that has since been accomplished for the good of Africa, and of much more that is still to come. The whole of the Protestant world are now embarked in the work of African regeneration, and are in a fair way of covering the country. It will, without fail, be realized. For the first time the interior has been penetrated, and fairly opened up through the zealous energy of the Christian missionary. After the scientific world had been utterly baffled in all their attempts to penetrate the interior, Dr. Livingstone achieved the great and perilous enterprise. The record of the event is now before the world, which cannot fail to impart a new character to Missionary labour in Africa.

MADAGASCAR.

This great and interesting island, notwithstanding the recent afflictions which have overtaken the Christians of it, has made a large contribution to the gains of the Gospel. Much has there been done in the matter of Scriptural translation and preparation of schoolbooks, and the preaching of the Divine Word. Large numbers have become converts, and have been called to prove their sincerity by the fires of persecution; and the grace of their Lord has sufficed to sustain them!

AUSTRALIA.

The Five Colonies.-These may be viewed as a new world, which, in the end, will constitute an immense accession to the kingdom of Christ. Already the foundations are laid of a most powerful temporal kingdom, rich in soil, in minerals, and in everything contributing to material greatness. Never before was a people, in point of numbers so small, so high in the scale of civilization. They are to be viewed as simply a fragment broken off from the British Empire, and transferred to the antipodes; instead of having to work their way up, like aboriginal tribes, from barbarism, they began at once with all the lights, instruments, and appliances of civilized life in Great Britain. Steam, in all its power to bless, is part of their inheritance, while the miracles of the telegraph, the railway, and the printing press, are being daily performed. Already Victoria and New South Wales rejoice in universities, and scholastic establishments are rising on every side. All the leading Chris

tian sects of Great Britain are powerfully represented by a body of Gospel ministers, constituting the flower of the denominations from which they have severally proceeded. Not now, as at one period, are "the blind and the lame" deemed good enough to be laid on the altar of Colonial service. The search is now for the best men, and that search has not been in vain. These churches are not merely destined to make a great figure as a portion of the universal church, but to perform a chief part in the great work of enlightening the adjacent isles of the South Seas. Among the gains of the century to the cause of Christianity, the Australian colonies may, therefore, be viewed as occupying a very high place.

POLYNESIA.

In 1757 Polynesia was all but a blank on the map of the world's history. Geographers knew but little about it. Since that time the progress of discovery has been so great as to reveal not only a multitude of islands, but many groups of islands. The chief of these have already been visited by the heralds of the Gospel, and taken possession of in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures have been translated into the native languages, books have been prepared for both old and young, congregations have been collected, schools opened, and the Gospel has been preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven to the conversion of a multitude of the islanders. All this is pure gain to the great cause.

CHINA.

In 1757 little was known of China beyond the name. Since that time our knowledge has been greatly improved, and that knowledge has been made to redound to the spiritual welfare of the Chinese, comprising about one-third of the human family. That most difficult of all languages has been thoroughly mastered. Its treasures are deposited in dictionaries, and its laws are fixed in grammar. Important books have been prepared in it; and, last and greatest, the Chinese, in their own tongue, may read the wonderful works of God. Providences have been steadily operating so as materially to further the work of missions. The English have obtained a footing in several ports of the empire, each of

which becomes a centre of influence to the region round about. A rebellion has broken out, the flames of which have raged for years, and are raging still; the results of this event have already tended to the spread of truth and the advancement of the kingdom which cannot be moved. As a first step, therefore, an immense advantage may be considered as gained in the Chinese empire. All the principal denominations are now represented there in the mission field, and everything encourages the hope that the time to favour this immense country is at hand. The misunderstanding which unhappily prevails between England and China, while unfavourable at present to the Missionary enterprise, will doubtless, as usual, end in its furtherance.

HINDOSTAN.

In 1757 not much was known of India beyond the name; but since that period it has been thoroughly explored, and the whole of that mighty region may be said to have been brought under the sceptre of England. The results of this accession, in whatever light viewed, are prodigious. Not only have the Hindoos received British law, but British religion. Life, property, and liberty are now guaranteed to 150,000,000 of men. These blessings are in all respects as secure to the children of the East as to those of England. This state of things has laid the foundation for evangelical operations in a manner so satisfactory that the Gospel is not more free in Great Britain than it is in Hindostan. Missionaries, accordingly, are at work in every quarter. Translations of the Scriptures have been executed, by which the Book of Life is laid open to the great mass of the people. The schoolmaster, also, is abroad, and the professors of the highest science are diffusing their lessons, in academic chairs, to multitudes of the youth of India. The rail and the telegraph have united to perform their wonders, to contract space, and to extend the span of human life. In a word, the foundations are laid for an incalculable accession to the kingdom of Christ. The Shastres are giving place to the Sacred Scriptures, and the Brahmin to the messengers of mercy, the servants of the Most High God, showing unto men the way of salvation. The

labours of the Missionaries have for the present received a serious check in Bengal from the recent Mutiny; but there is every ground to hope that the result will be to give to the enterprise a tenfold impulse. The great work will henceforth be prosecuted on a scale, and with a vigour worthy of England and commensurate with the necessities of India.

Let all these facts be combined, and it will be seen that the century, 1757-1857, has been by far the most remarkable on record. The church has broken forth on all sides, and taken possession of the whole earth for him whose "right it is to reign," who is the "head of the heathen," and "the Lord of all." If any one, looking at the sum total of the agencies in the foreign field, and comparing it with the work to be done, should despondingly say, "What are these among so many?" let him remember that the disparity is greatly less than was that which obtained between the Twelve Apostles and the whole Human Race.

It is to be further kept in mind that the spirit of missions, among the Protestant churches, is but a thing of yesterday. Deep and lengthened was their slumber; but at last, in mercy to the heathen, it was broken by the voice of heaven. They have not yet, however, put forth more than a small portion of the power that is latent within them. Their prayers, contributions, and labours are still on the smallest scale, consistent with evangelical vitality and good faith in the cause. It is a great matter, indeed, to have made such a commencement. Development will follow, constantly increasing in strength, till missions will become the great business of the faithful throughout the whole world.

Let it further be observed, that if Christians have done but little, they are the only portion of the human race who have done anything with a view to bring the rest of the world over to their creed. They alone aspire to universal dominion for their Lord and Master. Nor is this all; his religion alone comprises a command enforcing the duty of propagation. He alone issued a mandate to subjugate the world. That command was not merely to make an attempt, but to do it! "Go and disciple all nations." The

Jews have no missions to the Gentiles; the Mohammedans have no missions to the rest of the world; and it has not yet entered the heads of the Pagans in any part of the earth to embark in missions to bring Christians, Jews, and Turks to bow at the shrine of Polytheism.

Let Christians, then, understand their glorious mission, and rise to the level of the Divine undertaking. The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness

thereof;" and it behoves them, in His name, to go up and take possession of every continent, and of every isle. In obeying the Divine mandate, they will not fail to obtain the promised presence of Emmanuel, and at length to realize the predictions of Holy Writteaching, that "the whole earth shall be filled with his glory "-that "all nations shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed."

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY
STONING.

"He shall surely be stoned."-Ex. xix. 13. To be stoned to death was a grievous and terrible infliction. When the offender came within four cubits of the place of execution, he was stripped naked, only leaving a covering before; and his hands being bound, he was led up to the fatal place, which was an eminence twice a man's height. The first executioners of the sentence were the witnesses, who generally pulled off their clothes for the purpose: one of them threw him down with great violence upon his back; and if he rolled upon his breast, he was turned upon his back again. If the fall did not occasion immediate death, the other witness took a great stone and dashed upon his breast as he lay upon his back; and then, if not despatched, all the people that stood by threw stones at him till he died. Sometimes they would throw the culprit down upon a great stone, and at other times would let a stone fall upon him, to which our Lord alludes in Luke xx. 18: "Whosoever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder."

THE SCAPE-GOAT. "And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities, unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."-LEV. xvi. 22.

MR. BRUCE relates the following narrative: "We found that, upon some dissension, the garrison and townsmen had been fighting for several days, in which disorders the greatest part of the ammunition in the town had been expended; but it had since been agreed on, by the old men of both parties, that nobody had been to blame on either side, but the whole wrong was the work of a camel. A camel, therefore, was seized and brought without the town; and there, a number on both sides having met, they upbraided the camel with everything that had been either said or done. The camel had killed men ; he had threatened to set the town on fire ;the

camel had threatened to burn the Aga's house and the castle; he had cursed the grand seignior and the sheriff of Mecca, the sovereigns of the two parties, and threatened to destroy the wheat that was going to Mecca. After having spent a great part of the afternoon in upbraiding the camel, whose measure of iniquity, it seems, was nearly full, each man thrust him through with a lance, and then retired, fully satisfied as to the wrongs he had received from the camel."

The Asuamedha Jug is an ancient Indian custom, in which a horse was brought and sacrificed, with some rites similar to those prescribed in the Mosaic law. The horse thus sacrificed was instead of the sacrificer, and bore his sins with him into the wilderness in which he was turned adrift; and thus, without shedding of blood, the animal became an expiatory victim.

THE MANNER OF CUTTING HAIR. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads." LEV. xix. 27.

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It appears that the Hebrew word translated corners signifies also the "extremities" of anything; and the meaning is, they were not to cut their hair equal behind and before, as did the worshippers of the stars and the planets, particularly the Arabians.

According to Herodotus, they do it in honour of Bacchus, who, they say, had his hair cut in this way: and after this sort the Chinese cut their hair to the present day; which, no doubt, was a custom with the Egyptians when the Israelites dwelt among them.

Some, however, are led to imagine, that it refers to a superstitious custom among the Gentiles in their mourning for the dead. They cut off their hair, and that round about, and threw it into the sepulchre with the bodies of their relations and friends, and sometimes laid it upon the face or the breast of the dead, as an offering to the infernal gods, whereby they thought to appease them, and make them kind to the deceased. Here we see the grand cause of the prohibition.

teaching; for the new religion went long afterwards, perhaps it does so still, by the name of "the religion of the yellow stick."

Finding his farm in Ulva insufficient to support a numerous family, my grandfather removed to Blantyre Works, a large cotton manufactory on the beautiful Clyde, above Glasgow; and his sons, having had the best education the Hebrides afforded, were gladly received as clerks by the proprietors, Monteith and Co. He himself, highly esteemed for his unflinching honesty, was employed in the conveyance of large sums of money from Glasgow to the works, and in old age was, according to the custom of that company, pensioned off, so as to spend his declining years in ease and com

fort.

Our uncles all entered his majesty's service during the last French war, either as soldiers or sailors; but my father remained at home, and though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by his kindliness of manner and winning ways, he made the heartstrings of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed, and could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage.

He

reared his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland-a religious establishment which has been an incalculable blessing to that country-but he afterwards left it, and during the last twenty years of his life held the office of deacon of an Independent church in Hamilton, and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me from infancy with a continuously consistent pious example, such as that the ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully pourtrayed in Burns' "Cotter's Saturday Night." He died in February, 1856, in peaceful hope of that mercy which we all expect through the death of our Lord and Saviour. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage fire, and telling him my travels. I revere his memory.

The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen among the Scottish poor-that of the anxious housewife striving to make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a "piecer," to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part of my first week's

wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin," and pursued the study of that language for many years afterwards, with unabated ardour, at an evening school, which met between the hours of eight and ten. The dictionary part of my labours was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night. I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster-happily still alive-was supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind, and so moderate in his charges that all who wished for education might have obtained it. Many availed themselves of the privilege; and some of my schoolfellows now rank in positions far above what they appeared ever likely to come to when in the village school. If such a system were established in England, it would prove a never-ending blessing to the poor.

In reading, everything that I could lay my hands on was devoured except novels. Scientific works and books of travels were my especial delight; though my father, believing, with many of his time who ought to have known better, that the former were inimical to religion, would have preferred to have seen me poring over the "Cloud of Witnesses," or Boston's "Fourfold State." Our difference of opinion reached the point of open rebellion on my part, and his last application to the rod was on my refusal to peruse Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity." This dislike to dry doctrinal reading, and to religious reading of every sort, continued for years afterwards; but having lighted on those admirable works of Dr. Thomas Dick, "The Philosophy of Religion," and "The Philosophy of a Future State," it was gratifying to find my own ideas, that religion and science are not hostile, but friendly to each other, fully proved and enforced.

Great pains had been taken by my parents to instil the doctrines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding the theory of our free salvation by the atonement of our Saviour; but it was only about