THE LIMITED NATURE OF HUMAN ACQUIREMENTS. MAN's progress in knowledge, while in this world of sin and suffering, is obviously extremely limited. His powers are capable of indefinite expansion, and yet, during the longest period to which human life is protracted, he can obtain but a partial acquaintance with a few of the sciences, while he remains totally ignorant of the rest. His faculties are fitted for the comprehension of truths that never once engaged his attention on this side the grave; for the contemplative enjoyment of intellectual and moral beauties as yet unrevealed to his gaze. The labor of a whole life-time is insufficient for the complete mastery of any one of the sciences; as the explorer ascends the nearest eminence a new prospect is opened up to him, and he beholds an assemblage of hills and vales stretching away in the distance till they become blended with the skies. Standing upon the vantage-ground he already possesses, he perceives that the extent of the science is boundless, and that all he can do is to attain a knowledge of its rudimental truths. At the close of a life devoted to science, he will find that he is only standing at the gates of her spacious and magnificent temple; and like the greatest of our christian philosophers, he will confess that he has been, as it were, engaged but in gathering pebbles on the seashore.

It may easily be conceived, that, to a mind of this nature, all former acquirements sink into insignificance compared with those which cannot be acquired; and as a landscape never looks so beautiful, as when contemplated from a distance, so, science never appears so lovely, as when she is beheld afar off. Forgetful of the toil and labor requisite, the ardent enthusiast still advances, though he knows that he cannot attain a full knowledge of the subject. His eye is ever fixed on the distant object, at which he struggles hard to arrive. He continues to press onwards towards an eminence which perpetually recedes from him. There is however a point which he cannot pass-a barrier which arrests his farther progress; there is an adamantine wall which beats back him who rashly endeavors to press onwards in defiance of all obstacles.

An important lesson may be derived from this view of the limited nature of man's progress in knowledge. An impression of deep

humility ought to be imprinted on us by it. Accordingly we find that those philosophers who have made the greatest progress in knowledge have been most sensible of their ignorance. Not only have they ascribed to the hand of a beneficent Creator the countless bounties which minister to the comfort and happiness of man, as well as the many scenes of beauty and loveliness wherewith He hath brightened up this our lowly dwelling-place; but they have in very deed embraced the "truth as it is in Jesus," and bowed down in lowliest reverence before the footstool of their Maker. They have been content to become as "little children." Such were Newton and Locke, and Boyle;-the men in short, who had gained the highest reputation for science, were still more distinguished for their ardent and lofty piety. A.R.B.

FILIAL AFFECTION.

Ir is pleasing to reflect, that with very few exceptions, the domestic feelings have exercised the greatest influence on those men at whose feet we should be most anxious to receive instruction. Literature is not degraded by many Sternes. Gray's Epitaph on his Mother is more affecting than any thing in his poetry. How the heart rejoices with the mother of Richard Hooker, when the schoolmaster came to tell his parents of the genius and virtues of their son, and to urge them to abandon their intention of apprenticing him to a trade! Who can refrain from joining in his beautiful and touching prayer, "that he might never live to occasion any sorrow to so good a mother, whom, he would often say he loved so dearly, that he would endeavor to be good, as much for her sake as his own."

Sanderson, also, in after life, was fond of remembering the early instruction of his father, whose praiseworthy practice it was to season his pleasant stories with short and virtuous apothegms— teaching and amusing at the same time. It was of this amiable prelate that Charles the First observed, "I carry my ears to hear other preachers, but I carry my heart to hear Sanderson, and act accordingly."-Seymour.

Think of Herbert's visits to his mother at Chelsea, respecting the church he was desirous of repairing; and his humble hope that at the age of thirty-three, she would suffer him to become a

ness.

disobedient son. It was a consolation to the departing spirit of Donne, that in the hour of depression and decay he had been able to nourish and protect her who had watched over his own helplessOur future life often takes its colour from the instructions we gather at a mother's knees. The mother of Sir Henry Wootton was his first tutor; so I believe was Sir Philip Sidney's. To the diligence and care of his parent, Lorenzo de Medici probably owed that taste for poetry and learning, which obtained for him the title of the Magnificent; and the mother of Dante, by promoting the growth of her child's genius, assisted in realizing the vision in which she beheld him, nourished by the fruit of the laurel, and quenching his thirst in the fountains of song. The philosopher Bacon and the poet Thomson, imbibed wisdom and poetry from this guide. Kirke White.

LOVE OF STUDY.

No fortune in the power of our friends to heap up for us can equal in value the love of study and contemplation. Riches make to themselves wings and flee away, but these qualities abide with us at all seasons, and under every dispensation. They are fountains which winter cannot harden, nor summer dry up; be it our case that no hostile hand poisons the purity of these waters. Boyle declared that he valued life only for the improvement of knowledge and the exercise of piety. Heinsius, the keeper of the library at Leyden, used to say, that, in closing the door of that beloved chamber, he seemed to release himself from ambition, avarice, and every other vice, and to be admitted into the company of the greatest intellects.

It was a saying of Thomas à Kempis, that he had sought for rest in all places, and had found it only in seclusion and among books; in angulis et in libellis.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

LAMPS.

"A burning lamp passed between the pieces. In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram."-Gen. xv. 17, 18.

It is an interesting fact, that the burning lamp, or fire, is still used in the East, in confirmation of a covenant. Should a person

in the evening make a solemn promise to perform something for another, and should the latter doubt his word, the former will say, pointing to the flame of the lamp, "That is the witness." On occasions of greater importance, when two or more join in a covenant, should the fidelity of any be questioned, they will say, "We invoke the lamp of the temple," (as a witness.) When an agreement of this kind has been broken, it will be said, "Who would have thought this? for the lamp of the temple was invoked."— Roberts.

FALLING DOWN.

"They fell before him on the ground."-Gen. xliv. 14,

A NATIVE in the East under the impression of terror or great want, falls at the feet of a person, and supplicates his help; pity, aversion, and surprise suddenly possess his mind. Such appears to be the impression on the mind of John, when he had a view of the glorious Son of God, Rev. i. 17. "And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me,' Fear not, I am the first and the last.""

THE FALL OF EMPIRES.

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To the christian and the moralist, the fall of the great monarchies of antiquity presents a subject for deep and serious meditation. They speak out of the dust, but they speak in wisdom. Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." It is more than a reproach, it is destruction. We may safely challenge the world to assign any other cause, adequate to effect the overthrow of an empire like that of ancient Egypt, or its sister in iniquity and degradation, Babylon the Great. The heathens of antiquity need not, had they given the matter due consideration, have laboured under such mistakes as they did, with regard to the nature of sin; nor have been so puzzled to draw the line between right and wrong, good and evil. If that which established or promoted the welfare of the community were good, and this they acknowledge to be the fact, they might have discovered by a very easy inference that that which destroyed or subverted it must be sin. The hand-writing upon Egypt's desolated temples and palaces is as vividly legible as that at which the knees of the impious Belshazzar smote each other. And it is to the same purport"Thou art weighed in the balances and found wanting."

This is unquestionably the only principle upon which the ruin of Egypt can be accounted for. The era of Amasir was the golden age of that country; and yet it was against this very monarch that Cambyses marched when he overturned the government, and paved the way for the fulfilment of those prophecies which had been directed against it. It wanted not riches, for its merchants were princes--it wanted not alliances, for the Greeks were in league with it-it wanted not resources, for its population was prodigious-it wanted none of the comforts or luxuries of life, for it was then more than ordinarily productive; but it wanted that righteousness which is the stability of a kingdom, and without which the most rigid policy and foresight can avail nothing.

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SHEPHERDS.

Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians."-Gen. xlvi. 34. THE office of shepherd in India is only filled by persons of very low caste, and no person of respectability will ever attend to it. To be called a shepherd, is a term of reproach.

THE CUBIT.

"After the cubit of a man."-Deut. iii. 2.

THE eastern mode of measuring was from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow, which was about eighteen inches. "Hawkers of cloth," says Roberts, "seldom carry with them a yard wand, but measuring as above, they count two lengths for a yard."

MARKS ON THE FOREHEAD.

"Their spot is not the spot of his children."--Deut. xxxii. 5.

THIS is supposed by Dr. A. Clarke to allude to the spot which idolaters have on the forehead, to show what deity they served. "The worshippers of Siva have a spot on the brow, in a line with the nose. The followers of Vishnoo have yellow marks, others have vermilion, and some black."

This also explains Rev. xx. 4. "which had not worshipped the beast; neither had received his mark upon their forehead."

THE MOON.

"Precious things put forth by the moon."---Deut. xxxiii. 14.

"The moon, among the Hindoos, is spoken of in the masculine gender, and is believed to have a favorable influence on all fruits