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But must we rest as we are? God forbid ! The whole world lieth in wickedness, as saith the Scripture, and therefore it needs reform. And how is this to be accomplised? answer: It must be reformed from within: this is the key to the mystery. "Be ye renewed in the spirit of your minds," says the apostle Paul; and all who desire to be reformed should place themselves under the instruction of this greatest of all reformers. Yea! in your minds; and not merely in your minds, but in the spirit of your minds, in the inmost depths of your heart, where the veins, whence the life-blood flows, unite in a common centre, and whence the remotest fibre and muscles derive their vitalityfrom here must the reform commence! When once the Spirit from above fills and regenerates the heart; when once the inquiry is made, "What shall I do to be saved?" when once the beacon of a new life diffuses its light throughout a community, then the day of reform has begun to dawn; then in all spheres of civil life its blessed effects will be felt, and the truth of the word of Christ will be fully experienced, which says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Thus did the apostles reform the world, and entirely alter its character, and their work has continued to the present day.

That reform, therefore, which is the work of religion on the heart, bears within it the germ of immortality; because God is immortal, and, while all other reforms decay and perish in the dust, this which proceeds from within shall endure and flourish in everlasting youth and unimpaired splendour. This brings us to the all-important question: When will this reform take place? We answer in the sense and spirit of the apostle, whose words are our rule and guide. When Christ has attained the dominion everywhere and is recognized in all the relationships of life. Rev. W.HOFaker.

Idleness. We know of no more fertile source of crime, of no corrupt fountain, which wells out a more copious stream of vice and moral pollution, in all its forms and modifications, than idleness We are persuaded that it is the parent of a more numerous progeney of depraved habits and delinquencies, than any other single circumstance whatever. It is the want of a due impression of the importance and legitimate employment of time, which is one of the main occasions of the luxury and profligacy of one order of society; and it is the same cause which vitiates and defiles the manners of another, and a subordinate rank in the scale. It is inquired by an ancient poet, who was a keen and accurate observer of human character, why Ægisthus so grievously and wantonly deviated from the path of virtue? and he immediately rejoins the reply,-"The cause is obvious,-he was idle!" And it is a circumstance worthy of remark, that when Hogarth, who is so celebrated for his striking delineations of human life and manners, wished to give a portraiture of a veteran criminal, he made him commence his career as a boy lolling on the tombstones of the churchyard on the Sunday.- Davies.

COLOSSAL CHURCH OF MUSTA.

On looking at the Colossal Church of which we have given a front elevation in the accompanying design, few will be inclined to credit that it is building in a remote and poor village of this island, and that it owes its origin to the circumstance in itself so very trivial of a native of that village, a priest Don Felice Calleja, having celebrated his first mass in that splendid building, the Pantheon of Rome. Whether from the solemnity of the occasion, or from his over excited feelings by previous vague aspirations, the thought suddenly struck him of raising a similar temple in his own native village. Few could have known the secret workings of the young priest's mind as he left Rome, but to all, even to his greatest friends, they could only have appeared in the most ridiculous and foolish light.

Soon after his return to Malta and to Musta, he was appointed Parish priest and from that period he seriously set his mind upon the completion of his grand idea. He laboured hard in the accumulation of wealth; all his perquisites were laid by with the most scrupulous care, yet after all he was not even repaid by the gratification of living to see the first stone of the long wished for building laid. There were many difficulties and formalities to overcome; strange doubts were started by several architects as to the possibility of erecting so large a dome with the Maltese stone-all which were not effectually removed till after his death, and we consequently find him in his will using the strongest language to express that he left all his property for the purpose of fabricating a round temple like the Pantheon.

There was a general opinion throughout the island against the construction of a round temple, and the bishop strongly advocated these views. His opposition may have arisen from prejudice or ignorance as

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he has been accused by the friends and party of the late Don Felice Calleja, or it may have been a conscientious opinion adopted we believe by many, that round temples though used for Heathen worship, are by no means well adapted for the rites of a Christian Church We had occasion lately ourselves to visit the Pantheon at Rome, and with these facts fresh in our memory, could not help feeling that there is a great want of correspondence in the form and arrangement of that temple, and the rites therein performed. In whichever way however the Bishop's opposition be explained, it was unjust in him to interfere in the disposition of the will of the late Calleja; he even went so far as to insist upon the adoption of a plan drawn out by his own architect in the style and after the fashion of the other numerous churches in Malta in the form of a Greek cross. Much angry feeling was of course excited; at this critical moment, another architect Mr. Grognet presented the plan of a round temple which so pleased the inhabitants of Musta that they formed a strong party in opposition to the Bishop-petitioned the Governor, and demanding an audience, laid before him a copy of Calleja's will, with Grognet's plan.

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On inquiring into the feasibility of the latter, the Governor immediately consented to their wishes, and no long time elapsed after this, before the foundation laid. The first stone was laid on May 30th. 1833, and the ceremony on this occasion was as solemn and grand as the village could afford. could afford. The Bishop affected illness and did not attend, but the Arch-deacon officiated in his place. The Governor was present, with the principal civil authorities and crowds from the neighbouring villages and from town, filled up the small square of the village. The weather was unusually fine and the whole scene most animated.

Although the funds left by the parish priest were very great in proportion to what might have been expected from him (30,000 scudi) they barely sufficed to raise the walls of so immense a building to a fourth or fifth of its intended height. Subscriptions were raised, and not only did the wealthy Maltese contribute, but British officers of the Garrison freely assisted from the receipts of public amateur performances as well as in other ways;-with these funds, it goes on progressing slowly. The necessary stone being easily obtained from a short distance, the greatest expense was that of labourers and masons. To obviate this, as much as possible, the church hit upon the happy expedient of promising and bestowing indulgences to all who would work there gratuitously on Sundays. As many as two or three hundred pious volunteers, may have been seen labouring there on the same day; their earnestness and activity having been kept up by assurance of greater blessings to be showered upon them and their families by the Madonna, and the advancement of the church to its present state may in a great measure be attributed to these labours of the Sabbath.

The frontispiece bears the following inscription:" VIRGINI SYDERIBUS RESTITUTÆ T. H. MUSTENSES F. F.A. M. CCM L." by which we learn that the church is to be dedicated to the Madonna. In the interior she is also

to occupy a principal station at the grand altar, while immediately under her is to be placed some relic, (if we err not,) the bones of San Pacifico or St. Pacific.

It would be unfair to judge critically of the several parts before the whole of this colossal edifice is completed. It has as yet only reached a third of its destined height,

and when finished will be visible from all

the high spots in the island. It will certainly form one of the most striking objects to be seen in Malta.

Our next will contain a copy of the design of the ground plan, with a description of the several parts, but we cannot well conclude without wishing M. Grognet, the best success in his undertaking, and paying him a just compliment for the manner in which he has so far conducted it.

THE TOPPERS.

Whoever has been in London in the fruit season, must have heard men, women and

children, crying out in all directions, “Hautboys, fine hautboys."

These hautboys are large strawberries, and are sold in baskets called pottles, which, the bottom. tapering from the top, go off in a point at

I was passing along, on a hot day, when a pile of these pottles, in a fruiterer's shop, caught my attention. On one side lay a pottle of particularly fine fruit, and I soon had hold of it; but the man cried out in a hurry, "Stop, stop, sir, I can't sell them." Can't sell them!" said I, "and what is the reason of that ?"

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"O," replied he, "I can't sell them, for they are toppers."

Now these toppers were the largest sized strawberries, picked out on purpose to put on the tops of the other pottles, to make them look better than they really were. Come, thinks I to myself, if you won't let me have the toppers, you can't hinder me from taking away the lesson they have taught me. So I walked off smiling, and talking to myself about the toppers.

At the corner of the next street, at a draper's shop, some dozens of good-looking handkerchiefs were hanging at the door, and marked at the low price of four-pence each. Thinking this no bad opportunity of laying in a stock of half-a-dozen or a dozen good handkerchiefs, I entered the shop, but was told that they only sold these handkerchiefs to customers, and that if I desired any of them, I must buy something else with them. Old Humphrey was soon out of the shop again, thinking to himself that he ought to have known better than to go into it. The handkerchiefs were nothing in the world but toppers, and were hung at the door to make people believe that things were sold cheaper at that shop than they really were.

One of the objects that I had in view, in my walk, was to buy a leg of mutton; and observing two very fine legs hanging by themselves at a butcher's shop, I told the butcher to pull one of them down, for that I had set my mind upon it.

"The legs are sold, sir," said he, "but you may have the shoulders to match them." "Sold!" replied I; "why if they are sold, what is the use of letting them hang up there ?"

"Only to show what sort of mutton I sell," said the butcher. I saw in a moment that the two legs of mutton were his toppers, and that of course, he would not part with them.

When I came to Smithfield, I stopped awhile, for a horse-jockey was selling a horse to a young gentleman, who appeared to me to have far more money in his pocket, than judgment or discretion in his upper story. The gentleman seemed disposed to fancy a black horse, but the jockey began puff off a brown one, and talked so much of thorough bred," "courage," "spirit to the back-bone," "high action," "sure-footed," "fast-going," "free from vice," "quiet as a lamb," and fifty other puffing phrases, that I thought to myself, "Ay! ay! Mr. Horsedealer, these highflying terms are your toppers, and will enable you, no doubt, to get rid of your brown horse.'

About an hour after, I met two ladies very gaily dressed, so much so that the scarf of one, and the shawl of the other, were quite sufficient to attract attention; but their bonnets struck me more than either the scarf or the shawl, for in one of them was stuck a bunch of artificial flowers almost as big as a besom, and in the other, several ostrich feathers, a foot or two high. "More toppers," thought I, hurrying along, "and those who are caught by them may find, perhaps, the heads of the wearers still lighter than the feathers and the flowers."

Having occasion to call on a tradesman to settle an account, I found him in a most ungovernable passion with his shopman for a trifling mistake; this grieved me the more, because he had the credit of being a religi ous man, and a truly religious man, will seek for grace to restrain his passion. The tradesman soon after began to talk to me on serious subjects, and quoted several texts of scripture; but I soon perceived that he was not sincere, that he was not religious at his heart, and that he merely used the

texts of scripture as toppers, to enable him to pass as a religious character.

Now what shall we say to those things? Why, seeing the errors of others, let us try to avoid them, and act with godly sincerity in things spiritual and temporal.

Take then the hint of Old Humphrey, bearing in mind that there are toppers in dress, toppers in trade, and toppers in religion, as well as toppers in strawberries.

OLD HUMPHREY.

THE TIME FOR PRAYER. WHEN is the time for prayer?With the first beams that light the morning's sky, Ere for the toils of day thou dost prepare,

Lift up thy thoughts on high; Commend the loved ones to his watchful care-, Morn is the time for prayer!

And in the noontide hour,

If worn by toil, or by sad cares opprest,
Then unto God thy spirit's sorrow pour,

And he will give thee rest :

Thy voice shall reach him through the fields of Noon is the time for prayer! [air:

When the bright sun hath set,Whilst yet eve's glowing colours deck the skies When with the loved, at home, again thou'st met, Then let the prayer arise

For those who in thy joys and sorrows share : Eve is the time for prayer!

And when the stars come forth,When to the trusting heart sweet hopes åre given And the deep stillness of the hour gives birth To pure, bright dreams of heaven,Kneel to thy God-ask strength life's ills to bear: Night is the time for prayer!

When is the time for prayer?

In every hour, while life is spared to thee-
In crowds or solitude-in joy or care-

Thy thoughts should heavenward flee.
At home, at morn and eve, with loved ones there
Bend thou the knee in prayer!

Delight in the will of God is the essence of happiness, the joy of angels, heaven upon earth, and the heaven of heavens.

The MALTA PENNY MAGAZINE is published and sent to subscribers, in Valletta, every Saturday. Subscriptions at 1s. per quarter received at No. 97 Str. Forni.