are ominous words, and the illustrations which the writer gives of this condensed view of the whole subject are sufficiently painful to awaken deep anxiety, especially on the part of those who believe that according to the divine scheme the gigantic work of the world's conversion has been committed to the Church. If we believed this, the paper before us would fill our minds with anguish, if it did not actually prostrate us beneath hopeless despair.

What says this good and earnest Christian man? First, generally, he puts a few questions, and then in detail he exhibits the ground upon which they are raised: "Now what is the general impression as to the present condition of our churches? Does not every pastor here feel a measure of dissatisfaction with the average piety of his own church? Is it what it might be? Is it what he hoped it would be? Is it, in some cases, what it was?" He gratefully recognizes the good that exists, but actually finds that it is "strikingly exceptional." Thus :"Honour to whom honour is due, to our Phoebes, servants of the church and succourers of many,' to many a beloved Persis who labours much in the Lord,' to the Maries who bestow much labour on us,' to 'Aquilas and Priscillas, our helpers in Christ Jesus, ready for our life to lay down their own necks.' Most of us could mention names in our church-roll worthy of a place in the sixteenth of the Romans. But we should then have to add, 'These only are my fellow-workers to the kingdom of God which have been a comfort to me.' A comfort they are. We give thanks on every remembrance of them. They could hardly be better. Humble, high-principled, devout, tranquil, observant, self-forgetting, abundant in love and in labour, they are patterns and pillars. O si sic omnes!' Then pastors would have no trouble, the world could bring no accusations, doctrine would want no confirmation, and slander would drop the dirt she had picked up to fling at the saints. Pillars these are, tall, conspicuous and few. The average stature is lower, and there are even dwarfs. The presence of these excellent ones among us warrants two inferences-namely, that the general condition of the church in which they appear is not satisfactory, for if it were, these would not be so strikingly exceptional; and, that it might be improved, for to the higher life these have already attained."

He traces the influence of the age on religion by noticing what has been its effect on man's estimate of himself. "When that estimate is exaggerated, religion always suffers. The Christ is lowered if the Ego is raised; the more I am, the less is Christ to me." When we read this fine and true remark, our hearts leaped with the hope that it would be followed by its logical sequence, as that is exhibited in the Scriptures; but we were doomed to disappointment. We have been teaching that man's idolatry of agency-for we can call it by no gentler name-has blinded him to the assurance that Christ Himself will come, and, according to the well-defined character of the dispensation, must come before the tares can be removed, or the corrupting leaven be purged out. Our boastings of our mighty organizations are among the most ominous signs of the day. But Mr. Hebditch does not carry his thoughts in this direction. Had he done so, we should have hailed the fact with uncommon pleasure, although in that case he

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would not have been a representative man; and it will, of course, be understood that it is in this light, and not in that of an individual writer, that we consider him. "Peril to Christians," and "abated faith in Providence," are the sequences of this ego. True enough, as a description of the actual fact; but danger to the Christian life, and a diminished faith in divine Providence, are themselves symptoms of the great disease which preys upon the heart of the Church in consequence of her disbelief of the great doctrine that she should be continually looking for the return of her Lord in person. She is to occupy till He come; but she has chosen to occupy with reference to an entirely different issue-the conquest of the world before, and independently of, His advent-an issue for which she has no warrant ; and the result is faith in herself, her head, her heart, her gold-in one word, her egoism.

Glancing now at the items of complaint, it is affirmed that "the Church of our times wants reverence; "that" a more serious defect in the piety of our day is its feeble evangelism;" that humility is wanting; that constraining love to Christ is rare; that it is harder than ever to deny ourselves; that we are worldly, uncharitable, unforgiving; that the feeling of redeemed ones is hardly ours; that the Christian will-that is, the identification of our will with God's will— is relaxed; that our prayer meetings are scantily attended and dull; that our cultivated members never lead the devotions of their brethren at all; that those who do, show little proficiency in the holy art; " that Church meetings are miserably attended; that the nursing of young life, mutual oversight, and care for the common weal, are neglected; that family and friendly gatherings crowd out family praise and prayer; that concessions to the world on such occasions are common; that it is more common than once to see Christian parents with unconverted children; that the elder members of rich dissenting families gravitate towards "the wealthy and fashionable Establishment;" that making haste to be rich in consequence of the idolatry of social status is common; that "the great mass of our people" are unwilling to give in proportion to their income; and that, "last and saddest fact" of all, conversions are lamentably few.

These are melancholy statements; and, as the writer remarks, "it is no relief to know that the same may be said of other churches also." What, then, is the remedy proposed for this "epidemic?" epidemic?" Mr. Hebditch is "diffident on the question of recovery." No wonder, when the soul-stirring cry, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," is totally ignored! This animating truth, rung through the ranks of the Church, would perform wonders; but we are told that in regaining lost ground" the first thing is to believe that we can.” "On the Church herself the whole burden lies." But what is this but a return to the discarded ego? Sick at heart, and paralyzed in every limb, the invalid is to help herself, and spring up to health and beauty! To awaken in every Christian the conviction that he is responsible for the state of his own heart; to preach Christ more exclusively, and yet more variously; and to implore Christians to spend more time in the culture of their own hearts, are good suggestions as far as they go; but these suggestions have been made often before without accomplishing the desired result. The lethargy is chronic; the epidemic is wide-spread. How can we

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wonder, when the great Scripture doctrine of the Master's return is either kept entirely out of view, as in this pamphlet, or explained away by the ingenuity of the "spiritualizer," as in many a sermon ? In cases not a few indeed even this miserable attempt to make the Holy Spirit say something else than the words obviously mean is not thought worth while, but sarcasm, caricature, and ridicule are deemed sufficient argument with which to dispose of that divine doctrine which apostles preached, and which is the only hope of the Church. If the Church will try every remedy in her deplorable state except that of looking for her Lord; if she will try every expedient except that which has been prescribed by the great Physician Himself; and if she is determined not to believe the special truth which sheds its glorious light on the thickest darkness of the dispensation and solves every difficulty in a way worthy of infinite wisdom, she must even take her course and reap the fruits of her unbelief. Why, this very book of lamentations is a clear description of the very malady superinduced by disbelief of the Lord's return. Unconsciously the author has written a vivid commentary on the signs which precede the advent. It is very remarkable that we should have this cry of cooling love, increased conformity to the world, spiritual deadness, self-esteem, deficiency of faith, and paucity of conversions, coming from a body that regards the doctrine of the pre-millennial advent with special dislike, and believes and teaches that the conversion of the world is the mission of the Church. It

is a "sign" to which it is well to take heed. There is more in all this than meets the eye that looks not beyond the boundary line of denomination, and rests quietly on the received theology of a most respectable brotherhood. Complaint has a meaning as well as congratulation, and frequently in religious matters the significance of the former is deeper than that of the latter. In this paper we need not pursue the subject further, but we are quite sure that sincere love to our brethren has constrained us to make these few remarks on the disease without the remedy.

THE LORD'S MONEY.

THE Commercial greatness of England is famous over the whole world. The "nation of shopkeepers" has been heard of on every shore, and men have wondered much how a people living in a little island in a remote corner of Europe have managed to secure the greatest mercantile prosperity ever heard of. Looked at thoughtfully, it is something altogether extraordinary. A nation whose annual revenue has reached the enormous sum of SEVENTY MILLIONS must have inexhaustible productive powers; for that prodigious revenue, however deeply we may grumble about our taxes, is only a fraction of the sum that circulates through the kingdom in the course of a year. A people that can devote £70,000,000 to the purposes of government must have a marvellous income. It may be true, and it is true, that many of them are poor,

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and that not a few have a perpetual struggle, a continual and heartbreaking fight with stern difficulties, not knowing in the morning how the bread of the day is to be acquired; yet this does not affect the fact that the aggregate wealth of the community is exceedingly great. We may think the division of earthly property strangely and mysteriously unequal, and wonder whether there be any hidden law by which its seeming caprices are, after all, regulated; whether, in fact, it has a law of its own, still undiscovered by the keenest research, the knowledge of which would reconcile us to what appears so strange; or whether it is to be reverently resolved into the will of an overruling Providence, and there left with many other things that baffle the intelligence of the wisest, and try the faith of the most devout. It is undoubtedly true that some men prosper wonderfully in the world, and realize the secret of the philosopher's stone as truly as if they were adepts in alchemy. Whatever they touch turns to gold. Like a great number of tributary streams from all directions running to the same lake, all their ventures succeed, all their speculations are profitable, and all the fluctuations of the market seem only so many shakings of the ripe fruit which falls to enrich them. And it is also true that there are others who, do what they will, never succeed. Up to the chin constantly, with the tide always against them, they are at last obliged to fall back in despair, beaten, conquered by stern adversity-men who have drawn only blanks in "the great lottery," and who creep to their obscure graves on crutches supplied by charity. "Every man succeeds who deserves success." Ah, my pert philosopher, you say so? This is certainly a summary way of disposing of a great question; but, to my apprehension, it seems uncommonly like being wise after the event, which is surely not the profoundest kind of wisdom. But what is meant by deserving success? It would be an act of magnificent philanthropy on the part of the person who is in possession of this secret to publish it to the world; for surely had our poor friend-who fought till he could fight no longer, and then held out his thin hand to charity for a crumb as he crept to the blessed grave-known this secret beforehand, he would have wrought some of the miry clay in which his feet slipped into the colour and consistency of gold, and stamped upon it the image and superscription of Cæsar. But, in truth, this is a cheap philosophy which talks of "merit" in the matter under consideration, and as worthless as it is cheap. It does not meet the case. A. and B., natives of the same town, in the great county of York, left their native place on the same day, about thirty years ago, for the purpose of travelling on foot to London, in the hope that once there they would find employment of some kind, that they might live without being burdens on their friends. They were of the same age, strong lads, with a good deal of force of character, prepared to do anything, from the roughest porter's work upwards, that might come to their hands. Their capital on leaving home was the same, that is to say, it amounted exactly to five shillings each of them; and when they entered London, with swollen feet and wearied limbs, so well had they economized during their tedious journey, that half their capital was still left. With halfa-crown each, and without a single friend nearer than 250 miles distant, they began life in London. Now here is the place to test this doctrine of merit. If one of those lads had been active and the other indolent,

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or if one had been trustworthy and the other faithless, or if one had been steady and the other intemperate, or if one had been clever and the other stupid, the result would have been perfectly intelligible; there would have been no mystery about it; your active, trustworthy, steady, and clever youth "had to get on; " and his friend, unhappily characterized by the contrary qualities, had, as a matter of course, to fail. But it so happens, in the case under notice, that both young men possessed the qualities which "deserve success;" and yet A. is at this moment a retired millionaire, his two sons deriving a princely income from the colossal business he created, whilst B., after a life of deep trial and poverty, died a few years ago in a workhouse, and rests in a pauper's grave. Whence this remarkable difference? Humanly speaking, B.'s prospects were as bright as those of A.; or, if you will, A.'s were as dark as those of B. when they entered the great metropolis, poor strangers, in utter ignorance of what was before them in life.

It is easy enough, when you have the history of a man before you, to go over its passages one by one, and to say he failed here because of this, and he succeeded there because of that; but this is constructing your theory after the event, and leaving us to guess whether, after all, it has the slighest claim to merit. No, in this case, as in otherswhilst we fully admit the promises which are made to the diligent-the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong. General rules hold good generally; their limit is indicated by their nature. And exceptions take the place and exercise the influence of exceptions in this as in every other department of human experience.

There should be no dogmatism on the issues of a man's career, as if, certain conditions given, certain results are sure to follow. A thousand contingencies float around every man, like particles of dust in the sunbeam. A brilliant morning has sometimes ushered in a cloudy noon and a tempestuous evening, and the converse of this has also often been found true. A youth of fair promise has, alas! not unfrequently made shipwreck of all, and brought his father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave; and the dull boy of whom nothing was expected has ere now struggled out of his mental fog, like the sun rising in mist, and flung around him an intellectual brilliance and a moral halo which have gladdened the eyes and warmed the hearts of all beholders.

But whilst there should be no prophetic dogmatism in a world where everything is so uncertain, always excepting the glorious consequences of a life of faith in the Son of God, let it be well understood that the indolent, the vicious, the intemperate, and the unprincipled cannot prosper, even in the worldly sense of the term prosperity; that in this free country there is nothing absolutely to prevent the poorest lad from rising through the various grades of prosperity to opulence and great public influence; and that wealth acquired by honest industry, under the blessing of God, ought to be considered as a sacred deposit, to be used for His glory in the maintenance and diffusion of "the Gospel of the kingdom.'

A few words on each of these positions will suffice:

1. The indolent, the vicious, the intemperate, and the unprincipled, cannot prosper. We risk no doubtful prophecy by saying that. In this age of keen competition men are obliged to use all their resources; and