on the left, and a virgin is pointed out by its being placed on the very crown." The second beast has two horns. It is not a virgin; therefore, they rise not from the crown. It is both married and a widow, and, therefore, it has a horn both on the right and left side. They are just where, according to the symbolic language of horns, they should be worn by "the mother of harlots, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication." They are short-rising up on the two sides of the head, like the horns of a lamb. They are metallic, studded with jewels. Of what are we speaking ?-the mitre ? Yes, that is its name. It leaves the crown, the emblematic seat of virgin purity, bare; and erects the tokens of marriage and of widowhood on the two sides. They are the ensigns of "a woman forsaken, and a wife of youth refused." It is a favourite epithet with Calvin-" horned bishops." Cast another glance at the episcopal diadem, and read, "He had two horns like a lamb!" This may also be intended to prefigure the assumption of innocence and meekness.Rogers on Revelation.

THE RICH FOOL.

THE rich man in the Gospel was a bad accountant when he set down a false sum to his soul, saying, "Thou hast much goods laid up for many years." He sets down years for days; nay, years for hours-like the deceitful tradesman that sets down pounds for shillings. Thus many men that would seem to be cunning in the practice of this faculty, are out of their reckonings, and much deceived. They busy themselves in addition and multiplication, and dream of many years that they are to live; whereas they should be careful to practise subtraction and diminution-to know that every day, nay, every hour, every moment, calleth off a part of their lives.-W. Attersol.

MUTUAL KNOWLEDGE IN HEAVEN. MRS. WILLETT made a query to her husband, Dr. Willett, then lying on his deathbed, touching the mutual knowledge that the saints in glory have one of another. Such another question being proposed to Luther a little before his death, he resolves her with the words of Luther: That as Adam in the state of innocency, when God first presented Eve unto him, whom he had never seen before, asked not whence she came, but said, "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh;" even so the saints of God in heaven, beatifically illuminated with knowledge beyond Adam's in his first condition, shall know, not only those whom here they knew not, but even those whom before they never saw."

GOD'S PURPOSES SURE.

THE wheels in a watch or clock move contrary one to another-some one way, some anotheryet all serve the intent of the workman, to show the time, or to make the clock to strike. So in the world, the providence of God may seem to run cross to his promises: one man takes this way, another man runs that way; good men go one way, wicked men another; yet all, in conclusion, accomplish the will, and centre in the purposes of God, the great Creator of all things. -Sibbs.

PARENTAL NEGLECT.

I SUPPOSE it never occurs to parents, that to throw vilely educated young people on the world

is, independently of the injury to the young people themselves, a positive crime, and of very great magnitude; as great, for instance, as burning their neighbour's house, or poisoning the water in his well. In pointing out to them what is wrong, even if they acknowledge the justness of the statement, one cannot make them feel a sense of guilt, as in other proved charges. That they love their children extenuates to their consciences every parental folly that may at last produce in the children every desperate vice.John Foster.

This

THE OPENING OF THE EYES. TOSTATUS observeth out of Pliny that the mole, after he hath long lived under ground, beginneth to open his eyes when he is dying, which he always had shut while he lived. is the true state of a wicked, earthly-minded man he neither seeth heaven, nor thinketh of hell. Tell him that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God;" it is but as brutum fulmen, a mere scarecrow. feareth not God nor man all his lifetime, till he approacheth to judgment; and then, too soon, he begins to feel that which he could not be brought to believe.-Willett.

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THE "HARP OF MANY STRINGS." IT is said that David praised God upon an instrument of ten strings; and he would never have told how many strings they were, but that, without all doubt, he made use of them all. God hath given all of us bodies, as it were instruments of many strings; and can we think it music good enough to strike but one string, to call upon him with our tongues only? No, no: when the still sound of the heart by holy thoughts, and the shrill sound of the tongue by holy words, and the loud sound of the hands by pious works, do all join together; that is God's concert, and the only music with which he is affected.

ELECTION MADE SURE.

If any man would know whether the sun shineth or not, let him go no further, but look upon the ground to see the reflection of the sunbeams from thence, and not upon the body of the sun, which will but the more dazzle his sight. The pattern is known by the picture, the cause by the effect. Let no man, then, soar aloft to know whether he be elected or not; but let him gather the knowledge of his election from the effectualness of his calling, and sanctification of his life-the true and proper effects of a lively faith stamping the image of God's election in his soul.-Negus. JACOB'S LADDER.

JACOB saw in his vision angels ascending upon a ladder to heaven. What! angels go by steps into heaven? One would think that, being spirits, they might easily mount thither, and back again, in an instant. Surely it is not without a mystery, showing that magistrates and ministers, who are in Scripture styled angels, are not suddenly to leap, or hastily to climb up to places of preferment, but ascend by degrees, when God setteth a ladder for them to go up by.-Daniel Featly.

AN UNGRACIOUS SON. DID the goldsmith but know beforehand that his refining of silver would turn to dross, he would rather break his bellows and crucibles

When fifteen years of age she was led, by a sermon preached to young people, to see it to be her duty to seek for communion with God's people at the table of the Lord; but owing to the removal of the pastor whose ministry she attended, and the want of a settled successor for some time, the desire of her heart, with regard to Christian fellowship, was not gratified till four years after.

Connection with a Christian church is sometimes followed by indifference and inactivity. The idea of security is dwelt upon; responsibility and obligation lost sight of; and, as the consequence, carelessness is induced. It was not so with Mrs. Dickson. Her acknowledged Christianity and church-membership, instead of producing or occasioning elation, forgetfulness, or slothfulness, only excited her to greater gratitude and watchfulness, and to increased diligence in the discharge of the duties of her Christian calling. Her apprehensions of her obligations to her Lord, of the claims of perishing souls, and of the immediate and remote consequences of a life of religious activity, were intelligent and impressive; and she laboured with unabated zeal in the sabbath-school, in the work of distributing religious tracts, of visiting the sick, and of increasing her acquaintance with the word of God, and the real condition of unconverted men and thus she was led to labour through the constraining love of the Saviour, and the deep and constant conviction that he had called her into his service. "I feel," she said, writing at the time now referred to, "that I am not of the world, though in it. My desires and affections are habitually, though slowly, drawn towards spiritual objects; and I trust I can say that it is my earnest endeavour to follow in the footsteps of the good Shepherd. I delight in the company of God's people; and wherever I meet with one who calls himself by the name of the Lord, I immediately recognise a friend and a brother. My hand and heart are with the followers of Jesus." "The hallowed pleasures I enjoy savour more of heaven than of earth. The exercises of the sanctuary, the social prayer-meeting, and the worship of the family, have never been relished by me so much before. My whole soul seems absorbed in the wondrous love of my dear Saviour; and I feel such an earnest longing for the salvation of sinners, that I think I could sacrifice my life cheerfully to hear them crying out, What must we do to be saved!"""

The two great actuating feelings of her heart, and under the influence of which she constantly laboured, were love to Christ and compassion for souls. These were the powers which constrained her to action, and which formed the secret of her devotedness. She loved her Redeemer, because he first loved her; and she valued the souls of others, because she had learnt to estimate highly her own. Her pity for those whom she knew to be "dead in trespasses and sin," and her anxiety about their salvation, were very great. The truth of this remark will be best illustrated by her own words: "Oh, how has my heart been wrung with anguish this day, in witnessing the indifference manifested by poor perishing sinners, on the very brink of eternity, during the most solemn and affecting representations of their real condition; and whilst they are implored to accept pardon, and peace, and happiness, and, by an immediate exercise of confidence in Christ, escape the vengeance of an offended God! But, ob, to think of those who are very dear to me evincing no signs of a change of heart, and remaining still unconcerned and indifferent about their dangerous and awful condition, is truly distressing! How diligently did I watch whether any effect was produced on their minds this day! but, alas, I watched in vain!"

During the last ten years of her life the health of Mrs. D. was exceedingly delicate; still, what strength she possessed she devoted to God. As long as she was able she laboured in the sabbathschool; and when, at length, she was prevented by weakness from doing so, she formed a class of poor mothers, which she held in her own house, and instructed on the afternoon of the sabbath. And in this new field of labour she was also encouraged. Many of these poor women live to bless the day when they first came under her influence. Whilst all were benefited by the instructions they received, several were brought to a saving knowledge of the truth, and now adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour by a holy life.

In her Christian sympathies, the young men who were engaged in her husband's employ, and who lived beneath her roof, largely and constantly shared. She made them the objects of her deepest solicitude, and the subjects of daily prayer. Often she spoke to them on the matter of personal religion, and as often wrote to them letters on the same subject, and

which she always took care to place in their way. It was her abiding impression that she was, to a large extent, responsible for the salvation of all who dwelt beneath her roof; and, in the way described, she laboured for the conversion of all such-anxious to see them heirs with herself of eternal life, and to be free from their blood, should they reject the offers of redeeming mercy, and perish for ever. Her prayers and

labours were not in vain: in more instances than one they were blessed to the conversion of those who were the objects of them. But even these works of faith and labours of love, much as they were blessed to the good of others, increasing indisposition obliged her to relinquish. Advised by her medical attendant to leave Blackburn, and try the effect of a different air, she bade adieu, a twelvemonth ago, to the scenes and associations of former days, and came to Bure, near Lancaster, in the hope that the mild sea-air there would prove beneficial to her. For some months a decided improvement was apparent, and it was anxiously hoped that the change would be productive of lasting benefit; but, alas, the hope was doomed to disappoint ment. In the month of September last a relapse took place; and from that time she gradually weakened, until the 8th of April, when her enfeebled frame sank under the mortal malady of which she was the subject, and her happy spirit entered into the joy of her Lord.

As Mrs. D. lived when in health, she suffered and died. The temper and bearing of the Christian were ever evinced by her. During the whole of her length ened illness she never once complained or murmured: the most subdued and cheerful resignation characterized her. She acknowledged the hand of God in the affliction she suffered, and felt assured that the dispensation which had been allotted to her, however painful to flesh and blood, was one of wisdom and love, and she submitted to it with meekness and submissiveness. Her own words will show this. Writing on the 3rd of December last, she says: "Being detained from the public ordinances of religion, and left quite alone, I would note down what I find to be my state of mind. Sometimes, when very languid, I am tempted to exclaim, 'Why are his chariotwheels so long in coming?' but still, in general, I am preserved by the goodness of the Lord in a calm and peaceful state. I feel thankful for the grace afforded me

of still being able to say, 'Thy will be done.' I fear at times that I do not feel thankful enough for all the spiritual and temporal mercies and comforts I so richly enjoy; still I have a good hope through grace, and 'rejoice even in tribulation also.' I have no fearful forebodings of the future, with regard to myself, or my friends so very dear to me. To Jesus I can confide all that is valuable and precious. He is able to keep that which I have committed to him. He is the anchor of my soul. Oh, what a comfort it is to think that he is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!"

In the hopeful and peaceful state of mind here expressed she continued to the last. Her words, four days before she died, and the last she wrote, were these: "My heavenly Father has now, I feel, sent me my summons to appear shortly in his presence. Blessed be

his holy name, it is a welcome message to me; and he is giving to me, daily and hourly, sweet foretastes of the felicity I shall soon enjoy! For my dear husband and child I most earnestly pray that they may be blessed, and supported under their loss; and I cheerfully leave them in the hands of a covenant-keeping God. For my other friends, who are so assiduously kind to me, may the Lord reward them tenfold! With all mankind I die in peace and love, and relying on the finished work and mediation of my Saviour and my God for salvation. Amen. To him be all the glory!"

At half-past five o'clock, on sabbath morning, the 8th of April, she summoned her relatives and domestics to her bedside, to receive her dying blessing, and witness her last moments. Having assured them that death had neither pain nor dread to her, and pressingly urged them to a life of holiness and Christian devotedness, she affectionately bade each of them farewell; and, after a short pause, exclaimed, anxiously and triumphantly, "Oh, why are thy chariotwheels so long in coming?" "Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!" In a few moments after her emancipated spirit passed to the fair coasts of light, and entered on "the rest which remaineth

for the people of God." "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." the perfect man, and behold the upright; the latter end of that man is peace.' Lancaster, April 26th, 1849.

"Mark

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