PRAYER ANSWERED. J. W. was employed in a manufactory, the foreman of which took every opportunity to make him the butt of ridicule to his companions, for his religion, and because he refused to join in their drinking parties and Sunday frolics. As they lived in the same house, the foreman one day heard him at prayer, and resolved to listen; when to his great surprise, he found himself the subject of the young man's supplications, who was spreading his case of infidelity and hardness of heart before his God, and pleading earnestly that God would give him repentance unto salvation, and create in him a new heart, and put a right spirit within him. The foreman was deeply penetrated with what he heard. He had never entertained an idea of the power and nature of true prayer. He wondered at the eloquence and fervour with which his own unhappy case had been pleaded before God. "I never," said he to himself, "thus prayed to God for myself," the impression dwelt upon his mind; and the next day he took John aside, and said, "I wish John you would preach to me a little." John thought his grave face was meant to turn the subject into ridicule, and said, "Mr. M-, you know ĺ am no preacher, I do not pretend to it." Mr. M- replied, "I do not know how you can preach today, but I heard you yesterday make such a description of my state as convinces me that you can do it very well." "Ah!" says John, "it is true I was praying for you, Mr. M- and did it heartily."

66

Very well," said the foreman,

pray, say it over again; for I never heard anything in my life which so affected me." John did not wait for much entreaty: they kneeled down together, cried to the God of all grace, and found acceptance. From that day they were bosom friends; they went to the same place of worship; and frequently bowed their knees together with praise and thanksgiving. Their conversation adorned their profession, and the mocker became a confessor of that grace, which he had

so often ignorantly abused and ridiculed.

HENRY HUXTABLE.

THE OLD SAILOR'S BIBLE.

At a meeting held some time ago in connexion with Sunday Schools, the company were much interested by the presence of an old sailor, who is doubtless one of the oldest Sunday Scholars in England. He produced a Bible on the occasion, the fly-leaf of which contained a narrative of which the following is a copy." This Bible was presented to me by Mr. Raikes, at the town of Hertford, Jan. 1st, 1781, as a reward for my punctual attendance at the Sunday school, and my good behaviour while there; and after being my companion fiftythree years, forty-one of which I spent in the sea service,-during which time I was in forty-five engagements, received thirteen wounds, was three times shipwrecked, once burnt out, twice capsised in a boat, and had fevers of different sorts fifteen times-this Bible was my companion, and was newly bound for me by James Bishop, of Edinburgh, on the 26th day of October, 1834, the day I completed the sixtieth year of my age. As witness my hand, James Beach North.-N. B. During the whole time but one leaf was lost,the last of Ezra and the beginning of Nehemiah. I gave it to my son James Beach, on the first of January, 1841, aged five years, after being in my possession sixty years, and he being by the grace of God able to read it at that age. And may the Lord bless it to him, and make him wise unto salvation.' J. B. North."

Mr. North was a master in the navy.

AN OLD EPITAPH. Thys truth by all Should well be understoode, That none but Chryst Can do a sinner goode.

DISCOVERY OF THE PALACE

OF SHUSHAN.*

The Commissioners engaged under the mediation of England and Russia in making the boundary-line between Persia and Turkey, have recently come upon the remains of the ancient palace of Shushan, mentioned in the books of Esther and Daniel, together with the tomb of Daniel the prophet.

The locality answers to the received tradition of its position, and the internal evidence, arising from its correspondence with the description of the place recorded in sacred history, amounts almost to a demonstration. The reader can turn to Esther, iv. 6, where he will read of 66 a pavement of red and blue and white and black marble" in that palace. That pavement still exists, and corresponds to the description given in the sacred history. And in the marble columns, the dilapidated ruins, the sculpture and the remaining marks of greatness and glory that are scattered around, the commissioners read the exact truth of the record made by the sacred penman. Not far from the palace stands a tomb; on it is sculptured the figure of a man, bound hand and foot, with a huge lion in the act of springing upon him to devour him. No history could speak more graphically the story of Daniel in the lion's den.

The Commissioners have with them a most able corps of engineers and scientific men, and other interesting discoveries may. be expected. The Persian arrow-heads are found upon the Palace and the tomb. Glass bottles, elegant as those upon the toilet-tables of the ladies of our day, have been discovered, with other indications of art and refinement, which bear out the statements of the Bible. Thus twenty-five hundred years after the historians of Esther and Daniel made the records, their his

*Copied verbatim from the "Canterbury Standard," a New Zealand news. paper, of June 22nd, 1854; communicated by

THOMAS WOOLDRIDGE.

tories are verified by the peaceful movements of nations of our day.

DAMP BEDS.

Mr. Editor,

In your valuable Magazine I saw with pleasure instructions how to keep unoccupied beds perfectly dry. I was much pleased to find some one had taken up the subject. Allow me to give the testimony of Robert Miller on that painful subject. painful subject. But after walk

ing sixteen miles that afternoon, which was a very wet one, being much fatigued, I lay in a damp bed, which had not been slept in for nearly twelve months; and the injury which my constitution received that night, I believe I shall never recover again. I met the next year with a damp bed within a few miles of Ely, from which I suffered. I had that evening preached extremely hard; my pores were all open, and my shirt wet on my back in the morning I was almost blind, deaf, and dumb, and have retained more or less the effects ever since, which I have found to be considerable, both to my body and mind. A strong robust constitution destroyed." A. X. Z.

THE CHURCH SHOULD MANFULLY USE THE PRESS.

The church has powerful resour ces, in the form of talent and wealth, at her command, which need only lay hold more vigorously on the Periodical Press, in order to drive back the darkness of infidel error, and carry forth triumphantly the light of Gospel truth. Would that the men of sanctified intellect, the princes in Israel, devoted their energies to a larger extent in giving us a Christianly baptized periodical literature, and that Christian men of wealth were to expend much larger sums in extending and rendering more efficient a cheap instructive religious press! The newspaper, the twopenny and penny journal, without being exclusively devoted to religious subjects, or anything like sermonized, must, in their spirit and aim, be Christianized. Along with a goodly number of works in sacred literature issuing ever and anon from the press, in the form of doctrinal and practical treatises, and religious biographies, we must have our little and large books of science, our cheapest as well as our highpriced periodicals, our journals which treat of common things and the engrossing topics of the day, as well as those which are taken up with the philosophical essay, leavened throughout with the principles of Christian truth. One of the most graphic and widely-circulated histories that have proceeded from the modern press, as we have already noticed, is written on the principle of exhibiting God in history-a principle which Robertson had almost forgotten, and to which Hume and Gibbon were opposed. And when the principle of seeing God in every thing-a principle as remote from a vague dreamy pantheism as from a cold lifeless naturalism-is recognised in every department of our literature, both in that which circulates among the middle and higher classes of society, and in that which runs throughout the lower masses-the press will be consecrated wholly to the grand end for which God gave

it; be omnipotent on the side of truth and righteousness; and like the bells of the horses, and the pots in Jerusalem and in Judah, have inscribed upon it, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.— Pearson's Infidelity.

GLEANINGS FROM THE
LIBERATOR.

CHURCH RATES.-It is surely a significant fact, that at three vestry meetings held in July, all in the Rural districts, the proposal to levy Church-rates could not find a seconder. We have a conviction that the war will have to be waged with yet greater intensity in the parishes than it has yet been-that there are yet hundreds of parishes where rates are but faintly resisted, or quietly submitted to, when by proper exertion they might be abolished, and that, in many more, agitation on the subject might be initiated with the most beneficial results. It will, perhaps, have been observed, that of late the supporters of the impost have affected to regard the opposition as confined to a few noisy localities, and have declared that in the great majority of places Church-rates are made and paid without difficulty. The legal work issued by the Liberation Society, and the advice which it has of late afforded to numerous correspondents has, we are justified in asserting, already proved of considerable value, as shown in the increased skill with which opposition in the vestries has been conducted, and the consequently increased difficulty which the officials have experienced in gaining legally-made rates. It will, therefore, no doubt, be regarded as a satisfactory piece of intelligence, that the Executive Committee have under consideration, plans for assisting on a wider scale those who desire to exercise the right with which the law has invested them for the repression, at least in their own neighbourhood, of practices repugnant to religion and their sense of justice, and destructive to peace and amity.

THE NEW BURIALS ACT.-It is

greatly to be regretted, that a wellconsidered and comprehensive measure, consolidating the previous statutes, should not have been submitted, and, still more, that the time chosen by the Government for passing their Bill should have been so inopportune for obtaining some improvements, the necessity for which has been demonstrated by the experience of the last two years. As it is, dissenters may congratulate themselves that a much worse Bill has not been passed, for had not the measure been greatly amended in the Commons, they would have found that the provisions introduced for their protection in the "Burials beyond the Metropolis Act," had been insidiously filched from them.

The

Home Secretary and the Under Secretary, we cheerfully admit, acceded with a good grace to the suggestions which the Liberation Society caused to be submitted to them, and the result is, that if Dissenters exercise due vigilance, they will not find themselves in a worse position than they now occupy; and, in respect to burial-fees, may become gainers by the change.

THE OBSTINATE BISHOPS of Carlisle and Exeter are likely to take very little by their determined refusal to consecrate burial-grounds, unless the consecrated portion is separated from the rest by a wall. The Carlisle Board have opened their ground, and numerous interments have taken place in both portions of the ground, so that if the thing goes on, the inhabitants will cease to care a fig for consecration. The Torrington Board, are, we believe, also about to open their ground, all unconsecrated as it is.

DISSENTERS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY FRANCHISE.-We have made a beginning with the Register, and we hope a good beginning; but we have by no means done all. We can hardly do less for FREE RELIGION than the League did for FREE TRADE. We ask all, therefore, to persevere. Those who have claimed will, no doubt, appear before the Revising Barrister, at

the proper time, to defend their claims, and those who have been objected to, to defend their votes; and we shall be happy to extend the advice we have already had the opportunities of giving, to all cases in which it is needed. But we hope that this our first attack on the Registration will not be the last. Why not at once prepare for the next? Freeholds and copy: holds acquired between now and next January will qualify for the ensuing Register. There is hardly a County, Division, or Borough, in which any individual Dissenter, to whatever party or politics he may attach himself, cannot do good service to the cause of religious freedom by qualifying for the franchise. True, it may be, that the leading members are safe-that no contest is probable or possible: still we say qualify. It is the qualified Dissenters all over England who have this year carried the Church-rate Abolition Bill through the second reading. It is those who have now qualified, in compliance with our entreaty, who will next year make the difference, in all probability, between an Abolition Bill and an Abolition Act. It will be those who now set themselves steadfastly to work to make themselves a de facto entity in their several constituencies, who will render Churchrate Abolition only the beginning of our successes.

NEW REGISTRATION ACT.

This Act (18 & 19 Vic. c. 81) repeals the 15 & 16 Vic., c. 36, without however disturbing its effect in respect to places of worship registered under it (Sec. 2.) Every place of worship required to be certified and registered by the Acts of William and Mary, the 31st and 52nd Geo. III., and the 15 & 16 Vic. 36, and not already certified and registered, may be certified to the Registrar-General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in England, through the Superintendent Registrar of the District. The certificate is to be in duplicate, in accordance with forms contained in the Act, to be furnished without payment by the Super

intendent Registrar. The two being sent to the Registrar-General, one will be kept at the General Register Office, and the other returned to the party certifying, through the Superintendent Registrar.

S. 3. No place so certified is to be registered, in any Ecclesiastical Court, or Quarter Sessions; and registration under this Act will have the same effect as under the 15 & 16 Vic., c. 36.

S. 4. Any place registered heretofore, and continuing to be used (unless registered under the 15 & 16 Vic., c. 36.) may at any time be registered under this Act.

S. 5. A fee of 2s. 6d. is to be paid to the Superintendent Register on the delivery of the Certificate.

S. 6. Where a registered place ceases to be used, the person who certified, or one of the trustees, owners, or occupiers, is, forthwith to give notice of the fact to the Superintendent Registrar, according to a form to be furnished by him (without payment), and to be signed in his presence.

S. 7. The Registrar-General is in 1856, and at subsequent periods, to be fixed by a Secretary of State, to print a list of all registered places, specifying the district and the county, and the denomination to which each belongs, and such list is to be open to inspection (at the Superintendent Registrar's), on payment of 18.

S. 8. When satisfied that a place has ceased to be used, the Registrar-General is to cancel the register, advertise the cancellation, and expunge it from the list.

S. 9. Places certified, while continuing to be bona fide used as places of worship, will be exempt from the operation of the Charitable Trusts' Act.

S. 10. Nothing in the Act is to affect the places of worship of the Establishment, or the celebration of service therein.

S. 11. The Registrar-General, on receipt of a fee of 2s. 6d. may give any person a certificate of the fact of registration, which will be evidence in a Court of Law.

S. 12. The expenses incurred under the Act, are to be defrayed as

other expenses incurred in connexion with the business of the general Register office.

S. 13. All marriages solemnized in any building registered for that purpose, will be valid, notwithstanding that the buildings may not have been registered under this or former Acts.

S. 14. The operation of the Act does not extend to Ireland or Scotland.

HOW TO HEAR THE GOSPEL.

ROWLAND HILL paid a visit to an old friend a few years before his death, who said to him, "Mr. Hill, it is just sixty five years since I first heard you preach, and I remember your text and a part of your sermon. You told us that some persons were very squeamish about the delivery of several ministers who preached the gospel. You said, supposing you were attending to hear a will read, where you expected a legacy left you, would you employ the time criticising the manner in which the lawyer read it ? No you would not: you would be giving all your ear to hear if anything was left you, and how much it was. That is the way I would advise you to hear the gospel." This was good advice, well worth remembering sixty-five years. Christian Treasury.

TEETOTALISM.

WHAT IS ALE?

There are three things you should know concerning ale. First,-That ale neither feeds nor strengthens the working man. Barley is the only thing which can feed used in making ale. There is not more of this left in a quart of ale than two ounces; and a mouthful of bread contains more real food than a quart of ale. Secondly,-There is in every quart of ale a quantity of spirit, which stimulates your blood, muddles your brain, and intoxicates the whole system. It is by this you are so deluded as to think that the liquor is good. It stimulates and warms for the moment, but, oh! how much you have to endure afterwards! Thirdly,-A quart of