cyrus, with a large army of Medes and Persians, besieged Babylon; that the Babylonians, conceiving their walls impregnable, could not be provoked to engage in a general battle: that Cyrus contrived a snare for the Babylonians, by turning the course of the river Euphrates through the great lake; that the waters having been thus drawn off, the soldiers marched through the channel of the river; that, from the negligence of the soldiers on guard, some of the gates leading from the river to the city were left open; that the troops of Cyrus entering by this means, took Babylon during the night of an idolatrous festival (See Daniel v); that its princes, nobles, and captains, being drunk with their feasting, as described by the prophet Daniel, were suddenly slaughtered; and this glorious city, never before conquered by a foreign enemy, was thus taken without the knowledge of the king, until the posts and messengers ran with the in

extension of commerce and the advancement of the cause of Christ.

formation, which he had scarcely time to receive, before he was numbered with the multitudes of the slain!

Babylon soon began to decline from its glory: its lofty walls were reduced to only a quarter of their original height; and from an imperial, it was reduced to a tributary city. Xerxes, a successor of Cyrus on the Persian throne, after his ignominious retreat from Greece, seized the sacred treasures, plundered the temples, and destroyed the images of precious metal. Alexander the Great attempted to restore Babylon to its former glory; and designed to make it the metropolis of a universal empire. The conqueror employed 10,000 men to repair the embankments of the Euphrates and the temple of Belus; but this mighty project soon perished with the death of Alexander!

(To be continued.)

CHRISTIANITY PROMOTED BY BRITISH

COMMERCE.

CHRISTIANITY in the East has been promoted greatly by the adoption of a more liberal policy towards India. Difficulties, in some particulars, may arise in relation to the system of Free Trade. Into the political part of the question we cannot enter; indeed we do not consider it our province: but we cannot contemplate the Renewal of the East India Company's Charter, without a lively anxiety on account of the interests of Christianity.

Mr. Poynder, some time ago, in a speech at the India House, charged the Company with having, in seventeen years, drawn a MILLION STERLING from the four principal idol temples of JUGGERNAUT, ALLAHABAD, GYA, and TRIPETTY. That gentleman declared, that were it not for the sanction thus afforded by the Company, and the excellent order in which the temples are kept, the priests and Bramins receiving salaries from the Government, there would be a rapid decline in the whole system of abominations. Arguments, we know, are used in defence of the Company's procedure; but we think them groundless and visionary; and we cannot hesitate to express our decided conviction, that the best policy for the Directors would be to keep themselves pure from every transaction of this kind, throwing the idol temples into the hands of their blind votaries, and leav ing the system of imposture, impurity, and blood, to its own resources, and to perish under the illumination of the Christian scriptures.

Christian knowledge has wonderfully advanced already in India, by the establishment of schools, the circulation of religious tracts, the publication of the word of God, and the preaching of the Gospel by the various Missionaries. Provision for more effectual encouragement of those devoted servants of God, we have no doubt, will be made, by the new arrangements of our government for India; and while British Trade shall be extended through that immense district of our globe, British knowledge and religion shall receive the command and blessing of God, to enlighten, regenerate, and save myriads of its teeming population.

NOTICES OF BRITISH TRADE TO INDIA. MANY of our readers are aware, that before 1814 the East India Company monopolized all the trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope; and that their monopoly operated exceedingly to embarrass the labours of the Missionaries. Since that period private individuals have been allowed to carry on trade to India under certain restrictions; and this permission of the Charter of 1813 has been attended with corresponding benefits in the

Letters to a Mother, upon Education.

LETTER XXV.

On Arithmetic.

Dear Madam, ARITHMETIC, the science of number, stands next upon the list of intellectual accomplishments. The slightest inspection however of the subject will show, that in the acquisition of this science the parent may be of inestimable use to the child, in smoothing the way to its acquisition. For this purpose you must avoid as much as possible all use of the nomenclature or the technical terms of modern arithmetic. It is evident that the terms used in any art ought to suggest to the mind of the pupil the nature of the ideas of which they are the symbols. Yet how seldom is this the case in arithmetic! To say nothing of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, which though Latin terms are scarcely perhaps capable of being changed for Saxon words for the better, what shall be said of such terms as the rule of three? Was ever jargon so unintelligible! Why not call it by its true name, the science of proportion? Still more, what shall be said to such terms as practice? What connection is there between the name and the thing signified by it? The same may be said of alligation, and even of the terms in use as to the very principles, such as numeration, units, tens, &c. Now the happy task of the mother should be, to initiate her son in the four first rules at least, by avoiding technical terms as much as possible, and by gradual and successive lessons.

Arithmetic may begin with addition, rather than with numeration as it is called; it being reasonable that a child should have some idea how numbers are produced before he attempts to read them. While learning to write he has learned the characters 1, 2, 3, 4. Let him then be taught addition by some such method as the following. Here are two apples in one hand, and three in the other: placing them all together upon the table, how many apples are there?

Let him be exercised well in mental arithmetic, by always associating some sensible idea with the number. Let the ideas of the four first rules be familiarized to him before he is taught to express the arbitrary characters which are associated with those ideas. The other system is just what it would be to require a child to learn to think, speak, and write, at one and the same time. Then when fully familiar, let him be taught to write the lessons which he has performed on the mental process. Thus let him write down upon the siate- 2 apples, 3 apples.

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Then ask him to write down the number made by the addition, thus-5 apples.

Proceed slowly, and step by step. Make sure he possesses the perceptions, before he proceeds to write the external signs of those perceptions. Let every arithmetical be conducted with regard to sensiprocess ble ideas, and not, for some time to come, upon mere abstract ideas of number, such as 2, 8. The mind of a child always at first says 2 what?-8 what? The child's mind has no conception of abstract ideas. And arithmetic should be superadded to his conceptions of sensible ideas; and then, when the distinctions of their numbers is acquired, the reference to the abstract ideas may be parted with, when the distinctions of mere number will remain. An intelligent mother may make her son master of clear perceptions of the qualities of numbers by this method; and when he goes to school, if he should fall into the hands of an intelligent instructor, his progress will be rapid and delightful:

cess.

whereas the progress is slow and wretched of a boy who simply learns by heart, or pores with a lack-lustre eye and brow shaded with premature anxiety over numeration, &c. &c. without attempting to comprehend what it means, and probably while labouring under the secret impression that he is not expected to comprehend it. Thus arithmetic is often a mere mental drill. The understanding however becomes stupefied under the proArithmetic never can be learnt, till the child's mind comprehends most clearly every part of the process. Upon the general system, the mechanical part of the process is imprinted on the memory, and many years afterwards the understanding awakes to the intelligent perception of its nature. Yet what should hinder the commencement of this intelligent perception from the first attention to the subject? A mother-the best instructor of her children an intelligent mother, may secure this; and when once she has communicated this habit to the mind of her pupil, it will be required perpetually for an intelligent comprehension of what is told him, and can never retrograde into the benumbed and blind condition of the child who " goes through," as the phrase is, one rule after another, just as the mill-horse goes the round of his employment. When he comes to the tables, as they are called yet, what child ever yet associated the idea with the name, when he comes to apothecaries weight! avoirdupois weight! that these are the rules in weighing drugs and less valuable things? Let him be taken to a chemist's shop, and shown the pound weight he uses, and then be shown the pound weight the miller uses in weighing flour. Let him be told that the druggist weighs his drugs by his weight, and the miller, &c. by his weight, because it has been the custom for a long time in this country. Let cloth measure be similarly explained to him, and all the tables. Let him never have a word in arithmetic presented to his mind without being shown or having explained to him the sensible idea to which that word corresponds.

How needful all this explanation is, may be instanced in the definition of a stone weight.

8 pounds a stone of butcher's meat. 14 pounds a stone of horseman's weight. What multitudes of boys have repeated this like automatons! Let your child be made to understand, that 8 pounds is called a stone of the flesh of animals: that the same name, stone, is applied to the weight of fourteen pounds of any thing else, and is also called horseman's weight, because the jockeys who ride the horses in races are weighed by it. Explain to him also the name of foot, as taken from the length of the foot of that king of England who was reigning when that distinction in measure was first introduced into use; that the yard was the length of his arm, &c.: almost any good system of arithmetic contains such explanations. Do not make him commit them to memory; teach him by conversation. In a word, you can thoroughly initiate him into the principles of arithmetic, and you can, above all things, make him understand all that you teach him.

Thus will his knowledge be delightful to him, a real ornament to his mind, and really available by him to those various practical purposes in the affairs of mankind, from which alone its importance is derived. I am, dear Madam, yours, &c. CLERICUS.

"Our little trials are often our greatest emer. gencies."

"Count not life by the number of years, but by the time spent in communion with God,"

THOUGHTS ON THE SACRED HISTORY OF
THE CREATION.
(Continued from p. 125.)

THE Deity now proceeded to a new order and principle of creation, that which is associated more immediately to himself. This was, to arrange some of the material elements of nature into definite and interesting forms, with a curious internal mechanism, within which a living principle was to abide, producing those impressive phenomena, which life only can perform. It is this living principle which brings all that possess it into a far nearer relation to their Maker than inert and inorganic matter, for in its lowest form it has a certain degree of assimilation to its Creator, whose essential quality is eternal, unoriginated, and everduring life. All vitality appears to be some communication of this grand characteristic in himself to those things which possess it, and by which they become living beings. Their forms are his special invention and construction, and their principle of life is also his special and communicated gift.

The creation of vegetables was the formation of living organized beings, with spontaneous internal powers, but without thinking mind, or any sensitivity discernible by us; and yet endowed with a principle of life, that has many striking analogies with that which all animals possess, and which we ourselves enjoy. Plants are distinguished for their multiplicity and variety, for that exuberance of imagination and taste which they display, and for that sense of elegance and beauty which their Maker must have had, to have so formed and diversified them. They are entirely the creation of his choice, the inventions of his rich and beautiful fancy.

The vegetable kingdom expands everywhere before us an immense portraiture of the Divine mind, in its contriving skill, profuse imagination, conceiving genius, and exquisite taste, as well as its interesting qualities of the most gracious benignity and the most benevolent munificence. The various flowers we behold, awaken these sentiments within us, and compel our reason to make these perceptions and this inference. They are the annual heralds and ever-returning pledges to us of his continuing beneficence, of his desire to please and benefit us, and therefore of his parental and intellectual amiabilities. The thunder, the pestilence, and the tempest, awe and humble us into dismaying recollections of his tremendous omnipotence and possible visitations, and of our total inability to resist or avert them; but the beauty and benefactions of his vegetable creations, the flowers and fruits more especially, remind and assure us of his unforgetting care, his condescending sympathy, his paternal affection, and of the same benignity still actuating his mind, which must have influenced it to design and execute such lovely productions, displaying the minutest thought, most elaborate composition, and so much personal kindness.

The creation of vegetables is placed by Moses subsequent to the production of light and of the atmosphere, immediately after the waters had receded from the land, and just before the creation and arrangement of the solar system. This exactly answers the demands of our present knowledge. Instead of requiring the sun's light to germinate, seeds and plants, in order to do so, must be sown and placed in darkness before they can vegetate. A small heat and moisture first caused their living principle to begin its operations, but they cannot flower and fruit until they receive the solar beams. This exact placing of the vegetable formation and first germination, is another test of the authenticity

of the Hebrew narrative, which random fiction could not have stood.

The command for the rise of the vegetable kingdom, presents them to us in the three natural divisions of grasses, herbs, and trees. "And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." This command extended to ordain their appearing with their reproductive powers for the formation of their seeds and fruits, in order to provide for their perpetuation on earth in an unfailing succession, without any new creation. The invisible miracle is left to be inferred by the human sagacity, from the wonderful phenomena that are continually occurring to our eye-sight, which no human or known natural agency can account for. It is thus that He makes His eternal power and Godhead the deduction of our reason, as well as a communicated truth from his personal revelation.

Let us review some of the main features that were selected to mark and constitute the system for that peculiar order of living things which the vegetable world displays. All vegetables, in every region and of every sort, from the most minute to the most towering, have these properties in common with animals and the human race. Organization, an interior power of progressive growth, a principle of life, with many phenomena that resemble irritability and susceptibility, and a self-reproductive and multiplying faculty. In all these qualities they are distinguished from inorganic and earthy matter, in these they resemble all animated nature, and our prouder selves. We may dislike such a relationship, but to this extent our bodily frame and functions establish a natural kinship between us. We decline and die as they do; and they sicken, fade, die, and decay, like every human being: there is also another analogy, their substance nourishes us, and ours not unfrequently becomes a part of theirs. All living nature is linked together by actual connection, if not by perceivable sympathies. Life and organization are inseparable companions. To form a correct idea of what an organized being is, we may observe, that in human mechanism we have an imitation of vegetable and animal organization, which enables us more fully to understand it, and to perceive how it has originated. Neither watches, cotton mills, or steam engines grow; they must be made by human hands, under the direction of a designing thought and will; and this mode of their fabrication discovers to us how all similar things, whose forming agents we have not seen at work, to wit, natural organizations, must have been made. All mechanisms, from the pair of tongs or the snuffers, to the windmill, the ship, and manufacturing machines, consist of pieces taken out of their natural state, and put into a peculiar arrangement in due relation to each other, so that from this specific combination, the action of the completed thing may produce the effect intended by its planning, adjusting, and commanding master. Such are the mechanisms of man, and such the mechanisms of his Creator. The plant, the animal, and the human being, are in their bodily structure, material machines. Consisting of parts put together into designed and adapted arrangements, and which by their artificial and special construction, possess and exert powers which thence arise, and produce the phenomena they were intended to effect. Nothing but human workmanship will account for human mechanism. No me:al in the mine could by any chance move itself into the wheels and springs which constitute a watch or an organ, and begin marking time or playing a melody. So nothing but Divine agency and intelligence will explain how the inert particles of things became combined originally into

vegetable or animal organizations, because all other agencies are known to be utterly incompetent to such effects. In neither human or divine mechanisms do the parts of which they consist, tend in themselves to be what they are, or to do what they do. Iron has no tendency to be a hammer or a chain, nor brass to be in a clock or cannon, in a telescope, or in a pianoforte. So none of the particles that constitute plants have any natural tendency to be a carnation, an apple, or an

acorn,

Such are organizations in general, and plants are that peculiar species which display to us the Divine ideas in this class of natural being; and which form the largest compartment in the immense panorama of the surface of our terrestrial fabric.

(To be continued.)

FUNERAL OF THE LATE REV. ROWLAND HILL. IN our last Number we announced the decease of the Rev. Rowland Hill. We have now the gratification of informing our Readers of the solemn, impressive, and truly edifying manner in which the mortal remains of this devoted servant of Christ were committed to the tomb, under the pulpit in Surrey Chapel, on Friday, April 19. None were admitted except by tickets; yet the chapel was crowded to excess. Multitudes of persons of high respectability, and many Committees of religious societies, declined applying for tickets, under the conviction that it would be in vain to seek admission.

The corpse having been brought into the chapel, the Rev. Thomas Jackson, of Stockwell, read part of the Burial Service of the Church of England; then the coffin being placed before the pulpit, the Rev. W.B. Collyer, D.D. LL. D. read Psalms xxxix and xc, and part of the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The body having been lowered into the grave, the remaining part of the Burial Service was read by the Rev. T. Jackson.

A hymn having then been sung, the Rev. Geo. Clayton, M. A. offered a most appropriate and affecting prayer. Then the beautiful hymn, beginning "Jesus, thy blood and righteousness," having been sung, the Rev. William Jay, of Bath, preached a most impressive Sermon on Zech. xi, 2. It will be sufficient here to remark, that Mr. Jay's discourse was worthy of the lamented occasion; but only part of it was delivered, and the whole was announced as intended to be given to the Public. This extraordinary service was closed with prayer, by the Rev. George Collison.

Lord Hill, Commander in Chief of the Army, and others of the family, honoured the memory of their venerable relative by attending his funeral, as they had revered the character of that eminent minister of Christ while living. And we are confident that the respect thus shown to the public and private worth of their lamented uncle, must have produced a deep impression upon the minds of his Lordship and his relatives. Sincerely do we pray, that they may cherish the same divine principles which animated and supported their deceased relative; and enjoying the same consolations, anticipate the same immortal glory.

We purpose giving a biographical sketch of our venerable Friend and cordial Patron in our next Number.

SACRIFICE OF BRITISH SOLDIERS IN THE WEST INDIES.

WE have frequently made inquiry concerning the health of our soldiers, stationed in the West Indies for the protection of Negro Slavery. Statements the most

affecting have been made to us in reply, from those acquainted with the subject, especially from a lieutenantcolonel, and such as would deeply distress every considerate and feeling heart. The Editor of the Patriot Newspaper makes the following observations on this appalling state of things. "British India, with a population of 90,000,000, on an area of 1,128,000 square miles, is kept quiet by the presence of 17,000, in addition to the native force. In Jamaica, on account of existing circumstances,' it has been found requisite to increase the number of troops. Horrible indeed is the necessity which requires the presence of a larger force in the West Indies, to waste away and perish beneath the pestilential influence of the climate, than suffices to maintain our supremacy over a population nearly ninety times as numerous as the whole of the British West India islands contain, white, brown, and black, bond and free! Such is the cost of slavery, in treasure and in blood! When, a few years ago, returns were ordered to be laid before Parliament, of the state of our army in the West Indies, they were withheld, on the plea urged by the then Secretary at War, SIR HENRY HARDINGE, and acquiesced in by the House, that the details of the returns would be too horrible to meet the public eye. Out of three regiments, consisting of 2,700 men, sent to one of the islands, it was admitted that one-third had perished in a single season! Were slavery abolished, the whole defence of these colonies might be safely entrusted to a naval force and the local militia, and at least a million sterling be saved to the country!"

By this statement it appears, that the Metropolis contains a population exceeding the Twelve largest Towns of England and Scotland. In a former Number of the Christian's Penny Magazine it was estimated, that there were Four Hundred Places of Worship of all denominations. Supposing each were weekly to contain within its walls fifteen hundred suppliants at the, throne of grace, although that would be greatly exceeding the average, still it will be seen that not even one half, could be accommodated! Yet how many of our chapels and churches do we find half empty! What an awful consideration, that in a population of nearly a million and a half, not one-third may reasonably be calculated upon as attending the service of God! Every real Christian will lament this great neglect of public worship, and exert himself in the sphere in which he moves to increase the number of the servants of God, and pray to the Almighty to prosper the endeavours of themselves and others to effect that great object.