attended with considerable success. He states that through his instrumentality 50 have been gathered into the one fold.

Brother Allen, of Bethpage, (Mo.) states that he has assisted at several meetings appointed for proclamation of the gospel, and that 40 additions to the saved have been the result. Brother G. Campbell, pastor of the church in Fulton, states that on Sunday last, 3 came forward and made the good confession; and on last evening, 2 others were added to the congregation.

In our own city (Cincinnati) in the first congregation there is a very interesting state of things. There have been frequent accessions to the church through the whole winter, although no special efforts have been made for the conversion of men, beyond the ordinary proclamation of the gospel. On Sunday last, 5 were added, and on Monday night 3 more gave themselves to God; and another meeting has been appointed for Thursday night, at which it is all but certain we shall see others obey the gospel, for many are inquiring the way to God. These successes give us an earnest of what the gospel can effect, when faithfully proclaimed, without any excitement, and with no appeal to passion. Brethren of this reformation, if all your churches had active, holy pastors, we could take the strongholds of Satau in less than ten years! W. SCOTT.

THE FAMILY CIRCLE.

BIBLES IN THE UNITED STATES.-According to the most accurate accounts, only 4,000,000 Bibles were in use throughout the United States in the year 1840. The number has now increased to 30,000,000. In 1840 the Bible was printed in forty-eight different languages and dialects; in 1848 the different versions of the Holy Scriptures amounted to 136.

SPIRIT OF ROMANISM.-Brownson, the new exponent of Romanism in the United States, in speaking of orphan children and the efforts of Protestant ladies to reclaim and instruct them, says, It is better they should starve to death, than be brought up Protestants."

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GOLDEN THOUGHTS.-I never yet found pride in a noble nature, nor humility in an unworthy mind. Of all trees, I observe that God has chosen the vine, a low plant that creeps upon the helpful wall of all beasts, the soft and patient lamb; of all fowls the mild and guileless dove. When God appeared to Moses, it was not in the lofty cedar, nor the spreading palm; but in a bush- -an humble, slender, abject bush, as if he would by these selections check the conceited arrogance of man. Nothing produceth love like humility; nothing hate like pride.

SPIRIT OF LOVE.-Beyond all question, it is the unalterable constitution of nature, that there is efficacy-divine, unspeakable efficacy in love. The exhibition of kindness has the power to bring even the irrational animals into subjection. Show kindness to a dog, and he will remember it-he infallibly returns love for love. Show kindness to a lion and you can lead him by the mane you can thrust your hand into his mouth-you can melt the untamed ferocity of his heart into an affection stronger than death. In all God's vast creation, there least to the largest, that is insensible to kindis not a living and sentient being, from the

ness.

What an inducement to practice it! PREACHERS MUST BE EARNEST. - To be born, to live, and to die, are real events. Pain, grief, and dissolution, are serious things. The Saviour of the world was serious and earnest in all his labors, both as a teacher and worker of miracles. The Prophets and Apostles were serious, solemn, earnest, pointed, conscience awakening, and soul-stirring preachers. It is said that Jerome used to say "that he never entered the pulpit but the trumpet of the judgment day seemed to be sounding in his ears.' The most successful ministers of the gospel have not been eminent as school-trained rhetoricians; but eloquent in their own way; eloquent, because they loved the souls of their fellow-men, and loved the truth by which they were to be saved, and earnest in presenting it to them.

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A PREMATURE MINISTRY.-Facts are full of instruction on this subject. Not a few young champions of the truth, have become so immen of bright promise, who might have become patient to enter into the ministry, that they have fatally blighted their own prospects; and instead of attaining to distinguished success, have scarcely reached the point of mediocrity. The minister now, whose maxim is to expect little things, and attempt little things, mistakes the day in which he lives. What was knowledge in the thirteenth century, is ignorance now. What was energy then, is imbecility and stupidity now. As was said in another case, it becomes not our sacred profession, in this period of intellectual progress, to remain like the ship that is moored to its station, only to mark the rapidity of the current that is sweeping by. Let the intelligence of the age outstrip us, and leave us behind, and religion would sink, with its teachers, into insignificance. Ignorance cannot wield this intelligence. Give to the church a feeble ministry, and the world breaks from your hold, your main spring of moral influence is gone.

LIFE IS SWEET. What," I asked a friend who had been in a delicious country, "did you see that best pleased you?" My friend had cultivated the love of moral, more than her perception of physical beauty, and I was not surprised when, after replying, with a smile that she would tell me honestly, she went on to say: "My cousin took me to see a man who had been a clergyman, in the Methodist connection. He had suffered from a nervous rheumatism. and from a complication of diseases, aggravated by ignorant drugging. Every muscle in his body, excepting those which move his eyes and tongue, is paralysed. His body has become as rigid as iron. His limbs have lost the human form. He has not been laid on a bed for seven years. He suffers acute pain. He has invented a chair which affords him some alleviation. His feelings are fresh and kindly, and his mind is unimpaired. He reads constantly. His book is fixed in a frame before him, and he manages to turn the leaves by an instrument which he moves with his tongue. He has an income of thirty dollars. This pittance, by the rigid economy of his wife, and some aid from kind rustic neighbours brings the year round. His wife is the most gentle, patient, and devoted of loving nurses. She has never too much to do, to do all well; no wish or thought goes beyond the unvarying circle of conjugal duty. Her love is as abounding as his wants her cheerfulness as sure as the rising of the sun. She has not for years slept two hours consecutively. "I did not know which most to reverence, his patience or hers;" and so I said to them. Ah," said the good man, with a most serene smile, "life is still sweet to me; how can it but be so with such a wife ?" And surely life is sweet to her who feels every hour of the day the truth of this gracious acknowledgement. O, ye, who live amidst alternate sunshine and showers of plenty, to whom night brings sleep, and daylight freshness-ye murmurers and complainers, who fret in the hardness of life till it galls you to the bone--who recoil at the lightest burden and shrink from a passing cloud, consider the magnanimous sufferer my friend described, and learn the divine art that can distil sweetness from the bitterest cup.-MISS SEDGWICK.

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ALLEGORY FOR CONVERTS.-"Be not slothful in business-fervent in spirit serving the Lord."-A young farmer, who had begun on an estate that had descended to him from his ancestors, found himself poorer at the end of the first year than at its beginning: his stock being less, and his purse lighter. A Gipsy woman, thought to be a knowing one, being in the neighbourhood, our young farmer told her his sad tale, gave her a crown for advice as to "how he might become better off by the end of the next year," and promised to make the crown a pound, if by that time he should have fair suc

this little cup, and drink from it every morning of the water which you must get at redstone spring. But remember! you must go there and draw it yourself regularly at five o'clock, or the charin will be broken." The first morning, as he proceeded across his fields, (for the spring was at the further end of the estate,) he found a neighbour's cows had broken through the fence, and were feeding on his pasture; of course he turned them out, and had the hedge mended. But the labourers were not at hand; they came loitering in after their proper time, and were startled at seeing "Master" so early: "Oh" said he, "I see how it is; this comes of my not getting up in time." In a few mornings all went on as regularly as clock-work; his early rising became a pleasant habit; his walk and cup of water gave him an appetite for his breakfast; the people about his farm were all the better and happier for their leader's punctuality; and when at the close of a successful year, he saw and rewarded his nutbrown adviser, it was allowed that her plan, like many an admirable invention, was as simple as it was efficacious, for he that would thrive, must rise at five. "Get wisdom, and with all thy getting, get understanding." "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." Always abound in the work of the Lord," and "Be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."

He offered salvation, and bade all rejoice;
But his work is now finish'd, his battles are ended,
His labours are over, and hush'd is his voice.
His form cold and still in its damp bed is sleeping,
The eye is grown dim that with lustre once shone:
No friends mourning o'er him, in sadness are
weeping,

And the dew drop of sorrow falls not in his tomb.

But soon to the slumberer command will be given, To cast off the fetters that cling to him nowAn army of angels shall bear him to heaven, And garlands of glory be twined round his brow.

THOUGHTS ON THE CROSS

OF CHRIST.

"GOD manifest in flesh," in the person of Jesus the Messiah, assuming “the form of a servant, becoming obedient to death, even the death of the cross," for the redemption of a lost world, is the most sublime spectacle that can be contemplated or imagined! This is the one central event of this world's history, which will never be forgotten, when the world and all that is therein shall be burnt up, and all its wonderful scenes, now so interesting, are passed away into oblivion! for He is "the Alpha, and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."

Christ and him crucified are the truth and substance of the shadows of the Law Institution, and from which these derived their significance and use; but which institution, though waxen old and vanished away as to the observance of its ordinances Christ being come, on whom it terminated-is still fresh on the canvas of the testimony. And seeing God does nothing in vain, and considering what labor and minuteness of detail were bestowed in the finishing of this magnificent picture by the Divine Artist-the mysteries of which it was not possible for the people of that age to comprehend there is a strong presumption that its Great Author intends it still to be not only as a witness to the truth, but as a source of instruction to the people of the institution which now is, to exercise and mature their judgments in tracing out" the manifold wisdom of God," and for the enlargement of their minds in the "unsearchable riches of Christ."

To us is given the key to open and apply its secrets. But, alas! how few have the skill of opening and applying the "patterns of things in the heavens" to the right object and illustration of the intended idea! But when that is done, how precious are

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the ideas which these peculiarities in the painting present to the mind. It may even be that this " pattern of things in the heavens" is intended for the exercise of those redeemed from the earth in heavenly regions, when they have entered in person within the vail, where the Master of Assemblies is! But whether this be so or not, we know that the new song sung by the ransomed host, "To Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father," will never wax old. And surely that which shall be the grand theme of immortal praise in these heavenly regions, we may try to lisp and imitate now; and as the prayers and songs of the people of God are not formally prescribed for them superseding their Own individual composition and effort-our Heavenly Father leaving us to our own spontaneous feelings and aspirations in the matter, who is best pleased with the sacrifices of the heart-we surely do not offend when we attempt putting our thoughts into verse, in a humble way, to express our admiration of Him who loved us, and has shed His own precious blood for us. J. D.

HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS.
BY A DISCIPLE.

No. III.-THE CROSS. "A soldier with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came thereout blood and water."

APPROACH, my soul, and view the cross-
The Prince of Life now lifeless see:
Leave thou the world with all its dross-
Heaven's glories all, he left for thee.
See from his hands, his feet, his side,
The mingled blood and water flow,
In streams of mercy, deep and wide,
Diffusing health where'er they go.
Amazing mercy!-love divine!
All precious, priceless, full, and free!
And can they cleanse a soul like mine?
And can they save a wretch like me?
Yes, blessed fountain! precious blood!
Souls stained with sins of crimson dye,

May, baptized in this hallowed flood, With snow itself in whiteness vie.

And oh! how truly blest are they
Who, raised up from the watery grave,
Where, buried with the Lord they lay,
Have realized his power to save.

For Jesus dead, shall soon revive,
Ascend the heavens he left before;
And those who die with him to live,
Shall live with him to die no more.

D. L.

REFORMATION-No. XI.

THE original plea for reformation, laid before the religious communities of Virginia in the year 1809, was neither a vapid declamation against schism, nor an idle exhortation to Christian forbearance. The Christian union which is so earnestly urged, it proposed to found, not upon vague generalities or upon facile compromises, but upon 66 an agreement in the expressly revealed will of God." It urged the recognition of the teachings of Christ and the Apostles as the rule of faith and practice; it adopted as its motto, "Union in truth;" and embodied the fundamental principle that a union to Christ should be, among Christians, the reason and the bond of Christian love. When we consider the religious prejudices of that period; the extreme alienation of existing parties; their stern exaction of an unreserved sectarian devotion; and their unrelenting hostility to those who ventured to dissent in the slightest degree from the established views or usages of the party, it is not a little remarkable, that, from amidst circumstances so unpropitious to independence of thought and action, there should arise an overture for a religious reformation so radical in itself; so just and comprehensive in its principles; and so uncontaminated by educational and sectarian predilections.

At this early period, we have, in the published Address of the Christian Association of Washington county, not only the great fundamental princi

ples of this now widely extended reformation, but even a definite statement of those important distinctions which have been since so fully drawn out, between faith and opinion; express declarations and inferential truths; the commands and precedents of Holy Writ, and the dictates and traditions of men ; as well as between a genuine Christian liberty, and a latitudinarian departure from the divine teachings. In reference to the ground of Christian faith and fellowship, we have the following declarations :

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That, although inferences and deductions from scripture premises, when fairly inferred, may be truly called the doctrine of God's holy word; yet are they not formally binding upon the consciences of Christians farther than they perceive the connection, and evidently see that they are so for their faith must not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power and veracity of God: therefore, no such deductions can be made terms of communion; but do properly belong to the after and progressive edification of the church. Hence it is evident that no such deductions or inferential truths ought to have any place in the church's con

fession.

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divine truths, and defensive testimonies in "That, although doctrinal exhibitions of opposition to prevailing errors, be highly expedient; and the more full and explicit they be, for these purposes, the better yet, as these must be in a great measure the effect of human reasoning, and of course contain many inferential truths, they ought not to be made terms of communion: unless we suppose, what is contrary to fact, that none have a right to the communion of the church but such as possess a very clear and decisive judgment; or are come to a very high degree of doctrinal information; whereas the church from the beginning did, and ever will, consist of little children and young men as well as fathers.

"That, as it is not necessary that persons should have a particular knowledge or apprehension of all divinely revealed truths in order to entitle them to a place in the church; neither should they for this purpose be required to make a profession more extensive than their knowledge; but that, on the contrary, their having a due measure of scriptural self-knowledge respecting their lost and perishing condition by nature and practice; and of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, accompanied with a profession of their faith in, and obedience to him, is absolutely necessary to qualify them for in all things according to his word, is all that admission into his church."