Answer. The first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Q. Whom did Jesus Christ send before him?
A. His messenger.

Q. Who was this messenger?

A. John the Baptist.

Q. What was John the messenger of Christ to do?
A. To prepare his way before him.

Q. How did he prepare the way of the Lord?
A. By preaching Repentance.

Q. How did he preach Repentance?

A. He said "Repent ye for the kingdom of God is at hand."

Q. What are Ministers called in the Collect? A. Stewards of God's mysteries. They are called so in the New Testament.

Q. What do we pray that these Ministers may do? A. That they may likewise so prepare, and make ready his way, as his messenger John did by preaching repentance.

Q. Whose way do you mean ?

A. The way of Jesus Christ.

Q. Is Jesus Christ then to come again?

A. Yes. He himself tells us that he will.

Q. Where does he tell us so?

A. In his holy Gospel.

Q. What will be come to do?

A. To judge the world.

Q. What do you mean by judging the world? A. Passing sentence upon the inhabitants of the world according as their works have been.

Q. Does the Gospel say so?

:

A. Yes and our Lord himself says, that, when he shall come in his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him, he shall separate them one from another.

Q. How ?

A. As a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.

Q. What will he say to them, when he has divided them?

A. He will say to the one" Come ye blessed of my Father;" and to the other, "Depart ye cursed." Q. The Collect speaks of an "acceptable people" in the Lord's sight-what do you think an acceptable people means?

A. Those to whom our Lord, when he comes to judge us, will say "Come, ye blessed of my Father."

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

QUESTION.

would do?

Repeat the Collect.

What do we pray that the Lord

Answer. That he would raise up his power.
Q. How does the Lord raise up his power?
A. By sending forth his Spirit.

Q. Where do we pray that he would raise up his power?

A. Among us, and succour us with great might.
Q. What does the word succour mean?

A. To help and defend us.

Q. Why do we wish God to help and defend us? A. On account of our sins and wickedness, which sore let and hinder us.

Q. What do the words "sore let" mean?

A. Sadly keep us back.

Q. In what do our sins and wickedness keep us back?

A. In running the race that is set before us.
Q. What is this race?

A. It is getting forward in the way of holiness here, that we may be happy hereafter.

Q. Where are we to look for direction how to run the race that is set before us?

A. To Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

Q. Why?

A. Because, through his sufferings, divine justice is satisfied, and we are thus reconciled to God.

Q. How?

A. When our sins had separated us from our Maker, Jesus suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring us nigh unto God.

CHRISTMAS DAY.

What Angel voices from the sky,

Proclaim a Saviour's birth?

'Glory" (they sing)" to God on high, Peace and good-will on earth.”

Catch the glad strain, ye Seraphs bright,

The glorious tidings spread!

Wake, wake to wonder and to light,
The slumbers of the dead.

Let the wide earth, from shore to shore,

One loud Hosannah raise,

"Glory to God whom we adore,

Glory and hymns of praise."

METHOD OF KILLING OXEN.

THE mode of felling oxen in England is more barbarous than is necessary.

"Lord Somerville, to whom society is much indebted for his benevolent and patriotic endeavours to promote useful knowledge, took with him to Lisbon a person to be instructed in the Portuguese method of slaying oxen, or, as it is termed, from the mildness of the process, laying down the cattle.' The butcher stands in the front of the animal, and, holding the right horn in the left hand, passes a sharp-pointed knife, about six inches in the blade, over its brow, through the vertebræ of the neck into the spine, and in an instant it is dead.

"His Lordship was anxious to have our slaughtering butchers, here, instructed in this method, but they have always shewn an unwillingness to be taught, and will probably continue to do so, till the law obliges it to be put in practice."-Notes to a Sermon on the unjustifiableness of cruelty to the brute

creation.

SELECTIONS FROM DIFFERENT AUTHORS.

We can never hope to attain the knowledge of Divine matters without a pure heart and fervent prayer. The penman of the Scripture is Jehovahthe subject is holy, and therefore we are not to indulge impure thoughts, nor harbour any wilful sin while we read, if we would understand or profit by them. For without holiness no man shall see or know the Lord, but "if any man do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God." Nor can we expect Divine assistance without fervent prayer to Him "who is the Author and Giver of every good and perfect gift;" and in this case more particularly it is He who commanded "the light to shine out of darkness, that must shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God." Seeing therefore that we need this heavenly wisdom, we are to ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally. And we cannot better pray to him for the purpose than by that divine form which our Saviour hath taught us-" Our Father," &c. concluding with the excellent Collect for the second Sunday in Advent, "Blessed Lord," &c. Collyer.

Prayer is alike the duty and the interest of all men-it is the voice of faith in the ear of mercyit is the cry of the drowning Peter, "Lord save us, or we perish."

Sermons by the Rev. G. Hughes.

To be happy, we must depend for our happiness on Him alone, who is the source of all happiness. Talbot.

Patience and resignation are what in the severest trials we should earnestly wish to be distinguished for. Do we practise them on trifling occasions? Let every one of us be asked, Can you bear to be put out of your own way, and, however your day is turned and interrupted, cheerfully make the best of it? Can you improve little inconveniences into something tolerable and even useful? It may generally be done, if people would but set their minds to it. The Same.

Let the grace of God reign in our hearts, and we shall be equally fitted for both worlds; fitted on earth to enjoy the blessings, and to do the will, of our heavenly Father; but especially fitted for that great change which nothing can render supportable but a spiritual conformity to the death, and a spiritual participation in the resurrection, of our blessed Lord.

Jebb.

We have to thank our valuable correspondent Veritas for the above extracts. The beautiful passage from Benson has already appeared in the "Visitor."

EXTRACTS FROM THE PUBLIC NEWSPAPERS, &c.

Death Warrants.-There is a very general error in the opinion which prevails as to the mode in which an order is made for the execution of criminals who are sentenced to death at the Old Bailey Sessions. It is generally supposed that the King must affix his sign-manual to a death warrant, as it is usually termed: this is not so. The King signs pardons, but not death warrants; in truth, there is no such thing as a death warrant, in the common acceptation of the term.

The law of the land awards the punishment of death to those who shall be guilty of certain crimes, and it is well known that no report is made to the King of prisoners capitally convicted at the Assizes, unless the Judge thinks fit to do so.