| A GLANCE AT THE MISSION teacher at Berne, to return to the Canton, and A FREE GOSPEL. door, shutters, and upon the roof, amidst wild forth before all nations! The population of the world is, on the lowest estimate, about eight hundred million persons. Among these there are about two hundred millions of nominal Christians, inclusive of Roman Catholics, the Greek Church, and all other sects, but, alas! how few even of these can be regarded as in truth the disciples of Jesus Christ. There remain about six hundred millions of human beings, or three fourths of the entire population of the globe, who have never heard of the way of salvation; and who are living in all the guilt, impurity and wretchedness of Pagan idolatry, or of Mohammedan superstition, How appalling the thought, that on the supposition that the average length of human life is thirty years, nearly fifty-five thousand of these die every day, two thousand two hundred and eighty every hour, and thirty-eight every minute! What then, is the Christian Church doing that the Gospel may be sent to those bethoughts and ideas of man's heart. It is only nighted myriads of our race! It has been quite natural, of course, that man should seek computed that about fourteen Missionary to measure the character of God's dealing by Societies are in operation, and that they suphis own; and, although in doing this, he can- port about fourteen hundred missionaries in not but allow it to be far more perfect and different parts of the heathen world. This excellent than his, inasmuch as he knows God gives only one missionary for every four is above himself, yet still he makes his own hundred thousand persons, being in the procarnal apprehension of what favour is, the portion of one minister to the united populabasis of his judgment about God, and, there- tion of Edinburgh and Glasgow, or of about fore, his judgment about it of necessity goes six for the whole of Scotland. But "what wrong. God's gracious way of meeting the are these among so many?" The annual sinner is the outflowing of his own mind; and, expenditure of all these Societies is about five therefore, far above the highest range of man's hundred thousand pounds sterling; of which thoughts. He meets the sinner just in his sum the Churches of Great Britain contribute own position as a sinner. Like Saul, he may about four hundred thousand pounds. This be "a blasphemer, a persecutor, and inju-may at first sight appear a large amount; but it is small if we compare it with the resources of the nation, or even with the aggregate wealth of British Christians. During sixtyfive years of war, Great Britain expended in the work of desolation and bloodshed, two billions twenty-three hundred thousand pounds, being upwards of thirty-one millions of pounds sterling per annum, or nearly eighty times the total annual expenditure of all our Missionary Societies. Where is boasting then? If the nation has expended so much wealth to gratity its ambition and love of fame, can Christians say that they have done too much, or that they have done what they could, in the work of evangelizing the world! May the generous ardour of British youth be henceforth more abundantly consecrated to this sacred enterprise; and may they be more zealous than their fathers in carrying that Gospel, which secures the glory of God and the happiness of men, to every part of the field of missions,--to every region of the globe.-Magazine of the Rising Generation. VILLUZEL. The Free Church meetings have been recently the objects of brutal attack. A number of bad citizens, at the head of whom was an official,-wished to imitate the shameful example of the disturbers of Montreux, in assailing some religious assemblies with a fire-rious," but God, without requiring any exengine. We have heard, but can scarcely ercises of mind, any courses of humiliation for believe it, and we shall be happy to find our sin, or any predisposing qualification of any selves misinformed, that, desirous of the sup- sort, meets him just as he is-A SINNER, with port of the corporation, our fire-men asked all the free abounding blessing of the Gospel permission to make use of the engine, and of his grace. Be assured, you will never find the permission was granted to them "pro- in yourself any title to believe: the grace vided," said the corporation," that you make which I perceive in Jesus, and not the sorrow a proper use of it!!!" The engine was made I may have felt for my sin, is my ground for to play, and the first stroke of the piston broke believing and resting upon him. I believe the window of the kitchen of the house where not because I have passed through any prethey were assembled. The wicked people then vious state of feeling about my sin, but becontinued to inundate the house, when the cause I can perceive something of the fulness proprietor went out and cut the hoes, rushed of the love and grace of God in Christ. Oh, upon him, and maltreated him. Will justice that men should bound the riches of God's still remain mute under this attack on the pri- free grace by their own poor thoughts of that vacy of a house? When shall we see an end scanty favour which is practised among men. to such anarchy? Your case, poor sinner, is really a desperate DEMISSION.-The governors of the National one. It may, or it may not, appear so to you, Church, frustrated in the result which they but it is so before God. Nothing can meet it expected from their appeal to ecclesiastical but free grace; and this in all its characterstrangers to take possession of the numerous istic fulness is to be found in Jesus. His own vacant livings, have invited M. Archinard, words are "Him that cometh unto me, I Vaudois minister, appointed in 1836, and will in no wise cast out." REPENTANCE AND FAITH ARE EVI-SITES FOR CHURCHES IN SCOTLAND. | presence of some visible majesty, but that he LEGH RICHMOND, writing to his mother, says, "Your occasional doubts and fears arise from too much considering faith and repentance as the grounds, rather than the evidences, of salvation. The truth is, that a weak faith makes the soul as sincere, though not so happy, as a strong one; and an imperfect repentance, as we deem it, may be sincere, and, therefore, a work of grace. Our salvation is not because we do well, but because He, in whom we trust, hath done all things well.' The believing sinner is never more happy and secure than when at the same moment he beholds and feels his own vileness, and also his Saviour's excellence. You look at yourself too much, and at the infinite price paid for you too little. For conviction you must look at yourself, but for comfort at your Saviour. Thus the wounded Israelites were to look only at the brazen serpent for recovery. The graces of the Spirit are good things for others to judge us by, but it is Christianity as received, believed in, rested upon, loved and followed, that will speak peace to ourselves. By looking unto Him we shall grow holy; and the more holy we grow, the more we shall mourn over sin, and be sensible how very short we come of what we yet desire to be. While our sanctification is a gradual and still imperfect work, our justification is perfect and complete: the former is wrought in us, the latter for us. Rely simply as a worthless sinner on the Saviour, and the latter is all your own, with its accompanying blessings of pardon, acceptance, adoption, and the non-imputation of sin to your charge. Hence will flow thankful obedience, devotedness of heart, &c. This salvation is by faith alone, and thus saving faith works by love. Embrace these principles freely, fully, and impartially, and you will enjoy a truly Scriptural peace, assurance, and comfort."-Bickersteth's Life of Richmond, p. 119. IT is meet, indeed, that Christians be an elegant and amiable people, but therewithal grace; that there may be seen in them a severe gentleness, and a gentle severity, as the life of Christ is described to us in the Gospel.--Luther. WE subjoin a form of Petition to the House of Commons in favour of the Right Honourable Fox Maule's Bill, which we earnestly entreat all our Presbyteries, Sessions, Deacons' Courts, and Congregations, to transmit in due form with the least possible delay. Let Petitions also be sent to the House of Lords. In the latter case also, the subjoined form will answer, merely changing the preamble into "Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal" instead of "Honourable the Commons," and prefixing "Right" before "Honourable" wherever the latter word occurs. tion is as follows, viz. :— "Unto the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled: the Humble Petition of the undersigned, being the [here designate the parties sending the Petition], "SHEWETH, The Peti "That your petitioners have always been warm and consistent advocates of the rights of conscience and at the same time of the rights of property, and would exceedingly deplore and deprecate even a seeming collision between these two rights as fraught with most disastrous consequences. "That your petitioners regard a Bill at present before your Honourable House, entitled A Bill to enable Christian Congregations in Scotland to obtain Sites for Places of Worship, Manses, and School-houses,' as well calculated to harmonize the exercise of the rights of conscience and of the rights of property in that part of the United Kingdom to which its provisions are intended to apply. might effect a true and vital reconciliation of mind and nature between the Creator and the creatures; that the dark cloud of offended justice might no more veil the heavens, but that the warm beams of the eternal sun, the gladdening emanations which issue from God, might again flow down upon the soul of man, and touch the springs of happiness, and quicken the seeds of immortality within it. Such is pure and undefiled religion--a present salvation-the dawning of an everlasting day. FIVE NEGATIVES. IT is known that two negatives in English are equivalent to an affirmative. They destroy each other. But it is not so in Greek. They strengthen the negation; and a third negative makes it stronger still, and so a fourth, and a fifth. How strong fire negatives must make a negation! But do five ever occur? Whether they ever occur in the Greek classics, I do not know; but in the Greek of the New Testament there is an instance of the kind. And what is that? Are the five negatives used to strengthen any threatening? No. They are connected with a promise, one of the "exceeding great and precious promises," which are given unto us. The case occurs in Heb. xiii. 5, "for He hath said, I will never leave thec, nor forsake thee." There five negatives are employed. We translate but two of them; but there they all are There must have been as any one may see who looks into his Greek Testament. Now, they need not all have been there. They are not all necessary to express the simple idea that God will never forsake his people. design in multiplying negatives so. I do not "May it therefore please your Honourable think it not difficult to guess the design. God believe the phraseology was accidental, and I House to pass said Bill into a law, and so meant to be believed in that thing. He to enable Christian Congregations in Scot-wanted to gain the confidence of his children land to obtain sites for places of worship, in that particular. He knew how prone they manses, and school-houses: were to doubt his constancy-how strongly in"And your petitioners will ever pray, &c." clined to that form of unbelief-and how liable to be harassed by the dread of being forsaken by him; and he would therefore make assurance more than doubly sure.New York Observer. SPIRITUAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION. RELIGION is experience, and not speculation; and therefore the true knowledge of Christ Jesus is the personal and self-appropriating 6 conviction that he is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.' If we are strangers to NOVEL ARGUMENT FOR THE TRUTH that life which the soul derives from God, OF CHRISTIANITY. BOCCACIO, the famous Italian writer, relates the tale that two persons-a Christian layman and a Jew-lived together in a retired spot in the northern boundary of Italy. The Christian had long piously laboured to convert his neighbour, and had succeeded so far as to be in daily expectation of his submitting to baptism, when all at once the idea struck the latter that he would previously visit the capital of Christendom. Dreading the effect of his journey, the Christian endeavoured to divert him from it, but in vain. After an absence of some weeks the Jew returned, and repairing to the house of the Christian, who had given up his convert for lost, surprised him with the intimation that he was now ready to be baptized; "for," added he, "I have been at Rome, and I am convinced that if Christianity had not been divine, it would have been ruined long ago under the care of such guardians." what can all our notions of the work and righteousness of Christ amount to, but to a senseless value placed on means without an end-a new and living way, which leads we know or ask not whither? If we breathe not after holiness and God, what has redemption brought us? What has the great salvation saved us from, but from a material hell, which has no existence but in the carnal mind? What has it purchased for us, but a heaven, which is a mere barren notion or an empty name? For my own part, I have no hope for time or for eternity which is not grounded upon the alone merits of that Saviour who offered himself once for all to save, without money and without price, the guilty and the lost. But, if I can say, as I trust I can, with my whole heart, "God forbid that I should glory, save only in the cross of Christ," my rejoicing is only in this, that on the cross my Saviour unbarred the gates of everlasting life, and died, "the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God;" not that he might take us by a hand of flesh, and lead us in the STEDFAST PIETY IN YOUTH. "THE wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion." Let no ridicule, no taunts, or reproaches, make you ashamed of Christ or of his words. Let the wicked be ashamed who transgress without cause: but glory ye in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek to obtain a deep-felt conviction of the truth of God, and a growing perception of its transcendant excellence; and, in the overflowings of a heart rejoicing in the possession of this invaluable treasure, hold forth the Word of Life to an unbelieving world. Put not your light under a bushel, but cause it so to shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Let the beginning of your Christian course and your Christian warfare be signalized by the ardour of piety, as well as the ardour of youth-that, whether your course shall be short or long in a present world, you may obtain at last the approbation of your Divine Master, and may receive the crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give, at the last day, to all them who love his appearing." The Sins of Youth, by the Rev. Dr. M'Farlan, Greenock. THE ACCOUNTS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN ENGLAND, FOR THE REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE FUND FOR FOREIGN AND JEWISH MISSIONS, The Presbyteries have thus contributed, viz. : London, with 16 Churches, only 7 have, in the sum of £531 2 6 ... £17 10 0 500 0 0 13 12 6 Lancashire, Newcastle, 11 99 TEMPORAL BENEFITS OF CHRISTIAN entirely owing to the favourable predispo- | MISSIONS. COMMERCE itself is under no small obligations to missionary influence. In vain were all the attempts of the Colonial Government to establish a commercial intercourse with the Caffre tribes, until the Christian missionary had gained a footing amongst them. But not only does he now form a connecting link in the chain of civilization between the colonies and the Caffres and other tribes, by the introduction of the plough he is likely to be the means of turning the attention of the aborigines from pastoral to agricultural pursuits; in consequence of which their cattle will no longer prove a source of irritation and conIflict with the frontier colonists, and a much narrower compass of land will be sufficient for their comfortable support. New Zealand is unquestionably the key to India, on the one hand, as the Cape of Good Hope is on the other. And if, as events increasingly indicate, a wise policy should require our Government to enter into a friendly treaty with its inhabitants, the measure would be greatly facilitated, if not sition created in our behalf by missionary influence. Up to a very recent period the South Sea Islands were, in a commercial point of view, a complete blank; but now they are made to contribute to our wants, and to take off our manufactures to a considerable extent. Sugar is cultivated, and taken in native built vessels to the colony of New South Wales; and more arrowroot has been brought from thence to England in one year, than had been imported for nearly twenty previous years. Between two and three hundred thousand of the natives are now wearing European clothing, and using European implements and articles, who, a few years ago, knew nothing of our manufactures.-American Paper. FAITH DISTINCT FROM ASSURANCE. OBSERVE that there is a natural connexion between a man's believing the Gospel, and knowing that he believes it-between his being effectually called, and knowing that he has been effectually called; just, as in other cases, a man is generally aware of what he believes, and feels, and does. There is a Total JAMES NISBET, Treasurer. 365 0 11 13 14 2 596 18 10 10 400 526 2 6 500 £531 2 6 natural connexion, but not a necessary connexion; for, however naturally the one leads to the other, they are not always found connected, and they are two different things. Safety is one thing, and feeling sure of being in a state of safety is another; and they may accompany each other, or they may not, though the being sure of safety is necessary to the full benefit and comfort of safety. The two things are not to be confounded, and yet they should be sought and expected in their proper order. It is not to be hastily concluded that a man is an unbeliever, merely because he is not quite sure that he is a believer. A man may be in possession of special saving grace, though he is not without some apprehension that he is deceiving himself. It may become a question with a man whether what shines in his ring be a real diamond, or a false one; and yet it may be a real diamond notwithstanding. "A man may question whether the paper in his possession be a genuine bank-bill or a counterfeit; and yet have no doubt either of the ability or willingness of the directors of the bank to honour every genuine bank bill."-A Treatise on Effectual Calling, by the Rer. James Foote, A.M., Aberdeen. |