the destroying angel by the blood of the lamb. This blood, or life of the lamb, was their λúrpov. Need it be said that it never entered the mind of an Israelite, that it was given by way of compensation to the destroying angel? His only thought was, that God needed it as an acknowledgment that they owed their deliverance entirely to His grace, and that their lives henceforth belonged to Him. And in after years. provision was made for the continuance of the acknowledgment by the consecration of the tribe of Levi. Moreover, the whole people acknowledged that they were a redeemed people by the half-shekel payment whereby the sanctuary service, with its morning and evening sacrifice of a lamb, was maintained. We have the full account of this in the 30th chapter of Exodus. Wethere find the half shekel called copher or λúrpov an "offering to the Lord," "atonement money," a ransom for the soul" (Exod. xxx. 12-16). And in the 12th verse we find that the continual confession that their lives belonged to Jehovah saved them from any plague. Very much to the point is the note on this institution of the sanctuary tax in the Speaker's Commentary. Mr. Clark says there,-"This payment is. brought into its highest relation in being here accounted a spiritual obligation laid on each individual, a tribute expressly exacted by Jehovah. Every man of Israel who would escape a curse had in this way to make a practical acknowledgment that he had a share in the Sanctuary on the occasion of his being recognised as one of the covenanted people." 66 J. P. NORRIS, B.D. SOUL SALVATION.-What is it? It is not deliverance from Divine wrath, for there is no wrath in God. It is not deliverance from a material hell, for material fires cannot scorch the spirit. It is not something wrought outside of the soul. "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven or hell." Salvation is in moral character, and character is a product of habits, and habits of acts, and acts involve a series of thoughts, deliberations, decisions. Salvation is, in one word, the restoration in the soul of what it has lost-lost love, lost freedom, lost harmony, lost usefulness, lost filial access to God, lost moral self-respect. The Preacher's Emblematory Helps. ANCIENT MYTHS: THEIR MORAL MEANINGS. 66 Books of Reference: Max Müller's "Lectures on Comparative Mythology." Hardy's "Manual of Buddhism." Pritchard's "Analysis of Egyptian Mythology." 'Coxe's Mythology of the Aryan Nations." Coxe's "Tales of Ancient Greece." Gladstone's "Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age." Farrar's "Critical History of Free Thought." Keary's "Heroes of Asgard." Canon Kingsley's " Sermons." Ruskin's "Queen of the Air." Sir T. Malory's "Morte d'Arthur." "Bacon's Essays." "Murray's Manual of Mythology." "Shall we sneer and laugh at all these dreams as mere follies of the heathen? If we do so, we shall not show the spirit of God or the mind of Christ, nor shall we show our knowledge of the Bible.”—Canon Kingsley. No. IX. were The Sirens: or, False Pleasure. THESE sea-nymphs, who rank among the inferior deities, the daughters of a river god and a Muse. They were probably personifications of hidden banks and shallows, where the sea is smooth and azure and gleaming, inviting by the music of the prancing wave, but destroying the mariner and his ship. Homer says nothing of their number, but in late times three were recognised, and their names were Parthenope, Ligeia, and Leukosia. They were playmates of Persephone, and for not protecting her from Pluto, were transformed into beings half woman, half bird, or sometimes half fish. Their wings were lost because they presumptuously contended with the Muses, and in the rash conflict were worsted; being spoiled of their pinions. The homes of these Sirens were the cliffs of pleasant islands off the sunny coast of Italy. There they evermore sang; by the sweetness of their voices, bewitching passing mariners. They adapted their melodies to the ear of each listener, and so captivated all. They charmed them, only to secure them and to slay them. So destructive had they been, that skeletons of the slain lay thickly strewn around their dwelling, so thickly, indeed, that from afar their island homes seemed to be girt with snow-white cliffs; but the whiteness was that of the unburied bones of their murdered captives. All passing mariners were not, however, thus charmed, captured, and slain. Some, forewarned of the peril, steered their barks beyond reach of the Sirens' voices. Others went near, but resisted the charms; for instance, Ulysses, who filled his companions' ears with wax till they were deaf, and bound himself to the mast till his ship had borne him where their song could no longer be heard. And by another method than either of the other two, the Argonauts conquered the charm; for they listened entranced to the surpassing music of their companion Orpheus, whose voice and harp were celebrating the praises of the gods. In that sweet and sacred harmony the melodies of the Sirens were drowned, and so the listeners rose superior to all temptation to sail towards the fatal shores. The Sirens, thus conquered, were metamorphosed into rocks. All this readily illustrates four truths about False Plea sure. I. THE NATURE OF FALSE PLEASURE. It is an evil thing, and under a curse, as these Sirens were. For like them (1) it has endangered purity, as they did Persephone; (2) it has intruded into spheres in which it should have no dominion, as they did into the domain of the Muses; and (3) it is a complex, compound thing, chiefly animal, while partly human. OF II. THE ATTRACTIVENESS FALSE PLEASURE. (1) It chooses scenes of delight like sunny islands, whose cliffs whiten over azure seas. The fairest spots in Nature, the homes of Art and Song, the very sanctuaries of worship, are its favourite haunts. (2) It utters enchanting temptations. For its voices come not only in the tones of music, but in vast variety of tone, suited to the nature of those that are tempted, and indeed to the ever-varying moods of such tempted ones. III. THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF FALSE PLEASURE. There are myriads of skeletons as its ghastly trophies. Material skeletons-for there is ruined health, and shattered body, and premature death. Mental skeletons-for there is inflamed genius, and polluted imagina-tions, and the disordered reason of the despairing sceptic. Moral skeletons-for there is. deadened conscience, paralysed will, exhausted affection. ance. IV. THE VICTORY OVER FALSE. PLEASURE. The three methods are suggested here. (1) AvoidThe mariners who kept their course far away from the fated islands, are pictures of all those who listen to the wiseman's words, "Avoid it: pass. not by it: turn from it and pass away." (2) Resistance. Ulysses, binding himself to the mast, stopping his companions' ears, are pictures of such as. obey the command, "Resist the devil." (3) Superior sympathy. Listening to the sweeter and sacred" music of Orpheus, and so being insensible to all the influences of the Sirens: the Argonauts are the picture of those who by higher joys are delivered from lower pleasures. They are saved by what Chalmers calls "the expulsive power of a new affection." They have the victory that overcometh the world,. even faith. Bristol. URIJAH R. THOMAS. ORIGINAL SIMILITUDES. The Worldling a Hypocrite. WERE he to show to the eye of society all the dark thoughts, wicked schemes, and passions which pass through his mind, his existence would not be tolerated, the world would not bear with him. In proportion to the sinfulness of a man's heart, is the force of his motive to hypocrisy. Spiritual Wealth. EVERY man is daily increasing his spiritual stock. It is a solemn fact, that accessions are made to our moral history with ness the one man will get a blessing and the other a bane, and that according to his presiding disposition. Treasure is. CHRIST thoroughly understands human nature; He throws out truths concerning it in the most free and unstudied way, to which the observation and inner consciousness of the world respond. Here is a specimen. Our hearts point to the treasure as the needle to the pole; our affections flow after it, as the tides flow after the moon. Truth. every new impression, thought, Your Heart is where your purpose, and act. We are not like channels, through which the waters of circumstance flow, and which never become more full; but rather like reservoirs into which all events, feelings, and acts of life flow as contributing streams, and there remain and augment. As a healthy tree gathers every moinent a something from the external system, transmutes it into its own nature, and makes it part of itself, so every moment we incorporate into our own moral being something that passes over our consciousness. Our moral stock is greater to-day than yesterday, and toinorrow will be greater still, and thus on for ever. Our whole life is a treasuring up; inoral accumulation is the great law of our being. The value of this ever accumulating stock will depend on the moral state of the heart. The presiding disposition gives its colour and character to every idea, and event of our lives. It transforms everything into its own image. If the disposition be unholy, the whole knowledge and experience which a man accumulates, are not only worthless, but ruinous to him. is treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath." But if the heart is pure and right, everything turns to moral value. From the same ray of heaven, one plant drinks in poison, and another nourishment: so from the same subject of conscious "He THE man who looks at truth under the influence of the secular, is like an individual looking at nature down a valley on a misty day. He is shut in by the hills and trees, so that his prospect is but very limited, and the few things he sees seem very dim and confused. But he who looks at truth under the influence of the spiritual is like one standing under the brightest sky, high up on the loftiest hill, his prospect is immense, and every object which comes within the sweep of his vision is distinctly seen. It is self that obscures our moral vision. The smallest coin, held close to the eye's orb, shall shut out the landscape and hide the sun and stars. It is ever so with the vision of the soul: if you keep the world close to the heart, both the spiritual universe and the infinite God are excluded from your view. Spiritual Riches. SPIRITUAL Wealth is imperishable. It can be eaten by no moth, corrupted by no canker, stolen by no thief. It is not something out of man, or something merely added to him; it becomes more a part of him than his own blood, it is incorporated in his own soul; it is not merely the subject, but the spirit of his consciousness; not the mere field, but the faculty of his vision. It is as imperishable as the soul. The Morrow. WE are made to look forward. As the traveller looks on upon the road through which he intends directing his steps, the soul wistfully looks to the probable futurity which awaits it. The streamlets issuing from the distant hills do not more naturally hurry to their ocean home, than the sympathies of the soul flow into the morrow; more than half our life is in the morrow from it we derive most of our motives and our joys. Our ideal heaven is there. SCIENTIFIC FACTS AS ILLUSTRATIONS OF ETERNAL TRUTHS. "Books of Illustration" designed to help preachers, are somewhat, we think, too abounding. They are often made up to a great extent of anecdotes from the sentimental side of life, and not always having a healthful influence or historic foundation. We find that preachers and hearers are getting tired of such. Albeit illustrations are needed by every speaker who would interest the people, and are sanctioned by the highest authority. Nature itself is a parable. Hence we have arranged with a naturalist who has been engaged in scientific investigation for many years, to supply the Homilist with such reliable and well-ascertained facts in nature as cultured and conscientious men may use with confidence, as mirrors of morals and diagrams of doctrines. The Walrus: Social In- SOCIAL instincts, and even noble great numbers along the banks of the ice, motionless, and piled pell-mell one upon another. But one of them, during their repose, enacts the part of sentinel. At the slightest appearance of danger, it precipitates itself into the waves. All the others immediately attempt to follow; but in this critical moment the slowness of their movements sometimes produces the most grotesque scenes. In the confused state in which they have been lying, it is with difficulty they disengage themselves from the masses of heavy |