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volent efforts naturally excited formidable opposition, and the cry of cant and hypocrisy was raised; but his procedure was vindicated by some of the most eminent of his contemporaries, and its triumph, in its results, is immutably sure. As an illustration of the effect which such associations are calculated to produce, we insert part of a letter, written by a student of Guy's Hospital :-" The time allotted to my medical studies is now almost expired; and with regret I shall leave these lecture-rooms and wards, where so much research and knowledge have been freely unfolded before me, and where the condescension and urbanity of the medical officers of the hospital, on all occasions, have produced feelings of obligation and gratitude, which can never be effaced. In addition to all these claims upon my respect and gratitude, I have now superadded an interest and care for me in my progress in knowledge of a still higher kind. I am now reminded and encouraged to believe, that to all my possible skill and knowledge of my profession, may be added the additional excellence of humble Christian piety,—a guide through life, a safeguard from the evils of life, and a support in that hour which awaits even a medical man, the hour of death."

the prescription:- Although, my dear patient, I am personally unknown to you, the intense anxiety shewn in your dear and devoted mother's letter, induces me to write to you. A lady from Edinburgh, who is now in town under my care, who knows your dear mother, has still more interested me in her and your behalf, by confirming the impression conveyed to me in the letters I have received. Now, it is true that it has pleased God to chasten you with an anxious and perilous disease, one which excites our deepest anxiety; but it is equally true that it is one in which it often pleases Him, in His mercy and His love, (Heb. xii. 6.), after a time, to lift His hand and bless the means employed for the cure of the patient. I am anxious to tell you that one of the greatest sources of peril in this disease arises from too many remedies being employed, and no one employed with sufficient assiduity. I have been permitted to witness many cases of recovery, after continuing the remedy you are now taking during several months. That remedy acts, 1st, by removing from the blood those unhealthy matters which are too generally retained in the disease; 2d, by gradually checking the formation of sugar; 3d, by promoting the conversion of the food you take into healthy chyle; and, 4th, by preventing the distressing constipa-pelled Dr. Bird to resign his physiciantion. For these reasons, I wish you to continue the remedy; and that God may, in His mercy, restore you to health and usefulness, if it be His will, is the sincere prayer of your friend, Golding Bird.'"

In 1853 Dr. Bird organized a series of religious meetings among his professional brethren in London, and endeavoured to impress them strongly with a conviction of the immense importance of teachers and practitioners using their influence for the spiritual benefit of students. His own “anxious and large experience," he states, had convinced him that "no great improvement will ever take place in the ethics of the medical profession, until the religious training of the students is made a matter of solicitude by those whose influence is respected by them, and whose example should guide them. His bene

The state of his health at length com

ship at Guy's; and, in a short period thereafter, most reluctantly to desist from all professional labour. He quitted London to take up his residence at Tunbridge Wells. Here death overtook him upon 27th Oct. 1854-a death characterized by every trait of the Christian's departure. "To him it was but a means of translation to another and a brighter world. With an assured and profound belief in his own unworthiness, and in the atoning sacrifice of his Saviour, he passed in perfect consciousness, and perfect happiness, into eternal life."

The biographical sketch of Dr. Zuckerbecker possesses considerable interest,but cannot be brought into comparison with that of Dr. Bird. Zuckerbecker died a young man, and was not permitted to

enter upon the discharge of the duties of good which a medical man possesses, if, his profession. By birth he was a Rus- with skill, he combines piety and earsian. He studied medicine in Edinburgh; nestness of purpose. Zuckerbecker's but further than diligence and persever-letters have little general interest, and ance in the prosecution of his studies, to a great extent might have been supand a good knowledge of languages, he pressed, without the public suffering does not seem to have exhibited pre- any loss; but yet we are glad to see eminent ability. In his personal habits them as the heart expressions of an amiand mode of life, he was simple, retired, able, pious, and benevolent student of and unambitious, and thus escaped many medicine. We close by strongly recomof the snares of student life. At this mending the biographies of Golding period of his life he was by no means Bird, and Thomas Zuckerbecker to the religious. Indeed, we cannot character- favour of the public, and especially of ize the religious views then cherished by the members of the medical profession; him otherwise than as decidedly deisti- assured that therein all may recognise cal, living as he did in ignorance of the the beautiful propriety of not being Redeemer, and cultivating no reverential slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, feelings towards the Sabbath, or the ordi- serving the Lord, and, seeing the uninances of religion. versal uncertainty of terrestrial things, may lay up treasures in the "house not made with hands."

In the course of the second or third year of his residence in Edinburgh, he experienced an attack of typhus fever, which was sanctified, as Dr. Bird's affliction had been, as the means of his spiritual enlightenment and conversion. From a Christian lady, who resided in York Place, he learned to love the Word of God. He also derived much edification from the Edinburgh Medical Students' Religious Society. From the time of his conversion he reverenced the Sabbath, revered and studied the Bible, became a member of a Congregational church, and endeavoured, like Dr. Bird, to interest others in the holy cause of religion. In the autumn of 1818 he obtained his degree of M.D. at Edinburgh, and in the course of the same year removed to London, for the purpose of obtaining additional medical experience. Having satisfied himself, he took his departure for Russia, and prosecuted his studies at the University of Moskwa. His health now began to give way, and by the mysterious appointment of Providence he was cut off in the very dawn of his usefulness, and thus all the fond hopes cherished regarding him when he left Edinburgh, were frustrated.

The biography of Zuckerbecker is interesting, as presenting a life in which the hallowing influence of religion is vividly perceptible, and valuable, as indicating the weighty influential power for

ON ATHEISM.

Quoted in the "Eclipse of Faith."

No God! no God! The simplest flower
That on the wild is found,
Shrinks as it drinks its cup of dew,
And trembles at the sound.

No God! astonished Echo cries
From out her cavern hoar;
And every wandering bird that flies
Reproves the Atheist lore.

The solemn forest lifts its head

The Almighty to proclaim;
And the brooklet, on its crystal urn,
Doth leap to grave His name.

High swells the deep and vengeful tide
Along its billowy track;
And red Vesuvius opes his mouth
To hurl the falsehood back.

No God! With indignation high
The fervent sun is stirr'd;
And the pale moon is paler still
At such an impious word.

While from their burning thrones the stars
Look down with angry eye,
That thus a worm of dust should mock
Eternal Majesty.

"I know but of two uninterrupted the fall of Adam,-second, of saints, for successions: first, of sinners, ever since God always had, and always will have, a seed to serve Him."-Toplady.

SKETCH OF POPULAR SUPERSTITION.

As superstition springs from ignorance of the doctrines of Holy Writ, and from disbelief in the constant and universal providence of God, we present our readers with a series of papers on various forms of groundless faith in supernatural beings, and supernatural agency.

The subject is one of very great importance, and peculiar interest; for gross superstition reigns throughout the world, and has contributed largely to the crimes and sufferings of the human race. From earliest ages men have bowed down in fear and trembling, before a gigantic bugbear of their own creation; and even in these enlightened times, millions worship at the shrines of imaginary gods, and shrink from the phantoms of their own distempered brain.

If we view superstition in a historical light, we find it a blood-stained chapter in the annals of the world. Witness the spectacle of priestly fraud, atrocious vice, and human sacrifices in heathen lands. Witness the crusades for the sepulchre of Christ, the wholesale massacres of Protestant Christians, and the diabolical crimes of the Inquisition. Witness the numberless victims of the witch-persecution, especially in countries blessed with the light of the Reformation. Nor has superstition proved the friend of science, art, and civilization. It has branded the men who shone like stars in the intellectual firmament as heretics, infidels, and agents of the prince of darkness; and though it dare not doom them now to the fate of Galileo, it still obstructs them in their noble efforts to dive to the deepest secrets of nature, to soar to the loftiest realms of science, and there to unvail the resplendent glory of the great Creator. Superstition, indeed, has been ever the foe of human advancement. Machinery, which cheapens every article of commerce, was declared profane, since it enables man to earn his bread without the sweat of his brow. Vaccination, which lessens mortality so much, was denounced as Satan's discovery, since it

diminishes the sinner's fear of death and eternity. Chloroform, which relieves from the pangs and danger of childbirth, was condemned as a wicked attempt to rescue woman from the original curse. Umbrellas did not escape the assault of a false theology, in as much as they seemed a proof of ingratitude to God, who sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. Revelation itself is never safe from the attacks of absurd and deadly superstitions. Not to refer to Pagan and Mohammedan creeds, or to the Greek and Roman corruptions of Christianity, in the present century four religious impostors have caused the moral destruction of multitudes, who, more or less, had enjoyed the blessings of a scriptural education,-viz. Joanna Southcott, Robert Matthews, Sir William Honeywood Courtenay, and Joseph Smith, the leader of the Mormonites.

Few, indeed, we venture to say, are totally free from superstitious fears. If these emotions are not instinctive in every man,-as they are in some of the lower animals,-they seem to lurk in every breast; and perhaps we remember the trembling eagerness, with which, in childhood, we listened to legends which made the darkness terrible, and peopled our dreams with ghostly phantoms. Who can read Mrs. Crowe's Night Side of Nature, without thrilling sensations? Who, at the witching hour of midnight, can pass through a lonely churchyard, or haunted castle, without apprehending that there may be "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy ?" The bravest men that ever lived have felt the terrors of superstition, which, like conscience, "can make cowards of us all." When Charles Gustavus was beseiging Prague, a peasant offered to amuse the king by eating a hog in the royal presence. Appalled at the words and hideous features of the countryman, old general Konigsmarc, advised his majesty to burn the former as a dangerous wizard. "Sire!" cried the peasant, en

raged at the insult, "if you make that old gentleman take off his sword and spurs, I will eat him alive before your face!" At this proposal the veteran soldier stood aghast; and though he had fought in a hundred battles, and performed prodigies of valour against the Austrians, he fled in horror from the imaginary wizard, and hid himself in his private tent!

nailing horse-shoes behind their doors, as talismans against evil spirits ;-telling their bees of the death of a relative, to prevent their pining away in the hives;

cutting the gum with a nail, and driving the latter into an oak, to cure the toothache;-putting the head of a fish or a frog into the mouth of a child, as a specific for certain fatal diseases; and placing unlimited confidence in omens, spells, vulgar prophecies, and apparitions.

These remarks may serve to introduce the various forms of popular superstition: and in prosecuting the subject, our aim will be to expose the irrationality of faith in supernatural agents and phenomena,-and thus to inculcate fearless confidence in the fatherly care and government of God.

I. BELIEF IN MYSTERIOUS SIGHTS AND
SOUNDS, AS SUPERNATURAL.

Nor can mental culture or extensive learning shield the breast from superstition. Did feelings of delicacy not forbid, we might mention the name of a clergyman, who nightly retired to rest in dread of apparitions; of another, who entertains the fatal belief, that he, his brothers, and sisters, are doomed to an early death by a witch's curse; and of individuals of rank and mental refinement, who firmly believe in visitations from the spirit world. Nay, not a few illustrious scholars cherished a similar In the good old times of popular ignorfaith. Lord Bacon declared that he ance, this form of superstition reigned would rather believe all the fables of with absolute sway over kings and statesthe Talmud," than disbelieve all the sub-men, philosophers and fools. If a comet jects of popular superstition. Niebuhr, showed its fiery face and streaming tail, who exposed the romantic legends of it smote whole nations with the general Roman history, admitted the super- dread of dire calamities: nor could an natural claims of the ancient oracles. Southey, a man of logical acuteness, as well as of poetic genius, was not ashamed to avow his persuasion," that spirits return from the invisible world. The philosophical Wordsworth, has recorded the sentiment, that he would rather stoop to the ignorance of a boor,

than not take

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"A fearful apprehension from the owl, Or death-watch;-and as readily rejoice, If two auspicious jackdaws crossed his way." John Brown of Haddington, and the Synod of the Secession church, denounced the repeal of the penal laws against witchcraft, as a national sin. And Lord Herbert of Cherbury, the deist, informs us that, ere he published his work against Divine revelation, he knelt on the ground, and prayed for a sign from heaven, to sanction his insane and impious attempt to refute our most holy religion! Truly, when men of preeminent talents thus give credence to absurd imaginations, we cannot marvel at illiterate persons

eclipse of the sun appear, but it was viewed as the signal of war, famine, or pestilence. Wise men trembled at the flashing brilliance of the northern lights, and the dazzling glory of a falling star. If an insect made a startling sound, inside a wall or a mantlepiece, it was called "the death-watch," and warned the household to expect bereavement ; or if the cock at midnight crowed in a dream of fancied victory, they anticipated some impending danger, or domestic loss.

Mariners are generally a superstitious class,-partly owing to the perils of a sea-faring life, and partly to the strange optical illusions which constitute part of the wonders of the deep. And it merits remark, that the heathen sailors, in Jonah's flight, ascribed the storm to the presence of some atrocious criminal,that the disciples in the tempest imagined Christ to be a spirit, when he majestically walked on the lake of Galilee,-and that the islanders of Melita, the instant the

viper fastened on the hand of Paul, pro- | smooth as a lawn, and beautifully green nounced him a murderer pursued by the as the finest emerald. From time immeavenging justice of Heaven. Among the morial men fancied them the playground mysterious sights at sea, ships have been of King Oberon and his fairy court, on seen floating in the air; and cities have which they held their nightly feast, and appeared on the clouds, and suddenly danced in moonlight to unearthly music; vanished. Till lately these to mariners and many a man would rather have were fearful mysteries; but science ex- bearded the lion in his den, than set his plains them on the established principles foot within these green enchanted circles. of the refraction of light, which can But the naturalist tells us, that fairy make the atmosphere a concave mirror, rings are formed by fungi, or by colonies reflecting the images of ships even twenty of grubs, which eat the grass and emimiles below the horizon. Sounds, in like grate outwards, till they produce these manner, are heard at sea at amazing dis- strange phenomena. tances. On a calm and sunny day, the sound of a bell was heard by the sailors on board a ship, when far from land, and when no other vessel could be seen from the top-mast. Many were seized with alarm and dark forebodings; till the officers accounted for the sound on the well-known laws of an acoustic tube,the clouds having conveyed the sound of the bell, as was proved next day, from a vessel sailing at many leagues' distance from their own.

Another appearance, which, like the mysterious marks of the badger's feet in the recent snow season, has often excited much superstitious fear, is the print of footsteps across a field of grass in early spring. These, which are named by countrypeople "SATAN's footsteps," seem burned by fire into the tender herbage; yet are they produced by human feet, crossing the field while night-frost was on the grass, which is thus as effectually destroyed, in its icy brittleness, as it could Kindred wonders abound on land. On possibly be by fiery feet, and with exactly the mountains of Germany the Spectre the same appearance. A still more of the Brocken is frequently seen by won- striking object of superstitious fear is dering travellers. In 1797 it suddenly the ignis fatuus,-popularly designated appeared to Mr. Hane, on the distant" Will-wi'-the-wisp," and "Jack-o'-lanatmosphere, as a human figure of gigantic size. Having raised his hand to secure his hat from the boisterous wind, the colossal shadow did the same; and when he summoned his landlord to the spot, two monstrous spectres appeared on the mountain-mists, and mimicked the gestures of the two spectators. In a similar manner we might explain the mirage, that is, the vision of lakes in Egypt and the Arabian desert ;-the fata Morgana, that is, the spectacle of cities and landscapes in the southern sky ;—and the sight of horsemen riding on the hills of Cumberland, where cragmen on foot can scarcely climb,-and of armies in the air engaged in battle, or silently marching with floating banners, and all the pomp and magnificence of war. But from the realm of clouds we hasten to the mountain-turf and the forest glade, to glance at "the fairy rings." These are circles of natural sod,

tern." Before the draining system was introduced, a pale blue light was often observed at night above wet and marshy soils. The countryman who saw this light gliding through the silent wood, or dancing over the treacherous bog, was a wise and stout-hearted man indeed, if he did not imagine it a brimstone torch in a dead man's hand, or the glaring eyeball of an evil spirit. But the chemist discovered it to be nothing but a simple gas, called phosphuretted hydrogen, which is set on fire the moment it comes in contact with the open air. This gas escapes from marshy lands and churchyards, in the latter of which it is generated by the decomposition of dead bodies; and many a heart has it made stand still, and many a traveller has it led astray like Caliban and his sottish friends, in Shakespeare's enchanted island!

II. SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF IN OMENS.

Omens are imaginary signs of good

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