exercise of riding, to which he was much habituated in Virginia, was probably the means of preserving his health. At Princeton his life was sedentary, and his application to study incessant from morning till midnight. At the close of January, 1761, he was bled for a bad cold, and the next day transcribed for the press his sermon on the death of George II. The day following he preached twice in the chapel. His arm became inflamed, and a violent fever succeeded, to which he fell a victim in ten days. He died February 4, 1761, aged thirty-six. His new year's sermon, in the preceding month, was from the text, "This year thou shalt die;" as was also president Burr's on the first day of the year in which he died. Dr. Witherspoon avoided preaching on that occasion from that text. President Davies was succeeded by Dr. Finley. His venerable mother, Martha Davies, survived him. When he was laid in the coffin, she gazed at him a few minutes, and said, "There is the son of my prayers and my hopes-my only son-my only earthly support. But there is the will of God, and I am satisfied." She afterwards lived in the family of her son's friend, Rev. Dr. Rodgers, of New York, till her death. His widow, Jean Davies, returned to her friends in Virginia. His son, colonel William Davies, now deceased, studied law, and settled at Norfolk; was an officer of merit in the revolution; and enjoyed in a high degree the esteem of Washington. His son, John Rodgers Davies, also studied law, and settled in Sussex, Virginia. Samuel Davies, the third son, died at Petersburgh. An only daughter, unmarried, was living in 1822.

The Father of Spirits had endued Mr. Davies with the richest intellectual gifts; with a vigorous understanding, a glowing imagination, a fertile invention, united with a correct judgment and a retentive memory. He was bold and enterprising, and destined to excel in whatever he undertook. Yet was he divested of the pride of talents and of science; and being moulded into the temper of the Gospel, he consecrated all his powers to the promotion of religion. "O, my dear brother," says he, in a letter to his friend, Dr. Gibbons, " could we spend our lives in painful, disinterested, indefatigable service for God and the world, how serene and bright would it render the swift-approaching eve of life! I am labouring to do a little to save my country; and, which is of much more conse

quence, to save souls from death-from that tremendous kind of death which a soul can die. I have but little success of late; but, blessed be God, it surpasses my expectation, and much more my desert." His religion was purely evangelical. It brought him to the foot of the cross to receive salvation as a free gift. It rendered him humble and dissatisfied with himself amidst his highest attainments. While he contended earnestly for the great and distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel, he did not attach an undue importance to points respecting which Christians may differ. It was the power of religion, and not any particular form, that he was desirous of promoting, and real worth ever engaged his esteem and affection. Having sought the truth with diligence, he avowed his sentiments with the greatest simplicity and courage. Though decided in his conduct, he was yet remarkable for the gentleness and suavity of his disposition A friend, who was very intimate with him for a number of years, never observed him once angry during that period. His ardent benevolence rendered him the delight of his friends, and the admiration of all who knew him. In his generous eagerness to supply the wants of the poor, he often exceeded his ability. As a parent, he felt all the solicitude which nature and grace could inspire. "There is nothing," he writes, "that can wound a parent's heart so deeply as the thought that he should bring up children to dishonour his God here, and be miserable hereafter. I beg your prayers for mine, and you may expect a return in the same kind. -We have now three sons and two daughters. My dear little creatures sob and drop a tear now and then under my instructions; but I am not so happy as to see them under deep and lasting impressions of religion; and this is the greatest grief they afford me." As president of the college, he possessed an admirable mode of government and instruc tion. He watched over his pupils with the tender solicitude of a father, and secured equally their reverence and love. He seized every opportunity to inculcate on them the worth of their souls, and the pressing necessity of securing immediately the blessings of salvation.

Dr. Davies was a model of the most striking oratory. It is probable that the eloquent spirit of Patrick Henry, who lived in his neighbourhood from his eleventh to his twenty-second year, was kindled by listening to his impassioned

addresses; such as his patriotic sermons of July 20, 1775, after the defeat of Braddock; and of August, on religion and patriotism the constituents of a good soldier; in a note to which he says, "I may point out to the public that heroic youth, Colonel Washington, whom I cannot but hope Providence has hitherto preserved in so signal a manner, for some important service to his country." A similar sermon was preached to the militia, May 8, 1759, a few days before he left his people, in order to raise a company for Captain Meredith. It was

raised on the spot. When he went to the tavern to order his horse, the whole regiment followed, and from the porch he again addressed them, till he was exhausted. As his personal appearance was august and venerable, yet benevolent and mild, he could address his auditory either with the most commanding authority or with the most melting tenderness. When he spoke he seemed to have the glories and terrors of the unseen world in his eye. He seldom preached without producing some visible emotions in great numbers present, and without making an impression on one or more, which was never effaced. His favourite themes were the utter depravity and impotence of man; the sovereignty and free grace of Jehovah; the divinity of Christ; the atonement in his blood; justification through his righteousness; and regeneration and sanctification by the Holy Spirit. He viewed these doctrines as constituting the essence of the Christian scheme; and he considered those who attempted to subvert and explain them away, as equally hostile to the truth of God and the best interests of men. His printed sermons, which exhibit his sentiments, abound with striking thoughts, with the beauties and elegances of expression, and with the

richest imagery. His highly ornamented style is the more pardonable, as he was by nature a poet, and forms of expression were familiar to him, which to others may seem unnatural and affected.

He published a sermon on man's primitive state, 1748; the state of religion among the Protestant Dissenters of Virginia in a letter to Joseph Bellamy, 1751; Religion and Patriotism the Constituents of a good Soldier, a sermon before a company of volunteers, 1755; Virginia's Danger and Remedy, two discourses occasioned by the severe drought, and the defeat of General Braddock, 1756; Curse of Cowardice, a sermon before the militia of Virginia, 1757; Letters, from 1751 to 1757, showing the state of Religion in Virginia, particularly among the negroes; The Vessels of Mercy and the Vessels of Wrath; Little Children invited to Jesus Christ, 1758; the sixth edition has an account of a revival at Princeton College; Valedictory Address to the Senior Class, 1760; a Sermon on the Death of George II., 1761; Sermons on the most useful and important subjects, 3 vols. 8vo, 1765, which have passed through a number of editions; and Sermons, 2 vols. 8vo.

Thus lived and thus died one of the best and greatest of the ministers of the American colonies, at a time when such men were important to a new country. Such men are landmarks in the moral geography of their country. The population then amounted to some three millions; at this moment it has reached to about twenty-three millions! Then it was an appendage to Great Britain; now it is a great and independent Empire, capable of arbitrating the destinies and dictating the history of the whole New World, and compelling the respect of the proudest Powers of the Old.

SUBMISSION.

He that will glorify God, must live in and to the will of God, and seek to reduce his own will wholly into God's, and to destroy in himself all will that striveth against God's will.

1. The disposing will of God, our owner, must be absolutely submitted to, and the bounteous will of God, our benefactor, thankfully and joyfully acknowledged.

2. The ruling will of God, our lawgiver, must be with daily study and care obeyed, and his punishing and rewarding justice glorified.

3. The final felicitating will and love of God, our ultimate end and object, that we may

please him, and be everlastingly pleased in him, love him, and be loved by him, must be totally desired and sought, as the only and perfect rest of souls.

Oh that is the holy, the joyful, the honourable Christian, who daily laboureth, and in some good measure doth prevail, to have no will but the will of God, and that which wholly is resolved into it; who looketh no further to know what he should do, but to know by his own word what is the law or will of God; who believeth that all that God willeth is good, and had rather have his life, and health, and wealth, and friends, at God's will and disposal, than his

own, who knoweth that God's will is love itself, and that to please him is the end of all the world, and the only felicity of men and angels; and resteth wholly in the pleasing of that will. *** Oh, what would I beg more earnestly in the world, than a will conformed wholly to God's will, and cast into that mould, and desiring nothing but what God willeth.-Baxter.

POPULATION OF THE GRAVE.

From extensive calculation, it seems the average of human births per second, since the birth of Christ to this time, is about 815; which gives about thirty-two thousand millions; and after deducting the present supposed population of the world (960,000,000), leaves the number of thirty-one thousand and forty millions that have gone down to the grave; giving death and the grave the victory over the living, to the number of thirty thousand and eight millions.Of this number in the grave, about

9,000,000,000 have died by war.
7,920,000,000 by famine and pestilence.
500,000,000 by martyrdom.

580,000,000 by intoxicating drink.
13,000,000,000 natural or otherwise.

Thus it will be seen that war and strong drink have sent nearly one-third of the human race to a premature grave.

For

The calculations upon this subject might be extended to an almost indefinite length, and perhaps, too, with propriety, if thought and meditation would dwell upon them and deduct the morals from each and every avenue. instance, if strong drink has had its 580,000,000 of victims, how many more must it have before the moderate drinker will lay his shoulder to the pledge of reform; suppose but thirty days of intense agony and misery to be the lot of each drunkard's family of five each, what is the amount in the aggregate? Suppose it required even no more than fifty bushels of grain distilled to make a man a drunkard, how long would it last famishing Europe; nay, even the whole universal world? It would amount to fifty millions of barrels of flour.

Suppose again that each drunkard loses or wastes only ten years of his life, at three shillings per day, how many solid globes of gold of the size of our earth would it (653,080,000,000 dollars) purchase? Make your own calculations, not only upon these supposed cases, but any others of which the subject is susceptible, and the result will astonish you, and perhaps lead to a somewhat different course in life.-These estimates are many of them below the reality— Merchant's Ledger.

THE WAY TO PROSPER. How, in our large churches, where individuals seem to have so little to do, shall they grow in grace, and, instead of being weak, puny infants, blown about by every wind of doctrine, become strong, healthy men, prepared to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ? The answer is evident. They must engage with all their powers in the conversion of the world. There are exigencies which demand all the energies of the church, and God has given this spirit of activity to meet these exigencies. He has made accessible hundreds of millions of our fellow-men, who are now perishing for lack of vision, and he calls upon every individual member of the church, to put forth all his efforts to

save them. Do any wish to grow in grace, let them engage in this work with all their might. It is not by running after every new preacher, and taking up with every novel sentiment, that they will attain the faith and hope of primitive Christians, but by imitating their zeal in seeking to save a perishing world. Spiritual food is not what they need; they are in fact fed to the full. What they need is exercise, and for want of this they are moral dyspeptics, capricious and depraved in their appetites. Let the farmer, the mechanic, the merchant, and the professional man, set before him the conversion of the world as the great object for which he should employ his hands and his head, and his secular employment, which now proves a snare to drag him down to earth, would all contribute to his advancement in holiness. Then, by the daily exercise of his Christian graces, the spiritual food, furnished him by the ordinary privileges of the sanctuary, would be well digested, and his soul be in health and prosperity. Never, till Christians take this view of their duty, and act accordingly, shall we see the church shining forth in the beauty of holiness.-Crocker.

RULES FOR A HOLY LIFE.

1. Too much desire to please men mightily prejudiceth the pleasing of God.

2. Too great earnestness and vehemency, and too greedy delight in bodily work and external doings, scattereth and loseth the tranquillity and calmness of the mind.

3. Cast all thy care on God, and commit all to his good pleasure; laud, and praise, and applaud him in all things small and great; forsake thy own will, and deliver up thyself freely and cheerfully to the will of God, without reserve or exception, in prosperity and adversity, sweet or sour, to have or to want, to live or to die.

4. Untie thy heart from all things, and unite it only to God.

5. Remember often and devoutly, the life and passion, the death and resurrection of our Saviour Jesus.

6. Descant not on other men's deeds, but consider thine own; forget other men's faults, and remember thine own.

7. Never think highly of thyself, nor despise any other man.

8. Keep silence and retirement as much as thou canst, and through God's grace they will keep thee from snares and offences.

9. Lift up thy heart often to God, and desire in all things his assistance.

10. Let thy heart be filled, and wholly taken up with the love of God, and of thy neighbour, and do all that thou dost in that sincere charity and love.

The sum is; 1. Remember always the presence of God. 2. Rejoice always in the will of God. and, 3. Direct all to the glory of God.Leighton.

TO MOTHERS, ON EARLY HABITS.

The child not being permitted to drink without eating, will prevent the custom of having the cup often at his nose, a dangerous beginning and preparation to good fellowship. Men often bring habitual hunger on themselves by custom. And if you please to try, you may, though he be weaned from it, bring him by use to such a necessity again of drinking in the

night, that he will not be able to sleep without it. It being the lullaby used by nurses to still the crying children. I believe mothers generally find some difficulty to wean their children from drinking in the night. Believe it, custom prevails as much by day as by night; and you may, if you please, bring any one to be thirsty every hour. I once lived in a house where, to appease a froward child, they gave him drink as often as he cried, so that he was constantly bibbing. And though he could not speak, yet he drank more in twenty-four hours than I did. Try it when you please, you may with small as well as with strong beer drink yourself into a drought. The thing to be minded in education is, what habits you settle; and, therefore, in this as well as in all other things, do not begin to make anything customary, the practice whereof you would not have to continue and increase. It is convenient for health and sobriety to drink no more than natural thirst requires; and he that eats not salt meats, nor drinks strong drink, will seldom thirst between meals, unless he has been accustomed to such unseasonable drinking. Above all, take great care he seldom, if ever, taste any wine or strong drink. There is nothing so ordinarily given to children in England, and nothing so destructive to them. They ought never to drink any strong liquor but when the doctor prescribes it. Be careful, therefore, to have your eyes upon servants and injudicious but well-meaning friends, and restrain them with all the skill and industry you can, there being nothing that lays a surer foundation of mischief, both to body and mind than children being used to strong drink.-Locke.

POWER OF A GOOD MAN'S LIFE. "The beauty of a holy life," says Chalmers, "constitutes the most eloquent and effective persuasive to religion which one human being can address to another. We have many ways of doing good to our fellow-creatures, but none so efficacious as leading a virtuous, upright, and well-ordered life. There is an energy of moral suasion in a good man's life, passing the highest efforts of the orator's genius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently of God and duty than the tongues of men and angels. Let parents remember this. The best inheritance a parent can bequeath to a child is a virtuous example, a legacy of hallowed remembrances and associations. The beauty of holiness beaming through the life of a loved relative or friend, is more effectual to strengthen such as do stand in virtue's ways, and raise up those that are bowed down, than precept, command, entreaty, or warning. Christianity itself, I believe, owes by far the greater part of its moral power, not to the precepts or parables of Christ, but to his own character. The beauty of that holiness which is enshrined in the four brief biographies of the man of Nazareth, has done more, and will do more to regenerate the world, and bring it an everlasting righteousness, than all the other agencies put together. It has done more to spread his religion in the world, than all that has ever been written on the evidences of Christianity."

ABSTEMIOUS DIET.

Many cases of illness, both in adults and children, may be readily cured by abstinence from all food. Headaches, disordered stomachs,

VOL. VIII.

and many other attacks, are often caused by violating the rules of health, and in consequence some parts of the system is overloaded, or some of the organs are clogged. Omitting one, two, or three meals, as the case may be, gives the system a chance to rest, and allows the clogged organs to dispose of their burdens. The practice of giving drugs to clear out the stomach, though it may afford the needed temporary relief, always weakens the system, while abstinence secures the good result without doing any injury.

"But if that does not cure you, what then?" "Go without my breakfast. We physicians seldom take medicines ourselves, or use them in our families, for we know that abstinence is better, but we cannot make our patients believe it."

Many cases of slight indisposition are cured by a change of diet. Thus, if a person suffers from constipation, has a headache, slight attacks of fever or dyspepsia, the cause may often be removed by eating rye mush and molasses, baked apples, and other fruits.-Domestic Receipt Book.

CURE FOR A HEAVY HEART.

The following method of "driving dull care away," was recommended by Howard, the celebrated philanthropist :

Put or

"Set about doing good to somebody. your hat, and go visit the sick and the pcor; inquire into their wants and minister to them. Seek out the desolate and oppressed, and tell them of the consolations of religion. I have often tried this medicine, and always find it the best antidote for a heavy heart."

Three cheers for that, Mr. Howard! It does one good to think of it; and more good to follow such advice. He that will do so, may be cheaply insured against drowning himself, or shooting his neighbour. Would all do so, capital punishment would be abolished in a safer way than by any new statutes.-Philan.

A MEDICAL HINT TO MOTHERS. A medical correspondent attributes the high shoulder and the lateral curvature of the spine, which so frequently disfigure young females, to the shoulder-straps of their dresses resting below the shoulder and on the muscles of the arm, instead of being on the shoulder, which compels the wearer to be constantly hitching her thoulder to keep up the dress, an action that results in a forcing up of the shoulder, a distortion of the chest, and a lateral curvature of the spine. He also states that from this dangerous practice and the consequent exposure of the chest to cold, inward tubercles are formed, and not unfrequently consumption is engendered.

COMMON MAXIMS IMPROVED. Were men but as wise for eternity as they are for time, and did they spiritually improve their natural principles for their souls as they do naturally for their bodies and estates, what

F