NOTES ON GENESIS.

CHAPTER II.

2, 3. This Sabbath was instituted to commemorate the finished work of Creation. It was afterwards changed to the first day of the week, the day of our Lord's resurrection, to commemorate the finished work of redemption. In either view it was to be set apart or sanctified as a day of rest from all worldly occupations; a day of public worship of God, and private communion with Him; a day to be entirely devoted to religious purposes. There is no one branch of duty more strongly insisted on in scripture, or to which greater blessings, both national and individual, are annexed, than a strict adherence to the sanctification of the Sabbath. The neglect of it is at once an evidence of the want of religion, and a prevention of its growth. See Isaiah lviii. 13, where no less a blessing is promised to the strict observance of the sabbath, than an increasing delight in the Lord.

17. Man, living entirely under the influence and guidance of Him who is wisdom, was forbidden to taste of the tree of the knowledge of good and evilwas forbidden to seek an independent knowledge or wisdom of his own. The Spirit of God dwelt in him, feeding him with all holiness, goodness, and wisdom, as the branch is nourished by the sap of the tree on

which it grows. But if he should seek to become independent, to judge for himself by wisdom of his own, he shall surely die-die from that life of God in which he had lived, become as a branch broken off, and no longer nourished by the parent tree, (See John xv. 1—7,) and, no longer being enlightened and guided by that wisdom which is from above, must necessarily fall under the guidance of that blind and finite wisdom, of which a finite being is alone capable, which cannot extend beyond certain limited bounds; as every created thing must be limited, infinitude belonging to God alone, the only self-existent, who filleth all space, and in whom all things do consist. The creature thus severed from his root, removed from his centre, standing alone, left to himself, left to his own dark and limited powers, must necessarily be enveloped in self, must becòme his own centre; yet feeling insufficient to himself, groping after whatever his blind wisdom and narrow views conceive to be good, hating whatever he conceives opposes or annoys him; he must necessarily be just what we find man in his present state naturally is, a selfish, craving, restless, unsatisfied being, from whom every vice and every vicious passion must flow in varied kinds and degrees, according as surrounding objects and circumstances act on him.

24. Here is the institution of marriage, and much misery has arisen in the world from not attending to its design and the command given respecting it. God decrees that in marriage two should become one, one in heart, in inclinations, in interests, in pursuits; united by a tie more close, more dear than the closest and dearest bonds of nature; cleaving to each other JANUARY, 1840.

D

more than to father and mother. Yet we daily see marriages contracted in which it is not possible such a union could exist; where the dissimilarity of education, habits, tastes, or natural dispositions render it impossible for even a union in religious sentiments to produce that full harmony of heart necessary to the idea of two becoming one. From this cause I have seen much deficiency of affection and happiness in marriages, where each party possessed qualities capable of rendering them blessings in domestic life with a more suitable companion. Who can expect a blessing on a state entered into without a due regard to the declared will and intention of God!

RECOLLECTIONS OF IRELAND.

No. VI.

A PARISH HISTORY.

THE case is simply this,' said the curate: When I set out on the journey from which I am now returning, I arranged all its stages in my own mind previously; for one so little used to travelling, may, even in these days, be excused for feeling a little sort of nervous apprehension regarding a seat on the top of a coach, and, to avoid the expense of one inside it, I resolved to take poor old Dodger as my sole conveyance, and to stop each night at houses where I was assured of a cead-mil failthele to all they had to give. On approaching your county, I own, however, I found that in one respect I had been sadly deficient in the foresight on which I prided myself. It was the fair day, and I found I had to travel perhaps seven or eight miles at an hour which on such an evening could not be considered a safe one. I revolved, therefore in my mind the prudence of stopping till morning in the town; but the idea of spending the night at a noisy and public inn, which,

as I did not know a creature there, I must have done, counterbalanced the fear of assault, and I proceeded.

'A little out of the town, I perceived three men walking before me; and the suspicions of danger which probably arose from the consciousness that I had then upon my person nearly all my store of worldly goods, in the shape of cash to defray the expenses of my journey, made me keep an anxious eye upon them. I saw two of them were evidently intoxicated, and appeared to behave in that rude and reckless manner which made me much wish to avoid their path: but poor Dodger was already tired, and therefore I thought it most advisable to linger behind, especially as I must turn off the cross-roads, to the friend's house where I intended to rest that night, and I hoped it might be their purpose to continue straight on.

'Before long, however, an altercation ensued between them, and after some disputation, the object of which appeared to be to prevent the most respectable-looking of the party from returning; one man turned back and ran towards the town. I felt a little uneasy at first, but I soon saw that I was not the object of his notice. The other two continued some short distance further, but on coming to the cross-roads at which I designed to turn off, the younger abruptly bade his companion good night. The other put out his hand with the intention, it seemed, of catching the breast of his coat, but failed in his object, and murmuring something indistinctly, staggered to the other side of the way. I was then close behind them; for being glad to find myself so near the road by which I was to leave the public one,