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at last the figure of Stemaw, dragging his empty sleigh behind him (for he has left his wolf and foxes in the last night's encampment, to be taken up when returning home), becomes clearly distinguishable through the dreamy haze of the cold wintry morning. He arrives at the beaver-lodges, and, I warrant, will soon play havoc among the inmates.

"His first proceeding is to cut down several stakes, which he points at the ends. These are driven, after he has cut away a good deal of ice from around the beaver-lodge, into the ground between it and the shore. This is to prevent the beaver from running along the passage they always have from their lodges to the shore, where their storehouse is kept, which would make it necessary to excavate the whole passage. The beaver, if there are any, being thus imprisoned in the lodge, the hunter next stakes up the opening into the storehouse on shore, and so imprisons those that may have fled there for shelter, on hearing the noise of his axe at the other house. Things being thus arranged to his entire satisfaction, he takes an instrument called an ice-chisel, which is a bit of steel about a foot long, by one inch broad, fastened to the end of a stout pole, wherewith he proceeds to dig through the lodge. This is by no means an easy operation; and although he covers the snow around him with great quantities of mud and sticks, yet his work is not half finished. At last, however, the interio of the hut is laid bare, and the Indian, stooping down. gives a great pull, when out comes a large, fat, sleepy beaver, which he flings sprawling on the snow. Being thus unceremoniously awakened from its winter nap, the shivering animal looks languidly around, and even goes the length of grinning at Stemaw, by way of showing its teeth, for which it is rewarded with a blow on the head from the pole of the ice-chisel, which pvts an end to it. In this way several more were killed, and packed on the sleigh. Stemaw then turns his face towards his encampment, where he collects the game left there; and away he goes at a tremendous pace, dashing the snow in clouds from his snow-shoes, as he hurries over the trackless wilderness to his forest home.

"Near his tent, he makes a detour to visit a marten trap; where, however, he finds nothing. This trap is of the simplest construction being composed of two logs, the one of which is supported over the other by means of a small stick, in such a manner, that when the marten creeps between the two and pulls the bait, the support is removed, and the upper log falls on and crushes it to death.

“In half-an-hour the Indian arrives at his tent, where the dark eyes of his wife are seen gazing through a chink in the covering, with an expression that denotes immense joy at the prospect of gorging for many days on fat beaver, and having wherewithal to purchase beads and a variety of ornaments from the white men, upon the occasion of her husband and herself visiting the posts of the fur-traders in the following spring."

As a budget of incident and adventure, and as conveying to the reader an idea of the scenes and occupations of Rupert's Land, we could not desiderate anything more vivid or pictorial than the sketches of which this volume consist.

Pulpit Themes; Illustrated by Three Thousand Texts in full. Systematically Classified from the Works of the most Eminent Divines. By the Rev. A. C. BALDWIN, New-York. Edinburgh.

The compiler of this little work states his object to be to afford assistance to brother ministers in the selection of suitable and useful subjects of discourse, which few of them, he adds, have not at times found more difficult than to prepare a sermon after a suitable subject has been found. We have looked into the work, and have no doubt that ministers would find it of service in the way mentioned.

Johnston's Illustrations of Natural History.-Sheets I. and II. Edinburgh, 1847.

We can strongly recommend these to our Free Church teachers, as extremely suitable for instructing classes in the various departments of scientific knowledge. From the want of illustrations of sufficient boldness it has hitherto been much the practice to teach science to individual pupils, thereby not only losing time, but depriving the scholars of the benefit of emulation. Messrs. Johnston's new illustrations will completely remedy this, and in the hands of intelligent educators

will be of essential service in the cultivation of a branch of knowledge hitherto almost entirely overlooked in our humbler seminaries.

Doctrinal Puritans: Heaven Opened; or, a Brief and Plain Discovery of the Riches of God's Covenant of Grace; by the Rev. Richard Alleine, A.D., 1665.

The British Reformers; or, Selections from the Writings of the British Reformers. Nos. 1 and 2.

These are issued by the Religious Tract Society, and are of sterling value. Alleine is an earnest, spiritual, arresting writer, and the perusal of various of his pieces has been blessed to many a soul. The two Parts of the "British Reformers" contain a portion of the weighty and deeply experimental letters of "Master John Bradford," written while "in prison for the cause of the gospel."

The National Cyclopædia of Useful Knowledge. Parts XII. to XIV.

We have pleasure in repeating our recommendation of this popular and valuable work. It is a repertory of well-condensed information on all subjects-Natural Historical, Biographical, Political, Mechanical, &c. &c., and even in these days is amazingly cheap. Two hundred and fifty octavo pages for a shilling!

Notes of the Month.

THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH IN OUR LARGE TOWNS.

THE following return affords a most instructive commentary on the boastings which have lately been indulged in (especially at a distance) on the pretended Establishment. "revival in the popularity and strength" of the It is the official account of the sittings let and unlet in the " city churches" of Edinburgh:

Abbreviate of the Return of Let and Unlet Sittings in the City Churches, for the Year from Martinmas 1847 to Martinmas 1848, as at 21st February 1848:

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1846-47.

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1847-48.

Unlet.

50 660 46 644

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127

373

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614 75 617

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621 590 955 700 881 701 880 469 1091 512 1048 961 649 1026 584 957 105 949 107 8 322 597 333 586

Totals let and unlet, 6884 8499 6980 8394 84 180

Allowing 1500 sitters in addition to these, for the West Church, and the various empty chapels in Canongate and St Cuthbert's parish, we have 8300 individuals as the whole church-sitting adherents of the Establishment in Edinburgh, out of a population of 130,000. And this we believe to be considerably over the mark, as it is notorious that, especially in

the New Town, a large number of the sittings are taken by "genteel" parties, who are seldom if ever in Church, except on the communion Sabbaths. We observe that our contemporaries the Patriot and Universe have printed the returns, expressing surprise at the disclosure which they make of the state of the Establishment, and also indignation that eighteen men, with such a miserable minority of adherents, should be allowed to draw £10,000 a-year out of the pockets of the citizens. This is the use which such returns will serve. Every one living in Edinburgh, knew how true Dr Chalmers' statement was as to the Establishment having become a nullity-that as a body, they have no decided moral or religious weight in the community-and do not possess a single man who can take his place as a leader in any great national movement. But they are very unscrupulous, especially when at a distance, and make the most disgraceful statements as to their success and popularity. Dr Simpson of Kirknewton, and Mr Fowler of Ratho, when in Canada, everywhere assured public meetings and private companies, that the accounts which were prevalent as to the "desolation and emptiness" of the Edinburgh churches, were altogether incorrect and false, and indeed that there was no very great difference in the amount of sitters. Dr John Cumming makes similar statements even so near as London. These returns form a most humiliating commentary on such perversions. The same state of matters obtains in almost every large town in Scotland. In Paisley the whole receipts from seat rents are not sufficient to pay beadles, precentors, and cleaners. In Aberdeen, the state of matters is almost worse the town being threatened with bankruptcy, in consequence of the annual draught made upon the revenue for the payment of stipends. The truth is, and these facts show it, that the vast body of our intelligent middle classes have abandoned the Establishment. The towns have unequivocally pronounced against her. Her adherents in these-the centres of intelligence, activity, and national influence-form a small and dwindling minority.

CHURCH AND SLAVERY.

The Church and Slavery question, so fiercely agitated in Scotland some time ago, is now scarcely ever mentioned. It must not, however, be lost sight of. The remembrance of the infamous and unprincipled attacks, which were so perseveringly made on our Free Church, and some of her most beloved and distinguished ministers in connection with it, has very naturally produced in the minds of many a strong aversion to the whole subject. But the Church has still a most important and solemn duty to discharge in the matter, and we hope our next General Assembly will not forget it. She has signally triumphed over the multitude of her heterogeneous and ferocious assailants. But there are three millions of slaves in America who require her help, and that help she is able to render more effectually than any other Church in Britain. From circumstances which have recently transpired, we have now more hope of benefit from her interference, than we formerly ventured to entertain. Of course, we do not mean that our Church should homologate and proclaim the vaunted principle of the universal ex-communication of Slaveholders. By doing so, she would but destroy her own influence with the American Churches, and give an excuse to those, who wish one, for disregarding and depreciating her correspondence. But she ought

calmly and earnestly to reiterate "the word of exhortation," as to the duty which lies upon the Church and upon individual Christians there, to strive more and more till the chain be broken-for the deliverance of the oppressed. There are at present many hopeful and encouraging circumstances connected with the anti-slavery cause in America. The chief of these, perhaps, is the public movements on the subject which have commenced in various of the Southern States, and especially in Virginia. There one of the leading Presbyterian ministers of the State, and president of a college-Dr Ruffuer-has commenced a movement, which is hailed by all the friends of the slave in the Northern States, as most promising and important. He is not, of course, an Abolitionist "of the baser sort," but being a man of candour, energy, and intelligence, his manifesto has occasioned a most hopeful excitement. Not excitement against himself on the contrary, his appeals have been seconded by a large body of the Slaveholders themselves, and by several of the newspapers of the Slave States, and various public meetings have assembled and testified their concurrence in his plansbut excitement regarding the true merits of the question, and that, of course, betokens “the beginning of the end."

In other States, similar movements are being commenced, and the prospect of their spreading and strengthening is most hopeful. So far as man can see or calculate, it is in this way alone that slavery will be abolished. We do not undervalue the healthful influence of external anti-slavery feeling-on the contrary, we believe that had the anti-slavery agitation in the Northern States been conducted with ordinary Christian prudence and consideration, slaver would have been many years nearer its general abolition in the South than it is at present. And if antislavery men, either in America or in this country, interfere judiciously even now, their interference may be attended with the best results.

FREE CHURCH QUESTIONS IN PARLIAMENT. Mr Bouverie has given notice of his intention to introduce a bill on the site question; and Mr Cowan is to introduce another bill, in connexion with the quoad sacra churches. We most cordially reiterate the call which has been made upon the various congregations of the Free Church, to send up petitions in regard to both these matters. We fear that justice will not be obtained on either question without a combined and determined effort. If our politicians were statesmen-if they were possessed either of that energy or that prudence, which, in times of commotion and upheaving like the present, are so requisite in the management of the internal affairs of a great country-such efforts would never be required. The idea that one man should have the power, unchallenged and unchecked, to exercise such oppression, and to persevere in suchteruelty, as have been witnessed in Canonbie for the last five years, is so altogether monstrous, that were not class interests and courtesies all-prevalent in our high places, it would not have been tolerated for five months. the landlord of Canonbie is a duke, and the Free Church people of Canonbie are only cottars and hinds, and the toleration laws must be suspended till the duke is graciously pleased to restore it. If the eyes of our legislators were open to the true interests of the country, or even to the true interests of the dukes themselves, they would, without a week's delay

But

put an end to all such tyranny. Nothing would more directly tend to strengthen the Government and insti- | tutions of the country. But, we regret to say, we have little hope of their doing so plain a duty spontaneously; and therefore, our appeal must lie to the Christian people of the country.

STATE OF IRELAND-IRISH DEPUTATION.

We are delighted to observe the deep and growing interest manifested in the state of Ireland by the Christian people of this country. Recent events are well fitted to lead to the inquiry, "What can be done for that unhappy island?" And where God seems to be opening a door so wide, promising it is most right that his people should be preparing to enter. The Irish deputation never met with such success before in Scotland, and the startling details of Dr Dill and others have greatly tended to deepen the previously existing feeling. At the same time, we have great doubts whether any plan of a sufficiently large and comprehensive nature has yet been propounded for meeting the existing evils. One or two missionaries, and a few schools, will never do. Why should our friends not at once lay before the kingdom the plan of a large agency and a missionary college at Limerick or Galway, by which to make it perpetual? We are convinced that if Drs Cooke, Morgan, Edgar, and others were to start such a project, enough could be raised both to build and endow such an institution at the present moment. At all events, the subject in all its magnitude is worthy of the most profound attention, and requires prompt action. If any delay takes place, or if the means prepounded are inadequate, the present most favourable opportunity will probably pass away, and the rising hope of Ireland settle down again in blackness and despair.

ROMISH POLICY IN FRANCE.

Ir is much to be regretted, and ought to suggest the necessity for much caution and circumspection, that the accounts we receive of the eventful proceedings now in progress on the Continent, are all, in so far as the London newspapers and their correspondents go, reported by men who look at them in a purely secular light. The Papacy, in particular, seems thus to sink into by far too insignificant a position; and some most significant acts of the Papal clergy and their followers among the people, both in France and Germany, acts to which the whole sincerely Protestant population of Europe and the world ought to be directed, are allowed to slip past almost quite unnoticed.

On comparing this last with the two former Revolutions in France, we find the Papacy making a prodigious change. The first Revolution found Pius VI. on the throne, a pontiff remarkable for his vanity, and for the pusillanimity with which he suffered the Emperor Joseph II. to carry forward the most trenchant ecclesiastical reforms, without either firmly resisting him, or cunningly co-operating with him in the way of subjugating the new state of things to himself and the Vatican. In France the Revolution became more and more decidedly anti-Papal; and, indeed, seemed at last to give a death-blow to the system, from which, however, it speedily recovered, partly owing to Napoleon having called in its aid in his attempts to reconstruct society in France, still more from the influence the emigrant French clergy procured for the whole Papal system in England. On

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the restoration of the Bourbons, and particularly during the Pontificate of Gregory XVI., infinite pains were taken, not only to re-establish the Papacy in the constitution of France, as one of the great elements of the restored monarchy, but also to gain over the people, en masse, by means of what were called congregations, confréries, &c.-associations like the Holy Guild of St Joseph, in Edinburgh, ready at all times to do the bidding of the directing clergy at their head. These had numerous ramifications, even in the army; and the alarm they excited among those Frenchmen in the wealthier ranks of society, who dreaded seeing France again become, from the king on the throne, downwards, a miserably superstitious and priest-ridden nation, led to some very stringent measures against the Jesuits, &c., during the three years preceding the Revolution of 1830, and had a great deal to do in producing that Revolution itself. That Revolution was, of course, viewed with a most unfavourable eye by the Vatican, and by the whole body of Ultramontanists, who had been struggling, under Charles X., to regain for the Gallican Church its old strong footing in the French monarchy, and in the superstitious regards of the French people. Louis Philippe found the whole of the bishops opposed to him and his policy; for the seventeen years of his reign was just like that of Britain in Ireland during the same period—a policy of constant concession and effort to please, met by an apparent determination never to be satisfied. In vain did he court the bishops-make magnificent presents to numerous churches--favour the rebuilding and embellishment of ancient ecclesiastical edifices-put his navy at the command of the Propaganda missions, and in a thousand ways court the good graces of Rome. He was either thought insincere, or, which is more probable, it was seen that the Chamber of Deputies, constituted as it was—that is, representing just those very portions of the community which were least disposed to be priest-ridden themselves, or to see their country become morally and religiously, and in the end, politically too, a province of Rome --was the grand obstacle in the path of Roman ambition. Hence, universal suffrage began to be thought of as an expedient for removing this obstacle; and popularity, among even the very lowest and most illiterate, became the order of the day among the same clergy that had so warmly opposed, and so deeply suffered from, the Revolution of 1792. This will easily account for the readiness with which the Archbishops of Lyons and Paris, the two great heads of the French Papacy, have turned their backs on Louis Philippe and his monarchy.

ROME MIRACULOUS RECOVERY OF AN APOSTLE'S SKULL.

The following ludicrous illustration of Roman Popery, appears in the letter of the Italian correspondent of the Athenæum, and is worth perusal The mode of the recovery of the apostle's head will of course, be enlarged on as one of the miracles of the nineteenth century; and a hundred years after this, if Popery last so long, it will, doubtless, be enriched with numerous accompaniments, in the shape of thunder and lightning, and other things equally startling:

"A great part of the philosophy of life, the moralists tell us, lies in the observation of its contrasts;-if so, the Eternal City affords assuredly, just at present a very fertile field to philosophers. Take the following pendant picture to that

which I have just been sketching, for example. It is rarely, I should think, that the past and the present that two widely separated centuries I may say-are so strangely placed face to face. Among the various government notices which adorn the walls of the town-for placarding is the recognised means of communication between the Government and the citizensappears a huge sheet purporting to emanate from "the chapter of the Basilic of St Peter. Crowded between the promise of a constitutional régime and an address to the Guardia Civica, or jostling an advertisement of a new paper on one side and the announcement of a railway company on the other, this lengthy document sets forth, in terms of the most moving distress and profound grief the lamentable fact of the loss of the head of St Andrew! This invaluable relic, it seems, has been stolen from the place in St Peter's where it has been preserved for so many years. And there is an Et tu, Brute'

discovery of the treasure on board their boat-I cannot say. Nor is there much interest in knowing how the fact may be. The gist of the story consists in the circumstance that such a tale is current and credited at Rome in the year 1848;-in the ever-fresh serviceability of the old legend, coming up as good as new, and just as capable of satisfactorily explaining such facts as it was at first invented to explain hundreds of years go!"

SABBATH RAILWAY TRAVELLING IM AMERICA.

It may encourage our friends to persevere in their efforts against Sabbath railway travelling, to be informed that in America, where Sabbath-trains have for years extensively run, a most salutary change is taking place. The change is attributed to two

consideration about it, which hits poor mother Church cruelly things: first, To the measures perseveringly taken by

hard. For, from the nature of the place where the thing was kept and the precautions adopted for its safe keeping, it would zeem that the thief must necessarily have been one of the ecclesiastical body attached to the church. Those who have been at Rome will remember the four colossal statues at the feet of the four piers of the copula, and the four loggie' or balconies above them. One of these statues is that of St Andrew; and and in the chamber behind the loggia over it was preserved the saint's original head. It is almost needless to observe that relics are scarcely stolen now-a-days for their holiness, as in the days of Henry III. of France; and that St Andrew, like some others, has lost his head in consequence of the crown it wore-a crown composed of gold and jewels to an immense amount in value.

It was impossible not to be struck with the ludicrous nature of this loss, as the eye fell on the statement of it when intent on looking for the important announcements that are daily chronicling the steps of a nation's progress towards freedom. Nor were the lamentations of the worthy canons, it must be confessed, calculated to produce a more sympathizing frame of mind. The style of these irresistibly suggested the recollection of those of poor Kitty of Colraine in the old song, for her lost pitcher:

'Twas the pride of my dairy,

Sure, sure such a pitcher, I'll ne'er see again!

The document offers a reward of 500 scudi-more than £100-a very large sum for such a purpose in this country, for the recovery of the treasure; with its ornaments, I presume is understood, though nothing is said to this effect. It concludes with a statement of the intention of the chapter to offer up a "triduo "-i.e., extra repetitions of litanies for the space of three days-with a view of appeasing God (placare Iddio), and conjuring the misfortunes with which his wrath on account of the abduction of St Andrew's head might be expected to afflict the city!-The grim old church figure amid all the new lights! Here is a numerous body of educated men asserting their belief that the Supreme Being may be expected to manifest anger for a certain special theft above what he would feel at any other crime of a similar nature--that this anger would be manifested by inflicting evil, not on the thief, but on the innocent citizens in blind indiscriminate vengeance -and that this vengeance might be averted by a certain amount of reiterated repetitions of a given form of words!

To complete my story, however and therein to complete the idea of Rome and its population deducible from it--I must tell you the sequel. Yesterday, which was a day or two after the public announcement of the loss, it was reported that this missing treasure had been recovered. The history of its restoration was this, and was eagerly circulated from mouth to mouth among the populace. A boat navigating the Tiber had received on board a sack filled apparently with rags, addressed

to a certain point on its course. But, strange to tell, all the efforts of the boatmen were unavailing to force forward their bark an inch! For two days was the struggle continued in vain, till at length the men, naturally guessing (since the guess was natural, I cannot think how they were so very long in arriving at it), that it must be something connected with the nature of the cargo which prevented the boat from moving,

searched every packet on board-and in the midst of the sack of rags found St Andrew's head! Now, whether or not the head has been found at all-whether the good canons may choose to supply its place, and give out that it has been recovered-or whether it might be really the case that boatmen carrying off the stolen goods were tempted by the reward of 500 scudi, and invented the above story to account for their

the American and Foreign Sabbath Union;" and second, To the fact that the shareholders have discovered that their Sabbath trains do not pay. An annual expense of £12,000, was saved by the stopping of Sabbath mails, by the late Postmaster General, chiefly in New England, where there is now no Sabbath mail or railway carriage for travellers. A similar change of sentiment, to a great extent, has also been silently effected in New York and some other States. The Rochester Advertiser says:

"A few years since, our public thoroughfares presented the same bustle and activity, the came crowd of goers and comers, on the Sabbath, as on any other day of the week, and business men improved then what they generally regarded as a day of leisure, for commencing their journeys. Now, however, there is a wonderful change. Instead of the day-boats on the Hudson on Sunday being crowded, as formerly, they have been withdrawn entirely, the proprietors finding that it did not pay. So also with the railroad companies between Albany and Buffalo. We venture the assertion, that not one of them upon the whole line, from their receipts on Sunday, pay the expenses incurred."

On the Housatonic road the cars do not run on Sabbaths, and on the western road there is but one train on that day. The directors of the road between New York and Philadelphia have given notice to the post-office department, that after their present mail contract expires, they will not run their cars on Sabbath.

EDINBURGH IRISH MISSION AND SCRIPTURE READERS'

SOCIETY.

This interesting mission continues to prosper, and affords every encouragement to its friends to prosecute the work. We are sorry, however, to learn that the committee have to complain of much apathy and inattention to its claims on the part of the Christian public. It is to be hoped that this has arisen from other causes than want of interest in the object. It should be remembered that this is the only mission improvement of Roman Catholics in Edinburgh; among us specially directed to promote the spiritual whereas Popery has its host of Jesuits here-its nuns, its Holy Guild of St Joseph, its orders of Carmelites, and of St Vincent de Paul, &c., &c., all busily engaged in disseminating the soul-destroying tenets of ing of Satan, with all power and signs, and lying the Man of Sin, "whose coming is after the workwonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish."

Printed and Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, 15, Princes Street. Edinburgh; and 26, Paternoster Row, London. And sold by the Booksellers throughout the kingdom.

THE

FREE CHURCH MAGAZINE.

THE EVANGELIST MARK, AND HIS GOSPEL. | Ir is hardly possible for those who have been any time engaged in the study of Scripture, to avoid forming a particular attachment to some individual in the family of the sacred writers. Each of them has his own character; and after long intimacy with them, we begin to think we have become acquainted with their very persons, so that we could distinguish them by the tone of their voice, their step, look, and gesture that we could know them among a hundred. The circumstances which may lead to such a preference of one writer to another-a preference denoting no contempt of the rest, any more than that of Christ for John implied disregard of the other disciples-it may not be easy to explain. How it came to pass I know not, but I was early led to form an attachment of this kind to the evangelist Mark. Perhaps it might be owing to the circumstance that he seems to be most generally disregarded or overlooked among the other writers of the New Testament. But be this as it may, one effect of this prepossession in favour of this evangelist, is, that it has led me to study his Gospel more narrowly perhaps than others may generally have done, and I may now give the reader the results of my reflections.

The personal history of Mark is involved in obscurity and fable. It has been very much disputed among critics, both ancient and modern, whether he was the same person with John Mark, mentioned in the Acts and Epistles, who was the nephew of Barnabas, and the occasion of the unhappy quarrel between Paul and Barnabas. The chief reason which induced the ancients to consider him a different person, probably, was, that they found John Mark blamed by Paul | for deserting him, and they were unwilling to believe that one who behaved in that faint-hearted manner could be the evangelist. I am strongly inclined to agree with Macknight in thinking it highly probable that Mark, the author of the Gospel, and this John Mark, as the same person In addition to what I have stated, my reasons are-1st, That there can be Eittle doubt that the person whom Peter calls "Marcus my son," was the evangelist. All the accounts of early historians concur in asserting that the evangelist Mark was the companion of Peter. Now there can be no doubt of Peter's intimacy with John Mark; for we are told that after his deliverance from prison by the angel, he went straight to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. Then, 24, I go on the princípic that the Scriptures, though written by various penmen, d one author-the Holy Spirit; and that we may therefore conclude, when we find the same name introduced in different places, without any mark of distinction, that it beNo. LIII.

longs to the same individual; for what author would
mention different persons under the same designation
in different parts of his book? Epiphanius has
affirmed that both Mark and Luke were of the num-
ber of the seventy disciples-an opinion which has
been embraced by many learned moderns. Bede
and Cave suppose that he was a Levite, because
Barnabás, his mother's brother, was of that order.
Epiphanius is more particular still; for he tells us he
was one of those who were offended at the words of
Christ (John vi. 66), but was reclaimed by Peter, and
being filled with the Spirit, wrote a Gospel.
Assuming, then, that Mark and John Mark was
the same person, we learn that
he was a
young man, the son of a pious mother, in whose
house the disciples were wont to meet for prayer,
nursed up in the school of Christ, a partaker of the
sufferings of the early Christians, and honoured to
be a fellow-labourer with the apostles Barnabas, Paul,
and Peter. We are naturally prepossessed in favour
of one who is closely related by blood with persons
of high moral worth and piety; and with such an
uncle and such a mother-the one a son of consola-
tion, the other a mother in Israel-we cannot help,
even in the absence of all direct testimony, forming
a good opinion of the moral qualifications of " Mark,
sister's son to Barnabas." Nor need this favourable
judgment be affected by the single incident recorded
to his disadvantage, that on one occasion he "departed
from the apostles from Pamphylia, and went not with
them to the work," when we reflect that Barnabas
considered it compensated by his being willing to
embark again in their hazardous enterprise; and
that Paul himself, though offended at his former
conduct, saw reason afterwards to admit him as a
fellow-labourer, and mentions him with respect in
several of his epistles.

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The information which we possess as to the time, and place, and occasion of writing his Gospel, is almost as scanty as the materials of his personal history. Eusebius mentions a tradition of Papias, in which John the presbyter is said to have affirmed "that Mark, Peter's interpreter, wrote faithfully whatever he heard, but not in the order wherein the things were said and done by Christ; for he neither heard nor followed Christ, but was a companion of Peter, and composed his Gospel rather with a view to the people's profit than with a design to give a regular history.' The truth of this tradition may be justly doubted. It contradicts the account of Epiphanius; there is no reason to suppose that Peter needed an interpreter; and the gospel bears very clear internal evidence, I think, of having been written by an eye-witness. It seems, however, to be MAY, 1848.

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