VALUE OF THE BIBLE. FROM the death-bed of his friend Mrs. Henry Thornton, Mr. Wilberforce went to a meeting of the Brighton Bible Society. "When he entered the room," says an eyewitness," he seemed so pale and fatigued, that his friends feared he -- duck, and have a neck as long as that of a goose. As they are quite black, they also bear the name of shew-e-laou, which signifies water-crow. The fisherman takes them in his boat, and when he sets them at liberty they swim upon the water, and at the sight of a fish they dive and secure it in their beaks. A ring would scarcely be able to is put upon their necks, which speak. But he no sooner entered will allow them to swallow the on his subject than his counte. smaller fish, but not the larger.nance lighted up-he became When the fisherman perceives animated and impressive." that their throats are filled with fish, he thrusts into the water a long pole, upon which these birds have been trained to climb and return into the boat; he then squeezes their throats to make them disgorge their prey, and every time this is done he obtains about two handfuls of fish. The greater the number of these birds a fisherman possesses the richer he is considered to be; for the expense of keeping them is a mere nothing, as the smaller fish which they catch afford them in general sufficient food. I remarked, also, that when these loo-soo have dived, they rise to the surface of the water with their prey in their beak, and remain nearly a quarter of an hour before they plunge again to swallow their food. Hence it would appear they are taught by instinct that it would be dangerous for them to swallow a fish before it is dead."-Memoirs of Father Ripa. "Had it not been," he said, "for one painful circumstance, it was not my intention to have been present at this meeting to-day; for I have been compelled to curb the zeal which I always feel to attend on occasions like this, by making it a rule to myself to decline being present at such meetings in places of which I am a regular inhabitant, that I may not become too obvious and too intrusive. But to-day I have broken this rule; for I am just come from a scene in which the value of the book which it is your object to disperse is displayed as with a sunbeam. I dare not withhold such a testimony as it furnishes to the healing and victorious efficacy of the inspired volume. I am come from a chamber in which a widowed mother, surrounded by her soon to become orphan family, is enabled to look the last enemy calmly in the face. Herself possessing a peace which even the waves of Jordan cannot ruffle, and the mortal frame suffering MISCELLANEA. THE CONDEMNED MURDERER. AN AWFUL WARNING TO DISSIPATED YOUNG MEN, AND THE PERSECUTORS OF GOD'S CAUSE. soner, I cannot describe what I felt. There stood a fine-grown young man, in the prime of life, but a murderer, and a persecutor of God's people-one whose days and hours were numbered, and who was to end his short and sinful career by a violent and ignominious death. But no time was to be lost. I therefore set before him his awful state as a sinner against God, and exhorted "Verily, there is a God that judgeth in the earth.”—Psalm lviii. 11. ALTHOUGH justice does not always overtake the persecutors of God's people in this life, still he is pleased sometimes to visit with signal judgments the opposers of his cause. I could mention several instances of this kind which occurred in my native town; let one suffice. It is that of a young man who had proved the enmity of his heart against God by persecuting his people. While I was pastor of the Bap-him to repent and seek forgivetist church, Crediton, I heard he was sent to the county gaol for the murder of a young woman. He was tried, found guilty on circumstantial evidence, and ordered to be executed. Knowing him, I felt interested in his case, and determined, if possible, to gain admittance to his cell. For this purpose I went to Exeter. I then went to the turnkey and said, "Have the goodness to conduct me to the condemned cell of P. C." The sound of the locks, the dismal grating of the massive iron gates, and the rattling of the heavy chains echoing through the long stone passages, caused a chilly thrill to pass over me. But when I entered the gloomy cell, and was locked up with the pri ness through faith in the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin. I took him by the hand, and fervently and affectionately entreated him to confess his guilt, and I would, by prayer with him, implore God's pardoning mercy. He hesitated, equivocated, and would fain have evaded the subject; but, in a solemn manner, I warned him of the danger of dying with a lie in his right hand. He at length confessed, and related in what way he perpetrated the horrid deed. On the morning of his execution, I spent several hours with him in his gloomy cell. I will not occupy these pages by entering into detail respecting these solemn hours; but oh, it was an awful and an anxious time! Often did I kneel | thousands of young persons, by his side, and endeavour to pour out my soul to God in prayer for him, and earnestly entreated him to utter some expression of prayer; but, alas, in vain. I said, "C., do say, 'God be merciful to me a sinner;'" but his lips were sealed in silence. I asked him when they throw the reins of reason on the neck of their lusts? They little think to what it leads, and where the scene will end. Listen, oh, listen, ye thoughtless ones! to the warning voice of inspiration: "Flee youthful lusts!" Death, probably, is the most dis to write the words in a hymn-tressing evil suffered in the prebook which I lent him. He took the book, and wrote in a good hand, "God be to me a sinner." He was told he had left out the word merciful. He took the book and again wrote "God be to me a sinner." Every hour the deeptoned prison clock struck on our ear, it seemed as if a voice from the eternal world cried, "Prepare to meet thy God!" The last hour struck, and, in sepulchral tones, proclaimed, "Time no longer!" The sheriff appeared at the cell gate, demanded the body, and the javelin-men guarded him to the fatal drop. He leaned on my arm till we arrived on the scaffold; and when the rope was fixed around his neck, I bade him a final farewell, and left the heartsickening scene with mingled emotions of disgust and deep distress. Often, while I was with him in his dismal cell, did he wring his hands, and, in bitterness of spirit, cry, "Oh, I little thought it would come to this! I little thought it would come to this!" And is not this the case with sent world. But what is death compared with that death which never, never dies? How dreadful the thought, how inexpressible the agony, that will be endured by the lost soul! To die to-day, only as the prelude of a severer death to-morrow! To die through thousands and tens of thousands of years; to spend an eternity in dying; and that in a state compared to a bottomless pit which burns with brimstone and fire! O my fellow-sinners! have you fled for refuge to Christ our hiding-place? Is your account ready? Are you prepared to draw the curtains around your bed, and retire to die? God himself says, "Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom." The Saviour says, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Come, then, my guilty brethren, come, lost and ruined as you are, and find salvation through his precious blood; for he says, "Whosoever cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." "Though your sins be as scarlet, |