mitted to us for the purpose of promoting the honour and glory of the giver?

3. Do not those who provide, those who sell, and those who purchase, tacitly, and perhaps unconsciously, make a principle of self-denial yield to one of expediency?

4. Do not we expose ourselves and others to unwarrantable temptations of divers kind by assisting in them?

If you think the mention of this subject in the pages of your Magazine, may tend to "provoke unto love and good works," perhaps at some time you may find a convenient corner for it; but if likely to produce any opposite feelings, I trust you will burn this note, and forget, and forgive the trouble given by me, who under God owes you much.

H. A. N.

June 17,

1844.

We give insertion the more willingly to the foregoing letter, because we really wish to see this point settled on a basis satisfactory to such minds as that of H. A. N. We cannot ourselves speak practically on the subject, having never been present at a scene of the kind, nor in any way taken part in it, beyond transmitting through the regular channels, articles of work sent to us for that purpose by parties who have either not seen or not understood our repeated request to be excused from becoming the recipients of any thing intended for sale. What with postoffice orders and country notes, we find ourselves exposed to perplexity and loss, often of money as well as of time; but fancy goods we are obliged to stow away where we can, until some friend engaged

in a sale kindly takes them en masse.

This we note,

because some reader might object that we do supply

sales occasionally.

The thing itself is one which we never could sufficiently reconcile to our views of what is strictly consistent with such employments as the word of God enumerates among those adapted to the female character; whether among "holy women of old times," or under apostolic guidance. It may do good, we scarcely think it can do any harm, to canvass this matter in our pages, if any of our correspondents feel disposed so to do: but it must be borne in mind that we may get twenty letters where only one can be inserted; and that our rule of selection must be to choose that which is in its line of argument the most scriptural, and which compresses the greatest quantity of matter within the most reasonable bounds. A meek and quiet spirit, in the tone, being indispensable; for we would not stir up strife among sisters. We would also suggest that such as disapprove of this mode of raising funds for benevolent and pious purposes, should point out some better plan for attaining the same end,or at least for assisting the great work which, in many ways, is now going forward.

H. A. N. has not sent us any other address; and if we err in publishing her letter, she must forgive us. We do not wish to take a prominent part in the debate, but rather to be instructed by what friends on both sides may say; regarding it as a question of very great practical importance, particularly as the custom is greatly on the increase of late.

One point we would request our controversialists to bear in mind, when treating of the pro and con.

We mention it as a fact, well known to ourselves; not retailed as a report. Young ladies, very far from taking an interest in the good works to be promoted, have often, very often been known to proffer aid for the avowed purpose (avowed to their friends) of having a flirtation with gentlemen buyers; and these gentlemen buyers, knowing this, make no secret of their conviction, that all the young ladies who take stalls at a fancy fair, do so in order to be flirted with. We use the foolish word because it is chosen by the parties to express their meaning; and because we know of no other sufficiently silly for the purpose.

Now, we are perfectly aware that to have all manner of evil spoken against them, falsely, is the frequent lot of true believers, and that so far from shrinking from it, their Divine Master has taught them to regard it as a special blessing. We, therefore, would not for any consideration adduce the foregoing as an argument to frighten delicate minds from fulfilling any work and labour of love to which they may be called in the cause of godliness; we merely state the fact as an additional inducement to search and try the real character of the business with serious care.

EXPOSITORY REMARKS ON GENESIS.

No. X.

VERSES 22-24.-" And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever; therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

Instructed then by our last text, which unfolds to us far more than at first sight it might have been supposed to contain, we now behold our first parents transferred from the covenant of the Law, to the first rudiments of the covenant of grace, in the principles of which heavenly covenant they were henceforth to become learners. But the lessons which grace imparts can only be duly appreciated, and really embraced by the sinner, when the law has adequately performed its work, and the soul has for ever resigned all hope of eternal life by means of obedience to the legal precept. Our sinful parents therefore, must quit their first abode, lest the wily serpent should now tempt them to eat of the fruit of the tree of life; and an expulsion from paradise was the more necessary, as any attempt to lay violent hands upon the JULY, 1844.

C

sacramental pledge of the external life originally connected with man's obedience, would be another foul act of rebellion against God, an act which must needs bring with it, not only an increase of misery to man, but utter, hopeless, perdition. We read therefore, that the gracious Creator made it impossible that this new sin should be committed by His fallen children, whom He compelled to retire from the precincts of the now treacherous pledge of immortality; all access to which He also prevented by a guard of cherubims, and by alarming tokens of the divine presence which were well calculated to scare away the presumptuous sinner, should he be tempted in self-ignorance and self-righteous confidence, to put forth his hand to pluck the once consecrated fruit, madly thinking, that were he but to eat of it, he might still live for ever. But what may the words mean " And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil?" Truly we have here nothing more than a mode of speech which is far from unusual, in the scriptures of the Old Testament, for the Lord is there often described, in accommodation to our human weakness, as laughing at the vain hostility of His puny adversaries. Psalm ii. 4. Prov. i. 26. The words of our text are indeed those of bitter irony, but let us suppose them directed rather against him who was the liar and murderer from the beginning, than against the victims of his infernal wiles. The arch-traitor had persuaded his too credulous hearers, that by listening to his voice they would become as gods, even essentially like the divine Being, in whose image and likeness they had been created; and now, says the Triune God, to the whole universe of His intelligent creatures,-" Be