which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ; even the righteousness which is of God by faith? If such are your views and feelings, happy are you; for such esteem of Christ and of his cross can be wrought in the soul only by the Spirit of God. Carefully cherish such sentiments; and study to grow in the knowledge and love of your Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Such love of the Redeemer is widely different from a merely sentimental sorrow for the sufferings of the innocent man; or an unavailing admiration of the benevolence of his life, and the purity of his character. To feel a personal interest in the Saviour; a bond of faith and love uniting the soul to him; to look upon him as one connected with yourself, in whom is bound up all your happiness; to view him as a dear friend, even the dearest of all friends-this is a Christian view of Christ. To know your own interest in him is not indispensable, though it is desirable, most desirable; but the Christian who is redeemed by his blood cannot look upon Christ, as others do, in the light of a stranger, or a hero of history with whom they have no concern. If you are saved by the cross, you will love the Crucified, though you may not always be able to say "My beloved is mine and I am his."

On a Communion-Sabbath, a faithful and beloved minister of Jesus Christ was ་ fencing the tables" at it is called in Scotland, solemnly warning all who are not the children of God, against the sin of daring to partake of that holy supper. In mentioning the marks of God's people, one of which is love to Christ, he related the following anecdote. An individual had repeatedly applied for admission to the Lord's table, and had been as often rejected, because his knowledge was not sufficient to warrant his approach. Time after time, however, the application was made afresh, till the enquiry was put to him, why he persisted under such circumstances? "I cannot tell," was the reply, "but this I can say, that as the flower opens its bosom to the sunshine, so my heart opens to Christ." Dear young reader, is it so with your heart? Knowledge, it is presumed, you have, for you possess the Bible, and are of sound mind; but do you love Jesus, and trust in the atonement he made on the cross? Then you will need no crucifix to animate your devotions. The material

figure would but hide the real Saviour from your view, like the dark shadow upon the flower, when the heart is opening to that better sunshine-the glory of the Sun of Righteousness whose wings are fraught with healing.

S. E. P.

THE PRESERVATION OF THE JEWISH NATION.*

How wonderfully does the preservation of the Jewish people, throughout so long a tract of time, illustrate the Divine power! — "Their history in this respect is unparalleled. They can look back along a line of ancestry, compared with which that of the Norman peer, and the Saxon noble, are but of yesterday. Nations which did not begin to exist till long after the Jew had acquired a history, have long ago run their course and perished; but he is unchanged. The Roman, the Athenian, the Babylonian, is now only a name—the shadow of a name; yet when the most ancient of these powers was laying the foundation of its existence, the Jew could already trace back a genealogy of centuries. As the modern traveller surveys the remains of the arch of Titus at Rome, he feels himself bewildered in endeavoring to realize the distant date of its erection-and yet it commemorates only the last of a long series of Jewish dispersions. You read of the fragments of antiquity dug up from the ruins of Babylon, and your mind is carried still further back than by the Roman arch; but the Jew possibly formed that Babylonian brick, and imprinted on it those arrow-headed characters. The pyramids of Egypt take your imagination still further back; the Jew not improbably helped to build the oldest of them.† Enter the most ancient of the royal tombs at Thebes, and elsewhere, and mark the national physiognomies painted on the walls - you recognise that of the Jew unaltered to the present day. Time itself was young when

* On this subject, see our volume for 1844, p 37.

† Josephus says expressly that Pharaoh set the Jews "to build pyramids." Against this statement it has been urged that the pyramids are of stone, whilst the Jews labored in brick and mortar: but neither are the pyramids all built of stone, nor were the Jews restricted to labors in brick. Many interesting proofs might be brought forward in favor of the Jewish origin of these wonders of the world; some of which will be found in Taylor's Calmet, sub voce, Egypt."

Some of these are figured in our volume for 1844, pp. 37, 39.

the Lord said unto Abraham, " I will surely make of thee a great nation."

Nor will any of the ordinary means of national preservation account for their continuance. They have not, like the Chinese, been stationary, and built in from the rest of the human family. From about the year 740 before Christ, till the final destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, they suffered as many dispersions, partial or entire, as there were centuries. Their wanderings in the wilderness, relieved by temporary encampments, may be regarded as an emblem of their subsequent history. Foreign help and alliances will not explain it. For, besides the fiercest commotions within, they have sustained, unaided, a quick succession of the most sanguinary invasions from without They have known the degradation of slavery, the chains of captivity, and persecution in all its forms. Arms, climate, genius, politics, equally fail to explain it—for they have been crumbled, and scattered over the face of the earth; and yet they exist. They have used every dialect, and lived in every latitude of civilized man. They have cried by reason of their task-masters, on the banks of the Nile ; by the waters of Babylon they have sat down and wept; the Jordan, the Tiber, the Thames, the Mississippi, have alike quenched their thirst. Paganism has made itself drunk with their blood. Popery has kindled and rejoiced over the fires which consumed them; and Mahometanism has chased and smitten them with untiring hate; and yet they exist. Old empires which oppressed them have fallen; but the Jew has lived on amidst their ruins. Young nations have started into being, and he has been present to mingle with their elements ;-mingling, but never uniting; a river flowing through the ocean, but never losing its distinct character and existence. For "from the top of the rocks I see him; and from the hills I behold him; lo! the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations."

And, as if to complete the wonder of their continued existence, the probability is, according to the most recent and exact statistics, that their number at this moment is very nearly the same as it was on their leaving Egypt under Moses-somewhere about three millions and a-half.

Now the only way in which their preservation can be accounted

for is by accepting the scriptural solution of the fact, and ascribing it to the miraculous exercise of the Divine Power. This, indeed, is very generally admitted already. The visions of the poet are haunted by the fact, as by a voice from the invisible world. The philosophic historian confesses that he has no place for it in all his generalizations; and refers it to the mysteries of Providence. The enlightened christian recognises in it the presence and agency of Him who hath said, "I am God, I change not: therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." The Jew himself is, of course, willing to ascribe it to the hand of God, for it ministers to his self-importance. But when, in the best, the highest respect, he "shall be turned unto the Lord," in how different a sense will he trace the preservation of his people to the Divine Being! A time of conversion is a period of reflection and review. How many a man, converted late in life-converted towards the close of a long and hazardous career-awakes as from a dream to spend the rest of his days in grateful astonishment at the power which " preserved him in Christ Jesus" till he was called. He clearly sees that his past history exhibits one continued series of Divine interpositions for his safety; and as his fellow Christians listen to his tale of the Divine goodness, they glorify God in him." But here will be a whole people converted in the evening of time. And when it shall be remembered that they were called in the morning of time; that they were then the subjects of Divine impressions; that God himself could say concerning them, "I remember thee, the kindness of thy espousals, and the love of thy youth, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness;" that their promising appearances vanished like the early dew; that, with few intermissions, they had ever since been running the gauntlet of the nations; buffeted by a blind and blood-thirsty world; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; with what new emphasis and enlarged meaning will they have to sing, " If it had not been the Lord who was on our side-now may Israel say;-if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then had they swallowed us up quick. Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us a prey to their teeth. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth!" And so manifestly will their

continued existence as a nation be then traceable to the hand of God, that the entire Church, as with one voice, shall ascribe the glory to him alone.-From a Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Harris.

THE WATCH AND THE PEBBLE.

In the "Spectator" there is this passage, "A little before our club time last night, we were walking together in Somerset garden, (the garden belonging to Somerset House in the Strand, on the banks of the Thames,) when Will Honeycomb picked up a small pebble of so odd a make, that, he said he would present it to a friend of his, an eminent virtuoso; after we had walked a little, I asked him 'what's the time?' when pulling out his watch, he said 'we have seven minutes good.' We took a turn or two more, when, to my great surprise I saw him squirt away his watch a considerable way into the Thames, and with great sedateness in his looks, put up the pebble, he had before found, in his fob."

Upon the perusal of the above statement, I can easily believe that many of my young friends may be disposed, not only to smile, but to condemn, and ready to exclaim "how foolish! how thoughtless such person must have been, to have thrown away his watch into the Thames, and have deposited the pebble in his fob!" But strange as such conduct may appear, the same thing is continually taking place before our eyes: yes, and that too, among many readers of the Youths' Magazine.

Amongst my acquaintance was a little girl, whose parents were true disciples of the Saviour and took a lively interest in their daughter's welfare, constantly endeavoring to impress upon her mind the folly of pride, and the inestimable value and importance of humility. Mary, for that was her name, appeared to take great interest and feel great pleasure in every thing of a religious character; her friends looked upon her as a bud of promise, and anticipated that ere long, she would yield fruit to the glory of God. The conduct of Mary was modest, her manners were pleasing, and her general appearance clean and neat. But it pleased God to remove her parents from earth to heaven, and their daughter being left at her own command, very soon afforded evidence of the great change that had taken place in her.