sons generally who are anxious to convey religious instruction to their poorer neighbours. Many individuals have a difficulty in addressing those they visit, and hence are apt to shrink from this duty. They will find a valuable guide in Mr. Jowett, and may thus be encouraged to persevere in a work eminently serviceable to themselves. For, as our author pertinently remarks,

"Females born to every comfort, and trained to every useful accomplishment, account it their honour to devote a portion of their time to this blessed employment. Other individuals, possessed of affluence and rank, yet deem it a Christian privilege to enter the abodes of sorrow and of humble piety; and very many, in all situations of life, unsparingly allot their leisure moments to this labour of love. It is felt by them, that not in the great congregation alone, not only in family worship, not even in the closet, are their best lessons always learned; these are better learned often when the circle around us is a room full of poor sufferers, or when our visits lead us to the sick-bed of some poor humble dying saint. There the Saviour is found to be unspeakably precious, and the mind of Christ is more copiously imbibed by the visitor, while he is doing the work of his Master, in shewing pity to his poor and afflicted members."

This book may also be laid on the library or parlour table; and, as it is broken into unconnected parts, it will supply profitable thoughts during those fragments of time which are reckoned too short for any serious employment, and are therefore usually wasted.

The Cabinet.

THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST." Never man spake like this man." John, vii. 46. The teaching of our blessed Lord has a sort of expansive quality; a power of self-development, by which it adapts itself to the moral exigencies of the world as they arise. And so wonderful is this power, that many of the parables may be said to have something of a prophetic stamp; to be conceived in a spirit of prediction, embracing the numberless varieties of human wickedness and frailty, which, in the course of time, should be made manifest by his heart-searching Gospel. He always speaks as one who "knew what was in man;" as one who saw into the depth of our corruptions, and was well acquainted both with our weakness and our strength. And therefore it is, that he spake as never man spake. His sayings were delivered with an authority which never attended the masters of Israel or the sages of the heathen schools; and the subsequent history of the world is a continued commentary on the incomparable wisdom of his instructions. Rev. C. Webb Le Bas.

That lawyer who does not believe in an original Lawgiver and Judge of the universe, ought by no meaus to be entrusted with the cause of a single client. That physician who doubts whether or no he himself hath a soul, ought not to have the care of another man's body. And that clergyman who, in eating, drinking, &c., does not keep a strict eye on his body, is most unfit to undertake a cure of souls.-Skelton.

CHRISTIAN JOY.-Solitude has nothing gloomy in it, if the soul points upwards. St. Paul tells his Hebrew converts, "Ye are come (already come) to Mount Sion-to an innumerable company of angels-to the general assembly of the first-born, which are written in heavenand to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." When this is the case, as surely it was with them, or the Spirit of Truth had never spoken it, there is an end of the melancholy and dulness of life at once. A lively faith

is able to anticipate, in some measure, the joys of that heavenly society which the soul shall actually possess hereafter.-Cowper.

LIBERALITY.-There is no one of the current terms of the day, against whose mis-use in argument we should be more vigilant, than the word liberality. It is a most seductive word, because it seems connected with enlargement of mind, and a freedom from contracted views of things. But it has been so often claimed by those who, in their sentiments and acts "betray" Christ, that we cannot be too suspicious of its application. It is the candour which is found within the realms of truth, which is alone legitimate: that which stands on the confines of truth and error, and casts, alternately, a smile on each, is indifference, is treason. Rev. Robert Eden.

CALUMNY.-Never be soured by calumny and detraction, and never think it necessary to confute them: for they are sparks, which, if you do not blow, will go out of themselves.-Boerhaave.

MUSIC.-Music, when judiciously brought into the service of religion, is one of the most delightful and not least efficacious means of grace. I pretend not too minutely to conjecture as to the actual nature of those pleasures which, after the resurrection, the reunited body and soul will enjoy in heaven; but I can hardly persuade myself that melody and harmony will be wanting, when even the sense of hearing will be glorified.-Rev. Legh Richmond,

PSALM CXIX. 105.

"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."-He who walks with a lamp in a dark night finds it safe for his feet, and comfortable to his sight; but then he diligently uses his lamp and wherever he finds his path to lie, there he follows. His lamp enlightens a small circle about himself, and leaves the surrounding objects in obscurity. Nay, his path at a distance is still dark: but he knows that, as he advances, his lamp shall light up each part of his way in its turn: and thus he goes on confidently. -Christian, thy lamp is the word of God. Dost thou really and conscientiously use it for the purpose of ordering thy steps thereby? But thou must be content with having thine own way cleared before thee: shadows and darkness, and often thick darkness, will lie on the providences of God in the world about thee. "What he doth, thou knowest not now." John, xiii. 7. Thine own way, too, at a distance may be dark: but be of good cheer; thou hast a light which shall assuredly shine upon it when thou comest hither. promise, or some precept, which as yet thou understandest not, because, perhaps, thou hast never yet been in the circumstances for which it is suited, shall be opened and applied to thee: and there shall arise light in the darkness.--Rev. C. Neale.

Some

THE GREAT DAY OF ATONEMENT.-Of the several sacrifices under the law, that one which seems most exactly to illustrate the sacrifice of Christ, and which is expressly compared with it by the writer to the Hebrews, is that which was offered for the whole assembly on the solemn anniversary of expiation. The circumstances of this ceremony, whereby atonement was to be made for the sins of the whole Jewish people, seem so strikingly significant, that they deserve a particular detail. On the day appointed for this general expiation, the priest is commanded to offer a bullock

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and a goat as sin-offerings the one for himself, and the other for the people; and having sprinkled the blood of these in due form before the mercy-seat, to lead forth a second goat, denominated the scape-goat; and, after laying both his hands upon the head of the scapegoat, and confessing over him all the iniquities of the people, to put them upon the head of the goat, and to send the animal, thus bearing the sins of the people, away into the wilderness: in this manner expressing, by an action which cannot be misunderstood, that the atonement, which, it is directly affirmed, was to be effected by the sacrifice of the sin-offering, consisted in removing from the people their iniquities, by a symbolical translation of them to the animal. For it is to be remarked that the ceremony of the scape-goat is not a distinct one: it is a continuation of the process, and is evidently the concluding part and symbolical consummation of the sin-offering; so that the transfer of the iniquities of the people upon the head of the scape-goat, and the bearing them away into the wilderness, manifestly imply, that the atonement effected by the sacrifice of the sin-offering consisted in the transfer and consequent removal of those iniquities. What, then, are we taught to infer from this ceremony? That, as the atonement under the law, or expiation of the legal transgressions, was represented as a translation of those transgressions, in the act of sacrifice in which the animal was slain, and the people thereby cleansed from their legal impurities, and released from the penalties which had been incurred,so the great atonement for the sins of mankind was to be effected by the sacrifice of Christ, undergoing, for the restoration of men to the favour of God, that death which had been denounced against sin, and which he sufired in like manner as if the sins of men had been actually transferred to him, as those of the congregation had been symbolically transferred to the sindering of the people.-Archbishop Magee.

TRUE RELIGION.-Religion is not to be judged of by the quantity, but by the quality of our doings. Nor does its essence lie in theoretical knowledge, nor even in moral practice; for we may know the truth without a love of it, and we may do right actions from wrong motives. But religion is that spirit of reference te God, which breathes a holiness into both knowledge and practice, and consecrates them to be acceptable offerings to our heavenly Father.-Rev. T. Griffith. CLEANSING EFFICACY OF CHRIST'S BLOOD.-The invalidity of whatsoever we can do in order to this thing [the cleansing from sin], is sufficiently demonstrated in many places of Scripture. "If I wash my

self with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me" (Job, ix. 30, 31). He that has nothing to rinse his polluted soul with but his own penitential tears, endeavours only to purify himself in muddy water, which does not purge, but increases the sain. In Christ alone is that fountain which is opened for sin and for uncleanness; and in this only we must Wash and bathe our defiled souls, if ever we would have them pure. (1 John, i. 7.) The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin. It is from his crucified side that there must issue both blood to expiate, and water to cleanse, our impieties. Faith, also, is said to purify the heart (Acts, xv. 9); but how? Why, certainly as it is instrumental to bring into the soul that parifying virtue that is in Christ. Faith purifies, not as the water itself, but as the conduit that conveys the water. Again, in Rev. i. 5, Christ is said to have washed us from our sins by his own blood. There is Le cleansing without this; so that we may use the words of the Jews, and convert an imprecation into a blessing, and pray that his blood may be upon us, and spon our souls; for it is certain that it will be one way upon us, either to purge, or to condemn us.— Dr. South,

Poetry.

LINES BY A CLERGYMAN.

"Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." John, xv. 7.

My happy lot what blessings fill!

I at my Father's throne
May ask my Father what I will,

And it shall straight be done.

But, ah! my will is restless, hot,
Unruly, fretful, wild;

And O, if thou restrain it not,

Lord, thou wilt lose thy child.
Then, holy Father, grace impart,

This wayward will incline,--
Chasten and purify my heart,
Make thy will only mine.

AN EVENING SONG FOR THE LORD'S DAY.
BY JAMES MONTGOMERY.

MILLIONS within thy courts have met,
Millions this day before thee bowed;
Their faces Zionward were set,

Vows with their lips to thee they vowed :--
But thou, soul-searching God! hast known
The hearts of all that bent the knee,
And hast accepted those alone,

In spirit and truth that worshipp'd thee.
People of many a tribe and tongue,

Men of strange colours, climates, lands,
Have heard thy truths, thy glory sung,
And offer'd pray'r with holy hands.
Still, as the light of morning broke
O'er island, continent, and deep,
Thy far-spread family awoke,

Sabbath all round the world to keep.
From east to west the sun survey'd,

From north to south, adoring throngs;
And still where evening stretch'd her shade,
The stars came forth to hear their songs.
Harmonious as the winds and seas,
In halcyon days, when storms are flown,
Rose all earth's Babel-languages,

In pure accordance, to thy throne.
Nor angel-trumpets sound more clear;
Nor elders' harps, nor seraphs' lays,
Yield music sweeter to thine car
Than humble pray'r and thankful praise.
And not a pray'r, a tear, a sigh,

Hath fail'd to-day some suit to gain;
To those in trouble thou wert nigh,
Not one hath sought thy face in vain.
Thy poor were bountifully fed,

Thy chasten'd sons have kiss'd the rod;
Thy mourners have been comforted,

The pure in heart have seen their God. Yet one pray'r more; -and be it one,

In which both heav'n and earth accord!Fulfil thy promise to thy Son,

Let all that breathe call Jesus Lord.

His throne and sovereignty advance;
For his soul's travail let him see
The heathen his inheritance,

And earth's last bound his portion be.

Miscellaneous.

PERSECUTION.-" The more we are cut down by the sworde of persecution, the more still we are," saies Turtellian of the Christians in his time; yea, the sufferings of one begat many to the love of the truth. We reade that Cicillia, a poor virgin, by her gracious behaviour in her martyrdome, was the means of converting four hundred to Christ. Whence Master John Lindsay, a friend to Bishop Bettoune, upon the burning of Master Patrick Hamilton, said to him-" My lord, if you burne any more, let them be burnt in hollow cellars; for the smoak of Master Hamilton hath infected as many as it blew upon."-Young's Counterpoyson, 1641.

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PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.-This unhappy individual, who gloried in his infidelity, and whose unquestionably fine talents were fearfully desecrated, was apparently a person of the most heroic character, and not likely to feel any serious alarm in the hour of danger. When sailing in Lord Byron's yacht, a storm arose which threatened the destruction of the vessel. Shelley was immediately alarmed-nothing could render him tranquil he called out in agony for mercy from that very Being on whose laws he had not only himself trampled, but whose sovereignty over the hearts of others he had sought to overthrow, and whose name he had never mentioned without the most profane ridicule. His terrors are described as having been fearfully awful. He is not the only infidel, however, whose last hours have been embittered at the near prospect of death. In the season of health and supposed security the blasphemer may deride the idea of a God of judgment and eternity; his feelings will be far different when God causes his waves to go over him, and judgment and eternity are at the very door.

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.-The sea has sometimes a luminous appearance, a phenomenon that has been observed by all sailors, who consider it the forerunner of windy weather. It is said to occur most frequently in the summer and autumn months, and varies so much in its characters as to induce a doubt whether it can be always attributed to the same cause. Sometimes the luminous appearance is seen over the whole surface of the water, and the vessel seems as though floating upon an ocean of light; at other times the phosphorescence only encircles the ship. A portion of water taken from the sea does not necessarily retain its luminous appearance, but its brilliance will generally continue as long as the water is kept in a state of agitation. Some philosophers imagine the phosphorescence of the sea to arise from the diffusion of an immense number of animalculæ through the medium, and others attribute it to electricity. Dr. Buchanan has given an account of a very remarkable appearance of the sea, observed by him during a voyage from Johanna to Bombay. About eight o'clock in the evening of the 31st of July, 1785, the sea had a milk-white colour, and was illuminated by a multitude of luminous bodies, greatly resembling the combination of stars known as the milky way, the luminous substances representing the brighter stars of a constellation. The whiteness, he says, was such as to prevent those on board from seeing either the break or swell of the sea, although, from the motion of the ship and the noise, they knew them to be violent, and the light was sufficiently intense to illuminate the ropes and rigging. This singular phenomenon continued until daylight appeared. Several buckets of water were drawn, and in them were found a great number

of luminous bodies, from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half in length, and these were seen to move about as worms in the water. There might be, says Dr. Buchanan, four hundred of these animals in a gallon of water. A similar appearance had been observed before in the same sea by several of the officers, and the gunner had seen it off Java Head in a voyage to China.-M. Higgins.

A GUILTY CONSCIENCE.-When Dr. Donne, afterwards dean of St. Paul's, took possession of his first living, as he walked into the churchyard, he took up a skull thrown by the sexton out of a grave, and in it he found a small headless nail, which he drew out secretly, and wrapt it up in the corner of his handkerchief. He then asked the grave-digger if he knew whose the skull was? He replied, that it was the skull of a person who had kept a spirit-shop, and who, having gone to bed intoxicated, was found dead in his bed in the morning. "Had he a wife?" asked the doctor." "Yes." "What character does she bear?" "A very good one; only the neighbours reflect on her, because she married the day after her husband's burial." A few days afterwards the doctor paid her a visit, as if by accident; asked her some questions; and at last, of what sickness her former husband had died. As she was telling him the same story as the sexton, he opened his handkerchief, and cried out in an authoritative voice, "Woman, do you know this nail?" Struck with horror, she instantly confessed the murder.

The

PRIDE. Howard, the philanthropist, neither wanted courage nor talent to administer reproof where it was needed. A German count, governor of Upper Austria, with his countess, called one day on the man who had excited so large a share of the public attention. count asked him the state of the prisons within his department. Mr. Howard replied, "The worst in all Germany;" and advised that the countess should visit the female prisoners. "I" said she, haughtily; "I go into prisons!" and rapidly hastened down stairs, in great anger. Howard, indignant at her proud and unfeeling disposition, loudly called after her, "Madam, remember that you are but a woman yourself; and you must soon, like the most miserable female prisoner in a dungeon, inhabit but a small space of that earth from which you equally originated."

ST. BASIL.-They who resolve to retire out of the reach of all temptations, seldom fail to run into more dangerous ones of their own creating. St. Basil, having persuaded himself that, secluded from the world, he should be happy, returned from the wilderness, saying," I had forsaken all things, but I yet retained my unfaithful heart."

OF THE GOSPEL SHOULD BE RECEIVED.

THE preaching of the word is an ordinance specially appointed by Christ for the conviction and instruction of men. The command he gave to his apostles after his resurrection was, to "preach the Gospel to every creature." Without this, the world would be ignorant of the great mercies of redemption; for, as St. Paul pertinently asks, "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" And St. Peter speaks of believers as being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." Where, then, this word is not faithfully and fully declared, there we can expect but little of the spirit of religion: there will be no clear understanding of the truth, no warm zeal for Christ, no conformity to his image. The people will be found either careless or formalists. But when the word of God is properly sent forth, it shall not return unto him void. It may not indeed produce visibly at once the effect which men are looking for-just as the seed springs not immediately into the full corn in the ear ;-but, in its season, we have it on the highest authority, it shall accomplish that which he pleases, it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it.

The word meets with an uncongenial soil in the deceitfulness of the human heart. And it may, perhaps, be laid down as a general rule, that that preaching which pleases most is least likely to do good. The wish, if not openly expressed, at least conceived, of worldly men is, "Prophesy not unto us right

VOL. I. NO. IV.

66

phesy deceit." He, therefore, that cries, Peace, peace!" even though there be no peace, is welcome to them: he that speaks the truth, is told it is "a hard saying: who can hear it?" The Christian shews, in this respect, very much of the spirit of the world. He would willingly, like Moab (Jer. xlviii. 11), "settle upon his lees," and not be "emptied from vessel to vessel." Hence he shrinks from that searching kind of ministry, which probes his heart, which, by a frequent reference to fundamental truth, uses constantly the line and the plummet; and flies rather to that which checks all apprehensions, and soothes all uneasiness, and which thus makes him in his own eyes appear fast profiting in the things of God. If every Christian had reached so high a state of attainment as to be always decided, always consistent, always watchful, this would be well; but when it is a fact that the vast majority bring forth but a little fruit, and that the wise, while the bridegroom tarries, slumber and sleep, even as the foolish, it is obvious that they need to be awakened, to be humbled, to be shewn their deficiencies, to be urged to that close examination of their state and prospects, to which Satan and their own hearts alike render them averse. Cordials, indeed, may not unfrequently be needed, and the general spirit of a ministry should be love: but if all, or indeed the chief portion of our food were to consist of rich cordials, daintiness, rather than health, would be the consequence. Vigorous health can be sustained only by plainer and more solid fare.

The conduct of Asa, king of Judah, remarkably exemplifies the unwillingness of

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even a good man to receive wholesome truth. There is every reason to believe, in spite of his inconsistencies, that Asa was a child of God. In fact, we are expressly told that his heart "was perfect all his days." Yet, when a prophet reproved him, by the divine command, for an instance of unbelief, the king was so far from welcoming the needed message, that he actually commanded the messenger to be cast into prison.

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It must not be thought that I, in any degree, deny that right of private judgment, which we, as Protestants, in opposition to the pretensions of the Romish Church, have always maintained. Undoubtedly, every man's preaching should be weighed, examineday, subjected to the severest scrutiny. The apostles themselves admitted this; for the sacred record gives no small commendation to the inhabitants of Berea, as being more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." This is the standard by which the ministry of the word must be tried the holy Scriptures; and no inferior test must be applied. The preached word must be laid in no meaner scale than the very balance of the sanctuary. But the fault of too many is, that they try it by their own frames and feelings; they refer it to the opinion of their own minds, which is perverted, we know, by a thousand misapprehensions, and biased by a thousand lusts. As well might the ordinances of a sovereign be carried for approval to his rebellious subjects, instead of being compared with the standing laws of the kingdom, which it is their office to promulgate.

The evil which results from this fault is very great. A proud and critical spirit is engendered; a part only of the Gospel is received; and fearful errors of principle and practice are fostered or overlooked. In the metropolis, and other large towns, where there are many churches, the effects are most apparent. The places of worship, which are at one time crowded, when a favourite preacher officiates, are at another deserted, when some one appears, as scriptural perhaps in his teaching, but without the peculiar qualifications, which-tell it not in Gathare necessary to hit the fancy of the professors of religion. And when a minister removes or dies, it is too often thought needful, in choosing his successor, to look for, not piety and faithfulness merely, but showiness enough, or smoothness enough, to retain those who had been before, by such attractions, collected. How frequently has a clergyman, on his appointment to a post of usefulness, to begin, as it were, from the founda

tion; the majority of the flock thinking it incumbent on them, on the departure of a particular shepherd, to depart from the fold! Surely such things ought not to be. They are the signs of that carnality which the apostle Paul so pointedly reproved in the Corinthian Church, where one preferred Apollos, and another Cephas.

It would be well, if a more humble, a more teachable spirit could be stirred up amongst

us.

And deeply by every hearer ought that important precept of the Scripture to be pondered, "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evilspeakings, as new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby; if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious." Ministers are to speak as the ambassadors of God, and to exhort with all authority. A congregation are to feel themselves learners and scholars, and to receive with meekness the engrafted word. And if they find it unpalatable, they ought to think that the fault may be in themselves: they should, therefore, instead of hastily following their own notions, pray earnestly for the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge, who only can give them a right judgment in all things.

And in comparing what they hear with that which I have said is to be the sole standard of appeal, let men beware of substituting for the pure inspired word their own imperfect interpretation of it. The Scripture is often read unfairly. It is often consulted merely to supply arguments for a previously constructed system; and thus it is made to bend to human prejudices. So perverted, it is well nigh useless as a test.

If hearers, when they approach the sanctuary, would remember that they are to listen to the word, not of man, but of God; if they would pray to be enabled to "receive it with pure affection;" if afterwards, instead of making it the subject of empty remark and comparison, they would retire to their closets to examine themselves thereby; if they would consider that its end is not to please, but to profit them; doubtless Christ, who honours his own ordinances, would richly feed their souls. A minister and his people would then be joined by better ties: a spirit of union would be more largely diffused amongst us ; and those that looked upon our worshipping congregations would learn, from their fruits, to say, "These are they whom the Lord hath blessed."

But for this, pride must be brought down, and self-confidence must be abased. That gracious humility of spirit must be cultivated, against which the natural temper most of all revolts. Men must be content, as our Sa