The legend inscribed on these medals | Rachel in the village of Rama, adjacent to is, "JUDEA CAPTA." The lamentation of Bethlehem, as described by the prophet and the evangelist, illustrates this subject, Jer. ix. 1, Matt. ii. 18. Had not such lamentations over the dead been the practice in the east at the time, those who came to the house of Lazarus, to administer consolation to his sisters, would not have formed the idea that Mary had departed from it to repair to his tomb, in order to mourn over it, John xi. 31, 35. Our Lord himself wept over the tomb of Lazarus. Further, we find that women mourned for Josiah. Lamentations was also made for Stephen at his burial, Acts viii. 2; and many other instances of a similar description might be mentioned. It appears, indeed, from one of the sacred historians, that when any one met a funeral procession, it was expected that he should mingle his tears and mournful songs with those who bewailed, Luke vii. 32. In some parts of our own country, it frequently happens that persons are employed to play on doleful instruments, and walk in procession to the grave, those who meet them joining the company of mourners. I may also remark, that at the present day, similar public exhibitions of grief on occasion of the extinction of life are observed in Greece. This is expressed by loud cries, and extolling the virtues of the deceased. If it be a female, or an unmarried person of the male sex, the funeral train consists of women, who utter piercing shrieks as they go along. At this time I did not learn the definite period to which such lamentations extended, though we find that, in general, there was anciently no fixed interval for them. At the same time, the scriptures state, that for the death of a father this was to be seven, Gen. 1. 3, 10, Job ii. 13, and sometimes even so long as seventy days, and for a wife the former. The children of Israel wept for Moses thirty, Deut.xxxiv. 8; the Egyptians, for Jo (seph seventy days, and Josiah was mourned for, 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. Lastly, a prophet mourned a certain number of days, on account of the conflagration and destruction of Jerusalem, and captivity of the Jews, Neh. i. 2-4. In consequence of part of the earth being thrown over the body, I did not see if there was a coffin or not; and this leads to a remark, that many persons of the lower orders in Judea are interred in their symarer, or shroud, without a coffin. Of old, the body was placed uncovered on a bier, which might have a resemblance to a coffin, or bed, in order to be conveyed for burial. For instance, on one of these was carried forth the widow's son of Nain, whom our compassionate Lord restored to life. It was the same in the case of Ananias, Acts v. 6, 2 Chron. xvi. 14; and the body of Christ himself was in this manner committed to the tomb, John xix. 40. CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM CONTRASTED. Go to your natural religion, set before her Mohammed and his disciples, arrayed in armour 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 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 his oppression. 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 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 poor 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 hath 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 the cross; by him she spoke and said, "Truly this man was the Son of God."-Bp. Sherlock. DAVID, THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE. "A few years ago, a plantation-slave, one of the members of the baptist church at Montego Bay, was banished from his home, and sent to the estate where a slave named David lived, to be cured of his praying. By the pious conversation of this exiled christian negro, David was brought under serious concern for his soul, which ended in his conversion to God. Acting up to the christian negro's motto, that "what good for one negro, good for him brother too," David spoke to his fellow-slaves about Jesus, and his love in dying for poor sinners. God, who despiseth not the humblest instrument, blessed the efforts of this poor negro, and, in a short time, about thirty on the estate began to pray, and at length built a small hut, in which, after the labours of the day, they might assemble and worship God. Tidings of these things reached the ears of the white persons employed on the estate, and David was summoned before his attorney, and asked whether he was teaching the slaves to pray. On replying in the affirmative, the hut was demolished and burnt, and David was stretched upon the earth, and flogged with the cart-whip till his flesh was covered with his blood. Next Lord's-day I missed David at the house of God. His afflicted wife came and told me the sad tale of his sufferings, and informed me, that his hands were bound, and his feet made fast in the stocks. Often did I inquire after him, and for him, and the same answer was returned, "Massa, | him in the stocks;" till one morning, as I sat in my piazza, he appeared before the window. There he stood-I have his image now before me--he was hand-cuffed, barefoot, unable to wear his clothes, from his yet unhealed back; his wife had fastened some of her garments round his lacerated body. I called him in, and said, "David, David, what have you done?' "With a look of resignation I shall never forget, he replied, "Don't ask me, ask him that bring me, massa.' "Turning to the negro who had him in charge, I said, "Well, what has this poor man done?' "Him pray, massa,' was the reply, and Buchra sending him to the workhouse for punishing.' "I gave him some refreshment, for in the state I have described he had walked thirteen miles under a burning sun, and followed him to that den of cruelty, properly designated a Jamaica inquisition. He was chained to a fellow-slave by the neck, and sent to work on the public roads. The next day I went to visit him again, when I was informed by the supervisor of the workhouse, that he had received orders to have him flogged again as soon as his back was well enough to bear it. In these chains David remained for months; frequently I saw him, but never did I hear one murmur or one complaint, except when he heard that the partner of his joys and sorrows was ill on the estate, and he was forbidden to go and see her. "At the end of three months he was liberated, and returning to the estate, was asked, "Now, sir, will you pray again ?? "Massa,' said the persecuted disciple, 'you know me is a good slave, but if trouble come for dis, me must pray, and me must teach me broder to pray too.' 66 Again he was immured in a dungeon, and his feet made fast in the stocks."From the Bow in the Cloud. EXAMPLES OF LEGUMINACEOUS As the examples of this family are very numerous, we must content ourselves with describing such as are most commonly met with in our wastes and hedges. These, if their structure be compared by an observing eye, with the concise descriptions which will be here given, divested, as much as possible, of botanical refinements, when expanded it does not peer above the calyx. The stem of this variety is round, whereas in the common variety it is angular. A change in the blossom is followed or preceded by a change, we see, in the stem. The various species of the trifolium, trefoil and clover, are examples of this family. In the genus trifolium, the pod is short, scarcely presenting itself beyond the calyx; but the head of these trim little flowers, the three-fold leaf, and the tender habit, when united, form a character, which is very obvious, and is, perhaps, as philo will serve to exercise the student in the de- ! tails of this most interesting study. When we speak of divesting the subject of its refinements, we must be understood as only referring to what is artificially refined in language. For to withhold any thing from the attention of our readers, which is scientific and curious, would be to them a manifest injustice, and afford us but little credit. Since the commencement of these papers, we have often cast in our minds whether it would not be possible to convey a good deal of solid science, with a far less copious use of those terms in which we have been long accustomed to express our-sophical as any that could be drawn from selves, but which have a tendency to perplex and puzzle the general reader, and thereby oppose a stumbling-block in the way of his inquiries, instead of facilitating his improvement. How far we shall succeed in the work of plainness and simplification, these papers will determine. The first example we shall select as illustrative of leguminous plants shall be one that is well known to every eye, the ulex Europea. This is that thorny shrub, which we call, in plain English, furze, and sometimes whin, in allusion, it would seem, to the piercing thorns which it bears. For whin, as we infer from its use in the term whin-yard, a sword, or tuck, signified to pierce, or a piercing instrument. The appearance of a heath covered with furze, when, amidst the stern embraces of midwinter, it clothes the barren waste in one continuous sheet of gayest blossoms, is said to have so struck the attention of the celebrated Linnè, that he fell upon his knees in admiration. If the mind on this occasion ascended, with feelings of awe and love, through the creature to the Creator, such an attitude was not unbecoming a zealous explorer of nature. In the ulex all the ten stamens are united into a single bundle, or brotherhood. But, in addition to this circumstance, the chief characteristics are the simplicity of the calyx, and the shortness of the pod. The former is divided into only two leaves, while the latter scarcely exceeds. it in length. Absolute size is liable to many variations in plants, but the comparative size will sometimes afford a ready and certain mark for distinction. For the length and diameter of one part, when compared with the length and diameter of another, is an element in a plant or shrub's proportions. There is a variety of this shrub, which some consider a distinct species. It is remarkable for having the corolla, or coloured part, so small, that considerations that require deeper research. The trifolium pratense, purple trefoil, or clover, is among the most common and the most useful of plants. A copious dispersion of it among the grassy sod is considered by the farmer as the most essential ingredient in a good pasturage. The trifolium repens, or Dutch clover, is not only distinguished from the foregoing by the whiteness of its flowers, but by a mark of a more certain, though, perhaps, of a less striking description, namely, its creeping stem. A creeping stem, in the language of botany, is one, which, at its joints, throws out fresh roots instead of branches. We have sometimes seen the heads of this clover in a state which is called prolific; that is, the flower-buds, instead of becoming blossoms, seem inclined to turn into little plants, and thus derive their nutriment and support from the parent, instead of drawing them from the earth. The trifolium arvense is often met with in our summer walks, and its singular resemblance to a hare's-foot, whence it is called the hare's-foot trefoil, does not fail to engage our curiosity. Upon examination we find, that the calyx is clothed with a close array of soft points, which botanists, as well as anatomists, call villi. The shaggy appearance of the head of flowers is increased by the divisions of the calyx, which are thin, and pointed like bristles. In the trifolium fragiferum, we encounter another metamorphosis of the calyx; here instead of being soft or leafy, it is expanded into a filmy or membranous ball. The head being thickly paved with these inflated cups, puts on an appearance which very much resembles a strawberry, whence it is called the strawberry trefoil. The last we shall mention, is the trifolium procumbens, or hop-trefoil. The hoptrefoil has a small head of minute yellow berances. flowers, which, instead of falling, are | face, and bearded beneath. The pod also changed into thin parched films of a very is generally roughened by knot like protudelicate texture. The permanency of these withered, but still adhering blossoms, serves to arrest our observation, and mark out the trifolium procumbens, or hop-trefoil. 1 It has been usual to consider the melilot, melilotus officinalis, as pertaining to the genus trifolium; from which it is chiefly distinguished by having its flowers in a loose spike, (raceme.) The melilot, however, recommends itself to the eye of the passing observer, by its conspicuous yellow flowers, its erect stem, and the powerful, but pleasant odour, which it diffuses around it. It is always very much corroded by insects, to which it seems to be a very choice morsel; so that it is not easy to find a nice specimen for preservation. It is sometimes found growing by road-sides, where it presents an interesting object to one who delights to mark the beauties and singularities of nature. The genus medicago seems to rank after the trifolium in a natural sequel, as possessing many points of mutual affinity, both in respect of form and quality. Of the medicago we have a common example in the sativa, or lucern, which has long been an object of cultivation among our farmers. But notwithstanding their outward resemblance, a nearer view discloses a difference which cannot fail to interest the student of nature. In the trifolium, the pods are plain | and simple, but in the medicago they are more or less bent into a spiral form, with wrinkles, sharp points, or some kind of inequality upon the surface. When we meet, therefore, with a plant resembling trefoil, we must examine the pod; which, if we find bent into a curious form, or covered with points, we may consider that it belongs to the medicago. Some of the species most frequently met with, resemble the hop-trefoil in their little yellow head of flowers, but may always be discriminated by a reference to the form of the pod. These pods in the yellow medick, (medicago falcata,) are bent like a sickle, or the new moon; while in the trefoil medick, (medicago lupilina,) they resemble a kidney. The vicia sativa, or common tare, cultivated as a common article of fodder, is a native of this country. The lover of botanical research should gather a piece of the tare in the corn-field, or snatch a flower from the loaded cart, as it passes by him to replenish the crib of the useful dependants of man. If the pistil, or central thread, be disengaged from the rest, it will be found to be smooth on the upper sur These marks will assist him in identifying the vicia cracca, or tufted vetch, a pretty plant, found in our hedges during the summer months. The flowers of this plant grow in a kind of spike, are of a purple colour, and bend one over the other, like tiles upon the roof of a house. One of the most frequent ornaments of road-sides and common pastures, is the bird's-foot clover, lotus corniculatus, known by its level tuft of bright yellow flowers, and the curious little pods, which are black when ripe, and range themselves so that the head resembles the claw of a bird; whence, in some places, they are known by the provincial name of "crow-toes." The principal characteristic of this genus must be looked for in the position of the two side petals or wings, which have their edges so directed as mutually to point towards and approach each other. The leaves are divided, like those of the clover, into three leaflets, and are clothed with soft hairs. The stem leans forward, and partly rests upon the ground, as if unable to support its own weight. The last example we shall cite shall be the ornithopus perpusillus, or common bird's-foot. This is one of the prettiest little plants to be found upon our island. Its minute and delicate white flowers, streaked with red, adorn our pathways over heaths, and other waste grounds. The most ready character for botanical description, is the jointed nature of the pod. The leaves are in pairs, upon a common stalk or midrib, and contribute to form that model of elegance in miniature which the whole plant possesses. Should the reader ever stray alone across Hampstead Heath, during the summer months, he may supply the lack of good company by conversing with the beauties and characteristics of this little plant. We have fulfilled our promise of describing only a few: the diligent collector will find many, not mentioned here, but which will not fail to please his sight, and gratify his curiosity. L. THE BIBLE AND THE CREATION. THE Bible does not lay down before us this rule of faith and duty in the form of dry dogmatical positions, like the rules of an artificial grammar, or an analysis of some philosophical system; a lifeless skeleton of sands of people try to make themselves appear "somebody," but it is a very rare case to hear any human being acknowledge himself or herself to be "nobody " It set me thinking, not only of others, but of myself; for I felt conscious, that though the young woman had thought herself to be "nobody," my proud and deceitful heart had persuaded me to consider myself" somebody," all my days. How is it with you? Are you some the truth; but it presents that truth in its living freshness, its native and lovely form, breathing the spirit of the living God. The revelation contained in the Bible resembles the revelation, as it may be justly called, which the same God has made of himself in the fields of nature, Rom. i. 19, 20. The Creator has not disposed his works according to the arrangements of human science. He has not spread out the vegetable world in the style of a botanic garden; nor has he given to us a ready-body" or "nobody?" Can you say in made system of zoology, or of the particular sincerity to the Searcher of hearts, "Lord, anatomy of our own bodies: but he has my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes filled the earth with his magnificence in lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great bounteous profusion, and in what a frigid matters, or in things too high for me?' pedant might call inextricable disorder; Psa. cxxxi. 1. and he, as it were, says to us, "Go forth into the woods and the fields, collect plants and animals, observe living nature, study your own frame in its healthy action, as well as by aid from the dissection of the dead; and thus form your system." So also has he composed the book of revelation. In it are presented to us all the positions of truth and all the applications to experience and practice, which are suited to our present capacity and necessity; but they are scattered in a various and apparently irregular profusion. Our duty is to "search out of the book of the Lord, and read;" to employ our best faculties and capacities; and to bring every means of intellectual excitement and improvement, to draw from this inexhaustible fund of heavenly knowledge and holy delight. Let us not spare our endeavours to become more accurately and extensively acquainted with the Divine rule of faith and practice, and then we shall be the better enabled to make a proper application of it to others. J. P. Smith. It is said that the trees and plants of the earth are continually striving for air and light; that they are constantly trying to get above one another. Do you not think it to be the same with mankind? Do you not think that this is the case with us all? If you feel guiltless of this, so does not Old Humphrey. He can call to mind many instances wherein he has tried to pass himself off for "somebody," but he cannot remember one in which he has willingly represented himself as 66 nobody." "I am as good as he is, any day;" "She shall not hold up her head above me;" and, "We are company for our betters," are expressions common enough: but, I question, if we were to travel through all England, from Newcastle to the Isle of Wight, and from the South Foreland to the Land's End, whether we should hear one single human being advisedly confess that he was "nobody." Pride is the ruin of one-half of mankind. Even children, when they get together, boast of their fathers and mothers; and old men, with hoary hairs, speak with pride of the great things they have done, and the great people they have known: so that young and old wish to be thought "somebody." There are in God's word a great number of precious promises to the humble, and a great number of awful threatenings to the proud. I will give you one of a sort, by way of sample. "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up"- "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished." Now the promises are made to the " nobodies," and the threatenings to the "somebodies" of the world: have a care then to which class you belong. You have heard of the rich man, who was |