and with all the various associations of his spiritual life. To the pious and orthodox among our Dissenting brethren, who, while they differ from us in lesser points, cordially agree with us in the essentials of Christianity; who hold, in common with us, the grand principles of the Reformation, the supremacy of Scripture and liberty of conscience; and who therefore can bid us "God speed in the name of the Lord"-to those the Church Missionary Society affords an opportunity of uniting with us in sowing the seed of life in a soil hitherto unbroken. Here they may co-operate with us in giving the knowledge of salvation by the remission of sins, through faith in a crucified Redeemer, to a people who now sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Here therefore, in imparting, together with those essentials of Christianity on which we are all agreed, the peculiarities of our own Church on which we differ from our Dissenting brethren, we are not, let it be remembered, taking from the objects of our common solicitude the peculiarities of any sect of Christians,—in this we could not reasonably ask or expect their co-operation. No; the benighted and perishing wanderers in whose behalf we plead, are not more blind to those comparatively light shades of opinion which distinguish Churchman and Dissenters, than to that great and awful gulf which separates the heathen from the Christian.

But why do I speak of any truly Christian missionaries as if inculcating, with sectarian zeal, the peculiarities of their respective creeds? Such are not the themes upon which these, the ministers of the catholic and invisible Church, love to dwell. The genuine missionary spirit is the pure and sublimated essence of Christianity, and rises far above the forms of time, and the carnal elements of the world. In nations long professing Christianity, where spiritual appetites have become fastidious, through satiety of the bread of life; who loathe the light manna of spiritual truth, and lust after the flesh-pots of a more worldly dispensation; sectarian prejudices are perhaps unavoidable, while we see as through a glass darkly, and know only in part. But in nations which have never heard the Gospel, and are ignorant of that only name under heaven whereby we may be saved, the missionary feels that all the minor peculiarities of sects and party merge in the grand and all-absorbing object of evangelizing the heathen, and con-verting him, not from sect to sect, but from idolatry to an experimental knowledge of the Saviour. Time is short. Souls are perishing. The missionary bears a message of mercy from God to man. He is entrusted with that Gospel which bringeth salvation; and while the objects of his mission are daily plunging unprepared into a lost eternity, he is as little disposed to fritter away precious time in matter merely formal and unessential, as would the bearer of a reprieve to some condemned criminal to loiter, that he might settle questions of form and etiquette, while the noose actually encircled the culprit's neck, instead of bursting his way through every obstacle of ceremony before the fatal drop had fallen, and launched into eternity, beyond the power of recal, the victim of his-at such a time-bigoted prejudice and senseless superstition.

The missionary spirit and the missionary work are powerfully efficient in pruning away peculiarities, and expanding the bosom of charity. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, let him be anathema maran-atha:" this is the missionary's only test of exclusion and sentence of excommunication. The Deity and atonement, the faith and love, of Christ, are, with him, the indispen

sable and only tests of admission into the fellowship of the saints. The missionary's object is to save souls, not to organize societies, and build up churches. As in the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven; so also in the missionary church below, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the one temple, in which all the redeemed hold sweet and unbroken communion. Episcopalian, and Independent, and Baptist, and Presbyterian, and Methodist, and Moravian missionaries, whether Calvinist or Arminian, feel that they have compromised no principle while they feast, together, on the memorials of a dying Saviour's love, upon the hills of Travancore or Abyssinia; amid the sands of Africa, or the snows of America; on the shores of Greenland, or by the banks of Ganges.

To our Dissenting brethren I would, hence, say, that the Church Missionary Society affords a most valuable opportunity of Christian co-operation, in the face of the dense phalanx of popish superstition which surrounds us. It has often been attempted to tarnish the glories of the Reformation with this foul and ungrounded aspersion, that its fundamental principle, the supremacy of Scripture, necessarily leads to heresy and schism. Now the Church Missionary Society opens a theatre upon which Churchmen and Dissenters, by an union of efforts against the powers of darkness, may give to this false reproach the best, because the most practical and Christian, refutation. They may here practically prove, that, while Churchmen and Dissenters are separated from a communion of ordinances by the barrier of conflicting opinions, they are reunited in a communion of spirit by the bonds of Christian charity; and, thus, while they seem to rend the body, maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

(To be continued.)

"WHAT AM I IN MY OWN FAMILY ?"

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

THE important, though simple question, "What am I in my own family?" has so frequently forced itself upon me, in moments of serious reflection, that I am induced to lay before your readers my lucubrations upon it. When visiting Christian friends on certain joyful anniversaries, and communing with them on the " things that accompany salvation," it has occurred to me that they are disposed to form too high an estimate of my religious character. Admitting my sincerity in the sight of an all-seeing God, still I could not but painfully feel, that these dear brethren now see me to a great advantage, and at a distance from the cares and trials inseparable from the domestic state; and consequently find me more calm, more cheerful, and perhaps more spiritual, than I really am under other and ordinary circumstances. When thus mixing with "the excellent of the earth," I had moreover a character to maintain, as a professed Christian; and on that account also I might be led to walk more circumspectly. Not that the eye even of the holiest of men ought to influence a believer in comparison with the eye of God; yet so deep is the natural corruption of the human heart, and so subtle the devices of the adversary, that not a few of those "who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," will confess that

the arrival of some eminent Christian at their door has supplied that stimulus to spirituality, which ought to have been furnished by the consideration, " Thou, Lord, seest me."

When, therefore, these Christian brethren, at whose houses we may occasionally reside, not only admit our sincerity, but even admire our piety, and speak of it in terms of somewhat high commendation, is it not needful to inquire, seriously, and at a throne of grace, "What am I in my own family?" For every one must admit the difference between manifesting a religious character in the social circle, and sustaining it in the domestic. In the former, every thing may occur to promote our temporal comfort and excite our Christian cheerfulness. our will, perhaps, is not opposed; our inclinations are not thwarted; our temper is not tried. In the latter, our children and domestics may do something that is contrary to our will, that thwarts our inclination, and seriously tries our temper. How indispensable, then, is the inquiry, "Am I that real saint at home, that I am supposed to be abroad?”

Here humility might become the subject of our self-examination. For in the presence of those who are distinguished by intellectual attainments, we must, more or less, restrain any rising disposition to secure our own praise. Common courtesy may lead us to pay a certain deference to their expressed opinions. Still more may our pride be abashed by the spiritual superiority of our associates. When holding intercourse with persons of the above description, we may be, to an unusual degree, lowly in our own deportment. Yet is this goodly raiment equally worn by us in our respective families? They, perhaps, treat our opinions with such becoming deference, that we are necessarily beset with the danger of self exaltation, and are perhaps not proof against them. So also as to the grace of meekness. Though it stood so prominent to view in the circle of our Christian friends, that it perhaps commanded their admiration, is it equally apparent, amidst the ordinary and inevitable trials to which our temper is subjected at home? A like inquiry might be made as to our spirituality of discourse. For, though it must of necessity receive a fresh stimulus, when enjoying "the communion of saints," still it ought not to fail, beyond what the cessation of that stimulus might naturally occasion in the bosom of our own family.

How vast is our obligation to walk, in the presence of our household, consistenly with our serious profession, and how beneficial are the effects of our consistency on their minds and manners, are points too clear to demand any proof. Our children and servants will at least form a higher estimate of the value of vital Christianity, when they can daily trace its ascendancy in our own life and conversation. On the contrary, they will too naturally form false estimates of our religion, if they observe no such results. In the latter case, the injury done to the family, in their immortal interests, cannot be adequately conceived till the day of universal judgment.

The foregoing hints are humbly submitted to your readers, under a deep sense of their applicability to him who offers them; yet without any consciousness of insincerity while embosomed in his own domicile. My object is to awaken, both in myself and others, that spirit of selfexamination, which is essentially allied to prayer and is therefore a powerful means of sustaining our Christian hopes, and brightening all those graces by which we are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 19.

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If such be the infirmity of man, in consequence of his fall from God, that even those who have the largest share of that "grace which bringeth salvation," are thus liable to offend in their domestic walk, and thus come short of their honest and devout aims at unspotted holiness of life; how irresistible is the conclusion, that all who would "adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things," ought indefatigably to use the appointed means of grace, and after they have done all, to own that " in Him only they have righteousness." Who indeed can count the prayers, poured forth by them in the secrecy of the closet, and with the intense desires of a heart which thirsts for deliverance from sin-prayers for fresh pardon through the blood of the Lamb, for the increasing influences of the Holy Spirit on the soul, and in order to their rescue from every besetting sin-prayers that ascend not in vain to the "Lord of all power and might?" Who again can tell the vigilance, the labour, the conflicts, the self-scrutiny, the self-denial, of the Christian, with a view to his consistency of conduct, especially in the domestic sphere? When these circumstances are duly weighed, no candid man can hesitate to admit the sincerity of those who thus seek after "perfection." Happily, they are "complete in Christ."

Πιστις.

ON THE SPIRIT AND ADJUNCTS OF FAMILY DEVOTION.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

In the present state of knowledge, and, I trust, practice, among those who profess and call themselves Christians in this our highly-favoured land, it would, I hope, be superfluous to urge upon your readers the duty of assembling their families for morning and evening prayer; but it may not be so, to call their attention to the state of mind in which the family altar should be approached.

We are impressed with the propriety of entering the house of God with serious and devout feelings, knowing that "God is greatly to be feared in the assemblies of His saints, and to be had in reverence of those that are round about him ;" and that our blessed Saviour, when on earth, designated the temple His Father's house of prayer. We acknowledge the duty of leaving our worldly thoughts without the doors of that hallowed spot, when about to meet our fellow-sinners with one consent to "seek the Lord and his face." In private prayer also we feel that we must withdraw our thoughts from the world, and give ourselves up entirely to God during the few minutes which we devote to this holy exercise. But does the same holy determination

the same preparedness of mind-attend us in our entrance upon family worship? It is to be feared, too frequently not; though the Great Head of the Church assures us that when two or three are gathered together in His name, there is He in the midst of them. Yet why are we less diligent in seeking to honour God in our family worship, than in our public and private services? Is it because our family sins do not require family confession - our family mercies, family praise our family weaknesses, family strength-or our family dangers, family protection? Often has my heart been pained by the hurried and irreverent manner in which I have seen what was

termed

family prayer conducted. The heads of a household, from custom or conscience, thought it right to meet their children and servants night and morning, and they were collected at a stated hour; but there was confusion down stairs, and confusion up stairs, and no signs of that "preparedness of heart which cometh from the Lord" to conduct us to the Lord.

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Masters of families! are you in the habit of assembling your households night and morning? It is right you should do so. But did you ever consider what an opportunity God then puts into your hands for bringing your servants into the way of salvation? Perhaps they entered your house perfectly ignorant of the spirituality of real religion it is your duty to see they do not go out of it equally ignorant. They may have been in the habit of attending the Church, and hearing the Gospel too, but they may not have had the privilege of possessing a pious master or mistress who would speak to them about their souls; and this honour may have been reserved for you. A plain, simple, homely exposition of Scripture has some advantages which a sermon does not possess; and if a master or mistress will question in and explain the sermons heard at church, the plan might be highly useful.

If you study the characters of your children and servants, get acquainted with their trials (for who has not some trouble of heart?) and learn what are their chief failings; you can then judge what are those points upon which they most need instruction or comfort, and, suiting your exposition to their circumstances, much good might follow. On the contrary, if you enter upon family worship wholly unprepared, and go through it as a form, no interest is created; and you may expect to see your family, though seated round you, with a vacant look, which proves the mind regardless of what is going on. Do you ask, then, how you can manage matters differently? I answer, As love begets love, so do seriousness and devotion beget seriousness and devotion. If the members of a family perceive that the head is deeply impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, their minds will be influenced by his feelings, and thus be drawn into a participation of his spirit.

Let your endeavour, then, be to render the service of family prayer a means of grace; let it be conducted in a serious, solemn, devotional manner, and look upwards for the spirit of prayer and praise to be poured out upon your little company in such a measure that your "sacrifice" may not be "that of fools," buta profitable service both to yourself and to your fellow-worshippers. It is after this manner that you should present yourselves, morning and evening, before the Lord. In the morning you come to raise your Ebenezer of praise to Him who hath "neither slumbered nor slept "-you come with prayer, that you may be fed and strengthened, by the word of life and the Spirit of the Most High, for the business and employments of another day; and you come to place yourselves, as such, under the guidance of your Heavenly Master. In the evening, you come to acknowledge with gratitude the care you have received from Him "in whom you live, and move, and have your being;" you come to adore your Creator for the showers of temporal and spiritual blessings which another day has put you in possession of, whilst you acknowledge that "you are less than the least of all His mercies," and confess your own sins, and those of your household, over "the Lamb slain before the