JESUS, a little child desires To love thee more and more; But, Lord, thou dwell'st on high, Where nothing sinful ever comes, And dare a little sinful child Presume to come to thee? Oh yes! I hear my Saviour's voice, 6 Come, and though angels round my throne Their hallelujahs sing, I'll listen to the simplest prayer, That even thou canst bring. 'Come, and all sinful as thou art, Although thy years are few; Come, trust in my unchanging love, Dear child, I died for you.' G. C. REV. H. A. SIMCOE, (Penneale-Press,) Cornwall. THE DISTRESSES AND DISASTERS WHICH BEFEL THE INHABITANTS. "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations," Luke xxi. 24. THE fulfilment of this part of the prophecy Josephus relates thus:-'And now rushing into every lane, they slew whomsoever they found, without distinction, and burnt the houses, and all the people who had fled into them. And when they entered for the sake of plunder they found whole families of dead persons, and houses full of carcases destroyed by famine, then they came out with their hands empty. And though they thus pitied the dead they did not feel the same emotion for the living, but killed all they met, whereby they filled the lanes with dead bodies. The whole city ran with blood, insomuch that many things which were burning were extinguished by the H blood.' Thus were the inhabitants of Jerusalem slain with the sword; thus was she laid even with the ground, and her children with her. The soldiers, being now wearied with killing the Jews, and yet a great number remaining alive, Cæsar commanded that only the armed and they who resisted should be slain. But the soldiers killed the old and infirm, and taking the young and strong prisoners carried them into the women's court in the temple. Cæsar appointed one Fronto his freed man and friend to guard them, and to determine the fate of each. All the robbers and the seditious he slew, one of them betraying another. But putting out such youths as were remarkable for stature and beauty, he reserved them for the triumph. All the rest, that were above seventeen years old, he sent bound into Egypt, to be employed in labour there. Titus also sent many of them into the provinces to be slain in the theatres, by beasts and the sword. And those who were under seventeen years of age were slain. During the time Fronto judged them a thousand died of hunger, Chap. xvii. Now the number of the captives that were taken during the time of the war was ninety-seven thousand, and of all that died and were slain during the siege eleven hundred thousand, the most of them Jews by nation, though not inhabitants of the place; for being assembled together from all parts to the feast of unleavened bread, on a sudden they were environed with war. Thus were the Jews led away captive into all nations. However, the falling by the edge of the sword, mentioned in the prophecy, is not to be confined to what happened at the siege. It comprehended all the slaughters that were made of the Jews in different battles, and sieges, and massacres, both in their own land and out of it, during the whole course of the war. Such as at Alexandria, where fifty thousand perished; at Cesarea, ten thousand; at Scythopolis, thirteen thousand; at Damascus, ten thousand; at Ascalon, ten thousand; at Apheck, fifteen thousand; upon Gerizim, eleven thousand; and at Jotapata, thirty thousand. And thus was verified what our Lord told his disciples the first time he uttered his prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, -that "wherever the carcass was there the eagles should be gathered together," Luke xvii. THE DOOR OF MERCY. REV. SIR,-IN one of your former volumes is an Article entitled The Door of Mercy Shut,' wherein is given a very striking account of the departure of a soul from this life under circumstances peculiarly awful. May the relation be rendered profitable to many as a solemn warning of the dangerous consequences of a continued course in the way of transgression. Though this subject is truly an awakening one, and in its right consideration highly calculated to prove very useful; still the great enemy of souls, (whose darts are pointed with the fiercest fire of trial,) will pervert it, as he does many parts of Holy Writ, to form weapons of attack on the weak-minded: the writer hereof has known more than one case in which Satan has most bitterly distressed souls by insinuating that the door of mercy is shut against them, and that it is utter folly to think of its being again opened, by which he has cast them into a state of despondency. The following remarks, from a sermon preached by a truly evangelical Minister in a parish church of Plymouth, appear well suited to meet such cases of distressing temptation; and as such you will perhaps consider they merit being preserved. The pious preacher had been addressing his congregation on the many scriptural encouragements given for sinners of every description to approach the door of mercy, which is ever open to admit the returning prodigal; and on the point alluded to spoke much to the following effect. Amongst so many hearers there may be one, or more, who is tempted to object, and say "My sins are so great and aggravated, my convictions have been so strong, and my resolutions of amendment have been so frequently repeated and again broken, that my day of grace is past, the door of mercy is now closed against me; and it is impossible to find in the Bible any encouragement for me to come to the door that is bolted against my admission." I reply, said the Minister, there is much encouragement to be found in the word of God for you, and one passage therein I will now especially refer to, viz., one of our blessed Saviour's parables, recorded in St. Luke xi. 5-10, where our dear Lord thus speaks, "Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because |