was accomplished; reason and revelation were proved to agree; the Scriptures were displayed in their full light, and the bread of eternal life blessed and dispensed to them: Christ's presence there was no longer needful; one glimpse of his individuality was graciously vouchsafed, and "Jesus ceased to be seen of them." The injunction to Peter, "when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," seems to have been the governing motive of these two favoured friends, who, unmindful of fatigue, of the gathering shades of evening, and the length and dangers of the road, rose up the same hour, bearing the glad tidings to the disciples at Jerusalem, and receiving from them the same joyful intelligence," the Lord is risen indeed." Surely their labour of love was amply requited when the presence of their beloved Saviour appeared again amongst them, and bestowed the gentle salutation, "Peace be unto you." Why is this interesting narrative recorded? Is it not profitable both "for doctrine and instruction in righteousness?" It manifests the value of the Old Testament, and the watchful care with which at all periods God never left himself without witness to his justice, as well as to his love and mercy; exemplifying, by typical sacrifices, that "the wages of sin is death," and maintaining thereby a belief in the efficacy of a vicarious atonement; while the sure word of prophecy carried along its course the hope of a Saviour, who should be given to take away the sin of the world. The pride of intellect is humbled by finding the inefficacy of reason, though assisted by hope, until aided by the Spirit of God; how promises of mercy and peace may be read and studied, yet fail to warm the heart until enlightened by the Sun of Righteousness. And the lesson is learned by the conduct of the disciples at Emmaus, that when the Saviour is known, not only by the hearing of the ear, but by the eye of faith, our first duty is to endeavour to display him in his fulness to our companions along the way of life, our fellow-heirs to life eternal. We have the testimony of the new covenant to elucidate the prophecies and ordinances of the old, and are promised the assistance of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment: while, therefore, we acknowledge with our lips, that Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation, let us pray that our hearts may be endued with a right judgment in all things, that we may neither wrest the sacred oracles to our own destruction, nor remain ignorant of that blessed Saviour of whom they testify. MOHAMMEDAN SLAVERY.* THE pasha of Egypt professed not to know that his army had been employed in slave-hunts for the purpose of discharging arrears of pay; but he admitted he was aware that his officers had carried on the slavetrade for their own account, "a conduct of which he by no means approved." The enterprise of a traveller, Count de Laborde, who has lately returned from Nubia and Egypt, will enable me to introduce those of my readers who have not seen his work (Chasse aux Nègres, Leon De Laborde, Paris, 1838), to the scenes of cruelty and devastation perpetrated From "The African Slave-Trade," by T. F. Buxton, Esq. by the pasha's troops, which he has graphically described. The narrative, of which I can only give a brief outline, was communicated to him by a French officer, who went to Cairo in 1828, and resided ten years in Egypt. M. M. there learnt that four expeditions, called gaswahs, annually set out from Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, towards the south, to the mountains inhabited by the Nubas negroes. The manner and object of their departure are thus described: "One day he heard a great noise; the whole village appeared in confusion; the cavalry were mounted, and the infantry discharging their guns in the air, and increasing the uproar with their still more noisy hurras. -, on inquiring the cause of the rejoicing, was exultingly told, by a follower of the troop, "it is the gaswah." ""The gaswah! for what-gazelles?" "Yes, gazelles; here are the nets, ropes, and chains; they are to be brought home alive." On the return of the expedition, all the people went out, singing and dancing, to meet the hunters. M. went out also, wishing to join in the rejoicing. He told Count Laborde he never could forget the scene presented to his eyes. What did he see? What gain did these intrepid hunters, after twenty days of toil, drag after them? Men in chains; old men carried on litters, because unable to walk; the wounded dragging their weakened limbs with pain, and a multitude of children following their mothers, who carried the younger ones in their arms. Fifteen hundred negroes, corded, naked, and wretched, escorted by four hundred soldiers in full array. This was the gaswah-these the poor gazelles taken in the desert. He himself afterwards accompanied one of these gaswahs. The expedition consisted of four hundred Egyptian soldiers, one hundred Bedouin cavalry, and twelve village chiefs, with peasants carrying provisions. On arriving at their destination, which they generally contrive to do before dawn, the cavalry wheel round the mountain, and by a skilful movement form themselves into a semi-circle on one side, whilst the infantry enclose it on the other. The negroes, whose sleep is so profound that they seldom have time to provide for their safety, are thus completely entrapped. At sunrise the troops commence operations by opening a fire on the mountain with musketry and cannon; immediately the heads of the wretched mountaineers may be seen in all directions, among the rocks and trees, as they gradually retreat, dragging after them the young and infirm. Four detachments armed with bayonets, are then despatched up the mountain in pursuit of the fugitives, whilst a continual fire is kept up from the musketry and cannon below, which are loaded only with powder, as their object is rather to dismay than to murder the inhabitants. The more courageous natives, however, make a stand by the mouths of the caves dug for security against their enemies. They throw their long poisoned javelins, covering themselves with their shields, while their wives and children stand by them and encourage them with their voices; but when the head of the family is killed, they surrender without a murmur. When struck by a ball, the negro, ignorant of the nature of the wound, may generally be seen rubbing it with earth till he falls through loss of blood. The less courageous fly with their families to the caves, whence the hunters expel them by firing pepper into the hole. The negroes, blind and suffocated, run into the snares previously prepared, and are put in irons. If after the firing no one makes his appearance, the hunters conclude that the mothers have killed their children, and the husbands their wives and themselves. When the negroes are taken, their strong attachment to their families and lands is apparent. They refuse to stir, some clinging to the trees with all their strength, while others embrace their wives and children so closely, that it is necessary to separate them with the hand, whether in providence or grace, to be unable to sword; or they are bound to a horse, and are dragged trace his Father's footsteps. Even David was comover brambles and rocks until they reach the foot of pelled to say, " Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the mountain, bruised, bloody, and disfigured. If the great waters; and thy footsteps are not known." they still continue obstinate, they are put to death. Yet at the very time he said so, he devoutly and beauEach detachment having captured its share of the tifully adds, "Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary." spoil, returns to the main body, and is succeeded by Though it be a way of darkness, it is still a way of others, until the mountain, "de battue en battue," is holiness and truth. So, again, does the same Psalmist depopulated. If from the strength of the position, or declare of Israel of old, "They wandered in the wilthe obstinacy of the resistance, the first assault is derness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell unsuccessful, the general adopts the inhuman expe- in." For forty years was this trial continued to them, dient of reducing them by thirst. This is easily yet he adds, "God led them forth by the right way, effected by encamping above the springs at the foot that they might go to a city of habitation." Though of the mountain, and thus cutting off their only supply the footsteps of the Lord be hidden, they are still of water. The miserable negroes often endure this within the sanctuary; though the way be long and siege for a week; and may be seen gnawing the bark wearisome, it is still the right way. Such, we scruple of trees to extract a little moisture, till at length they not to say, in every individual instance, shall we find are compelled to exchange their country, liberty, and it; and when we look down upon the road, as seen families for a drop of water. They every day approach from the habitations of the heavenly city, and trace it nearer, and retreat on seeing the soldiers, until the from the far-distant country from which we came, and temptation of the water shewn them becomes too observe all its trackless windings, and its now-unstrong to be resisted. At length they submit to have intelligible turnings, we shall clearly perceive that the manacles fastened on their hands, and a heavy none other could have carried us to the many mansions fork suspended to their necks, which they are obliged of our Father's house.-Elisha, by the Rev. Henry to lift at every step. Blunt, A.M. The march from the Nuha mountains to Obeid is short. From thence they are sent to Cairo. There the pasha distributes them as he thinks proper. The aged, infirm, and wounded, are given to the Bedouins, who are the most merciless of masters, and exact their due of hard labour with a severity proportioned to the probable short duration of the lives of their unhappy victims. At Obeid alone 6000 human beings are annually dragged into slavery, and that at the cost of 2000 more, who are killed in the capture. The king of Darfur also imports for sale yearly 8000 or 9000 slaves, a fourth of whom usually die during the fatigues of a forced march; they are compelled, by the scarcity of provisions, to hurry forward with all speed. In vain the exhausted wretches supplicate for one day's rest; they have no alternative but to push on, or be left behind, a prey to the hungry jackals and hyænas. "On one occasion," says the narrator, "when, a few days after the march of a caravan, I rapidly crossed the same desert, mounted on a fleet dromedary, I found my way by the newly-mangled human carcasses, and by them I was guided to the nightly halt." Dr. Holroyd, whom I have already mentioned, in a letter to me, of date 14th January, 1839, says, in reference to these "gazouas" of the Egyptian troops, "I should think, if my information be correct, that, in addition to 7000 or 8000 taken captive, at least 1500 were killed in defence or by suffocation at the time of being taken; for I learnt that, when the blacks saw the troops advancing, they took refuge in caves; the soldiers then fired into the caverns, and, if this did not induce them to quit their places of concealment, they made fires at the entrances, and either stifled the negroes, or compelled them to surrender. Where this latter method of taking them was adopted, it was not an uncommon circumstance to see a female with a child at her breast, who had been wounded by a musket-ball, staggering from her hiding-place, and dying immediately after her exit." The Cabinet. REASON AND FAITH.-Brethren, it is well to learn early in the spiritual life this great truth, that there are many points in our earthly pilgrimage where reason must be content to follow faith blindfold—that there are depths in religion where the strongest reason will infallibly be drowned, unless supported in the arms of faith-that the dearest child in God's redeemed family must often be satisfied, when he feels his Father's CHRIST, AND NOT PETER, THE ROCK.-After all, it would be difficult to comprehend on what principle the primacy of the popes could be established, even were it granted that they were successors of St. Peter, and his successors in any sense of the word which they might choose to adopt. If bishops, who preside where a Church was founded by an apostle, have on that account a title to precedence, the bishops of Corinth, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and of other Churches founded by St. Paul, had as good a right to precedence as the Bishop of Rome. Ay, but St. Paul, they say, was not equal in rank to St. Peter, who was the prince of apostles. Now St. Paul has himself positively denied such precedence. He says (2 Cor. xi. 5), that he 66 was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles." It is further argued, that St. Peter was the rock on which the Church was built. So, indeed, he was. He was the rock on which the Church of Jerusalem was built; the Church which was the mother of all Churches, and which, if the arguments of the Romanists were valid, might claim to be the mistress of all Churches. At this very day there is a patriarch of Jerusalem, who, though he possesses no patrimony from St. Peter, has an infinitely stronger claim to the primacy among Christians than the pope of Rome.Bp. Herbert Marsh's Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome. Poetry. THE BONDAGE OF ISRAEL. OH! Israel, dark was the doom of thy nation, When the spoilers of Midian prevail'd o'er thy When thy children were scatter'd in wide desolation, They cried to the Lord to retract his just sentence: But, alas, we have foes who assault from within- From Poems by Mrs. Abdy. Ye are driven by sin from your homes of calm quiet Thus sunk in the thraldom of shame and dejection, Ye need not a prophet to tell of your errors; The fearless, firm preachers of God's holy word Have dwelt to you oft on his love and his terrors — But the message was slighted, the warning unheard. Nor need ye a Gideon to strike off your fetters; Your foe has been vanquish'd, your cause has been won; To sin ye were slaves, to the Lord ye were debtors, Till your freedom was bought by the blood of his Son. And though sin will still strive to become your oppressor, Though ye struggle awhile in the tempter's dark snare, Ye may triumph through faith in your blest Inter cessor, And return to the Lord by repentance and prayer. Then fear not, for God your redemption has spoken, In his Gospel of pardon, of love, and of peace; Nor need ye, like Israel, crave for a token The fire from the rock, or the dew on the fleece. The cross of your Saviour is ever before you, The cross where he suffer'd in sorrow and pain; Its light may illume your dark ways, and restore you To dwell with your God and his people again. And oh! may those prophets be blest in their mission, Who faithfully lead you that refuge to win; At the foot of the cross may ye kneel in submission, And your souls shall be freed from the bondage of sin. Miscellaneous. NATIONAL EDUCATION.-The baptismal engagement must be followed out, and must give a tone to the training of succeeding years. This was especially, you are aware, at the administration of this sacrament, impressed upon those to whom, as sponsors, the Church delegated the care of her infant members. The children were, they were told, to be virtuously brought up, "to lead a godly and a Christian life." I ask, then, whether any general instruction would satisfy this requirement? whether either the letter or the spirit of that solemn charge would be fulfilled by communicating a few vague principles, held in common with the followers of a thousand sects, and leaving it to their choice, or a fortuitous classification, whether any more particular instruction should be additionally imparted? No, no; the baptismal covenant takes a wider range; it prescribes a uniform plan, to be consistently followed, comprehending in its very germ all • From "Baptism into the name of the Trinity, an argument for early Religious Instruction: a Sermon, preached May 26, in aid of the Hampstead National Schools, by the Rev. John Ayre, M. A, Minister of St. John's Chapel, and Domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Roden. Published by request. Shaw, Hampstead." those peculiarities which are afterwards to be more fully developed, but which cannot be excluded from even its first lesson. We have nothing in common with Romanists or Socinians-we have not even the same Scriptures; we cannot go a step, therefore, hand in hand, with them; nor, if we did, could any superstructure of special instruction remedy the unsoundness that must be inherent in the general foundation. Let those that are not of us follow their own notions in their own schools; we will not interfere in any intolerant spirit with their plans; but we do ask, we do demand, not to be compelled to lower our high standard, by concession or compromise, so as to suit the feelings or the fancies of less Scriptural bodies,-still less to join in maintaining, under the same roof, the teaching of that religion in resistance to which our sainted fathers poured out their life-blood at the stake. Neither do we desire that any power should stand forth to persecute error; but yet, in addition to the full liberty of following out our own principles, we have a right to protest against the public authorisation of error. It is true, nationally as well as individually, that he that bids the enemy of Christ, God speed, will be held partaker of his evil deeds. And for national sin, national judgments may be expected. subject is, from circumstances of which you are all, I believe, aware, invested just now with a thrilling interest. And though it becomes me not, in this place, to mix with the preaching of the Gospel any of the leaven of worldly politics, yet I am justified, as your pastor, and I have, I am sure, the sanction of my ecclesiastical superiors, to tell you, that if you value the doctrines of the cross for yourselves, if you thank God for the Church-privileges you have enjoyed, you are bound to do your utmost that the same precious blessings be communicated to our posterity; that our land may be saved from the pollution of supporting, of authorising, of paying for the dissemination of the deadly superstitions of Rome, the heartless insanities of liberalised infidelity. Such will be the result, unless churchmen now come forward to maintain and carry out religious education on the principles of our reformed and scriptural Church. This SPEARS. On proceeding to the Dead Sea from Jericho with several equestrians powerfully armed, we were preceded by a person of great bodily power with a long spear, exclaiming in a wild howl" Ollah, Ollah !'' This was not only an instrument of war, or "slaughterweapon," but carried as a mark of honour, and he galloped to and fro flourishing it with great dexterity. It appears to have been adopted so far back as the time of the first kings of Israel, (1 Sam. i. 6; Judg. xvii. 17; xxii. 6; xxvi. 7, 8; 2 Sam. xxi. 8); and on one occasion the men of valour who used these amounted to 300,000 (2 Chron. xiv. 8). Those labourers also employed in building the walls of Jerusalem were furnished with them, to repel any attack on them during the operation. We also find that a similar instrument was stretched out by Joshua against Jericho; and 200 men also were armed with it, who accompanied horsemen to bring the great apostle to Felix the governor (Acts, xxiii. 23). I own I never beheld this particular instrument at any time in the holy land, without being strongly reminded of the application of it by the Roman soldier to the side of our Lord when he was stretched out on the cross (John, xix. 34). — Rae Wilson's Travels through the Holy Land. London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLYN, 46 ST. MARTIN'S LANE. ON THE OMISSION OF THE DUTY OF PRAYER IN THE MOSAIC LAW. BY THE REV. EDWARD HAWKINS, D.D. Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, and Prebendary of Rochester.* I. We can scarcely conceive the thought of a religion without prayer; for we are accustomed to prayer from our very infancy; we regard prayer to the Almighty as the first and the last, and the most frequent and constant of all our religious duties. We have the highest example to guide us to this duty; and the most express, as well as the highest authority for its observance. And, in fine, the duty of prayer appears to us, no doubt, most natural, and reasonable, and exactly suited to the condition of a dependent creature, much more of fallen, weak, and sinful creatures. Nay, the duty of prayer appears so reasonable not only to us, who have been blest in the acknowledgment of Christianity, but, it might be almost said, to all men, that the very heathen addressed prayers to their gods, observing, upon the subject, that to sacrifice victims without prayer seemed improper and irreverent towards the gods; and hence accordingly they had various forms of supplication, deprecation, and commendation; and some unbelievers in Christian countries, who have not persuaded themselves that the Almighty would be moved by our prayers, have nevertheless thought prayer a useful and reasonable service, from its very influence on the heart of him who offered it. In a word, almost all who have had any Bampton Lecturer for 1840, VOL. VII.-NO. CLXXVII. PRICE 1d. notions of God, however imperfect or corrupted, would, after their manner, join with the Psalmist, in addressing him, "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come" (Ps. lxv. 2). But if these are our sentiments concerning the duty of prayer to the Almighty, we should be exceedingly surprised if we found a religion certainly proceeding from God himself, and yet not enjoining prayer as a religious duty, nor promising a blessing upon its observance. To say that this is precisely true of the law of Moses, as Moses gave it to the Israelites, would be asserting too much; but it is true of the Mosaic law to a very remarkable degree: and it may not be useless to consider the apparent omission of the duty of prayer in the Mosaic law, and to observe the state of the fact itself, and the reasons for the omission. As to the state of the fact, it is not true that the books of the law contain no injunctions to offer prayer to God; but yet there are not, I believe, more than three cases in which prayer is expressly enjoined. The first is a command to offer up prayers to God at the end of the tithing in every third year (Deut. xxvi. 13, 14, 15); where, after a profession of obedience, the form of prayer is appointed: "Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers; a land that floweth with milk and honey." And perhaps this is the only instance in the whole law in which prayer is implicitly enjoined as a duty of general or extensive obligation. For the two other instances relate to particular cases and persons; one is the com [London: Robson, Levey, and Franklyn, 46 St. Martin's Lane.] G mand (Deut. xxi. 7, 8) enjoining the elders | the publican shews that the Jews were ac of the city, next to the place in which a murder had been committed by some unknown hand, to make an expiation with this prayer: "Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge." And the remaining instance, if it can be properly called an instance of prayer, is the prescribed form of words in which Aaron and his sons were commanded to bless the people: "The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace" (Numb. vi.). customed to pray separately: and before the In this case the Lord promises that he "will put his name upon the children of Israel, and bless them;" and, after the expiation of the uncertain murder, ending with the prayer above mentioned, he promises that "it shall be forgiven them." And this may We know further that this practice was not be called, in some measure, promising a bless- confined to prophets or eminent men; witness ing upon these prescribed prayers. But be- Hannah's prayer (1 Sam. i.). Isaiah speaks sides this, no blessing is promised to prayer in of the practice of all the people of Judah: the law; and, after all, the injunctions to pray" When ye spread forth your hands, I will are not general commands, not suited at least to all persons at all times. For of the three instances which have been mentioned, one applies only to the priests; another belongs to an occasion which might never happen to many an individual throughout his whole life; and the third, which is the most general, is only applicable every third year. And even the command does not extend to all the people; for the whole tribe of Levi had no tithes to present, and only the males in other tribes had occasion to present them. Now, if this is the state of the fact, this approaches very nearly to an entire omission of the duty of prayer, or of a blessing upon it, among the injunctions and promises of the Mosaic law, as Moses himself delivered the law. And we at once perceive the immense difference between the law and the Gospel in this remarkable respect. But before we look to what the Gospel enjoins and promises respecting the duty and privilege of prayer, let us notice two or three circumstances which may tend to lessen our surprise at the omission of the law, so far as it existed; and some of which have not always been sufficiently regarded by writers on the subject. In the first place, we know, from Scripture, that the Jews, in the time of our Saviour, were not ignorant of the obligation to prayer. On the contrary, some of the disciples of Jesus entreated him " to teach them to pray, as John also taught his disciples." The parable of the pharisee and hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood" (i. 15). And before that time Solomon had not only told the people expressly that "the prayer of the upright was the delight of the Lord" (Prov. xv. 8), but he evidently supposes, in his remarkable prayer at the dedication of the temple, that it would be the practice of all faithful Israelites, and even of the stranger who should join himself to Israel for the Lord's sake, to lift up their prayers to the Almighty, praying towards that house which he had built; and he entreats the Lord of heaven to "hear their prayer and their supplication" (1 Kings, viii.; 2 Chron. vi.) I do not recollect that the Scriptures give us any account much earlier than this of the practice of prayer, as observed by the people of Israel. But we learn from uninspired writers that they were accustomed to accompany their sacrifices and offerings with prayers; and the forms of these prayers, confessions, deprecations, and consecrations, have come down to us; but how early they were employed, is not, I believe, exactly known. But in all probability these prayers, or others similar to them, were offered up at a very early period of their history. Samuel, we know, accompanied a sacrifice with prayer, and that at the express desire of the people of Israel; and even in the books of Moses themselves, though the practice of prayer is not commanded (except in the three instances already mentioned), yet the propriety of |