6. The doctrine of our Saviour's being the true God, consubstantial with the Father, is not a matter of mere speculation, as some would have it; for there is no point of Christian faith which more affects our Christian practice, and especially our addresses to God; for to think of a supreme and an inferior God would perplex and confound us in all the instances of our Christian devotion. Let us therefore do our best to make a due improvement of this doctrine, which is the great mystery of godliness, and live in a constant and humble subjection to our blessed Lord, as the true and eternal God. We may contend warmly for principles, and be little the better, even though the truth be on our side; but if instead of holding this great truth in unrighteousness, we duly pursue it in its necessary tendency to practice, and live Christian lives suitable to our Christian principles, then we may justly hope to be preserved from destructive errors; for "he that doeth my will," says our blessed Lord," shall know my doctrine, whether it be of God." (John vii. 17.)

SCRIPTURE ILLUSTRATIONS. (From the Pictorial Bible.) "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."-Ps. cxxxvii. 1.

THE rivers of Babylon must mean either the Euphrates and Tigris, or the Euphrates and its canals and tributaries. It is a conjecture of Chrysostom, that the Jews at the beginning of their captivity were distributed along the several streams of the country, and not suffered to dwell in Babylon. It is supposed by some that they were employed in draining the marshy parts of the country. To one who, like ourselves, has been privileged to witness the existing indications of the most extensive and elaborate system of canals and aqueducts by which Chaldæa was once abundantly irrigated, and by which the communications be tween its cities were maintained, it will appear that vast hordes of men must have been employed in their construction and in keeping them in order; and as the Hebrews were not eminent in arts and manufactures, it is likely that they were employed in such works and in field labour, which in that country was always connected with irrigation from the rivers and canals.

"We hanged our harps upon the willows, in the midst thereof."-Ps. cxxxvii. 2.

On the banks of the Babylonian rivers (say the Euphrates and Tigris) there are no woods or forests, or any considerable trees besides the cultivated datepalm. But these rivers are in some parts rather extensively lined with a growth of tall shrubs and bushes, interspersed with some small and a few middling trees, among which the willow is at this day the most frequent and remarkable.

"If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning."-Ps. cxxxvii. 5.

There is a striking and appropriate point in this, which has been overlooked. It is, that, as it is customary for people in the East to swear by their pos sessions, so one who has no possessions-who is poor and destitute, and has nothing of recognised value in the world-swears by his right hand, which is his sole stake in society, and by the " cunning" of which he earns his daily bread. Hence the common Arabic proverb (given by Burckhardt, No. 550) reflecting on the change of demeanour produced by improved circumstances: "He was wont to swear by the cutting off of his right hand!' He now swears, by the giving of money to the poor." The words, "her cunning," are supplied by the translators, in whose time cunning (from the Saxon connan, Dutch konnen,

"to know,") meant "skill," and a cunning man was what we should now call a skilful man. In the present case the skill indicated is doubtless that of playing on the harp, in which particular sense it occurs so late as Prior:

"When Pedro does the lute command,

She guides the cunning artist's hand." Modern translators usually substitute "skill;" but, perhaps a term still more general would be bettersuch as, "May my right hand lose its power."

"Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant-PROV. ix. 17.

Although this proverb has passed from the Bible into common use among ourselves, it is with us comparatively unmeaning. No one steals water here. The proverb is only felt in its due force in such cli mates as those in which it originated-where water is often scarce, and, therefore, so valuable as to be an object of care and solicitude to the owners; it is often bought at a price which we should consider exorbitant, and often stolen by those who will not or cannot buy. Many illustrative passages will occur to those familiar with Scripture. The strifes about wells of water and the watering of flocks (Gen. xxvi. 18-22; Exod. ii. 16-19); the offer of the Israelites to buy (i. e., not steal) the water they required in passing through Edom (Numb. xx. 19); the doleful com plaint of the prophet, "We have bought our way for money" (Lam. v. 4); and other passages, may be in

stanced.

"The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself."-PROV. xi 25. The sentiment indicated by this figure is obvious; but the fact on which it is founded cannot be apprehended or felt strongly in a moist climate like ours, where real thirst is scarcely known. But it follows that, where water is scarce and precious, and where also the heat of the climate makes every one need a large quantity of water daily, the liberality of “watering others" that is, of giving water freely to the thirsty-is most strongly felt and gratefully acknowledged. In fact, in Scripture, liberality is as frequently instanced by giving water to the thirsty as by giving bread to the hungry. In another place (Prov.xxv.21), the idea involved in the present verse is dwelt upon very strongly: "If thine enemy thirst, give him drink;" and in the New Testament the Divine King, in the grand parable of the final judg ment, mentions, to the commendation of the righteous, I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink;" and the denial of drink to his thirst is noticed in the condemnation of the wicked. (Matt. xxv. 25-42.) In another case our Saviour uttered the memorable words, "Whosoever giveth you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, verily I say unto you he shall not lose his reward." (Mark ix. 41.)

"The wrath of a king is as messengers of death, but a wise man will pacify it."-PROV. xvi 14.

This doubtless refers to the manner in which execution was, and is still, in the East, performed upon persons who were high enough to incur the iminediate wrath of the king. This may be explained by an account of the usage in Persia. When the king has determined on the death of a governor of a province, or a nobleman residing at court, an order for his execution is made out, sealed with the royal siznet, and committed to an officer appointed for the purpose. "This man," to continue the language of Mr. Fraser, "rides post, pressing horses as he re quires them. Then, presenting himself to the principal person of the place, he shows the royal mandate, and forces the individual to accompany him and

lend his assistance. He enters the house of the condemned, booted, armed, and travel-stained, walks straight up to his victim, takes the warrant from his bosom, and places it in the hands of his witness; then, drawing his scimitar, he rushes on the unfortunate criminal, exclaiming, It is the king's command,' cuts him down, and strikes off his head. Resistance is seldom offered; for, were the delinquent powerful enough for the attempt, the messenger of death would never arrive to execute the decree; and there have been instances, when the person proscribed was not in actual rebellion, of his causing the fatal officer to be robbed of his warrant, thus gaining time till interest could be made for his pardon. But when once his destination is reached, escape is scarcely possible; for terror of the royal name arms every one against him who is denounced-even in his own house he is viewed as an excommunicated wretch, whom to assist or trust were ruin. Should the sentence only imply disgrace, or when its extent is unknown, it is melancholy to see how the object of kingly displeasure is instantaneously forsaken, like an infected creature. All nature, says Chardin, 'seems roused against him; and the man, the glance of whose eye but a moment before would have shed delight upon thousands of dependants, might then in vain solicit a cup of water or the use of a calleeon."" This will enable the reader to understand the strong terms in which the wrath of a king is described through the present book; and it may be well to compare it with the account in 1 Kings ii., of Joab's execution by the order of its royal author.

"Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly."-PROV. xvii. 12.

This image several times occurs in the Scriptures. The rage of the female bear, when her young have been killed or taken from her, has been often noticed, and forms the subject of many interesting anecdotes in voyages and travels. There do not indeed seem to be any animals which, more strongly than the bear, manifest that attachment to their young which the wise providence of God has implanted, with various degrees of intensity, in most brute creatures. In the narrative of Lord Mulgrave's voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage, there is a touching story of a bear whose young had been shot from the ship. Though herself wounded, she scorned to withdraw and leave her young behind. She would not understand that they were dend; she placed meat before them, and by every endearing motion solicited them to eat; she endeavoured to raise them with her paws; she withdrew and looked back as expecting them to follow; but, seeing that thev lay motionless, she returned, and with inexpressible fondness walked round them, pawing them, licking their wounds, and moaning bitterly the while. "It would," says the narra

tor,

"have drawn tears of compassion from the eyes of any but those who possessed hearts of adamant, to observe the affectionate concern of this poor beast." At last, as if receiving the unwilling conviction that her young were dead indeed, she turned towards the ship, and uttered a fierce and bitter growl against the murderers, which they answered by a volley of shot that laid her dead beside her young. So fine a trait in the character of the bear might well be noticed by the sacred writers. It is said that the attachment between the dam and her young is reciprocal, and that no circumstance of danger or alarm can drive the latter froin their dead or living mother.

"He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction."-PROV. xvii. 19 This is literally true at the present day in the East; but whether this literal interpretation be that which

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the sacred writer had in view it may be difficult to determine. It will be remembered that the Oriental houses do not front the street, but that the entrance from thence leads to a court in which, or in another beyond it, the front of the main building appears. Hence little indication can be gathered in the street concerning the probable character of the interior building, or the rank or wealth of its inmate, but from the appearance of the gate. Aware of this, and aware also that to excite the cupidity of the ruling powers by any indication of wealth is to seek destruction, the wealthiest persons are careful, among other precautions, that their gate shall not betray them, by being less low or mean than the gates of their neighbours. In going through a street, the doors are almost invariably of the most beggarly description, very low, and, although strong, formed of rough, unpainted wood: and on visiting persons whom he may know to be wealthy, the traveller is surprised to be conducted to a gate which in his own country he would consider unworthy of a stable or an outhouse, and which but ill prepares him for the splendour and luxury which he may probably find when he reaches the interior. Yet the Orientals are vain of appearances; but it does sometimes happen that a wealthy man so far forgets himself, or thinks he has such ground for confidence, as to exalt his gate; but it rarely happens that he has long to wait before he finds cause to learn that by this act he sought his own destruction. In the city of Bagdad, the only exalted gate to a private residence which the present writer recollects to have noticed, belonged to the house of a Moslem of large wealth, and of so much influence in the city as, he thought, might allow him to display it freely. He was mistaken. One day, when riding through the street in which we lived, he was dragged from his horse, near our door, and put to death on the spot, by order of the pasha, who immediately took possession of all his property.

"And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite."-PROV. xxiii. 2.

The common explanation of this is, that a person of intemperate appetite does, at the tables of the great, expose himself to as much danger as if a knife were at his throat. Perhaps it may mean, that he should eat as guardedly as if a knife were at his throat. But we suspect that the real point of the allusion is lost; nor is this wonderful, when we consider that in all countries there are proverbial expressions to which a meaning is conventionally assigned, which the words do not naturally suggest, and which no foreigner would suspect. Many such expressions also originate in incidents, the memory of which is often in the course of time lost, even by those who continue to use the proverb in the sense which it has always borne. "As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool."-PROV. xxvi. 8.

Some suppose that by "stone" we should understand a precious stone, which would be tnrown away if thus employed. But perhaps it may be well to take the rendering of our version in its more obvious meaning, which, by laying a stress upon the "bindeth," would intimate, as a stone lound, instead of being loosely set in a sling, cannot be thrown, and is

therefore ineffective.

SABBATH RAILWAYS.

WE commend to the attention of our readers the spirited and admirable pamphlet, from which the following extracts are taken. It is entitled, "The Sunday Railway System Practically Discussed;" a

letter to John James Hope Johnstone, Esq., of Annandale, Chairman of the Caledonian Railway Company, by James Bridges, Esq.* Mr. Bridges has from the beginning been one of the most watch

ful and active friends of the Sabbath cause; and his present letter contains the most intelligent and spirited presentation of the practical merits of the question with which we have met. It does not discuss the theological aspects of the controversy, but, taking up the enemy on his own alleged grounds of benevolence and expediency, shows that the most considerate regard to these will be found unequivocally to confirm, instead of invalidating. the great Sabbath law.

"The commandment, which is our law, is in these words: Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath-day, and hallowed it.' "In regard to the divine authority, moral nature, and perpetual obligation of this commandment, there is no difference of doctrine among the Churches of the Reformation. Individuals have disputed it, but Churches have not; and this is so important and conclusive a fact, verified by the standards of all Evangelical Churches, that it entirely absolves me, both as a layman unentitled to speak ex cathedra, and as a man contending for an ecclesiastical principle, from the duty of entering into any laboured vindication of its truth. All men of common sense must feel, that what is distinctly declared in the standards of all true Churches, is more likely to be true than the random assertions of very honourable but (ecclesiastical) very ignorant individuals, who here and there set themselves to kick against the foundation-principles of these Churches, and on a mingled consideration of Bible physics, political economy, commerce, and amusement, require that the Sabbath shall either be doctrinally reduced to the level of the other days of the week, or so little differenced from them, and if there be less work (which is questionable, and is not to be the case with any servant of "the public"), there shall be more play, more tea-gardening and picnicking, more boating and cudgel-play, or, if the truth may be told, more drinking and debauchery, than on the other days."

"It is said that artisans and people in trade, confined to their workshops throughout the week, require the country ventilation which railways afford. But do not the unhappy railway labourers require the same relief? Have they not bodies and souls as well as the rest of the public? Have they not wives and children as well as they? Shall they be condemned to the helotry of unintermitted drudgery amidst the clouds and din of interminable railway agitation, in order that other labourers may be enabled-not to go to the country, for that they can do without a railway-but to go a great distance into the country, on the Lord's-day? Or, in another view, seeing that at present the sin and the blunder of England is, that it overtasks its labouring population, and reduces them, from the rank of moral and intelligent beings working for their bread, to the *Edinburgh: J. Johnstone.

brute level of human machines, perpetually on the stretch to obtain, not bread for themselves, but wealth, wealth, wealth, for their employers, is this vicious arrangement to be cured on the St. John principle, by super-inducing a counter-vice in quarters where it does not now exist? Is wealth to be encouraged in the overworking of its serfs six days in the week, by compelling or tempting them to misapply the seventh? Would it not be wiser to supersede the invasion of the Sabbath-day, by lessening the hours of work on the lawful days? The Sabbath profaners would establish two vicious arrangements, where there is now but one; the Sabbath observers would render the new one unnecessary, by putting an end to the old."

"Gentlemen are apt to imagine that they are friends to the working classes, when they promote a little Sunday work for them, and Sunday recreation. But this is a great mistake. Sunday recreation involves Sunday work to a large extent, in order to minister to it. The railways and the tea-gardens cannot be kept open, but by the labour of multitudes deprived of recreation themselves, but they may minister to it in others; and who can doubt, that if a whole country were fairly set generally to recreate itself on Sunday, Sunday work, beginning with those who serve the public,' would gradually extend itself to all the public? Men are tempted to recreate themselves on Sunday by the pleasure it affords: they are tempted to work on Sunday by the money it brings. If the religious principle be once set aside, more, in the long-run, will be tempted to work by the money than will be tempted to recreate by the pleasure. They will be more ready to fall into the trap baited with gold, than into one which attracts by amusement alone. Wives and children, and the pleasures commanded by gold, will soon get the better of the mere levities. Rest assured that you cannot open the tea-garden and the railway permanently, without opening the shop and the factory too. And what would be the issue to the poor drudge who should thus be led to toil unintermittingly, week-day and holy-day? Would he get the coveted gold in exchange for his soul and his Sabbath? Let

us see.

"It is a fact, philosophically certain and practically proved, that the wages of labour, though permanently varying in various trades, according to their character and circumstances, and though occasion. ally varying in all trades, according to the demand and supply, have a constant and necessary tendency to one level; and that level just is, the amount on the whole necessary to maintain the labourer and his family according to the measure of comfort prevalent at the time in his order. Let wages fall below this level, there will be an abstraction of labourers to raise them up again; let wages rise above this level, there will be a flow in of labourers, to lower them down again. An unnatural rise or fall may exist for a time; but it will not exist for a length of time, or for a permanency. Bolster up or undermine as you may, to this complexion you will come at last The labourer will receive his competency, his whole competency, and nothing but his competency.

Now, bearing stedfastly in mind that what he receives this competency for is six days' labour in the week, let us apply the irrefragable doctrine of the one general level of wages, which, since Adam Smith's demonstration, has become axiomatic in economical science, to the question of Sunday la bour; and what does it prove? Why, that the labourer, once seduced into his seven days' work. will speedily fall back into his six days' wage; and

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ancients, whom the Church hath honoured with the name of Fathers, whose volumes I confess not to open without a sacred reverence of their holiness and gravity; sometimes to those later doctors, which want nothing but age to make them classical; always to God's book. That day is lost, whereof some hours are not improved in those divine monuments: others I turn over out of choice-these out of duty. Ere I can have sate unto weariness, my family, having now overcome all household distractions, invites me to our common devotions; not without some short pre

HOW TO SPEND A DAY.

(From an Epistle by Bishop Hall to my Lord Denny.) EVERY day is a life, and our whole is but a day repeated: whence it is that old Jacob numbers his life by days, and Moses desires to be taught this point of holy arithmetic, to number not his years but his days. Those, therefore, that dare lose a day, are dangerously prodigal; those that dare mispend it, desperate. We can best teach others by ourselves; let me tell your lordship how I would pass my days, whether common or sacred, that you (or whosoever others, overhearing me) may either approve my thriftiness, or correct my errors: to whom is the account of my hours more due, or more known. All days are His, who gave time a beginning and continuance; yet some He hath made ours, not to command, but to use.

In none may we forget Him; in some we must forget all besides Him. First, therefore, I desire to awake at those hours, not when I will, but when I must; pleasure is not a fit rule for rest, but health; neither do I consult so much with the sun, as mine own necessity, whether of body or in that of the mind. If this vassal could well serve me waking, it should never sleep; but now it must be pleased, that it must be serviceable. Now when sleep is rather driven away than leaves me, I would ever awake with God. My first thoughts are for him, who hath made the night for rest, and the day for travel; and as he gives, so blesses both. If my heart be early seasoned with his presence, it will savour of him all day after. While my body is dressing, not with an effeminate curiosity, nor yet with rude neglect, my mind addresses itself to her ensuing task, bethinking what is to be done, and in what order, and marshalling (as it may) my hours with my work; that done, after some whiles meditation, I walk up to my masters and companions, my books; and sitting down amongst them, with the best contentment, I dare not reach forth my hand to salute any of them, till I have first looked up to heaven, and craved favour of Him to whom all my studies are justly referred: without whom, I can neither profit nor labour. After this, out of no over great variety, I call forth those which may best fit my occasions; wherein I am not too scrupulous of age; sometimes I put myself to school to one of those

with a more strong and cheerful appetite to my former work, which I find made easy to me by intermission and variety; now therefore can I deceive the hours with change of pleasures that is, of labours. One while mine eyes are busied, another while my hand, and sometimes my mind takes the burden from them both; wherein I would imitate the skilfullest cooks, which make the best dishes with manifold mixtures; one hour is spent in textual divinity, another in controversy; histories relieve them both. Now, when the mind is weary of other labours, it begins to undertake her own; sometimes it meditates and winds up for future use; sometimes it lays forth. her conceits into present discourse; sometimes for itself, oftener for others. Neither know I whether it works or plays in these thoughts; I am sure no sport hath more pleasure, no work more use: only the decay of a weak body makes me think these delights insensibly laborious. Thus could I all day (as ringers use) make myself music with changes, and complain sooner of the day for shortness than of the business for toil, were it not that this faint monitor interrupts me still in the midst of my busy pleasures, and inforces me both to respite and repast; I must yield to both. While my body and mind are joined together in unequal couples, the better must follow the weaker. Before my meals therefore, and after, I let myself loose from all thoughts, and now would forget that I ever studied. A full mind takes away the body's appetite, no less than a full body makes a dull and unwieldy mind; company, discourse, recreations, are now seasonable and welcome: these prepare me for a diet, not gluttonous, but medicinal; the palate may not be pleased, but the stomach; nor that for its own sake; neither would I think any of these comforts worth respect in themselves but in their use, in their end-so far as they may enable me to better things. If I see any dish to tempt my palate, I fear a serpent in that apple, and would please myself in a wilful denial; I rise capable of more, not desirous; not now immediately from my trencher to my book, but after some intermission. Moderate speed is a sure help to all proceedings; where those things which are prosecuted with violence of endeavour or desire, either succeed not or continue not.

After my later meal, my thoughts are slight; only my memory may be charged with her task of recalling what was committed to her custody in the day, and my heart is busy in examining my hands and mouth, and all other senses, of that day's behaviour. And now the evening is come, no tradesman doth more carefully take in his wares, clear his shop

board, and shut his windows, than I would shut up my thoughts and clear my mind. That student shall live miserably, which like a camel lies down under his burden. All this done, calling together my family, we end the day with God. Thus do we rather drive away the time before us, than follow it. I grant neither is my practice worthy to be exemplary, neither are our callings proportionable. The lives of a nobleman, of a courtier, of a scholar, of a citizen, of a countryman, differ no less than their dispositions; yet must all conspire in honest labour.

Sweet is the destiny of all trades, whether of the brows or of the mind. God never allowed any man to do nothing. How miserable is the condition of those men which spend the time as if it were given them, and not lent; as if hours were waste creatures, and such as never should be accounted for; as if God would take this for a good bill of reckoning: Item, spent upon my pleasures forty years! These men shall once find, that no blood can privilege dleness; and that nothing is more precious to God, than that which they desire to cast away-time. Such are my common days; but God's day calls for another respect. The same sun arises on this day, and enlightens it; yet because that Sun of Righteousness arose upon it, and gave a new life unto the world in it, and drew the strength of God's moral precept unto it, therefore justly do we sing with the Psalmist, "This is the day which the Lord hath made." NowI forget the world, and in a sort myself; and deal with my wonted thoughts, as great men use, who, at some times of their privacy, forbid the access of all suitors. Prayer, meditation, reading, hearing, preaching, singing, good conference, are the businesses of this day, which I dare not bestow on any other work, or pleasure, but heavenly.

I hate superstition on the one side, and looseness on the other; but I find it hard to offend in too much devotion, easy in profaneness. The whole week is sanctified by this day; and according to my care of this, is my blessing on the rest. I show your lordship what I would do, and what I ought; I commit my desires to the imitation of the weak, my actions to the censures of the wise and holy, my weaknesses to the pardon and redress of my merciful God.

THE POOR FRENCH WIDOW AND THE BIBLE SOCIETY.

(From a Missionary's Journal.) No sooner was the subscription opened, than three hundred and four francs were immediately given. To this sum I must add a subscription, of which I ought, in the first instance, to have spoken-that of a poor widow, aged seventy years, who gave seventy francs, all that she possessed, to the objects of the Society. Having heard of the Missionary Society, she said: "I am about to die. I have no children or relations to claim my money. I will give this mite to propagate the Gospel of my Saviour, before whom I shall soon appear." This woman is very poor. She has gained her livelihood by hard labour, and she has been able only by the strictest economy to save anything. She had reserved this money to pay the rent of her lodging; but her landlord, finding that she had collected it halfpenny by halfpenny, remitted the debt, desiring her to dispose of the money

as she pleased. She said, at once, "Then I will give it to the Missionary Society."

She

On entering her room, I found her sitting on the side of her bed, leaning with one hand on her stick, and with the other putting some clothes in order. 1 was introduced to her as a missionary, on my road to preach the Gospel abroad. Her countenance then assumed a brightened aspect; and she expressed herself in a manner which denoted her obligation to to live to his glory. I then spoke to her of Anna and the Almighty, by whose power she had been enabled Simeon; and asked whether she put her whole trust for salvation in the merits of Jesus Christ. answered this question with an eagerness which marked the feeling of her mind-" To whom, then, should I go? He has the words of eternal life." made to the Society, I spoke to her of the woman After having thanked her for the gift which she had who had brought the precious ointment to anoint the feet of Jesus. The poor woman was no longer able to restrain her tears. She lifted her eyes to heaven, and striking her hands together, uttered some acknowledge my sinfulness; I am but dust and ashes." words which I could not hear. Then she added, “I I asked her if she feared death. She again put her hands together, and said "I must die, in order to see God! Jesus has been pleased to enlarge my faith. I am nothing of myself." I asked her the history of her life. She answered me in a recital, interrupted by many tears. Among other things, she told me that she had been educated as a Roman Catholic; but that at the age of thirteen, it had pleased God, by the power of his grace, to touch her heart, and to convert her.

THE MINISTER IMPRESSING HIS OWN CHARACTER.

THE great purpose of the ministry is to communicate not ourselves, but Christ. It is, through the conveyance of gospel truth, made in demonstration of the Spirit, to impart the life of Christ to the soul. But a common, incidental result is, that for good or evil, the minister impresses much of his own character on those who come permanently under his influence. This thought was suggested and illustrated by a remark casually made by a friend respecting a certain congregation in a certain city. The question was asked-" Will not Dr.

become the pastor of the church recently left by Mr. H-?" The reply was-"No; he knows that church too well." "What ails the church?" was the next question; and the reply, "You know Mr. H—— and his way of preaching. He never studies, but relies on his off-hand efforts, his protracted meetings, and his periodical whirlwinds of excitement; and he has reared a congregation like himself, that has no staidness of religious character, and will endure no ministry but such as shall pursue the same course."

Here was one out of countless instances, of a minister's leaving his own character upon his people. The frequency of like results will not be disputed; and the working of the causes towards the result is too natural and obvious to require remark.

But it is a fact of deep interest, especially to