George. What is your object in these remarks?

Minister. They refer primarily to the miracle before us, but secondarily to the two which I have said we shall next, and in conclusion, contemplate. In after-years, pretended miracles proceeded from the doctrine of the lawfulness, on certain occasions, of what were termed pious frauds; but the moral teaching of Christ soared infinitely above anything of the sort. It follows that, as he was not a bewildered enthusiast, if he did not do what he pretended to do, he was an impostor; and if he was an impostor, he was so coolly and intentionally; and words would be wanting to describe the contradiction which his practice presented to his teaching.

George. I see what you aim at. You reduce me to the alternative that either he was such an impostor, and, if so, self-condemned; or the miracle was really wrought, and then he is what he represented himself to be.

Minister. You have seized the point of the argument included in my observations. Let us now go on to examine the recorded facts. Tell me the substance of what occurred.

George. It appears that when our Lord passed by the place where the blind man was accustomed to sit, he was accompanied by a large number of people. Though the man was blind, he could hear the presence of the crowd, and asked the reason of some standers-by.

Minister. What then occurred?

George. They told him who was passing, and he immediately began to cry aloud for help. I suppose the fame of Christ's miracles was widely diffused.

Minister. Yes; throughout the whole country, and amongst all orders of men. But as "the common people heard him gladly," so they appear to have most frequently admitted both his power and his claims.

George. That was the case with Bartimeus, I suppose; for he says, "Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me." This was a general acknowledgment of the Messiah, Sir, was it not?

Minister. It was; but what followed?

George. The multitude charged him to hold his he cried so much the more."

peace; "but

Minister. The multitude could see, and therefore did not sympathize with his earnestness; but he was blind, and was not thus to be checked. I would not "spiritualize," as the phrase is, a plain history; but I should be wrong not to suggest an important lesson. They who feel not the burden of sin cannot enter into the feelings of such as cry for deliverance, and will often tell them to "hold their peace: " but let them persevere. They need relief for themselves, and for themselves they must seek it. But go on.

George. Our Lord was not like the multitude. He stood, and commanded him to be brought; and then some of them said, "Be of good comfort; rise, he calleth thee." "And he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus."

Minister. Yes; he was, you see, so eager to approach, that he cast off whatever might encumber his movements. What follows, you will find, marks both the power and mercy of Christ, and shows for what public ends his miracles were wrought. He asks the man what he desired; and by this pause, gave all who were present the opportunity of fixing their attention on the blind man, and on himself. Fix your attention on the scene. See the poor man standing in eager expectation, while the multitude earnestly look on. And now the words of power are spoken. And what power? Think of that! What human words could produce such an effect? "Receive thy sight!" "And immediately he received his sight." "He spake, and it was done." If this be a faithful record, (and we cannot doubt it,) he exercised a power truly divine, and was what he claimed to be.

George. I feel ready, Sir, to say, with the Centurion at the cross, "Truly this was the Son of God."

Minister. He was; and mark the instruction which the record conveys. First, It was his faith that received what only divine power could give. "Thy faith hath saved thee." Constantly does our Lord thus beforehand preach the Gospel which, after his exaltation, his Apostles were to preach, and which is still essentially the Gospel;-that man comes directly to his Saviour, and by faith receives-actually and consciously receives-the promised blessing. The salvation of the soul is as truly known when experienced, as was

restoration to sight in the case of the blind. And mark his feelings and conduct. He glorifies God, and follows "Jesus in the way." The saved by faith begin on earth the adorations of heaven, and they become the followers of Christ. Grateful love fills their soul, and is shown by what is properly Christian obedience. They walk in no way of their own; they content not themselves with what the world calls religion; but (and I would say it emphatically) they follow Jesus in the way. Seek, and receive Christ's salvation; be Christ's disciple; and, both in lip and life, glorify God.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS.

GEN. XLVI. 34. "Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."-Various causes have been assigned to account for this aversion of the Egyptians towards shepherds. It has been sought for in the animal-worship of that extraordinary people, which naturally rendered them averse to persons who fed on creatures which they considered sacred. But this cause must have been limited in its operation; for the Egyptians, as a people, by no means concurred in the objects of veneration. Almost every nome or district had a different usage. Thus the inhabitants of Mendes worshipped goats and ate sheep; while those of Thebes, on the contrary, fed on goats and rendered homage to sheep. In Thebes also, and all around the Lake Moris, crocodiles were venerated, whilst at Elephantine they were killed without mercy. In fact, the Egyptians were, as Goguet remarks, divided into a great number of societies distinguished from, and prejudiced against, one another, by their different objects and rites of worship. We believe that the influence of the animal-worship of the Egyptians was much less considerable in its operation upon the rearing of cattle than is commonly imagined. Of the larger cattle, the cow alone was considered sacred: we doubt if any strong objection on its account could have arisen against the nomade shepherds, as they never kill cows for food, and rarely even oxen; and it does not appear that they often offered cows in sacrifice, for in all the Old Testament previously to the exodus from Egypt, we read of only one

heifer sacrificed. (Gen. xv. 9.) The Egyptians did not worship bulls or oxen; the worship of the bull Apis being restricted to an individual animal: other bulls were used in sacrifices, and are so represented in sculptures. The Priests themselves ate beef and veal without scruple. There was even a caste of herdsmen among the Egyptians; and herds of black cattle are represented in sculptures and paintings, some of which are preserved in the British Museum. The ox was used as food, and in agricultural labour; and in the same ancient remains is continually represented as drawing the plough. Even Pharaoh himself was a proprietor of cattle, (see chap. xlvii. 6,) and wished to have men of ability to superintend them; and he would scarcely have offered this employment to the brothers of his Chief Minister, if the employment of rearing cattle had in itself been considered degrading. We conclude, however, that so far as the hatred of the Egyptians to shepherds arose from their religious prejudices, it was connected almost entirely with the cow, the only pastured animal which they generally considered sacred. Any objection connected with sheep and goats could only have operated locally, since the Egyptians themselves sacrificed or ate them in different districts.

We are therefore inclined, following out a hint furnished by Heeren, to consider that the aversion of the Egyptians was not so exclusively to rearers of cattle as such, as to the class of pastors who associated the rearing of cattle with habits and pursuits which rendered them equally hated and feared by a settled and refined people like the Egyptians. We would therefore understand the text in the most intense sense, and say that " every nomade shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians;" for there is no evidence that this disgrace attached, for instance, to those cultivators who, being proprietors of lands, made the rearing of cattle an important part of their business. The nomade tribes, who pastured their flocks on the borders or within the limits of Egypt, did not in general belong to the Egyptian nation, but were of Arabian or Libyan descent; whence the prejudice against them as nomades was superadded to that against foreigners in general. The turbulent and aggressive disposition which

usually forms part of the character of nomades, and their entire independence, or at least the imperfect and uncertain control which it is possible to exercise over their tribes, are circumstances so replete with annoyance and danger to a carefully organized society like that of the Egyptians, as sufficiently to account for the hatred and scorn which the ruling priestly caste strove to keep up against them; and it was probably in order to discourage all intercourse that the regulation precluding Egyptians from eating with them was first established.-Knight's Illustrated Commentary.

SENSATION AND THE SENSES.*
No. I.

THAT, by what are termed the laws of nature, matter can act upon matter, every one knows, who knows anything of astronomy or chemistry. In the one, the mutual action of masses at a distance is seen; in the other, the mutual action of bodies in contact with each other, chiefly manifested by means of heat or moisture. But matter has no perceptive powers. And yet, as man is a complex being, some arrangement of his material constitution is necessary, in order that he may be consciously connected with the external world. We have used the term complex rather than united, to denote what is really the one personality of man. So to speak, body and soul are thoroughly mixed up so as to constitute one

* A correspondent has suggested that some persons, having educational charges, object to "Magazine" reading, because of its entirely miscellaneous character, and as tending, therefore, to produce desultory habits. We think so too, were reading confined to periodicals. But one object of education should be to instruct the young from miscellaneous productions, to procure substantial and well-arranged knowledge. Events (from which, as well as from reading, knowledge is to be gained) do not occur systematically, but more variously than the articles in a Magazine. The mind should be pigeonholed, and every box labelled, that, however miscellaneous knowledge may be in its first reception, it may exist in the mind in perfect order,—a place for every thing, and every thing in its place. We keep this object in view in every article we prepare. Every one may be referred to some regular branch of knowledge. At the same time, we agree with our correspondent that, in the midst of the miscellanies of a periodical, there should be articles constituting a distinct series. Our correspondent suggests that in another