house of God and the gate of heaven." As to Westminster abbey, the special services there begin in March, and are continued to the end of July. Here, also, is an imposing spectacle in a place, above all others, national in historic memories and associations. This ancient fane has of late years been the scene for solemn and faithful preaching of the truth as it is in Christ, such as has not been so fully proclaimed for more than two hundred years. -: NEW TRACT SOCIETY.-Caution.-"The Romancatholic perverts are practising on behalf of their new religion the lessons of Christian activity which they learned as protestants. They have formed a tract-society for the purpose of spreading what they call catholic truth,' by which they do not mean truth held in common by all Christians, and contained in the catholic creeds, but the distinctive tenets and practices of the Romish church, by which that community separates itself from the whole body of the faithful. We give the first two paragraphs of the letter soliciting subscriptions, that, if any of our friends should receive it, they may be warned as to whence it comes. The plans of action are developed in the succeeding extracts—' Dear A certain number of clergymen, laymen, and ladies have formed themselves into an executive council, under the sanction of his grace the archbishop of Westminster, in order to found a society for the purpose of explaining in a popular and interesting form, especially among the middle and lower classes of the English people, the doctrines and practices of the catholic church, by the distribution of cheap pamphlets, tracts, and fly-sheets. The executive council has made known to you this its intention, through one or other of its members, to send you its prospectus (herewith inclosed), and to solicit from you a contribution, either in the form of a donation, or, better still, of a yearly subscription, in order to defray the necessary Of one of expenses of the undertaking." the society's publications, "The Catholic Truth Society Magazine," we may speak as remark able at least for its melancholy misapplication of holy scripture. For instance, one article undertakes to prove that the Romanist must love Christ more than the protestant, because we must love better those who are nearer to us than those who are afar off; and, to the protestant, Christ is afar off in heaven, while to the Romanist he is near in the tabernacle of the altar, in his mouth, and in his chest. A protestant Christian, to whom St. Peter's words are applicable, Whom having not seen ye love,' can hardly conceive the state of mind which professes to see Christ in the consecrated wafer, to feel him within, when he has been eaten, and to love him the more because of this materialistic degradation. Another passage, justifying and indeed requiring children to disobey their parents, to cast off all filial love if any opposition is made to their becoming papists, is: If any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple'; as if a protestant father, in wishing to preserve a child from papal idolatry, was urging him to deny Christ, to cease to be a disciple of Christ; and as if the priest were Christ, or 'the Roman-catholic church' the Saviour" (Religious Tract Society's Reporter). H. S. AN ADDRESS SUITABLE TO ALL SEASONS, BUT ESPECIALLY TO LENT. BY JOHN DAVID HAY HILL, Esq., LL.B. My dear Friends: This solemn season of the Christian year should awaken us all to the grand and glorious subject which is the sun of the Christian firmaviour. And allow me to say that the thoughts ment-Jesus Christ, our Lord God and Sa of the holy week should be our every-day thoughts; so the whole year would be a holy year. I am utterly unable, the wisest, the holiest of earth's inhabitants, aye, the very angels nearest the throne of the Most High are unable to understand the wonder of that work which Jesus Christ came on earth to do. Vain man too often doubts, yes, and utterly disbelieves, because he is not content to be like holy angels, who, wiser than he, are yet humble and worship before Jehovah, who planned and perfected the wondrous act that Jesus came to do. I beseech you not to be vain of your limited intellect, but try to be ashamed of your sins, dragging them from your hearts' dark places into the light of conscience. Try to make it real to yourselves that the holy God knows them, hates them, and-O awful thought!-that he has them all written in his book of remembrance. Retire to your chamber, and do this, not only now at this season, but frequently, that you may be more fit to consider the amazing manifestation of God's love in the appearance of Jesus Christ on earth. The bible invites you to this, and to more than this. It invites you to confess your sins, one and all, to him who knows them already, but who wishes you to know them-to feel their vileness, their consequences, present and future, and, more than this, your ingratitude to God your Father in sinning; for, recollect, we have had God's book, the bible, near at hand from our childhood—that bible which tells how God loves us. Yes, drag out your sins, and confess them to God, and also ask him to teach you the value of Jesus' work for you. 66 From childhood most of us have been taught to speak of Jesus Christ as our Saviour." This is the name signified by the word "Jesus." This is the name under which you and I should first and chiefly think of him. We are told now-a-days that our Lord delivered few doctrines, but was always giving out precepts or commands to good conduct. But mark this, my sinful brethren, and mark it, O thou my own sinful soul, that the prime business of God's own Son on earth, of him who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet made himself of no reputation, took on him the form of a servant and the likeness of man, was to save his people from their sins-that is, them that believed while he was with them, and those who should believe on him to the end of time. Long before Jesus came, even as far back as the time of Moses, the law of God's most holy commandments was known. It was proclaimed to the Jews direct from God himself by Moses, and on the Jews it was specially binding. It was also the foundation of all morality and all law everywhere so soon as it became known. But the special mission of Jesus Christ is to sinners who have broken these laws which they know. It is the precious light of a Saviour, or rather the Saviour, the only Saviour appointed by God, that we must all contemplate, him of whom the prophets wrote, whom the apostles preached, and to whom all the holy scriptures of the bible point as the way to God's favour. Our blessed Lord says of himself, "I am come that they might have life:" "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." But he says in words of love, and, being God, words of divine power, "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden; and I will give you rest.' "I lay down my life for the sheep," he also says. |dation, and his own truth built openly upon it, are very plain to humble people; and hence un believers must be convicted, if their pride of intellect or their pride of morality make them reject the need of Jesus, the work of Jesus, and the way of his peace, which he giveth, not as the world giveth peace. Jesus is "the light of the world:" not only does he call himself so, but he proves himself so. His divine light shows that he doeth God's truth; and he comes openly to the light of your understanding when softened into feeling your misery on account of sin, and of the free love and pardon of a holy God like Jehovah, who abhors sin in every shape and degree, and who yet loves sinners with so deep an affection as to take their salvation into his own hands, only asking them to believe in order that their condemnation may be removed, and a perfect sense of his pardoning love put in the place of that sad conviction of sin, aye, of hateful sin, which an honest hum. ble heart must have, and which must make a man afraid, till he finds God's own remedy in the death of the scripture. Saviour. Fellow-sinners, I beseech you to consider well that wondrous gift of your offended yet pardoning God, that precious gift of his own dear Son revealed in the scriptures, his dear Son in your nature crucified, as the atonement for all you have done amiss, however weighty your load of guilt. Falter not, waver not, hesitate not, but take Jehovah, the unchangeable God of truth, at his own word: take his word spoken by his Son himself. O be not among them to whom, as to the Jews, he said: "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life." March 24. A GOOD MAN. But, dear friends, that there may be no mistake about the very first object of our Lord Jesus' coming upon earth, he says: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved." And here I would have you specially and gratefully see, as poor sinners who may be fully saved by Jesus Christ, that, if he came merely or chiefly to preach the precepts or commands of God, he BY THE REV. C. Rawlings, B.A. must have condemned men, and not saved them. He himself, and men too, must have known WHATEVER definite meaning may have been at that all had broken these precepts, and also tached in former times to the phrase, “a good could never keep them to God's mind, which is man," it is susceptible of more than one meaning perfect. Thus our Lord adds in the words that in the present day. Sometimes the expression, follow those I have just quoted from his own "a good man," is employed to represent a good blessed lips: "He that believeth on him is not man on 'change, a man warm in the pocket, as condemned; but he that believeth not is con. it is called. At other times the term, "a good demned already, because he hath not believed man," is used to denote a man well up in litera in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. ture or science or philosophy. Amongst cer And this is the condemnation, that light is tain classes of the community a good man is a come into the world, and men loved darkness man who gets intoxicated five nights in the rather than light, because their deeds were week. Again, the phrase, a good man," is evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the used to indicate a moral man, a man of uprightlight, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds ness and integrity in the general relations of should be reproved. But he that doeth truth life: this is a good man according to the world's cometh to the light, that his deeds may be standard of goodness. It may be affirmed of made manifest, that they are wrought in God." the world's estimate of goodness and morality The Lord Jesus spoke openly. He openly that it is wrong in principle and defective in drew the attention of the people, who had the detail. Many things, many qualities which the scriptures in their hands, and who professed to world commends, are opposed to the word and be ruled by the law of Moses, and said, too, that will of God, are at variance with the spirit and God had spoken by Moses, whose prophet they precepts of Christianity. The conventional mo acknowledged him to be. To Moses and the rality of the world, however, is better than other prophets did Jesus openly appeal; and the nothing at all: the world would present a far Jews might have judged if they had chosen, and worse scene than it does present, if the ordi so may you and I before we believe in the won-nary restraints of social opinion and custom and drous Son of God our Saviour. His bible-foun-I decency were withdrawn. 66 The phrase, "a good man," when considered under the aspect of Christianity, means a great deal: it indicates a man whose mind is enlightened by the Spirit of God: it indicates a man who is a believer in Christ for pardon, righteousness, and salvation: it indicates a man who has experienced a renewal of heart by grace from above it indicates a man who labours to do good in his day and generation, under the influence of those principles and motives alone which the gospel recognizes: under the constraining love of Christ he endeavours to advance his kingdom and cause in the world: he enjoys communion with God as his reconciled Father in prayer and holy meditation. The good man is the Christian man; and, in the language of the poet," a Christian is the highest style of man." Contemplate the good Christian man at all times and under all circumstances; contemplate him in the different relations of life: his goodness and his excellence are apparent. Look at him when in trial and under the cloud of adversity: he is supported, he is fortified by a principle which the world's morality cannot supply: he submits with patience and resignation to the will and dispensations of his heavenly Father: he knows, he feels assured that God's goodness will make all things work together for his present and eternal welfare. Can the world's best philosophy produce such peace, such consolation as this in the day of calamity and distress ? Contemplate the good man at the approach of the final hour: death has no terrors for one who can say, "I know whom I have believed." He is supported by a hope which "maketh not ashamed," because it is the hope through grace of eternal life. "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." The goodness which has its origin in the grace of God is not without its advantages, so far as this world is concerned. Those who live in the faith and fear of God often realize in their experience the truth of that scripture-declaration: "Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." Worldly people are disposed to honour and trust those who are known to be conscientious, and whose general conduct is influenced by the principles of the gospel. This might reasonably be expected. Worldly men, who may not themselves have experienced the power of religion in their hearts, yet find a security in the goodness of those who have: they like to deal with the honest, and the upright on principle and not on mere policy. The blessing of God frequently attends in a remarkable manner the undertakings of the righteous, and crowns their efforts with success. Worldly prosperity is not invariably the portion of the Lord's people, and it cannot be considered a test of the approbation and favour of God; yet worldly prosperity, wealth, and public esteem are in many cases the lot of those who are partakers of grace and heirs of glory. Weekly Almanac. "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"-MATT. xxviii. 19. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."-2 COR. xiii. 14. ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the divine Majesty to worship the Unity, we beseech thee that thou wouldest keep us stedfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen. "There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the maker and preserver of all things both visible and invisible; and in the Unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost" (Art. 1 of the Church of England Articles). "I praise thee, O Father, I bless thee, I glorify thee, together with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son, with whom to thee and the Holy Ghost be glory now and evermore, Amen" (Polycarp, disciple of St. John). "The true God has revealed himself to us as one God;' yet in the unity of that Godhead there are three divine and co-equal Persons. Such God has revealed himself to be: he has done so at the very threshold of the bible. God is there made known to us a 'triune God.' Throughout the first chapter of Genesis the plural Elohim' stands connected with a singular verb; and there the wondrous mystery is opened out to us, which man by speculation never could have discovered, namely, that there is plurality in the Godhead. The creation is the act of one God,' but the act of more than one Person; for God said, 'Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness.' God taketh not counsel with angels, neither did he *Rather "into the name" etc., a formula implying "union with and dedication to." And it should be observed that it is not into the "names," but into the "name," show ing that, with a distinct recognition of the different parts, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost take in the great work of salvation, there is joined an equally-distinct apprehension of the "Unity of the Godhead," as the foundation of authority and the source of blessings" (Annotated Bible of the R. T. Society). make man after the image of angels, but in the image of God created he him.' Furthermore, the plurality that is in God is restricted to a "Trinity of Persons.' Thus we have the triple agency in the creation of the world, to wit, God, his Word, and his Spirit" (Ridgway's "Gospel in Type"). "As to the proper nature and substance of the Holy Ghost, it is altogether one with God the Father and God the Son, that is to say, spiritual, eternal, uncreated, incomprehensible, almighty; to be short, he is even God and Lord everlasting. Therefore he is called the Spirit of the Father; therefore he is said to proceed was equally joined with them in the commission that the apostles had to baptize all nations'" (Hom. for Whitsunday, part 2). from the Father and the Son; and, therefore he 66 Why did the church allot this gospel for this Sunday? Because this gospel expresseth all the three sacred Persons and their appropriate attributes. It showeth the Person of the Father: God' (ver. 2). The Person of the Son speaketh throughout the whole dialogue: the Person of the Holy Ghost speaketh in ver. 5, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.' Unto the Father it ascribeth especially 'power,' for no man could do such miracles as thou doest except God were with him;' unto the Son, 'wisdom,' for 'we speak that we do know ;' and to the Holy Ghost, goodness and love, for 'the wind bloweth where it listeth,' &c." 'We know that thou art a teacher come from Ir is evident from these words, in conjunction with those which precede them, that between master and servant there is a reciprocity of duty; faithfulness, obedience, and respect on the part of the servant, proceeding from the high principle that he is doing service, not unto men, but unto the Lord; and kindness, gentleness, forbearance, consideration, and justice on the part of the master, flowing from a principle equally high, that he has a Master in heaven; to whom he must give an account of his conduct and dealings towards his fellow-creature, and with whom there is no respect of persons, who will not regard the one the more for his worldly superiority, nor the other the less for the inferiority of his position, but will judge them impartially, as men equally responsible for the fulfilment of their respective duties. vated principles which are here set forth, We cannot but pause to admire the ele so superior to any which were in vogue amongst the heathens, or even if we take the full scope of them amongst the Jews, who had especial laws given them for the treatment of their servants; still, with the latter, as with the former, a servant was a servant in the fullest sense of the word; but under the Christian dispensation there is a higher order of things: master and servant are mutually bound to act towards each other as those who have God before their eyes; the master to give unto his servants that which is just and equal, knowing that he has a Master in heaven; the servant to remember that he is to fulfil his obligations to his master with singleness of mind as one who is serving the Lord, who will certainly reward him, whatever he may meet with upon earth, for his sincerity, faithfulness, and obedience. Then, too, that prohibition to masters, "forbearing threatening"-let us not pass over its profound and admirable wisdom. There is nothing which an inconsiderate, incensed, and angry master is more likely to do than threaten; and then through pride, because he has threatened, to act harshly and unjustly; for words are ever the readiest weapons; while at the same time there is scarcely anything more likely to irritate a servant, and provoke an unmeet reply than a hasty threat of dismissal or punishment; or, if he be patient under it, to create a feeling of unhappiness and discontent, as well as of distrust towards his master, and thus dissolve the bond of mutual confidence which ought to exist between them. Unkind words frequently repeated render his service a galling yoke, and make his calling a miserable burden, take from him that thankfulness of heart which he ought to have towards God, and destroy all cheerfulness of spirit and of action. These reflections will serve to show us how admirable and how much more ne cessary than we might at first sight suppose is the prohibition to masters to "forbear threatening." The relation of master and servant involves the gravest responsibility, grave to servants, and we cannot help thinking very grave to masters; and for this reason a bad servant may do his master temporal injury; but a master may not only do his servant temporal injury, but may hinder his eternal salvation. To have such authority over a fellow-creature, so as to claim not only his personal exertions as our own, but also his time-that precious time which home, his health ruined and his spirits broken, and from thence, perhaps, to a workhouse or an hospital. He lingers for a few weeks or months, as the case may be, and, through a rapid decline, descends into an early and premature grave. was given him for working out his salvation | that, leaving a poor home, where his clothwith fear and trembling-that precious time ing had been of the meanest description, which it has been wisely said, when mis- and where he had scarcely food sufficient spent, is irredeemable, and not to be pur- for the day, he crossed our threshold with chased by any power of art or nature-this beating heart, expecting to find it an earthly a master is very often, from the position he paradise, that he entered into our dwelling occupies and the authority with which he is with bright eyes and flushed cheeks, deterinvested, enabled to do, to claim for his own, mined to do all that he could, that he ought and waste upon his own selfish purposes, to do, his heart full of the genial and beauand thereby become guilty of irreparable in- tiful confidence of youth in the master or jury to one whose salvation as a member of mistress who, to his simple mind, had so his Christian household ought to have been kindly selected him from amongst others very dear to him. who heard of his good fortune with someTo keep a servant employed all day, thing of envy, not doubting but that he day after day, to require his services late should meet with kindness, approbation, into the night, night after night, and to consideration, and attention ? that, aldemand them so early in the morning that though a servant, yet as a Christian enhe has scarcely any spare time to hold tering into a Christian family, he would be communion with his God in prayer or to looked upon as above a servant, a brother read his word, and to fulfil the other du- beloved for Christ's sake? Alas! how very ties which are requisite for the mainten- soon with him were these pleasant illusions ance of the life of the soul-and this not only often dispelled, the gold dimmed, the fine on the week-day, but in a great measure also gold changed, the wine mixed with water, on the Lord's-day-involves surely a great the silver became as dross! A year, or two responsibility. A master, under such circum-years pass away; and he returns to his poor stances, is accountable in a great degree for the moral and physical welfare of the person subject to him. Is not this, I may say, an almost-startling fact which we are apt to overlook? When a servant whom it has pleased God in his wisdom to place under us falls into ill health, or is affected with sickness, we regret the event, we complain of the inconvenience which it causes us, we wait a brief time, and then dismiss him: we utter some few words of condolence or of kindness; possibly we may render some little substantial help and assistance. But do we reflect upon the strain which our selfishness, carelessness, and thoughtlessness may have put upon the constitution of that person? that he came to us delighted with the prospect of a new place and of bettering his condition in the world, young, vigorous, healthy, hopeful; possibly something better than all this-religious, sober, temperate, chaste, active, willing, obliging, and respectful, his mind stored with virtuous principles by his anxious parents, who had made great sacrifices in their humble way to provide their much-loved boy with apparel befitting what seemed to them a higher sphere than that of an agricultural labourer or of some other way of life much upon a level with it? that he left his early home with many inculcations of dutiful respect and obedience to his superiors, and, if the son of pious parents, with admonitions not to be guilty of purloining," to fulfil his duties, not "with eyeservice, as pleasing men, but as unto the Lord," with truth and honesty, with diligence and cheerfulness and with prayer? 66 Was no one responsible for this mournful closing of his earthly career? Might it not have been prevented by due consideration? As chaplain to a workhouse for some years, I have seen this statement painfully verified. I have said nothing of harsh treatment, of undue threatening, or of unkind words; for, in truth, I have not heard much said upon these matters; but the complaint usually was, "O, they were very late people, or very gay people with whom I lived; and I used to be up night after night, and had very little rest." You will say this is an overdrawn picture; but it is not so: it is a sad and an affecting reality, and when I have witnessed it I have thought of the words, Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal, forbearing threatening, knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven." Would any man like that his son should be treated with so little thought and so little care? There can be but little doubt that, in the case of domestic servants, the sum of our duty to man, of doing to others as we would have them do unto us, is neglected and forgotten. Again, when the consequences have not been fatal, there are demoralizing instances to be met with, resulting from heartless and abrupt dismissal a few rash words have entailed severe punishment; for that abrupt dismissal : |