divine all-sufficiency. No greater absurdity, no more pernicious error, ever had place in human thought than is involved in the sentiment that the consciousness of present sin, indwelling or actual, or both together, is requisite to induce or perpetuate in believers a sense of dependence upon Christ, and consequently faith and trust in Him. Can faith remain fixed and permanent only when it has in it "a little leaven" of unbelief? None are, or can be, so absolutely rooted and grounded in the sentiment of utter self-insufficiency and all-sufficiency in God as are beings who are perfectly holy, and especially saints who have been "saved to the uttermost," and "sanctified wholly." I SHALL NOT WANT. M. I shall not want: in deserts wild I shall not want: my darkest night I shall not want: Thy righteousness I shall not want: whate'er is good, Intelligence. Sins of Ancient Saints: Why Recorded. IN a course of lectures on Preaching, a course delivered by Bishop Simpson, before the Theologal Students in Yale College, the Bishop in the progress of his discussion very properly and wisely refers to the above subject. After noticing a number of reasons which have been assigned for such records, he refers to one which, we believe, is orignal with him and which presents the whole subject in an entirely new and most impressive light. We give the paragraph entire in which the reason under consideration is stated and elucidated. "I was reading one day, when it occurred to me that nearly all these dreadful things were recorded of the ancestors of Christ. That Noah was not the only man who had used strong drink; nor Judah, nor David, nor Solomon, the only men who had gone astray. They were, after all, picked men; while around and beneath them was a mass of the degraded and corrupt. Those were passed by, while the faults of these men, ancestors of Christ, were carefully recorded. Then there opened before me what seemed a new range of thought. The Romanists have been trying to get the human nature of Christ as far away from our humanity as possible; and hence have taught the immaculate conception of Mary. Not so with the Scriptures. They show that on His human side Jesus was the descendant of ancestors no better than other men; that among these ancestors were those who had been guilty of every vice and crime possible to humanity; that the blood which from the human side coursed through His veins, had come down for centuries through the vilest of the vile. Yet in that humanity He had dwelt; His presence made and kept it pure and holy. And that humanity, thus representing the whole race, He has exalted to the highest heavens. Then came to my heart the consoling thought, What if I have hereditary tendencies? What if my nature has been derived from sinning ancestors? that Jesus who dwelt in a human frame eighteen hundred years ago can dwell in my humanity, and can make and keep it pure. Then I thought of His wonderful condescension, and I read with new light that passage: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." This view has seemed to bring the Saviour nearer to me than ever before. He is the Son of Man, and as such He not only knows our weaknesses, but as our great High Priest, He is 'touched with the feeling of our infirmities,' and was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' How logically and how beautifully the exhortation follows: 'Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."" The Church of the Future. REV. J. B. SHAW, D.D., Pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in the city of Rochester, N.Y., on the thirty-eighth anniversary of his settlement over said church, preached a discourse on the subject above indicated. This discourse, which was published, has been reprinted in the Baltimore Presbyterian Weekly. We refer to this discourse as illustrating the progress of Christian Thought. The following are among the most important points made in it, namely: 1. "The Church of the Future will make more of the substance of Christianity than of its form." By-and-bye no other credentials will be required but faith, love, charity. The man who is like the Master will find himself welcome everywhere. 2. "It will lay more stress on the life than on the creed." "The Church will no longer be called a hospital for invalids or a sanctuary for scoundrels.' 3. It “will appropriate to itself all those excellences by which the different branches of the Church are now distinguished.' "Do you ask me whether the Church of the Future is to be Methodist, or Baptist, or Episcopalian, or Congregational, or Presbyterian, or Lutheran, or Moravian? My answer is, that it is to be all together. The day is coming, and coming soon, when different denominations will begin to take down their fences and unswing their gates. The Methodist will take down his fence; the Baptist will take down his fence; the Presbyterian will take down his fence. One after another these things which keep us apart will disappear. There will be no bars to let down; there will be no surly dog to fly at us, if we attempt to go in, and I think there is no dog so surly as a church dog." 4. In the Church of the Future "faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will be regarded as a valid title to every blessing of the Covenant." 5. "The Church of the Future will reach the masses as Christ reached them, through their physical infirmities and necessities." Dr. Shaw says that he came into the ministry a bit of a bigot, and is glad that he has broken the shell. "WHO, THEN,' CANNOT BE SAVED "? The following well-authenticated fact presses such an inquiry upon our hearts. Would that the churches were filled with converts and members such as we find in the following narration of wondrous interest :-"Several copies of the Scriptures and some other Christian books were recently given by the American Board Mission to the Governor of a prison at Otsu, Japan, who passed them over to an educated prisoner in jail for manslaughter. Soon after a fire broke out in the prison, but the entire body of prisoners, numbering nearly 100, instead of improving the opportunity to make their escape, assisted in putting out the flames, and remained to a man to be again imprisoned. Such a remarkable circumstance occasioned inquiry as to the cause, when it appeared that the scholar had been so impressed with the truth of Christianity that he had taught it to his fellow-prisoners, and Christian principles, combined with his personal influence, had such power over them as to restrain them from fleeing when the doors of their prison were opened. The scholar was consequently pardoned, but he remained in Otsu to teach the prisoners. He has opened a Chinese school for young men, where Christianity is taught, and is now preparing to reprint a Chinese commentary on the Gospel of John." Dr. Steele's Bible Readings. THE Bible Readings of Dr. Steele will be better understood and more richly enjoyed if the reader will picture to himself the place and surroundings in which many of them were delivered. I listened with rapt attention, delight and profit to several of these at Old Orchard CampMeeting, in the State of Maine. This place is one hundred miles east of Boston on the ocean beach. From the grounds, and especially from the observatory of the grounds, the prospect of the sea is grand. Here the beautiful sky, which is usually clear and serene as that of Judea, and the salubrious air which is full of healthful stimulus, exhilarate the feelings, while the eversurging waves of the sea promote devotion by adding their deep-toned music to the songs of worshippers in the grove. The place where the meetings are held is a vale, resembling with its adjacent ridges and slopes the undulation of the sea, as we have seen it in mid-ocean and fancied that the present face of the earth's surface was originally made by a sudden conversion of liquids into solids. "The Spirit of God moved upon the waters," and gave instantaneous solidity to them. By His breath they congealed, and the dry land appeared. On one side of the vale is a ridge crowned with cottages, and as the rear of the pulpit is placed at the base of this elevation, it serves as a sounding-board and helps the acoustics of nature's temple. In front of the stand is a gentle ascent on which are the seats for the congregation, arranged in the form of a crescent, the aisles converging to the pulpit as the focal point. Here, beneath a deep shade and surrounded by a leafy enclosure and fanned by soft zephyrs, the people of God are met for holy communion. At 3 o'clock, Dr. Steele takes his position in the stand, with the Bible and notes of reference. At his right is a minister, holding by request the Greek Testament. At his left, another, having Alford's Translation, and perhaps other authorities. Prayer and singing having introduced the services, Dr. Steele proceeds to name the book, chapter, and verse, or verses, of all the texts which he proposes to expound. These are selected with respect to unity, and all bear accordingly on some important theme or aspect of the spiritual life. He reads slowly, and as he designates the verse he asks some one in the audience to take it by repeating the figures after him. Each taking a verse is expected to read it aloud whenever in the progress of the discourse and explication it is called for. Thus communing with a large and promiscuous audience through the medium of God's word, he holds attention for an hour with unflagging interest while literally he brings forth things new and old out of the treasury of the Scriptures. Then with vision clarified, faith strengthened, and desire, and often emotion, stimulated to the high point of burning and irrepressible aspiration, the work of seeking goes on with perfected intelligence and increased earnestness. It is impossible to overestimate the advantages of this new feature in the methods of public instruction-expository preaching-a direct appeal to the word of God. It cures fanaticism, breaks the chains of preconceived opinions and chronic prejudices, and takes the scales of delusion from the eyes, and the film of infidelity from the understanding and heart. It lifts the fog of misconception from spiritual things, and makes the way of salvation so plain that even wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein." We rejoice that the old dry propositional style of preaching, with its mechanics and metaphysics, is passing away, and God is allowed to speak for Himself. The Divine voice being thus evoked two other beneficial sequences may be expected to follow. First, the essay productions, and the semisecular and sensational sermons, will be placed at a discount. What is such craft but a false and dishonouring implication that the gospel is inadequate of itself to draw and hold? Second, a robust, stable and orthodox sanctifiIcation will be nurtured in the Church. The vagaries and fanaticisms of the visionary and superficial will dissipate and vanish before God's word like vapours before the rising sun. A. LOWREY. Rev. S. Baker. IN connection with the manuscript containing the wonderful experience of this man of God, the experience which appears in our present number, Dr. Lowrey sent over the following statements about its author." He is a remark able man. I met him at the Youngstown Camp Meeting. He sat on a stool and delivered one of the most powerful expository discourses on the spiritual experience of Paul that I ever listened to. Had you heard him you would have said, 'That man is a practical illustration of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost.' He made, or rather through Him the Holy Ghost made everything tremble on the ground. When he reached his climax and quoted the words. 'I am willing to spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you the less I am loved,' he stopped, looked amazed, and then spontaneously cried to the people, 'Just think of it.' Then quoting the passage again he analysed it and showed the superhuman triumph of grace in the Apostle's case. It was done with such a demonstration of the Spirit as I have rarely witnessed. The whole audience was in sympathy with him and magnified the grace of God. With a shout of glory upon his lips which evidently came welling up unbidden from the depths of his soul, he abruptly said, ‘I have exhausted my strength,' and grasping his crutches he limped away into retirement and rest. Dr. Mahan, the incontrovertible, overwhelming, and invincible proof of the Divinity of our holy religion is the experience of it. I believe the ministry and church to-day have not a bird's-eye view of the extent to which we may be made 'partakers of the Divine nature.' I see myself in a mere rivulet of spirituality. I must launch away into deeper seas. Amen. "A. LOWREY." Conference at Wellington, South Africa. WE are permitted to furnish our readers with the following extract from a letter just received by a lady in this city from Mrs. Dr. Long, Missionary in South Africa: "I received your kind and welcome letter while at Wellington, where my husband and I were spending a few days, he having been ill, and requiring a change. We enjoyed our stay there very much, as you may imagine. It happened just at that time there was a meeting of the Presbytery, and a great number of ministers came to Wellington to discuss church matters. When they had finished business, there was a public Conference held in Dutch. The subject was, "The believer's walk ought to agree with his profession." The addresses on the holy life were most interesting and instructive. It is delightful to see how many believers are entering into the rest of faith, especially in the Dutch Church. "Should you see Dr. Mahan," adds Dr. Long, "tell him I am reading, with great enjoyment and profit, Bishop Hamlin's works.' Bible Burning. THE Jesuits, some months since, burned some Bibles in ancient Tyre. Instead of gaining influence thereby, they excited such displeasure Local Option Law in the United States. IN several of the States laws exist authorising the people in counties or towns to determine by a majority vote whether the sale of intoxicating drinks shall be licensed or suppressed within the limits of the same. Out of 239 towns in the state of Kentucky, 205 have, under such a law, recently voted "no license." The clerk of Edwards County, Ill., gives the following testimony to the influence of such a law in that county : "There has not been a licensed saloon in this county for over twenty-five years. During that time our jail has not averaged an occupant. This county has never sent but one person to the Penitentiary, and that man was sent up for killing his wife while drunk, on whisky obtained from a licensed saloon in an adjoining county. We have but very few paupers in our poor house, sometimes only three or four. Our taxes are 32 per cent. lower than they are in adjoining counties where saloons are licensed. Our people are prosperous, peaceable, and sober, there being very little drinking, except near Grayville, a licensed town of White county, near our border. The different terms of our Circuit Court occupy three or four days each year, and then the dockets are cleared. Our people are so well satisfied with the present state of things that a very large majority of them would bitterly oppose any effort made in favour of license under any circumstances." Benefits of Prohibition. CHIEF Justice Davis, of the Supreme Court, in the State of New York, gave in a recent address, the following facts as illustrative of the benefits of Prohibition : "The relation of intemperance to crime is also plainly manifest where drunkenness is repressed by partial or complete prohibition. The cases of towns and villages where, by the arrangements of their founders, no liquors or intoxicating drinks have been allowed to be sold, furnish strong evidence. Vineland, with its 10,000 people, without a grog-shop, and with a police force of one constable, who is also overseer of the poor (with a salary for both offices of $75) reports in some years a single crime, and a poor rate swelling to the aggregate of $4 a year. Greeley, in Colorado, is another town of 3,000 people, and no liquorshop. It uses and needs no police force, and in two years and a half $7 only was called out of its poor fund. Bavaria, Illinois, a town of the same population, with absolute prohibition, was without a drunkard, without a pauper, and without a crime." more Two Pictures; or, License or No License. IN Trimble County, Kentucky, Judge Bartlett, some time ago, refused to license any one to sell intoxicating drinks in the county, and though there was a loud cry of opposition and remonstrance, he stood firm to the decision, resolved that through his agency no whisky dealers should be allowed to work ruin to themselves, to their families, and to the people of the county; and what is the consequence? To-day, says the National Prohibitionist, there is not a criminal case on the docket of the county, not a criminal in the jail, not a pauper in the county to be supported, and not a licensed barand at the last County Court, though the room; county town was crowded with people, not a drunken man was seen in the place; good order and good-will prevailed, and no husband or father went home to his family intoxicated, to abuse his wife and children. And now look at the other picture. Anderson County, says the same authority, continues to grant licenses to the whisky shops and taverns. And what is the consequence there? In one week two murders were reported, and numerous arrests for violence and disorder. Jefferson County licenses; and it has over twenty murders, or attempts to murder, in a year; and five hundred and thirty-seven arrests in one city in a single month. Pulaski County licenses; and it has ten whisky murders in a few months. Scott County licenses; and its docket is crowded with offences and crimes. And so in every county of the State where licenses are granted: murders and quarrels, and violence, and abuse of wife and children, are reported abundantly; and the greater part of all county expenses is found to come from the courts and jails and prisons and officers rendered necessary by the offences and crimes committed by men under the influence of intoxicating drinks! Taking the Pledge. It is stated that in Michigan ninety per cent. of the 210,000 men who put on the red ribbon during the campaign two years ago under Dr. Reynolds, are still wearing it and living up to it, and that, too, when eighty-five per cent. were drinkers. Within that period, also, there have been 25,000 conversions to Christ, mainly due to the temperance work. WOMAN'S NATIONAL CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION, U.S., held its annual meeting in December of last year in Baltimore. About 200 delegates were present from the different States and Canada. Most of the pulpits of the Methodist churches, and several of other denominations, were occupied by members of the Union on the Sabbath, and to the great satisfaction of the hearers. A part of each session was devoted to religious exercises. The testimonies given during these meetings were very clear upon the subject of entire consecration to Christ. And, while some spoke of it as entire sanctification, others denominated it as the rest of faith, and the general experience was that of a full salvation. A number declared that they had been brought into this experience through the temperance work. As the call came to them, "Go, work in my vineyard," they felt the need of a complete giving up to God as a preparation for this work. Book Notices. China's Millions. Edited by J. HUDSON TAYLOR, M.R.C.S., F.R.G.S. Morgan & Scott, 1878. CHINA'S MILLIONS is a one-penny monthly Twelve numbers of the same are now furnished. in a single volume; calf gilt with two maps, 3s. 6d., and with cloth wrappers, one map, 1s. 6d. The maps themselves are well worth the price of the volume. In this volume also, the reader is furnished with more important information in regard to this wonderful empire than he can find almost anywhere else. In it, also, he will become acquainted with the operation of the China Inland Mission, one of the most interesting and important missions in the world, and which promises more than, perhaps, all others, for the Christianization of that empire. Entire Sanctification, as taught by John Wesley. A compendium of his late teachings on the doctrine, given in his own words, 1d. In quantities for distribution at reduced prices. IN this pamphlet of sixteen pages we are furnished with a very judicious selection of the best thoughts of Mr. Wesley on this most important subject. "Two or more copies will be sent, post free, from Mr. T. E. Welfear, East Peckham, Kent." The Way to be Holy. By H. W. S. Published by F. E. Longley, 39, Warwick-lane. Price, sewn, 6d.; cloth, with elegant gilt edges, 18. 6d. THE reader is here furnished with some of the most important thoughts of this well-known author. Behind the Pigeon Shop: A story of real modern life amongst the Heathen of England. WILLIAM BOOTH. S. W. Partridge & Co., 2d. MR. BOOTH has discovered the secret of reach ing the Heathen of England, and is prosecuting with marvellous success a mission for this end. We value this little pamphlet mainly for the light which it throws upon the operations of this mission. WHEN in circumstances in which we appear to have little need of special grace, right there is a special call for the exercise of special faith, because that in such circumstances we are most likely to forget our dependence. TEMPTATIONS which are not visible, or not distinctly apprehended, are often of all others the most perilous; because they are likely to come upon us unawares and when we are off our guard. Hence it is that we are, quite commonly, most strongly tempted when we seem to be under very slight temptation, or none at all. We are only safe when we obey the precept, "Trust in the Lord for ever." M. DIVIDE LIKE APRIL 1st. TO MISSIONARIES OF ALL DENOMINATIONS IN FOREIGN AND CHRISTIAN LANDS. FELLOW Labourers in the Gospel : Permit us, in Christian sincerity and plainness of speech, to address a few words to you on a subject which presses with great weight upon our minds and hearts. We address you personally, not because we regard you as having an exclusive interest, or in reality a more vital interest than others, in what we are about to say. We address you in the interest of the Churches which you represent, in that of all Christian workers (and none are Christians who are not reapers in the harvest-field of the world), and in the interest of the perishing millions among whom you have been sent out to "hold forth the word of life." We address you personally, because that which we are about to say, though in reality equally applicable to all believers, has such a direct and immediate application to individuals in your special calling, that we shall thus be better understood than in an address to Christians generally. You have gone forth, and been sent forth by the Churches, and that avowedly, under a special command and commission from Christ Himself, namely: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Whether these particular words do or do not belong to the Sacred Text, they do most exactly embody "The Great Commission," as authentically recorded by other evangelists. "Go ye, therefore," we read in Matthew," and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com 66 manded you." Thus it is written," so writes Luke," and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; and that repentance and the remis sion of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Again He spake, as recorded by Luke: "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth." The circumstances under which these words were uttered impart to them and to others uttered at the same time a solem nity and impressive interest that can, by no possibility, attach to commands and commissions given forth on any other occasion. It was during " the forty days which intervened between our Lord's resurrection and ascension to heaven, where He "was seated at the right hand of God," and at His divine appearances unto them during this period, when He " spake unto them of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God," it was, we say, at these various interviews that the words under consideration were uttered, and these, and certain others to which we shall refer hereafter, were among the last words spoken by our Saviour before "He left the world to go unto the Father." As we learn, Acts i. 3-9, the same words were in substance repeated to the disciples at Bethany, just before "He lifted up His hands and blessed them," when "He was parted from them and carried up into heaven." "And when He had spoken these things (Acts i. 9), while they beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight." No wonder, that as you turned over the sacred pages, and your eyes fell upon these words, your spirits were stirred within you, and that the command, "Go ye,' moved you to "leave all " and go as commanded. The great fact to which we would call your special attention is this; you went out, and were by the Churches sent out, to your special work in obedience |