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the old gardener's warning, too. Nobody doubts your courage; why are you bent upon such a mad scheme?"

This short dialogue had stirred up a feeling of party spirit among the lads, and now many voices were heard on either side, stimulating or dissuading to the trial of courage, as they were pleased to term it, but what in truth was but an idle and senseless bravado !

“Go, go, Marcus!" resounded from as great a number as echoed the wiser "Stop! stop!" of prudence, and on the boy went.

Caleb had turned to leave the spot, but a generous anxiety led him back again ere Marcus had reached his self-selected goal. The party watched in breathless expectation-he walked cautiously-safely-to the very middle of the lake, and no sound broke upon the still evening air. He reached the spot― he stooped-he touched the stone—but the instant it was raised, a fearful cracking of the ice betokened his imminent peril, and in another moment he was immersed in the water. A dreadful scream from the whole group reverberated through the woods, and while some ran in search of help, the others shouted again and again, to direct approaching aid. Marcus could not swim, but happily, after the first plunge, he rose again where the hole was. Meanwhile "the coward Caleb," as Marcus had scornfully stigmatized him, calm in the hour of danger, and secure in his knowledge of swimming, flew to the rescue of his drowning playmate, and managed to support him till he could place his arms on a piece of ice yet remaining tolerably firm. Marcus was saved. But the sudden chill of the freezing water, added to Caleb's former intense anxiety, benumbed his whole frame, and as men with ropes ran rapidly to the scene of danger, he sunk beneath the wave. Marcus was speedily released from his peril, and conducted home with no other injury than a thorough wetting; but Caleb was not to be found! The lake was not deep and the ice was broken up in all directions, while a tall man persevered in wading about for three quarters of an hour, groping for the unconscious form of the poor boy.

At last it was found attracted to the extreme edge of the lake beneath the thickest remnant of the ice. Of course life

was extinct, though the best medical aid and every restorative measure had by that time been collected in the summer house on the bank, that no precious moment might be lost in rekindling, if possible, the flickering spark of suspended animation. Slowly and sorrowfully the mourning group carried home the lifeless remains of their beloved Mentor, while the medical gentleman kindly undertook the melancholy task of breaking the sad news to the bereaved parents. He was their only son, a youth of much promise and so trustworthy that his presence was generally deemed a sufficient guarantee for the safety of the party under his guidance. Poor fellow! his charge were all safe even now, and his own, the only smitten fireside.

Bitterly did Marcus lament the vain bravado, the foolish daring, which had cost so precious a price, and as he followed his young preserver to the grave, and listened to the solemn warning, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," this boasted daring wore a new aspect, and he began to perceive that true courage is diffident in Folly's adventures, though enterprising enough in encountering peril for an adequate cause. Men have

no right to look for miracles to shield them from the consequences of their own rashness. If they will walk on hot coals they must expect to be burned. If they will venture in the paths of the destroyer, they must not marvel if they incur danger.

"How near a precipice can you safely drive my carriage?" asked an eccentric gentleman of various candidates for the office of charioteer to his excellency. "Within an inch, or a hair's breadth of the brink," replied one after another; till a sober looking individual honestly confessed, "he could not tell as he had never ventured to try, but was in the habit of keeping as far as possible from all unnecessary danger." "Then you are the man for me," answered the gentleman; "he that refrains from running into needless jeopardy, is the most likely to be calm and courageous in real emergencies."

This is perpetually evident in the common incidents of real life; the bully and the oppressor are the first to flinch and quail under superior force; the boaster succumbs at a threat. Indeed those who say most about their courage, often possess so slight a modicum that it might be overlooked without con

tinued advertisement, while the truly courageous can afford to be silent till his exploits tell their own tale!

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Daring and Courage are now the order of the day, and we behold youths and maidens plunging into "experiments of dissipation, from which they emerge not unsullied; or rushing with unproved armour into the heat of unhallowed strife, wherein some are consumed, and others fearfully scathed. "Would you taste poison by way of a 'treat" remonstrated good old Rowland Hill; then, dear young friends, shun the midnight revel; the gaming table; the eloquence of infidels; the wit of blasphemers. When our Lord counsels us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation," must we not close the witching volume by which the despairing freethinker seeks to beguile others into his own wretchedness. Must we not refrain from the theatres and balls which have proved the bane of so many "who did run well?”

Our prison and penitentiary records detail how often reckless speculators have "dared one another" to forgeries which have ended in the felon's doom; to dissipation which has driven many to escape the agony of remorse by suicide, that last act of bravado, of cowardly daring, which human depravity can attempt. How much more true bravery was shown by him who said of old, “ I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause;" and we know from inspired authority, that the Lord our Redeemer ever liveth to "make intercession for the transgressors."

One word to those who are pleased to deem themselves "liberal-minded philosophers," “candid enquirers,” 66 unprejudiced judges,” “transcendental theorists," all which attractive appellations are not unfrequently appropriated by young persons, (and old ones too), who are in reality but intellectual bravadoes, mental darers, professors of "science, falsely so called,”—who, speaking as it was foretold, “great swelling words of vanity through the lust of the flesh;" and, “while they promise liberty" to their votaries, are themselves unwittingly “the servants of corruption." From such turn away, and in all "soberminded" earnestness, seek that "sound doctrine," which shall render all believers in divine truth, "bold as a lion in the paths of holy obedience to Divine precept." E. W. P.

BIBLE LITERATURE.

DR. KITTO's first series of Daily Bible Illustrations, has already received our favorable notice more than once. The first volume of the Second or Evening Series* is now before us, and is in every respect well worthy of its predecessors.

A very large portion of the volume is devoted to the elucidation of the book of Job, justly characterized as not only one of the most remarkable in the Bible, but in all literature. Infidelity even has paid it unwilling homage for its sublimity and the majestic scope of its philosophy; and no one can peruse it with unbiassed mind, who will not rise from its study a wiser and greater man.

Dr. Kitto is no guess-work annotator: he speaks from actual knowledge, and illustrates fact by fact. His intimate acquainted with Eastern usages gives him a happy facility in illustrating incidents which have been greatly misunderstood by others less conversant with Bible habits and modes of thinking and acting. In reference to this remark, we give an extract, shewing how unable we are to judge intuitively, or under the influence of our national prejudices, of the genius and spirit of a work purely oriental in its character. According to our cold, conventional reserved modes of communicating with each other, we regard oratory as an art to be learned only by severe and protracted study. So completely is this the case that the idiom of "making a speech" universally obtains. Now a knowledge only of Eastern habits can melt down such inveterate prepossessions, and convince us that in such finished and majestic arguments as those of Job and his mistaken friends, there is a spontaniety perfectly consistent with the most exact historical integrity; and that therefore their poetical character is no proof that they were not the real and ready utterances of the several speakers. But hear Dr. Kitto:

"Strong objections to the historical character of the book have been founded on its poetical character; and the great improbability that a discussion of this kind should ever be carried on in the manner here represented. The successive addresses

* Daily Bible Illustrations, by John Kitto, D.D. Evening Series, containing Job and the Poetical Books. London, Hamilton.

are of the highest order of poetry, and partake not of the character of extemporary effusions. They indicate profound and close thinking; and, it is urged, must have required time in their preparation. We apprehend that this objection has been allowed undue weight, even by those who undertake to answer it. Nothing is more remarkable among the Semitic nations of western Asia, even at this day, than the readiness of their resources, the prevalence of the poetical imagination and form of expression, and the facility with which the nature of this group of languages, allows all high and animated discourse to fall into rythmical forms of expression, while the language even of common life and thought is replete with poetical sentiments and ideas. Take the Bible itself to witness; where there are not any speeches or addresses introduced, even in the midst of history, which do not appear to us as poetical both in ideas and expressions. Look also at the Arabian romance of Antar, which is intended to be, and is, a picture of old Arabian manners; and in which the hero, on all occasions, however unexpected, pours forth a high-wrought poetical address, almost in the style of this book; and, if you answer that Antar was a poet, the reply is, that he was only a greater poet than other Arabians of his time, for most of those whom he encounters and to whom his addresses are directed, answer him in the same style. The poetical form of expresion being thus so natural; the reasoning and argument only remains to be accounted for. Surely the objection stated, arose from those who think, only with their pens. But there are men who think, and think well, with their tongues. This is true even among ourselves. There are men in the senate, at the bar, and in the pulpit, who can pour forth eloquent and well-reasoned addresses almost or even quite extemporaneously, the ideas welling up from the deep fountains of the mind as fast as they can be poured forth. This faculty, among ourselves not unfrequent, though cramped by the habitual use of the pen, is common in the East, being cherished and rendered habitual by the essentially oral habits of all intellectual culture, In conformity with this, most of the poetry of the Bible is described as being uttered. All the grand poetical prophecies were utterances."

It is this accurate knowledge of Eastern habits which ren

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