We have

than any other Church that I have ever seen. there no idlers. All do something; all do what they can. Nearly all the congregation are in the Sabbath school, either as teachers or as scholars; tract distribution all over the town, is attended to on Monday evenings; twenty prayer-meetings are held in private houses, to which persons invite their neighbours and friends. Almost every member of the Church makes it his solemn duty to try each month to be the means of bringing one soul to the Saviour; and at the end of each month they meet, to tell the success, or discouragement, which has attended their labours. It is in this manner, by the activity of the Church, rather than by any efficiency on the part of the pastor, that, during the last five years, we have added three hundred members to the Church, besides about fifty candidates, who now stand proposed for the same privilege. Rev. Mr. Davis.

WHAT CAN A CHILD DO?-About eighteen months ago, I was on a river in China. In the middle of the day the men requested time for rest. A boat was coming down the torrent, and in a moment two boys in it were plunged in the stream; we were on shore, and could not help them. One boy caught the helm, and got into the boat; the other was struggling in the stream. A fisherman put out, and succeeded in saving him at the last extremity. In so doing he was aided by a little boy, five years of age. Come then to our meetings, and, like that little boy, give us your little aid, join us in our prayers, and thus you may help on the time, when there shall be proclaimed 'glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men.'-Rev. W. C. Milne.

WESLEYAN SCHOOLS.-In connexion with Wesleyanism, there are 403,837 Sunday scholars in England; in Scotland, 3,776; and in North Wales, 12,000. The annual cost of Sunday schools is £22,000. Belonging to the connexion, there are 332 Week-day and Infant schools, with 30,686 scholars. The annual cost of these schools is about £17,000.

CHINESE TRADITION.-There exists a tradition among the boasting Chinese, that all the planets were congregated within one sign of the Zodiac, at the auspicious period in which their dynasty was founded. It is on this account that China is called 'The Celestial Empire.'

HARVEST CLOSE UPON SEED TIME.

About twelve months ago a citizen of Baltimore was waylaid and robbed early in the evening, in a very bold manner. The offenders were apprehended, tried, convicted, and sentenced.-One of them was a youth who was for some time connected with a Sunday School in that city. He was regular in his attendance, and great hopes were entertained that he was in the right way.

One morning he was seen standing at a corner of the street, talking with some young men whom he called friends; and he talked with them until the opening services of the school were finished. His place was in his class, and he knew it. He would have been safe there. By and by he absented himself half a day, now and then, and afterwards a whole day, till at last he entirely withdrew. His teacher pursued him with earnest invitations to return, and with faithful warnings of his danger. But he had joined himself to evil doers, and his teacher's remonstrances were not regarded.

Soon afterwards he joined a fire company-a most unwise and unhappy step for him-and the next thing we hear of him, is, that he associated himself with three other lads and committed the offence for which he was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment in the Maryland penitentiary. Thus in only two years from the commencement of his irregular attendance at the Sunday school he met with this terrible doom. How small the beginning! only a few minutes spent at the corner of the street after school commenced!-'Surely,' (he might say,) there can be no harm in that. I mean to go to school.' Yes, my young friend, but your teacher, and superintendent and friends want to see you there at the moment. They want you there when they pray and sing praises to God. You are safer there than you can be while engaged in vain conversation on that holy day. 'He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but the companion of fools shall be destroyed.'

WRITERS. Two of the most remarkable writers-who, at the same time, show what assiduity and perseverance can accomplish-are the Englishman Saunderson, who, although blind, wrote about the colours and stars, and the Frenchman Zaboureaux, who, born deaf and dumb, taught seven Oriental languages.

THE sacred Scriptures are full of allusions to weeping, mourning, bewailing, rending, fasting, wearing sackcloth, putting dust on the head, visiting the grave, &c. These customs differ widely from those which we observe in circumstances of grief. Many expressions of grief are, no doubt, conventional-originating in caprice: but all are not

So. There are reasons which may be assigned for many actions performed by persons who are in heavy trouble. It was customary anciently to shave the head on the loss of a relative; this would allay the excitement in the brain, caused by intense sorrow. So beating the breast would relieve the heart oppressed by languid circulation of the blood. Cutting the flesh and blood-letting, which was done anciently,

would reduce feverishness. Crying out, diverts attention from anguish of mind or body; while tearing and rending the garment, would for a time give vent to nervous irritation. The Engravings represent some of the customs, anciently observed in cases of death. The first shows a

group of persons mourning at the grave, lifting up the hands and bewailing the departed, and thus unburdening the sorrows of their souls. The second represents Egyptians bowing before a mummy, putting dust on their heads, perhaps intending thus to cool their heads, and to exhibit the earthly origin and end of man. The third represents the wailing with tabrets before the corpse, in order to awake the friend if only in a trance, so as to prevent premature burial. The fourth exhibits an Egyptian mourning,

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They would often stand around the corpse and professedly converse with it, while they extolled its virtues and invoked its welfare.

We have copied by permission the Engravings from Kitto's Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, a work we have already praised, and which we may now say is fast approaching its completion. It is a most invaluable repertory of information, on all points connected with the literature of the Bible. The articles are supplied by writers of the first class. In most instances we have been perfectly satisfied with the facts and evidences which they have stated. To few, very few have we demurred.

The Voice of the Months.

DEAR FRIENDS,

No. 9, SEPTEMBER.*

Although I am the ninth month in the British calendar, and the seventh in the Roman, as my name expresses, I do not pretend to be either one of the nine muses, or one of the seven wise Grecians.

My letter however will, I feel persuaded, contain more valuable, because more evangelical instruction, than all the poetry of the heathen, and all the philosophy of Greece and Rome.

The busy country is still employed in gathering in the fruits of the field, the orchard and the vineyard; and, while 'the pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing,'-let young and old praise the Lord for the goodness of an abundant Autumn, and earnestly pray, that they may reap the blessings of pardon, holiness, and joy, which grow in the field of the gospel.

In many parts of the South of Europe, grapes are as common as gooseberries and currants are with us. Wine is the juice of the grape. Alas! how the bounty of God is abused, when men drink strong drink and are drunken. You are not able to imagine the sin and misery, the poverty, the death, the ruin of both body and soul caused by intoxication. Ever cherish, my dear friends, a hatred to drunkenness: avoid all temptations to it, as much as possible, idle conversation, Sabbath-breaking and wicked companions; 'Be not filled with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit.'

The juice of the grape however, reminds you of a most important Christian ordinance, the LORD'S SUPPER. The cup, that is, the wine, is an emblem of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and a pledge and an assurance of God's willingness to save all, young as well as aged, who believe in him. Now, I wish you, who are advancing in your teens, often and seriously to think about this Supper: to read what is written about it in the New Testament, and some good book, such as Henry on the Sacrament,

* Septem, seven, and ber which Voss says is a contraction of imber, a shower: the rainy seventh month.