to procure and adapt the trappings of these vile bodies. If, then, parents lay manifest stress on superiority of raiment, and show off their costly articles of dress with evident desire to elicit admiration, are they not inviting their children to become devotees of vanity, and to prefer the gaudy robe to the true riches? If the child learn the lesson, and show a marked conceit with some new vesture, perhaps the incipient spirit of exhibition affords amusement to bystanders, and the youthful disciple is exhorted to lisp anew the term of self-gratulation on his elegant attire, and thus revive and prolong merriment. But this same recreation has graver aspects. It is giving a tone to mind and a bent to life; and laughter will end in heaviness if a child is thus led to luxuriate on display, and think it better to parade trinkets than to put on the Lord Jesus and be clothed with humility. What a different school does home become when parents evince a preference for simplicity, and live plainly and yet cheerfully! Habits are then formed which will suit any future situation in which their offspring may be placed, and which will strip adversity itself of many of its bitterest sorrows. The child is then impressively told to keep the body under; to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts, and to look elsewhere than to any carnal gratifications for supreme happiness. These illustrations are offered to show how much teaching there is in conduct, and what an amount of modelling the young mind may receive when its education is not thought of. The social principle is indeed one of the most powerful agencies in existence. Where a community is sunk in thought and habit, an individual experiences the more formidable difficulties in rising from such a slough of despond; and though schools may be erected for such a people, and the scholars may do well, and make much proficiency in their classes, yet when these pupils fall back among sottish and demoralized masses, their learning is commonly unlearned, and the teaching of the seminary is neutralized and overborne by the teaching of corrupt society. On the other hand, where the tone of social intercourse is high,where honesty and energy, and selfdenying conscientiousness are common virtues, and everywhere inhaled with the breath of life, the weakest capacity acquires a certain power, and the most grovelling mind is borne towards nobleness. Now, as children are so much with their parents, the efficacy of such intercourse cannot fail to be immense. There the social principle exerts all its energies. That its operation may prove benignant as well as gigantic, parents have need to direct well its application. Let them make companions of their children, entering even into their sports, listening to their prattle, sustaining their confidence, courting more and more their affection; and having thus brought the youthful mind under social influence, in all its potency, wield that infinence for promoting aversion to evil, and a growing conformity to the mind and will of God. But if parents slight such counsels, and act anyhow before their children, and think any liberty with them allowable because they are children,-let them know that this also is education. You have no time to teach your children !— you are teaching them-always teaching atonement, which enter into all proper thoughts of religion, and which are the hinges on which all saving truth turns, would have been unknown, or have had a very different import from that which they now have. The same may be said of the words pardon, grace, regeneration, and mercy. We have no sweeter word than mercy, and when by it we mean the mercy of the LORD, what a theme of heavenly meditation is before us! Many things unite in making the pious greatly delight in thoughts on such a subject. them. If you are not storing their demption, salvation, mediation, and minds with precious truth, you are giving them instruction which causeth to err. Every word, every look conveys some maxim pure or poisonous. And if you neglect them altogether, you are still teaching them-teaching them to disregard you, to hate you, to consort with wicked company in your absence, to imitate and outrival your own heedlessness, and finally, to act the like part by their offspring, and hand down crimes and curses from child to child and age to age. Whatever a parent says or does, let him look to its effects, and remember that where nothing is said about teaching, he is modelling an immortal spirit, and by the commonest usages and most incidental expressions, is lodging in the youthful mind those sentiments which are to take root and spring up and expand into trees-trees of life or poison trees-exhilarating to weary travellers, or seducing them to sleep under the shade of death. 1. It is the mercy of THE LORD.The mercy of man is always finite and feeble, often blind and foolish, and sometimes cruel. Even the mercy of angels is limited by their finite natures: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." Our sins, and miseries, and wants are, in an important sense, infinite. The mercies of the Lord alone meet our case. us 2. "The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him "-This view of truth has ever rejoiced the hearts of the redeemed: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." "Having loved his own, he loved them to the end." "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." "His mercy endureth for ever." 3. The Lord is "plenteous in mercy." When he pardons, he pardons like a God, he " abundantly pardons," he "renders double for all our sins;" our sins and our iniquities he remembers such employment here will find that death will not make any effectual saving change in his disposition. To praise redeeming love in heaven, it is necessary to have a heart of praise here below. Have you such a heart? 20 more for ever. The Lord is rich in mercy. He is rich in wisdom, and truth, and power, and has made very glorious displays of these perfections; but in nothing are the riches of his glory more wonderfully manifested than in his pity to the lost. Redemption is the great theatre on which all the fulness of the Divine character is most strikingly displayed. 4. All God's saving mercies are in Christ. He is the storehouse of infinite compassion to guilty man. In him any sinner is safe. Out of him every sinner is in instant peril of damnation. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." "He that believeth not shall be damned." Much more might be said of the mercy of the Lord; but let us see how we should treat it. We should rely upon it, hope in it, praise him for it, speak often and joyfully of it, and never yield to despairing thoughts concerning it. We should so rely upon it as to rely upon nothing else. We should so hope in it as to have no desire for any other ground of expectation. We should speak of it because it brings great glory to God, and because men easily forget it. And we should never yield to despair, which is the perfection of unbelief. A despairing soul is a lost soul. While he who despairs of the Divine mercy is delivered over to the reigning power of sin, he who relies upon that mercy is inclined to all goodness. "There is mercy with thee, that thou mayest be feared." It will be no small part of the work of the redeemed to contemplate and thankfully to rejoice in God's mercy for ever. He who has no heart for THE TOMB DOOR. THE tomb door has two sides to itan outer world's side, and an inner heaven's side. The outside, seen by mortals, is hideous black, covered with mould. About it grows the deadly nightshade; the ivy hangs dark and heavy upon its arch; the slime of the worm is upon its bars; and over it, in phosphorous flame, is drawn a skull and cross bones. Sin has done everything possible to make that door unsightly to poor creatures of sense. But the inside, seen by the spirits of the just made perfect, is refulgent with all that is costly in the temple of the Lamb. From beneath its sill gushes the fountain of living waters; the tree of life waves over it; about it trails the vine which God has planted, from whose clusters the new wine is pressed for the supper of the Lamb. Upon it is the armorial bearing of Christ-a crown of righteousness-beside whose splendour all things that are made look mean, for its jewels are souls. Above the portal, in beams of Divine glory, blazes the inscription, Life and Immortality. God has made the tomb door within a triumphal arch for spiritual conquerors. The tomb door was for a moment thrown wide open, when the Captain of our salvation entered it: a flood of glory streaming through illumined the world. We saw that crown of Christ; we saw the living waters sparkle at his feet; we saw the tree of life, the vine, those letters of fire-Life and Immortality—and we heard the angel song, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in!" 'T was but for a moment-the closed door presents again to our senses that gloomy aspect which sin has given it. But knowing, as we do, the inner heaven's side, shall we stand without trembling, like untaught Jews, as though it led only to the great Sheol; or heart-chilled, like sensuous Pagans, as though it led only to the abyss of annihilation ? Christian! Death is only the keeper at the gateway of immortality; do not fear him when he beckons you thither. "GOD WITH US." GOD with man! with ourselves! How inspiring the doctrine! Art thou a pilgrim, walking in perplexed ways? He is thy guide. "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Thou art a creature of affliction and sorrow. He is with thee as thou passest through the water, and through the fire. "Call upon him in the day of trouble; he shall deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify him." Thou art tempted. But he is thy shield and thy strong tower. that he suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." Dost thou feel thine own littleness and insignificance ? Thy God thinketh upon thee. "The hairs of your head are all numbered." "Ye are of more value than many sparrows." Thou mayest be little and unknown among men, but a precious diadem in the hand 66 In of thy God. "He is nigh unto thee in all that thou callest on him for." Various and changing may be the scenes through which thou passest. But all shall be tempered by his wisdom for thine own advantage. "All things work together for good unto them that love him." Thou shalt die. But when thou walkest in the valley and shadow of death, he shall be with thee. Thou shalt moulder in the dust. But thy "flesh also shall rest in hope," for "in his book all thy members are written." And while adoring "Him that sitteth upon the throne," and "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne," God with us shall be the burden of thy song for ever. Is Christ our Immanuel-God with us? Then let us take care that we are with him-coming to him habitually in acts of faith and love-walking with him, and before him-so shall he to us be all and in all, the strength of our heart, and our portion for ever. AN EASTERN TOMB. How exactly the following description of a tomb, found on the left bank of the Euphrates, corresponds with the account given in the Gospel, of the one in which our Saviour was laid! "It was cut out of the rock. A sloping descent leads down to the doorway. The aperture of the doorway is about three feet high, so that to look into the tomb one must stoop. The door which closed this aperture was a circular disk of stone, like a thin millstone, set on its edge in a groove cut behind the jamb of the doorway. The bottom of this groove inclined slightly, so that the stone, if left free, would roll down of itself, and there being a corresponding groove on the opposite side, the entrance of the tomb would be completely closed; and to roll the stone would require considerable strength." Biography. TICKAWARIE TIGO, THE NEW ZEALANDER. THE record of every conversion that takes place in heathen lands is perused with deep interest, and surely that interest will be deepened, because more uncommon, when a poor benighted heathen comes to Britain to be brought into the fold of Christ. We have the pleasure of recording such a case, and trust it will prove interesting and profitable to the young. Tickawarie was a native of New Zealand. His uncle was the chief of the tribe. His cousin, the young chief, died in battle just before his birth, and he was adopted as heir to the chieftainship. He was taught to read and write a little at a Missionary school, in his youth; he also learnt some hymns there. He had witnessed cannibalism when a boy, but had never practised it. Owing to some domestic quarrels, he had fled from his tribe, and having a strong desire to see Britain, he left his native land when he was 178 moons old. He was received on board of a vessel bound for Dundee, at which port he was landed in the spring of 1838. He When aboard the vessel in the Dundee harbour, he was a great object of curiosity. The boys called him Smiler, because of his cheerful manners. was a fine specimen of the New Zealand chief. He was tall and well-built, his skin olive-coloured; he had black eyes, high cheek-bones, and his face tattooed with light blue figures. He was induced to join an exhibition of waxwork, and make a show of himself in his native costume, with his club and spear. He was then in the darkness of heathenism, for nothing would have induced him to act so after he knew the truth. He was discharged from this situation with £5 of wages; but falling into bad hands, he was robbed of his money, and returned to Dundee with only a sixpence in his pocket. Some time after his return, he was pointed out to me as one who would rather die in the street than ask any charity. This I found to be true, for he never would go to any house to partake of food without a special invitation. This spirit of independence never forsook him. It was on a cold evening in October, 1842, that Tickawarie was first invited to my house. His native costume had been taken from him, to pay for his lodgings; he was thinly clad, shivering with cold. Friends soon contributed flannels, and everything to make him comfortable. He now, unasked, placed himself under religious instruction; he kneeled at the family altar, and attended the house of God. On his death-bed, he traced his first serious pressions to this time. He was deeply affected by the death of our eldest on, of thirteen years of age, who died in the joyful hope of "praising Jesus for ever and ever." He was put to Princes-street Day-school, and continued there a half-year, and learnt to read and write. He now read and studied the Word of God in Eng. lish and in his own tongue, having received a New Zealand New Testament. In May, 1843, a few friends met and resolved to assist Tickawarie to learn some handicraft trade, that would make him useful when he returned to his native land. Eight pounds were sub |