To the believer's soul that season is

Most bright when Christ is near-when in His beams
The image of Himself shines forth anew.
That sacred page in which He is enshrined
Attracts the most the pious gazer's eye-
That sermon is the best where most of Christ
Is heard that life the brightest where He lives,
In gracious acts of faith, and truth, and love.

How lovely is the light! Most sweet it is,
And truly pleasant for the eyes to see;
Without it, beauty could reflect no form-
Extinguished, every charm would pass away—
The sun would fade-all colour be extinct-
All creature-life would vanish in the gloom.
E'en thus it is with Christ, the central Sun--
Concerning whom 'tis said in record true,
"Than all the sons of men fairer is He,
The chief among ten thousand"-ruddy, fair-
In loveliness none such-in grace alone-
In excellence unrivalled by the best-
The highest, holiest of angelic sons.

Wouldst thou the features of His beauty see?
Behold His person wond'rously complex;
Think of His work-bless'd harmony of grace-
The end of which does actually secure

A blessed union between God and man.
Who can the worth of Him declare who is

A treasure priceless, infinite, beyond
The computation of the hosts of heaven?
To see His excellence-to taste His love,
Is joy begun. The sight makes earth a blank,
And all its glories but a wither'd flower.
Moreover, as with its own loveliness

The light makes lovely all on which it shines,
So Christ decks all on whom His beams descend,
And with salvation beautifies the meek.

The light that undulates from yonder sun
Shines full and free, alike to rich and poor;
No earthly power can intercept its rays,
No wealth increase the number of its beams;
Nor can the wisdom of the wise them guide,
Nor yet by ceaseless toil can it be earned.
To it the deepest poverty can prove
No hindrance, nor can a price it bribe.
Where'er it comes it flies on freedom's wings.
Thus free is Christ to all of Adam's race

To whom the gospel invitation comes

The gen'rous offer running in these terms:

Come to the living waters-quench your thirst;
Poor though ye be, buy wine and milk at will.”
Here is a feast surpassing that of kings.
Sinner, dost thou this precious treasure crave?
Then open thou the casement of thine heart-
Receive this gift--best blessings shall be thine!

Though death's dark night should come, thy soul is safe-
The shadows of the grave must flee away,

Before the brightness of the coming Judge.

Though earth dissolve, and man's works disappear,
Eternal day shall crown the work of grace.
Within the radiance of Jehovah's throne,
Enrobed with light, the saints shall dwell for aye.

Extracts.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF GIVING.

"It is more blessed to give than to receive," because it is more conducive to temporal prosperity. In the interchange of acts of beneficence between man and man, we are so apt to think of the receiver as alone deriving any outward benefit from the gift, that this may at first sight appear a contradiction; but both Scripture and experience prove it to be literally true. Of course worldly gain is not the chief element of the blessedness spoken of, nor is it one that should ever operate as a motive. If men begin to give from the desire of thereby adding to their wealth, they are sure to be disappointed. This, however, is by no means inconsistent with the fact just stated, that, in the exercise of Christian benevolence, the temporal interests of the giver are very commonly promoted. That this is really a rule of Divine Providence is abundantly asserted in such Scriptures as these: "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase; so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth, and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered himself." "The stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest." Of course we are not at liberty to press the application of this view of the subject too closely. Like all the other promises of temporal blessings, connected with the gospel, those to which we have referred are to be interpreted conditionally, so far as it is fitted to promote God's glory, or the individual's good. Cases may, as we know they sometimes do happen, in which higher and holier ends are to be served, and God, in the exercise of His infinite wisdom, sends the discipline best fitted to accomplish them. That may be adversity rather than prosperity, and so riches may take to themselves wings and flee away. Thus even the truly benevolent may be left without the means which they formerly possessed, of ministering of their substance to the good of others. But even with such apparent exceptions fully before us, I affirm that the practice of beneficence necessarily tends to farther the temporal interests of the giver. This it does in many ways. Not only may be expect the Divine blessing, subject to the conditions already specified, but the very exercise of liberality favours the formation of other habits that commonly lead to

prosperity. For example, the wisely liberal man is never a waster. We all know how ready people are to expend of their means on frivolous, or it may be hurtful gratifications. Having money in their pocket, and not having learned to regard themselves as stewards, it slips away from them often without thought. The sums thus wasted may be small severally, but the aggregate is large. Now, the practice of benevolence is the very best corrective of such a thriftless habit. "He who taxes his income to do good, soon finds, in doing it, a gratification greater than in all those little wasteful expenditures; and, husbanding his means for this purpose, he probably saves more than the amount of his charities. He has a better estimate of the value and use of money, and he feels a steadier impulse both to benevolence and to a wise economy." It is no valid objection to this argument, that the people of God are commonly found among the poor of this world, while its riches are, for the most part, in the hands of those who, having no love to Jesus, are entire strangers to the grace of Christian beneficence. Perhaps this might have been less the case, had a larger spirit of liberality been manifested by Christ's people generally. We know that when the Jews withheld their tithes, God withheld His blessing, and they became an illustration of the truth, that "there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." The same principle, no doubt, operates still. At the same time it is to be borne in mind, that it is among the poor principally that Christianity has had its triumphs. In the lowest strata of society chiefly its sacrifices have been made, and its blessings gathered. Happily there have been some, conspicuous both for wealth and liberality, who have found that true in their experience which Solomon says-" He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given will He pay him again." Like a well-known Christian merchant of a bygone generation in Glasgow, of whom the poor people, who were the objects of his liberality, used to say, "He gives money by shoolsfu', and the Lord shools it back to him again." But there have been many, little noticed among men, who, like the churches of Macedonia, out of their deep poverty, have abounded to the riches of their liberality; but not one of these has ever found that even a cnp of cold water given to a disciple, in the name of a disciple, has gone without its due reward.-Rev. J. E. Cruickshank.

THE PAPACY.

What, then, is to be the practical conclusion from all this?

"1. Let every Christian henceforth and for ever treat it as an outcast from the pale of Christianity. Instead of speaking of it as a Christian Church, let it be recognised and regarded as the Mystery of Iniquity, yea, as the very Synagogue of Satan. With such overwhelming evidence of its real character, it would be folly --it would be worse-it would be treachery to the cause of Christ-to stand merely on the defensive, to parley with its priests about the lawfulness of Protestant orders, the validity of Protestant sacraments, or the possibility of salvation apart from its communion. If Rome is now to be admitted to form a portion of the Church of Christ, where is the system of Paganism, that has ever existed, or that now exists, that could not put in an equal claim? On what grounds could the worshippers of the original Madonna and child in the days of old be excluded from the commonwealth of Israel,' or shown to be 'strangers to the covenants of promise?' On what grounds could the worshippers of Vishnu at this day be put beyond the bounds of such wide catholicity? The ancient Babylonians held, the modern Hindoos still hold, clear and distinct traditions of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement. Yet who will venture to say, that such nominal recognition of the cardinal articles of divine revelation could relieve the character of either the one system or the other from the brand of the most deadly and God-dishonouring

heathenism? And so also in regard to Rome. True, it nominally admits Christian terms and Christian names; but all that is apparently Christian in its system is more than neutralised by the malignant Paganism that it embodies. Grant that the bread the Papacy presents to its votaries can be proved to have been originally made of the finest of the wheat; but what then, if every particle of that bread is combined with prussic acid or strychnine? Can the excellence of the bread overcome the virus of the poison? Can there be anything but death, spiritual and eternal death, to those who continue to feed upon the poisoned food that it offers? Yes, here is the question, and let it be fairly faced. Can there be salvation in a communion in which it is declared to be a fundamental principle, that the Madonna is our greatest hope; yea, the SOLE GROUND OF OUR HOPE?'* The time is come when charity to the perishing souls of men, hoodwinked by a Pagan priesthood, abusing the name of Christ, requires that the truth in this matter should be clearly, loudly, unflinchingly proclaimed."

"2. But if the guilt and danger of those who adhere to the Roman Church, believing it to be the only Church where salvation can be found, be so great, what must be the guilt of those who, with a Protestant profession, nevertheless uphold the doomed Babylon. The Constitution of this land requires our Queen to swear, before the crown can be put upon her head, before she can take her seat on the throne, that she believes' that the essential doctrines of Rome are idolatrous.' All the churches of Britain, endowed and unendowed, alike with one voice declare the very same. They all proclaim that the system of Rome is a system of blasphemous idolatry. And yet the members of these churches can endow and uphold, with Protestant money, the schools, the colleges, the chaplains of that idolatrous system. If the guilt of Romanists, then, be great, the guilt of Protestants who uphold such a system must be tenfold greater."-Hislop's Two Babylons.

A MYSTERIOUS CONTRAST.

You have no love to God; but He has exercised unspeakable love to you. You have contemned God, and set light by Him; but so great a value has God's grace set on you and your happiness, that you have been redeemed at the price of the blood of His only Son. You chose to be with Satan in his service; but yet God hath made you a joint-heir with Christ of His glory. You were ungrateful for past mercies; but yet God not only continued these mercies; but bestowed unspeakable mercies upon you. You refused to hear when God called; but yet He has manifested His infinite mercy in the exercise of it towards you. You have rejected Christ, and set Him at nought; and yet He is become your Saviour. You have destroyed yourself; but yet in God has been your help. God has magnified His free grace towards you, and it hath pleased Him to set His love upon you.

Oh, what cause is here for praise! What obligations are upon you to bless the Lord, who hath dealt so bountifully with you, and to magnify His holy name! What cause for you to praise Him in humility, to walk humbly before God, and to be conformed to His image! "That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God." You should never open your mouth in boasting of self-justification; you should lie the lower before God for His mercy to you. But you have reason, the more abundantly, for your past sins, to open your mouth in God's praises, that they may be continually in your mouth, both here and to all eternity, for His rich, unspeakable, and sovereign mercy to you, whereby He, and He alone, has made you to differ from others.—President Edwards.

* The language of the late Pope Gregory, substantially endorsed by the present Pontiff.

THE AUTHORITY OF THE WORD IN THE CHURCH.

The first thing needful, then, to restore the Church, is to establish within it the perfect and undivided control of the will of God, as revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. This was the working principle of our glorious Reformation. "I have neither seen, nor heard, nor procured anything of it," said Luther, when speaking of the mysteries of God, "but, because God says it, I will believe it must be, and follow the word," (Watch. x. pp. 13, 14.) This precept in reference to the supreme authority of what is within, is not only to be met with in all the books of Luther; it was also the guiding principle of his whole life. How does the Reformer write to the Pope? "I am ready to give up to all men, and in all things; but as for the Word of Truth, I neither can nor will let that go." When the Pope ordered the books of Luther to be burnt-"Let them burn," says he, "I have only wished to bring men to the Bible." When officious mediators, in the solemn days at Worms, said to him, "Trust yourself to us, and we will settle this matter in a Christian way," he answered, "I can entrust to the power of the Emperor both my person and my life, but the Word of God-never!" Thus spoke, not Luther only, but Zuinglius, Flavel, Calvin, Tindal, Cranmer, and Knox. The doctors of the Geneva school are perhaps even more explicit than the Lutheran teachers touching the permanent authority of Holy Scripture.-Merle d'Aubigne.

REDEMPTION.-There is one redemption. He that is redeemed from destruction by the blood of Christ, is likewise redeemed from that vain and unholy conversation that leads thereto.-Leighton.

GRACE AND GLORY are not so different as some may imagine. They differ only in degree; the state is the same-the nature is the same. Grace is glory in the bud, and glory is grace in the flower-the one is the child, the other the man; the one the dawn, the other the day. For what is Heaven? It is a condition in which all worldly distinctions shall be done away, and only those remain which result from character. The Christian is rising towards it now. In His eyes a vile person is contemned, but He honoureth them that fear the Lord.-Anon.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC EVENTS.

THE history of the past year has been marked by events of more than passing interest, and fraught with future influence. In both Church and State the course of events has been rapid and important. Many of the elements at work have not yet been seen in their full development; but time will unfold their united influence in the production of great results.

If we turn to the Church, the year now gone will form a marked epoch in relation to her future course of action. In the Prelatic Church, the year has been alike characterised by the development of scepticism and intolerance. Colenso and his sympathisers have given a fresh impetus to infidelity, while speculative theologians, and Scottish Professors, have been giving countenance to the erratic bishop, by loose and unguarded statements in reference to inspiration. It is sad to observe that Colenso, in his fourth volume, claims, as the abettors of his course, at least three Scottish Professors of Theology. We do not say his claim is fully warranted, to the extent in which it is put forth;