want of competent commanders. Such men cannot be made; they must be born. It does not appear that, among the twenty millions of people forming the Federal States, there is one really competent leader. The fact is confessed by the constant changes which are going on; nothing like it has appeared in history. In the South, unhappily, all is the reverse. All the generals were competent at the outset, and no change has taken place among them. The South is, in all points, marked by sagacity, unity, energy, purpose, perseverance, and success. The Government is strong, and parties have no place in the Slave States; the whole are as one man in their hatred to the North, and in their determination to be Independent. There is some

thing in the whole matter inscrutable to mortal vision. It is to be viewed as a general judgment, a national chastisement, in which both South and North are equally called to share, forasmuch as there was a co-partnery in crime and cruelty towards the coloured people. It would seem as if, in the purpose of Heaven, the time had not yet fully come for the final destruction of slavery. Purposes, wise and merciful of course, are yet to be fulfilled by its continuance a little longer. That it has received a wound which no time will heal is probable; but the friends of the slave will require to exercise patience till the mind of the Most High shall be fully disclosed. It will, without doubt, in the end be swept from the face of the earth, and nothing can hinder it.

[WE have been favoured with the following from a member of the family, who will accept our thanks. The facts deserve to be placed upon record. The lapse of time does not at all diminish their value.-EDITOR.]

Ir is now nearly twenty years since the death of Samuel Woodcock, Esq., late of Bury, in Lancashire. He died on the 4th of September, 1843, in his seventy-ninth year.

From early life to the time of his death he had been a devoted Sunday-school teacher and honorary secretary of the Bury Auxiliary Bible Society. He had also been a deacon in the church for more than forty years.

On the day of his death his family had been called together, and were around his bed. It was evident that the time of his departure was at hand. His mind rambled a little. He said, "I will get up." Appeal was made to the physician, who said, "Don't hinder him; he is dying; it will hasten his end a little; but don't hinder him." One of his children said, "What are you getting up for, father?" He said, "It is the committee meeting of the Bible Society to-day, and I am going-I shall be wanted." His strength failed him, however, and he sunk back in bed. He now did not know his children. One of them said to him, "Do you know Jesus?" He immediately answered, emphatically, "Yes, I know Jesus Christ." These were his last words. He died immediately afterwards.

Inclosed herewith is the copy of a testimo

nial forwarded to the family shortly after his death:

"Tribute of respect to the memory of the late Samuel Woodcock, Esq., at a meeting of the committee of the Bury Auxiliary Bible Society, held on the 7th of September, 1843. Richard Walker, Esq., M.P., in the chair. "It was unanimously resolved :

:

"That the committee of this Society, in recording the decease of their late venerable friend, Samuel Woodcock, Esq., embrace the solemn occasion to express their high sense of his valuable services, as one of the earliest friends of the Auxiliary, who, for the long period of thirty-three years, honourably discharged the duties of various offices in the Society; and by his Christian simplicity, uniform zeal, genuine liberality, and longmaintained consistency, became endeared to all who had the privilege of co-operating with him.

"Whilst they desire to bow in devout submission to the will of the unerring Disposer of all human affairs, they feel constrained, by a sense of justice, to express their conviction of the loss that this and every other benevolent institution in this town have sustained; they are comforted by the thought, that what to others is loss, to him is gain; and they sincerely tender their expression of affectionate sympathy with the several members of the bereaved family, which has been deprived of a parent so universally esteemed; praying that they may be comforted by those gracious principles which formed the character and cherished the spirit of the departed."

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THUS spake Jesus, when the Scribes demanded a "sign" and the Pharisees reviled His greatness. It is a solemn and yet a glorious truth, and never had more significance for England than at the present hour. Solomon was then the highest development of royalty, and the most brilliant manifestation kingly splendour the world had yet known; but here, in the person and work of the meek and the lowly one, we have a grandeur and a glory excelling that of the king of Israel as light excels darkness-the sun of noon-day the twinkling star of night-or the new Jerusalem, which John saw coming down from heaven, transcends the old Jerusalem which was the princely seat of Solomon's regal power. The Jews could not see this greatness, because it was spiritually discerned, nor would they open their eyes to receive the light of the Gospel by which the Messiahship was to be discovered; hence their guilt and doom, pronounced by Jesus when He said, "The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against this generation, and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Let us examine this truth, and while we speak of the greatness, inquire as to the presence, and open up the object which Jesus had in view when He thus declared himself, we shall endeavour to illustrate each topic by facts and incidents connected with the all-engrossing subject of this royal union, as well as the sublimer resources of the heavenly kingdom.

I. THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST. The kingdom of Solomon was of no great size, but its influence was felt and acknowledged throughout the world. All nations were tributary to this kingdom, not by constraint, but willingly; and so just and equitable were its laws, that even Hiram the heathen king of Tyre, and Pharaoh the despotic king of Egypt,

VOL. XX.

were in amity with Solomon; and the Queen of the South, while offering her splendid gifts, acknowledged his divine wisdom, and did homage to his crown. Solomon himself says, "I was great and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem;" and his wisdom, which God bestowed as a special gift, was the characteristic grace of his reign.

But this greatness and glory lose, when compared with the greatness and glory of England. Occupying, as the United Kingdom does, but a fractional part of Europe, its ramifications yet extend to the uttermost ends of the earth. England, and especially London, is the big heart, whose pulsations are felt at the extremities of human life. Her Queen sways a sceptre over a kingdom on which the sun never sets; her navy floats on every sea; she has received the homage of every people; and her moral influence is yet greater than her regal power. The science and commerce of England have bridged the ocean by steam, and annihilated distance by electricity, and most marvellous have been the results. For example, about three hundred years ago, when James the Sixth, king of Scotland, who became James the First of England, was affianced to a Danish bride, three months elapsed before the royal lady could be conveyed to her adopted land; three times were the ships of her convoy driven back, and so dark and superstitious were the people, that three innocent but suspected sisters in Copenhagen were burnt as the Jonahs who had raised the storm! Now, we fix the day, yea, the hour for the royal marriage of the Prince of Wales with another Princess of Denmark, and forthwith she lands on our shores; receives the congratulations of millions of happy people as she threads her way through the multitude; and scarcely has the nuptial knot been tied when the bells of Copenhagen ring a peal of joyone flash over the electric wires having

L

instantly carried the glad tidings of the marriage to her fatherland!

This is something new under the sun. The wealth of Solomon was great, and his people were prosperous, for in his day" he made silver to be accounted as stones in Jerusalem," but the wealth of England's Crown and England's people is greater, for the yearly profits of her trade and commerce (£900,000,000) are equal to the fee simple of all the revenues of Israel! That magnificent temple which was the crowning act of Solomon's reign, was a noble expression of religious faith; but the yearly gifts of the Christian people of England, laid on the altar of their common faith, is a more costly oblation.

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But what are all the greatness and glory of Solomon and Victoria when compared with the greatness and glory of Jesus? Though "laid in a manger," brought up in the family of Joseph the carpenter, and “ a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," who said of himself "the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head," He was yet "the Saviour, Christ the Lord," whose advent was announced by a heavenly host, and whose life would bring "glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to men." He came as the "Prince of peace," the "Wonderful," the Counsellor," the great and "Mighty God." In moral character He was "the brightness of His father's glory, the express image of His person; the chief of ten thousand, and the altogether lovely." In kingly power He was omnipotent, and “ of His kingdom there shall be no end." Jesus came not with the pomp and display of royalty, and yet He could say "the cattle on a thousand hills are mine;" his Ministers of State were not arrayed in "purple and fine linen," for they were the "fishermen of Galilee," and his retinue were the lowliest of the land; yet on that day, when the Pharisees reviled Him, and the scribes demanded their "sign," and the selfrighteous Jew said, "We have Abraham to be our father," and sarcastically in

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quired, "Dost thou teach us?"-He had put life into the withered arm, raised the dead, healed the sick, opened the eyes of the blind, and preached the Gospel to the poor,-He had fed the multitudes with a few loaves and fishes, stilled the tempest by his hand, walked on the stormy sea, cast out devils, and done other wonderful works. Solomon could charm the Queen of Sheba by his wisdom, and stud the literary firmament of his age with gems; Victoria can speak to the hearts of her people, and her kind and tender sympathies have found many an eloquent expression in deeds of mercy and acts of benevolence; but of Jesus it can be said, "Never man spake like this man," and of His benevolence it has been recorded that "He went about continually doing good."

But what shall we say of the greatness of the sacrifice He made for His people and for His kingdom? All England has rejoiced over the marriage of the Prince of Wales, and none can more deeply or tenderly love the heir to the throne than his widowed mother; but if all her subjects were in rebellion, and all under the sentence of condemnation, and no release could be found save in the gift of the son, what would be thought of our Sovereign's love and pity, were she to offer that gift, and our youthful Prince were he to give himself for us that the nation might be saved? Yet this is what our heavenly Father did in giving His Son to save a rebel world; and what Jesus has accomplished in becoming a sin offering for us; "who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him." Yea more; "Scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some will even dare to die; but God hath commended His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Oh! how truthfully and eloquently do the words of the poet apply here:

"Were every stalk on earth a quill, And all the skies of parchment made, Did drops of ink the ocean fill, Were every man a scribe by trade, To write the love of God would drain the ocean dry,

Have we the evidence of God's Spirit witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God? Have we really accepted the invitation? Have we prepared for the occasion by going into the robing chamber to receive the wedding garment before sitting down at the feast? We have been all astir, in looking forward to the royal marriage of an earthly prince. Have we been as earnest and expectant in realizing the honour and the obligations of our union to Jesus? There have been sacrifices of time, of comfort, of money, aye, and alas! of life, to do honour to our future Queen, as well as our future King; but have we shown the same spirit, the same zeal, the same sacrifice, and the same self-abnegation, in doing honour to our heavenly Jesus? Alas! alas! there is too much reason to fear that to most of us the reproof will apply, "This ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone."

III. THE OBJECT which Jesus had in view when He made this declaration. His grand aim was to illustrate and enforce the doctrine of Christian responsibility. "To whom much is given, from them much shall be required," was the principle which He had announced, and now He measures the Jews by this standard. The pagan people of Nineveh had repented at the preaching of Jonah; the Gentile Queen of Sheba had travelled thousands of miles to hear the wisdom of Solomon; but, although a greater prophet and king than either Jonah or Solomon was in Judea, and had preached the doctrine of the kingdom to Israel, the Jews,learned, polished,intelligent in comparison with other nations, had rejected His Messiahship, and incurred the displeasure of God. Hence the solemn warning in the parallel narrative, "Take heed, therefore, that the light which is in thee be not darkness."

And this warning applies to England as well as to Judea. It applies to the individual Christian and to the fellowship of the Christian church, and on the threshold of a new era in our history as a nation-for this royal union

marks a new letter in our calendarspeaks trumpet-tongued to England. We are not alarmists, and believe that at" evening time it will be light;" but the question presses-Are we now shining as lights in the world? Are we living for God up to the measure of our privileges, and are we realizing Christianity as an aggressive system of truth? Our heavenly Father has conferred on England His choicest blessings. Like the Jews of old we have become the depositories of God's word, and now He calls to reckoning, with the measurements of Nineveh and Sheba and Israel in His hands, ever appealing to the ultimate principle in judgment, the will of God the Supreme Governor, and not an earthly sovereign, for "behold, a greater than Solomon is here."

Let us briefly review our history, then, in the light of this aim and object; and as entering on this new cycle of our national progress.

Three hundred years ago a prince was born in the old grey castle of Edinburgh, and crowned when only six years of age. His mother, the unhappy Mary Stuart, was first a captive, then an exile, and then a martyr, either to her faith or to her crimes. James, her son, weak and vacillating, had yet a reverence for the Bible, and became early impressed with the importance of maintaining the Protestant faith. The church of Rome, having failed to overthrow Elizabeth in England, brought her highest diplomacy to bear on her relative James. A marriage was proposed with a princess of Navarre, but the spirit of John Knox was roused, and instead of a Catholic queen, James was eventually united to the Protestant princess Anne of Denmark. Elizabeth died; the two crowns were united; and James the Sixth of Scotland became James the First of England. Then were carried out the doctrines of the Reformation. An assembly of divines was called to meet at Westminster; a new translation of the Bible was made-our present Saxon Bible; the Westminster confession of faith prepa