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her for her worship, unless the body should be removed. About a year ago Mr. Scudder thought it best to remove the remains, that they might be laid by the side of his mother, but the people of the adjacent villages would not allow it to be done, and the man employed was obliged to go a two day's journey, to obtain an order to secure him from disturbance in the fulfilment of his mission. They considered it a blessing to have the remains there, and said God had caused them to be deposited amongst them for their good. When their children have been sick, they have performed certain ceremonies at the grave, and think that in this way disease has been removed.Journal of Missions.

PERMANENCE OF EASTERN CUSTOMS.-Mr. Marsh, in a recent excursion from Mosul, was ferried across the Zab on a raft of inflated skins. His horse was made to swim over, being guided by a person swimming upon a single inflated skin, in exact accordance with the representations of crossing rivers on slabs found in the ruins of Nineveh.

JEWS PREACHING THE GOSPEL.-Three hundred converted Jews are now engaged in various parts of the world, in preaching that Jesus Christ is "he that was to come."

CHRISTIANS REBUKED BY A HEATHEN.-A missionary in India, passing near some tank-diggers who were getting ready to repair a road, noticed that one of them looked towards the sun in a posture of worship, and then took up his crow-bar and touched his forehead with it by way of religious reverence, before he began to dig. The man being asked why he paid such reverence to the sun and to his crow-bar, replied that as without the light of the sun he could not work, and without the instrument he could not dig, and as he was dependent on both for his daily bread, he worshipped them. And on whom are we dependent for the light of the sun, and for a light more precious than that of the sun, the light which alone can guide us to the realms of eternal day? We are left in no doubt as to the Being from whom all our blessings come. The Bible has taught us this from our earliest years. But do we recognize his overruling care, and his goodness from day to day? Do we worship him as the morning dawns, and the shades of evening come in? Do we acknowledge our dependence on him in every new enterprise that we undertake? How suitable that we should do it! How greatly it would honour him! How, if we neglect to do it, the very darkness of heathenism rebukes us, and in the judgment will con. demn us!—Journal of Missions.

THE WORSHIP OF BAAL IN EXISTENCE.-The worship of Baal ranks amongst the oldest and most widely diffused of heathen superstitions. It is often mentioned in the Bible, and prevailed in the nations far and wide around Judea. It is the same as that of Bala among the Hindoos. It now appears that it still prevails in Australia, especially in its eastern part. Baal-baal is the name of a place on a river there. Baal is also the name for fire; and sun-worship was formerly practised by the inhabitants of Port Jackson, who called it Baal. When a native fears he will be benighted, he propitiates the luminary, his Baal, by placing a lighted stick in the fork of a tree facing the sun, in order to delay sunset; and then, in certain faith, proceeds homewards. The rites of Baal, now as well as in ancient times, are marked by blood and human sacrifice.-Ibid.

The Finest of the Wheat.

THE LORD'S CHASTENINGS.

Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.-HEBREWS xii. 9.

WITH What calmness may a Christian look upon all his afflictions! Though they be heavy, and seem to carry much wrath in them, yet they have nothing of the curse. The curse was received into the body of Christ; so that now the covenant of works is disarmed to him; and he need not fear the thunder of its threatenings, for the ball is already discharged upon another. Were it God's intent to satisfy his justice by the evils which he brings upon me, I might then tremble, and account every suffering, a presage of far greater to come; but if I have an interest in Christ, justice is already satisfied, and all the afflictions which I suffer are but the corrections of a gracious Father, not the revenge of an angry God. Am I pinched with poverty? That is no curse! God doth not seek revenge upon me; but only keeps me from the allurements of vanity. Am I afflicted with losses in my relations or estate? that is no curse! God doth not thereby seek satisfaction to his justice, but only takes these from me, that he may be all in all. Am I tormented with pain, and disease, and will they bring death upon me? Yet are these no curses, but only a necessary passage from life to life-a bad step to Canaan-a short night between one day and another. Justice is satisfied; and, therefore, come what afflictions it shall please God to try me with, they are weak and weaponless, without a curse in them, without a sting.-Hopkins.

CHRIST'S LOVE.

Who loved me, and gave himself for me.-GALATIANS ii. 20.

The quality and excellency of the person thus offered, thus given, doth highly commend his exceeding love to us. We shall ascend to the consideration of this point by four steps or degrees, and then descend by four others. And both in going up, and coming down, we shall perceive the admirable love of the giver. Accordingly, we shall consider him. 1. A man. "Behold the Man," saith Pilate. We may tarry and wonder at his lowest degree; that a man should give himself for man. "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die." But this man gave himself for unrighteous man to die. 2. The second degree gives him a sinless, innocent man. Pilate could say, "I have found no fault in this man." "No-nor yet Herod." No-nor the devil, who would have been right glad of such an advantage. Pilate's wife sent her husband word, "Have thou nothing to do with that just man." 3. But he is not only a man, and a good man, but also a great man; royalty descended from the ancient patriarch. Pilate had so written his title, and would not alter it, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Now, as is the person, so is the passion-the more noble the giver, the more excellent the gift. 4. This is enough; but not all-there is yet a higher degree in the ascent. He was not only a man; not only the greatest of men, but greater than all men. He was more than the Son of Man, he was even the Son of God, as the centurion acknowledged, "Truly this Man was the Son of God." Here be all the four steps upwards-a man-a sinless man-a princely man-and yet more than man, even God himself,

We have seen the ascent-shall we bring down this consideration again by as many steps?

1. Consider Him-Almighty God, taking upon him man's nature. This is the first step downward, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." And "God sent forth his Son made of a woman." And this was done by putting

on our nature, not by putting off his own. He is both God and man, and yet but one Christ-one, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. 2. The second step brings him yet lower. He is made man; but what man? "He took upon him the form of a servant." "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." "O Israel! thou hast made me to serve with thy sins." He that is God's Son is made man's servant. This is the second step downwards. 3. This is not low enough yet. "He is despised and rejected of men; we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Thus saith the Apostle, "He made himself of no reputation." He that requires all honour as properly due to him, makes himself not of little, but "of no reputation." 4. But we must go yet lower. Behold now the deepest step, and the greatest rejection, "The Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.' "It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief." He cries out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Weigh all these circumstances, and you shall truly behold him who loved us, and gave himself for us.-Adams.

me?"

LOVE, TRUTH, PEACE.

Love the truth and peace.-ZECHARIAH viii. 19.

What is truth? It is the uncreated light of the intellectual world, shining from God to angels and men. No truth is to be neglected, because it is a beam or lineament of God; but that is most to be loved and esteemed, which discovers God most clearly to us, brings us nearest, and makes us likest to Him; that is the most excellent and useful truth, which exceeds all others, as much as the soul doth the body, or eternity a moment.

What is peace? We can better tell by the enjoyment than the description of it. What health is to the body, and calmness to the sea, and serenity to the day, such is peace; which ariseth from the fit, orderly, and proportionable disposing of things.

Truth and peace. In God they are united, and so in every godly soul, in every well-ordered church or state, they march sweetly together, but first truth, then peace. Truth must have the precedence. If one must be dispensed with, it is peace, not truth. Better truth without public peace, than peace without saving truth. Truth alone can bring us solid peace. That peace is far too dear which costs us the loss of truth-I mean necessary and fundamental truth. Let them, then, go together in our love-in our life. Truth as the root, peace as the fruit-truth as the light, peace as the heat-truth as the foundation, peace as the structure. Those propositions are the truest which tend most to peace, as it was the true mother that pleaded against the dividing of the child. Goaden.

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SPIRITUAL LIFE.

A life of formality, listlessness, and inactivity, is far from being a spiritual life. Where these things are habitual and predominant, they are infallible symptoms of spiritual death. It is true, believers are subject to many sickly qualms and frequent indispositions; yea, at times, their languishments are such, that the operations of the vital principle within them are hardly discernible to themselves or to others; and the vigour of their devotion, in their most sprightly hours, is checked and borne down by the body of death under which they groan. Yet still there is an inextinguishable spark of life within, which scatters a glimmering light in the thickest darkness, and sometimes shines with illustrious brightness. The pulse of the spirit, though weak and irregular, still beats. There is an active power that reluctates and struggles against the counterstrivings of the flesh: that under the greatest languor puts forth some weak efforts, some faint essays, and, under the actuating influence of the divine Spirit, -invigorates the soul to "mount up with wings like an eagle, to run without wearying, and walk without fainting." And oh! the joy, the pleasure of such

heavenly activity! We, therefore, may write Tekel, on the dull, inoperative religion of many; it serves for no end but to prove them dead in trespasses and sins. The design of the whole dispensation of God's grace towards fallen sinners, is their vivification to holiness, "that they may bring forth fruit unto God;" (Rom. vii. 4;) and sure where that design is not obtained, there can be no true religion. Let us therefore beware lest we should have a name to live, while we are dead.-Davies.

SUNDAYS.

BY HENRY VAUGHAN.

Types of eternal rest-fair buds of bliss,

In heavenly flowers unfolding week by week:
The next world's gladness imaged forth in this-
Days of whose worth the Christian's heart can speak!

Eternity in Time-the steps by which

We climb to future ages-the lamps that light
Man through his darker days, and thought enrich,
Yielding redemption for the week's dull flight.

Wakeners of prayer in Man-his resting bowers
As on he journeys in the narrow way,
Where, Eden-like, Jehovah's walking hours
Are waited for as in the cool of day.

Days fixed by God for intercourse with dust,
To raise our thoughts, and purify our powers—
Periods appointed to renew our trust-

A gleam of glory after six days' showers!
Foretastes of heaven on earth-pledges of joy
Surpassing fancy's flights, and fiction's story;
The preludes of a feast that cannot cloy,

And the bright out-courts of immortal glory!

THE STARS WITNESSES.

So the Lord teaches Abram. From his tent, where first He met with himfrom his bed, perhaps, which he had been watering with his tears-the Lord raises the patriarch, and leads him out, and places him beneath the glorious midnight sky. Seest thou these hosts of heaven? Canst thou reckon them? No. But He who speaks to thee can. He can count them. "He telleth the numbers of the stars; he calleth them all by their names." Here is the most glorious lesson in astronomy the world ever learned. In the still and solemn silence of earth's unbroken slumber-under the deep azure arch of heavennot a breath stirring, not a cloud passing-then and there, to stand alone with God-to stand with open eye, and behold his works-to stand with open ear, and hear his word-his word to thee! These stars-canst thou number them? Look now towards heaven, and tell them-these all, I ordained, and even such a seed have I ordained to Abram. Alas! That the starry heavens should ever be read otherwise than thus, as if either they claimed worship for themselves or a power to rule the destinies of our race, or as if they had no tale at all to tell of but a dreary, dark materialism. Surely, if thou wilt but look and listen, they speak to thee of their Creator; or rather, their Creator speaks to thee by them. He points and appeals to them as the tokens of his power, and the pledges of his faithfulness; and in the undimmed glory of their multitudinous hosts, shining still, as they shone when he talked to Abram, he calls thee, on each returning night, to hail the renewed assurance of that promise on which all thy hope, as well as Abram's, must hang. So shall the seed of Abram-his seed, embracing Christ and all that are his-and therefore not excluding theeso shall the seed of Abram be.-Candlish on Genesis.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1851.

Miscellaneous Articles.

THE BALM OF GILEAD.

THE calamities of the Jewish nation, the daughter or offspring of God's people, are represented under the idea of a hurt, or festering wound. And as the most common cure for wounds was balm, a resinous substance which exuded from a shrub that abounded on Mount Gilead, and as this medicine was usually prepared and applied by physicians, the force and propriety of the question in the Scriptures are readily perceived-"If there be balm in Gilead, and a physician there to apply it, why is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?" But the prophet's solicitude was not confined to the outward affliction which he saw coming upon his countrymen. He knew full well, for he had been commissioned to announce the fact, that sin was the procuring cause of all the miseries, temporal and spiritual, which he so fervently and feelingly deprecated.

As all inspired Scripture is of universal use and application, let us attend a little, first, to the provision which God has made for the salvation of sinners, and then inquire why it is, that so many persons, even under the light of divine revelation, and where the ordinary means of grace are afforded, give such distressing evidence that they have neither part nor lot in the great salvation.

I. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Yes; both. And,

1. The balm is inexhaustible, and the Physician is divine, and infinite in all the attributes of power, skill, and goodness. Our help has been laid on One who is mighty to save. "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." "God comVOL. I.-No. 9.

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