The Bible Society; the Tract Society; the Missionary Society; the waters of the Sanctuary are rising and rising, and by-and-by they will overspread the whole earth, and then the latter-day glory will come in." -Rev. Samuel J. Mills, 1768-1833, father of Samuel J. Mills, Missionary to India. "Jesus Christ my Saviour."-Rev. Peter Thacher, D.D., 1720-1802. THE END OF ALL THINGS. A FEW months before Hogarth was seized with the malady which deprived society of his matchless pencil, he is said to have started in company, while the convivial glass was circulating round his own table, and exclaimed, "My next undertaking shall be the End of all Things." "If that is the case," replied one of his friends, "your business will be finished, for there will be an end to the painter." "There will be so," answered Hogarth, sighing heavily, "and therefore the sooner my work is done, the better." Accordingly he began the next day, and continued his design with a diligence that seemed to indicate an apprehension that he should not live till he had completed it. This, however, he did in the most ingenious manner, by grouping everything which denotes the end of all things -a broken bottle, an old broom worn to the stump, the butt-end of an old firelock, a cracked bell, a bow unstrung, a crown tumbling in pieces, towers in ruins, the sign-post of a tavern, called World's End, tumbling; the moon in her wane, the map of the globe burning, a gibbet falling-the body gone, and chains which held it falling down; Phoebus and his horse dead in the clouds, a vessel wrecked, Time with his hourglass and scythe broken-a tobacco pipe in his mouth, the last whiff of smoke going out; a play-book open, with "exeunt omnes" stamped in the corner; an empty purse, and a statute of bankruptcy taken out against nature. "So far so good," cried Hogarth; "nothing remains but this," taking his pencil in a sort of prophetic fury, and dashing off the similitude of a painter's palette broken; "finis!" exclaimed Hogarth, "the deed is done, all is over." It is a remarkable and well-known fact that he never again took the palette in hand. It is a circumstance less known, perhaps, that he died in a year after he finished this extraordinary Tail Piece. "WENT ASIDE INTO A DESERT PLACE." WE are told that when the apostles returned from their ministerial work, our Lord "took them, and went aside privately into a desert place." We cannot doubt that this was done with a deep meaning. It was meant to teach the great lesson, that those who do public work for the souls of others must be careful to make time for being alone with God. The lesson is one which many Christians would do well to remember. Occasional retirement, selfinquiry, meditation and communion with God, are absolutely essential to spiritual health. That man who neglects them is in great danger of a fall. To be always preaching, teaching, speaking, writing and working public works, is unquestionably a sign of zeal according to knowledge. It often leads to untoward consequences. We must take time occasionally for sitting down and calmly looking within, and examining how matters stand between our own selves and Christ. The omission of the practice is the true account for many a backsliding which shocks the church, and gives occasion to the world to blaspheme. Many could say with sorrow, in the Canticles, "They made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept." Cant. i. 6. Rev. J. C. Ryle. Cabinet. INSPIRATION. BY THE EDITOR. THE aspect of the Bible Society is one of a very singular description. A body of men have found a book from which they have received benefits to which they attach more value than to every kind of earthly good. They counted themselves ignorant before, but now wise, yea, wiser than they could possibly ever have been rendered by all other tracts, treatises, and books in existence. Before this they were wicked, and enemies to God; but, through the knowledge of the contents of this wonderful volume, they believe themselves to be pardoned all sin, reconciled to God, and adopted into His family. They looked on themselves as having been exceedingly guilty, and exposed to ineffable danger; but they hold that, through this book, they have now obtained the removal of all their sins, and eternal deliverance from peril! They arrogate no praise to themselves on the ground of these changes; for they ascribe all they possess and expect to enjoy to the book. To this they attribute whatever of difference now exists between them and the millions whom they compassionate. They hold all the world who have not been blessed by the wisdom of this book, to be at once ignorant, wicked, guilty, and miserable, and exposed to eternal death! Ancient times and classic countries knew of no such association as this, and laid claim to the possession of no such book, and no such secret of happiness. But if this society be remarkable and singular, far more so is the very remarkable and most singular volume which they are organised to diffuse throughout the world. No volume ever embraced such a range of subjects, or was so long in attaining its completion. It reaches from the beginning to the end of time; it embraces topics relative to God and man, heaven, earth, and hell. Its style is so simple, so oracular, so mysterious, and so sublime, that we have nothing to compare with it. It records events the most wonderful, amazing, and supernatural, without either wonder or elation. The creation of worlds, of men, and of beasts, the deluging of the globe with water, the predicted envelopment of the universe with fire, are among the events with which it entertains the reader. As the Bible consists of many treatises, and is the work of many penmen, so it expatiates over the whole field of human knowledge. In addition to history, it furnishes us with poetry of the same singular, pure and sublime character. No poetry ever resembled this, either as to topic, texture, or tendency. The writers are as free from vanity as can be conceived, and nowhere in the whole book of Psalms or poems do we find one germ of incense thrown on its altar. The praise of ancestors or of contemporaries is apparently no more thought of than if no such beings existed. What humility, morality, purity, and devotion they everywhere breathe! No fanning of passion, no pitiful trifling, no ambitious display of genius, no fulsome flattery, no eulogy on vice is to be found here! The source, the spirit, the end, are everywhere one. The difference between any portion of this book, and the best poem of the best writer in any age or country, is not less than that between a natural rose and an artificial one. The farther men advance in piety the more will they delight in this wonderful book, and in proportion as they depart from God will they abhor it. Its poetry is moral and theological, and its theology transcends in true sublimity, all poetry of all times: it is so unique, so original, without transcription, without imitation, as to stand apart from, and tower high as the heavens above, everything of merely earthly origin. It resembles in its doctrines the fabric and the laws of the universe, so grand in its aspect, so simple as far as comprehensible, so full of beauty and glory, as everywhere to sustain its claim to a Divine origin. The character of God, from whom it professes to come, as here delineated, is so unspeakably and so indescribably righteous, good, lovely, and holy as to transcend that of the gods of the heathen as far as the splendour of noon does the darkness of midnight. Then its prophecy comes on, and stands forth in peerless grandeur. Here we have events predicted thousands of years prior to accomplishment, with all the accuracy and minuteness of history-events at once the most stupendous and the most particular! Then, as to its morality, that, too, stands absolutely without parallel; the principle, the essence, the rule are at once as novel and original as they are admirable in adaptation and beneficial in result. How numerous the writers engaged in this wonderful volume, and what disparity in point of rank and attainment among them, and yet what harmony reigns throughout their writings! The question, then, comes to be, whence all this wisdom and harmony, and oneness of purpose? We reply, without a moment's hesitation, from Jehovah ! We are in danger of granting that the Bible is the Word of God, without attending to the full import of the terms, and without inquiring after the reason on which this conviction rests. The true Christian has an evidence in himself for the truth of the Bible; yet even he will derive much edification from an extensive acquaintance with the various evidences which are scattered profusely in a variety of quarters. The following are among the points that may be indicated: I. The writers of the books declare themselves to be the mere recorders of sentiments and facts, and future events, communicated to them by the Spirit of God. We have reason to believe their testimony from the fact that they were men of great sobriety of judgment, piety of spirit, and purity of character; men who lived above the world, and who, for the most part, suffered every hardship in life, and died a violent death on account of their principles, profession, and labours. In these men's characters we have the most ample guarantee for veracity. It is morally impossible they should deal in falsehood. Bad men would not have written a book so full of evidence against themselves. II. Multitudes of the best men in all ages and countries have received the Bible as the Word of God--men eminent every way for wisdom and goodness, men, whom the wicked have always hated, and hated because of their love to that very book, and their framing of their lives according to its dictates! This is a very remarkable fact, but it is one established by universal experience and observation. 1. 1. III. The object and disclosures of the book are a further evidence of its Divine character, It assumes that men are alienated from God, and it purposes to restore them to His love and service. With a view to this, it supplies a means of rectifying all that is amiss in heart, life, and behaviour. It delineates the character of the Most High in a manner which never entered the mind of heathen moralists. There is no portion of its astonishing contents more remarkable than this. At the same time it gives such a development of the heart and the character of men as is to be found nowhere else. The writers clearly knew the human heart in all the variety and depth of its workings in a manner peculiar to themselves. We look in vain to any portion of heathen literature for such delineations. Let any man consult the earlier chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, and say whether the hand that drew such portraits must not have been Divine. The scheme of redemption, too, is precisely adapted to this diversity of character between God and the creature. One is presented, who sustains both the Divine and the human character, who dies, the just for the unjust, that God might be a just God, and yet the Saviour of unjust men. The regeneration for which provision is also made by the divine Spirit, is the full complement of redemption, and fulfils the scheme whereby peace is proclaimed upon earth, and good-will to men, and glory to God in the highest is effected. IV. The actual effects produced by the knowledge and belief of the Bible is another very powerful branch of evidence. If we exclude from our thoughts every other idea, and simply fix them on this, we shall see at once that the book is invested with a peculiar virtue of some description, which forms its impress on the human soul. No duty is left unexplained and unenforced; all the relations of life, touching the individual, the family, and the nation are amply provided for. The rule and the measure are clearly set forth, while the sanctions are the most solemn that can be annexed to law. Paul strikes this matter off with peculiar felicity in these words: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." It works salvation, producing a change of state and a change of character in every believer, and this belief itself is produced by the power of God. Taking all the systems of religion, the Saviour's words may be applied to them without exception, and the application will be their rejection: "By their fruits shall ye know them." V. The divinity of the sacred Scriptures is established by miracles. While the writers asserted their own inspiration, they were clothed with credentials sufficient to establish their claim. They did such works as none could do, had not God been, with them. The position of miracles deserves notice; their object and their effect was to command immediate faith in the Divine testimony. Prophecy was a thing of the future, and it required time to bring its proof, so that it had no present power to convince; but miracle made an immediate appeal to the senses. Miracles obtained credit for prophecy, while prophecy, in due season, however late it might be, gave credibility to miracles. Thus the |