and the docility and sweetness of Timothy. As his character unfolded itself, there began to grow upon his father an uneasy suspicion that he was not formed for any long continuance in this world; but he did not suffer himself to indulge the disheartening thought, but was ena Telated less to the literary than to the religious part of his son's education. Though disposed highly to value scholastic acquisitions, be far preferred, before all the heights and depths of human learning, the fear of God and a humble sense of his favour. He was solicitous that his son should be qualified for his stabled to make it the occasion of tion in this world; but still more surrendering himself and his family solicitous to train him up as a candi- anew into the hands of their common date for heaven. He had some dif- Father. In the mean time, goodficulty at first in determining how, ness and mercy followed them, and or when, to begin this better part of each succeeding day was a day of education. But now, from an accu- tranquil enjoyment; but the Šabrate review of his experience, be bath presented them with peculiar does not hesitate to assert that the consolations. On that holy day, the important work of religious instruc- return of which they hailed with untion cannot be beguu too soon, nor dissembled joy, they laid aside all conducted with too much simplicity employments but such as tended to and condescension. Among the rules advance their preparation for the which he prescribed to himself, and kingdom of God. Its various exerfrom which he never saw reason to cises had an exhilarating effect, as depart, were these: "Not to burthen it enabled them more uninterrupthis memory with long forms of edly to view the concerns of time in prayer; not to depress his spirits by connection with those of eternity. the exaction of rigorous observances; They looked backward with gratinot to weary his attention by fre- tude, and forward with confidence; quent and tedious discourses." He took sweet counsel together, for the began at the lowest round in the advancement of their highest inteladder of divine truth, and thence rests; and scarcely regarded themascended to the sublimest truths of selves as inhabitants of this lower religion. "From the works of world. Some interesting passage creation we went on to the wonders of Scripture, or some select reli- of providence; from the goodness gious work, generally furnished the of God, to the unworthiness of man; matter of their discourse; and in from the depravity of human nature, their endeavours to obtain clearer to the redemption that is in Christ and more exalted views of the subJesus; from this transient state of ject, their spirits were refreshed and being, to that eternal world in which their hopes animated. They have imperfection and infelicity shall often contemplated the city which have no place." In this work his hath foundations, whose builder and mother greatly assisted she knew maker is God, the place of their fuhow to deal with his gentle spirit, ture enjoyment and final destinaand could elevate his thoughts to tion; and in the view of this goodGod by the most familiar represen- ly object have renewed their vows tations; and she was on the watch of devotedness to God, until they for the most favourable opportuni- have found it possible to speak of ties of making serious impressions probable sufferings, and painful seon his mind. And these joint la parations, with the utmost compobours of his parents were crowned sure. Many a joyful Sabbath did with more than ordinary success. they thus spend together, especially He seemed to exhibit in his own during the latter years of their son's character the purity and devotion life. And now, when, on the return of Samuel, united with the retired- of these sacred seasons, they are disness and temperance of the Baptist, posed to look with regret towards his vacant place, they animate each other with the hope of shortly associating with him in the celebration of that eternal sabbath, of which they have enjoyed so many delightful anticipations. As his son grew up, Mr. Gilpin saw it expedient to make some alteration in his plans; for there appeared to be a growing delicacy in his constitution, the effect probably of his sedentary habits. He reasoned with him on the dangers of too close application, invited him abroad, and sought to engage him in amusements that would draw him into the open air. His inclinations, however, carried him entirely to pursuits of a different nature, and he could find little or no satisfaction in the usual recreations of youth. It now occurred to Mr. Gilpin, that by mixing with boys of his own age he might be induced to take a part in those active exercises which conduce to health but this advantage involved the painful condition of sending him from home, and Mr. Gilpin could not resolve on surrendering him wholly into other hands, conceiving that the society of his parents would powerfully tend to promote both his improvement and happiness. With these views, he endeavoured to secure the double advantage of a public and private education; and he removed his family to Newport, a neighbouring market-town, where there was a good grammar school, and from which he might conveniently attend the duties of his church. Here young Gilpin was introduced to a new scene; and great was his astonishment to find among the boys so much idleness, irregularity, and ignorance, where he had looked for industry, order, and intelligence. In the head-master, the Rev. Mr. Scott, he found an attentive instructor and familiar friend; and Mr. Scott soon discover ed his talents, and distinguished him with marks of his esteem. The exercises of the school he performed with so much ease, that they required an attendance of only five hours in the day; the rest of his time he spent with his parents. The evening hours were entirely their own, and were employed either in exercise abroad, or in social entertainments at home. "Happy," observes Mr. Gilpin, "were those evenings in their passage; but they were rapid as they were happy, and granted only as short foretastes of more permanent enjoyments to come, which shall be measured neither by hours nor yet by ages." Soon after his removal to Newport, young Gilpin found among his father's books Ward's Guide to the Mathematics, and on this volume he set no small value. About the same time be obtained much information from Bonnycastle's Algebra. But of all the authors he ever met with, Euclid afforded him the highest delight. In the company of Euclid he would willingly have spent his days and nights; and never was youth more entertained with a fairy tale, than he in solving some of the most difficult problems of this author. Algebra and geometry were among his most favourite pursuits, and he acquired, even without the help of a master, a great proficiency in these sciences. Though he had many seniors at school, he speedily rose to the highest seat in it. At the same time his affability and gentleness made him acceptable to all his school-fellows; but his habits and theirs were so different, that he could form no very intimate connection with any of them. During the vacations, which were long, Mr. Gilpin and his family returned to Wrockwardine; a place most agreeable to them all, but peculiarly endeared to his son, as the place of his nativity; where also he had spent the season of childhood. Every tree, and cot tage, and hill in it were familiar to him, and were recognised by him on his return with delight. Beyond this retired village, the wishes neither of the son nor of his parents ever strayed. They looked to no worldly prospects beyond it, assured that no change could add to their happiness. treme solicitude of his parents on His dulged their grateful feelings, and reared an altar to the God of all comfort, who had graciously pros own During his continuance at school, although he did not take more exercise than formerly, his health progressively improved, and the ex-pered their way, and brought them again in peace to their habitation. Through the succeeding winter their son's health seemed perfectly restored; and during this interval of returning vigour he formed many plans of improvement and acquired much useful knowledge. He was incessantly occupied, and all his occupations tended either to increase his stock of information, or to add to the happiness of his parents. Through a part of the day he studied by himself. At other times he had either some important question to propose, some interesting anecdote to relate, some striking passage to produce, or some curious contrivance to exhibit. In the evening they generally indulged themselves in a few choice pieces of devotional music. Books succeeded, of various descriptions. Nothing was neglected which might serve to form the taste or enlarge the understanding; but a decided preference was given to such authors as raised their thoughts above the common pursuits of men, and engaged them in some degree of holy fellowship with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Among these, Mr. Gilpin distinguishes, with merited commendation, the Pilgrim's Progress,-a work, he observes, the defects of which, though many and glaring, are more than compensated by a profusion of excellencies. - His parents considered this attack as a solemn warning from above; but the appearances of their son's return ing health led them to hope that the dispensation was intended to humble rather than to crush them. In the mean time, they marked with unspeakable comfort his composure and quiet submission under his sufferings. With a view to his complete recovery, the ensuing summer was spent in moving from place to place. His health seemed to improve by means of travelling; but as he himself counted every hour lost that was not devoted to some useful employment, he was particuJarly averse to journeys: he appeared less willing to endure the loss of his time than the loss of his health. He always indeed carried books with him, but he found it impossible to make the same satisfactory use of them as at home. The appointed season of their return to Wrockwardine at length came, and they enter ed on their homeward course with a deep sense of their new obligations to the Father of Mercies. Arrived at home, they freely in As the spring advanced, however, the alarms of the preceding year were renewed: young Gilpin again began to droop, and the wound in his lungs broke out afresh. This attack was not so severe as the first; and the same means that had been formerly tried proved again efficacious enough to revive the languishing hopes of his parents. To one requisition alone of his physicians he submitted with reluctance: it was that which enjoined the abandonment of his severer studies. To this sacrifice he was exceedingly indisposed,nor could he ever completely accomplish it. The months of May To the Editor of the Christian Observer, and June were passed at Newport, where Mr. Gilpin and his family then terminated their residence; and, after spending the intermediate time in visiting different places, they returned to Wrockwardine about the middle of August. He had scarcely arrived there when he was summoned to Newport, as a candidate for two vacant exhibitions. He underwent an examination by one of the tutors of Christ Church, Oxford, before the magistrates, visitors, and clergy; and such was the impression produced of his extraordinary attainments, that a petition was presented to the managers of the school funds, by the visitors who attended, requesting that the exhibition from those funds might be doubled in the case of young Gilpin. He himself never manifested the least elation of mind on account of the approbation bestowed on him, and never afterwards made any allusion to it. (To be continued.) To the Editor of the Christian Observer. I KNOW not whether you will think the following Biblical criticism worth insertion in the Christian Observer; but you will judge of its value for yourself. The common translation of the 23d verse of the 6th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel runs thus: “ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!"The latter sentence does not appear to me to bear any degree of the force of the original, nor indeed to convey its proper meaning. Our Saviour seems to design a pointed antithesis between the words φως and σκοτος, and thereby leads his hearers to make the most alarming reflections on their own situation. I should render the meaning of the sentence thus: "If then thy very light be darkness, how extreme is the darkness which is in thee," LAICUS. To the various methods of explaining Rom. ix. 3, taken notice of by your correspondent I. S. H. in your Number for September 1810, p. 536, I would add another, for the consideration of your readers: namely, to give the verb quxoun the distinctive meaning of its imperfect tense: neither barely time past, as the aorists; nor time past and continued, as the perfect; nor time past and completed, as the preterperfect; but time past and interrupted, of which there are many examples in St. Paul's Epistles, as contradistinguished from the time of the aorists, and the perfect, as also from that of the present. Thus.-Rom. vii. 9: Eyw de εwv χωρίς νομα ποτε έκθεσης δε της εντολης, ή αμαρτία ανεζησεν, εγω δε aπεlavov. "For I was living without law formerly; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." 1 Cor. xiii. 11: Ore nun ως νήπιος ελάλεν, ως νήπιος εφρόνων, ως νήπιος ελογιζόμην· οτε δε γεγονα ανηρ, κατήργηκα, τα τα νηπις. "When, I was a child, I was speaking as a child, I was understanding as a child, I was thinking as a child; but when I have become a man, I have put away childish things." 2 Cor. i. 15 : Και ταυτη τη πεποι θησει εξελόμην προς υμας ελθειν έκρινα δε εμαυτω τετο, το μη ελθειν εν λύπη προς ύμας. 66 And in this confidence I was purposing to come myself, not to come unto you in unto you-but I determined in sorrow." but also shews the possibility, that, of two contrary sentiments, that which will be instantaneously rejected, may be the first to present itself. The comfort that might be derived from the grateful and affectionate service of Onesimus, caused in Paul the prisoner a thought of retaining him; but this thought was immediately, as may be understood from the tense, checked by the consideration that the labour of the servant is the property of the master. So, in the passage before us, the extremity of his grief for the desperate state of his nation might excite the thought, "What am I, in comparison with all my countrymen? O that they might be saved,__at whatever expense to myself!" The wish, as we may understand from the tense, and may well conceive from the immediately preceding passage, was no sooner imperfectly formed, than completely overwhelmed by the returning tide of that habitually prevailing love of God, against which neither tribulation, nor distress, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, had power; compassion alone for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, could for a moment oppose its course. The words, therefore, nuxounv yap αυτός εγω αναθεμα ειναι απο 78 X158, may, I think, be taken in their common acceptation, as its being the intention of the writer thus to express the full import of what he had transiently and indefinitely conceived, in order to signify, not only the vehemence of his affection for his countrymen, but also, perhaps, the revolting of his mind from that hideous state of alienation from God, to the brink of which he had been in effect insensibly transported. I. O. FAMILY SERMONS. No. XXXIV. Matt. xi. 2-6. Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and the blind receive their sight, see: and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them: and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. We ought not to be surprised, if in the works of God we meet with many things which not only we cannot comprehend, but which are quite contrary to what we should have looked for. He has many purposes to answer which never entered into our minds; and on this account he is likely to pursue a different course from that which we should have thought the best. Indeed, if we found all things ordered as we would have ordered them, it would be rather an argument against a Divine agency, than in favour of it. In proportion, however, as our minds are enlightened by a knowledge of divine truth, we are led to see a fitness in those dispensations of Providence which before seemed the most difficult to be understood. Our first thoughts, on subjects which are either extensive or complex, are generally wrong; and it is much of the business of life to be correcting the mistakes into which we have fallen. Happy those who have at length learnt to distrust themselves, to inquire carefully, and to decide cautiously! These remarks may be applied to the circumstances of the Messiah's appearance on earth. It did not answer the expectations which men had formed beforehand. Though few persons might have agreed as to the manner in which the Son of God should appear ou earth, yet probably no one foresaw the manner in which he actually did come, or in which he lived and died. Hence not only the scribes and Pharisees, the priests, and the great body |