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wholly overthrown; and it continued to lurk in secret, when an open avowal of its tenets would have called forth bitter persecution. In 1750, it was resolved by the clergy to demand confessional notes of dying persons; and it was ordered that these notes should be signed by priests adhering to the bull, without which no viaticum, no extreme unction, could be obtained. And these consolatory rites were refused, without pity, to all recusants, and to such as confessed to recusants. The new archbishop of Paris engaged warmly in this scheme; and the parliament supported no less warmly the cause of the people. Other parliaments followed the example of that of Paris; and those clergymen who refused to administer the sacrament to persons in their last moments were thrown into prison. The Church complained of the interposition of the civil power; and Louis XV., by an act of his absolute authority, prohibited the parliaments from taking cognizance of such points.

In reviewing the character of the Jansenists, and more especially the members of Port-Royal, while we fully admit that it strikingly contrasted with that of their adversaries, we must beware lest, led away by a romantic admiration of their devotedness to religion, we should hold them up as exemplifying, as far as human frailty will admit, the beauties of the Christian character.

In the work to which allusion has been already made, in speaking of their piety, the authoress says, "it arose from the same immutable source from which all true religion has ever flowed, and from which alone the word of God assures us it can flow, however various the denominations by which its faithful followers may have been distinguished amongst their fellow-men. It was successively grounded on a supreme reverence for the word of God, and a daily and diligent study of its contents; a deep, practical conviction of the utter aberration of the human heart from God; of its entire helplessness, and its insufficiency by nature for any one good thing; a firm confidence in the atoning blood and merits of Christ for pardon and reconciliation with God; bearing the fruits of unreserved obedience to his Spirit shed abroad in the heart;-in short, an entire renunciation of self, and an entire trust in Christ for all that must be done for us by his merits, and in us by his Spirit."+ We cannot doubt the source whence every holy desire and every good thought proceeds: at the same time, we must bear in mind, that the Jansenists, as adherents to the Romish see, were enveloped in much darkness; nay, their opposition to heresy, as it is termed their condemnation of the Protestantswas quite as vehement as that of their adversaries, When it is recollected that their famous leader, the Abbé de St. Cyran, of whom we found not a little to admire in a former paper, when obliged to read, for the purpose of controversy, some books deemed heretical, first signed them with the sign of the cross, to keep out or drive away the evil spirit, we cannot but be amazed that such superstition should lurk in a mind apparently under the influence of divine truth. The circumstance sets forth, in strongest colours, the weakness, with reference to some particular points, which often manifests itself in minds by no means destitute of sound reason.

The pretended miracles wrought by the Jansenists also and their endeavour to adduce these as arguments in favour of their system-give us an unfavourable opinion of their common sense, if not of their honesty of principle. And on the review of the whole of their history, their views, principles, and conduct, we are led to the conclusion, that much as we may find to admire in any class of men connected with the Church of Rome, the very connexion with that Church necessarily leads to a corruption of the pure faith of

• See Russell's "Modern Europe."

+ Schimmelpenninck's Lancelot's Tour, &c.

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WE must not conclude our account of the Sclavonic

mythology without noticing the cognate superstitions of the Greenlanders; a people who, low as they did and still do stand in the scale of civilisation, were not without ideas upon supernatural subjects worthy to be recorded. They believed that the soul was immortal, though not necessarily so; for there were accidents by which after its separation from the body it might become totally extinct; and they also believed that it was material, might lose a part of its substance, or be injured in its members, and be again repaired by the skill of an angekok or sorcerer. Many imagined that they might go on a long voyage and leave their souls behind them, to avoid any possible accident. They distinguished between the life and the spirit, calling the former "the breath," and the latter" the shadow;" and they thought that during sleep, the volatile spirit, being free from the body, wandered about wheresoever it pleased. There was but little unanimity among them on these topics-some believed and others denied the transmigration of souls. This doctrine was sometimes made very useful; a widow, for instance, would tell a parent that the soul of one of her deceased children was again incarnate in the person of one of his, or that the soul of his child had migrated into one of hers. In the latter case, the man thought himself somehow related to the widow, and bound to protect her accordingly; and in the former, she obtained a second father for her child. The angekoks, who pretended to have been to the land of souls, described it in its disembodied state, as "pale and soft, and devoid of flesh and bones; so that if any one would try to grasp it, they would seem not to touch any thing."

That the soul is immortal, was universally admitted; but as to its destination after death, each sect held a different opinion. The most popular was, that at the bottom of the sea is a glorious abode, where the sun is ever shining, and a perpetual summer reigns. The deep cavities in the rocks are the avenues to this delicious dwelling. There dwell Torngarsuk, the chief of the gods, and his mother. The land is diversified with the most beautiful hills, dales, and crystal rivers! an abundance of fowls, fish, reindeer, and seals, are to be found; and food is ever ready in a vast self-boiling cauldron. The title to a place in this paradise was obtained by killing many whales and seals, and by general success and industry in fishing. As soon as the soul was separated from the body, it had to glide down the rough ways that lead to this paradise; and so rugged was the path that it was all red with the blood of souls shed in passing down it. During the first five days after death, the relations of the deceased abstained from certain meats, and from all labour not

• "Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."-Luke, xxiv. 39.

absolutely necessary, lest the soul should be disturbed in its perilous passage. Many perished on the way, particularly those who died in winter or in rough boisterous weather. This the Greenlanders called the second death, and described it as annihilation. It was to them the most dreadful of all considerations. Another sect maintained, that the spirit after death soared beyond the rainbow to the loftiest part of the sky, and that so rapid was its flight, that it rested the first evening in the moon, which was once (they said) a Greenlander. There the soul could dance and play at ball with the rest of the spirits; for they say of the aurora borealis, that it is "the dance of the blessed." The North American Indians, according to Adair, have much such a notion of this phenomenon; and the Mexicans gave a not very different account of the pursuits in which souls are engaged after death. The believers in a submarine elysium admitted that some did ascend beyond the rainbow, but contended that only the idle and worthless were sent there, and that it was not a state of happiness, but of great annoyance; there was no food, and the souls suffered from extreme hunger; and on account of the rapid rotation of the heavens, they had no rest. The inhabitants of these high and frozen regions were also infested with ravens to so great an extent, that their very hair would be torn off by those birds. The other sect, on the contrary, maintained that they should be warm and happy, and that they should feed upon seals' heads, which would never be consumed. Others supposed that, after a few days, the spirit recovered the shock of death, and found itself in a world like this, where it procured its subsistence in the same way. There was one point of their mythology in which they agreed with the Scandinavians, viz, that these states of material existence were destined to endure but for a time, and afterwards their souls will be conveyed to "the peaceful mansions;" but where "the peaceful mansions" are, and what will be their employment when they arrive there, they do not pretend to know. Hell they suppose to be in the centre of the earth, devoid of light and heat, and filled with perpetual cares and anxiety. The chief of the gods they named Torngarsuk, though they had an indistinct idea of a far greater and absolutely eternal spirit, whom they named Pirksoma (he that is above); this great being was not the object of adoration. Torngarsuk dwelt, as we have seen, in a blessed habitation beneath the sea, and was described by some as being in the shape of a great bear; by others as a man with one arm; and by others, again, as having a human shape, but being in size no bigger than a man's finger. He held his immortality on a singular tenure, but was not essentially eternal. Not he, but Pirksoma, was the creator of all things; yet in his hands were the fates of men, and to him did

they desire to go after death. With him, in his paradise, dwelt a female spirit, who had no name, but who was supposed to be either his wife or his mother. Unlike Torngarsuk, she delighted in evil, and had the power to detain in captivity all the animals of the sea by her incantations. When there occurred a dearth of seals and whales, the Greenlanders supposed it was

"Wenn man sich der Blähungen entlerdigt während dass in Zauberer macht seine Hexerey, Torngarsuk muss sterben." CHANTZ, Geschichte der Grün.

by the magic of this nameless spirit; and accordingly sent an angekok or sorcerer to set the captives free. The angekok, being well paid, summoned his torngak, a familiar spirit, and set out on his perilous enterprise. First, he passed through the earth into the sea, till he came to the kingdom of souls, where he recreated himself awhile with the spoils of successful hunters and fishers; then he arrived at a vast chasm, over which was a bridge in the shape of an ever-revolving wheel as smooth as ice: passing over this, he beheld the palace of the evil spirit, the portals of which were guarded by savage seals, and by a huge dog, which never slept longer than the twinkling of an eye, and could never therefore be taken unawares. In the midst of the palace was the lamp of the evil spirit; and in the oil-jar beneath it, the captive seabirds were flying about. Guided by a rope held by the torngak, the angekok made his appearance before the goddess, who immediately raged and foamed with anger, and endeavoured to burn certain feathers, which, by their intolerable stench, would oblige both the angekok and the torngak to retire or surrender. It was necessary to seize her before she could do this, and to despoil her of those spells by which she held the animals captive. When this was done, the whales, seals, and other fish, immediately darted away into the open sea, the birds ascended to the surface; and the angekok was permitted, with his attendant spirit, to make his way back without molestation. These two spirits, Torngarsuk, and his female malignant companion, were the only beings whom the Greenlanders considered as gods: they believed that all nature was full of spiritual essences, presiding over winds and waves, rocks, crags and caves, fires, seals, whales, birds, and all animals: these spirits were innumerable

they had no names, nor was worship paid to them. Their cosmogony is very simple: they content themselves with saying that the heavens and the earth were created by Pirksoma; that the first man was the offspring of the earth, and that his name was Kallak; that a woman arose from his thumb; and that from these are all the inhabitants of the earth descended. The origin of the Europeans is thus accounted for :the dogs of a certain Greenlander, whose children they were, devoured their father: they were transformed into men, and called kablunat. These kablunæt invented bows and arrows, and shot birds-a custom adopted by the other Greenlanders; but one of the kablunæet, boasting of his superior skill in archery, insulted a Greenlander, and was immediately shot to the heart by him ;-a war ensued, in which the kablunet were driven out to seek another settlement. Fishes were made by one of the first men taking the shavings of a tree, drawing them between his knees, and casting them into the sea, where they immediately became living animals. They had an idea that the world was floating in an illimitable ocean, and once was overset;-on this occasion all men perished, save one who was far out at sea in his kajak: on his return, he found the earth righted, but covered with slime; he struck the ground with his staff, and a woman arose, by whom the man became the second parent of mankind. It is singular, that like the inhabitants of the South Sea Islands, the Greenlanders pointed to the fossil-shells and other marine remains found in elevated

situations, as a proof of the flood. Bones of whales have been found on high mountains, and marine relics in situations where no men could ever have lived; hence

the Greenlanders deduced an argument for the fact of a general deluge. With regard to the ultimate fate of the world, they believed that in some distant futurity the human race should become totally extinct; then the world should be dashed to pieces, reduced to powder, and washed by a second deluge from the blood of the dead. Then a wind should come from the four quarters of the heavens, blow the clean-washed dust together, and replace it in a form more beautiful than ever. There should be no more barren rocks, no more crags nor shoals; but the whole earth should be a gently diversified plain, extending along the coast of a stormless sea. The animals should be reanimated in more perfect forms; and as for man," upon their bones Pirksoma shall breathe, and they shall live."

ANECDOTES AND EXTRACTS.

On Punctuality.

"METHOD is the very hinge of business, and there is no method without punctuality. Punctuality is important, because it subserves the peace and temper of a family; the want of it not only infringes on necessary duty, but sometimes excludes that duty. The calmness of mind which it produces is another advantage of punctuality: a disorderly man is always in a hurry; he has no time to speak to you, because he is going elsewhere; and when he gets there, he is too late for his business, or he must hurry away to another before he can finish it. Punctuality gives weight to character. Such a man has made an appointmentthen I know he will keep it.' And this generates punctuality in you; for, like other virtues, it propagates itself. Servants and children must be punctual where their leader is so. Appointments, indeed, become debts. I owe you punctuality, if I have made an appointment with you, and have no right to throw away your time, if I do my own."-Cecil's Remains, p. 344.

JOHN NEWTON.-"That celebrated and pious clergyman, John Newton, is said by one of his biographers to have been distinguished by his punctuality to his engagements; and that he has been known to keep his watch in his hand when it drew near the time of appointment, lest he should fail to keep his promise. In one of his letters, he thus addresses a young friend: I much wish you to acquire a habit of punctuality with respect to time, as the want of this is very inconvenient in the person who fails, and gives trouble to others. If you follow my advice, you will find the advantage long before you are as old as I am. I began to aim at this almost fifty years ago, and I have seldom, if ever, been five minutes behind my time, unless unavoidably prevented, for nearly fifty years past.'

DR. PARR, the late great oracle in Greek erudition, was remarkable for punctuality. The habits of this eminently learned man were favourable both to long life and literary occupations. “I am a six-o'clock man," he used to say when in the seventy-sixth year of his age. The time he thus gained in the morning was devoted to study, and the rest of the day to various duties which had claims upon his time. In his engagements he was strictly punctual, and exacted the same punctuality in return. By this means he was able to transact a prodigious quantity of business, and to give advice and still more important assistance to the numbers who applied to him. He considered a breach of the rules of punctuality as no small violation of mo• Crantz, Hist. Green. book iii. chap. 5, sect. 38.

rality. "Sir," said he to a friend of the writer, wh was beyond his hour of appointment, and who wa begging the doctor's pardon for his omission, "beg pardon of a higher Power; for a breach of an appoint ment is a breach of promise, and a breach of promise is a great moral offence."

A gentleman punctual of his word, when he heard that two had agreed upon a meeting, and one neglected his hour, would say of him, "He is a young man then.' -Bacon.

GEORGE THE THIRD is well known to have been both an early riser and extremely punctual in all things. I is related of him, that he had bespoke of Ramsden, the celebrated optician, an instrument which he was peculiarly desirous to obtain. He had allowed Ramsden to name his own time; but, as usual, the work was scarcely begun at the period appointed for delivery however, when it was finished, he took it down to Kew, in a post-chaise, in a prodigious hurry, and driving up to the palace-gate, he asked if his majesty was at home. The pages and attendants in waiting expressed their surprise at such a visit; he, however, pertinaciously insisted upon being admitted, assuring the page, that if he told the king that Ramsden was at the gate, his majesty would soon shew that he was glad to see him. He was right; he was let in, and graciously received. His majesty, after examining the instrument carefully, of which he was really a judge, expressed his satisfaction; then turning gravely to Ramsden, said, "I have been told, Mr. Ramsden, you are the least punctual of any man in England: you have brought home this instrument on the very day that was appointed-you have only mistaken the year!"

The Cabinet.

RETIREMENT.-A retirement consecrated to religious uses is what the pious soul aspires after: how often does he exclaim with the Psalmist, "Oh! that I had the wings of a dove, for then would I flee away and be at rest." But the retirement he longs for is not a monastic seclusion, abstracting him from the relations and duties of social life; but a relief from those secular concerns which engross the bulk of his time, and render him either less willing or less able to hold frequent communion with his God. He seeks retirement, that he may have leisure for the active as well as the contemplative duties of the Christian life. He remembers, however, that submission to him, who hath assigned him his station in life, is his indispensable duty he murmurs not, but obeys; knowing that the period of his release from care and labour is not distant, and is daily approaching.—P. Melvill, Esq.

:

SIN. It is a fearful thing to sin, more fearful to delight in sin, yet worse to defend it, but worst of all to boast of it. If, therefore, I cannot avoid sin, because I am a man, yet I will avoid the delight, defence, and boasting of sin, because I am a Christian.Bp. Hall.

FATAL STUPIDITY.-The lesson of our mortality divine Providence doth every day, yea every hour and minute, press and inculcate on us, and as it were beat into us. The funeral-bell ever and anon rings in our ears, and we daily tread upon the graves of others. Many of us already find the harbingers of death within us; we all see the triumphs of death without us, and (as our Church expresseth it) "in the midst of life we are in death." Alas! that among so many remembrancers wherewith Providence hath surrounded us, we should, with that monarch in story, need yet another monitor to tell us every day, "Remember that thou art mortal." Yet this is our case. What fatal stupidity is it that hath seized upon us? Hath the frequency of these admonitions made them to lose their force and virtue on us? Are we become like sextons or grave-diggers, that by living as it were in

the charnel-house, and daily conversing with the bones and skulls of dead men, at last become hardened, and of all mortals are the least apprehensive of their mortality? Or, rather, are we affectedly ignorant; and do we wilfully put the evil day far from us? Whatever the cause be, the effect is sadly visible.-Bp. Bull.

PRAYER A PRECEPT TO ACTION.-Every petition to God is a precept to man; and when, in your litanies, you pray to be delivered from malice and hypocrisy, from pride and envy, from fornication and every deadly sin; all that is but a line of duty, and tells us we must never consent to an act of pride or a thought of envy, to a temptation of uncleanness or the besmearing or evil-paintings of hypocrisy. But we, when we pray against a sin, think we have done enough; and if we ask for grace, suppose there is no more required. Now prayer is an instrument of help, a procuring auxiliaries of God, that we may do our duty; and why should we ask for help, if we ourselves be not bound to do the thing? Look not, therefore, upon your prayers as a short method of ease and salvation, but as a perpetual monition of duty; and by what we require of God, we see what he requires of us; and if you want a system or collective body of holy precepts, you need no more but your prayer-book; and if you look upon them first as duties, then as prayers - that is, things fit to be desired, and fit to be laboured for,your prayers will be much more useful; not so often vain, not so subject to illusion, not so destitute of effect, or so failing of the promises.-Bishop Taylor.

THE BELIEVER'S ONLY REST.-If you are a child of God, wherever you propose to nestle, there your heavenly Father will plant a thorn, until you are driven, like a bird from spray to spray, and from leaf to leaf, and taught by painful experience, that God, and God alone, is from everlasting to everlasting the "dwelling-place" of his people.-Rev. H. Blunt.

CHRISTIANITY. It would be a deplorable consideration indeed, if the great and important points of Christianity, those upon which men's eternal salvation depend, could not be judged of without learning, or were to be determined for men not by their own capacities, but by the decisions of others called learned men, who are constantly differing and wrangling with one another.-Bp. Horsley.

Poetry.

LAYS OF PALESTINE.-No. III.

BY T. G. NICHOLAS.

(For the Church of England Magazine.) "I lift up my soul unto thee."—Ps. cxliii. 8. WHEN in the kindling eastern sky

The radiant hues of morning shine, And earth's rich beauties testify

The hand that fashion'd them divine,-
Ruler from all eternity,

I lift my heart, great God, to thee,
When 'neath the noonbeam's sultry ray

The herdsmen seek some shadowy nook, And flocks in sportive gambol play

Where freshly winds some purling brook Near woodland bower or leafy tree,I lift mine heart, O God, to thee. When mid the golden clouds of heaven The sun sinks gloriously to rest ; When seeks the herd its fold at even, The turtle-dove its balmy nest; When day's declining shadows flee, I lift mine heart, O God, to thee,

When fond affection's ties are riven; When joys depart, and mercy's rod Compels, from each vain idol driven,

My wayward soul to own its God; When sorrow bows the suppliant knee, My chasten'd spirit turns to thee.

And when night's veil doth shroud the skies, And all this darken'd world beneath, When oft a thought of thee will rise,

Who dost sustain my fleeting breath, Ruler from all eternity,

My soul adoring turns to thee,

THE SACRAMENT.

BY JAMES EDMESTON.
(For the Church of England Magazine.)
As Salem's king the patriarch met
Returning with the spoil,

And bread and wine before him set,
Refreshment from his toil;

So in his courts, upon his day,
And at his table spread,
The Saviour meets us on our way
With sacred wine and bread.

The patriarch, wearied with the fight,

His sinking strength restor'd;
And we would seek new life and light,
And victory through our Lord.
Melchisedec the patriarch bless'd;

And, O thou Priest divine,
Upon our hearts thy blessing rest,
And consecrate us thine!
Homerton.

PRAY FOR YOUR QUEEN. (For the Church of England Magazine.)

"Endue her plenteously with heavenly gifts; grant her in health and wealth long to live; ... and, finally, after this life, may she attain everlasting joy and felicity, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."-Liturgy.

PRAY for your Queen: upon your sovereign's brow
Youth lingers still, nor has experience there
Written her duties in the lines of care;
The hand that holds fair England's sceptre now
Is but a gentle maiden's; can it clasp
That mighty symbol with a steady grasp?
Dark clouds are louring o'er our sunny sky;
If they should gather, could that fragile form
"Ride on the whirlwind and direct the storm ?"
Wisdom, strength, energy, are from on high;
Wouldst thou enrich her with these blessings?

Pray:

One reigns above whom heaven and earth obey. Pray for your Queen: her's is a woman's heart, And woman's perils lurk around her way; Pleasure may lead her heedless steps astray, Or flattery soothe when conscience wings its dart. Love, that sweet well-spring of domestic joy, Scarce rises in a court without alloy;

And woman's sorrows may be her's to share :
Sunshine has beamed upon her path thus far,
But this bright scene one sudden storm would mar,
And England's rose might droop, though now so fair.
Say, wouldst thou shield her from these perils?
Pray :

Strength shall be granted equal to her day.

Pray for your Queen: for an immortal soul
Is shrin'd within that bosom. Could we see
Time by the brightness of eternity,
A shade across life's pageantry would roll;
Then we should know how perilous is power,
Not bounded by the limits of life's hour:
Its deeds are stamp'd on history's open page;
Nor there alone--a tablet is on high,
Before the Almighty's pure and holy eye;
That record fades not by the touch of age,

And she must hear its witness. Christian, pray,
That joy be written there in heaven's bright ray.

Miscellaneous.

PALENQUE. Among the remarkable monuments of antiquity on the American continent, are the ruins of Palenque, in the republic of Guatemala, the existence of which is but little known. About the middle of the last century the ruins of an ancient city, which were spread over an area of great extent, were discovered in the vicinity of the town of Palenque, in the province of Ciudad Real de Chiapa. They were evidently of high antiquity, many centuries antecedent to the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. These extensive and remarkable ruins were subjects of much discussion and learned speculation at the time of their discovery, and at length attracted the attention of the Spanish government. In the year 1776, a royal order was issued to Antonio del Roi, to proceed to the spot, and make a full and minute examination of these interest

ing monuments of the art and labour of other times. In May 1786, Del Roi repaired to Palenque, taking with him a number of labourers, provided with implements to make the necessary excavations and examinations. "By dint of perseverance," says he, "I effected all that was necessary, so that ultimately there remained neither a window or doorway blocked up, a partition that was not thrown down, nor room, corridor, court, tower, or subterranean passage, in which excavations were not effected from two to three yards in depth." These ruins are called by the Spaniards Casas de Piedras (stone houses), and are situated on a plain at the base of a high mountain, and extend from east to west between seven and eight leagues; but their breadth is by no means equal to their length, being little more than half a league in width, where they terminate towards the river Micol, which winds around the base of the mountain. The situation appears to have been well chosen, as the climate is described as being beautiful, the soil fertile, and capable of producing in great abundance every thing to satisfy the wants of man. The city probably

commanded other resources to enable it to maintain as great a population as seems to be indicated by its extent. Del Roi gives the following description of the largest of the mass of buildings, which stands on a mound twenty yards high, and is surrounded by other edifices-namely, five to the northward, four to the southward, one to the south-west, and three to the eastward; while in all directions the fragments of other fallen buildings are to be seen extending along the mountain. "The interior of the large building is in a style of architecture strongly resembling the Gothic, and from its rude and massy construction,

promises a great durability. The entrance is on the eastern side, by a portico or corridor thirty-six yards in length, and three in breadth, supported by plain rectangular pillars, without either bases or pedestals, upon which there are smooth square stones of more than a foot in thickness, forming an architrave, while on the exterior superficies are species of stucco shields; over these stones there is another plain rectangular block five feet long and six broad, extending over two of the pillars. Medallions or compartments in stucco, containing different devices of the same material, appear as decorations to the chambers; and it is presumable, from the vestiges of the hands which can still be traced, that they were busts of a series of kings or lords to whom the natives were subject. Between the medallions there is a range of windows like niches, passing from one end of the wall to the other, some of them in the form of a Greek cross. Beyond this corridor is a square court, entered by a flight of seven steps; the north side is entirely in ruins, but sufficient traces of them remain to shew that it once had a corridor and chamber similar to those on the eastern side, and which continued entirely along the several angles. The south side has four small chambers, with no other ornament than one or two little windows like those already described. The western side is correspondent to its opposite in all respects but in the variety of expression of the figures in stucco; these are much more rude and ridiculous than the others, and can only be attributed to most uncultivated Indian capacity. The device is a sort of grotesque mask with a crown and long beard like that of a goat, under which are two Greek crosses. It is by no means improbable that these fantastic forms, and others equally whimsical, were the delineations of some of their deities, to whom they paid an idolatrous worship consistent with their false belief and barbarous customs."-British Gazette.

HEARERS AND DOERS. I remember our countryman Bromeard tells us of one, who, meeting his neighbour coming out of church, asked him, "What! is the sermon done?" "Done!" said the other, "no; it is said, it is ended, but it is not so soon done." And, surely, so it is with us; we have good store of serand one sermon done is worth a thousand said and mons said, but we have only a few that are done; heard; for "not the hearers of the law, but the doers blessed are ye if ye do them.”—Bp. Hall. of it, are justified: and if ye know these things,

EGYPTIAN COLUMNS.-The pillar of Pompey, near Alexandria, is a remarkable object, and attracts much attention, which is attributed by some to Cæsar; by others to Alexander the Great, and Adrian. We find in Scripture mention made of columns (Gen. xxviii. 18, 22; Deut. xxvii. 4; Josh. viii. 32; Judges, ix. 6); and that they were also set up sometimes as sepulchral pillars (Gen. xxxv. 20; 2 Sam. xviii. 18), or trophies (1 Kings, vii. 18-21; 1 Chron. xxii. 15; Is. xix. 19), and defence (Jer. i. 18); also as witnesses to covenants (Josh. xxiv. 27); and were, further, marks of the Divine vengeance (Gen. xix. 26). They remind us also of the remark of the wise man, in treating of the doctrine of wisdom, who has beautifully observed, that in building her house she hath hewn out her own pillars (Prov. ix. 1); also of Joash, king of Judah, standing by a pillar, when admitted to the throne of his ancestors (2 Kings, xi. 14); and of one of his successors, when he made a covenant before the Lord. Travels in Egypt, by W. Rae Wilson, Esq.

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