his tongue hanging out of his mouth, a dreadful spectacle to all beholders. This relation is made by the celebrated historian Buchanan, who records it as a remarkable example of God's judgment against the sin of oppression.

Chap. xii, ver. 43.-Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.

Mr. Carter once coming softly behind a religious man of his own acquaintance, who was busily employed in tanning a hide, and giving him a tap on the shoulder, the man started, looked behind him, and with a blushing countenance said," Sir, I am ashamed that you should find me thus." To whom Mr. Carter replied, "Let Christ, when he cometh, find me so doing." "What," said the man, "doing thus?" "Yes," said Mr. Carter, "faithfully performing the duties of my calling."

Chap. xiii, ver. 6, 7, 8, 9.-He spake also this parable: A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard: and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of the vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

"When a palm-tree refuses to bear," says the Arab author of a Treatise on Agriculture," the owner of it, armed with a hatchet, comes to visit it, in company with another person. He then begins, by observing aloud to his friend, in order that the date-tree should

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hear him, 'I am going to cut down this worthless tree, since it no longer bears me any fruit.'-Have a care what you do, brother,' returns his companion; 'I should advise you to do no such thing, for I will venture to predict, that this year your tree will bẹ covered with fruit.' No, no,' replies the owner, 'I am determined to cut it down; for I am certain it will produce me nothing;' and then, approaching the tree, he proceeds to give it two or three strokes with his hatchet. Pray, now, I entreat you to desist,' says the mediator, holding back the arm of the proprietor, do but observe what a fine tree it is, and have patience but for this one season more; should it fail after that to bear you any fruit, you may then do with it just what you please.' The owner of the tree then allows himself to be persuaded, and retires without proceeding to any further extremities. But the threat and the few strokes inflicted with the hatchet, have always, it is said, the desired effect; and the terrified palm-tree produces the same year a most abundant supply of fine dates."

Chap. xiii, ver. 28.-There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

"One day," says Mrs. Alice Gabriel, speaking of her early years, "when I was returning home, I saw my dear mother sitting on a bank in the orchard, weeping bitterly. I thought she was weeping on account of my father's death. I went to her, and asked, why she wept so? Her answer was, 'I may well weep, to see my children taking the kingdom of heaven by violence, while I myself shall be shut out!' I was glad to hear her express her concern after salvation; and, as well as I was able, I pointed her to the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, begging her to seek him by secret prayer;

and I do believe, from that time, the Lord carried on the work of grace in her soul."

Chap. xiv, ver. 5-Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?

A man belonging to one of the South Sea islands, came to the missionaries at a Monday evening meeting, and said his mind was troubled, as he feared he had done wrong. He was asked in what respect; when he answered, that on the preceding day, which was the Sabbath, when returning from public worship, he observed that the tide, having risen higher than usual, bad washed out to sea a large pair of double canoes, which he had left on the beach. At first he thought of taking a smaller canoe, fetching back the larger ones, and fixing them in a place of security; but while he was deliberating, it occurred to his recollection that it was the Sabbath, and that the Scriptures prohibited any work. He therefore allowed the canoes to drift towards the reef, until they were broken on the rocks. But, he added, though he did not work on the Sabbath, his mind was troubled on account of the loss he had sustained, and that he thought was wrong. He was immediately told that he would have done right, had he fetched the canoes to the shore on the Sabbath. While these scruples, to a person of enlarged information, will appear unnecessary, the conscientious feeling which they manifest ought to be respected.

Chap. xiv, ver. 11.-For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

In the evening of the day Sir Eardley Wilmot kissed his Majesty's hands on being appointed chief justice, one of his sons, a youth of seventeen, attended him to his bed side. "Now," said he, " my son, I will tell you a secret worth your knowing and remembering.

The elevation I have met with in life, particularly this last instance of it, has not been owing to any superior merit or abilities, but to my humility; to my not having set up myself above others, and to an uniform endeavor to pass through life void of offence towards God and man."

Chap. xv, ver. 7.— say unto you, That likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Mahomed Rabem, a Persian, having been asked respecting the change that had taken place in his religious sentiments, gave the following account:“ In the year 1223 of the Hegira, there came to this city an Englishman, who taught the religion of Christ with a boldness hitherto unparalleled in Persia, in the midst of much scorn and ill-treatment from our molJahs, as well as the rabble. He was a beardless youth, and evidently enfeebled by disease. He dwelt amongst us for more than a year. I was then a decided enemy to infidels, as the Christians are termed by the followers of Mahomet, and I visited this teacher of the despised sect, with the declared object of treating him with scorn, and exposing his doctrines to contempt. Although I persevered for some time in this behavior towards him, I found that every interview not only increased my respect for the individual, but diminished my confidence in the faith in which I was educated. His extreme forbearance towards the violence of his opponents, the calm and yet convincing manner in which he exposed the fallacies and sophistries by which he was assailed, for be spoke Persian excellently, gradually inclined me to listen to his arguments, to inquire dispassionately into the subject of them, and finally, to read a tract which he had written in reply to a defence of Islamism by our chief mollabs. Need I detain you longer? The result of my examination was a conviction, that the

young disputant was right. Shame, or rather fear, withheld me from avowing this opinion; I even avoided the society of the Christian teacher, though he remained in the city so long. Just before he quitted Shiraz, I could not refrain from paying him a farewell visit. Our conversation,-the memory of it will never fade from the tablet of my mind,-sealed my conversion. He gave me a book,-it has ever been my constant companion; the study of it has formed my most delightful occupation,-its contents have often consoled me. Upon this he put into my hands a copy of the New Testament in Persian; on one of the blank leaves was written :

"THERE IS JOY IN HEAVEN OVER ONE SINNER

THAT REPENTETH.

HENRY MARTYN.'"

Chap. xv, ver. 12, 13.-And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

The late Admiral Williams, when young, was gay, and so addicted to expensive pleasures, that no remonstrances had the power to reclaim him, being so enamored with ruinous folly. When his father died, he joined the rest of the family to hear the will read. His name did not occur among those of the other children, and he looked upon the omission as a testimony of his father's resentment against him: At the close of it, however, he found himself brought in as residuary legatee, or, who was to receive all that remained of his father's property, after paying the other legacies, in these words:-" all the rest of my estates and effects I leave to my son Peer Williams, knowing that he will spend it all." On hearing this, the young gentleman burst into tears: "My father," said he, has touched the right string, and his reproach shall not be thrown away." From that time he altered

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