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or any work affecting merely the temporal interests | any such change itself; and he finds it in the of mankind; for this is a building for eternity,-a bosom of the Church at that hour, for he adds, temple for heaven,-a vast congregation of im- "The mystery of iniquity doth already work : mortal beings, undergoing discipline and receiving only he who now letteth will let, (that is, the instruction previous to their translation into the Roman civil power) until he be taken out of the everlasting kingdom of God and his Christ. What way: and then shall that Wicked be revealed." wonder then, that the Redeemer, who bought it Now, what is this mystery of iniquity, this priwith his precious blood, should still, as the one mary cause of all corruptions in the Church, if it universal Shepherd and Bishop of souls, walk be not the radical depravity of the human heart, amidst the golden candlesticks? or, that the both in pastors and people? That is the polgracious Spirit should superintend his own greatest luted fountain from which these putrid waters work, the regeneration of a fallen world? flow. And the fountain must be cleansed, the hearts both of pastors and people must be renewed and sanctified, if such corruptions are to be removed or prevented now. The effect of even a heaven-born religion in this fallen world is vastly modified by the nature of the subject on which it acts; it nowhere exists in a state of ethereal purity, but in a state of combination with gross and earthly principles; and that religion which, by its native influence, would elevate the nature of men to a moral resemblance to the Divine image, is too often, by its admixture with earthly passions, itself debased to the similitude of fallen man.

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II. It will be instructive to consider the occasion which called forth these epistolary addresses. They were published before the death of the beloved disciple who had leaned on his Master's bosom, and consequently so early as within sixty years of the Redeemer's death. Yet although published thus early, they were occasioned by the corruptions which had already sprung up in the primitive Churches, planted as they had been by apostolic labourers, and watered by pastors specially set apart by them to the office and work of the sacred ministry. This shows how easily, even under the best superintendence, and in the most favourable circumstances, corruptions will arise And this depravity is not the peculiar attribute and spread in the visible Church, and the absolute of any one class of men: it is not confined exnecessity of cultivating a godly jealousy, and a clusively to the functionaries or office-bearers of constant spirit of watchfulness, and a sense of the Church; it is alike universal and constant ; simple dependence on divine grace for the preser- it is to be found in every private bosom, in every vation of the Gospel in its purity and power. family, in every congregation; and from all these What more evident proof of this can be con- various sources it issues so as to corrupt the ceived than the one furnished by the context, Church. Individuals are depraved, and hence where we see that within a very few years after they either cannot tolerate sound doctrine, or will the glowing eloquence of Paul had ceased to be not live up to their profession; parents are deheard, and the zeal of Peter had terminated in praved, and hence families are corrupted through martyrdom, but while as yet the benignant and evil example or negligent instruction; elders and now mature love of the Apostle John shone deacons are depraved, and hence, as well as from mildly in the Churches, and many private disciples the reluctance of the people, discipline is relaxed; were still spared who exemplified the faith of pastors and ministers are depraved, and hence the Christ by the holiness of their lives, and were dereliction of pastoral duty, and the faithless or ready, we doubt not, to seal their testimony with feeble preaching of the Word. These, brethren, their blood; yet even then, immediately after the are the real sources of all corruptions in the incarnation of God's own Son, after the exhibi- Church: sources which lie within the Church ittion of miraculous powers, the plain fulfilment of self, nay, within our own bosoms; and as this prophecy, the zealous and superhuman labours of should teach us the necessity of vigilant watchapostles and evangelists, and the solemn fate which fulness, so it may point out the nature of the only had just befallen the Jewish Church, whose foun- remedy by which these corruptions may be redations were upturned, and her children scattered moved or prevented. The remedy must be apto the four winds of heaven, even then the Chris-plied to the root and origin of the disease; it is tian Church began to fall into declension and decay, and the speedy growth of its corruptions from that period till they were consummated in the Papal power, is as highly instructive as it is deeply deplorable. The discerning eye of Paul could perceive the incipient working of this unholy leaven even in his own times; he forewarned the Churches that there would come a falling away, or an apostasy, when that man of sin should be revealed, the son of perdition, (2 Thess. ii. 3.) But far from referring to any change in the mere constitution or forms of the Christian Church as the primary cause of this great apostasy, the apostle looks deeper, and searches for the cause of

in vain that we cut off fruitless branches, if we leave a corrupt tree or a gangrened root. Our hearts must be renewed and sanctified,—the hearts of ministers, of elders, of communicants, of each and every member of our several households. Thus might the Church be purified of its corrup tions; but to look chiefly to outward changes, to expect purity from any alteration in the mere externals of the Church, is to deceive ourselves with a vain expectation, seeing that, as the corruptions of the Church proceed from the depravity of our own hearts, they cannot, in the nature of things, be removed but by the removal of their cause. Flence you will find that our Lord traces all the evils of

the primitive Churches to the decay of personal | of its future usefulness, we see that God has piety, and seeks to restore the power of personal yet some work for it to do, and is preparing it religion, in order that these corruptions may be cured. This leads me to notice,

III. The object of our Lord in sending these epistles to the Churches in Asia, the consideration of which will enable us to discover some of the beneficial purposes which may be served by them at the present day. His object was,

But while the Redeemer points out the errors and defects which existed within these several Churches, and seeks to awaken them to repentance for the same, it was partly his design also,

either for faithful service or for patient suffering. And hence, whether you look into the history of the Jewish Church, or into the annals of our own country, you shall find that any remarkable improvement in either was always preceded, or accompanied by, solemn fasting, humiliation, and prayer; and that frequently all the members of 1. To point out clearly and explicitly the errors the Church were summoned together to make and defects which then existed within the several public confession to God of their sins and declenChurches, such errors in doctrine as were taught sions. And surely if God loves a penitent beby those who held the doctrine of the Nicolai-liever, he cannot fail to love a penitent Church. tanes, repeatedly mentioned with strong reprobation in the context,—such errors in discipline as the unrebuked toleration of false teachers, as instanced in the case of Jezebel,—such defects in personal religion as consisted in "falling from their first love," in being lukewarm and indifferent, in "having a name to live whilst they were spiritually dead." This explicit statement of what was offensive to him in the condition of the different Churches in Asia shows that, in his estimation, it was salutary for them to be instructed on this point; and hence we may learn that it is no good sign of a Church when it is unable to see, or unwilling to acknowledge, the evils which exist in it, that the Redeemer would have all the Churches to know their actual condition and charactor in his sight.

2. By thus clearly unfolding to them the evils and danger of their condition, our blessed Master designed to produce repentance for the same, such repentance as should be followed up by a vigorous reformation. It is remarkable that a call to repentance is addressed to most of the Churches separately, none being so pure as to need no repentance, and yet none so totally corrupt as to render their repentance hopeless or unavailing. Thus to the Church of Ephesus (ii. 5,) he says, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent." This solemn call to repentance indicates the spirit which the Divine Head of the Church would have to animate all its members: not the haughty and self-righteous pride of a pharisaic Church, which, like that of Laodicea, says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," while, in his eye, they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," but the spirit of godly jealousy over themselves, the broken and the contrite spirit, which men may despise, but which the Redeemer will honour and cherish. And hence we may learn that one of the best symptoms of revival in any Church, after a period of lukewarmness and declension, is a spirit of repentance, not indeed that repentance which is spent in mere outward confession, but such as approves its sincerity by prompting to vigorous and enlightened measures of improvement and reformation. When such a spirit is poured out on the Church, we have the best omen

3. To warn them against false teachers and schismatics, and to strengthen and encourage them against their external enemies. False teachers and schismatics are specially mentioned; such as. those who held the doctrine of Balaam, and those who held the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes; and the Church of Thyatira is sharply rebuked, for suffering that woman, Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce his servants." And their indifference to the spread of false doctrine is strikingly contrasted with the Redeemer's concern on that account, who never mentions the heresy of the Nicolaitanes without adding, "which thing I hate." Against these internal enemies the Churches are warned to be on their guard; but, in reference to their external and open enemies, among the heathen and ungodly, Christ offers himself as their shield and defence. He forewarns them, indeed, of an approaching period of tribulation, a period which speedily arrived, and which, in ten successive persecutions, threatened to overwhelm the infant Church; but the Redeemer had appeared before-hand, and said, "Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." (ii. 10.) And again, to Philadelphia, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

The object of these epistles, then, was to point out the errors and corruptions which existed with in the visible Church, and to call the attention of his people to them, as matters which it deeply concerned them to know and to consider; to produce repentance for the same, to warn them against false teachers, and to strengthen and encourage them against the assaults of their outward enemies. And seeing that Christ is still the living and glorious Head of his Church, and is interested in the same objects, these lessons are equally applicable to our own Church as to the Churches of Asia; and it concerns us to consider what evils exist amongst us, and what remedy ought to be

applied to them. If the Churches in Asia had refused to humble themselves at the call of the Saviour, on the ground that these epistles were addressed, in the first instance, to their angels or ministers, that would have manifested a degree of self-righteous confidence on their part, very far removed from Christian humility, and a spirit of censorious judgment against their spiritual guides, as far removed from Christian charity;-both teachers and taught, both the public office-bearer and the private members of the Church, are called to repentance; and let no man refuse the call, unless he be prepared to say to his Redeemer, "I have not sinned."

"MINIMS OF NATURE."

No. I.

BY THE REV. DAVID LANDSBOROUGH,

Minister of Stevenston, Ayrshire.

"What intelligence !-what vast power!-what inexpressible perfection!--are manifest, in these not only small but inconceivably minute creatures."-PLINY.

To what department of nature can we look without seeing much which should lead us piously to adore that God by whom all things were made? If the study of any one department is fitted to produce this salutary effect, we know not any thing better calculated to heighten that spirit of holy wonder and profound veneration with which we should regard the Almighty, than taking a comprehensive view, as far as we are able, of his manifold works,-looking chiefly, indeed, at that one great work, the mysteries of which the seraphim cannot fathom; but contemplating him, also, as the Architect of the heavens,-the Ruler of the heavenly hosts; and the Creator of the earth, and of every living thing, from man, the chief of his works here below, to those myriads of myriads of microscopic creatures, which the naked eye could not discover, and of whose existence, till lately, naturalists had scarcely dreamt.

How well fitted is the study of astronomy to give us enlarged and almost overwhelming views of the immensity of God's works! Were we to look no farther than our solar system, we would see enough to fill us with astonishment; whether we consider the sun in the centre, the delegated source of light and life,though apparently small, about a million of times greater than the earth; or whether we consider the planets that revolve round the sun,-Jupiter, for instance, distant from it nearly five hundred millions of miles, and upwards of ninety thousand miles in diameter, and yet, under the laws prescribed by the great Creator, moving unerringly and uninterruptedly in its orbit at the rate of twenty-nine thousand miles in an hour. Man is proud when, by his skill in controlling the war of elements, he can, in a comfortable vehicle, move along at the rate of thirty, or even sixty, miles in an hour,-forgetting that, by the power of God, this great terrestrial globe on which we reside, is carried onwards with more than a thousand times greater rapidity than this! and with so much ease, that we are altogether insensible of the motion.

But if the range of space occupied by the orbits of the wandering planets and the eccentric comets be great, what shall we say when we reflect, that each of the fixed stars which we can see with the eye, or with the aid of the telescope, may be the centre of a system as extensive as our own,-that these distant stars may be so many suns, each surrounded by a retinue of planets, and every one of these millions of systems occupying as much of immeasurable space as that system to which

our earth belongs? Must we not exciaim, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for us; it is high, we cannot attain to it?" And if the universe which he has made, and which he fills with his glory, is so incomprehensibly great, "who by searching can find out God? who can find out the Almighty unto perfec tion?"

Whether all these distant worlds are the habitations

of living creatures, we cannot tell; though, reasoning from analogy, we would be led to conclude that they are. That there are innumerable glorious angels, the happy servants of God, who inhabit the heavens, is nc: a matter of doubtful disputation,-" The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels;" and though their home is in the heavens, where they rejoice under the smile of their Creator, how cheering is it to remember, that we learn from God's Word that "they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation;" and that "the angel of the Lord encamps round about them that fear him, and delivers them." Jacob, in vision, saw the angels ascending and descending at Beth-el; and Elisha's servant no longer dreaded the surrounding host, when he was enabled to see that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, around him and his master, the servant of God.

"Nor think, though men were none,
That heaven would want spectators,-God want praise:
Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake and when we sleep:
All these with ceaseless praise His works behold,
Both day and night. How often, from the steep
Of echoing hill, or thicket, have we heard
Celestial voices to the midnight air,

Sole, or responsive each to other's noce,
Singing their great Creator! Oft in bands,
While they keep watch, or nightly rounding walk,
With heavenly touch of instrumental sounds,
In full harmonic number joined, their songs
Divide the night, and lift our thoughts to heaven."

MILTON.

Were we to contemplate only the great ad magnifi. cent works of God, fear might arise in our hearts lest we, who are of yesterday, and "dwell in cottages of clay," should, amidst the number and grandeur of the heavenly hosts, be overlooked by the almighty Creator;- "When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Our blessed Master teaches us to dispel such fears, by leading us to consider the fowls of the air, which neither sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet our hea venly Father feedeth them. How much, then, should our confidence in his providential care be increased, and our adoring wonder in the contemplation of his works be heightened, when, from what is inconceivably great we turn to what is inconceivably small,-and when we see that that power, and wisdom, and good. ness, so conspicuous in his creating and sustaining the host of heaven, are scarcely less astonishing in his giv ing organic structure, and life and happiness, to count. less millions of creatures so inconceivably minute that they require to be nearly a thousand times magnified before they can be visible under the powerful microscope! We allude to zoophytes, and infusory animalcules. The latter have been called infusories, because they are generally found in water in which there has been an infusion of some animal or vegetable substance. Very great additional interest has lately been given to this department of natural science by the astonishing discoveries of Dr Ehrenberg, Professor of Physiology in the University of Berlin. We rejoice in the success which has crowned his zealous and indefatigable re searches, because as the telescope had enabled us to see unspeakably more of the wonders of God's works, what is incomprehensibly great and inconceivably dis tant, the microscope has thus also set before our eyes wonders scarcely less astonishing; showing us that ile

who has made mighty worlds, numerous, perhaps, as the sand on the sea-shore, attends to the infinitely small as well as to the infinitely great, and has formed of exquisite structure multitudes which no man can number, of living things, so inexpressibly minute, that millions of them might wanton in a single dew-drop, forcing on us the conviction, that God's works, in some degree like himself, are unsearchable, and that, with more powerful optical instruments, myriads of more distant worlds might yet be beheld, and numberless millions of creatures might be found to be rejoicing in life, still more unsubstantial and shadowy than those almost imperceptible atoms that are already known to live, and move, and have a being. And we rejoice in his success on another ground, as it rebukes the impiety of the talented, but infidel Lamarck. He set the infusories at the bottom of the scale in his system, not only declaring them to be the most simple in structure of organized living creatures, but arrogantly adding, that he knew the bounds which, in the composition and organization of animals, nature could not pass, and that in placing the infusories below the polypes or zoophytes, she acted from necessity, and could not do otherwise. But scarcely had his daring impiety been blazed abroad, when it was shown, that he who had impiously presumed to measure and bound the power of the Omnipotent, "knew not what he said, nor whereof he affirmed, -that he was actually ignorant of the structure of the infusories, which, by the wonderful discoveries of Ehrenberg, were proved, by ocular demonstration, to rise high in the scale above his simple-formed zoophytes, which, as far as we at present know, occupy the lowest place in the scale of vital organization. While the polype, in its simplest form, is a hollow gelatinous cylinder, with tentacula around the aperture called the mouth for catching its prey, with neither lungs, nor nerves, nor circulating vessels, Ehrenberg has shown that the infusories are endowed with a vascular, and even a nervous system,-that they have head, and mouth, and teeth, and eyes, and gills, from one to six stomachs, and a triple external covering of the muscles, viz., a double transparent membrane, and an additional appendage in many of them, called a coat-of-mail, of different forms, in some like a mantle covering the whole body, in others like the shell of a tortoise with openings for the head and tail, and in others like a shield covering only the back. And what is not a little remarkable is, that this defensive covering is not composed of lime, like the shells of molluscous animals, or the crusts of crabs and lobsters, but of such hard materials that it can scratch glass, being a secretion from the watery element of silica or pure flint.

Though the infusories are all small, they differ very considerably in size. The largest of them is about the twenty-fourth part of an inch in diameter, while the monad termo, the most minute that has yet been seen, is less than the twenty-four-thousandth part of an inch in diameter. The number of these living atoms utterly baffles every attempt at enumeration," they cannot be reckoned for multitude." The rapidity of their increase Es inconceivably great, for they are oviparous and viviparous, and they increase also by buds or germs, so that Ehrenberg states that in favourable circumstances, from a single mother, may spring in four days, a progeny amounting to 170,000,000,000,000.

Their life is generally brief, and yet their tenacity of ife, or of resuming it, is one of the wonderful characeristics of these surprising animalcules. Water is the element in which they live, and one would think that they were left dry for a few moments, one beam of he scorching sun would cause them to shrivel and erish. So far, however, is this from being the case, hat they may be completely dried up, and allowed to e as dead in the dry dust for years; and yet, as scon s they are supplied with water, they awake as from

sleep, and seem to sustain no injury though this experiment should be several times repeated.

If it be asked, why the Almighty has created these countless millions of minute animalcules? we reply, "He made them," as he did his other works, "for his own glory," "for his pleasure they are, and they were, created." "All his works praise him," and surely it cannot be denied that these little creatures, so full of wonder, are, in a surpassing degree, fitted to show forth his praise, proclaiming, "The Hand that made us is divine." Small as they are, the most talented of the children of men would at once confess that, independent of giving life, it would be as impossible for him to form the curious mechanism of their tiny bodies, as it would be for him to create a world. They show forth His praise also, by giving us a fuller view of his extensive benevolence. If we should adore him when we reflect that he is kind and merciful to the children of men,that he extends his providential care to the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea, should not the song of praise rise in still higher strains when we consider the amount of happiness he bestows on those "minim" tribes, all rejoicing in life, and greatly surpassing in number the beasts of the field, and the fish of the sea, and the fowls of heaven.

As they

He who makes nothing in vain, not only forms his creatures for the enjoyment of happiness, but to answer important purposes in the world they inhabit. Some may be disposed to smile at the idea of important purposes answered by invisible atoms, but the probability is, that if we knew all the services that these countless infusories render even to man, the smile of unbelief would give way to emotions of gratitude and praise. They are found in prodigious numbers in stagnant waters, in ponds, and sluggish streams, and as they are almost constantly in motion, darting from place to place, wheeling round with amazing rapidity, playing gambols in the deep, and even when they are stationary causing, by the motion of their cilia, currents for the capture of their prey, is there not reason to think that it is for some wise purpose, that by their restless activity the waters are thus incessantly troubled? chiefly abound in waters that are sluggish, and therefore liable to become corrupt, may it not be with a counteracting influence, and for the healing of the waters, that these unseen myriads of millions are constantly at work? Is there not reason to suppose, that were it not for this agency, employed by a wise and merciful God, stagnant waters would become so unwholesome and putrid, that they would not only destroy all the finny tribes that inhabit them, but would send forth such noxious exhalations, as would give rise to pestilence that would sweep away thousands of the human race? Is there not reason to conclude, that the myriads of little currents caused by these shoals of living atoms produce, to a certain extent, in lakes and ponds, the beneficial effects of streams in rivers, and of tides in the sea? Nor is this the only purpose they serve. In some parts of the ocean they are so exceedingly abundant as to give colour to the mighty deep. Though they are not needed as "agitators" in the restless sea, they are not therefore useless. Having lived their little day, many of them give place to succeeding generations, by becoming the prey of creatures greater than themselves. As this is according to the appointment of Him who made both the weak and the strong, we may be assured that there is nothing of that cruelty in it by which some, at first view, might think it characterized. Death must pass on the inferior animals as it does on us. Life is to them a precious boon; but He who gave it may at any time take it away; and it would be easy to show that there is, in the aggregate, less suffering endured, and more happiness experienced, by part becoming the prey of other creatures, than if all of them, free from such depredations, were permitted to die a

natural death. Were this immunity granted to them, it would, for the same reason, be granted to the other inhabitants of the deep, great and small; and increasing with a rapidity which is a general characteristic of the inhabitants of the waters, the sea would absolutely swarm with them to an extent too great for the supply of food; so that, if they were not permitted to prey on each other, they would drag out a wretched existence under the agonies of famine; or so many of them would die of hunger, that the sea and the air would be polluted with their dead bodies. Through the wise appointment of God, their life, while it endures, is full of enjoyment; and death coming suddenly upon them, its bitterness is little felt. They are exceedingly abundant in the northern seas, where they are the food of small fishes, and crustacea; and they in their turn form the chief food of whales; so that these mighty monarchs of the Arctic seas, in the wonderful arrangements of Providence, are made to depend for their subsistence on those little infusories, many of which are almost a thousand times smaller than any thing that the naked eye can perceive.

But the wonders of these "things of nought," as many account them, do not cease with their life. It is one of the most astonishing discoveries made by Ehrenberg, that, in various parts of the world, there are

extensive strata of rock almost entirely composed of their remains. We are told, on the authority of this distinguished naturalist, that in Germany there are layers of flinty rock, more than thirty feet in thickness, which his powerful microscope has shown to be almost altogether composed of the flinty coverings or shields of these little infusories. What is now occupied by

rock must at one time have been an extensive basin of fresh water, in which these little creatures, in numbers past reckoning, lived and died, till by rapid, though imperceptible accumulation, in place of springs of water, was substituted the flinty imperishable rock. By the aid of the microscope, these flinty shields of the infusories can be distinctly seen; and it has been calculated that a single cubic inch of the rock contains the coatsof-mail of not less than 41,000,000,000 of these minute animalcules !

As if to crown the series of wonders connected with the infusories, we are informed that of this rock of pure silica, composed of these interesting remains, the finest optical instruments have been formed; and that it is actually with microscopes formed from fossil infusories that M. Ehrenberg has made some of his remarkable discoveries respecting the living as well as the dead.

creatures hitherto invisible, or if they were visible, was by that luminous splendour they often give to t midnight sea, like the clustered stars in the heave galaxy, shining with a mellow radiance, though the are themselves unseen!

THE LAST PLAGUE OF EGYPT. "Tis midnight, 'tis midnight, oe'r Egypt's dark sky, And in whirlwind and storm the sirocco sweeps by; All arid and hot is its death-breathing blast,Each sleeper breathes thick, and each bosom beats fa And the young mother wakes, and arouses from rest, And presses more closely her babe to her breast; But the heart that she presses is death-like and still, And the lips that she kisses are breathless and chill. And the young brother clings to the elder in fear, As the gust falls so dirge-like and sad on his ear; But that brother returns not the trembling embrace, He speaks not-he breathes not-death lies in his place And the first-born of Egypt are dying around; 'Tis a sigh-'tis a moan and then slumber more sound; They but wake from their sleep, and their spirits best

fled

They but wake into life to repose with the dead.

And there lay the infant still smiling in death,
That scarce heaved its breast as it yielded its breath:
And there lay the boy, yet in youth's budding bloom,
With the calmness of sleep-but the hue of the tomb
And there fell the youth in the pride of his prime,
In the morning of life-in the spring-tide of crime:
And unnerved is that arm, and fast closed is that eye,
And cold is that bosom which once beat so high.
And the fond mother's hope, and the fond father's trust,
And the widow's sole stay, are returning to dust;
Egypt has not a place where there is not one dead,
From the proud monarch's palace to penury's shed.
And the hearths of that country are desolate now,
And the crown of her glory is thrust from her brow;
But while proud Egypt trembles, all Israel is free-
Unfettered-unbound as the waves of the sea.

"Lo! these are parts of His ways; but how little a portion is heard of Him?" "The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." "He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered." "Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high? who humbleth himself to be hold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!" When we reflect that it is condescension in Him to behold the heavenly host, who rejoice under his benignant smile, O how wonderful the condescension, that he should deign to care, and graciously to provide, for countless millions of his creatures, as much concealed from the unaided eye of man, by their very minuteness, as are the bright celestial spirits who dwell not in tabernacles of flesh and blood! While philosophers" have, by the aid of the telescope, been pushing their discoveries into the immeasurable regions of space, where the number of the new worlds that they have descried, shining brightly to the glory of the Creator, seems limited only by the imperfection of their finest instruments, what an exalted idea does it give us of the unsearchable extent of the creation of God, and of the glory of the Creator, when we find that the microscope has brought to light, in "numbers numberless," happy

H. ROGEES.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
MISS MARY JANE GRAHAM
BY THE EDITOR.
PART I.

THIз amiable and pious young female was born in
London, April 11, 1803. Her parents endeavoured to
train her from an early age to an intimate acquaintance
with the truths, and a relish for the duties of religion.
In consequence of this judicious mode of rearing her
youthful mind she began while yet a child to show, b
her whole deportment, that her heart was saving
touched by divine grace. It is interesting to peruse
her own narrative, written many years after, of the
workings of the Spirit within her at this period.
"I knew a little girl" she says, speaking of herself,
about sixteen years and a half ago.
She was much
like other children, as full of sin and vanity as ever
she could hold; and her parents had not as yet taken
much pains to talk to her about religion. So she went
on in the way of her own evil heart, and thought her
self a very good little girl, because she said her prayers
every night and morning, and was not more passionate,
wilful, and perverse, than most of her young co
panions. The God of love did not think this sin
child too young to learn of Jesus. He so ordered it

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