stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." The time that the Lord will do this great work, is here expressly stated, namely, when he brings them into their own land.* But according to Mr. W., they are converted many ages previous to that time. In a word, I find that his hypothesis will not bear to be looked at in the light of Scripture, and its direct tendency is, to confound that admirable precision which characterizes the prophetical language; and thus to obscure rather than to elucidate prophetic truth.

To graft our own notions on God's word, is one thing; to interpret that word, is quite another thing. A. FORBES.

*The conversion of the Jewish people, although an event subsequent to their restoration to their own land, does not, in the least, interfere with the preaching of the Gospel to them, now in their state of dispersion. It is written,,(Rom. xi. 25,)" that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." We learn from these words a most important truth, which we shall do well to bear in mind, namely, that the blindness of Israel is not universal, but partial: and that this is their condition, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, i. e., until the end of the present dispensation. Hence, in this present time, there is among them a remnant according to the election of grace; and the fruit of preaching the Gospel to them, during the present dispensation, will undoubtedly be, not their conversion as a nation, but the conversion of this elect remnant that is among them. Then "all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." Romans xi. 26, 27. Compare Isaiah lix. 20, 21. The apostle Paul was well acquainted with this mystery concerning Israel. His knowledge of it, however, did not in the least cool his zeal in preaching the Gospel to Israel. Nor ought it to cool ours; but rather to stimulate us to greater diligence, knowing that our exertions will not be in vain.

THE PARCEL.

TIME is not, with me, a very plentiful commodity; having, in fact, as small a surplus of that valuable article on my hands as most people. Yet I have been expending two honrs on an employment, to all appearance as idle and foolish as could well be: to my own apprehension, a most important one. A simple fact, simply stated, with the reflections therefrom arising, may lead some Christian lady to regard with a more serious eye a responsibility often resting on her; and which many conceive to be no responsibility at all.

Last month, some benevolent correspondent directed to one of my publishing friends a parcel for me, with a note, stating that its contents were for distribution among the destitute. Having not a few poor people within my ken, to whom such articles as I supposed it contained would be very acceptable, I opened it with glee; but sorely was I puzzled on finding that it also contained some gowns of silk, with remains of very smart head gear, ribbands, blond, and other edging; and two or three plain mouselines. 'Now,' said I, among all the destitute people whom I know, which of them should I wish to see arrayed in these handsome silks and elegant laces? Certainly not one. But if I give them to some poor persons I am thinking of, they will sell them to whom?' Here I paused, and ruminated;

for I had in my hand an excessively pretty cap, trimmed with abundance of delicate blue ribbands, rosettes, and blonde; and beside me lay another, still more showy. I pursued my soliloquy: 'A lady would not of course, purchase this: it would become the property of some smart young girl, of a humbler class; who, having once seen her pretty face so set off in a looking-glass, would imbibe a taste, would acquire a longing for similar decorations. She could not afford it-to what dreadful courses might she not be tempted, through the very attractiveness conferred on her by this becoming ornament, in order to supply herself with new articles of superfluous adornment! But again, a poor person might take these things to one of the warehouses always open for them, whence are supplied the temporary outfits of the most wretched of female transgressors; and this, which I now hold in my hand-these handsome lengths of blonde, scarcely soiled, these gowns, of silk and satin texture, may and in all human probability will find their way to such scenes as-) -No: it shall not be.' And putting up my perplexing treasures, I retired to rest.

This morning I rose, the same subject being still uppermost in my thoughts, and, at the usual hour for seclusion in my little study, I took the parcel with me, locked the door, and to the best of my ability fulfilled a really difficult task. All the articles, in the lace and ribbon way that were not to be trusted in the hands of the humbler class of females, I destroyed utterly, so that no vestige can ever re-appear. Some of the neatest articles of a plain character I put by for the widow and daughter of a most respectable professional gentleman, now fallen into great

poverty; the daughter seeking an engagement as Nursery Governess; two or three of the most ordinary I separated, with plenty of plain thread edging and simple ribbons, for the honest, hard-working mother of a large family, who would alter them into Sunday garments for herself and children; and another lot of equally plain articles I assigned to a sober woman, who never wears a bit of finery, and who is sometimes in great straits. The silks, and a satin dress remained; and I came to the resolution of unpicking and so dividing them that plenty of bonnets and tippets might be made out of the materials, but nothing more. All the trimmings were destroyed.

Now, why do I enter upon such minutiae as these? Because, during the two hours referred to, my thoughts have dwelt upon the position and the too frequent fate of my poorer sisters, until I could not forbear bringing the matter before the readers of this magazine. Some there are who, taking the apostle's injunction in its most obvious, literal sense, confine themselves to such a style of dress as leaves them under no possible embarrassment as to the disposal of what they shall have no farther occasion for. Of these I confess myself to be one: but of course it is not the case with all, nor with the majority of ladies, and seeing that the gay articles, even the most expensive, exposed in shops are expected to find purchasers, and that such purchasers do not, in these days of changeable fashion, 'wear out' what they buy, it does become an anxious question, where do these discarded habiliments, especially in the millinery department, go? Ladies usually give, as perquisites, the greater part to their waiting-maids; but they do not, of course, expect to see them figure in that same

costume. It is understood that they dispose of them; and here the imagination must, in following them, fall into the same track.It is very, very desirable that nothing should be given to young women unsuited to their station in life; but custom is a terrible tyrant; and the breach of its bad laws demands no slight portion of moral courage.

Where no such characters as ladies' own maids stand ready to catch at these perquisites, is it too much to ask of any lady who feels that to place in the way of the poor a temptation to vanity and conceit is but a cruel sort of kindness; and that to supply decorations for the moral slaughter-houses of a guilty class is doing the devil's own work, according to his own desire-is it too much to ask of them fairly to destroy such things, when they have no further use for them? It is very true that the price of one such tasty cap, if carried to the mart by a poor person, will furnish a day's full provision for the barterer; and other articles in proportion will minister to the wants of the really necessitous; but is this the limit of our mind's range? So far, good is done: beyond it lies unfathomed evil; and shall we do evil that good may come? This question is very emphatically answered in the word of God.

It must not be supposed that I mean all this to apply to the little parcel so kindly consigned to my care. It consisted almost entirely of plain and serviceable articles; and the very few bits of a gayer description that happened to get intermixed, rather served to lead my mind into this particular train of thought, than afforded a reasonable excuse for the hints that I have ventured to throw out. The sender wonld be delighted to see how useful