Adam would know what it was to be transfixed, soul and spirit, by the sword of the Law; that he would realize the condition of one, fleeing from the avenger of blood; but without any immediate recollection of a city of refuge to which he might direct his steps; that alarm and horror would supersede every other feeling of his soul, so that until through the lovingkindness and tender compassion of the Lord, the promise should be brought to his remembrance; and light, through a peculiar operation of the Spirit, should be thrown upon its meaning; he would only utter it in accents of agony verging on despair— "thine arrows stick fast in me, and thine hand presseth me sore." (Ps. xxxviii. 2.) But that Adam when duly convinced of sin by the Law, and sufficiently humbled under the mighty hand of God, would receive from his covenant God and Father in Christ, the gift of faith in the promised Deliverer, we may properly believe; and this pleasing supposition is confirmed by the ensuing verse, where we find Adam assigning a name to his wife, expressive of his faith in the unchanging love of God to an elect people.

VERSE 20.-" And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living." And do we err in ascribing it to a principle of faith in Adam's mind, that in the midst of death he was yet enabled to see life; and with the awful sentence of death still sounding in his ears, could thus boldly speak of life, and confer on his wife a name which implied that from her should spring a living race, a race, who dead in law, dead to the eye of sense and nature, morally, spiritually dead, were yet truly alive in virtue of God's promise, alive in God's foreknowledge, and in their predestination unto life in His

eternal Son, who was himself their true and proper life. (Col. iii. 3. 4; 1 John v. 12.) It must have been faith which could enable Adam thus to look off from himself, now dead, and from his wife alike dead, and from his posterity who were all to die in him, and to discern amidst this universal wreck of human nature, the future existence of a living race; and not only was there faith here, but no ordinary, no common faith, but faith of a peculiar and high character. And then let us notice with what genuine humility, and unfeigned lowliness of heart does Adam acknowledge, that by reason of his sin he was no longer the representative of the living race, who must from henceforth be designated as the woman's seed rather than his seed, in order to express the quarter from which they would derive their true, their spiritual life, and to signify that it was in virtue of their union with the seed of the woman, Jesus, that the elect race might be properly spoken of as a living people. He strips himself therefore of all the dignity due to himself, as the originator of mankind, -makes no mention of himself as the father of the whole race of man, but transferring his thoughts from the fleshly birth of his natural offspring, to their new birth by the power of the Holy Ghost, he manifests the efficacy of that faith by which his pride of heart was so effectually subdued, and which could thus constrain him to humble himself under the mighty hand of God.

THE RUSSIAN UKASE.

THE "Voice of Jacob," of March 22, contains the following announcement,

"It is with fervent gratitude to Him who permitteth kings to reign, to Him who alone can succour the dismayed of heart, that we announce, on the authority of authentic letters received in town on Monday last, the suspension of this fearful ukase; the threatened execution of which has excited the sympathies and apprehensions of our readers for so many months past.

"The decree is not to be put into execution for four years; a period affording ample opportunity to demonstrate to the Emperor, its true character in relation to any object of state policy, possible in these civilised times; a period, the very extent of which, suitably employed, may serve to deprive the most ruthless of the local governments, of even a pretext for its revival. There prevails, therefore, a confidence that it will never be put into execution.

"In looking back at the warm and ready sympathy which this impending calamity has evoked on all sides, we again take the opportunity to declare, that an eminent debt of gratitude is due to our contemporaries of the English and French press, for their earnest advocacy of the cause, as philanthropists and as statesmen."

We are very sure that our readers will, one and

all, rejoice with our Jewish brethren in this most merciful interposition; the preciousness of which cannot be computed even by such as are aware of the vast multitude of those affected by the proposed measure, unless they could also realize the horrors peculiar to the country, the climate, and the predisposition of mind too surely existing among its inhabitants to make even a merit of exulting over, and oppressing the Jew: as though the measure of Christ's love for His own people were the standard of hatred and cruelty on the part of Gentiles professing to follow Him.

We happen to know that a party of gentlemen, more than nominally Christian, agreed in proffering their cordial co-operation to a governing body of English Jews; and only held their proceedings in abeyance in consequence of the existence of a hope now so happily realized. We mention the fact in order to impress it strongly upon our readers that whatsoever they may be disposed to attempt for the advantage of Israel nationally, and very much may be done to benefit them throughout the worldwill be best accomplished by placing their means and their operations under the directing influence of the Jews themselves.

MARY SPENCER.

A TALE FOR THE TIMES.

CHAPTER IX.

WHEN the tea-equipage was removed, Mary took her seat by pastor Le Brun, with a feeling similar to that which an affectionate child experiences who, after a long absence, once more feels she is beside a beloved parent. Emma too, who looked at the old man with deep veneration, contrived so to place her chair that she might hear some of those beautiful lessons, which, in other days he was wont to impart to Mary Spencer.

But Emma was disappointed in this hope, for the good pastor was silent, and even Mary seemed wholly engrossed by the eloquent conversation of Mr. Norman. She had been much interested during dinner, with his store of lively historical anecdotes, and she now listened with pleasure while he accurately described some wonderful discovery of modern art; pointing out the manner in which the complicated machinery was made to effect its useful purpose, and then turning to Mr. Sidney, he said, "Yet after all, this age of cold utility, always seeking to compute the return to be expected from every expenditure, has a chilling influence upon the heart; and I often long to see that spirit of piety once more gladdening