since the beginning. Very large sums, A THANKFUL SPIRIT. however, are continually arriving—as, one of £3,000, “left entirely at my own dis- SOME of our readers will peruse the followposal," another of £2,700, another of £1,500, ing letter with interest and profit. It was several of £100 and £50. A Dutch baroness not written for publication, but the Lord sends £85 13s. 1d., and a contributor is mentioned who gives an Australian deben- may make it useful for the edification of ture bond of £100 stock. Here is Mr. his own people. The friend who kindly Muller's own statement:-"Some indi- sent it to us says:viduals send donations week after week, "The enclosed letter, from a deeply others put by for every order or every pay- tried and experienced Christian in Scotment they receive in business, and send the land, was sent to me the other day, amount from time to time. One Christian along with two others, for my perusal. gentleman has now for about eight years If you think with me that it is valuable, sent me £5 each month. Another donor, and can find space for it in "The Mesthough with an income of only about £400 a-year, has, for about six years past, given senger," it may, perhaps, prove a blessme nearly one half of it. A baker, in Worces-ing to some souls. I have copied it, and tershire, sends me one penny for each sack forward it to you almost entirely as of flour be bakes. Another donor, labouring I received it. You can do with it as you day by day, and month after month, and think proper." year after year, in prayer, for the benefit of the orphans, trusting himself in the Lord I, October 19th, 1860. for all he needs as a servant of Christ, sends MY DEAR BROTHER, I was very me the fifth part of all he receives, which sometimes has amounted to £7, £9, yea, letter. I value exceedingly the Christian glad to receive your kind and interesting £14, or more, per month. Another individual has recently begun to send me, week friendship and brotherhood which the after week, the tenth part of his business Lord permits me to enjoy. I value exprofits. And many persons in business, ceedingly your own; but I desire grace and professional persons, send me donations ever to refer it all to the fountain, and as the Lord is pleased to prosper them. to be flung back more than ever on the There are a few who have helped me, with- inestimable friendship of the Blessed out interruption, to a greater or less degree, One. for twenty-six years in this work; but by far the greater number of donors have been raised up during the last ten years."

Dear brother, if it be sweet to have a friend-another poor, trembling heart like our own, to whom we can unbosom sorrow, assured that all will be looked at through the medium of a loving eye, and where no help can be given, sympathy, at least, will be felt; if this be preof the sympathizing love of Jesus, who cious, who can tell the preciousness can feel as well as help, who can deal with us so gently and so wisely. No eye scans us with such gentle love as Jesus. Oh to have faith always as well in the love of his heart as in the power of his hand.

A faith like this, producing such grand results, disarms all criticism. We yield at once to its influence, and join in the praise it has evoked. Mr. Muller says, "Without applying to any one, simply stating my intentions in the reports, and following up this by prayer-daily prayer-believing prayer-1 received the whole amount originally considered needful for this enlargement." He also tells us that £50 a day will be required this year, and still more as the work proceeds. We know no more touching spectacle than this truly apostolic man at the head of such an enterprise without any of the noisy fame of the world dinning his ears and ministering to his vanity without even a provision for his personal wants-(he has no fixed salary or allowance) with scarcely a thought but that of the sublime objects to which his life is devoted. The career of such a man, though it reads like a romance, is more miraculous than anything we know in modern times. as to pray. Now this is clearly scripWe cannot doubt that his future, remem- tural. You will find in Scripture far bering their source and dependence, will more exhortations to praise than to fully equal his past experiences, and render prayer. The Psalms abound with them, his name still more memorable in the city line upon line, line upon line. God is of his adoption. served by praise, Psalm 1. 23. It is

There is a little matter I would like to bring before you, dear brother, as having been used of the Lord to be exceedingly helpful to me; and although, perhaps, not needing it so much as I was, it may possibly be useful to you. Its benefit to Remember to praise God quite as much me is incalculable. It is simply this,

specially the Christian's great service. By the way, to and from home, give up

your heart to praise alone. At table
let your wife and yourself provoke each
other to gratitude and praise, by con-
versing on the excellencies of Jesus, and
of Jesus as all your own.
This does not
interfere with your seasons of prayer.
And, after the week, I am sure you will
see occasion to seek God's gift of the
spirit of praise, as well as of prayer.
When I blow out my candle in the even-
ing, and sit gazing into the red coals for
an hour, and letting the heart wander
amid all the revelations of Divine love,
back into a past eternity, forward into a
coming eternity, to Calvary, to heaven;
taking everything only in connection
with Jesus, and with Jesus as God's
gift to me, my heart begins to burn
within me, selfish and temporal griefs
disappear, Jesus himself fills my heart;
and if any one were to offer me a king-
dom for every sorrow I have, I could at
such times scarcely manage honestly to
muster a single one.

Heb. xiii. 15; 1 Peter ii. 5-9. Now in looking at my own conduct in reference to this, I found it sadly neglected. My heart was little attuned to the blessed service of thanksgiving. I had infinite cause for thankfulness, but, alas! a thankless heart. I have sought to have this altered, and with happy results. I seek the spirit of praise quite as much as of prayer, and desire to cherish the feeling of happy thankfulness for mercies enjoyed, as well as believing prayer for mercies needed. Ofttimes when my cold heart cannot get into communion through the gates of prayer, I turn to the gate of praise, and in a minute or two am in the glorious presence. In certain states of soul, when the enemy rushes on me like Behemoth, and threatens to swallow me up, I fall down on my knees, and drawing near to God, through Jesus, begin to thank God for his mercies. And as the heart goes over the boundless and glorious list, it begins to glow, and the enemy is driven off. Ofttimes five minutes' Dear brother, try it. When Satan praise is blessed with a success that an casts us into prison, and puts our feet hour's praying fails to receive. Now, we fast in the stocks, let us sing praises to have always matter for thankfulness; and God at midnight, and very soon God however low we are, let us begin there will send his angel, and there shall be and come to God in our reality, and an earthquake, and our chains shall fall praise Him heartily for whatever bless-off, and our souls be restored to liberty. ing we feel laid on our hearts, I mean "O that men would praise the Lord blessing in Christ Jesus. And oh, as for his goodness!" Yes, that is our faith gazes on that face, brighter than crying want, the want of a heart ever the sun in his strength, and listens to attuned to this blessed work of heaven. that voice, soft as the murmur of many waters, telling out the tenderness of His grace, the soul becomes as the chariots of Amminadib, and is caught up into hea ven and brought very near. There is never between us and the joy of God's presence any wall but the wall of unbelief. Alas, that we ever cherish and fondle it, and do our blessed Saviour, and the brethren, and ourselves this great wrong. For God is glorified, and others are helped, and our souls are blessed, precisely as we live in happy fellowship with our heavenly Father.

Dear brother, you may know all about this far better than I do, yet I would like to suggest your trying what benefit you might find in seeking to abound in faith with thanksgiving. Say that for a week you give up your heart to praise God for Jesus in all the relations in which you feel you can lay hold on him. In business, let your heart glance up every spare half-minute, just in a gleam of thankfulness, and one word of praise.

With heartiest love, my dear brother,

.

I am,

Yours, humbly and affectionately,

J. D.

SOWING AND REAPING.
Sow with a generous hand;

Pause not for toil or pain;
Weary not through the heat of summer,
Weary not through the cold spring rain ;
But wait till autumn comes

For the sheaves of golden grain.
Scatter the seed and fear not,
A table will be spread;
What, though you are too weary

To eat your hard-earned bread;
Sow, while the earth is broken,

For the weary must be fed.

Sow while the seeds are lying
In the warm earth's bosom deep,
And your warm tears fall upon it,
They will stir in their quiet sleep;
And the green blades rise the quicker,
Perchance, for the tears you weep.

Then sow;-for the hours are fleeting,

And the seed must fall to-day;
And care not what hands shall reap it,
Or if you shall have passed away
Before the waving corn fields
Shall gladden the sunny day.

Sow, and look onward, upward,
Where the starry light appears,
Where, in spite of the coward's doubting,
Or your own heart's trembling fears,
You shall reap in joy the harvest
You have sowed to-day in tears.

"

ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT.

met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."-The Pilgrim Psalms. Rev. Dr. M'Michael.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIPTURE.

THE HOUSE UPON THE SAND.

"And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell, and great was the fall of it."-MAtt. vii. 26, 27.

A SUDDEN but violent storm arose, and loud thunder echoed through the mountains. "The brow of the hill whereon their city (the city of Nazareth) was built, was every moment gleaming as the lightning flashed. The rain fell in torrents; and in the course of an hour a river flowed past the convent door, along what lately was a dry and quiet street. In the darkness of the night we heard loud shrieks for help. The flood carried away baskets, logs of wood, tables, and fruit stands. At length, a general alarm was given. Two houses, built on the sand, were undermined by the water, and both fell together, while the people in them escaped with difficulty. It was impossible not to pity these poor houseless creatures, and, at the same time, to thank God we were in a secure building." A Sunday at Nazareth.

FAITH AND WORKS.

have works: show me thy faith without thy works, "Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I and I will show thee my faith by my works.' JAMES ii. 18.

ARISE, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength." The strong ark, the symbol of thy majesty strong, when thou art with it; feeble, when thy presence is withheld. The prominent truth here is this: God is not invited to occupy his own temple, except in connection with this gracious symbol. What is this bond of union between God and the ark? Let me explain it. Within the ark were laid up the tables of the law, which man has broken. If I look, therefore, into the ark, I see God, as a God of justice, demanding obedience THE FERRYMAN'S ILLUSTRATION.-Two to his law; and I hear a voice sounding gentlemen were one day crossing the river forth, "Cursed is every one that con- in a ferry-boat. A dispute about faith tinueth not in all things which are and works arose; one saying that good written in the book of the law to do works were of small importance, and them." The covering of the ark was the that faith was everything; the other mercy-seat. If I look, therefore, on that asserting the contrary. Not being able lid, God is revealed to me as one who de- to convince each other, the ferryman, an lights in mercy. When God, seated on enlightened Christian, asked permission his glorious throne, bends his eye on the to give his opinion. Consent being ark of the covenant, the law we had granted, he said, "I hold in my hand violated is concealed from his view by the two oars. That in my right hand I call mercy-seat sprinkled with atoning blood.'faith,' the other, in my left, 'works.' The ark thus represents to us the great Now, gentlemen, please to observe, I pull mystery of redemption. It shows us the oar of faith, and pull that alone. how wonderfully the Divine attributes See! the boat goes round and round, harmonise in the Gospel scheme, and and the boat makes no progress. that this union is accomplished through the same with the oar of works, and sacrificial blood. Mercy and truth are with a precisely similar result,—no ad

"

I do

vance.

Mark! I pull both together, we go on apace, and in a very few minutes we shall be at our landing-place. So, in my humble opinion," he added, "faith without works, or works without faith, will not suffice. Let there be both, and the haven of eternal rest is sure to be reached."

As the flower is before the fruit, so is faith before good works.

Faith is the parent of works, and the children will bear a resemblance to the parent.

It is not enough that the inward works of a clock are well constructed, and also the dial-plate and hands; the one must act on the other, the works must regulate the movement of the hands.—Archbishop Whately.

WATER OF THE NILE.

were contaminated: a decision which we never had occasion to revoke. The water in Albania is good, but the water of the Nile is the finest in the World. Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean.

CHIPS.

THE saints are sometimes allowed to fall into an affliction, to preserve them from falling in with a temptation.

Jesus Christ deserves to be everything or nothing: if he is all you say he is, how is it you do not make more of him? If he is not, why do you talk so much about him, or at all profess him?

Saving faith is conquering faith; it conquers self, sin, Satan, the world, and death:

"And the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the it goes on in its warfare, and increases its water of the river."-ExOD. vii. 18.

conquest, until crowned with glory.

Never lay too great a stress upon your own usefulness, or perhaps God may show you that he can do without you.

THIS was a severe infliction, especially when we consider the great estimation in which the water of the Nile was held, and the peculiar delight which the What wonderful questions children often Egyptians expressed in partaking of it. ask, and what equally wonderful answers do Of this circumstance the following is a they sometimes give! What can be more remarkable instance :-"The water is touching than the following anecdote :-A fresh, without any brackish intermixture; mother, while dressing a very young child, but the overflowing stream being then at said, "You are such a lump of a shape, it is its height, was deeply impregnated with impossible to make anything to fit you." mud; that, however, did not deter the The lips of the child quivered, and looking thirsty mariners from drinking of it pro- up, it said, in a sorrowful tone, “ GOD MADE fusely. I shall never forget the The mother was rebuked, and the ME!" eagerness with which they let down and pulled up "little lump" was kissed a dozen times. "God made me." Had the wise men of the the pitcher, and drank off its contents, whistling and smacking their fingers, and world pondered on a fitting answer to such calling out Tayeep! tayeep! Good! careless remark, for a century, they could good! as if bidding defiance to the whole flowed naturally and spontaneously from the not have found a better than this, which world to produce such another draught. heart of this little child. "God made me, Most of the party, induced by their ex-mother-it is not my fault that I am what ample, tasted also of their far-famed you seem not to like-such a little lump. waters, and pronounced them of the God made me." Blessings on thy innocent finest relish, notwithstanding the pollu- heart, sweet child-of such is the kingdom tion of clay and mud with which they of heaven.

a

Missions.

CHINA.

EXTRACT of a letter from the Rev. George
Smith, dated Swatow, September, 1860.

I DULY received your kind note, and was
glad to find from it and from the Report of
the Synod's proceedings, that Swatow is

Church's mission in China.
now looked upon as part and parcel of the

From the Chinese new year to the present time there has been great excitement among the native population of Swatow. The war in the north, the stoppage of

up at various places, and latterly in Swatow itself, of the most inflammatory character. By the grace of God we still keep our hold on Swatow without any serious molestation, although our operations are somewhat circumscribed. Still fruit is beginning to appear. The Gospel is beginning to take a hold on the people, and certainly our labour will not be in vain in the Lord. Now that the imperial forces in the north have been defeated, the moral effect will be so far in our favour; but we need not wonder, although it takes years of trying labour to gain an entrance among this people.

trade at Shanghai owing to the advance fact that it seems to be a language of idioms, of the insurgents, the increase in the custom and these not bearing the slightest redues exacted under the auspices and in- semblance to ours, seems to consist the spectorship of foreigners, the arrival of the main difficulty of its acquisition. I doubt British Consul, have contributed to create not that you and many of the Lord's and foster popular excitement against people have been stirred up to pray for us, foreigners. Throughout the seaboard of especially regarding this matter of the this district, especially from Swatow north-language. And we may hope that you wards, there is very bitter feeling towards shall have an abundant answer. foreigners. Proclamations have been posted The missionary field, at least in its details, is a very different thing at home from what it is here on the spot, and so in proportion as one is led to view it there may he be expected to be disappointed or encouraged on seeing it here. There are some truths regarding its phases which, represented as clearly as they may, can only be properly known here, and others, which it seems almost impossible to convey to those at home at all. On our coming here we found the truth of these things, but the knowledge of them has only served to increase our love for the field and our love for the work. If the field as it is could only be transported to our dear friends at home, and a full view of it enjoyed, how much more zeal might it not inspire, and to what increased efforts might it not give the impulse. The hearty welcome we got from our Chinese brethren, the warm love displayed by them, the zeal they show for the glory of God, and the efforts they make for the spread of his Gospel, are most refreshing. No one in presence of these can do anything else than feel that here the Spirit of the Lord is. And besides, the full view of the work of Mr. Jones continues at Tat-Hau-Pow to our own dear brethren, the self-sacrificing teach and preach with the amplest oppor-energy of those that remain, with the graves tunities. With best wishes for your health, bodily as well as spiritually,

The people here know little of submission to imperial authority, and they are jealous of foreigners intruding upon their territory. We who are here for Christ's work must live out the prejudices that exist against the foreign name. Our hands have been put to the plough, and we cannot draw back. May the Lord grant us here, and his people at home, more faith and more of the spirit of prayer, that we may sow in hope and look up for showers of blessing

to descend.

I am yours sincerely,

GEORGE SMITH.

From the Rev. W. S. Swanson :

of those that have gone to rest, all tend, in the hand of the Lord, to make us feel that there is an intensely active life in missionary work; that the work may be short, but the rest beyond is sure and certain. Pray for us that all these things may have their abundant fruit in each of our cases.

Amoy, 21st September, 1860. I cannot omit telling of my visits to the country stations. Some weeks ago, in MY DEAR MR. MATHESON,-I am sure company with Dr. Carnegie and Mr. you will all have been happy to hear of our Grant, I went to visit Peh-chui-a and safe arrival here, and of our uniformly Bay-pay. We left Amoy on Thursday pleasant and comfortable voyage. Our morning, and halted at Peh-chui-a that residence in Amoy has been most agreeable night. A number of patients were here to Mrs. Swanson and myself, and the ready for the doctor's treatment, and were addition to our numbers which the Lord has given us, while increasing our responsibility, increases also our comfort and our home feelings to this place.

Since I wrote last we have been busily engaged with the study of the language, in which I hope we have made satisfactory progress. The acquiring of the colloquial seems to be very difficult, as it turns out to be as much a matter of time and memory as of hard study. In this, joined with the

treated accordingly. We saw all the old and tried members of the Peh-chui-a Church, some of whom you all know almost personally. Although I could hardly speak a word to be understood by them, yet we did understand one another well. We all had worship together in "an upper room," and then the doctor and I went to sleep for the night in the "Gospel Boat." At daylight next morning we all started for Bay-pay, and enjoyed much our walk over the hills