youth, joining in one entire shout of praise to their Almighty deliverer. But solemn must have been their reflections, coupled with reverential awe, as, glancing towards the grave of their enemies, they beheld the bosom of the liquid element present its usual appearance, unruffled by its recent work of destruction.

Sleep on, ye foes of the Lord's chosen. Clapsed in the icy embrace of death, with the ocean for your grave, you shall there lie till the great judgment of our Lord. Then once more will ye resume your march, but not as armed warriors. No flourish of trumpets shall attend your progress, no anticipation of future triumph swell your bosom; but, guarded by the warriors of heaven, you, together with those that love not the appearance of our Lord, will be conducted before the dread judge of man. Then shall you behold Him whose power you defied, whose children you enslaved ; and banished for ever from his presence, spend an eternity of woe with your master-the devil. While persecuted Israel, with all God's saints, ushered into the presence of their Lord, welcomed by their Saviour, with harp in hand, and praise for ever on their lips, will sing Hallelujah! Hallelujah! to God and the Lamb.

We need not dwell on the journey of Israel through the desert-the many manifestations of deliverance displayed on their behalf-the ingratitude that frequently escaped from their lips-the interview of Moses with his God-the worship of the golden calf-the indignation of Moses-the breaking of the tables of the law-the rebellion against the authority of the priests the death of Moses, and the numerous hard battles fought under the leadership of Joshua. These facts, coupled with the general history of Israel, would afford no fresh information to our readers, who, we presume, are acquainted with the word of God.

Having thus just glanced at the deliverance of the first Reformers of the world from their bondage, we will, by the help of Him who alone can inspire thought, introduce in our next, the glorious deeds of the founder of the christian faith; the pattern of virtue and model of self-denial. The babe born in a manger, the youthful carpenter, the confounder of the doctors of the law, the baptized one in Jordan, the purger of the Jewish temple, the silencer of the proud Pharisee, the caster out of devils, the restorer of sight, the healer of disease, the comforter of the mourner, the binder up of the broken heart, the praying one in Gethsemane's garden, the innocent victim of an unjust tribunal, the sufferer on the cross, the end of the Jewish economy--JESUS.

M. NICHOLS.

APPARENT CONTRADICTIONS HARMONIZED.

"It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."-GEN, vi. 6.

"The Lord is not man that he should repent."-1 SAM. xv. 29.

THE seeming difficulty in these passages is removed by simply observing the different senses in which the word repent is to be taken. In the first passage it is rendered metaphorically, in the second literally. Literally understood, God cannot repent; for his gifts and callings are without repentance. Metaphorically God can repent; and by no literal expressions could his extreme hatred of sin, and his determination to punish it, be expressed with anything like the force in which it is here exhibited. Principles are far more impressively taught by figurative than by literal language; and God, who knows our nature, impresses great truths upon our minds by metaphorical

representations. What literal words could convey such an idea of the evil of sin? Human nature is corrupted in its fountains and issues. "The imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." It was evil without mixture, only evil, evil without cessation, evil continually. It was original and practical, an external and internal depravity. It wrought day and night, corrupting everything, blasting everything, destroying everything. It marred the works of God, rendered human nature a perfect nuisance, and in appearance creation a huge failure. Nor was this conjecture or exaggeration, for God saw it. Any created being seeing his works thus perverted, would repent that he had ever made them; and God can speak after the manner of man, without being man that he should lie, or the son of man that he should repent. He can clothe his ideas with human attributes, without partaking of them; exhibit important truths through the medium of human affections, weakness, changeability, and other imperfections, without being affected by them. God can will a thousand changes without changing his will. He can change us, and all around us, but he cannot change himself, cannot will a change, nor wish to will one, in his will, his nature, or his purpose.

He can change

and where he

bis dispensations, without changing in them; appears to change his plans, the change forms a part of his plans, and is necessary to their entireness, development and

execution.

"While the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest shall not cease.' GEN. viii. 22.

"There are five years in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest.” -GEN. xlv. 6.

Scripture must be interpreted in accordance with its own. principles, the doctrines it teaches, and the general use of words,

phrases, &c. For example, there may be an absolute universality, a specific universality, a geographical universality, or a chronological universality; i.e., an universality which comprehends all future epochs, dates, periods, &c. And this is the universality of the passage. It is a chronological, and not a geographical idea that is intended. The first admits of partial failures, national calamities, destruction by wars, inundations, drought, mildew, &c. The second would dispense with human labour, and secure a harvest to the sluggard. The first is in accordance with the laws of material and moral agency; but the second would agree with neither.

SCRUTATOR.

SELECT SENTENCES.

Delays are not denials of suit at the court of heaven, but trials of the faith and patience of the petitioners.-Boston

We shall, assuredly, all be tempted according to the measure of our strength; not beyond it certainly, yet fully up to it. -Arnold.

The clearest sight and vision of God, does always give a man the fullest sight of his own emptiness, sinfulness, and nothingness.-Brooks.

God knows how to dispense with necessities: but if we suffer idle and needless occasions to hold us from the tabernacle of God, our hearts are but hollow to religion.-Bp. Hall.

To read much and practise nothing, is to hunt much and catch nothing.-Brooks.

Truth is as impossible to be soiled by an outward touch, as the sunbeam.-Milton.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATION.

"Shall horses run on the rock?"-AMOS xi. 12.

THE author of "Scripture Illustrated" has remarked, that the horses of antiquity not being shod, therefore, could not run upon rocks. Scott says, "The ancients did not shoe their horses ;" and Bishop Hall thinks the question refers to the impossibility of horses running upon steep and craggy cliffs. But Thenenot, in his Travels, p. 113, says, "In Persia they make their horse-shoes smooth and flat; so that they have no little turnings up, as ours have, which makes them continually slide upon stones, or upon the ground when it is the least wet." There is, therefore, no necessity to fall back upon horses being unshod, seeing they may have shoes on and yet be unable safely to exert their speed or their prowess on certain kinds of surfaces, as rocks, stones, or wet ground.

The meaning probably is, that an attempt to reform the ten tribes would have been as perilous an undertaking as riding a race over rocks and stones, with horses shod by a Persian farrier; or as fruitless as attempting to plough the craggy cliffs with oxen. What impression could be made? what increase could be expected? The people were unimpressible, incorrigible, unreclaimable. The fountains of public justice were poisoned, their religious institutes depraved, and the whole body politic thoroughly corrupted; although they were rejoicing in a "thing of nought," boasting of their wealth, their idols, their fortifications, their success, &c., which were of no earthly value. This their way was their folly; yet it was the way of human nature, and posterity have followed in the same track. An omnipotent salvation seems plainly necessary to obdurate, unyielding, impenitent sinners. Only God can effectually soften, stir, and fertilize the rocky heart of man.