There is the "Don't care" of bitter resentment. "He has offended me, and I will have my revenge of him." "But it will do you no good to injure him." "I don't care for that; revenge is sweet.' The following is a fact:-Two builders resided next door to each other. Both were desirous of obtaining a certain contract. The tender of one was accepted. The other, enraged at his disappointment, declared he would leave no means untried to injure his rival. The houses, which the two parties occupied, had been built before the modern enactment that requires party walls, and the think of your toiling up that hill this hot day, and bringing home this load of stones! Why, it is enough to be the death of you!" Such were the exclamations that awaited me on my returning to consciousness: "There, he's coming to, now -but-poor dear! how his head throbs! Does it not ache very badly ?" I could not deny that I had a bad headach. But," said I, "what do I care for the headach? Look at my basket of fossils ?" A serious illness was the result; and I learned that pleasure may be bought too dear, and the achievement of a favourite object is not always an adequate return for the cost and risk in-house of J. had been built to the wall of curred in obtaining it. But I must briefly mention a few more instances of the "Don't care" spirit, as they were spoken of at my uncle's, or have since come under my own observation. There's the "Don't care" of procrastination. "I fully meant to have discharged such a duty; or done such an act of kindness; or made such an effort at usefulness, to-day; but I quite forgot it. Ah well, 'I don't care :' I can do it to-morrow." But oh, how impossible is it that to-morrow, in addition to its own duties, should bear the superadded burden of the neglects of its predecessor! How very probable is it that there will not even be an attempt to fulfil the resolve entered into in so careless a spirit, to say nothing of the uncertainty of to-morrow coming at all. There is the "Don't care" of selfwill. "I don't care what mischief I do in effecting my purpose. I am determined to accomplish a certain object; and if one method fails, I will try another." Alas! how many individuals have been ruined, families divided, and societies broken up, to effect the unhallowed purpose of one self-willed, ambitious, and powerful man! There is the "Don't care" of childish perverseness. "If I can't have it exactly my own way, I don't care about it at all. I will throw away the thing altogether." Thus the king of Israel cared not for all his extensive possessions and dominions, because he could not obtain one little plot of ground to grow a few herbs on, 1 Kings xx. And all the greatness, and wealth, and honour of Haman availed nothing to his content or satisfaction, so long as he saw Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate, Esther v. 9—13. D. Hence D. had the legal right pull down his own wall: a right of which he was inhuman enough to avail himself, at a time when he knew that the wife of J. was just confined in the room which he laid open. No remonstrances, concessions, or offers of remuneration, on the part of J., could divert him from his malevolent purpose. This most unseasonable exposure to cold, threw the poor woman into a rheumatic fever: for two years she was unable to walk; and though she lived many years afterwards, suffered excruciating pain in her limbs to the day of her death. The unhappy D. did not long enjoy his revenge; for while superintending the work of spoliation, he fell from the top of a ladder, and broke his leg, of which he died. . There is the "Don't care" that expresses disregard of the admonition of danger. "Such a practice is dangerous. It may not be absolutely sinful; but it is not lovely' or 'of good report.' Your conduct may give occasion, to those who would seek occasion, to speak evil of you. It would be wiser and safer to alter your course. Such admonitions are too often met with the reply, "I don't care what people say of me: they are not my judges. If my own conscience does not condemn me, I don't care for the opinion of others." But you ought to care. is mentioned to the honour of ancient believers, and, as a matter of consistency with what God, and the church, and the world, had a right to expect from them, that they "obtained a good report, Heb. 'xi. 39; and others are spoken of professors of religion, yet who follow pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth is evil spoken of, 2 Peter ii. 2. A Christian is bound to avoid not only evil, but the very appearance of evil, 1 Thess. v. 22; and not It only, not to open the mouths of gain- | Then, again, "Take care, such an act is dangerous; though in itself seemingly trifling, it may prove the beginning of evil." Who is it that makes light of such an admonition? that "does not care" for the caution; that flatters himself there can be no great harm in such a thing for once, and sure that he is in no danger of making a practice of it? It is he who, in presumptuous folly, seats himself on the sands of the sea shore, and will not retreat, though warned, on the approach of the waves; but flatters himself of security, in saying to the rising element, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." Yes; and he who despises caution against the incipient power of a habit is the same who, in a little time, gives himself up to the determined indulgence of habit, and still meets remonstrance with "I don't care; I can't help it now; I have loved idols, and after them I will go," Jer. ii. 25. and know nothing about it; but, at any rate, I will not care about it now." "I don't care' what he says. It may be true, for what I know; but he is no better than other people, and I do not see why I should mind him." It is a pity that the advocates of truth should ever weaken their cause by the loss of personal respect. But still it is great folly to reject what is true, and good, and valuable, on account of the channel through which it comes. Good news may be brought by a leper, 2 Kings vii. 9. A wise man, for his own sake, will examine the testimony, and act upon the truth. There is the "Don't care of despair." Things are come to such a pass, that it is impossible for them to be mended. I don't care what becomes of me." This is a sad and sinful, as well as most distressful state of feeling. It is, however, in all cases, a delusion, though, in some, a fatal delusion. Does the desperate expression refer to worldly circumstances? "Beware of desperate steps; the darkest day, Live till to-morrow, will have past away." saved, all the ends of the earth," Isa. xlv. 22. Say, "The call must needs be addressed to me, for I am not beyond the ends of the earth;" and, "From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I," Psa. lxi. 2. C. Think of the power of God, who can turn the shadow of death into the morning. The case cannot be more desperate than that of Jonah, who was yet brought up from the belly of hell, to sing, "Salvation is of the Lord," Jonah ii. 9. Does the expression of despondency refer to the salvation of the soul? Instead of giving There is the "Don't care" of unbe-up in hopeless despair, think of the Salief and presumption. I heard a flip-viour's boundless love and grace; listen pant daughter of vanity ridiculing some to his call, "Look unto me, and be ye pious people, who passed by her on their way to the house of God, and boast, that since her marriage, a period of twelve or fourteen years, she had never entered the church door, except when she had occasion to go to be churched. Her brother-in-law, a pious clergyman, entreated her to forbear; and, if she had no regard for her own soul, to consider the injury that such conversation might inflict on the souls of her children; and the remorse that she would probably feel on her dying bed, in looking back on the influence of her language and example. Her reply was, "I never care for what parsons say they are paid for saying it. As for death, I don't choose to think about it. I should like to live two hundred years-as long as ever I can ; but without growing older than I now am. And then, if I must die, I should wish to die THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. In concluding the history of the Gunpowder Plot, an interesting inquiry presents itself. Were the original conspirators the only guilty parties? or must the plot be traced to the influence of Popish doctrines, acting on minds of an excitable and enthusiastic temperament? In other words, Was the Gunpowder Plot the child of Popery? This question may be easily answered. en To the authority of the church every cure stirs; but yet they would not hinRomanist yields a ready and absolute der any, neither was it the pope's mind submission. It is a mortal sin to disobey they should, that should be undertaken her commands. It is highly meritorious for the Catholic good."? Now, all the to advance her interests. Her enemies conspirators considered the plot to be are his enemies. Her friends are his "undertaken for the Catholic good," or, friends. And, that church, long ago, as Fawkes said, "for the restitution of doomed all heretics, by a formal decree, religion;" meaning, thereby, Popery. to extermination; and, at a subsequent This was the animating spirit of the enperiod, declared that promises made to terprise. The conspirators dwelt on it them were not to be kept, if their ob- in their conferences; they were servance would be prejudicial to the couraged by it in their toils. If they Romish faith. It was notorious, also, succeeded, their "holy religion" would that during the reign of Elizabeth, bulls be exalted; if they failed, they would had been issued, denouncing her as a die "for God's cause," and get a gloheretic and an usurper; and that the rious name. "I am satisfied," said John most strenuous efforts were made to Grant, on the morning of his death, drive her from her throne, and take" that our project was so far from being away her life. It has been already sinful, that I rely entirely upon my stated, that pope Clement vIII.'s breves, merits in bearing a part of that noble respecting a popish successor to Eliza- action, as an abundant satisfaction and beth, were in Garnet's possession, and expiation for all sins committed by me that he showed them to Catesby and during the rest of my life!"** There is Winter. That they encouraged Catesby no doubt that he uttered the sentiments in contriving the plot, if they did not of all his accomplices. Popery had originate the idea in his mind, is suffi- blinded their minds, and hardened their ciently clear from his own words: "If hearts. They cared not what misery it was lawful," he justly argued, "by was inflicted, what blood was shed, what force of the pope's breves, to have kept precious lives were sacrificed. They would the king out, if he was not a Catholic, have spread "lamentations, and mournit was as lawful now to put him out, ing, and woe" throughout the land, and when he had declared himself the enemy exposed the kingdom to all the horrors of Catholics." It is true that Garnet of revolution and war "for the Caalleged, in his defence, that he had en- tholic good." They were true sons of deavoured to dissuade the conspirators the church, and obediently followed from their purpose, because further out the well-known principles of the communications had been received from Papacy. the pope, prohibiting all violent measures; and that in a letter to Greenway, written about three weeks before his death, he uses these words: "I always condemned the plot, absolutely, in my own mind; and my opinion generally was, that all stirs against the king were unlawful, because the authority of the pope, who had forbidden all such attempts, was wanting." But these vows imply, that with the pope's permission the plot would have been justifiable, and | treason a religious duty; and Garnet's explanation of the papal prohibition, as given to sir Everard Digby, confined it within very narrow compass, or rather entirely nullified it. "He told me,' said sir Everard, "that they were not" (meaning priests) "to undertake or pro But it has been affirmed that the plot was altogether confined to a few men of desperate characters, and that the Romanists, in general, reprobated and disavowed it. And so they did, after it had failed! The conspiracy was necessarily confined to a few persons, to give it a chance of continued secrecy. Had it taken effect, the consequence would have been a revolution, and it requires little sagacity to form a judgment of the probable conduct of the Papists under such circumstances. The pope's breves would have been then found very plain and explicit; and none would have hesitated to carry into effect, to the utmost possible extent, the decree of the Council of § Jardine, p. 384. As Rookwood was being drawn to the place of execution, his wife presented herself at an open window in the Strand, and exhorted him "to be of good courage, inasmuch as he suffered for a great and noble cause." ** Jardine, p. 187. Lateran.* That the Gunpowder Plot | unto the higher powers," Rom. xiii. 1 was a popish plot, devised by Papists, sustained by popish principles, encou raged by popish priests, and designed to accomplish the overthrow of Protestantism, and the establishment of Popery on its ruins, cannot be denied; although its failure has made it convenient to disclaim the atrocious deed. But the pages of history cannot be blotted out.† The influence of Popery is also strikingly shown in the case of Garnet. He justified the concealment of the plot, by the plea that he had received the knowledge of it in confession, or "by way of confession." This was not the whole truth; for it became fully evident that he was frequently consulted respecting it, and that his approbation and advice were highly esteemed by the conspirators. But let us admit his plea, that it was revealed to him in confession, and that therefore he was bound to keep it secret. The doctrine of the Romish church, on this subject, is thus authoritatively expressed: "As all are anxious that their sins should be buried in eternal secrecy, the faithful are to be admonished, that there is no reason whatever to apprehend, that what is made known in confession, will ever be revealed by any priest; or that by it the penitent can, at any time, be brought into danger or difficulty of any sort. All laws, human and divine, guard the inviolability of the seal of confession; and against its sacrilegious infraction the church denounces her heaviest chastisements. 'Let the priests,' says the great Council of Lateran, 'take especial care, neither by word, nor sign, nor by any other means whatever, to betray, in the least degree, the sacred trust confided to him by the sinner.'" Here is, indeed, a safeguard for traitors! The word of God says, "Let every soul be subject That decree has not been regarded as a dead letter. Cardinal Allen declared that pope Sextus v., in requesting Philip of Spain to undertake the invasion of England, was avowedly acting on "a special canon of the great Council of Lateran, touching the chastisement of princes, that will not purge their dominions of heresy and heretics."— Turner's Modern History of England, iv. 505. + Archbishop Tillotson observes, "I would not be understood to charge every particular person, who is, or hath been, in the Roman communion, with the guilt of those, or the like practices; but I must charge their doctrines and principles with them. I must charge the heads of their church, and the prevalent teaching and governing part of it, who are usually the contrivers and abettors, the executioners and applauders of those cursed designs."Works, 12mo., vol. i., p. 349. 1 Catechism of the Council of Trent, translated by Donovan, p. 282. "Honour the king," 1'Peter ii. 17. But a popish rebel may go to his confessor, and say, "My king is a heretic: I mean to kill him to-morrow." He need not fear discovery. His spiritual father will not put forth his little finger to save the nation from the consequences of the infamous deed. He may, indeed, endeavour to persuade the wretch to alter his mind; but should he be unsuccessful, not a word will escape his lips, nor any friendly warning be given to the victim of treachery. He might save the life of his sovereign; but the laws of his church prohibit him from yielding to the impulses of compassion, and compel him to become a traitor. And when the villain has consummated his purpose, he will be seen bowing again at the feet of the confessor, to receive the absolution which will send him in peace to the scaffold, and apply a flattering, deadly unction to his soul."? The seal of confession! Whence comes this seal of confession; this right to conceal murder and treason; this exaltation of a sinful man above the authority of God's holy word? Is it not the "deceivableness of unrighteousness ?"-the "working of Satan ?" 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10. We shall be told that it is perfectly unnecessary, and not very charitable, to revive the memory of this atrocity. "Let it be buried in oblivion." No; never! The record must be preserved, and continually set before men, as a warning against the pernicious and perilous tendency of popish principles. It never can be forgotten. We do not charge modern Papists with treasonable opinions and practices. We know that they profess entire loyalty to the sovereign of these realms, and that, for the most part, they are peaceable subjects. But we know, also, that the decree of the Council of Lateran is unrepealed; that the law of sacramental confession is unaltered; and that Popery is always the same. The power wielded by the priesthood is a mighty engine. In its more mischievous uses, at least as far as the The following extracts from the examinations of the conspirators will illustrate these observations: Thomas Bates. "The said priest, Greenway, gave this examinate absolution." This was in December, 1604. Robert Winter. "I confess that on Thursday the 7th of November, (this was after the discovery,) I did confess myself to Hammond the priest, as other gentlemen did, and was absolved, and received the sacrament." general condition of society, in England, | ness to the Redeemer, and conformity to is concerned, it is at present dormant. But it still exists, and under altered circumstances must be expected to bring forth its accustomed fruits. The same influence, by the working of which a Protestant school is suppressed, or a Protestant Bible burned, would constrain the slaves of the system, at any fitting opportunity, to oppose the advancement of knowledge and piety, and forge anew the chains of persecution. The spread of popish principles, therefore, in any form, and under any modification, cannot but be regarded, by the friends of scriptural truth, with deep concern. Tradition is the main pillar of the Papacy. Nothing perplexes a popish debater more than to confine him to Scripture. But let him choose his own position; let him appeal to tradition, and the authority of the church, you will find, if you agree to meet him there, that he is impregnable. The Protestant's only safety lies in a strict and uncompromising adherence to the word of God. We must have Scripture alone, or become Papists. Let the rallying cry be, "To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them," Isa. viii. 20. 66 his will. We have the "spirit of Christ;" the spirit of meekness, forbearance, and forgiveness; the spirit of 'power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” 2 Tim. i. 7. We bless them that curse us, and pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us, Matt. v. 44. We seek to know all the will of the Lord, and to do it; and we cheerfully devote our time, our strength, our talents, and our property, to the extension of his kingdom. But, however diligent and zealous we may be, we shall not boast of our performances, nor dream of merit. We shall live and die, "looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life," Jude 21. No prayer to the "mother of grace" will mingle itself with our last words. We shall not look to the saints, but to the Saviour. Christ alone will be our trust, our joy, our hope. "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57. "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God," Rev. vii. 14, 15. THE PERAMBULATOR. The The Shrine of the Nativity. panoramas which are exhibited, from time to time, are on a much more extended scale, and the cosmoramas present a greater variety of views to the eye, than the dioramas; but the latter are far more arresting than either of the former. The peculiarity of the style, in which they are painted, the varied lights cast upon them, and the changes they exhibit, give them a decided advantage over every other exhibition of paintings, so far as an approach to reality is concerned. The illusion, indeed, after gazing, for a short time, is so complete, that an effort of the mind is required to convince the spectator that he is not gazing on tangible things, but only on a shadowy resemblance of them. We pity the ignorance and superstition of those infatuated men, whose horrible plot has been now contemplated. We adore the gracious Providence which unveiled the deed of darkness, and delivered Britain from the tremendous destruction. We bless God, as well we may, for the light of Protestantism, and the happiness it has diffused in our land. And now let us determine to contend earnestly "for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," using no carnal weapons in its defence, but relying on the promised grace of the Holy Spirit, in connexion with the word of God and prayer. The main truth of the gospel is, the justification of the sinner by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness;-that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus," Rom. iii. 25, 26. Inseparably connected with our acceptance through the righteousness of the Saviour, is the sanctification of our souls. In believing the gospel, we are justified: the truth which we believe "effectually worketh" in our hearts, producing like-spectator. It is true, that the scene it Perhaps, of all the dioramas hitherto exhibited in London, that of the shrine of the nativity at Bethlehem is the most successful in its influence over the |