of all persons and things for the glory of his own name and the benefit of them that are his. May this consideration stay our souls on the All-wise, Almighty, and All-sufficient God under every trial and under every danger-"it is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good."

CHRISTIAN FRIENDSHIP.

THE second truth that is brought before us in this delightful portion of scripture, is this: that his friendship is not limited to the Saviour; great as this privilege is, it is extended to all the saints. They are the friends of the friends of Jesus. You mark the words of our blessed Lord: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth." He does not say my friend, but our friend; as if he would by this word bring to the recollection of the disciples, in a season of sorrow, that there was an union among his people, that they were all friends. This is one of the delightful peculiarities of the religion of Jesus. It is the religion of friendship; it is first to make us, "who were enemies to God by wicked works," friends with him, and then to make us friends to each other-a friendship which not even death can annihilate. You observe it was when Lazarus was in his grave that our Lord said, "Our friend sleepeth"-he is departed, but he is not lost; he is still our friend. "We are come," saith the apostle, "to mount Zion, the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, and to the church of the first-born, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect." An intimate communion subsists betwen the

church on earth and the church in heaven, as one of our hymns beautifully expresses it :

"One family, we dwell in him;

One church, above, beneath;
Though now divided by the stream,
The narrow stream, of death.
One army of the living God,

At his command we bow;

Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now."

They indeed have gained the prize of their high calling, while we have still to keep on our own way, through "good report and through evil report;" but this present difference in our state does not annihilate our friends. The ties that bind the friends of Christ together are far too strong to be dissolved by death: death rather strengthens them; since the peaceful departure of those who are taken brightens the hope that the God of all grace, who kept them stedfast to the end, will perfect that which concerneth us also; that he will be with us when we are to pass through the stream, and that then we shall meet to part no more. But time forbids my enlarging upon this part of the subject, sweet as it is to think of the friendship of the friends of Jesus, to look forward to the day when we shall all meet in the same mansion to "go out no more, but to serve him day and night in his temple." O may each of you, my beloved friends, have a place in this blessed abode.-The Family that Jesus loved, by the Rev. J. Haldane Stewart.

THE THORN.

ACCORDING to the rabbins, there are twenty-two different Hebrew words signifying thorns or pric

kles in the bible. Celsius has given dissertations upon sixteen; only one of which, Kotz, appears to have the meaning of any thorny plant in general, whether large or small, woody or herbaceous. 1. The Paliurus Napeca, in Hebrew Shamir, is believed by most modern authors to be the real thorn, of which the painful crown of our Lord was platted; it is singularly elegant, whether in flower or in fruit; and I cannot do better than copy Hasselquist's account of it:-"Nabca Paliurus Athenai of Alpinus. Nabca of the Arabians. In all probability, this is the tree which afforded the crown of thorns put upon the head of Christ. It grows very common in the east. This plant is very fit for the purpose, for it has many small and sharp spines, which are well adapted to give pain; the crown might be easily made of these soft, round, and pliant branches; and what, in my opinion, seems to be the greater proof is, that the leaves very much resemble those of ivy, as they are of a deep glossy green. Perhaps the enemies of Christ would have a plant somewhat resembling that with which emperors and generals were crowned, that there might be a calumny even in the punishment." 2. Next, after the pretensions. of the paliurus to the honour of forming the crown of thorns, stand those of the buckthorn, or Rhamnus Spina Christi. The monks of Jerusalem show, or lately did show, an aged buckthornshrub near the holy city, from which they say the crown was originally cut in such a manner, that, wearing it, the thorns showed themselves so as to present something like the appearance of the radiate crown with which the kings of the east used to adorn themselves. 3. A third sharp thorn, native to Palestine, is sometimes considered as the material of the crown of thorns. This is the

Lycium horridum, or box-thorn, whose prickles are of the most stinging sharpness, though the plant itself has a graceful appearance....When Hasselquist travelled, he found the uncultivated ground in Egypt and Palestine every where encumbered with the beautiful but troublesome restharrow, or Ononis spinosa; and, from this and some other circumstances, he was inclined to think it the thorn of the original curse, "Thorns also and thistles shall it (the earth) bring forth unto thee." Most late writers have adopted this notion of the Swedish traveller. Where the rest-harrow appears, the spade, plough, and harrow have done their work; and it is not without excessive toil that the ground is reclaimed. Our vernacular name is sufficiently expressive. With us it adorns heaths and hedges, and grows in tufts on the headland of the corn-field.-Callcott's Scriptural Herbal.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A MISSIONARY TO THE SOUTH SEA ISLANDERS.

THE object of missionary exertion in Polynesia is unquestionably important, and no means, separated from religion, seem adequate to the accomplishment of it. Simple instruction in letters and the arts will not suffice. The mind must be roused and alarmed by revelations which respect the eternal state of man; the savage must be made to feel that the eye of heaven is upon him, and that there is a powerful hand ever stretched out to punish or to protect. To effect these ends the learned and refined are not the best qualified; for there is a delicacy of feeling induced by literary habits, which sinks from the familiar

descriptions and bold remonstrances indispensable to the success of the missionary. An illiterate artisan, if animated with zeal, and not ignorant of the first truths of his religion, is, for breaking up the ground of pagan superstition,' an instrument better suited than the brightest ornament of a university, or the most eloquent expounder of octrine in the city pulpit. Such men as went forth in the Duff act as pioneers; they prepare the way for the advance of a more regular force; they cut out a path in the wild thicket or morass by which their successors may proceed to complete the work begun with so much labour; they sow the seed with an unskilful hand perhaps, and on ground little cultivated, but whence, at no distant day, a crop will spring to enrich and beautify the whole land. The missionary in due time is followed by the churchman, who systematizes the elements which the other has created. Like a wise master-builder, the latter polishes the materials already in some degree prepared to his hand, and erects them an orderly edifice, complete in all its parts, and having for its foundation the lively stones of an apostolical priesthood, qualified to offer the oblation of a spiritual sacrifice. We must look to the next generation for the full effects of the exertions made in the present. The warmest advocates of South Sea missions are most ready to acknowledge that the work is still imperfect, that much evil is yet to be corrected, and all that is good still needs improvement. But it must not thence be denied that a great benefit has been conferred, in which the Christian and philanthropist may rejoice. The leaven of the gospel, indeed, has not hitherto eavened the whole population; so that many are

found who profess not to believe in it, and