from the body, received into heaven, or thrust into hell."* The streak of light which dawned upon the Waldenses in the twelfth century, was the harbinger of that glorious day which commenced at the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The doctrine of an intermediate state of insensibility, or of purification, was among the numerous errors against which the champions of the Refor mation protested. "Now, the holy fathers of the old law, and all faithful and righteous men which departed before our Saviour Christ's ascension into heaven, did by death depart from trouble into rest, from the hands of their enemies into the hands of their God, from sorrows and sicknesses into joyful refreshings in Abraham's bosom, a place of all comfort and consolation, as the scriptures do plainly by manifest words testify. Of Abraham's bosom, Christ's words be so plain, that a christian man -needeth no proof of it. Now, then, if this were the state of the holy fathers, and holy men before the coming of our Saviour, and before he was glorified, how much more, then, ought all we to have a sted fast faith, and a sure hope of this blessed state and condition after our death? Seeing that our Saviour now hath performed the whole work of our redemption, and is gloriously ascended into heaven to prepare our dwelling-place with him; and said unto his Father, 'Fa"ther, I will that where I am, my servants shall be with me.' And we know, that whatsoever Jesus Christ wills, the Father wills the same; wherefore it cannot but be, if we be his faithful servants, our souls shall be with him, after our departing out of this present life." A doctrine which has thus been believed and defended by men of celebrity and eminent for piety in distant ages, and in different countries, all appealing to the unerring analogy of scripture, must have more than human conjecture for its foundation. A firm persuasion of the truth, that the soul will be immediately happy or miserable at death, should influence our religious belief, our daily experience, our political and our moral conduct. 1. Our religious belief. That man is under obligation to worship his Maker, none but either morbid minds, or hardened infidels, will deny. And that worship ought to be regulated, not by philosophical inductions, but by the unsophisticated precepts of divine revelation. No honest man, of common sense, after having read the holy scriptures with a desire to be instructed by *Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. Cent. XII. 6,94 Homily against the Fear of Death. them, dare lay his hand upon his breast and say, that he does not understand either how he is to worship God, or save his soul. All necessary truths are so plainly revealed, that nothing but idiocy can excuse a man for misunderstanding them. Every conclusion drawn from any part of the sacred writings, that has any tendency to support the sleep. ing of the soul after death, must arise from false premises, which have been laid down to establish preconceived opinions. If the supporters of the sleeping systemowere honest enough to confess, they would inform us, that they accommodate the scriptures to their system, and not their system to the scriptures. And it will be found that the promoters of the system have, like Priestley, had their minds enslaved by a false philosophy; or, like the church of Rome, made gain by it. 2. The man who sincerely believes that his soul must be either happy or miserable at death, ought to derive daily advantage from his belief. There is no man that has experienced the vicissitudes of human life, but must have felt the insufficiency of the creatures to afford him happiness. Nothing short of infinitude can fill the aching void of an immortal soul. That infinitude is God. It is not essential that the actual fruition of it should take place in this transient life. The hope of enjoyment will satisfy for a season. For such is the construction of the human mind, that anticipation, in many instances, will afford nearly as much pleasure as possession→ "We are saved by hope." Saved from despairing amidst our trials and our weaknesses; because we hope, that in proportion as we suffer and endure in cour christian pilgrimage, so shall we be immediately rewarded when it shall be finished, There are few who do not perceive that there is an unequal distribution of things in this life. The base and worthless frequently rule, while the wise and the good must obey. Folly and ignorance are often rewarded, while prudence and wisdom pass unnoticed. A future state of retribution solves the paradox. That the righteous Judge of the universe will then award to all the strictest justice, reconciles the Christian to all the anomalies of life. This excites him to bear patiently the few ills which a merciless world may throw upon him, because he rejects its proposed plans of happiness. In every age the righteous have been tempted and tried, and not unfrequently persecuted to death; but their minds have been kept above water by the promise," Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." HJJZ 10 ORIENTAL CUSTOMSO I 23. A firm conviction, that at death the soul must appear before the judgment-seat lof Christ, will influence men's political conduct. It will make rulers merciful and just; subjects, submissive and dutiful. It will influence kings, as they must soon be accountable to the King of kings. What king ever did so much for his subjects as Alfred the Great? Contrast his reign with that of Nero, who boasted in denying these truths which were the spring of Alfred's actions. Accountableness at death, will make Lajudge act impartially upon the bench. Under the influence of this belief, acted the justly celebrated Sir Matthew Hate Contrast his conduct with the partial decisions of time-serving Felix. -Influenced by the same prospective docstrine, the amiable Addison regulated his politics in the cabinet; and when he was called to terminate his career, he com>posedly left this world for a better. Contrast his end with that of Cardinal Wolsey, whose moving-spring was ambition. With regard to practical politics among the poor, it is an undeniable fact, that those who have a good hope of reigning with Christ immediately after death, commit the fewest errors. 1694. A constant belief in the immediate rewarding or punishing of the soul at death, will influence the morals. The systems of > morality compiled by the sages of Greece and Rome, had no sanctions. They had no ligature to bind them to the conscience. One urged the fitness of things; another contradicted him, and said, there is neither fitness nor unfitness in things, but that the multitude must be kept in awe. The morality of the gospel derides such subterfuges. It rests upon the will of God.* It encourages the observance of its precepts, by holding to view a future reward; and deters from the violation of its injunctions, by threatening a future punishment. When the obligations of morality are taught, let the sanctions of christianity never be forgotten; by which it will be shewn that they give strength and lustre to each other religion will appear to be the voice of reason, and morality the will of God.”† St. Paul urged the rulers and subjects, the masters and servants, the husbands and wives, the parents and children, at Ephesus, to do their duty one towards another, from the consideration that they were answerable to Jesus Christ. Now, it has been proved before, that St. Paul, in his writings and public discourses, taught "the immediate 8509 death happiness or misery of the soul of the body;" it mately inferred, that he enforced his precepts with the certainty of this doctrine. And as the sacred writings are still the standard of morality, the most effectual method of exciting men to do their duty, and to deter them from crime is, to enforce the certainty that" the soul, immediately after the death of the body, is not in a ́state of sleep, or insensibility, but of happiness or misery." Huggate. Soul at the may, therefore, be legiti T. R. 10 ORIENTAL CUSTOMS, ILLUSTRATING VARIOUS PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE, (Continued from p. 470.) 8. Fig Leaves, Gen. iii. 7. "They sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons.' "We observed some of the sailors, who happened to have lost or worn out the very simple vestment which is considered necessary in this country, supply its place by a cincture of acacia leaves, attached to the cord worn round the waist: a very primitive covering, though less effectual than the original fig-leaf." Waddington and Hanbury's Journal of a Visit to some parts of Ethiopia, p. 111.5C162 9. Funeral Feast, Gen. xviii. 7. "And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good."-" Át a wedding a cow or a calf is killed; for to eat mutton scandal to the spouse."- Burckhardt's upon such an occasion, would be a great Travels, p. 34. "In passing the village of Endhana, in Upper Egypt, we were invited to a funeral feast, by the inhabitants of a house belonging to some relation of the Nubian princes. The possessor had died a few days before at Derr, and, on receiving the news of his death, his relations here had slaughtered a cow, with which they were entertaining the whole neighbourhood. At two hours' distance from the village, I met women with plates upon their heads, who had been receiving their share of the meat. Cows are killed only by people of consequence, on the death of a near relation; the common people content themselves with a sheep or a goat, the flesh of which is equally distributed."-Ibid. p. 39. 10. Hospitality, Gen. xix. 2. "And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go your ways."- -"In this country no inns are any where to be found, consequently the necessity of the case, as well as common humanity, urges every christian-like colonist to open his door to the hungry or benighted traveller. And, as this hospitality becomes reciprocal, by their occasionally passing each other's houses, they feel no hesitation either in asking such favours, or in granting them. Thus a boor is never at a loss for a meal on the road and as the customary time of dinner is about noon, he, without much ceremony, unsaddles his horse at any door where he may happen to come at that hour. If he arrive later, he is supposed to have dined at some other place on the road, and the question, whether he may be in want of refreshment, is considered superfluous but in most parts of the country, a cup of tea is generally presented to him, without any regard to the time of day. It is therefore a boor's own fault, if he lose his dinner. Those who travel in wagons, and who most frequently carry their provisions and cooking utensils with them, are looked upon as not standing in need of assistance, though such persons freely make use of those houses where they have any acquaintance with the family."-Burchell's Travels in Southern Africa, vol. i. p. 141. 11. The river Nile, Exod. vii. 8. "The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river."-This was a severe infliction, especially when we consider the great estimation in which the water of the Nile was held, and the peculiar delight which the Egyptians expressed in partaking of it. Of this circumstance the following is a remarkable instance. "The water is immediately fresh, without any brackish intermixture but the overflowing stream being then at its height, was deeply impregnated with mud: that, however, did not deter the thirsty mariners from driuking of it profusely. If I were to live five hundred years, I shall never forget the eagerness with which they let down and pulled up the pitcher, and drank off its contents, whistling and smacking their fingers, and calling out tayeep, tayeep, good, good, as if bidding defiance to the whole world to produce such another draught. Most of the party, induced by their example, tasted also of the far-famed waters, and, having tasted, pronounced them of the finest relish, notwithstanding the pollution of clay and mud with which they were contaminated: a decision which we never had occasion to revoke during the whole time of our stay in Egypt, or even since. The water in Albania is good, but the water of the Nile is the finest in the world."-Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean, vol. i. p. 33. 12. Cuttings for the Dead, Deut. xiv. 1. "Ye are the children of the Lord your God, ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes, for the dead."-"A short distance farther, I met an old woman, who, having heard that I was desirous of knowing every thing relative to their customs, very good-naturedly stopped me, to shew her hands, and bade me observe that the little finger of the right hand had lost two joints, and that of the left, one. She explained to me that they had been cut off at different times, to ex press grief or mourning for the death of three daughters. After this I looked more attentively at those whom I met, and saw many other women, and some of the men, with their hands mutilated in the same manner.”—Burchell's Travels in Southern Africa, vol. ii. p. 61. the elders of that city shall bring down the 13. Councils, Deut. xxi. 4-9. "And heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown-and all the elders of that city that are next unto the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer.”—“ In the days of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who, according to Sir H. Spelman, began to reign, ann. 712. and died 727, councils fields, on the bank of some river, for the in England were generally held in open This custom we conveniency of water. find from Matt. Westm. (ad. ann. 1215.) in whose 17th year a famous parliament continued even to the time of king John, was held in a meadow between Staines and Windsor, called Runemed, the mead of counsel, or of the council: from the Saxon word roedan, to consult."- Hody's English Councils, p. 34. 14. Salutation, Matt. x. 13." If the house be worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you."-" My guide informs me, that in this country, I must not give the Mohammedan salutation; that if I do so to a strict mussulman, he has a right to spit in my face, or even to shoot me; and that if he did happen to return my salutation, and was afterwards to discover his mistake, he would insist upon my revoking or returning the peace that he had given me. This is the law, and it was upon this that the Cahir Bey issued the sanguinary proclamation, (see p. 201,) on finding that he had saluted a christian. Even our Saviour, in opposition to the general tenor of his doctrine, says, If the house be worthy, &c." DUELLING, A CODE OF DISHONOUR. WHEN the single combat of pugilism and wrestling, or with spears, lances, arrows, axes, clubs, and swords, was refined into pistoling, it was intended that the diminu. tive and weak should be put on a par with the large and strong man: but an equality has not been attained. The knack of hitting the mark, acquired in practised firing, together with the natural tone of nerve which gives one man more steadiness than another, and the yet more unjust inequality in the blood-thirsty cruelty, by which one man may conspire to deprive another almost inevitably of his life, if he is humane and unsuspecting, place the latter in a situation decidedly disadvantageous. 511 account, to follow the example, as if they were real. Those who say duelling is a necessary evil, to prevent a continual harassing by insult, which the law does not punish, though it deprives a gentleman of the honourable respect which he holds dearer than his existence, should refer to the most polished nations of antiquity, where duelling was unknown, unless solemnly sanc→ tioned by especial order of the king, on a perfect equality. This being abolished, the modern duellist may as well throw cogged dice, to see which shall commit suicide, be deprived of Christian burial, forfeit his estate, and leave an attainder on his posterity. EDUCATION IN IRELAND. a. When duellists are to fire together, the humane, raising his arm and firing at once, it is most probable, according to human judg- I HAVE lately witnessed a new effort, conment, that he does not hit his opponent: tributing to raise the poor of Ireland from the murderous villain is deliberate; he their miserable condition. Dr. Adam glances his eye on the sight of his pistol, Clarke, supplied with means by benevolent and covers his mark; he has practised friends in England, has opened six schools firing, and been in former duels, which for about seven hundred children, in the gives to him a mechanical courage. A neighbourhood of Port Stuart, as the comtruly brave man may not possess such mencement of a great work, which will be steady coolness in his first duel, from the extended when the funds are enlarged, on novelty of the situation; besides, a gentle- experiencing the utility of the plan. man of humanity, who is forced into a duel, considers the death of his opponent as a misfortune, which would always recur to his memory with unspeakable anguish, both for the individual and his family; and he probably fires wide of his mark, or carelessly, giving his opponent a great probability of escape, or perhaps he does not fire at all. The deliberate aim of the bloodthirsty may be still more certain, when one is to fire after the other. The inexperience of a second may cause his friend to be murdered by the art of the other second, who arranges the signal, and gives his friend an advantageous explanation of it. Duelling is no longer a lottery there can be no fair play, for the most honourable parties have an unfair inequality. If this fact be established, that there cannot be equality in duelling, that the opponents are not on equal terms, and are liable to treacherous assassination by foul play, duelling will fall into disuse, as pugilism on wagers, which has been declining, since it appeared that the victory may be decided, not on the ability of the competitors, but on a secret conspiracy to defraud the game blers on one side, by a fictitious termination of the contest. Many duels are fictitious, yet they lead foolish young men, by the newspaper The Catholic Schools in Ireland are chiefly confined to the ritual and ceremonial acts of their religion.-The Kildare Place Institution, supported by Parliament, is on the Quaker form, of excluding catechisms, or stated comments on the Scripture. The London Hibernian Readers of the Scriptures, in the Irish language, sow the good seed; but they have not opportunities to attend to its growth and fruitfulness ; and the Sunday-school Society have but a short time from the duties of the day, and have also six days to one against them. The education wanted in Ireland is, to make the idle industrious; the careless punctual; the dirty feet and face to be washed; the matted hair to be combed the ragged clothing to be repaired; the habit of indulging the imagination, often producing lies with intent to deceive and defraud, to be supplanted by an accuracy of speech, from the proper exercise of the memory and judgment, under the influence of the fear of God, which is called telling truth. They want also to be taught to avoid stealing, doing mischief, robbing, quarrelling and fighting, cursing, and slandering. All depart from these vices, who are under the influence of true religion: but a loving obedience to the precepts of the gospel, can only be impressed on infant minds by those who experience it themselves. This is the first principle of Dr. Clarke's schools; and accordingly he selects young men, who are not only qualified to teach the course which is most useful to the advancement of the children in this life, but, by prayer and exhortation they become acquainted with their Father which is in Heaven,' pray to him, and sing those thanksgiving, supplicating, and penitential verses, which out of the mouths of infants are ordained unto praise. These teachers are not only regular Methodist local preachers, by which means each school becomes a chapel, but they visit the parents, and hold prayer-meetings in all the neighbouring hamlets of this populous country, which seems alike deserted by a christian ministry and by schoolmasters, in consequence of the habitations being scattered thinly over a wide-extended surface of desolate moors, unreclaimed peat moss, or ranges of broad stony mountains, whose valleys of peat seldom afford a shrub, tree, or thorn-bush; and the unfrequented roads, perilous to the frail car, which is the best vehicle in use, make these neglected regions almost inaccessible. The establishment of these schools was eminently aided by the Rev. Mr. Harper, an indefatigable friend to education, in the Methodist connection. No sectarian bigotry opposed this divine work; the gentlemen who own the estates offered houses, and some are building school rooms. As soon as the most necessitous and populous situation was chosen, a house granted, a schoolmaster selected, and books were provided, Dr. Clarke appointed a day to open the school, and admit the children. As the cars approached, the children were seen pouring down the hills, and crossing the bogs, to the place appointed, attended by their parents and neighbours. These, Dr. Clarke addressed on the duties of parents and children, in such appropriate language as riveted their attention. When the school or barn could not contain the assembly, they were collected in the open air, and, if circumstances allowed, there was prayer, and hymns were sung; and when Dr. Clarke invited them to enter the school of Christ, in which he had been a scholar for fifty years, the sound of the gospel, unheard before in such places, produced many weeping eyes and believing hearts. Dr. Clarke, who is about seventy years old, retains the activity of youth; his white hair, vermil complexion, blue suit, and long black boots, add to his characteristic figure a singularly venerable appearance. His usual sleep of six hours is frequently abridged one half, and his food often seems less than would support life. When to his taste, in his native land, it is of the plainest kind, such as boiled meal and milk for breakfast, fish for dinner, and for supper, potatoes peeled by his own hand. He has purchased a bathing lodge in Port Stuart, from whence he can visit those schools, and extend his labours. The only use of this communication is, to invite your readers to share more immediately in the pleasure with which they peruse it, by con sidering whether their bounty, which very properly extends to the ends of the earth, may not also be usefully dispensed to their destitute fellow-countrymen, who are for the most part fellow-protestants; but who are destitute, because they are scattered and remote from the places of instruction, and have no hope but from those who have zeal to penetrate the recesses of their neglected districts, and humility to gather two or three in the name of the Lord, who has promised to be in the midst of them. Colerain, May 1831. S.T. : 20 nost A SLIGHT COLD... encorate full CONSIDER a slight cold to be in the nature of a chill, caught by a sudden contact with your grave, or, as occasioned by the damp finger of death laid upon you, as it were to mark you for his, in passing to the more immediate object of his commission. Let this be called croaking, and laughed at as such, by those who are wearied of the painful round of life, and are on the lookout for their dismissal from it; but be learned off by heart, and remembered as having the force and truth of gospel, by all those who would measure on their span upon the earth, and are conscious of any constitutional flaw or feebleness; who are dis tinguished by any such tendency deathward as long necks, narrow chicken chests, very fair complexions, requisite sympa thy with atmospheric variations, or, in short, exhibit any symptoms of an asth matic or consumptive character, if they choose to neglect a slight cold. Let not those complain of being bitten by a reptile which they have cherished to maturity in their very bosoms, when they might have crushed it in the egg! Now, if we call a slight cold, the egg; and pleurisy, inflammation of the lungs, asthma, consump tion, the venomous reptile-the matter will be more than correctly figured. There are many ways in which this egg may be de posited and hatched. Going suddenly, slightly clad, from a heated into a cold |