many a night has he walked from house to house, to rouse the savage spirit of the people. But this implacable and unmerciful heathen was converted by the Gospel, and became an humble, loving, and devoted Christian, and adorned his profession to the day of his death. When near his end, he was very happy, and gave earnest thanks to God for the salvation of the Gospel. "I grieve," said he, "that all my children do not love the Saviour. Had they known the misery we endured in the reign of the devil, they would gladly take the Gospel in exchange for their follies. Jesus is the best King; he gives a pillow without thorns."

"A little time after, I asked him," says the missionary, "if he was afraid to die, when, with almost youthful energy, he replied, No, no; the canoe is in the sea, the sails are spread, she is ready for the gale; I have a good pilot to guide me, and a good haven to receive me. My outside man and my inside man differ. Let the one rot till the trump shall sound, but let my soul wing her way to the throne of Jesus.' Thus can the Gospel calm the savage soul, and make the fierce and bloody, gentle and tender in their lives, and impart to their regenerated souls peace and exultation amidst the pains of death.”—Missionary Enterprises.

THE MESSENGER OF PEACE.

'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that publisheth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation."Isaiah lii. 7.

Go where duty calls thee!

To the sick and dying;

Where the sufferer, racked with pain,

Faint and weak is dying.

Go! though fever's heavy breath
Round the couch is creeping:
Go! though at the sight of death
Gathered friends are weeping—
Go! nor fear infection's power,
Unseen arrows darting;
Go! nor dread the trying hour,
When the soul is parting.
He, the Lord of death and life,
He is there beside thee;

Through the snare and through the strife,
Safe his arm will guide thee.

Go! where duty calls thee!-
To the broken-hearted,
Where, from the afflicted breast,
Hope has long departed;
Go! and shrink not from the sigh

The sad bosom rending;

Turn not from the weeping eye
To the dark earth bending;

Go! though piteous plaints you hear,

Go! and whisper gladness;

Wipe the mourner's bitter tear,

Soothe the soul of sadness

He, who once our sorrows bore→→
He, who felt our anguish-
Bids the balm of healing pour-
Bids thee not to languish.

Go! where duty calls thee!—
To the old and weary,
Wasted, world-worn, full of years,
Pining, sad, and dreary;
Go! and raise the silvered head
On the lone breast drooping;
Lift the frame so chill and dead
To the cold earth stooping-
Go! nor pass forsaken age,
Cheerless and unfriended,
Smoothe its rugged pilgrimage,
Ere its course be ended;
He, who walked this wilderness,
Breathing consolaion,
Let the aged part in peace,
Seeing his salvation!

(The Martyr's Dreams, and other Poems.)

THINGS TO THINK ON.

TRUISMS.-Borrowed garments seldom fit well. Haste very often trips up its own heels. Men often blush to hear what they are not ashamed to act. Pride is a flower that grows in the devil's gardens. More are drowned in the winecup than in the ocean. He who buys too many superfluities may be obliged to sell his necessaries. A man that hoards riches and enjoys them not, is like an ass that carries gold and eats thistles.

BE FIRM.-The winds and the waves may beat against a rock planted in a troubled sea, but it remains unmoved. Be you like the rock, young man. Vice may entice, and the song and the cup may invite. Beware, stand firmly at your post. Let your principles shine forth unobscured. There is glory in the thought that you have resisted temptation and conquered. Your bright example will be to the world what the lighthouse is to the mariner on the sea-shore; it will guide others to the point of virtue and safety.

Nothing raises the price of a blessing like its removal; whereas it was its continuance which should have taught us its value.

See the trees flourish and recover their leaves; it is their root that has pro duced all; but when the branches are loaded with flowers and with fruits, they yield nothing to the root. This is an image of those children who prefer their own amusements, and to game away their fortunes, to bestowing upon their old parents those attentions which they need.

POLITICAL JUSTICE. We are obliged to act, so far as our power reacheth, towards the good of the whole community. And he who doth not perform the part assigned to him towards advancing the benefit of the whole, in proportion to his opportunities and abilities, is not only an useless, but a very mischievous member of the public; because he takes his share of the profit, and yet leaves his share of the burthen to be born by others, which is the true principal cause of most miseries and misfortunes in life.-Swift.

EARLY RISING. Happy the man who is an early riser! Every morning, day comes to him with a virgin's love, full of bloom, and purity, and freshness. The youth of nature is contagious, like the gladness of a happy child. And oh! youth-take my word for it-youth in dressing-gown and slippers, dwaddling over breakfast at noon, is a very decrepid, ghastly image of that youth who sees the sun blush over the mountains, and the dews sparkle upon blooming hedge-rows.

DIFFERENCES OF OPINION.

'I will not quarrel with you (said the Rev. John Wesley) about any opinion; only see that your hearts be right towards God, that you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, that you love your neighbour, and walk as your Master walked, and I desire no more. I am sick of opinions; I am weary to hear them. Give me solid and substantial religion; give me an humble, gentle lover of God and man;* a man full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love. Let my soul be with these Christians wheresoever they are and whatsoever opinion they are of. "Whosoever (thus) doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.""

JUNE MAGAZINES.

SECOND NOTICE.

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY for June contains a clear though condensed account of War politics and strategics at home and abroad during the last two months.' On administrative reform we have the following remarks:

'Administrative reform, to succeed in this country, must begin at the right end. Let boroughs open their portals to talent and close them to interested motives and local influence, and we should have a better class of men to resist political monopolies; let men of business spare a little of their valuable time-devoted so solely to mammon-cult-to the welfare of their country, and we should have fewer of those mishaps and mismanagements which we have had of late so much to deplore. If the system is bad, it would then be exploded; if the men are bad, there would then be some hope of seeing them disposed of according to their deserts, and not flattered or fawned upon and perpetually laughed at and smiled upon as the fathers if not the source of all merriment, the great heroes of climacteric political presumption-men who ask what is merit? Is it the opinion one man has of another-an opinion that men cannot agree about? As if a true and righteous judgment had long ago fled the earth and is henceforth a thing impossible, or that merit was the opinion that a man entertained of himself!'

'The Confessions of an Exile,' are full of interest, though but mere extracts culled from the recently published work of Herzen, entitled GefangenSchaft and Verbannung.' They give a picture of the despotism of Russia --of its dread of literature, of learning, and of genius, well fitted to make any true man tremble at the very thought of the extension of its influence in Europe. The Exposition in Paris' receives a very brief and general exposition. We have not travelled in 'Monsieur Cabasson's Caravan,' and therefore cannot speak of its contents. There are some other light articles, and an excellent number winds up with 'Prosings by Monkshood' about Thomas Babington Macaulay.

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THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE has a learned article on 'The Birth of the American Constitution.' Then we have a description of Boulogne, a his tory of the Arabs in Spain, their manners, literature, and arts: a memoir of Colonel Walter Butler, who served in the army of Ferdinand II., Emperor of Austria, and with his battalion of Irish Musketeers formed part of the imperial garrison which defended the town of Frankfort-on-the-Oder against the vic

torious army of Gustavus Adolphus. Geology' is very ably discussed in a review of its facts and fictions. Then we have 'Irish Rivers-No. XI.,' the Nore, a clever article on Education, Religion, and Polities; and a few concluding words on our Enemies Abroad and at Home.'

Our Open Page.

THE FREE-WILLISTS.

(Concluded from p. 365.)

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEFENDER.

Now I want to know how I could be free when I was forced to be a Chris tian when I had no other than Christian evidence, and when I was forced to have less reverence for Christianity when heavier evidence against Christianity made me reverence it less? Do not say I reverenced Christianity less because of its restraints and the penalties attached to the neglect of it, for these, especially the penalties, according to the Christian, could only be got clear of in imagination. No, nor treat such a change with contempt or scurrility, for nobody but those who have passed through a similar ordeal can tell the state of a person's mind when, by opposite evidence, he is torn from his long-cherished Christian faith. He has sleepless nights and restless days-he has offended friends-he is deserted by his companions, and is (in effect) outlawed by society. His former sun of eternal promise is plucked for ever from the horizon of his high and venerated hopes! Nothing but hard and flinty evidence would make a person lose his friends, his position, and his hopes. No worldly inducement; the world is against you, for the Christian book says truly that Christianity hath the promise of the life that now is,' while, opposing Christianity, you have not only no promise, but you have downright personal distrust and antagonism to contend against, which might be more scripturally expressed if I said that 'every man's hand is turned against you.'

Is this a relationship to the world and to his friends for a person to choose? If I were free, do you think I would choose a system which almost excluded me from kind friends-from chances of success-from connection with men of wealth and influence-from the hope of living in endless bliss with those we love and cherish here on earth? Would I choose a system that excluded me from 'the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come? Very, very unlikely. Nothing but evidence and hard conviction can effect such a change; and if evidence does effect it, we cannot be free, unless being free means believing according to evidence, which is not freedom but necessity.

But while contending for necessity of belief according to evidence-which binds the will, and is therefore opposed to freedom-there needs something to be said by way of a guide, lest people think we approve of bad conduct, and submit to it as being necessary. There is a wide difference between belief and conduct, they differ both in their origin and their effects. But, recollect, it is not especially for bad conduct, but for bad belief, that the Christian book damns you; He that believeth not, shall be damned."

I said I thought there was extravagance on both sides of the argument; I ought rather to say that extravagancies are ascribed to the necessarians by freewill believers, which they do not deserve. I am aware that as belief is the result of evidence (it may be said) so is conduct the result of belief. But belief ought not to be responsible for conduct, else Christian belief could be brought into bad repute, on account of its delinquent professors. Good conduct is the result of belief, because this implies an intellectual process such as we know

takes place in working out a result, and may, therefore, be said to be necessitated. But bad conduct is the negative side of reasonable governance, and proceeds from the passions. It is not prompted by belief, because belief supposes the existence of enquiry-of education-of conviction--and being without the sanction and governance of reason, and not having the authoritative directiveness that intelligent belief supposes, it is not, therefore, necessitated in the same sense that belief is necessitated by evidence. Bad conduct is the horse away without the bridle,-the ship at sea without a rudder; and when we display the advantages of moral conduct-when we urge virtuous guidance as preferable to vicious tendencies-when we prove the individual and national advantages by being sober-inquirative and moral, we deposit, as it were, so much evidence that naturally inclines (or necessitates) men into virtuous and happy conduct.

Such are my views of belief and conduct, for which no one is responsible but myself. I ought to have said-before now, perhaps, that I do not attempt to represent the secular views-that I have never been allied with them, and that you should, in answering these communications, not drag in either the secular leaders, so-called, nor make that society answerable for my weaknesses. G. J. Holyoake never had a line from my pen-never had a glimpse of my countenance (as a friend); but still I nevertheless believe him to be a man worthy of respect and of confidence, generally speaking, for he has done a deal to purge literature of grossness and unmeaningness, besides what he has done in liberating men from the slavery of the Bible, the slavery of the priests, and the slavery of man to the fear of Hell, on account of a belief caused by evidence, over which a man has no more control than a musician has over rapturous delight caused by the performance of first-rate music. Sir, in conclusion, I will be frank enough to confess that Christianity is not all bad-that, though there has been a very great deal of wickedness, and persecution, and slavery propagated in its name by its professors, it is still capable of raising men from a lower to a higher civilisation; but there would still more good be done if they would preach the claims of humanity more than the claims of spiritualism, for the former is present with us and we know it, while the latter is uncertain, as our senses are capable of taking cognizance only of material and not of spiritual objects.

Newcastle, May, 1855.

SIR,

W. T. H.

WHAT ORTHODOX TEACHERS BELIEVE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DEFENDER,

'Aufanger' seems to be one of those whose 'belief is to a certain extent a mere matter of accident,' and whose assertions are matters done at random.

In attempting a few criticisms on his 'Foreknowledge and Fate,' I beg to offer to his notice two important principles, viz. :

1st. Believe nothing but what you can but believe everything which you can logically demonstrate.

2nd. Give the Bible credit for all that it plainly teaches and blame it for nothing but that which it plainly inculcates.

If Aufanger will allow those two principles to preside, as his guardian angels, I apprehend he will have more precise views respecting the teachings of the Bible, and be able to estimate, at their proper value, the opinions of such as Mr. Spurgeon, who, it appears, has asserted that all men are created at birth either for bliss or torment. Where in the Bible is this doctrine taught?