dangerous; they pluck us by the arm in our downward course, and conduct us back to safety and peace. Dwight.

Dread nothing more than a profession of religion without principle, the form of godliness without its transforming power, a Christian creed with a worldly and heathen heart. Bradley.

The Bible is the brightest mirror of the Deity. There we discern not only His being, but His character; not only His character, but His will; not only what He is in Himself, but what He is to us, and what we may expect at His hands. This knowledge of God neither nature nor providence can teach us, whatever we may there collect concerning the relation He bears towards us, as the Creator and Governor of the world, or of His propensity to mercy and reconcilement.

Bates' Rural Philosophy, p. 26.

When harassed with doubts, and tempted to turn away from Christ, I often repeated from my heart, the affecting exclamation of St. Peter,To whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.' Blanco White.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS, &c.

Deaf and dumb Boy.- Lately there was an interesting and curious trial, in which a deaf and dumb boy was prosecutor, and a female thief the prisoner. Doctor C. Orpen, Secretray to the Deaf and Dumb Institution, was sworn to interpret, and communicated the questions of the Court, of the Jury, and of the prisoner, partly by spelling the words on his fingers, and partly by writing, to which the boy answered, both by speaking articulately and by signs. The boy's name was Thos. Collins; he was, until lately, a pupil of Mr. Humphreys, master of a Deaf and Dumb School, and is now an apprentice to Mr. Goodwin, a respectable printer, in Dublin; he is totally deaf; and, until taught to speak in that school, had been totally dumb.

The jury found the prisoner guilty; and the judge sentenced her to seven year's transportation.

The following letter, which was handed by the boy to the recorder, after his examination, explains the circumstances of the robbery. It was similar to the account which he wrote on his slate for the grand jury:

TO MY JUDGE.—I was standing, looking at a shop window and things, last Monday week night, it was nine of the clock in the evening, a wicked woman met me and spoke to me; I said, "I am deaf and dumb," and by my signs, until she took away my watch and my fob pocket, and tore it off. She ran away into another street, into a house; I followed her, with my eyes, immediately, and ran after her. She ran into a house down stairs, into a little back kitchen-cellar-low. She threw a candle down out, with her hand, to make me dark night, and she pushed me. I fell down on my back on the ugly ground; my elbow and back were painful and blue. I got up dirty and caught her; she is very strong; I called a watchman; I said, "come, come," to take her to prison. She pushed my watch under a bed and hid it-sitting on the bed; the two watchmen found it by their search. It is very true-I swear true. I hope the judge will not hang her. Will he give me my silver watch and my fob, and send her to lock up in prison, or send her to ship to Botany Bay? I am Thomas Collins, a deaf and dumb orphan boy. Perhaps if a good minister will speak to her some things about God and Jesus Christ, she will be repentant, and will become a good woman, and a minister will be better than a judge; but if she will not be repentant, that the judge will send her to hard work in the Botany Bay.Saunders's News Letter.

Apsley Farm, the residence of Mr. Holles, two miles from Colnbrook, was destroyed by fire on Saturday night. It was occasioned by the negligence of a servant girl in setting fire to some bed furniture; and so rapid were the flames, that in half an hour the interior of the house was destroyed. A row of stabling was also burnt, and two horses.

Burning of Hindoo Widows.-We believe that there have been of late years much fewer of these horrible scenes which were so grievous to the minds of those Christians who visited India. The progress of the Christian religion, we believe, has done much; but, from the following account, much is going on that is truly distressing.

The late Calcutta papers contain accounts of numerous Suttees (or sacrifices), where widows burn themselves with the bodies of their deceased husbands.

A dreadful instance occurred at Cuttack. The widow of a Brahmin, aged about 34, burned herself in spite of argument and entreaty, as well as the offer of a pension of four rupees a month for life.

Another took place at Pooree. The victim was also a Brahmin's widow, about the same age; and her son, aged 16, set fire to the pile. Arguments and offers of money were in this case equally unsuccessful.

A third instance was one of Unoomirta, where the widow does not burn with the body of her deceased husband, but with the wooden shoes and stick belonging to him. The husband had been attached to the Court of Jeypoor. The public officers endeavoured to prevent the act, but the deluded woman petitioned the Court, and was at length suffered to burn. She was about seventeen.

A fourth instance occurred at Santipore, where a Brahmin's three wives, one of the age of 27, another 21, and the third 15, were suffered to burn, before the permission of the magistrate had arrived.

A fifth took place near Chittapore; the widow was 69.

A sixth occurred at Serampore; the widow was 70, and possessed property-her son appeared in high spirits at the pile!

Danger of reading in Bed.-On Tuesday morning, at six o'clock, a servant living at 29, Rue Richer, Paris, on awaking. perceived fire issuing from a room on the third floor, inhabited by an Englishman. She gave the alarm, and assistance was immediately procured, but it was found that the contents of the room were entirely consumed, and the unhappy Euglishman had fallen a prey to the flames. It is stated that he was accustomed to read in his bed, and falling asleep, it is supposed the candle set fire to the curtains, and thus caused the fatal accident.-(Morning Post.)

The Red Sea-It is a notion not uncommon that the Red Sea is so called from something like that colour in the water, or on the shore: its name is, however, really taken from an Arabian King whose name was Erythras, which word when translated into our language, neans the Red.—Memoirs of India.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the Communications of M. M.; W. C. B.; B; F* S * ; and a little book called In School and out of School. The Lancashire Curate in our next.

We wish we could do any good on the subject of which T. P. complains; but it is beyond our sphere. We have not given our correspondent's name at length, lest he should lose his place, when his master finds that he has been endeavouring to publish objections to Sunday parties. The commandment on keeping the Sabbath certainly requires us to consider our man-servant and our maid-servant,” as well as ourselves.

THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor.

MAY, 1826.

REMARKS ON THE THIRTY-SECOND CHAPTER OF GENESIS, from the twenty-fifth verse to the end; and on the Thirty-third, Thirty-fourth, Thirty-fifth, and Thirty-sixth Chapters.

(Continued from p. 148, vol. 6.)

VERSE 25. IN prayer perseverance is necessary, as well as earnestness.-That which is valuable is usually difficult of attainment." The children of this world" leave no expedient untried, which may tend to the accomplishment of their purposes;-and so" the children of light," instead of being discouraged if they do not immediately obtain their petitions, should only be the more urgent and importunate. "Continue in prayer." Men ought always to pray, and not to faint."

The dislocation of Jacob's thigh, merely by the touch of his antagonist, must have proved to him Who it was with whom he wrestled, and have shewn him, that, when He suffered himself to be prevailed over, it was not by Jacob's strength, but of his own mercy-and as an evidence of the acceptance of Jacob's prayer.

V. 28. No longer Jacob-a supplanter, but Israel a Prince of God,-one who had prevailed NO. 5. VOL. VI.

K

with God for a blessing, and should, in His strength, with men also.

V. 29. "Wherefore dost thou ask after my name?" Have not my dealings with thee taught thee who I am?

V. 31. "Halted."-Israel carried this token away with him, that what had passed was a reality -not a dream or vision, or delusive imagination.

V. 4.

On the Thirty-third Chapter.

"And Esau ran to meet him," &c.-" The heart of man is in the hands of the Lord, as the rivers of water; he turneth it whithersoever he

will."

V. 5. "The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.""I will speak of thy testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed," was David's resolution; and, in the same spirit, we find Jacob not ashamed to confess before men, what, with grateful adoration, he had acknowledged to God in secret-that he was not worthy of the least of all the mercies that he had received.

V. 10. "Therefore have I seen thy face," &c. Jacob appears to mean, that, in the turning of his brother's heart again to him, he recognized the mercy of God, in having influenced him to a reconciliation.

V. 11. Jacob was thus urgent, that he might obtain from his brother a token of forgiveness.The rejection of the present of an inferior, is, to this day, in Eastern countries, an expression of displeasure.

V, 15. Jacob wished to give his brother full proof that all he desired of him was his friendship. V. 20. "El-elohe-Israel," that is, "God, the God of Israel :"-an appropriation of the new