yea, that the Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. Let us read a lesson of faith from these harvest months. Time was when these fields were clod-covered, and the husbandman anxiously cast the seed into the furrows. Many were the storms which burst upon the earth. Cold ice-bound fingers have been on the soil. Yet, then comes the fresh revival-days of Spring, Summer's gleesome sun, and dewy-footed morns and evenings, and now we gaze upon seed time, and growing time, and the full earing time, all conjoined in the well-piled sheaves and crowded barn-yards. There's a promise that cheers the labourer's heart; and across the darkest and stormiest day of Winter he can yet descry that bow, set promise wise in the clouds, which reminds him of the oath of Jehovah. Some of us may be labouring in barren regions of the human heart. No field or mountain ridge more stony and unreclaimable. Our working place may be not among clods of earth, but among earthen souls, dark night hearts, that look sterile and uncultured, do what we may. Have faith in God, my fellow-labourer. Let thy belief in the great promises be even increased by thy experience of God's faithfulness in the small. When howling winds, starless nights, sleepless tempests, drifting snow-flakes, have yet been the harbingers of these fair and spreading prospects, these verdant meadows, these many-tented forests, shall we not feel that our days of darkness are yet tending towards light, that we 'reapers shall yet rejoice, bringing our sheaves with us.' Let faith inspire us a steady, earnest, onward faith a faith that, while it keeps a constant eye on heaven, prompts the hand to diligence and action. This season, viewed as a type, should incite us to renewed activity. Looking upon the band of merry labourers in the harvest field, or reclining at mid-day beneath the 'beech's ample shade,' our thoughts almost unconsciously revert to another day-another reapingtime, when there shall be gathered food for the garner, and also fuel for the fire. To leave the figure. We are responsible. We shall be called to account. True, even in the tyrant's breast, a monitor speaks, and often speaks loudest when least regarded; but then shall accusations crowd in upon the unfruitful from every part of nature, seconding and intensifying the award of conscience. he discover it to us, and we recognise it first then. Determine to know the worst of yourself, and then are you the readier to know the worth of Christ Labour that you may be found on that day of the Lord, though unprofitable, yet not unfaithful servants, the receivers of the gifts of gracethe crown of glory, that fadeth not away. THE COVENANTERS. LET us not mock the olden time: behold! For martyr'd saints what wondrous miracles them through the earth. Let us not mock them: they perhaps might err Unwavering constancy, which dared prefer BABYLON. BABYLON was the capital of Babylonia, an ancient kingdom founded by the first descendants of Noah, soon after the deluge; and enlarged by Nimrod, his great grandson, about two thousand years before the birth of Christ. Many additions were made to it by queen Semiramis, and it was greatly strengthened and beautified by various succeeding sovereigns: but it was Nebuchadnezzar and his daughter Nitocris who brought it to such a degree of magnificence and splendour, as rendered it one of the wonders of the world. Babylon stood in the midst of a large plain, in a very deep and fruitful soil. It was divided into two parts by the river Euphrates, which flowed through the city from north to south. Both these divisions were enclosed by one wall; and the whole formed a complete square, four hundred and eighty furlongs, or sixty miles in compass. The walls were of extraordinary strength, being eighty-seven feet broad, capable of admitting six chariots abreast to run upon them, and three hundred feet high. On each side of the river Euphrates was built a quay, and high wall, of the same thickIs our harvest home, then, to be a gladness with the walls around the city. The one? Are we to ascend to the Lord's house with the voice of joy, or are we to be found blanks in the universe, with'fields mildewed' blighted, black? Let us be up now, ere the great Husbandman come. Better that we find out our evil condition now, than that entrances to the city were by one hundred gates, of immense size, made of solid brass; and the two parts of the city were connected by a remarkable stone bridge across the river. To prevent inconvenience from the swellings of the river, two canals were cut, above the city, by which the superabundant waters were carried off into the Tigris. Besides, prodigious embankments were made, effectually to confine the stream within its channel, and as a security against inundation. The materials for these stupendous works were taken, principally, from the western side of the city, where an extraordinary lake was dug, the depth of which was thirty-five feet, and its circumference forty-five miles. satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the island shall ery in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon_the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron; and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, who call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. Publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues. Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end. And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment, and a hissing, without an inhabitant.' At the two ends of the bridge were two magnificent palaces, which had a subterraneous communication with each other, by means of a vault or tunnel under the bed of the river. The old palace, on the east side, was about thirty furlongs in compass, surrounded by three separate walls. The new palace, on the opposite side, was about four times as large as the other, and is said to have been eight miles in circumference. Within this palace were artificial hanging gardens; consisting of large terraces, raised one above another, till they equalled the walls of the city, and were designed to represent a woody country, having large trees planted on them, in soil of sufficient depth. Near to the old palace stood the temple of Belus, forming a square nearly three miles in compass. In the middle of the temple was an immense tower, six hundred feet in height. This large pile of building consisted of eight towers, each seventy-five feet high, and which were ascended by stairs winding round the outside. On this temple of Belus, or, as some say, on its summit, was a golden image forty feet in height, and equal in value to three and a half millions sterling. There was, besides, such a multitude of other statues and sacred utensils, that the whole of the treasure contained in this single edifice, has been estimated at forty- The particulars of the siege of Babylon two millions of pounds sterling. These are detailed by Herodotus and Xenophon, things displayed the vast wealth and power two eminent heathen historians. In exact of the Babylonian empire, and were, accordance with the inspired predictions of certainly, among the mightiest works of Isaiah and Jeremiah, they say, that Cyrus, mortals. Babylon was called the glory of with a large army of the Medes and kingdoms, the golden city, the lady of Persians, besieged Babylon; that the kingdoms, and the praise of the whole Babylonians, conceiving their walls imearth; but its pride, idolatry, and wicked-pregnable, could not be provoked to an enness, have been visited in its utter desolation, agreeably to the inspired predictions of the holy prophets. 'Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the. Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and gagement; that Cyrus contrived a snare for the Babylonians, by turning the course of the river Euphrates through the great lake; that the waters being thus dried up, the soldiers marched to the bridge in the channel of the river; that, from the negligence of the guards, some of the gates, leading from the river to the city, were left open; that the troops of Cyrus, entering by this means, took Babylon during the night of an idolatrous festival; that its princes, nobles, and captains, being drunk with their feasting, were suddenly slaughtered; and that the glorious city, never before conquered, was thus taken without the and the natural terror at the wild beasts knowledge of the king, till the posts and which dwell among the ruins of Babylon, messengers ran with the information, restrain the Arab from pitching his tent, which he had scarcely time to receive and or shepherds from making their folds there. understand, before he was also numbered The princely palaces and habitations of the among the multitudes of the slain. Baby- wondrous city, utterly destroyed, are now lon soon began to decline: its lofty walls nothing but unshapely heaps of bricks were reduced to only a quarter of their and rubbish: instead of their stately original height; and from an imperial, it chambers, there are now caverns, where was reduced to a tributary city. Xerxes, porcupines creep, and owls and bats nestle; a successor of Cyrus on the Persian throne, where lions find dens, and jackals, hyænas, seized the sacred treasures, plundered the and other noxious animals, their unmolesttemples, and destroyed the images of pre-ed retreats, from which issue loathsome cious metal. Alexander attempted to re- smells; and the entrances to which are store Babylon to its former glory; and de-strewed with the bones of sheep and goats. signed to make it the metropolis of a universal empire. Ten thousand men were employed in repairing the embankments of the Eupbrates, and the temple of Belus: the death of Alexander occasioned the abandonment of the work. About a hundred and thirty years before the birth of Christ, a Parthian conqueror destroyed the fairest parts of Babylon. Several new cities, especially Seleucia, called New Babylon, were built by successive sovereigns in those regions, for the purpose of immortalizing their own names; by which the population of the old city was drained. After the commencement of the Christian era, Babylon was but very thinly peopled; and wide spaces within its walls were brought under cultivation. Babylon continued to decline, and its desolations to increase, till, in the fourth century, its walls formed an enclosure for the breeding of wild beasts; and it was thus made à hunting park for the Persian monarchs. A long series of ages succeeded, in which no record was made concerning it; while, as the prophets testified, it was approaching utter desolation. The site on which Babylon stood has been completely ascertained; and the ruins have been visited and described by several intelligent English travellers. From being the 'glory of kingdoms," Babylon is now the greatest of ruins; and after the lapse of two thousand four hundred years, it exhibits to the view of every traveller the precise scene defined by the prophets of God. The name and remnant are cut off from Babylon. There the Arabian pitches not his tent; there the shepherds make not their folds; but wild beasts of the desert lie there, and their houses are full of doleful creatures. It is a place for the bittern, and a dwelling place for dragons; it is a dry land and a desert-a burnt mountain -empty-wholly desolate-pools of water -heaps and utterly destroyed-a land where no man dwelleth-every one that passes by it is astonished. The superstitious dread of evil spirits, On one side of the Euphrates, the canals are dry; and the crumbled bricks on an elevated surface exposed to the scorching sun, cover an arid plain; and Babylon is a wilderness, a dry land, a desert. On the other, the embankments of the river, and with them the vestiges of ruins over a large space, have been swept away; the plain is in general marshy, and in many places inaccessible, especially after the annual overflowing of the Euphrates: no son of man doth pass thereby; the sea or river is come upon Babylon, she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. Birs Nimrod, or the temple of Belus, which was standing after the beginning of the Christian era, is still to be distinguished. It is worthy, from its mere immensity, of being a relic of Babylon the great: for though a mass of ruins, it is no less than two hundred and thirty-five feet high. On these ruins there are vast fragments of brickwork that have been completely molten, and they ring like glass; and which must have been subjected to a heat equal to that of the strongest furnace. From the summit of this mass may be had a distinct view of the frightful heaps which constitute all that now remains of ancient and glorious Babylon; and a more complete picture of absolute desolation could scarcely be imagined. Thus we behold the proudest works of the greatest of mortals brought to nothing, and the loftiest monuments of their power, genius, and riches, levelled with the dust, and preserved in ruins, for the purpose of illustrating and confirming the faithful testimony of the eternal God, as recorded in his most Holy Word. How wonderful are the predictions of his commissioned servants, when compared with the events to which they direct our minds: and what a convincing demonstrative proof do we see of the truth and divinity of the Holy Scriptures! With what admirable propriety does Jehovah allege this memorable instance of his foreknowledge, in relation to Babylon, and challenge all the false divinities and the votaries to produce anything of similar import. Who hath de clared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time? have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.' What an affecting lesson is afforded to us, by the blasted ruins of the temple and palaces of magnificent Babylon! Powerfully do they confirm, and illustrate, and awfully recommend, the instructive lan'All that guage of the apostles of Christ. is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God adideth for ever.' THE EDITOR'S LIBRARY. WE have just added a few shelves to our book-case, and intend to get them gradually filled with good and useful publications. We shall reserve a corner in our Journal every month for notices of those sent for review. Several works have been lying on our table for some time, and we have to apologize to the publishers for being so long in acknowledging them. First and foremost, is 'The Eclectic Review,' an extremely cheap publication of the class to which it belongs The articles are in general well written; frequently there appear some of a decidedly high cast, and the whole may be said to be characterized by intelligence and utility. 'Home Thoughts,' is a monthly publication, commenced at the beginning of the year by Kent & Co., of London, and, as its name implies, is intended as a domestic companion. As cheap, moral, and useful, we recommend it. In April its price was reduced, while its size remained the samea proof, we think, that its character is approved of by the public. "The Educational Expositor,' is another monthly periodical, which dates its birth from January 1853. We consider it one of the most valuable magazines of the day. The question of education is one of immense importance. At the present time it is occupying a large share of public attention; and we believe a new era is dawning on the system, at least in Britain. Not one of our schoolmasters, either parochial or private, should be without the 'Expositor. They have long needed an organ, and this is one which we are sure will prove very useful. It is published by Longman & Co., Lon don. Mr James Thomson has sent us a copy of his pamphlet, Spain-Its Position and Evangelization,' &c. (London: Partridge & Oakey), being chiefly essays reprinted from The Christian Family Advocate.' It contains a great deal of interesting information regarding the religious position of this neglected country, and proves most distinctly that, though to a great extent under the power of the Man of Sin, there are bright spots, even in her religious history, and that she possesses many claims on the prayers and efforts of Missionary Societies in Britain. THE COMING REST for the Nations of the Earth. London: Houlston & Stoneman. Edinburgh: Thomas Grant. THE publication of this work was announced for the 8th October, and eight days after, being the day on which we write this notice of the pamphlet, it had reached its eighth thousand. We are perfectly willing to allow that efficient arrangements on the part of the publisher, and machinery that can be simultaneously set in operation throughout every part of the country, are advantages greatly in favour of the sale of a book whatever its merits may be, and can scarcely fail to make a work speedily known, and secure success to a greater or less extent; but in this case we are disposed to attribute success chiefly to the intrinsic value of the work, and to the celebrity which the author possesses from the fame of his other pamphlets. Other publishers, doubtless, have arrangements as efficient as the publishers of the Coming Rest,' but few, if any of them, have had it in their power to congratulate themselves on the fact that, within eight days of the appearance of a work, eight thousand copies had been sold. Our space in the present Number prevents us giving lengthy extracts, but we would scarcely have thought it needful to do so, as we are sure that nothing short of the perusal of the entire pamphlet will We may remark, satisfy our readers. that after three or four well-written introductory paragraphs, the author enters on the discussion of his subject, and, for the sake of perspecuity, divides it into four parts, viz., the Consitution, Characteristics, Advent, and Duration of the 'Coming Rest,' or the Millennium. The Characteristics specified by the author are five in number, and are as follows:-1st, The Official Dignity of the Jews; 2d, The Suppression of Evil; 3d, Universal Christianity; 4th, A Universal Language; and 5th, Å Modification of the Original Curse. We select for extract the remarks on the third characteristic: 'Satan being expelled, and Christ the sole ruler of the world, every thing that is Anti christian must perish; and love, which is the spirit of the Sovereign, must be the principle of his government, and extend to every part of his dominions. What a glorious revolution must be effected ere that time, and how great and general the change throughout the extent of moral nature! Contemplating it from our present sin and sorrow surrounded position, we can form no definite conception of it. Its very magnitude overwhelms us. Let us, from the Bible description, take up a few points; and while our wonder and admiration will not by this means be lessened, our knowledge may be gradually and methodically formed, and an approach, however distant, be made towards a realization of the truth. 'What then are some of the things implied by the universality of love, or Christianity? One very prominent feature is, the abolition of superstition and idolatry. The history of these two direful emanations of sin, is dark and extensive. Its first page dates from the moment that Adam, trembling and terrorstricken, hid himself from God; and onward from that time till now has it held its melancholy course. Guilt produced fear, and a desire for propitiation. As the knowledge and worship of the true God was gradually lost, these two feelings incited man to make unto himself gods of all objects and materials; these he worshipped, and presented with bloody sacrifices. Shortly after the flood, superstition and idolatry became almost, if not altogether, universal in the world, until it pleased the Most High to reveal himself to Abraham, and appoint him and his seed the repositaries of the truth. From the days of Abraham till Christ the knowledge and worship of the true God was confined to Judea, but for the last eighteen hundred years it has been gradually spreading over the heathen nations. Still, however, it is comparatively but a small portion of the globe that has been illumined by the beams of the Sun of Righteousness. Here and there he has indeed risen with healing under his wings, but for the most part the earth is yet "full of the habitations of horrid cruelty." Superstition and idolatry defile many a land with crime and blood. In India, in China, in Africa, and the islands of the west, they hold their iron sway over many millions of our fellow-men, who know not they are even enchained. But no sooner does Christ grasp the universal sceptre, than he claims the heathen for his inheritance, and takes possession of the uttermost ends of the earth. "The idols he shall utterly abolish," and write his name on every heathen temple. The images of wood and stone shall be torn from every altar and every hearth, and cast to the moles and the bats; incense and a pure offering shall ascend to heaven, instead of the smoke and savour of human sacrifices; and from every part of this green earth shall rise the millennial songs of salvation. No need then for any one to say to his neighbour, "Know the Lord;" for all shall know him, from the least even to the greatest. No nook nor cranny shall harbour the mists of ignorance, or shelter the retreating form of a No false and gloomy worship; "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Never more shall be heard the splash of the Ganges, as it opens its bosom to receive the child-sacrifice from the hands of its own mother. longer shall the ponderous wheels of Juggernaut's car crush and mangle the bodies of enthusiastic devotees, or the thousand deities of heathendom torture their worshippers. "The graven images shall be cut off, the standing images taken away, and no longer shall men worship the work of their own hands; for the name of the Lord shall be great among the heathen." 'Universal Christianity implies the establishment of truth and justice. Here is at last "the desired haven' for the tempest-tost bark of humanity. Under the broad shadow of these eternal rocks, it may lie calm and peaceful, undisturbed by those billows of passion, those surges of strife, oppression, and wrong, which now foam and boil on every side, and render the ocean of life weary, troublesome, and dangerous. Truth! No smooth deceit, no hollow hypocrisy, falsehood, dissimulation, nor any species of untruth; these "semblances," which disgust and sicken the earnest, honest soul, and entail an unknown amount of misery upon the social fabric, will be all swept away like mist before the sun, and everything will not only be what it is, but what it seems. Beginning with the altar itself, with its blasphemous trick of transubstantiation down through the whole system of things, the veil of gauzey dissimulation will be removed, and every object and system fitted with a proper appellative. "The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful." The fulsome honour paid so often to the departed possessors of wealth shall be unknown, unless that wealth has only served to adorn the character of its owner, by proving the means of manifesting the sublime emotions of generosity and benevolence. 'By the prevalence of truth, the progress of the human mind in knowledge will be rendered rapid and pleasant. No longer will ignorance, prejudice, or superstition raise those determined barriers which in the past retarded, and would if possible have beat back, the ebbless tide. A Columbus shall not then spend the best years of his life in gaining assistance for the promotion of discovery. A Keplar may still toil at an astronomical problem for seventeen years, but long, long ere sixty have followed its solution, many Newtons shall arise to appreciate it. Science, which is but a knowledge of the true, shall attend, like a willing handmaiden, at the footsteps of her royal and enthroned mistress. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord-the knowledge of his works and ways, the knowledge of nature in its various departments. Christ, "the Lord of Science," will open the wide domain, and smooth the pathway of the wanderers therein. "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." 'Justice! that principle long yearned for, |