Then also thou wilt reveal thyself to us in all thy glory. Lord Jesus, Saviour, Comforter, Friend of the desolate, our Lord and our God! Thou who hast seen death; but who art "He that is alive for evermore! " Then will all the knowledge of heaven be centred in thyself. This was ever the wisdom of the Holy Ghost which came down from heaven; and always that of Scripture, for "the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." It is already the entire life of the saints: "Their eternal life is to know thee." Oh! thanks be to God for his gift of the Scripturesfor his unspeakable gift!

The traveller who planted the first chesnut in this our western soil, little knew, as he committed the solitary kernel which he had brought with him to the earth, how innumerable and mighty would be the forests one day covering the land, and charming its inhabitants with their beauteous foliage; our people under their shelter celebrating their national festivals; kings reviewing armies beneath their bowery growth; our children playing around their trunks; every tree itself producing from year to year millions of kernels similar to that from which they sprang, bearing also within them the embryo germs of thousands of forests in thousands of generations!

Thus the Christian traveller arriving from the Church militant, at his heavenly country, at the city of his God, the house of his Father, with one of the thousands of passages of the Holy Bible in his hand, knows that he is the bearer of the infinite in the finite, a germ from God of which he may doubtless already see the partial development and glory, but of which he cannot yet tell all the grandeur. It may be the least of all seeds; but he knows that out of it will come forth a tree, an everlasting tree, under whose branches the inhabitants of heaven will come and take shelter. In many of the passages about his Saviour, he has hitherto seen the germ alone, enclosed, as it were, in a coarser rind; but he also knows that once admitted into Jerusalem above, and brought under the rays of the Sun of Righteousness, he will find these expressions of Eternal Wisdom radiant with a brightness of which the Lamb is the glorious light, and vivid with splendour which is now latent and still enveloped in their outer shell. Then, with ineffable emotions of gratitude and bliss, he will discover adaptations, harmony, and glory, of which he had only a glimpse or reverent hope while here below. Prepared before the foundation of the world, in the eternal counsels of God, and in germ deposited in his book of life, their full lustre will shine forth under that new heaven, and for that new earth, where righteousness shall dwell.

LEVITICAL TYPES.
ISRAEL, in ancient days,
Not only had a view

Of Sinai in a blaze,

But learned the gospel too: The types and figures were a glass, In which they saw a Saviour's face.

The Paschal sacrifice,

And blood-besprinkled door, Seen with enlightened eyes,

And once applied with power, Would teach the need of other blood, To reconcile the world to God.

The lamb, the dove, set forth

His perfect innocence,
Whose blood of matchless worth

Should be the soul's defence;
For He who can for sin atone,
Must have no failings of his own.

The scape-goat on his head

The people's trespass bore,
And, to the desert led,

Was to be seen no more-
In him our Surety seemed to say,
Behold, I bear your sins away!

Dipt in his fellow's blood,

The living bird went free;
The type, well understood,
Expressed the sinner's plea;
Described a guilty soul enlarg'd,
And by a Saviour's death discharged.
Jesus, I love to trace,

Throughout the sacred page,
The footsteps of thy grace,

The same in every age:

O grant that I may faithful be
To clearer light vouchsaf'd to me!
COWPER.

THE NAZARITE AND HIS OFFERINGS. THE institution of the Nazarite vow is introduced without any explanation (Numb. vi.), ' either as to the manner or the reason of its original appointment; and some have hence inferred that its origin is to be sought in Egypt, and only its proper regulation to be ascribed to Moses. But nothing resembling it can be produced from that quarter. The case of the person under such a vow presented in its leading features a contrast to that of the leper. The latter, while under the visitation of leprosy, was a living type or image of sin; the man under the vow of a Nazarite was a living type or image of holiness. While the one bore the mark of alienation and banishment from the Lord, the other was in a state of peculiar nearness, being given up and consecrated to the Lord. And the whole in this case, as well as in the other, was entirely symbolical. It was no mere ascetical institution, as if the outward bonds and restraints, the self-denials in meat and drink, were in themselves well-pleasing to the Lord. Such a spirit was as foreign to Judaism as it is to Christianity. The Nazarite was a visible symbolical lesson in a religious and moral respect; and the outward observances to which he was bound, were merely intended to

exhibit to the eye the perpetual distinctions between holiness and sin.

The import of the name Nazarite, is simply the separate one, and the vow he took-in all ordinary cases, voluntarily took--upon him, is said to have been (verse 2) "for separating to the Lord." What was implied in this separation There must have been, unquestionably, a with. drawing from one class of things as unbefitting, that there might be the more free and devoted application to another class, as properand becoming. And we shall best understand what both were by glancing at the requirements of the vow. The first was an entire abstinence from all strong drink-from whatever was made of grapes-from grapes themselves, whether moist or dried-from every thing belonging to the vine. There can be no doubt that it was the intoxicating property of the fruit of the vine which formed the ground of this prohibition; for special stress is laid upon the strength of the drink; and as the vine in Eastern countries was the chief source of such drink (although other ingredients, it would seem, were sometimes added to increase the strength) not only wine itself, but the fruit of the vine in every shape, even in forms without any intoxicating tendency, was interdicted-that the separation might be the more marked and complete. The same abstinence substantially was imposed upon the priests when engaged in sacred ministrations. (Lev. x. 8.) Like the ministering priest, the Nazarite was peculiarly separated to the Lord, and in his drink, as well as other respects, was to be an embodied lesson regarding the manner in which the divine service was to be performed. This service-such was the import of this part of the Nazarite institution-requires a withdrawal and separation from whatever unfits for active spiritual employment-from everything which stupifies and benumbs the powers of a divine life, and disposes the heart for carnal pleasure and excitement, rather than for sacred duty. There must, indeed, be a careful and becoming reserve in regard to the means and occasions. of a literal intoxication; but not in respect to these alone. The more inward and engrossing love of money-the eager pursuit after worldly aggrandizement--or the delights of a soft and luxurious ease, may as thoroughly intoxicate the brain, and incapacitate the soul for spiritual employment, as the more grovelling vice of indulgence to excess in liquor. From all such, therefore, the true servant of God is here warned to abstain, and admonished to keep his vessel, in soul and body, as holiness to the Lord. The next thing exacted of the Nazarite was to leave his hair unshorn. And this was so different from the prevailing custom, yet so strictly enjoined upon him, that it might be regarded as the peculiar badge of his condition. Hence, if by accidentally coming into contact with any unclean object, his vow was

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broken, he had to shave his head and enter anew on his course of service. So also, when the period of the vow was expired, his hair was cropt and burned as a sacred thing upon the altar. Thus he was said to bear "the consecration (literally the separation, the distinctive mark, the crown) of his God upon his head." The words readily suggest to us those of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. xi. 10, and the appointment itself is best illustrated by a reference to the idea there expressed. Speaking of the propriety of the woman wearing long hair, as given to her by nature for a modest covering, and a token of subjection to her husband, the apostle adds, that "for this reason she must have power upon her head;" i. e. (taking the sign for the thing signified, as circumcision for the covenant, Gen. xvii. 10), she must wear long hair, covering her head, as a symbol of the power under which she stands, as being under the higher authority of the man. For the same reason, because the hair did not cover the face, a veil was added, to complete the sign of subjection. But the man, on the other hand, having no earthly superior, and being, in his manly freedom and dignity, the image of the glory of God, should have his face unveiled, and his hair cropt; hence, it was counted even a shame, a renouncing of the proper standing of a man, a mark of effeminate weakness and degeneracy for men, like Absalom, to cultivate long tresses. But the Nazarite, who gave himself up by a solemn vow of consecration to God, and who should therefore ever feel the authority and the power of his God upon him, most fitly wore his hair long, as the badge of his entire and willing subjection to the law of his God. By the wearing of this badge he taught the Church then, and the Church, indeed, of all times, that the natural power and authority of man, which in nature is so apt to run out into self-will, stubbornness, and pride, must in grace yield itself up to the direction and supremacy of Jehovah. The true child of God has renounced all claim to the control and mastery of his own condition. He feels he is not his own, but bought with a price, and, therefore, bound to glorify God with his body and spirit, which are his.*

We deem this, by much the most

natural and appro

priate view of the Nazarite's long hair. It is not a new one,

but may be found (there, indeed, only as one among many other reasons) in Ainsworth, and various others of later date; last and best in Baumgarten, Comm. on Numb. vi. It also

renders the best explanation of the loss of power in Samson,

flowing from his allowing his hair to be shorn: for this, viewed in the light presented above, betokened the breaking of his allegiance to his God, ceasing to make God's arm his dependence, and God's will his rule.-The idea of Heng. stenberg (Egypt and Books of Moses, p. 199), that the long hair was a sign of the Nazarite's withdrawing himself from the world to give himself to the Lord, separating from the world's habits and business, is not sufficiently grounded; more especially, as it does not appear that the Nazarite vow bound men actually to cease from worldly employments. The idea of Bahr, that the hair of men corresponds to the grass of the earth, the blossoms and leaves of trees, and thus imaged the spiritual blossoms and productions of men, the fruits of holiness-is too fanciful and far-fetched to commend itself to any one.

The only other restriction laid upon the Nazarite, of a special kind, was in regard to contracting defilement from the dead; for, like the priest, he was discharged from entering into the chamber of death and mourning for his nearest relatives. Separated for God, in whose presence death and corruption can have no place, the Nazarite must ever be found occupying the region of pure and blessed life; and must have no fellowship with what bore so visibly upon it the curse and wages of sin. But this sin itself is, in the sphere of the spiritual life, what death is in the natural. It is the corruption and death of the soul. And as the Nazarite was here also an embodied lesson regarding things spiritual and divine, he was a living epistle, that might be known and read of all men, warning them to resist temptation, and flee from sin--teaching them that, if they would live to God, they must walk circumspectly, and strive to keep themselves unspotted from the world.

Such persons in Israel must have been eminently useful, if raised up in sufficient number, and going with fidelity and zeal through the fulfilment of their vow, in keeping alive upon men's consciences the nature of God's service, and stirring them up to attend to it. The Nazarites are hence mentioned by Amos along with prophets, as among the chosen instruments whom God provided for the good of his people, in proof of his covenant-faithfulness and love: "And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites" (ii. 11). They were a kind of inferior priesthood in the land, by their manner of life, as the priests, by the duties of their office, acting the part of symbolical lights and teachers to Israel. And the institution was farther honoured by being connected with three of the most eminent servants of God--Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist-on whom the vow was imposed from their very birth, to show that they were destined to some special and important work of God. This destination to a high and peculiar service, in connection with the Nazarite vow, still more clearly indicated its symbolical character; the more so, as the end of the institution appears to be always the more fully realized, the higher the individual's calling, and the more entirely he consecrated himself to its fulfilment. Of the three Nazarites referred to, Samson was unquestionably the least, because in him the spiritual separation and surrender to the Lord was most imperfect; he did not resist the temptation, to which his singular gift of corporeal strength exposed him, of trusting too much to self; and the gift, when exercised, led him to act chiefly on the lower and merely physical territory. Though in one respect a remarkable witness of the wonderful things which God could do even on that territory by a single instrument of working, he yet proved in another, a sad monument of the in

efficacy of such instruments to regenerate and save Israel. A far higher manifestation of divine power and goodness developed itself in Samuel, by whom, more than all the other judges, the cause of God was revived; and a higher again in John the Baptist. But highest and greatest of all in Jesus of Nazareth, in whom the idea of the Nazarite rises to its grand and consummate realization-although in this, as in other things, the outward symbol was dropt, as no longer needed-for in him alone has one been found who was "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," light of light, perfect even as the Father is perfect, and without the least flaw of sin or failing of weakness, executing immeasurably the mightiest undertaking that ever was committed to the charge of a messenger of Heaven.

The offerings prescribed for the Nazarite, refer to two points in his history—to his contracting defilement, so that the vow was broken, and to the period of its fulfilment. In the first case he had to bring a lamb for a trespassoffering, having, like the leper, contracted a debt in the reckoning of God, by which he became liable to judgment, and so requiring to be discharged from this bond, before anything could be accepted at his hands. One pigeon, or turtle dove for a sin-offering, and another for a burnt-offering, had also to be brought, that he might enter anew on his vow, as from the starting-point of full peace and fellowship with God; and the time past being all lost, his hair had to be cut or shaved, to mark the entirely new commencement. Then, when his period of consecration was finished, he had to bring a whole round of offerings; a sin-offering, in token that, however carefully he might have kept himself for the Lord, sin had still mingled itself with his service, and that he was far from having anything to boast of before him; a burnt-offering, to indicate his desire that not only the sins of the past might be blotted out. but that the imperfection of his obedience to the will of God might be supplemented by a more full, an entire surrender; lastly, a peace offering, with various kinds of bread and drinkofferings (including wine, of which he also now partook), to manifest that he ceased from his peculiar state of consecration, and entered upon the more ordinary path of dutiful obe dience, in settled friendship and near communion with God.-Fairbairn.

ADVICE TO FEMALE SERVANTS.*

THE CHOICE OF A SITUATION, AND DUTY TO
EMPLOYERS.

IF, in the order of Providence, it should be your
duty to scek a home in the house of a stranger, be
Endea-
very cautious in your choice of a situation.
vour, first, to secure one in a family that resides

From "Parting Precepts to a Female Sunday Scholar, on her Advantages and Responsibilities," by Mrs. J. Bakewell.

sufficiently near to the place of worship you have been accustomed to attend, so that your teachers and pastor may not entirely lose the oversight of you. If this be not practicable, try to obtain one near another place belonging to the same religious denomination as that with which you have been connected. Again, stipulate that you shall be permitted to attend public worship at least once on the Sabbath, stating that you shall be willing to make such extra exertions on the Saturday as will enable you to enjoy that privilege without seriously inconviencing your employers. No Christian and well-ordered family will object to such an arrangement as this, if they have reason to believe that the applicant is sincere in her wish to spend the Sabbath in a proper

manner.

In order to accomplish these objects, you must be prepared to make some sacrifices. It may be that two places are mentioned to you, one of which is, on many accounts, more eligible than the other. In one you may have a fellow-servant, and on that account the situation may be considered more respectable; or the washing may be put out, and you may therefore conclude that it will be easier; or the wages may be higher, and, ou think it will be more profitable; but in that family there is no altar for the daily worship of God, and the servants are allowed to go out only every other Sabbath. In the other, you may be the only domestic kept, or you may have to take the whole of the work, or the wages may be lower than you hoped to obtain; but in that household God is daily worshipped, and the Sabbath is sacredly kept holy. Under such circumstances, which situation ought you to choose? Remember the solemn admonition, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall he give in exchange for his soul?"

A few weeks since, I called on a pious woman who had lately been left a widow with a large family. After conversing some time, I inquired about her eldest daughter, and asked if she were in place now? "Not exactly, ma'am," was the reply; "she is stopping with a lady whose servant is gone home ill. If she do not recover, Elizabeth will take her place; and if she do, the lady will look out for a situation for her." "I can tell you of a good one," observed I, and named the neighbourhood in which my friend lived. "A lady from that neighbourhood called a few days since," replied the mother; "but when my daughter said she should like to attend her own place of worship once every Sabbath, the lady only laughed at her, and said the thing was out of all reason. And so Elizabeth declined the offer, though the wages were very tempting; they were much higher than where she is gone to." I told the good woman that if her daughter did not stay where she was, she must come to me for my friend's address; but she did not need it, and is now comfortably settled in a family who like her the better for wishing to "keep holy the Sabbath day." This young person did not forget the exhortation of our Saviour, in his sermon on the mount, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Let me advise you to follow her example.

Another incident of a contrary kind, I may mention as a warning. A young woman who had been for some years a zealous and active member of a Christian Church, and who had been allowed, when living with a religious family, to attend public worship at least once each Sabbath, was so inconsistent as to take a situation in a decidedly worldly family. Here she never heard the Bible read nor a prayer offered from week to week; at first this was a painful trial to her, but she soon became indifferent to it. She had been

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promised a "Sunday out," and she thought it would be very pleasant to take tea with a friend, and then go to chapel in the evening. But she found that, work as hard as she could all Sunday morning, it was very late before she could get out in the afternoon; so that, by the time she had taken tea, it was quite service-time. Still she went, though late, for a few weeks; but as winter advanced, she felt so tired with her work and her walk, that she preferred sitting and talking with her friend at the fireside, to waiting with the worshippers of God in the appointed place. When I saw her first, she had not been in any place of worship during several months! When I talked to her seriously on the subject, she said that she felt quite indifferent about religion now, and had no comfort or pleasure either in reading the Scriptures or in private prayer. By repeated conversations, she was brought not only to confess but to feel that she had acted a very wicked part, in thus forsaking and in effect denying Him who had bought her with His precious blood. We very soon found her another situation, where she had again an opportunity of observing the Sabbath; but it is much to be feared that she has never regained the ground she lost whilst she so entirely neglected all religious ordinances. In this instance, as in many others, one false step led to others; and, but for the watchful care of a kind Providence, there is no knowing how low she might have fallen. This is a solemn warning to those who may be inclined to look upon religious privileges as a secondary consideration in the choice of a situation.

As far as possible, you should keep the same object in view if you be going to learn a business. It is very difficult for dressmakers to avoid working very late during particular seasons of the year; but a woman who values her own soul, and who feels that she is responsible for the spiritual welfare of those she employs, will never send home work on a Sabbath morning. If the work must be sent off on Saturday night, it stands to reason that there can be nothing gained by keeping the young people employed after eleven o'clock; so that, though they may retire to rest overfatigued with an unreasonable long day's work, the Sabbath at least is a day of rest.

It is, therefore, your duty, as you have been taught in a Sabbath school, to make particular inquiries, when seeking a situation, as to whether work is ever sent home on the Sabbath morning: if it be, you ought to decline making an engagement. You may be assured that you will not be required to take it home; you may even be promised that you shall not be required to work after twelve on Saturday night; still you will be treading on forbidding ground by uniting yourself so closely with voluntary Sabbathbreakers. You may find it difficult to meet with a conscientious employer in the particular business you wish to learn; you may have to pay a larger premium, or give your work for a longer time, or even to engage with a less fashionable house; but the path of duty is the path of safety, and they who walk in it will be preserved from the destroyer.

It stands to reason that if all young people refused to work on the Sabbath, employers would be obliged to refuse to send home their work on that day, and thus a stop would soon be put to this flagrant violation of the Lord's-day. It would be a happy thing for work-people generally if all families, ay, even all religious professors, would refuse to take in work after six o'clock on Saturday evening.

I was once present when the sister of a pious clergyman asked her dressmaker when her dress would be sent home. "On Saturday," was the reply. "If it cannot be ready to send before six in the evening," quietly observed the lady, "please not to send it till Monday, as my brother does not like anything to be