rified amongst us in public worship. But where, meanwhile, are you? and what share have you in these great blessings? You are near in one sense, yet you keep yourselves far off. You are out of the way, and therefore you lose the blessing. In losing public worship, then, you suffer a loss which no worldly gains can compensate.

And what, if to all these losses is to be added the loss of the soul? You see not, perhaps, the danger. Yet if the sabbath be neglected and abused, a plain command of God is broken, sin is committed, and the wages of sin is death. If the sabbath be neglected, Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath, is neglected also; and, without Him there is no salvation for any of us sinners. If the Sabbath be neglected, we are quite sure that prayer, and the Scriptures, and the Sacraments, and the other appointed means of grace, are neglected likewise. Can we obtain heaven without God's grace? Can we humbly expect that grace, without using the means of grace? Now pause, and remember our Lord's solemn question, "What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?"

Most of you, it is believed, will like this plain dealing. Now for a word of advice. Act honestly by the convictions of conscience, and resolve, through God's grace, to have done for ever with Sunday traffic. Make the effort next Sunday. Let your Sunday customers know beforehand your determination; and when Sunday morning comes, only leave the shop as it is, without taking down a shutter, and very few will ask you to sell. If they do, tell them civilly, yet firmly, your resolution; and, depend on it, every customer of good principle will respect your conduct. You will then have leisure, like other Christians, for rest, and refresh

ment, and domestic comfort, and retirement, and public worship; and so you will find your Sabbaths, what God meant them to be, stepping-stones toward heaven.

Yes, friends, the Christian Sabbath is one of the mild glories of our religion. It is a day of rest for the weary, of instruction for the igno rant, of comfort for the afflicted, of mercy for the guilty, of life for the dying children of men. It is a golden link to connect time with eternity, earth with heaven, man, fallen and guilty as he is, with his Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Its first breath in the morning says, Rest from labour; draw near to God; look unto Christ; prepare for death! Its last parting whisper to the faithful is, There remaineth yet a better rest for the people of God. Will you ungratefully throw back this boon, and for the sake of a few losing gains provoke God and grieve his Holy Spirit? Remember, that for every twenty years of life we see above a thousand Sabbaths, all to be accounted for at the day of judgment. Think of this. Consider, also, the influence of also, the influence of your example. If you neglect the Sabbath, your families, generally, will also. Would you like to have their souls to answer for as well as your own? And, if you and they neglect the Sabbath, why may not all others? Yet, would it not shock you to see the time come when every shop shall be open, and all the business of this world shall proceed as usual on the Lord's day? It will then no longer be the Lord's day, but Mammon's.

With an earnest prayer that He, without whom we can do nothing, may bless to you these affectionate yet faithful hints, and that He may henceforth prosper you more abundantly in your business, in your families, and, above all, in your soul's health,

We remain, with sincere affection, Your faithful friends,

D. WILSON, M. A. Vicar, and ten other ministers of Islington.

FROM

In the character of Christ, gentleness and severity met. We now, in some characters, see the first alone. But as both are requisite to make our character complete,gentleness in our general carriage, and severity in reproving, checking, and discountenancing evil,-it follows not only that there is a deficiency where gentleness is found alone, but also that the gentleness itself is of a suspicious character, and is, very probably spurious.

Where there

I find it to be so. is nothing but gentleness in the deportment, a bearing of universal conciliation, accommodation, and suavity, there will generally be a peculiar degree of hardness in the real character; not merely such as is usual, but hardness to a peculiar degree. The motto of such persons is, Suaviter in modo, fortiter in re: that is, Treat men with all possible gentleness, as far as manners go;

but in all real transactions with them, be hard, resolute, unyielding; surrender nothing, concede nothing. Such is the politeness of the Chesterfield school, on which English manners are now in a great measure formed. Translated into English, the words mean,

Smile in your face, and cut your throat.' We live in a bland, softspoken, selfish, unfeeling, and cruel age.

Our Lord's prayer for his true disciples is, "That they all may be one." This, therefore, must also be the endeavour and desire of every real Christian. But there are two methods of pursuing this most desirable object. It may be attempted by means of concession and compromise. Men unite in plans to do good, in societies, in meetings for the professed purposes of mutual edification and devotion; and in all these there must be unity

and harmony: therefore all subjects on which there is any great and manifest difference of opinion and feeling must be carefully excluded, and only those points introduced on which all are agreed. What does this amount to, but that the wise and strong, who ought to take the lead, concede every thing to the weak and ignorant, whose place should be to seek and follow direction? that those who have a high and holy standard, yield every thing to those who have a very low and earthly one? Nay, does it not often happen that those who have Christian tempers and feelings give place to the perverseness, obstinacy, and self-will of those whose tempers are yet awfully unsubdued, and who need to be reproved and rebuked, and that sharply; but who will stop the mouths of a faithful counsellor with urging the necessity of maintaining harmony? So that we obtain harmony by debasing our standard. But this is not the Scriptural method; and every now and then something takes place to turn this vain pretence of harmony into horrible discord, and to show that, after all, there is no real union. Perhaps, indeed, there will be ground to suspect that Christians by these methods are only getting further and further from all true and spiritual union than

ever.

The Scriptural method is to seek for union, not by conforming ourselves to one another, but by all seeking conformity to Christ. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "Now the

God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even

the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is by getting closer to their common Head, that all the members will get closer to each other: for Christ is the cornerstone, the point and means of union it is in him, and by him, that we are locked together and made one. Let, then, every one press forward to a high, holy, scriptural and spiritual standard of faith, hope, and love, of doctrine and practice, of devotion and charity; and though herein those who lead the way will seem to be separating themselves, not only from the world, but from the church; yet the end will be, that, getting nearer and nearer to the same point, all the radii of the spiritual circle will meet at length in the true centre of union; all will "come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; and will grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole body, fully joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love."

This is

the only true spiritual union; invisible, but real. While it may be observed, that visible and apparent unions often stand in the way of it, and tend at length to real separation: when, after all efforts to unite, the system falls to pieces like a rope of sand.

Many things are good and excellent, of which we ought to be very careful not to make idols. Harmony among Christians is one of them.

Differences of opinion, it is thought, are unavoidable in the church. But why so? Only because some are right and some are wrong; and in order that those who are approved may be made manifest. There is no necessity in

the nature of truth itself. Truth is one: and therefore, if all exactly held the truth, all would agree, and there would be differences of opinion no longer.

Suppose, within the pale of the professing world, there were begin. ning to exist, in the hearts of some persons, a disposition to lower the tone of religion; a tacit feeling that certain points must be qualified or given up: an inclination to discourage high and full statements of Divine truth; and at the same time somewhat of a drawing towards the world and its principles; accompanied with some mitigation of feeling towards Popery; with doubts of the plenary inspiration of the holy Scriptures; and with other feelings which resemble these, and generally go with them. Suppose this,--How might we expect such persons to act? It is not likely that they wonld discover themselves at once. They would rather begin by feeling their way: perhaps by saying startling things, that would produce their effect if let alone, yet, if noticed, would admit of being explained or defended in some particular sense, (the defence being kept ready against the first objector):-by assailing the highest doctrines first, and joining with the world in its outcry against them -by speaking now and then of Protestantism in terms of depreciation, and of Popery in terms of palliation :by occasionally taking the part of the poor Papist, as if misrepresented :-by affecting to be on the same side with the advocates of the truth, but now and then demolishing particular arguments employed by them :-by giving up particular points with an air of candour, and under the semblance of firmly holding all the rest :-in a word, by mystifying men's minds, and raising a smoke, out of which smoke to bring forth error.

"Let God arise; let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him."

Journal of Voyages and Travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, Esq. deputed from the London Missionary Society to visit their various

Stations in the South Sea Islands, China, India, &c. between the years 1821 and 1829, compiled from original Documents. By James Montgomery. 2 Vols. 8vo. Pp. xxiv. and 566, and viii. and 568. London. 1831.

THE formation of the London Missionary Society constitutes an important era in the history of the Christian church. With the exception of the Baptist Missionary Society, it was the first of modern Missionary Institutions, and the first of modern attempts made to unite under one banner, the several bands of Protestant Christians. The sanguine expectations indeed of many of its friends have not in all respects been realized. It was loudly sung,

Here lies and shall for ever lie, The carcase of dead bigotry. But alas, bigotry has revived, and the virulent speeches at the meetings of the Society for promoting Ecclesiastical Knowledge evince that the monster is now as rampant in the bosoms of many of our dissenting brethren, as in days of yore in the breast of Bishop Bonner and bloody Queen Mary. Melancholy however as is the feeling which such unhallowed displays of the wrath of man excite, we recur with pleasure to the London Missionary Society. That Institution has been no failure-no failure did we say, it has been eminently honoured, and extensively useful, and furnishes most important lessons of warning, admonition, instruction, and encouragement to other Societies.

On the history however of this Institution we cannot now enlarge.

We have here the official view of the actual state of its principal missions, recorded by the late Rev. Daniel Tyerman, and George Bennet, Esq. during a long and interesting voyage. These gentlemen sailed from Gravesend, May 2, 1821, and arriving at Otaheite and the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, &c. proceeded to New South Wales, Java, Singapore, Canton, Calcutta, Madras, the Mauritius, and Madagascar, where the Rev. D. Tyerman died, and from whence Mr. Bennet, returning to the Mauritius, visited the Cape of Good Hope, and calling at St. Helena, landed at Deal, June 5, 1829.

It is obvious that the simple narrative of these extended voyages and travels, must contain much that is highly instructive and interesting. The recent publications indeed of Mr. Ellis, Mr. Stewart, &c. have anticipated much of the information from the South Sea Islands, contained in the first of these volumes, and have brought down the history of those missions to a later date, yet notwithstanding this disadvantage, the work before us contains much which is original, and many additional and important particulars, which have not, as far as we know, previously appeared.

Some recent publications have indeed affected to question the reality of that work of grace among the inhabitants of Otaheite, &c. which is here so feelingly described; but the objections thus made really amount to very little. Wherever Christianity is in the first instance introduced, or wherever extensive revivals of religion take place, there are always some actuated by a momentary impulse, who receive the word with joy and afterwards fall away-the last state of such is usually worse than the first, and it may naturally be expected that