our race, if the Bible were suddenly withdrawn, and all remembrance of it swept away, and you arrive at some faint notion of the worth of the volume.

3. Take from Christendom the Bible, and you have taken the moral chart, by which its population can be guided. Ignorant of the nature of God, and only guessing at their own immortality, the tens of thousands would be as mariners, tossed on a wide ocean, without a pole-star, and without a compass. The blue lights of the storm-fiend would burn ever in the shrouds; and when the tornado of death rushed across the waters, there would be heard nothing but the shrieks of the terrified, and the groans of the despairing.

4. It were to mantle the earth in more than Egyptian darkness; it were to dry up the fountains of human happiness; it were to take the tides from our waters, and leave them stagnant, and the stars from our heavens, and leave them in sackcloth, and the verdure from our valleys, and leave them in barrenness; it were to make the present all recklessness, and the future all hopelessness-the maniac's revelry, and the fiend's imprisonment,-if you could annihilate that precious volume which tells us of God and of Christ, and unvails immortality, and instructs in duty, and wooes to glory. Such is the Bible. Prize it, as ye are immortal beings-for it guides to the NewJerusalem. Prize it, as ye are intellectual beings—for it "giveth understanding to the simple.'

LESSON XLVII.

HAPPY FREEDOM OF THE MAN WHOM GRACE MAKES FREE.

CowPER.

1. HE is the freeman, whom the truth makes free,
And all are slaves besides. There's not a chain,
That fiendish foes, confederate for his harm,
Can wind around him, but he casts it off,
With as much ease as Samson his green withes.
He looks abroad into the varied field

Of nature, and though poor, perhaps, compared
With those whose mansions glitter in his sight,
Calls the delightful scenery all his own.

2. His are the mountains, and the valleys his,
And the resplendent rivers. His to enjoy
With a propriety that none can feel,
But who, with filial confidence inspired,
Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye,
And smiling say-"My Father made them all!”

3. He is indeed a freeman. Free by birth
Of no mean city; planned or ere the hills
Were built, the fountains opened, or the sea
With all his roaring multitude of waves.
His freedom is the same in every state;
And no condition of this changeful life,
So manifold in cares, whose every day
Brings its own evil with it, makes it less;
For he has wings, that neither sickness, pain,
Nor penury, can cripple or confine.

4. No nook so narrow but he spreads them there
With ease, and is at large. Th' oppressor holds
His body bound; but knows not what a range
His spirit takes unconscious of a chain;

And that to bind him is a vain attempt,

Whom God delights in, and in whom He dwells.

5. Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste His works. Admitted once to His embrace,

Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before.
Thine eye shall be instructed, and thy heart,
Made pure, shall relish with divine delight
Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.

6. So reads he nature, whom the lamp of truth
Illuminates,-Thy lamp, mysterious Word!
Which whoso sees, no longer wanders lost,
With intellect bemazed in endless doubt,

But runs the road of wisdom. Thou hast built
With means, that were not till by Thee employed,
Worlds, that had never been, hadst Thou in strength
Been less, or less benevolent than strong.

7. They are Thy witnesses, who speak Thy power
And goodness infinite, but speak in ears

That hear not, or receive not their report.
In vain Thy creatures testify of Thee,
Till Thou proclaim Thyself. Theirs is indeed
A teaching voice; but 'tis the praise of Thine,
That whom it teaches it makes prompt to learn,
And with the boon gives talents for its use.

8. Then we are free. Then liberty, like day,
Breaks on the soul, and by a flash from Heav'n
Fires all the faculties with glorious joy.

A voice is heard, that mortal ears hear not, Till Thou hast touched them; 'tis the voice of song, A loud Hosanna sent from all Thy works; Which he that hears it with a shout repeats, And adds his rapture to the general praise. 9. In that blest moment, Nature, throwing wide Her vail opaque, discloses with a smile

The Author of her beauties, who, retired Behind His own creation, works, unseen By the impure, and hears His power denied. Thou art the source and center of all minds, Their only point of rest, Eternal Word! From Thee departing they are lost, and rove. At random, without honor, hope, or peace. 10. From Thee is all that soothes the life of man, His high endeavor, and his glad success, His strength to suffer, and his will to serve. But O thou bounteous Giver of all good! Thou art, of all Thy gifts, Thyself the crown! Give what thou canst, without Thee we are poor; And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away.

LESSON XLVIII.

EXPLANATORY NOTES.-1. DIVES is a Latin word meaning rich. It is used as a name and applied to the rich man, referred to in the 16th chapter of Luke.

2. TYRE, one of the most celebrated cities of antiquity, was for a long time considered the emporium of commerce. It was in its most flourishing state about 500 years before Christ. It was situated on an island near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, which was joined by Alexander to the main land by a mole or mound, by means of which he took the city after a siege of seven months. It was surrounded by a wall 150 feet high and of proportionate width. Its palaces are now supplanted by miserable hovels, though relics of its ancient splendor are everywhere still seen, and the poor fisherman now inhabits those cellars where were once stored the treasures of the world.

3. EDOM, or IDUMEA, is a country including the south of Palestine.

4. MUEZZIN, in Mohammedan countries, is the public crier who announces the hours of prayer from the minaret. Five prayers are repeated daily.

5. KLEBER was a French general, distinguished not less for his humanity and integrity, than for his courage, activity, and coolness.

6. MURAT was a French general, distinguished more for his daring courage and impetuosity, than for his sagacity and strength of mind.

MOUNT TABOR.

J. T. HEADLFY.

1. WHAT strange contrasts this earth of ours presents. Noonday and midnight are not more opposite than the scenes that are constantly passing before our eyes. Truth and falsehood walk side by side through our streets, and vice and virtue meet and pass every hour of the day. The hut of the starving stands in the shadow of the palace of the wealthy, and the carriage of Dives' every day throws the dust of its glittering wheels over the tattered garments of Lazarus.

2. Health and sickness lie down in the same apartment; joy and grief look out of the same window; and hope and despair dwell under the same roof. The cry of the infant, and the groan of the dying, rise together from the same dwelling; the funeral procession treads close on the heels of the bridal party, and the tones of the lute and viol, have scarcely died away before the requiem for the dead comes swelling after.

Oh! the beautiful and deformed, the pure and corrupt, joy and sorrow, ecstasies and agonies, life and death, are strangely blended on this our restless planet.

2

3. What different events have transpired on the same spot! Where the smoke of the Indian's wigwam arose, and the stealthy tread of the wolf and panther, was heard over the autumn leaves at twilight, the population of New York now surges along. Where once Tyre, the queen of the sea, stood, fishermen are spreading their nets on the desolate rocks, and the bright waves are rolling over its marble columns. In the empty apartments of Edom,3 the fox makes his den, and the dust of the desert is sifting over the forsaken ruins of Palmyra.

4. The owl hoots in the ancient halls of kings, and the wind of the summer night, makes sad music through the rents of the once gorgeous palaces. The Arab spurs his steed along the streets of ancient Jerusalem, or scornfully stands and curls his lip at the pilgrim pressing wearily to the sepulcher of the Savior. The Muczzin's voice rings over the bones of the prophets, and the desert wind heaps the dust above the foundations of the seven churches of Asia. O, how good and evil, light and darkness, chase each other over the world!

5. Forty-seven years ago, a form was seen standing on Mount Tabor, with which the world has since become familiar, It was a bright spring morning, and as he sat on his steed in the clear sunlight, his eye rested on a scene in the vale below, which was sublime and apalling enough to quicken the pulsations of the calmest heart. That form was NAPOLEON BONAPARTE; and the scene before him, the fierce and terrible "BATTLE OF MOUNT TABOR."

6. From Nazareth, where the Savior once trod, KLEBER' had marched with three thousand French soldiers forth into the plain, when lo! at the foot of Mount Tabor he saw the whole Turkish army, drawn up in order of battle. Fifteen thousand infantry and twelve thousand splendid cavalry moved down in majestic strength on this band of three thousand French. Kleber had scarcely time to throw his handful of men into squares, with the cannon at the angles, before those twelve thousand