HELPS FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN IN HOME AND SCHOOL. New Edition, 264 pages, over 700 Lessons, in cloth boards, 2s. Contains a complete Catechism System in Five Grades and Gospel Narrative System in Two Grades of a Hundred Lessons each, to suit all ages, capacities, and classes, in both Home, Day, and Sunday Schools, in sections of twelve each, for Quarterly Examinations, combining the Standard Catechisms in "HINTS AND HELPS" with the Mimpriss System on the Life of our Lord, in his "TREASURE HARMONY." Designed to teach Bible Religion by Lessons that all Teachers can teach, Children can learn and teach, Parents can train by at home, and Ministers, without study, can at pleasure examine upon, especially Quarterly, before Parents, Teachers, and Friends of the School; and BIBLE VOICES FOR THE YOUNG. Part I., price 1d. and 2d., for Parents at Home. Parts I. & II., price 3d., for Teachers and Elder Scholars. A Large Type Edition now ready, Part I., 3d., cloth complete, 6d. THE COMBINED BIBLE VOICES. HINTS AND HELPS FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS. Seventh thousand. Crown 8vo., cloth boards, 3s. 6d. This contains the Catechisms, with Scripture Proofs, verbatim. The SIXTH EDITION, gilt edges, Six Shillings, with FIFTY-FIVE Coloured Illustrations. As By CHRIST AN EXAMPLE FOR THE YOUNG: To Sunday School Teachers and all Students. RE-ISSUE, in Twenty-four Monthly Parts, SIXPENCE each. OF 4T0 EDITION OF THE GOSPEL TREASURY: An Expository Harmony of the FOUR EVANGELISTS. PART I. will be ready early in December. Specimen pages post free for one penny stamp. The LIBRARY EDITION, complete. 1,100 pp. Large Type. Crown 8vo Edition. Two Vols. in One. Cloth, 6s.; calf, gilt edges, 8s. 6d. ; morocco, 10s. 6d. 27th Thousand. THE SYSTEMATIC BIBLE TEACHING MISSION Office and Depository: 67, PATERNOSTER Row, LONDON, E.C FRIENDLESS AND FALLEN YOUNG TO THE READER,— WOMEN AND GIRLS The happiness of MANY THOUSANDS of YOUNG GIRLS and WOMEN is imperilled, and often actually destroyed, by the improvidence and wicked selfishness of others and these young creatures, if left without CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY and HELP, would be lost both for time and eternity. The London Female Preventive and Reformatory Institution was established in 1857, to succour young women and girls. Preventive Homes, Reformatories, and an Open-all-night Refuge, have been opened to help these, and not less than 20,000 YOUNG WOMEN and GIRLS have been admitted! This year, already more than 1,200 applications have been made at the OFFICE, 200, EUSTON ROAD, and every SUITABLE CASE has been promptly helped. The Committee have more than exhausted the funds placed at their disposal, and now they require (Dec. 19th) £500 in donations before the end of the year. The Reader is earnestly appealed to, to send a contribution towards the required amount, that the work may not only be sustained, but ever extended. Contributions will be thankfully received by the Bankers, LLOYDs, Barnet, and BOSANQUET (Limited), 73, Lombard Street; FRANCIS NICHOLLS, Esq. (of the Committee), 14, Old Jewry Chambers; or, yours obediently, EDWARD W. THOMAS, Secretary. 200, Euston Road, N.W. Order at once of any Bookseller, or direct from the Publishers. EVERY SATURDAY, Id.; MONTHLY PARTS, 6d. GREAT THOUGHTS A Popular Weekly for the Diffusion of Pure Literature. THE LORD BISHOP OF CARLISLE, speaking at the opening of the Stanley Library at King's Lynn, recently, said:"Somebody has hit upon the notion of publishing a penny paper, GREAT THOUGHTS"-and I certainly think it is worth a penny, and more. I ha ve taken it for the last few months, and a day or two ago I cast my eye upon this passage." (His Lordship then read an extract from "GREAT THOUGHTS.") January Part, post-free, 7d.; Half-yearly Volume, 4/6; Cases for Binding, 1/6. LILE AND FAWCETT, LUDGATE CIRCUS, LONDON. 10th Edition. CONVENT LIFE UNVEILED. BY EDITH O'GORMAN, THE ESCAPED NUN Convent Life unveiled, by Edith O'Gorman, the Escaped Nun. "This is a thrilling tale, and the whole land ought to be salted with it. It is one of the most damaging exposures ever made of convent life by an ex-nun. The authoress is still alive, and is crowding large audiences to hear hsr platform exposes of Romanism generally. Protestants and Papists alike ought to purchase and peruse this able and deeply interesting volume."-Oldham Chronicle, March 15, 1884. This remarkable book will be sent to any of our readers post free for Twelve Penny Stamps, direct from the Publishers, LILE & FAWCETT, LUDGATE CIRCUS, LONDON, E.C. THE FREE CHURCH OF FEBRUARY, 1885. The Use of Means. THESE words suggest a principle of every day application. All progress comes in the way of means, whilst its degree depends on adaptibility, wise employment, and steady adherence to that which is the right, avoiding no less carefully the wrong of each case. As to everything concerning the means of grace, the Bible is full, clear, and explicit. If we would succeed in the desiderata of Church work (which are obviously bringing the Gospel to bear on the perishing sinner, the guidance, comfort, and edification of the believer; the vindication of truth as opposed by error, and the training of the rising generation in the ways of the Lord), precepts as to what is to be done, and precedent as to the way by which our work is to proceed, must be rigidly adhered to. It is not enough to give a partial respect to the Word of God. The combination of human plans, however apparently feasible with "thus saith the Lord," no matter how slow His ways may seem, is at once absurd, inexpedient, and impracticable. If Church work is to be done on humanly devised plans, by all means let those who are wise in their own conceit adopt them. But if the Divine Will is to be our only rule, we must adhere to it in spirit and in letter fully. The union of the human and the Divine in Church work is impossible. The prevalence of attempts in this direction accounts to a large extent for much of the hollowness amongst professing Christians, and the lowness of spiritual tone in all Churches. Some say that the littleness of success in Church work is traceable to a want of elasticity in Church order. But is it not to be brought home rather to that disregard of the Divine, which suggests the addition of the human, both in our plans and their execution? Were one to ignore in chemistry the division of matter into organic and inorganic, would not such an error be promptly rejected? Science has its axioms and Art its rules. There are principles in mechanics. Commerce and finance proceed on carefully laid down lines. Reasoning has its laws. Literature and oratory must conform to philological and grammatical guidance; and every other human work must, in like manner, be done according to those given regulations, by which each part is directed. But when we come into the region of Christian work, any sort of theological quackery is certain to get a trial, and if but results, however unconnected, can be laid claim to, approval is certain. Suffice it to say (in this tentative effort to bring a great subject within the range of our readers' careful and prayerful consideration) that the standard by which we are to judge Church work is not popularity, or apparent results impossible of measurement by human scrutiny, but by the conformity of what we do to Holy Scripture. Every work concerning the life that now is, to be successful must be brought under the rules of its kind, and all neglect in such matters brings with it its own Nemesis. How much less, then, should we expect success in the use of means in Church work, if, ascertaining the rules of their order, we refuse rigidly to do, and leave undone accordingly. He who promises us a blessing upon our Church work, prescribes both the motives which should actuate us, and the line of action we should pursue. Moreover, He has so associated the precepts and the promises of the Word, that although success cometh not as the wages of an hireling, where the Lord's Will is not our guide, the Divine Sanction is not to be expected. It may not be very difficult to apply the Divinely revealed principles to the ordinary use of means in Church work. Not so, however, in regard to those extraordinary modes of action recently introduced, respecting which we must decide for or against. Is it not time, therefore, that we should look this matter in the face, and, be the consequences what they may, decide upon and follow that path, by the following of which God is glorified and our own and others well-being for time and eternity promoted? Since writing the foregoing, these apposite words from an influential quarter, most unexpectedly reached us in a letter, the writer of which had no knowledge whatever of the subject of our leader: "These entertainments I fear are calculated to act as some parasites do, and eat the very spiritual life out of the Church. I dread them and their influence!" |