which you will never see the morning, or that morning of which you will never see the night; but which of your mornings or nights will be such, you know not. Let the mantle of worldly enjoyments hang loose about you, that it may be easily dropped when death comes to carry you into another world. When the corn is forsaking the ground, it is ready for the sickle; when the fruit is ripe, it falls off the tree easily. So when a Christian's heart is truly weaned from the world, he is prepared for death, and it will be more easy for him. A heart disengaged from this world is a heavenly one, and then we are ready for heaven, when our heart is there before us.

FEED THE FLAME.

Bp. Hall.

As there is no fire which will not go out if it be not fed, it cannot be enough that thou hast entertained these gracious resolutions, unless thou do also supply and nourish them with holy meditations, devout prayers, continual ejaculations, and the attendance of thy God; without which, if they shall languish through thy neglect, thou shalt find double more work and difficulty in reviving them, than there could have been in maintaining and upholding them in their former vigour.

Bp. Hall.

A WHOLE SAVIOUR OR NO SAVIOUR. To make Christ in part a Saviour, is to make him in part no Saviour, and to ascribe salvation to something else as well as to him. All such satisfactions trench upon the honour of Christ's sacrifice, and pull the crown from his head to set it upon our own; or, at best, ascribe that in part to ourselves which is wholly due to him. By how much the more sufficient it is for us without any addition, so much the more glory redounds to the sacrifice. He needs no more of addition to sweeten his offering, than he needed of cordials to strengthen and support him in the time of his oblation upon the cross. Charnock.

CHURCH MISSIONARY'S ACCOUNT OF THE OJIBWA RED INDIANS OF LAKES HURON AND SUPERIOR, BRITISH NORTH AMERICA.

SUPERSTITION.

THERE appear to be two kinds of heathenism in the world; the one which leads its votaries to profess the worship of heavenly objects, beings who are supposed to be beneficent in

their dispositions towards the children of men; and the other which teaches its followers that their chief business and interest is to propitiate the malevolent beings who are supposed to have their habitation in the lower regions, and by serving to prevent them from doing as much harm as they otherwise would be disposed to do. Of the latter kind is the heathenism professed and practised by the Red Indians of Lakes Superior, Huron, and Michigan. They profess, indeed, to believe in the existence of benevolent spirits, whose residence is in the visible heavens; but as they say these beings are of themselves sufficiently well disposed towards Indians, they think that any exertions or services to them are quite uncalled for; but that all their endeavours are necessary in order to propitiate the evil ones, and to dissuade them from doing the full amount of injury to the Indian that they are inclined to do; so that it is evident that the inhabitants of those regions are, in the most literal sense, devil-worshippers; and thence it follows that those who aid in the spread of the gospel among them are thereby, in the strictest sense, coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty. For the strong man armed keepeth his house whence the sound of the conjuror's drum and the wild yells of the drunken worshippers of Satan re-echo from the iron-bound shores of Superior and the wooded islands of Huron; and it is only the stronger than he who can take away from him the armour in which he trusted, and divide the spoil.

The cruel rite, by which children are devoted to the prince of darkness, is sufficient to point out the character of the whole superstition.

The affections of an Indian are centred in his offspring. His aged father or mother is considered as an useless burden; his wife as his slave; but his children, especially his sons, are regarded with the fondest love. Yet how does he treat those objects of his parental regard? When the child has reached a certain age he is obliged to blacken his body with a mixture of charcoal and grease, and in that filthy state is thrust into a small wigwam or hut, where for some days food is denied him, until he has had a vision of the form which the evil spirit that has attached himself to him is pleased to assume; and, when the desired dream has been obtained, the young person returns to his father's wigwam, and a figure is made, which is supposed to represent the attendant evil spirit, and this figure is carefully preserved during life, and in case of severe sickness is kept within view

of the patient; and the writer of this, when visiting the sick heathen, has often been pained by the sight which met his eyes, of a piece of wood, shaped in some extraordinary form, extended near the part of the wigwam where the dying savage lay; and this object is so placed that the eyes of the sick person are always upon it; and when the writer has entered into conversation with the deluded sufferer, and asked what hope he had in the prospect of coming eternity, he has been pointed to this mis-shapen thing and told, "That is my trust, that is what I always look to when affliction comes on me." On such occasions, while the missionary endeavours to point the poor heathen to Jesus, the only safety for the sinner, he wishes that some of those whose minds are lighted with wisdom from on high, could but witness with him the degraded state of these poor red worshippers of Satan, in order that a holy desire that they too might know the preciousness of the gospel salvation, might urge them to assist in extending over this benighted region the knowledge of the gospel.

When a heathen Indian wishes to acquire some knowledge of what is future, such as the success he is destined to have in hunting, or even if he wants to know when he is most likely to find his game, he sends for a conjurer, who, when he comes, has a wigwam erected for himself, into which no one is allowed to enter but himself, and within that lodge he hums his incantations in a low tone, and this he continues until the muhnedoo (spirit), whose assistance he seeks, reveals himself to him and gives the required information. The writer has often questioned the Indian conjurers who had become Christians, and consequently looked with abhorrence on their former doings, with regard to what then took place; and they have all agreed in declaring that they were really assisted at such times by that evil one whom they served, and who, they believed, used them as a means of keeping their countrymen in the bondage in which he held them.

Conjurers are also called medicine men, from their knowledge of the medicinal qualities of herbs, and this knowledge they turn to good account in keeping up their credit when called to cure the sick, as they take care to administer some remedy of the kind to assist the efficacy of their incantations. And as their knowledge is not confined to the medicinal part of the vegetable creation, but extends to that part which is potent for the destruction of human life, they are most dangerous enemies when they are, or conceive themselves to be, injured; many instances are on record of this kind of

revenge among the Indians. One instance comes to the recollection of the writer of a white man, who, while engaged in the fur trade, gave some offence to an Indian, and soon after had his sight entirely destroyed by smoking a pipe, into which some very poisonous weed had been put by his enemy.

Such is the character of the fruits which devil-worship has produced, and is still producing, among the aborigines of this part of the British dominions; and who is there that reads this and will not determine that he will, as much as in him lies, come to the help of the Lord against the mighty, by endeavouring to awaken among his friends and acquaintances such an interest in the spiritual welfare of the Red Indians of Lakes Huron and Superior as shall give grounds for hope, that those who hitherto have had little but evil from the white man, will eventually and to eternity have to bless God for sending the white man among them.

F. A. O'M.

GENTLE WORDS.

BY C. D. STEWART.

A YOUNG rose in the summer time
Is beautiful to me,

And glorious the many stars

That glimmer on the sea;

But gentle words and loving hearts,
And hands to clasp my own,
Are better than the brightest flowers,
Or stars that ever shone!

The sun may warm the grass to life,
The dew the drooping flower,
And eyes grow bright and watch the light
Of autumn's opening hour;

But words that breathe of tenderness,

And smiles we know are true,

Are warmer than the summer time,
And brighter than the dew.

It is not much the world can give,
With all its subtle art,

And gold or gems are not the things
To satisfy the heart;

But oh! if those who cluster round
The altar and the hearth,

Have gentle words and loving smiles,
How beautiful is earth.

to the He was

I KNEW the village pastor well, and followed him
"house appointed for all living," even the grave.
as a father to those around him, and a friend to the friendless.
I have seen him in the pulpit in the spring and in the sum-
mer, in the autumn and in the winter, and I remember well
his once taking for his text, "Repent ye: for the kingdom of
heaven is at hand," Matt. iii. 2. Earnest, and affectionate,
and solemn were his observations. There were several
thoughtless young men there, whom his discourse made
thoughtful; when they came in they had smiles on their
faces, and now and then broke out into laughter; but when
they went out, they seemed to have arrows in their hearts.

"At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place;

Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
And fools who came to scoff remain'd to pray."

I have seen him at the almshouses, among the aged men and women, who never failed to brighten up at his approach. They respected, and honoured, and loved him; and well they might, for he was always doing them one kindness or another. Had they been his brothers and his sisters, hardly could he have acted a more friendly part. But he was the pastor as well as the friend: he knew that their time was short, that their days were drawing to an end, and that they should not DECEMBER, 1847.

M