children, and answer your question, which is just like the one put by Philip: that is, let us see our Father's face that we may know and love Him. the living persons, old and young, that are moving about, whom God wishes to love and enjoy himself for ever, say to" Shew us the Father and it sufficeth us;" yourselves: "My Father made all these persons, creatures, and things, and He sees us all, knows us all, and loves us all." Should not this thought make you happy, and draw out your hearts to God, the Father Almighty, "maker of the heavens and of the earth?" Read what the good King David said of this God, how much he admired His works, and how happy he was in His presence, (Psalms 104 and 139.) But I dare say you have felt afraid of God, and did not like, therefore, to think of Him as David did. Perhaps I know why you were afraid. Was it because you felt somehow that you had not been caring for Him, or trying to please Him, but only thinking about yourselves, and trying to please yourselves, as if God was not your Maker, Master, or Father? If so, nothing can be so bad as not to love God, for He is the best of all, and most glorious and most worthy to be loved of all. I do not wonder that when you thought how wicked it was not to love God, that you said, as it were in your hearts: "I am sure God is angry with me, and I fear He will punish me, and it makes me unhappy when I think of Him." And perhaps you tried at last not to think of Him. Oh! what hard thoughts these were against God, your own Father! What if He did not think of you? What if He had not cared for you? How good, then, He must be, when, in spite of all our sins, He is still our Father! Now, my dear children, God says, as it were, to you: "You do not know me if you do not love me; for if you did know me truly, you could not but love me." For, as we read: "He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. There is no fear in love." Now, dear children, God has spoken to us, and shewed himself to us in many more ways than you can yet fully understand; but all I would remind you of at present is this, that Jesus Christ, of whom you have heard and read, and who is your brother and Saviour, is one with God; and Jesus came to the world to shew to us our Father. Remember, then, when you read of the words Jesus spoke, and the things He did, say to yourselves: Now all this was just God my Father speaking to me, and working before my eyes." Yes, dear children! The love of Jesus is just the same as the love of God. When Jesus says, "Come to me," God also says it. When Jesus takes up little children into His arms and blesses them, you see in this the tenderness and goodness of God. And, therefore, when you know and love Jesus, you see and love God; for "He and the Father are one." Say, then: "Almighty Creator of the heavens and the earth, I adore Thee as my Father! Thou art everywhere present, and Thou seest and knowest me Thy child. Thou preservest man and beast,' and Thou preservest me, and in Thee I live, and move, and have my being. Father! I am ashamed to think how I have forgotten Thee, and been a selfwilled and ungrateful child. I thank Thee for Thy patience, and for sending Thy Son into the world to teach me to know Thee, and to die for all our sins. God, my Father, forgive me for Christ's sake, and enable me to be obedient and loving to Thee as was Jesus Christ, Thy well beloved Son, my Saviour and my brother! Amen." N. The Gospel has exercised a powerful, though an unacknowledged, and, perhaps, an unperceived influence even on the minds of those who reject it; they have drunk at that stream of knowledge, which they cannot, or will not, trace up to the real source from whence it flows. But perhaps you say, "It is quite true that we have been often afraid of God, though we have said with our lips, Our Father who art in heaven,' for we felt we had sinned against Him. But we would like to know Him better, so as to love Him more; tell us how that may be." I shall do so gladly, my dear Whateley. "STRONG IN HIM."-FOR THE YOUNG. I AM going to tell you, my young readers, did not pretend to like them, or wish about a boy of eleven years of age, whom to make any show of them, so that I visited, not long ago, when he was dy-people might say, he was a good boy; ing. Now you must not think that all this would have been vain and deceitful. good children become sick and die, for But neither was he ashamed to be seen this would almost make you frightened reading his Bible, or to ask, as he often to become good, because you wish, of did, in the middle of the night, when he course, if it pleases God, that you should could not sleep with pain, his parents to be in health, and live long and hap- read aloud to him. James really bepily in the world. There is nothing lieved and knew God as his Father, and wrong in your wishing this, and I hope Jesus as his Saviour, and he liked to hear God may grant you so great a blessing, about them, and also to turn his face to as He has done to many; for there have the wall, and to shut his eyes and speak been thousands, and tens of thousands, to them in prayer, telling all his wants, who began very early in life to serve and opening his whole heart. Now, all God, and who continued to do so, getting this time I had never seen James, but wiser, and better, and happier, as they only heard from his teacher what a grew older, and who have lived long, and sincere, good, Christian boy he was. died at last surrounded by every com- But that teacher at last came to me one fort and many friends. See how good in day to tell that he believed little M. was early youth were such men as Joseph, dying, and that, as the minister whom Moses, Samuel, Daniel, Timothy, &c., as his parents attended was from home, he well as great numbers whose names we hoped I would go and pray with the boy. do not know, who lived long, and "grew I of course instantly went. When I enup in favour with God and men." But tered the lowly dwelling, I saw a mass of what I wish you to see is, how one may clothes in a bed, with a woman bending be very peaceful and happy, although it over them in grief. It was the mother may be God's will that they shall suffer with her dying boy. I will not describe much pain of body, and die when they to you the signs of suffering visible there, are young. the blood and the wounds which were on that little body! I drew near, and at last discovered the pale face, with expressive blue eyes, looking quietly upon me. He was so weak that it was difficult for him to speak; I therefore spent the time I had praying with him and reading a short passage of Scripture, reminding him of the love of his Father and Saviour which never changes, and was much greater than even his mother's love, and was able to guide him in perfect peace and safety through the dark valley and shadow of death. Before parting, I bent over him and asked him how he was, telling him how much I felt for him. The only words I ever heard him speak, were these into my ear: "I feel very strong in Him!" What precious words were those! "Strong in Him!" Yes, pained, weak, and dying child! thou wert indeed stronger than all the fleets and The boy James M., who is the subject of my story, was, for some time, in a junior Sabbath class taught by a friend of mine, who was very fond of him for his gentle manners, attention to his lessons, regular attendance, and kindness of disposition. James was at last seized with a severe disease in his neck, which confined him nearly three years to the house, and often to his bed. He gradually got worse, and all the while suffered so much pain, that it often amounted to agony; yet his sweet temper did not leave him, and he was greatly beloved by his poor parents, who were from the Highlands, and had very sore hearts as they saw their boy getting worse and worse, without any doctor being able to heal him or give him the least relief. The Bible and prayer were the chief sources of James' comfort. He "I can do all things," says Paul-how? "through Christ that strengtheneth me !" armies in the world! Thy strength was the omnipotence of Jesus, who overcame the world, conquered death and the grave, ascended up on high, and obtained all power in heaven and earth, for the weakest, youngest, and poorest of His people! "Strong in Him!" I entered that home wearied in body and anxious in mind, but I gained strength and comfort from the lips of that weak and distressed child who was the stronger of the two. Often, I can say with truth, have his words come to me amidst the difficulties and struggles of life, and his quiet blue eyes have looked at me and cheered me, like the flowers seen by the fainting traveller in the desert, and the child has helped me to find peace where he foundness; "for when you are weak then are it, and to be "strong in Him," Oh! could we but learn that lesson, we would be strong indeed!-fit for any duty, any trial between us and glory. To be strong in Him has been the secret of all the strength which has ever been enjoyed by God's people since the world began. They have all heard and known that "strength belongeth unto the Lord." Moses was strong when he vanquished the Egyptians; but, said he, "The Lord is my strength and my song." David was strong when he was "delivered out of the hands of all his enemies," but he confessed, "God is my strength and power." The prophets were men of strength and power, and feared not the face of man. But what said Isaiah?" The Lord Jehovah is my strength." What said Jeremiah?" O Lord, my strength, my refuge, my fortress in the day of affliction!" What said Habakkuk ?-" The Lord God is my strength!" The apostles were men of strength and power, what said they? Reader! seek to understand what it is to be strong in God. Never forget that with Him "is everlasting strength," that "strength belongeth unto God." Remember, too, that this strength is for all who will avail themselves of it. "The God of Israel is He that giveth strength and power." To each man He says, "Let him take hold of my strength,” “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might," and promises that "they who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength," and "go on from strength to strength." Do not complain of, but feel your weak you strong." We become strong as giants when we trust God as little children, and we become weak as infants when we trust ourselves as if we were giants; for "God perfects His strength in our weakness." And when we fall, it may always be said of us; "This is the man who made not the Lord his strength." Little James died the night I saw him. "Strong in Him," he was conducted in perfect safety and perfect peace through the valley and shadow of death. "Strong in Him," he passed from the pained body, the poor home, the kind parents, to his Father, and his Father's home, in heaven, where "there shall be no more pain." And there he is, and there he shall ever be, in joy and glory, because with all the saints and angels he is "strong in Him" for ever. Thanks for God's teaching from the meek and lowly ones! Verily "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength!" N. SINAI AND PALESTINE.* An admirable and most interesting volume has been published last month, by Mr. Stanley,-known to so many as • Sinai and Palestine in connection with their History. By Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, M.A., Canon of Canterbury. London: John Murray. 1856. Pp. lvi. 536, ters to his friends, and which belongs merely to the introductory portion of the volume: EGYPT. The eastern sky was red with the early dawn: we were on the broad waters of the Nile-or rather, its Rosetta branch. The first thing which struck me was its size. Greater than the Rhine, Rhone, or Danube, one perceives what a sea-like stream it must have appeared to Greeks and Italians, who had seen nothing larger than the narrow and precarious torrents of their own mountains and valleys. As the light broke, its colour gradually revealed itself,-brown like the Tiber, only of a darker and richer hue-no strong cur. rent, only a slow, vast, volume of water, mild and beneficent as his statue in the Vatican, steadily flowing on between its two almost uniform banks, which rise above it much like the banks of a canal, though in some places with terraces or strips of earth, marking the successive stages of the flood. These banks form the horizon on either side, and therefore you can have no notion of the country beyond; but they are varied by a succession of eastern scenes-villages of mud, like ant-hills, with human beings creeping about, like ants, except in numbers and activity-mostly, however, distinguished by the minaret of a wellbuilt mosque, or the white oven-like dome of a sheykh's tomb; mostly, also, screened by a grove of palms, sometimes intermixed with feathery tamarisks, and the thick foliage of the carob. tree or the sycamore. Verdure, where it is visible, is light green, but the face of the bank is usually brown. Along the top of the banks move, like scenes in a magic lantern, and as if cut out against the sky, groups of Arabs, with their two or three asses, a camel, or a buffalo. THE OBELISK OF HELIOPOLIS. This is the first obelisk I have seen standing in its proper place, and there it has stood for nearly four thousand years. It is the oldest known in Egypt, and therefore in the world,-the father of all that have arisen since. It was raised about a century before the coming of Joseph; it has looked down on his marriage with Asenath; it has seen the growth of Moses; it is mentioned by Herodotus; Plato sate under its shadow of all the obelisks which sprung up around it, it alone has kept its first position. One by one, it has seen its sons and brothers depart to great destinies elsewhere. From these gardens came the obelisks of the Lateran, of the Vatican, and of the Porta del Popolo; and this venerable pillar (for so it looks from a distance) is now almost the only landmark of the great seat of the wisdom of Egypt. Immediately above the brown and blue waters of the broad, calm, lake-like river, rises a thick, black bank of clod or mud, mostly in terraces Green-unutterably green-mostly at the top of these banks, though sometimes creeping down to the water's edge, lies the Land of Egypt. Green-unbroken, save by the mud villages which here and there lie in the midst of the ver dure, like the marks of a soiled foot on a rich carpet; or by the dykes and channels which convey the life-giving waters through the thirsty land. This is the Land of Egypt, and this is the memorial of the yearly flood. Up those black terraces, over those green fields, the water rises and descends; "Et viridem Ægyptum nigra fœcundat arena " And not only when the flood is actually there, but throughout the whole year, is water continually ascending through innumerable wheels worked by naked figures, as the Israelites of old "in the service of the field," and then flowing on in gentle rills through the various allotments. To the seeds of these green fields, to the fishes of the wide river, is attached another natural pheno. menon, which I never saw equalled :-the numbers numberless, of all manner of birds-vultures, and cormorants, and geese, flying like constellations through the blue heavens; pelicans standing in long array on the water side; hoopoos and ziczacs, and the (so-called) white ibis, the gentle symbol of the god Osiris in his robes of white, walking under one's very feet. COLOSSAL STATUES OF THEBES. No written account has given me an adequate impression of the effect, past and present, of the colossal figures of the Kings. What spires are to a modern city,-what the towers of a cathe. dral are to its nave and choir,-that the statues of the Pharaohs were to the streets and temples of Thebes The ground is strewed with their fragments: there were avenues of them tower. ing high above plain and houses. Three of gigantic size still remain. One was the granite statue of Rameses himself, who sate on the right side of the entrance to his palace. By some extraordinary catastrophe, the statue has been thrown down, and the Arabs have scooped their millstones out of his face, but you can still see what he was,-the largest statue in the world. Far and wide that enormous head must have been seen, eyes, mouth, and ears. Far and wide you must have seen his vast hands resting on his elephantine knees. You sit on his breast and look at the Osiride statues which support the portico of the temple, and which anywhere else would put to shame even the statues of the cherubs in St. Peter's-and they seem pigmies before him. His arm is thicker than their whole bodies. The only part of the temple or palace at all in proportion to him must have been the gateway, which rose in pyramidal towers, now broken down, and rolling in a wild ruin down to the plain. Nothing which now exists in the world can give any notion of what the effect must have been when he was erect. Nero towering above the Colosseum may have been something like it; but he was of bronze, and Rameses was of solid granite. Nero was standing without any object; Rameses was resting in awful majesty after the conquest of the whole of the then known world. No one who entered that building, whether it were temple or palace, could have thought of anything else but that stupendous being who thus had raised himself up above the whole | tirely levelled, and the royal majesty is always world of gods and men. And when from the statue you descend to the palace, the same impression is kept up. It is the earliest instance of the enshrinement in art of the historical glories of a nation, such as Versailles. Everywhere the King is conquering, worshipping, ruling. The Palace is the Temple -the king is priest. But everywhere the same colossal proportions are preserved He and his horses are ten times the size of the rest of the army. Alike in battle and in worship he is of the same stature as the gods themselves. Most striking is the familiar gentleness with which one on each side-they take him by each hand, as one of their own order, and then in the next compartment introduce him to Ammon and the lion-headed goddess. Every distinction, except of degree, between divinity and royalty, is en represented by making the king, not like Saul or Agamemnon, from the head and shoulders, but from the foot and ankle upwards, higher than the rest of the people. It carries one back to the days "when there were giants on the earth." It shows how the king, in that first monarchy, was the visible god upon earth. The only thing like it that has since been seen is the deification of the Roman emperors No pure Monotheism could for a mo. ment have been compatible with such an intense exaltation of the conquering king. "I am Pharoah;""By the life of Pharoah;' "Say unto Pharoah, Whom art thou like in thy greatness?" Gen. xli. 44; xlii. 15, 16; Ezek. xxxi 2-all these expressions seem to acquire new life from the sight of this monster statue. A PEEP ACROSS THE CHANNEL. 1 SHOULD like to end my "peep" in the old hall of the University of Leyden-to close my eyes gazing on the portraits on its walls-fall asleep, and awake anywhere except in a late debate of the General Assembly. But that is a matter of taste more than of principle; and to be fully awake in such circumstances would be rare in those days. brows and sharp noses, who had the faculty of proving to a demonstration points which no one either believed or could contradict; and weak, though proud-looking men were there, who made sonorousness pass for sense, orthodoxy for religion, and "dignified silence" the defence of their ignorance, and the graceful escape from their perplexities. There seemed to be God-loving men also among them, with giant brows and childlike eyes. Arminius how good and mild he looked!-was there, with some of his followers, and Calvinists side by side. How these sects fought while on earth! and most zealously in that land of ditches, sluggish canals, wheeling windmills, and dead flats. Great often was their mutual hate, too, in arguing about the love of God to some or to all. There were martyrs in Holland to the five points, and the Synod of Dort was well-nigh as dogmatic and exclusive as the Council of Trent. The portraits are of the great professors who, as members chiefly (I believe) of the theological faculty, have made Leyden illustrious since it became a university. Of course I requested my guide to withdraw, that, all alone, I might get a whiff from the past amidst the deep repose of that ghost-like old hall. There were profound scholars there, like Scalinger; men of science, like Boerhaave; and divines, like Arminius; and also, no doubt, the usual per centage of those whose names have gone amissing, except to antiquaries, among the dust of books and churchyards. Some easy men were there, with double chins and single wit, who transmitted faithfully to the next generation what they got from the past, all wrapped up in a white napkin, never opened by themselves, and who were aw-churches? Are the decrees or foreknowfully solemn in their rebukes of any student who profanely suggested an examination of the contents, lest they should have become mouldy by time and damp; and logical-looking men were there, with knit These good men are now in heaven. Looking at their portraits I was inclined to ask: "I wonder, fathers and brethren, if you even now understand the mysteries about which you divided families and ledge yet comprehended by you in relation to man's responsibility and free will?" Come, let us breathe the air! The figures begin to move on the walls, and we may have the dispute renewed, each |