ble of the noblest exertions. A congregation without sympathy towards him, who is "over them in the Lord," is in the most perilous condition, and not likely to benefit from his ministrations. It is when the feelings of the heart are awakened towards the "Messenger of God," and spirit communes with spirit, that the divine message is most likely to tell with power upon their souls. Not only as a minister, but as a man in his social and relative position, he needs the sympathy of his people; his domestic circle is not exempt from those trials to which our common humanity is always subject. When afflicted, either in himself or his family, how consoling and cheering is the voice of Christian friendship at such a season; the burdens of his distress is greatly alleviated by such a timely interview. What people could refuse sympathy to their minister in circumstances like these!

Moreover, he has a right to expect efficient aid. Sympathy alone, however warm, without corresponding exertion is very useless. So the expression of feeling for a minister's affliction, without a generous effort to afford assistance, is mockery. He needs the countenance and contributions of his hearers; and these should be most cordially acceded to him.

As a public man, he is expected to take part in public institutions, and render them his aid; but how can he unless his people furnish him with the needful supplies! He ought not to be unaided in his benevolent career, he should be assisted in his plans of usefulness, and be accompanied in his efforts to carry them into operation.

Is he required to visit the afflicted poor? They usually expect pecuniary assistance, but how can he meet their necessities if his own finances are deficient? A fund should be established in every congregation to enable the minister to discharge the duty of visitation to the sick and the distressed. With such means at his disposal, he can proceed with confidence in " his work of mercy and labour of love." His visits will be welcomed, and the heart of the sinner softened, and thus a way will be prepared for the reception of truth with the most beneficial effect.

"The labourer is worthy of his hire," is a truth plainly taught in scripture; and why should not the minister, on this principle, expect from the people of his charge, such a remuneration as will be sufficient to preserve him from all embarrassment! A mind perplexed about necessary expenses, will render a minister very unfit for the important duties of the pulpit, Circuits are not bound to confine their preacher to the exact amount guaranteed by the Assembly. Congregations should consider well, what is requisite to keep their minister and his family comfortable, and above anxiety and care.

As a suitable conclusion to this paper, both parties may be reminded of the solemn, but pleasing obligation of interceding for each other at "the throne of grace." Each, equally need it, the one for preaching, the other for hearing. So Paul felt this mutual obligation to prayer when he wrote 1 Thess. i. 2. "We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers:" and when he said, 2 Thess. iii. 1, "Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free cause, and be glorified."

When this hallowed spirit is cultivated, and this social duty conscien

tiously discharged, there will be no want of sympathy on either side; but there will be a feeling of holy affection enkindled, which must prove both pleasant and profitable to the minister and people.

"

Should it not be so? Is it too much to expect? Has not God appointed prayer as the means by which His blessing is to be attained? Is prosperity in the churches desired? is their peace to be preserved? or the success of the gospel to be secured? Prayer must be employed. The Spirit's influence then will be poured out, and great grace will rest upon the Connexion.

G. S.

..I

TRUTH AND IMPORTANCE OF CHRISTIANITY. CHRISTIANITY presents to man a system of truth that bears the impress of its divinity-a system, standing alone amid all others, which shows itself adapted to the universal wants of man, explaining the highest problems of his destiny, and reconciling the greatest difficulties which can agitate his mind. From whatever point we view Christianity, we recognize in it the sound embodiment of truth. It is marred by no diminution of its glory, in any respect whatever. In every place of its development, it shines with brilliant and unfading lustre. Human systems may sometimes dazzle the mind, like meteor stars the eve; but what system, that has ever been propounded by sage or philosopher in ancient or modern times, in any country in the world, has, like Christianity, from the first hour of its rising, shone with such undiminished glory? What system like this has proved itself to be so eminently calculated to meet man's deep-felt wants and high-soaring inspirations, holding out to him the panacea for the evils of life, and the antidote to eternal death? Examine the philosophies of Plato and Socrates, or the religious systems of Confucius and Mahomet, or the Shasters of the Hindoos, and they present only a mass of errors-give nothing to satisfy the cravings of an immortal mind, and are neither adapted to guide man here, nor open out to him the way to everlasting bliss. But, take Christianity, and it "is the fulfilment of every hope, the perfection of all philosophy, the interpeter of every revolution, the key to all the seeming contradictions in the physical and moral world; it is life and d; it is li immortality!"

OT

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Against Christianity, Infidelity may raise its arm, fight its feeble warfare, try to undermine its foundations, and pour upon it ridicule and contempt; but its truth is built upon a foundation which no human or spiritual foe can injure or overturn. A Celsus, a Porphyry, a Julian, a Paine, a Voltaire, a d'Alembert, and a Strauss, may hurl their envenomed shafts at her lovely form, but they fall pointless in their aim. "No weapon formed against her shall prosper." Every opposition she vanquishes and comes forth from the conflict crowned with victory, wearing a brighter hue and a lovelier aspect. "Christianity," it has been well said, "has been too long on the field of conflict to need to dread the assault of any new foe, or the power of any new weapons. The Genius of Wordliness, recognising in her its predestined destroyer,

has been forward to encounter her at every stage of her existence; and, when unable to meet her in open conflict, it has hung upon her rear, if haply it might retard her progress or mar her triumphs. As each successive change in the constitution of society has worked new tendencies in the spirit of the age, her adversary has been seen allying itself with these, and borrowing from them new modes of attack. The discoveries of each new science, as it has arisen into maturity under the fostering hand of modern research, have been eagerly seized and arrayed against the religion of Jesus. The old philosophies of the Porch, of the Academy, and the airy speculations of Oriental mysticism, which in the earlier period of her existence were made to do their utmost against her, have in later times, been succeeded by a whole host of systems-sensualist, idealist, transcendentalist-each of which in its turn has been urged to attempt her overthrow. Metaphysics and arithmetic, astronomy and geology, physiology and chronology, the records of history, and the laws of nature, the remnants of antiquity, and the discoveries of the day, have all been tortured to give witness against her. Men have sought to involve her in the ruins of empires, and to persuade the world to avoid her as the enemy of the rights of man. Even the faith of her confessors, the fortitude of her martyrs, and the sanctity of her priests, have been laid hold of to point a jest or give edge to a sneer. It has been a strange relentless conflict through which she has had to pass. But she has passed through it, not only unsubdued but invigorated. She has outlived the philosophies that have been put forward as her rivals; she has silenced, by her august earnestness, the petulent jests of the scoffer; she has vindicated the cause of her despised adherents! she has equally appropriated the scattered wrecks of antiquity; she has received the homage of modern discovery; she has laid the sciences under tribute, and now uses them as her servants; she has shown herself adapted to secure the happiness and promote the well-being of man in all countries and under all circumstances; and, after centuries of contumely and conflict, she stands before the world with her fame untarnished, her resources unenfeebled, and her prospects of universal supremacy brighter than ever."

D

1

Christianity, then, being so divine in its origin, so grand in its design, so noble in its form, so adapted to man's moral and spiritual nature, in value above all price-it follows that to become acquainted with such a system, to study its truths and comply with its requirements, is our highest wisdom and greatest duty. It may be desirable to know the arts and sciences, to read philosophy and learn wisdom from the books of nature; but it is not only desirable to study Christianity, to penetrate its beauties, and imbibe its heavenly precepts, as the best knowledge attainable in this life, but is a duty of the first importance, in order to obtain everlasting life. We may be unacquainted with the arts and sciences, and yet not live a useless life; but we cannot live to true purpose, as rational and immortal creatures, and he unacquainted with the sublime life-giving truths of the Gospel. Hence it is our duty to know Christianity, to place it foremost in our knowledge; to be willing rather to be ignorant of everything else, than to die ignorant of the Gospel. Oh! that this gospel were more studied by men and by nations that th the great science of salvation were more comprehended in its

bearings upon man's present and future life, studied rationally and experimentally, that with all their getting of worldly wisdom, men would get understanding of Christianity, then would the moral world become one universal scene of happiness, and nations and people would worship in the light of a common Saviour, live to a noble end and promote their own welfare and God's great glory. J. P.

IMMATERIAL NATURE OF MEMORY.

WE daily experience the recurrence of past impressions to be entirely independent on the will, and we are often surprised at the distinctness with which scenes that had long been lost in oblivion suddenly reappear without the possibility of our detecting the cause of their revival. That such resurrections of thought and impression result from some constant law of our existence, there cannot be a doubt; but that the recognized influence of association is insufficient for the purpose of explaining the fact, we possess abundant proof, in those examples of renewed recollection or its loss, which are so common in consequence of disease. Sir Astley Cooper relates the case of a sailor who was received into St. Thomas's Hospital, in a state of stupor, from an injury in the head, which had continued some months. After an operation he suddenly recovered, so far as to speak, but no one in the hospital understood his language. But a Welsh milk-woman, happening to come into the ward, answered him, for he spoke Welsh, which was his native language. He had, however, been absent from Wales more than thirty years, and previous to the accident had entirely forgotten Welsh, although he now spoke it fluently, and recollected not a single word of any other tongue. On his perfect recovery, he again completely forgot his Welsh and recovered his English.

An Italian gentleman, mentioned by Dr. Rush, in the beginning of an illness spoke English; in the middle of it, French; but, on the day of his death, he spoke only Italian. A Lutheran clergyman, of Philadelphia, informed Dr. Rush that Germans and Swedes, of whom he had a large number in his congregation when near death, always prayed in their native languages; though some of them, he was confident, had not spoken them for fifty or sixty years. An ignorant servant girl, mentioned by Coleridge, during the delirium of fever, repeated, with perfect correctness, passages from a number of theological works in Latin, Greek, and Rabbinical Hebrew. It was at length discovered that she had been servant to a learned clergyman, who was in the habit of walking backward and forward along a passage by the kitchen, and there reading aloud his favourite authors.

Dr. Abercrombie relates the case of a child, four years of age, who underwent the operation of trepanning while in a state of profound stupor from a fracture of the skull. After his recovery, he retained no recollection either of the operation or the accident; yet, at the age of fifteen, during the delirium of a fever, he gave his mother an exact description of the operation, of the persons present, their dress, and

ever,

many other minute particulars. Dr. Pritchard mentions a man who had been employed with a beetle and wedges, splitting wood. At night he put these implements in the hollow of a tree, and directed his sons to accompany him next morning in making a fence. In the night, howhe became mad. After several years his reason suddenly returned, and the first question he asked was, whether his sons had brought home the beetle and wedges. They, being afraid to enter into an explanation, said they could not find them; on which he arose, went to the field where he had been at work so many years before, and found in the place where he had left them, the wedges and the iron rings of the beetle, the wooden part having mouldered away.

It is a remarkable fact that, in many instances disorder of faculty, more particularly of memory, having resulted from extensive organic disease of the brain, yet individuals so afflicted have, nevertheless, had lucid intervals and a perfect restoration of memory. This has been so marked in some cases, as to have induced the hope of recovery when 'death has been near at hand, and has even rapidly ensued, from the increase of the very disease which led to the mental incapacity. Mr. Marshall relates, that a man died with a pound of water in his brain, who, just before death became perfectly rational, although he had been long in a state of idiocy. Dr. Holland refers to similar cases, and I have witnessed one. Now, unless we conclude that mind has been recreated on such occasions, in accommodation to the organic defects, we must conclude that the mind exists in its integrity, when once formed, distinct as the light of heaven; though, like it, subject to eclipse and cloud in its earthly manifestations.

Many such cases might be adduced, but the foregoing facts suffice to prove that, though a healthy condition of the brain is essential to the proper manifestation of mind in this state of being, yet a history of events lies hidden in the soul, which only requires suitable excitement and appropriate circumstances to cause it to be unfolded to the eye of the mind, in due order, like a written roll. And, moreover, these facts indicate that our bodies and our minds are mercifully constituted, in 'mutual fitness and accommodation to each other and the world we dwell in. They also show that, the active employment of the will, and bodily health with diversified bodily engagements, are the best means of correcting that tendency to mental absence which precedes and accompanies insanity. Moreover, these cases, as well as many others equally well authenticated, "furnish proofs and instances that relics of sensation may exist for an indefinite time in a latent state, in the very same order in which they were originally impressed." Indeed the activity and intensity of all mental power seem to depend on the removal of bodily impediment. At least we see that certain states of body allow the mind to act without the consciousness of difficulty or effort. Thus Dr. Willis relates the case of a gentleman, who expected his fits of insanity with impatience, because of the facility with which he then exercised his memory and imagination. He said "every thing appeared easy to me. No obstacles presented themselves in theory or practice. My memory acquired, all of a sudden, a singular degree of perfection. Long passages of Latin authors occurred to my mind. In general, I have great difficulty in finding rhythmical terminations, but then I could write verse with as