and discerning mind; but subject to that Almighty power, to which, under all circumstances and at all times, we are subjected, see how little the man who can rely on the pleasures of reading is dependent on the caprice or the will of his fellowmen. See how much there is within his own power and control; how often, if his circumstances have been thwarted by any of the fortuitous events to which I have just referred, it may be in his power, by these very studies, to better his condition; or, failing this, during how many hours he may hope to obtain oblivion from it, when communing with the great and good of other days.

Surely, then, all those who feeland who does not ?-the variety and the vicissitudes of human life, ought, on that very account, if they be wise, to cultivate in themselves, and also to promote in others, an enlightened taste for reading. Of the pleasures of reading I will say, that there is no man so high as to be enabled to dispense with them, and no man so humble who should be compelled to forego them. Rely upon it that, in the highest fortune and the highest station, hours of lassitude and weariness will intrude, unless they be cheered by intellectual occupation. Rely on it, also, that there is no life so toilsome, so devoted to the cares of this world, and to the necessity of providing our daily bread, but what it will afford intervals (if they be only sought out), in which intellectual pleasures may be cultivated, and oblivion of other cares enjoyed. Depend upon it that these are

155

pleasures which he who condemns will find himself a miserable loser in the end. SENEX.

HAZLITT'S ADVICE TO HIS
SON.

Do not begin to quarrel with the world too soon; for, bad as it may be, it is the best we have to live in here. If railing would have made it better, it would have been reformed long ago; but as this is not to be hoped for at present, the best way to slide through it is as contentedly and innocently as we may. The worst fault it has is want of charity; and calling knave or fool at every turn will not cure this failing. Consider as a matter of vanity, that if there were not so many knaves and fools as we find, the wise and honest would not be those rare and shining characters that they are allowed to be; and, as a matter of philosophy, that if the world be really incorrigible in this respect, it is a reflection to make one sad, and not angry. We may laugh or weep at the madness of mankind, we have no right to vilify them for our own sake or theirs. Misanthropy is not the disgust of the mind at human nature, but with itself; for it is laying its own exaggerated vices as foul blots at the door of others!

Do not, however, mistake what I have here said. I would not have you, when you grow up, adopt the low and sordid fashion of palliating existing abuses, of putting the best face upon the worst things. I only mean that indiscriminate, unqualiand fied satire can do little good; those who indulge in the most

revolting speculations of human nature, do not themselves always set the fairest examples, or strive to prevent its lower degradation.

NEVER YIELD.

NEVER yield to discouraging circumstances, if you can possibly help it. If your prospects are discouraging, don't look sad and relax your efforts. What use is it to sit down and weep at the misfortunes of life? Up again and go at it, and fail again if you can't do better; but don't stop to cry.

Suffer your sorrowful feelings to gain the ascendancy, and you will grow morose, sour, and crabbed, and show your teeth, and snap at your best friends. Who will assist you? Who will not pass you by, and cry, "Let him alone ?"

Make the best of everything. Be a true philosopher, and take life as it comes, with a storm to-day, and sun to-morrow. Then you will succeed-there is no question of it; you must succeed, where thousands fail who lack courage and energy, and yield to the first breath of adversity.

sent, when coming events throw their ominous shadows so distinctly in their various phases, 'and you all appear so profoundly appalled at the signs of the times, which make even your Holy Father, the Pope, to quail (and the very chair of St. Peter to creak), fearing he shall lose the patrimony of St. Peter, and, as a consequence,

vital Christianity

vanishes from our earth; the fear of which having prostrated you all at the feet of his Holiness, with deepest sympathy in his present trial, expressing your burning indignation against the authors of his tribulations, which appears to have had such a consoling effect on the Holy Father as to induce him to send you his apostolic benediction, expressing the very great satisfaction it gave him thus to be remembered by his

appear, in your present paroxysm of grief, most anxious to know where his Holiness could go, if driven from the holy city, and ask where would we send him, entreating us not to forget the late quotation of his Holiness, "He that is not for me is against me." Now, I beg to suggest to you what you appear to have quite overlooked in your present excitement, arising, I presume, from natural causes, your own individual interests. First, if the good people of Rome have had as much, yea, and rather more of his Holiness's teachings, &c., than either their spiritual or temporal necessities require, would it not be well to remember the instruction given to St. Peter by the Lord, "If they receive thee not in one city, go thy way into another." This would appear to me to be a

more excellent way than drawing the sword and exciting his booted apostolic saints to go forth and murder his once dear children, for whose spiritual welfare he has so often appeared so solicitous as the vicar of Him, who, when St. Peter unsheathed his sword in His defence, at once commanded him (St. Peter) to put the sword into its sheath again, telling him he that took the sword should perish with the sword, teaching St. Peter and his successors thereby, that truth and righteousness were not to be made manifest by the edge of the sword. Secondly, as the Holy Father claims the world as his parish, would it not be wise, all things considered, for him and his pious cardinals to visit some other parts of his world-wide domains-I should not say England, as the natives prefer rather more liberty than what their teachings allow, and their fathers having caused to be written in a book what was the result of their teachings and doings in their days. Ireland seems very anxious to receive them; but I could not advise them to visit that island, as its inhabitants appear to have had already a little too much of their teachings for their real interest. Could not the Holy Father and his cardinals visit America, where, if they really wished to benefit the world, they would find ample room to carry out their holy aspirations in striking the chains from off the millions of manacled, groaning, down-trodden slaves, and say to these oppressed sons of men, "Go free," and thus aid to remove the reproach and byword from off the star-bespangled banner of freedom there? They then

could proceed a little farther north, and visit the so-called "Holy City" of the Mormons in Utah, Salt Lake, where they would find 4,600 bigamist saints with 16,000 wives, headed by their prophet Young, with his 150 more. Could they not try to reclaim this incorrigible usurper of the Holy Father's exalted functions, declaring himself to be Christ's vicar, and the only channel of salvation to this generation, and who has just issued his bull, declaring, no matter what the world may say about it, no man will be permitted to enter the celestial kingdom except by the certificate of Joe Smith or Brigham Young (see "Millennial Star," No. 52, for 1859). I know of no place so suitable for the labours of the Holy Father and his pious cardinals as this impious Mormon settlement. The "New York Times" writes of Salt Lake:-"Murders and robberies are rife, the mountains and valleys, yea, cities, are infested with freebooters and desperadoes, who boldly stalk the streets by day, and lie in ambush by night on the main roads. At public-houses, at private houses, are men shot, stabbed, beaten, and robbed. The Mormons murder and rob whole trains of emigrants, not sparing defenceless women and children, whose cries for mercy find no ear to listen, no heart to pity, and no arm to bring deliverance. They do all these things by order of Brigham Young and the priesthood. How much better directed would be the attention, then, of the Holy Father and his pious sons to this portion of his neglected domains, than to plunge Europe into the horrors of a bloody and religious war to save his tem

poral power; we want no more banquets of blood or faggots of flame. There are the seeds of death in falsehood. Truth only is immortal, and will even destroy the triple crown of the scarlet hat. Prophecy and the external aspect of the nations seem alike to indicate the near approach

of Him who will overturn, overturn, overturn, until the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of Him whose righteousness is to reign. Yours faithfully,

W. S. PARROTT. 4, Oxford-street, Kingsdown,

Bristol.

PAPISTS often ask Protestants with an air of triumph, "Where did you get your Bible from ? Did we not preserve it for you?" We must emphatically answer, No! you never preserved the Bible for us; neither did you ever intend to bless us with that heavenly boon. On the contrary, you have done your best and worst to deprive the world of that gift of God. You have destroyed the Bible, both publicly and privately, Europe all over; yea, in the four quarters of the globe, you have vented your spleen against the sacred volume (not sparing your own Douay version), by burning, by drowning, by burying, and by a thousand wicked schemes and plots:yea, you have done all you could to banish that invaluable legacy from the face of the earth, But, praise be to God, the Bible still lives, and the word of the Lord shall endure for ever.

:

How is it possible, then, that Rome should preserve to us the Bible, and at the same time strive hard to rid the world of that blessed book? The thing speaks for itself. Rome is very sorry that holy volume ever had an existence. The Douay

version would never have seen the light, but they felt themselves compelled to bring out that corrupt translation, after so many English Bibles had been produced, and particularly after our present excellent production made its appearance. The following list will show how late Rome brought their Douay version into existence. King Alfred had the whole Bible translated into Anglo-Saxon in the ninth century; Wickliff's whole translation, A. D., 1360; German Bible, 1467; Tyndal's, 1526 (being the first printed in English); King Edward VI. had an edition of the Bible printed, 1537 (this is said to have been the first Bible printed in verses); then comes Archbishop Parker's Bible, A.D. 1568; King James's, our present version, 1607; and then the Douay, 1609. See how tardily this latter translation came out. And even now, in 1859, they have no Bible Society to give even their own book a general circulation; and those they do circulate are not allowed to be read and studied at pleasure. And here we remark, what impudence and daring impiety for any human being to presume to say

to a fellow-sinner, "You may read so many verses of the Bible, but you must not put your own construction upon them." And further, be it remembered, the Roman versions are never published without notes. The Almighty hath given the world His own book, and yet, forsooth, the priests of Rome dare not trust Jehovah with His own word,-and why? Ah, why, indeed!-just because the Papal church knows full well that her dogmas are not to be found in that sacred volume; and, therefore, like all other infidels, she is against the Bible, because the Bible is against her. This is the only reason of Papal abhorrence of the holy Bible. Were their deceptions encouraged by the Bible, they would scatter its pages as they do their lies, to the utmost of their power. Surely, were the Papacy right in the sight of God, we might expect to find her articles enforced in St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans. But not one word of the creed of Pope Pius IV. can be found there.

Thus far we have given chiefly practical proof that we are not indebted to Rome for our Bible, we now present further historical proof of this assertion.

Early manuscripts of the Bible, copied from Dr. Adam Clarke's Commentary:

The Egyptian version

CENTURY.

2

3

The Coptic..........

The Codex Alexandrinus

4

And there were many others before that time. There was a Saxon Bible in century 7; the Slavonian or Russian, century 9; and the Syrian Church in India, who had never heard of the Pope of Rome at all until they were visited by Dr. Buchannan, in the fifteenth century, had preserved copies of the Sacred Scriptures; and showing that had Popery preserved the Bible for us, we should most certainly have been deceived with seriously corrupted versions, as the following from Dr. Adam Clarke will prove:

"The Persian Bible, translated from the Syriac by a Papist, about 1341," as the Doctor says, "who acted under the influence of his own peculiar creed, interpolating with readings from Popish rituals and legends. I read," says the Doctor, "the whole of this New Testament over twice, and had abundant proof that it was of Papal origin."

He gives the following as specimens of its corruptions among others:-Matt. xvi. 18, "I say unto thee, thou art the rock of my religion, and the foundation of my Church shall be a building upon thee." Matt. xvi. 23, "Get behind me, O thou unbeliever!" Luke vii. 12, "And when he approached the gate he saw a dead man, whom they were carrying out with prayer and lamentation." Dr. Clarke gives many other similar corruptions from the above-named version, showing what Rome would have done had she presented us with a Bible. The conclusion therefore is, that the Papal church would not have preserved to us a pure Bible, if any at