Oh, come But there is no annihilation for any soul of man. to our Saviour! give him your guilty soul, to be justified through his atonement, washed in his blood, regenerated by his Spirit. Make to him now that surrender of your soul, for which he calls. Renew this happy self-dedication every day, very specially every Sabbath, and most solemnly, from time to time, at the Lord's Supper. And then, when you come to die, it will only be, to do once more, what you have so often done in former days,—again to commend your soul very humbly, believingly, and affectionately, unto the faithful care of Jesus Christ. Hambleton 22-The Dying Christian. VITAL spark of heavenly flame! Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! Poul'try, domestic fowls; e-nu'mer-a-ted, mentioned; fecun'di-ty, fruitfulness; e-steemed', valued; del'i-ca-cy, nicety; lux'u-ry, dainty; sing'u-lar, remarkable; fas'ci-na-ting, enchanting; chat'ter-ing, talking; os'si-frage, a strong fierce kind of eagle. THE uses of the poultry kind, especially of such as are domesticated, are too obvious to be enumerated: it may, however, be remarked, that the common hen, if well supplied with food and water, is said to lay sometimes two hundred eggs in a year; and the fecundity of the pigeon, in its domestic state, is so great, that, from a single pair, nearly fifteen thousand may be produced, in four years.—The flesh of the grouse kind, is esteemed for its delicacy. The peacock, in some countries, is considered a luxury. It is, in a great measure, for its singular plumage, that man has been tempted to follow the ostrich in its desert retreat; but some of the African tribes are also very fond of its flesh, and its strength and swiftness seem to render it very fit for the purposes of travelling and carrying burdens. If, in the feathery tribes, some appear to be formed to please us with the beauty of their plumage, as the goldfinch, the bullfinch and the humming bird; others, as the thrush, the blackbird, and the canary, delight us with the melody of their song. The lark soars aloft and salutes the new-born day with his cheerful notes. The nightingale soothes the weary labourer, as he returns from his daily toil, by its fascinating strains. The little robin, in return for the protection our fences have afforded him, exerts himself to render the hedges vocal in soft and tender melody. The swallow, as if sensible of the undisturbed possession she has been allowed to take of our windows and roofs, during the time of her necessities, catches upon the wing, a multitude of flies, gnats, and beetles, and thus frees us, from a number of troublesome vermin, before she bids us farewell. Birds of the rook and pie kind, although a noisy and chattering tribe, may be of infinitely more use than we are able to discover, by the destruction of grubs, worms, and eggs of vermin: and the common carrion-crow may be no less necessary in our climate, than the vulture in Egypt, and the ossifrage in Syria. In many warm countries, the vulture is of singular use. Numerous flocks of them are always hovering in the neighbourhood of Grand Cairo; and for the services the inhabitants experience, by these animals devouring the carrion and filth of that great city, which, in such a sultry climate, would otherwise soon putrify and then corrupt the air, they are not permitted to be destroyed. The ossi frage of the woods of Syria and Egypt, feeds on the dead carcases of fowls and reptiles. Au-thor'i-ty, testimony; sterling, English coin; el'e-gance, beauty; ac-cu'mu-la-ted, increased; lit'er-a-ture, learning; mon'as-ter-ies, convents; bar'ri-er, stoppage; pre-clu'ded, prevented; phil-os'o-phers, men of deep knowledge; cav'illing, disputing; the-o-lo'gi-ans, divines: in-trin'sic, real; de-pop'u-la-ting, unpeopling. WE have it from good authority, that about the year of our Lord 1215, the Countess of Anjou paid two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and the same quantity of rye, for a volume of sermons-so scarce and dear were books at that time. The Countess might, in this case, have possibly been imposed upon, yet we have it on Mr. Gibbon's authority, that the value of manuscript copies of the Bible, for the use of the monks and clergy, commonly was from four to five hundred crowns, at Paris. This sum, according to the relative value of money at that time, and now, in our days, could not, at the most moderate calculation, be less than as many pounds sterling at this time. These manuscripts were upon parchment, and undoubtedly executed in a style of superior elegance; but, in making every allowance, the value of books, previous to the invention of the art of printing cannot, according to the most moderate computation, have been less than a hundred times as much as at present. The difficulty of acquiring knowledge, on account of the scarcity and dearness of books, necessarily caused a scarcity of teachers, and these accumulated difficulties presented insurmountable obstacles to the diffusion of literature. However much a taste for learning might then prevail, the advantage was entirely confined to the great and opulent, and to monks, who had the use of the libraries of their monasteries; while an impassable barrier precluded the people from the acquisition of knowledge. How trifling would be the literary attainments of the people of this, and the other countries of modern Eu rope, and how very contracted would be the diffusion of knowledge among the multitude, if these difficulties of acquisition yet existed!-These obstacles, which, in all former ages, had been insurmountable, were suddenly and effectually removed, by the introduction of printing. The inventors of this art have contributed very much more to the improvement of the human mind, and the general civilization of mankind, than all the speculative philosophers of antiquity, and the cavilling theologians of later times. If characters are to be estimated according to their intrinsic value, and their merits appreciated by their utility to mankind, their names ought to stand in the registers of fame, far above those of Cesar, Alexander the Great, and other conquerors, celebrated in history for their success in destroying mankind, and depopulating the world. Indeed, if ever the benefactors of mankind deserved to have statues erected to their honour, the inventors of the art of printing are certainly the men. Of all the events which have ever happened among mankind, the invention of printing constitutes, next to the establishment of Christianity, the most interesting and important. Bigland. 25.-Eclipses. M M THE above figure shows, at one view, the eclipses both of the sun and moon. Let s represent the sun, E the earth, and м м the moon, it is obvious that, when the moon is in a line between the earth and the sun, she will conceal part of that luminary from the view of the spectators on the earth's surface; and, on the contrary, when the earth is in a line between the sun and the moon, the moon will be immersed in the dark shadow of the earth. Peter Parley. |