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our heavenly Father, were the means of a timely counteraction of the world's fascinations, and of "turning our hearts back again" when they were in danger of "forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which could hold no water." How widely different will be our estimate of afflictions then, from what it is ever so apt to be now! The retrospect will fill us with "wonder, love, and praise;" and as memory retraces the steps of our journey, we shall see reason for the erection of many an Ebenezer where, at the time, we least thought of rearing any such memorials. The most notable of those "stones of help," and those on which the inscriptions of commemorative gratitude should have been the most deeply and legibly graven, we may then see, ought to have been reared at the very spots where the severest of our trials overtook us-where we were made to drink most deeply of the waters of Marah. Let the afflicted among God's children be comforted now, when they think of the gracious design of their trials. Let them connect the trials with the prospect of the " weight of glory." Let them, with all earnestness, seek that they may be efficient means of their pro"renewal in the inward man," and gressive thus of their growing "meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light." In all the disciplinary strokes of his rod, their heavenly Father, who, when he "toucheth them, toucheth the apple of his own eye," is training them for himself and for heaven.

THE DEATH KNELL IN THE COUNTRY.

ISLAND, January, 1846.

MY DEAR FRIEND,-We die in the country as well as in the city. The foot of Time crushes our flowers and breaks the dry branches. We have fears for the lost; and what is different from your city customs, we all follow the dead of the village to the grave-yard, and all weep over that last place of rest wherein we lay our friends. None die unknown-no funeral ever passes along the street unheeded. I have stood often on one of your corners, and watched the long train of hired carriages following the hearse, and have felt that indescribable shudder which accompanies the thought that that hearse-pall may hide a form I knew and loved that under the coffin-lid a hand lies nerveless that has grasped mine in manly affection. But here we are so bound to, and so dependent upon one another, that we cannot spare one from the circle without looking long and sadly on the vacant place. For years afterward we never pass the house from which a friend has been carried to "the house appointed for all the living," without thinking that it looks cold and deserted. The very door has an unused look, and the windows are not cheerful as they were once. The dog on the step seems sad, and when we try the gate it swings heavily and with such a sound as it never used to have.

But we have one custom which belongs essentially of. It is this: Our church bell tolls when any perto the country, and which I think you know nothing son in the village dies. Not long ago we were walking in the woods, about a mile from home, when we heard the bell. It was mid-day, and we knew it to be the announcement of a death. Two persons in the village were sick-one a young lady, the other an old man. We all know who is sick among us, and who likely to be called from our little number. We were a merry party that day in the woods, gathering the bright berries of the Wintergreen, and a long laugh of gladness was interrupted by that solemn sound-each one ceased suddenly, and turning toward the village, sat down on a rock, or the moss at the foot of a tree, and in silence awaited the conclusion. It ceased at length, and we sat motionless. Again the bell tolled. Ten quick strokes, and a pause. Again; we counted seventeen, eighteen-we breathed slowly, for the next stroke was the age of our lovely friend, who had lain many days with her eyes closed and her heart beating heavily with fearful distinctness. Nineteen. We bowed our heads-twenty! Shall I say it?-yes, we rejoiced. The stroke that brought joy to our ears fell heavily on the souls of others, and its sound sank deeper into those souls than I would dare to speak of. We joyed in their grief. Six times the bell tolled ten, and paused; then, with a slower stroke, as if those latter years had gone on wearily, it numbered seven. Sixty-seven. Good old man! while we were listening to the record of your life, added up by the village accountant in yonder belfry, whose it has been to chronicle the years of our fathers and our brothers for nearly half a century, you were kneeling before the throne of God!

The next Sabbath evening, at sunset, the bell tolled nineteen. I will tell you at some future time of the sunset glories of our island home. That evening the stillness of the day of rest had entered into our beauty of the west with eyes that looked beyond their souls, and we watched the gathering grandeur and fitful gleamings-spiritual eyes that were fixed on the glories of heaven. At such hours, I think, we are best able to realize our proximity to the world of spirits. With the solemn consciousness of immortality-with a firm hope, fixed and sure-with eager heart, clinging to the assurance of salvation through a crucified Saviour-with joyful expectation of the things, now known in part, to be revealed hereafter, we may at such an hour feel the force of the startling idea which, you remember, Tennyson placed in the mouth of the dying May-queen:

"Oh, sweet and strange it seems to me that, ere the day is done,

The voice that now is speaking may be beyond the sun;
For ever and for ever with those just souls and true!
Then what is life that we should moan-why make we such
ado ?"

It was with this very thought that I was occupied when that bell's voice reached my ear. It was more musical than usual, the old time-keeper of the vil lage; and, as I listened, it seemed to echo that thought. It told me that she who was with us but an hour ago, was with the Redeemer on high; that her voice so pleasant here was melodious there; that it was but a step, and that a short one, from the cottage near the corner to the mansion which her Saviour had prepared above. It added up her years with a steady, solemn voice. First, it told of her childhood-freehearted childhood! Then, as it paused at ten, it seemed to be hesitating ere it entered the history of those cloudless years of girlish gladness. Sixteenand I bethought ine of her self-consecration to Christ. Eighteen was a wedding peal, echoed sadly; and

FRAGMENTS FROM A MINISTER'S DAY-BOOK.

how mournfully, in the close of the story, the last deep sound of that knell!

There are always incidents connected with the death of a villager that are interesting and affecting. We differ greatly from citizens in external appearances, and I have sometimes thought in nature. Never having studied to conceal a feeling or to hide a tear, the gush of grief, which is so frequently seen among us, you know little of, albeit there dwells, doubtless, as deep agony under the constraint of your conventional laws as elsewhere.

I might go on to tell you now how the neighbours came to look at her, and wept; and how mothers brought their children, and lifted them up to the coffin side, and held them there to see her unchanged face, and turned away to explain to the little ones what death is, and why she they loved so must be put in the ground and covered up with sand and sod; and how there was one who never left his place by the coffin-head, day or night, till it was carried to the church and to our quiet grave-yard. Or I might tell you of the gathering in the church; how all the people were there, the young and the old, so that in the village it looked like a Sabbath, and in the church, too, only the crowd was so great; and there, under the pulpit stood the coffin, and every little while a loud sob or a long-drawn sigh broke the silence; and how the choir sang with broken voices, old "Scotland;" and how the minister prayed and wept by turns, and then read that sublime psalm, the 90th, "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations," and tried to tell us something about the dead lamb of his flock, but failed by reason of his many tears; and then left the pulpit, and led the way down the aisles, and the congregation stood still till the bier was carried out, and then followed and formed a long procession to the new grave-yard (for the old one is full to overflowing), and to a grave in a grove of oaks; and how, last of all, they crowded to the side of the grave, and gazed into it, and one by one turned away. Then the sexton dropped the first earth on the straw over the coffin-box, and that most mournful of all sounds we ever hear on earth went to the hearts of the mourners standing near, and a smothered wail broke out, and one low moan of a crushed heart.

There are other incidents of the days following a funeral which I might tell you. How the neighbours send in the meals of the afflicted family, thinking they may well be excused from the labours of every-day life for a while; and one kind friend goes and takes charge of the house and family; and the children who have been staying with the neighbours come back, and a host of little matters like this, which you know nothing of in great New York.

But I wrote to tell you of the custom of tolling the bell for death. I like it. Do not you? No one within the reach of that sound escapes the warning. It used to wake the village from sleep sometimes, and that bell-toll at midnight was fearfully solemn. But men who did not like to think of death at any time shrank from it especially in the darkness of night. They said it woke them too mournfully. They couldn't sleep again, or if they did they dreamed horrid dreams, and so they voted night-tolling a nuisance; and now if any one dies in the night, the bell tells us of it in the morning.

I sat down in the belfry, by the bell, the other day, and looked at it. It was an apt illustration of that well-known individual "the oldest inhabitant." It had called the folks to church twice on Sabbath and once in the week, for I don't know how many years. It had rung regularly every 4th of July, and I think the clock hammer had struck every hour of the day and night on its rim for more than twenty

149

five years. I was beginning to add up how many times the bammer had fallen on that rim, when I thought that the bell had been the faithful recorder of Death's doings in our quiet hamlet for at least one generation. I stooped and looked up into the bell, and there saw the record of those strokes. I couldn't count them. A few I remembered. More were my mother's playmate's in childhood. The bell had a solemn sermon for me. A church bell has always a solemn sound, whether in the call to prayer or the march to the grave-yard.-Yours, &c.

HEAVEN OPENING ON THE SIGHT

OH! the shadows of earth are fast fading away,
And my soul from her slumber is waking;

I see from afar, all beauteous and bright,
O'er the tops of the mountains, a gleaming of light-
The dawn of the morning is breaking.

Oh! waste not a sigh on earth's perishing joys,
For holier and purer the light that I see-
Regret not the scenes that are fading;
A new world is opening its beauties to me,
As this from my sight is receding.

Yet there are ties on earth-O so tender and true!
And must not tears fall as they sever?

Oh no! though the knot may be loosened awhile,
Yet the tears that are falling may flow with a smile,
For Heaven will renew them for ever.

Then waste not a sigh on this perishing world,
It is heaven which is opening before me;

And now, that fair light grows more beauteous and clear,

And now, the celestial city is near,
And now, all around me glory.

MRS WEST.

FRAGMENTS FROM A MINISTER'S DAYBOOK.

THE FELLOW-PASSENGER. STRICTLY speaking, the following narrative does not belong to my own day-book. It has nothing to do with any events which befell myself, or any connected with me. The individual of whom it speaks is one whom I never saw in the flesh, and whose very name I know not.

What I relate I heard from the lips of a brother in the Lord. It is some years ago since he gave me the narrative, and therefore in some places it may be imperfect; but I believe that in substance it is correct.

He was travelling in a stage-coach, and his journey was of some considerable length. Not long after he started, he drew from his pocket a New Testament, and began to read. There was a young man seated opposite to him, whose eye was attracted by the appearance of the book, and by the minister's employment. Shortly after, they entered into conversation; and on learning what the book was which my friend was reading, he took occasion to express his scepticism, and his dislike at Scripture. To have

entered into regular argument with him would have been just to gratify his self-confidence. To have entered on the wide field of the evidences of Christianity, would have been perhaps unsatisfactory; or at least a discussion of this kind would not go deep enough. It might influence his mind; but his heart and conscience would have remained untouched!

Many may be here disposed to say, Surely in such a case the minister must have had recourse to the evidences. It was the only ground on which he could meet one who denied the authority of the Word. They would say, It is vain to appeal to the Word, for he disbelieves it; it is vain to quote its declarations, for he disregards them all. You must ply him hard with the external evidences; you must convince him that the Bible is the Word of God, and then you may take him up upon more solemn ground. Then you may get at his conscience; but at present it is inaccessible.

So would many reason; and such would have been their procedure. Not so that man of God. He had no contempt for the historical proofs in behalf of the authority of the Scripture; he had no want of confidence in the external evidences as matters of manifest fact; but he felt that these were not his weapons. He had confidence in the Word itself. He believed it to be quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword-a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. He knew that the heart even of an Infidel was not proof against the sword of the Spirit. However seared his conscience might be, still the Word of the living God was able to pierce it.

Accordingly, he resolved to lay aside all human reasonings, however excellent and powerful, and assail his companion directly with the Word itself. Looking up to God for his blessing, and asking the Holy Spirit to send the message home, he told the young man that he was not surprised at his dislike of the Bible, for that book expressly tells us that "the carnal mind is enmity against God."

To this the sceptic answered contemptuously, that he did not believe a word that was in it, and gave still further vent to his abuse.

The minister was resolved to keep by his weapon, and not allow himself, on any account, to be provoked into an argumentative discussion. He replied, accordingly, with all gentleness, that he did not at all wonder at what his companion had said; for the Bible declares that "there shall be scoffers in the last days." This second quotation from Scripture seemed as unsuccessful as the first. The second stroke of the divine sword seemed to fall equally powerless and ineffectual as the first. But he was not discouraged. Again he replied to the young man, that all that he had said did not at all surprise him; for the Scripture had said, that "the natural man discerneth not the things of God, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned."

Still the sceptic remained hardened, returning only replies of similar contempt. After a few further interchanges of this kind, in which the Bible was always appealed to, the young man got rather irritated, dropped the conversation, and lay back in his scat.

No ground seemed to have been gained-no wound inflicted-no impression made; but the man of God felt that he had been using the weapons "which are mighty, through God, in casting down imaginations," | and ceased not to hope, but continued in silent | prayer.

After the silence of an hour or two, during which the minister continued in the reading of the Word and secret prayer, the young man suddenly started, and asked rather abruptly where one of these books could be got.

Ah! thought the man of faith, the Word has not been in vain; the sword of the Spirit has reached his soul. He immediately replied that Bibles could be had in the town to which they were going, and gave him directions how and where they could be obtained. He added also, that he himself was to preach that evening at such a place, and at such an hour.

The end of their common journey was soon afterwards reached. They parted, and kindly bade farewell to each other.

In the evening the minister went to the place of meeting, where he was to preach, according to appointment. As he was about to commence the service, he saw, to his delight and amazement, the young Infidel enter the house with a Bible under his arm, and take his place among the eager listeners! What a change-from the scoffing sceptic to the attentive hearer and worshipper! All in a few hours !—all through the simple instrumentality of the Word of God, unaided by any human power, but wielded by the Spirit! Truly the Word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword!

Two things we learn from this narrative.

1. To trust more to the simple Word of God for the conversion of souls, even of the open scoffer. Let us go even against the mightiest Philistine with God's sling and stone. It is enough. Unbelief would snatch up human armour, and human weapons, as more likely to be successful. But Faith says, There is no sword like that of the Spirit-no arrow like one from God's own quiver. Let us try this method more. O for the simplicity of Faith! It is this that honours God, and this that God will honour. A single verse of Scripture in the hand of Faith would be more efficacious than a thousand arguments.

2. To turn the scoffs of the Infidel into an argument for the Bible. "There shall come in the last days scoffers," says the Scripture. And our own day is manifesting most strikingly the truth of this pre- ¡ diction. Scoffers are rising up on every side, uttering defiance against God and his Word. Yet in this very defiance they are only fulfilling the predictions of that Volume whose divinity they deny. They are, in truth, the unconscious witnesses to the world that the Bible is true. Each word of mockery which proceeds from their lips is an additional testimony to that "sure word of prophecy," which, eighteen hundred years ago, foretold what "perilous times" the last days of this sinful world were to witness. It may seem strange, indeed, that the Infidel should be adduced in proof of the inspiration of Scripture; yet so it is. And as we hear of Infidelity extending

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES.

itself around, we feel as if all this were only establishing us more securely upon the everlasting Rock, and announcing to us, though with hostile lips, how true and certain that blessed Word is on which our hope is built.

THE NEST AMONG THE GRAVES.*
BY MRS SIGOURNEY.

THE cloudless sun went down

Upon a church-yard scene, And there a quiet nest I mark'd

Hid in an ever-green,

As wandering 'mid the hallowed mounds
With velvet verdure drest,

I paused where two sweet sisters lay
In death's unbroken rest.

There was a marble seat

Beside that couch of clay,
Where oft the mournful mother sat
To pluck the weeds away,
And bless each infant bud,

And every blossom fair,

That breath'd a sigh of fragance round
The idols of her care.

The unfledg'd birds had flown

Far from the nest away,
Yet still within the imprisoning tomb
Those gentle sleepers lay;

But surely as those bright-wing'd birds
Forsook the sheltering tree,

And soar'd with joyous flight to heaven,
Such shall their rising be.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE EVIDENCES.

THE MONUMENTS OF EGYPT.

BY THE REV. JAMES TAYLOR, GLASGOW.

151

and linen yarn: the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price." And that this linen of Egypt was highly valued in Palestine, is evident from the statement of the "strange woman" (Prov. vii. 16): "I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt." The export of these productions of the loom seems to have formed an important branch of Phoenician commerce, for the Prophet Ezekiel (xxvii. 7), in his enumeration of the articles of traffic in Tyre, says: "Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee." The dresses of the numerous figures, and other draperies painted on Egyptian tombs, exhibit a large variety of qualities, colours, and patterns. Some sorts are so fine and transparent, that every detail of the figures which they envelop is seen with perfect clearness through them-suggesting the idea of fine muslin or gauze; while other qualities of various thickness exhibit, as far as can be judged from paintings, rich and delicate workmanship, and sometimes furnish patterns and styles not unworthy our imitation, and always a brilliancy of colour which we can scarcely rival.*

In the complaint of the murmuring Israelites in the wilderness (Numb. xi. 5), we have an enumeration of various articles of Egyptian cultivation: "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic."

This passage is especially important, in respect of its bearing on the veracity of the Mosaic history. All these articles of food existed in Egypt in great abundance, and most of them were distinguished for their excellence, and formed the favourite nourishment of the people. "Among the lower orders," says Wilkinson, "vegetables constituted a very great part of their ordinary food; and they gladly availed themselves of the variety and abundance of esculent roots growing spontaneously in the lands irrigated by the rising Nile, as soon as its waters had subsided; some of which were eaten in a crude state, and others roasted in the ashes, boiled, or stewed; their chief aliment, and that of the children, consisting of milk and cheese, roots, liguminous, cucurbitaceous, and other plants and ordinary fruits of the country."

Egypt affords many varieties of the cucumber, and of peculiar excellence. When in season, they are eaten by all classes to an extent which would scarcely seem credible in this country.

FLAX is mentioned (Exod. ix. 31) as one of the principal productions of Egypt; and the whole process of its cultivation-laying it out in oblong intersected beds, steeping the stalks after cutting, beating them, and making cloth of the materials so prepared ("fine linen," for which the Egyptians were so famous)—is exhibited in the sculptures in all its minutest and most precise details. The manufacture of linen formed a principal branch of industry to the inhabitants of Egypt. The Prophet Isaiah (xix. 9), describing the misery that was to come The melons are of very great importance in Egypt, on the various classes of the Egyptian popula- and, from their refreshing qualities, would very natution, says: "Moreover, they that work in fine flax, rally become objects of general longing in the desert, and they that weave net-works (or, as it is rendered, when the "souls of the people were dried away." and more correctly, in the margins of our Bibles, "A traveller in the East," says Kitto, "who rememwhite-works), shall be confounded." By "white-bers the intense gratitude which the gift of a slice of works" the prophet evidently means the cotton manufactures. The Jews, like many other nations both of Asia and Europe, derived their supplies of fine stuffs from Egypt. We are told (1 Kings x. 28) that "Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt;

• Written at the grave of two Christian friends.

melon inspired, while journeying over the hot and dry plains, will readily comprehend the regret with which the Hebrews in the Arabian Desert looked back upon the melons of Egypt." The following account of the use of melons in Egypt is given by

*Illustrated Commentary on Prov. viii, 16

Hasselquist: "The water-melon is cultivated on the banks of the Nile, in the rich clayey earth which subsides during the inundation. This serves the Egyptians for meat, drink, and medicine. It is eaten in abundance during the season even by the richer sort of people; but the common people scarcely cat anything else, and account this the best time of the year, as they are obliged to put up with worse fare at other seasons. This fruit likewise serves them for drink, the juice so refreshing these poor creatures, that they have much less occasion for water than if they were to live on more substantial food in this burning climate."

The onions of Egypt were far renowned for their excellence, and are often represented on the monuments. They were a common article of diet in ancient times; and they still constitute almost the only food of the lowest class. "Most of the people of Western Asia are remarkably fond of onions. The Arabs, in particular, have even a childish passion for them, and several of their proverbial phrases express this attachment." The extraordinary estimation in which they were held by the Egyptians we learn from Pliny, who says: "I cannot overpass the foolish superstition of the Egyptians, who used to swear by garlic and onions, calling them to witness in taking their oaths, as if they were no less than some gods." And Hasselquist says: "Whoever has tasted onions in Egypt must allow that none can be had better in any part of the universe. Here they are sweet, in other countries they are nauseous and strong. Here they are soft, whereas in the northern and other parts they are hard; and their coats are so I compact, that they are difficult of digestion. Hence they cannot in any place be eaten with less prejudice and more satisfaction than in Egypt."

Garlic is not now produced in Egypt; but there can be no doubt that it was in great request in ancient times. Like the other vegetables longed for by the discontented Israelites, it is represented on the monuments; and Herodotus expressly says, that in the Great Pyramid there was in his time an inscription recording the expense of the radishes, onions, and garlic which had been consumed by the workmen during the progress of the undertaking.

The time of the year when fish and vegetables were more particularly used by the Egyptians was the hot season, occasioned by the prevalence of the south winds in April and May; and it is worthy of notice, that it was in the very midst of this parching season that the Israelites longed with such impatience for the cool and refreshing diet which they had been accustomed at such times to enjoy. A striking instance of the urgent necessity for such food to those who had been accustomed to it occurred during the siege of Damietta, in 1218, when many of the more delicate Egyptians, although they had corn in abundance, pined away and died for want of the garlic, onions, fish, birds, fruits, and herbs, to which they had been accustomed.+

These interesting facts throw great light on the sacred narrative, and are sufficient to convince every

Hist. Nat.. xix. 6.
Harmer's Observations, iv. 44.

candid mind of its strict accuracy; but this is perhaps still more strikingly evinced by the mention made of the vegetable which in our version is rendered "leeks." This word, thus translated, occurs in several places in the Old Testament, but in this passage alone is the meaning of "leeks" given to it. In 1 Kings xviii. 5; 2 Kings xix. 26; Job xl. 15, &c., it is rendered "grass." Etymologically, it has the meaning of food for cattle, pasturage, fodder, and is so employed in the passages referred to. The article of food here meant must therefore be appropriately food for beasts, which "leeks" are not.

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"But among the wonders of the natural history of Egypt," says Hengstenberg, "it is mentioned by travellers that the common people there eat with special relish a kind of grass similar to clover." The impression which the sight of this makes on those who have travelled much, is very graphically described by Mayr: "A great heap of clover was thrown before the beasts, and a smaller pile of clover like fodder was placed before the master of the house and his companions. The quadrupeds and the bipeds) ate with equal greediness, and the pile of the latter was all gone before the former had finished theirs. This plant is very similar to clover, except that it has more pointed leaves and whitish blossoms. Enormous quantities are eaten by the inhabitants, and it is not unpalatable. I was afterwards, when hungry, in a situation to lay myself down upon the fields where it grows, and graze with pleasure." Sonnini gives a more particular description, which clearly shows us how the Israelites could, among other things, also look back longingly to the grass of Egypt: Although the helbet of the Egyptians is nourishing food for the numerous beasts who cover the plains of the Delta-although horses, oxen, and the buffaloes eat it with equal relish-it appears not to be destined especially for the sustenance of animals, since the Carsim furnishes an aliment better even and more abundant." But that which will appear very extraordinary is, that in this singularly fertile country the Egyptians themselves eat the fenu-grec (the scientific name of this grass-its common name in Egypt is helbet) so much, that it can properly be called the food of men. In the month of November they cry "Green helbet for sale!" in the streets of the towns. It is tied up in large bunches, which the inhabitants eagerly purchase at a low price, and which they eat with an incredible greediness, without any species of seasoning. They pretend that this singular diet is an excellent stomachic, a specific against worms and dysentery-in fine, a preservative against a great number of maladies. Finally, the Egyptians regard this plant as endowed with so many good qualities, that it is in their estimation a true panacea. Prosper Alpinus has entered into long details upon its use in medicine. After so many excellent properties, real or supposed, it is not astonishing that the Egyptians hold the fenu-grec in so great estimation, that, according to one of their proverbs, "Fortunate are the feet which tread the earth on which grows the helbet." Can any candid person doubt that a longing after an article of food so remarkable in itself, and so entirely peculiar to Egypt,

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