tells us, that having been one night entertained very hospitably by a family in the East, he returned to his host the next morning, for a book which he had left the preceding evening; he found him and his family busily engaged in breaking the plates and dishes out of which his friends had eaten, and purifying other articles by passing them through water or fire. No doubt but these ceremonies were originally designed to keep the Jews at a distance from the neighbouring nations, that they might not be infected with their abominable idolatries."

"Our Lord gave thanks before he broke the bread do the Jews do so now?"

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Yes, all of them, who have the smallest pretensions to piety. Before they come to their meals, they still wash their hands, as the

6

Evangelists inform us they used to do, Mark vii. 3. Then the master takes a loaf of bread, and as he breaks it, he says, ' Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, the King of the World, who producest bread out of the earth;' to which all present say, Amen!' And then the bread is distributed. The chief person then takes the vessel of wine, and says, • Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the World, who hast created the fruit of the vine.' the twenty-third Psalm is repeated. close of the meal, the master fills a glass of wine, and takes a piece of bread, which has been laid by for the purpose, and says, 'Let us bless Him, of whose benefits we have partaken.' The guests reply, Blessed be He who hath heaped favours on us, and has now fed us on His goodness.' The head of the

Then

At the

family then prays God to restore Jerusalem, the Temple, and the throne of David to their former glory, and especially to send Messiah to raise them from their low and degraded condition. To which the whole company add their Amen; and they finish the ceremony by repeating the ninth and tenth verses of the thirty-fourth Psalm."

PRESENTS.

"HARRY, you may now show me the presents which your uncle was so kind as to send you. I had not leisure to notice them when they came, last evening.

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Well, a Bible! And a most beautiful edition of it too. I hope, my dear boy, you

will read it with care, and value it for the giver's sake, but more especially for its own worth. That is, as Young says,`

'A page, where triumphs immortality !'"

"Uncle William has written a verse in the blank leaf."

"So he has; I did not observe it. What is it?"

"A glory gilds the sacred page,

Majestic like the sun;

It gives a light to every age,

It gives, but borrows none.

"That is a verse of Cowper's; very suitable and very true; for there is not an idea in the world, of God, or of divine things, at least, at all worthy of them, but it came from this hallowed source. This is evident; or how can it be accounted for, that the philosophers of Greece and Rome, many of them men of

mighty minds, knew not God, but worshipped 'the creature;' and gods of wood and of stone, more than the Creator, who is God over all, blessed for ever?'

"But you have something else, have you not, Harry?"

"Yes; a microscope."

"That is a very pretty present; and it will furnish you with perpetual employment and gratification. You will indeed see, what I have so often told you, that God is as great and glorious in the minutest of His works as in the greatest. But you have been up some time, have you not, Harry? What have you been doing?"

"I have been reading in my new Bible." "What part have you been reading?" "About Jacob, and his sending a present into Egypt, though it was but a poor one; it