lence of the gospel. Hence he exhorts all to be "kindly affectioned one to another," "forbearing one another in love." He finds the Church "wounded and half dead," and he pours in oil and wine, and endeavors to soothe her feverish throbbings with the healing hand of kindness. He labors to draw off the minds of the people from undue attention to inferior matters by presenting great truths for their contemplation, great commands for their obedience; and thus, like a wise physician, he skilfully administers the proper moral alteratives. In private prayer he wrestles with God for the peace and unity of the Church; in public devotion he pleads for the removal of the barriers that obstruct the free and holy fellowship of all believers. Like the High Priest of Israel, he never enters the holy place for the purpose of intercession, without the names of all the tribes upon his breast-plate. As the tabernacle was the rallying point of the host in its marches to Canaan, and the central bond of union around which was every nightly encampment, so this leader of a Christian flock plants the Cross in the centre, and invites all to encircle it in close combination, knowing for a certainty that there the spirit of discord cannot develop itself,—there every schismatical feeling must wither and die. He dwells much upon the oneness of God's peo

ple, having one Father, one Saviour, one hope, one inheritance. He is "a lover of good men,” a lover of all goodness. For controversy he has no taste. As instinctively as the dove-like Spirit, he

"Flies from the realms of noise and strife."

He delights to work upon that part of the spiritual temple where the sound of axe and hammer is not heard. His great object is the conversion of sinners and their culture in holiness, and in all he has supreme reference to the glory of Christ, preferring rather to jewel the Redeemer's crown than his own. He anticipates with strong rapture the period when the whole Body of Christ shall be "compacted together in love," and "come into the unity of the faith;" the halcyon days of prophecy, when the godly seed shall rise above the partition walls by which they are divided, and flow together to certify, in the embrace of Christian fellowship, before the face of the world, the ancient power of godliness. He longs for the key-note to be struck, to which ten thousand times ten thousand voices shall respond in sweetest harmony, and to which angels themselves shall lend a delighted ear, finding in it the echo of their own on that day when they sang at the advent of the Redeemer. He is not widely known to the world;

he aspires not to the distinctions that men confer. His immediate influence is not far-reaching, but it is all healthful, and will go on through numerous channels, diffusing the beauty of holiness long after he shall have gone to his rest and his reward.

How benign is the influence of such a pastor! How green is the spot which he cultivates! How refreshing to place one's moral nature under such influences! How profitable to be trained by such a teacher for usefulness and heaven, himself leading the way! How great the pleasure of contributing to the support of such a minister, knowing that we are sustaining an agent of good, and good of the highest order! His less tolerant brethren may suspect him of favoring some heresy, or of abating his zeal for the truth; but none of these things. move him. He believes that holiness and peace are inseparable concomitants, and that by promoting either he facilitates the advancement of the other. Like Chillingworth, he says, "If the ruptures of the Church might be composed, I do heartily wish that the cement might be made of my heart's blood;" or, like Baxter: "I can as willingly be a martyr for Love as for any article of my creed."

Were all the ministers even of one denomination thus to feel and act, would the cause of truth suffer in their hands? Would their Master rebuke, or

commend them? How long would it be before the prejudices of others would melt away like snow in a summer atmosphere, and the thousands of divided Israel reünite under the peaceful standard of the Son of David? Prophecy has sketched the picture, "a thing of beauty," on the future, and blessed are they to whom it shall be “ a joy forever." "The watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice TOGETHER shall they sing; for they shall SEE EYE TO EYE, when the Lord shall bring again Zion."

"Were love, in these the world's last doting years,
As frequent as the want of it appears,
The churches warmed, they would no longer hold
Such frozen figures, stiff as they are cold;
Relenting forms would lose their power, or cease,
And e'en the dipped and sprinkled live in peace;
Each heart would quit its prison in the breast,
And flow in free communion with the rest." 1

8. WE MAY PATRONIZE A PEACE-MAKING PRESS.

The alienations and animosities among religious people are aggravated in no small degree by the newspapers, magazines, and reviews, which they read and support. These publications are now, what the pulpit once was, the principal arena of

1 William Cowper.

sectarian debate. There the pugnacious hide themselves behind the editorial impersonality or the fictitious signature, and carry on a warfare which contributes far more to the embittering of disaffection than to the evolving of truth or the maintaining of right. An editor inflames the minds of his readers, and the readers become correspondents, at once encouraging the editor and exasperating the inflammation in their own bosoms; and thus the process goes on, reciprocally multiplying and envenoming its pernicious tendencies.

Does any one doubt the power of the periodical press to evoke or allay the unchristian spirit? Let him habitually read two religious newspapers, differing in their tone and temper, — the one kind, courteous, fraternal towards all denominations of Christians; the other controversial, fault-finding, sarcastic, and, if he will carefully observe the effect upon his own sensitiveness, he will soon be able to bear unequivocal testimony to the wide difference of their tendencies. The former will ever come like an excellent oil that soothes, refreshes, and perfumes his inner soul; while every sheet of the other will be to his feelings like a corrosive cataplasm, blistering whatever it touches. The one promotes a spirit of love and genial union; the other a spirit of irritability, jealousy and contention. The one strengthens the bonds of Christian attach