And the loud hallelujahs of angels shall rise
To welcome the soul to its home in the skies.
Home, home, home of the soul!

The bosom of God is the home of the soul.

PETRA; or, The Rock City and its Explorers, with Plan of the City, and Engravings of the Monuments. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street.

This little volume shows how successfully important historical incidents may be unfolded to the intelligence of children. The history of the Rock City of Petra is a standing monument of the truth of Scripture. Firmly impressed upon the youthful mind, its details will be profitably carried forward into other studies, and be a permanent source of interest.

SABBATH-SCHOOL THEOLOGY; or, Conversations with a Class. By JOHN HALL, D.D. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, No. 265 Chestnut Street.

Theology is taught in ten thousands of Sabbath-schools, and every scholar becomes a sort of theologian, of course. Right views of the teachings of Scripture are essential to right conduct. Dr. Hall, who is a straightforward, simple, and impressive expounder of Divine truth, sends forth this help to youthful minds, and will, no doubt, find his labour well repaid.

CALVIN AND HIS ENEMIES: A Memoir of the Life, Character, and Principles of Calvin. By the Rev. THOMAS SMYTH, D.D. New Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 265 Chestnut Street.

Notwithstanding the miserable attempt of Dyer to vilify the character of Calvin, under the pretence of writing his biography, it is certain that the character of the great Reformer is receiving more and more homage from the Church and the world. The republication of his works in a durable form is his best monument. Dr. Smyth has contributed an exceedingly interesting and effective vindication against prejudices and calumny, in the little volume just published by our Board. It is decidedly the best thing of the kind we have seen. A very valuable Appendix adds much information to the general reader.

Miscellaneous Choughts.

A BRIGHT EXAMPLE.

MANY years ago, in an obscure country school in Massachusetts, an humble, conscientious boy was to be seen; and it was evident to all that his mind was beginning to act and thirst for some intellectual good. He was alive to knowledge. Next we see him put forth on foot to settle in a remote town in that State, and pursue his fortunes there as a shoemaker,

his tools being carefully sent on before him. In a short time he is in business in the post of county surveyor for Litchfield County, being the most accomplished mathematician in that section of the State. Before he is twenty-five years of age, we find him supplying the astronomical matter of an almanac in New York. Next he is admitted to the bar, a self-fitted lawyer. Now he is found on the bench of the Supreme Court. Next he becomes a member of the Continental Congress. Then he is a member of the committee of six to frame the Declaration of Independence. He continued a member of Congress for nearly twenty years, and was acknowledged to be one of the most useful men and wisest counsellors of the land. At length, having discharged every office with a perfect ability, and honoured in his sphere the name of a Christian, he died regretted and loved by State and nation. This man was Roger Sherman. We take particular satisfaction, now and then, in chronicling the career of these self-made men; and holding them up as bright examples for the youth of our time to follow. It is the best service a journalist can perform for the good of the rising generation.

THANKSGIVING SONNET.

BY I. L. GRAHAM, M.D.

REJOICE, O husbandmen! with thankful songs;
Be glad for your full garners; for the Lord
Piles up the year's rich bountiness on your board,—
Exultant praise to His great name belongs!

Each morning brings some bounteous blessing new,
Which from the treasury of good He pours,-
His power hath guarded all the Summer through,
In every harvest-field, thy richest stores,-
He gives thy flocks His care, and feeds thy kine,
Supplies with nuts the squirrel wild and free;
Gives life to beast, bird, insect,—and to thee

A soul to praise Him for His gifts divine!
Let earth through all her borders shout to Heaven,
And loud hosannas be unto Jehovah given!

HUDSON, Nov. 1852.

IMAGERY OF SCRIPTURE.

How majestic is the imagery of Scripture, when it presents to us our Maker and God as feeding all the orders of his animate creation, and ministering continually what they as constantly need, for the sustentation of the life which He has bestowed upon them. "The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season: thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." "He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry." The sea-gull winnowing the salt and wintry air along our coast; the petrel twittering in the storm over the far blue waves of mid ocean; and all the tribes that cleave the air, or traverse the deep paths of the seas, or rove our earth, look up to His daily vigilance and bounty, under the pressure of their

daily necessities. To Him the roaring of the beast, and the chirping of the bird, and the buzzing of the insect, are but one vast symphony of supplication from the hosts which He feeds. To His capacious garners their successive generations have resorted, and yet those stores are not spent; neither has the Heavenly Provider failed in his resources, nor have the expectant pensioners been left to famish.—Dr. Williams.

THE SNOW-STORM.

BY EMERSON.

ANNOUNCED by all the trumpets of the sky,
Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields,
Seems nowhere to alight! the whited air
Hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
And veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
The sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet,
Delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed

In a tumultuous privacy of storm.
Come see the north wind's masonry,
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the artificer

Curves his white bastion with projected roof
Round every windward stake, or tree, or door,
Speeding, the myriad handed, his wild work
So fanciful, so savage, nought cares he
For number or proportion. Mockingly,
On coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths!
A swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
Fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
Maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate
A tapering turret overtops the work.

And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art,
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
The frolic architecture of the storm.

PLEAS FOR ISRAEL.

There are two classes of pleas for the Jews, in which, it is presumed, all will agree.

I. ON GENERAL GROUNDS.

1. They are included in the general commission-"Go into all the world," &c.

2. Were the Gentiles specially intended, the Jews, who are found where the herald comes, cannot be excepted; and they are found in all parts. 3. Where the Gospel has been preached to them, it has not failed, but has been attended by many instances of success.

4. Those, thus won to Christ, have largely approved themselves in character and agency.

II. SPECIAL GROUNDS.

1. The Jews were specially favoured of God, and were so, not only because of his sovereign pleasure, but for reasons which cannot fail, e. g., Abraham, Moses, David, and all the worthies of the Old Covenant, and the founders of the Christian Church under the New Covenant.

2. Special attention to them, in Old Testament times, was favoured by God, and the contrary rebuked; and exultation over their fall is rebuked in the New Testament.

3. Their long-continued chastisement, and revenge upon ourselves for having aggravated it.

4. Their moral appliances, and their integrity as in connection with the religion they profess.

5. Indignity that they should have been persecuted; and, as far as the persecution has been in the name of Christianity, that Christianity should have been falsified.

6. From nearness to us (the Good Samaritan), from union among themselves (family tenacity); from their extended chain of society or connection in every land.

7. From their literary and political standing and influence.

8. From their knowledge of Old Testament Scripture, and veneration for it.

9. From their present system being dishonouring to God and injurious to themselves.

10. From the fact of their being Jews, not superseding their need of Christianity; but Christianity being the perfection of their Scriptural dispensation.

11. Christianity, to them as well as others, the only means of lifting

them up.

12. God always has a remnant according to the election of grace. 13. That remnant, a revealed earnest or pledge of the fulfilment, in some way, of promises to them as a people.

14. The fulness of the Gentiles an accompaniment to the reinstatement of Israel. No merited rejection in reserve for the Gentiles. That the Jews should have been averse to the introduction of the Gentiles not so great a wonder as that Gentiles should be indifferent to the reinstatement of the Jews.

15. Their preservation as a separate people an indication of something to come; although amalgamation for the present shows that it is secondary that they should subsist politically as a distinct people.

16. Prophecy portraying much that shall be done in them and by them. 17. They are included in general, and mentioned in special scriptural prayer.

18. There are movements in minds and hearts of Christians in reference to them.

19. There are a number of converts and Christian agents from among them.

20. No other means than the Gospel are indicated; that means has been and is hindered by want of love, it is to be effectual through faith working by love.

21. The advantage to theology from the conversion of the Jews. Original text more investigated, errors, resolvable into versions, corrected. 22. Their dependence on the discreet aid of the Church, an exercise and proof to Christian charity. Many converts sacrifice all that is temporal.

23. Their conversion frequently a marked exhibition of the power of truth and grace.

24. Their idiosyncrasy breaking down formalism and mere uniformity in religion.

25. Their exemplariness often reproving Gentile believers.

26. Their migratory habits diffusing Christianity, while they must act upon the offensive or defensive as Christian Jews.

27. The adaptation of Christianity to them specially, because of its Jewish character; this also indicative of its being ultimately for them. 28. The honour due to their heroes and statesmen, showing how religion can rule in secular life.

29. The honour due to their religious characters set off by the inferiority of their dispensation.

30. The relation of the Saviour's humanity to them.

31. Their failings, challenging the opposite from those who detect and reprove them.

32. Their zeal without knowledge, provoking to zeal with it, and reproving the want of it.

THANKS AT THE TABLE.

I SHALL not discuss the question, whether, in this respect, "the former days were better than these." Forty years ago, it was almost the uni versal custom, I believe, in Christian families, to crave a blessing before meals, and to give thanks when they rose from the table. The custom almost as uniformly now is, to unite both in one service. As we find no positive direction in the Bible with regard to this matter, I suppose we may adhere to the old custom, or fall in with that which has for several years been fast taking its place, as may seem to us most convenient and proper. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."

But I have a word or two to say about the manner in which this table service was and is performed. Formerly, it was expanded by some into a regular prayer of two or three minutes. This was going into one extreme; but not so far as many now go into the other. I often hear the whole dispatched in a single sentence, and that a very short one. Half a dozen monosyllables are about all. I was going to say this sounds like mere form; but it is hardly that. It looks more like saying grace because you must, than a serious address to the "Giver of every good and perfect gift."

The other fault which I have noticed lately is, speaking so low as not to be heard across the table. I do not deny that it is a petition, "or giving of thanks," for undoubtedly a man may "pray in the spirit" when nobody hears him, but it cannot be to "edification," and the closet is the better place for such prayers. Surely those who keep up the form of asking a blessing and returning thanks at meals, ought to speak loud enough to allow all who wish for the privilege to join him.-Dr. Humphrey.