Alon. Rolla, I fear thy friendship drives me from honor and from right.

Rolla. Did Rolla ever counsel dishonor to his friend? [throwing the friar's garment over his shoulders.] There! conceal thy face-Now God be with thee.

LESSON XLIII.

A Fragment.-BRAINARD.

YON cloud is bright, and beautiful-it floats
Alone in God's horizon; on its edge

The stars seem hung like pearls; it looks as pure
As 'twere an angel's shroud--the white cymar
Of purity, just peeping through its folds
To give a pitying look on this sad world.
Go visit it, and find, that all is false;
Its glories are but fog, and its white form

Is plighted to some coming thunder gust;—

The rain, the wind, the lightning, have their source
In such bright meetings. Gaze not at the clouds,
However beautiful. Gaze at the sky,

The clear, blue, tranquil, fixed, and glorious sky.

LESSON XLIV.

Mohammed and Jesus, as Prophets, compared.-SHERLOCK.

THE gospel had no competitor, till the great and successful impostor, Mohammed, arose. He, indeed, pretended a commission to all the world, and found means sufficiently to publish his pretences. He asserts his authority upon the strength of revelation, and endeavors to transfer the advantages of the gospel evidence to himself, having that pattern before him to copy after. But with respect to this instance, I persuade myself, it can be no very distracting study to determine our choice.

Drives me from honor, &c.

What was the ground of

these apprehensions? Were they just?

Counsel, advise, give instruction; advice, directions.

What characteristics of mind and heart are developed in this dialogue?

Floats, moves calmly, sails. Whence the figure?
Horizon, the line that terminates the view.

Pearls, round, brilliant gems. Where are they found?
-Shroud, a winding sheet, garb, cover, rope that supports
the mast; to cover, envelope, veil, surround.
Cymar, a scarf, a slight covering, thin veil.
-Folds, plaits or doublings in a garment; wraps up.
-Glories, splendors, honors, fame, happiness of heaven.
Plighted, pledged, promised, espoused, affianced.
-Gust, love, sense of tasting, a sudden blast of wind.
What are some of the effects of lightning?
Sky. By what other names is the sky called?
What different thoughts do clouds and the sky suggest?
What instruction may be drawn from this piece? Is not
much that pleases us most, in this world, like the misty
cloud, here described?

Is this piece of poetry beautiful or sublime?

Mohammed. What account can you give of him? (App.)
Competitor, rival, opponent, one who contends with.
Impostor, deceiver, one who cheats by a fictitious char-
acter. Why was Mohammed an impostor ?
Commission, trust, act of committing, warrant, charge.
Pretences, false assumptions, acts of showing what is not
real. What were the pretences of Mohammed?
Revelation. Why is the Bible called a Revelation ?
Transfer, convey, carry over, move, transport.
Pattern, example, rule, likeness, model; to imitate.
Persuade, convince by argument or entreaty, influence.
Determine, decide, conclude, resolve concerning.

Cymar, plighted, competitor, Mohammed, pattern, sky.

Go to your natural religion; lay before her Mohammed and his disciples arrayed in armor, and in blood, riding in triumph over the spoils of thousands, and tens of thousands, who fell by his victorious sword; show her the cities which he set in flames, the countries which he ravaged and destroyed, and the miserable distress of all the inhabitants of the earth. When she has viewed him in this scene, carry her into his retirements; show her the prophet's chamber, his concubines and wives; let her see his adultery, and hear him allege revelation and his divine commission to justify his lust and oppres sion. When she is tired with this prospect, then show her the blessed Jesus, humble and meek, doing good to all the sons of men, patiently instructing both the ignorant and the perverse. Let her see him in his most retired privacies !-let her follow him to the mount, and hear his devotions and supplications to God. Carry her to his table, to view his pure fare, and hear his heavenly discourse. Let her see him injured, but not provoked. Let her attend him to the tribunal, and consider the patience with which he endured the scoffs and reproaches of his enemies. Lead her to his cross, and let her view him in the agony of death, and hear his last prayer for his persecutors-"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"

When natural religion has viewed both, ask which is the prophet of God? But her answer, we have already had, when she saw part of this scene through the eyes of the centurion, who attended at the cross-by him she spoke and said, "Truly this man was the son of God."

LESSON XLV.

The Effect of Abolishing Christianity.-THOMPSON.

CHRISTIANITY rescued us from heathenism, and, if we extinguish the light of Christianity, I see not how we can avoid the inference, that to the darkness of heathenism, we must return. This is the final and unavoidable result.

dé-vine'. kris-tshè-ân'-é-tė.

Natural religion, what is known of God and human
duty from the works of creation and providence.
Arrayed, clothed, accoutred, ornamented, equipped.
Disciples, scholars, pupils, followers, learners.

Spoils, pillages, ruins; plunder, booty, acts of robbery
Countries. What countries did Mohammed ravage?
Ravaged, laid waste, plundered, sacked, pillaged.
Retirements, secret places, private apartments.
Concubines, unmarried women acting as wives.
Allege, bring forward, urge, affirm, plead as excuse.
Divine, proceeding from God, belonging to God.
Oppression, cruelty, severity, misery, hardship.
Perverse, froward, wicked, obstinate, distorted, cross.
Privacies, retreats, concealments, things private.
-Mount, mountain, ascent, rise; to go up, climb, ascend.
Supplications, humble and earnest entreaties, cries.
Discourse, conversation, instruction, address; to converse.
Provoked, made angry, enraged, challenged, excited.
Tribunal, bar of the court, judgment-seat, court of justice.
Before whose tribunal was Christ brought?

Reproaches, censures, infamy, revilings, contumelies.
Agony, struggle, excessive pain, torturing anxiety.
Father, forgive them, &c. (Luke xxiii. 34.)

When natural religion. What figure of speech is used here? Does it strengthen the idea?

Prophet, one sent from God, one who foretells future events, one who teaches or explains things divine. Centurion, Roman officer commanding a hundred men. (Matt. xxvii. 54.) Why was this officer a Roman ? She spake. To what does she refer? How could natu ral religion be said to speak through the Centurion? Rescued, delivered, made way for our escape, freed. Heathenism, paganism, all false systems of religion. Inference, conclusion drawn from previous arguments. Darkness. Why is heathenism called darkness? Unavoidable, not to be shunned, inevitable, certain, sure.

Divine, Christianity, inference, provoked, heathenism

There might remain, among a few of the more enlightened, some occasional glimpses of religious truth, as we find to have been the case in the pagan world. But the degradation of the great mass of the people to that ignorance, and idolatry, and superstition, out of which the gospel had emancipated them, would be certain and complete. This retrograde movement might be retarded by the advantage which we have derived from that system, whose influence we should continue to feel, long after we had ceased to acknowledge the divinity of its source. But these advantages would, by degrees, lose their efficacy, even as mere matters of speculation, and give place to the workings of fancy, and credulity, and corruption. A radiance might still glow upon the high places of the earth, after the sun of revelation had gone down; and the brighter and the longer it had shone, the more gradual would be the decay of that light and warmth which it had left behind it. But every where there would be the sad tokens of a departed glory and of a coming night. Twilight might be protracted through the course of many generations, and still our unhappy race might be able to read, though dimly, many of the wonders of the eternal Godhead, and to wind a dubious way through the perils of the wilderness. But it would be twilight still; shade would thicken after shade; every succeeding age would come wrapped in a deeper and a deeper gloom;-till, at last, that flood of glory, which the gospel is now pouring upon the world, would be lost and buried in impenetrable darkness.

LESSON XLVI.

Influence of Hope.-CAMPBELL.

UNFADING hope! when life's last embers burn,
When soul to soul, and dust to dust return!
Heaven, to thy charge, resigns the awful hour!
Oh! then, thy kingdom comes! Immortal power!
What though each spark of earth-born rapture, fly
The quivering lip. pale cheek, and closing eye!