he never had the slightest relief or cessation from violent pain, until mortification began to take place on the Sunday evening. His disease was of so fearful a character that his sufferings were very severe, sometimes affecting for a few moments his reasoning powers; but in all his lucid intervals he was in the enjoyment of perfect tranquillity of mind, and spoke of his prospects of heaven in the most clear and delightful manner. A few hours before his death, on the Monday morning, his countenance seemed so overwhelmed with the Divine Presence, that there was a literal shout of joy. Soon after this, he took most affectionate farewell of his dear mother and father-in-law, and of her who, next to them and his Saviour, had the chief place in his affections.

The last hour or two of his life exhibited a striking proof of the power of divine grace over the influence of strong bodily suffering. Oh, how happy was his soul! He was almost continually exclaiming, "Praise the Lord! Glory! Hallelujah! My precious Jesus!" Thus did he gloriously realize the truth of the delightful promise, "As thy day is, so shall thy strength be."

RECENT DEATH.

OUR cause at Fenton, in the Longton Circuit, has recently sustained a severe loss in the unexpected removal to his final reward of our dear brother, John Lovatt. For several months he frequently complained of much physical debility, not, however, so as to prevent his discharging the important offices of Sabbath school teacher, leader, and localpreacher, all of which, for years, he sustained with great efficiency and success. On Wednesday, August 27, he was seized with malignant typhus-fever, over which the best medical skill the neighbourhood could furnish had no control, and after four days of great suffering, borne with Christian fortitude, his bloodwashed spirit joined "the innumerable company of angels and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven." A more extended biography of our dear brother will be furnished shortly. Fenton. J. HOWARD.

MONTHLY RECORD.

EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.-On Wednesday, September 3rd, this noble and truly Catholic association finished the sittings of its anniversary in London. A great number of foreigners were present from various parts of the world. Many papers of the greatest interest were read on the state of religion in various countries, which will be published in extenso, in successive numbers of 'Evangelical Christendom." This was one of the most interesting and important meetings which have been held by the several denominations of Christians in this or any former age. SECESSION FROM POPERY. Duke of Norfolk has renounced his connexion with the apostate Church of Rome, and identified himself with the Church of England.

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REMARKABLE LONGEVITY.-There is a female now residing in Clarke County, Georgia, who is 133 years of age. She is quite active, lively and cheerful, con. verses fluently, reads well without the use of glasses. She says she does not feel the effect of her age, except as regards her hearing-she is slightly deaf. This, too, is partly the result of accident. She has now living within one mile of her residence grandchildren to the sixth generation. So says the Augusta Constitutionalist.

AUSTRALIA. THE NEW CALIFORNIA. -Advices from the Australian goldregion have been received up to June 11, by the Overland Mail. The probabilities with regard to the extent and richness of the mines appear thus far to be fully maintained, and there was no diminution of the general excitement. It is stated that "the gold discoveries continue to be fully confirmed, and about 20,000l. has arrived at Sydney. People are flocking to Bathurst from all parts of the colony, and 7000 persons are concentrated there. At Melbourne five vessels have been laid on for passengers to the diggings, and much alarm is stated to be felt at the prospect of the shepherds and stockmen deserting their charges. The gold does not appear in one place only, but several spots have been discovered where it is equally abundant." Another writer states, "I have a very intelligent correspondent near Bathurst, who is Crown-land commissioner. He tells me that lumps of five pound weight have been found. The fact is undoubted, that men who will work, and know how to go about it, can get from one to two ounces of the scale-gold a-day. I say the scale-gold, as it is from the washings, and the same as you must have seen from California. The lumps are only found occasionally,"

THE METHODIST

NEW CONNEXION MAGAZINE.

NOVEMBER, 1851.

DISCOURSES, ESSAYS, &c.

THE BIBLE IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE.
BY THE REV. G. GRUNDY.

WE shall not attempt a description of that new thing under the sun, the Crystal Palace. It surpasses fable. It is poetry embodied. Architecture, with all its triumphs in pyramid, palace and temple, has nothing to show which can bear comparison with it. Its vastness, its airy elegance and the transparency of its material, make it appear like a work of enchantment. It is itself a great and magnificent exhibition of the genius and power of man.

The assemblage of objects collected in this mighty structure scarcely admits of description. Whilst it feasts the taste and fires the imagination of its visitors, it generally seals their lips on returning to their friends. The splendour of the spectacle is too great for words fully to represent, and is equalled only by its capability to interest and inform the intelligent mind.

Upon one object which we observed we wish to make a few remarks. It is one which probably does not attract the greatest share of attention. It is not the Koh-i-noor diamond, but a gem infinitely more precious: it is the Bible, as exhibited by the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 150 languages and dialects. Some difficulty was experienced in procuring its admission; and it occupies not a central, but a secluded, spot in the building. The relative position of the Bible and the Mountain of Light in the Crystal Palace represents pretty accurately the prevailing estimate of the sensible as compared with the spiritual. The splendour which dazzles the eye is allowed to throw into shadow the superior glory which illumines only the soul. And yet the Bible does not, like the costly gem we have mentioned, require light from without to draw forth its lustre, much less does it need gas-light to make it sparkle properly; it shines with native splendour-it is not a mountain, it is a sun of light.

To some it might seem a perilous experiment to bring the Bible face to face with the latest discoveries of science and the most finished results of civilization. Faint-hearted believers have often trembled for its fate, when Infidelity has proclaimed its truth to be overthrown by some new scientific discovery. When, therefore, the brightest rays of science converge from every corner of the globe in one brilliant focus in the Crystal Palace, can it sustain that blaze? Will not some flaw or blemish be detected by the keen and hostile eyes with which it is there confronted? It has nothing to fear. As in past times each infidel

boast has been found to be false, as each science has eventually become a handmaid of religion, yielding fresh and beautiful illustrations of its truth, so in the light of all these magnificent results of science the Bible will doubtless shine with unshaded lustre. The light in which alchemy and astrology expire, and which "the fables of the Shaster, the Talmud, and the Koran" could not endure for a moment, serves but to exhibit in this book the resplendent features of divine truth. It has a right to be there, to show that it dares challenge universal scrutiny. As the enshrinement of the truth of God, and as containing the germs of all truth, it has a right to be there to receive, as tribute due to its supremacy, each noble triumph of intellect, and each new discovery of science. The productions assembled in the Great Exhibition are the fruit of long ages of growing civilization, the magnificent result of innumerable discoveries, inventions, and improvements of successive centuries, and of the most highly cultivated skill in the individual workmen who have produced them. Could it have existed as a whole in the infancy of manufactures, in the darkness of the middle ages, or in the times of feudal barbarism? Or could the delicate machinery, the philosophical instruments, or the beautiful designing and sculpture it contains, have been produced by unskilled or untrained workmen? This would have been a mnch greater miracle than the Exhibition itself. It is an obvious impossibility. Look now at the contents of the Bible. Examine its revelations of God; of angels, the faithful and fallen; of other worlds, of the creation and destination of our own: look at its miracles, so simply stated and so incomparably sublime; its innumerable prophecies fulfilled; its histories, receiving confirmation from disentombed Nineveh at the present day; its moral precepts, as superior to those of all mere moralists as heaven is to earth. Examine the character of Christ, the divine beauty and perfection of which are attested in eloquent confessions, even by the very foes of the Gospel; and without dwelling on the matchless literary glories of this book, in comparison with which those of ancient Greece and Rome are pale and poor, think on its wonderful adaptation and completeness as a revelation to man. It "knows what is in man," fathoms the profoundest depths of his mysterious nature, and exhibits him to himself as no other mirror ever did; and then it whispers to his heart the infallible secret of happiness-a happiness which embraces his whole being as completely as the over-arching heavens span his earthly dwelling-place. It is a "perfect law, converting the soul," a sure testimony, making wise the simple;" its "statutes are right, rejoicing the heart;" it is "truth" which "sanctifies;" it "makes wise unto salvation." How can the existence of such a book be accounted for? Intellectually and morally it is a more wonderful production than all those triumphs of art and genius contained in the Crystal Palace. But was it the growth of the times?-the result of "the march of intellect," or the moral progress of the nations? Not in any sense or degree was this the case. Nations move backwards and downwards. It is the tendency of nations, apart from the influence of divine revelation, to degenerate, and not to advance. The Gospel, then, was not the result of national or social tendencies. This plant of "golden flower" "not in that soil." It was grew a lily among thorns." It was in utter antagonism to the whole spirit of the times at which it appeared, and commenced its mission by rebuking and correcting it. How far the

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Gospel was in accordance with, or sprung from, the moral tendencies of the age appears from the crucifixion of its divine Author. It was the birth of the times just as the sun is the birth of the night; arising in the heavens to scatter the darkness and bring the day.

But can the marvel be explained by the character of the men who wrote the book? Was their intellectual stature so lofty as to give them those commanding, universal views of truth which its every page indicates? Is their transcendant superiority to Homer, and Socrates, and Plato, to be explained by supposing a brighter native genius, superior culture, profound study? What! these herdsmen, shepherds, fishermen and tax-gatherers! When we look at their obscure birth, their unlettered ignorance, their circumstances and habits, so unfavourable to speculation, so different from those of the mere philosopher or moralist, and then look at the book they have written, the mystery heightens into miracle. If it is impossible that the Exhibition should be the work of barbarians and savages, equally inconceivable and impossible is it that the Bible should have been written by its actual human authors, except under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

But if the lights of the Crystal Palace thus shed a lustre on the divine origin of the Bible, may they not, on the other hand, indicate a state of things, present or approaching, when it shall not be needed? Is not intellect in its rapid progress outgrowing the Scriptures? and may they not soon be laid aside, as a completely-educated man lays aside the elementary books which were suited to his childhood or his youth? Amongst this vast and interesting collection of objects we see instruments by which chemistry has extracted from nature many important and valuable secrets, and developed her most beautiful laws; the microscope, by which the eye converses with objects infinitesimally small; and the telescope, by which it pierces the depths of the starry firmament, and reveals the laws by which an infinity of suns and systems are revolving in boundless space. Cannot, then, this wondrous intellect, which has gradually surrounded itself with so brilliant an array of aids and appliances, at length dispense with the teachings of the Book of God? When gas or electric light shall have superseded the sun, then may human discoveries be substituted for this direct revelation from heaven! When man has climbed to the summit of the loftiest mountain on the globe, he will be as unable to reach the stars as ever; and just as surely are the firmamental truths of the spiritual and eternal world beyond the reach of his unaided intellect in its highest soarings. Let reason task its utmost energies, and from all the facts which science has collected, not merely as applied in the Crystal Palace, but also in the domain of mind and morals, draw its profoundest conclusions, and we shall be found as much dependant upon revelation as ever for all the information upon which our spiritual well-being and our eternal salvation depend. For our knowledge of God in his personality, his moral perfections and his relations to ourselves, we are indebted not to the eye of the astronomer, or the inductions of philosophy, but solely to that Word inspired by himself. The anatomist has not found in our decaying frame either the undying spirit or the germ of the resurrection body; our faith in the soul's immortality and the resurrection from the dead still rests, as its only solid foundation, on Christ and the Apostles. The answer to that all-comprehensive question, What shall I do to be saved?

still comes, not from art or science, not from the page of metaphysician, moralist or poet, however brightly it may glow with the splendours of genius; the penitent sinner finds the reply which brings peace to his trembling spirit only on the heaven-lighted page of the Gospel of Christ! There is, then, a beautiful significance in the presence of the Bible amidst the trophies of the world's Exhibition! It is not there as an enemy; it frowns not on those triumphs of the human mind; it looks on them with no jealous eye; it is in perfect harmony with them; it quickens and developes intellect wherever its own influence is felt, and smiles on every step of the world's progress. But its presence there proclaims that itself is as indispensable as ever, as needful, and suitable, and sufficient for its own glorious purposes in the world's intellectual manhood as in its infancy. The splendours which surround it blend beautifully with its own beams, but do not eclipse them. No cold obscuring shadow is seen creeping over its radiant disc; it is there, like the sun in the centre of the planetary system, "with surpassing glory crowned." How strange it would be if, in the midst of this collective wealth of matter and of mind, there were no knowledge of the origin of the whole. To a reflective mind, it should be not merely strange and perplexing, but deeply saddening to be unable to discover how or why all these things are in existence, to trace these bright streams to any fountain, and to feel that the world thus brilliantly represented was a fatherless world, at least a world whose Creator was unrevealed and unknown. Now the Bible supplies this golden link of knowledge, and shows the origin both of the materials collected in the Industrial Palace and of the creature whose skill has fashioned them into these countless shapes of utility and beauty.

The materials are worthy of consideration. They are the basis of the whole. Without these, the skill and industry of man could have had no scope for exertion, no means of development. Without glass, the genius of Mr. Paxton could not have originated the structure which has immortalized his name, and Mr. Stephenson has just attributed the recent rapid improvement in his department to the abundance of iron. In the Exhibition itself there is nothing more astonishing than the suitableness, richness and variety of the material, whether fabricated or unwrought. The world is here seen to be a storehouse for man, filled with treasures fitted to answer ten thousand valuable purposes. For subsistence, for shelter, for the gratification of all the senses, for commerce, for purposes of taste and refinement, the materials are found in readiness for the hand of man, and distributed in the manner best suited to the development of his powers. Now to us this is a striking chapter of natural theology. That the habitation was expressly designed for its inhabitant, was arranged with special reference to his wants and powers, seems too clear to be seriously doubted. If this be accidental, then chance is equal to infinite wisdom, and accident can arrange and adapt as beautifully and perfectly as the highest intelligence, planning with the most consummate skill. There are those, however, who will not thus read the lesson, who, when surveying the treasures raised from the bowels of the earth, will think only of geological eras and processes, and ascribe the good fortune of man to submersions and up-heavings of the soil, to extinct animal and vegetable races, to internal heat, to electric forces, to the laws of stratification and crystallization, laws acknowledged