SECOND COMMANDMENT.

As the first commandment forbids our having any other God, this forbids in particular the worship of idols. It is astonishing that reasonable beings should fall into the sin of idolatry; but when once mankind forsake the worship of the true God, there is no end to the follies of which they are guilty. The sun, moon, and stars, were the first objects of idolatrous worship; then deceased men, who had been great conquerors; and as mankind fell from one folly into another, the most wretched and degrading deities were imagined. The Egyptians, who were a learned people, were yet so debased as to worship the crocodile, the ibis, and the bull, and even leeks and onions. The Greeks and Romans were equally debased, and at the present day, in heathen countries, gods of wood and stone are worshipped, so monstrous and ridiculous, that it would hardly be credited that man could sink so low, if the fact did not really exist. The most cruel rites accompanied this idolatrous worship; human sacrifices were offered up, infants killed, and widows and slaves burnt upon funeral piles.

How thankful should we be that we are delivered from such horrors! Our forefathers worshipped idols and offered human sacrifices, till the preachers of the Gospel came and introduced the worship of the true God. An immense wicker idol used

to be made, with stories constructed in it, which was then filled with men, women, and children from the top to the bottom, and after they were secured so that they could not escape, piles of wood were brought, and the idol was set on fire, and all the people within consumed. This frequently took place in our country, and was considered an acceptable offering to the god. Let us, having experienced the blessings of the Gospel ourselves, endeavour to shew our gratitude by communicating them to others,

It forbids also the worship of saints and angels, and of the images used in the Roman Catholic Church. No reason can be advanced why the image-worship of the Romanists should be less accounted a breach of this commandment than that of the heathen: indeed, the very same arguments which the Papists urge in defence of their conduct have been used by the great heathen writers of the early ages, Porphyry, Celsus, and others, in support of the worship of images, against the Christians. Hence we cannot be surprised to learn that in places where Romanism prevails, this commandment is omitted altogether, or made only a part of the first; and that in order to keep up the number of ten in their catechisms, the Papists divide the tenth into two.

How different this from the custom of the primitive Christians, whose constant care was to keep this commandment "without spot." They were frequently blamed by

the heathen, that they had no images: but in this they gloried; and Lactantius, a celebrated writer, says: "It is not to be doubted that there is no religion where there is an image." When the dreadful persecution of Dioclesian commenced, a large body of soldiers came to the great church of Nicomedia, and bursting open the doors, sought for the image of God. The Scriptures which were found were burnt, and every thing given to plunder, but no image could be found in any part of the building.

To pray to saints and to seek their mediation is a dishonour done to Christ, for "There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." Suppose a person had a petition to present to some great sovereign, and that he had offended him, and had reason to apprehend that he would not listen to his request. How desirous in this case would he be to procure some one to intercede for him, and whom he was sure the king regarded! While thus anxious and doubtful, a proclamation is issued, that on such a day, all who had offended the king, and wished for pardon, or had any request to make, should place their petitions in the hand of the king's son, and that the king would then take their requests into his gracious consideration. Here is just the opportunity desired-an intercessor appointed, and the one who is most likely to prevail. But suppose this person, instead of attempting to interest the king's son, and pressing

forward among the crowd of suppliants to place the petition in his hands, should fall on his knees before one of the servants, and intreat him to take his petition and lay it before the throne, would he be likely to meet with success? would he not rather provoke the sovereign to refuse his request, by disobeying his directions, and choosing to approach him through the medium of a servant rather than his beloved son?

THE SECRET PRISON-HOUSE.

SOME workmen lately, in taking down an old monastic building in Hereford, came to a prison, in which there is reason to believe some unfortunate victim was immured alive. A correspondent of the Hereford Times gives the following interesting account of the discovery:

"In taking down the south-east corner the workmen came to a paving-stone, which, on being removed, disclosed to view an aperture about 18 by 12 inches in dimensions; on further examination, by removing the walls, it appeared that it was a sort of niche 5 feet 6 inches high, capable of containing a human form, broad at the head and tapering down to the feet, where it was ten inches broad; it had been plastered in the interior on the front, back, and east side, on the opposite it was closed up with rough wall stone; at the bottom was another pa

ving-stone, and upon it an heap of collapsed bones, a glass bottle, and an earthen pan, portions of the leather and high heel of shoes, and a piece of wood, which, it has been asserted, bears the marks of having been gnawed, as if in the last frenzied effort to sustain a famishing and desperate nature. The fragments of the bottle and pan, for we regret to say they were broken, and the other portions carried away, the leather and the sole, and the piece of wood referred to, are before you. Was it in refinement of cruelty that these vessels were deposited at the feet, where the wretched sufferer, from