vidence of God, and the success of the remedial scheme, cannot now be explained. Among the stupendous problems which eternity will solve, these are not the least interesting or profound.

One reason why the multitudes of our Protestant land forsake the sanctuaries of God, and do not associate with their every-day vices Sabbath-observance, or other occasional obeisance to the public religion, as in Popish and Heathen countries, is, that they are taught the hypocrisy and vileness of such a course. English people generally have a better idea of what true religion is, than some give them credit for. They know that they cannot be religious without giving up their sins. Attendance on ordinances, for example, will not suffice for salvation: they must relinquish sinful practices and society, and in other respects deny themselves. Accordingly, few care to make the public profession, without some effort at private religion. And which is better, that a nation should honour God, and draw near to Him with their lips, while their hearts are far off,-or that many should decline to do this, because they understand that religion demands the whole man; that none can serve both God and mammon; that it is better to make no profession of godliness, unless the heart and life accord with it? At least, the two sides should be distinguished for, however grievous may be the sight of thousands who boldly ignore the national religion, it is relieved by the intelligent, voluntary, and zealous devotion of a host of real Christians, who act, not from public policy, not in conformity with stereotyped ideals, but with the freedom and energy of individual conviction and faith. Besides, anything is better than that our national religion should be a gigantic sham. How utterly depraved would be the nation's life, with a lie at its heart!-to have splendid temples, a gorgeous ritual, crowds of worshippers, but no light in the conscience, no faith in the soul, and "like priest, like people!" This may suit frivolous France, or the showy genius of Italy; but it will not do for earnest, practical England.

We are not, then, to be imposed upon by the numbers of Heathenism and Popery; nor are we altogether discouraged by the comparative fewness of the truly enlightened. The real contest between good and evil is not advancing, except where religion makes a stand, refusing to sanction public and private unrighteousness. Though it may be by small degrees that the true church advances, yet its prosperity represents so much of real elevation among mankind. In the other cases, a false peace is made with the enemy. Institutions bear the name and claim the sanctions of religion; but they are "cumberers of the ground," and must be cleared away before the world's true harvests can be reaped. The natural evil of the heart is receiving no direct and salutary opposition; the truth achieves no triumphs; the popular understanding is fettered by prejudice, and the moral power weakened by false views of virtue and vice. Leave the world to these systems, to be regenerated, restored, by any or all of them; and what would be its future? It is certain, that "two or three gathered together" to worship God" in spirit and in truth"

represent more moral power, more real progress, and afford a much more hopeful sign for mankind, than the hosts who throng the shrines of Paganism and Antichrist. The longings of humanity for better days, when science, government, wealth, and religion shall enter into a holy conspiracy to lessen the woes and to multiply the joys of the peoples, can only be fulfilled when this "little one shall become a thousand," and "the small one a strong nation."

We hold no determined sentiments against a State-Church. We shall not now argue the much-vexed question, whether it is scriptural or otherwise. But we look upon some theories of a national Establishment with suspicion; and others seem to be simply impracticable. That a nation comprising millions of persons should be made Christians by Royal writ, or Act of Parliament, is plausible, but not very satisfactory to an enlightened judgment. No nation ever was Christianized by such means, although it has often been taken for granted. Men in high places are occasionally oblivious of very evident truths and very plain facts; and one thing they have found it hard to believe is, that human government, which properly takes cognizance of the actions and words of subjects, has no real authority in matters of opinion or conscience. However, if we acquit the founders of state-religions of arrogant assumption and improper ambition, we cannot deny that some of them have erred in regarding compliance with appointed forms of faith and worship as synonymous with the real advancement of religion. Wycliffe and Tyndale did more for the establishment of Protestantism in England, than did the furious policy of Henry VIII.; and the revival of the last hundred years has done more for the social and religious improvement of England than Council or Convocation ever wrought in a century. It saved the State-Church itself, and invigorated it with new life. To baptize a nation with a Christian name, to apportion it into ecclesiastical districts, to supply it with spiritual officers and functionaries, to train. the people in the observance of religious forms, is one thing, and a great thing; but to awaken personal conscience, to convince of sin, to train up communities to real believers, to found and raise a living church of earnest souls, is another and a better thing.

In conclusion. Although Protestant Christianity may not be the most popular form of religion in the nineteenth century, it is certainly the most powerful in its moral influences. It is sensibly affecting the other systems. There are no new temples building in India; the more disgusting and horrible rites of Heathenism are shrinking from the public gaze; and the rising generation begin to question and despise the faith of their ancestors. Mahomedanism is no longer spreading. But the superior science and art of Christian Europe are eclipsing its former splendours. In lands that still bow to Rome, there is some diffusion of scriptural light. The Papal arm cannot wield the weapons familiar to its use in stronger days. Now, when kings are excommunicated, their names are left out of the document. Thus a preparatory dispensation has been already granted to the nations. A voice is crying in the wilderness, "Pre

:

pare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." The Sun of Righteousness," whose first beams have pierced the darkness of the ages, will surely arise "with healing in His wings." The time is slowly approaching, when the spiritual kingdom of Christ will be co-extensive with the world. The basis for this hope is not the present situation of affairs, but the promise of God. Judging by merely human probabilities,-by the present numerical relation of scriptural Christianity to the systems of error, -we might fear that the cause of Christ never could be supreme. Two-thirds of the human race are still pagan, while the majority of the remainder are enthralled in vile superstition. Yet "the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." The Master's last command waits to be obeyed: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." If the future progress of this mighty scheme is to be as slow as the past, untold ages must elapse before man's millennium dawns. But we are already aware of an immense acceleration of events. The circles of Providence seem to be concentrating, and signs of deep and rapid revolution are visible. Let us wait the end, but without vainly anticipating by Utopian ecclesiasticisms the universal reign. It is better to know the present, and do our duty in it, than to mourn over the gloomy past, or dream of the promised future. The church never had more work to do, and never greater encouragement to proceed. Science, philosophy, politics, are filing off in various directions, conscious that they cannot do the work of the church, and that the church cannot forsake its higher vocation to pursue theirs. Mightier baptisms of heavenly fire must come on the believing multitude, daily increasing. Then the growing wisdom of the churches, widening in practical skill, will insure a better application of energy; fulfilling, not by miracles to strike the vulgar sense, but by a progress as really Divine in its certainty as was the prototype in its suddenness, the prophetic wonders of Pentecost.

W. F. S.

IN MEMORIAM.

A CHAPTER FOR JANUARY THE FIRST.

THE close of a year, or the commencement of a new one, is seasonable for grave reflection. We seem to be passing another milestone on the dusty, uneven, and weary road of life; and are apprised that the distance betwixt ourselves and the eternal world is daily becoming shorter. Yet multitudinous affairs of time often crowd the mind so densely, as well-nigh to obliterate this monitory truth. Mortality fades from the thoughts of the man who has his "portion in this life." Joseph called the name of his first-born Manasseh; that is, "forgetting :" "For God," says he, "hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house." "Manasseh," in a very different application,-as implying that we forget how frail we

are,-would be no misnomer for tens of thousands among us. Solemn mementos are not, therefore, unnecessary. Let us furnish a few of these salutary hints. They lie before us inscribed upon forty-four mourningcards. These have been latterly received, at different times, from the circle of our own acquaintance. What family is without such memorials? How rapidly they accumulate! Rarely are they absent from the postman's bag, as he goes his daily round. If this official could not hear a sermon from the pulpit, he has one in his hand every day. It is fitting that even they "who prosper in the world," who "increase in riches," should interweave the cypress with their laurels. Let such remember, "It is appointed unto men once to die." Nor is this all: for "after death "the judgment."

comes

Our sombre remembrancers are distributed in four classes. Three record the deaths of infants; eight, of young females; nineteen, of heads of families, or men of business, "in the midst of life;" fourteen, of the aged, whose united years amount to one thousand and sixty-eight. Each class is suggestive of profitable thoughts.

"As

1. Infants.-How true that the first step of infancy is toward the grave! In two cases, out of the three before us, some twelve weeks sufficed to accomplish the journey. These innocents went by a very short route to the better land; for none, surely, can doubt their eternal safety, when the Saviour hath said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of heaven." "Happy voyagers," says Hervey, "no sooner launched than arrived at the haven!" 'death,'" says Wesley, in his Notes on Romans v.," through the sin of the first Adam reigned over them who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,' [infants,] so, through the righteousness of Christ, even those who have not obeyed, after the likeness of His obedience, shall reign in life." Doubtless, a special provision has been made, in the redeeming covenant, for the salvation of infants. And how vast their number, about forty out of every hundred! These little rose-buds, "steeped in silvery dew," will unfold in a milder clime, and expand to full bloom and beauty. "Little brilliants," indeed, are they, "in the crown of their mediatorial King." Their cherub-forms will be seen in every part of the great celestial temple. Their capacities will be extended to know and enjoy God; and they will lisp the anthem of redeeming love. Christian parents, bereaved of their infant children, do well to be reconciled to their lot. The interval of separation is short, and is daily becoming shorter. Rutherford addressed a letter of condolence to Lady Jane Campbell, Viscountess of Kenmure, on the death of her infant daughter. “Ye have lost a child," said he: " nay, she is not lost to you, who is found to Christ; she is not sent away, but only sent before; like unto a star, which, going out of our sight, doth not die and vanish, but shineth in another hemisphere. Ye see her not, yet she doth shine in another country. If her glass was but a short hour, what she wanteth of time that she hath gotten of eternity; and ye have to rejoice that one belonging to you is now in

heaven.

Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuring. In patience possess your soul."

2. Young women.-Several of these gave remarkable proof that even "youth is vanity." The lovely form and countenance of one most distinctly rise again to memory. But vain is the pride of beauty. The rose fades, and the lily is soiled. "Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, Thou hast made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before Thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity."-But how cheering to glance at the memorial of another beloved one, "who departed this life, calmly reposing in the atonement of her Redeemer!" The most aged and eminent saint cannot do more than this in life's latest hour.

Such was the experience of another young friend, who died August 19th, 1861, aged fifteen. She was tall and womanly; but a few short weeks of sickness brought her to the verge of the grave. Her widowed mother felt a restless anxiety about the eternal safety of her only daughter, but found a difficulty in talking faithfully with her child. The latter, however, opened the important subject by saying one day, "Mother, come and talk to me about Jesus." With what gladness did these words thrill the heart of that sorrow-stricken parent! The prayers of years, offered by herself, (and perhaps, too, the prayers of ministers and of many friends,) were at that time answered. The Spirit of God was doing His essential work,— was convincing of sin, revealing the need of Christ, and exciting the vital question, "What must I do to be saved?" She was for some days an earnest seeker, and in the night-season she found the "pearl of great price." The mother, wearied with incessant watchings, had lain down for a little repose. All was silent in this chamber of sickness. The slumbers of the mother were, however, soon interrupted by a few animated words, uttered by the child of her solicitude,-"O mother! He has saved me!" The Lord, whom she sought, had "suddenly come to His temple ;" and "the love of God" was "shed abroad" in her heart "by the Holy Ghost given unto her." This caused the widow's heart to sing for joy; and, doubtless, there was joy in heaven also. From that moment our young friend could "rejoice in hope of the glory of God." One of her last utterances was, "He saveth to the uttermost!"

May the writer of this page be permitted briefly to advert to the case of his own beloved daughter, who died at nineteen, on the 13th of February last, calmly trusting in Jesus?-So gradual was her decline, as to extend over the four revolving seasons. In the spring her cheeks were colourless, and her strength was beginning to fail. In the summer her walks and rides were short, but producing fatigue. It was evident enough that she must soon take her final farewell of the beauties of the landscape, and all her favourite walks. In the autumn she declined still more rapidly. The withering grass, the drooping flowers, the fading leaf, the declining sun, the shortening days, the lengthening shadows, were fitting symbols of her