Him who loved you and gave Himself for you? Looking from His throne into His empty grave, does He see dedicated by you to Himself -"fine linen "?

"A Colossal Lie."

THE REV. E. S. Ffoulkes, B.D., a man of great ability, was formerly a clergyman of the Church of England, and in his search after truth was induced to enter the Roman Catholic Church. This greatly astonished those who knew Mr. Ffoulke's uncompromising truthfulness and keen logical acumen. We are not a little gratified to find he has felt it his imperative duty to abandon Popery (never was the term more justly applicable than now), and return to the Church which he left. He has published eight sermons, "The Firstfruits of a Renewed Ministry," in one of which he thus describes Rome: "She has penetrated into all lands at one time or another, and still is to be found in most; she exerts sway over a multitude of nations and languages, differing both in climate and race. She has a gorgeous ceremonial, touching services, long-established prescription, immemorial traditions; canon-law that would rival any known code for extent or precision; dogma from first to last consistent with the severest logic; a hierarchy graduating from the boy acolyth to the octogenarian pope; religious orders of endless observances and aspirations; everywhere devout women in abundance; and of devout men, here and there, not a few. Such, in substance, were the arguments that drew me to it, and for some time retained me in it; what, you will ask, were the arguments that repelled me from it? But this one, and I ask your pardon for stating it in the plainest terms. Gradually the conviction dawned upon me that this wondrous system, such as I have described it, such as it exists in our day, was a colossal lie; a gigantic fraud; a superhuman imposture; the most artistically contrived take-in for general credence, for lasting hold, for specious appearances, ever palmed upon mankind. Don't suppose that I arrived, or could have arrived, at such a conclusion at once; all my tenderer feelings recoiled from it. If this is all false, I said, what else can be true; if the Roman Church has erred from the truth, has not the whole Church failed? Look at the hosts of excellent men and women in all ages that have belonged, that still cleave, to it; would God allow them to be victims of such a delusion, or martyrs and confessors to such a lie? Gradually this all seemed capable of being consistently explained; nay, more, shown to be in entire keeping with the notion of our being placed here for purposes of probation and trial. . . . . . Infallible guidance, great as its charms are, or may be, to the imagination, is not a diet on which faith can thrive."

Grace Triumphant.

OLD T., of came to his minister a few months ago, and, after begging" a thousand pardons" for intruding, said, "Master, I can hold no longer!" and then went on to explain that his heart was so full, he must come and tell me, that, after having been such a drunken, vile old sinner for so many years, he was saved; and he felt his heart so full of joy and peace, that he could not "hold in." He knew Jesus Christ to be his blessed Saviour, his righteousness, his justification, and his all, and he wanted now to live altogether for his Saviour.

At the same time he felt what hard work he had before him, to struggle against sin, his old companions, his old vice. What a warfare and strife went on in his heart! But he kept looking to Jesus to help him, and he believed He would, according to His Word.

It was now his heart's desire to come to the Holy Communion. He must come; he could not keep away any longer. Would I let him come? I need not tell you my reply, "Yes, dear T——, you may come." "Thank God! Thank and bless His holy name for ever," he answered. And there he is, with his devoted wife and some of his family with him, in the Church of Christ and at the table of the Lord, to this day.

Blessed be God! "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," ""able to save to the uttermost."

Is not this a brand plucked from the burning? Is anything too hard for the Lord? No; God is faithful. "My Word shall not return unto Me void."

The work is of grace:

Thine, Thine be the praise,

And mine to adore Thee,

And tell of Thy ways.

Dear Christian brethren in the ministry, Sunday-school teachers of our Church, we must work on—some of us amidst great opposition; but we must labour on. It is God's cause. He does not leave Himself without a witness, and "in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

FREDERICK NEWMAN.

Lynmouth, September 12, 1871.

Beautiful Texts of Scripture for Ladies and others.

So beautiful are they in their spiritual gifts and graces as to be of more value than the most costly rubies, pearls, jewels, and crowns of glory that ever adorned the heads of any of the potentates and nobles of this world; and more to be esteeme than gold, yea, than much fine gold, and sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. "Wisdom" (the eternal Word), as Solomon has said, "is better than rubies, and all things that may be desired are not to be compared to it." But one greater than

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Solomon is here, even the only begotten of the Father before all worlds," who is fairer than all the children of men, the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely"-" the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person.'

"See where it shines in Jesu's face,

The brightest image of His grace.
God, in the person of his Son,

Has all His mightiest works outdone."

Yes, in the beginning God created man, male and female, in his own image, and when they fell and lost it, He renewed them again in Christ in righteousness and true holiness (according to Eph. iv. 24, 2 Cor. v. 17). Hence "they all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. iii. 18). They are now the sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty by adoption and grace, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, which shall never fade away. See Rom. viii. 14-17; 1 Peter i. 3, 4, 5.

The king's daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework; with gladness and rejoicing, they enter the king's palace, with a beautiful crown. Such is the description, more extensively given in Ps. xlv. 9-17; Ezekiel xvi. 6-14; Isaiah Ixi. 10; Mal. iii, 17, 18.

But all these beautiful figurative ornaments are designed to represent the more beautiful and durable gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, which are, in all goodness, righteous and truth, proving what is acceptable in the sight of God; such as love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. Hence it is written, Psalm cxlix. 4, "For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people; he will beautify the meek with salvation." With such he will dwell, and make them temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. iii. 16, 17).

That the beautiful ornaments we have already referred to in the Old Testament were figurative or typical of the more glorious and durable, and of infinite value, and absolutely necessary for salvation, is most evidently confirmed in the New Testament, and in the marriage ceremony of the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, containing the following gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, so beautiful and durable that they will never fade nor wither away, as the fashions of this world (1 Cor. vii. 31); for all true believers are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the ward of God, which liveth and abideth for ever (1 Peter i. 23). Hence, "Whose adorning

let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is. not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price." See 1 Peter iii. 1-6; 1 Tim. ii. 9, 10.

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See, especially, how the daughters of Zion suffered in the Church of old, in the times of Isaiah, 3rd and 4th chapters, for the reverse of the beautiful ornaments of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit ; and as they now suffer in France, and in our own. beloved and highly-favoured country, with Ritualism, Romanism, Rationalism, and Infidelity. What must be done to bring down these strongholds of sin and Satan? We must, as the evangelical prophet, cry aloud, and spare not ;" and then the beautiful ornaments will come forth to adorn our churches, and cause us greatly to rejoice, as he did in his God experimentally; for "he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels." See this blessed marriage union, not in its literal, but in its heavenly and spiritual signification, in Hosea ii. 19, 20, which will endure for ever and ever! Therefore, ye daughters of Zion, "Arise and shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the

Lord is risen upon thee;" "that thy good works may be seen (as described in Isaiah lx. 8-14), which will speedily bring about the latter-day glory, when the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Amen, and so may it be !

Bath, Sept. 2, 1871.

PRESBYTER.

3 Tale for the Young Folks:

FOUNDED ON FACTS.

BY THE REV. PHILIP NORTON, OF LEDBURY.

EARLSTON TOWER-CHAPTER V. (CONTINUED.)
"God made the country, and man made the town."-COWPER.

On the morrow they called. Mr. Perks welcomed them with a smile, and, putting on his hat, took them to a large shop with a plate-glass window, over which was printed in golden letters, "Snooks and Snarling, Wholesale and Retail Grocers. On the road, Mr. Perks chattered about "immense trade," "finest house in town," "good as a fortune to get in," &c. After examining John, and holding a long consultation in their office, the firm engaged him as junior assistant, at a trifling salary; and he was in a few hours weighing up sugar at a side-counter.

Messrs. Snooks, Snarling, and family deserve to be immortalized. Some gnats that lived before the Flood have been preserved in amber even till now, and possibly, this artless page will show to the wondering gaze of the superior races of the year 4871 how disagreeable were some of the people of this nineteenth century.

Mr. Snooks may be dismissed with a few words, as he was the senior partner, and only came in to the business from the country every morning. He was popularly known as the turkey cock, because, when vexed, he turned very red in the face, and uttered sounds more like a gobble than articulate speech.

Mr. Snarling was the presiding genius. He was a man who had risen. There was a legend, that once he was an errand-boy in the shop that now called him master. So the world, which worships the rising sun, was very respectful to Mr. Snarling. As the Book says, "Men will praise thee when thou doest well for thyself." Yet let Young England remember, that, in order to claim true respect, a man must rise with his circumstances. A monkey, when it has climbed to the top of a pole, is only a monkey still. One of Agur's four odious things is, "a servant when he reigneth." It would be well for themselves, and for society, if such men as Snarling did not rise, but were content to do their

duty in the humble position for which Providence evidently designed them.

But here comes Mr. Snarling. He is rather tall, but stoops; he has a bald head, and blinking eyes; his under-lip projects, giving a peculiar and by no means pleasant expression to his face. When speaking to his customers, he contrives to put on an acid smile; but to his young men he is unmitigated sourness. If a few specks of tea are allowed to fall, he comes up growling: "I s'pose you want to get me into the U-ni-on." This last word, given with a peculiar whining emphasis, is continually in his mouth. His wife is a help-meet for him. She has a vixenish face and brown eyes, which, when she is in a bad temper, dart îre. She is as disagreeable to the young men in the house as her husband is in the shop. The children are worthy of their parents; ill-mannered, cross, and ugly.

As might be expected from the adage, "Like master like men," the assistants were very third-rate. Indeed, John afterwards found that no decent young man would stay with the firm; they were changing every month, and so brought quite an income to Messrs. Perks and Snibbs. Just to indicate the employés will be sufficient. There were Mr. Loose, the apprentice, a finely-developed animal; Mr. Heavy, a broken-spirited man, who said he had been religious once; Mr. Fast, a smart and rather pleasant fellow, who sought comfort in the bottle; and Mr. Screw, the traveller, a quiet-going, withered, middle-aged man.

At first, John's good spirits carried him through; but as he realized his position, his heart sank within him. Day by day, there was the same monotonous round of work and grumbling. At night there was the glaring gas, the increased roar in the streets, and the shrill cry of the potato man, "Taters all 'ot, nice and 'ot, nice and 'ot," rising above it. Then came a brief hour in the wretched little sitting-room, with the young men, whose talk was disgusting; and then, comfortless sleep in the crowded garret. He wrote home to his mother as cheerful letters as he could, but began to feel very miserable. Always accustomed to the country, it seemed awful to him to be living in the heart of a great city. A passionate yearning for green fields came over him, and many a time did he climb out of the garret-window, and watch from the roof the far-off hills dimly visible through the smoke.

It is only as the years pass on, and we learn that man is greater than nature, that the voice of the people moves us more than the voice of many waters, and we realize that a great city teeming with men is grander than woods, and hills, and mountains. Sentiment says, "God made the country, and man made the town;" but Wisdom replies, God made the town also, since it is the Divine Spirit, that teaches the brain of man to devise, and his hand to build.