the language of the Prophet was strikingly verified in her,"the child shall die, being an hundred years old." She was, indeed, old in heavenly wisdom, and the knowledge of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent. In the family circle her disposition was of a very lovely character,— easily pleased herself, it was her object to please all around her. The Sabbath-school was her delight, and her engaging manner rendered her peculiarly interesting to her teachers and school-fellows. In the midst of all her youthful engagements, God in his adorable providence was pleased to lay his chastening hand upon her, and in fourteen days of severe suffering she was cut down like a flower of the field, and consigned to an early grave. Her afflicted friends, however, have not to sorrow as those who have no hope. On her death-bed she gave many pleasing evidences that the incorruptible seed of the Word had taken root in her heart, and that her faith was simple and steadfast on the Son of God. Being visited by some of her school-fellows, she asked them if they were afraid to die,they said they were. Elizabeth immediately replied, "I am not afraid of death,"-and then as an encouragement to them and to herself, she proceeded to repeat a few verses of a favourite hymn. Her grandfather was seldom absent from her bedside, night or day, and having spoken to her, on one occasion, of Jesus and his free salvation, and that as one of the lambs in his flock he would carry her in his bosom, Elizabeth replied, "O yes, grandfather, God will make all things, by his providence and grace, to work together for good; and though he takes down the tabernacle of clay, he will raise us up again. Her weeping mother said, “my dear child, be of good cheer, you will soon be with your God and Saviour." The resigned sufferer at once said, "then, dear mother, why do you fret when you know that we shall meet in the presence of God"-and she proceeded to repeat the three first verses of the 103d Psalm, and sang the first verse of it to a favourite tune. Her voice and strength failing, she said, "Oh, grandfather, the time to praise God is when we have tongues able to praise him"-and in a weak tone she added

"As far as east is distant from

The west, so far hath he
From us removed, in his love,
All our iniquity."

She again said, after having suffered much pain, "It will soon be over. Lord Jesus receive my spirit." She wished to be remembered to all her school-fellows, and that they were all around her bedside, that they might learn how to die. With a faltering tongue she endeavoured to repeat the Lord's prayer, but could only say, "Our Father, which art in heaven,"

-and in a few minutes her spirit was carried by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.

Reader, art thou in youth?-Learn, from the case of Elizabeth, the importance of becoming early acquainted with thy God. The flower of youth is one of the most pleasing offerings that can be presented to the exalted Saviour. Your life is most uncertain. "Now is the accepted time, now is

the day of salvation."

Reader, art thou a parent?-Learn, from the very interesting case of this child, the necessity of training up your chil dren in the fear, nurture, and admonition of the Lord. They are talents committed to your care, and an awful responsibility rests upon you, with regard to the cultivation of their minds. Let no day pass without endeavouring to convey to them some new idea on the subject of religion, accompanied by solemn prayer to God, that all their knowledge may be sanctified by the agency of the Holy Ghost. Thus your dear children will be like willows by the water courses, trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

THE SYNOD OF ULSTER,-IRISH SCHOOLS.

THE Synod of Ulster, having succeeded in establishing seve ral Irish Schools in Tyrone, Derry, and Antrim, and being convinced of their great importance and usefulness, submit the following authentic remarks to the Christian and the Patriot:

1. The Irish language is still the vernacular tongue of three millions of the people.

2. There are 196 Islands belonging to Ireland, containing 43,000 inhabitants speaking the Irish language, left almost wholly without Scriptural instruction.

3. That of the above population, about the one-half speak only the Irish language, and that all are inclined to receive Scriptural instruction in that tongue only.

4. The Irish Scriptures have been received and learned with eagerness and thankfulness, and the Irish Schools approved of by the people, old and young, while many are preparing and offering themselves as teachers.

5. Of a population of three millions, the average number that pass into eternity, daily, are about 270 souls; and "where no vision is, the people perish."

6. If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and if knowledge of His will be necessary to obedience, can he that withholds or delays that knowledge be said to love his neighbour as himself?

1

7. Upwards of 80 Schools have been established in 18 months; and it now depends upon the benevolence of the Christian Church, whether these shall be continued and increased, or suffered to fall to the ground.

8. That, in the providence of God, the Irish Scriptures and Irish Schools are likely to be made the instruments of exalting our country in righteousness, and of placing it among those nations whose God is the Lord, according to that declaration,

"For then will I turn to the people a PURE LANGUAGE, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." ZEPHANIAH iii. 9.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INDIA MISSION.

THE Rev. Dr. DUFF, General Assembly's Missionary, having been travelling through the North of Scotland, for the purpose of making known more extensively the spiritual destitution of the millions of India, and especially the want of School accommodation for the young, some benevolent individuals in Inverness have proposed endeavouring to collect the sum of One Thousand Pounds, in single Pence, in a year and a day; to be given to Dr. Duff, for providing School-houses, the purchase of Books, &c., for the native youth. A correspondent in Inverness writes: "The advantages of this proposed plan are, that it draws upon all classes of society, without their feeling it, and without interfering with any other scheme having the same object in view; even to those who have contributed already, One Penny can be no object, and no individual is permitted to subscribe either more or less. People some times give pence for their children, servants, or absent friends, but then each name must be written down. Schools afford capital assistance, and even the Charity Schools here are engaged with great spirit, both in contributing and collecting. A short address from the masters to the pupils interests them, and it is well to turn their minds to any thing of the kind. Servants, too, get a good deal among their friends. A common mason brought us in, the other night, Two Guineas, the fruit of two or three weeks' effort in the cause; and more than one young friend has already sent us Five Pounds, some more and some less. Several Clergymen around are stirring up the plan among their people. The co-operation of the benevolent in all parts of the country is earnestly solicited, in the accomplishment of a scheme, which has for its ultimate object the furtherance of the Saviour's kingdom in ludia.”

CHRIST THE PURIFIER.

She

"He

SOME time ago, in Dublin, a few ladies, who met together for Christian fellowship and mutual edification, read the third chapter of the prophet Malachi. On coming to the second verse, one of them gave it as her opinion, that "the fuller's soap," and "the refiner's fire,' were only the same image intended to convey the same view of the sanctifying influence of the grace of Christ. From this opinion another of the ladies differed, observing, that there was something remarkable in the expression in the third verse," he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." To this they all assented; and as the lady was going into town, she promised to see a silversmith, and report to them what he should say on the subject. went, and without telling him the object of her visit, begged to know the process of refining silver, which he fully described to her. "But do you sit, sir ?" "Oh! yes, madam, I must sit, with my eye steadily fixed on the furnace; since, if the silver remain too long, it is sure to be injured." She at once saw the beauty, and comfort too, of the expression. shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." Christ sees it needful to put his children into the furnace; but he is seated by the side of it. His eye is steadily intent on the work of purifying; and his wisdom and his love are both engaged to do all in the best manner for them. Their trials do not come at random, but are the wise and gracious appointments of their heavenly Father; and the very "hairs of their head are all numbered." As the lady was returning to her friends with the issue of her interview, the silversmith called her back, and said he had forgotten to mention one thing, that he only knew that the process of purifying was complete by seeing his own image in the silver. When Christ sees his own image, in his people, his work of purifying is complete. It may be added, that the metal continues in a state of agitation till all the impurities are thrown off, and it then becomes quite still; a circumstance which heightens the exquisite analogy in this case; for O! how

"Sweet to lie passive in his hand,

And know no will but his."

The subject was embodied in the following stanzas, at the urgent request of a friend, who, with her young family, was about to leave her native country, and settle in a distant part of the globe; but the writer's mind had received the first ineffaceable impression of the similitude and the inference, in the year 1832, from the lips of another dear friend, when she was nearly in her last agony, who meekly applied it to herself and her afflictions, which had been long and excrutiating, yet

borne by her as such pains can alone be borne, in God's furnace and under his eye,

"He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.-Mal. iii, 3.

He that from dross would win the precious ore,
Bends o'er the crucible an earnest eye,
The subtle, searching process to explore,
Lest the one brilliant moment should pass by,
When in the molten silver's virgin mass,
He meets his pictured face, as in a glass.

Thus in God's furnace are his people tried;

Thrice happy they who to the end endure;
But who the fiery trial may abide ? –

Who from the crucible come forth so pure,
That He, whose eyes of flame look through the whole,
May see his image perfect in the soul?

Nor with an evanescent glimpse alone,

As in that mirror the refiner's face;

But stampt with heaven's broad signet, there be shewn
Immanuel's features, full of truth and grace;
And round that seal of love this motto be,

"Not for a moment, but,-Eternity!" MONTGOMERY.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

THE USE AND ABUSE OF CREEDS AND CONFESSIONS OF FAITH; with Strictures on the Westminster Confession. By the Rev. J. CARLILE, Dublin. W. CURRY, Jun. & Co., Dublin, 1836.

We regret to find Mr. CARLILE once more in the attitude of opposition to his brethren. Surely he might have learned, from the grievous errors into which he fell aforetime, and which are now obvious to all, not to have rushed again into a similar situation. For years, he teazed the Synod by defending Arians, and endeavouring to keep them in the Church, happily, he was unsuccessful;-all Christian men rejoice in the blessed fruits of their removal,-he surely must do so himself, although he has never yet publicly avowed his error,-and yet, with all the evidence of this great mistake before his eyes, he undertakes to trouble the Synod again, on another question of vital importance. We regret this, for his own sake, though certainly not for the truth's sake, for it has suffered nothing by his publication. Even the enemies of the Synod make no use of it, nor, indeed, can it render their cause any service. A mere allusion to some of its leading principles, will prove the justness of what we say. One is, that no Church has a right to exclude from its membership any person who, in the judgment of charity, may be supposed to be a true Christian. Now, we ask Mr. Carlile, may a Roman Catholic be a Christian? He will answer, he may. Consequently, we' are to admit Roman Catholics to the communion-table of Presbyterians, and these are to profess themselves one in Christ Jesus. The absurdity of the principle is manifest. Mr. Carlile does not seem to understand the business of Church rulers. It is not to pronounce on the Christianity