therefore, to have useful books to put into the children's hands on leaving the school. Our Bible and Tract Societies are doing much towards supplying this desideratum, especially in a religious point of view." In this district, even the followers of the false prophet begin to receive with readiness the Tracts. On this subject Mr. Schmid remarks, "In every corner of India the heathens are ready to read christian books. Shall it be said that they are more ready to read christian books, than christians are to give the necessary money for printing and circulating them?" (To be continued.) DOMESTIC.-WALES. From a Clergyman. I HAVE requested a friend to call and pay a first subscription of 11. 1s. to the "RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY," for me. When that is done, be pleased to forward to my address such papers as you are in the habit of circulating, to explain the objects and plan of your society; and for establishing Auxiliary Societies or Depôts, especially the latter, if your scheme embraces such. I consider it a debt of gratitude, for a dear child I have lately lost, to assist an association from whose publications, the "YOUNG COTTAGER" in particular, she has received so much comfort. SCOTLAND. From a Correspondent in Edinburgh. AT the request of the Congregational Union for Scotland, I apply to your society for a supply of Religious Tracts, for distribution by our itinerant preachers during the summer. Scotland, with all its religious advantages, has still very many dark districts, in which the poor people never hear of the way of a sinner's acceptance with God, except when our preachers pay them a visit. We try so to arrange, that every dark corner in our land is visited at least once a year; and this summer we shall have from thirty to forty ministers engaged, less or more, in this work of mercy. They find that Religious Tracts, if well selected, are a powerful auxiliary. They generally put twenty different tracts into the hands of an individual on whom they can depend, directing him to put one of them in each family in his district, for about a week, and then to exchange them, so that each family shall read each tract. When he has sent them their round, he exchanges his twenty with some neighbouring district, and thus keeps up a supply of evangelical reading till our preacher again comes round next year. This, with the bible, is in many instances the only means of grace our poor countrymen enjoy. Great good has thus been done. Our preachers visit many Roman Catholic districts, and find that tracts are peculiarly suited for these people, who can all read. Send a number for Roman Catholics. Printed for the RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, Paternoster Row; WHATEVER outward blessings may do for us, they cannot reach our principal exigences. They profit not in the day of wrath, nor deliver from death, nor evince the friendship of God, nor relieve the burdened conscience, nor heal the wounded spirit, nor content the cravings of an immortal mind. Yea, we must also remember that we are in peculiar danger from these enjoyments. The peril is, that we trust in uncertain riches, and not in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy ; that we make the creature a substitute for the Creator; that we lose the heart of a stranger; that we forget our resting-place; that our thoughts are drawn off from home by the agreeableness and delights of the way; that our tables become a snare; and our prosperity destroys us. The writer, some years ago, in a neighbouring city, received in the pulpit the following note: "The prayers of this congregation are earnestly desired for a man who is prospering in his worldly concerns." And if he did this sincerely, and there is no reason to question it, the man showed an acquaintance with the weakness and depravity of human nature. VOL. IV. I He had studied himself; he had observed others. He had also read his bible to purpose, which informed him how David in his prosperity said, "I shall not be moved;" how Hezekiah, when delivered, recovered, honoured, "rendered not according to the benefit done him, for his heart was lifted up;" how Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked-" then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation." Yet earthly blessings are good in themselves; and display the bounty and kindness of God; and yield us a thousand comforts and advantages. And who could imagine they were bestowed upon those who are not worthy of the least of all his mercies; yea, upon rebels who deserve his wrath? Surely it becomes the possessors to be thankful, and to say, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." Surely they must be the vilest of all beings, whose feelings do not often produce the acknowledgment, "The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." JAY. HEAVENLY JOY. THAT which makes all other things disproportioned to the soul of man, to give it heavenly joy, is the extreme unsuitableness between them; that the soul hath an infinite capacity, and, besides, an immortality of endurance, but they are condemned under impotency to supply that infinite void and inconstancy, by which they must needs perish, and leave the soul without any comfort, and with much anxiety. But in the things written in the bible we find all things suited and proportioned to the very great exigences of the soul. There is a suitableness in them, because of their spiritual nature, whereby they may close immediately with thy spirit; other things are material and corporeal, and what union, what fellowship can a spirit be supposed to have with them? They are outward things, that never come to a nearer union with thy soul, and, though they could, they would debase thy soul, and not exalt it, because of a baser, inferior nature. But these things, Jesus Christ, eternal life in him, these precious promises of the gospel, these spiritual privileges of sonship, &c. these are of a more Divine nature, and by meditation and faith souls come to close with them. These are inward things, more near the soul that believes, than himself is to himself; and so he may always carry them about in his heart, which may be a spring of everlasting joy. "This no man can take from him," John xvi. 22. For the ground and fountain is inward, seated without the reach of all these vicissitudes and changes. Then, as they have a suitableness, so they have a fulness in them, to create fulness of joy; they are cordials to the heart, things that are in their own nature refreshing to the soul, and apt to beget heart-joy. Other things are not suitable to this, to produce any such inward soul-complacency; the things that are from without, reach not so deep as the heart, they make their impressions rather on the outward senses, to tickle and please them, or the countenance, to put some pleasing shape upon it; but the wise man pronounceth all these joys that arise from external things, to be superficial, only skin-deep; "Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness," Prov. xiv. 13. There is no solid recreation to the soul in its retired thoughts from all the delights of the senses. BINNING. THE BEST OF BROTHERS. IN the year 1804, some young men of the Morayshire and Inverness-shire militia, being quartered at Edinburgh, obtained a short furlough their names were J. Tully, D. Elder, D. Cameron, A. Mackenzie, D. Ross, and two brothers called Forsythe, the younger of whom had the christian name of Alexander. As they came from the same part of the country, they all set off together, upon the day before Christmas. They had to walk about 130 miles, and therefore, in going through Perthshire, they thought to make their road shorter by leaving the common route, and cutting through the Grampion Hills. With this view, they struck off from Mulnairn to go to Braemar. At Braemar they arrived safely, and were pressed by their acquaintances in that place to stop, as a wedding was taking place, and the snow had begun to fall. But as their time was short, and their desire to see their relatives very great, they refused to remain, and set off the same day, thinking to sleep at Pitmain, a village about 20 miles further on. part of their journey lay through the most lone and savage scenery, and was very laborious; still they trusted, that, by their youthful strength, they should easily perform it. This Before however they had proceeded far, they were overtaken by one of those sudden snow-storms, which are usual in the mountains. And now the night began to close in around them, while the snow and the wind still grew thicker and fiercer. At last, being bewildered by the shade of the evening, which was rendered yet more dark and dismal by the incessant snow-drift, they strayed, as might be expected, from the right path, and exhausted their strength. They could just see one another; but the storm was so violent they could not converse. Thus struggling onward, and scarcely knowing where they went, John Tully presently sank in a hollow in the rock, and was buried. The others passed on unconscious of his loss. Soon after the younger Forsythe also dropped down, being quite spent. His body lay in the pathway of the rest, but being much weakened themselves, they, without helping him, stepped on-all did so, but one. This one was the elder Forsythe, who knowing that he had a brother amongst the party, stooped when he came up to him, and felt his features. Having in this manner assured himself that it was his own brother; he, without hesitation, took him up, and placed him on his back. And now the number rapidly diminished. D. Ross soon fell, being, as should appear, choked by the blowing: Cameron was next overcome; he stumbled through weakness and was frozen to death: Mackenzie also, who was thought the cleverest and strongest of the party, strayed away and perished; his body being found two years subsequently, in a spot which showed that he must have wandered about for near 36 hours. In the meantime D. Elder held on; and Forsythe followed with his burden, which neither his fatigue nor the difficulties of the way could induce him to cast off. As long as he had any strength, he persevered holding his brother on his back, until at length, his powers giving way before his affection, he sank beneath the weight, and immediately expired. Before however he thus died, it appeared that he had succeeded in saving his brother, though he lost himself. For the younger Forsythe had been gradually reanimated by the warmth of his brother's body; and, when he dropped, was so thoroughly aroused, that he was enabled to reach his home, having escaped death by his brother's generous sacrifice of himself. The bodies of those who had perished, with the exception of Mackenzie, who, as I have said, roved far away among the Grampions, were soon found, and, by Sir T. Grant, of Grant, were all buried, in military form, at Abernethy, in one grave. Thus Alexander Forsythe had the melancholy satisfaction of attending his kind brother's funeral. Reader! we are by nature lost on the bleak and barren mountains of sin, ignorance, and unbelief; and have actually become spiritually dead. We are both insensible to the misery of our condition, and incapable of extricating ourselves from it. And must we all lie and perish thus? No; we need not! For behold the Son of God," the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person;" by the mysterious union of our flesh to his own Godhead voluntarily becomes the brother of those who not only were his own creatures, but among the weakest and the worst of creatures! And being our new-made brother, He proceeds to act more than a brother's part. As the shepherd takes and places on his shoulder the innocent lamb, which has dropped exhausted by the way, so does Christ take up the guilty sinner, and holds him to the last, equally unaffected by the roughness of the path, and by that spite of man, and that rage of Satan, which, with Divine justice, in one dreadful tempest, drove incessantly against his face. Nothing could compel him to drop the burden he assumed; he endured till the extremest pang of mortal agony, and though at length he yielded up the ghost, yet |