of this world, I would answer, "A man of feeling, with a good temper :" and so rare is it to meet with those qualifications united, that half the study of our lives is to bear with each others inequalities of temper. The due regulation of the temper is nevertheless of infinite importance. It constitutes all that we mean by politeness; it is often a sacrifice of our feelings to please other persons with whom we are necessarily connected, and are, perhaps, to pass through life. The temper is not one passion, it is something made up of all the passions, and the operations of it are most discernable in persons of sense and feeling, for it is they only who are affected by little things, and who are ever foreseeing and apprehending consequences of which the ignorant, the careless, and the unfeeling have no conception.

Our natural tempers, however, are not all the same; there are some which are calm, though not amounting to insensibility, and some which are boisterous, and certainly ought to be suppressed. It is said of Sir Isaac Newton; that when he discovered that his dog had gnawed and torn to pieces some manuscripts of inestimable value, and which Sir Isaac could not replace, he only said to the animal: "Ah! Diamond, Diamond, little dost thou know the mischief thou has done!" Some people in such a case would have beat and bruised the poor animal, or perhaps, which would have been more merciful, have killed it. Sir Isaac could not but be vexed for the loss of his papers, but probably all the punishment he thought of was to prohibit his dog from having access to his room. Had he done more, could he have regained his manuscripts, or convinced little Diamond that they were of infinite importance to himself and to the learned world?

If the temper be allowed to burst forth on every occasion, it renders the party habitually peevish, discontented, and excessively disagreeable. Little things are surely beneath the notice of a sensible person; it is therefore necessary to guard against such things as have a natural tendency to ruffle the temper and put us off our guard. The little inconveniences and asperities of life which try our tempers and our resolution, are numerous enough without our adding to them. Those persons who cannot bear with many absurdities, inconsistencies, and follies, who cannot put up with many and various foibles, disappointments, and eccentric actions, ought not to court a numerous acquaintance, for it may be said of acquaintances as it is of knowledge, "he that increaseth it, increaseth sorrow."

The advantages of a moderate temper, or a good temper, are discoverable in every event of our lives,--but particularly in our intercourses in society. In those unfortunate disputes which rise to a quarrel, I need not say how necessary it is to preserve it. In fact, a passionate man is a sort of lunatic, and there is as much difference between a man when in a passion, and when he reasons calmly, as there is between the wisest man on earth and the incurable in Bedlam.

HINTS ON PROPHECY.

ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY.

THE Spirit of God assures us that "no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation;" we assume, therefore, that when God speaks to man, in history, prophecy, or law, he speaks to be understood, in intelligible language; and his words are to be taken in their common or literal meaning; when they are used figuratively, it is almost always evident from the connection; and when metaphorically, they are usually accompanied with an interprétation.

In order to understand a prophecy, we must carefully consider the context, the place, persons, circumstances, period, and events, to which it may refer; we are required also to examine what is narrated by other prophets respecting the same event.

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We must acquaint ourselves with the "prophetical land-marks," and with the scriptural meaning of words and phrases, such as "Zion," Israel," "Day of the Lord," "The Wine Press," &c. We must familiarize ourselves with the Hebrew idiom, a knowledge of which is indispensable to the student of prophecy. The word "soul," for instance, is often applied in the Scriptures to the "body," a sense in which an English reader, unacquainted with the Hebrew idiom, would hardly think of receiving it. (See Rev. xvi. 3.)

Reader! if you attend to the above directions, with prayer to God, to grant that you be not "slow in heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken," you will soon discover revelation, which at present appears to you a mass of impenetrable darkness, to be "a light that shineth in a dark place," which will enlighten your path, strengthen your faith, and greatly increase your joy and hope in the Lord.

The following are a few interpretations given by the Spirit where the language used is metaphorical; we are sorry we are obliged to curtail these quotations for want of room, but we trust that our readers will examine them in the Scriptures for themselves.

The Spirit gives the following interpretation of the vision of dry bones: (Ezek. xxxvii. 11,) "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel-Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel:—and shall put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land." verse 14. Of the vision of the sticks (or sceptres) which immediately follows, the interpretation is, "Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, and will bring them into their own land :-I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all. My servant David (the beloved) shall be their Prince for ever." verse 25.

John, after describing the destruction of the ten kings and the Pagan power by "THE WORD OF GOD," and his white-robed army, tells us, "I saw thrones. and they sat upon them, and JUDGMENT WAS GIVEN UNTO THEM and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the WORD OF GOD, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."-Of which the Spirit gives the following interpretation: "This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

The following is the interpretation given to Daniel's version of the beast, (the Roman empire,) "Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth: and the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise, (the kingdoms of Europe): and another shall rise after them, and he shall be diverse from the first, (Papal power,) and shall subdue three kings-and shall wear out the saints of the most High.-but THE JUDGMENT SHALL SIT, and they shall take away his dominion. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." (Dan. vii. 23-28.) The last verse evidently refers to verse 21, 22, "I beheld the same horn, (the Papal power,) made war with the saints and prevailed against them, UNTIL THE ANCIENT OF DAYS CAME, AND JUDGMENT WAS GIVEN TO THE SAINTS OF THE MOST HIGH, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

Among the things written in the above passages, we find the following:

1. A coming of "the Ancient of days."

2. A resurrection.

3. A judgment given to the saints. (Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?)

4. The destruction of anti-christ and the kings of the earth.

5. The reign of Christ and his saints.

These are all spoken of as taking place previous to, or during the, millennium.

R.

NOTE.-Being convinced that Prophecy has been too much neglected, and that it is now a matter of deep interest with many of the churches, we have determined to devote a corner in the Banner to that subject. Although the author of the above article has given much attention to prophecy, we do not pledge ourselves for all the sentiments he advances, but leave each of our readers to form his own judgment. We wish to avoid controversy; yet should any brother, who thinks he can disprove on scriptural authority, the sentiments advanced by our correspondent, forward to us a short and well-written article, we shall give it a place in the Banner. EDITOR.

THE VALUE OF EVENING HOURS.

WE give the following as a pendant to the “Chapter for the People," page 38, inserted in our last.-ED.

WHAT have evening hours done for the mechanics who had only ten hour's toil? What in the moral, what in the religious, what in the scientific world? Hearken to these facts! One of the best editors the Westminister Review could ever boast, and one of the most brilliant writers of the passing hour, was a cooper in Aberdeen. One of the editors of a London daily journal, was a baker in Elgin. Perhaps the best reporter on the Times, was a weaver in Edinburgh. The editor of the (Edinburgh?) Witness, was a stonemason. One of the ablest ministers in London, was a blacksmith in Dundee; another, was a watchmaker in Banff. The late Dr. Milne, of China, was a herd-boy in Rhynie. The principal of the London Missionary Society's College at Hong Kong, was a saddler at Huntley. And one of the best missionaries that ever went to India was a tailor in Keith. The leading machinest on the London and Birmingham Railway, with £700 a year, was a mechanic in Glasgow. And, perhaps, the richest iron founder in England, was a working man in Moray. Sir James Clarke, her Majesty's physician, was a druggist in Banff. Joseph Hume was a sailor first, and then a labourer at the pestle and mortar in Montrose. Mr. Macgregor, the member for Glasgow, was a poor boy in Ross-shire. James Wilson, the member for Westbury, was a ploughman in Haddington. And Arthur Anderson, the member for Orkney, earned his bread by the sweat of his brow in Ultima Thule.

THE LITERARY MERIT OF THE SCRIPTURES.

ONE of the most eminent of critics has said, that "devotional poetry cannot please." If it be so, then has the Bible "carried the dominion of poetry into regions that are inaccessible to worldly ambition." It has "crossed the enchanted circle," and by the beauty, boldness, and originality of its conceptions, has given to devotional poetry, a glow, a richness, a tenderness, in vain sought for in Shakspeare or Cowper, in Scott or Byron. Where is there poetry that can be compared with the song of Moses at his victory over Pharoah; with the Psalms of David; with the Song of Solomon, and with the prophecies of Isaiah? Where is there an elegiac ode to be compared with the song of David upon the death of Saul and Jonathan, or the Lamentations of Jeremiah? Where in ancient or modern poetry, is there a passage like this?" In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face: the hair of my flesh stood up. It stood

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still, but I could not discern the form thereof. An image was before mine eyes. There was silence. And I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God; shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold he putteth no trust in his servants, and his angels he chargeth with folly. How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, and who are crushed before the moth?" Men who have felt the power of poetry, when they have marked the "deep working passion of Dante," and observed the elevation of Milton as he "combined image with image in lofty gradation,” have thought that they discovered the indebtedness of these writers to the poetry of the Old Testament. But how much more sublime is Isaiah than Milton! How much more enkindling than Dante, is David! How much more picturesque than Homer, is Solomon or Job! Like the rapid, glowing argumentations of Paul, the poetic parts of the Bible may be read a thousand times, and they have all the freshness and glow of the first perusal. Where, in the compass of human language, is there a paragraph, which, for boldness and variety of metaphor, delicacy and majesty of thought, strength and invention, elegance and refinement, equals the passage in which "God answers Job out of the whirlwind?" "What merely human imagination, in the natural progress of a single discourse, and apparently without effort, ever thus went down to " the foundations of the earth"-stood at the doors of the ocean" -visited "the place where the day-spring from on high takes hold of the uttermost parts of the earth"-entered into "the treasures of the snow and the hail "-traced the path of the thunder-bolt—and, penetrating the retired chambers of nature, demanded, "Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?" And how bold its flights, how inexpressibly striking and beautiful its antitheses, when from the warm and sweet Pleiades, it wanders to the sterner Orion, and in its rapid course, hears the "young lions crying unto God for lack of meat"-sees the war horse pawing in the valley-descries the eagle on the crag of the rock-and in all that is vast and minute, dreadful and beautiful, discovers and proclaims the glory of Him who is "excellent in counsel and wonderful in working?" The style of Hebrew poetry is every where forcible and figurative beyond example. The book of Job stands not alone in this sententious, spirited and energetic form and manner. It prevails throughout the poetic part of the Scriptures; and they stand confessedly the most eminent examples to be found of the truly sublime and beautiful. I confess I have not much of the feeling of poetry. It is a fire that is enkindled at "the living lamp of nature, and glows only on a few favoured altars. And yet I cannot but love the poetic associations of the Bible. Now, they are sublime and beautiful, like the mountain torrent, swollen and impetuous by the sudden bursting of the cloud. Now they are grand and awful as the stormy Galilee,