Man be three days and three would have brought this predicnights in the heart of the earth." tion against him, and charged Now, sir, we are given to un-him with falsehood; but they derstand that the Saviour was never did. Why? Because his crucified on the Friday morning statement was true according to and that he rose again on the their mode of speaking. Sunday morning, and if such was the case, we cannot understand how it was that he was three QUERY 3.-ON THE days and three nights in the bowels of the earth. Hoping that you will not think us troubling you too much, we await an answer. I remain yours respectfully, JAMES POGSON. Pudsey, Nov. 17, 1851. ANSWER. It is true that our Lord lay in the grave only two whole nights and three days, or rather part of two days and one whole day. The apparent discrepancy between the prophecy and the event is reconciled by the different mode of computing days, or rather the manner in which the Jewish people were accustomed to speak of days. It was a custom with them in reckoning time to speak of part of a day as whole. There are many examples of this fact both in sacred and profane history. See Gen. xlii. 17, 18; 2 Chron. x. 5, 12; and compare Esther iv. 16 with v. 1. STATE OF MAN AS COMPARED WITH THE SIR,-In searching the Word ANSWER. The sacred penman is speaking merely of man's body or his physical nature, which, like that of the beasts of the earth, is destined to decay and dissolution. When the same divine teacher is marking the distinction between the body and the soul hear what he says: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, but the spirit shall return to God who gave it." (Ecclesiastes xii. 7.) QUERY 4.-ON EXPLOSIONS OF A SUNDAY scholar wants to know why the explosion of foul air in a coal-pit knocks men and other objects down. The prediction of our Lord respecting the time of his resurrection was well known and well remembered by his enemies. It was frequently referred to by them, and they were quite ready to test its truth. While he lay dead in the tomb they said to Pilate, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After ANSWER. Because when the three days I will rise again." foul air takes fire it expands and (Matt. xxvii. 63.) Now, had not requires more room than it had our Lord's statement been under- before, and because it cannot find stood in accordance with the Jew-space enough in the place around, ish mode of computing time, they it rushes forth with great violence November the 4th, 1829, and was the oldest of a numerous family, the father of which was so irregular in his conduct as often to reduce them to the most painful privations. REBECCA HOLDSWORTH. REBECCA HOLDSWORTH died on Thursday, the 11th of September, 1851; and were it not that she was a gem of the first order in her station in life, no further record would be made than the simple inscription on her coffin. But the demands of her numerous friends who so highly estimated her piety, intelligence and consistent conduct, and the claims of Christianity to the public exhibition of departed worth, urge us on to the discharge of a duty which, however beyond our ability to do adequate justice to the subject, yet affords us pleasure in the attempt. She was born Some years ago she became a scholar in Woodside-school; and such was her deportment in the class, and the manner in which she received and appreciated the instruction of her teacher, Jonathan Akroyd, Esq. (at the mention of whose venerated name every friend to Salem will drop a tear), that she attracted his attention, and from him she received many marks of his judicious esteem. 1 At the age of eighteen she was invited by a pious associate to hear a special sermon by the Rev. J. Simon on the "barren fig-tree." God honoured the instrument. The word fastened in her heart like a nail in a sure place. The week following she attended the class under the leadership of the Rev. S. Hulme. The morning after this, while at her employment in the mill, she lifted up her heart in ejaculatory prayer to God; and in the full exercise of faith in the atoning sacrifice, she obtained the unspeakable blessing of pardon and justification. The means of grace and her select class in the Sabbath-school were her chief delights. Having received such inestimable good to her own soul, she longed to tell to all around What a dear Saviour she had found. For this purpose she engaged as a tract-distributor, and God owned her labours as one of his ministers to the poor cottagers around her. Of her success in this department of useful labour we know something, and rejoice in its fruits; but eternity alone will reveal it all. In 1848, she lost a dear friend in the person of her mother, whom death relieved of her numerous and untold sufferings, and elevated her soul "where the wicked cease to trouble and where the weary are at rest." After this event, Rebecca and four smaller children, from prudential motives and by the advice of her pious friends, left the paternal roof and resided with their grandmother in Charles Town. For the last three years she had conducted herself with that Christian consistency which has often arrested the attention and admiration of the aged as well as the younger members of the Church. Her leaders, the Revs. T. W. Ridley and L. Stoney, together with myself, an assistant, have often been delighted beyond measure while listening to her Christian experience. It was plain, but rich. There was no hackneyed phraseology of which she knew not the meaning. She felt all she spoke, and spoke only what she felt. On Sunday, the 7th of September, she attended divine service in Salem Chapel, Halifax, three times, and sat down at the table of the Lord after the evening service. On her return home in the evening she remarked to one of her friends, "Ellen, I believe the Lord is preparing me for some important trial, for my soul has been blessed this day beyond all measure! I don't know how it is, but I have been overwhelmed with a sense of his presence, not only under the sermons, but also at the love-feast, and especially at the sacrament to-night! Bless the Lord! Oh, bless my Jesus! how happy I have been to-day!" She retained this extraordinary sense of God's presence on the Monday and Tuesday following. On Wednesday morning she went to her work as usual, although her health had been for years but very precarious, and on that morning she felt worse than usual; but before noon she became so ill from the repeated attacks of a spasmodic affection that she was brought home. During the day the pains increased more and more, till an inflammation of the bowels took place. She was frequently delirious during the day and night following, but at each interval of consciousness she constantly expressed her entire confidence in God and her bright prospect of heaven. Yet onward I haste Nor were affection and high estimation of Her death was improved by the Rev. L. Stoney in Salem Chapel on Sunday morning, Sept. 28th, to a large and deeply-affected audience, principally young persons, from the words of our blessed Saviour, "In my Father's Her remains were interred in house are many mansions; if it the vicinity of Halifax on Satur- were not so I would have told day evening the 13th, surrounded you. go to prepare a place for by upwards of a hundred weeping you, that where I am there ye young women, who, from sincere may be also." POETRY. JESUS BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN. SURROUNDED by his faithful few, His gracious accents caught; Though some, unknowing what they did, Would fain their presence have forbid. Not so the pure and holy One, Who came down from above; BERNARD BARTON. |