Knox said—“Who is she, Madame?" She answered-"My youngest daughter, sitting by you at table." Then addressing himself to the young lady, he said "My bird, are you willing to marry me?" She answered "Yes, sir; only I fear you'll not be willing to take me." He said "My bird, if you be willing to take me, you must take your venture of God's providence, as I do. I go through the country sometimes on my foot, with a wallet on my arm, a shirt, a clean band, and a Bible in it; you may put something in it for yourself; and if I bid you take the wallet, you must do it, and go where I go, and lodge where I lodge." "Sir," says she, "I'll do all this." "Will you be as good as your word?" Seneca was his favorite. His published let- |“Sir, I have been considering upon a wife for ters abound in well-timed classical allusions. you, and find one very willing; to which Mr. Wirt's cast of mind was religious. In his youth, wrought into enthusiasm, he was on the eve of becoming a Baptist preacher. These feelings, however, subsided, and his religion became more calm and subdued. Throughout his life he was a student of theology, a science which he much admired. His piety, when his religious views had become settled, was practical, leading him to act, rather than to dispute on mooted points of theology; yet he was not a fanatic. "I do not think," says he, "that enthusiasm constitutes religion, or that Heaven is pleased with the smoke of the passions, any more than with the smoke of rams or bulls. There is a calm, steady, enlightened religion of the soul, as firm as it is temperate, which I believe is the religion of heaven. Its raptures are those of the mind, not of the passions; its ecstacies are akin to those of David. -[De Bow's Review. HOW JOHN KNOX GOT A WIFE. KNOX used to visit Lord Ochiltree's family, preaching the Gospel privately to those who were willing to receive it. The lady and some of the family were converts. Her ladyship had a chamber, table, stool and candlestick for the prophet, and one night at supper says to him—"Mr. Knox, I think you are at a great loss by want of a wife" (he was then a widower); to which he said"Madame, I think no body will take such a wanderer as I;" to which she replied "Sir, if that be your objection, I'll make inquiry to find an answer against our next meeting." The lady accordingly addressed herself to her eldest daughter, telling her she might be very happy if she could marry Mr. Knox, who would be a great reformer, and a credit to the church; but she despised the proposal, hoping her ladyship wished her better than to marry a poor wanderer. The lady addressed herself to her second daughter, who answered as the eldest. "Yes, I will." Upon which the marriage was concluded, and she lived happily with him, and had several children by him. She I went with him to Geneva. As he was ascending a hill, as there are many near that place, she got up to the top of it before him, and took the wallet on her arm, and sitting down, said, "Now, good man, am I as good as my word?" She afterwards lived with him when he was minister at Edinburgh. A SINGLE SENTENCE. On the 8th of February last, there died in Edinburgh a venerable Baptist pastor, Mr. James Alexander Haldane, in his eightyfourth year. In his early life he commanded the man-of-war Melville Castle. While engaged in an action one day, the decks of the ship were cleared by the broadsides of the enemy. Captain Haldane ordered a fresh set of hands to be "piped up," to take the place of the slain. The men, on seeing the mangled bodies of their comrades scattered over the deck, instinctively drew back: at which their commander poured forth a volley of oaths, and wished them all in h-ll. One of the seamen, who had been religiously eduThen the lady spake to her third daughter, cated, shortly afterwards said to the Captain, about nineteen years of age, who very frankly in a respectful and serious manner, "If God said— Madame, I'll be very willing to marry had heard your prayer just now, where should him, but I fear he'll not take me;" to which we have been?" The engagement terminated, the lady replied, "If that be all your objec- but a greater victory had been achieved over tion, I'll soon get you an answer." Next Captain Haldane than by him. The old sailnight, at supper, she said to Mr. Knox-or's words were winged by Him who never smites in vain; and from that day the gallant "But the most refreshing service of the and reckless officer became a changed man. Sabbath was that of the evening. Then we He lived to preach the Gospel for fifty-four attended the chapel of the Hon. and Rev. years. Among the early fruits of his minis- Baptist Noel. After a most humble but try was the conversion of his brother Robert, pointed and practical presentation of the now well known as an able, learned, and pi- truth that they who keep his commandments ous commentator. Robert went to Geneva; are Christ's friends, he announced the immeand during a sojourn there of several months diate approach of the communion of the Lord's (about 1814), he labored with unwearied as- Supper. Of course, we were again, for the siduity to reclaim the pastors and theological third time, unfurnished with the 'token,' students whom he met with, from their ra- even if our Baptist brethren will permit us to tionalistic errors, to indoctrinate them in the come, after gaining the token. And why evangelical faith, and to lead them to seek a should we expect that our Baptist brethren in personal interest in the Saviour. The blessing a foreign land should do for us what our own of God was with him. A considerable num- at home refuse? We thought we would again ber of young men became hopefully pious; leave. But, no. Brother R. inquired whether and among those in whose conversion he had we had not better remain, if only to look upa main agency, were — Frederick Monod, on a scene so dear to any true Christian, and now one of the pillars of the evangelical especially Christian clergymen, as we were, church in France; Felix Neff, the devoted in a foreign land. We did so, and were inyoung pastor of the High Alps, whose mem-vited to a seat in the body of the church. It ory is held sacred in both hemispheres; and Merle D'Aubigne, the eminent historian of the Reformation. To pronounce these names is to show how impossible it must be for any created mind to gather up the results of that single conversion on board the Melville Castle. And that conversion was brought about through a single sentence addressed by a sailor to his commander, firmly, but courteously re-to us, a member of the church, we were told, proving him for his profanity! - This case, it is conceded, is a strong one. But is it not instructive? Does it not shame our remissness in the duty of bringing men to Christ? Does it not hold out the amplest encouragement to fidelity and zeal in this most important work? "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever." How glorious a crown, then, will adorn the brow of that poor seaman, who maintained his loyalty to Christ at the hazard of offending his commander, and whose faithfulness has already told with an efficacy so powerful and so auspicious upon the church and the world. ENGLISH BAPTISTS. was soon plain that we had been put in the midst of the communicants. What to do we knew not. Presbyterian ministers without a token,' in the midst of a foreign Baptist church. "As persons generally do when in close quarters, we began to look about as to the next step, and on inquiry of a gentleman next that as we were strangers unexpectedly there, we might send our cards on the plate to the pastor, who would furnish us with tokens.' We then told him the whole truth -- that we were clergymen of another denomination, strangers and foreigners, from America. Ah, sir, we are happy to see you; we hold no close communion sentiments; and just put your cards on the token plate, that will be sufficient.' "We can't write the comfort which this announcement gave us. The service was truly solemn and strengthening, and I need not say unusual to me. I never before had joined in this precious ordinance with my Baptist brethren, and it appeared as if I could sympathize with them in an increased degree, and view them as brethren in a new light. But REV. H. S. OSBORN, of Hanover county, still I had some misgivings as to the real exVa., writing from England to the Philadel-tent and value of this variation from the phia Observer, gives an account of the manner course pursued by our American Baptist in which he spent one of his Sabbaths there, brethren. where, it appears, that the "token" is still used in all churches for admission to the Lord's Table. We give an extract: "After service, we spent a short season with Mr. Noel. We expressed to him the satisfaction we had enjoyed so fully, in being Permitted to unite thus with brethren; but we thought it strange, being Presbyterians. "Why, sir, our Baptist brethren in America must be very bigotted." But," I replied, "is this open sentiment general with youhow is it throughout England?" "Why, sir, it is getting to be general, if it is not so already. It is so in all our large towns. Perhaps there are some places in the country, where they are a little independent and highminded; but we welcome all who love the Saviour." We felt it was a welcome, especially as, after the communion service, the gentleman next us, in a very agreeable and hearty manner, remarked "I hope, sir, it has been a refreshing time;" and shaking hands cordially with us, bade us good night. I cannot tell what the cause of Christ, or of the Church under Mr. Noel, and churches under other Baptist ministers in this city, lose by this holy and comforting union, but I think I can tell what is lost in many of the churches in America, by a contrary, or, as Mr. Noel styles it, "bigotted" course. May the Lord grant us more of the spirit of love, Christian charity, more precious than mere chilly formal faith in doctrine, based upon a stubborn opinion of infallibility, or more even than a hope of heaven, so rayless, so like an icicle, as to freeze all Christian friendship that would approach it. "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity." For The Casket. THE BIBLE NECESSARY TO RELIGION. BY A. C. DAYTON. PHILOSOPHERS have said that man is, by nature, a religious being. So he is. God made him religious; made him to love, adore and worship the great Creator. His nature forces him to some religion; but, alas! how false and horrible is that which, in the darkness of his depravity, he stumbles on. Man is a religious being. I see the evidence of it in the worship of the ancient Egyptian to his crocodile, of the Greek to his Jupiter, of the Romans to their thirty thousand gods, of many nations to the sun and moon and dazzling stars of heaven. I read the proof of it in the history of those in ancient times, who made their children pass through fire unto Moloch. I read it in the terraced temples of the ancient Mexicans - - those four square pyramids, remnants of which are standing yet, monuments of the ten thousand human victims which bled upon their summit, a horrid offering to the Aztec gods. I see the proof of it in the lofty temples and magnificent worship of the gods of Asia; in the tortures of those who hang themselves on hooks of iron, and offer up the life of the body for the sin of their soul; in the crushed and mangled corpses which strew the way where Juggernaut has passed. Oh, yes! there is abundant evidence that man is a religious being; that he is prone to worship something; that he has in him an instinct of adoration. But there is equal evidence, that without the Bible this instinct always leads him wrong. Darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people. It is only the glorious sunlight of this book that can dispel the gloom; that shows to man the true object of his worship the one living and true God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the God in whom we live and move and have our being, in whose hand our breath is, and whose are all our ways. Without it, there is no true religion. Human nature is bad, at best. Even with the Bible to guide it; with all its threatenings to deter from vice, and all its promises to attract to virtue-with all its authority as the command of Deity, and all its motives, awful as eternity, operating with full force upon man's depravity, he is still prone to run into. the extreme of wickedness. Even when thus restrained, fenced in, and bound to virtue, he will ofttimes break over all impediments, and madly run his course of sin and ruin. But when there is no guide to teach the right· -no motive to enforce the right, or to repel the wrong, what can we expect? Then, the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are only evil, and that continually. Then he works all manner of iniquity with greediness. Of all the so called systems of morality, the Bible only begins by cleansing the fountain. It purifies the heart. It forbids not only the overt act of sin, but the secret and unexpressed desire to do wrong. This, only, has a God who knows all hearts, and sees all actions, and who will punish every sin. This, only, has a life of holy bliss beyond the grave, for those who walk uprightly, and endless suffering for those who disobey its heavenly mandates. This, only, has a law of right in DIFFICULTIES OF GEOLOGY. BY THE EDITOR. We do not venture dogmatically to controvert any of the positions of geology. It is a science of a very modern date; so modern, indeed, that its claims as a science may scarcely yet be considered established. There are many good and Christian men we wot of, enlisted in the ranks of its votaries, extravagant and even antiscriptural as some of its conclusions may be regarded by others, who are not so enlisted. We profess not to be adepts in the study of the science. We are of the number of those who have lived more upon the surface of the earth than beneath it. remove, with how much satisfaction to themselves or others we will not undertake to say, there is one difficulty which we beg leave here to point out, which we have not, as yet, seen even an attempt to remove. The theory now most commonly adopted by them, is that which supposes that the term, beginning, as it occurs in the first verse and first chapter of Genesis, where it is said "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," &c., means an indefinitely long period, not included in the six days, and which elapsed before the six days' work begun. In the beginning, they suppose God brought into existence the material, or created the matter of which the universe is composed. But this matter, according to them, for myriads of ages, existed in a chaotic state, without any order, and that darkness was upon the face of the deep. The work of God, wherein he educed the present order of the world from that primitive chaos, was the six days' work which Moses gives an account of. That work began when God said, "Let there be light, and there was light." Ask any Christian geologist what was the work of the first Geologists may be right in the new and day, and he will cite you to Genesis i. 3, 5, startling theories which they have propound-inclusive, and read as follows:- -"And God ed respecting the creation. But, as it strikes said, let there be light; and there was light. our mind, it will be an exceedingly difficult | And God saw the light, that it was good; and task to reconcile them with the Mosaic account of the creation. God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." This portion of Genesis records the first day's work, according to the theory, now generally adopted, we believe, by Christian geologists. We readily admit the facts of geology. But, in regard to the theories based upon them, we must say, that we hold our judgment in suspense. While we do not, in an unqualified manner, reject them, yet neither can we give them our hearty assent, at least till we Hugh Miller, a Christian and a geologist, shall be apprised of the existence of some has labored as earnestly as, perhaps, any other more plausible method of harmonizing them writer to remove from geology the charge of with the teachings of Moses, than we have an infidel tendency. And yet he gives us miyet seen. Indeed, it would be entirely un-nute descriptions of ichthyolites, as, for examreasonable to ask us to adopt any of their conclusions, while they are so widely at variance among themselves. We are aware that there is a class of Christian geologists, who have 'made most earnest attempts to harmonize their views with the Bible. If they shall succeed in these attempts, we shall heartily rejoice; but if they should fail in the end, it would be worse for Christianity than if they had never made the attempt. Passing by other difficulties which have been suggested as lying in the way of geologists, and which they may have attempted to ple, the asterolepis of the old red sand stone, that had eyes—and that, according to bis own representation, must have existed mill'ons of ages ago, thus presupposing that light existed millions of ages before the period when God said, "Let there be light." We believe that all geologists, in speaking of the various organisms discovered by them, represent them as having eyes. And we might naturally expect this on the part of those who profess to be infidels. But what consistency is there in one who professes to believe Moses' account of the six dawe? » 1 and yet tells of fish, or other animals, that existed millions of ages ago, having the organ of sight, when, as yet, no light had been created? The organ of hearing would be just as useful an organ, if there were no such thing as sound or voice, as the organ of seeing in the total absence of light. As every sense must have its proper element, the existence of the eye, an instrument to see with, presupposes the existence of light. Therefore, according to their theories, light existed millions of ages ago. And yet they profess to believe Moses, according to whom light was created on the first of the six days, not quite six thousand years ago. This is not an imaginary difficulty. It is real; and we expect that we shall wait in vain to see the solution of it. We are not of those who, in our adherence to the Biblestand, would make war on any true and legitimate science; but we cannot surrender our belief in what we believe to be the teachings of Unerring Wisdom, at the bidding of a science so new and unsettled as geology. Its devotees are constantly shifting their ground, and it is impossible to foresee what positions they will occupy fifty or a hundred years hence. It is said that M. Gorini, Professor of Natural History in the University of Lodi, made recently, before a large circle of friends, a remarkable experiment, illustrative of his theory as to the formation of mountains. The London Times says:"He melts some substances, known only to himself, in a vessel, and allows the liquid to cool. At first, it presents an even surface; but a portion continues to come up from beneath, and, gradually, ele{vations are formed, exactly corresponding in shape with those which are found on the earth. Even to the stratification, the resemblance is complete, and M. Gorini can produce, on a small scale, the phenomena of volcanoes and earthquakes. He contends, therefore, that the inequalities on the surface of the globe are the result of certain materials, first reduced by the application of heat to a liquid state, and then allowed gradually to consolidate." If the theory be correct, the lapse of a few centuries, not to say millions, or even thousands of ages, had been amply sufficient for all the formations caused by volcanic action, that appear on the surface of our globe. to the superincumbent weight of water, and the admixture probably of other substances, producing a certain chemical action, the water at the bottom of the ocean is continually changing into solid rock. If this be so, all the appearances of the "old red sandstone," as well as other geological fields, are satisfactorily accounted for, without the supposition of a pre-Adamite earth. But, after all, even if geologists could remove all these objections and difficulties, we have a way, even better than their own, and in perfect keeping with Moses' account of the creation, for the purpose of solving the geological phenomena which they discover in the crust of the earth. We may give our own views on the subject more fully, in a future number; but we say to all those who hold to the Bible - Stand fast to your creed. It is the only sure pou sto. The opponents of the Bible are never weary in their efforts to shake the confidence of the Christian in this book. Very recently we saw a statement to the effect, that there is a tree in Africa nine thousand years old. We doubt not the statement was spawned from some infidel brain; for it is without a name, and therefore wholly unauthenticated. But there may be some silly enough to believe it, and the object of its author will be answered. There is, in the human heart, a fondness for novelty. And there are some who puzzle their brains to discover novelties, with a view, perhaps, to gain notoriety for themselves. THERE is scarcely any business on which there is a greater trial of real principles than that noticed at the head of this article. There is often, too, a sad loss of Christian character by those who are making matrimonial connections. The following story teaches a lesson : A well-bred young man, apparently under much religious concern, united himself with a religious society. Although he had formerly been rather wayward and inconsistent in his life, yet, by his steady attendance on the means of grace, and the rapid improveWe may also state the fact, known perhaps ment which he seemed to make in his relito a few, that in some places, at least, owing gious course, he had gained largely on the |