their further proceedings. He then withdrew; but the Assembly sat still, and continued the session for a fortnight. They now felt themselves in a new atmosphere, and breathed freely. They set to work manfully. They declared the decisions of those assemblies which had proved the occasions of their national distractions to be null and void; the bishops were censured; the oaths which the bishops had imposed were declared illegal; presbyteries had their rights restored to them; two archbishops and six bishops were excommunicated; four bishops were deposed, and two, on making humble submission, were only suspended. Before closing the Assembly they asserted their right to meet again, when and where they thought fit, and fixed their next meeting to be in Edinburgh, on the third Wednesday in July, 1639. This Assembly, which sat for twenty-six days, rose in the spirit of men who had effected a triumph; and Mr. Henderson dismissed them, saying, "We have now cast down the walls of Jericho; let him that rebuildeth them beware of the curse of Hiel the Bethelite." The conflict was now fairly commenced, and it was fifty years after this before there was quietness in Scotland. During these fifty years Britain passed through the most remarkable period of her history. Charles I. lost his head; Cromwell ruled as protector; and Charles II., after a despotism of twentysix years' duration, rang the knell of the Stuart dynasty. In the decisions of that notable Glasgow Assembly there was a noble stand made for the prerogatives of the church of Christ, and it would have been all the nobler if the reformers of that day had perceived that their difficulties arose from the alliance between church and state. The Family Monitor.. PRAYER ANSWERED IN JUDGMENT. profligate, extravagant, dishonest. His tried, convicted, and sentenced to be crime became capital; he was detected, hanged: and, seven years from the day when that minister prayed for his life, he went to visit this wretched mother, indeed, her heart could receive consolato be with her, and comfort her, if, tion, on the day of his execution. Oh! widow, is there not a heavier calamity than the death, in ordinary circumstances, of an only son? Would not this dis tressed woman look with envy upon A WIDOWED mother had an only son, who, while yet a youth, was seized with an alarming illness. Her heart was in the greatest tumult of grief at the prospect of his removal. She sent for her minister, to pray for her child's recovery. It was his preservation from death that was to be the subject of the minister's petitions, rather than the mother's submission to the will of God. Like a faithful pastor, he begged her to control her excessive grief and solicitude, and resign her son to God's disposal; but to no avail: it seemed as if she neither could nor would give him up. Prayer was to pluck him from the borders of the grave, whether God were willing to spare him or not. Her son lived: the mother, with ecstatic joy, received him-James. back, as from the borders of the tomb. He grew to adult age, but it was to die in circumstances ten thousand times more aflictive to the mother's heart than his earlier removal would have been. As he came to manhood, he turned out others, whose children had died in honour and reputation, and think their affliction not worthy of the name, compared with hers! Would she not look back with deep compunction upon her own rebellious grief and unwillingness to give up her child to the will of God! VANITY IN CHILDREN. MANY persons remark the vanity of children, or express astonishment at the amount of it, without adverting to its unusually bright and animated countenance. Every one who entered the house noticed the child, and spoke of his beauty. One day a gentleman called upon business, and, being engaged in conversation, did not pay that attention to the child to which he was accustomed, and which he now began to expect as his due. The vain little fellow made many efforts to attract notice, but not succeeding, he at last placed himself full in front of the gentleman, and asked, 'Why don't you see how beautiful I be."" TWO IN HEAVEN. "You have two children," said I. "I have four," was the reply; "two on earth, two in heaven." There spoke the mother! Still hers! only "gone before!" Still remembered, loved, and cherished by the hearth and at the board; their places not yet filled, even though their successors draw life from the same faithful breast where their dying heads were pillowed. "Two in heaven!" Safely housed from storm and tempest; no sickness there, nor drooping head, nor fading eye, nor weary feet. By the green pastures, tended by the Good Shepherd, linger the little lambs of the heavenly fold. "Two in heaven!" Earth less attractive! Eternity nearer! Invisible cords, drawing the maternal soul upwards. "Still, small" voices, ever-whispering come! to the worldweary spirit. "Two in heaven!" Mother of angels, walk softly! Holy eyes watch thy footsteps, cherub forms bend to listen! Keep thy spirit free from earth taint; so shalt thou "go to them," though "they may not return to thee.' Olive Branch. principal cause. "No such thing," says some reader, "almost all persons advert to the early depravity displayed by the human mind, and know full well that folly is bound up in the heart of a child."" But I do not say that a child's own folly or depravity is the principal cause of its vanity. I say, on the contrary, that the principal cause of this vice is the indiscretion and absurd conduct of parents. A fond father watches the prattles of an infant or the early efforts of a schoolboy; and, on observing any mark of smartness, such as almost every prattler or little scholar displays, he exclaims, "Oh, how clever! Well, now, John is a fine talker; John is a fine learner; John will soon be as wise as his uncle, or as knowing as his grandfather!" A fond mother not only remarks and mentions the bright eyes, or neat chin, or nice little hands, of her boys and girls, when they or she is alone, but she exhibits her darlings, and repeats their little sayings, in their own hearing, to any relative or casual visitor whom she can interest in her maternal feelings; and when she incites them to obey her, she tells them of the intended purchase of a charming dress which will "make them look so beautiful;" or, in order to fill their young hearts to the brim with happiness, she puts some gewgaw and dashing apparel upon them, and delightedly expatiates on the beauties of the dress, and on the charms of their own figure or appearance. Who does not see that but a tenth less of this conduct than is usually practised would produce all the vanity which makes the most of children strut about at times as if they had souls like a peacock's! Even casual visitors, and especially relatives, often create or aggravate the evil as really as inconsiderate parents. "I once knew a little boy," says Mr. Abbot, "of THE CROW'S NEST FOR CHILDREN. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. We have received communications from Bellshill; Mary Ann Wilson and Margaret Gibson Dods, Dunse; Robert Sclanders, St. George's Road; J. R. Paton and J. MacG., Glasgow; M. P., Berwick-on-Tweed; David Ross, Alex. Cameron, and Jessie Cameron, Portree, Isle of Skye; and, as we go to press, answers have been received from J. H., Aberdeen, in phonographic characters. We shall notice them next month. We request our young correspondents to forward their answers by the 20th of the month. ANSWERS TO QUERIES PROPOSED I. One of our young correspondents in Dunse gives Elijah as the answer to this question. All the other answers give Samuel, which we deem more correct. Mary Ann Wilson, Robert Sclanders, Alex. Cameron, Jessie Cameron, and David Ross, have quoted the Scripture proof, which we would recommend all our young friends to do in future. The proofs by Wm. Eadie are the fullest of any. II. All the answers are good, and indicate a considerable amount of research. The answer by Jessie Cameron is entitled to special commendation, and that by W. B. Wilson and Alex. Cameron comes next in the order of merit. III. Some of the answers are ingenious and highly plausible. Those returned by J. MacG., W. B. Wilson, J. R. Paton, and M. P., indicate some acquaintance with eastern customs. The ancient Orientals frequently indulged in conversation at the city gates. They were there likely to obtain early intelligence from strangers as they arrived. IV. All the answers are good. Some of them are fuller and more minute than others. Those by Wm. Eadie take the lead in this respect, and those by Robert Sclanders, W. B. Wilson, J. R. Paton, Extracts from the ages of the Living and the Dead. Pages WYCLIFFE AND THE ENGLISH BIBLE. ON a review of all the available evidence on the subject, we are warranted M. P., and Alex. Cameron, are entitled to honourable mention. V. All the answers are correct. See Gen. v. 23. VI. The answers by Wm. Eadie, J. R. Paton, Alex. Cameron, M. P., Jessie Cameron, and Mary Ann Wilson, are the fullest. All the others are correct. but have furnished fewer instances. VII. The answers to this question by J. R. Paton, W. B. Wilson, and Wm. Eadie are good; those by Mary Ann Wilson, Alex. Cameron, J. MacG., Robert Sclanders, and David Ross are better; and those by M. P., Jessie Cameron, and Margaret Gibson Dods are the best. VIII. All the answers returned to this question please us. QUERIES TO BE ANSWERED I. Can you give the names of females mentioned in Scripture who possessed the spirit of prophecy? II. On what occasion were the sun and moon arrested in their courses? III. What fortified city in Canaan was taken by the Israelites without any direct assault made on it? IV. What young persons are mentioned in Scripture as eminent for piety? V. Can you mention a very curious mode of showing honour to an individual in Old Testament times? VI. Can you name some musical instruments mentioned in Scripture which are now little known? VII. How old was Moses when the children of Israel left Egypt? VIII. Can you mention the name of an ancient person spoken of in Scripture, whose body remained unburied for almost two hundred years, and give the reason for this? in believing that the idea of translating the Bible into the English language originated with the mind of Wycliffe, and that, to the men of his time, it was in two respects a strictly novel conception-first, as it embraced a literal translation of the entire Bible, nothing more, nothing less; and second, as it contemplated making this translation accessible to the people without distinction, and to the utmost extent possible. The object contemplated was the Bible-the Bible in its completeness, and without note or comment; and the Bible to be in every man's hands, as every man's guide. This conception, simple as it may appear to us, was a large, a sublime conception for any man to rise to, and to hold by in such cases. WYCLIFFE AND HIS COADJUTORS. THERE are deeds which stand for more than they seem; which include more than they articulate; which perform more than they promise. In ideas, as in substances, there are appearances which give little to the eye, but which, ere long, give largely to the experience. Men work for ages with these ideas, these elements of things, without suspecting that they contain all that is really in them. Great principles are born slowly, advance slowly, and do their ultimate work, like the master forces in nature, as much without hurry as without noise. The men who gave the English Bible to our forefathers, lodged a fact in our history pregnant with such principles. It was a fact which supposed the sufficiency of Scripture and the right of private judgment, fixing the ultimate authority concerning religion in the individual and the Bible, not in the church and her traditions. On these principles the translators of our first English Bible saw something, enough to stimulate them in their labours, and to sustain them under the sufferings to which these labours exposed them. But they no more saw all that was involved in what they did, than our ancestors saw all that was included in the principles of Magna Charta. In both cases the chief actors knew only in part, and therefore prophesied only in part. But the more to their honour if, with a forecast so limited, they could do and dare so largely. It was the aim of Wycliffe and his followers, in this memorable achievement, to take man out of the hands of the priest, and to place his religion in the personal-in his personal responsibility, intelligence, and right feeling. In this they became Englishmen of their own order. Men like them had not gone before them. The thought was born with them-born never to die. Review and Criticism. both in this country and on the continent. Each chapter of the book has a passage of Scripture as a heading, a passage pertinent to the subject to be discussed; and facts, numerous and striking, are adduced to establish the truth of the divine testimony. Facts are always the best arguments, because they are understood by the most unlearned, and are most easily remembered; and as the volume abounds with them, it resembles a little storehouse of testi monies against the Papal Man of Sin. The second volume is an admirable epitome of the history of France during one of her darkest periods. During the two centuries which the volume em braces, France was reigned over by eight monarchs, and their reigns are little more than the records of the crimes and cruelties which Popery perpetrated in the neighbouring kingdom,and by which that kingdom has been alike desolated and disgraced. It has been said a hundred times that "Popery has been the curse of France;" it has been, and is the curse of every country where its influence can be put forth; and though it has reared a few men whom posterity must respect for their talents and their virtues, yet it cannot be forgotten that Popery, from its very nature, cannot change, and is therefore unchanged at this day. The sketches of the French monarchs, and of the leading men during their reigns, are ably drawn; and anecdotes and facts, n which the writings of Sir George bound, give to the volume a liveliness and interest which cannot be imparted to calm and systematic discussion of the dogmas and despotism of Popery, Day ANTE SARRATARIAN DEFENCELESS; or the The numerous open sve's made on the sacred day, and apes adanoed in support of the ea that the observance of the So lock is not madly binding on us, erod # imperative on those who de the of the truth to nd show in what the fallacy Thee of ok the young pastor of the od Persigtersan charva in Catca, las pasal in the talag y good in and our realers à noặc ôi âc de vargoes de oud's salfoot the pulse have སོད བའོང ན དཔའི པས དེད 1:|: 1%S ེས་"་ཚེ་ན་བ་གས A demáôl peruse de Valme Klikbut feeling that they have come into contact with a mind of large grasp and crushing power, by whom the sophistries, alike of an English archdeacon and an Irish archbishop, on the Sabbath question, are thoroughly demolished; and those who have intrenched themselves behind the statements of men of high name, will find that they are utterly defenceless. The volume has come out at a very proper time, and we promise a fuller notice of it next month. RELIGION AND BUSINESS: OR, SPIRITUAL LIFE THIS, too, is a capital book. We would that all our merchants, and manufac turers, and bankers were imbued with the spirit which this work recommends, and were disposed to carry on the commeree of this life as is here recommended! This would take nothing whatever from their opulence, and it would add ightly to the religious opulence of the church of Christ, by drawing within |