So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth." Gen. xi, 1-9. By this means, the prediction of Noah began to be fulfilled, and hence the origin of the different languages among mankind, of which the Bible alone gives us information.

How far Noah consented to the vain project, we have no means of ascertaining, and who was the chief director of that work we know not: but Nimrod, a grandson of Ham, "a mighty hunter," took possession of it, and laid the foundation of the Babylonian empire, of which he was the first monarch, Gen. x, 8-10. Babel was the beginning of the Tower of Babylon, so famous in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

Noah lived, after this confusion, above two hundred years, and beheld, doubtless with the bitterest grief, wickedness abounding among his descendants, and multitudes of them become apostates from true religion to practise abominable idolatry!

THE BEAUTIES OF CHRISTIANITY.

Abridged from the Visc. Chateaubriand. "

This work possesses uncommon interest, not only from its intrinsic excellence, but from the fact of its noble author having been in his young days a professed infidel of the French Republican school, and being awakened to light and immortality by the death-bed letter of an affectionate mother, whose last prayer was, that her son might be again brought to believe the faith be had renounced. The author's aim is not to treat on the Internal Evidences of Christianity, but to show its various excellencies, and its indisputable superiority over all other systems.]

SINCE the first publication of Christianity to the world, it has been continually attacked by three kinds of enemies, heretics, sophists, and those frivolous characters who use the shafts of ridicule. Numerous writers have given successful answers to subtleties and falsehoods, but they have not been so successful against derision. It thus became necessary to prove, that the Christian religion is the most humane, the most favourable to liberty; that the modern world is indebted to it for every improvement; that nothing is more divine than its morality, and more lovely and sublime than its doctrines; that it developes virtuous passions, imparts energy to the ideas, corrects the taste, and that there is no disgrace in being believers with Newton and Bossuet; in a word, it was necessary to summon all the charms of the imagination and the interests of the heart, to the assistance of that religion against which they had been set in array.

But, it may be asked, may there not be some danger in considering religion in a merely human point of view? To this we answer: Our religion shrinks not from the light; and one great proof of its divine origin is, that it will bear the severest scrutiny. Christianity will not be less true for appearing more beautiful. We can no longer say, "Believe without inquiring:" people will inquire:and will it not be found sublime in the antiquity of its recollections, which go back to the creation of the world; ineffable in its mysteries; adorable in its sacraments; interesting in its history; celestial in its morality; attractive in its ceremonies; and fraught with every species of beauty?

To illustrate our work, we have divided the subject into four parts: the first treats of the tenets and doctrine; the second and third, of the connection of Chris.

tianity with literature and the arts; the fourth, of the worship and ceremonies of the church.

Having thus stated the general plan, let us enter on the first part of the subject; and as a preliminary step to the consideration of the Christian mysteries, let us inquire into the nature of mysteries in general. The most wonderful sentiments are those which produce impressions difficult to be explained. This is the case with regard to virtues: the most angelic are those, which, like charity, emanating immediately from God, studiously conceal themselves, like their source, from mortal view. The early inhabitants of Asia conversed only by symbols. There is nothing in the universe but what is hidden and unknown. Is not man himself an inexplicable mystery? Considering then the natural partiality of mankind for mysteries, it cannot appear surprising that the religions of all nations should have had their impenetrable secrets. God himself is the great secret of nature. The Divinity was represented veiled in Egypt, and the Sphinx was seated on the threshold of their temples. In regard, however, to mysteries, Christianity has a great advantage over the religions of antiquity. Their mysteries afforded, at the utmost, a subject for reflection to the philosopher, or for song to the poet: ours comprehend the secrets of our existence. It is a pitiful mode of reasoning to reject whatever we cannot comprehend. Were we to begin with the most simple things in life, it were easy to prove that we know nothing; and shall we then pretend to penetrate the depths of divine wisdom? The Trinity was known to the Egyptians. Heraclides records a celebrated oracle-“In the beginning was God, then the Word and the Spirit." Plato is supposed to have had some idea of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is known in the East Indies and Thibet. Our missionaries to Otaheite have found some traces of it among the religious notions of the natives. Some obscure tradition of it may also be discovered in the fables of polytheism. The philosophers too divided the moral man into three parts; and the fathers have imagined they discovered the image of the spiritual Trinity in the human soul. To delineate the divine Son of God, we need only borrow the words of St. John, who beheld him in his glorified state. "He was seated on the throne: his face shone like the sun in his strength, and his feet like fine brass melted in a furpace. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and out of his mouth went a two-edged sword. In his right hand he held seven stars; and in his left, a book sealed with seven seals. His voice was as the sound of many waters. The seven spirits of God burned before him like seven lamps; and he went forth from his throne attended by lightnings and voices and thunders." There is a sublimity in these images, unequalled by any human composition.

(To be continued.)

MR. WHITFIELD'S PREACHING. DURING one of Mr. Whitfield's excursions in Yorkshire, he preached in a field near Sheffield, to a large audience, a very affecting sermon, on the Sufferings of Christ. A poor woman, who was driving some asses laden with bricks, arrested by the energetic manner of the preacher, stopped for some time to hear him. When he mentioned the circumstance of our blessed Lord having suffered for sinners, without the gates of Jerusalem, upwards of seventeen hundred years ago, the woman, addressing herself to one of the asses, and goading it, said, with the utmost simplicity," Go, Robin as it is so long since, I hope it is not true!"

Letters to a Mother, upon Education.

LETTER XXXIV.

On the question of Public or Private Education, concluded.

Another argument for public education is derived from the fact, that much of our safety and success in life depends upon our being able to form a judgment of the character of those individuals with whom we have to deal. Our Creator has afforded ample means of forming a judgment of the characters of mankind from their manners, countenance, tones, gestures, &c. &c. A knowledge of men by these means is indispensable to our dealing with them safely to ourselves. Unless we possess it we shall be liable to every form of ruin which the unprincipled and base part of mankind may inflict upon us: we shall be literally at the mercy of all with whom we come into contact. Every man has ample means of learning the character of mankind by these modes, at least of learning the character of that class of them with whom he is likely to come into collision; and all men who have been bred up in the intercourse with persons of their own class, do actually get habits of penetration into human character as far as they need them. The villager, whose simplicity towards things beyond his own sphere is so amusing, has very little of this simplicity among persons of his own class. And persons of his own class, as indeed with us all, constitute that sphere of society in which he is to do and to obtain good. Your son however can never know man. kind should he be privately educated. His simplicity as to their wickedness, as well as to their virtues, will lay him open to be deceived and wronged by them at their pleasure. The vile and abandoned will mark him out for their prey, and devour and distress him, even with a determination proportioned to his unsuspectingness or inability to deal with them. He will be unfit as an infant to cope with mankind, unless he has been habituated to them. Fatal is the acquirement - detrimental the knowledge to his own peace-despicable the experience of the modes of human wickedness! Yet while he is in a fallen world, he must mingle with it: and he cannot mingle with it, and escape a vast proportion of misery, unless he knows how to take care of himself. For this purpose he ought to be acquainted with the workings of human nature, from the earliest period of human life, by actual community with mankind. Nor is this knowledge incompatible with rectitude, and even innocence of heart. In a certain sense, his knowledge of the wickedness of mankind renders the path of virtue more distinct to his own mind. His adherence to it has more of the personal selection, which is essential to the consistency of virtue. A man may and ought to unite in himself the qualities recommended by the Redeemer to his apostles, and exhibited in supreme perfection by himself, the wisdom of the serpent and the harmlessness of the dove.

Still further. It is obvious that although virtue must be founded in principle, yet that a readiness in the application of the principle must depend upon practice. Habits of virtue, as habits of every other kind, are gained by practice. The greater practice we have, the greater readiness we acquire, both of knowing what ought to be done, and also of doing it.

But the practice from which excellent results are to be expected, can only be obtained from circumstances which present a great number of various cases. It is also plain, that the habit of virtuous speaking and acting, ought, like every other, to be commenced and established carly. But the system of private education excludes this advantage. However carefully the principles of virtue may be grounded in the mind of a boy,

yet it is plain that if he is not brought into circumstances wherein he is required to act, his practical acquaintance with virtue can be but limited. Besides, when he comes to take his part in the great business of life, it will be found that there is a slowness about his decisions, as to what is proper or improper, little indeed consistent with the speed required by most of the petty transactions of human life. On the other hand, the boy brought up in the world, and who has been exercised by a great number of cases, brings his experience to bear upon each practical question as it comes before him. He has already seen most of such cases, or most varieties of them: he acts therefore, not from calculation so much as from precedent. He acts quickly therefore, on the same principle as the accomplished advocate giving you his opinion upon a case which has been proposed to him a thousand times over. He will also have a chance of acting more correctly than if he were slower in his determination. Virtue is oftener associated with the spontaneous and ready action of the man of the world, than of the calculating moralist. The one has no time, or gives himself no time, to speculate; the other reasons, and balances opposite arguments, and generally reasons himself into an error. The moral senses, like the bodily, when acting in highest perfection, act without reasoning.

All this readiness is, however, to be referred to habit, and habit to experience, and experience to a time when principles were first communicated, and when the child was taught to act from a consideration of principle. But as the experienced physician does not refer to his books when an every-day case comes before him, yet with whatever facility he comprehends it and prescribes for it, really acts upon a facility acquired in the first instance from these very books; so the ready action of virtue required by our worldly concerns, ought to be indeed derived in the first instance from principle, but afterwards from habit.

Still I acknowledge there may be a supposed case, and one which I would wish may never happen to yourself, in which a private education would be preferable. It is when some very peculiar and incurable defect or infirmity, especially of mind, would absolutely incapacitate your son from sharing in the routine of the employments of a school. It would have been better that the poet Cowper should have been educated at home, on account of his well known and early developed tendency to mental depression. Still it is not every defect which should be allowed to preclude a boy from the inestimable advantages of an education in the society of his schoolfellows. His schoolfellows soon get used to his defect, and it passes without notice. Whenever it is remembered, it is generally as a motive of kindness; and there is much real kindness to one another among boys at school, much readiness to help the weak and to protect the defenceless. I have seen the cripple leap along upon his crutch in the race with as much delight as the foremost runner. A boy with a defect is far less apt to be rendered unhappy by it when mingling with his companions, whom he will soon find cease even to notice it; or if they do, it is good-humouredly; whereas the same boy would brood upon it, and gain settled habits of mental suffering, if he were brought up in solitude, that nurse of all imaginary evils. Still, whenever the supposed case really occurs, I should still advise a private education. It may be proper to put this tender plant under the protection of a glass cover; but let the oakling be planted amid the trees of the forest, that he may with them gather vigour from every breeze, every shower, every sunbeam of the open sky. I am, dear Madam, yours, &c.

CLERICUS,

ILLUSTRATION OF ISAIAH LX, 5.

"The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee."

"GLORIOUS things are spoken of thee, O city of God," (Psalm lxxxvii, 3) said the prophetic psalmist, when contemplating the future prosperity of the Christian church. Part of that glory has already been realized; so that an intelligent survey of the world at the present day, contrasted with the wide-spreading heathen darkness and corruption of the period when the prophet wrote, must lead every devout mind to exclaim, with grateful admiration, "What hath God wrought!" But who can conceive the moral splendour of that day, when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea?" Isa. xi, 9;- when "the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ?" Rev. xi, 15; - when "all shall know the Lord, from the least even to the greatest?" when the astonishing predictions of the inspired prophets, especially of the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, shall be completely fulfilled?

Were the resources of a mighty nation employed wholly to glorify God for his mercy in the diffusion of his gospel throughout the world, by missionaries, schools, and the Holy Scriptures, what might not be soon effected, if approved by the Almighty Sovereign, and blessed by his Holy Spirit? Truth would shine with celestial brightness in every nation, holiness would soon characterize their inhabitants, and Paradise would be restored even upon earth! And this shall be reality in God's appointed time.

Such were some of our reflections when we met with Pebrer's" Resources of the British Empire." His estimate of the aggregate of the wealth, capital, and power of Great Britain, led us to the declaration of the prophet, "The abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee;" and we contemplated the blessings arising from these amazing "" resources being "converted' from purposes of selfishness to the honour of God and the advancement of human happiness. Perhaps a review of our national resources, as given by that intelligent writer, will serve as an occasion to animate the hopes of our readers in their anticipations of the times in which their children and their children's children are to live; especially as "the signs of the times," notwithstanding many things are calculated to awaken gloomy apprehensions, certainly indicate the fulfilment of many of God's merciful purposes to our world.

Pebrer says, "It appears that, according to the moderate calculation adopted in these estimates, there exists in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a capital, public and private, of 3,679,500,0007.

The greatest part of this enormous capital is beneficially employed in creating substantial property, and in promoting industry and enterprise in the multifarious pursuits and occupations by which the necessaries, the comforts, and the luxuries of life are raised and provided. The most useful and important of these is Agriculture, which raises, in all its branches, annual produce to the value of 246,000,000l.; or fiftytwo millions and a half more than the total produce of this branch in France, considered to be the first agricul tural country in Europe. The value of the produce of the Mines and Minerals in the United Kingdom, is 21,400,000. The produce and profits of the numerous classes engaged in Inland Trade, amount to the large sum of 48,425,000. And of those important branches to all maritime nations, the Coasting Trade and the Fisheries, the former yields 3,550,000l. and the latter 3,400,000. The annual gains of all those engaged in Shipping and Foreign Trade amount to 34,398,0591. The profits of Bankers may be stated at 4,500,0007.;

and the income derived from property invested in Foreign Securities, including the sum annually remitted from India, is estimated at 4,500,000/. Lastly, the capital, labour, and machinery employed in all the numerous and expensive branches of Manufactures, annually raise produce valued at the enormous sum of 148,050,000l.

"Thus the grand result of the combination of the prodigious capital above stated, with all animate and inanimate power, is the annual creation of produce and property to the amount of 514,823,0597.!!"

LETTER FROM THE LATE REV. A. FULLER, Addressed to a Young Lady in Exeter, who had been greatly impressed by a Sermon which he preached, in passing through that city, on John xxi, 17, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?"

My dear young Friend,

:

Kettering, May, 1801.

I received yours just as I was going a journey. There needs no apology for your writing to me, though perhaps my answer may be short, owing to other numerous engagements. It gives me pleasure to learn that any thing I delivered was of use to you, especially in endearing to you the name of the Lord Jesus. This is the tendency of true religion. If Jesus be precious to us in his true character, we are believers in him, and interested in his salvation. Jesus is the friend and Saviour of sinners; and we cannot discern his glory, or properly love his name, but as we are made sensible of our sinful state. It is in the character of sinners, even the chief of sinners, that we must come to him for the whole need not a physician, but those that are sick. "You never was permitted to give into the excesses which most young people are." Perhaps you may have valued yourself a little on this account, and cherished a hope that you should be more likely to obtain mercy; but the truth is, you have been a much greater sinner than you are aware of. The difference between one sinner and another is but small, in comparison of that wherein they are alike. We have all transgressed God's holy law, and all possess a heart averse to him, and every thing that is truly good; and, therefore, are all exposed to his eternal displeasure. And had not God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son to die for us, we must all have perished without hope. As it is, our hope is only in him: for his sake alone, and not for our own good deeds, our prayers, and tears, we are accepted. His righteousness must be our plea, for in him God is well pleased. The grand proof of the truth of our religion is, that we be of the same mind as God with respect to Christ. Hence he that is chosen of God and precious, is said to be precious to them that believe, 1 Pet. ii, 7. Now Christ is precious to God on several accounts: he is the Son of God, and as such dear to him and is he not as such dear to us, as being our great high-priest, and able to save to the uttermost? He is also the Son of man, and as such dear to him, John v, 27. Aud for this sake also he is dear to true believers; for being flesh of our flesh, he can feel for our infirmities. He is beloved of the Father, because he laid down his life, John x, 17; and surely for this we also must love him. Finally, the Father loves him, because of his regard to righteousness. "He loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, therefore God hath anointed him with the oil of glad. ness above his fellows." In becoming our Mediator and Saviour he has shown himself the enemy of sin, while he saves the sinner. And if we be true believers we shall love him on the same account. If we love him

:

only because we hope to escape hell by means of his death, and not on account of his saving us from our sins, this is merely self-love, and has no true religion in it. I may add, if you love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, you will love him supremely: while you will be dutiful to your parent, you will love Christ before him, and before any person or thing in the world.

I wish you could read, if you could procure it, a little book containing accounts of the trials and experiences of several eminent Christians about one hundred and thirty years ago, one of whom was a young woman of the name of Agnes Beaumont. It was published some years ago by Mr. James of Hitchen. 1 cannot recollect the title, but I have often read and wept over the trials of poor Agnes, whose father was for a long time set against her religion, but at last died under an acknowledgement of his great sin in opposing her. It was by a kind, obliging, obedient behaviour in all civil matters that his heart was moved.

Though I cannot engage to correspond with any person for a continuance, yet if you have any particular exercises on which you would wish for my advice, or counsel to ask respecting your spiritual welfare, write to me with freedom, and I will at any time answer you. I remain, in our dear Lord Jesus,

Affectionately yours,

A. FULLER.

THE LATE REV. JOHN REES,

OF CROWN STREET CHAPEL, LONDON.

We have been repeatedly requested to insert in the Christian's Penny Magazine, the "Dying Testimony of the late Rev. John Rees," as peculiarly adapted to promote the edification of our readers. It affords us pleasure to be able to gratify our friends in this respect from an interesting Memoir of that useful servant of Christ, by the Rev. Henry Heap, dedicated to the Right Hon. the Earl of Roden.' The following instructive extract from the " Diary" of that devoted minister may be regarded as

HIS LIVING TESTIMONY.

"Sabbath-day, April 20, 1828. Fifty-eight years this day I was born at Carmarthen, in South Wales. Thirtyeight years I have been a professor of religion, and thirty-five a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, O my soul, what a chequered path hast thou walked! The prevailing and sincere feeling of my mind on this my birth-day is deep regret, that I have in all these years lived so little unto God; my exercises in religion, as to bodily labour, and the number of sermons, more than common; but what is bodily exercise? God seeks the heart in every duty; and in many duties he has found me like a silly dove without a heart, or a heart like the fool's eye, wandering from him. I have to regret the duties omitted, neglected, or formally fulfilled, and the sins committed in thought and deed, for which I would humble myself in deep abasement before the footstool of mercy, and pray for grace, that I may, as the chief of sinners, come this day to the blood of sprinkling, that fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness. This is my only refuge after my prayers, and after my preaching, and after my Sabbaths; for I stand in need of being sprinkled with it, and washed from all the stains of my sin and the imperfections of my services. O thou Lamb of God, wash me in thy cleansing and soul-purifying blood! O cover me in thy souljustifying righteousness, and sanctify me with thy sanctifying Spirit, that I may be more devoted to thy service! While I have every reason to complain of myself, I have more reason to extol and magnify the grace,

mercy, and compassion of God in his dealing towards me; they have indeed been marked with great mercy. My preservation in bodily health, without a day of real illness for thirty-six years. His patience towards me in bearing with me so long; his kindness in blessing my labours as a preacher to the conversion and edification of so many hundreds of my fellow-creatures -some are now ministers of Christ-in supporting me in many troubles, and in bringing me to my present place in a wonderful and mysterious way, and for enabling me to give myself for eternity to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is my hope, my refuge, my hiding-place, my shield, and the tower of my defence. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits! ' Let this be my motto through the year, should my life be so long spared; and if not spared, may the Lord Jesus receive me into the arms of his rich grace. 'O to grace how great a debtor!' shall be my song for ever. This is not only my birth-day, but the day appointed for the anniversary of my settlement as minister of Crown Street chapel. It appears to me singular that both should be on the same day, without the least intention or design, either in me or my brethren; but, Ruler of all circumstances and events, not without thý knowledge and design. Let it be, gracious God, a time of refreshing from thy presence, and let some great good be done this day to the souls of men. I would, O Lord, erect my Ebenezer, and to thy praise acknowledge that hitherto the Lord hath helped me."

HIS DYING TESTIMONY,

thou

Is thus given, in a letter from the Rev. J. Leifchild to the biographer, and will be read with deep interest by all.

"On my last visit, I saw that he was going, and forbore to trouble him much. But I put it to him seriously, in the full prospect of death, to give me the exact state of his mind. Mr. R., I may survive you; I may have to tell whether Christianity was able to surport you in these moments: let me know, exactly, what you feel; for these moments are too solemn for hesitation, vagueness, or reserve: tell me, my dear Sir, all, as briefly as possible, and I will disturb you no more. I saw him touched his full form was shrunken by his long-continued malady and confinement, his swollen limbs (punctured to prevent inflammation) gave him great pain; blanched was his cheek, and sunken his eye: but this appeal to the honour of his religion roused him. It freshened his dying lamp; his colour returned, his eye was lit up with animation; and, raising himself, he looked me full in the face, and, with great deliberation, energy, and dignity, uttered the following words:"Christ in his person, Christ in his offices, Christ in the love of his heart, and Christ in the power of his arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now (reclining his head gently on the pillow), Death! strike!' These words were not lost in air; they entered the tablet of my memory, and have remained fixed. I have no other wish than that they may express my sentiments and feelings in similar moments. So may it happen to me to die!'

NIGHT AND DAY.

ALL sleeps! for drowsy darkness reigns,
And deals his potion round,

With which, as adamantine chains,

He holds existence bound.

No light illumes the cheerless scene,

Save Luna's faintest gleam,

That clouds reflect, which sometimes 'tween
There steals a brighter beam.

No sound the list'ning ear doth seize,
The death-like stillness breaking,
Save the faint rustling of the breeze,
Or th' ocean's distant raking.
Night disappears! its gloomy train
Now vanishes away;

Mild beams of light illume the plain,
And speak th' approach of day.
See yonder, where the ocean lies,
Bright Phoebus lifts his head;
See him majestically rise,

And gild his wat'ry bed..

How chang'd the scene! Night's gloomy reign
Spread cheerless silence round;"

But now all nature smiles again,
Her plains with joy are crown'd!
Thus doth a burst of heav'nly light
The Christian pilgrim greet,

Who wings his way from Earth's drear night
The bless'd above to meet.

Sweet truth, to Christian virtue join'd,
A light within displays,

That Heav'n revealing, doth the mind
Beyond Earth's midnight raise.

It is as 'twere the faintest break
Of morn's incipient beams:
But, oh! when saints immortal wake,
What glory o'er them reigus!
Then doth eternal summer crown
Their rich immortal rest,

Which ne'er shall know stern Winter's frown,
Nor be by care oppress'd.

O happy, happy they, who e'er
Such precious bliss shall know!
Bliss that but dimly can appear
In shadows here below.

OUR Correspondent W. has proposed for consideration a passage of Scripture, which has occasioned much alarm in the minds of many who have truly feared God; but it has also been the means of leading them to a prayerful course of studying the sacred volume. Mistakes of the meaning of this passage alone occasion perplexity to the sincere disciples of Christ; for, however terrible it may be in its aspect towards apostates, it has nothing really alarming to the pious.

Tenderness of conscience is essential to spiritual religion, and a most certain evidence of a healthful condition of the soul. No state of mind is more truly desirable; as it is the chief preventive from falling into a backsliding state, while it prompts to the seeking of every blessing, in habitual communion with God. Tenderness of conscience is peculiarly contemplated, in

those passages of scripture, which speak of being "in the fear of the Lord all the day long". "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil"-" Blessed is the man that feareth always". "To this man will I look, who is

poor, and of a contrite spirit."

Ignorance, however, of the grand scheme of Christianity, as contained in the Holy Scriptures, may be the occasion of much uneasiness to a tender conscience, and lead to serious mental distress. This may probably have been the case from reading the language of this text, without carefully examining its connection, or seriously considering its import. Dr. Doddridge's trans. lation and paraphrase will assist the reader greatly in perceiving the true import of the verse: the italics are his translation. "For if we sin wilfully and presumptuously by apostatizing, after having received the know ledge of the truth with such incontestible evidence and power, there remaineth yet no more sacrifice for sin; nor is it possible to find any atonement that shall be efficacious, after having thus ungratefully and wickedly disowned that which God has appointed."

not

Sinning wilfully imports a course of sinning only willingly, which some conscientious persons seem to confound with wilfully-but deliberately, resolvedly, obstinately, and against the clearest light and knowledge of the word of God. Persons guilty of such conduct can have no benefit from the sacrifice of Christ, whose blood cleanses from all sin in the case of every penitent believer. Infidelity and apostasy trample under foot the Son of God, and count the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, doing despite unto the Spirit of grace," ver. 29. Such, however, cannot be the state of mind described by our correspondent W. And let every anxious reader of these passages consider, that their design is to awaken the careless to seek salvation to convict the impenitent of the guilt of their condition to excite the established believer to gratitude for an interest in Christ—and to bring glory to the Redeemer, by the exhibition of his sacrifice as all-sufficient for every believer.

THE FAMILY BOOK.

18mo. cloth, pp. 338. Religious Tract Society. It would be sufficient, in recommendation of this vo lume, to say, that it is worthy of its engaging title. Wisdom, prudence, and piety, are most ingeniously illustrated in it through sixty-three chapters, by the principles, character, and habits of "The Sutton Family." We can scarcely conceive any thing more ad. mirably written as the means of conveying the_most useful lessons to servants and young persons. Every kitchen library should be enriched with this instructive volume; and parents and heads of families may derive from it the most profitable maxims on every subject of daily occurrence in domestic government and practical life.

"The soul is a spark kindled by the Deity, which cannot be extinguished by the damps of this dark valley." "There dwells in man a vital spark,

Lit up by power divine,
Which fleeting time can never dark,
Nor death's damp vale confine."

JANE.

London: Printed and Published by C. WOOD AND SON, Poppin's Court, Fleet Street; to whom all Communications for the Editor (post paid) should be addressed; and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen in the United Kingdom.

Hawkers and Dealers supplied on Wholesale Terms, in London, by STBILL, Paternoster Row; BERGER, Holywell Street, Strand, F. BAISLER, 124, Oxford Street; and W. N. BAKER, 10, City Road, Flusbury,