trust, contribute to confirm, verify, and complete that comprehensive scheme of interpretation of the prophecies of Daniel, and adjustment of the several parts to the grand prophetic period of 2300 days; of which I exhibited the general and improved outline, in a foregoing communication, for February last, Vol. VI. p. 8285. And, with the most profound humility, and heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness to the FATHER OF LIGHTS for any scattered rays of illumination his goodness may have granted, to guide my tottering steps through the mazes of Chronological prophecy; I will humbly hope, that the symmetry of the parts, and the consistency and uniformity of the whole, conformably to that sound canon of criticism—

Primo ne medium, medio ne discrepit imum

HOR.

may contribute to raise the scheme itself above the level of an hypothesis, to the rank of a rational and well connected theory, founded upon strictly scientific principles of comparative criticism, after eleven years of no slight nor superficial research and rumination.

That such abstruse, and sometimes novel speculations of an inconsidérable Irish recluse, will be so fortunate aş› to attract general notice, in the present age, I dare not flatter myself. Independent of the real difficulty of the subjects discussed, and with a prolixity too, which consistently with my exhaustive plan, (notwithstanding the most studied conciseness of expression) I could not possibly avoid; they labour under additional disadvantages from, their present scattered mode of publication, like Sybils'. leaves; and their want of typographical correctness, unavoidable in the rapidity of periodical press-work. Upon all these accounts, therefore, they will require to be studied, and critically compared together as parts of a system, by the few who are likely to submit to the pains necessary to appreciate the whole. Whatever may

be their reception, however, from the indolence, the fastidiousness, and prejudices of the present age, should the next generation live to see the expiration of the grand prophetic period of 2300 days, about the year 1880, as originally conjectured by my sagacious countryman Wood; and I trust, with the divine assistance, now improved and established on a more solid and durable foundation than in the language of the celebrated astronomier Halley; securing his claim, " as an Englishman," to that Vol. VII. Church. Mag. Dec. 1804. Fff happy

happy guess, when predicting the return of the famous comet of 1682, "about the end of the year 1757, or beginning of 1758," which was rigorously calculated by Clairaut, and afterwards verified in March 1758, by the

event.

Haud inficiabitur aqua posteritas, hoc ab hominibus HIBERNIS inventa fuisse. November 10, 1804.

MISCELLANIES.

INSPECTOR

THE EVIL OF SUNDAY DRILLS.

'TO THE EDITOR OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCHMAN'S MA

MR. EDITOR,

GAZINE.

BSERVING in your Review of Mr. Warner's Sermons, that you say, on Sunday Drills, we suspend our opinion, I am induced to address you on the subject. I made in the summer a tour through some of the southern counties, and spent my first Sunday in a large town, where were collected nearly 300 volunteers. They were paraded before morning service, after which they were marched to church; but to my great surprize and concern, few of them entered the sacred walls. My curiosity led me to see what they meant to do, and in what way they would employ the hour in which they ought to have attended divine worship. Some of the officers walked about the church-yard, and occasionally talked with the men; I found that they were exhorting them to go into the church; to which exhortation they shewed: the most marked contempt. These very officers, when the first Psalm was begun to be sung, walked orderly to their respective homes-excellent example! who can contemplate, without the most melancholy presages, the many evils which must necessarily arise to society from Sunday Drills?-Evils, which, should the same spirit pervade the country as did some years ago, must bring ruin on us all! I then went into the church, where I heard a most excellent discourse from the curate. I afterwards returned him thanks for his very useful and ele

gant

gant sermon, and lamented that the volunteers were not there to hear it. "Alas! Sir," said he, "of almost 300 volunteers, seldom are 50 of them to be seen in the church; or if more come in, they are perpetually disturbing the congregation by successively going out; and yet before this unhappy custom of Sunday Drills took place, many of these very men attended divine service regularly in the morning, and occasionally in the afternoon." I asked, "If a stop could not be put to such unwarrantable excesses?" "Sir," he replied, "the officers see no impropriety in this behaviour, for they sanction it by their own example; and whoever mentions the subject in the most distant manner is, from that moment, held up as disaffected. My Rector is, I know, exceedingly uneasy. He is a magistrate, and has been often required to exercise his magisterial authority. But as he is a man of great coolness and excellent judgment, he has hitherto, and I doubt not, very properly, declined interfering. He, I am sure, pours out his soul daily; and I may say to you without impropriety, who seem to be a clergyman, that I do not neglect to do the same, that the Almighty would be pleased to influence those in anthority to suppress a custom productive of the most serious evils." With the prayers of the worthy Rector and his amiable curate I unite mine, that the King of kings would direct the hearts of our governors to promote by example, and establish by authority, a more devout observance of the Lord's Day.

Your excellent Magazine, Mr. Editor, is patronized, I know, by some of the bishops, by many of the clergy, and will be soon, I trust, by them all; I am, therefore, desirous of making you, Sir, an acknowleged convert to my reprobation of Sunday Drills, in which should I succeed, I shall expect to see some of its evils pourtrayed monthly in your valuable publication--which will, I trust, induce the legislature to re-examine the subject.

In a former Magazine, one of your correspondents, no mean writer, whose signature is A. M. pledges himself, should he live to see the probability of another war, to address the bishops upon the subject. Having given a public pledge, there can be no doubt but he will fulfil; and judging from the letter to which I allude, he will ably fulfil the task to which he stands pledged. But I would, and I trust I shall have the approbation of A.M. Fff2

and

and of you also, Mr.Editor,-suggest to the dignitaries of the Church, through the medium of your most useful Miscellany, that it is to be wished, seeing as they must, the great relaxation of morals occasioned by Sunday Drills, they would, by public advertisements, recommend a meeting of the clergy in their several deaneries, to express their disapprobation, accompanied with their reasons for such disapprobation, of Sunday Drills; that the result of such meetings be laid before the Archdeacons, and that they should severally communicate them to the bishops, requesting their immediate interposition with the minister. There is in every deanery, at least one clergyman, whose ecclesiastical preferments, or private fortune, or distinguished talents, give him sufficient influence to propose resolutions, and to conduct the business of the meeting.

Should it be said, that such interference on the part of the clergy would be to oppose government, we can easily repel so slanderous an insinuation. The clergy consider religion as the very foundation of government, and there is no body of men whatever, so truly attached to government as themselves; and if religion, in consequence of Sunday Drills, ceases to have its influence on the minds of many, is it not the incumbent duty of the ministers of religion to represent the danger and to exert their utmost endeavours to obtain the suppression of the evil? I am aware that the statesman will see Sunday Drills in a different view. But the statesman and the clergy reason upon this subject on different principles. We argue from the mischievous effects produced by them; and we defy the most strenuous advocates to prove that the most mischievous effects are not produced. I hope, therefore, Mr. Editor, if you will have the goodness to insert this letter, that some of your clerical readers will either enforce my mode of application to government, or propose some other more efficacious. That the Lord's Day may, by the suppression of these unchristian revels, be restored to its appropriate repose and sanctity, is, Sir, the unceasing prayer of

OXONIENSIS.

DEVOTIONAL

DEVOTIONAL REFLECTIONS ON SELECT PORTIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rustdoth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven; where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break not through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Matth. vi. 19, 20.

EV

VERY sincere and reflecting christian must see the necessity and importance of laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come, that he may lay hold on eternal life. Few, however, there are to be found in the world, lamentable as the consideration may be thought, who pay the same unremitting attention to their eternal, as they do to their worldly interests. They spare no pains or trouble to seek after and obtain the riches and advantages of this life; but neglect to secure the more solid and permanent joys of a future and more happy state of existence. They lay up for themselves treasures upon earth" as if these treasures were to last for ever; and as if they themselves were never to die. Strange infatuation! to be delighted with such unsatisfactory and empty bubbles, which even the very insects of the earth have power to corrode and destroy! And yet these are the treasures which the generality of men seek after so greedily; treasures which may be soon lost, or taken away, either by the criminal and atrocious designs of others, or the misfortunes and trials inseparable from human nature. Objects therefore that are pe rishable and precarious are regarded by many of us with an eye of covetous desire; while those which alone can be deemed truly and intrinsically valuable, are unaccountably slighted and little thought of. But what are the "treasures upon earth," compared with the "treasures in heaven ?" We are told in the sacred Scriptures that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Ought we not then to press forwards, with firm and unaltered steps, towards the mark for the prize of our high calling in God our Sa viour? This is the only prize worth contending for; because it is the only one which can confer on its possessor substantial pleasures, pure and unalloyed; and yield a perennial source of never-ending felicity. Ó! let us then