if you had no more to do on Monday, than you have on Sunday, you would be all the happier-you would like every day to be a holiday-and you are sometimes tempted to envy the rich, because they seem to you to have nothing to do. But believe me, those among the rich who do nothing, or only have in view their own amusement in what they do, are often discontented and restless; and never taste the enjoyment you find in ease and rest. But the man who knows his duty and his happiness, will seek some employment, however rich he may be; and often the engagements which he seeks are of a kind which harass and fatigue him full as much as your harder work.

V. 4-6. Joseph's brethren by this time knew enough of him to see that it was their wisdom to follow his advice-they therefore answered Pharaoh as he had directed them;-and the land of Goshen, which was the most suitable for the pasture of flocks, was appointed for them to dwell in.

V. 7. “And Jacob blessed Pharaoh." How was it that the king of Egypt sought the blessing of one so much beneath him in station? In what respect was Jacob his superior? In his age, and his character of a distinguished servant of the Most High God-which, it appears from this transaction, Pharaoh had learned to appreciate. How high is the rank of all who are "children of God!"-But Jacob's age, too, commanded respect:-here is a lesson for us. How often are parents neglected! not consulted! not looked up to!-we might suppose there was no such precept in the Bible as this, "Ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder."

V. 9. "An hundred and thirty years." What a long life! Yet how did it appear to the patriarch? "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." So great is the difference between looking back and looking forward. What ungodly person could be assured of living so many years without

Shepherds an Abomination to the Egyptians. 151

presuming upon it, and putting far from him the evil day of examining how matters stand between him and his God? What Christian could expect so long a life, without trembling at the thought of all the snares and difficulties which must lie between him and his rest? But to both, "few and evil" would these lengthened days appear at the closeto the former, unmixedly evil, because mispent-to the latter, evil, because chequered with so much trial, and stained with so much sin; yet would he adopt the grateful language we find Israel afterwards using, when he acknowledged the care of "the Angel which redeemed him from all evil."

T. B. P.

SHEPHERDS AN ABOMINATION TO

THE EGYPTIANS.

THE following note by Dr. Hales (taken from D'Oyly and Mant's Family Bible) may throw some light upon what has been said in the foregoing remarks on the 46th chapter of Genesis, where we find that the Egyptians had so strong a dislike to shepherds.

"In the reign of Timaus, or Thamuz, Egypt had been invaded and subdued by a tribe of Cushite shepherds from Arabia, who cruelly enslaved the whole country, under a dynasty of six kings; until, at length, the native princes, weary of their tyranny, rebelled, and, after a long war of thirty years, shook off the yoke, and drove the shepherds to Palestine, where they afterwards became the Philistines, about twenty-seven years before Joseph's administration. But the memory of their tyranny was still fresh in the minds of the Egyptians, so that every shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians."

And they could not endure to "eat bread with the Hebrews," because they were shepherds, and came from the neighbourhood of Palestine.

V.

ON THE FUNERAL OF RALPH SPARKS, OF HEIGHINGTON.

THE following very striking and excellent verses were sent us by a Correspondent whose signature is M.

HARK! 'tis the stroke of the village bell,
Tolling the note of the funeral knell;
See! the procession moves along;

And hark! they are mixing the funeral song.
And now the holy priest appears,

And the mourners have dried their falling tears;
And list to the words that the man of God

Uttereth over the funeral sod.

Earth to earth, and clay to clay;

The dead in his narrow bed they lay.

And now the parting words are said,

And the mourning procession is homeward sped;
And he too is gone, that man of God,

And the grave-digger planteth the damp green sod.
Soon the field daisy shall lift her head
Unheedingly over the grave of the dead ;
Soon the mourners shall cease to mourn
But he, they now weep for, will never return.

And who was that man, whose grizzled head,
They have laid in its narrow and desolate bed?
Was he one of a noble or gentle birth,

Was he one of the great ones of this proud earth;
One of the powerful, rich, or brave,

Who is left to sleep in the lonely grave?

Oh! go to yon lowly cottage shed,

Where the aged widow weeps for the dead;
Where the thin pale candle its dim light gleams
O'er the white-washed walls, and the rafter beams;
O'er the oak wood chairs, and the cold stone floor,
On which he walk'd, who shall walk no more;
O'er the coarse hard pillow, and curtainless bed,
On which he repos'd bis wearied head ;

On the Funeral of Ralph Sparks of Heighington. 153

Who now sleeps sweetly in narrower space,
Though the earth-worm creeps o'er his clay cold face.
Behold! where the masterless tools are laid,
The pick-axe and mattock, the scythe and spade;
See the well-worn garments, bare and old,-
And the tale of his earthly lot is told.

And it matters not now:-nor wealth nor power
Could have bought for his death-bed one added hour;
Could have bid the hand of the spoiler cease,
Or have spread o'er bis bosom the balm of peace.

And what was that man, whose coffin'd clay
They have hid from the cheerful eye of day?
Was he one who was careful to do to men
As he would have wish'd them to do again?
Was he one who was mindful of God above,
To keep his commandments, in fear and love?

Oh! go

to yon lowly cottage door,

And listen :-the voice of her wailing is o'er :-
For the aged widow now kneels beside

The bed where her husband so lately died:

But wide before her is open spread

The Book that supported the hopes of the dead;
And she reads those passages o'er and o'er

That he lov'd to read-whom she hears no more.

And see a goodly train appears
Wiping away their sorrowing tears;

They speak of the man beneath the sod,
Who liv'd in the love and fear of God!

And they speak of the precepts and counsel he gave
Who is now at rest in the quiet grave;
And mutual advice they comforting give

To love as the parent they lov'd did live.

And dost thou not say thou wouldst rather be,
This peasant man in his poverty,

To labour and toil for thy daily bread,

And the lowly cot where he shelter'd his head ;-
Than to have liv'd in pomp and power,

If these had made thy soul forget

That there must come a reckoning hour,

When he who lent, would claim the debt,-
An hour when their ruinous joys would be gone,
And thy body be left in the cold grave alone,
A stiff and disgustful corpse of clay,

Mouldering in rottenness fast away;

And this would as surely have come unto thee,
As unto that man of poverty....

M.

LETTER FROM LUTHER TO CADATUS ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON. .

OUR readers are well aware that the Reformation in England was begun in the reign of our Henry the VIIIth. They know, too, that this change of religion from the Roman Catholic to the Protestant faith, had made great progress in Germany before it was completed in England. The leader in this great cause was the celebrated Luther. We are not now, however, on the subject of the Reformation, but the following letter of this great man will be interesting to our readers, and will serve to shew the tenderness of his disposition, as well as his earnest piety.

"Grace and peace to you in Christ. May he comfort you, my dear Cadatus, under your present affliction for who else can assuage your grief? I can easily enter into all you write, for I know the heart of a father, and that an event of this kind pierces it more keenly than a two-edged sword. But you should think it no wonder, if He, who is more truly and properly his Father than you are, chose rather, from the love he bore him, to have your child, nay, rather let me say His child, with himself than with you. He is more safe there than he could be here. But I am sensible that it is in vain to urge these considerations under the anguish of a recent stroke. I will allow you then, for the present, to grieve: great and better men than we have done it, and been blameless. No doubt, it will be beneficial for you to have undergone a trial of this kind also, and to have felt the workings of conscience under it, that you may experimentally know the power of the word and of faith, which is discovered in such circumstances. Salute the partner of your sorrows. Still let your joy in a living