cisely what you are at present thinking; that you can make him hear in all your hearing, see in all your seeing, and feel in all your feeling; this is one prodigy. But that you can precipitate these thoughts upon paper; that you can catch these rapid sounds by hundreds in an hour, and, as it were, petrify them and make them perpetual; that you can take your most curious information, your most earnest wishes, your most exquisite emotions, and dissolve them in a drop of ink, and after that ink is dry, your brother, 1,000 leagues away, or your descendant 100 years hereafter, shall know exactly what you are even now beholding, or desiring, or imagining; this is another prodigy. And apart from these two great powers, articulate language and alphabetic writing, we have often thought that a third great wonder is the power of translation. When you first step ashore in some fresh country,-when you hear a noisy jargon in all of which you do not recognise one wonted vocable; or when you look for the first time on a page of foreign print, which sensation is the strongest, distaste at what appears so uncouth, or despair of ever mastering what appears so enigmatic? Could you have ever hoped that your heart would learn to leap responsive to this alien accent? or that your eye would ever beam with ecstasy over these quaint and cabalistic lines?

כראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ

Or, ὅντω γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν υἱόν αὐτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν. Would you ever have imagined that in these you should recognise the two great revelations, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth:""For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son?" And yet, word by word, and step by step, they lead you on till you can embody your ideas in that strange speech as easily as in your own vernacular; or, like Morrison, who learned to offer his private devotions in Chinese, and Martyn who came to meditate in Persian, the foreign tongue becomes your favourite and familiar; or, till like hundreds of holy men, you con with reverential preference those Greek and Hebrew Scriptures, which contain God's inspiration in its first and chosen medium.

However, it needs years of study and usitation to become proficients in either dialect; and few of our fellows have the leisure or the wealth to attain such mastery. Doubtless, the great Lawgiver might thus have ruled it. He might have proclaimed it: "Jerusalem is the place

in which to worship: and their own eastern originals are the only languages in which it is lawful to search the Scriptures. There is a sacred place, and there is a sacred speech; and a sacrifice in Gentile soil, and a Scripture in a Gentile dialect are equally profane." But far from putting such a barrier in the way of every man praying and every man perusing the Bible in his own tongue, the Gospel dispensation is the age of a universal Word, and a ubiquitous worship. The hour is now come when neither in Jerusalem nor Samaria, but on every spot where a praying soul is found, and where a believer bends the knee, the true worshipper is welcome to worship the Father. And the hour is also come when every man in his own tongue, wherein he was born, is to read and learn the wonderful works of God. And we may well be thankful that not only is the thing permitted, but the thing is possible.

It is possible. Suppose it is a book of Solomon which a scholar was trying to translate into our English tongue. His first business would be to make himself versant in Hebrew vocables and Hebrew grammar; but that would not suffice For every Hebrew word you might give its English counterpart, and yet produce a rendering so bald and meagre that the reader who was not amused by its uncouthness would soon be repelled by its dryness. Something more than a grammar and lexicon is required to make a man a good translator. He must acquaint himself with his author's contemporaries and with his country. He must have some idea how people thought and felt and lived in that old time. He would need to know what like a Hebrew soldier was, what like a Hebrew priest. He would need to have some notion how the sun shone and how the corn grew in Palestine. In imagination he should have lodged in "the house of the forest of Lebanon; " he should have sauntered in the vineyards of Engedi, and in the balmy everings of summer should have watched the fishes leaping in the gravelled ponds of Heshbon; and he should have worshipped in the Temple whilst its atmosphere still swam with fragrance from the fresh-carved cedar-whilst the new marble glistened like the virgin snow, and brass and gold flashed all around their molten brightness. And he should be personally acquainted with the author himself: he should know king Solomon in his imperial lore and pensive wisdom, in his high-born insight

together. It was, in short, a Sabbath in the land of Knox and Chalmers. I had been in this position probably ten or fifteen minutes, when I observed two young men turn a corner and walk towards the church. They were dressed in their working clothes, unshaven and dirty, and slightly intoxicated. As they passed the church door, they assumed a swaggering, irreverent gait,lau ghed, and finally commenced singing a profane song. Some of the bystanders expressed their horror at the occurrence, others wondered what had become of the police; but my mother turned to me, and said, 'Follow these two men, and invite them to a seat in our pew.'

"I soon overtook them and delivered my mother's message. One laughed scornfully and began to swear; the other paused, and pondered: he was evidently struck with the nature of the invitation, and probably also with the earnestness and simplicity with which it was delivered. His companion again swore, and was about to drag him away. But he still paused. I repeated the invitation, and in a few seconds he looked in my face and said, 'When I was a boy like you, I went to church every Sunday. I have not been inside of a church for three years. I don't feel right. I believe I will you.' I seized his hand and go with led him back to the house of God, in spite of the oaths and remonstrances of his companion. The doors were now open, and the church was filling rapidly; we entered, and I conducted him to the pew where my mother was already seated. A most excellent sermon was preached from Eccles. xi. 1, Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.' The young man was attentive, but seemed abashed and downcast.

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"At the conclusion of the service he hastened out of the church, but he was closely followed, and soon overtaken by my mother, who kindly said to him, " Have you a Bible, young man?' 'No, ma'am, but I can get one,' was his reply. You can read, of course?' said she. Yes, ma'am.' 'Well, take my son's Bible until you procure one of your own. Read it attentively during the week, and come to meeting again next Lord's-day. I will always be happy to accommodate you with a seat.'

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"He put the Bible in his pocket and hurried away. At family worship that evening my mother prayed fervently for the conversion of that young man.

"Next Sunday came, and the next, but the stranger did not appear. My mother frequently spoke of him, and appeared grieved at his absence. He had doubtless been the subject of her closet devotions. On the third Sabbath morning, while the congregation were singing the first psalm, the young man again entered our pew. He was now dressed genteelly, and appeared thin and pale, as if from recent sickness. My mother looked at him with great earnestness, and a gleam of satisfaction and thankfulness overspread her pale, intellectual features. Immediately after the Benediction, the stranger laid my Bible on the desk and left the house, without giving my mother an opportunity, she much desired, of conversing with him. On one of the blank leaves of the Bible we found some writing in pencil, signed W. C.' The writer stated, that he had been confined to his room by sickness for the previous two weeks. He declared his inability to express the gratitude he felt towards my mother, for the interest she had manifested in his spiritual welfare: he asked to be remembered in her prayers, and concluded by stating that he was an Englishman, and would return to his native land in about ten days.

"Years rolled on; my mother passed to her heavenly rest; I grew up to manhood, and the stranger was forgotten.

"In the autumn of 18- the ship St. George, of which I was the medical officer, anchored in Table Bay. Between us and Penguin Island, I observed a man-of-war which I had seen before and knew well; it was Her Majesty's brig Chanticleer, of ten guns, Commander Forbes, on a surveying expedition. The surgeon of the brig, Dr. F- had been my preceptor, and I resolved to pay him a visit. He received me with his usual warmth and kindness. After dining with the gun-room officers, he proposed that on the following day, which was the Sabbath, we should attend meeting in Capetown. It will remind us,' he said, ' of old times, when we used to go arm-inarm to church in Union-street."

"Next day, in company with my friend, I attended morning service at the Wesleyan Chapel. At the conclusion of worship, a gentleman seated behind me, asked to look at my Bible. In a few minutes he returned it, and I walked into the street. We had arranged to dine at the

who had examined my Bible laid his hand on my shoulder, and begged to have a few minutes' conversation. We were shown into a private apartment. As soon as we were seated, he examined my countenance with great attention, and then began to sob; tears rolled down his cheeks; he was evidently labouring under intense emotion. He appeared to be about thirty-five years of age, was tall and slender, and neatly dressed, but apparently in bad health. He asked me several questions-my name, age, occupation, birthplace, etc. He then inquired if I had not, when a boy, many years ago, invited a drunken Sabbathbreaker to a seat in Dr. Beatty's Church. I was astonished-the subject of my mother's anxiety and prayers was before me. Mutual explanations and congratulations followed, after which Mr. C. gave me a short history of his life, from the time he left Scotland to the day on which we met so unexpectedly in a foreign land.

"He was born in the town of Leeds, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, of highly respectable and religious parents, who gave him a good education, and trained him up in the way of righteousness. When about fifteen years of age his father died, and his mother's straitened circumstances obliged her to take him from school, and put him to learn a trade. In his new situation he imbibed all manner of evil, became incorrigibly vicious, and broke his mother's heart. Freed now from all parental restraint, he left his employers and travelled to Scotland. In the city of Glasgow he had lived and sinned for two years, when he was arrested in his career through my mother's instrumentality. On the first Sabbath of our strange interview in Union-street, he confessed that after he left church he was seized with pangs of unutterable remorse. The sight of a mother and her son worshipping God together recalled the happy days of his own boyhood, when he went to church and Sunday-school, and when he also had a mother-a mother whose latter days he had embittered, and whose gray hairs he had brought with sorrow to the grave. His mental suffering threw him on a bed of sickness, from which he arose a changed man. He returned to England, cast himself at the feet of his maternal uncle, and asked and obtained forgiveness. His conviction of sin-his battlings with tempta

tion-his repentance-his victory over the world-the growth of his faith in the great atonement-and, finally, his peace in believing, formed a deeply interesting and instructive narrative. With his uncle's consent he studied for the ministry; and on being ordained, he entered the missionary field, and had been labouring for several years in Southern Africa.

"The moment I saw your Bible this morning,' he said, 'I recognised it, and the examination of the writing, which is still legible on the blank leaf, assured me that I was not mistaken. And now, do you know who was my companion on the memorable Sabbath you invited me to church? He was the notorious Jack Hill, who was hanged about a year afterwards for highway robbery. You can now see and appreciate the terrible fate from which I was rescued by the unfathomable love and boundless grace of God, through your Own and your mother's instrumentality. I was dragged from the very brink of infamy and destruction, and saved as a brand from the burning. You remember Dr. Beatty's text on the day of my salvation: 'Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.' The proud, hardened, scoffing sinner, is found, after thirteen years, a humble minister of salvation to the benighted heathen; and your sainted mother is doubtless enjoying the reward of those who turn many to righteousness,-shining as the stars for ever and ever."

SOME OF OUR DANGERS.

BY THE REV. J. HUIE, MINISTER OF THE PRESBYTRIAN CHURCH, AT WOOLER.

IT is the part of wisdom, both for individuals and for communities, to inquire into the dangers by which they are surrounded. Especially is it wise for the Church of Christ to look carefully into the dangers by which she may be encompassed: for her Lord's sake, for her own sake, for the world's sake, she is bound so to inquire.

I. We are in danger of overvaluing Presbyterianism. Our polity is scriptural it is founded on God's Word, not on tradition or expediency. It has been tested by experience, and not found wanting. There are evident evils, and these not small, in Christian communities