us. We must lay ourselves low before God in the view of our past inefficiency. In that position alone can we expect communications from on high. Years are rolling over us, and we shall be wrenched away from our charges before we have well begun to apply ourselves to their salvation. How much have we trifled! How often have we been unnerved by imaginary difficulties! How many of our sincerest aspirations have ended without action! The times, we are told, call for public spirit; but do they not also summon to secret exercises? The juncture which we are approaching will doubtless demand the dedication of much energy to questions not indeed of political character-for what is lawful is not therefore expedient-yet of national magnitude: and, in exact proportion as it does so, it will require minute attention to the condition of our own spirits, and of our own churches. Are we equal to this demand? How were our Puritan fathers capable of appearing on the field of public contest to-day, and to-morrow of writing treatises on experimental godliness which have fed the souls of every subsequent generation? Because they kept their public and their private duties proceeding in wellbalanced proportion. The more publicity was required of them, the more secresy they secured. The more exciting their visible duties became, the deeper they plunged into solitary retirement before God. Liverpool.

A PAGE FOR THE MONTH.

ONE of the most solemn aspects of life is that of a series of continual and unexpected developments. We are accustomed to speak of the daily routine of life, till we almost persuade ourselves that life is but a series of mechanical arrangements, succeeding each other in known and predicable order. Nothing can be falser, or more injurious to the true dignity of man, and the right fashioning of his spirit. Life is a succession of new and unlooked-for positions, demanding a watchful and quick spirit to discern its duties and fulfil its high calling. As well might a man talk of the daily routine of a journey, because, forsooth, he has to breakfast, dine, and sleep in regular, unvarying order. His meals and repose are not the staple of his journey; but the mountains, the broad rivers, the forests, the glowing sunsets, the splendid vistas, which each hour change before him.

Affliction is to man's spirit, what winter is to the earth; a time when repose being given to the general activities, new strength is laid up. The springs of action are replenished, and the forces which have been accumulating during that dreary period, show themselves in the fresh vigour of renewed life.

Perhaps the greatest danger of the present day is, lest our outward life should go beyond the inward-our actions beyond our convictions and feelings.

In our search after truth, it is worth while to inquire what exhibitions of the gospel have been most effective. If we look at the great Reformation, we find that the broad inculcation of the doctrine of the atonement, and of its kindred truths, was the chief of the religious agencies then moving men's minds. It has been so in all spiritual reformations: see the movement of Whitefield and Wesley in the last century. And if we inquire what class of truths is now bringing about signal wonders-the West Indies, the Islands of the Pacific, and southern and western Africa-all furnish the same reply.

Taking for granted is not belief; there is no realisation. The same indolent temper which induces a man to take up as true any opinions that may be floating in his atmosphere, without giving himself the trouble to examine them, may prompt him to acquiesce without realisation, therefore without faith, in the declarations of God.

We need not hold the perdition of those in error, to scare ourselves from it, or to make us deprecate most earnestly participation in that error. Grant the salvation of those who hold the extreme of error with a right spirit—what then? Would our souls be in their souls' stead? How imperfectly must they do the work of the Great Master! or, rather, what a subordinate position they must take in his household! Good to the body they may do; they may feed the hungry and soothe the sick. Good to the intellect they may do; they may scatter the mists of ignorance, and bid the mind of man rise and blessed offices are these. But the spirit they cannot touch; they have no apparatus-if we may say so that can act upon it; they have no truth to present which can save the soul.

To every sincere, God-serving man, we may say, Just as much error as you hold, just so far are you incapacitated for reaching the great aim of your life-the promotion of God's glory with man's wellbeing. Error should ever be regarded as obscuring the majesty of truth, and as defeating the dearest aim of him who holds it-supposing him to be the character we have indicated.

E.

ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE AGE.

We have spoken of some of the evils which characterise the present age, and of the feebleness and inefficiency of the church; and now, we ask, how long is this state of things to continue? Many will have no difficulty in replying, that things will continue just as they are as long as the Lord is pleased to appoint; and that in the Lord's time, which is always the best, there will be a change. In this statement there is,

doubtless, some truth, as indeed, what error has no particle of truth in it? but as a reply it is wholly unsatisfactory. While it contains some truth, it involves a serious error. It relieves the church from her responsibility and her duty. It assumes that whatever is is right, and just as God would have it be; and it goes to prove that God is the only responsible being in the universe; a notion long since exploded amongst theologians, but recently revived by a new sect of philosophers. There are others who will say that things must continue just as they are," until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high." In this statement, also, there is much truth. Until the Spirit be poured upon us, the world will remain unconverted, and the church will continue supine and desolate. While destitute of the Spirit of God, Christians are inefficient for the purposes of their high vocation; they have no good desires, no holy designs, and can put forth no noble efforts. "We are not sufficient of ourselves even to think anything as of ourselves; our sufficiency is of God." But it should not be forgotten that the Spirit is to abide in the church, as her guide and comforter, and as the efficient advocate of her Lord and Saviour; that it is solemnly enjoined on us as Christians to be "filled with the Spirit ;” that we are not entitled to expect the outpourings of his gracious influence until we earnestly seek it; and that God has promised to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him. "If ye being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven, give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?"

We may be permitted to remark, that the secret purposes of God constitute no rule of action for us; our conduct should be regulated by his revealed will; and it is evident from his word, that there is a connexion as firmly established between means and ends in the spiritual economy as in the natural. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." And as he sows he reaps. "He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." Hence, it is, that the church sustains so important and so responsible a relation to the world, that the evangelisation of the latter depends, under God, on the spirit, the prayerfulness, the wisdom, and the zeal of the former. On the one hand, darkness will cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, until Zion shall arise and shine; idolatry and irreligion will prevail in the world, until the church shall arise and put on her strength, and assume her beautiful garments; corruption will spread all around her, and will reach even to her own vitals, unless she has salt in herself, and exerts an influence as powerful as sanatory. But on the other hand, whenever the church shall thoroughly arouse herself,-when she shall fully realise her high and

responsible position,—when such a burden shall press upon her heart on account of the dishonour done to God, by the wickedness of the world, and her own supineness, that she cannot rest day nor night,—when, by the wisdom of her efforts, and the activity of her zeal, the fervour of her prayers, and the strength of her faith, she shall lay hold of the arm of omnipotence, and engage God on her behalf; then we may rest assured that the day of the world's redemption draweth nigh.

There is nothing new in this statement; and, we presume, its correctness will be generally admitted. But there are many Christians who do not truly believe it; there are others who have never laid it to heart; there are but few who really feel its importance, and act upon it. It may not be unprofitable, therefore, if we devote a few pages to a subject of such vital interest.

We shall, in the first place, offer a few remarks illustrative of the sentiment, that a connexion exists between the spirit, or state of mind, which prevails in the church, and the extension of religion in the world. When the church indulges a spirit of contention and strife, she declines both in numbers and in strength; when she sinks into a state of insensibility, the world remains unconverted, and wickedness abounds; but when she is thoroughly aroused from her inglorious repose, and truly devoted to her high vocation, the time of her enlargement is at hand. The Scriptures afford some very striking illustrations of this sentiment, to which we shall briefly advert.

God had determined seventy years as the period of the Jews' captivity in Babylon; but at the same time he required a spirit of earnest prayer on the part of the people, as essential to their liberation. We cannot read the sacred records with attention, without being struck with the fact that God does, in the most wonderful manner, bring about the accomplishment of his own purposes, and the predictions of his word, at the time he had foretold, and yet they are always accomplished by means; and before any promised blessing is conferred on his people, they are brought to feel their need of it, and earnestly to desire and seek it. Thus we read, in relation to the deliverance of his people from Babylon: "Thus saith the Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord; thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you, and ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart; and I will be found of you, saith the Lord. And I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the

places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again to the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive."

The Jews might have reasoned thus respecting the promised restoration:-At the time appointed we shall be delivered from our hated captivity; before that time our liberation is impossible; our deliverance will not depend on anything in ourselves; nothing that we can do will either hasten or retard it; before the time appointed, no efforts or prayers of ours can effect it; and when the appointed time has come, our prayers and efforts will be quite unnecessary; the work will be done without us. God will accomplish his purposes in his own way, and in his own time. If the Jews had acted on these principles, they might have lived and died in captivity. God had connected means with ends. He had connected a spirit of deep humiliation, of ingenuous confession of sin, of earnest desire, and of fervent prayer, with their restoration to their own land. He had determined, that when they searched after him with their whole heart, they should find him: then, and not till then, would he appear as their deliverer. While, therefore, the Jews were content in their exile; while their minds were wholly occupied with earthly things, and their great desire was to get gain; while they seemed insensible of the melancholy fact, that they were under the frown of Jehovah; while they did not lay to heart their iniquities, and the iniquities of their fathers, which had compelled their God to give up his temple, which they had defiled, to destruction, and to banish his people from their own land, which they had polluted; while they did not set their faces to seek the Lord God, with weeping, and with supplication, and with fasting, any one who understood the Scriptures, would be certain that the time of their deliverance was not at hand. But when the people began to feel their banishment, to confess and bitterly to mourn over the cause of it-their perpetual backsliding from God; when they began to search after the Lord with their whole hearts, constantly praying that they might again see "the land of their fathers' sepulchres," and worship their God in his holy mountain -then would any one who had listened to the unerring oracles, be convinced that the day of their redemption was drawing nigh. Thus Daniel acted; and many of his brethren must have been animated by the same spirit, when He, who is ever faithful to his promises, came to effect their deliverance. "In the first year of the reign of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, I, Daniel, understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem, and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes; and I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession."