our sins.

tion of the world-provided by God, and accepted by him, to be the sacrifice for "Behold the Lamb of God," said John the Baptist, "which taketh away the sin of the world!" This marks the Redeemer's sacrificial character points him out as the sin-atoning Lamb, prefigured by all the legal offerings-and particularly as the Antitype of the paschal lamb, which was Divinely appointed to commemorate the wonderful deliverance which God granted the Israelites, when he brought them out of Egypt: see Exodus, chap. xii. On that eventful night, in which the angel of the Lord slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, he was ordered to spare the families of Israel, whose blood of the paschal lamb had been sprinkled on the posts of the doors of their houses; and this was a sign or type of the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ. The destroying angel recognised the sacred token, and passed over the house thus marked, without smiting any member of the family. Now, that all this was typical of the salvation which is by Christ Jesus, is evident from the application which the apostle Paul makes of it when he says, "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." And is not the very same doctrine taught us by the Saviour himself when he instituted the Lord's Supper? Does he not teach us to consider the bread and the wine as symbols of his broken body and shed blood?

Reader, did you ever consider the analogy that subsists between the paschal sacrifice under the law, and "the Lamb of God," taking away the sin of the world?" The former, you know, was designed to commemorate a great deliverance, namely, the deliverance of the Israelites from the captivity and slavery of Egypt; but Christ died for the sins of his people, and by that means ransoms them from the captivity of Satan, the slavery of sin, the curse of a violated law, and brings them into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The passover was God's appointed means of safety to the Israelites, and had they neglected it, their ruin had been inevitable! Look now at what the gospel says of Christ: "Him hath Goa set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood." "We are redeemed-not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish."

Once more: the paschal lamb was to be prepared for food, but by no other means than fire. It was to be roasted with fire, and then the flesh was to be eaten with

bitter herbs. Now, what could more strikingly prefigure the dreadful sufferings of the Lamb of God? those agonies and that bloody sweat which he underwent in the garden of Gethsemane and on Calvary, when his holy soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; when the billows of the Divine indignation against sin overwhelmed him, and his heart melted in the midst of his bowels? Well might it be said of him in ancient prophecy, 66 Behold and see, was ever sorrow like unto his sorrow, wherewith God afflicted him in the days of his fierce anger?"

Reader, did you ever consider what it was that rendered the sorrows and sufferings of the holy, harmless Child of God, necessary ? Think seriously upon it, and examine what the Scriptures say on this most interesting subject.

AN ORATORY.

J.

COMING to an oratory by the road-side, I stopped to copy the following inscription:-" The Archbishop of Chambery grants forty days of indulgence to those who devoutly repeat one paternoster and one ave, accompanied by an act of contrition." Who would grudge purchasing such a period of indulgence at so very cheap a rate?

That such conditions should be gladly accepted need excite little wonder; but that they should be offered is indeed matter for astonishment. Were it not a positive fact, it would appear incredible that any, except the most ignorant idolaters, should imagine that any superior efficacy can attend prayers because offered up on a particular spot. What is this but to render religion ridiculous in the eyes of thinking men, and at the same time to mislead those who blindly rely upon such truly irrational forms? Scripture teaches us that we ought to worship God "in spirit and in truth;" diligently to examine our own hearts, and to seek, by the aid of Divine grace, to overcome its sinfulness: but the romish church takes quite a different view of this important matter, and lays the greatest stress upon outward formalities, the tendency of which is, not to spiritualize our affections, but rather to debase the human intellect, by filling the mind with grovelling and contemptible ideas of the Supreme Being. It may be said, that enlightened roman catholics perceive and deplore such gross errors quite as much as protestants: the queson then is, Why are they countenanced

THE JEWISH CHOIR,

THE Psalms are all of them lyric poems, that is, intended to be accompanied with music, and the peculiarity in their structure which has been noticed, probably arose from the jewish mode of alternate singing. The temple choir, we know, was divided into twenty-four courses; and each band of singers took up the strain in its turn, and thus answered alternately to one another. For instance: when one party began the psalm thus, "Sing unto the Lord a new song;" the corresponding versicle was taken up by the chorus or semi-chorus, Sing unto the Lord, all the earth: " the one band proceeded, Sing unto the Lord, and bless his name;" the other replied, "Show forth his salvation from day to day.' The musical poetry of the Jews became thus divided into a succession of strophes and antistrophes correspondent to each other-a method of composition which, becoming familiar, insensibly spread from their hymns to their other poetical writings. But the psalms were not only accompanied with vocal music; instrumental music, which has been employed in the religious services of all nations, which was introduced into the sacred ceremonials of the Greeks, was cultivated by the Jews for the same purpose, at the earliest period of their history. The song of Moses and Miriam, after the deliverance of the children of Israel

from Egypt, was accompanied with the timbrel; the silver trumpets were ordered to be sounded, on the solemn days, over the burnt-offerings, and many other instruments were added by David to the Jewish ritual. In his time there were three masters who presided over the band of music; and at their head one chief musician, or master of the whole choir. That females were admitted into the temple choir, is strenuously denied by the Jewish writers; but the case of the three daughters of Heman, who were 66 for song in the house of the Lord with cymbals," 1 Chron. xxv. 5, 6,

some think makes it evident that women were thus employed. This part of their devotional service the Jews usually performed in a standing posture; "the Levites stood with the instruments of David; " a practice which has been followed in most christian congregations. The

choir-service was suited to the genius of Judaism, a religion full of splendid external rites; and it must have been an imposing and overpowering spectacle, when" the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound in thanking and praising the Lord," the glorious cloud filled the house, a sight only inferior to the "hundred and forty and four thousand," "on mount Sion," "harping with their harps."-From Milner's Life of Dr. Watts.

NEEDLEWORK.

NEEDLEWORK has been from the earliest

times an important branch of English female education. The Anglo-Saxon women were famous for their needlework; and the English work was celebrated abroad for its curtain, on which were worked the action3 excellence. An Anglo-Saxon lady had a of her husband. The kind, relating to emThe various kinds practised would astonish broidery and figures, was most in fashion curious books of patterns were published, the most industrious modern female: many and t is supposed that such books were generally cut to pieces, and used by women to work upon, or transfer to their samplers. Maids used to work with their mistresses.

Needlework was also practised by men. The working of flowers was particularly specified; and we find one kind said to be practised in the manner of a vineyard.— Domestic Life in England.

REDEMPTION.

If the goodness of God is so admirably seen in the works of nature and the favours of providence, with what a noble superiority does it even triumph in the mystery of redemption! Redemption is the brightest mirror in which to contemplate this most lovely attribute of the Deity. Other gifts are only as mites from the Divine treasury; but redemption opens, I had almost said, exhausts all the stores of his glorious grace.

Herein God commendeth his love; not only manifests, but renders it perfectly marvellous; manifests it in so stupendous a manner, that it is beyond parallel, beyond thought, and above all blessing and praise, Ps. cvii. 2; cxi. 9; cxiii. 7,8; cxxxix. 17; Rom. v. 8; Eph, iii. 19. -Hervey.

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

W. Tyler, Printer, Bolt -court, Fle. t-street.

THE NORWAY LEMMING. (Mus Lemnus, Linn. Georychus Norvagicus.) THAT the smaller, and apparently most insignificant of animals, are those from whose destructive propensities the interests of man suffer more in the aggregate than from the inroads of the large or ferocious, is an observation which we have often had occasion to make, and which will be borne out by an attentive observation of the data which the naturalist has accumulated. The numerical ratio of animals, and their tendency to increase, bear an average ratio to their size, and numbers counterbalance physical inferiority.

The laws of nature, as established by unerring wisdom, do indeed provide expressly for a destruction of these little pests in a due proportion to their natural augmentation; and hence, in general, man suffers less than he might otherwise anticipate. But, after all, a check, not a total stop, is put upon their power. The lion and the tiger

VOL. III.

are terrible, but the increase of these terrible creatures is small; and, after all, what has man suffered from their incursions, compared to what he has suffered from hosts of beings of far inferior size and individual consequence? Besides, it is easy to oppose, and successfully oppose, the one party, while the other either elude observation till the mischief is done, or baffle attempts to repress them by their concealed and subtle habits, and by the unlimited extent of their reproduction, which makes up for man's unassisted means of destruction. We say nothing of the locust, before the armies of which the hopes and prosperity of nations have been annihilated, but we would bring examples from among the mammalia to substantiate our statement. What does not the farmer suffer (at least in many places) from the hares and rabbits which multiply upon his land? Were these animals allowed to increase ad libitum, no band of tigers introduced into our island

3 I

would bring half such dire calamity. Rats and mice are annoying and destructive: scarcely a ship leaves port to traverse the ocean, but it carries within it the insidious agents threatening its loss; and who can say how many of those ships, the fate of which has never reached our shores, have foundered, in consequence of the injuries done by such agents to the timbers of

the hulk !

The hamster and the Cape-jerboa we have previously introduced to the notice of our readers, (see our Numbers cxxxvi. and clxv. ;) and now we bring forward another little animal of the same order, whose name, in the countries it inhabits, is a watchword of terror and distress. Like the locust, the lemming pours out in myriads, which devastate the earth in their passage; but happily, as with the locust, in this respect also, these visitations are at distant and uncertain intervals, and of the hosts which desolate the country, none return to the regions where they began their migratory career. Destroying as they proceed, they proceed to their own extermination, they march to their fate. It is this that renders their appearance uncertain; for it is the multiplied progeny of those that remained stationary in their native fastnesses, (the desert, and mountainous regions near the polar sea,) which, forced by necessity, (like the Goths and Vandals of old,) will make the next irruption; but, for such an increase, time of more or less duration, according to circumstances, is necessarily requisite.

The lemming is a native of Norway and Lapland, and were it not for its formidable incursions from its mountain-seats, over the cultivated plains and fields, would scarcely have been noticed. In length it is about five inches; the tail is short, the ears small, the eyes black and diminutive, the limbs short, the fur close and fine. The toes are armed with nails, specially formed for burrowing; on the fore-paws, (divided into five toes,) the thumb, or toe analogous to it, consists of a thick stout nail, flat and pointed. The general colour of the upper surface is reddish yellow, dashed irregularly with black; the forehead, neck, and shoulders being of the latter colour; the under parts are yellowish white.

The first notice given to the world of this remarkable little animal, was by Olaus Magnus, (see his Hist. Gent. sept. lib. xviii. cap xx.) whose description served as the text for several succeeding writers on the subject. Wormius, however, subse

quently gave a more exact account, drawn from his own researches. Other writers have added but little to our knowledge.

:

As its feet indicate, the lemming is a burrowing animal, and it lives in chambers of its own excavation. Its food consists of lichen, roots, &c. Though small and thickly-set, it is active and vigorous, nor does it want resolution and boldness: if attacked or struck, it defends itself with obstinacy, and will adhere pertinaciously with its strong teeth to whatever it seizes, when thus irritated. We have stated the incursion of the lemming in myriads over the cultivated districts to be irregular as to periods; it is not a yearly visit, but occurs at uncertain intervals. Their migration once begun, the army marches straight forward-the country is covered, fields and gardens are laid waste, and the harvest is destroyed in the mean time, their natural enemies, foxes, sables, hawks, &c, are busy in aiding man to diminish the scourge; nor are they themselves less the promoters of their own destruction. Their ferocity leads them, when their natural food becomes scarce, when famine approaches, to attack and devour each other. Against man, dogs, or other animals, they defend themselves, springing up and seizing their aggressor with great fury, and uttering at the same time a bark, like that of a whelp. They do not enter houses in their course, but proceed in array over the open country, crossing streams and rivers, in which multitudes often perish. Thinned day by day, and week by week, their numbers gradually dwindle, till at length the host becomes utterly extirpated; it is long, however, before the country recovers from the devastation they have made.

The sudden appearance of myriads of these animals never fails to create alarm and confusion among the peasantry, who cannot account for the phenomenon otherwise than by supposing that they were brought by the winds, or rained upon the earth from the clouds: nor was this idea formerly confined to the ignorant; Olaus Magnus considered them as either brought by violent winds from remote islands, or poured down, the production of feculent clouds, (an ex remotioribus insulis, et vento delatæ, an ex nubibus fæculentis natæ ;) he also adds, that, "falling like locusts, in prodigious multitudes, they destroy every green thing; and the herbage but touched by their teeth, perishes from the virulence of the bite; yet they die the moment they touch the renewed verdure. They crowd