sword, famine, pestilence, and numerous diseases; and at length he must sink into the grave, and his body must become the companion of worms! The most dignified and haughty of the sons of men are liable to these and similar degradations as well as the meanest of the human family. Yet, in such circumstances, man-that puny worm of the dust, whose knowledge is so limited, and whose follies are so numerous and glaring has the effrontery to strut in all the haughtiness of pride, and to glory in his shame.

When other arguments and motives produce little effect on certain minds, no considerations seem likely to have a more powerful tendency to counteract this deplorable propensity in human beings, than those which are borrowed from the objects connected with astronomy. They show us what an insignificant being— what a mere atom, indeed, man appears amidst the immensity of creation! Though he is an object of the paternal care and mercy of the Most High, yet he is but as a grain of sand to the whole earth, when compared to the countless myriads of beings that people the amplitudes of creation. What is the whole of this globe on which we dwell compared with the solar system, which contains a mass of matter ten thousand times greater? What is it in comparison of the hundred millions of suns and worlds which by the telescope have been descried throughout the starry regions? What, then, is a kingdom, a province, or a baronial territory, of which we are as proud as if we were the lords of the universe and for which we engage in so much devastation and carnage? What are they. when set in competition with the glories of the sky? Could we take our station on the lofty pinnacles of heaven, and look down on this scarcely distinguishable speck of earth, we should be ready to exclaim with Seneca, “Is it to this little spot that the great designs and vast desires of men are confined? Is it for this there is so much disturbance of nations, so much carnage, and so many ruinous wars? Oh, the folly of deceived men, to imagine great kingdoms in the compass of an atom, to raise armies to decide a point of earth with the sword!" Dr. Chalmers, in his Astronomical Discourses, very truthfully says, "We gave you but a feeble image of our comparative insignificance, when we said that the glories of an extended forest would suffer no more from the fall of a single leaf, than the glories of this extended universe would suffer though the globe we tread upon, and all that it inherits, should dissolve.'

5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field;

8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea.

These verses may set forth man's position among the creatures before he fell; but as they are, by the apostle Paul, appropriated to man as represented by the Lord Jesus, it is best to give most weight to that meaning. In order of dignity, man stood next to the angels, and a little lower than they; in the Lord Jesus this was accomplished, for he was made a little lower than the angels by the suffering of death. Man in Eden had the full command of all creatures, and they came before him to receive their names as an act of homage to him as the vicegerent of God to them. Jesus in his glory, is now Lord, not only of all living, but of all created things, and, with the exception of him who put all things under him, Jesus is Lord of all, and his elect, in him, are raised to a dominion wider than that of the first Adam, as shall be more clearly seen at his coming. Well might the Psalmist wonder at the singular exaltation of man in the scale of being, when he marked his utter nothingness in comparison with the starry universe.

Thou madest him a little lower than the angels—a little lower in nature, since they are immortal, and but a little, because time is short; and when that is over,

saints are no longer lower than the angels. The margin reads it, "A little while inferior to." Thou crownest him. The dominion that God has bestowed on man is a great glory and honour to him; for all dominion is honour, and the highest is that which wears the crown. A full list is given of the subjugated creatures, to show that all the dominion lost by sin is restored in Christ Jesus. Let none of us permit the possession of any earthly creature to be a snare to us, but let us remember that we are to reign over them, and not to allow them to reign over us. Under our feet we must keep the world, and we must shun that base spirit which is content to let worldly cares and pleasures sway the empire of the immortal soul.

it

9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Here, like a good composer, the poet returns to his key-note, falling back, as were, into his first state of wondering adoration. What he started with as a proposition in the first verse, he closes with as a well proven conclusion, with a sort of quod erat demonstrandum. O for grace to walk worthy of that excellent name which has been named upon us, and which we are pledged to magnify.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS.

Verse 3.-Work of God's finger. That is most elaborate and accurate: a metaphor from embroiderers, or from them that make tapestry.-Trapp.

Verse 4.-Man, in Hebrew-infirm or miserable man-by which it is apparent that he speaks of man, not according to the state of his creation, but as fallen into a state of sin, and misery, and mortality. Art mindful of him, i. e., carest for him, and conferrest such high favours upon him. The son of man, Heb., the son of Adam, that great apostate from and rebel against God; the sinful son of a sinful father-his son by likeness of disposition and manners, no less than by procreation; all which tends to magnify the divine mercy. That thou visitest him—not in anger, as that word is sometimes used, but with thy grace and mercy, as it is taken in Gen. xxi. 1., Ex. iv. 31., Ps. lxv. 9.,-cvi. 4.-cxliv. 3.

Verses 7 & 8.-He who rules over the material world, is Lord also of the intellectual or spiritual creation represented thereby. The souls of the faithful, lowly and harmless, are the sheep of his pasture; those who, like oxen, are strong to labour in the Church, and who, by expounding the Word of Life, tread out the corn for the nourishment of the people, own him for their kind and beneficent Master; nay, tempers fierce and untractable as the beasts of the desert, are yet subject to his will; spirits of the angelic kind, that, like the birds of the air, traverse freely the superior region more at his command; and those evil ones, whose habitation is in the deep abyss, even to the great leviathan himself, all are put under the feet of King Messiah. Bishop Horne.

Verse 8.-Every dish of fish and fowl that comes to our table, is an instance of this dominion man has over the works of God's hands, and it is a reason for our subjection to God our chief Lord, and to his dominion over us.

HINTS TO THE VILLAGE PREACHER.

Verse 1.-0 Lord, our Lord.-Personal appropriation of the Lord as ours. Th privilege of holding such a portion. How excellent, &c. Sermon or lecture upon the glory of God in creation and providence.

Verse 2.-Infant piety, its possibility, potency, "strength," and influence, "that thou mightest still, &c." Great results from small causes when the Lord ordains to work.

Verse 4.-Man's insignificance. God's mindfulness of man. Divine visits. The question, "What is man?" Each of these themes may suffice for a discourse, or they may be handled in one sermon.

Verse 5.-Man's relation to the angels. The position which Jesus assumed for our gakes. Manhood's crown. The glory of our nature in the person of the Lord Jesus. Verse 6 (second clause).-The proper place for all worldly things, "under his feet.”

WE

E are told that when Alexander, the conqueror of the world was dying, he gave orders that at his burial his hands should be exposed to public view that all men might see that the mightiest of men could take nothing with him when called away by death. The same lesson was taught us by Job when he said, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." A mouthful of earth will one day stop the cravings of the most covetous. This makes the hoarding up of wealth so vain an occupation. He who died the other day worth three millions and a half, is now as poor as the beggar whom he passed in the street. "I would not mind dying," said a miserly farmer, "if I could take my money with me!" but when he ceased to breathe he left all behind him. What folly it is to spend all one's time in gathering a heap to leave it so soon. "He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them." How much wiser are they who seek an enduring inheritance which shall be theirs when the stars have died out in darkness. Blessed are they whose treasure is stored up, where time's moth cannot eat it, where care's rust cannot corrode it, and where misfortune's thief cannot steal it.

Dear reader, eternity will soon be your dwelling-place; are you not concerned to be a possessor of wealth which will enrich you there? If you have been taught of God to know your own poverty, remember that Jesus Christ gives himself freely to all poverty-stricken sinners who will receive him. Having him, you will be a peer in heaven's realm, and though you will be buried with empty hands, yet shall you rise again to be rich in all that makes men eternally blessed. Jesus cries, "Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver."

No. 15.-Sword and Trowel Tracts, by C. H. SPURGEON.-6d. per 100. Post free, 8 stamps. Passmore & Alabaster, 23, Paternoster Row.

THO is this gentleman? You guess him to be a Romish priest; and so indeed he is, but he is not honest enough to avow it. This, with the exception of the face, is a correct representation of a clerical gentleman, well known in the south of England, as a notorious clergyman of that religious association, which is commonly, but erroneously, called "The Church of England." We can assure the reader that our artist has faithfully given the robes and other paraphernalia with which this person makes a guy of himself. We beg to ask, what difference there is between this style and the genuine Popish cut? We might surely quite as well have a bona fide priest at once, with all the certificates of the Vatican! There seems to be an unlimited license for papistical persons to do as they please in the Anglican Establishment. How long are these abominations to be borne with, and how far are they yet to be carried?

Protestant Dissenters, how can you so often truckle to a Church which is assuming the rags of the old harlot more and more openly every day? Alliance with true believers is one thing, but union with a Popish sect is quite another. Be not ye partakers with them. Protestantism owed much to you in past ages, will you not now raise your voice and show the ignorant and the priest-ridden the tendencies of all these mummeries, and the detestable errors of the Romish Church and of its Anglican sister.

Evangelical Churchmen, lovers of the Lord Jesus, how long will you remain in alliance with the defilements of High Churchism? You are mainly responsible for all the Popery of your Church, for you are its salt and its stay. Your brethren in Christ cannot but wonder how it is that you can remain where you are. You know better. You are children of light, and yet you aid and abet a system by which darkness is scattered all over the land. Beware, lest you be found in union with Antichrist, when the Lord cometh in his glory. What a future would be yours if you would shake yourselves from your alliance with Papists and semi-Papists. Come out for Christ's sake. Be ye separate, touch not the unclean thing!

No. 16.-Sword and Trowel Tracts, by C. H. SPURGEON.-6d. per 100. Post free, 8 stamps.
Passmore & Alabaster, 23, Paternoster Row.

Letters of William Cowper.

O volumes of letters ever gave us so much pleasure as those of Cowper.

morning and evening portions-but real letters, filled with family news, household incidents, personal experiences, and such-like genuine letter-material, all written, with as much ease as elegance, in a sweet, bewitching manner, which gives us an interest in every minute detail, and makes us feel that we are Cowper's friends. As a rule, we wish that private correspondence were never published: the printing of genial letters to a friend is a sacrilege upon the sacredness of homely hearth and honest heart; it ministers to a miserable curiosity, which would pry into a royal bedchamber, and peep at a statesman through the keyhole to see him shave. The old Roman who wished for publicity in all his actions might have a surfeit of it nowadays, when celebrities are stared at as unsparingly as if they were flies in the object-glass of a microscope. When letters are printed, we mentally resolve not to waste our time in reading them, for we have a lively recollection of having often been taken in and victimised by them. In very many instances private letters when printed read very suspiciously, like epistles intended for the public eye. They are very proper—too proper to be a man's genuine correspondence; very unctuous-too unctuous to be the off-hand productions of an ordinary pen. The style so zealously strains after excellence as to grow affected, and the matter, in seeking to be edifying, becomes very heavy. We don not know on what high stilts exceptional humanity can manage to walk, but it seems to us that godly men do not generally write sermonic letters, but find it needful when writing to friends to descant upon cattle and crops, children and colds, funds and friends, taxes and tea-parties, shops and shirtings, as well as upon righteousness and regeneration. Letters, like everything else, will show their authorship, and the true Christian will be known even in his common-places of correspondence; but we do not admire the religiousness which is for ever under the fear of the public eye, and therefore eats its bread by regulation, and walks in the fields with the stiffness of a soldier on parade.

Volumes of religious letters we have very frequently found to be unusually dreary reading; as little interesting as the ministrations of the Scotch divine who was brought up at the school of Dunse, became assistant preacher at Dull, and ended his clerical career as minister of Drone. As to novelty of conception, or illustration, one might as well look into an old almanack. Ideas are as few as passengers upon the dreary Highland road, of which it is said, that an Englishman had travelled so long upon it without seeing a single person, that when he came to an old man breaking stones, he asked him if there were ever any travellers upon it, "was it all unfrequented?" "Ay," said the stonebreaker, "it's no bad for traffic; there was a beggar body yesterday, and there's yourself to-day." One poor lean idea yesterday, and another to-day, is about the average rate which we have met with in "Letters" numberless, which good people think it orthodox to

read.

Cowper's letters are commended to us by men of piety and fine taste. Robert Hall said, "that he considered them to be the finest specimens of epistolory style in any language." Southey called Cowper the best of English letter writers. Lord Jeffrey says, "There is something in the sweetness and facility of the diction, and more, perhaps, in the glimpses they afford of a pure and benevolent mind, that diffuses a charm over the whole collection, and communicates an interest that cannot always be commanded by performances of greater dignity and pretention. These letters will continue to be read long after the curiosity is gratified, to which, perhaps, they owed their first celebrity; for the character with which they make us acquainted, will always attract by its variety, and engage by its elegance. The feminine delicacy of Cowper's manners and disposition, the romantic and unbroken retirement in which his life was passed, and the singular gentleness and modesty of his whole character, disarm him of