THAMES BRIDGES.--There are from the Tower to Kingston no less than eleven bridges across the Thames, in addition to numerous ferries.-Globe. In a recent collection for the National Schools at Brighton, made after divine service in the church, the morning and evening collections amounted to 2731. 5s. 3d., of which 13s. were given by the poor in halfpence.— Salisbury Herald.

Earl Brownlow's second coachman lost his life by a lamentable accident during Sunday night. Contrary to the regulations laid down by the noble earl for the observance of his domestics, he had been drinking in the village until the rest of the servants had retired for the night. In order to obtain admittance he had to scale a high wall, as is supposed he had before been in the habit of doing, but when at the top (whether from intoxication or accident is not known) he was precipitated to the ground with such violence as to cause dislocation of the spine, which occasioned his death soon after.-Notts Journal.

STRENGTH OF INSECTS.-The agility and strength of insects are well known. Ants can carry loads forty or fifty times heavier than themselves. Linnæus has calculated that the melolontha is, relatively to its size, six times stronger than the horse; and he asserts, if the proportional strength of the lucanus, or stag beetle, had been given to the elephant, it could have turned up the largest trees by the roots, and could have hurled huge rocks against its assailants.-Edinburgh Review.

THE BLIND MAN'S BIBLE.-We have before us in a good-sized quarto volume, the Gospel of St. Mark, printed, or rather embossed, for the use of the blind. This is the first book that has been prepared in this country on this plan. It is the handiwork of Mr. Snider, the gentleman who acts as secretary of the institution, and is a beautiful illustration, if not fulfilment, of the prophecy, that the "blind shall see." This admirable specimen of the art of embossed letters is worthy the attention of the curious.-Phil. (U.S.) Gaz.

THE MUSK DEER.-The musk deer of Thibet yields the valuable drug so called. The animal itself is nearly the size of the roebuck. The flesh is esteemed, although strongly impregnated with this scent. When the animal is killed, the bag is cut away and made into a kind of purse. So powerfully does every part retain this perfume, that even the blood and liver are frequently mixed up with the genuine musk by the crafty Asiatics.

In any adversity that happens to us in the world, we ought to consider that misery and affliction are not less natural than snow and hail, storm and tempest; and that it were as reasonable to hope for a year without winter as for a life without trouble.-Howe.

TAME TROUT. It is not an uncommon occurrence for persons residing in the country to place trouts in their wells, and they find them very useful in destroying insects and keeping the water pure. About eight years ago a trout, three inches in length, was put into a well in Delnashaugh, and it is now fully eighteen inches in length, and so tame that it will eat out of the hand of any person who may choose to hold out food for it-Elgin Courier.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received the communications of C. P. F.; C. S. C.; W. D. L.; K. P.; H. S. T.; F. C.; E. A.; C. C.; E. C. H.; A. D.; P. V.; Amelia; I. C. A.; H. S. T.; D. I. E.; some newspaper extracts, and several anonymous articles. We regret to be obliged to delay so many useful communications from our correspondents.

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ON THE RIGHT DISPOSITION FOR STUDYING THE BIBLE.

THE simple and unprejudiced study of the Bible is the death of religious extravagance. Many read it under a particular bias of mind. They read books written by others under the same views. Their preaching and conversation run in the same channel. If they could awaken themselves from this state, and come to read the whole Scriptures, from every thing which they could find there they would start as from a dreamamazed at the humble, meek, forbearing, holy, heavenly character of the simple religion of the Scriptures, to which, in a greater or less degree, their eyes had been blinded.

The right way of interpreting Scripture is to take it as we find it, without any attempt to force it into any particular system.

Whatever may be fairly inferred from Scripture, we need not fear to insist on. Many passages speak the

language of what is called Calvinism, and that in almost the strongest terms; I would not have a man clip and curtail these passages, to bring them down to some system; let him go with them in their free and full sense, for, otherwise, if he do not absolutely pervert them, he will weaken their energy.

But, let him look at as many more, which speak the language of Arminianism, and let him go all the way with these also. God has been pleased thus to state and to leave the thing; and all our attempts to distort it, one way or the other, are puny and contemptible.

A man may find much amusement in the Biblevariety of prudential instruction-abundance of sublimity and poetry: but if he stop there, he stops short of its great end; for, the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. The grand secret, in the study of the Scriptures, is to discover Jesus Christ therein, the way, the truth, and the life.

Thanks we give, and adoration,
For thy Gospel's joyful sound:
May the fruits of thy salvation

In our hearts and lives abound,

Ever faithful to the truth may we be found.

CECIL'S REMAINS.-Sent by F. C.

ON ATTENDING PUBLIC WORSHIP WITH A RIGHT MIND.

John ii. 13.

THE sheep, and oxen, and doves, which our Lord cast out of the temple were for sacrifice; and the money which he poured out, when he overthrew the tables of the money-changers, was to supply gifts for the treasury, according to the custom of which we read in the twentyfirst chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. The excuse made for selling these things in the courts of the temple was, that it was a great convenience to those worshippers that came from a distance, like the Ethiopian eunuch who came from a country beyond Egypt. (Acts viii. 27.) These strangers could not be provided with animals of their own, fit for sacrifice; and they would require to change their foreign money into the current coin of Judea, before it could be put into the treasury of the Lord.

1835.]

CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY.

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And now, what did our blessed Saviour do? Did he accept the excuse, and allow the house of God to be made a house of merchandise for the temple service? No:-He "made a scourge of small cords, and drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables, and said unto them that sold doves: "Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise."

And are we less guilty than these Jews, when we carry the thoughts of our worldly business into the house of God?-when we think over the bargains of the shop, or the market, without even the excuse that what we buy and sell is in any way connected with God's service? Surely, if we thus insult God in his own house, the scourge of the Lord will be raised against us, and by sickness, or poverty, or affliction of some kind, he will bring our sin to remembrance. M. A.

CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY.

WANT of simplicity is a great stumbling-block to many Christians. The character and behaviour of our blessed Lord is not the study of those who talk much about faith in his blood, and love for his person, and persuade themselves into a belief that they are his real disciples, while in fact they have not that spiritual preparation of the soul, that "honest and good heart, which bringeth forth fruit a hundredfold." Some of these pray much, both in the closet and in the family; they are constant at a place of worship, constant at the Lord's Supper; they are fond of these; and, in so doing, they are right;-but they are apt to forget that these are all means to an end, and not the end itself. Do not fall into this error, my neighbours, for it is a very fatal one. Real, genuine Christianity is a very simple thing: it consists in a pure and heartfelt love to Christ, which will, without fail, lead to a study of his life, and a desire to copy it in every duty towards God, our neighbour, and ourselves. This love is the gift of the Spirit; and the Spirit never gives a true love for Jesus without bringing forth a single-hearted desire to be like Him. The Christianity of the Gospel is a simple love for Him who has carried our sorrow

and became a curse instead of us,- -a love which not only brings us often upon our knees in private, and to God's house, and to the Lord's table, but which sends us to our occupations in the spirit of Christ, which causes us to fulfil all our duties one towards another; in that spirit, to "bridle our tongues," to "visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep ourselves unspotted from the world," and, in short, to "love one another with a pure heart fervently." A LAYMAN.

CONSIDER THY LATTER END.

THIS is the condemnation, that "light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." O that the profane and presumptuous, who laugh at sin, and leave eternity to hazard, were wise, and understood this, and would consider their latter end. How light, in comparison with theirs, is the guilt of the lawless savage of the desert. He has not that condemning addition to his criminality-the wilful rejection of the Saviour. To perish with the glad tidings of redemption yet vibrating in our ears; to perish with the waters of life just receding for ever from our view?— What a fearful aggravation! As though the mariner should sink struggling in the waves, with his own native land full before his eyes, safety and the shore nigh at hand, but only to add an unutterable bitterness to his dying agony. How shall we escape if we "neglect so great salvation?" It is not here said, if we blaspheme, if we pervert, or even if we deny-but, if we "neglect. If it be of the slightest importance, it is of inconceivable importance; if it demands the least sacrifice, it demands the greatest; "for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

CHRIST ALL PERFECTION.

Sent by F. C.

He hath done all things well; he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.-MARK vii. 37.

IT can be said of no one but Christ himself, that he did all things well. Abraham sinned, and David sinned,