to his faith by your preaching happy men to whom it shall be given to say before the assembly of the whole human race, Behold us, O Lord, and the children whom thou hast given us; happy men! who being justified by the Saviour, shall receive in that day the reward of your labours, and also shall hear that glorious encomium; Well done, good and faithful servants, en ter ye into the joy of your Lord"." May Almighty God graciously favour you and your labours, in all things. May he send to your aid fellow-labourers, such and so many as ye wish. May he encrease the bounds of your Churches. May he open the hearts of those to whom ye preach the Gospel of Christ, that hearing you, they may receive lifegiving faith. May he protect you and yours from all evils and dangers. And when ye arrive, (may it be late) at the end of your course, may the same God, who hath called you to this work of the Gospel, and hath preserved you in it, grant to you the reward of your labour, an incorruptible crown of glory. "These are the fervent wishes and prayers of, venerable Brethren, Your most faithful fellowservant in Christ. "GULIULMUS CANT." From our Palace at To the Editor of the Christian Observer. Ir is matter of surprise to me, Sir, that in the long dissertation upon female education, which is reviewed in your work, one very important branch of it should be entirely omitted. I mean the art which used to occupy so much of the time of our less refined, but more domestic grandmothers-the art of working. They perhaps carried it too far, yet surely Such an accomplishment is a more useful one, than that of being able to read in classical language, that the wife of Cæsar spun the robes he wore with her own fair hands. But there can be no reason why both these accomplishments (if the other be considered a necessary one) should not be acquired. I suppose few women have attained the share of learning which Queen Elizabeth possessed, and yet we have specimens of her industry still extant. I remember seeing a bed in a very laborious pattern at the late Duke of Bridgewater's, which was worked by her Majesty, whilst she was imprisoned there, and which, I dare say, helped to beguile moments, which would not have passed so calmly without this amusement. I should be glad to know whether our present race of women are more virtuous, more pious, more calculated to make good wives, good mothers, or more useful members of society, since the art of working was banished from the draw. ing-room. The resource of the needle has always struck me as the greatest advantage women possess over men. I cannot help sometimes feeling much pity for the lords of the crea tion, when I see a happy party of females busily employed in a variety of entertaining pieces of work, whilst they are twisting their watch chains, or what is worse, amusing themselves with pulling to pieces the implements of housewifery, which are lying around them. How many boxes and baskets have been destroyed by the points of pins and scissars, which were not originally intended as instruments of mischief! Pray, Sir, tell me if you possibly can, when work was first exploded from a fashionable lady's education, and for what reason it was banished? It is doubtless an innocent employment, and that is more than can be said of most other amusements, which have been adopted in its stead. It prevents total idleness, and idleness was never reckoned the parent of good. Without working, how many hours in the day must a woman sit with her hands before her, excepting when she lifts them to her mouth to hide a yawn! In many situations, the use of the needle is of very important service-in all, it may be made beneficial to others, if it is not wanted for ourselves. I presume when the French ladies of quality were first taught to ply the needle, they little thought the time would come, when by dire distress, they would be driven to earn their bread by the labour of their own hands! Who can say what may be the lot of the ladies who now hold a high rank in society? Is this country in so very secure a state, that no fears can reasonably be entertained of any change taking place in it? If it be, why this expense in keeping forces to defend it from the attacks of an enemy, who has trampled on the rights of almost every other nation in Europe? But supposing no calamity should befal such distinguished females (and how very few, by the by, are so distinguished by the gifts of fortune, as to be put in situations where the use of their hands can be of no service to their families) surely they might devote a few spare hours to make garments for the poor, who are constantly in need of their assistance. The pious Dorcas would not have been embalmed with the tears of the widow, had she spent her days on such busy idleness (for what are the amusements, or even the whole occupation of some women but idleness?) as the present race of ladies do. King Solomon is called the wisest man, therefore his authority may perhaps carry some weight with it. In his beautiful picture of a virtuous woman, I cannot find one passage that can, in any way, sanction the modern occupations of women; yet what was wisdom and virtue then, are wisdom and virtue now, for the female mind is still the same, though so many years have rolled away since Solomon's time. The Apostle exhorts women to he "keepers at home;" but the modern system of education teaches such accomplishments as can only be exhibited and admired abroad. I shall be thought very unfashionable in daring to quote scriptural examples and precepts, but in a work professedly styling itself Christian, I have ventured to touch on such out of the way subjects, particularly as, they are likely to weigh with those mothers who make religion the basis on which they build the education of their children, who yet, I am sorry to say, are often culpable of the neglect which it has been the object of my present paper to point out. Pray, Sir, if you have any influence with the Lecturer at the Royal Institution, do urge him to throw a few hints on the subject into his next lecture to the ladies; and he may, by making needlework fashionable, be the happy instrument of putting it into the minds of some of his fair auditors to clothe the naked, (to say nothing of clothing themselves,) and may also furnish them with amusement at home, instead of wandering every where else to find it. C. X. B. K. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. MR. GILPIN, in his remarks on the scenery of the Isle of Wight, (see Observations on the Western Parts of England, &c. London, 1798, p. 339), has a passage directly bearing on a subject which has occupied a place in several of your numbers. Itranscribe it therefore, for the be nefit of your readers. Mr. Gilpin having noticed the immense swarms of sea fowl, which at certain seasons hang on the beetling precipices near the Needles, proceeds as follows: "That man has a right to destroy such animals as are noxious to him is undoubted. That he has a right also over the lives of such animals as are useful to him for food and other necessaries, is equally unquestioned. But whether he has a right to destroy life for his amusement, is another question. If he is determined to act the tyrant (that is, to consider power as conferring right,) the point is decided. Power he certainly has. But if he wish to act on authorized and equitable principles, let him just point out the passage in his charter of rights over the brute creation, which gives him the liberty of destroying life for his amusement. "On Noah, and in him on all mankind, The charter was conferr'd, by which we hold The flesh of animals in fee; and claim "I would not euter on my list of friends Yet wanting sensibility,) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.” "The sum is this. If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. Else they are all-the meanest things that are As free to live, and to enjoy that life, As God was free to form them at the first, Who in his sovereign wisdom made them all." COWPER'S Task. That hares and partridges and woodcocks, and all other animals fit for food, may be deprived of life for the purpose of being used for food, is unquestionable. The profession, therefore, of a gamekeeper or a warrener is equally innocent with that of a butcher. But the sportsman will do well to ask himself; Whether, though the animals which he kills are fit for food, an⚫usement is not, as his appellation indicates, his main object in destroying them: and whether, to use Mr. Gilpin's language, a clause authorizing their destruction for that object is to be found in his charter of rights over the brute creation? X. Y. A HERMIT'S MEDITATION. The Author unknown, IN lonesome cave, Of noise and interruption void, His thoughtful solitude A Hermit thus enjoy'd : Nameless, unknown! Yet fit companion thou for me, Who hear no human voice, Nor human visage see! From me, from thee, The glories of the world are gone! Nor yet have either lost What we could call our own! A PRETTY correct anticipation of the use of the term Calvinist is given by Fuller in his account of the use of the term Puritan. "We must not forget, that Spalatro*, (I am confident I am not mistaken therein) was the first, who, professing himself a Protestant, used the word PURITAN, to signify the defenders of matters doctrinal in the English Church. Formerly the word was only taken to denote such as dissented from the hierarchy in discipline and Church government, which was now extended to brand such as were Anti-Arminians in their judgments. As Spalatro first abused the word in this sense, so we could wish he had carried it away with him in his return to Rome. Whereas now leaving the word behind him in this extensive signification thereof, it hath since by others been improved to asperse the most orthodox in doctrine, and religious in conversation." Book x. Sect, vi. Eximium decus hoc fecit te scandere rerum is the magic wand which effects this CRITICAL INCONSISTENCY. St. John the Evangelist," St. John, Dr. Middleton says of the style of as both the antients and moderns the Apostles, the most barbarous in with one voice declare, was of all his language, and ignorant of letters." He then quotes a passage from Grotius to the same purpose. See Middleton's Works, 8vo. vol. ii. pp. 403, 404. Michaelis affirms, St. John's style is better and more fluent than that of the other Evan- *The name of this unhappy man, true only to his own avarice, was Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, misspelt by Fuller Spalato. He is celebrated to New Testament. Vol. iii. Part i. as the editor of Fra- Paolo's History of the Council of Trent in London. CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 58. p. 316. 4 L Who shall decide, &c. ? REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. PROPHECY is a subject so congenial to the natural curiosity of the human mind, that it has ever attracted a considerable portion of regard. Its importance in the great system of revealed religion is sufficient to justify the attention which has been paid to it; whilst the undoubted fulfilment of many remarkable predictions in different ages of the world, has served to encourage the researches of pious and learned enquirers into the meaning and design of the divine oracles. In no country has the interesting subject of prophecy, in all its parts, been so ably and satisfactorily investigated as in our own; and, notwithstanding the flippant remark of " the brilliant Frenchman," on the labours of the immortal Newton in this sacred field of enquiry, we consider it as highly honourable to our Church and nation, that men of the very first talents, and the most extensive acquirements, have devoted their abilities to its defence and illustra tion. The extraordinary events which have taken place in the world, and more particularly in Europe, during the last fifteen or twenty years, have naturally directed the attention of thoughtful and inquisitive men to some of the Scripture prophecies in a more particular manner : and though many erroneous interpretations and crude conjectures have been advanced by some writers, knowledge has undoubtedly been increased by this consideration of "the signs of the times." It is with much satisfaction that we are called upon to notice the researches of Mr. Faber in this department of sacred literature. He is already well known to our readers as a biblical scholar; and we have no hesitation in saying, that the work now under our review will add very consider ably to his reputation. The subject of Mr. Faber's dissertation is one in which he has been preceded by many eminent expositors. He considers himself, however, as justified in discussing it afresh, by a conviction, proceeding from an atteutive examination of the writings of Daniel and St. John, that in some points his predecessors have partially erred, and that in others they have been altogether mistaken. From the charge of presumption in venturing to differ materially from such distinguished commentators as Mr. Mede, Sir Isaac Newton, and Bishop Newton, Mr. Faber is sufficiently Vindicated by the observation, that in the interpretation of prophecy, knowledge is undoubtedly progres sive; and by the plan which he has adopted of fully exposing what he conceives to be the errors of other writers, before he proceeds to explain and to confirm his own interpretations. In entering on his undertaking, Mr. Faber lays down the three fol lowing principles as the foundation of his system; which we consider as equally simple and judicious. 1.To assign to each prophetic symbol its proper definite meaning, and never to vary from that meaning. 2. To allow no interpretation of a prophecy to be valid, except the prophecy agree in every particular, with the event to which it is supposed to relate. 3. And to deny, that any link of a chronological prophecy is capable of receiving its accomplishment in more than one event. By |