course, we Saxons attribute much of all this to temperament, both on the side of the speakers and the hearers; but that there was also a great deal of principle in it has been demonstrated by the permanence of its issues.

This is a subject of some importance at this time. We recently heard of a great revival of religion in the United States of America. Tidings of a similar revival have since come to our ears from the north of Ireland, with I know not what physical phenomena. News, also, of a revival of a peculiar kind has reached me from the granite city of Aberdeen, the place of my study, and from the cold district of Strathbogie, the place of my birth. I could have ignored America and Ireland; but there must be something more than usual, I think, in the quiet revolution which is going on in Scotland. I learned, the other day, from the British Standard, that Wales, likewise, had its tale to tell; which, doubtless, we shall hear on some of these days. It is not for me to pronounce a positive opinion on these movements, nor is it for me to prescribe any measures to my brethren, to induce such movements.

To be ge

nuine, in my judgment, they must be spontaneous. I would only venture to intimate my persuasion, that they would not be merely occasional, but normal, and without noise or observation, if our ministers and our churches were all as they ought to be. Be it yours and mine, dear brethren, to cultivate, more than we have done, a habit of intercourse with unseen realities; and let us encourage all free efforts on the part of those who possess the gift of speech and various religious aptitude; and we may confidently expect" that the beauty of the Lord our God will be upon us, and that He will establish the work of our hands."

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

In fine, if the course of thought which I have pursued is at all warranted by facts, we have some reason to be proud of this our own, our native land," on its own account; and we have every reason to be thankful to heaven for the favour that has been shown to it for many an age. If I am not mistaken, we have been mainly indebted for that favour to our Divine religion-that too its original bestowment-and to our God-born, Christ-breathing, self-asserting liberty. It does appear to me, as if

"Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos."

Then, again, to glance at the relation of our country to other lands, who could have imagined, 1,800 years ago, that the people thus spoken of as far remote from the great centres of civilisation, and likewise represented (or rather, as I believe, misrepresented) as little better than barbarians, should come to possess the highest mental culture, and the most potent sovereignty in Europe, with invincible navies, and a soldiery that could conquer the elements, conquer old routine, and in the end conquer all its foes. Yet so it is. Nay more,the nation of shopkeepers, as the first Napoleon contemptuously styled them, sways more than the sceptre of the Great Mogul in the East, and has brought the celestitude of China to the dust, and will questionless bring it to the dust again in more signal style; gives laws directly to above a hundred millions of pagans, and exerts a controlling influence over many thousand thousands more. Nor is this all. As a

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people we have multiplied, and are dispersing ourselves in a manner unique and unexampled since the great dispersion of the human family from the plains of Shinar. There is this difference, however, in our favour, that whereas that motherland is now empty, and void, and waste, this island-home of ours still teems with population, as a hive of industry and honey, unexhausted -inexhaustible; and yet, its essential spirit or genius, towering in her strength and majesty, as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eyes at the full midday beam,' on Cader Idris, or Helvellyn, or Ben Macdhui, can look abroad with complacency on her giant progeny. The United States of America are the offspring of Britain, and, barring the stripes on their banner, which suggest ugly associations, we may be proud of them, and need not mind indulging them in their frowardness-running a race with us as they do for a magnificent fate. Then there are the Canadas and Columbia, with how many isles of beauty and fertility there in the west still our own, in range and capacity scarce inferior to Yankeedom. there is the goodly and delightsome region of South Africa, with half a continent before us. Then there is Australia, with New Zealand, and countless islands in the Pacific, which may grow into an empire that shall reach to China and Japan. There they all are, so many little Britains, destined to become larger than Great Britain; more or less organising according to the parent type, and preparing for humanity a future in which religion, liberty, science, brotherly kindness and happiness shall clasp hands and find their millennium.

Then

With such a prospect before you, "go on, hand in hand," O ye peoples of England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland;-allow me to address you in the glowing words of Milton: "Go on, O ye peoples, never to be disunited: be the praise and the heroic song of all posterity; merit this, but seek only virtue, not to extend your limits; (for what needs to win a fading triumphant laurel out of the tears of wretched men?) but to settle the pure worship of God in His church, and justice in the State. Then shall the hardest difficulties smooth out themselves before ye; envy shall sink to hell, craft and malice be confounded, whether it be home-bred mischief or

outlandish cunning: yea, other nations will then covet to serve ye, for lordship and victory are but the pages of justice and virtue. Commit securely to true wisdom the vanquishing and uncasing of craft and subtilty, which are but her true runagates: join your invincible might to do worthy and godlike deeds; and then he that seeks to break your union, a cleaving curse be his inheritance to all generations."

An awful thing it were, indeed, if this auspice of ours as to the future of Great Britain and the world should be dashed, or thrown back for a period indefinite. There are who think that it is menaced at this present time. It is very remarkable, that, with some small exceptions, the nations of Europe are subject to an absolute despotism. I have already alluded to the significant fact, that the two greatest rulers of the darkness have together agreed to give their power-if they can compass itto what we Protestants are accustomed to call "the beast." And there can be little doubt, that neither of them, nor the Cossack of the North, would be sorry to see the humiliation of “ perfidious Albion." Now, I have not shared in the apprehensions lately bruited in the House of Lords, and echoed in the public press; and I have laughed to scorn the idea of the success of any invasion of our coasts-come though it did from "the three corners of the world" of Europe; but, considering the vast internal interests dependent on our safety, and the world-wide interests identified with our maritime supremacy, I would not have them suspected even for a moment. You will pardon me, when I say, in the words of a living poet, when the decease of the Duke of Wellington was his theme :— "O statesmen, guard us; guard the Eye, the Soul

Of Europe. Keep our noble England whole,
And save the one true seed of freedom sown
Betwixt a people and their ancient throne;-
That sober freedom out of which there springs
Our loyal passion for our temperate kings:
For, saving that, ye help to save mankind,
Till public wrong be crumpled into dust;
And drill the raw world for the march of
mind,

Till crowds at length be sane, and crowns be just:

But wink no more in slothful overtrust!"

No doubt, we have, as a people, offended very grievously. There was a time when Coleridge could say, in bitterness of soul,―

"From east to west

A groan of accusation pierces heaven!
The wretched plead against us,-multitudes,
Countless and vehement, the sons of God,
Our brethren !"

In various ways, which it would be painful to descant on, we have incurred the frown of the Governor among the nations and He has frowned upon us. He may be frowning now.

It is

for us, brethren, to do what in us lies, to circulate a holier influence among our population, and to breathe a more Christian spirit into our Government.

At the same time, allow me to repeat, that I have entire faith in the destinies of our empire. When I reflect on all the dealings of Providence with us,politically since the era of Runnymede, and religiously since that of the Reformation, I am disposed to exclaim, "The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." I cannot imagine that we have been so crowned with blessings, only to be the monuments of Divine wrath; no, surely, but rather to be the agents of Divine goodness. And I do not doubt that this isle will still remain the abode of the free, the asylum of the oppressed, the shrine of truth, the exemplar of pure and undefiled religion, the herald of progressive improvement in all directions,— "the wonder, terror, and delight of distant nations!" Only let us prove ourselves worthy of the ancient inhabitants of these islands, by our sturdy independence and excelling information, and mental power, and practical ability, and fervent zeal. Let us hold sacred the memory of the faith and patience of our religious forerunners, the Culdees and Covenanters, the Lollards and Wickliffites, the Puritans, Independents, and Nonconformists. Let us be true to ourselves, and faithful to our God. Let us destroy the "Achan" in our hearts, and cast the "accursed thing" from our high places. Let us individually live, not to ourselves, but to the common weal; let us nationally consult less for a private end than a universal good; and we need fear no evil. We shall "tread on the lion and adder" of sedi

tion, and "laugh at the shaking of foreign spear." There shall be no more room for corruption in the Church or the State. Ignorance and vice shall hide their diminished heads. Faction shall cease its mercenary fray, and Sectarianism its unholy war. Peace shall be within our borders, and prosperity in all our coasts. Then our

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races," no longer "alien," shall be linked together in a "three-fold cord;" and the Shamrock not scouting the Rose and the Thistle, shall twine for the scutcheon on our banner an emblem of surpassing beauty, over which the iris of celestial hope shall "smile enchanted." Then" Britannia," if I may venture here more directly to introduce the personified genius of our empiretaking to herself "the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation," shall sit on her rock-throne, secure and beneficent, with compassion or disdain for the wrecks of Revenge or Revolution, that are dashed by the billows at her feet. Then shall her fleet continue to ride triumphant over the seas; and, while it shall bring in its commerce the glory and wealth of the nations into our midst, it shall go forth, no longer to affright with robber-bands, or allure by useless wares, but to be hailed as the welcomest of guests, with the merchandise of heaven as well as of earth. And, as they descry its approach from afar, the African on his sunny strand, the Indian on his sheening river, the Polynesian on his coral rock,- they shall exclaim with delight, "How beautiful upon the mountain-wave is the meteor-flag of the nation that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith to" Africa, to Asia, to America, "thy God O Earth, reigneth!" thy God reigneth!"

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Yes! which of us can hesitate to accept the auspice? Great Britain "throned by the West," with its colonies, or without them, shall continue to rule in the civilisations-the Christiani ties of generations yet unborn!

THE recent lectures by Professor Marsh, of Vermont, in the experimental university course of Columbia College, New York, of which we

have given some brief notice, have embraced a mass of interesting facts as to the construction and philosophy of the language. To

show how a great standard work in common use tends to preserve the purity of the language and to retain the same words in use, he mentioned the remarkable facts, that of the 6,000 words in King James's translation of the Bible, not 200 have become obsolete; of the 15,000 words in Shakespeare, not more than 500 or 600 have gone out of use or changed their meanings; and of Milton's 8,000 words, there are scarcely a hundred which are not as familiar to-day as when he used them. On the contrary, if the subordinate writers of the same times are examined, it will be found that a much larger proportion of their words have gone out of use, and that of very many of them the true signification is nearly lost, and must be guessed from the connexion. Words become obsolete by changes in the customs and arts of life.

RACES AND RELIGIONS.

The whole North American Continent has only thirty-six millions of inhabitants, hardly as much as France or Austria. The whole of Central and South America has only twentythree millions-less, then, than Italy. European Russia, with its sixty millions, has as many inhabitants as America, Australia, and Polynesia together. More people live in London than in all Australia and Polynesia. China Proper has more inhabitants than America, Australia, and Africa together; and India has nearly three times as many inhabitants as the whole of the New World. The result is, that our planet bears 1,288 millions of mankind, of which sum total 522 millions belong to the Mongolian, 369 millions to the Caucasian, 200 millions to the Malayan, 196 millions to the Ethiopian, and one million to the American race. Divided according to their confessions, there are 335 millions of Christians, five millions of Jews, 600 millions belonging to the Asiatic religions, 160 millions to Mohammedanism, and 200 millions of heathens.

MULTUM IN PARVO.

The number of languages spoken is 4,064. The number of men is about equal to the number of women. The average of human life is thirty-three years. One quarter die before the age of seven. One half before they have reached the age of seventeen. To every one thousand persons, one only reaches one hundred years. To every one hundred, only six reach seventy-five years; and not more than one in five hundred will reach eighty years. There are on the earth one thousand millions of inhabitants. Of these, 33,333,333 die every year; 91,824 die every day; 7,780 every hour, and sixty per minute, or one every second. These losses are about balanced by an equal number of births. The married are longer lived than the single; and, above all, those who observe a sober and industrious conduct. Women have more chances of life previous to the age of fifty-five years than men, but fewer after. The number of marriages are in the proportion of seventy-six to one hundred.-New York Merchant Magazine.

EFFECT OF DRUNKENNESS ON LIFE.

Mr. Neison states that, out of 357 who died of drunkenness, there would have been only 110 according to the ratio of sober mortality. It was not only computed, but scientifically demonstrated, that between the ages of twentyone and thirty, the mortality of the drunkard is five times greater than that of the rest of the community; that between thirty and fifty it is twice as great. The drunken man, at the age of twenty, may expect to live fifteen years, and the sober man forty-four; at thirty, the drunkard may expect to live thirteen years, and the sober man thirty-six; at forty, the drunkard may expect to live but eleven years, and the sober man twenty-eight. These surely are facts that need only be known to make a powerful impression on the minds of all.