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into her bosom the heavenly One. Dream not of a descent of the Divinity, for He does not migrate from place to place, like beings invested with bodies. Do not imagine that the Divinity is changed into flesh and altered in nature, for He is immutable and immortal,

Is it asked how the Divine Word was not affected with human weakness ? We reply: fire does not take on the properties of the iron heated by it. Iron is black and cold, but, when heated, assumes the aspect of the fire; it acquires the glow of the fire without darkening the fire; it emits flame without extinguishing that of the fire. In like manner, our Lord's flesh was received into union with Divinity, without communicating to Divinity its own infirmities. You

are not to ascribe to this mortal nature an effect analogous to that of the fire, and imagine that it acts on the Divine, but only that it is acted on by it in accordance with the analogy which, on account of human weakness, you make use of. Nor need you be at a loss to conceive how the incorruptible nature can remain unaffected, having the familiar spectacle before you for I still keep by the same image-of the fire unconsumed and unaffected by the rust of the iron which is heated by it.

Learn the mystery why God is in the flesh. It is that He may slay death, who lies lurking in human nature. For as poisons lodged in the body are neutralised by introducing antidotes into it, and as the darkness which reigns in the house is dissipated at the entrance of light, so death, which tyrannized in human nature, vanished at the advent and entrance of Divinity. And as the congelation, which binds in rigidity the particles of water during

night, is overcome by the beams of the sun when he has become warm, so death reigned till the appearance of Christ; but when the saving grace of God was revealed, and the Sun of righteousness arose, death was swallowed up in victory. It could not abide the presence of the true light. Oh the depth of the goodness and love of God!"-Sermon on the Nativity.-BASIL.

THE MIND COMPARED TO A PAINTER.

"Like a painter, the mind delineates its thoughts on the tablet of the soul. Possessed of free will, it is unconfined and unfettered, and on account of its incorporeality there are no limits to the exercise of its love for depicting, for it finds as much space for the delineation of its ideas as it chooses.

Again, just as the painter, immediately after filling his canvass with the various figures that make up the picture, produces it, and removing its coverings, exhibits it to the gaze of the multitude, no longer requiring to explain what he has painted, but allowing the painting to explain itself: so also the soul on its departure from this life is stripped of the veil of the body which covered the tablet within during the whole of life, while the process of painting it with ideas was going on; it shows in distinct outline what has been depicted on it; and the tablet of the soul filled with its varied tale lies uncovered for the inspection of the universe.

If sacred lessons and virtuous thoughts have been the subjects of the pencil, then the mind which drew, and the tablet which contains the picture, are judged worthy of the highest encomiums. Fascinated with its beauty, the spectators are unwilling to with

draw their eyes from the spectacle, but all admire the loveliness of the picture the figures, the divinely graceful forms of the objects depicted, and felicitate that divine painter on the noble use to which he has turned this earthly life, by employing it in painting on the tablet of the soul, with beauty-loving hand, pictures surpassing in loveliness the loftiest ideals of the beholders' minds.

But if these paintings turn out unseemly and disgraceful, then the painter will manifestly deserve shame and derision. Far different, perhaps, were the hopes he cherished previous to the uncovering of his picture. His fond expectations are all dissipated when the veil is removed and his work is shown to the spectators.

Whither, then, shall that artist flee, who is weighed in the balance with the other, is found wanting, and is condemned by all, his own thoughts the meanwhile accusing, or else excusing one another? Where shall that tablet of the soul be placed that has filled the beholders' eyes with every shameful sight and monstrous idea?". Treatise on True Virginity. Ibid.

WHAT WE LOVE WHEN WE LOVE

GOD.

"With no doubtful, but with certain consciousness, O Lord, I love Thee ! But what do I love when I love Thee? Not the beauty of corporeal form, nor the gracefulness of time, nor the brightness of light so grateful to these eyes, nor the sweet melodies of songs of every measure, nor the pleasant fragrance of flowers, and ointments, and spices, not manna and honey, not members acceptable to corporeal embraces. It is not these I love when I love my God; and yet I love a light, and a voice, and a fragrance, and a nourishment,

when I love my God-the light, the voice, the fragrance, the food, the embrace of my inner man; where there gleams on my soul what is not contained by place, and where there sounds what time does not grasp, and where a fragrance is emitted which is not scattered by the breeze, and where there is a savor which is not lessened by eating, and where there adheres that which satiety does not tear away. It is this I love, when I love my God. And what is this? I asked the earth and it said, it is not I; and whatever is in it admitted the same. asked the sea and its depths, and the living things that creep there, and they answered, we are not thy God; seek above us. I asked the blasts of wind, and the universal air with its inhabitants said, Anaximenes is in error, I am not God. I asked the heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, and they said, neither are we the God you seek. And I said to all those things which surround the gateways of sense, ye have said to me concerning my God, that ye are not he; tell me something of him? And they all exclaimed with a loud voice, He made us." Confessions, x. 6.—AUGUSTINE.

WHAT MAKES A PREACHER?

"And so that eloquent preacher of ours labors when he speaks what is just, and holy, and good -for he ought to deliver nothing that is not so,-he labors, I say, to the utmost when he speaks those things, that he may be heard intelligently, willingly and obediently; and if he is able do this, let him not doubt that the degree in which he is able to do it is to be ascribed rather to the piety of his prayers than to the power of his oratory; so that he must be a pleader by praying

for himself and those whom he is to address before he is a preacher. On the approach of the hour in which he is to speak, let him raise his thirsting soul to God, that he may send forth what he has drunk in, and pour out that with which he has replenished his spirit. For since on every subject which has to be treated in relation to faith and love, there are many things to be said, and many ways in which they are expressed, by those who know them; who knows what is best for us to say, or to be said through us, but He who scans the hearts of all? And who makes the right word to be

spoken by us in the right way but He in whose hands both we and our sermons are? And thus let him who wishes both to know and to teach learn all that he requires to teach, and acquire the faculty of speaking as becomes an ecclesiastic; but at the hour of preaching let him think that more suitable to a pious mind is what our Lord says: "Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak; for it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you."-Treatise on Christian Doctrine, iv. 52.—Ibid.

Literary Notices.

[WE hold it to be the duty of an Editor either to give an early notice of the books sent to him for remark, or to return them at once to the Publisher. It is unjust to praise worthless books; it is robbery to retain unnoticed ones.]

THE REVIEWER'S CANON.

In every work regard the author's end,

Since none can compass more than they intend.

TRAVELS, RESEARCHES, AND MISSIONARY LABORS, during an Eighteen Years' Residence in Eastern Africa. By the Rev. Dr. J. LEWIS KRAPF. London: Trübner and Co.

THIS work, translated from the German, is interesting not only from its relation to the Missionary enterprize and to geographical discovery, but also from the character of the author. He appears to be uncommonly simple-hearted, and consecrated to his work with an unusual entireness of zeal and affection. He makes a very unnecessary apology for plainness of style-but in these days of fluent and pedantic scribbling and schoolboy rhetoric, such plainness is very much to our taste, and almost as great a curiosity as a black swan. His way of writing is manly and business-like, and he has so much to say that he has no time or thought to bestow on mere rigmarole, but rushes at once into his subject.

The work is autobiographical, and the first chapter deals wholly with personal details. Ludwig Krapf was born in 1810, at the

village of Derendingen, near Tübingen. He early displayed a relish for Scripture story, and the saying was current, "Mark my words, Ludwig will some day be a parson." "The child is father of the man." He soon desired Missionary work, and offered himself to the English Church Missionary Society. In 1837, he departed for Abyssinia. Here he was opposed and even frustrated by the Roman Catholics. His second attempt was made in the kingdom of Shoa, the account he gives of which is exceedingly interesting. He desired however, to penetrate further, and to evangelize the tribes of the interior, about the equator. His plan was to work towards the interior from the Eastern Coast. While sojourning at Takaungu, he obtained a useful acquaintance with the localities and tribes of Eastern Africa. In January, 1844, he reached Mombaz and Tanzibar. One of the best parts of the book is that wherein he gives an account of the Wanika, who pour wine over graves, and worship a mysterious being called the Muansa, who, on great occasions of Church and State, indicates his will by unearthly noises. They also worship a deity called Mulungu, who regulates the "skiey influences." Their modes of trying persons suspected of crime are different from those which prevail in England. One method is to bring red-hot iron into contact with the hand of the prisoner. If the iron does not burn him, it is taken for granted that he is innocent, and he is let go.

Dr. Krapf, in co-operation with Rebmann, another German missionary, founded a station at Mombaz. The remarks that he makes in this connexion on the best modes of spreading Christianity in Africa, are full of "truth and soberness." In the second part of this work, Rebmann gives an account of various journies into the interior. Then Krapf resumes his narrative, from which it appears that Livingstone and he approached each other in their progress, the one from the south, the other from the north, towards Cape Delgado, leaving only about 300 miles between them.

Krapf and his fellows have afforded no mean assistance to eminent explorers, such as Captain Speke, in the discovery of inland lakes. Such missionaries as they, are, of course, pioneers of both civilization and Christianity. The remarks which fall incidentally from Krapf on the capabilities of Eastern Africa, the Suez Canal, and kindred topics, are worthy of serious attention.

The volume is embellished with a portrait of the Author, who has a characteristically German physiognomy. We think that both his face and his book manifest a zeal combined with coolness-if such an association of words is admissible-practical "good sense, and great powers of endurance. There are also some excellent maps, and colored sketches of scenery. As a companion volume to Livingstone's, this has our most cordial recommendation.

CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED FAMILY BIBLE. From the Autho rised Version, with Notes, &c. Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. London,

THE name of Cassell is now so identified with wholesome popular literature as to be itself a recommendation. The services already rendered by the owner of it to the cause of the education of the people, have laid multitudes of young and mature age, and of both sexes, under great obligation. We are glad that this enterprizing publisher has undertaken an illustrated and annotated Family Bible. The present instalment comprises the portion from Genesis to the first of Samuel, inclusively. The size is very fitted for the family, neither so large as to be cumbersome, nor so small as to be insignificant. The type is clear, the paper good, and the price remarkably low. We have looked with care at the notes, and find them full of trustworthy information, precisely of that kind which is most needed by the ordinary English reader. Difficulties are removed, and the meaning of this ancient and Oriental Book, the most precious inheritance for all times and countries, is in innumerable cases made evident. The Theology is remarkably free from sectarianism; many of the illustrations are highly to be commended for the light they throw on manners, customs, natural history, and the like. Had some of the more fanciful been omitted, the value of the work would perhaps not have been diminished. But there is time for improvement in this respect, as the publication proceeds. We hope that this most praiseworthy effort will meet with extensive encouragement, and we urgently press it on the attention of Heads of families, Village Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and intelligent young persons generally.

LETTERS OF Alexander VON HUMBOLDT. Tübner and Co.

THE honored name of Humboldt has for many years past been associated with scientific travel and research, and with a knowledge of nature at once deep and comprehensive. To some men it is given to penetrate much farther into the secrets of the physical universe than their fellows, that they may unfold them to those who are less richly endowed. "Man," said Bacon, "is the minister and interpreter of nature;" and we know of no one in these generations who has so well justified the assertion as the great Humboldt. When the world has long been acquainted with an author, when it has from his pages received instruction and delight, it is natural to desire some knowledge of the man himself, and there is no more effectual way than the perusal of his familiar letters. They who have read the "Cosmos" will have formed a very lofty idea of Humboldt's intellect, and, by a not unnatural association, of his moral character. Such, will probably be shocked by some of these letters, however greatly they

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