sister feel more comfortable; and Henry, in a tone a little louder than before, thus continued reading the paper :

"Well, I may now venture to alter my tone, and, instead of keeping to my first title, adopt another, which is,

6 YOU MAY READ IT AS OFTEN AS YOU LIKE;' for, as everything in the paper is intended to do you good, the oftener you read it perhaps the better. There are three questions which the oldest man and the youngest child should frequently ask. Now I want you to ask them, I could put these questions to you, but that would not be like your putting them to yourself.

"The questions are, What am I? Where am I? and, Whither am I going? If you ask and answer these questions faithfully every day of your lives, you may, by God's blessing, derive great advantage. I will now put these questions to myself, and you will see by my answers to them that they are very important.

"WHAT AM I? I am one of God's creatures, endowed with superior faculties to those possessed by the fishes in the sea, the beasts on the earth, and the birds in the air: those faculties are given me for the glory of God, and the good of my fellow-creatures. I have a body which in a little time will moulder in the dust from whence it sprung, and I have a soul which will live for ever in happiness or misery. WHERE AM I? In a world wherein there is much sin and sorrow, in which God has placed me for a short time. This world is passing away; my days are short, I must soon die. WHITHER AM I GOING? I am going to happiness or to misery, to heaven or to hell. If I am one treading the way of evil, and scorning that sacrifice for sin which God hath pro

vided in His Son Jesus Christ, I shall perish. If I am taught of God to seek for pardon and grace, if I have the gift of faith to cling to the cross of the Redeemer, and depend for salvation on the Saviour of sinners, I shall live for ever. If I am living in sin, I am going to hell! If I live on Christ, I am going to heaven! That is whither I am going."

"Come," said Mr. Seymour, as soon as Henry had finished reading the paper, "if you attend to that paper, you will have quite enough to think of. I not only recommend you to ask the three questions frequently, but I wish to put them frequently to myself, What am I? Where am I? and Whither am I going ?" OLD HUMPHREY.

THE CURSE OF CANAAN-SLAVERY. "And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren."-GENESIS ix. 25.

THIS passage has been greatly relied upon to justify African slavery. But a careful examination of it will prove that this prediction of the servitude of the posterity of Canaan had its complete fufilment before the enslavement of the negroes of Africa commenced. It was Ham, the father of Canaan, who so conducted bimself towards Noah as to call forth this denunciation, and Canaan is named perhaps on account of his implication in the offence. The curse does not affect him personally, but falls upon his remote posterity— since prophetic blessings or curses on individuals usually have reference to their posterity, as is manifest when Jacob blessed his sons, having reference to the future twelve tribes of Israel. So, when Noah cursed Canaan, it was designed for his descendants. His own loose morals set a bad example, which, being followed by successive generations, finally brought

forth a generation fitted only for destruction. Hence, when the Divine anger manifested itself, it was on account of their own wickedness, as is evident from Levit. xviii. 24: "Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; for in all these the nations are defiled, which I cast out before you, and the land is defiled, therefore do I visit the iniquity thereof upon it;' also Levit. xx. 23: "And you shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you; for they committed all those things, and therefore I abhorred them."

I. Canaan was the youngest son of Ham (Gen. x. 6). The names of his brothers were Cush, Mizraim, and Phut. These elder brothers had a numerous progeny, who settled over large districts of country. The descendants of Cush were found along the shores of the Persian Gulf, in the southern regions of Asia. The posterity of Mizraim settled in Egypt and Lybia, in Africa; and the sons of Phut stretched along the shores of the Mediterranean sea, on the northern portions of Africa. In Gen. x. 15—19, we are told that Canaan was the progenitor of a numerous people called Canaanites, inhabiting a district in Asia, on the Mediterranean sea, to which they gave the name of their ancestors, calling it the LAND OF CANAAN. It was upon this people that the curse fell. In Deut. vii. 1—5, we are told that seven of these nations were to be destroyed utterly; and in Deut. xx. 11, it stated, that of those spared "they shall be tributaries unto thee, and serve thee."

II. The curse not only named the posterity of Canaan, the son of Ham, as the persons who were to be servants, but it tells whom they were to serve. In verse 25 it is written, "Servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." The next verse tells us who are meant by his brethren: "Blessed be the

Lord God of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant." This prophetic curse demands that the posterity of Canaan shall become the servants of the posterity of Shem. In Gen. xi. 10, the descendants of Shem are traced until we reach Abraham. Again, the Old Testament genealogies follow out the succession from Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob, to the twelve tribes of Israel, who, by Divine command, were led from Egyptian bondage to the possession of the LAND OF CANAAN. In the days of King Solomon they completed the servitude of the surviving posterity of Canaan. 1 Kings ix. 20, 21: "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day." Here is the fulfilment of the curse.

III. The prediction says, a "servant of servants shall he be." This may only be an Hebraism, to express intensity; but it is quite noticeable that it has a literal accomplishment, in the fact the descendants of

Canaan became the servants of the descendants of Shem, who had just been liberated from their Egyptian bondage. In every, even in the most minute circumstance, this predicted curse had its fulfilment in Asia, in the land of Canaan, where the posterity of Canaan settled; and, therefore, cannot afford the slightest possible sanction for African slavery, especially as there is not a particle of evidence that any negro is a descendant of Canaan. Mizraim, the second son of Ham, settled in Egypt, and founded the nation of the Egyptians, to whom the Hebrews, the posterity of Shem, were in bondage, but who were now in bondage to the Hebrews. Phut, the

third son of Ham, peopled the northern portion of Africa, along the shores of the Mediterranean. But all geographers agree that the sons of Canaan occupied the country in Asia known as the land of Canaan. The predicted curse was to fall on them; history points out the fact that it did fall on them when they became the servants of the Hebrews. The curse being thus exhausted, we must not look for any other fulfilment, especially upon a race of men not in any way included in the prediction. The curse we have been considering had reference only to the temporal condition of that people, and that it was necessarily limited, both in its duration and in its application. But there is another curse of the same Divine Being, which is pronounced against every one of the human family, and which inflicts its penalty in eternity. This curse is against every man, because every man is a sinner, is a violator of the law of God. As the curse against Canaan, though fulfilled centuries after it was uttered, was still certain in its execution, so will the curse against every sinner be, unless interested in the gracious provisions of mercy, which God sets forth in the death of His Son Jesus Christ, as an atoning Saviour.-The Quiver.

MY DREAM.

SOME may say, what is a dream, but the idle wanderings of the mind, uncontrolled by reason?* But Scripture saith, God speaketh to a man in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon man. The first dream we read of was one of promise, a promise of future greatness; but strange was the road that poor Joseph had to travel. It was like going down hill to reach the mountain top! Were not the dreams

*This is often true.-ED.