to whom He gave inspiration, to declare the will of GOD, the threatenings of the Almighty to those continuing in sin, His heavenly promises to those who should forsake sin,- those who, by His Spirit, foretold things to come, and especially the coming of the Light of the world, and the gift of the glorious Gospel. What fellowship must they enjoy together, while they await His final coming.

"The noble army of martyrs praise Thee." Of every age and rank was this noble army composed; and how did they, in His strength, fight the good fight! What victories over our three great enemies were theirs! They were not ashamed to confess CHRIST crucified under the sharpest tortures, but manfully fulfilled their baptismal vow, and under His banner fought sin, the flesh, and the devil, and continued till the end of their painful warfare His faithful servants and soldiers. What happiness to us, to be allowed to know that all these are occupied, in their waiting state, with the praises of GOD, and we may hope with prayer for the Church, yet militant on earth. The next clause in this holy hymn, "The holy Church throughout the world doth acknowledge Thee," shows that those departed in His faith and fear do join in these our praises, for those upon whose labours CHRIST has set the quiet seal of death, still live unto GoD;" and what but prayer and praise, and longing for further glorious visions of their LORD, can be their blessed employment in their state of rest, joining with us, still strugglers in this troublesome world, in glorifying Him; and we hope, by their more perfect prayers, helping the warfare of that generation of the Church now on its trial here below. Though forbidden to invoke their aid, surely such thoughts as these cannot but raise our hopes and minds the more, to that state of peace and rest in Him their LORD and ours, where we trust in His sure promises, they and we shall await His second Advent to judge the world.

The second part of the Te Deum is the creed. "The FATHER of an infinite majesty; Thine honourable, true, and only Son; also the HOLY GHOST, the Comforter." A sublime address, this, to the Holy TRINITY. We acknowledge in the first Person the FATHER, Whose greatness, holiness, and power, no finite capacity can fancy or image to itself; in the second Person we acknowledge the One only-begotten SON of GOD, co-equal and co-eternal with the FATHER; and in the third Person, the HOLY SPIRIT, Whom our Blessed LORD promised should abide for ever with His Church. When we reflect, we find that most part of our beautiful services consists of creeds. The "Glory be to the FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOST," repeated after each psalm, is called by Bishop Sparrow "The Christian's hymn and shorter creed." The Kyrie Eleison, or "LORD, have mercy upon us," three times repeated, acknowledges the HOLY TRINITY. The Sanctus, "Holy, holy, holy,

LORD GOD of Hosts," and the Glory to GoD in the Highest in the office for the Holy Communion. The commencement of the Litany, addressing the HOLY TRINITY separately, and then unitedly, is a creed. These all confess the chief articles of our faith, as well as the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian, which are more immediately called creeds. Most of the prayers are offered to the FATHER, for the grace of the SPIRIT, through the mediation of the Son, and may thus be felt to be indirect confessions of faith, as well as prayers. An ancient hymn thus beautifully expresses our faith in, and praise of, the glorious TRINITY. "We praise Thee, O LORD, Almighty FATHER, we praise Thee; everlasting, true, and only Son, we praise Thee; never ending HOLY SPIRIT, discoverer of secrets, we praise Thee; all-powerful, unchanging, unceasing One, we praise Thee; the guilty praise Thee; all that Thou hast made in heaven and earth praise Thee, the Holy Almighty, self-existent One! For Thou art the blessed GOD, the lover of mankind; and to Thee, the FATHER, the Son, and the HOLY GHOST, be all praise now and for ever, even unto ages of ages. Amen."

The address to the second Person is then continued, “Thou art the King of glory, O CHRIST!" This recalls to mind the glorious twenty-fourth Psalm,-" Who is the King of glory? Even the LORD of Hosts, He is the King of glory." When we think of the ages during which these words have been used by members of the whole Church daily, what a noble and grand idea it gives us of the real worship of our One and only Holy LORD. "Thou art the everlasting Son of the FATHER," ascribes to Him Whom we adore, the eternal being we believe Him to have had before the world was. We proceed with reverence and awe to enumerate His wonderful and loving doings for us. "When Thou tookest upon Thee to deliver man, Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb." He did humble Himself to take our human nature, though without spot or stain of sin, such could not come near Him. He did condescend for us to taste all woe and grief, and untold and unimagined pains, when for us He endured the bitter suffering depicted in the words, "When Thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the kingdom of Heaven to all believers." How does the prayer arise in our hearts, that we may, by His help, so believe, as to partake in that kingdom, purchased at such dear and awful cost. Having endured for us that dreadful agony, He arose and ascended to Heaven, and there "Thou sittest at the right hand of GoD, in the glory of the FATHER." In His holy habitation He has entered into His rest.

“We believe that Thou shalt come to be our judge." Can we each day pronounce this, without thought of what will, at that most awful hour, be our doom; and hope and prayer to Him for mercy in that dreadful day. We know that from Him alone can come that help. "We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants,

whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious Blood." We are sure, if we seek aright, and cast ourselves on Him, that He will help those whom He has so dearly loved, as to purchase their salvation at so great a cost as His own most precious Blood. The next most beautiful clause, " Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting," seems almost to overpower human thought the blessing and happiness of being for ever and ever with the glorious saints in His holy Presence, seems beyond our frail understanding, so marvellous and great will such a mercy be, as for us poor sinners to be admitted to such a state of perfect bliss.

We here end the confession of faith in the Te Deum, and the remainder is prayer. "O LORD, Save Thy people, and bless Thine heritage; govern them, and lift them up for ever." We here pray for the greatest of mercies, salvation, and blessing on the Church of CHRIST, that it may be governed by the All Wise, and at last lifted up by Him to His place of glory in Heaven. These are the noblest and highest of all objects of prayer, and contain all a Christian need aspire to. "Day by day we magnify Thee, and we worship Thy name ever world without end." Some words of praise are thus introduced; may we indeed daily praise Him with heart and soul, in spirit and in truth, till we worship Him without ceasing, with the angels in heaven, world without end. A most humble prayer follows, and one which must touch all hearts. "Vouchsafe, O LORD, to keep us this day without sin." Were this uttered from our inmost hearts, could we forget it, and fall as we do into sins we thought repented of?

The deep supplication, "O LORD, have mercy upon us; have mercy upon us!" follows, and "Let Thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in Thee." If our trust is indeed alone in Him, we may be sure He will grant us this great mercy. The Te Deum ends with "In Thee have I trusted, let me never be confounded." The worshipper should feel his trust so sure in GOD, after such a tribute of adoration and praise, faith and earnest supplication, that he prays that this his trust, itself the gift of Gon, may secure him, through His grace, from the danger of the enemy, who is always lying in wait for him. Could we but more ponder upon this holy hymn, which we daily repeat with our lips, should we not daily grow in grace, and would not our lives be different, if such words were earnestly thought upon, and applied to our daily wants and troubles, sorrows and sins?—which may God in His mercy grant us help to do, for our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST's sake. Amen.

BAPTISM. We say that Baptism is the sacrament for the remission of sins, and of that washing which we have in the Blood of CHRIST, and that none are to be denied that sacrament

who will profess the faith of CHRIST; no, not the infants of Christians, because they are born in sin, and belong to the people of GoD.-Jewell's Apology.

TRAFFIC ON THE ICE AND ICE-HILLS.

THE approach of the ice, which comes down in large flakes from the Ladoga lake, driving and crashing every thing before it, is known by the perfectly still and oily (çalo) appearance of the water, and by the vapour which is thrown up. A bend in the stream suddenly arrests the ice in its progress, and the channel seems fixed; but some dislodgement occurs, and the ice is again in motion, tearing away and crushing, in its irresistible course, the small craft and wood barks moored to the sides of the quays. It is a Polar sea in miniature. In the winter of 1841 this occurred four times, and the bridges were as many times replaced. When the ice has gained a certain thickness, the police permit a free and indiscriminate passage over the river: foot passengers cross it in all directions, and roads are marked out for carriages by small fir trees, stuck in avenues on the ice. Portions of the surface, free from inequalities, are railed off, from which huge blocks are cut out and carted away to fill the ice cellars with which every house is furnished. These blocks are parallelopipeds, from two to three feet thick, and weighing some eight or ten cwts.; the ice being perfectly pure and transparent. Places near the shore are kept open, to enable the inhabitants to fetch water for domestic purposes, and for the convenience of the washerwomen, who pursue their work barefooted, with the thermometer at zero of Fahrenheit. A large space is also carefully levelled and enclosed for trotting matches in harness; a favourite amusement of the Russian merchants, who pride themselves on the speed and action of their horses. The sledges used for this purpose are of the slightest possible construction, not weighing more than fifty pounds. It is entirely a Sunday's amusement; as most of their pleasurable pursuits are.

Thus the river presents a scene of great animation and gaiety. Skating, which would naturally be supposed to be a continued source of amusement, is not practised beyond a few weeks; when it is totally forsaken for the more exciting and agreeable pastime of the ice-hills, which by that time are prepared, and remain the great focus of attraction as long as the frost lasts. The Russian nobility, the English, the Germans, and the French, have each their separate hills, erected by subscription among themselves in some enclosed spot; and there are besides an immense number of public ones for the other classes. Two strong wooden towers, about fifty feet high, are erected nearly opposite to, but at a distance of several hundred feet from each other. A commodious flight of steps, at the back of each, leads to the summit, from which an inclined plane, at the sharpest possible angle, formed

of immense blocks of ice, cemented together by water poured into the interstices, leads to the bottom or plane, which continues on a bed of similar blocks of ice, protected at the sides with little embankments of snow, to the end of the ground. Parties thus descend one hill, and by the impetus acquired, arrive rapidly at the end of the run, where they leave their sledges, which are carried by men employed for the purpose to the top of the other tower, when they again launch off. To the uninitiated this is rather hazardous sport, and every beginner has to pay his footing at the expense of some severe falls; for the least deviation from the true lien, particularly in descending the slope when the speed is terrific, sends both the sledge and its occupant headlong and whirling after each other in utter helplessness. The management of the sledge is, however, so simple, that a few trials are sufficient to master it. The sledge is a slight framework of steel, about one foot high, and three long, having a cushion on the top for the seat. The rider places himself at the extremity with his legs advanced before him, and his hands, protected by strong gloves, touching the ice on either side, but rather behind him: these act as the rudder; for the slightest touch is sufficient to regulate the direction of the sledge, even at its utmost speed. An adept takes charge of a lady, who sits between his legs, and away they dash; but I have seen some ladies kneel, and even stand on the sledge behind the gentlemen, and perform the descent without the slightest risk. Although the speed cannot be less than thirty miles an hour, to the ladies this is a most agreeable and healthy resort, and the exercise is almost necessary, for the intense cold would render the ordinary recreation of walking hardly endurable. To make twenty descents it is necessary to mount 2000 steps, being fifty for each tower, which is of itself a good day's work. The exciting sensation occasioned by the speed, and the uncontrolled headlong impetus of the sledge, will not admit of a description. It is, however, of that pleasurable nature, that the anxiety to enjoy it is ever on the increase. Among other amusements of the season, the English residents have started an ice-boat, in which they make excursions to Cronstadt and other spots in the Gulf of Finland. In fact the ice is traversed in all directions to these places by sledges; but an extraordinary look-out is kept, and little huts for the custom-house officers are thickly planted about to prevent smuggling. Thompson's Russia.

The

THE LORD'S SUPPER.-There are two parts in this sacrament. one part, the bread and wine, the outward signs, which are seen with our eyes, handled with our hands,

and felt with our taste; the other part, CHRIST Himself, with Whom our souls, as with their proper food, are inwardly nourished.-Nowell's Catechism.