NOW.

"Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation."-2 Cor. vi. 2. COME NOW, IT IS THE DAY OF SALVA TION. When anything of importance is confined to a day, it shows the necessity of paying immediate attention to it. The day of salvation, with you, is the present day; to-morrow may be the day of condemnation. Hence our Lord says, "Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

When once the Master of the house is risen

up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are."

In another place we read, " And the door was shut." In your case, my reader, the door is not shut yet, but you know not how soon it may be. Never was there such a convenient time as the present; and wait as long as you will, there never will be. The door of salvation is open. There is no obstacle, but what is found in your own heart. There is nothing to discourage you, but what is suggested by Satan, or your carnal nature. free; it is free for you. Jesus wrought it. Jesus gives it. Jesus offers it to you. "Today, then, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart." You have done so aforetime, do so no more.

Salvation is

The Holy Ghost saith, "To-DAY," do not you say To-morrow. To-day you will be in time, to-morrow may be too late. To-day you have every facility, it is emphatically

"the day of Salvation."

Thousands have received salvation, and are happy. Thousands are now receiving salvation, and will you loiter, and linger until the door is shut, and it is too late? Come, come to Jesus to-day. Come and embrace his feet, and he will lay you in his bosom, Come and cry at his footstool, and he will raise you to praise him on his throne.

"Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."-Isa. lv. 1.

At noon of the day, he was evidently stricken by death. Many friends had already taken leave of him, and when I went into that chamber, it was plain that this world's journey was for him nearly ended. But he was perfectly rational, fully conscious of his about to enter, and anguish had taken hold state, of his prospects in the world he was of his soul.

faces about him; and as his gaze was fixed He was looking for the last time on the upon one after another, the expression of nised, unutterable yearning for something it suffering upon his countenance, the ago

was too late to obtain,-I never shall forget. When his eyes met mine he spoke. They were the last words we heard him utter, and whelmed in the dark waters,-" Can't you they seemed to come up from one overpray for me?"-and in the midst of the broken supplications then offered, with no sign that he had obtained peace and pardon from the Redeemer so long neglected, he passed beyond the reach of prayer.

Years have gone by since then. But the lesson fixed in some minds by the scene will be remembered for ever. That heart must be hard indeed which cannot be softened by the spectacle of a sinner dying unpardoned. And this event is recorded here, with the hope that some one who may read these lines -the child perhaps of many prayers yet unanswered,-the wayward son or daughter of pious parents, who with deep and often tearful anxiety are longing and waiting for those heaven,-the wanderer who for years has been dear ones to join them in the path to tations of Jesus, may be awakened from this turning coldly away from the moving inviapathy, this hardness,-this fearful state.

without hope? Are you slighting gracious Reader, are you in any danger of dying offers and waiting for "a more convenient that God for Christ's sake would make you season ?" Have you ever sincerely prayed his forgiven child? Have you asked an interest in the prayers of those who love to pray, that your soul may be saved? "Behold, now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation."

THE LONG AGO.

OH! a wonderful stream is the river of Time, As it runs through the realm of tears, With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,

And a boundless sweep and a surge sublime, As it blends with the Ocean of Years.

snow,

And the summers, like buds between;

WHAT THE BISHOPS COST. As attention has lately been directed, says the Liberator-though by no means for the first time-to the poverty of large numbers of the clergy of the richest Church in the world, it will be useful to publish a list of the incomes of some of the more fortunate members of the body-to use the converse of a recent phrase of the Primate's-viz., the bishops. The figures are supplied by the Patriot, but we throw the list into another and more suggestive form, and add some additional facts.

ENGLISH AND WELSH BISHOPRICS.

St. Asaph
St. David's
Winchester
Worcester
York (Archbishop).

The average income of the above 28 right, or most "reverend fathers in God" is about £5,535 a-year, while the average salary of the principal officers of State is only £2,572. Together they consume what would suffice to give an income of £200 a-year to seven hundred and seventy-five clergymen! Or if they received an income of-say £2,000 awhich would add £50 a-year to the present year each, there would be available a fund income of 1.980 of the poor clergy.

scale of episcopal incomes has been fixed It is an important fact that the present since what is termed ecclesiastical reform commenced the incomes of many of the sees having been much higher formerly. But "what has been saved at the spigot has been let out at the bung-hole " -to use a common proverb. This is shown by the following statement of (public) money expended by the Ecclesiastical Commission on some of the aforenamed bishops' "palaces :'

Bangor

£4,000

Canterbury (Archbishop)

15,000

Cashel

5,000

Carlisle

Chester

4,500

Down and Connor

4,000

Dublin (Archbishop)

7,789

Killaloe..

6,253

4,038

Exeter (besides a Canonry)

4,973

Gloucester and Bristol

4,068

Hereford

Lichfield

Lincoln

3,850

4,000

5,000

Llandaff

4,200

£67,065

The

Though the total of these incomes is smaller than those already given, the amount is much larger, having regard to the smaller number of the clergy, the light duties of the bishops, and especially the small number of Episcopalians in the country. average income of each bishop is even somewhat larger than that of the English bishops, viz., £5,558, while there is no doubt that the Episcopal business of Ireland might be managed by one-half of the present staff. [Lord Derby extinguished 10 Irish bishoprics.]

SCOTCH AND COLONIAL BISHOPRICS.

We now give figures of a very different character, still pertaining to bishops, but bishops who-whether of the same quality or not-cost the country a great deal less. First, there are the seven Scottish Bishops, who are set down as having but £100 each, that being, we assume, derivable from some public fund. Whatever else they have must come from some voluntary source, or their own private resources. The fact, however, is that these bishops are not state appointed at all, but are, in fact, Dissenters in Scotland, and what is worse, violate the law in calling themselves bishops of this place and of that, just as much as do any of the Roman Catholic bishops against whom the Ecclesiastical Titles Act was directed. The Colonial list is a most suggestive one :

How is it that these amounts are SO startlingly small in comparison with the incomes of home bishops, and that the sums vary so considerably? Simply because almost all these bishoprics have been created by voluntary zeal, and have to be sustained by the same means. The money has been found by missionary societies, and by Miss Coutts and other liberal individual Churchpeople, and therefore it is that no such sums as £15,000, £14,000, £10,000, and £7,786 a-year are squandered on the wearers of lawn sleeves, or still larger amounts to provide them with palatial houses. These bishops are all working bishops, yet the average income is but about £1,276, and eighteen out of the thirty-six receive less than £1,000. The entire number cost but £45,935, which is £21,130 less than the Irish bench of bishops cost, and less than one-third of the cost of the English and Welsh bishops.

The moral of these figures is obvious. They show that the only way of securing Church Reform is to have recourse to voluntaryism; and that when Churchmen have to "cut their coat according to their cloth," they make the cloth go a great way further than when it is to be had ad libitum at the public cost. We commend this statement to the study of thoughtful Churchmen who have no other interest in the matter than a desire to find out the right mode of sustaining machinery for spiritual purposes; and we ask them whether it would not be wiser to pay a little attention to a state of things so important, rather than be diverted from them by any pother raised by bishops and archdeacons at the possible secularisation of Church property some half century hence.

CHINA.

JUST before going to press we have received the following letters from Mr. Swanson and Mr. Mackenzie, announcing their safe arrival at Shanghai. These letters, which breathe a true missionary spirit in every sentence, we commend to the prayerful attention of our readers. Our brethren have landed in China at a trying, critical time; but we trust they will be sustained by the prayers of those at whose request they have gone forth to preach the searchable riches of Christ.

Shanghai, 11th June, 1860. MY DEAR SIR,-After a voyage of uninterrupted health and happiness, the Lord hath brought us safely to this land. We cast anchor off Woosung on Friday, the 1st of June, thus making our voyage from Weymouth, as nearly as possible, four months. The kindness and attention we received on board our ship are more to be felt than described. Captain Killick has endeared himself to us in the most tender way. Not only was every facility given us for the performance of religious service, but aid, encouragement, and co-operation, were ours. Judging from personal experience, we were made to feel little indeed of the tedium or troubles of a sea voyage. We thank our God for this voyage.

You may judge how joyful we felt in meeting our dear brother, Mr. Grant. He came on board our ship the night we came to anchor. Although we cannot but regret the want of health that has brought him here, yet his presence was the source of great joy to us.

By all the missionaries in this place we have been received in the most kind and cordial manner. Mrs. Swanson, Mr. Grant, and I, are together with Mr. Edkins of the London Missionary Society. The missionary zeal and activity of those around us is a bright example. Oh! that the Lord would

influence over me. If one's heart flamed for China before, what a new quickening that sight must have given. Hundreds of poor starvelings lay about; and as you moved among them, and saw the old and greyheaded thus driven to the streets, with the young and the helpless, the sick and the destitute, the sight was too much. The Chinese are bestowing a great amount of charity on these poor, miserable refugees.

The city of Shanghai itself is also panic-struck. We passed through it, and found its shops shut, and its streets partially deserted; and, at the request of the "Toulai" (the chief governor of the city), the English and French are holding all the gates.

Our troops and the French have also gone up the country for forty miles, to keep these rebels from the city of Shanghai. The anomalous nature of Chinese procedure strikes one very much at this time. The French and English are at war with China, while at the same time the Chinese authorities request their assistance to put down internal commotion.

The rebel movement is gathering strength. Oh! that He who hath the hearts of all men in his hands would use all for his own glory! And may not something be hoped from men who circulate and publish God's wordwho worship one God, and who wage a war of destruction against every form and species of idolatry? Oh! that all God's people, at home and here, were

One cannot but deplore the state of this benighted land as it is now-its government rotten and corrupt to the core, falling to pieces, exposed to foreign war, torn by internal commotions; its people the prey of the rebels on the one hand, and of imperial banditti and murderers on the other; deaf to God's call, and turning away his offered Gospel; truly its misery is great. May the Lord himself visit the land. In the midst of all these things pray for us that our love may be quickened, and our zeal doubled.

There is no mail steamer from this place to Amoy, and consequently our means of getting there was causing us considerable anxiety; but the Lord has been very good to us. We have got a passage secured by the barque Peterborough, which sails to-morrow or next day. We have felt refreshed and quickened by our stay here. We have had our eyes in a special manner directed to scenes of misery and horror that we could not have seen at Amoy. We have received the hearty welcome of the great band of missionaries here. For these things we have to thank our God for bringing us here.

And now I must close this hasty letter. I will write more at large when we get to Amoy. I may mention, to the praise of God, that neither Mrs. Swanson nor I have ever had better health than we have enjoyed since we left London.

My kindest love to Mr. Anderson, the editor of our Magazine, and tell him I remember my promise. The Lord bless and be with you all. Pray for my dear brother and myself in our study of the language.

I am, dear Dr. Hamilton,
Yours, most truly,

W. S. SWANSON.

Mr. Mackenzie, in a letter to Mr. Matheson, under date 14th June, says:

We landed here, through the mercy of God, on the 2nd of June, and have since been enjoying pleasant and help ful intercourse with many of the numerous missionary circle here. Our voyage on the good ship Challenger was throughout a pleasant one; and we can

an excellent man as Capt. Killick. His kindness, and his most pleasant and helpful Christian intercourse with us, during the voyage, we shall have reason ever to remember with gratitude to our heavenly Father, who hath so kindly dealt with us.

We are all glad that we have had an opportunity of seeing Shanghai and the brethren here before setting down to our work at Amoy. In many ways we hope to be benefited by our visit to this place. We have paid several visits to the city, and seen somewhat of the temples and idol-worship of the Chinese, and of the labours of our brother missionaries among them. With this one thing we are much impressed, that the changing of a people from heathenism to Christianity, and from the ways of sin to those of holiness and happiness, is not a work of human power, or skill, or love; and that the living, life-giving Spirit of God alone can effect this glorious change. This being so, while we would use all appointed means, we see the necessity of continuing in prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit on those who labour, and on those among whom they labour. We would, therefore, urge what has so often been urged before-this continuing in prayer of the Lord's people at home on behalf of China, and on our behalf, that we may be qualified for serving God in the Gospel of his Son in this land. Were our life, and our labours, and hopes in this land to be sustained only by what we see of success around us, surely we should soon be cast down and fail. But faith altogether alters the view of matters here, and resting on the command, and on the promises of Him to whom all power has been given in heaven and in earth, it encourages to present labour in hope of ultimate success; a success, depending, in so far as we are concerned, on our performance of duties as these are in detail laid to our hand by our Master. We were agreeably surprised on our arrival here to find that one of our brethren from Amoy, Mr. Grant, was here. He had been here but a few days when we arrived, and we were very happy to meet with and receive his kind, brotherly greeting. Our friends of the London Missionary Society have been very kind