glorious and valuable privileges; but their value to us depends upon the use to which they are applied. By baptism, we have been admitted members of Christ's Church, we have been called and invited to partake of His offered blessings. But this enrolment of our names is no evidence that we have obeyed the call. It is from the habits of our lives, and the tenor of our conduct, that we must judge whether we are Christians indeed. C. W. NATURAL HISTORY. The Egyptian Locust. OUR readers are aware that Abyssinia is a large district near the Red Sea. Mr. Salt, the celebrated traveller, in his "Voyage to Abyssinia," gives the following account of the locust, which exactly agrees with what we read in Scripture of the destructive ravages made by these animals. Mr. Salt writes thus from the neighbourhood of Amphila Bay, in the Red Sea. 66 During our stay in this quarter, a large flight of locusts came over to one of the islands, and, in a few days, destroyed nearly half the vegetation upon it, not sparing even the bitter leaves of the rack-tree. These locusts are commonly used as food by the wandering tribes of the neighbouring nations, who, after broiling them, separate the heads from the bodies, and devour the 8 1834.] ABYSSINIAN LOCUST. 103 latter in the same manner, as Europeans eat shrimps and prawns. Dr. Russel says, "I had once an opportunity of seeing large swarms of locusts in the island of Cyprus': they lay swarming, above a foot deep, in several parts of the high road; and thousands were destroyed by the wheels of the carriage passing over them." Of all the insect tribe, the locust is the most dreadful in its depredations; it sets all the defensive arts of man at defiance, and destroys, in a few days, the beautiful verdure of vast tracts of cultivated country." Dr. Shaw, (another celebrated traveller,) says, "The locusts which I saw in Barbary' were much bigger than our common grasshopper. They appeared first towards the end of March, the wind having been for some time southerly; in the middle of April their numbers were so increased, that, in the heat of the day, they formed themselves into large bodies, appeared like a succession of clouds, and darkened the sun. In June, the new broods gradually made their appearance; on being hatched, they immediately collected together, forming compact bodies of several hundred yards square; and, marching directly forward, climbed over trees, walls, and houses, eat up every plant in their way, and let nothing escape them, they stripped the trees entirely of the fruit, the leaves, the young branches, and the very bark. This should be compared with the account given in the 9th chapter of Exodus, verse 15th. See also Matt. iii. 4. V. TITHES. We have always wondered that so much should have been said about the burden of tithes. The whole amount of tithes paid to the clergy is a trifle compared with what is paid to the poor in rates, and in public charities. If there were no tithes at all, there would be people ready 1 An island in the Mediterranean Sea, northward of Egypt. 2 In Africa, westward of Egypt. Our young readers should look into a map of Africa to see Egypt, the Red Sea, and all the places mentioned here. to contribute to the support of the clergy; but the present method prevents the necessity of such a contribution, these tithes being paid by tenants, who have a deduction made from their rents accordingly. It would be folly to throw a burden on the people, when there is no necessity for it. The tithes were given, many generations ago, by rich persons out of their estates; and if they had not thus endowed their parishes, that portion of the estate would have belonged to their own families now: and these families are therefore the only losers. If any thing can be done to make the payment to the clergy less objectionable, we should be glad to see it: but we never can believe that any distress is occasioned to the country by the present mode of payment, or that the removal of tithes would give any relief, excepting to landlords, who indeed ought to be charged with this payment,-because their fathers' fathers gave this portion of their property for the purposes of religion; or, if the present landlords bought the estates, they paid the less price for them in consequence of being chargeable with tithes. SAVINGS' BANKS. I HAVE put together three accounts of robberies which within a few days I have observed in a country paper, (the Salisbury Herald,) and I have done so, thinking that such occurrences deserve to be noticed by all household servants and labouring people; because they show the great folly which those persons are guilty of, who keep their earnings in their own boxes or their own houses, instead of putting them into a savings' bank, where they may be sure that their money will be in perfect safety, and where they will also receive for it a regular interest at the rate of at least 31. 6s. 8d. for every 1007. The occurrences are these: A robbery of a very heartless description was perpetrated lately at Southampton. A poor old woman, named Hibberson, residing in Brewhouse Court, was ill, and engaged a woman named Davis, to attend her. Davis, discovering that a sum of money was under the pillow of the sufferer, took the opportunity, while she was asleep, to purloin it, and immediately decamped. The 1834.] A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE EDItor. 105 cash in amount was 71 sovereigns,—the hard-earned savings of a long life of industry and frugality. Early on Tuesday, Jan. 21, the dwelling-house of Mr. Griffiths, of Widcombe, Somersetshire, was burglariously entered, through the kitchen window, fronting the garden. The villains, after cutting an aperture in the shutter, and removing the bolts and alarm-bells, succeeded in breaking into the kitchen; where it would appear the servant was the principal sufferer, as her box was broken open, and plundered of its contents, in value about 51. On Tuesday last, January 28, Elizabeth Heath, a poor woman residing in lodgings at Charlotte Place, Southampton, on her return from a day's work discovered that her box had been broken open in her absence, and about seven pounds, in sovereigns, half-sovereigns, and halfcrowns, had been stolen. Now, besides the advantages mentioned above, of putting your money in the savings' bank, remember also that temptation often makes the thief, and therefore that by keeping money in your possession you may actually lead others into sin. If, however, you say you do not know exactly how to set about placing your earnings in one of those banks, go at once to the clergyman of your parish, or to any other upright intelligent person, ask his advice and direction, and I have little doubt he will quickly put you in the right way. D. I. E. A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE EDITOR. In these days, when so much poison is circulated through the country by the corrupt portion of the press, it is gratifying and refreshing to every friend of religion, to every lover of good order and of truth, to see so many useful and cheap publications sent forth, to meet the wide-spreading evil. And it is further satisfactory to know, that these better productions of the press, these advocates of morality and preachers of the Gospel, have met with a very favourable reception; and have been the means, under God's blessing, of banishing some mischievous publications, and of preventing many more. Your little work, sir, has had its share in producing this benefit; and I trust it is encouraged, as it ought to be. I can tell you, to your delight, that it does good service to many in this neighbourhood; and in order to cheer and stimulate you to continued exertions, I will just relate to you a particular instance of advantage from the "Visitor," which came under my own immediate observation. A family with which I am well acquainted, consisting of a man, his wife, and several children, had long lived in habits of indifference to religion; vicious they were not; but they had no vital knowledge of God, no fruitful faith, no pious reading or worship in the house, no true concern for the one thing needful. At first, the man was awakened to a sense of his condition and his duty'; and led to seek an interest in the Saviour with sincerity and truth: he became an altered character, and felt (as all true Christians must feel) an ardent desire to bring his family into the way of salvation. To this his wife presented the chief obstacle; she retained all her former spirit of levity, and of opposition to every thing serious. The poor man lamented the case to me most tenderly: and actually thought that nothing could be done, for that his wife would not hear a word, either from conversation or from books which savoured of religion: she completely marred and frustrated all his pious endeavours with the children, and made him thoroughly unhappy. I advised him to read to her something which united amusement with instruction, and lent him, for this purpose, a volume of your Monthly Visitor. The plan was wonderfully blessed; she thought it a most entertaining book: and, though at first she was taken only with the lighter and more amusing parts, her attention, by degrees, was drawn to the religious portions also; and, in the course of a few weeks, she was brought even to prefer the serious treatises and recommendations. The consequence is, that she has acquired a decidedly spiritual taste; is in the constant habit of devotional exercises; trains up her children in the way they should go; attends at church as regularly 1 The writer of this does not say that it was under his own ministry, that this man was awakened to a regard for spiritual things, but the Editor knows this to have been so.-ED. |