Entelligence.

Gainsborough.-A pair of oil-coloured portraits, by Baxter, of Williams and Moffatt, were recently presented to Mr. Joseph Walker, at the annual Tea-party of the Independent schools, as a mark of high esteem for his valued services as Superintendent,—an office he has now resigned through old age.

Liverpool.-The Rev. J. C. Wood, who has just been appointed to the curacy of St. Thomas' church, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, has been presented with a fine copy of D'Oyley and Mant's Bible, also with a beautiful pocket Communion service, by the teachers and scholars of Newton Heath school, among whom he has assiduously laboured for some time.

New York. The fourth of July is the memorable day on which the independence of America was declared. To commemorate that event, the fourth of July is annually regarded as a national holyday in most of the United States. On that day this year, the Sunday school belonging to the Rev. S. Burchard's church, in New York, accepted an invitation from the Sunday school at Metuchen, in New Jersey, to visit that place. The large school left at 9, a.m., and in an hour and a half arrived at Metuchen. It was met at the station by the other school and escorted to the church. A stage was handsomely decorated with evergreens, and around the church seven large tents were erected with an arbour 150 feet in length. The morning was occupied with the recitation of temperance and patriotic pieces. A cold dinner was then served in the tents. The afternoon was spent in rambling over the country. Hills, woods, groves, roads, were all covered with the happy ramblers, and when the signal was given, all assembled and expressed mutual congratulations, and then the railway carriages were again in motion. Not an accident occurred. It was indeed a happy day, and the young folks returned to their homes rejoicing that in so delightful a way they had observed the annual jubilation, and that they had formed such a sweet friendship with a large body of Sunday school brethren in so distant a place.

Preston.-On the first of September the female adults in the St. Paul's Sunday sehool presented to the Rev. R. S. Redfern, B.A., curate, a superb Bible and Hymn Book as a token of their gratitude for his kind instruction.

Obituary.

Died, early in the morning of the second Sabbath in September, Miss Hephibah Knight, of Surrey Lodge, Brixton Hill, London. This young lady was greatly beloved, especially in the Sabbath school, where, to the utmost of her power, she laboured for God and immortal souls. She had been detained at home for several Sabbaths, but fully expected to be able to attend the Lord's table the next day. She retired to sleep, telling her attendant she should sleep through the night. When the hour arrived to administer the usual medicine it was found she had slept in Jesus. The spirit had ascended to the heavenly Sabbath, and to the presence of that dear Saviour whose death she had expected to commemorate on earth.

Our engraving represents a modern Egyptian marriage procession. It is rather remarkable that no painting representing the marriage ceremonies of ancient Egypt has hitherto been discovered amidst the vast multitudes of those which cover the walls of their tombs. On the walls of these strange and extraordinary works, every incident, even the minutest of their domestic life, has been vividly and faithfully represented, with this exception. As the marriage customs, however, all over the east, are very similar to each other, and to those which obtained in Bible times, we shall endeavour, from other sources, to give our young friends such an account of Eastern marriage customs, as may assist them in understanding the many references and allusions to these which occur throughout the Scriptures.

1. In all eastern marriages the first thing is the betrothal-the affiancing of the parties. This is very often done

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by the parents when the parties themselves are mere children, and when years must necessarily elapse before the marriage can take place. When the parties happen to be of more mature age, the betrothal always takes place at least six months, and often ten and twelve months, before the marriage. During this period the parties betrothed seldom or never see each other. It is no unusual thing in the east for a bridegroom never to see his bride until after the marriage ceremony has taken place. Isaac never saw Rebekah until after she had become his wife. The betrothal is accounted as sacred a thing as the marriage itself. Mary is spoken of as the espoused or betrothed wife of Joseph. Every breach of this betrothal or espousal is punished accordingly, as a breach of actual marriage. During the time that elapses between the betrothal and the marriage, all communications betwixt the bride and the bridegroom are carried on by means of a mutual friend of the parties, who is styled, in Scripture, as the friend of the bridegroom.' After the marriage takes place, the duties of this person cease. Accordingly John the Baptist, in order to make the people understand his relation to Christ, compared himself to the friend of the bridegroom.' He stated clearly that he himself was not the Christ, the Messiah, the Bridegroom of the Church. He was only 'the friend of the bridegroom,' whose duty it was to prepare the way; and now, therefore, when Christ, the bridegroom, was come, his joy was fulfilled and his duties ceased.

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2. The next thing after the betrothal, was the marriage feast. This took place when the marriage was about to be celebrated, and usually began seven days before, and was continued through the whole week. In the account of Sampson's marriage (Judges xiv. 12) we are told that Sampson put forth a riddle to his thirty companions, and gave them 'the seven days of the feast to find it out.' In the account of Jacob's marriage (Genesis xxix. 27) Laban wished Jacob to fulfil her week,' that is, a week of feasting for Rachel, and then he would receive Rachel also. These marriage feasts in the east, are often celebrated with great profusion and extravagance. The great endeavour of all parties is to make them as rich and profuse as their circumstances will allow, and great sums of money are often spent on these occasions. As the bridegroom and bride entertain their own friends respectively, there is a marriage feast at each of the houses at the same time. The thirty companions of Sampson, who are spoken of in the Book of

EGYPTIAN MARRIAGE PROCESSION.

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Judges, are the same persons who are styled, in the New Testament, the children of the bride chamber.' As they had to attend the bridegroom during the whole seven days of the festival, they were exempted, at such a period, from certain ritual observances, such as fasting, observing the stated hours of prayer, the use of phylacteries, and such like. Hence our Lord, speaking of his disciples during the time when he was present with them on earth, said (Mark ii. 19) Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is present with them? as long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.'

3. After the marriage feast came the marriage procession, which is represented in our engraving. This took place at the close of the seven days or week of feasting, and formed the completion or winding up of the whole. The marriage procession might be properly described as consisting of two acts or parts; 1, the procession of the bridegroom with his friends to the house of the bride, and, 2, the procession of the bridegroom taking home the bride to his own house, her future home. As this almost always was done at night, the procession was conducted by torchlight; each person carried a lamp, consisting of a brazen vessel, containing rags, and oil, and pitch, elevated upon the top of a pole or staff, which, when it was lighted, formed a blazing torch. The bridegroom and bride walk under a canopy, or sometimes they are carried in a litter or palanquin. The marriage customs in India, at the present day, strikingly resemble, in many points, the customs of the old Scripture times. To illustrate them, let our young friends suppose for a little that we are standing together at some Indian farm-house, in the neighbourhood of some Indian village. It is near midnight, when thick darkness has covered all, but, instead of the family having retired to rest, we see that there is a bustle of anxious preparation going on in the house, lights moving backwards and forwards, and different members of the family coming to the door every now and then, and looking out into the darkness, as if they were expecting somebody. Suppose we step up to the door for a moment, and ask civilly what is to do. We are told, in answer, that there is a marriage in the family to-night, that the farmer's eldest daughter is a bride, and that they are looking out at present for the coming of the bridegroom. Perhaps we feel some curiosity to see the

marriage, and we accordingly begin to look out too. While we are looking out then, in the direction of the high road to the neighbouring village, by and bye we begin to see, at a long distance, a light appearing, gradually becoming brighter and brighter as it draws nearer. As it approaches we see an individual, who is the bridegroom, carried in a litter or palanquin, something like a sedan-chair, only that the person reclines in it, at full length, as in his bed, and that the bearing-staves rest on men's shoulders, which palanquin, by the way, is the usual mode of conveyance in India. He is escorted by, perhaps, two or three hundred of his neighbours and friends; each man carrying a large blazing torch in his hand. And as we look at the bridegroom and see the multitude of two or three hundred torches by which he is surrounded, throwing their broad blazing light upon the landscape, and illuminating the houses, trees, and objects on the roadside as they pass, we shall now understand the full force of that simile in the 19th Psalm, which speaks of the rising sun issuing from the east, and dispelling the darkness, &c. 'coming like a bridegroom.' And again, as we are listening, in the stillness of the night, to the shoutings of the multitude of his friends, warning the family of their approach, proclaiming his titles, and calling out loudly to make way, we shall be reminded of that ancient parable in the Gospels, which mentions the cry which was heard at midnight, Behold, the bridegroom cometh.' And, perhaps, also looking at the cavalcade as it draws near with the smoke of the torches, and the clouds of dust from the high road, rising up like pillars in the calm still air, we shall better understand that expression in Solomon's Song, where his betrothed Egyptian bride, as she sat, three thousand years ago, looking through her lattice on the palace walls of Memphis, and witnessing the approach of his marriage procession, over the sands, eastward from Palestine, exclaimed, in the glad surprise of her heart, Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke; behold his bed' (or rather as it might be translated, for you observe he was making a journey in it), Behold his palanquin, which is King Solomon's, three score valiant men are about it, the valiant of Israel; they all hold swords on their thigh because of fear in the night.'

The close of the whole will be best described in the words of an actual witness. 'As soon as the cry was heard 'Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him,' all the persons employed now lighted their lamps, and ran with