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positive sin, shall be gently dealt with; In short, a Christian seeks to glorify but those who neglected the good which Him. This aim gives the character to they knew, or might have known, they his life; but how few do this! The lust should do, shall be severely punished for of the flesh, conformity to the world, the the omission. How many fancy they are in gratification and aggrandisement of self, a safe enough state, because they allege are their object, and the chief end for they are doing nothing against religion, which they live. Where is their faith? and no harm to any one! How many ignore this doctrine: "He that is not with me is against me!" Where is their faith? Scripture says, "If a man shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. If thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." The principle of rebellion is the same; and it is clear, that the omission of one sin can never compensate for the commission of another. Yet, in the face of this, what do we often hear when we ask about a husband or a son? Is he a godly man? Does he frequent the Lord's ordinances? Does he command his children and his household after him?-No; but I never saw him the worse of drink. I never heard him blaspheme. He does not wander on the Sabbath, but stays at home. Or,-lofty praise!" My bairns never put to their hauns,"—that is, do not steal. Where is their faith?

The Saviour charges us not to be anxious, asking, "What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed; but to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto us." How many put the world's business infinitely foremost; and read the Bible in the devil's way-backwards! They labour with heart and hand for the meat that perisheth; and though they draw near to the Lord with their mouths, yet they labour not at all for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life. Where is their faith?

The Saviour asks, "If ye love them that love you, what thank have ye? The publicans do the same. If ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others ?"

And when we inquire what means this doing more than others, He explains it himself,—“Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Scripture says, << Strive to enter into the kingdom;" "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure;" "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Multitudes affirm, that they hope to reach paradise when they die; but they are not travelling on the path that leads to it; they are not growing in holiness; they have none of it about them; nay, they perhaps make a joke of it. What should we think of a man who said, "I hope to make a fortune," while he was squandering his means, and wasting his time? He might wish for fortune, but he has no right to hope for it. What should we think of a youth who said, “I hope to obtain a place requiring high educational attainments," while he had no taste for books, and hated learning? He might wish, but could never really hope for it. And what shall we say of those who hope to enter into the kingdom, while they live in spiritual slothwhile, to their dying hour, they are doing nothing to justify that hope? Where is their faith? D. S.

HYPOCRITES MAKE INFIDELS.

An infidel once left the company of some great "professors," who had done nothing but backbite their neighbours, over whisky-toddy, which they seemed to love more than their fellow-men; and he said, "If that is Christianty, I never was a Christian, and hope never to be

one !"

Let those who profess to represent Christianity take care that they are not representing its great enemy, and helping his cause by their practical denial of all which they say they believe.

ADVENTURE AT THE VOLCANO OF KILAUEA, SANDWICH ISLANDS. On the sides of a small crater, (which to be two hundred feet in diameter, had been previously measured, and found by thirty-eight feet deep,) Dr. Judd saw some fine specimens of capillary glass,

"Pele's hair," which he became anxious to obtain. With the aid of a native he descended, and when down was in danger of falling, from the narrowness of the ledge on which he had footing. He was enticed onwards to gather the finest specimens. While thus advancing, he saw and heard a slight movement in the lava, about fifty feet from him, which was twice repeated; curiosity led him to turn to approach the place where the motion occurred. In an instant the crust was broken asunder by a terrific heave, and a jet of molten lava, full fifteen feet in diameter, rose to the height of about forty-five feet, with the most appalling noise. He instantly turned for the purpose of escaping, but found he was now under a projecting ledge, which opposed his ascent, and that the place where he descended was some feet distant. The heat was already too great to permit him to turn his face towards it, and was every moment increasing; while the violence of the throes, which shook the rock beneath his feet, augmented. Although he considered his life as lost, he did not omit the means for preserving it; but offering a mental prayer for divine aid, he strove, although in vain, to scale the projecting rock. While thus engaged, he called in English upon his native attendants for aid; and, looking upwards, saw the friendly hand of Kalumo-who, on this fearful occasion, had not abandoned his spiritual guide and friendextended towards him. Ere he could grasp it, the fiery jet again rose above their heads, and Kalumo shrunk back, scorched and terrified, until, excited by a second appeal, he again stretched forth his hand, and seized the Doctor with a giant's grasp. By their joint efforts he was safely placed on the ledge. Another moment,

and all aid would have been unavailing to save Dr. Judd from perishing in the fiery deluge.

The rest of the natives were some hundred yards distant, running as fast as their legs could carry them. On calling to them, they returned, and brought the frying-pan, by which time the crater was full of lava, and running over at the northern side, where Dr. Judd was enabled to dip up a pan of it. He now found he had no time to lose; the lava was flowing so rapidly to the north, that their retreat might be cut off, and the whole party destroyed. Dr. Judd was burned severely on each wrist, and on his elbows; and Kalumo's face was one blister.

The eruption from Judd's crater was great in the evening; the lava was flowing as fluid as water over the whole of the northern portion of the bottom. The most brilliant pyrotechnics would have faded before it. I had thought it impossible that the appearance the great burning lake presented on my first view, could be exceeded, yet this far surpassed it. The area covered by the fluid lava was upwards of a mile and a-half in length, by half-a-mile wide, representing cascades, lakes, and rivers flowing in serpentine courses, dividing and again uniting in a fiery flood to overrun a large tract of blackness, and light up the projecting ledges with their scraggy and detached masses. These streams were of a vivid white heat at the point of eruption, gradually diminishing until they assumed a cherry redness at the extreme points of the flow. The sight was magnificent, and worth a voyage round the world to witness.-Narrative of the United States' Exploring Expedition.

PAUL AT ATHENS.

IN several of our former numbers we quoted largely from Messrs. Conybeare and Howson's Life and Letters of St. Paul, at that time in course of publication. The completion of this beautiful, as well as valuable and interesting work, induces us to return to it, for the purpose of extracting, for the benefit and pleasure of our readers, some of its most striking passages.

In regard to the work as a whole, we can, now that we have it all before us,

say that it comes fully up to the expectations which we had formed of its value, and which we previously expressed, (See Vol. III., pp. 11, 134, 170.) Though it cannot, strictly speaking, be denominated a theological work, we can truly say, that we are not acquainted with any volumes to which the student of the Acts and of Paul's Epistles may have recourse with more advantage. They contain the most ample information about everything connected with the Apostle, with his life,

his labours, and his travels; the amount of research and of learning which they display is very great, while the whole work is pervaded with feelings of the deepest veneration of the Scriptures, and with a desire to look upon them as the sole records of inspired truth.

In our last article we left the Apostle entering upon a new field of labour. Asia was behind him, and Europe was before him. He was about to come into collision with the Grecian mind, and to be called on to preach the Gospel to men who he knew would look upon its simple yet sublime truths as foolishness. It was at Philippi that Paul first preached the Gospel in Europe, and Lydia was the first for whom the "waters of Europe were sanctified to the mystical washing away of sin." But he was not permitted long to labour there in quiet. Having cast a spirit of divination out of a female slave, her master, who had made much profit by her, laid violent hands upon them, and carried them before the city authorities. We shall not enter into the details of this transaction, nor speak of the conversion of the jailor of Philippi. Suffice it to say, that by their conduct Christianity was placed on a noble vantage-ground in that city; and that a Church was formed there, to which the Apostle subsequently addressed one of his Epistles.

Leaving the care of this infant Church to Timotheus and Luke, Paul and Silas set forth on their journey. We shall not tarry with them at Thessalonica

or

Berea, but shall at once accompany the
Apostle on his

APPROACH TO ATHENS.

"Gradually the nearer heights of the snowy Olympus itself receded into the distance, as the vessel on her progress approached more and more near to the centre of all the interest of classical Greece. All the land and water in sight becomes more eloquent as we advance; the lights and shadows, both of poetry and history, are on every side; every rock is a monument; every current is animated with some memory of the past. For a distance of ninety miles, from the confines of Thesaly to the middle part of the coast of Attica, the shore is protected, as it were, by the long island of Euboea.

Deep in the innermost gulf, where the waters of the Egean retreat far within the land, over against the northern parts where a handful of Greek warriors had of this island, is the pass of Thermopylæ, defied all the hosts of Asia. In the crescent-like bay on the shore of Attica, near the southern extremity of the same island, is the maritime sanctuary of Marathon, where the battle was fought which decided that Greece was never to be a Persian Satrapy. When the island of Euboea is left behind, we soon reach the southern extremity of Attica-Cape Colonna - Sunium's high promontory, that temple of Minerva, which was the still crowned with the white columns of landmark to Greek sailors, and which asserted the presence of Athens at the very vestibule of her country.

"After passing this headland, our course turns to the westward across the mountains of the Morea on our left, and waters of the Saronic Gulf, with the the islands of Ægina and Salamis in front. To one who travels in classical lands no moment is more full of interest and excitement than when he has left the for the first glimpse of that city built Cape of Sunium behind, and eagerly looks nobly on the Ægean shore,' which was the eye of Greece, mother of arts and eloquence.' To the traveller in classical times, its position was often revealed by Minerva's colossal statue, which stood with the flashing of the light on the armour of shield and spear on the summit of the citadel."

And now let us suppose that the Apostle's voyage has term inated; that he has landed at the Piræus ; and that he is bending his steps to Athens,—that city to visit which, it may be, had been the longing desire of his early days. Amid the bustle and throng around the gate by which he enters it, the observant and zealous apostle is at once struck with the number of those images which proclaimed to every traveller

THE IDOLATRY OF THE ATHENIANS.

"At the very gateway we are met with proofs of the peculiar tendency of the Athenians to multiply their objects both of art and devotion. Close by the building where the vestments were laid up which were used in the annual procession of their tutelary divinity Minerva, is an image of her rival Neptune seated on horseback, and hurling his trident. We pass by a temple of Ceres, on the walls

sanctuaries on the very ledges of the rock,-shrines of Bacchus and Esculapius, Venus, Earth, and Ceres, ending with the lovely form of that Temple of Unwinged Victory which glittered by the entrance of the Propylæa above the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton. Thus, every god in Olympus found a place in the Agora. But the religiousness of the Athenians went even further; for every public place and building was

was a temple of the Mother of the Gods. The Council-House held statues of Apollo and Jupiter, with an altar of Vesta. The Theatre at the base of the Acropolis, into which the Athenians crowded to hear the words of their great tragedians, was consecrated to Bacchus. The Pnyx, near which we entered, on whose elevated platform they listened in breathless attention to their orators, was dedicated to Jupiter on High, with whose name those of the Nymphs of the Demus were gracefully associated. And, as if the imagin. ation of the Attic mind knew no bounds in this direction, abstractions were deified and publicly honoured. Altars were erected to Fame, to Modesty, to Energy, to Persuasion, and to Pity. This last altar is mentioned by Pausanias among those objects in the Agora which are not understood by all men; for,' he adds, the Athenians alone of all the Greeks give divine honour to Pity.' It is needless to shew how the enumeration which we have made (and which is no more than a selection from what is described by Pausanias) throws light on the words of St. Luke and St. Paul; and especially how the groping after the abstract and invisible, implied in the altars alluded to last, illustrates the inscription To the Unknown God,' which was used by apostolic wisdom to point the way to the highest truth.

of which an archaic inscription informs us that the statues it contains were the work of Praxiteles. We go through the gate; and immediately the eye is attracted by the sculptured forms of Minerva, Jupiter, and Apollo, of Mercury and the Muses, standing near a sanctuary of Bacchus. We are already in the midst of an animated scene, where temples, statues, and altars, are on every side, and where the Athenians, fond of publicity and the open air, fond of hear-likewise a sanctuary. The Record-House ing and telling what is curious and strange, are enjoying their climate, and inquiring for news. We turn to the right into the Agora, which was the centre of a glorious public life, when the orators and statesmen, the poets and the artists of Greece, found there all the incentives of their noblest enthusiasm ; and still continued to be the meeting-place of philosophy, of idleness, of conversation, and of business, when Athens could only be proud of her recollections of the past. On the south side is the Pnyx, a sloping hill partially levelled into an open area for political assemblies; on the north side is the more craggy eminence of the Areopagus; before us, towards the east, is the Acropolis, towering high above the scene of which it is the glory and the crown. In the valley enclosed by these heights is the Agora, one characteristic of which was that it was full of memorials of actual history. Among the planetrees planted by the hand of Cimon, were the statues of the great men of Athens-such as Solon the lawgiver, Conon the admiral, Demosthenes the orator. But among her historical men were her deified heroes, the representatives of her mythology-Hercules and Theseus,-and all the series of Eptehonymi on their elevated platform, from whom the tribes were named, and whom an ancient custom connected with the passing of every successive law. And among the deified heroes were memorials of the older divinities,-Mercuries, which gave their name to the street in which they were placed, statues dedicated to Apollo, as patron of the city, and her deliverer from plague,—and, in the centre of all, the Altar of the Twelve Gods, which was to Athens what the Golden Milestone was to Rome. If we look up to the Areopagus, we see the temple of that deity from whom the eminence had received the name of 'Mars' Hill;' and we are aware that the sanctuary of the Furies is only hidden by the projecting ridge beyond the stone steps and the seats of the judges. If we look forward to the Acropolis, we behold there, closing the long perspective, a series of little

"What is true of the Agora is still more emphatically true of the Acropolis, for the spirit which rested over Athens was concentrated here. The platform of the Acropolis was a museum of art, of history, and of religion. The whole was

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one vast composition of architecture and sculpture, dedicated to the national glory and to the worship of the gods.' By one approach only-through the Propylæa built by Pericles-could this sanctuary be entered. If St. Paul went up that steep ascent on the western front of the rock, past the Temple of Victory, and through that magnificent portal, we know nearly all the features of the idolatrous spectacle he saw before him. At the entrance, in conformity with his attributes, was the statue of Mercurius Propylæus.

Farther on, within the vestibule of the beautiful enclosure, were statues of Venus and the Graces. The recovery of one of those who had laboured among the edifices of the Acropolis was commemorated by a dedication to Minerva as the goddess of Health. There was a shrine of Diana, whose image had been wrought by Praxiteles. But the main characteristics of the place were mythological and religious, and truly Athenian. On the wide levelled area were such groups as the following:-Theseus contending with the Minotaur; Hercules strangling the serpents; the Earth imploring showers from Jupiter; Minerva causing the olive to sprout, while Neptune raises the waves. The mention of this last group raises our thoughts to the Parthenon,-the Virgin's House, the glorious temple which rose in the proudest period of Athenian history to the honour of Minerva, and which ages of war and decay have only partially defaced. The sculptures on one of its pediments represented the birth of the goddess; those on the other depicted her contest with Neptune. Under the outer cornice were groups representing the victories achieved by her champions. Round the inner frieze was the long series of the Panathenaic procession. Within was the colossal statue of ivory and gold, the work of Phidias, unrivalled in the world, save only by the Jupiter Olympius of the same famous artist. This was not the only statue of the Virgin Goddess within the sacred precincts; the Acropolis boasted of three Minervas. The oldest and most venerated was in the small irregular temple called the Erectheium, which contained the mystic olive-tree of Minerva, and the mark of Neptune's trident. This statue, like that of Diana at Ephesus, (Acts xix. 35,) was believed to have fallen from heaven. The third, though less sacred than the Minerva Polias, was the most conspicuous of all. Formed from the brazen spoils of the battle of Marathon, it rose in gigantic proportions above all the buildings of the Acropolis, and stood with spear and shield as the tutelary divinity of Athens and Attica. It was the statue which may have caught the eye of St. Paul himself from the deck of the vessel in which he sailed round Sunium to the Piræus. Now he had landed in Attica, and beheld all the wonders of that city which divides with one other city all the glory of heathen antiquity. Here, by the statue of Minerva Promachus, he could reflect on the meaning of the objects he had seen in his progress. His path had been among the forms of great men and deified heroes, among the temples, the statues, the altars

of the gods of Greece. He had seen the creations of mythology represented to the eye, in every form of beauty and grandeur, by the sculptor and the architect. And the one overpowering result was this:His spirit was stirred within him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."" extant works of Pausanius and Cicero,— It is very remarkable, that in the two men who were learned, amiable, and excellent in their way,-we have the accounts of visits which they paid to Athens at no very great intervals from that of Paul. It is very striking to contrast the very different feelings with which these different men looked upon Athens and its wonders. Pausanius speaks of them as a curious and rather superstitious antiquarian; while we see, from the language of Cicero, that his taste was gratified, and he looked with admiration on all he saw. Very different, however, were

THE FEELINGS OF PAUL IN ATHENS. "He burned with zeal for that God whom, as he went through the city,' he saw dishonoured on every side. He was melted with pity for those who, notwithstanding their intellectual greatness, were wholly given to idolatry.' His eye was not blinded to the reality of things, by the appearances either of art or philosophy. Forms of earthly beauty, and words of human wisdom, were valueless in his judgment, and far worse than valueless, if they deified vice and made falsehood attractive. He saw and heard with an earnestness of conviction which no Epicurean could have understood, as his tenderness of affection was morally far above the highest point of the Stoic's impassive dignity.

"It is this tenderness of affection which first strikes us, when we turn from the manifold wonders of Athens to look upon the Apostle himself. The existence of this feeling is revaled to us in a few words in the Epistle to the Thessalonians. He was filled with anxious thoughts concerning those whom he had left in Macedonia, and the sense of solitude weighed upon his spirit. Silas and Timotheus were not arrived, and it was a burden and a grief to him to be left in Athens alone.' Modern travellers have often felt, when wandering alone through the streets of a foreign city, what it is to be out of sympathy with the place and the people. The heart is with friends who are far off; and nothing that is merely beautiful or curious can effectually disperse the cloud

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