fidently, after death that there was no reward for virtue, nor punishment for vice, that I was tempted to commit the robbery." "Well," but, replied his master, Had you no fear of the

gallows?"

66

"Sir," said the fellow, looking sternly at his master, “What is that to you, if I had a mind to venture that? You had removed my greatest terror, and why should I fear the least."

As a delightful contrast to the foregoing painful statement, allow me to mention the following:

More than fifty years ago, the late Rev. W. B. Cadogan, an excellent clergyman at Reading, having been informed that a lady in that town was a pious character, wished to cultivate her acquaintance, and took an opportunity of calling at her house. On being introduced to the room, where the lady was sitting, Mr. C. apologized for his intrusion as a stranger; but, hoping that he had the happiness of addressing one who was a child of God, a sister in Christ Jesus, he anticipated both pleasure and profit from mutual intercourse. These words excited the attention, and fastened on the heart of the servant who had shewn Mr. C. into the room. She went back wondering what these things meant- a child of God, a sister in Christ Jesus!" and she was led anxiously to enquire, “Am I a child of God? or is there any possibility of my becoming so?" She retired to her chamber, and for the first time in her life, poured out her heart in humble prayer, that she might be taught what at present she but little understood, and might become the character which she began to consider so honorable and desirable. It is pleasing to add, that her impressions proved abiding, and that her path, like the shining light, shone more and more unto the perfect day. She lived to extreme old age, and, amidst all the feebleness of dissolving nature, was enabled to triumph in the faithfulness of God, the rock of her salvation.

Who can tell what good may arise from a single expression, under the blessing of God. On the other hand, how should we avoid any expression which may tend to depreciate the religion we profess.

that

Let my dear young friends, on going into company, put up important prayer, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips.”

"A THING INCREDIBLE."

In the course of my remarks, says Mr. Moffatt, the ear of the monarch Makaba, a chief of the Bauangketsi, tribe of South Africans, caught the startling sound of a Resurrection from the dead. What!' he exclaimed with astonishment, 'what are these words about?-the dead-the dead arise?'

Yes,' was my reply, all the dead shall arise.'

"Will my father arise?'

'Yes,' I answered, 'your father will arise.'

"Will all the slain in battle arise?'

'Yes.'

And will all that have been killed and devoured by lions, tigers, hyænas, and crocodiles, again revive?'

And will those whose bodies have been left to waste and to wither on the desert plains, and scattered to the winds, again arise?' he asked, with a kind of triumph, as if he had now fixed me.

'Yes,' I replied, 'not one will be left behind.' This I repeated with increased emphasis.

After looking at me for a few moments, he turned to his people, to whom he spoke with a stentorian voice :-'Hark, ye wise men, whoever is among you, the wisest of past generations, did ever your ears hear such strange and unheard of news?' Makaba then turning and addressing himself to me, and laying his hand on my breast, said, 'Father, I love you much. Your visit and your presence have made my heart white as milk.

The words of

your mouth are sweet as honey, but the words of a resurrection are too great to be heard. I do not wish to hear again about the dead rising! The dead cannot arise! The dead must not arise!'

'Why,' I inquired, 'can so great a man refuse knowledge, and turn away from wisdom? Tell me, my friend, why I must not 'add to words' and speak of a resurrection?'

Raising and uncovering his arm, which had been strong in battle, and shaking his hand as if quivering a spear, he replied, 'I have slain my thousands, and shall they arise?"—Moffatt's Africa.

OUR THOUGHTS.

CLOSE and careful examination of each thought, I earnestly recommend to my young friends: it is a duty too little regarded: yet we know that thought is the origin of action, we feel the importance of the advice and prayer, which we read in 1 Peter, iii. 10, and Psalm cxli. 3, as they relate to our words; but we let our thoughts revel unrestrained too frequently. Spiritual influence and agency, good and evil, have much to do with our thoughts, and so entirely is our character marked thereby, that it is written," As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."-Proverbs xxiii. 7.

I wish to impress the young with this great principle; attention to it will save them many a painful hour, and many a bitter tear: let the following passages be referred to and carefully read, not omitting one. Let the young copy them, or some of them, in their pocket books, and pray to God to fix them on their memory, and write them on their heart.

I could easily refer to more, but these will evince the vast importance of this subject. Thought is the fountain; ask, therefore, God's grace, to keep it pure, that the streams may not be polluted.

Pimlico.

R. H. SHEPherd.

GRATITUDE.

MEN seem generally inclined to thank God for a temporal good; but why do they not feel the same, or greater gratitude, when some fair and holy impulse is infused into their souls?

ANCIENT EGYPT AND ITS HIEROGLYPHICS.

(Continued from page 356.)

OUR acquaintance with the principles of interpretation applicable to the phonetic characters of Egypt is of recent date, and we are indebted for it mainly to the researches of Dr. Young and Mr. Champollion.

The Rosetta stone, now in the British Museum, furnished the key to this discovery. It bears three inscriptions; the first of which is in Greek, the second in the demotic or common writing of Egypt, and the third in phonetic hieroglyphics. The idea that these three inscriptions were all to one and the same purport was first struck out by Dr. Young, who had observed, that wherever the name of Ptolemy occurred in the Greek, the same group of figures was repeated in the hieroglyphical inscription. On counting these figures, he found that they answered to the letters in that name, and he then concluded that the first was a P, the next a T, the third an O, and so on with regard to the rest. A sound principle of interpretation having been thus obtained, it has been since carried out very extensively, and, as regards the more recent inscriptions, with considerable certainty and success: but its application to the oldest monuments has not been followed with the results anticipated.

This phonetic principle is, in fact, much less extensively applied than the advocates of hieroglyphic lore are willing to allow. Perhaps a name or a word here and there in a long inscription can be deciphered, but in most cases the rest of the interpretation is little better than guesswork. Let me illustrate these remarks by reference to an inscription in the British Museum, premising that a clue to the easy reading of such inscriptions is generally furnished, either by a picture of the action represented, or by the circumstances or situation in which it occurs. The one in question is inscribed on the lid of a mummy chest, and may therefore be presumed, a priori, to refer to the deceased person-to be in fact equivalent to that on a coffin-plate amongst ourselves, making, of course, due allowance for the peculiar notions, tenets, and customs of ancient Egypt.

The first group of figures we cannot exactly make out, but immediately below them (the inscription is read perpendicularly) occur the well-known signs, conventionally understood to mean Osirian, or deceased; and then, after another unintelligible group, the equally wellknown name of Amon, A M. N. in phonetic characters, preceded by a zig-zag, or dancette-line, which we have been told means" of." After this title, "the Osirian (something) of Amon," we should very naturally look for the proper name of the individual so described; and we conse

quently understand the four next characters, K. T. B. T., to express that name; but as Kitty Batt is not quite so classical as Kotbti, we allow our antiquaries so to read it, though the other interpretation is in equally good keeping with the principles of interpretation, by which we profess to be guided. But Kotbti might be either the name of a man or woman, had not the Egyptian scribe kindly settled the point for us by placing underneath the name, the figure of a woman, and the conventional sign denoting the feminine gender. Now a woman could not possibly be a priest, though she might be a priestess, and this is perhaps the meaning of one group of characters which has been passed over as illegible. Suppose we read the whole-" the Osirian priestess? of Amon, Kotbti, woman." But now another unintelligible group occurs; we must therefore pass it for the present, and go to the next, which represents in a symbolic manner the goddess Netpe, a bird and vase being her usual attributes. Then follows the well-known Egyptian vulture, the emblem of maternity; and again we are lost for a little while amongst the strange signs which immediately follow. Now, however, we come to the indubitable picture of a pair of arms, and by this means obtain an indistinct idea of the general drift of the sentence; for surely it must be something about mother Netpe, and her protecting arms. But Netpe has wings as well as arms, and here are three characters of which we can make nothing else; we will therefore so interpret them. Another group, and a kneeling human figure, conclude the inscription. And now, to any of my hearers who are conversant with the elliptic method of teaching adopted in our infant schools, the whole will be easily legible. '(The prayer of the) Osirian (priestess) of Amon, Kotbti, woman, (who says Approach!) Netpe (my) mother, (extend thine) arms (and thy) wings (over) me.”

It is in this way, then, and not by any continuous application of the phonetic principle of interpretation, that we arrive at the meaning of the hieroglyphical inscriptions of Egypt.

years

We are now prepared to go more at length into an examination of the famous tablet of Abydos. This genealogical document, now in the British Museum, contains the titles of sixty-four kings and queens, the latest of whom is supposed to have reigned about 100 B.C. It is only in the last of the three lines composing this tablet, with one exception, that the proper names of these sovereigns are given; then they are all alike, the letters being—R. M. S. S.—Remesses, or Ramses!

and

To understand rightly the use and importance of this document it is necessary to observe that the names of the sovereigns of Egypt are usually written in two, sometimes in three, ovals or cartouches. One of these ovals (which seems intended to represent a ring with its signet, in