readers and hearers of the Old Testament, therefore our Saviour could not talk to them as unto "spiritual," but as unto "carnal," as St. Paul speaks. Indeed the Jews had been, with few exceptions, so shamefully neglectful of the Old Testament, and their teachers had so corrupted the faith founded by the prophets, that our Saviour could not have been understood if He had not wisely arranged his discourses so as to throw gradual light upon their dark minds. This, however, does not warrant a preacher, or a visitor of the sick, in withholding the truth of Christ's perfect atonement from men who are brought up in his faith. Our blessed Lord had to overthrow the deepest-seated prejudices against a system which the Jews thought was to put down the authority of Moses; and therefore, carefully and gradually did He unfold his religion, according to the wisdom of his own Divine words, in which He speaks of the imprudence of putting new wine into old bottles. Besides, it was in the comparison of his religion with the showy rites of the Jews, that He was careful not to offend the people, while in the announcement of his ability to save the soul of man, and of his invitation to sinners, there was no keeping back. All was plain and easy to be understood. There is no figure nor hidden meaning in the words, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life." This surely is plain enough.

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But again, the Romish priests, and they who wish to magnify the office of the ministry more than God's word permits, are anxious to coin something farther from this passage of Scripture, upon the ground that our Saviour explained to his disciples when they were alone, those things which publicly He had spoken in parables. But little reflection is needed to overthrow all that can be grounded on this. For what purpose did Christ make this explanation to his disciples, but that they should be able to teach it to the people? Why, but that which they had heard in the ear might be declared by them upon the housetops, as we have read before in Matthew x. 27. The ministers of our Lord ought, of course, to

know better than the people the Gospel which it is their particular and appointed duty to teach. When they do not, of course they are little thought of. Their very duty is to preach. They are set apart for the express purpose of having leisure to read the word of God, and to prepare themselves to publish faithfully and truly the message of the Gospel, with all its fulness of pardoning grace, and all its requirements, as duties of love from those who wish to avail themselves of the offer of salvation by Christ alone. It is because they are to teach the people all they know of the Gospel, that they are to learn it most fully, and not because they are to keep it to themselves. The priests' lips must keep knowledge, but not for their own soul's good only, but for the good of the souls committed to their charge. A LAYMAN.

THE OLD ALMANACK.

Jan. 1st, 1852.

SIR, This is the day for burning all the old Almanacks. There are many books which are good for nothing, and might as well be burned; but an old Almanack is worse than this, worse than nothing, for what it teaches you is all wrong. I remember the time when an Almanack was a very expensive thing, there being a large stamp-duty on it. But now this duty has been taken off, an Almanack may be bought for a penny, and is constantly wanted. There is, besides, often a good deal of useful information in addition to the Almanack. There is, however, a great deal of nonsense in some of them; and when you read what pretended wise men say about what the weather is to be, and what is "good luck," or " bad luck," &c., you will very soon find that these wise men know no more than yourself about such matters.

I have now, sir, got my last year's Almanack in my hand; but before I put it into the fire, I have just glanced my eye over some verses which were in it, and which I had not looked at before. They please me much; and perhaps they may also please some of your readers, if you have not had them before.

A CONSTANT READER.

[We have had them before, but are willing to reprint them, in hopes that they may be acceptable to some of our readers.-EDITOR.]

SPEAK GENTLY.-(A RHYME FOR ALL.)

Speak gently! it is better far

To rule by love than fear.

Speak gently! let not harsh word mar

The good we might do here.

Speak gently to the little child,
Its love be sure to gain;
Lead it to God in accents mild,
It may not long remain.

Speak gently to the young, for they
Will have enough to bear;
Pass through this life as best they may,
They'll find it full of care.

Speak gently to the aged one,

Grieve not the care-worn heart;
His course in life is nearly run,
Let such in peace depart.

Speak gently to the erring; know
They may have toil'd in vain;
Perchance unkindness made them so.
Oh! win them back again.

EXTRACT FROM KEPLER.

THE following is an extract from the works of Kepler, a well-known astronomer. He lived in Germany at the end of the sixteenth century, and his discoveries were the foundation for those of the great Sir Isaac Newton. He enlarged the views of his contemporaries, received from his predecessor Copernicus, with respect to the motions of the heavenly bodies and of our own earth; and the novelty of these astonishing truths had created in the minds of many much doubtfulness and scepticism. Some persons, through a gross misunderstanding, suppose that belief in the existence and glory of God is confined to the unlettered and simple: let them glance at the astronomer's striking address to his readers as he enters into the subject:

"I beseech my reader, that, not unmindful of the Divine goodness bestowed on man, he do with me praise and celebrate the wisdom and greatness of the Creator,

which I open to him from a more inward explication of the form of the world, from a searching of causes, from a detection of the errors of vision; and that thus, not only in the firmness and stability of the earth he perceive with gratitude the preservation of all living things in nature as the gift of God, but also that in its motion, so recondite, so admirable, he acknowledge the wisdom of the Creator. But him who is too dull to receive this science, or too weak to believe the Copernican system without harm to his piety, him, I say, I advise that, leaving the school of astronomy, and condemning, if he please, any doctrine of the philosophers, he follow his own path, and desist from this wandering through the universe; and lifting up his natural eyes, with which alone he can see, pour himself out from his own heart in praise of God the Creator; being certain that he gives no less worship to God, than the astronomer to whom God has given to see more clearly with his inward eye, and who, for what he has himself discovered, both can and will glorify God."

SINGING IN VILLAGE CHURCHES.

E. D.

DEAR MR. EDITOR,-There are, you will agree with me, few things more rarely met with, or more desirable, than good singing in our village churches. In nine cases out of ten when the congregation is called upon to "sing to the praise and glory of God," the affair is taken up by a company of singers in the gallery, whose untutored voices are accompanied by a band of instruments whose quality is, if possible, inferior to the musical knowledge or taste of the performers upon them.

The psalm tunes which fall into the hands of such a band are always fearfully murdered, as might be expected; but the ears of the silent congregation are fortunately off, if on fast days, or other grand occasions, an anthem is not added. Yet these singers are sometimes very impatient of control, and very much dislike interference on the part of any one else with the church singing.

In some villages, where a band of this kind cannot be

got together, we usually find the singing in the hands of the clerk, who performs alone, or perhaps some few of the congregation join in feebly with him.

In a few other places an improvement has taken place; the gallery has lost its choir, and the singing is in the hands of the school children. But even then we are not much better off, for the children sing miserably from want of knowing more about what they are doing, and the congregation is as silent as ever.

What then is to be done to improve the singing in our village churches? The great thing, of course, to aim at is to get the congregation to sing; but this can only be done by providing an efficient choir to lead them. It may be said, perhaps, that this cannot be had in any village in the kingdom scarcely; but I am quite sure, from what I have seen in many places, that there is no difficulty in getting a good village choir together any where, if we will only go the right way to work.

In a general way people seem to think that psalmsinging is a thing to be learnt by itself without previous acquaintance with the study of music; but this is quite as absurd as it would be to expect persons to read the Bible before having learnt their letters; we must teach village singers music before we can teach them psalmody with any effect'.

Now to do this, the best way is to form a singing class to which the older children in the school may be admitted, and others in the parish, young men and women especially, invited. The class should meet twice or more times in a week, and some principal person should take the lead under the sanction of the clergyman, if he be not a musician himself. The class should practise carefully scales and exercises of all kinds, till they can use their voices and read simple music well; and they may then intermingle plain psalm tunes, and perhaps chants, with their other studies.

When the class has attained to a good knowledge of their work let them then lead the singing in the church, but not before; for the former band in the gallery is really preferable to a bad attempt at a better style of

3 See Preface to Mr. Hullah's valuable "Psalter."