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in which they will, with bitter and fruitless remorse, eternally deplore and condemn their past folly and madness in having misemployed and squandered away, during life, so much precious time. O, let us learn to be wise at their expense; and remember, that we must be confronted, at the tribunal of God, with all our mis-spent hours and days.

These then, brethren, are the reasons why we should redeem time present, past, or future-viz. because it is short, and flies with resistless rapidity; because it is uncertain, and, when once gone, is irrevocable; because it has a momentous influence on our eternal destiny; and because we must one day give an account of our time.

To conclude:- Since nothing is more precious to us than time, or more important to us than to make a right use of it, how lamentable is it that so much time is lost for want of due solicitude to redeem it! How much time is lost in vain and frivolous pursuits or amusements, which have no relation whatever to our true happiness! How much time is lost in useless visits, which are perhaps not more disagreeable to the visitor, than to the person whom the imperious tyrant, fashion, compels to receive them! How much time is lost in idle gossip, in needless attendance on the decoration of the person, and in other pursuits, which dissipate the mind and render it unfit to resume the proper duties of life! to say nothing of the time that is lost by too many in wicked or criminal pursuits.

who are already in the midst of their course,
and have lost much time, may "give all dili-
gence to make their calling and election sure."
And, finally, may God grant that those who
are drawing near to the end of their days,
and who have lost the better part of their life,
may be penetrated with godly sorrow, and
devote the rest of their days to Him, by
whose long-suffering mercy they have been
permitted to enter upon another
year. Amen.

CHURCH-EXTENSION IN SOUTH

AUSTRALIA.

We beg to call very particularly the attention of our readers to the information with which we have been favoured from this interesting colony. It is manifest that in a new state of society, like that to which we invite the public eye, the efforts of the inhabitants must be inadequate to provide the necessary funds for building churches. To the mother-country they must therefore look; and it should be remembered, that a colony, unless it be furnished with Christian ministers, to teach the duty which is owed to God, will sooner or later forget the duty owed to the parent-state. A sense of interest, if no higher motive be felt, should then rouse us to exertion in such a case as this. When we add, that the Roman Catholics are, we are assured, zealously endeavouring to gain a footing in South Australia, we feel no doubt that many of our readers, to whom God has given the means, will readily forward their contributions to the Office of this Magazine, where, and at Hatchards', Piccadilly; Seeleys', Fleet Street; and Nisbet's, Berners Street, they will be thankfully received. We proceed to lay before them some extracts from letters written from Adelaide, in Dec. 1838, and Jan. 1839; also March 17, 1839:

"The pewing of our neat stone church was finished two Sundays ago, and will hold 300 persons, including free sittings: it is filled to overflowing, and it is now being enlarged to hold 300 more; and the governor, on giving the grant from the Christian Knowledge Society of 2501., granted June 1838, and the money entrusted to him by some friends, made it a condition, that sittings should be reserved for the aborigines and the police. The influx of emigrants and settlers is immense, and the present enlargement quite paltry; every pew is already taken, and the church, as it now stands, is considerably in debt, and another is immediately required. A piece of ground

Another year has just closed upon us, and it is a considerable space in our lives. What use have we made of it? Have we improved it to the glory of God, in the discharge of our respective religious, civil, and domestic relations and duties ? Brethren, let us each interrogate our own hearts, as in the presence of God; and if we find, on review, that we have lost our precious gift of time, let us redeem it by redoubling our efforts, in order that, during the remnant which may yet remain to us, we may do what we ought to have done in time past. Let us avail ourselves of the time present, and of the oppor- is appropriated for the building in Victoria Square; but tunities given us for our improvement in the knowledge of our duty towards God and man, and for our growth in grace and holiness. Instead of postponing any thing to a future day, let us now do what we ought to do for the time to come; and may the blessed influence of our example be felt in future ages! God grant that the present year may not be spent like the years which are irrecoverably past! God grant that the young, who have lost comparatively but little time, may understand its vast importance for their present and future happiness; and that those

where are the funds? where are the labourers? O, I would invite some of our excellent English and Irish clergy to come in faith over and help us. Mr. Howard is the only clergyman here; he is a decidedly pious man. We have a very cheering letter, containing a draft for a second grant of 2501. for the Church-building Fund in Adelaide, from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. This is to be applied towards the building

of a second church: but what are we to do for a clergyman? It will be a sad thing to build a church, and then to have it closed for want of a minister. Mr. Howard's health is by no means good; and what must we do, if he were taken from us? our church-door

must be closed-then the little flock is scattered, and the enemy pours in like a flood. Do try and send us a good man and his wife, who can assist Mr. Howard, and superintend the building of another church, with plenty of money to do it. A census has been ordered to be taken of the population, which is supposed to be now nearly 7,000; and four emigrationships are hourly expected. Raise all the money you can for church-purposes, and all the books for Sundayschool rewards and lending-libraries; and pray send us some common coarse printed calico for clothing for the aborigines-they are most anxious for it, and always wear it when given to them, as of course they are not allowed to come within sight of the houses unclad. Interest all our kind friends and relations in behalf of those objects. We are also trying to raise a school for the natives: we have a host of them daily, and employ them in carrying water, sawing wood, &c.; and some we have already begun to teach their letters, and others to sew, and the use of soap, and make them wash themselves and their clothes: they will do any thing for coarse brown biscuit.

"March 17.-We are more and more anxious on the subject of churches and clergymen for South Australia. Some gentlemen, who have engaged in a special survey at Port Lincoln, came to the governor the other day, and said they were going to build a church there, and begged he would appoint them a clergyman. Towns and villages are rising thirty miles round Adelaide, and churches and clergy wanted. As soon as we have money to guarantee our commencing another church in Adelaide, we shall begin."

The Cabinet.

CHRIST'S AMBASSADORS.-Any man may read the Scriptures, or make an oration to the people; but it is not that which the Scriptures call preaching the word of God, unless he be sent by God to do it; " for how can they preach except they be sent ?" (Rom. x. 15). A butcher might kill an ox or a lamb as well as the high-priest; but it was no sacrifice to God, unless one of his priests did it. "And no man taketh this honour to himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Heb. v. 4). Any man may treat of public affairs as well as an ambassador; but he cannot do it to any purpose, without a commission from his prince. As, suppose a foreign nation should set up one among themselves to make a league with England, what would that signify, when he is not authorised by the king to do so? And yet this is the case of many among us, who, as the apostle foretold, cannot "endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears" (2 Tim. iv. 3). But such teachers as men thus heap to themselves, howsoever they may tickle their itching ears, they can never touch their hearts; for that can be done only by the power of God, accompanying and assisting his own institution and commission. Insomuch that if I did not think, or rather was not fully assured, that I had such a commission to be an ambassador for Christ and to act in his name, I should never think it worth the while to preach or execute any ministerial office; for I am sure that all I did would be null and void of itself, according to God's ordinary way of working; and we have no ground to expect miracles. But, blessed be God, we in our Church, by a successive imposition of hands, continued all along from the apostles themselves, receive the same Spirit that was conferred upon them for the administration of the

word and sacraments ordained by our Lord and Master, and therefore may do it as effectually to the salvation of mankind as they did. For as they were, so are we, ambassadors for Christ.-Bishop Beveridge.

THE TREE OF LIFE.-To whom, blessed Lord Jesus, should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. Thou art the true tree of life, in the midst of the paradise of God. For us men, and for our salvation, thou didst condescend to be planted, in a lowly form, upon the earth. But thy head soon reached to heaven, and thy branches to the ends of the earth. Thy head is covered with glory, and thy branches are the branches of honour and grace. Medicinal are thy leaves to heal immortality. It is our hope, our support, our comfort, every malady, and thy fruits are all the blessings of and all our joy, to reflect that, wearied with the labours and worn cut with the cares and sorrows of a fallen world, we shall sit down under thy shadow with great delight, and thy fruit shall be sweet to our taste.— Bishop IIorne.

IDOLATRY.-There are divers ways of breaking the first and second commandments beside worshipping Baal, as wicked Ahab did, and bowing down to stocks and stones. Many a man has set up his idols in his heart, who never dreamt of worshipping a graven image. The root and essence of idolatry, as St. Paul teaches us, is the worshipping and serving God's creatures more than God himself. Whoever, then, serves any one of God's creatures more than he serves Godwhoever loves any one of God's creatures more than he loves God-whoever makes any one of God's creatures more an object of his thoughts, and allows it to fill a greater space in his mind than God fills,-that man is guilty of idolatry in the spiritual and Christian sense of the word. When I say God's creatures, I mean not living creatures merely, but creatures of every kind, every thing which God has made for us, or enabled us to make for ourselves, all the sweet and relishing things we can enjoy in this world,— pleasures, honours, riches, comforts of every kind. Therefore, if any man is foolish and wicked enough to give up his heart to any one of these creatures, and suffers himself to be drawn away from serving Ged by it, he is an idolater in the sight of Heaven.-Rev. A. W. Hare.

THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.-Like the cloud between the hosts of Israel and Egypt, the holy Scriptures are a light by night to those who have eyes to see; while they are darkness even by day to those who are enemies to the truths which they contain.-Bp. Griswold.

EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY ENJOYMENTS.-And first for the perishing state and quality of all these worldly enjoyments; a thing so evident, or rather obvious to common sense and experience, that no man in his right wits can really doubt of it, and yet so universally contradicted by men's practice, that scarce any man seems to believe it. No; though the Spirit of God in Scripture is as full and home in the character it gives of these things as experience itself can be, sometimes expressing them by fashions, which we know are always changing; and sometimes by shadows, which no man can take any hold of; and sometimes by dreams, which are all mockery and delusion,- thus degrading the most admired grandeurs of the world from realities to bare appearances, and from appearances to mere nothings. Nor do they fail only, and lose that little worth they have, but they do it also by the vilest and most contemptible things in nature, by rust and cankers, moths and vermin, things which grow out of the very subjects they destroy, and so make the destruction inevitable. And how can any better be expected, when men will rather dig their treasure and comforts from beneath than fetch them from above? For it is impossible for such mortals to put on immortality; or for things, in the very nature of them calcu

There is a "rest" but found in worlds above,
Whose lofty canopy is love;

Where seraphs hymn their Master's praise,
And cherub-notes unite the heavenly lays.
Then haste, my soul, to find this "rest;"
O, haste to be for ever blest;
Attune thy heart to join that quire,

And learn on earth to string the "golden" lyre!
C. O.

A. G.

lated but for a few days, to last for ever. All sublunary comforts imitate the changeableness, as well as feel the influence of the planet they are under. Time, like a river, carries them all away with a rapid course; they swim above the stream for awhile, but are quickly swallowed up and seen no more. The very monuments men raise to perpetuate their names consume and moulder away themselves, and proclaim their own mortality, as well as testify that of others. In a word, all these earthly funds have deficiencies in them never to be made up. But now, on the other side, the enjoyments above, and the treasures proposed to us by our Saviour, are indefectible in their nature, and endless in their duration. They are still full, fresh, and entire, THE PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. like the stars and orbs above, which shine with the same undiminished lustre, and move with the same unwearied motion, with which they did from the first date of their creation. Nay, the joys of heaven will abide when these lights of heaven shall be put out, and when sun, and moon, and nature itself, shall be discharged their stations, and be employed by Providence no more; the righteous shall then appear in their full glory, and being fixed in the divine presence, enjoy one perpetual and everlasting day, commensurate to the unlimited eternity of God himself, the great Sun of Righteousness, who is always rising and never sets. -Dr. South.

ENCOURAGEMENT.-No man is alone who has Christ for his companion; no man is without God, who, in his own soul, preserves the temple of God undefiled. The Christian may indeed be assailed by robbers, or by wild beasts, among the mountains and deserts; he may be afflicted by famine, by cold, and by thirst; he may lose his life in a tempest at sea,-but the Saviour himself watches his faithful soldier fighting in all these various ways, and is ready to bestow the reward which he has promised to give in the resurrection. - St. Cyprian.

Poetry.

HYMN FOR THE PRESENT HARVEST (For the Church of England Magazine.)

BY E. T. PILGRIM.

ANOTHER harvest, gracious Lord,

Now greets our ravish'd view;

Again thou dost with sinful man

Thy covenant renew:

Where'er we turn our eyes around,

"The year is with thy goodness crown'd."

Then to our God, enthron'd on high,
Our grateful thanks shall rise;
Who thus, with never-ending love,
"Our daily bread" supplies:

With cheerful voice his praise we'll sing-
"Lord of the harvest"-" heavenly King."

"THIERE REMAINETH A REST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD."

(For the Church of England Magazine.)

THERE is a "rest" beyond this world of sin,
Where nought but peace shall enter in;
Rais'd high above these scenes of strife,
In which alone is found "eternal life."

There is a "rest," where labour finds an end,
Where friend meets each departed friend;
Where tears are wip'd from sorrow's eye,
And ne'er is heard again the mourner's sigh.

(For the Church of England Magazine.)
THE western sunbeams faintly fell

On Jordan's ancient stream,
Whose stately trees and reedy banks

Have furnish'd oft a theme
To the outcast sons of Israel
Of many a mournful dream.
The wild ass from the mountain-side
His thirst was quenching there;
A calm unknown in northern climes
Was brooding o'er the air;

No thoughts, save holy ones, might bide
Amidst a scene so fair.

Then through the desert's solitude
There went a sudden cry,
"Repent, ye viper-sons of sin,
The looked-for hour is nigh:
The long-foretold Messiah comes;
His herald-voice am I."

And who is this amidst the wild
With leathern girdle bound,
With sackcloth robe of camel's hair

His shoulders wrapt around;
Who makes each cliff and rugged dell
With one wild cry resound?

'Tis he whom prophet-bards foretell,
Elias come again;

The greatest and the holiest
Amongst the sons of men ;
Whose home is in the wilderness
Beside the wild wolf's den.

And while to Jordan's sacred tide

Astonish'd thousands throng,
Still hear him bold and fearless chant
The same unwelcome song,
That strikes them like a thunderbolt,
So stunning and so strong:

"Ye valleys, rise! ye mountains, bow!
Prepare a pathway clear-

The Lamb of God, the Saviour comes,
His footsteps now are near;
The sandals from whose holy feet
I am not meet to bear.

He comes to sift the tribes of earth
With wrath upon his brow-
To triumph over death and hell-

To bring the proud ones low;
Yet mildly shall the chains be loosed
From off the captive now.

He comes to heal the broken heart-
To light the darken'd eye;

The lame shall leap like Judah's roe,
Free and exultingly;

The deaf shall hear his blessed name
In the dumb man's joyous cry!"
ΑΝ ΟΧΟΝΙΑΝ.

Miscellaneous.

MOSLEM EGYPTIANS.-The Moslem Egyptians are descended from various Arab tribes and families which have settled in Egypt at different periods; mostly soon after the conquest of this country by Amrou, its first Arab governor; but by intermarriages with the Copts and others who have become proselytes to the Islam faith, as well as by the change from a life of wandering to that of citizens or of agriculturalists, their personal characteristics have by degrees become so much altered, that there is a strongly marked difference between them and the natives of Arabia. Yet they are to be regarded as not less genuine Arabs than the townspeople of Arabia itself, among whom has long and very generally prevailed a custom of keeping Abyssinian female slaves, instead of marrying their own country-women, or (as is commonly the case with the opulent) in addition to their Arab wives; so that they bear almost as strong a resemblance to the Abyssinians as to the Bedouins, or Arabs of the desert. In general, the Moslem Egyptians attain the height of about five feet eight or five feet nine inches. Most of the children under nine or ten years of age have spare limbs and a distended abdomen; but as they grow up, their forms rapidly improve. In mature age most of them are remarkably well-proportioned: the men muscular and robust; the women very beautifully formed and plump, and neither sex is too fat. In Cairo, and throughout the northern provinces, those who have not been much exposed to the sun have a yellowish but very clear complexion, and soft skin; the rest are of a considerably darker and coarser complexion. The people of Middle Egypt are of a more tawny colour, and those of the more southern provinces are of a deep bronze or brown complexion-darkest towards Nubia, where the climate is hottest. In general, the countenance of the Moslem Egyptians (I here speak of the men) is of a fine oval form; the forehead of moderate size, seldom high, but generally prominent; the eyes are deep sunk, black, and brilliant; the nose is straight, but rather thick; the mouth wellformed; the lips are rather full than otherwise; the teeth particularly beautiful; the beard is commonly black and curly, but scanty. I have seen very few individuals of this race with grey eyes, or rather, few persons supposed to be of this race-for I am inclined to think them the offspring of Arab women by Turks or other foreigners. The Fellahs, from constant exposure to the sun, have a habit of half-shutting their eyes; this is also characteristic of the Bedouins. Great numbers of the Egyptians are blind in one or both eyes. The costume of the men of the lower orders is very simple. These, if not of the very poorest class, wear a pair of drawers, and a long and full shirt or gown of blue linen or cotton, or of brown woollen stuff (the former called 'er'ee, and the latter zaaboo't), open from the neck nearly to the waist, and having wide sleeves. Over this, some wear a white or red woollen girdle. Their turban is generally composed of a white, red, or yellow woollen shawl, or of a piece of coarse cotton or muslin, wound round a turboo'sh, under which is a white or brown felt cap, called lib'deh; but many are so poor as to have no other cap than the lib'deh-no turban, nor even drawers or shoes, but only the blue or brown shirt, or merely a few rags; while many, on the other hand, wear a soodey'ree under the blue shirt; and some,

particularly servants in the houses of great men, wear a white shirt, a soodey'ree, and a ckoofta'n or gib'beh, or both, and the blue shirt over all. The full sleeves of this shirt are sometimes drawn up by means of cords, which pass round each shoulder and cross behind, where they are tied in a knot. This custom is adopted by servants (particularly grooms), who have cords of crimson or dark-blue silk for this purpose. In cold weather, many persons of the lower classes wear an 'abba'yeh, like that before described, but coarser; and sometimes, instead of being black, having broad stripes brown and white, or blue and white, but the latter rarely. Another kind of cloak, more full than the 'abba'yeh, of black or deep-blue woollen stuff, is also very commonly worn; it is called diffee'yeh. The shoes are of red or yellow morocco, or of sheep-skin. -Lane's Modern Egyptians.

RIO DE JANEIRO.-Passing one day by the convent of Santo Domingo, my attention was attracted to one of the domes of it, on which I saw conspicuously painted a great number of cannon-shot of all sizes. "Is it possible," I remarked to Mrs. Torrents, with whom I was walking, " that so many shots could have struck that devoted turret, and yet left it standing?" "No, no," she replied, "two or three did strike it, but the friars have painted all these to superinduce the belief that the balls of you heretics could make no impression on catholic towers. And the common people believe it. But we ladies, though not soldiers, know better than that; for look at what your balls did at Montevideo. For my part, I believe that no right religion can have any thing to do with powder and ball."-Robertson's Letters on Paraguay.

MEDICAL PROFESSION.-Some years ago, it happened to me, before I had connected in my mind the study of medicine with its practical benefits, to express with the inadvertency of youth, to one whose talents have since raised him to well-earned eminence, my surprise that he should make choice of a profession which entailed upon him the necessity of visiting so many sick chambers. You do not take into the account, he replied, the satisfaction we experience from relieving the sufferings which you describe. You do not know what we feel at seeing our patients rise from their sick beds, with recruited strength, and spirits again made buoyant by our means, under Providence. If we do witness, as indeed we do, scenes of misery, do we not also notice the brightening eye of returning health turned towards us with all the animation of gratitude? A parent thanks us for his restored child; a child for his parent; a husband for his wife. We can often say, "There is joy in that house," the result of our skill, the reward of our care; and our heart throbs with a satisfaction which is in alliance with the purest aspirations of noble feeling. When I mention, that these were the sentiments of Sir Benjamin Brodie early in life, I rest assured that I need say no more to give them their full weight in your eyes, from the estimation in which the character of that individual is held. But observe, I do not bring this forward as a solitary or unusual instance of correct and generous feeling; being persuaded that Sir Benjamin Brodie is only one among many who would return the same answer, in a profession which abounds with gentlemen of the most Christian-like tone and temper, and of singular humanity; remarkable alike for the strength, the correctness, the richness of their highly cultivated and Christian minds. -Chancellor Law's Address at Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery.

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE.

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THE BELIEVER'S PEACE.

I.

PRICE 1d.

strangers to happiness and ease. On the contrary, we may enter the hovel, and we may behold in the wretched inmates objects THE marks which distinguish the righteous struggling against the sad combination of from the wicked are not limited merely to poverty and sickness; or we may go to those outward circumstances or actions. This is institutions, the receptacles of affliction and no where more clearly to be seen than in suffering, and we may see there cases of our the contrast which the Scriptures exhibit as fellow-creatures writhing under acute agony, to their respective states of mind; comparing lingering from day to day under the cruel the one to " the troubled sea when it cannot effects of disease; and yet we shall be able rest, whose waves cast up mire and dirt;" to find many a one, notwithstanding the aggraand portraying the "peace" of the other by vated circumstances and accumulated misery the emblem of a "river," which " goes of the individual, in possession of an inward softly" onward through the many windings comfort, a support and a solace under his of its course. How is it that there should afflictions. And why? even because "the be such a striking difference in men enjoying Lord God" hath "spoken peace unto them." the same advantages, partakers of the same If, however, we ask the Christian for an outward privileges, situated in parallel cir- answer to the question proposed, he will at cumstances as regards this life, and alike once take us to that blessed volume, which destined in the next for eternity? Would is alone infallible, to which we should always we have the question solved? let us ask refer in doubts and difficulties, and make it the world. The inequality of men's disposi-" the touchstone" of our faith and conduct. tions and tempers; the sorrows and pleasures which checker this fleeting scene; or the effects of station, as high or low, as rich or poor, will probably be adduced as the causes which contribute to the misery of the one, or to the happiness of the other.

These shallow reasons may, however, be soon confuted by experience; for we shall find, that it is not wealth that bestows peace, neither is it poverty that necessarily takes it away. We may go, for instance, to the mansion, and visit those who have even more than heart could wish; "the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, may be in their feasts;" and yet in the midst of such mirth there is often heaviness; and the poor possessors of such seeming advantages may be

VOL. VII.-NO. CLXXXIX.

The Christian will shew that the condition of every one that cometh into the world is one of sin and alienation from God; that, consequently, we are deservedly under his displeasure and just judgment; but that God has provided a Lamb, which has made a sufficient sacrifice to atone for our sins, to remove God's displeasure, and to obtain the Holy Spirit, whereby we may overcome the inclinations of the flesh, and serve God acceptably. But, alas, men "will not come unto Christ, that they may have life;" they will not embrace the offers of free pardon and salvation through the blood of the Lamb; they still persist in "minding earth," and loving the things of the flesh; their minds are carnal, and " enmity against God!" And

[London: Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.]

T

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