us, at this moment, a sample of potatoes raised in this manner by Mr. Samuel Phelps, of Moyallon, which are average-sized edible tubers. The seed was planted on the 1st of April, and about the 20th of May, when the parent shoot had attained a length of ten inches, a cutting was detached, planted in riddled weed-compost, shaded from the sun, and watered several times, until it had struck cleverly; after which the process of earthing was put in practice, so often as the growth of the cutting required additional support and sustenance. The produce of the stalk is, under all circumstances, highly satisfactory; and an occasional leisure hour would not be misspent by our agricultural friends, at the proper season, in turning the experiment to account, or by seconding it with the combined results of their own research and observation, testing its real value in producing an earlier and a later crop in the same field from one planting of seed.-Morning Post.

IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT QUICKENETH.

THIS text contains a doctrine of the utmost importance, upon a subject in which many are lamentably accustomed to deceive themselves. There is often an appearance of spiritual life where in reality there is none; and there are other teachings besides that of the Spirit, which profit nothing to the salvation of those who receive them. But the Scripture quoted above shows that there is one power alone which can bring a man to a state of spiritual life preparatory to eternal life; and this is God's Holy Spirit. For this state is not produced by education teaching a mere task of doctrines; nor is it begun in the noisy outside show of interest in religious truth. But in the secret solitude of the closet, and the still more hidden recesses of the conscience and heart, there is kindled, at a particular and most memorable period of time, a train of thoughts and feelings unknown before. The vanity and unsatisfactoriness of this world are first seen and felt with an evidence which nothing can describe. The miseries of a lost soul in eternity, the blessedness of one that is saved, the evil of sin, the happiness of the holy, and, above all,

the terrible danger of the sinner's own soul, then press upon him with an entirely new weight of conviction, and fill his mind with new and awful contemplations. This is the beginning of the quickening; or rather, the preparation for its approach. The man is then brought to mourn over sin, and dread it as an enemy which he would now die rather than embrace again. He is horrified at his condition, his sinfulness, and his danger; and then, for the first time, he truly prays, because then, for the first time, he prays earnestly and importunately. In this state of darkness, fear, and wrestling, he may some time be left, for the trial of his sincerity and patience; but if he persevere in earnest prayer, the quickening Spirit of God is sent him, and then his life begins. He is pardoned, justified, and sanctified by the power of the Spirit. His burden of sins is taken away, his heart is relieved of the dread and misery that oppressed it, his mind is instructed and illumined by wisdom from above; he is now born anew of the Spirit. Being in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. He is now truly converted to God; and the knowledge of his heavenly Father, reconciled to him by the blood of Christ, gives him a joy and peace such as no other event ever did or ever could produce. In His favour alone, says the Psalmist, is life; and St. John says, "He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." To be alive, in the scriptural sense of the word, is to know and feel the love of God towards us, and the power of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; to have communion with God as our Father, to obey and love Him from the heart, and to despise every created thing in comparison with Him. To be alive, is to see eternal things as eternal things, and temporal things as temporal things; to loath, abhor, forsake all temporal things which oppose our enjoyment of eternal things, and to be willingly a stranger, a sufferer, a loser in this world, so that we may attain the glories of the world to come. It is to see them not only in imagination and temporary feeling, but with the whole understanding, so that our vital principles of thought and action are entirely remodelled, and henceforth governed by them. It is, in the Apostle's

beautiful description, "to worship God in the spirit, to rejoice in Christ Jesus, and to have no confidence in the flesh." This life, so new, so singular, so unlike that of the natural man, and so opposed to it, cannot be produced but by the power of God, brought immediately and strikingly into exercise upon the soul. "It is the Spirit," says the Lord," that quickeneth." Nature could produce nothing like it; man could produce nothing like it, in himself, or in another. Yet this, and nothing less than this, is life. All are dead who are not thus changed. They are in a spiritual death, which, if it continues, will end in everlasting death; for "verily, verily I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." But "to be carnally minded is death," while "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." This is the great trial of our faith and safety. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his." Have we not, then, the Spirit of Christ? What are we to conclude from it? Are we to speak peace to our souls when there is no peace? Are we to flatter our own hearts for our eternal destruction? Shall we give ease for a few years, and destroy for ever in hell? Assuredly, if we have not passed this change, we are still in the state of the natural man, who is dead in apathy and darkness. That change cannot have passed in us unconsciously. As well might we forget our recovery from a perilous disease, or our rescue from an impending death, or the most material change of our earthly condition, as forget this, when we were quickened by the Spirit of God, and passed from darkness to light. Either we have been thus quickened and renewed; or we must be, if we would be saved. In either case we must know rightly what the nature of it is, or we cannot judge what would be our condition if that event should overtake us, which may happen to any, when they can have no time to contemplate it. Death may overtake any of us, as it has seized unexpectedly upon thousands, and is now taking away many to their account, without the warning of a moment to prepare for it. Oh! if we are not then quickened by the Spirit, and alive to

God; if we have not in our consciences the witness that we are His, dead we shall depart out of the world, dead we shall appear before Him in judgment; and, as no change of heart can then be given, dead we shall remain for ever, where no Gospel again can be preached, and no quickening Spirit can be sought. If we would have true peace; if we would live in such a state that we might never be afraid to die, and would fear no enemy and none of those disasters to which man is subject; we must obtain from God that pardon and renewal which will make life or death equally blessed and desirable; nay, which will make departure from the body far better, because we should then be with the Lord. Remember, however, that it is the Spirit alone that quickeneth: we must give up all hopes and pretensions from our natural, unchanged state; we must renounce all thoughts that we are safe now, without the renewal of the Spirit, and must implore His mighty influence, like those in danger of perishing eternally. The flesh can assuredly profit us nothing; it is not only helpless, but an impediment, dragging us down by all its suggestions, ideas, and tempers into spiritual sloth and destruction. Let us listen to the voice of the Spirit now. Christ stands at the door of our hearts, and knocks. If that heavenly sound is now disobeyed and forgotten, it may not again be heard, until it shall speak at the last hour, not in invitations to mercy, but in a call to judgment. Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: if we follow the leadings of grace, and cease not to pray till we are forgiven and changed, the richest mercies of a gracious Saviour will be vouchsafed us, the presence and comfort of the Holy Ghost will be the answer to our prayers, and an adoption into the family of God. If we fall short of these, our Lord has told us the consequences: we shall die in our sins. If we do not enjoy the quickening influence of the Spirit, it is because we do not feel the awful value of our souls, and are not consequently flying with sincerity to the mercy-seat; it is because we are not earnestly praying, not importunately supplicating God, nor therefore truly repenting. May God grant to all who are in this unhappy and guilty state of mind power

to turn and be converted, before He shall come to call them to account for the talents that have been entrusted to them, and the privileges which have been offered them. E.

DEATH BY CHEWING OPIUM.

ON Saturday evening an inquest was held at the London Hospital, on the body of a person named Wm. Cocks, who died on Thursday morning from chewing opium. It appeared that deceased had been employed by Mr. Bell, landlord of the Rose and Crown, in Parsons-street, Ratcliffe-highway, for some months, to play the pianoforte for the amusement of his parlour customers. Being in the habit of taking laudanum for some time, in various doses and at different times, he carried a bottle with him for the purpose; but having forgotten it on the evening of Wednesday, he sent out for a pennyworth of opium, which he considered would answer the same purpose. The messenger who had gone to the druggist's was served by a female, and got what might be termed a good deal for her money; and on receiving it the poor man placed it in his mouth as he would a quid of tobacco, and for some time played the instrument as usual. At length, however, the tune gradually died away, and the fingers of the performer fell from the keys, and he was found to be in a state of perfect stupor. Mr. Bell at first thought the company had given him drink, and that his appearance was produced by intoxication; but on being told that he had not drunk anything, but had been chewing opium, he sent for one or two medical men, who recommended his immediate removal to the London Hospital, which was done. The stomach-pump was used, and other remedies adopted to counteract the effects of the poison, but they were of no avail, and he died on the following morning. Mr. Garritt, surgeon, deposed to the opium taken by the deceased having caused his death; and the jury, after a minute and protracted enquiry, found a verdict to that effect, adding that deceased had not taken the poison with a view of destroying himself.-Sussex Paper.