ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE NATURAL HISTORY.-No. I.

NATURAL HISTORY OF THE LION.

"SCRIPTURE natural history" is a subject of great interest, especially to young persons. And this branch of science may be made not only attractive to gratify curiosity and improve knowledge in our youth, but to enlarge the understanding and sanctify the heart of all Christians, affording many of the most instructive illustrations of various parts of the Word of God.

The LION is frequently referred to in the Scripture; and some of the most remarkable passages both in the Old and the New Testament allude to the distinguishing qualities of this majestic animal, so commonly designated the KING OF BEASTS.

His

the

Felis Leo, the Lion Cat. From the earliest periods of antiquity to the present day, this terrific beast has held a sort of ascendancy over the mind of man, to which his noble presence, gigantic bodily power, and undaunted resolution have contributed. haughty growl, his short sharp roar of anger, steady and fixed gaze of his fiery piercing eye, the majestic dignity of his step, unite to proclaim him the monarch of his race. The stature of the lion is not overgrown like that of the elephant or rhinoceros; nor does his shape appear clumsy like that

VOL. V.

of the hippotamus or the ox. It is compact, well proportioned, and sizeable, a perfect model of strength adapted for agility.

Dr. Young, contemplating the distinguishing qualities of the lion, in his sublime poem on the book of Job, thus describes this noble animal :"But fiercer still the lordly lion stalks, Grimly majestic in his lonely walks; When round he glares, all living creatures fly, He clears the desert with his rolling eye. Say, mortal, does he rouse at thy command, And roar to thee, and live upon thy hand? Dost thou for him in forests bend thy bow, And to his gloomy den the morsel throw, Where bent on death lie hid his tawny brood, And couch'd in dreadful ambush, pant for blood; Or stretched on broken limbs, consume the day In darkness wrapt, and slumber o'er their prey? By the pale moon they take their destined round, And lash their sides, and furious tear the ground: Now shrieks and dying groans the desert fill; They rage, they rend, their ravenous jaws distilWith crimson foam; and when the banquet's o'er, They stride away, and paint their steps with gore: In flight alone the shepherd puts his trust, And shudders at the talon in the dust." This majestic animal, though now greatly limited as to the countries in which it is found, was once

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common in Syria, Palestine, and the adjacent country, as well as in the mountains of Thrace and Macedonia: but with the increase of human population and the progress of civilization, it became more scarce, driven back more and more from the habitations of men. Mr. Shaw remarks, that in the glory of Rome, more lions were imported from Lybia in one year, for the purpose of gladiatorial combats in the theatre, than could now be collected in five, or than are supposed to exist in all Africa. However, this noble animal is still found, with some trifling variations as to colour and development of mane, throughout Africa, and thinly throughout India and Persia, as far as the confines of China.

The male lion, when full grown, measures eight or nine feet in length, and four and a half feet in height; the female is about one fourth less, and without a mane. As the lion advances in years, his mane grows longer and thicker. The hair on the rest of the body is short and smooth, of a tawny colour, but whitish on the belly. Its roaring is loud and dreadful. When heard in the night it resembles distant thunder. Its cry of anger is much louder and shorter. The attachment of the lioness to her young is remarkably strong. For their support she is more ferocious than the lion himself; makes her incursions with greater boldness; destroys without distinction, every animal that falls in her way, and carries it reeking to her cubs. She usually brings forth in the most retired and inaccessible places; and when afraid that her retreat should be discovered, endeavours to hide her track by brushing the ground with her tail. When much disturbed or alarmed, she will sometimes transport her young, usually three or four in number, from one place to another in her mouth; and, if obstructed in her course, will defend them to the last extremity.

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE HABITS OF
LIONS.

Divine inspiration has employed several names to designate the lion, according to his different ages or characteristic habits ::

1. na gur or gor, a little lion, a lion's whelp. Deut.

2. chephir, a lion's whelp that is weaned, and having left the covert begins to seize its own prey : Ezek. xix. 3," it devoured men."

3. ari, or arieh, a grown and vigorous lion having whelps, Nah. ii. 12; this is the more common name for this terrible animal.

4. snw shachal, a lion in the full strength of his age. Job iv. 10.

5. w laish, a decrepit old lion, worn out with

age.

Regard for these characteristics and distinctions is highly important in ascertaining the force of the idea and metaphorical allusions of the prophetical and poetical parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Rev. v. 5." The lion of the tribe of Judah," is designed for Jesus Christ, who is so denominated as having sprung from the royal family of King David, and tribe of Judah, whose tribal staff or standard is supposed to have been distinguished by the figure of a lion, to which this allusion is made, Gen. xlix. 9.

Jer. i. 44. The "lion from the swelling of Jordan," intimates the progress of king Nebuchadnezzar, marching like a lion against Judea. He is compared to a lion by reason of his swiftness, strength, and fierceness, to a lion lying in the thickets on the banks of that river, but driven by the overflowing of the rising waters of Jordan; thus enraged, to fury, and ready to fall on every thing he meets for its destruction.

Isaiah xi. 6. The calf, the young lion, and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them," is a poetical hyperbole denoting the renovating and sanctifying influence of the Gospel, in the latter days of the church, when the Spirit of Christ shall have been poured forth upon all nations, influencing the fiercest minds to holy and fraternal love, every one living to the glory of God,

SAMSON COMBATING THE LION. ILLUSTRATION OF JUDGES xiv. 5, 6.

"Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath : and, behold, a young lion roared against him And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand but he told not his father or his mother what he had done."

Modern history furnishes a striking illustration of this passage, as related by Poiret :-" In a douar, or a camp of Bedouin Arabs, near to La Calle, a French factory, a young lion had seized a cow. A young Moor threw himself upon the savage beast to tear his booty from him, and, as it were, to stifle him in his arms, but he would not let go his prey. The father of the young man hastened to him, armed with a kind of hoe; and aiming at the lion, struck his son's hand, and cut off three of his fingers. It cost a great deal of trouble to rescue the prey from the young lion. I saw this young man, who was attended by Mr. Gay, at that time surgeon to the hospital of La Calle."

David, as recorded in 1 Sam. xvii. 34, had, when a shepherd, once fought with a lion, and another time with a bear, and rescued their prey from them. Tellez relates that an Abyssinian shepherd had once killed a lion of extraordinary size with only two poles. DÁNIEL IN THE DEN OF LIONS. ILLUSTRATION of DAN, vi. 16.

"They brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions."

"In Morocco," says Höst," the king has a lions' den, into which men, particularly Jews, are sometimes thrown; but the latter generally come off unhurt, because the keepers of these animals are Jews, who may safely be with them, with a rod in the hand, if they only take care to go out backwards, as the lion does not suffer any one to turn his back upon him. The other Jews do not let their brethren remain longer than a night among the lions, as they might otherwise become too hungry; but ransom them with money, which is, in fact, the king's object." The following is his description of the construction of the lions' den: "At one end of the royal palace there is a place for ostriches and their young; and beyond the other end, towards the mountains, there is a large lions' den, which consists of a large square hole in the ground, with a partition, in the middle of which there is a door, which the Jews, who are obliged to maintain and keep them for nothing, are able to open and shut from above, and can thus entice the lions, by means of their food, from one division to the other, to clean the other in the mean time. It is all in the open air, and a person may look down over a wall, which is a yard and a quarter high."

MODERN INSTANCES OF THE HABITS OF THE LION.

South Africa abounds with lions, and their ravages among the cattle of the Hottentots, Caffres, &c., are sometimes dreadful; nor do the poor inhabitants always escape. Our engraving represents a lion in his native wilds, leaping across a deep ravine with a wretched Hottentot, whom he has seized for his

evening's meal: the melancholy case shows the immense muscular power of this animal, which, as intelligent travellers inform us, finds as little difficulty in performing this feat as a domestic cat would in carrying a rat.

Prodigious is the strength of this "king of beasts" it is certain that he can carry off a buffalo on his back with ease; and Mr. Thompson states an instance which he witnessed of a very young lion conveying a horse half a mile from the spot where he killed it; and a more extraordinary case was mentioned to him, on good authority, when a lion having carried off a heifer, was followed in the track for more than five hours by a party on horseback, and throughout the whole distance the carcass of the heifer was only once or twice discovered to have touched the ground.

A Hottentot at Jackal's fountain, on the skirts of the Great Karroo, had a narrow, though ludicrous escape of his life; he was sleeping a few yards from his master, in the usual mode of his nation, wrapped up in his sheep's skin carosse, with his face to the ground. A lion came softly up, and seizing him by the thick folds of his greasy mantle, began to trot away with him, counting securely, no doubt, on a savory and satisfactory meal. But the Hottentot, on awaking, being quite unhurt, though sufficiently astonished, contrived somehow to wriggle himself out of his wrapper, and scrambled off, while the disappointed lion trotted away with the empty cloak. MAGNIFIED REPRESENTATION OF THE LION'S TONGUE. Terrible as is the "lion's mouth," and proverbially dreadful on account of its vast opening, his incisor teeth, and formidable tusks, and rough papillæ tongue, when carefully examined, present a most fearful in. strument of destruction as possessed by this majestic animal. Our young readers especially, will be interested in the representation given in the engraving of a part of the lion's tongue magnified.

THE ROMISH ROSARY.

THIS Roman Catholic utensil is divided into fifteen decads of smaller beads for the Ave Maria, with a larger one betwixt each ten, for the Pater-nosters. It was not till the fifteenth century, that their virtue was preached far and wide, and that the history and mystery of the rosary were revealed. No such implement was in general use before the 12th century. The Dominicans claim the credit of the invention for St. Dominic their patriarch, ever memorable, and in their language, ever glorious, as the founder of the inquisition. Major Moore, in his Hindu Pantheon, supposes the practice of praying by beads, to be of Hindu origin. It is used also in Tartary. Ysbrant's Ides describes a Lama whose thumb was worn through the flesh and nail up to the knuckle, by the perpetual telling of his beads. And this rubbing off by slow degrees, did not pain him at all.

MY SCRAP BOOK. LEAF LXXXVIII.

"The Bee that wanders, and sips from every flower, disposes what she has gathered into her cells."-SENECA. EXTRACTS FROM THE ANCIENT RECORDS

OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH IN BROAD. MEAD, BRISTOL.

(Continued from page 374, Vol. 4).

[Mr. Isaac James's MS. p. 24]. Now three of our ministers being imprisoned, some of each congregation met together to consult how to carry on our meetings, that we might be kept to our duty, and edify one another. Now our pastors were gone, some were ready even of thinking to give off, viz. of the presbyterians, because their principle was, not to hear a man not bred up at the university and ordained. But the Lord helped us to prevail with them to keep up their meetings. And we concluded to assemble together, and for one to pray and read a chapter, and then sing a psalm and conclude with prayer; and so two brethren to carry on the meeting one day, and two another, for a while to try what they would do with us. So we did, and ordered one of the doors of our meeting to be made fast, and all to come in at one, but open it when we go forth. And to appoint some youth or two to be out at the door every meeting to watch when Hellier or other informers or officers were coming, and so to come in, one of them, and give us notice. Also some women and sisters would sit and crowd in the stairs when we did begin the meeting with any exercise, that the informers might not suddenly come in upon By which they were prevented divers times. day after our pastor was imprisoned, Hellier comes On the 21st of Feb. [1675] being the next Lord's about to our meetings with his man and officers. In the morning goes to Mr. Gifford's, and finds him preaching, which he informs the mayor of for his conviction, that if they catch him that day after his conviction in the corporation, they might imprison him. In the afternoon he goes to Mr. Weekes's and carries away divers to prison. Then comes to our meeting, and finding that door we came in, to be thronged with people and women in the stairs, so that they could not get in, though they did hale several, and pulled Mrs. Bush down stairs, yet could not get up through them. Then they went to the other door and broke it open, and rushed in upon us that way, and took the names of them they counted chief, and carried away Brother Courtny with them before the mayor, and Mr. Sam. Tipton, and Mr. Joseph White, whom they struck very violently, and bound them over to answer for meeting.

us.

On the 28th, the informers came to our meeting again, and at Br. Gifford's, Hellier with the officers finds him preaching again, and now having a warrant they carry him away before the mayor, who binds him to appear the next day, which being the first of March, or the first month, the mayor commits Mr. Gifford to prison to the three ministers before for six months.

But one of the ministers, Mr. Thompson, who was first imprisoned, was very sick when he came in, and although divers persons of note in this city, in the compassion of their hearts did go to the mayor and sheriffs, and to Sir John Knight, to get leave that he might go home, they could not prevail. And his physician interceded that he might be removed out of that stinking prison to some more convenient house for air, and to administer somewhat more conveniently to him, and shewed the danger of

his condition; yet they hardened their hearts and would not grant it, because the bishop would not give leave. So that on the 4th of March at 12 o'clock in the night, Mr. Thompson, the said imprisoned minister for Jesus Christ, departed this life in Newgate prison. He was a corpulent, tall, big man, having lain in prison about three weeks two days. Of that he was sick about one week. Wherefore, being gross, could not keep him, so that the next day, being the 5th of March, he was honourably interred at Philips, being carried from the prison to his grave accompanied with all sorts of professors except Quakers. Insomuch that the like funeral for number had not been seen in Bristol in the memory of this generation, being judged by some to be not less than five thousand people of all sorts, which made the adversaries admire. Such honour have all his saints.

Now all our ministers being taken from us, one dead, the rest imprisoned, and we feared their deaths likewise in such a bad prison, and we being pursued closely every meeting, hardly one escaped, but we were followed by the bishop's men, Hellier, or other informers and officers from the mayor. For our parts, at our meeting, we presently made use of our ministring gifts in the church as we did in former persecutions, contenting ourselves with mean gifts and coarse fare in the want of better. In order to prevent spies, that might come in as hearers, and yet that strangers or persons we knew not, might not be hindered from coming into our meeting, whether good or bad, to hear the Gospel, we contrived a curtain to be hung in the meeting-place that did enclose as much room as about 50 might sit within it; and among those men he that preached should stand. That so if any informer was private in the room as a bearer, he might hear him that spake, but could not see him. There were brethren without the curtain that would hinder any from going within that they did not know to be friends. And when our company and time was come to begin the meeting, we drew the curtain and filled up the stairs with women and maids that the informers could not quickly run up. When we had notice that the informers or officers were coming, we caused the minister or brother that preached, to forbear and sit down. Then we drew back the curtain, laying the whole room open that they might see us all, and all the people began to sing a psalm. At the beginning of the meeting we did always name what psalm we would sing if the informers or the mayor or his officers came in. Thus when they came in they could not find any one preaching, but all singing. And we ordered that none read the psalm after the first line, but every one bring their bibles and read for themselves, that they might not lay hold of any one for preaching, or as much as reading the psalm; which means the Lord blessed, that many times when the mayor came, they were all singing, that he knew not whom to take away. And when the mayor, Hellier, or other informers had taken our names, and done what they would, and carried away whom they pleased, and were gone down out of our rooms, we ceased singing and drew the curtain again, and the minister or brother would go on again with the rest of his sermon until they came again, which sometimes they would thrice in one meeting. Thus was our constant manner during this persecution in Ollive's mayoralty, and we were in a good measure edified, and our enemies often disappointed. Laus Deo.

We taking this course, after a little while, Mr. Weekes's people did so likewise. They shut up one of their doors, and instead of a curtain, they put up

a wainscott board in a convenient place in their meeting, behind which he that spake did stand out of the sight of the greatest part of the people, and yet all might hear, and they suffer none to come into that part of the meeting but friends; and when the informers came, they had convenience to convey him that spake, out of that part of the meeting into another house.

Brother Gifford's people took this course. A company of tall brethren stand about him that speaks, and having near his feet made a trap door in the floor, when the informers come, then let down the brother that speaks into a room under, keeping one at the door to give notice.

Mr. Thompson's people were not so much followed by the informers as the other three meetings for a while, indeed but little at all in comparison with Mr. Weekes's meeting and ours, for we did so fill their hands, that before they could have done with us, their meeting ended. And Mr. Gifford's meeting was frequently sheltered by our two meetings, which lay as the frontiers of their assaults. But when the bishop's men did some week days follow Mr. Thompson's meeting, they likewise contrived ways to frustrate the informers and save their speakers. (Having lost their minister as before related.) Now their meeting place being a lower room, and two lofts over head, one over another, they made a door to the stair foot into the second story, and made the minister stand in that middle room, and so he preached that they below and over might all hear, and they caused a curtain to be made that when the informers came in they might draw that curtain before the ministers, that the informers could not see him that preached, but only hear him, and could not come at him by reason the new door at stairfoot was kept fast, and none suffered to go up but those they knew. And if they went to break open the door, before that could be done, they could from that second story convey the minister away into another house; and if they had timely notice, they would be all singing when the informers came, as we and Mr. Weekes's meeting did. These ways we took to maintain our meetings, and the Lord helped us. Thus in brief, was the manner of the four congregations in general. But our particular troubles at Mr. Hardcastle's, are as follow.

To be continued.

ERRATUM.

S. J. B *****.

Page 132, second column, line 10 from the bottom. For The result of their deliberations seem to have been,' read The result of their deliberations seems to have been.'

SCRIPTURE LIGHT ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS.

(Continued from p. 157.)

The new relationship of Man with God. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. v. 1).

"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Eph. iv. 15).

"If any man love God, the same is known of him" (1 Cor. viii. 3).

"Now are we the sons of God; and it doth not appear what we shall be; but we know that when

he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John iii. 2).

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new" (2 Cor. v. 17).

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together" (Rom. viii. 16, 17).

"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own" (1 Cor. vi. 19).

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (Rev. xxi. 7).

New Character towards the World and his FellowMen.

"That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. iv. 22, 23, 24).

Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. vi. 13).

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness, and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus ii. 11, 12).

"This is a faithful saying; and these things I will that thou affirm constantly; that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men" (Titus iii. 8).

ADAM'S PEAK.

THE highest mountain in Ceylon is Adam's Peak, which is 8000 feet above the level of the sea. It has seldom been ascended, not so much from its height, as from the difficulty of the latter part of the ascent, which is quite perpendicular; two ladies, however, have been among the few adventurers, and got up by means of chains and pulleys. The Mussulmans have a tradition, that Adam, when driven out of Paradise, alighted upon the peak. And a mark, which bears a resemblance to a human foot, is supposed to be the impression made by him, while expiating his crime, by standing on one foot till his sins were forgiven.-Heber's Journal.

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS AND LAST MOMENTS OF SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Sir James Mackintosh will long be remembered by British patriots and philanthropists. His powerful support of all measures for the extension of civil and religious liberty, and especially for the abo lition of the slave trade and the extinction of colonial slavery, endeared his name to thousands. On these accounts, independently of the service he rendered to his country by his moral, metaphysical, and historical writings, by which his reputation was great among the learned and the wise, his name deserves to be honourably enrolled among those of his coadjutors, Clarkson, Sharp, Macauley, Wilberforce, and Buxton.

His religious opinions, however, were not so fully matured as those of some of his philanthropic friends; but we rejoice in the following hopeful testimony from his "Memoirs," by his son:

"His nights were very wakeful, and spent in much uneasiness of body; he became very silent and thoughtful; and with his Bible open before him, spoke more than usual upon religious subjectsperhaps it would be more correct to say upon God, and his disposition towards man, His mind seemed less occupied with speculations, and more with his own personal relationship to his Creator. Our Lord Jesus Christ was very frequently the subject of his thoughts; he seemed often perplexed and not able to comprehend much of his history. He once said to me, It is a great mystery to me-I cannot understand it.' At another time he told me, that, during the many sleepless nights he passed, the contemplation of the character of Jesus Christ, and thoughts concerning the Gospel, with prayers to God, was his chief occupation. He spoke of the delight he had in dwelling on his noble character. I have heard his voice falter as he repeated,' He went about doing good;' but he added, "There is much connected with him I cannot understand.' I cannot attempt to give his words; but his difficulty lay in the account given of the manner in which Jesus becomes the Saviour of man. On Saturday a great change took place. He became very silent, and had the appearance of one listening. Whenever a word from the Scriptures was repeated to him, he always manifested that he heard it; and I especially observed that, at every mention of the name of Jesus Christ, if his eyes were closed, he always opened them, and looked at the person who had spoken them: I said to him, at one time, 'Jesus Christ loves you.' He answered slowly, and pausing between each word, Jesus Christ-love-the same thing.' After a long silence, he said, 'I believe said, in a low voice of inquiry, 'in God?" He answered, 'in Jesus.' He spoke but once more after this. Upon our inquiry how he felt, he said- happy.'"

THE PRIESTS OF NAPLES.

We

THIS city swarms with priests, and religions of various denominations, so much so, that they seem to constitute nearly one third of the entire population, yet, far from indicating a greater degree of religiousness than usual in the people, this excessive numerousness of ecclesiastics is no small cause, and consequence likewise, of the laxity in which they indulge. Hardly would they abound to the extent they do, were a severe discipline enforced; while, on the other hand, were there fewer of them, they would be better regulated; would be more open to observation, and have some duties to perform, whereas, at present, they are mere loungers and idlers; every way unprofitable members of the community. Some of them act the part of itinerant preachers, but their eloquence is like the oratory of the mountebanks and quacks-all is addressed, not to the heart, but to the pockets, of their auditors. One of these ambulant doctors of the church will take his station on the mole or the corner of a street, where he mounts upon a melon-vender's stall, and forthwith a crowd of lazzarain and others of the populace collects around him. He proceeds to denounce them most lustily as vile reprobates and sinners, for whom there is no hope. The flames of purgatory, the day of judgment, the horrors of final condemnation are depicted by him in tones truly terrific. When he thinks