same trade, and went to London when about 17 years of age, where he became idle and dissipated, and, falling into bad company, quitted the paths of honesty. He was convicted of theft, and received sentence of transportation, but served the period of his punishment on board the hulks. He has left a wife and four children. He spoke well of his wife, and often with tears in his eyes wished that he had been as good a man as she is a woman.

Wm. and Thos. Harvey were also born at Elstow, the former the 7th of March, 1791, and the latter the 7th of October, 1799. Their father was a dealer in pigs, and died when his children were young. William was apprenticed to a baker, but entered into the service of Lady Caroline Damer, in which he continued for 16 years. He has left three children, and his wife is again advanced in pregnancy. Thomas went to service when only 11 years old, and has lived in several places in the capacity of a groom. He has left a wife and one child.

Learning to read.-To Mr. Langton, when about to establish a School upon his estate, it had been suggested, that it might have a tendency to make the people less industrious. "No, Sir," said Johnson, "while learning to read and write is a distinction, the few who have that distinction, may be the less inclined to work; but, when every body learns to read and write, it is no longer a distinction.-A man who has a laced waistcoat, is too fine a man to work; but, if every body had laced waistcoats, we should have the people working in laced waistcoats. There are no people more industrious than those who have learnt to read and write. Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing, immediately good, from fear of remote evil, from fear of its being abused. A man who has candles may sit up too late, which he would not do if he had not candles; but nobody will deny that the art of making candles, by which light is continued to us beyond the time that the sun gives us light, is a reasonable art, and ought to be preserved."-See Boswell's Life of Johnson.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received C. S. A. Z. A Cheshire Curate. H. P. E. & M. F.

We think a Plain Countryman very good-but the Italian Opera is out of our jurisdiction.

We beg to return our very particular thanks to L. L. D. Chelsea.

THE

Cottager's Monthly Visitor,

JULY, 1823.

REMARKS

On the latter part of the Eleventh Chapter of Genesis,-and on part of the Twelfth Chapter.

(Continued from page 246, Vol. III.)

You know that the Jews, though they live among us, are a separate people from ourselves: different in manners, customs, appearance, religion, and descent. There are many of them in this country; but on the Continent, in Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and above all, in Poland, they are far more numerous. There is also a great body of them in the East Indies; but, wherever found, there is this remarkable circumstance attending them, that they are a distinct people from the nation among whom they dwell. In other cases, where two nations are brought together, in a few generations, by continual intermarriages, they are so blended and mixed together, that all distinction of race is lost. When William the Conqueror made himself master of this country, a vast body of French came over with him; but, in a few hundred years, their descendants were one people with the original English. The United States of America have been settled by a variety of different nations-English, Dutch, French, Irishbut they are all one people: you could not now distinguish the descendants of one from the other. But this is not the case with the Jews. Scattered, as they have been, among all nations, they have inval NO. 31.-VOL. IIJ. 0

riably kept themselves a separate people, thus accomplishing the prophecies respecting them.

Now, if we trace this remarkable people to their origin, we shall find it in Abram; whose history begins at the twenty-seventh verse of the eleventh chapter. He is one of the most remarkable persons mentioned in Scripture, distinguished both on account of his personal character, as the father and pattern of the faithful, and the "friend of God;" and also on account of his being_the fore-father of the children of Israel, or the Jews-the people chosen by the Almighty, from among other nations, to preserve alive in the world the knowledge of Himself.

V. 27. "Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran." Abram, though mentioned first, as the most honourable character, was probably Terah's youngest son: for Terah lived as we learn from v. 32. two hundred and five years; and, as Abram was only 75 when he left Harán, after his father's death, (Gen. xii. 4. Acts vii. 4.) he was not born till his father was 130. Haran, who died before his father left Ur, is thought to have been the first-born *, and much older than either of his brothers, who married his daughters, for Sarai, is supposed to be the same with Iscah.

V. 31. This movement of Terah from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan, was in consequence of the command to that effect, given by the Lord to Abram, of which we read in the three first verses of the twelfth chapter; but being stopped by sickness or infirmity, he did not proceed farther than a country which, after his deceased son, he called Haran, or Charran, where he died.

* Whoever was first-born, was 60 years older than Abram, for he was born when his father was 70.

V. 1-3. In these verses we have the command of the Lord to Abram, upon which, as we have just seen in the conclusion of the last chapter, his father acted in going forth from Ur of the Chaldees. His father is there spoken of as the chief mover, yet we learn from Acts vii. 2, 3. where it is said; "the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (or Haran) as well as from other passages of Scripture, (Gen. xv. 7. Neh. ix. 7. Isa. li. 2.) that it was to Abram that God revealed Himself, and gave the command to leave his country, and kindred, and father's house. We also learn from Josh. xxiv. 2. that at the time when Abram received this command, he and his family were idolaters." Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood, in old time, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. The manner of the revelation we are not informed of, but we may be sure that it afforded sufficient evidence to Abram, that He who spake to him was indeed" God of gods, and Lord of lords," who "ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will.'

But we will consider the words more particularly. The first verse contains the command to Abram to leave his country, and kindred, and father's house; and the second and third, a promise of blessing if he obeyed.

"I will make of thee a great nation;"-and, we find this prophecy fulfilled; for Solomon who afterward reigned over the Israelities, besought the Lord for an understanding heart to judge the people→→→ "for, he said, who is able to judge this thy so great people," 1 Kings iii. 8.

"And I will bless thee;" and we shall find that wherever he went, and whatever he did, the Lord

did "not turn away from him to do him good," but made "all things to work together for his good."

"" And I will make thy name great." Perhaps no merely human name has been so widely held in veneration as that of Abraham: many Eastern nations, as well as the Jews, revere him as their progenitor; and, although differing in religion, vie with each other in doing honour to his memory. And, above all, he is distinguished in Scripture, by being called," the friend of God."

"Make thee a blessing."-His determination to leave his country, had already been made a blessing to his father, as the means of inducing him to forsake his false guds, and to leave his idolatrous kindred. Lot was also spared in answer to Abram's intercession, Gen. xix, 29.

"And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."-The Apostle Paul explains these last words in his Epistle to the Galatians, where he says; (Gal. iii. 8.) that "in them God preached the gospel unto Abraham;" from which we learn that they were prophetic of Christ; and signify, that, in the seed of Abraham, ONE should come who should be a blessing to all nations, even the man Christ Jesus, of whom it is said, Ps. lxii. 17. "His name shall endure for ever, his name shall be continued as long as the Sun, and men shall be blessed in Him."

V. 4, 5. This removal took place about three hundred and twenty years after the building of the tower of Babel, and we read in Heb. xi. 8. that it was "by faith that Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Now how did Abraham's faith shew itself, in this instance? It showed itself in his giving up present advantages, for the sake of the future unseen blessings, promised to him by God. The reason why so much is said about faith in Scripture, is because it is our faith that influences