texture, although differing on many inferior points, are bound together by one train of thought, and have the same language, in so far as they agree, applied to them. To one particular fact, or idea, or person, or principle, the remark originally belongs; and from thence it becomes appropriated to other ideas, persons, or principles, by analogy in so far forth as the resemblance combines them together. Thus to take the example of a single word, the term "perfect" is applied not only to him who is radically perfect in holiness and purity, which constitutes its grand idea, but to a person that is sincere, or sound from the infection of particular sins, or gradually advancing towards a morally perfect state, because they are reflections and shades of the same leading idea. So, also, to come nearer to the point, the "coming of Christ" is applied to three or four different manifestations of the divine glory, accompanied with judgments on God's enemies, and mercies poured out on his Church, as well as to that great event when he will literally and personally appear to condemn and to deliver, just because they all resemble each other in their main features. The phrase, "kingdom of heaven," is likewise thus predicated. In its primary idea, it doubtless has respect to that state of celestial happiness, in which Christ will be all in all to his people, as their Priest and King; but the most superficial reader of God's Word must perceive that it is there referred to other conditions of things on earth, which are distinct from, and yet united to, this great idea by a close analogy. The visible Church of Christ on earth, comprising all who are by name and profession, and the adoption of certain external laws, Christians; and the Church of his truly faithful people alone, are likewise singled out by this common appellation—“ the kingdom of heaven." Why is this but because they are successive approximations to this final manifestation of Christ's full and perfect sovereignty over his redeemed people? And thus, to connect these different comings of Christ with the different applications of the last mentioned phrase, we may sum up our observations in the words of an excellent writer of the last century: "The state of things which is attained by the events of this period (the evan

gelical) is what is often called the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God. The setting up the kingdom of Christ is chiefly accomplished by four successive great events, each of which is in Scripture called Christ's coming in his kingdom. I would observe, that each of these four great dispensations, which are represented as Christ's coming in his kingdom, are but so many steps and degrees of the accomplishment of one event. They are not the setting up of so many distinct kingdoms of Christ, they are all of them only several degrees of the accomplishment of one event. And because these four great events are but images one of another, and the three former but types of the last, and since they are all only several steps of the accomplishment of the same thing, hence we find them all from time to time prophesied of under one, as they are in the prophecies of Daniel, and likewise Matthew xxiv., where some things seem more applicable to one of them and others to another."*

I think that I have now sufficiently explained and illustrated the warrant we have for the rule itself; and we shall experience but little difficulty, if we attend to the data given in applying it. Suppose, for instance, we have come in the course of our reading to that practical exhortation, “Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate; and touch not the unclean thing." (2 Cor. vi. 17) This was undoubtedly addressed to the Corinthian Christians as a caution to abstain from the idolatrous practices of the heathen around them. But on this principle of analogy, we should see that there is no impropriety in enlarging and extending the application. The resemblance would be most full and perfect between them; and Christians living now in the midst of idolatrous and unconverted heathen, as is the case in many parts of India, this exhortation then would apply most closely to this case. Or, if there were a body of idolatrous Christians with whom God's

* President Edwards' History of Redemption. Period the third. Some short remarks on the right of extending interpretation by analogy, will be found in the beginning of Bishop Butler's first Sermon on Human Nature.

servants had communication and intercourse, as the Church of Rome, a secondary application might with justice be extended to them. Or, lastly, if the believer is surrounded by a world, many of whose customs, maxims, practices, pursuits, proclaim a spiritual idolatry, rendered by it to the "god of this world," it would be not improperly, though of course less strictly, applied to such a case as this: Come out from among them in these evil customs and ungodly practices, and be ye separate. But, on the other hand, we must not forget a due caution in thus dealing with Scripture; and it is better to keep within the range of a legitimate interpretation, than bring discredit on that Holy Book by loose, fanciful, and unwarranted explanations of its text.

THE BOOK AND THE MISSIONARY.

A LITTLE more than twenty years ago a youth of about seventeen years of age, the subject of true piety, having entered at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, with a view to the bar, the study of mathematics so enraptured him, that he pursued it most ardently day and night, and grudged every moment taken from it, except a short period for devotion. So assiduous were his studies, that after remaining there only five terms, had he gone up for the examination, he would have obtained a scholarship. But the great Head of the Church had determined to confer upon him a higher honour than any that a university conld bestow, namely, that of preaching to the perishing heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ. One Sunday, when he was looking over some religious pamphlets which he had brought from his father's library, he happened to alight upon the Memoir of Mrs. Mead, wife of the Rev. C. Mead, missionary in Travancore. The perusal of this so powerfully impressed his mind with the importance of consecrating himself to missionary work, that when he began to study mathematics again, on the Monday morning, he found he could not proceed; and every time he read this memoir it had the same effect; so that at last he determined to give up the bar, and to devote himself to the work of Christ among the heathen.

That youth was afterwards well known as the highly esteemed and devoted Rev. Samuel Dyer. He left England, and arrived in the Straits of Malacca, in 1827; and during the sixteen years which have elapsed since, (with the exception of the time occupied by a visit to England,) first at Penang, then at Malacca, and last of all at Singapore, he exerted himself for the furtherance of the Gospel among the Chinese inhabitants of the three settlements. Not contented with the usual course of missionary effort, he applied himself to the compilation of vocabularies of the Chinese language, to the illustration, in various ways, of difficult points in that language, but principally to the construction of punches and matrices for the casting of two founts of Chinese type, a larger and smaller. It was to this last important object that he devoted himself with peculiar energy and success. A great proportion of those Chinese characters which are most usually met with in the classics and other works generally read, have been cast from punches and matrices prepared by Mr. Dyer; and founts of this larger size of type have been sent to various mission stations. These have been universally admitted to be the most correct and the best adapted to Chinese taste of any that have ever been prepared. During the last eighteen months constant additions have been made to these; and a new fount of a smaller size commenced and vigorously proceeded with, and the appearance of these is equally beautiful with the larger. Ĥe had accumulated a great mass of experience in regard to this department, in the acquirement of which he shewed no small ingenuity, and devoted much manual labour. In carrying on these efforts he was greatly assisted by pecuniary contributions from those who took an interest in the work, but he also contributed largely himself out of his own private funds. When, in addition to this, it is mentioned that he had constantly the superintendence of a somewhat extensive printing and binding establishment, and also of a foundry, in which founts of Siamese, Malay, and English, as well as of Chinese types were cast, it will be readily admitted that his life was far from being either an idle or a useless one. These operations were conducted with the greatest regularity and order;

and multifarious as they were, they did not hinder him from engaging in direct missionary labours, while his very accurate knowledge of the colloquial dialect which prevails most in the Straits (the Hok-kien, or Fuh-kien), enabled him to communicate to the heathen mind these truths of the Gospel upon which he placed his own hopes of salvation. How signal then was the blessing of God that thus rested on a good book! Reader, would not you have rejoiced to have presented it to that young man? It may be that much good may arise from the gift of a religious book by you.

MARY'S GLEANINGS-No. II.

EVERY human bosom contains the evil grain, even to the innocent and lovely babe slumbering so sweetly on its mother's lap. One might not think it possible iniquity should lie buried in so fair a spot. There it is, nevertheless, and they whose business it is to till these pretty gardens, must not mistake the case, as we fear they often do, and think it enough to fence the garden round, and keep all mischief out. It is within, and if the first germinating passion be not checked, the first budding branch cut off, each tendency to transgression carefully watched and pruned, without relaxation, without intermission to the end of life, first by others, and subsequently by ourselves, there needs no more than what is already "cast in" to fill the whole human nature with corruption. Behold the worst character that ever disgraced the earth -the horror of humanity, the very type of hell; and think what a growth is there since the new-born born babe first took his mother's kiss, as she gazed with intensest joy upon his beauty, and gladly blessed her Maker for the gift.

We are persuaded that the most experienced Christian cannot sit down with the neglected and grossly ignorant labourer, nay, not with the child in a Sunday or infant school, and strive to explain and enforce the great truths of the Bible, without finding his own views of the Gospel amplified and cleared through this engagement in the business of tuition. The mere trying to make a point