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will supply us with this fact in support of such a conclusion-that we generally see a young man who has thrown off all regard for parental ad. monition, plunging deeper and deeper into the guilty excesses of a vicious inclination, and setting at nought every authority, both human and divine.

Length of days is promised to the pious observer of it.

Long life, G, can then only be considered as a blessing when it is accompanied with a consciousness of having fulfilled our religious and moral duties. Without this it becomes a curse, for then we are placed under the judicial ban of the divine wrath, and we increase our guilt without one efficacious interval of repentant reflection. It is no contravention, therefore, of this command, that the vicious may live longer than the virtuous member of society; for the lingering remnant of a life passed in the gratification of vice, is that portion of a miserable existence which by its pains and privations involves the self-condemned sufferer in the most bopeless anticipation of a dreaded hereafter; a state of foreboding wretchedness, which no prosperity, however extensive in possession, has power to prevent or alleviate.

A young man may have reaped sufficient benefit from an excellent education bestowed upon him by his parent's liberal kindness, to be able to acquit himself with credit in the associations of men, and to acquire a certain degree of repute for his intellectual acquirements; he may pride himself upon the high opinion which he supTo this commandment is attached a poses others have formed of his abicondition of providential inercy-lities, and he may feel himself comparatively superior to his compeers in any situation or employ in which be may be placed-he may have a certain off-hand facility of conversation, and may even render himself necessary to those who are not so well informed, or have not possessed the same opportunities as himself-he may carry an exterior of self-satisfaction, and may affect to consider his future prospects of advancement as dependent upon his own powers of exertion ;-but, Gif he has to accuse himself of filial disobedience-if he has augn.ented the burdens of a parent struggling with the sorrows of life-if he has heaped upon that parent's calamity the additional grief of a child's ingratitude-if he has abused the indulgence, rejected the admonitions, scorned the reproofs, and laughed at the anxieties of him who cherished such an ingrate in his infancy, watched over his youth, nurtured his mind, gave him every elementary boon of education, opened to him an access to progressive attainments, and, in order to fit him for some eligible station, has trespassed upon his own pecuniary, resources, even to the consequent implication of his convenience that son cannot feel himself justified, either in his own heart, or in the sight of GOD. And when his insensibility to filial obligation becomes known to the community in which he moves, neither his talents, nor his extrinsic acceptability of general intelligence, will ensure him the respect or affectionate esteem of society. And I will take upon me to assert, that to be beloved by the good for one virtuous qualification of the heart, is a more honourable testimony to our character, than to be praised by the wise for a thousand intelligent properties of the understanding. If it be said of a young man, that he is a good son, an obedient considerate child, the grateful and affectionate comforter of a father's declining years,-more is said to his honour than if he were declared to be the greatest genius and the pro

If, therefore, you should meet, among the wealthiest or the gayest of this world, persons who have broken through every amiable qualification which serves to support the union between the parent and the child, you will grossly deceive yourself if you suppose them to be the happiest; it is as impossible for them to be truly happy, as it is for the body to be in health under the influence of any organic disease;-and by a more intimate knowledge of their real condition, you will find more cause for pity than for envy.

It has ever been my opinion, G, that retribution begins in this life; and I am well persuaded, that it may be traced throughout many of the adverse circumstances of our personal or re lative situation;-so that no man can wilfully violate one of the Divine laws, and persist in the violation, without experiencing, sooner or later, in the forfeiture of some part of his worldly ease, this retributive progress of divine judgment.

foundest scholar of his age;-for by the former expression of public opinion, he is instantly introduced into the world, with the assent of the estimable part of it, as a youth of moral worth; as one who can be depended upon, and who deserves encouragement for his goodness of heart; the friends of virtue will take him by the hand, and the votaries of vice will pay him the homage of unwil ling acquiescence in his advancement. In short, G-, such is the universal feeling in behalf of filial affection, that good and bad men alike insist upon it as indispensable in a child at every ageHeathens and Christians are equally agreed upon it-nay, indeed, I think it may be said, that the former had much more exalted notions of this domestic virtue than what the latter seem to have displayed in their conduct. This, however, certainly must not be ascribed to any defect in Christianity, which has sublimed the morality of the Heathen into a spiritual obligation, and has made it a debt which we not only owe to our fellow-creature, but to the Divinity Himselt:-No! it may rather be regarded as a consequence of the present state of civilization, by which we see the buman mind brought into a state of forwardness that gives to the faculties and manners of the youth of our day a certain precocity which leads to a self-reference that shews itself more frequently in a disputatious than an obedient disposition:-and when we are in the habit of hearing the dogmata of unbelief upheld and argued for by stripling infidels, we cannot wonder, if while the doctrines of our Faith are thus insulted, that its precepts should first be questioned and then disregarded.

I have said, that there is more spirituality in Christian morals than could possibly subsist in those of the Hea theas; yet it is worthy of remark, that among these the Romans attached a degree of impiety to the disobedience of the child towards the parent; and by the word impius branded the criminality with an infamy which was sure to meet with universal execration. This word, which in this instance they applied as unnatural and disobedient, was also, as you well know, synonymous with wicked and cruel. It would seem, then, that even among Heathens a disobedient child was looked upon as a monster; and the Apostle of the Gentiles, when writing to the Roman converts, ranks him among the haters of

GOD, droguyêıç, — yovvon ánadus— and doubtless he is rightly so classed, since he who contemns the law of GoD by opposing the authority of his parents is guilty of ingratitude to both-for those whom we love, we delight to obey and there cannot be a stronger evidence of hatred than the disobedience. of ingratitude.

But here, perhaps, you will stop me. with alarm, and will ask me, "How I can apply all this as advice to you ??— I hope, G-, and it is a hope which is recorded in my morning and evening petitions to the Throne of Grace in your behalf, that it never will apply to you-but I am aware, that when a young man becomes the arbiter of his own condition in life, and this condition withdraws him from the personal intercourse, and necessarily, therefore, from the relative influence of a parent, that he is apt to allow other views of things to take possession of his mind, and is by degrees seduced into the adoption of sentiments which he chooses to try by the modern test of their acceptability with his associates, rather than by the old-fashioned standard of that morality which had been industriously inculcated into his heart, while, in the docility of his early days, it was open to parental dictate only,

In such a case, words lose their pris. tine meaning, and are perverted into a sense quite opposite to that which he had been once taught to attach to them-be will hear them laughed at by his gay companions; and the former plastic nature of his heart, which bent it in willing attention to the will of a parent, he will find to be the subject of their derision and reproach. Authoritative precept of any kind he will be told is nothing but "parental despotism"- and if he falls into any breach of moral decorum, the complaint on the part of a parent will be, called "illiberal"-" Poh !" they will tell him, "the old fellow has forgotten, that he was once young himself." And as to all restraint or conformity. to such precept, he will learn, that "Obedience is abject submission, and surely he is old enough to be his own master !"-(It will be well, G-, if he he wise enough.)- Now these maxims continually repeated in his ears, and urged upon his adoption by the prospect of some desired gratification, to secure which he must step aside from the former course of his prudential

reserve, is very likely to carry him away with the tide of unwarrantable pursuits and improvident engagements, and to wean him by degrees from all dependence upon, or concern for, the monitory opinion and counsel of those who would fain prevail upon him to keep in the good old paths of virtuous consideration in which they brought him up.

I know, G, that you have sufficient knowledge of the folly of such procedure, not to pronounce yourself hastily the advocate of its propriety; but if this knowledge be not accompanied with a proportionate degree of resolution, you will be imperceptibly drawn within its vortex. I would, therefore, spare you the violent strug gles which must ensue should you find yourself likely to be so dangerously implicated; and while you are forming to yourself friends (as the courtesy of the world calls them) among the less thinking part of the community, I have gone thus far in my present subject, that your application of it, to tivi reddat amicum. And believe me, dear G , a young man is never more his own friend than while he retains the friendship of the good and wise. That he should do so, you will admit may be the anxiety of a parent; and this anxiety will plead in favour of my present letter, and substantiate the claim of its subject to your maturer reflection ;—for be assured of this not a single individual who has any title to either of these qualities will be found among the defenders of unfilial neglect, either as it refers to the advice of a parent or to that attention which is due to the parent himself. But there is another reason for my present ad. dress to you: I have in my former letters written to you merely as an employè, and in reference to the value of your time as it respects your official prospects and your hopes of rising in the world; and a young man who enters it without the help of pecuniary resources, and the influence of interest, ought to consider Time as his banker, and Industry as his patron. -There are, however, two other subjects of importance to which it is my duty to call your attention, as they affect your personal and relative responsibilities-You are, G, a Christian and a citizen-both relations comprehend privileges and duties which not to know, is to be ignorant of the high

est destination of our being, and not to regard, is to be negligent of our own happiest interests and those of society. Religion, my dear Gteaches us, that we are not only the mortal inhabitants of this world, but also the immortal expectants of the next; and therefore we have not only to calculate for our advancement in the one, but to provide and prepare for our condition in the other. If here we would be prosperous, hereafter we may be blest-whoever, therefore, neglects and despises the obligations of bis Christian character, or admits them only as matters of secondary concern, and to be submitted to his temporal views, will sooner or later discover his error. What this error is, it shall be the purpose of my next letter to point out to you in that I shall take up the subject as it peculiarly applies to young men conditioned as you are :—and I bespeak your patient consideration of it, upon this ground, that what we can alone depend upon at our death, it is indispensable we should cultivate during our life and none but the most foolish part of mankind would stake uponTM the possession of a moment the hopes of eternity. This moment is as uncertain in youth as it is in age, and the risk therefore is equally greatfor one of those moments of which our years consist, must be the last; and when this shall be, neither you nor I can take upon ourselves to determine. One thing we know, that while we live we have duties to perform, both towards God and man, and those which we owe to him must not be thrown aside for the fulfilment of those which we owe to our fellow-creatures -so that in whatever station of life we may be placed, whether we be young or old, religion demands from us an essential portion of our concern.

In my next, therefore, I shall endeavour to convince you, that he who calls himself a Christian should prove himself to be so, and that no condition of life is exempt from the obligation. -What I have written in this letter I have designed as introductory of this topic, and as preparing the way for more solemn reflections than what the former part of my communications contain.

Do not conclude that I am about to present you with a sermon, this I leave to the ecclesiastic; I would only strengthen the conviction which

I hope I have formed in your mind, that so long as you have a father upon earth, you are bound to reverence his advice, as the result of maturer judg. ment and greater experience than what a youth at your age can possibly possess; and that it is incumbent upon you to keep in mind, that you have a Father in Heaven, who. as your Creator and Preserver, ought to have a con stant place in your thoughts, as He, whom to know, is the profoundest wisdom, and to obey, is the chief happiness, and ought to be the constant purpose of our life Aud while the precepts of the former are given with a just reference to that obedience which you owe to the latter, I would wil fingly trust, that the affection which prompts them will be accepted with that cordial acquiescence which your good sense induces me to expect as the purest proof of it, and as substantiating my most consolatory satisfac

tion.

W.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR.

H& following question having more or less attracted the notice of the public, in various ways, it may possibly prove amusing to your readers to see it considered in the following form: if you think it not unworthy your attenLion, you will give it a place in your instructive and entertaining Magazine. Your's, &c. J. V. Fenchurch-buildings, Jan. 9, 1818.

QUESTION.

WHY does the Easter of 1818 occur a month earlier than the Jewish Passover, when most commonly these festivals are held in the same week -and which indeed seems to be the proper period?

REPLY.

Because the different calculations which guide the arrangement of the solar year, as followed in the formation of the Christian Calendar, are opposed to those of the lunar year, as adopted by the Jews, this must naturally produce discrepancies in different stages of the different cycles, however they may be made to accord in the end.

In order to make this clearly under stood, it will be necessary to explain the nature of the Jewish Calendar, and then to compare with it the results of the Christian calculation for Easter

which will clearly show the source of the variety of its periods.

The arrangement of the Jewish Calendar is certainly a surprising phenomenon; it has held out the test of ages, to prove its correctness; while every other system has either necessarily been subjected to amendment, as the Juliaa period by Pope Gregory the XIIIth ; or remains faulty this day, as the Mahometan and Indian: this wonderful arrangement, which correctly keeps the regular lunar festivals concordant with the solar period, during so great a length of time, is by the Jews firmly believed to have been of Divine origin, and to have been handed down by Moses to the Sanhedrim; who kept it as a sacred mystery until after the destruction of Jerusalem: when the regular official promulgation of the appearance of the new moon, from the report of the delegated inspectors delivered to the synod, ceased, and the system of calculation was published for the use of the nation, now dispersed in various distant countries.

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The Jewish year consists of 12 lunar mouths, which if divided into strict equal divisions would yield an allot ment of 29 days 12 hours and parts of an hour to each month, and altogether form a lunar year of 35+ days 5 hours and 87 o parts. This, however, is 10 days 21 hours parts less than the amount of the Jewish solar year.

But as, in the arrangement of a Ca lendar for the common purposes of life, these fractional parts cannot be attended to, it was deemed expedient to form an alternation of 29 days to one month and 30 days to another, making together 59 days, the amount of twice 29 days 12 hours; the remaining fractional parts are likewise disposed of by being carried to account, and formuing a future addition. From the accumulation of these fractions, as well as on account of the necessity of determining on the fitness of certain days for peculiar holy days, a systematic arrangement is made out for the regula tion of each annual order of festivals, and the year is accordingly fixed to contain either 353, 354, or 355 days each, and the embolismal year either of 383, 384, or 385 days: a month of 30 days being in such years intercalated.

This intercalation of a month occa sionally, to make up the deficit of a

lunar year with the solar, was obliged to according to either mode of reckonbe attended to, on account of the cele-ing. bration of the feast of the Passover ; which is commanded to be held in the mooth of Abib, that is the spring, in order to commemorate the exact period when the children of Israel were delivered, and took their departure from Egypt; and it is accordingly appointed to be celebrated on the 15th day of the lunar month called Nissan, being the day of the full moon.

From the known deficiency of near 11 days of the lunar year to that of the solar, it is evident, that unless some regulation was instituted to prevent it, this festival, celebrated in the lunar mouth Nissan, would every year occur at a different season, and every year anticipating 11 days would, instead of its proper appointment in Abib, or the Spring, gradually go through all the other seasons : an instance of such a consequence is to be observed in the Mahometan feast of the Bairam, which regularly runs through all the seasons of the year.

In order, therefore, to obviate this difficulty, and to equalise the lunar with the solar year, a period of 19 years was calculated, and called the Lunar Cycle; and as the deficiency of that period, compared with 19 solar years, amounted to 206 days 6 hours parts, which make 7 lunar months, that time was divided and dispersed among the 19 lunar years, and a month of 30 days was intercalated in the order of the 3d, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th year of each cycle; so that at the end of this period the number of days both of the solar and lunar period are found to be equal, and the situation of the moon in the heavens to return to the same point.

The cycle of the sun is 28 years, at the end of which the days of the mooths return to the same days of the week, and the sun to the same point of the heavens. It therefore follows, that as the cycle of the moon is 19 years, and that of the sun 28, that in 532 years both sun and moon return to the same point in the heavens with respect to each other: and this is called the Dionysian Cycle.

By this means, at the end of each Innar cycle of 19 years, the solar and Junar years are brought to be nearly equal in point of time, and the number of days of this cycle will prove to be 6939 days 16 hours 32 minutes,

This important test of the agreement. of the Jewish lunar year with the Christian or astronomical solar year, is the result of the express law laid down in holy writ for the observance of the Passover in the month of Abib, or the Spring. Hence the regulation of the Jewish Calendar has ever been, so to manage the intercalation, that the 16th day of the month of Nissan shall always occur after the vernal equinox. Thus the order of the embolismal year can be very clearly understood: for as in the course of 8 years the deficiency of the lunar year compared to the solar will prove to be 32 days 15 hours parts, a month of 30 days must be added to that year, to bring the account nearly equal, or the Passover would occur a month before the vernal season, contrary to the express law on that head.

The remaining 2 days 15 hours parts are carried on to the account of the following years, till their accumulation make an intercalation necessary at the end of the 6th year, and the great remainder at that period again occasion an additional month to be required at the end of the 8th year;: and so on in order.

The Christian Calendar is founded on the solar year; and the period settled by Julius Cæsar, called Julian, consisted of 365 days 6 hours; which, however, eventually proved a mis taken arrangement, and was corrected. by Pope Gregory the XIIIth in 1582, who cast off 10 days from the then date, and instituted an amended calculation of 365 days 5 hours and 49. minutes. This account, however, dif fers from the Jewish calculation of Rab Ada, who makes the average length. of the solar year to be 365 days 5 hours 55 minutes and parts of an hour.

In early times, the regulation of the Christian Calendar and the fixing of the period of Easter was long a matter of doubt and difficulty. The commemoration of the resurrection, which is the primary object of that festival, ought in strictness to be held at the same. · period of the year at which it is said. to have occurred; and as this was dur,. ing the Paschal week of the Jews, the coincidence of these feasts seems ne cessary; but the lunar calculation which guides the Jewish year being quite different from the solar period

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