ness to be as happy as God would have us be. We are often unwilling, too, that all our happiness should come direct from the fountain of all good itself. Many a painful lesson do we require, and, alas! how frequently do we forget what the Lord has condescended to teach us by his chastisements! Merciful, long-suffering, and gracious, is the character of him with whom we have to do; therefore, let us come boldly to his throne for grace, that we may be found patient in tribulation, rejoicing in hope, continuing instant in prayer. Several things of a secondary nature may be suggested as helps to the prevention of that wearisomeness which many imagine to be inseparable from protracted weakness and suffering. First, there are few so constantly debilitated, but that sometimes they may find an occupation which will not prove injurious to them. Circumstances, tastes, habits, and powers of mind and body, must, however, all be taken into account in the choice of a pursuit; and the desire of the soul should ever be, "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do ?" Again, though we would by no means intimate that tales of woe are the best and only subjects for conversation in the chamber of affliction, yet would we recommend that some measure of interest should be taken in the wants and sufferings of others, that blessings possessed by us may shine the more conspicuously. When the heart is attuned to praise, afflicted friend, try to count up your mercies, and you will find them more than you can express. Finally, as each revolving hour succeeds the past, the Christian has no more to suffer than his heavenly Father sees just then to be needful for him. The sufferings of years, or months, or days, through which he has passed, need only to be remembered for the sake of the lessons they have taught, and the profit derived, or as incentives to obey that gracious command, "Take no thought for the morrow." Oh! that every exercised believer may be able to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called," in all his tribulations "looking unto Jesus." O. Y. K. THE COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM. BY THE REV. JAMES HALDANE. THERE is one very important matter which is more fully illustrated in the Epistle to the Galatians than in any other part of the New Testament, namely, the covenant with Abraham. Here we are taught that, when we read of the promises made to Abraham and his seed, we are not to understand his posterity, but Christ, who was to spring from him. Accordingly, we find that the carnal or external accomplishment of the promises was confined to that branch of Abraham's family from which Christ was to spring. His other seven sons had no more interest in the promises than the rest of the world. They might become the children of Abraham by faith, but their carnal relation to him gave them no pre-eminence over the Gentiles, to which class, although Abraham's children, they actually belonged. In exact correspondence with this, the spiritual accomplishment of the promises, adoption into God's family, and the heavenly inheritance, are confined to those in whose heart Christ dwells by faith, who are one with him, members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones, and likewise one Spirit with him.— Exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians EVERLASTING LOVE. BY THE REV. J. JENKINSON. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn LET others to their pliant will Their boasted reformation trace; I must my whole salvation still Ascribe to free and sovereign grace. Before my heart had found relief From its oppressive load of sin; Before one pang of holy grief Had evidenced new life within ; Before the dawn of reason burst In faint irradiance on my soul; Before the vital current first Along its veins began to roll; Before my eyes were formed to look Upon the welcome light of day; Before the quenchless spark was struck To animate my plastic clay; Before the holy martyrs soared To glory from the flaming pile; Before the Roman conqueror poured His legions on Britannia's isle; Before old Salem's sons were joyed To see their beauteous temple rise; Before the men of Shinar tried To raise their Babel to the skies; Before the giants trod the earth, Had shed his holy brother's blood; Before the tempting fruit was plucked And eaten with an impious zest; Before the serpent's cunning shook Obedience to the high behest; Before the groval songsters thrilled With joy the blest primeval pair ; Before the trees or flowers distilled Ambrosial fragrance on the air; Before a part of Adam's frame Was to his meet companion formed; Before the heaven-enkindled flame thee."-Jer. xxxi. 3. With life his curious structure warmed; Before the lunar lamp was made To chase the darkness of the night; Before the solar rays were bade To yield the system heat and light; Before the Almighty voice had said "That atoms into worlds should jar;" Before the azure vault was spread, Or space received the first-built star; Before the heavenly seats were raised, Before duration's vast profound, Which reason's line can never reach ; Before the era far beyond Imagination's utmost stretch; The Great Eternal fixed his love He saw my sins, like venomed darts Hurled madly at his sacred throne; And when the destined time had rolled To groan and suffer, bleed and die! 'Tis from his cross the cords proceed Which drew me from the dread abyss, Alas, more oft (0, how ingrate!) He scarcely occupies a thought; The world allures, and I forget The matchless wonders he hath wrought. Yet midst these wanderings, vile and base, Still rolls, and ever will roll on! Though other rivers cease to run, And ocean's caverns all be dry; Though earth may to her centre groan, And lightnings rend the azure sky; To fill successively this sphere, Though countless worlds may yet be brought, Each roll its great appointed year, Be dashed to atoms, and forgot; Though nature, through her vastest range, Eternal ages will not change JEHOVAH'S EVERLASTING LOVE. CHRONOLOGICAL PAGE FOR JANUARY, 1849. SEX RISES & SETS FAMILY BIBLE READING. MEMORANDA. 1809, First number of Baptist Mag. publ. Sunday School Union Lessons, 1689, William III. ascended the throne. Sunday School Union Lessons, Luke ii. 1-20, Micah v. 1798, the Pope Expelled from Rome. Moon rises, at midnight. Moon's last quarter, 54 m. past 6, morning. Baptist Home Mission Committee at 6. Moon rises, 24 m. past 1, morning. Quarterly Meeting of Baptist Miss. Com. Moon rises, 25 m. past 2, morning. Moon sets, 18 m. past 12, noon. Moon rises, 26 m. past 3, morning. Sunday School Union Lessons, Moon riscs, 52 m. past 6, morning. New Moon, 3 m. past 10, morning. Lecture by Rev. J. Aldis at Mission Hous Moon rises, 12 m. past 8, morning. Sunday School Union Lessons, Moon sets, 50 m. past 10, evening. Quarterly Meeting of Baptist Board. D Standard Edition. REVIEW S. The Pictorial Bible; being the Old and New Testaments, according to the Authorized Version; illustrated with steel engravings, after celebrated Pictures, and Many Hundred Wood-cuts, representing the Landscape Scenes from Original Drawings, or from Authentic Engravings; and the subjects of Natural History, Costume, and Antiquities, from the best sources. To which are added Original Notes, chiefly explanatory, in connexion with the Engravings, of such passages connected with the History, Geography, Natural History, Literature, and Antiquities of the Sacred Scriptures as require observation. By JOHN KITTo, D.D., F.S.A. A New Edition, of which the Notes are much augmented and completely revised. In Four Volumes. London: Charles Knight. 8vo. The Paragragh Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the Authorized Version; arranged in Paragraphs and Parallelisms, with an entirely new selection of References to parallel and illustrative passages, Prefaces to the several Books, and numerous Notes. London: Religious Tract Society. 24mo. The Pictorial Bible, in its original form, differed materially in its design from almost all popular expositions which had preceded it. Their object had been to inculcate what the authors believed to be the true meaning of the sacred oracles, by showing that the text of scripture taught certain doctrines, and led to certain conclusions. The design of the Pictorial Bible was to stop short of this, and merely to furnish the reader with such assistance as might enable him to deduce the instruction for himself which the text was intended to yield, and to form his own unbiassed conclusions. An attempt was made to place the European in such circumstances as would enable him to discern what an oriental would see intuitively; and a man of the nineteenth century to see things as they would naturally appear to a contemporary of the inspired writers; to furnish all the light which could be imparted by an acquaintance with facts, customs, places, and other things known to men of general information to whom the scriptures were originally addressed; but to exclude all the comments which philosophy or the It is with great pleasure that we see these works completed, to which the attention of our readers has been re-ology, whether true or false, had superpeatedly directed, as successive portions have appeared. They are, however, of sufficient value to deserve now a more formal notice. added. "It was earnestly desired," says Dr. Kitto in the preface to the edition before us, "that the work should be rendered acceptable to all denominations of Christians; and this important object has been successfully realized by limiting its scope to those illustrative matters which are of equal interest to them all, and by abstaining from the doctrinal interpretation and theological exposition with which the public was already abundantly provided in many excellent commentaries which are among the chief glories of our literature." which have secured for the Pictorial Bible' a very large measure of the public favour. "There is no department of biblical literature in which more advance has, of late years, been made, or on which more publications have appeared, than in that most interesting one It was a valuable repository of infor-, students and ministers, without in any degree mation which was presented to the compromising those more popular elements public under the name of The Pictorial Bible, ten years ago; and we deemed it our duty to endeavour to promote its circulation. It is an improved edition of the same work, the last Monthly Part of which now lies before us. We shall give the most satisfactory account of the alterations effected, by copying, a portion of the editor's preface. All devoted to the examination of the literary history and distinguishing circumstances of the several books which compose the sacred volume. In the present edition of the Pictorial Bible,' enlarged consideration has been, therefore, given to this department; and every book will be furnished with a new and more copious introduction, affording, so far as the plan of the work allows, the results of the best information with reference to it, which the most careful research has been able to supply. "The results of the research and labour expended upon this new edition will be shown in a considerable body of fresh matter, exhibited in some thousands of new notes, and in additions to, and improvements of, a large number of the notes contained in the original work. Space for this has been provided, by an actual increase of the letter-press; by the omission of one class of woodcuts; by the careful excision from the original work of such matters as might, it was judged, be spared not only without loss, but with advantage; and by the pruning and condensation of many notes which remain without essential alteration. The effects of all this may be seen in the fact, that in the Pentateuch alone, besides introductions occupying several pages, between four hundred and five "During the years which have passed since the Pictorial Bible' first appeared, an unexampled degree of activity has been manifested, both in this country and abroad, in exploring all the sources of knowledge contributory to the illustration of the history, geography, zoology, botany, ethnography, antiquities, and criticism of the sacred volume; and in the development and elucidation of the customs and manners, and the public and social institutions, of the Hebrew people and of the other nations whom its inspired pages bring before us. this has been watched most observantly by the editor, who has constantly, in the course of the intervening years, noted down whatever has fallen under his notice, or has been suggested by his own reflections, as tending in any degree --by the correction of his former views, or by the addition of new and interesting matter, to keep the work up to the requirements of the present day,—to bring it more nearly into that condition which those on whom rest the re-hundred new notes have been introduced, withsponsibilities of the undertaking might wish to regard as establishing its claim to a permanent value-and so to produce, what this professes to be, a Standard Edition of the 'Pictorial Bible.' Although a work of this kind deals chiefly with what the Germans would call ThingKnowledge, rather than with what they distinguish as Word-Knowledge, it is but right to state that the 'Pictorial Bible' is not wanting in such critical remarks as may tend to develop the meaning of the sacred writers, or to elucidate what are usually regarded as 'the hard texts' of scripture. It is also often found necessary to examine the words of the original texts at the outset of many of the notes, as the groundwork of the conclusions on material subjects which these notes embody. To these matters, increased attention has been given in the new edition; and, taken altogether, a large body of criticism and exegesis has thus been almost insensibly formed, which will, it is hoped, render the work an acceptable help to out the sacrifice of any valuable matter contained in the original work, and with the addition of a large number of really illustrative engravings, which did not appear in that publication." Allusion is made in the preceding extract to the omission of one class of woodcuts. The reference is to the copies of historical pictures by the great masters of the art of painting, which, however admirable as displays of skill were adapted to counteract the general tendency of the work, which was to convey correct views of the facts and instructions of the bible, respecting the introduction of which we expressed our regret in 1838. The present edition is relieved from this incumbrance. Dr. Kitto speaks of "these historical wood |