expressly tells us that he has given the earth to the children of men, is it not a crying sin that they are so little anxious to observe what is passing upon its surface, or going forward within its deep recesses? And yet what numbers are there who never say, "I want to see!" with reference to any of its natural, moral, intellectual, or spiritual wonders?

It has ten thousand times ten thousand natural wonders, all of which it is intended should be seen. Our young friends may learn a great deal even before they are able to read, by a proper use of the eye and the understanding. It was God himself who gave the first "lessons on objects" which were ever given; and his Holy Word is full of the most beautiful examples of this kind of teaching. Our kind Saviour, when he was on earth, looked round with a tutor's eye upon the lilies of the field, the tares, and the wheat, or the vine whose leafy branches overshadowed the courts of those houses where he sojourned, and drew from them the most affecting and heart-warming images. From all nature, animate and inanimate, the God of nature has inculcated lessons of love, which he has written for our instruction in that book for all time and every season-the Word of Truth. If you go into a collection of paintings or of models at any time, you can see, and admire, and partly understand the pictures or the machinery; but you want the catalogue, and some kind friend to read or to explain it, before you can bring out the full beauties of the exhibition. The Bible is God's catalogue, and a matchless one it is, when the Holy Spirit, like the friend I have referred to, explains it in all its power and beauty to the anxiously-enquiring mind.

But, dropping the spiritual application of this remark, you do not want to see-you do not ask to be taught anything about the wonderful exhibition, in the very heart and centre of which God has placed you. Books do but reflect back the glories of this exhibition; and yet you pore over them as if they were the sources of all real information. A man obtained celebrity some time since by his wonderful imitation of the notes of the nightingale, and every one flocked to hear him. But an individual, with more common sense than the generality, being asked to go too, answered with characteristic shrewdness-"No, I thank ye, I can hear the nightingale itself." Few, however, especially

among our youth, act upon this principle; they would rather pay attention to the imitative notes of a book, than the tongues that are to be found in trees, or the sermons preached by stones.

Do you want to see any of the moral wonders, which are to be found even in the limited sphere of your own acquaintance? God sets them before you that you may study them: he tells you to mark the perfect, and to behold the upright man; to see all that is worthy of admiration in him, and to grow wiser and better by it. You may find men in business who though they do not even profess and call themselves Christians, are honest, and consistent, and trustworthy, and kind, and generous, even to a greater extent than others who say they make the Bible the rule of all they do. The children of the world are often not only wiser, but more straight-forward and amiable than the children of light. You should want to see these—to copy these.

There are a great many intellectual wonders; men of great minds, who think out, and plan, and execute great thingsliberal things-things which may benefit thousands of their fellow-creatures. Learn, if you can, the history of their minds; if you know of any such, ask them how they have informed, and schooled, and disciplined their intellects; or if you cannot personally converse with them, read the best biographies you can obtain. Great minds are not made by chance, they want proper food, and training, and experience; and by the help of these, rightly proportioned and administered, your own mind may be made to grow, as well as those of others. Facts make great ; but you will never obtain these, unless you are taught to cry out with all the force and feeling of the poor blind girl of Boston"I want to see!"

A word or two about spiritual wonders. With respect to these, our case is even worse than that of poor Laura Bridgman. We have all her blindness, without the painful sense of it, which made her wish to see. We are content to remain blind to holy things; and yet there are greater wonders in the world of grace than in every other department of God's government. Is it nothing to see Christ-to be admitted to the secret place of the Most High-to the covert of his wings-the glory of his presence -the smile of his ineffable, his inextinguishable love? Is it nothing to see heaven opened, to mount up as on the wings of

eagles, and hold communion with the spirits of the just made perfect, with the Mediator of our fallen race, and the innumerable company of angels who cease not day nor night to cry, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God of Sabaoth? Is it nothing to walk through this wide howling wilderness with the light, and fragrance, and holy joy of that better country, a glorious atmosphere around us, and a quenchless glow within? Is it nothing when the world has tried and wearied us; and again, and again, we have found all to be vanity and vexation of spirit, to carry our sorrows to the foot of the Cross, and see the angel of the Lord do wondrously as he ascends in the altar-flame which bears at once our prayers to heaven, and consumes or dissipates all our unholy and impatient griefs? Is it nothing when philosophy and science have brought us to the threshold of the truth, to be permitted to go farther than the wisest of the world's wise men ; and by the new and living way, peculiar to the saints of God, approach his awful presence, and see in his unerring counsels, the why and wherefore of Creation's mysteries? Is it nothing, when all the world professes to be looking for treasures of wisdom and knowledge, to be told where they are hidden, and not only directed, but endued with ability, to find them all in Christ Jesus?

O! with what rapturous energy the child, whose eyes are just opened to a dim and shadowy prospect of the truth, exclaims"I want to see!" How he longs to go on from strength to strength, from joy to joy, from glory to glory!

Is this the reader's case? If not, depend upon it, all is wrong. If you see in Christ no beauty that you should desire him, your eyes are still holden;" they have not been touched with the unction from the Holy One-you are blind, spiritually blind; ignorant of the way of peace; an alien from the commonwealth of Israel; a stranger to the covenant of promise. Come then to him who counsels you, without money and without price, to buy "eye-salve that thou may'st see”—to ask his anointing and enlightening power; and to this end search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify of Christ.

G.

LETTERS FROM BELGIUM AND THE RHINE,-No. III. COLOGNE, August 6th, 1842.

MY DEAR H.-Of all the circumstances which belong to the sober realities of life, that which to my mind seems the most like enchantment is to find yourself in the course of a few hours transported to a country, where the people, although belonging to the same race, are differently clad, distinguished by different manners, and in all the interchange of thought and feeling required in the varied engagements of social life, use a language altogether unlike the one you have been accustomed to employ from your cradle.

Thoughts of this character came across my mind when I sat down in the public room of the Hof von Holland in this city, whose broad and lofty windows look out upon the Quay, and the bridge of boats crossing the Rhine to the little town of Dentz.

It is night, and the bridge is dotted with tiny lamps, whose yellow light is given back in undulating lines by the waters.

The windows at the other end of the room present to view, odd, foreign looking houses of different shapes and heights, with shops, which, although you cannot dispute the genus, are of a species such as the visitor for the first time, has never seen

before.

The simple truth is, that instead of limiting ourselves to a certain milestone on the road to Cambridge, as the extent of our walk for exercise, or a short journey to a neighbouring town or to the metropolis, my friend W. and I have migrated to the ancient city, where the Emperor Claudius formed a colony, in accordance with the wish of the Empress, from whom it received its name, Colonia Agrippina. Here Vitellius was proclaimed Emperor, and Trajan filled the office of Imperial Legate. Here in 508, Clovis was proclaimed king of the Franks, and, without attempting to give you more of its history-here Rubens was born, Mary de Medicis died, and Johannes Duns Scotus was buried. But I have rushed at once in medias res, and before I am carried further must return to give you somewhat of the detail of yesterday's journey.

We left our hotel at 6 a. M. for the railroad station. A bright and balmy morning imparted to the city we were leaving more

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than ordinary freshness and beauty. The preliminaries were soon settled, and we took our places in the carriage for Liege. Among our travelling companions were two priests and two sisters of charity. One of the former was engaged, during the greater part of the journey, in the recitation of his devotional exercises. The other, after a few minutes spent in devotion, engaged in conversation with the elder of the sisters. The priests wore their long black cassocks and large three-cornered hats; the ladies had very coarse black stuff dresses, with deep hoods, lined with white, and long stiffened white bands hanging from the neck to the waist, which gave them very much the appearance of being dressed in a shroud. I had a few words of conversation with one of the priests respecting England.

We arrived at Liege about 11 A. M. From the eminence above the town we had a delightful view of the lovely valley of the Meuse, whose fertile sides are richly cultivated, and present an agreeable diversity of vineyards, hop-grounds, and meadows, with waving crops of corn. The city is situated at the junction of the Ourte and the Meuse, and their united streams form a broad river which flows through the centre of the town, and is crossed by a handsome stone bridge of six arches. This has been called the Birmingham of the Netherlands, furnishing from its immediate neighbourhood both coal and iron.

From Liege, we proceeded by diligence, or rather by a supplement to the diligence, which was full, to Aix la Chapelle. This journey of twenty-eight miles, occupied seven hours, and was very tedious, but our slow travelling afforded us a better opportunity of observation, and the country through which we were passing was very beautiful. Much of the scenery reminded me of the best parts of Surrey about Dorking and Guildford.

In the course of our ride, we reached the Belgian frontier, and entered the dominions of the king of Prussia. At Aix la Chapelle our luggage was subjected to the inspection of the Prussian officers, who, though rather formidable in appearance, with their cocked hats and swords, were exceedingly civil. We delivered up our passports, but received them again at the railroad station. To this place an omnibus conveyed us from the inn, and we took our places for Cöln, as it is called in Germany, although we, adopting the French name, call it Cologne.