me, near the dome and the fountain. We cling to our earthly hopes and worldly attainments as though they had the strength of a cable, when, alas! they are weak as a spider's thread; for life itself "is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Happy, indeed, is he who can say, with sincerity and confidence, in the midst of all he possesses, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever," Psa. lxxiii. 25, 26. EXCURSION TO THE VOLCANO OF TERNATE, ONE OF THE SPICE ISLANDS. "DURING our stay at this island, we devoted one day to an excursion to the volcano; and setting off from the brig very early in the morning, we reached the shore before the clock tolled four; but a mistake about the needments delayed the moment of starting till five. At first, the ascent was easy, in a smooth but narrow track, so straight, that the feet of a European, who steps like a freeman, and not as if his shackles had just been knocked off, finds it difficult to wend his way and keep the path at the same time. By the time that we had reached the summer house of the sultan, a distance of two miles, some of our party gave up, and left us to pursue our journey with less incumbrance. There is one advantage in expeditions of this kind, that the superfluous parts soon wear off, while the essential find themselves at liberty to make researches together, and push their inquiries as far as they please. We took some refreshment at a house belonging to the sultan, after we had taken a small taste of climbing. In many places, the ascent is very steep, so that the breath fails, and the knees ache as if their sinews would part asunder. Screened from the fanning of any breeze, the natural inhalations of the body condense upon its surface, and distil almost in streams of sweat. "Several objects among the cellular classes of botany, such as marchantia, ferns, and mosses, interested my attention, and delayed my steps. The marchantia covers the rising or perpendicular part of the stairs, like a rich carpet of the softest green. The thecæ, or small heads, (umbrella-shaped caps,) that stand upon the carpet, are round, with small lobes, which are in their turn also minutely scolloped. The upper and under sides are covered with a brown pubescence. Upon the frond, this pubescence forms a kind of network, that might, upon a superficial view, be taken for anastomosing vessels. As we draw near the top, the trees and shrubs decrease by degrees, till we find ourselves within two high walls, composed of grass that rears its soft-flowing clusters, nearly twenty feet above the root. The path that is floored with the falling stems of this grass is very slippery, which greatly enhanced the labour of ascending. At last, we gained the summit; but instead of being upon the edge of a volcano, we beheld a ruinous peak at a distance, whose steep and rugged side seemed to forbid our further progress. After a little rest and refreshment, we descended into a shady valley, mounted a ridge that lay between us, and then amidst sharp stones, went down in a slanting direction, that we might climb the peak by a side that seemed less precipitous. In process of time we reached the summit, and our attendants, who had laboured to turn us back, then began to praise our address. We beheld now a dreadful rent yawning beneath us, and lying between two peaks, on one of which we stood, the other nearly in an opposite region. An explosion seems to have carried away the summit of the mountain, and the action taking place in a somewhat oblique direction, threw up the peak on which we stood, and covered the hither side with fragments of rifted rock. The operation must have been of the most terrible, and to the undismayed beholder, of the sublimest kind. The crater is an inverted pyramid; its bottom is filled with water, and smoke, or vapour issues in a perpetual stream. On the opposite side, not far from the top, the same fumy exhalations ascended in the semblance of a cloud, and might easily be confounded with it. It was altogether a tremendous scene of desolation, for which we find no parallel in the ordinary walks of nature. I took a flying sketch of the crater, and selected specimens from the varieties of rocky formation, that lay scattered around us in the wildest confusion. After we had seen all we could see, tired the patience and assuaged the hunger of the timorous of our party, we descended by the steep est part, because it was the shortest; | and at length reaching the valley, with broken shins and weary knees, we sat down to divide our small amount of viaticum among our companions, and to change our hosen. Thence, when I turned my eyes towards the summit, I can truly say I marvelled at our hardihood, for the slope seemed perpendicular. I said to my companions, "Well, if the danger had appeared as great at the top as it does now at the bottom, I should never have ventured to descend in the face of such evident peril.' I still looked upon our return with apprehensions, thinking the natives would beat me in descending, and my fellow traveller gain upon me in the 'second heat;' but I was mistaken, for exercise had made me gay and vigorous, and I found plenty of time to botanize, while he steered his way with all the steadiness of old time. We had in all, a train of thirty-five natives, of which only a few could keep pace with us, and the most active turned out of the way when they heard the writer coming after them, running where it was smooth, and leaping down such places as were too steep to be descended without difficulty. A gentleman admired for his activity, had returned by seven in the evening; but we were down a little after three, and should have reached town an hour earlier, but for the foolish bearer of my hammer, who lost his charge, and sad to remember, found it not again. through the prodigious heat of the bowels of the earth. Volcanoes are generally in the neighbourhood of the sea, and occur in mountains of a peculiar form, sharp and conical as if centuries before an eruption takes place an explosive influence from beneath, aided perhaps by water coming in contact with the fire below, had exerted its force in a circumscribed direction, nearly perpendicular to the horizon. In the island of Gilolo, within sight of Ternate, we saw many such peaks; but one only had been subject to an eruption, which had made a gap just below the summit. This had a very remarkable appearance, and one of our number imagined that a cloud was hanging upon it; but finding that for several hours it did not alter its figure, he changed his opinion, and agreed with me that it was the result of a volcanic action. It has occurred to me to ask whether the sides of such mountains were sensibly heated by the subterranean fires within them. Whether this was ever the case, we cannot tell with certainty; perhaps not. At present, they are so cool as to occasion a frequent decomposition of vapour, which surrounds them like a beautiful ruff. This we know, that they are situated in the most fertile spots in the world, which is due to the nature of the soil, produced by trap rock, and the shade and moisture which their cloudy garb affords to every thing that grows in it. At distant periods, they appear in all the majesty of terror, but fill up the intervals with smiles so auspicious, that health and beauty are poured forth in one unbounded tide around them." Pindar, in the first Pythian ode, gives a sublime description of an explosion from mount Etna, and speaks of the red curling flame, that in the night carries the riften fragments of rock, and lodges them upon the broad bosom of the deep, and of the agency below, which, like a fancied monster, hurled streams of fire into the air. In the very next stanza, he alludes to the fertility of the mountain, and calls it "the forehead of the well-fruited earth." "In all volcanoes, we do not find streams of lava that have issued from their crater. In Stromboli, for example, Spalanzani could see the melted matter rise and fall, like water in a boiling cauldron, but it did not ascend high enough to overflow the sides. At times, it rose rapidly; when the surface had reached within thirty feet of the edges of the crater, an explosion took place like a short clap of thunder, and at the same moment a portion of the lava was hurled with inconceivable swiftness into the air, and instantaneously separated into numerous fragments. In the volcano of Ternate, we find no traces of any liquid streams; the upper parts We may wind up by reverting to the of the mountain were thrown off in the passage, which was selected as the theme general explosion, and were afterwards of these remarks, and say that Babylon, followed by masses of stone, more or like one of these fertile hills, was desless in a state of fusion. It does not tined, when it should please God, to appear that lava is a substance sui gene-exchange her loveliness and beauty for ris, but merely rock in a melted state, the wildest and most frightful scenes of desolation. God hath done whatever it pleased him; may it be our privilege to acquiesce in all his dealings, not with stoic apathy or a constrained humility, but with the alacrity of a delighted and wonder-stricken beholder.-From a little work published in the United States, under the title of "Claims of Japan and Malaysia." THE YOUNG DISCIPLE. THE devoted and useful labours of the late Rev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, had impaired his health, and, in the summer of 1807, compelled him to abstain, for some weeks, from the exercise of his ministry. He therefore proceeded to the house of his brother, Mr. Edward Simeon, at St. John's, near Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, in the hope that rest and change, under the Divine blessing, would prove beneficial. While there, a young man named Konig, the only son of a rich merchant at Amsterdam, came over to England, and was received into the same house by his father's correspondent, Mr. Edward Simeon, partly for the sake of studying the English language, of which he then knew very little. The time of his arrival appears, however, to have been specially ordered by the God of Providence, for the occurrence of those deeply interesting and instructive circumstances, which are now to be related. It was soon apparent that young Konig, though his appearance and manners were such as to invite kindly feeling and attention, was ignorant of the principles and destitute of the power of true religion. In common with our race, he displayed that carnality of mind, which is enmity against God, and which is manifest in disregard of his perfections, in forgetfulness of the obligations under which he has placed us, and in the violation of his commands. Here a strong resemblance appears between the abandoned and profligate, and those who are accounted amiable and virtuous. The merely moral are kept from the gross and revolting offences with which many are chargeable, and most important is this to others as well as themselves. But as their conduct does not arise from a supreme love to God, springing out of a cordial acceptance of the gospel of Christ, they are convicted of sin, as certainly as the profligate. "All have sinned"-all, without a single exception, and " come short Observing that this was the condition of his new acquaintance, the excellent servant of Christ already mentioned, beheld him with tender compassion. Full well he knew the words of Jesus: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him," John iii. 36. He saw, therefore, the judgments of the Almighty gathering over him, like the thunder clouds of the firmament, ready to involve him in eternal ruin. For "the wages of sin is death," not merely the death of the body, but the death of the soul; not, indeed, the end of its being, but the everlasting forfeiture of its well-being-the loss of peace, and hope, and happiness, for ever! No wonder, then, that a heart so benevolent as Mr. Simeon's was drawn towards this young man, and that he earnestly desired to lead him to the all-sufficient and only Saviour. One day, he was riding a few yards in advance of a party, of which Konig was one. The latter seeing Mr. Simeon alone, joined him, and observing his lips in motion, though he was not engaged in conversation, inquired, with his usual simplicity, what he was saying. Mr. Simeon replied, "I was praying for my young friend." And was not this an invaluable service? "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Prayer moves the hand that moves the world. Eternity alone can reveal the greatness of our obligations to the prayers of the pious. The conversion of many a soul will then be traced, instrumentally, to the petition of some godly man, some godly woman, who, in the exercise of devout supplication, had power with God. The words of Mr. Simeon made a deep impression on the interesting youth, who felt that he had found one tenderly concerned for his real welfare. But, let it be remembered, that no one was ever converted by the grace of God, who trusted to the petitions of others, and did not give himself to prayer; as certainly as it was said of Saul of Tarsus, "Behold, he prayeth," will this declaration be true of every one who experiences the renewing of the Holy Spirit. He who does not breathe is without life; he who does not pray, though hundreds or thousands were to pray for him, is still "dead in trespasses and sins." For this exercise, however, the mind of Konig had been prepared by the following Occurrence. * The party in which he and Mr. Simeon now were, were making the tour of the Isle of Wight, and on arriving at an inn, Konig and another gentleman were obliged to occupy a double-bedded room. His companion, before retiring to rest, knelt down by his bedside to prayer. Here, as it afterwards appeared, was a new sight to the young Hollander, and powerfully did it affect his heart. He had long been unhappy, from a sense of the vanity of earthly things, though he had much of this world's good, but he knew not the way of peace. "But now," he said to himself, as he stated at a future time, "how happy is that man! what would I give, to feel my self in the hands of an almighty Guide and Protector, as he surely does!" Nor did he stop here, ending, as many do, with wishing for what is good, in the very spirit of Balaam, who exclaimed, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" and who died fighting against the armies of Israel and of God; for he fell on his knees, which he had not done before in private for years, and the very next morning he unbosomed himself to his companion. Thus remarkably prepared for Mr. Simeon's reply to his question, "I was praying for my young friend," he encouraged the remarks of that devoted man, who resolved to do all in his power This circumstance recalls another to the mind of the writer. Several years ago, two young men, of whom one only had a sense of the importance of religion, were unexpectedly placed in a similar situation. Some temptation arose in the mind of to train him for happiness and usefulness. After sojourning for some weeks in the island, he invited Konig to take up his residence at Cambridge; and there for months did he spend no small portion of his time, in cultivating the mind of this young foreigner, and storing it with not merely human knowledge, but Divine truth. It is easy to conceive of the themes on which they would often dwell: the greatness of that love which compassionated our ruined race, and sent forth, to accomplish the work of redemption, the only begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father-the preciousness of that Saviour, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross"-the simplicity of the means of interest in Christ's mediation, in the exercise of faith, the embracing of the gospel, the belief of the record which God has given concerning his Son; the results of faith in the renovation of the soul, so that it may be made "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light"-and the glories of that world from which sin is for ever shut out, and where surrounded by angels, and the spirits of just men made perfect, the believer shall behold God face to face. Unspeakably delightful are such themes to those who have "tasted that the Lord is gracious;" happy, thrice happy, are the hours occupied with such meditations! The progress of Konig in spiritual discernment and devout feeling was such as amply to repay his kind and generous teacher. So rapid, indeed, was his advancement, as soon to put to shame some who had contributed to the happy result, and his life proved the reality and growth of his piety. Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unthe latter, to abstain from, or conceal, so far as spotted from the world," James i. 27. possible, his devotional exercises. But the remonstrances of conscience prevailed. He experienced, And during a tour through England and in consequence, the advantage accruing from a dis- Scotland, which he afterwards made, charge of incumbent and solemn duty, and morenot satisfied with seeing and reporting over, the satisfaction of observing, that his companion, who had gone at once into bed on the first upon the ordinary objects of interest to night they were together, regularly kneeled down by a traveller, and of which he was a dilithe bedside, during the remaining days of their intercourse. Such is the power of example. There gent observer, he explored as he went, is reason to believe that there was hope in the the abodes of misery, the infirmaries death, some years after, of this individual; he may and the cottages of lonely poverty, mihave owed much, instrumentally, to the impres-nistering not only of his property to the sions of the evening referred to. 66 prepared for the people; while, on the other hand, the Highlanders of Scotland, speaking the Gaelic, have had a metrical version for one hundred and eighteen years before the New Testament was prepared for them in their own dialect, and one hundred and fortythree before they were in possession of the Gaelic Bible entire. The contrast is here very singular: the friends of the Scotch Gael showed themselves possessed of much wisdom in availing them. selves of the advantage arising from the enthusiastic attachment of that romantic people for poetry and tender relief of the necessitous, but, at the same time, spiritual instruction and consolation. The remembrance of that youth, graceful in person, and with a countenance beaming with benignity, is even now filled with every thing lovely and of good report. As a disciple of Christ, he drank into the spirit of his Master and his Lord, who was "holy," and 66 went about doing good." Meanwhile he was ripening for removal to a better world. On returning to Holland, he witnessed a good confession in his native city. Attacked by consumption, the report of his behaviour excited considerable interest and sur-melody. Soon after the psalms were prise in Amsterdam, where his family was well known. Many seemed to say, "What new thing is this ?" And he died in the peace and joy of the gospel, which is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Well, therefore, might it be said of Mr. Simeon, as it was in reference to the conversion of the Ethiopian, Acts viii. 26, "He who sent Philip to a desert place, did not send him there for nought; but raised a fair and fragrant flower, which, having bloomed for its appointed time on earth in the beauty of holiness, now displays its colours, and diffuses its odours in the paradise of God." Reader, are you a disciple of Jesus? If not, lay the solemn truths brought before you in this narrative, seriously to heart. May the Spirit of the living God impress them on the fleshly tables of the inner man, that so they may never be effaced. The voice of Jehovah now charges you to believe, to repent, to pray, lest you should become more insensible, more negligent of your soul, or lest death should come soon and suddenly upon you, and you should sink into perdition for ever! "See," then, "that ye refuse not him that speaketh." If you are a true disciple of Christ, you will acknowledge, that in this narrative there is much to excite humility, to awaken gratitude, and to urge you to watchfulness, effort, and prayer. HIGHLAND PSALMODY. W. It is a singular fact, that although the New Testament was translated into the Irish so far back as the year 1612, and the Old Testament in 1682, a metrical version of the psalms has never yet been prepared for them, teachers of sacred music were sent forth over all the country to instruct the people in singing the psalms. The effect was most rapid and extraordinary. The Highlanders became enthusiastic in their love of Gaelic psalmody. The hymns of the Druids, venerated for ages, and the wild legends of fairies and mountain spirits, yielded to the songs of Zion : the holy effusions of the contrite and chastened David supplanted the coronach for the dead, and the wail for the dying. The high enthusiasm of the people was not destroyed, but it received a new and holy direction. Indeed, forms a new era in the history of our country; when those songs, "which were first sung on Salem's towers," were heard from our glens and aisles; when the plaintive lay of Martyrs, so justly dear to every Scottish heart, the warbling measure" of sweet Dundee and of noble Elgin became mountain melodies. These were days of marked revival. I have heard aged men declare that from the fleet of fishing boats along the coast of Cantyre and Arran, amounting at times to several hundreds, might be heard in the breeze of the evening, not the warlike music of the bagpipe, which referring to feuds of clans and scenes of strife, often engendered bitter and angry feeling, but one rapturous burst of sacred melody, and of a solemn pause, coming afresh again in full harmonious swell. Mighty was the effect of this in producing social order, honesty, and Christian kindness. I cannot withhold from you one anecdote which I lately heard with much delight. A mournful band of poor emigrants were expatriated their native valley a few years ago in the north of Scotland; forced to leave the glen where their |