is never found alone. Take any group of Sabbathbreaking youths, of any number you may meet with, and it may, in almost every case, be fairly set down that there are just so many gamblers, intemperate, lewd, profane, disobedient to parents, headstrong, and ready to plunge themselves into every foolish and hurtful lust, which drown men in perdition and destruction.

Christian Charity.

From Cecil's Remains.

CHARITY should teach us to exercise hope and love toward all men-hope toward those who are without, and love toward those who are within, the walls of the city of God. Of those without, we are apt to despair too soon, and to say, There is no hope; when we should labour to allure them into the Church of God, and to impress them with a sense of its glory and its privileges. Toward those within the walls, we sometimes fail in the exercise of love: we are too much influenced in our feelings toward them, by a difference of education, taste, or disposition; while the great question ought to be," Are they really fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God?"—and if so, whatever their defects may be, we ought to honour and love them as the Temples of the Holy Ghost.

Conscience seconding the Voice of Parental
Counsel.

From the Same.

WHEN a young person has been talked to by his parents-when they have represented to him the misery and ruin of a wicked course, and of bad habits-he might affect to brave it out at the time; but he has gone afterward weeping through the streets-because

CONSCIENCE WOULD SPEAK!

Addressed to a Sister on recovering from Illness.

From Poems, by JOSIAH CONDer, Esq.

WHAT message did the angel bring?
For sure from heaven he came ;-
Sickness and health obey their King,
The God who knows thy frame.

Comes there an hour with blessings fraught,
But brings some duty too?

Is there a sorrow, or a thought,

But has some end in view?

Oh, let the sun not shine in vain,
While his bright smile is lent:
Nor murmur at the blasts and rain,
They too in love are sent.

What message did the angel bring,
My sister, when he came?

Shook sickness from his viewless wing,
And weakened all thy frame?

Whate'er the friendly warning said,

It is to conscience known,

Oh, let it in thy life be read,

And by thy temper shown,

Welcome again to health and joy,
My sister! let thy tongue

Its new-strung powers in praise employ,
And we will join the

song.

16

Praise Him while health and youth are thine,

Who youth and health bestows;

To Him thy heart, thy life resign,

In Him thy trust repose.

Then when the mission'd angel's breath

Again shall lay thee low,

Thou wilt not fear the message-Death,

If thus prepar'd to go.

LET every Christi masteanr be stimulated to fidelity in instructing his servants, not only by the consideration that he is thus obeying the will of God, but also, by recollecting how extensive a good he may be the means of accomplishing by the quiet and steady, though unobserved, discharge of this part of domestic duty. A servant who comes to him, it may be, young, ignorant, and unexperienced, grows up under his roof. But his ignorance is happily removed by the Christian benevolence and assiduity of his master, who instructs him in the things pertaining to his everlasting peace. This servant afterwards perhaps marries, has a family, and transmits to his children the instruction he has thus received from his kind master. These, in like manner, hand it down to their children; and the knowledge thus originally imparted continues to be transmitted from generation to generation. We thus have to doubt, that it will be found in the developements of the great final day, when the history of Providence shall be unfolded; when the relation which one event bears to another in the present intercourse of human life, shall be fully seen; that many a copious stream of human happiness, gladdening the hearts of multitudes in each succeeding age, while progressively winding its way in the secrecy and silence of domestic life, will be found to have derived its origin from the faithful instructions given by a Christian master to the servants who were placed under his roof.-Rev. W. Inne

1

Help to the Practical Study of the Holy

Scriptures.

Of the Prophecies in general.

THE portion of Scripture which now comes under our notice is called prophetical: it comprehends seventeen books*, with which the Old Testament closes. The word Prophecy signifies a declaration of something to come, and the prophets were those whom God appointed and empowered to foretell things to come, and to make known his mind to the world. The people used to consult them to know their duty, especially under perplexing and difficult circumstances, which was called asking counsel of the Lord; for God himself was pleased to communicate his will to these prophets in such a way that they could not be mistaken. He also instructed them to foretell many events concerning individuals, nations, and especially the coming of the Messiah. These predictions were given, sometimes in general or even in figurative terms, and sometimes in the plainest language, and with the minutest exactness, although delivered many ages before the events took place. The fulfilment of these prophecies has gone on to the present day, and by it is afforded a standing evidence of the truth of the Bible. No one can foretell future events but by revelation from God; but the present state of the nations, especially the Jews, and of the world in general, is exactly what we read should be the case, in a book written many ages ago,-all of it nearly two thousand years, and a great part of it ages farther back. persons who wrote that book must have obtained their knowledge from God himself. The book must be, what it purports to be, a revelation from God, and justly claims, what it uniformly demands, the faith and obedience of every reasonable creature into whose hands it may come.

The

We read of several prophets, who did not commit

The Lamentations of Jeremiah are considered as supplementary to his prophecies.

*

any thing to writing, such as Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, and others. What they predicted was only or chiefly of a temporary nature, and had its fulfilment shortly afterwards, generally in the affairs of the children of Israel; and both the predictions and their fulfilments are recorded in the historical books of the Old Testament. But those prophetical writings, which are handed down to us, had respect to a much later period; generally, either to the circumstances of the Jews during and after the Babylonish captivity, to the coming of the Messiah, or to the circumstances of the Christian Church, even unto the end of time.

The prophets delivered their predictions in various manners: sometimes they uttered them aloud in a public place (see Isaiah lviii. 1); sometimes their proclamations were affixed to the gates of the temple where they might be generally read (see Jer. vii. 2); and, upon some most important occasions, they adopted significant actions or emblems, by which to express the solemn truths they intended to convey. To alarm a disobedient people, and recal them to repentance, the prophets walked about in sackcloth, and with every external mark of humiliation and sorrow. To intimate the subjection that God would bring upon the nations that Nebuchadnezzar should subdue, Jeremiah made yokes and put them on his neck (Jer. xxvii.); and broke the potter's vessel (xix.) to represent some correspondent calamities ready to fall on nations obnoxious to God's wrath. Sometimes the prophets were commanded to seal and shut up their prophecies, that the originals might be preserved until they were accomplished, and then compared with the event, Isaiah viii. 16; Jer. xxxii. 14; Dan. viii. 26; xii. 4.

These

writings, it seems, were generally deposited in the tabernacle; they were preserved with great care during the captivity, and the later prophets occasionally allude to the writings of the former, which is a proof that they were well known, and acknowledged as genuine by the people among whom they were delivered, and

Probably with one exception; recorded, with its fulfilment, 2 Chron. xxi. 12-19.