the efforts that are put forth by its various agencies, bringing in to the enjoyment of its fellowship both the old and the young, and constraining all to acknowledge that God is in the midst of it of a truth? It may naturally enough be asked, Is such a scrutiny as this now carried on by our Divine Saviour? Are there things connected with ourselves which require the Saviour's faithful examination? Facts with which we are all only too familiar show us that the inquiry is very far from being superfluous, and that it is as urgently required now as it ever was. These facts seem to indicate that there must be something wanting, if not something wrong, in the churches of our day. It is now more than eighteen centuries since Christianity was introduced into our world; how small a portion of the world has as yet been brought under its influence! The old forms of corrupted Christianity which existed many ages ago exist still; and some of them seem now to have fresh vigour infused into them. The complaint preferred of old that many of the professors of Christ's truth have only a form of godliness, the outward semblance of Christianity, may still be preferred-preferred with quite as much truth as of old. The gospel seems to many as if it had become obsolete and effete. The church seems to many more, as if it had become cold and carnal. The world seems to have become more hardened, more careless, more unbeliev the soul to God, but ever brings glory to God? Is the church an earnest church,-a church which in all that it seeks to do evinces an energy and a zeal proportioned in some measure to the professions which it makes and the obligations under which it lies; a church which has manifestly caught the mind of Him who said, "I must work the work of Him who sent me ?" -a church which breathes throughout all its members the spirit of true and constant earnestness? Is the church a liberal church,-a church in which there is a constant readiness to help on God's cause by returning to God what He has bestowed upon us, and what, even while we are enjoying it, is really His own ?-a church in which all are more desirous to be rich in good works than in earthly possessions; "ready to distribute, willing to communicate; " always remembering that it is "more blessed to give than to receive?" Is the church a loving church,-a church in which love to Christ, the hallowed and blessed bound of union among all its members, ever calls forth love to all who are Christ's, uniting them to one another as intimately as the various members of one body are united together, leading all to love as brethren, and to cultivate that charity which "suffereth long and is kind, which envieth not, which vaunteth not itself, which is not puffed up, which doth not behave itself unseemly, which seeketh not her own, which is not easily provoked, which thinketh no evil, which rejoiceth noting, more ungodly, more impervious to in iniquity, which beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things?" Is the church a prosperous church,-a church which is ever making aggressions on an unbelieving world, extending, and advancing, and increasing, so that the little one becomes a thousand?-a church in which there are constant evidences of the presence and power of God in the healthful piety of all its members, and in the way in which God crowns with His own rich and abundant blessing right and good influences. The schemes and the speculations of men, human theories and human efforts, in which God is only partially acknowledged, and in which Christ is altogether ignored, are substituted for that wondrous remedy for all the ills of our fallen humanity, which is the product of God's infinite and everlasting wisdom and love. Surely when these things are so, there must be something wanting and wrong in the churches of our day. What is it? and helpless we may be in ourselves, to seek from God the power which arises from a highly spiritual character, from a living and an abiding principle of religion reigning in the heart, and regulating the life. This is what He who searches the reins and the hearts urges upon us when He warns us against lukewarmness, against losing our first love, against having a name to live while we are dead; and when He enjoins us to hold fast that which we have received, to labour and not to faint, to keep the word of His patience, to be faithful unto death. Let us maintain the character which so well befits us, which God and man require from us, which will give us power both with God and with manthe character of Christ's servants and Christ's followers, baptized with Christ's Do we want another gospel? Do we want new ceremonies? Do we want other modes of action? Are we wrong jn our creed? Are we wrong in our polity? Are we wrong in our worship? Who among us will venture to say that it is in these things that we are either wanting or wrong? If we are wise-wise to win souls-we shall be desirous to guard against everything that is offensive in our methods of illustrating Divine truth, and in our ways of waiting upon God, whether in our public services or in our benevolent labours, trying as far as possible to make the truth inviting, and attractive, and winning; to throw around it a genial and a lovely character, which the eye can at once see, and which the heart must in some measure feel; but if, in our attempts to do so, we sacrifice truth, or compromise principle, allow-spirit, imitating Christ's example, speaking the verities of Christ's gospel, or the institutions of Christ's house, to be thrown into the shade, woe be to us! Well may Ichabod be written upon us. The great thing which it becomes us to seek for, which we must, if we are faithful to our Divine Master, labour with the intensest earnestness to attain, is, power, spiritual power, the power of true faith, of fervent piety, of personal holiness, of individual consistency; the power which eminent devotedness to God, and unchallengeable integrity before men; the power which earnestness proportioned in some measure to the infinite importance of the truths we hold, and the professions we make, alone can give us. There are many things which we may seek for in vain. But that pure and true Christian principle, which sanctifies the whole nature, and makes it a divine nature, which invests the whole character with a halo of moral glory, which all can see, and all must admire, which lifts us up from the dust, and enables us to stand before God as His accepted and acknowledged people, all of us may attain. Let us, then, determine, in the strength of God, whatever formalism or worldliness there may be around us, and however weak VOL. XXXVI. ing Christ's words, always remembering that as He was in the world, so are we in the world. Let us maintain that character in our teachings, mingling with all that is fresh and new in illustration that we can consistently avail ourselves of, the strongest attachment to the old gospel, the everlasting gospel of the ever-living God. Let us maintain that character in our religious services, incorporating, when we wait upon God in public observances, with all that taste and refinement, intelligence and science, may enable us to attain to, the simplicity, and sincerity, and spirituality, without which every act of worship is an act of solemn mockery. Let us maintain that character in our fellowship one with another, welcoming to our communion every one whom the Lord has received, who desires to commune with us, and having no usages or requirements which can deter the weakest of Christ's disciples from seeking to commune with us; but guarding most vigilantly against everything that might tend to introduce into the church the unchanged and the unsaved. Let us maintain that character in all our attempts to do good to those around us, ever remembering that it is equally M M its high character and its high calling, examine the resources which God has given it, and consider the prospects which God has set before it; would put away from it everything that is not of God, and, strong in His strength, would seek to do the work in this sinning and absurd to expect results without efforts, and to expect results as the fruit of efforts alone, thus learning to work as well as to pray, and to pray as well as to work. Let us maintain that character before the world, taking care lest the spirit of the world should obtrude itself upon us, and bring us into sub-erring world which He has called it to! jection when we are called upon to come out of the world, to become the light of the world, and to work so as to bring the world to Christ. Let us maintain that character before God, seeking always to realize His presence, ever endeavouring to walk before Him as His people ought, remembering constantly that we are His, are amenable to Him, and must undergo the future and final scrutiny which He shall conduct, on that day when every one of us must give an account of himself to God. Then would the church and the world both be blessed, while in both God would be glorified, and God's all-wise and ever beneficent purposes would be carried out. "For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light; and kings to the brightness of thy rising. And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: the sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel." Oh, that the church of God, in all its sections in these days of peril and evil, when iniquity abounds, when carnality prevails, when the world has so many claims, when Satan stands out so boldly against Christ's cause, and when too many who profess to be the people of God are inclined to allow their hands to hang down in feebleness, and their hearts to give way in despondency, would but awake and arise, remember Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A. R. "OWE NO MAN ANYTHING." SIR-I am not much given to writing, except in the daily routine of business, therefore what I intend to say shall be as brief as possible. The matter I have in hand appears to me a plain one, and few words will suffice. Last Lord'sday, our esteemed pastor took a view of the many causes which prevented the word bringing forth fruit; among others, the anxieties of the merchant, haunting his mind by day, and not seldom by night; intruding on his hours in the closet, and perturbing his mind while in the house of God. I have not numbered the years of half a century, the greater part of which I have been engaged in active counterbusiness, without being able to respond most heartily to his statements, as well as to many similar statements, expostu lations, and warnings, arising out of the same subject; and it is with no desire to see these softened, that I trouble you with these remarks. But it has numberless times occurred to me, and it did so forcibly on the occasion alluded to, how much would it conduce to the tradesman spending the Sabbath in the way he would wish to do, if his mind could be set at ease with regard to the bill he has due to-morrow, next day, or next week; if the many ac counts standing long overdue in his books were paid him, or even a portion of them. to hear the word, or break the bread of life, or congregate in the weekly meeting, they ask themselves as in the sight of God, "Am I innocent of the anxieties pressing on the mind of my brother, of my sister, or, indeed, of any one whose books may bear my name?" These, sir, are no new thoughts of mine. In my boyhood, when in my apprenticeship, I had perhaps such opportunity of observing this disease in all its aspects, as few out of London possessed. I specially include in this, its aspect in the religious world of the city I was placed in. I was counted a quiet youth, but, I think, one of a class who draw conclusions not quite so childish as their years and height would bespeak. "There are few such observers as children,” is a common-place remark; but it is little heeded, and many an anecdote could I send you of the glaring inconsistencies which daily met my eye, and found their way to my note-book, i.e. a tenacious memory, and a constant habit of reasoning on what came under my observation. Sir, we have many, nay, almost numberless societies for this, that, or the other object of Christian philanthropy, not one of which I would wish to see off the field; but I would be glad to see one added to these, something akin to our temperance societies, whereby individuals would lay it upon their conscience, if they did not bind themselves in the sight of man, to pay what they are owing. I can assure those who minister to us in sacred things, that many a quieter mind would sit before them, and many a harassing thought be prevented, if the accounts which have been allowed to run on quarter after quarter were in the hands of the small-capitalled tradesman. How can he listen with a quiet mind, or give himself to the privileges of the day of rest, when he has to look forward to the three or four "travellers" who are in town, and all of whom he must meet with nearly an empty pocket, but a full ledger?—all good debts (allow them to be so) at some time, but not at the time most wanted? Whether in the church or at home, he has still upon his mind the one thought; his children see it in his face: they have too often read his anxieties there before now, to mistake the cause. His partner in life feels with and for him, and many sooth-mine profits fearfully, but being small, ing words, no doubt, pass her lips; but still to-morrow is coming, and "What am I to do?" This is no visionary picture, Mr. Editor; it is one daily realized, not only in what we call the world, but in the religious world too. To that world I speak; on those composing it I urge, that ere they assemble themselves again I merely intended to throw out a hint, and I have written a letter. Let me, in conclusion, press on any who may peruse these lines, to think of the small sums they are owing. These are the dry rot of business. They under "they can be paid the next time we Sir, your obedient servant, ། ། 2 ANECDOTES, FACTS, AND APHORISMS. LIGHT AT MIDNIGHT. NEVER does the night of affliction seem so utterly dark and rayless as just before the glad sunlight breaks upon its midnight gloom. God often allows his children to be reduced to the very greatest straits the very hour before relief is afforded. I remember listening, years ago, to the plain and touching story of a silverhaired old missionary, who had spent many years labouring among the Indians about our upper lakes. One little incident peculiarly impressed my childish mind. The winter had come on before its time, and that, too, with unusual severity. All communication with distant stations, from whence they had been accustomed to obtain supplies, was cut off, and provisions which had been sent before were intercepted by hostile nations. The few friendly Indians around them were extremely needy, and could hardly supply themselves with food; so no assistance could be expected from that source. It would be impossible to communicate with distant friends before the opening of spring, and long before that they must all die of starvation, unless Providence sent them food almost as miraculously as He did to Elijah. Only a little corn-meal was left, one dreary night, when the humble missionary circle sat down to supper. One resource alone was left them. Their Father in heaven was as near to them as ever, and they knew their agonising cry would reach His throne. For hours they knelt together, and entreated earnestly and believingly that He would help them in this time of need. At last, with spirits strengthened and wonderfully lightened, they laid them down and slept. About two o'clock in the morning the old missionary was aroused by a loud rapping on the window-sill. Springing up, he grasped his weapons instinctively, and again listened. Directly he recognised the voice of a friendly Indian, who told him in his own language, that the fish were coming down the river, and they must hurry and secure them. He perceived that the air was very warm and soft, a wonderful change from the weather at sunset; still it seemed incredible that fish should be found in the river at that season. However, he went down with his guide to the bank, and there saw, with unutterable amazement, immense shoals of finny creatures apparently only waiting to be caught. The rest of the night was spent in taking them, and enough were obtained to last them through the winter. The wind changed next day, and the fish were all frozen stiff, nor did another thaw come; so they were well preserved without the trouble of salting. It seemed like nothing less than a miracle, as no fish had ever been heard of there before at that time of the year. Thanksgivings to God were as deep and fervent as supplications for aid had been; and ever after, when times of peculiar distress and trial came, they had but to remember their unexpected supply of food that dark wintry night, in order to feel new zeal and courage in the prosecution of their arduous work. 66 WHILE THEY ARE YET SPEAKING, I WILL HEAR." A PIOUS lady in Toronto was left, some years since, a widow with an only daughter. Successively her children had risen to youth, and then passed away, and each had been able to testify to the love and faithfulness of Him who says, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the floods, they shall not overflow thee." Each had departed joyfully, saying, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" and the bereaved mother had been enabled to bow under |