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be designated by the name of the people whose dominions they have conquered, or among whom they have colonized. We, who still call ourselves Britons, are in modern times, an instance of this kind.

"She came from the utmost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon." The scripture narrative gives us no intelligence concerning her journey, further than the account of her arrival at Jerusalem. "She came with a very great company, and camels that bare spices and gold in abundance, and precious stones." But imagination (lawfully exercised when it enables us more vividly to realize any of those facts which scripture has recorded for our instruction) is pleased to busy itself in following the royal caravan along the course of the Nile, from station to station, of those grand emporiums of the commerce of the ancient world through Egypt; friendly, if not tributary, now winding through those granite rocks, where the pent-up river roars round the margin of his multitudinous isles; uttering, as ancient fable dreamed, the death-groans of their buried Osiris ; now traversing narrow fertile valleys; now skirting sandy deserts; and after many a weary league, entering Palestine by the same commercial route as that on which, seven centuries before, one of the Patriarchs of Israel, then a stripling and a slave, was carried down to Egypt in company with those "Midianitish merchantmen," who, even at that remote era, bore the traffic of their "spicery, and balm, and myrrh," to that centre of trade and civilization. Or, recalled by a sense of the dificulties of that route; we may picture the embarkation of the Queen of Sheba from some port of her own dominions, in one of those foreign galleys built by the Hebrew King

and his Phoenician ally which, spreading their adventurous sail, where as yet no mariner had dared to steer, carried the fame of their genius and enterprise to far distant shores. We may, in fancy, follow her and her train, along the phosphorescent waters of the Arabian Gulf, over that difficult and dangerous sea, where the voyager looks down ten fathoms deep beneath the surface, upon coral reefs branching in their parasitical verdure, like a green forest below the waves. We may picture the landing of the company, the busy quay of Eziongeber: and track them as they defile through the passes of El Ghor: as they wind o'er the mountains of Edom, and among the pasture lands of Moab: both alike tributary to the Hebrew King. But discretion calls to fancy, and bids her stay her doubtful flights, and listen to the import of that sacred passage which tells (so brief and true) the story of her coming:"She came from the utmost parts of the earth." No matter how she came. The way was long and difficult, and the pilgrimage such as royalty, accustomed heretofore to summon the sons of wisdom to its footstool, had never before attempted. But the end in view repaid the cost and toil: she came to hear the "wisdom of Solomon:" and strange as were the rumours which in her own land had reached her of the Jewish monarch's "acts and wisdom," so that they passed belief in her who came to prove them, she found, on coming that "the half had not been told."

"She came from the utmost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here." The words of Christ are uttered in our streets, "proclaimed upon housetops,"

spoken to the ear in closets. Wisdom is brought home to our dwelling; but are we sure that we shall therefore possess the treasure? Where, when on each returning sabbath, she uttereth her voice in the chief place of concourse, where are the recreant hearts that should be listening at her feet? Wandering to

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the ends of the earth. Who now, are they that come "with all the desire of their souls before Truth's holy oracle? Who puts state aside, and is content to forego convenience ?-nay, who would dare peril, and confront danger sooner than fail to realize the glorious things which are spoken of the city of our God, and the vision of the King who dwelleth there in his beauty? Will the eye of indolence behold them? will its ear receive their record? Shall the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven be unfolded to them, who never had one wishful desire to solve their meaning? Oh! no!" The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment," and condemn many a one who, gifted with leisure for research, and power and means to accomplish it, never takes one step after truth: never inquires concerning that great and glorious "Name," whereby alone we can be saved. It was with dim half-doubting expectation that the Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem: but when there, she declared that "the one half of the greatness of Solomon's wisdom" had not been told. Even so has a disciple of Him of whom Solomon was but a type, testified, that "eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." 66 'Happy," (such was the testimony of the Queen of Sheba) "happy are the men, and happy are thy servants which stand continually be

fore thee, and hear thy wisdom:" and "blessed," (such is the declaration of our Lord Himself concerning his own disciples) "blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye bear, and have not heard them."

LYDIA.

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"THE union for which the Lord Jesus prayed was, a union of spiritual men-a union not of mere professors, but of his true disciples-a union in the Lord -IN US. Any other union is little worth-a union of professors with professors-of one dead Church with another dead Church-is but a filling of the charnel-house, a heaping of the compost-pile. union of dead professors with living saints, this union of life and death, is but to pour the green and putrid water of the stagnant pool into the living spring. It is not to graft new branches into the goodly vine, but to bandage on dead boughs that will but deform it. It is not to gather new wheat into the garner, but to blend the wheat and chaff again together. It is not to gather new sheep into the fold, but it is to borrow the shepherd's brand and imprint it on the dogs and wolves and call them sheep. The identifying of christened pagans with the peculiar people, has done much dishonor to the Redeemer, has deluded many souls, and made it much more difficult for the Church to convince the world."-Hamilton's Dew of Hermon.

THE CHURCH CATHOLIC.

I AM glad to observe that "The Christian Lady's Magazine" for this month, has noticed a very remarkable declaration contained in the Bishop of London's late charge to the Clergy of his Diocese. The declaration I refer to, is the following:-" Nor do I think it consistent with truth to deny, that the Church of Rome is a branch, however corrupt, of the Church Catholic." Such an opinion, delivered ex cathedrâ, on such an occasion, by a Prelate of the Established Church, and a Prelate so justly respected for the elevated tone and character of his mental and moral endowments,-should appear to call upon every minister of the Church of England who, like myself, feels compelled to dissent from such high authority on the important point in question, to consider well what are the grounds on which that dissent is to be justified and maintained. Now, at present, I do not propose to enter into the question at large, and to argue it on its general merits, if I may so speak; (to do which would require me far to exceed the limits to which I must confine myself,) but I would simply state the reasons which make it next to impossible for me, as a Minister of the Church of England, ever to admit that the (so-called) Church of Rome is a branch, however corrupt, of the Church Catholic. If I am right in thinking, that the branches of the Church Catholic are the several visible Churches, DECEMBER, 1842.

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