blush on the face of any one, yet he cannot help being somewhat free in his observations. If he sees a friend wearing a lamb's-wool stocking on the wrong side; or, a stranger, who has set his back against a whited wall, he can no more help pointing out the defect than he can help warming his hands in cold weather.

The magazine, as I said, was a religious one, and I took it up with that sort of feeling which harmonized with what I expected to find in the work itself. The title of a book is often, to a reader, what the tuning of a violin is to a musician, it prepares him to enter on his undertaking in a proper manner. Unfortunately, the magazine had six or eight leaves of advertisements at the beginning and ending, of so odd and mixed a character, that the mind of Old Humphrey, too often affected with trifles, was sadly deranged by them. If, in going into a place of Divine worship, you were to find two buffoons standing in motley dresses, arrayed in their cap and bells, it would, perhaps, unfit you for the service, just the same as these advertisements unfitted me for the profitable reading of the contents of the magazine.

The leaves, in their very colour, were at war with the tone of my mind; there was nothing sober about them: one was a deep blue, another a fiery red, and a third a frightful yellow; but

the colour of the leaves was a trifle compared to their contents. It was well enough to advertise

'Prayer Books and Homilies," but what had they to do with "Rowland's Kalydor," his "Pearl Dentifrice," or his " Macassar Oil?" To put into the same page "Histories from Scripture,"

and "Old Hock, fine crusted Port, straw-coloured Sherry, and exquisitely sparkling Moselle," seemed a little out of order. What affinity, what possible connexion could there be between "Watts's Psalms and Hymns," and "Imperial Saxony Cloth, Canton Drill Trowsers and Petersham Great Coats?" These things, to say the least of them, were sadly out of keeping; they were not consistent.

So long as we human beings remain such poor infirm mortals as we are, so long will it be necessary to pay some attention to those things that affect us. Who is there who could read a pious commentary in a proper frame of mind, after running through a whimsical puff on "Improved Periwigs ?" Or turn, with becoming gravity, to the spiritual food provided by Fuller and Flavel, Boston and Baxter, from a paragraph written in high commendation of "Pickled Gherkins, and Potted Yarmouth Bloaters ?"

It may be that I am a little fanciful—many old people are so; but every thing that I read

affects me for some time after, and therefore it was that the strange mixture of advertisements on the outside of the magazine, disqualified me altogether from reading the inside with advantage.

❝ Tal

Old Humphrey wanted to enter into the marrow of the work; but he was so pestered with the strange medley of " Artificial Teeth," and "Steam Cooking Kitchens ;" "Quarto Bibles," and "Buckskin Breeches ;" ""Fountain Pens," low Candles," "Beaver Bonnets," and "Sabbath Meditations;" "Irish Linens," and "Cheddar Cheese;""Religious Tracts," and "Cure for the Tic Douloureux ;" "Soda Water," "Fire Escapes,' ," "Sacred Classics," and "Patent Chronometers," that he was fain to shut up the book altogether, till the hodge-podge had subsided in his mind.

A great deal more might be said on this subject; but, to confess the truth, Old Humphrey himself is often complained of as being sadly out of keeping; sadly inconsistent. He is blamed, and with too much reason, for letting the liveliness of his disposition peep through some of his most serious remarks. He goes from a cheerful observation to a text of Scripture too suddenly; and therefore, knowing his own infirmity, he ought not to be severe on the infirmities of others.

He will say no more, then, about the medley of advertisements on the covers of the magazine, than this, that he hopes what has already escaped him is not out of keeping with good nature and Christian affection, and it may suggest to some whom it may concern, a useful hint on consistency.

ON THE BIBLE.

THE Bible tells us all that we know of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. All we know of heaven, as a place of joy, and of hell, as a place of torment. Such is the information of the Bible.

The Bible is the only book that tells us of the beginning and the end. It is the only book that makes known to us our creation and redemption. None other book is the word of God. Such is the authority of the Bible.

The Bible excites us to kindness, zeal, holiness, and happiness; it upholds all that is virtuous and good, and condemns every thing that is sinful in thought, and word, and deed. Such is the spirit

of the Bible.

The Bible tells us that all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and that the wicked shall be cast into hell, and all the nations that forget God. Such are the terrors of the Bible.