many men, but a sentiment common to enlightened heathens, namely, a political respect for its influence in restraining the vulgar? And how soon might it expire under open insult and contempt, if, like oil on troubled waters, it did not help to promote the tranquillity of the common wealth? How many among us who most cordially detest the political principles of Paine, are as cordially with him in every line of his Age of Reason?' And, perhaps, were we to take the trouble to ascertain which had been read most, that blasphemous attack on revelation, or the masterly refutation of it by a Christian prelate, it would be found that the one had been generally and greedily devoured, while the other was scarcely known, or cast aside with contempt. That there are men, who, raging to pull down the venerable temple of our constitution, and erect on its ruins the bloody standard of French liberty, have recurred to infidelity, is clear; since it is well known with what indefatigable industry the very worst species of it has been diffused among the people in the circulation of the work I have alluded to, which was sold and dispersed through the provinces in editions so cheap as a penny a book. Need I mention that execrable society which existed in the very heart of the metropolis, in the year ninety-five, in which open and avowed treason against the state was supported by such language against heaven and religion as can scarcely be conceived possible in any extremity of mental delirium, and certainly not thought of without a feeling of unutterable horror? I say nothing on this head but what the public are in possession of from the evidence and confession of those deluded young men. But, great God! from whence arises that almost general, if not equal, propensity, to detract from the principles of Christianity in those who are not blinded and impelled by the same furious motives? Christianity, the source of every private and public virtue, and, if it be not a fable, so absolutely decisive of our destiny for ever! Surely, on a point so important, it is wisdom to use some caution and deliberation, to look before we venture on so dangerous a leap; but, to reject truths of the strongest evidence, merely for the glory of rejecting them, to reject without inquiry a system, which, like a rock in the midst of the deep, has stood the beat of all tempests and torrents of ages; or to use no other arms against it but a set of common-place worn-out difficulties, that tremble from old age and caducity, a thousand times advanced, and a thousand times refuted; not to be able to support the infidelity they adopt, or prove the falsehood of the faith they abjure; and in this state of shameful inconsistency, yet pretended conviction, gaily and proudly to advance on a tremendous eternity—if such be the mark of superior understanding, or even of common sense, then I wish to be informed what it is that constitutes imbecility or frenzy." In the case of Mr. Kirwan, we are told that "his meekness was not corrupted by admiration, though, whenever he preached, such multitudes assembled that it was necessary to defend the entrance of the church by guards and palisadoes. He was presented with addresses and pieces of plate from every parish, and the freedom of various corporations: his portrait was painted, and engraved by the most eminent artists; and (what was infinitely more grateful to his feelings) the collections at his sermons far exceeded any that ever were known in a country distinguished for unmeasured benevolence. Even in times of public calamity and distress his irresistible powers of persuasion repeatedly produced contributions exceeding a thousand and twelve hundred pounds at a sermon; and his hearers, not content with emptying their purses into the plate, sometimes threw in jewels or watches, as earnest of further benefactions." To the truth of these statements advanced in the short memoir attached to his sermons, the writer of this article has had abundant testimony from persons who were present on such occasions. With Mr. Kirwan commenced a new era in pulpit eloquence; which has ever since been manifestly improved, while some, who were astonished that with equal exertion they could not rise to equal energy, were reduced to envy what they had vainly tried to imitate, and traduced him as a declaimer, because they could not penetrate his secret for giving to elaborate composition the air of immediate inspiration. The effects of this vein of composition cannot be more strikingly illustrated than by the panegyric pronounced by Mr. Grattan, in the Irish parliament, on 19th June 1792: "And what has the church to expect? What is the case of Dr. Kirwan? This man preferred our country and our religion, and brought to both genius superior to what he found in either. He called forth the latent virtues of the human heart, and taught men to discover in themselves a mine of charity, of which the proprietors had been unconscious. In feeding the lamp of charity, he has almost exhausted the lamp of life. He came to interrupt the repose of the pulpit, and shakes one world with the thunder of the other. The preacher's desk becomes the throne of light: round him a train, not such as crouch and swagger at the levée of princes; not such as attend the procession of the viceroy, horse, foot, and dragoons, but that wherewith a great genius peoples his own state charity in ecstacy, and vice in humiliation; vanity, arrogance, and saucy, empty pride, appalled by the rebuke of the preacher, and cheated for a moment of their native improbity and insolence. What reward? St. Nicholas Within or St. Nicholas Without! The curse of Swift is upon him; to have been born an Irishman and a man of genius, and to have used it for the good of his country." In 1788 Mr. Kirwan was presented, by th archbishop of Dublin, to the prebend of Howth, and in the next, to the parish of St. Nicholas Without; the joint income of which was about 4001. a year. In 1800 he was preferred, by the marquis Cornwallis, lord lieutenant, to the deanery of Killala, worth 400l., when he gave up the prebend of Howth. Previous to this last appointment, he had married Miss Wilhelmina Richards, of Grainge, in the county of Wexford, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. Naturally of a weak constitution, and overfatigued with his ministerial duties, Mr. Kirwan's health became very seriously impaired, and, after a fever of a few days' duration, he died at his house at Mount Pleasant, near Dublin, October 27, 1805, and was buried at St Nicholas Without. ST. SWITHIN'S DAY.-JULY 15. ONE of the most widely diffused remnants of superstition is that which assigns an influence over the weather to the day dedicated to Swithin. in an uncovered cemetery, they resolved to remove his reliques in solemn procession into the church. This was on the 15th of July. But it rained so violently that their purpose was interrupted; and, as the rain continued for forty days, it was abandoned, the saint being supposed in this way to mark his disapprobation. The facts of this story we need not doubt; and they furnish an interesting proof that our climate has suffered little change in the course of a thousand years. For, indisputably, periods of rain about the middle of July are of frequent occurrence. But those who would fix the commencement of these to St. Swithin's day forget that, by the alteration of the calendar about a century ago, that day has been brought to a much earlier position than it had for a long time pre This personage was of noble family, and for his learning and virtue was appointed by king Egbert tutor to his son Ethelwolf, by whose influence he was, in 852, chosen bishop of Win-viously occupied. chester. He died July 2, 862; and, according to his own desire, either through humility or in disapprobation of the prevailing mode of interment in churches, he was buried in the churchyard. Afterwards, however, he was canonized; and, as he clergy conceived it improper for a saint to lie The real cause of the heavy rains of this season may most probably be found in the decline of the daily mean temperature. The moisture in the atmosphere may be supposed to be, in consequence, condensed, and precipitated in the form of showers. I. TREES AND SHRUBS. No. IV. FOREST TREES. THE ELM. (Ulmus Campestris). BRITISHI elms are of two sorts, the fine-leaved elm of England (almus campestris), and the wych elm of Scotland (ulmus montana). The elm, when suffered to grow in its natural form, is a lofty, graceful tree. It is frequently formed into avenues, and yields a most agreeable shade. The timber of both kinds is used for many purposes, more especially for those in which wood is exposed to alternate moisture and drought: it is on this account that it is chiefly used for making coffins. The wood is of a deep brown colour, losing nearly two-thirds of its weight in drying. It was the wood generally used for water-pipes previous to the introduction of iron pipes. It is also employed in turnery, ut though very tough will not take polish. The great variety of form assumed by the leaf of the elm has led to the supposition that the species were numerous; but the intermediate distinctions between any two were so many, that it was impossible to separate them. Thus there is the ulmus tuberosa or cork-barked elm, which prevails along the coast of Wales and in the isle of Anglesea; it is also abundant in Ireland. "It does not appear," says Mr. Selby, "to be prevalent upon the continent," though a correspondent tells him that upon the hills of Montferrat, near Turin, he found an elm, with a very tuberous bark, and in all respects like our English tuberosa. There are also the ulmus alba, acutifolia, virens, &c. On the continent the elm is planted as with us, in long avenues in the approaches to large mansions. Evelyn informs us that those which form the avenues at Madrid, the Escurial, Aranjuez, &c., were sent from England by Philip II. In Italy it is used for training grape-vines. The height of the stem of the elms intended for this purpose is limited to twelve or fifteen feet, and only as many branches are left as are necessary for the purpose. This employment of the elm is extremely ancient. Virgil often refers to it. The bark is useful in fevers. "I have seen it gathered in Italy," says lady Callcott, "for the purpose of adulterating Jesuits' bark." The tree is subject to serious injury from the attacks of insects, especially the Scolytus destructor, a species of small beetle. The mode of propagation is usually by suckers from the parent tree, the best being those produced by trees that have been cut close to the ground two years previously. These are to be deprived of the shoots that have sprung, and the following summer they will produce a number of clean young shoots. The elm is sometimes also propagated by layers of the young shoots produced by the old stumps. The wych elm is not so frequently found in the south of England as in the north, and in Scotland-hence the name, "the mountain," or "Scottish elm❞—where it delights in deep glens. Professor Martyn says it is not found south of Trent. Sir T. D. Lauder regards it as one of the most beautiful trees in our British sylva. The wood is by some deemed inferior to that of the English; though, according to Loudon, it is the most useful of the genus. Of the specimens to be met with in Scotland, those at Pollock, in Renfrewshire, the seat of sir John Maxwell, are probably the finest. "On the banks of the river (the White Cart) at this place there stands a graceful group of wych elms, of which an etching and an account were given in Mr. Strutt's 'Sylva Britannica,' published in 1826; a splendid work. The portion of which that relates to Scotland was dedicated to Mr. Maxwell, younger, of Pollock, The principal tree in this group is of extraordinary strength and vigour. It was lately measured for Mr. Loudon's work on trees, and was found to be ninety feet high, the diameter of the trunk being nearly four feet at five from the ground" (Ramsay's Views in Renfrewshire, 1839). The wych elm is usually propagated by seed, generally ripe from the beginning to the middle of June. They must be attentively looked after as they ripen, for when fully ripe a blast of wind or heavy rain will soon drive them off the trees. The best plan is, when they are nearly ripe, to spread mats on the ground and cause the tree to be gently shaken. The seeds are to be carefully dried in the open air, not in the sun, and, being afterwards mixed with dry sand, to be preserved from moisture till the following spring. About the beginning or middle of February the seed is to be sown in beds, three feet and a half wide, of loose rich garden earth; they are to be spread in the same manner as onions or other garden herbs. They will generally be fit to transplant the following spring. This tree does not produce suckers. Gilbert White, in his "History of Selborne," speaks of a broad-leaved elm (ulmus folia latissimo scabro) which used to stand in the court of Norton farm-house, in that parish, which, though it had lost a considerable leading bough in the great storm in the year 1703, equal to a moderate tree, yet, when felled, contained eight loads of timber; and, being too bulky for a carriage, was sawn off at seven feet above the but, where it measured near eight feet in the diameter. "This elm," says he, "I mention to show what a bulk planted elms may attain, as this tree must certainly have been such from its situation." The elm tree is mentioned by name only once in the bible. The prophet Hosea, declaring against the idolatry of Israel, says: They burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good" (iv. 13). "Some commentators," says lady Callcott, "doubt the correctness of the translation; but, as elms do grow in that part of Palestine where the oak and poplar are also found, namely, in the hilly portion of Hermon; it seems a pity to disturb the usual reading, especially as Celsius is very uncertain about it, and gives it, without pronouncing an opinion, among five versions of the word "eschel, which our bible has elsewhere rendered a thick tree."" RELIGION IN OTHER LANDS. No. IX. MEXICO.-1. T. THE religion of Mexico, when conquered by Cortez, about the year 1521, was degrading and disgusting in the extreme. The false gods were in number exceeding two thousand, to the worship of which between three and four hundred temples were dedicated at Chilulah. Human sacrifices were enjoined, and children willingly offered up at the polluted shrines. These sacrifices, or more properly massacres, were horrible in the extreme. Different opinions have been entertained as to the number annually slaughtered; but some have gone so far as to state that on some particular days five thousand were put to death, and about fifty thousand in the course of a year. Surely, however, there must here be some extraordinary exaggeration. The Mexicans were accustomed to practice the most inhuman austerities on their own persons; mangling and tearing their flesh, piercing themselves with the sharpest spines of the aloe, and causing the blood to gush out in streams. This custom of tearing and cutting the flesh, as a supposed expiation for sin, has ever been common among the heathen. Amongst the prohibitory laws which God gave the Israelites, there was one that expressly forbade the practice, embraced in these words, viz., Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead' (Lev. xix. 28). It is evident, from this law, that such a species of self-inflicted torture obtained amongst the nations of Canaan; and it was, doubtless, to guard his people against the adoption of so barbarous a habit, in its idolatrous form, that God led Moses to reiterate the prohibition: "They shall not make baldness upon their heads, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh' (Lev. xxi. 5; Deut. xiv. 1)." "Investing his imaginary deities with the attributes of cruelty, man has, at all times and in all countries, instituted a form of religion consisting in cruel rites and bloody ceremonies. If, then, we look to the practices of the heathen world, whether of ancient or modern times, we shall find that almost the entire of their religion consisted of rites of deprecation: fear of the divine displeasure would seem to have been the leading feature in their religious impressions. The uni- | who were with difficulty won from their idolatry, versal prevalence of human sacrifices throughout the Gentile world is, in itself, a decisive proof of the light in which the human mind, unaided by revelation, is disposed to view the divinity. It was, doubtless, such mistaken views of the character of God that led the prophets of Baal (1 Kings xviii. 28) to cut their bodies with lancets; supposing that, by mingling their own blood with that of the offered sacrifice, their god must become more attentive to the voice of entreaty" (Kitto's Cyclo. art. "Cuttings in the Flesh"). love to blend the superstition of their former worship with the rites of the popish church. They are passionately fond of processions, &c., and frequently represent the sacred mysteries of our holy religion. This disposition to represent heavenly things by sensible images is common in all countries groaning under the bondage of papal tyranny, and it is nowhere more so than in Rome itself. It is congenial, in fact, to the feelings of the natural man to do so; who, as he cannot comprehend the worship of God, who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth-is ever anxious to substitute external observances for the prostration of the soul before God. Even those who conceive themselves free from the slightest taint of popish error need to be especially cautious in this respect. The religion of the inhabitants of Mexico is the Roman catholic, which, by the third article of the federal constitution, is established exclusively as the religion of the state; though the church property has been despoiled and taken from the clergy, so that many of them are reduced to a state of the greatest poverty, some subsisting As for the people of Mexico, though the aboentirely on alms, and others keeping small shops minable practices and savage cruelties of their anfor their support. Introduced by the Spaniards, cestors may have been laid aside, they are, to all it was propagated more by the arms of the con- intents and purposes, as real idolators as those querors than by arguments in favour of its rea- who offered sacrifices at the idol's shrine; and sonableness; and it has since been preserved there is reason to fear that the conduct of the during the last three centuries, "with all the in-priests, combined with their gross ignorance and tolerance of spirit for which the mother country pertinacious bigotry, is little calculated to introis so remarkable." The early missionaries, induce a high tone of moral principle. Drunkenfact, favoured, to a certain extent, a mixture of some of the ancient Mexican rites with the ceremonials of the popish church; by means of which the natives were induced the more easily to receive the new faith. These priests persuaded the people that, in periods long gone by, the gospel had been preached amongst them; a common method employed by popish emissaries to bring men under the dominion of the see of Rome and to acknowledge the papal supremacy. ness, to a fearful excess, and many of those sensualities to which it leads, too often disgrace the clerical character. The It The churches of Mexico are numerous. actual number of churches in the city is about 60. Of these, the most remarkable is the cathedral, which covers an immense space of ground. stands on the site of the great temple of the ancient city, the temple of the sun, where human blood was copiously shed in honour of the god Melancholy indeed is the picture of mental de- of war, by tradition born of a virgin. One porbasement exhibited by the religious condition of tion is low, and of bad Gothic architecture: the the present population of Mexico, where there remainder, which is more handsome, is built in is yielded implicit credence to the grossest fables; the Italian style, and decorated with statues, where unbounded faith is reposed in the efficacy pilasters, and other ornaments. The interior is of unmeaning mummeries; where "not a hut or highly embellished. The wooden carvings are a garden, a pig-sty or a footpath, can be used, until beautifully executed; and, altogether, it is sublessed and ornamented with a wooden cross;" perior to the other churches of the city. The where the churches are crowded with images, centre is occupied by a balustrade of very precious "each one more reverenced than the Almighty metal, adorned with many figures. The whole himself;" and where people prostrate themselves edifice glitters with precious stones and gold, on the floor at the raising of the host, and make while the floor is filthy to the most disgusting dethe sign of the cross with their tongues amid the gree. It is in the outer wall of this cathedral dust and filth. Even horses which arrived from that is fixed the curious calendar stone, vulgarly England have been accused of heresy, and would called "Montezuma's watch," by which the anhave been stoned to death but for the timely in-cient aztecks used to designate the months of the terposition of a guard of soldiers. Nor is this confined to the lower classes. There is, in fact, no country in Europe or America where the forms of worship are more strictly observed than in Mexico, from the highest even to the lowest leperos*. The Indians, It is scarcely possible to conceive the filthy, squalid condition of the wretched leperos, begrimed with long-accumulated filth, seldom or never washed except by the rain, half-naked, and half starved. "There, on the canals around the markets and pulque shops, the Indians and these miserable outcasts hang all the day long, feeding on fragments, quarrelling, drinking, stealing, and lying drunk about the pavements, with their children crying with hunger around them. At night, they slink off to these suburbs, and coil themselves up on the damp floors of their lairs, to sleep off the effects of liquor, and to awake to another day of misery and crime. Is it wonderful, in a city with an immense proportion of its inhabitants of such a class (hopeless in the present and the future), that there are murderers and robbers?" ("Mexico, as it was and as it is." By Brantz Mayer, se retary of the U.S. Legation, New York. London: Wiley and Putnam.) year. It is circular, and consists of a mass of porphyry, weighing more than twenty-four tons : in the centre is a hideous head, sculptured in relief, representing "the sun in his four motions:" around this is a double row of hieroglyphics; behind which again there are other circles, in relief. At a little distance from it, and sunk in the earth, so as to leave only its surface exposed, is the "stone of sacrifices," on which it has been supposed that the human sacrifices were performed in the ancient temple of Mexico. "It is in a complete state of preservation," says Mr. Ward; "and the little canals for carrying off the blood, with the hollow in the middle, into which the piece of jasper was inserted, upon which the back of the victim rested while his breast was laid open, and his palpitating heart submitted to the inspection of the high-priest, give one still, after the lapse of three centuries, a very lively idea of sails of a ship. Can any rational being read of the whole of this disgusting operation." Hum- such a ridiculous legend without deep commiseboldt, however, dissents from this opinion. "Iration for the folly of his fellow-creatures? Can am inclined to think," he says, "that the stone of sacrifices was never placed at the top of a teocalli, but was one of the stones called "temalacatl," on which the combat of the gladiators took place between the prisoners of rank, destined to be sacrificed, and a Mexican warrior. Placed on the temalacatl, surrounded by an immense crowd of spectators, they were to fight six Mexican warriors in succession. If they were fortunate enough to conquer them, their liberty was granted them, and they were permitted to return to their native country; if, on the contrary, the prisoner sank under the strokes of one of his adversaries, a priest dragged him, dead or living, to the altar, and tore out his heart." any true Christian, in our own favoured land, read it without gratitude to that God who has caused him to differ; who has provided for him, in a spiritual no less than in a temporal sense, a goodly heritage, and caused his lines to fall in pleasant places? Be it borne in mind that legends as ridiculous were credited as gospel truths in the dark ages, as they are rightly called; that the lives of monks were often spent in the ceaseless task of transcribing these; that the most degrading and disgusting accounts of pseudo-saints were carefully handed down from generation to generation, debasing the minds and character of the people. ZION : A Sermon, Among the other churches of Mexico, the chief are attached to the Franciscan convent and the THE DIVINE PROMISE TO THE LOVERS OF monastery of La Professa. The church of Santa Theresa is "handsomely ornamented, and in good taste;" and that of La Encarnacion is very rich and splendid, the principal altar being surmounted by "a pyramid of embossed silver, at least fifteen feet high." At a short distance from Mexico, on the rocky hill of Tepeyac, where the protectress of the Tolonozin Indians had her temple, and where vast numbers of victims were annually sacrificed, stands the church of "Nuestra Senora de Guada lupe" (our lady of Guadalupe), celebrated throughout the whole of Mexico for its miraculous origin and the possession of a miraculous picture of the virgin. The absurd legend occupies a huge folio volume. It may be briefly noticed in a few lines, thus:-Soon after the conquest, Juan Diego, who was a native of Cuitellan, went to the suburb of Kalteloko, to learn the Christian doctrine taught by the Franciscan friars there. To him the virgin appeared, and ordered him to go to the bishop of Mexico, relate what he had seen, and desire him to build a chapel in that very spot in her honour. The man went, but was intimidated by the magnificence which surrounded the bishop, and retired without obeying the orders received. On his return he again saw the vision, which rebuked him for his disobedience, and delivered a more positive command. The peasant asked for some token, to show that his mission was authentic. He was ordered to climb to the summit of the rock, and told that he would there find the sign. He obeyed; and, though it was the midst of winter, found the spot covered with flowers. Having gathered some, he went instantly to the palace, obtained admittance, related what had happened, and then presented the flowers. A procession to the rock set forth, and the picture was discovered. The church was immediately built, and richly endowed. This legend is implicitly believed by the inhabitants as the real history of the foundation of the church of Guadalupe; and to this day offerings are sent to the shrine. The first chapel was built on the top of the hill: a large one at its foot is now the principal one, and within the picture is preserved. Several chapels have been erected at different times by individuals, and the whole collection presents rather a rich appearance. One was built to commemorate an escape from shipwreck, and has assumed as much as possible the form of the BY THE RIGHT REV. MICHAEL SOLOMON ALEXANDER, D.D., Lord Bishop of the United Church of England and Ireland in Jerusalem. case. PSAL. CXXII. 6. "They shall prosper that love thee." IT is a remarkable fact in the history of Satan's devices, that he has succeeded in misleading the minds of men to a very alarming extent regarding the simple declarations of God's holy word. There is scarcely a doctrine revealed in the holy scriptures, having direct reference to man's salvation, respecting which this has not been the Hence the painful schisms and divisions in the church which the enemy has introduced by this very fact. The words of the living God, uttered by his inspired servants, are perverted and misconstrued, said to mean something quite different from what their plain grammatical sense would indicate: all kinds of forced and fanciful interpretations are given, and thus made the foundation of different sects and parties in the church. We have an instance of this in the subject to which our text particularly refers. It would almost seem a waste of time, or bordering on absurdity, to say anything in proof of these words having reference to the city of our God, in which it is our privilege to dwell, or to the people who were once its sole inhabitants, but who are now scattered over the face of the earth, experiencing the divine judg ments; but we know it to be the fact that, until very recently, none but those who were specially enlightened thought that the literal children of Israel or Zion had anything to do with such promises and declarations. The * Preached in the chapel of St. James, on mount Zion, in Jerusalem, on Sunday, October 15th, 1843, being the birthday of his majesty the king of Prussia. |