which has suggested these remarks exactly quadrates with them. The Genius does not say that his defence would be right or wrong, as a positive announcement. But, whenever he put it before himself, and began to look at it, there seemed an opposing power. He could not proceed comfortably. If we may employ language sometimes used in our own day, he was not free to it. And no wonder. Look at his views of Divine Providence, his views, too, of death, as in many respects desirable at that time, and of dying, weakened by age both in body and mind, sinking, perhaps, into an imbecility in connexion with the evidences of which he did not think it would be decorous for himself, or pleasing to his friends, that he should be remembered. All this would operate powerfully against the conception of such an artificial and elaborate defence, as the prevailing notions of eloquence and rhetoric would require. Substantially, we incline to think that Mrs. Fielding was right; but she did not allow sufficiently for the depth and power of the conviction, and its distinctness from general feeling, and even from the usual feelings of his own mind. And who can tell how much, also, of gracious aid might be afforded, issuing from the true Light, the Eternal Logos, the light and the life of man?

The subject must be left in an unsatisfactory condition, as it will always be merely matter of opinion. Leaving it, therefore, we come to such testimony as his friends have placed on record respecting him, in the tracts we have already mentioned, and which we propose to examine. (To be continued.)

MINIATURE CHRISTIAN LIBRARY. No. VIII. UNIVERSAL CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. DANIEL.-Daniel was one of the young men of the highest rank (himself generally believed to be of the royal kindred) who were carried to Babylon in the great captivity; and there, with three other of them, he was selected, on account of conspicuous personal and mental qualifications, to be, after due training, introduced into the service of the Court; a very hazardous thing for

young men; but here, for once, the pestilent influence struck on incorruptible materials. On hearing of any young man (of talents especially) advancing in the world, rising to distinction and station, the first point we would be glad to be assured of is, that he has a conscience, a true and faithful one. For we know full well, that if he have not, every step to his advancement will be but a curse to him. Here, in the instance of Daniel, we have the right man. The first movement for his promotion found his conscience, and found it of a firm and healthy consistence. The question was, of his living upon the appointed portion of the King's provision. This might seem no such very considerable matter, to be made an insurmountable obstacle at the very entrance of a prosperous career. With an ordinary man, how many persuasive pleas and extenuations would have come in to help him over it! But conscience cannot well begin the exercise of its jurisdiction at matters too small. When comparatively small matters of conscience can be easily disposed of, in favour of inclination and worldly interest, it is a very unpromising sign for the conduct in greater ones. It is true that sometimes (even very commonly among the superstitious) men have made much of little things, in order to obtain licence to make little of great ones. But Daniel was not one of those, who, while straining at a gnat, can swallow a camel. He carried his conscience throughout, as the one thing he was never to forfeit, whatever else he should forego or incur. -Foster: Lectures, Second Series.

EMERGENCY.-
Y.-Daniel,

LIGHT VOUCHSAFED IN CASES OF brought before the King, requested, and obtained, time to converse with a Being that the King and his wise men did not know; avowing his perfect confidence that a heavenly light would fall upon his spirit. And we may observe, that in those great emergencies where such a direction is required as is evidently beyond the competence of human judgment, a good man should trust to the immediate signification or interposition of the divine Spirit. Cases strictly answering to this description are not perhaps of frequent occurrence. Yet there have been not a few such situations in the infinitely various experience of the servants of God, especially in

troubled and perilous times; conjunctures of circumstances in which it was purely impossible to determine by human judgment; then might be implored a direct intimation from the Supreme Wisdom; and unquestionably it has been granted. To Daniel it was granted in the most illustrious form of inspiration. Here was a signal occasion for God to make manifest the difference between the wisdom and powers imparted to his Prophets, and all the pretended supernatural endowments that deluded a superstitious people. And there were many remarkable occasions on which this vindicating and triumphant contrast was exhibited; so that God left not himself without witness, and the Heathens and their deceivers were left without excuse.-Ibid.

[To the conditions of this emergent case, ought, perhaps, to be added, that not only must there be a pure impossibility of a decision by human judgment, but the absolute necessity that a decision there should be. The two must unite to furnish ground for the confident expectation of divine interposition. It may be that God will show the insufficiency of human judgment by leaving the case undecided for a time, calling his servants to exercise faith in the humility of waiting; standing still to see the salvation of God: and light, at length, shall come in the order of Providence, so that only He shall be acknowledged, without the intervention of his servants. At the same time, in cases of true emergency, uniting the two conditions, who, with the believed Scriptures in his hands, can say, God will not interpose? When help is needed, help shall be given; and the help that is given, shall be the help that is needed. In the meantime, here let his servants rest; whether he hide himself, or show himself, he is still "the God of Israel, the Saviour."-ED. Y .I.]

VALUE OF TIME, IMPORTANCE OF ITS REDEMPTION.The "evils" incident to "the days," render it a very difficult thing effectually to "redeem the time." They form a grand conspiracy to waste and devastate it, to seize and plunder it from us. But this all enforces so much the more the precept, the obligation, to "redeem" it. If the people of any tract or colony suffered disasters and losses in their valuable stores or plantations, (as by fire, tempest, or plunder,) would their right

policy be to be careless of the residue? So we, the more the days are beset by things that grievously invade them, disturb them, waste them, the more careful and zealous should we be to save and improve all we can. Let not our enemies have to show all our most valuable substance, as the wrecks or the spoils of their warfare upon our life. To this end, it is of the highest importance that time should be (if we may express it so) a REALITY in our perception and estimate; that we should verify it as an actual something, like a substance to which we can attach a positive value, and see it as wasting or as improved, as palpably as the contents of a granary, or as the precious metals. The unfortunate case with us is, that time is apprehended but like air, or rather, like empty space, so that, in wasting it, we do not see that we are destroying or misusing a reality. In losing, in wasting, a day or an hour, we have no perception like that we should have in burning, or in throwing down a stream, a valuable article that is tangible or visible; as a useful implement, an instructive book, a quantity of corn, pieces of money. But a great object is, to attain a perception of something like this. The simple way to attain this perception of time's reality is, the habit of thinking what could be done in so much time. Time is equivalent to what could be done or gained in it. A portion of it thrown away, therefore, should be accounted of as just that thrown away which could have been gained by improving it that was, by possibility, contained in the time. If a person were so foolish as to throw away a valuable piece of money into a pit, or the sea, he does not literally throw away anything but the metal; but virtually he throws away whatever best thing it would have purchased; as bread, clothing, refreshments, or medicines for the sick, an instructive book. When this habit is acquired, of verifying time as a reality, small pieces and fragments of it will acquire a perceptible value, never apprehended before. And then, the painful reflection may often occur, "How rich I might have been, had I but been aware of it!"-Ibid.

MARTYRDOM OF TWO WOMEN IN SCOTLAND.

GILBERT WILSON occupied a farm belonging to the Laird of Castle-stewart, in the parish of Penningham. He and his wife had both yielded to the Acts enforcing conformity to Prelacy; but his children had imbibed higher principles, and refused to conform. At length they were compelled to quit their father's house, and join the persecuted wanderers, that they might avoid falling into the hands of the soldiers. Margaret Wilson, aged about eighteen, her brother Thomas, aged sixteen, and their sister Agnes, aged only thirteen, were all thus compelled to seek refuge in the wild moors of Upper Galloway; and by the dreadful Intercommuning Act, their parents were forbidden to give them food or shelter, under the penalty attached to treason. In the slight pause of persecution which took place at the death of Charles, the two sisters ventured to quit the desert solitudes, and to come to Wigtown, where they resided a short time in the house of an aged and pious widow, named Margaret M'Lauchlan. A base wretch, named Stuart, gave information against them, and they were all three dragged to prison. After they had lain there for some weeks, and had suffered much inhuman treatment, they were brought to trial before Lagg and Major Windram, who commanded the military force in that district. As if to stretch this mockery of justice to the utmost extreme at once of cruelty and of intense absurdity, these three helpless women were accused of rebellion at Bothwell-Bridge and Airs-moss, and also of having been present at twenty conventicles. This accusation it was impossible to urge; but they were required to take the abjuration oath, which all three refused, and were accordingly condemned to die. The specific terms of the sentence were, that they should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood-mark in the Water of Blednock, where it meets the sea, and there be drowned by the tide. From this dreadful doom the entreaties of the distracted father prevailed so far as to rescue the innocent girl of thirteen, yet only by the payment of one hundred pounds sterling to the merciless and mercenary murderers. But nothing could avail to save the lives of the young woman and her widowed friend.