Europe, but yet traceable here, derived in part, it may be, from the manner in which the conferences, ministry, and officers generally receive their appointments, namely through the aid and intervention of the Lot.

A fun

Another practical operation of our church-polity is to circumscribe, within very narrow limits, the field of our labor. damental principle being to provide for the widow, the superannu ated, and the children of ministers till the age of adolescence. And should the youths elect to enter the ministry, they are educated at the church's expense. As the church property does not aug ment, but has perhaps rather diminished from severe losses in some of the Diaconies, and as it is already burdened to its full capacity, it follows that the church cannot increase its sphere of action without abandoning or modifying this principle, which, in theory, is so beautiful, but in practice may be detrimental to the extension of Christ's Kingdom, the care of which is the church's chief and foremost duty. If we do for Christ he will do for us. We must confide in Him to care for the young and the aged. We have his promise that the widow and the orphan are His peculiar care! *

It may be remarked that, although Bishops have no authority and presbyters no power, Government necessarily has to lodge somewhere, and with us it is so placed as to tie us up within a narrow circle.

It is a serious question for the church in this country, to consider, if it will be longer governed by this principle.

We think it cannot be denied, too, as the result of experience, that the superintendence of the Diaconies by men ordained to preach the gospel was an error. It has in a degree secularized the church. Besides as business was conducted by those who were not educated to it, the natural consequence followed of loss and disaster, till at one period the church was brought to the brink of ruin,† and it has appeared to us, that as far as the property was concerned, it would have been well for the spiritual affairs of the church had its property been all swept away. But this was not the case. Men of sufficient financial ability were found to retrieve its disappear

*There is a difference between fatalism and faith. The Lord in his providence from the outset appointed the path hitherto pursued; the ship of the church has hitherto sailed well with this ballast; when almost exhausted, he often in a wonderful manner supplied more. Is o'r time now come to cast it overboard? has the Lord's time come to alter this plan? Is there a reasonable prospect that under the new auspices that faith will become so prevalent, as to promote an increase in the number of laborers, and hence a greater extension of the church ?-Luke 4. 12.

†Not by incapacity of those conducting these affairs, for they were generally well qualified-but by too bold an exercise of that faith so strongly recommended above-looking only to the spreading of the kingdom of God without calculating their pecuniary means.

ing acres and vanishing wealth, and thenceforward the theory of finance and trade was studied and their arts acquired, and if we did not gain more accomplished ministers, we certainly gained more discreet bankers and merchants.

As very few in our service are exempt from these duties, and who do not take part in them at some period or other of their career, the baleful leaven impregnates the whole body.*

(To be continued.)

A. B. C.

THE CHURCH DIET OF BERLIN AND THE BRETHREN'S

CHURCH.

(Extract from the letter of a correspondent in Germany to the Editor of the Brueder-Blatt.)

It gratified me to hear of your intention to edit the Brueder Blatt; for such a publication will serve to unite us and you, you and your history, more closely, and will at the same time offer something to those members of the American Branch of the Brethren's church who are only familiar with the German tongue, the number of whom however is probably not very great.

*** will no doubt have written to you concerning the church diet at Berlin, as he attended some of its sittings. It was upon the whole a cheering sign of the times; 2000 members were present. Much fearfulness was felt on account of the first subject brought up for deliberation, which treated of acknowledging the Confession of Augsburg as the basis of evangelical belief, or as the general confession of faith of the evangelical churches of Germany. However after the matter had been duly discussed clause for clause, and it had been determined in the larger committee (of which I was a member) to decide the question with a simple yea or nay, an almost unanimous vote was given in favor of its adoption.

We, on the part of the Brethren's church, presented a concurring declaration to the following effect:

"The evangelical church of the United Brethren has not only stated at all her synods that the doctrines she holds are in keeping with the Confession of Augsburg, but her method of teaching has actually been a lively representation of such an agreement of faith until to the present moment. And Count Zinzendorf, who, if any one, may be called the renewer of our bohemian ante-reformational Brethren's church, says upon one occasion-"To set up a new confession of faith is not our business; we have the Holy Scriptures in every place, wheresoever we are, and the Augsburg Confession too, which, as is well known, is no system of dogmas, but a confession With few exceptions none of the ministers have any thing to do with financial business!

drawn from the heart and the Bible, and can therefore be received and approved by christians of every kind."

And so the Brethren's church still thinks: for although some may have supposed from the statements of her last synod that she had abandoned this opinion, yet such is not the case. She has only declared that the conciences of our Reformed brethren are not bound by any thing distinctively Lutheran which is to be found within her. But in order to prevent all misunderstanding, we must state, that as we do not possess any symbolic books of our own, in that sense of the term which gives them a claim to be used as formularies in the discussion of religious questions, and invests them with power to be literally binding as laws of doctrine, so neither do we grant this right to the Confession of Augsburg. Such pretensions would never be acknowledged by the Evangelical church of the Brethren for in that case she would have to give up her inmost being, which has respect first of all to the life and not to the schools to love and not to knowledge-to the heart and not to the head. She has been able to stand till to the present day without any such formula, and no heresy, as yet, has been heard within her. If in this view of the case she be accused of indifferentism, latitudinarianism, unscientificalness and superficialness, she is ready and willing to bear it, without allowing herself thereby to be disturbed in the enjoyment of her jewel.'

:

It was moreover gratifying to hear the court-chaplain Snethlage, in his discourse upon the sects, express himself thus. "So long as the church does not better satisfy the demands for congregational edification, than she has heretofore done, and does not better understand how to employ the powers of the faithful laity than hitherto,-in connection with which he would not, like Macauley, point to the church of Rome but to the Brethren's Unity-sectarianism would not cease; and, in like manner every violent measure for the suppression of sects was contrary to the spirit of the gospel :" in which opinions he was not contradicted.

The zealous Lutherans, of course, anathematize the diet.

"SO MANY CALLS."

"The Foreign Mission"-"the Home Mission". "the Education"-" the Ten Thousand Dollars"- -"the Five Thousand Dollars"-"this object"-" that object"-" and meeting houses too numerous to mention”- so many calls"!!

'Tis all true, There are many calls. There always have been. There always will be. Says Jenkyn: "The first, the second, the third thing in the religion of the nineteenth century, is action. The age of sentimental and effortless prayer for the conversion of the

world is gone by, and now appropriate means are cautiously chosen, and begin to be vigorously worked by spirits fresh from the slumber of centuries." If this be so, we have no reason to expect that these "calls" will diminish in number, but, on the other hand, will increase. And let them increase, say we. They are calls truly, God's calls, in the course of his providence, and we should rejoice in them as such. When God, in the course of events, points out to us new fields of labor, we should not "reply against God;" we should not set ourselves as murmurers and fault finders; but at once we should enter the opening fields, to labor therein and to rejoice that we are counted worthy of so great an honor. Our country is developing itself physically with the speed of its own telegraphs. How rapid its growth in territory, in wealth, in every kind of prosperity, except the spiritual and the truthful! The nation is rich, "fat and flourishing" The Church, too, is rich. Her hands are full of the "unrighteous mammon. God has poured wealth down upon her, as manna and quails fell in profusion upon the plains of Israel's encampment. Our country's moral development should keep pace with the physical. God works now by means, not by miracles. We have the means, and should employ them.

Much has been given, and much will be required. God is not a hard master, reaping where he has not sown, and gathering where he has not strewed. He is not calling unto us to do that which we cannot do. God owns the universe. God owns the world. The silver and gold are his. The cattle upon a thousand hills are his. These treasures are in our hands, we grant. We talk of " titles to" and "claims upon" them. But they are not ours. They are God's still. He has given us no "deed" of them. He has not relinquished his own right, and delivered them over to us by any "will" of his. He owns it and has only lent it to us. As stewards, we have the care of it for a short time, under explicit instructions from the owner himself that we should employ it for His advantage. We are not to consume it upon our own lusts, but use it in acts of kindness and benevolence to our fellow beings. "Therefore, as ye abound in every thing-in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us—see that ye abound in this grace also."

Would we use God's property as God directs us-would we use it so that we may give a good account of our stewardship, let us deal very carefully even with the many calls upon our charities. If any one thing is an omen of a "good time coming," it is the fact that there are 66 so many calls." It shows that the spiritual waters are troubled; that we mean to do something worthy of ourselves; that, consistently with our views of Christian doctrine, we are employing "faith and works."

We say, frankly, that these so "many calls" do not alarm us.

We are not frightened; there is no lion in the way. They are, errors excepted," the calls of God; and the more of them the better. What matters it how much water we use, provided the fountain is always full? Certainly, we would not waste it, even in its abundance; neither would we let a man die of thirst for want of it.

God is making many calls upon us; and with as much truth it can be said, we are making many calls upon God. We call, and call, and continue to call for the rich blessings of his providence, for the dews, the rains, and the sunshine. We call, and his mercies are showered upon us. He crowneth our years with goodness. His "good and perfect gifts" are new every morning, fresh every evening, received at noonday; and shall we, when God calls in return-when he calls once, twice, thrice, and again-shall we, half . irritated and angry, feeling that our patience has been taxed to exhaustion, turn round and say, "So many calls, so many calls, I cannot heed them!" No, we will not be guilty of this. Remembering that all we have belongs to our Heavenly Father, that we ourselves " are not our own,' we will employ our substance and ourselves in his service; we will do good "as we have opportunity." There, as sure as we are writing, we had no sooner penned the last word of the short sentence above, "I cannot heed them," than a rap was heard at our door, and hastening to open it, there stood a poor girl in the cold and rain asking for bread. We gave her bread, asked her if she went to the Sabbath School, and she said in reply she did; we then told her to call again, and she went off with a cheerful heart.

Our's was an angel's portion then,'

O, bow sweet are these calls!

We never felt the Savior half so precious to us when making a long prayer, or, preaching a long sermon, as when attending to some of these calls.',

Morning Star.

(From the Missions-Blatt.)

Br. Warmow, in a letter from Lichtenfels, in Greenland writes: "In the house of a helper-brother with whom I stayed over night, on one of my visits to the out-dwellers, I saw two violins hanging on the wall. I took one of them, which was small, and neatly made, and found that it had a very sweet tone. Where did you get this violin? I asked. "My son made it," was the reply. boy is only fourteen years old. I took the other from the wall, and supposing it had been imported from Europe, because it was beautifully finished and had a very good tone, I asked again, "But where did you buy this one?" "Buy?" said the helper; "I have

The