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them richly and long. O that we had been wise, and not neglected our day of grace, neither abused the riches of thy goodness! The time of visitation is come. That destructive plague, from which Thou for so long a time preservedst us, now spreads even in our land dread and sorrow. O our fathers' God, we know not what Thou hast decreed concerning us; but we know that from Thee only proceed life and death. Lord of life and death, we humble ourselves under thy mighty hand. Grant patience under suffering; hope and confidence in Thee, when human help is no more. Incline our hearts to reverence thy holy commandments, to obedience to our beloved rulers, to mutual love, aid, and comfort. Then, O Father, Thy will be done, whether it be for life or death! Before Thee, then, Eternal Compassion, do we prostrate ourselves with our petitions, confiding, not in our own righteousness, but in Thy great pity, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen!"

At the same time, the Consistory of Stockholm exhorted the clergy of the capital to urge on their hearers the propriety of each one setting his house in order, and seeking, while in health, a preparation for sudden death. But no day of humiliation was set apart; no call to national repentance heard; no effort made to improve the visitation as a means of awakening sinners.

It would be no difficult matter, were it necessary, to make out a dark catalogue of national sins, each meriting such a visitation as that now sent. The word of God is lamentably neglected or ridiculed; the sabbaths of the Lord most disgracefully profaned; the solemnity of that day seems a thing unknown, and unacknowledged. Individuals and corporate bodies hesitate not to find their own pleasure on that day; and in the most public manner show their disregard for the holy sabbath. The theatre, and similar places of amusement, are regularly opened on the Lord's day evening; and I have known no less than twenty-one public balls advertised to be held in Stockholm on one sabbath. "Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord."

the inhabitants, is perverted into the instru-` ment of their poverty, feebleness, and demoralization. More than thirty millions of gallons of this destructive fire-water are annually consumed by a population of three millions!

WIND.

SENECA defines wind to be air flowing, and he illustrates this by saying, that a current of air is to the atmosphere during a calm, what a river is to a lake. Nothing is wanted to complete the accuracy of this definition as far as the effect is concerned. But Seneca, though he refutes and exposes some erroneous attempts to explain this phenomenon, and asserts that the air has the power of contracting and expanding itself, yet seems not clearly to have seen that this contraction and expansion were caused by the agency of heat alone. To include the effect and the cause in the same definition, wind may be defined, a current of air moving in one direction to restore the equilibrium, which has been broken by the rarefaction caused by the excess of heat in one place, above that of another; or, in the words of Professor Playfair, "the disturbance of the equilibrium of the atmosphere by the unequal distribution of heat."

To exemplify this description, we may begin with the most striking instance, and say, as the air will always move from the colder to the warmer regions, that if the earth was at rest, and its surface covered with water, an atmospheric tide would flow in an uninterrupted manner from the poles to the equator, and return again towards the poles by an upper current.

This motion is combined with the motion of the earth in its rotation round its axis; hence we have, on the north side of the equator, a north-east, and on the south side, a south-east wind, gradually declining towards the east as we approach the equator. This is called the trade wind, and is the most considerable and extensive instance of irregularity. But, after this, there is a Another crying national sin is the abuse numberless variety of causes, which produce of the precious fruits of the earth. Consi- further irregularity: one of them in partidering the nature of the soil and climate cular consists in the different capacities here, the goodness of God is conspicuous which the parts of the earth's surface have in granting generally a sufficient crop; but for acquiring and communicating heat. The the food of the land, the grain that God so sea, for example, that washes the margin of kindly vouchsafes, is destroyed to produce an island, will have a greater capacity for that curse of the country, brandy. Nothing heat than the land, because the heat peneis laid up to meet the possibility of a fail-trates into the mass of the body heated ing crop the next harvest; and thus what is with greater facility in one case than in the granted by the Creator to feed and strengthen other hence the air at the surface of the

earth will be warmer than it is at the surface of the sea; and consequently, the air, moving to the warmer spot, we shall have a sea breeze. At night, on the contrary, the heat will pass from the earth's surface with greater rapidity by radiation, than it does from that of the sea, the air will be of course warmer at sea than on land; the breeze will therefore set in from the land to the sea; whence the land breeze. Mr. Clare exemplifies this by the following experiment :

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"In the middle of a vessel of water, place a water-plate of warm water, the water in the vessel representing the ocean, and the plate the island, rarefying the air above it. Then hold a lighted candle over the cold water, and blow it out, and the smoke will move towards the plate. But if the plate be filled with cold water, and the fluid in the vessel be warm, the smoke will move in a contrary direction.

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If we advance near a marsh, or enter a wood in warm weather, a cool breeze proceeding from them seems to welcome our approach. The air which has been cooled by evaporation in one case, and by a shade impervious to the sun's rays in the other, is in motion to restore the balance, which has been disturbed by the greater warmth of the circumambient atmosphere, or that which is extended round the wood or the marsh. A little before sun-rise, the air sometimes, as if awakened by the near approach of the sun, rises in a gentle breeze, and advances to salute him. This is occasioned by the greater warmth of the region which has already felt the influence of his rays. The ancient naturalists were misled by a reluctance to suppose that a change of temperature which they confessed had some share in the production of wind, was adequate to occasion those terrible effects which they beheld in a storm. But the progress we have made in discovery has taught us, that, if two solutions of any phenomenon are proposed, for which the arguments are equally balanced, we ought to prefer that which is most simple, and least imposing.

The goodness of the Creator manifested in the silent and beneficent effects of the wind, is acknowledged by the Roman moralist quoted above, whose words we will translate with as little paraphrase as possible:-"Therefore, among all the other works of Providence, this one also might be regarded as worthy of our admiration. For it was not for a solitary reason that he contrived the winds, or

disposed them in different places: but, in the first instance, that he might not suffer the air to become inactive, but might render it useful by a constant agitation, and fit for the purposes of life to those who were destined to breathe it. Next, that he might supply the earth with rains, and restrain them at the same time from becoming excessive. For the winds not only draw the clouds together, but part them asunder, that the showers may be distributed over the whole globe. The corn could not be enjoyed, if the superfluous particles which are mingled with the essential had not been fanned by the breeze, if there were not something to awaken the standing corn, and expose the latent grain by bursting its integuments or coverings. What is that which has given to different nations the means of commercial intercourse, and has brought together tribes scattered in different places? The wind, which would be one of the vast benefits of nature, did not the madness of men turn it to their own injury."

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES TO THE WIND.

THE Hebrews acknowledged four principal winds, as we do, Ezek. xli. 16-18; Solomon says, in Prov. xxv. 23, that the north wind disperses the clouds, and the rain; but other interpreters translate it, "it produces rain."

The powerful operations and motions of God's Spirit, quickening or reviving the heart towards God, are compared to the blowing of the wind, John iii. 8. For as it is with the wind, man perceives, by the effects of it, that there is such a thing, and that it does blow, yet his power cannot restrain it, neither can his reason reach to know whence it rises, or from how far it comes, or how far it reaches; so is the spiritual change wrought in the soul; freely, where, in whom, when, and in what measure, the Spirit pleases; and also powerfully, so as to make an evident sensible change, though the manner thereof is incomprehensible.

Elsewhere the motions of the Spirit are set forth by wind; as in Canticles iv. 16.

The judgments of God are compared to wind; as in Isa. xxvii. 8." He stayeth his rough wind in the day of his east wind;" He assuages the fury of the storm, and mitigates the severity of the judgment.

It is said in Isa. xxvi. 18, "We have been with child, we have, as it were, brought forth wind;" that is, We have been in expectation of help, and deliver-·

ance out of our troubles, but our hopes have proved empty and unsuccessful, and we have not been able to do any thing towards our own deliverance.

So in Hos. xii. 1," Ephraim feedeth on wind;" The ten tribes flatter themselves with vain deluding hopes of help from the Egyptians and Assyrians.

In Matt. vii. 25, all sorts of temptations are thus described: "The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew."

And, in Jer. iv. 11, 12, the coming in of an army swiftly and fiercely, destroying all before them, is expressed by "a dry wind, a full wind."

The apostle Paul compares vain and inconstant opinions and doctrines to wind, Eph. iv. 14. "Carried about with every wind of doctrine." As the wind is a subtile body, so these doctrines are subtile, but without substance of truth. The wind is uncertain, now blowing from one quarter, now from another; now loud, and presently silent; so false doctrines are uncertain, now making a great noise, and suddenly vanishing. The wind likewise carrieth chaff, stubble, and such like things, along with it; but houses, well founded, stand still so the doctrines of false teachers carry aside unstable persons; but he that is rooted in faith and humility, knowing his misery by sin, and the grace of God in Christ, will not be moved

with them.

CHINA.

DR. WISNER, of Boston, stated the following particulars in a speech he recently delivered :

1. WHEN WAS CHINA SETTLED?-Probably as early after the flood, or even earlier, than the west of Asia; as multitudes came from the east, while the west was but thinly settled. And the Bible tells us, that the early inhabitants came from the east to Shinar. He also stated that there some evidence that the ark rested on the mountains of China.

2. EXTENT.-China is the largest empire on the globe, excepting Russia. It embraces China Proper, Corea, Mantchoo Tartary, Mongolia, Little Bukaria, Thibet, and the adjacent islands; extending through forty degrees of latitude and seventy-seven degrees of longitude.

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3. GOVERNMENT. The reigning emperor is a Mantchoo Tartar. This branch of the Tartar race conquered China in 1644; since which time they have retained

the rule. The government is absolute, and of the most despotic kind. It is the patriarchal system carried out to its fullest extent. The first of all duties is for children to obey their parents; and for the people to obey the emperor, the great parent of all. On the other hand, the power of parents over their children, and of the emperor over the people, is absolute, including that of life and death.

To show how deeply this principle is inwrought into the very structure of society, a tract was some time since condemned as heretical, because it taught that reverence is first due to God; which, they said, is contrary to reason and common sense. The emperor has power even over the gods; he may elevate or depress them in rank, and make or unmake them.

4. HOW CAN SUCH A GOVERNMENT BE CARRIED ON? it may be asked.—The emperor has ministers about him; and so on, by different grades, down to magistrates over ten families. Each magistrate has absolute power over all under him.

Punishments are frequent and severe. Capital punishments often take place, but the most common is the bastinado, which is very cruel. These punishments are inflicted at the will of the magistrate. To show their submission to chastisement, the victim, after he has received his bastinado, is obliged to kneel down before his punisher, and, if he is able, bow three times, and thank him for his kindness in thus studying to promote his welfare.

5. POPULATION. The common estimate of the dense population of China is corroborated by Dr. Morrison, Mr. Bridgman, and others; and is believed not to fall short of 350,000,000. Nor is this unaccountable, since under the present dynasty of nearly two hundred years, no wars have prevailed. Travellers speak of the provinces as pouring forth their multitudes, not like the densely settled parts of Europe, but like the large cities, at the time of general festivals.

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6. LANGUAGE.-There are two kinds of language. First, the spoken, which is of various dialects, so different, that different tribes cannot understand each other. cond, the written language, which is one and the same; not only through China, but in Japan, Siam, &c. &c.; so that 400,000,000, or one half the people of the globe, and all who can read, can understand it. The Chinese characters do not stand for words, as in our language, but for ideas; similar to our Arabic figures, 1, 2, 3, &c. To these the English give one

name, the French another, the Germans | sidence, a lie against his omnipresence another, the Arabians another; but all have the same idea when the figure is presented to the eye. Thus it is with the Chinese characters. Can any thing be more adapted in the providence of God for the spread of the gospel?

(To be continued.)

DANGER OF TRIFLING WITH

CONVICTIONS.

PERHAPS there is no minister of the gospel, who could not furnish some most affecting illustrations of the sentiment, that impressions and convictions do not always end in conversion. I began my own religious course with three companions, one of whom was materially serviceable, in some particulars, to myself; but he soon proved that his religion was nothing more than mere transient devotion. A second returned to his sin, "like a dog to his vomit, and a sow that is washed to her wallowing in the mire." The third, who was for some time my intimate friend, imbibed the principles of infidelity; and so great was his zeal for his new creed, that he sat up at night to copy out Paine's "Age of Reason." After a while he was seized with a dangerous disease; his conscience awoke; the convictions of his mind were agonizing; his remorse was horrible. He ordered all his infidel extracts, that had cost him so many nights to copy out, to be burnt before his face; and if not in words, yet in spirit

"Burn, burn," he cried, "in sacred rage,
Hell is the due of ev'ry page."

His infidel companions and his infidel principles forsook him at once, and in the hearing of a pious friend who visited him, and to whom he confessed, with tears and lamentations, his backsliding, he uttered his confessions of sin, and his vows of repentance. He recovered;-but, painful to relate, it was only to relapse again, if not into infidelity, yet into an utter disregard to religion.-James.

IDOLATRY.

DR. WARDLAW very justly observes :The worship of idols, is "a lie" against God's Supreme Majesty. Their number is a lie against his unity: their corporeal nature is a lie against his pure invisible spirituality: their confined and local re

and immensibility: their limited and subdivided departments of operation, against his universal proprietorship and dominion: their follies and weaknesses, a lie against his infinite wisdom: their defects, and vices, and crimes, a lie against his unsullied purity and perfection. In what a strange unhallowed state must that man's heart be, who contemplates without emotion this sacrilegious robbery of heaventhis universal slander upon the character of Deity! Yet there are some-would I could say with truth they are few in number!-who feel it very lightly. They can contemplate the whole scene with a careless smile; or, if their spirits are at all stirred in them, if their indignation is at all moved, it is against those officious, intrusive intermeddlers, that would disturb the idolaters by attempts to enlighten them. With an affectation of sentimental feeling, they fancy the universal Parent equally pleased with all descriptions of worship from his erring children, and im piously exclaim:

"Father of all, in every age,

In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord."

NATURAL SOURCES OF WATER.

THE laws by which the moisture, contained in the atmosphere, is precipitated from it in dews or rain, are not among the least admirable instances of the provision made by nature for a constant supply of the wants of man.

The mechanism, if the term be allowathe occasional descent of rain are regulated, ble, by which the formation of clouds and resides in the variableness of the state of the heat and electricity of the atmosphere; in consequence of which, a given mass of air is incapable of retaining, in solution or which it did before; and hence that moissuspension, the same quantity of moisture ture is precipitated in the form of dews or fogs; or, being previously condensed into accumulated masses of clouds, is discharged from those clouds, in the form of rain.

It almost seems puerile to illustrate the adaptation of the present laws and order of nature to the wants of man, by the supposition of the consequences that would ensue from a failure of those laws; and yet, as in actual life, we often feel not the value of the good we possess, till admonished

of things in our thoughts, and extenuated them all that we possibly could, when speaking of them, we should think little of them ourselves, and the afflictions would really, in a great measure, vanish away.— President Edwards.

SOLEMN APPEAL OF A CHRISTIAN MI-
NISTER TO HIS CONGREGATION.

by the prospect of its loss; so, with reference to the constitution of nature, we may more forcibly be impressed with the conviction of its general harmony and subserviency to our wants, by the supposition of its being different from what it is, than by the direct contemplation of its actual state. In supposing, then, that means had not been provided for the regular discharge of portions of that mass of water which has been carried up into the atmosphere by the process of evaporation, the existence of that inass would have been of little avail to man; for mere contact of an atmosphere, however moist, could not promote vegeta-out' here signifies being out of the kingtion to any useful extent;* and the formation of springs and rivers would be as effectually prevented by rain ceasing to fall from the atmosphere, as if the material of the rain itself did not exist in it.-Pro

"In the world there are two kingdoms: over one, Jesus Christ reigns supreme, and over the other, Satan, the prince of darkness, sways his sceptre; to be with

dom of Christ, and consequently in that of Satan. If there is one unconverted sinner in this congregation, to him would I address myself most particularly. Have you, my dear fellow-sinner, considered well what it is to be without,' and are you contented to remain without,' are you determined to remain without?' is "I can do all things through Christ which strength-suade or terrify you, and are you really there nothing in the Bible either to per

fessor Kidd.

A BOLD SPEECH-BUT TRUE.

eneth me."

THIS seems a great speech for him who had once exclaimed, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Yet this text contains a true saying, and has a close connexion with that distressing cry. For though the believer's soul be often weak, and in conflict, we yet find him rejoicing in a Deliverer, mighty to save, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, then, the Deliverer found! Behold him come with his very present help! Now, O believer, what canst thou do? "I can do all things,' meekly answers the apostle, "through Christ which strengtheneth me.' bleton.

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resolved to stay without? Oh, if you felt for your own soul any thing like what I feel for it, you would most eagerly inquire what you are to do to be saved. So earnestly did I determine, on entering the pulpit this sacred evening, to urge the necessity of your seeking the salvation of your soul, and so anxious am I that my endeavour should be successful, that if my life would purchase it, I would willingly descend from this pulpit, and lay my head upon a block, and say to the "executioner, Sever my head from my body, if that will secure but one soul a mansion -Ham- in the kingdom of God. But no; such a sacrifice could not be availing. There is One who shed his blood for sinners, whose life was worth ten thousand lives like mine, or that of any other mortal. He could and did lay down his life for his people; but all we can do is to be faithful instruments in the hands of God, to the salvation of the souls of sinners. I know not how to finish this part of my subject. O my dear fellow-sinners, as this may be the last time you may ever hear my voice in this place, let me entreat you to flee from the wrath to come; let me beseech you to pray for a partici

TURN TO THE BRIGHT SIDE.

It is a most pernicious practice, in meditations on afflictions, to sit ruminating on the aggravation of the affliction, and reckoning up the evil, dark circumstances thereof, and dwelling long on the dark side; it doubles and trebles the affliction. And so when speaking of them to others, to make them as bad as we can, and use our eloquence to set forth our own troubles, is to be all the while making new trouble, and feeding and pampering the old; whereas the contrary practice would starve our afpation in the atonement of Christ." J. Hyatt. fliction. If we dwelt on the bright side

• Niebuhr asserts, what is confirmed by other travellers, that many tracts in Egypt and Palestine, formerly well cultivated and fertile, are at present mere deserts for want of irrigation.-(Descript de l'Arabie, p. 241.)

JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Price id. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five Numbers in a Cover, 3d.

W. TYLER, Printer, 4, Ivy Lane, St. Paul's.

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