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Life

Solemnly are we stimulated to this individual and persevering labour by the fact that "the night cometh when no man can work." The gloomy night of death sets in, and then your labours for God are at an end. at the longest is but short, and what you do for Christ and for souls must be done quickly. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest."

Some few years ago a converted heathen was seen pressing through the congregation towards his minister with certain moneys for Christian purposes, exclaiming, "God's work must go on, and I may be dead! God's work must go on, and I may be dead!" Just so is it with you, my brother. God's work is before you; earnestly are you invited to share in the honour and join in the labour of sustaining and extending that work, but remember, soon you will be dead. That foot will not be able to move, that hand will not be able to give, that tongue will not be able to speak. You will be dead; and how awful if

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death find you, and you have scarcely made a decided personal effort to save a soul! You may have been remarkably diligent in worldly avocations; you may have toiled hard for wealth, perhaps successfully, perhaps in vain; but you have never laboured perseveringly to save a single soul. You have never won a sinner to Christ. You have always admitted the comparative worthlessness of the world and the infinite preciousness of the soul, and yet you have toiled for the world and neglected the soul. You have always known that the Christian must "deny himself," yet have you laboured night and day for self, and done little or nothing for Christ. You have seen souls perishing daily; they have been washed from around you by the roaring torrents of iniquity into the boiling surges of hell, and yet you have stretched forth no helping hand, you have uttered no earnest remonstrance, you have of fered no agonizing prayer. And death and judgment are coming! Oh, be aroused from your slumber, and worldliness, and cavilling, and unbelief, and work promptly and ardently for God. When the night of death has thrown its dark pall over you, the material as well as the implements for labour will be removed from your view. You will not have another shilling to give, nor another tract to distribute, nor another tongue to speak. When death has come you cannot remedy any defects, nor make up any neglects. You cannot undo that illiberal act, you cannot recall that lost opportunity, you cannot warn that unconverted relative, you cannot wipe out that blood of souls. Oh, then, by all that is solemn and sacred, arouse every energy of your nature, and henceforth

WORK! WORK! WORK!

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SELECTIONS FROM A LOCAL PREACHER'S MANUSCRIPTS.-No. VII.

THE PHILANTHROPY OF RELIGION.

We have no opinion of any religion that does not include, as a thing of course, the idea of pure and active philanthropy. No man can really love his fellow-man who does not love his Maker. He who does that has the only motive to philanthropy which can insure its existence as a principle in this needy world. So that, however limited in the minds of not a few has become the meaning attached to the term "religion," its legitimate range really includes all the virtues of earth as well as some of the mysteries of heaven.

People are apt to associate too exclusively with their thoughts of religion the repulsive acrimony of polemical divinity or the uninviting tomes of tedious theological commonplace which have contributed so much, by their solemn puerilities and petrifying dryness, to scare from amongst ordinary men the love of theological study. Such persons seriously err. Religion is not a controversy merely, unless it be a controversy with all evil, to destroy which was its mission to the world; it is not a barren detail of doctrines, unaccompanied by a knowledge of their connexion with our practice; it is not confined to catechisms and creeds -it is a righteous principle, a working power, a divine LIFE, whose most visible manifestation here is seen in the effort to love our "neighbour as ourselves."

It is generally admitted that religion is necessary for man; yet how few study to be religious rightly! Men forget that the one duty of earning their bread, or the one pleasure of gratifying their love of amusement, is not the only duty, cannot be the only pleasure, designed them by their Supreme Governor and Judge. There is the duty and there is the luxury of doing good in other ways than as concerning themselves only. Man is more dependant on man than the embittered feelings of the poor or the unhallowed pride of the rich will

always suffer them to confess, even to themselves. Not all the meretricrious honour, nor all the unavoidable distinctions of society can break the chain that binds the race together in mutual dependency. That unfeeling incarnation of all inhuman evil, a proud man, would frequently have to know himself but a helpless, cringing worm, were he deprived of the services of poorer men who are to him but as the dust beneath his lordly feet! Poor, inflated thing!-priding itself on its very shame, little cognizant of the golden truth, that the more useful man is the more honourable man! Of what the disciples of a certain German school would call a true man, it may be said,

Himself too much he prizes to be proud, And nothing thinks so great in man as man!

The philanthropic spirit of religion-we mean, of course, the Christian-is evinced by its institutions: all of them adapted for the good of man while fitted and intended for the glory of the Almighty. Look, for instance, at the SABBATH, the day of weekly rest; a day of especial value to the poor, whose minds and bodies so urgently require such a stated period of repose from their habitual toil. And yet how grudgingly do most men yield obedience to this demand of religion upon them; as if the requirement were unlawfully assessed by the Great Giver of the boon! We attribute much of this shortsightedness among the working. classes to the value of this religious privilege, to the canting infidelity of the irreligious part of the newspaper press, which is constantly pouring its exciting and flattering poison into the hearts of its legions of readers. The result of this "leprous distilment" into so many ears is, that every effort to teach people to observe the Sabbath as a day of cessation from labour and ordinary amusement, is blindly branded as a "pharisaical" movement. We are no advocates

for compelling persons to the observance of a religious duty of this character. The legitimate hold of true religion is on the affections. If not seated in the heart, producing a willing service, it is a delusion, a mockery, a lie. The only province of Acts of Parliament here is to protect those who would be religious from undue annoyance at the hands of those who would not. Yet we indignantly repudiate the ignorant charge of pharisaical motives made so frequently against those who would fain persuade men to understand their real interests. An intreaty to Sabbath observance is not to be viewed as necessarily synonymous with a wish to force one to it.

Much Sabbath-desecration is occasioned by the thoughtlessness of the church-and-chapel-going rich. Whoever would urge on a poor man the proper observance of the Lord's.day should keep it himself. There are thousands of tradesmen, and tens of thousands of servants, who practically know no Sabbath-whose Saturday night never comes till deaththrough the culpable conduct of nominally-pious employers, who, not content with the six days' servitude of tradesmen and menials, exact unnecessary things on the Sabbath, whilst they affect attention to its duties. There are some still more deliberately selfish-some who are worse than thoughtless-who, on principle (?) set themselves against the right of a working-man to his weekly rest. "Do you open shop to-morrow?" asked a lady in a tradesman's shop, one Saturday evening, in our hearing. "No, madam," was the reply, and one not very graciously received. The cool selfishness shown by this lady's manner as well as by her words roused our indignation. It made our blood curdle with a momentary feeling of horror, that any human being should be expected to pass through a whole life of unvarying drudgery without one alleviation to the weight of an incessant struggle for bread! and all for what? To dance attendance upon the vititiated appetites or selfish humours of some incubus on the bosom of society, whose whole life is a continual wor

ship of grovelling self! No reasonable person-religion quite apart— could do such an absurd and cruel thing as is practised by those who thus seek to enslave their poorer fellow-creatures, by robbing them of their only resting-place in the wearisome journey of life. Yet this is the tender mercy of an infidel worldliness! Let us thank Heaven that all gentlefolks are not so thoughtless and depraved as this, or hard would be the lot of those whom competition and need would force into the Sunday-market!

Sabbath pleasure-seekers should be reminded that, whilst they are making that day a season of riding, feasting or amusement, they are not merely showing their own boasted freedom from religious restraint, but are wearing out, by accumulated and unmitigated toil, many thousands in the land, who consider themselves obliged to work then or lose their custom in the week. Greater refinement in barbarity than this can hardly be imagined. The sceptic who talks so "intellectually" of "threadbare superstitions" and of his right to Sabbath-recreation, should at least see to it that in his love of liberty he does not compel the unwilling service of harder-working men and women, whose physical and mental requirements are panting for recreation too, though, perhaps, of a more exalted kind.

We turn with a sickening heart from the godless creed that holds the habitual scorn of God's institutions to be a virtue, and would teach men to be licentious that they might be free. We earnestly counsel the working-classes-to which we hold it an honour to belong ourselves— not to be duped into a disregard of sacred institutions by the plausible but shallow declamations of the alehouse driveller, or the senseless ribaldry of the Sunday press. They talk of liberty! but it is the tinsel, not the gold, they give.

There is yet a liberty, unsung By poets, and by senators unpraised, Which whoso tastes can be enslaved no

more:

'Tis liberty of heart derived from heaven. They talk of right! but they would

take from you the God-given right to a day of rest, to convert it into a day of revelry, or toil, or drunken dissipation. They tell you of your flagging body and weary soul, and invite to recreation, but treat you to the consuming excitement of a low excursion-party, or the pitiful amusements of a drinking-clique, as substitutes for the refreshing influences of the house of God, the calm delights of healthful meditation, and the important and pleasing duties of a religious and quict home. How much better all this for health, and peace and respectability, than the vapid routine of a Sabbath-breaker's life! We hold out the hand of intreaty and brotherhood to all our

fellows, and say, "The Sabbath is your friend; enjoy with us peacefully and religiously this holy day. Rest your wearied body and refresh your drooping spirit by a hallowed use of this noble institution of our man-loving Christianity."

If there were no other proof of the heavenly authority and genuine philanthropy of our gospel faith than the appointment or confirmation of this weekly resting-time, that alone would go far towards convincing us of the divine origin of our creed. The grasping and blind cupidity, the over-reaching selfishness of humanity as it is, would never have devised the institution it will even now scarcely tolerate. W. R.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

THE NEW CASKET. A Gift Book for all Seasons. 12mo, pp. 188. London: The Religious Tract Society, 56, Paternoster-row.

We cannot sufficiently express our admiration of the operations of the Religious Tract Society. It is, in a high degree, a blessing and an honour to our country; a fountain of truth and goodness, pouring forth its perennial streams through the length and breadth of our land, refreshing the intellect and purifying the heart, illustrating both the word and the works of God. The book before us is a beautiful Annual, in crimson cloth, embossed and gilt, and illustrated with paintings and engravings. But the matter of the work constitutes its great excellence and value. Artistic skill and facts in nature are made subservient to the inculcation of the loftiest morality and the purest evangelical sentiment. Saving truth is the golden tissue interwoven in every part of the beautiful fabric, and the eternal life of the reader is the great object aimed at through the whole volume.

THE ELIJAH OF SOUTH AFRICA; or, The Character and Spirit of the late Rev. John Philip, D.D., Unveiled and Vindicated. By ROBERT PHILIP, Maberley Chapel. 18mo, pp. 72. London: J. Snow.

God is jealous for the honour of his people when they labour with a single eye to his glory; and he will certainly "bring forth their righteousness as the light, and their judgment as the noonday."

Their excellences may, for the

test of their faith and patience, be permitted to remain for a time eclipsed by prejudice and misrepresentation, but the day of retribution and vindication will come. Dr. Philip is one of those worthies who combined in himself the divine and the Christian philanthropist, who was willing, not only to forego the comforts of his native land for the debilitating influence of the torrid zone, and the popularity which his exalted talents commanded at home for the toils and anxieties of a missionary life, but who was willing also to sacrifice his reputation in asserting the rights of the sable and down-trodden children of Ham. He knew that the claims of Cæsar often infringe upon the authority of Immanuel, and the opinions, policy and maxims of politicians often war against the inherent rights of humanity and the holy principles of religion; but he nobly took his stand on the rock of eternal justice, and maintained his erect position as the defender of the oppressed and helpless sons of Africa, heedless of the odium and calumny which ignorance and selfishness cast upon his good name. Honoured be his memory, and the memory of all who have the moral courage and the force of Christian principle to beard the powerful oppressor and rescue the helpless from his iron grasp, and raise the fallen to their true position as social and immortal beings.

The sainted spirit of Dr. Philip has been called home; but his works have followed him there, nor will they be for

gotten on earth. The Rev. Robert Philip has come forward with a timely tribute to his memory. It was meet and becoming in Mr. Philip to engage in this work. An intimate acquaintance with the doctor through nearly the whole of his public career gives him an advantage which but few biographers possess ; while his strong affection, guided as it is by Christian principle, gives energy and eloquence to his pen. Though this little work is but a brief sketch of the devoted man, it will be read with great interest and give increased intensity to the desires of the Christian public for a complete and extended Life of "the Elijah of South Africa."

THE TRIED CHRISTIAN; or, a Book of Consolution for the Afflicted. By the Rev. WM. LEASK. 12mo, pp. 158. London: J. Snow, 35, Paternoster-row.

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The topics on which the author descants are- - Trials common to Christianity-Evidences of Adoption-Joy in Sorrow-Heavenly Mindedness-Sanctification Fellowship with ChristMeetness for Heaven-and Sorrows at an End. In this little work there is an ease and smoothness of expression, a serious calmness and earnestness of spirit, a rich mellowness of sentiment and feeling, and a genuine eloquence and beauty of style, which show the author's mind to be in perfect harmony with his respective themes. It secures the attention aud impresses the heart of the reader, and is well adapted to be useful.

POPULAR SKETCHES OF CELEBRATED CHARACTERS; including Descriptive Portraits of Wickliffe, Becket, Luther, Wolsey, Mahomet, Milton, Cromwell, Byron, Smith the Mormon, and Emerson. 8vo, pp. 100. London: Methodist New Connexion Book-room, 3, Albany-crescent, Albany-road.

This is a reprint of the Sketches which during the past year consecutively appeared in the pages of our Magazine. They are highly creditable to the author, evincing considerable research, discrimination, and powers of eloquent description. As they have enriched the pages of our Magazine, and been interesting to our readers, we have no doubt they will prove acceptable and useful in their present form.

GOSPEL VICTORIES; or, Missionary Anecdotes of Imprisonments, Labours and Persecutions, by Primitive Methodist Preachers, between the years 1812 and 1844. By THOMAS CHURCH. London: Aylott and Jones.

The Primitive Methodist preachers are a courageous, hard-working, self-deny

The

ing, pious and useful class of ministers, and many thousands of precious souls have been saved by their exertions. We honour their devoted zeal and wish them still more abundant prosperity. general character of this book may be seen from its title. The narratives are brief and simple, and the materials are drawn from authentic records-the "Primitive Methodist Magazine" for the most part. While here and there a remark or an incident occurs which might have been better spared, there is much which excites our admiration and praise.

A FAMILIAR INTRODUCTION TO THE SCIENCE OF ASTRONOMY, FOR THE USE OF BEGINNERS. Illustrated by numerous Engravings, and intended to accompany a set of Diagrams, Painted on Glass for exhibition in the Phantasmagoria Lantern. 12mo, pp. 40. London: W. E. and F. Newton, 3, Fleet-street, Temple Bar.

Messrs. Newton are globe-makers to the Queen, and have their beautiful shop in Fleet-street, near Temple-bar. It was their globe-manufactory in Chancerylane which we inspected some months ago, and from which we gave an account of the process of globe-making. The little work before us is prepared for the use of lecturers on astronomy, in the parlour or the school-room, by the use of the magic lantern. Indeed, it is a companion to this instructive and entertaining instrument, illustrated with a complete set of diagrams, and supplying all that general information on each topic of astronomy adapted for a popular lecture. The design is both well-conceived and well-executed. By the use of this and a good magic lantern many a winter's evening may be passed in an instructive and entertaining manner.

GREEN'S ILLUSTRATED ALMANACK FOR 1852. London: B. L. Green, 62, Pater

noster-row.

This is a sheet almanack, illustrated with some good engravings, and containing some excellent sentiments.

A PORTRAIT OF THE REV. A. KILHAM, THE FIRST METHODIST REFORMER. Leeds: Published by W. Stade, No. 7, Bond-street.

In the December number of our magazine there is an advertisement of this portrait. It is there stated by the publisher that the portrait is considered by those who were personally acquainted with Mr. Kilham to be faithful and accurate, and the best likeness ever published. It has been drawn on stone, and printed by the eminent firm of Standish and Co. We have a copy of

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