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wherein thou trustedst, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"

2. Mat. xi., 11; "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is LEAST in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."

3. Prov. xxvi. 4, 5; "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit."

4. Can we have too much religion? for Solomon tells us not to be "righteous overmuch."

5. Is it possible to obtain a good memory? If so, what are some of the means to be used in cultivating it?

ELISHUA.

1. In verses 1-4, Jeremiah talks with God of his judgments. He had been subject to persecution for righteousness' sake. God answers his servant's complaint in the passage mentioned by our Correspondent, "If thou hast run, &c., thus intimating that the prophet might expect greater sufferings than those he had hitherto endured. He had been running only with footmen, but a severer trial of strength awaited him, he must run with horses; his course had been over a "land of peace," or a land presenting few obstructions, but it would be ere long through " the swellings of Jordan." Young Christians must not ex

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pect freedom from temptation and persecution, but they may expect grace to endure, and grace to conquer.

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2. Our Lord had been describing John as a prophet, as even more than a prophet," because to him, as the forerunner of Messiah, the prophets had borne witness. Among men, therefore, divinely appointed to teach their brethren, John was the greatest. He had the nearest view of Messiah, and opportunity for personal intercourse with him. Yet was the least among the apostles, who were called to be teachers in the "kingdom" of grace, and to whom brighter manifestations of gospel glory would yet be vouchsafed, greater than he.

3. Folly must be answered according to wisdom; but wisdom sometimes takes the fool's weapon, and condemns him out of his own mouth. Dr. Conquest renders the fifth verse, 66 Answer a fool as he deserveth, lest he be wise in his own conceit."

4. We cannot have too much real religion, but it is possible unnecessarily to court persecution, or to endanger health and life in the pursuit of what is esteemed to be righteous. For example, a word intemperately spoken, even in a good cause, under the influence of a zeal not according to knowledge, may do more harm than good; but a wor fitly spoken, is like apples of gold baskets of silver.

5. A bad memory is often : name for a good memory unexer

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stility and it a fabuSed fable, tinued an eed, point it seem, phed. But only been erverted or 。 the purity tended with ne argument to prove that and divine. confirmed by ficial results. ined the bar, shown itself all vice and advocate of lio test a tree by its results, this of the question

and his apostles t have been imexerted by their 3, through all subat they could have , nor fanatics. The s, the only conclusion consistently with the that Christ was, as he acher sent from God, of truth and life."

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ressions. By W. CLARKSON, Snow, 35, Paternoster-row.

able little book for one who in of soul cries, "O that it were with months past!" EVANGELIST" seeks to thy mind," sorrowing disciple, gs that are past,"

de bids thee to recall the days and urs of time gone by, and to lay hold of the story involved in them. Put forth thy powers of recollection; bring back what has | vanished; give vividness to what has become in faint; and place the past obscure in the its light of present consciousness. Come and n all think again what thou once thoughtest, and iration feel again what thou once didst feel! Recall tagnant thine own hidden experience-thy past feeltance for ings, and convictions, and sentiments, and luctuations hopes, and desires-concerning the glorious amid which objects of the spiritual world."

and religion Thy past impressions of sinfulness and gether without guilt, of sentiment and feeling with respect believing that a to the people of God, the world, and those have survived so things which are unseen and eternal, of the sed, as we observe claims of Christ on thy devotedness, and enthat period it joyment from the means of grace, are set

Upon the whole, this essay merits serious consideration, and will repay an attentive perusal. The appendix, which supplies statistical information of great value, will be highly esteemed.

Infidelity tested by Fact. A series of papers, reprinted from "The Church." By S. MANNING. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Arthur Hall and Co.; B. L. Green. Leeds: John Heaton, 7, Briggate.

place of worship should be free to all.* All A church which, professing the voluntary should meet an equal welcome. Subscrip- principle, thus distrusts and belies it, in tions should be invited only as an expression which the man who can bring nothing but of Christian principle. The indecorous himself is unwelcome, or in which rank and mendicancy which characterizes some reli- riches have the pre-eminence, will most gious anniversaries should be utterly done surely be despised of man, and unblest of away. The scoffer should no longer have to God." say that, "Rem, quocunque modo, rem," might be the motto of our institutions. The result need not be feared. Subscription lists might fall off. Ministers might become poorer. But even this I doubt. The church would realize a new responsibility, and meet it in a new spirit. Christian men would deny themselves far more than they now ever think of doing for the cause of truth and holiness. Having ceased to claim Christian liberality from those who did not serve Christ-grapes from thorns, and figs from thistles!-they would feel their own We heartily wish that this little book obligation to abound in all good works of could be put into the hands of every British charity. No longer would some fragment youth. It will furnish to the enquiring from hoarded thousands arrogate to itself mind many a valuable and unanswerable the title of the "widow's mite." Still were argument for the divine origin of the religion such anticipations disappointed, were the of Christ. Our readers will see, from the church's treasury impoverished, did its re- following "summary," what are the contents scources for a time diminish to a tithe, the of the valuable papers composing it. loss would be its gain. For it would have given a confirmation, the power of which would be felt by the most unbelieving, to its own noble profession; "We seek not yours, but you."

"No doubt it is a right and a becoming thing, a Christian privilege and duty, for the church to support its pastor. But, mark, it is the business of the church, not of the congregation. And if it cannot be done, where is the degradation on either side, if the minister of the gospel follows the example of the first preachers, and toils with his own hands for sustenance? The apostle Paul, in the very chaptert in which he so clearly establishes his right to claim support from the church he fostered, declares that he forbore to urge that right, lest possibly his motives might be misunderstood, and remained uncomplainingly labouring to minister to his own necessities. Far better that churches and societies should be poor, far better that pastors should gain subsistence by daily toil, than that unhallowed means of any kind whatever should be employed to constrain the contributions of the unwilling.

"The system of facts and doctrines, known as Christianity, claims to be at once true and divine. The object of the foregoing series of papers has been to bring these claims to a historical test,-to enquire whether the acknowledged facts of secular history confute or confirm these pretensions.

"We found that the age when Christianity came into existence was one, with the events and characteristics of which we are perfectly familiar; and which was, beyond all parallel, unfavourable to the rise, and still more to the success of such a system, being an age of all but universal infidelity. Still more unfavourable to its success were the circumstances of its Author and Hero,-a Jew, who had suffered capital punishment, in the form reserved only for the felon and the slave. Whilst the fact, that the persons who first asserted that this Jewish malefactor came to establish the kingdom of heaven upon earth, belonged to the same despised nation, would seem to render the success of their project morally impossible. Yet, in the course of a very few years, they had, by the use of moral

Whether or not there should be pews, architecturally speaking, seems a matter of convenience. The principle against which I contend, in fraternity for once with those pew denouncers, the Tractarians (though not with them alone,) is that of exclusion and separation in the house of God. Virtual exclusion there might be, even though the seats were constructed on the open plan; real freedom of access, though doors were placed. I care little for appearances in the matter, though it must be confessed that pews are in general unsightly enough.

+ Cor. ix.

It might be added, that the visits of our greatest preachers should no longer be employed as a means of raising money. If PAUL were among us, what competition there would be for his services to preach collecting sermons! What is his own principle? That there be no gatherings when I come." I cannot pursue the topic, but most earnestly commend a tract by the Rev. C. Gilbert, of Islington, entitled "The Weekly Offering."

means alone, and without the employment has been the object of ceaseless hostility and of force, overcome both infidelity and pre-assault. It is scarcely credible that a fabujudice, and overrun the world with their lous legend, or a cunningly devised fable, doctrine. If we look more closely at the could have outlived so long continued an course pursued by these first preachers, their attack. The unbeliever may, indeed, point conduct and their success will, on the sup- to periods when his assaults upon it seem, position of imposture, appear yet more in- for a time at least, to have triumphed. But explicable. It was not in a distant country, the fact that such successes have only been or after the lapse of years, that they claimed gained over the gospel when perverted or divine honours for their Master; but at the obscured, and that every return to the purity very spot and time at which the events re- of the gospel has always been attended with ferred to took place, and where they were a revival of faith in it, turns the argument perfectly notorious; where detection would against the objector, and tends to prove that have been most easy, and imposture most the system itself must be true and divine. difficult. Deceivers could scarcely have This conclusion is still further confirmed by acted thus. Besides, no reason can be as- its happy influences, its beneficial results. signed why they should have attempted It has civilized the savage, tamed the barimposition in the matter. They gained barian, purified the licentious, shown itself nothing, and lost everything by it. Their the uncompromising foe of all vice and testimony exposed them to daily insult, out- oppression, the unflinching advocate of lirage, and death. Immense numbers lan- berty and virtue. If we are to test a tree by guished out their lives in dungeons, and its fruits, and a system by its results, this expired at the stake, as the penalty of their last test must prove decisive of the question so-called obstinacy. Now, when we remem- at issue.

ber that there is not a particle of opposing "The history of Christ and his apostles evidence, can we do otherwise than admit proves that they could not have been imthat the facts thus attested are proved? postors. The influence exerted by their Arbitrarily to reject such testimony is to do violence to the laws of evidence-is irrational and absurd.

teachings, in all countries, through all subsequent ages, proves that they could have been neither impostors nor fanatics. The only alternative left us, the only conclusion to which we can come, consistently with the facts of the case, is, that Christ was, as he claimed to be, a teacher sent from God, speaking the words of truth and life."

Thy Past Impressions. By W. CLARKSON,
London: John Snow, 35, Paternoster-row.

"But Christianity consists of doctrines as well as facts,—or, in other words, the facts are said to embody and teach truths which, when received into the hearts of men, become so influential there, as to be worthy of a divine original. If we submit these docErinal claims to the same historical test, we find that the truths embodied in the life, | and taught in the ministry of Christ, have shown themselves to be adapted to the uni- An admirable little book for one who in versal heart of man; and that, under all bitterness of soul cries, "O that it were with forms of social development, and all degrees me as in months past!" EVANGELIST "seeks of mental and moral culture, they have to bring to thy mind," sorrowing disciple, actually exerted an influence unparalleled in". things that are past,"

the history of systems, and altogether un- "He bids thee to recall the days and accountable, on the supposition that the hours of time gone by, and to lay hold of the writers of the gospel history were also its history involved in them. Put forth thy inventors. Its continuance, too, is not less powers of recollection; bring back what has marvellous and unprecedented than its uni- vanished; give vividness to what has become versality. Its existence in the world, as an faint; and place the past obscure in the influential system, so many ages after its light of present consciousness. Come and promulgation, marks it out at once from all think again what thou once thoughtest, and other creeds. They can boast of a duration feel again what thou once didst feel! Recall approaching this, only among the stagnant thine own hidden experience-thy past feelnations of the East. Its continuance for ings, and convictions, and sentiments, and eighteen centuries, through the fluctuations hopes, and desires-concerning the glorious and storms of the western world, amid which objects of the spiritual world." all other systems of philosophy and religion Thy past impressions of sinfulness and have been shipwrecked, is altogether without guilt, of sentiment and feeling with respect parallel. The difficulty of believing that a to the people of God, the world, and those system of falsehood could have survived so things which are unseen and eternal, of the long, is still further increased, as we observe claims of Christ on thy devotedness, and enthat throughout the whole of that period it joyment from the means of grace, are set

before thee. Thy spiritual perceptions, as- | submit to our readers. "Could not every surances, faith, and joy, in the sweet season member of the church, the reader himself of "first love," are described. Evangelist to begin with, by earnest prayer for divine deals kindly and faithfully, as God's mes- direction, consider and search out whatever senger, to thy poor soul. Read, and the in his own habits and allowances may be Lord give thee understanding.

BRIEF NOTICES.

found hostile to the communication of divine love and the experimental operations of divine power ?" "Might not our treatment of offences be made to conform with more exactness to divine law?" "Might not a Peace Lyrics, by H. G. ADAMS. London: greater use of christian fellowship and C. Gilpin, 5, Bishopsgate without. We discipline be made for edification, or spihail every attempt to promote the cause of ritual improvement ?" Might not our inpeace, and with pleasure recommend these terpretation and observance of the Saviour's "Lyrics" to the notice of our friends. Much laws, relating to his government and the of the poetry is above mediocrity, and the service of his people, admit, at the present sentiments advocated are to our minds un- time, of serious revision ?" questionable.

We wish this little book a wide circulation among Church members.

The Heathen World, by GEORGE E. SARGENT. Eleventh thousand. London: Ben- Ministerial Support, and Ministerial jamin L. Green, 62, Paternoster-row. An Efficiency. London: B. L. Green, Pateradmirable little book, beautifully illustrated, noster-row. Originally the circular letter and so cheap that it may be in the posses- of the Bucks Association of Baptist churches sion of every boy and girl in our families for the present year, but reprinted with a and schools. Let those who desire to few alterations for the perusal of the chrispromote interest in the cause of missions tian public. The following principles are among young persons buy a few dozens and deduced from scriptural law, and from the circulate them. precedents established in the history of the early churches:

1. That there is a warrant in Scripture for exclusive dedication to the work of the ministry.

The Apostle of the Gentiles, and his Glorying. A Sermon preached before the second Aggregate Meeting of the Wesleyan Methodist Local Preachers' Mutual Aid 2. That all who are truly devoted to the Association. By J. B. MELSON, M. D. work of preaching the gospel, have a right London: Aylott and Jones, 8, Paternoster to entire maintenance from the church to Row. There is much to be admired in this whom they minister. discourse, but the parade of scholarship throughout the whole is to our minds a serious defect. What would some of the

cheerfully, and promptly given.
3. That this support should be liberally,

4. That when churches are unable ade

Wesleyan Local Preachers think of" eccle- quately to support their ministers, they siological inanities," "transcendental the- should allow the liberty which the New ologics," "the moi and the moi-meme of Testament gives, and which Paul took, 2 Cor. xii. 5," a principle "in re minori, lessen then their demands upon them, and not equally true in re majori," and the com- let them have time to make up their livebination of "the exoteric with the esoteric lihood by other labours; always remembering in our great Wesleyan doctrines ?" We hope that downright inability is the only excuse that the sermon was not delivered from the for refusing to a minister full, adequate, and pulpit just as it has been issued from the liberal support. press. Perhaps the preacher has embellished it since.

The Old Infidel's Progress to Christianity: or, the Grace of God exemplified in the conPractical Suggestions, affectionately sub- version of William Holmes. London: mitted to the Churches of Christ. London: James Paul, Chapter-house-court, St. Paul's. B L. Green, Paternoster-row. These sug-We are not inclined to cavil at what we gestions were prepared by brethren, C. STO- deem to be imperfections in this interesting VEL and J. FREEMAN, "while visiting a pamphlet. Its recommendation is its denumber of churches suffering under spi- cided testimony to the sovereign grace of ritual depression and discouragement." God in the enlightenment of a dark mindThe deteriorating influences found to be at in the salvation of a guilty soul. We bework in Christian communities are enu-lieve our brother to be what he has declared merated, and remedial efforts recommended. himself to be, a debtor to mercy alone, and The following faithful enquiries, to be we rejoice with him in his marvellous detaken as a sample of others equally good, we liverance.

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