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HOLY HABITS FORMED IN SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 31

came a teacher, our pastor gave a public sermon on the occasion, to point out the importance of the school; to illustrate which, he drew a contrast between that school and the children who were cast into the Ganges, or who died, with their wretched mothers, near the temple of Juggernaut. It was at that moment that God put into my heart to become a missionary, which, through his adorable providence, has led me far wandering round, until I came to the place where I now write these lines! Have not many others been led just in the same way, some of whom have served their generation according to the will of God, and gone to heaven; others who are still shining and burning in this dark cold world! O, then, let us enlarge the place of our rest, and stretch forth the curtains of our habitations. Look around you, dear readers, and behold the desolation! Look up, dear readers, to your Master who has all power in heaven and earth, and then say, 'By the help of the Lord the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.'

I promise you the prayers of your fellow-labourer, Tabernacle House, WottonRICHARD KNILL.

under-Edge, Jan. 3, 1845.

HOLY HABITS FORMED IN SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

If, at the moment of your birth, God had sent an angel to be ever with you, to guard you from every moral danger, to warn you against every temptation, to aid and direct you in the way to heaven, it would surely be evidence of his kindness, and of his earnest desire for your salvation. If, at each successive month, he had sent another angel, and another, and another, and so on, through all your life, until finally you were surrounded by a convoy of angels, who should keep you in safety till death, and then bear you on joyous wings to heaven, how would it magnify your obligations to love him, and to be saved! And yet he has done more than this. He has given you habits; and these, by your own choice, and through his grace, may be made more influential for your safety than an ethereal guard. It is obvious why it is better to pray for yourself, than to have angels pray for you. For the same reason it is better to be guarded by holy habits, than by holy angels. Habits, then, may be more than angels to you! Beware, lest by perversion, like angels rejected, they become for ever the ministers of wrath and wo to your soul.

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JACOB'S VISION OF ANGELS.

Our Engraving is intended to illustrate a very interesting narrative. (See Gen. 28.) Jacob appears to have been dejected in his mind by the separation from his parents, by the toilsome journey before him, and by the uncertainty of his future lot. He was, however, cheered by an uncommon dream, adapted to his condition, and very probably corresponding to his anxieties and wishes of the previous day. He beheld a mysterious ladder, uniting heaven and earth, and crowded with angels, obeying the commands of Him who stood at the top. The Lord renewed the covenant made with Abraham, and then assured

him of every providential blessing he should need on the journey.

May we not in all this see a typical revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose double nature connects heaven and earth, and on whose person the angels of God delighted to wait ? Was he not from the beginning the

consolation of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble? Does not Jesus apply this scene to himself when he says, 'Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man!'

The Voice of the Months.

No. 2, FEBRUARY.

MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,

I must not allow the death of my brother Janus to prevent me from writing to you; although it is astounding and painful to think, that each of our family, in whose existence the world has a deep interest, is doomed to so brief a life. You will read, therefore, my letter as you would one from a friend who feels himself dying.

You must know, that whilst I have so much to do with earth I have my house* and path† in the sky, and receive my birth and death at the moments the sun enters and leaves that habitation.

You have heard of Astrology, it is the pretended art of telling beforehand what shall take place both to nations and to individuals. Would you believe that because one part of my existence is in the sign of Aquarius, and that because astrologers chuse to say that Aquarius is one of the humane, harmonious, and generous signs, any persons should be so foolish as to assert that these qualities are to be found in all who are born in the month of February? And yet follies as great as this have been supported by all astrologers from the Chaldean down to the author of Moore's almanac.

You may well say, how can movements in the heavens, made according to fixed laws, produce such different * The ancients, perhaps the Chaldeans, who divided the stars into constellations, called them houses.

The imaginary belt which goes round the heavens, and in which the sun and all the planets move, is called the zodiac. It contains twelve parts named signs, one for each month; though, through a gradual change, one month takes part of two signs.

effects on the earth? and how can natural agents, such as the sun, affect the purposes of men? I beg you, however, fully to understand, that I make no claims to the art of fortune-telling; and that I condemn all who do pretend to foretell events by the stars. Isaiah xlvii. 12, 15. All that

I can predict of you may be learned, not from the signs of the zodiac, but from the holy writings-that if you fear and love God it shall be well with you both in time and in eternity, and if you live and die without true religion you will be unhappy, first in this world, and then in that which is to come.

I am considered to be dull, and am represented as the water-carrier, to intimate the wet and rainy atmosphere in which I live; you will not, therefore, expect me to write a sprightly letter, or to display much wit, as if I were the merry month of May. I have rather to prepare for the productions of Spring than to witness them in their promise and beauty; and, like the sun itself which often smiles on my hours, most that is good for man, arises out of water and mist. So that the water-bearer* and the fish are not to be despised. May I remind you of John vii. 37, 38. The Jews, at the feast of tabernacles, significantly carried water from the pool of Siloam to the temple; and our Saviour looking at them would have them all become water-bearers in the best sense. He himself is the well of life of all spiritual blessings, such as pardon, holiness, wisdom, strength, peace, and hope; and the Holy Spirit enables young as well as old Christians to apply these blessings to themselves. I wish, therefore, that each of you may be an Aquarius; you will then find springs of joy in your own heart, or if not springs, a reservoir, clear and refreshing, and constantly filled out of the fulness of Christ. This is what is meant in the 38th verse.

You must know, that Numa, the second king of Rome, sometimes called the Roman Solomon, gave me my name, and devoted a part of my time to festivals, which were termed Lupercalia. I am ashamed to say, that although these festivities were said to be for purification, they were most wicked and polluting-'abominable idolatries.' Yet I should like you, my young friends, to devote much of the month to a sort of Christian Lupercalia, to the service of real purification. Think much of the blood that cleanseth from all sin; of the grace that washes the soul and

* Many persons have supposed that the earth was originally in a fluid state.

makes it white as snow, and pray every day, 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.'

Cold though I may be, let me take you into the garden, look at those flowers, the snow-drop and the primrose, are they not beautiful, as lovely pious youths in the midst of aged people? They promise Spring, with all its gaiety and hope; they seem to ask, what promise do you give of love to Jesus Christ, and of more flowers and fruits in Summer and Autumn? they also foretell WINTER as well as Spring. I cannot, therefore, do better than take leave of you by assuring you, that distant as you think it now to be, dark, chilly, deathly December will quickly follow. Your anxious and faithful friend,

FEBRUARY.

GOOD AND BAD NEWS.

Bad news weakens the action of the heart, oppresses the lungs, destroys the appetite, stops digestion, and partially suspends all the functions of the system. An emotion of shame flushes the face; fear blanches; joy illuminates it; and an instant thrill electrifies a million of nerves. Surprise spurs the pulse to a gallop. Delirium infuses great energy. Volition commands, and hundreds of muscles spring to execute. Powerful emotion often

kills the body at a stroke. Chilo, Diagoras, Sophocles, died of joy at the Grecian games. The news of a defeat killed Philip V. One of the Popes died of an emotion of the ludicrous on seeing his pet monkey robed in pontificals and occupying the chair of state. Muley Mulock was carried upon the field of battle in the last stages of an incurable disease; upon seeing his army give way, he rallied his panic-stricken troops, rolled back the tide of battle, shouted victory, and died. The door-keeper of Congress expired on hearing of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. Eminent public speakers have often died in the midst of an impassioned burst of eloquence, or when the deep emotion that produced it had suddenly subsided. Lagrave, the young Parisian, died when he heard that the musical prize for which he had competed was adjudged to another. Hill, at New York, was apprehended for theft, and taken before the police; though in perfect health, mental agony forced the blood from his nostrils, and he was carried out and died.

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