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shown, that according to the ratios of increase which had theretofore prevailed, by the year 1857 the number of sheep in New South Wales would amount to 32 millions, and of other live stock to 5 millions; that for the depasturing of these animals there would be required an area of 231,000 square miles; and that as the whole surface of the colony, available for pastoral uses, could not be estimated at more than 230,000 square miles, the consequence would be, that in that year the stock would be more than the land could bear. It was shown further, that by the year 1867 the sheep and other stock of this colony alone, independently of those of Southern and Western Australia, would exceed 145 millions, requiring 175,000 square miles of pasturage, or about onethird of the entire area of the New Holland continent.

"These results, after making ample allowance for those disturbing causes to which the elements of such calculations are always liable, must be looked upon as sufficiently astounding. If there be any truth in our official returns, if there be any fairness in the representations of our graziers as to the breadths of land required for the sustenance of stock, and if any reliance is to be placed upon the conclusions mathematically deduced from these premises, then is it a fact established beyond all disputation, that the rate at which our sheep and cattle have heretofore increased cannot be maintained for more than ten years beyond the present time.

"But is there not reason to hope, that before those ten years shall have expired, the colony will have ceased to depend on wool as her all in all? Her capital and industry are already setting in in other directions. Her domestic manufactures, which nine years ago were little more than half a hundred, are now one hundred and thirty-three. Her mills, which nine years ago were only seventy-seven, are now one hundred and seventy-two. Her vineyards, which five years ago comprised only five hundred acres, now comprise nearly a thousand. Her home-grown wine, which five years ago was less than thirty-four thousand gallons per annum, is now more than one hundred and three thousand. Ere the next ten years shall have closed, is there not a strong probability that sugar, cotton, minerals, and even the precious metals, may be added to her staple productions? And may we not anticipate the delightful consummation, that our existing resources will be wonderfully extended, and many new resources brought into affluent activity, by means of that great renovator of the age-Railway Communication?"

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.

"Knowledge is Power."-LORD BACON.

WHEN we open the inspired volume, with a wish to be instructed, we must continually bear in mind that much figurative language is used, particularly in the prophetic writings. Divines and commentators generally admit this, but frequently differ about the portions which may be taken in a literal sense, and those which are figurative. They also differ about the meaning intended to be conveyed when figurative language is employed by the prophets or apostles. There are many remarkable passages in the prophetic writings which I consider to have a double meaning, intended to be figuratively understood by a series of generations, and literally applicable only to the generation which shall be alive on the earth at the time of their fulfilment. Amongst these are the prophecies relative to New Jerusalem. To all those Christians who have already departed this life, in the firm belief that they were in Heaven to receive "the crown of glory that fadeth not away," the description given in the Revelation of New Jerusalem must have been a source of consolation and hope, and the belief that only after death could they enjoy the blessings spoken of in the 4th verse of the 21st chapter of

Revelation, has, I believe, in many instances caused believers to feel an anxiety to "depart and be with Christ." I have known more than one instance of the following hymn being sung or repeated with euthusiasm by dying Christians :—

From Egypt lately come,

Where death and darkness reign;
We seek our new, our better home,
Where we our rest shall gain.

Hallelujah! We are on our way to God.

To Canaan's sacred bound,

We haste with songs of joy ;
Where peace and liberty are found,
And sweets that never cloy.

Hallelujah! &c.

There sin and sorrow cease,

And ev'ry conflict's o'er;
There we shall reign in endless peace,
And never hunger more.

Hallelujah! &c.

How sweet the prospect is!

It cheers the pilgrim's breast,
We're journeying thro' the wilderness,
But soon shall gain our rest.

Hallelujah! &c.

Mr. Kelly, in writing this beautiful hymn, appears to consider Canaan, as a type of Heaven, Egypt a type of the associates and sources of pleasure of a Christian before conversion, and the Wilderness a type of the world. Doctor Watts also in the following hymn takes

the same view of this portion of scripture, as affording personal comfort to every believer, and considers Jordan as an emblem of death :

There is a land of pure delight,
Where saints immortal reign;

Infinite day excludes the night
And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides
And never with'ring flowers;
Death like a narrow sea divides
This heavenly land from ours.

But tim'rous mortals start and shrink,
To cross this narrow sea;
And linger, shivering on the brink,
And fear to launch away.

Oh! could we make our doubts remove,

Those gloomy doubts that rise,
And see the Canaan that we love

With unbeclouded eyes—

Could we but climb where Moses stood,

And view the landscape o'er,

Not Jordan's stream, nor death's cold flood,
Could fright us from the shore.

Whenever the promises relating to New Jerusalem have been thus understood, we may feel certain that the individuals who were comforted by them, were taught by the Holy Spirit, and are gone to receive their reward in the world of Spirits; but those who are to be the heirs of the literally fulfilled promises may be taught to understand them differently, and may be on the earth at the present moment. And if we may judge of God's manner of dealing with his chosen people at a future

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