LET faith, Christian, trust in God's love, when his words are bitter and his strokes are heavy. Let love welcome the rod that is wielded by the hand of mercy. Let repentance acknowledge the justice of your Father's corrections. Let gratitude bless him that his chastenings are so beneficial in their influence, and that the blow is directed, not at all your comforts, but at one, or at a few of them. "Glorify God in the fires."-Belfrage. The Last Thing done by Christ for THE last thing our Lord did on earth should be dear to us,-to think how Christ and his pcople parted. He lifted up his hands and blessed them, that they might remember him as long as they lived. Christ came into the world to bless his people, and died to obtain a blessing; and, when he went to heaven, he left his blessing upon them; and it was the last thing he did upon earth.-Trail. The Evil of Sin. SIN is a dreadful thing, for it is always the attraction of wrath. What the Saviour had to leave. ALL that the Saviour had to bequeath was his wearing apparel, and that never came to his mother.-Jay. Three great Advantages resulting REAL religion,--the love of Christ in the heart, will always effect three things: I. It will surmount the disorders of life, keeping the mind tranquil and happy. II. It will diminish, and sometimes entirely quell, the fear of death, so that the spirit will be kept in perfect peace. III. It will conduct the soul to immortal glory and felicity; and so conduct it as that there shall be no failure, and can be no uncertainty. Are not these benefits inestimable, and deserving of any effort, of any sacrifice, to secure? A beautiful Thought in Connexion with Pardon of Sin. WHEN God overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, it overwhelmed and drowned the greatest Egyptian commanders no less than the meanest foot-soldier. The vast ocean overflows the lowest sands and the highest rocks. So does pardoning grace cover every transgression of every penitent believer. Arrowsmith. A Sentiment of Bacon's. Ir was a quaint but expressive remark of Sir Francis Bacon's,-" Old wood is best to burn; old friends best to trust; and old books best to read." Now the Word of God is not only the oldest book, but incomparably the best. Christians, read that, study that, before any! How Affliction is profitable. LIKE gold that brightens in the furnace, so are the saints in affliction. As the wind opening the rose-buds to beauty and fragrance, so is sorrow to the good; not like the blast, that strews them on the ground.-Belfrage. The Importance of believing the Whole of the Bible. Ir a part of the Bible be untrue, or be considered as untrue, how do I know but that the whole may not be false?-Dr. Cornelius. A COLUMN FOR THE DEVOUT. A Maxim for Young Christians. In perusing the Scriptures, read carefully and comprehensively, that you may understand, and understand clearly and largely. Meditate devotionally and earnestly on the doctrines revealed,-on the statements made,-on the invitations tendered, on the precepts inculcated, that they may be lodged in the memory, sink deeply into the understanding,-penetrate and ever influence the heart. A Thought for the Minister. THE minister of religion should never forget his office, but be himself whereever he is.-Herbert. What the Believer does. The Value of the Sabbath. THE child of God does not confine He his devotion to particular seasons. will mingle piety with business, and endeavour to acknowledge God in all IF I am a Christian, I commit all to his ways; still, he finds week-days to be, Christ. All my enemies. If I am treated as a madman on account of the truth, I commit the answering of all these scoffers to him. I put my character into his hands; and, if I am still going on, sowing the seed and bearing testimony, I commit all this to him.-Cecil. generally, worldly-days. He is, to a certain extent, mixed up with the world during his engagements, his solicitudes, his perplexities. He wants a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. This he finds the Sabbath to be, and hence its extreme precious ness. When the Christian prospers. As the Christian can look to Christ, all things go well. His great concern is, that he may stand with his loins girded, waiting for his Lord.-Cecil. haven of eternal glory, without sailing | course, "I could say as much as that through the narrow strait of repentance. in the House of Commons." Dyer. The dying Regret of Salmasius. WHEN this erudite man was on his death-bed, he exclaimed, with much compunction-" Oh, I have lost a world of time. If one year more was to be added to my life, it should be spent in David's psalms and Paul's epistles." This will be the regret of many mere scholars, when they come to die. The best Legacy. A POOR, but excellent woman, who resided near the benevolent Lady Betty Hastings, said, shortly before she expired, "I will not die without leaving dear Lady Hastings a legacy; and I bequeath her the seventeenth chapter of St. John, with my prayers that that sweet chapter may be made as great a blessing to her heart, as it has been to mine. The best Kind of Religion. THE eminent Bulstrode Whitlock, Lord Chancellor, and the historian, used to observe, after his retirement from the world, and all the engagements of public life, "My religion is to have the Good Spirit of God in my heart." What religion can surpass that? What the Christian should be. THE Christian is a man who ought ever to be striving against sin-panting after holiness-longing for deliverance from the power of this evil world, and to be perfectly like his Lord in heaven. Is every Christian such a man? What does observation testify? What do facts preach? Moral Preaching. WILBERFORCE remarked of a merely moral preacher whom he heard dis The Human Heart under Temptation. WORMS and other insects take up their habitation under the surface of the earth. A plat of ground may be verdant with grass, and decorated with flowers; but take a spade in your hand, and turn up the mould, and you soon have a sample of the vermin which lurk beneath. Temptation is the spade which breaks up the ground of a be liever's heart, and helps to discover the corruption of his fallen nature. Toplady. Fine Observation of Wilberforce. WITHOUT Watchfulness, humiliation, and prayer, the sense of divine things must languish, as much as the grass withers for want of refreshing rains and dews. Avoid trifling with Religion. NEVER trifle under any circumstances with your immortal interests. They are your all. You are surrounded, professing Christians, by triflers, but their trifling should deeply impress you, rendering you much more serious and earnest. Early Impressions. FIRST impressions of religion, of your God, of your Saviour, were very deep, very lively, very valuable, very influential. Strive, Christian, to keep those impressions, or something like them, continually alive in the soul. The Mode of gaining Heaven. THE kingdom of heaven is never to be won by any without vigorous, unceasing labour. Every muscle must be employed-every effort made, to obtain the goal. Press forward then, believer! agonize, till you enter the happy land of Canaan! T. W. POETRY.REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS. THE CROSS. Poetry. "There stood by the cross of Jesus, his HIGHER, higher to the cross Like the friend "whom Jesus loved," Lower, lower at the cross, Longer, longer on the cross Never, never from the cross, "Watch" and wait upon Him there, Oh, the glory of the cross, Warminster. Review of Religious Publications. PASTORAL THEOLOGY: the Theory of a T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh; and Hamilton, PROFESSOR VINET was one of the most was a great calamity to the evangelical churches of the continent, of which he was one of the brightest ornaments. We were just beginning to become acquainted with him in this country, when he was called to his rest and his reward. His work on Voluntary Christianity will never cease to be a standard production, when all the disciples of Christ have ceased to advocate and to lean upon the Establishment principle. Trained to the idea of government patronage in religion, in the national church of the Canton de Vaud, he wrought his way through all the mists of early education, into the clear light of Bible truth, advancing to the simple and irrefragable principle, that a religion of conviction cannot be sustained consistently by compulHow beautifully he develops this law of Christ's kingdom, without political asperity, will be best seen in his own admirable treatise, one of the most philosophical as well as Christian productions of the modern sory means. press. pared for the press by the deceased author. sources. His notes, however, were written with great care; and furnished ample scope for his fine powers of exquisite illustration. Most wisely, as well as conscientiously, has the translator acted, in not venturing beyond the record. We know of no man living, who is qualified to supplement the original thoughts of Professor Vinet. We would rather have an outline from his pen, then an elaborate disquisition from many of the Theological Professors of the age, especially those on the continent. The translator, however, had one rare advantage. In some parts of the work he had more than one manuscript of the author to guide his course; and in such cases, he has enlarged the textual manuscript, by additions from others. This editorial act even is perillous, as it may have been that the author himself would have withheld the addition, as redundant, or deliberately rejected it in his mature judgment. Still, these additions are Professor Vinet's; and, as such, we accept them thankfully. They are all placed within brackets, by which we are enabled to form our own judgment of the discretion of the The Translator of M. Vinet's "Pastoral Another thing has been done, to which we should recommend this book to the serious do not by any means object. In some cases, attention of all the friends of the gospel. the author's notes were so scanty as to render The pastor is not, in his view, an isolated it difficult to determine his actual idea. In being, banished from the general community this dilemma the Translator has had access of Christians into the retirement of a remote to Note-books of M. Vinet's most intelligent and solitary dignity, to which the obscurer students, and found ample means of filling up believers may not aspire. He regards him the literary chasm. Such methods have only not so much above them, as at their head,been resorted to, when there was a pressing their advanced leader in the work of love. necessity; and the matter thus introduced Accordingly his functions are not his exclusive between brackets will often be found of the prerogative; on the contrary, all ought to most interesting character. associate actively with him, and will, in fact, so associate with him according to the measure of their faithfulness. The pastor is not different from the Christian; he is the typical Christian,—the example for his flock. (1 Tim. iv. 12.) All Christians, therefore, will find that precious instruction may be gathered from this book." One alteration has been made which we cannot approve. M. Vinet, in the course of his Lectures, had translated many passages from ancient and foreign authors, introducing them as illustrative of his subject; these have been thrown by the translator into an appendix, instead of finding their appropriate place in the text, giving emphasis to the author's thoughts. We think they should have appeared where the author placed them. In one view of it, we greatly approve of the translator's appendix. He makes large quotations from authors, to which Professor Vinet merely refers, by which the importance of the reference becomes strikingly obvious. This is a good service to the completeness of the work. In perusing these lectures on Pastoral Theology, it will be desirable for our readers to remember, that Professor Vinet delivered them for a lengthened period to students who were preparing for the National Church of the Canton de Vaud. His connexion with that Church, so far as worship was concerned, did not cease until the formation of the Free Church of that Canton, on occasion of the secession of a large body of devoted pastors from that corrupt and persecuting community. The recollection of this fact will explain many references, which would have found no place in Professor Vinet's Lectures, had he been at the time a Dissenter from the national community. This circumstance will, in some slight degree, diminish the value of these Lectures to those who find themselves surrounded by no state or parochial relationships; yet, by a slight transposition of the author's thoughts, even in these cases, they will adapt themselves wonderfully to the condition of every one having the charge of souls. What, then, may be regarded as the leading characteristics of these Lectures? and what is their special value to the Christian student? The translator has well answered these queries in the following passage: "We hope," he observes, "that this course of Pastoral Theology will be well received, not only by ministers of the gospel, and students in Theology, for whom it is more immediately designed, but also by the religious public generally. M. Vinet's fundamental idea Not for this peculiarity alone are these Lectures valuable. They are eminently suggestive on every topic which they discuss; and, carefully read, cannot fail to enhance the pastor's notion of the matchless responsibility of his work. For the sake of enabling our readers to judge of Professor Vinet's views of the Christian ministry, we select the following passage, from the chapter headed : "DOES THE MINISTRY CONSTITUTE AN ORDER IN THE CHURCH?" "A discussion has been raised upon the question, Is the ministry a separate order? The answer to this might seem easy after the solution of the first question, (viz., What is the minister of the gospel?-the ideal minister?) from which, indeed, it is scarcely to be distinguished. [Nevertheless, theologians, who agree that the ministry is a Divine institution, are divided on this point. It is then worth our while to investigate it.] "If the ministry, that is to say, the consecration of certain particular men to the guidance of the church, has been instituted, these men, as distinguished from all others, will necessarily form an order, at least in one sense. If there is any discussion, it is, doubtless, on the greater or lesser latitude that the word order admits of. For the disputants are agreed as to the institution itself that it is a real and valid existence. "It is certain that this order may suggest to different minds very different ideas. In the case of some it will suggest the idea of a levitical tribe [a sacerdotal caste] so isolated as to form a religious society-exercising exclusive prerogatives-in which the idea of the community starts from them rather than they from the idea of the community-existing by itself, and imposed upon the flock by an authentic Divine institution, or by Providence-in one word-legitimate, in the sense which has been given to the word by political parties. |