is not this more agreeable to an affectionate parent, than the other form would be? I simply throw out these remarks for the consideration of those whom it may concern. I have no question but that some prayers, offered in the use of the third person, have more power with God than many others in the use of the second; but is it not best for us to keep as near to Scripture examples as we can? The only passage I can think of, which seems at first to justify the form of address to which I object, is found in the seventy-seventh Psalm : "Will the Lord cast off for ever? Will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever?" &c. But this is not a prayer. It is an anxious soliloquy of the Psalmist, as we see in the verse immediately preceding. "I call to remembrance my song in the night; I commune with mine own heart, and my spirit made diligent search." I do not say, that praying in the first to the third person, as it were, is not acceptable to God; but it is unnatural, and, I believe, is not authorized by any Bible examples. We sometimes hear another form of expression in the pulpit, and at prayermeetings, which I think is not sustained by any scriptural example-as thus: "O Lord, we would desire to lift up our hearts with thanksgiving; we would desire an answer to our prayers; we would ascribe everlasting praises unto thee, O God," and the like; instead of, "We lift up our hearts, and beseech thee to answer our prayers; we ascribe unto thee everlasting praises," &c. If I have overlooked examples, in the prayers on sacred record, which justify the indirect approaches to God which I have quoted from the pulpit, and which we not unfrequently hear out of it, it will be easy to find them. But if they cannot be found, I hope my calling the attention of whom it may concern, in or out, will not be thought hypocritical. Surely it is better to adhere to scriptural phraseology, than unnecessarily to deviate from it. H. H. THE ACT OF FAITH. A MAN lies on his bed in the tent, suffering from a fiery serpent's bite. Friends tell him that God has commanded Moses to make a serpent of brass, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that whoever is bitten, if he will look upon the brazen serpent, he shall live. They prepare to remove the bed to the tent-door, that the dying man may cast his eye to the appointed symbol and be saved. One of the friends, however, interposes. He has not seen the brazen serpent. Indeed, he would not lift his eyes to be more satisfied than he is that such a way of being cured is preposterous. There is no possible connexion, he says, between a brazen serpent and the bite of a flying serpent; between looking at something upon a pole and the cure of an envenomed wound. Can the sight of brass cool the fevered blood? The very look at the image of a serpent would awaken fresh pain. No judicious Levite would try to raise the apparition of a monster for the cure of one who had been wounded by that monster. The whole appointment, therefore, is "figurative," taphorical;" there is no pole, no brazen serpent yonder; but the meaning of God's command to Moses is this :-The Infinite Father wishes to have his suffering children meditate upon the infliction which he has felt compelled to send upon them, by means of venomous serpents, for their salutary chastisement. They must get a clear, vivid sense of their transgression; their conception of their sin must be as real and deep as the sight of a shining brass image of a flying serpent would be impressive. By the " pole," it is intimated that we must keep the subject of our sin "lifted up" before our minds until we are thoroughly penitent. 95 66 me And now, while the cured and grateful patients in the encampments come, one after another, to the tent door, beckon to this friend of the dying man, and beseech him just to turn the bed so that he may look and be saved, the transcendentalist replies that, if Moses himself should tell him to do so, he has too much confidence in the wisdom and goodness of the Infinite Father to believe that He could appoint such a means of cure. But let us hear the Son of God: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If we may have the same confidence in language that relates to the concerns of our souls for eternity, which we do not hesitate to repose in the apparently sincere and honest words of a physician, or in the instructions received from our superiors in business or in command, we cannot be at a loss to understand these words of the Saviour. The look which the wounded Israelites gave at the appointed sign was an act of faith. It was not for them to know why that method of cure rather than any other was appointed; with implicit faith they cast their eyes upon it, and were thereby healed. It is easy to see that the brazen serpent, reminding them of their punishment, would test their willingness to receive a cure from the hands of him whom they had offended; and the more obviously gratuitous the cure was made to appear by the appointment of a sign which had no necessary connexion with medicine, so much the more would it require humility and submission, as well as faith, to comply with this appointed method of being healed. DO IT HEARTILY. DIVINE art of turning pain into pleasure! all labour into joy! of bringing rest out of weariness, and hope of reward out of deep dejection ! "Whatever ye do." It may not be that which you would like to do. Desire must yield to duty. The entertaining book must be laid aside; the calm retreat forsaken; choice spirits, among whom the soul would "sit and sing herself away," resigned for less congenial intercourse. The plough waits for you in the furrow. In the sweat of thy brow must thou eat bread. Fresh wants rise up and cry, "Give! give!" Nature will not yield thee her good fruits; no, nor grace either, spontaneously. The hand of the diligent it maketh rich-and thou must " Sow in tears," ere thou "reap in joy." You would like to sit at noonday, under the shadow of your vine; but, lo! it needs the pruning knife! The fragrance of early morning invites you, and you would fain linger among the flowers; but, see thorns and briers are fast springing up to choke the good grain. You must work-work! Go not to thy labour with a heavy heart. Say not in bitterness, "I rise up early-I sit up late-I eat the bread of carefulness-I waste the day in labour, in prayer, in tears, and what am I the better? The same scene of toil returns to-morrow and to-morrow, to the end Now, the apostle shows us a mode of turning all this drudgery into joyWhatsoever you do "-planting or pruning; ploughing or reaping-" do it heartily." But how take any interest in such dull work as mine? How work heartily, when nobody will ever thank me ? It is not so difficult after all. "Do it heartily-as unto the Lord, and not unto men." "As Ah! that makes a difference! unto the Lord." How simple and reasonable! He is my Master. He gave me my work. It is not for man I labour. He may, indeed, turn my labours to the account of man, then I shall receive a present, earthly reward. But if not, it is no business of mine. I faithfully serve my employer. He faithfully rewards me. That was the bargain. What then have I to do with the praise of men? What if they do not appreciate my labours? What if they have no sympathy in my toils? What if I spend my pains on a barren soil, that gives me back no fruit or flower? Still I will not faint. I will not fly the noonday heat. Sometimes my Lord will invite me to rest beneath the banner of his love. For that I will be grateful, and return to my task more cheerfully. I will not grumble at the kind of work alloted to me. I will not repine if my brother's task is lighter than mine. I will not stop to abuse the world because it takes no notice of me; satisfied that his approval is sure, and that rest is near; for the day is far spent the night is at hand-and the sweet refreshment of our Father's house is already prepared! THE JOURNEY OF LIFE. At Ten thousand human beings set forth together on their journey. After ten years, one-third, at least, have disappeared. At the middle point of the common measure of life, but half are still upon the road. Faster and faster, as the ranks grow thinner, they that remain till now become weary, and lie down to rise no more. threescore and ten, a band of some four hundred yet struggle on. At ninety, these have been reduced to a handful of thirty trembling patriarchs. Year after year they fall in diminishing numbers. One lingers, perhaps, a lonely marvel till the century is We look again, and the work of death is finished.-Bishop Burgess. over. Biblical Illustration. HIGH PLACES FOR DEVOTION. "The people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places."-1 KINGS xxii. 43. It appears that in days of old men frequently worshipped upon hills and upon the tops of high mountains, imagining that they thereby obtained a nearer communication with heaven, the seat of the gods. Strabo informs us that the Persians always performed their worship upon hills. Some nations, instead of an image, worshipped the hill as the deity. In Japan most of their temples are at this day upon eminences, and often upon the ascent of high mountains, commanding fine views, with groves and rivulets of clear water; for they say that the gods are extremely delighted with such high and pleasant spots. Holwell says that this practice, in early time, was almost universal, and every mountain was esteemed holy. The people who prosecuted this method of worship enjoyed a soothing infatuation, which flattered the gloom of superstition. The eminences to which they retired were lonely and silent, and seemed to be happily circumstanced for contemplation and prayer. They who frequented them were raised above the lower world, and fancied that they were brought into the vicinity of the powers of the air, and of the deity, who resided in the higher Lessons regions. But the chief excellence for which they were frequented was, that they were looked upon as the peculiar places where God delivered his oracles. Both at Athens and Rome the most sacred temples stood in the most eminent part of the city. Jupiter, in Homer, commends Hector for the many sacrifices which he had offered upon the top of Ida; and Balak, king of Moab, carried Balaam to the top of a mountain, to sacrifice to the gods, and curse Israel from thence, Num. xxii. 41. PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BY CAST- "And cast them down from the top of the rock, THIS mode of punishment was practised by the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Jews. In Greece, according to the Delphian law, such as were guilty of sacrilege were led to a rock, and cast headlong down. Livy says that the Romans inflicted it on various malefactors, by casting them down from the Tarpeian rock. Mr. Pitts, in his account of the Mohammedans, informs us, that in Turkey, at a place called Constantine, a town situated at the top of a great rock, the usual way of executing great criminals is by pushing them off the cliff. essons by the Way; or, Things to Think On. STRANGENESS Angels have no death to undergo; there is no such fear of unnatural violence between them and their final destiny. It is for man, and for aught that appears, it is for man alone, to watch, from the other side of the material panorama that surrounds him, the great and amazing realities with which he has everlastingly to do-it is for him, so locked in an imprisonment of clay, and with no other loop-holes of communication between himself and all that surrounds him, than the eye and the ear-it is for him to light up in his bosom a realizing sense of the things that eye hath never seen, and ear hath never heard. It is for man, and perhaps for man alone, to travel in thought over the ruins of a mighty desolation, and beyond the wreck of that present world by which he is encompassed, to conceive that future world on which he is to expatiate for ever. But a harder achievement, perhaps, than anyit is for a man, in the exercise of faith, to observe that most appalling of all contemplations, the decay and the dissolution of himself; to think of the time when his now animated framework, every part of which is so sensitive and dear to him, OF DEATH. shall fall to pieces; when the vital warmth by which it is so thoroughly pervaded shall take its departure, and leave to coldness and abandonment all that is visible of this moving, and acting, and thinking creature; when those limbs, with which he now steps so firmly; and that countenance, out of which he now looks so gracefully; and that tongue, with which he now speaks so eloquently; when that whole body, for the interest and provision of which he now labours so strenuously, as if indeed it were immortal; when all these shall be reduced to a mass of putrefaction, and at length crumble, with the coffin that encloses them, into dust! Why, my brethren, to a being in the full consciousness and possession of its living energies, there is something, if I may be allowed the expression, so foreign and so unnatural in death, that we ought not to wonder if it scare away the mind from that ethereal region of existence to which it is hastening. Angels have no such transition of horror and mystery to undergo. There is no screen of darkness interposed between them and the portion of their futurity, however distant; and it appears that it is for man only to drive a bridge across that barrier which looks so impenetrable, or so to surmount the power of vision, as to carry his aspirings over the summits of all that revelation has made known to him.Dr. Chalmers. THE POWER OF SILENCE. A good woman in New Jersey was sadly annoyed by a termagant neighbour, who often visited her, and provoked a quarrel. She at last sought the counsel of her pastor, who added sound common sense to his other good qualities. Having heard the story of her wrongs, he advised her to seat herself quietly in the chimney corner when next visited, take the tongs in her hand, look steadily into the fire, and whenever a hard word came from her neighbour's lips, gently snap the tongs, without uttering a word. day or two afterwards the good woman came again to her pastor, with a bright and laughing face, to communicate the effects of this new antidote for scolding. Her troubler had visited her, and, as usual, commenced her tirade. Snap! went the tongs. Another volley. Suap! Another still. Snap! "Why don't you speak?" said the termagant, more enraged. Snap! "Speak!" said she. Snap! "Do speak! I shall split if you don't speak!" And away she went, cured of her malady by the magic power of silence. PACKING THOUGHT. Do not assume that because you have something important to communicate, it is necessary to write a long article. A tremendous thought may be packed into a small compass-made as solid as a cannonball, and, like the projectile, cut down all before it. Short articles are generally more effective, find more readers, and are more widely copied than long ones. Pack your thoughts close together, and though your article may be brief, it will have weight, and be more likely to make an impression. Ye who write for this busy age, speak quick, use short sentences, never stop the reader with a long or ambiguous word, but let the stream of thought flow right on, and men will drink it like water. THE WORLD WE LIVE IN Is a rough and thorny world, an awkward world to get through; but it might be worse. It might be better, if every one would try in earnest to make it so. I was walking some time ago with a countryman, whom I observed every now and then to kick aside any particular large or jagged stone that lay loose upon the horse-track. "I don't like to see a stone like that in the road," said he, "and not move it. It might trip up a horse, and break a rider's neck, and 't is very little trouble to kick it aside." Oh, that all passers through the world would but act upon the same plan! A CHILD'S LOGIC. One day, a little girl about five years old heard a preacher praying most lustily, till the roof rang with the strength of his supplication. Turning to her mother, and beckoning the maternal ear down to a speaking distance, she whispered, “Mother, don't you think that if he lived nearer to God, he wouldn't have to talk so loud?" TEARS OF LUXURY. "What is the matter with that young man?" was the thought of many, one Sabbath at the Mariner's Church, as a wellappearing young man wept much during the service. What was the matter? Oh, they were tears of joy! Joy! for what? He shall tell his own story: "I am steward of a ship; I am on my way home to Baltimore from Boston; I have not had the privilege of meeting with the people of God for twenty months; I feel that it is good to be here." BREVITY. Dr. Abernethy, the celebrated physician, was never more displeased than by hearing a patient detail a long account of troubles. A woman, knowing Abernethy's love of the laconic, having burned her hand, called at his house. Showing him her hand, she said, "A burn." 66 A poultice," quietly answered the learned doctor. The next day she returned, and said, "Better." "Continue the poultice," replied Dr. Abernethy. In a week she made her last call, and her speech was lengthened to three words, "Well. Your fee?" "Nothing," said the physician; "you are the most sensible woman I ever saw." LIVE FOR SOMETHING. Live for something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument of virtue, that the storm of life can never destroy. Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy, on the hearts of thousands who come in contact with you year by year, and you will never be forgotten. No, your name, your deeds, will be as legible on the hearts you leave behind as the stars on the brow of evening. Good deeds will shine as the stars of heaven.-Dr. Chalmers. THE JEWS. Out of 700,000 Jews in the United States only one is registered in the census as a farmer. This is interpreted as one of the evidences of the singular isolation of the Jews, as prophesied in Amos ix. 9"For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." THE portrait, personal and official, of Washington has been often sketched, and generally with success. Unlike European Statesmen, he has suffered nothing from the spirit of faction, which, for the time, was extinguished in the flames of the Revolution. The last great writer who has dealt with the subject is Bancroft, the American Historian, who has drawn the following outline:— Courage was so natural to him, that it was hardly spoken of to his praise; no one ever at any moment of his life discovered in him the least shrinking in danger; and he had a hardihood of daring which escaped notice, because it was so enveloped by superior calmness and wisdom. He was as cheerful as he was spirited, frank and communicative in the society of friends, fond of the fox-chase and the dance, often sportive in his letters, and liked a hearty laugh. His hand was liberal; giving quietly and without observation, as though he was ashamed of nothing but being discovered in doing good. He was kindly and compassionate, and of lively sensibility to the sorrow of others; so that if his country had only needed a victim for its relief, he would have willingly offered himself as a sacrifice. But while he was prodigal of himself, he was considerate for others; ever parsimonious of the blood of his country men. He was prudent in the management of his private affairs, purchased rich VOL. XV. lands from the Mohawk Valley to the flats of the Kanawha, and improved his fortune by the correctness of his judgment; but as a public man, he knew no other aim than the good of his country, and in the hour of his country's poverty, he refused personal emolument for his service. His faculties were so well balanced. and combined that his constitution, freefrom excess, was tempered evenly with all the elements of activity, and his mind resembled a well-ordered commonwealth; his passions, which had the intensest vigour, owned allegiance to reason; and, with all the fiery quickness of his spirit, his impetuous and massive will was held in check by consummate judgment. He had in his composition a calm which gave him, in moments of highest excitement, the power of selfcontrol, and enabled him to excel in patience even when he had most cause for disgust. Washington was offered a command when there was little to bring out the unorganized resources of the continent but his own influence, and authority was connected with the people by the most frail, most attenuated,. scarcely discernible threads; yet, vehe-ment as was his nature, impassioned as was his courage, he so restrained his ardour that he never failed continuously to exert the attracting power of that influence, and never exerted it so sharplyas to break its force. In secrecy he was unsurpassed; but. his secrecy had the character of prudent reserve, not of cunning or concealment. His understanding was lucid, and his, 2 L |