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we are not preparing for eternity. Let the question be repeated, then, till it tin- | gles in our ears, How do you use your time?

How do we use the losses and crosses, the trials and afflictions of the world? for these are among the good things that we ought not to abuse. Do we allow them to sour our temper, to make us despond and repine? Do we complain that God deals hardly with us; or do these things render us more humble, dependent, prayerful, and thankful? Can we, and do we thank God that we have been afflicted? If we can, we are using, but if we cannot, we are abusing what ought to be a blessing to us. Let us, at least, be close and honest in putting the inquiry to our hearts.

If "the fashion of this world passeth away," there is the greater need to be preparing for another. How are we using our sabbaths, and our sabbath sermons? How are we using our hours of reflection, and seasons of devotion? Are we using them, as especial mercies, vouchsafed to us for especial purposes? or abusing them by a worldly, cold-hearted, and selfish participation of the benefits they afford? If we could answer this inquiry in a satisfactory way, it would be well for you, and equally well for Old Humphrey. To sum up the whole matter. Is every faculty of our bodies and our souls devoted to God? Is every thing we possess considered as His, and not as our own? Do our gains and losses, our pleasures and our pains unite us more closely to him? In one word, do we use the things of this world, by regarding them as helps to heaven, or abuse them by allowing them to enchain our hearts and affections to the earth? No questions can be put plainer than these have been put to you, and they have not been put plainer to you than to Old Humphrey's own heart.

LORD AND LADY CHESTERFIELD. LADY CHESTERFIELD was born to wealth, and allied to a rich and noble house, was fitted to make a distinguished figure among the great, and to shine at court. Her various accomplishments attracted general admiration; and she was for many years fascinated with the splendour and allurements of high life, which seemed to absorb all her thoughts, and gratify her utmost wishes. But it pleased God to lead her to attend

the preaching of that man of God, Mr. Whitefield, at the Countess of Hunting don's house, and to convince her that no situation, however high and elevated, can secure to its possessor uninterrupted felicity, and at the same time exhibited to her view the source of true and permanent happiness. Lady Chesterfield knew the world too well not to expect its hatred and reproach for a zealous and consistent profession of the faith once delivered to the saints; but the grace of Jesus rendered this of small consequence in her estimation, enabling her, with all worldly pleasures at her command, to cast her fortune, her honours, and her talents at the foot of his cross. In compliance with the wishes of Lord Chesterfield, her ladyship sometimes went to court, and mixed with the gay and thoughtless; but found no pleasure in the fashionable follies of those around her. The last time she visited the royal circle, she was dressed in a manner so plain as to excite the attention and ridicule of many of her gay acquaintances. Her ladyship had a suit of clothes on with a brown ground and silver flowers, which Lord Chesterfield had obtained from the continent at a considerable expense. His Majesty, who it seems was well acquainted with the proceedings at Lady Huntingdon's,coming up to Lady Chesterfield, first smiled, and then laughed quite out. Her ladyship could not imagine what was the matter. At length his Majesty said, "I know who chose that gown for you—Mr. Whitefield; and I hear you have attended on him this year and half." Lady Chesterfield replied, "Yes, I have, and like him very well;" but after she came to her chair, was grieved she had not said more, when she had so favourable an opportunity.

Lady Chesterfield frequently prevailed upon the earl to accompany her to Lady Huntingdon's, with the hope of his being led to embrace those blessed truths, which she had proved to be the power of God to the salvation of her own soul.

"On Tuesday," says Mr. Whitefield, "I preached twice at Lady Huntingdon's to several of the nobility. In the morning the Earl of Chesterfield was present; in the evening, Lord Bolingbroke. All behaved quite well, and were in some degree affected. Lord Chesterfield thanked me, and said, 'Sir, I will not tell you what I shall tell others, how I approve of you,' or words to this purpose. He conversed with me frequently afterwards.

Lord Bolingbroke was much moved, and desired I would come and see him the next morning. I did; and his lordship behaved with great candour and frankness. All accept of my sermons, and seem surprised, but pleased."

It appears Lady Huntingdon had at times some favourable hopes of Lord Chesterfield. In a letter to Dr. Doddridge, written at the same period as the above, she says:

"I must just tell you that I have had two large assemblies at my house, of the mighty, the noble, the wise, and the rich to hear the gospel by Mr. Whitefield; and I have great pleasure in telling you they all expressed a great deal of pleasure in hearing him. Sometimes I do hope for even Lord Chesterfield, and Lord Bath, Mr. Stanhope, and one of the privy council of Denmark, with a great many ladies and people of fashion, as well as of quality. I know your warm heart will rejoice at this, and your prayers will help with ours for an increase to our blessed Lord's kingdom, even among these."

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Had the preaching of Mr. Whitefield been attended with any lasting effects on the mind of this votary of flattery, he might, perhaps, have been spared some of those gloomy and heart-appalling reflections which made the close of his days bitter to him. Instead of looking upon his entrance another state of existence as upon a leap in the dark," Lord Chesterfield might have left the world, which he had so long and so faithfully worshipped, with a hope blooming and full of immortality, exclaiming, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." "O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? The latter years of his life wore a cast of melancholy, and almost of despondency. His excellent sister, Lady Gertrude Hotham, frequently visited him during this period, and with mingled fidelity and tenderness set before him those solemn truths which can alone

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effectual support under natural decay and pain. No attack of an enemy could have degraded his character so much as the publication of his " Letters to his Son ;" which, if they do not quite deserve the severe reprehension of Dr. Johnson, that they "inculcated the morals of a strumpet with the manners of a dancing master," certainly display a relaxation of principle, for which no talents can make amends, and which prove him to have been a man in whose mind the applause of the world was the great, and almost the sole, governing principle. His amiable countess survived him but a few years. She died September 16, 1778, without issue ; whereby her titles are extinct.—Evangelical Register.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

No where doth the incredible love of

God towards miserable sinners more evidently display itself than in Jesus Christ, which is suited to melt the heart frozen even into ice, and to kindle into ardent flames of mutual love; for the love of Christ constraineth us, 1 Cor. v. 14, 15. Who, swal

lowed up by the meditation thereof, doth not cry out," Art thou, O most loving Jesus,

scorched no less with love to me than with

the flames of Divine wrath against my sins? and shall I grow lukewarm in my love to thee again? Hast thou died for my salvation, and shall I not live to thy glory? and shall I not give up myself to thee, Didst thou deliver thyself to be tormented, burden which is sweet?" It is inexpresto bear thy yoke which is light, and thy sible how the pious soul, intent on such meditations, is displeased with its own lukewarmness; desiring and wishing for itself, that a mind a hundred times more capacious might be given, that it might be wholly filled with the love of Christ. Psa.

cxix. 32.-Witsius.

and the

SARDONYX.

THIS is a precious stone; probably named from its likeness to both the sardius bluish white, black, and red, lying in cironyx. It is dark, variegated with tioned in Rev. xxi. 20; appearing to be the cles, as if inlaid by art. It is only menfifth row of stones on which the heavenly city in John's vision seemed to rest.

chase away the gloom of the most dejected mind, and fill it with that joy which is unspeakable and full of glory. She persevered in her exertions, till he put a prohibition on her addressing him on those subjects, which seemed to harrow up every remaining feeling that he possessed. He lived, with increased infirmities, to the 24th of March, 1773; and in his last moments exhibited a melancholy Price d. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five picture of a mind destitute of the only

JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Numbers in a Cover, 3d.

W. TYLER, Printer, Bolt-court, Fleet-street.

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Of all the trees which have adorned the pages of history and poetry, the date palm stands pre-eminent. It has lent its name to a magnificent and multiform order of trees, which, though differing from each other in the structure of their fructification, are grouped together under the common appellation of palma, or the palms. Nor is the palm more distinguished in history, than conspicuous in the forest; for while in the distant landscape the other trees lose their particularities in one continuous surface of undulating verdure, the eye singles out the

VOL III.

"noble palm," that rears its lofty tuft over the wild waste which spreads around it. It is from this circumstance in its history, that the palm, with that elegance of choice for which the ancients were so remarkable, was selected as the appropriate emblem of victory and distinction. On the ancient coins we often see the palm branch, or more properly speaking its leaf displayed, sometimes in the hand of a genius, or the allegorical figure of a city, at others placed in those beautiful representations of urns which form the highest decoration of antique medallions.

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sheath of leathery texture, which, by bursting on one side, makes way for the emergence of the flower. The calyx, or the leaves that compose the flower, are, as usual in the palms, six in number. The stamens, or the threads, which are surmounted by heads or anthers replete with fertilizing dust, are six. In the fertile, or fruit-bearing flowers, there are also six leaves, forming the calyx or perianth. The fruit, or date, is superior, that is, placed above the point at which the calyx and the stamens grow. Into a small ring, at the base of the fruit, the stamens are inserted; and they, in the early stages, compose a small circle of palisades about it. All the palms bear a fruit which partakes more or less of the drupaceous character, by which we understand a nut placed within a pulpy or softish substance.

In the latter instance a palm leaf, set in an urn, denoted some kind of public games, in which the candidates contended for the mastery. The Roman coins often exhibit, especially those struck in the time of Hadrian, types or symbolic representations of cities and countries, which were female figures, with a picture of that production for which the country was most remarkable. As, for example, Alexandria is represented by a female with some ears of corn in her hand, to denote the abundance of choice grain produced in that neighbourhood. While Judea is intimated by the similitude of a palm tree; since it was noted as the region of palm trees. And it is not unworthy the attention of the christian reader, that the well-understood symbol of victory thus represents a country whose inhabitants were Israelites, to whom "pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the co-markable for its membranous or filmy venants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."

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(a, cluster of fruit; b, barren flowers; c, fertile flowers; e, barren flower; d, when opened displaying six stamens; g, three fruits of one flower in their early stage; f, fertile flower with six imperfect stamens.)

In the date palm, the barren and productive flowers occur in different trees. In the barren tree, the expanded clusters of flowers are wrapped up in a simple

In the date palm the shell is re

texture; which may be split into threads adhering to the fleshy pulp at the top and bottom. The fruit is ripened in clusters of prodigious size, and in various parts of the east it forms one of the staple articles of diet. It is gathered with particular care and ceremony, expressive of that dependence which man has upon it for his subsistence.

The palm is of tardy growth, but in process of time it reaches to a great height. The trunk is single, as in all other palms, with one exception, the urna palm of Egypt, and is roughened by the scars of fallen leaves.

In

The natives of the South Sea islands often ascend the cocoa-nut trees by embracing the stem with their hands, while the feet advance from ring to ring; but in the palm, the many eminences upon the trunk, in addition to the rings, offer a natural ladder of very easy ascent. the illustration at the head of this article, these inequalities are strongly represented. The apparent ease with which the Pitcairn islanders climbed the cocoanut tree, tempted the writer of this paper to try the experiment; but it proved easier in theory than in practice, and showed the superiority of early habit, when impressed upon us by the calls of necessity.

The tuft of leaves which form the beautiful and stately crown of the palm, exemplifies the unceasing bounty of Heaven; for, as fast as the outer leaves fall off below, fresh ones sprout forth at the top, so that we have an uninterrupted pedigree of leaves: like the generations of men, the old ones die away, and younger ones grow up to fil

their places. From the bosom of each of these leaves a sheath protrudes itself, which in time bursts and discloses a large cluster of flower-buds. The pollen-bearing flowers disperse their fine powder in that vast repository of seminal life, the atmosphere, for the use of the fertile tree, while the latter, after receiving this necessary help to vivification, ripens its clusters into thickly studded bunches of a wholesome and agreeable fruit.

The notion alluded to by Plutarch, that the palm rises with accelerated force against any weight that can be placed upon it, seems to have arisen from observing that while other trees bend their boughs under the swelling harvest of yellow autumn, the palm still continues to ascend higher and higher, unchecked by the cumbrous load of fruit that clusters about its top.

In Psalm xcii. 12, it is said that "the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree." The good man is thus likened to a tree, which in stature soars above all the inhabitants of the forest, is ever crowned with leafy honours of reviving green, and surpasses all other trees in value and utility.

of

The palm selects those little spots in the sandy waste, which are rendered fertile by a spring of water, so that the appearance a palm tree becomes an indication to the way-worn traveller that some refreshing draughts are at hand, which may be obtained by digging a short depth below the surface of the earth. This well-known

fact illustrates what we are told in Exod. xv. that when the children of Israel came to Elim, they found twelve wells of water, and seventy palm trees; where, exhausted with drought, labour, and impatience, they pitched their camps, and experienced one of the most pleasing vicissitudes to be found in the sphere of earthly enjoyments. It has grown into a maxim among travellers, that "where you see a palm tree, there you will find water, if you take the pains to dig for it." When at the island of Bonin, a few days' sail from Macao in China, the writer inverted this rule in reference to the cabbage palm. For in quest of the delicious vegetable, which consists of the budding and unexpanded leaves and flowers borne at the top of the tree, various foraging parties were sent by the different messes on board of one of his Majesty's ships, who wandered at large through the woods with little success. The writer met one of these parties who were complaining of their ill luck: he advised them to follow a stream of water, and not to diverge fifty yards from its banks. As this was

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THE Rev. Mr. Carlile of Dublin says: -There are two objections which are which seem sometimes brought against the Scriptures, to neutralize one another. When the minute and affectionate interest which the Bible represents the Deity as manifesting in the affairs of mankind is to be discountenanced, the world is reduced to a mere speck in creation, altogether unworthy of his particular regard. But if any of those miracles recorded in the Bible are to be disputed, which imply absolute power over this our planet and the whole planetary system, the world assumes an extraordinary importance; the arresting its rotatory motion, or turning it back into another direction, or even the drying up of a few fathoms of water on the surface of it, not amounting to one hundred thousandth part of its diameter, are represented as operations on so extensive a scale as to be altogether incredible.

Both of these objections are equally inconsistent with the modern principles of philosophizing. If God be infinite, and the world or the universe be finite, the comparative bulk of any part of the universe tion in which his power is concerned. A can never have any value in any calculauniverse and a point bear the same proportion to him. It is as easy for him to change the motion of a world as of a gnat: to dry up an ocean as to exhale a drop of dew. He is as intimately acquainted with a nest of ants as with the solar system, and takes as deep an interest in the welfare of each in proportion to their respective value. We have a right, therefore, to demand that a man who adheres to either of these objections, shall, at the same time, abandon all

science which is founded on mathematical demonstration.

ON THE TELESCOPE.-No. I.

Ir is more than probable that from the earliest period of human existence, the magnificent spectacle of the heavens, bespangled with brilliant orbs, attracted the attention of mankind. The regular vicissi tudes of day and night must early have led him to observe the path of that great luminary, the "ruler of the day," with whose

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