animal lingers and expires, there is an unexplored depth and intensity of suffering which the poor dumb animal itself cannot tell, and against which it can offer no 'remonstrance-an untold and unknown amount of 'wretchedness of which no articulate voice gives utterance. THOMAS CHALMERS." unequivocal, unmistak'able. unmitigated, undimin' ished. wretch'edness, mis'ery. 5 Thomas Chalmers.-An eloquent preacher and distinguished philanthropist of the present century. He was also a devoted student of mathematics and natural science. His writings present a remarkable combination of religious fervour with scientific enthusiasm; for example, his Astronomical Discourses, and his Bridge 'Physiologist, one who studies and expounds physiology,-the science which treats of the nature and organization of liv-water Treatise On the Adaptation of Extering bodies. nal Nature to the Moral and Intellectual 4 Sentient apparatus, apparatus of the Constitution of Man. Born 1780; died feelings; that is, the nerve system. 1847. THE DELUGE. Look for a moment on the 'catastrophe of the Deluge.1 And let not our attention be so 'engrossed by its dread and awful character, as to overlook all that preceded it, and see nothing but the flood and its devouring waters. The waters rise till rivers swell into lakes, and lakes become seas, and the sea stretches out her arms along fertile plains to seize their flying population. Still the waters rise; and now, mingled with beasts that terror has tamed, men climb to the mountain-tops, with the flood roaring at their heels. Still the waters rise; and now each 'summit stands above them like a separate and sea-girt isle. Still the waters rise; and, crowding closer on the narrow spaces of lessening hill-tops, men and beasts fight for standing room. Still the thunders roar, and the lightnings flash, and the rains descend, and the waters rise, till the last survivor of the ⚫shrieking crowd is washed off, and the head of the highest Alp goes down beneath the wave. Now the waters rise no more. God's servant has done his work. He rests from his labours; and, all land drowned, all life destroyed, an awful silence reigning and a shoreless ocean rolling, Death for once has nothing to do but ride in triumph on the top of some giant billow, which, meeting no coast, no continent, no Alp, no Andes against which to break, sweeps round and round the world. We stand aghast at the scene; and as the 'corpses of gentle children and sweet infants float by, we 'exclaim, Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies ?2 No; assuredly not. Where, then, is his mercy? Look here; behold this Ark, as, steered by an 'invisible hand, she comes dimly through the gloom. Lonely ship on a shoreless ocean, she carries mercy on board. She holds the costliest 'freight that ever sailed the sea. The germs of the Church are there the children of the old world, and the fathers of the new. Suddenly, amid the awful gloom, as she drifts over that dead and silent sea, a grating noise is heard. Her keel has grounded on the top of Ararat.3 The door is opened; and, beneath the sign of the olive branch, her tenants come forth from their 'baptismal burial, like life from the dead, or like souls which have passed from a state of nature into the light and the liberty of grace, or like the saints when they shall rise at the summons of the trumpet to behold a new heaven and a new earth, and see the sign which these " gray fathers "4 hailed encircling a head that was crowned with thorns. THOMAS GUTHRIE." ten'ants, oc'cupants. "Gray fathers."-From Campbell's poem on The Rainbow: "When o'er the green undeluged earth Heaven's covenant thou didst shine, 5 Thomas Guthrie. An eloquent preacher and a well-known philanthropist Born 1803; died 1873. WHAT IS WAR? WHAT is war? I believe that half the people that talk about war have not the slightest idea what it is. In a short sentence it may be summed up to be the combination and concentration of all the horrors, atrocities, crimes, and sufferings of which human nature on this globe is capable. But what is even a rumour of war? Is there anybody here who has anything in the funds,1 or who is the owner of any railway stock; or anybody who has a large stock of raw material or of manufactured goods? The funds have recently gone down 10 per cent. I do not say that the fall is all on account of this danger of war, but a great proportion of it undoubtedly is. A fall of 10 per cent. in the funds is nearly £80,000,000 sterling of value; and railway stock having gone down 20 per cent. makes a difference of £60,000,000 in the value of the railway property of this country. Add the two-£140,000,000-and take the diminished prosperity and value of manufactures of all kinds during the last few months, and you will under-state the actual loss to the country now if you put it down at £200,000,000 sterling. But that is merely a rumour of war. That is war a long way off-the small cloud no bigger than a man's hand: what will it be if it comes nearer and becomes a fact? And surely sane men ought to consider whether the case is a good one, the ground fair, the necessity clear, before they drag a nation of nearly thirty millions of people into a long and bloody struggle, for a 'decrepit and tottering empire,2 2 which all the nations in Europe cannot long sustain. Well, if you go into war now, you will have more banners to decorate your cathedrals and churches. Englishmen will fight now as well as they ever did; and there is ample power to back them, if the country can be but sufficiently excited and deluded. You may raise up great generals. You may have another Wellington, and another Nelson too; for this country can grow men capable of every enterprise. Then there may be titles, and pensions, and marble monuments to 'eternize the men who have thus become great;—but what becomes of you and your country, and your children? Speaking here, however, to such an audience--an audience probably, for its numbers, as intelligent and as influential as ever was assembled within the walls of any hall in this kingdom-I think I may put before you higher 'considerations even than those of property and the institutions of your country. I may remind you of duties more solemn, and of 'obligations more 'imperative. You profess to be a Christian nation. You make it your boast even-though boasting is somewhat out of place in such questions-you make it your boast that you are a Christian people, and that you draw your rule of doctrine and practice, as from a well pure and undefiled, from the lively oracles of God, and from the direct revelation of the Omnipotent. You have even conceived the magnificent project of 'illuminating the whole Earth, even to its remotest and darkest recesses, by the 'dissemination of the volume of the New Testament, in whose every page are written for ever the words of peace. Within the limits of this island alone, every Sabbath-day, 20,000, yes, far more than 20,000 temples are thrown open, in which devout men and women assemble to worship him who is the "Prince of Peace." Is this a reality? or is your Christianity a 'romance, and your profession a dream? No; I am sure that your Christianity is not a romance, and I am equally sure that your profession is not a dream. It is because I believe this that I appeal to you with confidence, and that I have hope and faith in the future. I believe that we shall see, and at no very distant time, sound economic principles spreading much more widely amongst the people; a sense of justice growing up in a soil which hitherto has been deemed unfruitful; and-which will be better than all —the churches of the United Kingdom, the churches of Britain, awaking as it were from their slumbers, and girding up their loins to more glorious work, when they shall not only accept and believe in the prophecy, but labour earnestly for its fulfilment, that there shall come a time-a blessed time-a time which shall last for ever-when "nation shall not lift up3 sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." dimin'ished, less'ened. tion. eter'nize, immortalize. The funds.-A Government in want of money frequently issues bonds, which are sold to the public, and yield a certain rate of interest. A Government in good credit, like the British Government, can borrow money cheaply (at 3 or 3 per cent.), while others have to pay much more. Government bonds are usually called The Funds; and when it is said "The funds have recently gone down 10 per cent.," the meaning is that the price of JOHN BRIGHT." obliga'tions, du'ties. revela'tion, communica'romance', fiction. [tion. suffi'ciently, enough. under-state', under-rate'. undoubtedly, cer'tainly. £100 stock has gone down to £90. The reason why a rumour of war makes the funds fall is, that war increases the national debt, compelling the Government to issue more bonds at any price they will bring. 2 A decrepit and tottering empire.The Turkish Empire, which in 1854 England and France assisted to repel Russian aggression. 3"Nation shall not lift up," &c.-See Isaiah, ii. 4; Micah, iv. 3. John Bright.-A manufacturer of Rochdale (Lancashire), and one of the most powerful speakers in the British Parliament. He was the chief associate of Mr. Cobden in the agitation which led to the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846. In 1854 he was one of a deputation which went to St. Petersburg to urge a peace policy on the Emperor Nicholas. The above speech was delivered at a conference of the Peace Society in Edinburgh. Mr. Bright was born in 1811. COLONIAL LOYALTY. OUR 'attachment to the Queen, our own Victoria, is mingled with a tenderness not inconsistent with the sterner sentiment, which it softens and embellishes without enervating. Let her legitimate authority as a constitutional monarch, let her reputation as a woman, be assailed, and notwithstanding the lamenta tion of Burke1 that the age of chivalry was past, thousands of swords would leap from their scabbards to avenge her. Ay, and they would be drawn as freely and wielded as 'vigorously and bravely in Canada or in Nova Scotia, as in England. Loyalty love of British institutions !-they are ingrafted on our very nature; they are part and parcel of ourselves; and I can no more tear them from my heart (even if I would, and ⚫lacerate all its fibres) than I could sever a limb from my body. And what are those institutions? A distinguished American statesman 'recently answered this question. He said: "The proudest Government that exists upon the face of the Earth is that of Great Britain. And the great Pitt,2 her proudest statesman, when he would tell of Britain's crowning glory, did not speak, as he might have done, of her wide-spread dominion, upon which the sun never sets. He did not speak of martial achievements, of glorious battle-fields, and of splendid naval conflicts. But he said, with swelling breast and kindling eye, that the poorest man of Great Britain in his cottage might bid defiance to all the force of the Crown. It might be frail, its roof might shake, the wind might blow through it, the storm might enter, the rain might enter; but the King of England could not enter it. In all his forces he dared not cross the threshold of that ruined ⚫tenement." achievements, exploits'. attachment,affec'tion (for) distinguished, illus'trious. domin'ion, em'pire. embel'lishes, adorns'. 1 Lamentation of Burke.-See Panegyric on Marie Antoinette, p. 168. HON. W. YOUNG. lamenta'tion, complaint'. re'cently, lately. ten'ement, habita'tion. vigorously, powerfully. 2 The great Pitt.-William Pitt. Earl of Chatham. |