of their duty, they do not like that legal phrase Duty, when applied to the Lord's free-men; especially, if the young upper servants dare to open their mouths upon it, they are ready to wish them turned out of doors. Instead of" receiving them, in the Lord, with all gladness, and holding them in reputation," they translate the passage, "Receive them with all sadness, and hold such in reprobation!" They conceive, that if their Master would but put these youngsters down, and set them up, they could do a vast deal better. A neighbour of mine has been trying, for several years, to be regularly fixed in an upper department; and though, poor man! he has had the vanity to think himself superior to all our Lord's upper. servants in two large counties; yet, unfortunately, there are only about half a dozen elderly females who can discern his superiority! But to return. Why do we see these ebullitions of vanity, and this fearful spirit of insubordination? Are the commands of our Master changed? his authority lessened? his upper servants altered? Ah, no! not in a single iota; but a love of reading erroneous books, and unseasonable conversations with their fellow-servants, when they should be at closet or familywork; this it is that makes them high-minded and indolent. Hence, though they do not, in so many words, find fault with their Master, they fritter away, or very slovenly perform those duties in which their whole souls were once engaged. A steady attachment, therefore, to the person, the house, the upper servants, the whole service of our honoured Master, is requisite; but where Duty calls, privilege, and honour, and happiness is secured. In these things, we are superior to the servants of Sin; we are immediately paid, well paid, honourably paid, for all our services! Such is the liberality of our divine Master to all his unprofitable servants! Permit me, then, to recommend this sentiment for daily use: "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch, as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord!" Many of my readers are, perhaps, enquiring after the service of Christ; but still hesitate about entering into his family, though they have often been told, he will receive them freely. Let me beg such persons seriously to weigh the apostle's language: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." How infinitely preferable is it to be made "free from sin, and become servants to God, that ye may have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life!" EPAPHRAS. BIBLICAL CRITICISM. And the head of Dagon, and both the palms of his hands, were cut off upon the threshold. 1 Sam. v. 4. THE destruction of Dagon, before the ark of the Lord, clearly discovered the vanity of idols, and the irresistible power of God. The circumstances attending his demolition are remarkable; and in them, it is possible, may be traced a conformity with the manner in which different nations treated the idol deities of each other. Dagon was not merely thrown down, but was also broken in pieces; and some of these fragments were found on the threshold. There is a circumstance stated in Maurice's Modern History of Hindostan, vol. i, part 2, page 296, which seems in some points similar to what is recorded of Dagon. Speaking of the destruction of the idol in the temple at Sumnaut, he says, "That fragments of the demolished idol were distributed to the several mosques of Mecca, Medina, and Gazna, to be thrown at the threshold of their gates, and be trampled upon by devout and zealous Mussulmen." In both instances, the situation of the fragments at the threshold seems to intimate the complete triumph of those who had overcome the idols; and might, probably, be a customary expression of indignity and contempt. St. Albans. THE CONTRAST. B. A FEW weeks ago, a lady who was present at a charity-sermon, preached by an evangelical minister, found herself much indisposed to an act of generosity at that time; and, therefore, passed the plate without giving any thing. While returning from church to her own house, she had occasion to examine her pocket; when, to her great mortification, she found that she had been robbed of all her cash; upon which she made the following reflection: "I perceive, that if God could not. find the way into my pocket, the Devil could." A more pleasing circumstance presents itself in the following Extract of a Letter from a Poor Woman to the Rev. M. W. "SINCE 1779, I have been tossed about, and have gone through much tribulation: am often full of doubts and fears, of which I ought to be ashamed. I mourn and pray against my hard heart; and sometimes feel such comfort in the view of holiness, that I would be all grace and love; and although my circumstances are very narrow, yet I pray the Lord to accept, through his beloved Son, the widow's mite. Inclosed is one shilling, towards promoting the gospel by the Missionary Society; and I pray God bless their endeavours! - and one shilling for those who visit the sick. May God bless them also!" S. S. Obituary. WILLIAM ORAM, HAVING a wife and four small children, was recommended, as an object of great distress, to The Benevolent Female Society, held at No. 8, Susannah Place, CurtainRoad, Shoreditch; which was instituted Jan. 1, 1799, for the relief of the necessitous poor. When one of the visitors went to him, he was much distressed in circumstances; being only a journeyman shoemaker, and had scarce been able to do any work for some months past. On being asked, if he had been accustomed to attend any place of public worship, he answered, he had never forsaken his church, being brought up to it; but it was too apparent he had never yet seen his lost state as a sinner before God; no. as yet was able to distinguish between the preaching of dry morality, and the humbling, heart purifying gospel of Jesus. He was advised to go and hear the Rev. Mr. Wilkinson; which he promised to do; and after some time spent in prayer, and in conversing on the blessing of sanctified afflictions, under which the poor man's tears plentifully flowed, his friend, for that time, took her leave. The next time he was visited, his spirit appeared to be much broken down, under a sense of the sins of his past life; and was much affected with the earnest prayer which was offered up to God on his behalf. When the same friend came again, a day or two after, she spake very closely to him on the state of his soul, and pointed out the impossibility of our being saved by any thing we can do. This was a truth which the legal bias of his mind could not at first receive; but, as he afterward told her, he was determined from that time to search the Bible more than he had hitherto done, and see if these things were 69. In this search the Divine Spirit his own was pleased to shine upon word, and bear it with his own light and conviction to his heart; so that he now saw his undone condition as a sinner, and the need of Jesus as a Saviour for his soul. When the friends who kindly ministered to his temporal wants, and tenderly felt for his immortal interests, came to visit him again, on putting a trifle into his hand, he said, with many tears, "I wished much to see you, but not for this; —it is your instruction and your prayers that I want. I shall never forget the day when I was first visited by you. O, I longed to see you again! but something within persuaded me that I should not; and that almost broke my heart. I never saw things before as I do now; because I was not so openly wicked as some others, I thought I should do well: but I find that to be only a sandy foundation; and dying in that state, I could never have been happy." When encouraged to look to the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners, his answer was, he believed the Lord would make his afflictions a blessing to that end. So long as he was able to go. abroad, he attended at the Taber-` nacle; and, for about a year before his death, was a communicant there. The word and ordinances were greatly blessed to his soul, and he was evidently ripening fast under them, for a better world; in much, that he used to say, his feeble body (being in the last stage of a rapid consumption) could hardly bear the fulness of joy he was indulged with. In conversing with a friend on Easter-Monday, he said, "O what a blessed time I had on Good-Friday! What a view of the sufferings of Jesus, the Friend of Sinners! O that I could love him as I ought! The world is now nothing to me: I have but one desire; and that is, to be fitted for Heaven." Being asked, it he had any fears of death, seeing it is a very solemn thing to die, and enter upon an eternal world, he said, No; for I am not what I once was; and I know that a saving change has passed on my heart." At another time, looking very earnestly on his friendly visitors, he said, "How happy are you to be so dead to the world, and so free from wandering thoughts!" The friend replied, You are quite mistaken; I feel too much attachment to this world, and many things which cause me daily to mourn before the Lord.' After pausing a while, he said, "I do not know why you should be discouraged, you have been made a great blessing to me; and, I believe, the Lord will bless you; and, as well as I can, I pray that he may. You have often told me, if any good was done, either by speaking or praying, it must be by the Holy Spirit; therefore you may expect a blessing. I had long wished to speak to some serious persons; and, since my illness, Providence has sent me such; for if I had chosen them myself, they could not have been better." After trying change of air for a few months, he returned home to his afflicted partner rather worse. On seeing her weep, he said, "Do not weep, but rejoice. What a blessed affliction has this been to me! Since my absence, I have had some seasons of sweet communion with the Lord: - I never thought there could have been so much pleasure found in reading the Bible before." His eldest child lay some months in a decline; which much affected him: and though he found it almost like death to part with him, he was enabled to give him up. In the last stage of his dis order his pain was very great; but he was kept sweetly resigned to the divine will. The eighth chapter of Romans, and the second chapter of Peter's first epistle, were greatly blessed to his soul. About a fortnight before he died, Satan was permitted to buffet him for a while with doubts and fears, as to his passage through Death; but the Lord the Spirit lifted up a standard against the enemy, insomuch, that when a friend asked him, a little before he died, Are you happy?' He said, "As happy as I can be on this side Heaven!" With good Dr. Doddridge he could say, "Dear Shepherd, lead me on, My soul disdains to fear; Death's gloomy phantoms all are fled, Now Life's great Lord is near!" When almost past speaking, he turned to his wife, and said, Do not be alarmed, I shall soon go through the Valley of Death; but I have nothing to do but die." After being some time silent, he broke out, and said, "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God, you have tasted it, and will shortly be at the fountain head. O that is what I want, - to bow before the celestial throne !" Looking at a friend, he said, "I wish I could speak more; but when we meet in Heaven we shall talk it all over!" Such was the blessed frame in which he bowed his head and slept in Jesus, Feb. 3, 1803, after two years of deep affliction. His mortal part was interred in Holywell Mount burial-ground, by the Rev. J. A. Knight, of the Tabernacle, on the Friday following." Let my last end be like his!" "Sweet is the hour that brings the Pilgrim rest, And calls the lab'rer to his peaceful home; So to the great assembly of the blest, God's faithful servants joyfully shall come! Soon will the Saviour wake their sleeping dust, By Sin consign'd to greedy Death a prey; Then shall the rising bodies of the just, With ceaseless rapture hail the glorious day !" PHILEMON, REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS. Scripture Illustrated, by means of Natural Science, in Botany, Geology, Geography, Natural History, Natural Philosophy, Utensils (domestic and military) Habiliments, Manners and Customs, &c. &c. with many Plates. Principally by the Editor of Calmer's Dictionary of the Bible. In Eight Parts, Price 5s. each. THIS work, of the first part of which we formerly gave notice in our Magazine, being now completed, we presume that it may be acceptable to our readers, if we offer an idea of its contents, which are indeed very multifarious, and of different degrees of merit. It is professedly calculated to fill up a deficiency, which has occasionally been felt by those who wish to be thoroughly intimate with every part of their Bible; and it must be acknowledged, that while divinity and the precious truths of the gos pel form the proper and substantial enjoyments and studies of Ministers and Christians, the subjects treated in this work have been passed by with too little notice and investigation, although they might have agreeably diversified a course of reading, or might have cleared, in many instances, the true sense of Scripture. This publication is divided into two parts: the first refers to subjects of science, as they occur in the course of the sacred books. We meet, in this division, with particular attention to the order of the creation, and to the phenomena of the deluge, whose history is justified by the principles of rarefaction and conden sation as now established by modern discoveries; and the history of Noah and his Ark, is given according to the results of the inquisitive researches of our countrymen in India. In like manner the slavery foretold by Noah, as characterizing the posterity of his son Ham, is explained from the natural want of fertility in some parts of Africa, as lately ascertained by Mr. Mungo Parke. The miracles of Egypt, the quails (which here are supposed to be locusts) the manna, as now gathered in the east; the distinctions of ani. mals, clean and unclean, with the external marks of these distinctions, some of which we confess were new to us, and many other particulars of natural history as suggested in the Bible, are examined and explained. Many curious circumstances are noticed; and, on some passages, much light is fhed. By way of instance, we shall transcribe a passage, on which a Paine may contradict an Apostle if he pleases; but which a naturalist knows to be not only perfectly rational, but perfectly correct. 1 Cor. xv. 36.-" Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die. And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which shall be, but bare grain; perhaps wheat, or any other grain. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him; to every seed his own body." To die, here, is plainly put for ceasing to retain present form and appearance; but this is not inconsistent with re-appearance, under another form: and this is strictly philosophical; for, that matter does not (die) perish, but assume different modifications, is a principle well known and admitted in philosophy. In the present instance, the succeeding modification is renafcence, or fertility; but every kind of grain, according to its own specific properties, the offspring resembling the parent; which is the subject of daily observation, and open to daily remark. This is one idea of the apostle. But I apprehend there is another:-"Thou sowest barenaked grain,"-grain separated from its stem, leaves, beard, &c. its outer cover ings; it having been threshed, &c. before it is sown: nevertheless, it rises from the earth with outer coverings, leaves, stem, beard, &c. according to its nature. It is sown naked, it rises clothed; it is sowa imperfect, it rises perfect; it is sown deprived, it rises improved; it is sown in dis honour, it rises glorious; so also the resurrection of the body, &c. Ver. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differeth from star in glory." This is true, to the observation of the unins ructed eye; it is true, also, to the experience of astronomers. Indeed, they are the best judges on |