ing entirely on the use of the sword. The opportunities which the Colleges gave of obtaining peaceful laurels, have enriched the libraries of private dwellings, and books have multiplied to such an extent in England, France, Germany, and America, that all people now appear to want to enable them to enjoy the intellectual feast which is spread before them, is, time and good taste, to enable them, first to select, and then to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, a wholesome supply

of mental food.

The three learned professions, have also contributed, to add to the variety of this intellectual feast, and so have the professed enemies of God also. Had Tom Paine never written his blasphemies, we should perhaps have been without some of the beautiful writings of Paley, Bishop Watson, and Thomas Erskine, a Scotch advocate who wrote a noble work on the Internal Evidence of Revealed Religion. And a man who can furnish his book-shelves with Doctor Andrew Combe's valuable work on the Principles of Physiology, applied to the preservation of health, and to the improvement of physical and mental education; Doctor Thomas Brown's instructive lectures on the philosophy of the human mind; Doctor Mayo's entertaining little volume on the philosophy of living; Doctor Abercrombie's interesting work on the intellectual powers; Doctor Philip's work on Indigestion; Doctor Abernethy's volume, which gained him the nick name of Doctor My-Book, because, whenever a patient came to consult him, he invariably said to each, after pocketing his fee. "I recommend you to purchase my book before you come again." I say that with all those Doctors in the library of a King of the Creation, ready to give advice without any fee but the trouble of opening their pages and reading their opinions; he

ought to be able to doctor his family with very little trouble. The Emperor Tiberius laughed at those who consulted physicians after they were thirty years old; because he said, that at that age every man ought to be able to preserve his health by his own experience. He lived to the age of 78 years, and would probably have lived much longer, only that Caligula hastened his death. The science of medicine has had time since the days of Tiberius to have been brought to such a degree of perfection, that if its pretended object were arrived at, that of promoting health and longevity, no one who could afford to give a fee to a doctor ought to depart this life under the age of 120, which was the age specified by the Almighty after the Deluge. We find it thus written. "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Moses lived to be 120 years old; and the inspired historian relates concerning him that his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. From my own experience I assert that any individual who dies from any cause but extreme old age, has been either murdered through mistake or neglect, or committed suicide unintentionally, unless they have been killed either by accident, in a duel, or in battle. Many a valuable life has been shortened by anxiety of mind, caused by that spirit of competition, in all its varieties which has such influence over all the civilized world in the present day. No profession, calling, or trade is exempt from it, therefore there is no manner of employing time by which from year to year any individual can calculate on making a living. For instance, a lady arrived in this colony some months since, who had obtained a living in Ireland by teaching music, French,

* Genesis, iv. 3.

&c., but from the embarrassed circumstances of the families amongst whom she resided, in consequence of the famine, &c., she could not continue to remain with them, as she had a daughter to support and educate, and she emigrated to Australia, where she was led to expect that with her talents and acquirements, she might obtain £500 per annum by teaching. She brought letters of introduction to the Governor, and other individuals, moving in the first class of society in Sydney, and went through the usual form of putting an advertisement in The Sydney Morning Herald, in order to obtain pupils. In reply, she was asked to call on the wife of one of the officials,* who held a government situation worth about £400 per annum. When the teacher was ushered into the presence of the lady, and that conversation was entered into relative to terms, the latter offered the former ten pounds per annum for coming to instruct her children every day. teacher remonstrated, and said that a servant take such a sum as wages, the lady replied, be true, but servants are more required in Sydney than teachers."

When the

would not "that may

The fact is, that the capability of imparting instruction to the young, is, in the present state of society, a marketable article, subject to rise and fall in value, according to the supply being proportioned to the demand, just as much as drapery, ironmongery, &c. And when well educated persons come to a new country and meet with disappointment, which I have known in some instances to cause protracted illness, and in others death; the persons to whom they may have brought

*The families of officials, or persons holding government appointments, are considered the aristocracy of Sydney. On one occasion a gentleman when sending his son to school, told him to play only with the children of the officials.

letters of introduction, and the clergy of the different sects of the Christian Church to which they may belong, are indirectly the cause of their death, because they have neglected their duty to strangers; and they may expect one day to hear the following sentence, "Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was a stranger and ye took me not in." * Were Elijah to appear again on earth, and to fulfil his mission of "turning the hearts of the fathers to the children," would he not be tempted, when he witnessed the state to which competition has reduced all the industrious classes of Great Britain, to say to parents who were going to spend money in educating their sons for the Army, the Navy or any of the learned professions, or their daughters for governesses; "Waste not thus the fruits of your, or your tenants' industry; make your sons useful mechanics, or agriculturists, and train up your daughters to be good wives and mothers; buy land for them in Australia, and send them out in well organized societies to possess it; well supplied with good books to teach them how to live, so may you expect them from motives of gratitude, to find no difficulty in obeying the command, "Honour thy father and mother, that thy days may be long in the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee." †

John the Baptist proclaimed himself as the promised messenger, when he preached in the wilderness of Judea, before the Saviour of mankind appeared in the Temple at Jerusalem; and the compilers of the prayer-books used in Romish and English "Churches by law established," allude to this event in the collect for the third Sunday in Advent, praying in the following words: "O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy + Exodus, xx. 12.

* Matthew, xxv. 41, 42.

messenger to prepare thy way before thee; grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight." The substance of John the Baptist's preaching was, " Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” * And whereever the gospel is preached, this is the warning given by faithful preachers. But who could judge from the man. ner in which vice triumphs in Europe, that the meaning of this word "Repent," was understood. The word has been preached, but the enemy has sown tares. The Holy Spirit of God, which is the Comforter which he has promised to send to guide his people into all truth, may be the only fan, † which he will use to purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner, before the great day of his wrath arrives, when he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Many of the precepts of John the Baptist are applicable to those who are now expecting the second advent of the Saviour of mankind. When he told his hearers to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance; and the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then? He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat let him do likewise." ‡ Thus it is plain that mutual assistance is a duty amongst christians; and those who possess this world's good should not suffer their poor brethren to be in need of assistance, to come out from an ungodly world, and worship God in the wilderness of Australia, in spirit and in truth. § John the Baptist