THE BREAD OF LIFE TO BE VALUED. lect, that their ancestors were once, corded in the history of maritime blind adolaters, serving dumb idols. wars. At the time of the last rupAn ancient writer, Dr. Plaifere, in a ture between Spain and England, sermon preached before the Univer- two brothers of M. D'Emparan sity, at Cambridge, in the year 1573, fought during a whole night before says, before the preaching of the gos- the port of Cadiz, taking each other's pel of Christ, no church here existed, ship for an enemy's. The battle was but the temple of an idol; no priest- so terrible, that both vessels were hood but that of paganism; no God sunk nearly at the same time. A but the sun, the moon, or some hide- very small part of the crew were ous image. To the cruel rites of the saved; and the two brothers had the druidical worship succeeded the abo- misfortune to recognize each other a minations of the Roman idolatry. In little before they expired." Scotland stood the temple of Mars; in Cornwall, the temple of Mercury; in Bangor, the temple of Minerva ; at Malden, the temple of Victoria; in Bath, the temple of Apollo; at Leicester, the temple of Janus; at York, where St. Peter's now stands, the temple of Bellona; in London, on the site of St. Paul's Cathedral, the temple of Diana; at Westminster, where the Abbey rears its venerable pile, a temple of Apollo. But, life which can save the soul; and how those are to be pitied where there is a famine of the word of the Now our country is blest with thou- Lord! Happy are they who are fasands of Christian churches, and voured with this inestimable blessmultitudes of gospel ministers. The ing; and what exertions should they land is full of Bibles; and British not make to bestow it on others! Christians, sensible of their privileges, are strenuously engaged in diffusing the light of divine truth among the benighted nations. What hath God wrought? Wonders of grace to God belong, THE TWO BROTHERS. cap IN a famine which prevailed on board of a ship at sea, one of the friend, four thousand pounds are passengers said to another, "My owing to me in France, which I should gladly relinquish for a loaf of bread and a glass of wine." How much more precious is the bread of * CRUELTIES. ABOUT the year 1796, the following most shocking and atrocious murder, under the name of Suhumurunu, was perpetrated at Mujilupoor, about a day's journey south from Calcutta. Vaucharamu, a Bra"WE were conducted by the min of the above place dying, his tain of the Pizarro to the governor of wife went to be burnt with the body; the province, Don Vincente Empa- all the previous ceremonies were perran, to present to him the passports formed; she was fastened on the pile, which had been given us by the first and the fire kindled. The funeral secretary of state. He received us pile was by the side of some brushwith that frankness, and that noble wood, and near a river. It was a late simplicity, which, as at all times, cha- hour when the pile was lighted, and racterised the Biscayan nation. Be- was a very dark, rainy night. When fore he was named governor of Por- the fire began to scorch this poor wotobello and Cumana, he had distin-man, she contrived to disengage herguished himself as a captain of a self from the dead body, and crept vessel in the royal navy. His name from under the pile, and hid herself recalls to mind one of the most extra- among the brushwood; In' a little ordinary and distressing events re * Suhu, with,—murunu, death. ghauts at Alum-gunj, in a boat, in the presence of a large assembly of people, and when, in deep water, put overboard. Two large earthen pots, one filled with sand, the other with barley, were fastened to his shoulders. The man sunk, but after some time floated on the surface of the water. The people in the boat rowed after him, and took him up, but made sure work of it the second time. time it was discovered that only one, He was carried from one of the body was on the pile. The relations immediately took the alarm, and began to hunt for the poor wretch who had made her escape. After they had found her, the son dragged her forth, and insisted upon her throwing herself upon the pile again, or that she should drown or hang herself. She pleaded for her life at the hands of her own son, and declared that she could not embrace so horrid a death. But she pleaded in vain; the son urged that he should lose his, and that therefore he would die or she should. Unable to persuade her to hang or drown herself, the son and the others then tied her hands and feet, and threw her on the funeral pile, where she quickly perished. This was noticed in the House of Commons, in answer to an opposing statement, which asserted the "filial piety" of the Hindoos. Burning a Leper to death at Cutwa. "Last week I witnessed the burning of a poor leper. A pit, about ten cubits in depth, was dug, and a fire placed at the bottom of it. The same man informed me, that about two years ago, at a village about two miles from hence, a woman was burnt, after an attempt to escape from the flames! The friends of the deceased husband were very poor, and could not afford to procure wood for the funeral pile. They, however, collected a quantity of palmyra leaves for the purpose; and the living woman with the dead body, were, as usual, put into the midst of the heap; The fire was kindled, and the woman's clothes consumed; but she struggled and got out of the flames, and attempted to run away, entreating her pursuers to spare her life, but, alas! entreated in vain; she was seized and destroyed!! The poor The mode of burning the dead in man rolled himself into it, but instantly, on feeling the fire, begged to which I have seen in Bengal. Inthis neighbourhood differs from that be taken out, and struggled hard for stead of wood, which that purpose. His mother and sister, suppose is however, thrust him in again; and much dearer than in Bengal, they thus a man, who, to all appearance, get a few bundles of long grass, such might have survived as poor people use for building their longer, was cruelly burnt to death. I houses, and after placing the body find that the practice is not uncom-half from the ground, with some of on a kind of stage about a foot and a mon in these parts." some years The practice of diseased persons, the grass over and some under it, and especially of those heavily afflict- they set fire to the heap, let it flame ed with the leprosy, drowning them- for a minute or two perhaps, and then quench it, and throw the singed selves, is very common, and is recommended in the writings of the Hin- body in the river. doos. This poor wretch died with This ceremony I have several the notion that by thus purifying his times witnessed, and the persons embody in the fire, he should receive averted with the act of kindling and ployed appeared to be as much dihappy transmigration into a healthful body; whereas, if he had died by the extinguishing the flames, as the boys disease, he would, after four births, in the country. in England are at bonfires in fields have appeared on earth a leper again! Lately a Hindoo carpenter was drowned because he had the leprosy. Cruelty and Ignorance. Albutius, a prince of Celtiberia, to whom Scipio restored his wife, was a sordid man, father to Canidia. He beat his servants before they were guilty of any offence, “lest," said he, I should have no time to punish them when they offend." ed to their hands! Nothing is more despicable than the affectation of learning, wit, or eloquence, when souls are perishing for lack of knowledge. It is recorded, as an instance. of the cruel temper of Nero, that in a general famine, when many perished by hunger, that he ordered a ship should come from Egypt (the grana Herod, who massacred the male children at Bethlehem, in hopes that he might destroy the Saviour of mankind, died in exquisite torments,ry of Italy) laden with sand for the eaten of worms, at the age of seventy-one. He was remarkable for his cruelty. As he knew that the day of his death would become a day of mirth and festivity, he ordered the most illustrious of his servants to be confined and murdered the very moment that he expired, that every eye in the kingdom should seem to shed tears at his death. Happily, however, his sanguinary commands were not carried into effect. The reciting of instances of cruelty cannot be pleasant to a reader's feelings; only it tends to show us what human nature is when left to itself. Ptolemy IV. successively sacrificed to his avarice his mother, his wife, his sister, and his brother. Thus we see that the bonds of nature are no barriers against insatiable cruelty. use of wrestlers. In such an extre-mity to provide only for delight, that: there might be spectacles in the the atre, when the city of Rome was affected with such misery as to melt. the heart of any but a Nero, was most barbarous cruelty ;-but how much more cruel is he whose preparations for the pulpit, are only as chaff or sand, while the bread of life is kept out of sight, and many are ready to perish with hunger! THE HINDOO'S CONFESSION. WHEN one of the converted Hin doos came to be baptized he made this confession. He said he had been for years searching for a way of happiness in Poojahs, (holy places in the river, &c.) but all in vain but when he heard the word of Christ he could not rest. He sat up a whole night in distress of mind. Nabis, a cruel tyrant of Lacedæ- He had great fears about his sins. mon, when he had exercised every When asked how he lost them, he art in plundering the citizens in said, "They went away in thinking Sparta, made a statue which, in re- on Christ." Thus we shall never semblance, was like his wife, and get rid of our fear in any other way was clothed in the most magnificent than by thinking on Christ, thinkapparel, and whenever any one re-ing on his atoning sacrifice, his finishfused to deliver up his riches, the tyrant led him to the statue, which immediately, by means of secret springs, seized him in its arms, and tormented him in the most excruciating manner with bearded points and prickles hid under its clothes. ed righteousness, his great love, his free promise, his willingness to save. It was this that made another Hindoo say, when he was asked how he hoped to be saved, "I am a sinner I have nothing to give to God; but if a rich man become a poor man's As the souls of men are of infinite surety, he may trust in him: thus I value; as through ignorance and place my trust in Christ Jesus."> depravity, they are exposed to the Distressed Christian, you may firmly most imminent danger, how abso- rely on the Saviour, he will never lutely necessary is it for ministers to disappoint your fear Is he not able be faithful, plain, and zealous in the to save to the uttermost; and will he discharge of the commission entrust-'condemn you? THE BLIND CONTROVERSIALISTS. | the martyrs was asked the question, IN our inquiries after truth, and if he would receive the sacrament, defence of it, it ill becomes us to provided it was administered to him manifest a bigoted, petulant dispo-in a wooden chalice? To which he sition. We may, with all our zeal, answered, "The time was, when be mistaken. there were wooden cups and golden priests; but, now," says he; they are golden cups and wooden priests." In the first days they were more humble than now, and content with wooden vessels; but the ministers were gold in regard to grace and godliness. Let us bear this in mind, and earnestly entreat the great Head of the church, to increase the number of those who shall be simple in their manner, evangelical in their principles, laborious in their exertions, and devoted in their lives, that the work may prosper, and the word of the Lord have free course and be glorìfied. A certain philanthropist, observing some poor blind men, very humanely furnished each of them with a staff to help them on their way; but they, instead of thanking him, availing themselves of the aid thus afforded them, and assisting each other in the use of it, quickly fell into disputes respecting its breadth, length, and thickness, till being unable to adopt the same conclusion, and equally unwilling to agree to differ on the subject, forgetting the end for which the staff was bestowed, and the purpose to which it should be applied. In the heat of their contention, they actually employed it as a cudgel, with which they beat one another most unmercifully. Thus angry contro- W. B. HAD lived a dissolute life versialists too often use the Bible: for nearly forty years. He was notothat which was given them for their rious for drinking and Sabbathsupport, they convert into an instru-breaking, and his general deportment ment of discord and disputation. THE COBLER. CONVERSIONS. was so abandoned, that he was wicked even to a proverb. On Saturday evening, March 4, 1789, he attended A COBLER at Leyden, who used to a funeral at the parish-church, and, attend the public disputations held at from the place of interment, he imthe academy, was once asked if he mediately betook himself to a publicunderstood Latin? "No," replied house, where he became so intoxicathe mechanic; "but I know who is ted, that it was with some difficulty wrong in the argument." "How?" he was enabled to reach his own hareplied his friend. Why, by see-bitation. ing who is angry first." : THE WOODEN CHALICE. No sooner was he laid down upon his bed, and composed to sleep, than the words of Eliphaz were verified in his experience: "In NOTHING can be more awful than thoughts from the visions of the night, when the ministers of the sanctuary when deep sleep falleth upon man, degenerate and become idle and licen- fear came upon me, and trembling, tious when they are ambitious for which made all my bones to shake.". rich livings, great connexions, and For he dreamed a frightful dream :the approbation of men, rather than he thought he saw a serpent of the to lay themselves out for the benefit hydra kind, with nine heads, ready of society, or the glory of God. In to seize him; whatever way he turnproportion, however, as any church ed, a head presented itself; nor could or churches become allied to the he by all the methods he devised, exworld, we find this to be the case. tricate himself from the baneful monHence primitive times most likely ster. He awoke in great distress and had the superiority as to simplicity, perturbation.-Though it was but a fidelity, and apostolic zeal. One of dream, it made a strong impression He upon his mind, and he was afraid that tion, these words were applied as a it portended some future evil. The sovereign remedy to his afflicted soul: next morning, one of the members of "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, our meeting, as he was going to the and thou shalt be saved." This ad house of God, observed him in a pen-ministered all that joy and comfort sive posture, and asked him if he he stood in need of Now he was would go with him and hear a ser-enabled to believe, that Christ was as mon on the old serpent. The sound willing to forgive, as he was mighty of the word serpent, arrested his at- to redeem the burden of his guilt tention, and excited his curiosity to dropped from his mind as Pilgrim's hear what I had to say upon such a did at the sight of the cross, and imsubject. But for this expression, mediately he rejoiced with joy unprobably, the poor man had remained speakable and full of glory. I was unmoved. Why the person used it, with him a little while after, and, with he could not tell, nor why he invited a heart overflowing with gratitude to him to accompany him that morning, God, he showed me the place of his a thing which he had never done Bethel visit, where the Lord had before, though they both lived un-opened to him his bleeding heart, and der the same roof, but HE could tell manifested his forgiving love. The who, in the days of his flesh, "must whole neighbourhood allow him to needs go through Samaria," and be a converted man. The most whose providences are always in co- wicked person in the place, will attest incidence with the purposes of his the truth of his conversion. grace. As soon as prayer was ended, seems to be, as the apostle expresses I preached from Gen. iii. 13, 14, and it, a living epistle of Christ, seen and 15. "And the Lord God said unto read of all men. the woman, what is this that thou It is said of a Mr. T., and three of hast done; and the woman said, the his associates, that, to enliven the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. company, they once undertook to miAnd the Lord God said unto the ser- mic a celebrated preacher. The propent, because thou hast done this, position was highly gratifying to all thou art cursed above all cattle, and the parties present, and a wager above every beast of the field: upon agreed upon, to inspire each indivithy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt dual with a desire of excelling in this thou eat all the days of thy life; and impious attempt. That their jovial I will put enmity between thee and auditors might adjudge the prize to the woman, and between thy seed the most adroit performer, it was and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, concluded that each should open the and thou shalt bruise his heel." As Bible, and hold forth from the first I was explaining who that serpent text that should present itself to his was, and the methods he took to be-eye. Accordingly, three in their guile sinners, the Lord opened the turn, mounted the table, and enterpoor man's eyes, and the word had tained their wicked companions, at free course, and was glorified. From the expense of every thing sacred. that moment, he gave every demonstration of a real change of heart. About four or five months, he continued in the pangs of the new birth. The anguish of his soul was great indeed: he perceived the number of his sins, and felt the weight of his guilt. For some time, he was tempted to despair-I may say, to put an end to his existence; but, while he was musing on his wretched condi When they had exhausted their little stock of buffoonery, it devolved on Mr. T. to close this very irreverent scene. Much elated, and confident of success, he exclaimed, as he ascended the table, "I shall beat you all!" But oli! the stupendous depth of divine mercy! Who would have conceived, that a gracious Providence should have presided over such an assembly, and that this should be the |