deep; " but have we not "applied our heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom. Bebold this have I found, saith the preacher, counting one by one, to find out the account,—one man among a thousand have I found." (Eccles. vii.) The compass of the knowledge given to Solomon by God, was beyond the attainment of man by any labour of his own, and in the "largeness" of his heart he saw the essential wisdom of God, in Him who was with God before his works of old, or even the earth was." And the upright and afflicted man, whose words thou hast just made thine own, foresaw what is now placed before our eyes. Yes, companion of my pilgrimage, have we not found that these treasures are all hidden in him who goes before us in the path of tribulation? rest assured he will smooth the rugged and toilsome way. The veil which has covered our eyes, and the eyes of our fathers, he is uplifting. As yet the day-star is but rising upon us; let us fix our eyes steadfastly upon this glowing point, until it bursts into the full glory of day—“ to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Thus communing, we dispelled in some measure our sadness, as we ascended, step by step, and were at length guided into the court of the Gentiles.Here a voice is heard which animates and comforts us-the voice of one crying aloud in words fraught with mercy and wisdom.

Surely, I exclaimed, our end is accomplished, our search is rewarded; we hear the voice of the Lord Jesus, and wisdom, righteousness, and mercy flow from his lips. And all have just heard the joyful

proclamation, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, (as the scripture hath said) out of his heart1 shall flow rivers of living water."-And these words find ready acceptance, and many exclaim, "Of a truth this is that Prophet," and others, "This is the Christ."

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But alas, we are destined to disappointment, in the encouraging hope that the full time had arrived, when we need not any more to teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest, saith the Lord." We must yet wait for this promise to be accomplished the painful rejections of the Man of Sorrows we now behold. He who is come a Saviour to Israel is received but by a few; the multitude led by their rulers desire to persecute the Son of God; but their power is as yet limited: no man laid hands on him, though in their hearts they sought to take him."

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It is the time of the holy convocation, and from golden vessels, those appointed to the office are pouring water, from the pool of Siloa, mixed with wine.

But alas! the offer is not accepted, of "wine and milk without money and without price "-of a gratuitous supply, reviving and nutritious, uninterrupted, and like a fountain, springing up into everlasting life.

The Lord now fulfils that word, "I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring;" he fulfils his promise, and " "pours

1 So the word may be rendered.

water out upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: but alas! though the people be dry and barren, they thirst not for the water of life.

In this perennial fountain, ever cooling-ever cleansing-is the wisdom, hidden from the foundation of the world. In this despised, rejected Galilean are the issues of life: in this Man of Sorrows, we perceive him of whom Solomon speaks— that one man whom the royal writer saw afar off, is now nigh to us, within our reach, yet he is not received. Alas! truly does David say of them, “Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god."

The followers of the Lord Jesus have a goodly heritage, but they must patiently wait for it; and in the meanwhile submit to feel here with their Master, sorrow in their hearts daily. Yet as his grace has inclined their hearts to take him as their portion, it will carry them over mountain and precipice, and through the wilderness and deep waters, until every earthly trial is swallowed up in heavenly joy.

H. V. H,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN
LADY'S MAGAZINE.

MADAM,

IN the course of my readings in the Spring, I fell in with the second volume of the Sacred History of the World, the work of that amiable and delightful writer Mr. Sharon Turner. Amidst much in it to approve of and delight in, I was yet struck with one peculiar defect in the book, which, as your Magazine is extensively read by young people, I shall take the liberty of mentioning in it by way of caution. The position which appears to me to be taken up, and made as it were the basis of the author's theory of Sacred History, is this,-That we are to look upon man, from his creation to the present day, in the same light as we should view the New Zealander, or any other savage, emerging by degrees from a 'state of barbarism to one of mental cultivation and religious feeling; and that in the same degree in which the mind expands and the intellect becomes refined, will the heart be purified and the affections tend upwards towards God. Now, madam, this is the theory which, not only the work before us, but in many of the literary productions of the present day, is laid before the minds of our youth, embellished with the language of poetry, and lit up with all that fervid eloquence which can throw life and feeling upon the coldest reasoning, and which

dazzles, while it bewilders the lively imagination of youth. If I can prove to any reader that this favorite theory is unphilosophical and decidedly irreligious, I shall have accomplished the work for which I took up my pen.

To begin with the first and least important charge, -The theory is unphilosophical.

The province of real philosophy is the investigation of truth; and this theory takes for granted, that which it can never prove, viz. that the present generation is really superior in attainments to any that preceded it. Now of the first three thousand years of the world (that is for more than half of its existence), we have scarcely any record, except some very few fragments. All that we know of the far greater part of this period is contained in the writings of Moses and his successors, and they, of course, are chiefly confined to the history and laws of God's favoured people Israel. Of the events of the next thousand years, we have indeed a more detailed account, and no doubt much that is valuable in literature and science was composed during its course, (at least the fragments which are left to us are very highly prized); but at the close of the succeeding millennary a deluge of calamity › swept over the European world. Wars, pestilence and famine, succeeded each other with such frightful rapidity, that literature was swept as it were with the besom of destruction, and we, at the close of the six thousand years of the world's existence, are but recovering from the storm and collecting the disjecta membra' of that which was then overwhelmed. In such a state of things, am I not justified in asking the question, Where is the proof (the positive