They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." messengers that John sent to him he affirmed, that all the prophets and the law were until John; and then showed them, in the deeds he performed, their predictions literally fulfilled. To the people he said: "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do." He proved to the Jews that the Scriptures were his Father's Word; and though they had not that Word abiding in them, it was expressly the Word of God. "Is it not written in your law I said ye are gods ?" "He called them gods unto whom the Word of God came." That we might have no doubt of his view of the perfection of the Scriptures, he said: "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil; for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled."

He confirmed every part of the Old Testament Scriptures-Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms; and set his seal to the facts and histories, as well as the doctrines and precepts, of the Bible.

Of creation he said, "Have you not read ?"

The death of Abel and the Deluge; Noah and the Ark; the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha; the deliverance of Lot, and the example of his wife; the call of Moses at the bush; the manna that fell in the desert; the miracles of Elijah and Elisha-the truth of all he confirmed, and drew from them lessons of instruction either for reproof, edification, or comfort.

Thus Christ's life in the Scriptures, his conduct according to the Scriptures, and his testimony concerning the Scriptures, show us that we have in the Old Testament a sure word of prophesy whereunto we do well to take heed.

BISHOP LAVINGTON, addressing the clergy in the year 1750, says:-"My brethren, I beg you will rise up with me against moral preaching. We have long been attempting the reformation of the nation by discourses of this kind. With what success? None at all. On the contrary, we have dexterously preached the people into downright infidelity. We must change our voice. We must preach Christ and Him crucified. Nothing but the Gospel is--nothing beside will be found to be-the power of God unto salvation. Let me, therefore, again request-may I not add, let me charge you, to preach Jesus and salvation through His name.

AMONG the South Sea Islanders the compound word for hope is beautifully expressive. It is Manaolana, or the swimming thought, faith floating and keeping its head above water in a stormy sea. A definition of hope worthy to be placed beside the answer the deaf and dumb boy wrote with his pencil, in reply to the question, "What was his idea of forgiveness ?" "It is the fragrance flowers yield when trampled on."

THE SCRIPTURES AS A MEANS OF GRACE.

THE Christian people of this country, in modern times, possess a means of grace which their believing brethren of other days and places have never enjoyed to nearly the same extent: they have in their own tongue a complete Bible, and one, too, so easy of acquisition, that probably there is not a single religious Protestant family but owns one or more of these invaluable treasures.

This great privilege is almost peculiar to ourselves. In the first ages of the Gospel the New Testament had yet to be written. In the ages that followed these being written, the scattered portions had to be collected into one whole; and even when that work had been accomplished, as copies were multiplied only by the pen, many of God's people were glad if they could only secure a single Epistle or Gospel. Then came the long, dark period, during which scarcely any of the laity could read or write; and the Divine Word became a sealed book to the people, both through their own ignorance and the craft of their rulers. The invention of printing followed, and various translations of the Bible into our mother tongue prepared the way for its general perusal; and, finally, in this nineteenth century, cheap education and the Bible Society have made reading the most common of acquirements, and the Sacred Volume accessible to the poorest.

It may be doubted whether we feel sufficiently the responsibility that thus attaches to us; whether we understand how much better Christians we ought to be than others not so favoured; whether this great gift of God is used as it ought to be, and might be, for the furtherance of our spiritual life. It will not, therefore, be out of place to offer a few simple suggestions, that may help such as need their aid to a more profitable study of the Word of God.

1. The Scriptures should be read to improve the heart and life. They should be read also, no doubt, to acquire information about Jewish history and Christian theology; but of that we do not now treat. Such a pursuit cannot be a strictly devotional exercise. When we are seeking mere knowledge, the intellect is mainly brought into play; but spiritual life mainly turns on the affections of the heart. With the former object are connected questions about antiquities, language, geography; with the latter, questions relating to repentance, faith, love to God, conflict with sin. In the one case, we are in search of mental conceptions; in the other, of religious sympathies and aspirations, joys and sorrows: these latter, of course, being immeasurably the most important matters.

2. Suitable portions of Scripture ought to be selected for this purpose. The Bible is not in all its parts equally adapted to promote our growth in grace. Ceremonial laws, genealogies, histories of crime, difficult symbols, have their place and importance, but no direct tendency to produce holy emotion. Yet the materials are ample for every purpose of piety; and it will be seen that, after every deduction, there remain as eminently conducive to a warm-hearted devoutedness :-(1). Great examples of courage, self-sacrifice, and godliness; (2). devotional utterances and spiritual instructions in the Pentateuch, Psalms, and

Prophets; (3). evangelical prophecies and promises, particularly those in Isaiah; (4). our Lord's life and teaching in the four Gospels; (5). nearly all the Epistles, save what in them is distinctly local and temporal; (6). the less figurative chapters of the Book of Revelation, as the first five, the seventh, and the last two.

3. A realizing faith is necessary. We must try to feel that the unseen realities of which we read are real; that God is actually the Being the Scriptures reveal Him to be; that the Saviour verily has the love and power attributed to him; that there is a judgment to which we are indeed hastening; that those holy precepts will meet us again in eternity, and, if we have not striven manfully to obey them, prove our sentence of condemnation; that on its own conditions, and in its own time, each promise and threatening shall be exactly fulfilled.

4. There must be serious and diligent self-application. We must try to perceive the connection between what we read and our daily pleasures, trials, and duties. Let us ponder well every injunction, and ask how we can best carry it out in a pure, kindly, righteous life. Let us try to impress on our minds the mighty facts of our Lord's incarnation, life, and death; till, by the help of God's Spirit, fullest love to God swells up irresistibly from our hearts. And let us take the promises in so simple, humble, and child-like a way, that we may stay ourselves upon them not only in the presence of greater calamities, but also in the constant turmoil and worry of the world.

If the modern Christian do but thus read, realize, and apply the Scriptures, we see no limits to his possible growth in grace.

THE OLD CHURCH.

Close by my childhood's quiet home there stands,
In quaint simplicity, a house of prayer,
Reared long ago by zealous Christian hands,
Preserved and prospered by Almighty care.
Within the precincts of that hallowed place,
How oft my childish steps were fondly led ;
How often there my wandering eyes would trace
The brief memorials of the honoured dead.

With rapt delight I heard the organ's peal,
And gazed with awe upon the holy man,

Who, taught by faith and warmed by godly zeal,
Laboured among us through his life's brief span.

How soon I learned each well-conned form to know,
The fair young faces and the silvery hair,
The occupant of every seat could show,

Point out the sexton in his old arm-chair.

And fondly thought that to my raptured sight,
No other scene such grandeur could unfold;
None ever has brought such unmixed delight,
Nor ever can bring till my heart grows cold.
Long in the grave those rev'rend heads have lain,
The bloom has faded from those glowing cheeks,
Those childish dreams can never come again,

But to my heart how plain their mem❜ry speaks.

CAN IT BE?

How hard it is to feel that in the world there are evils, such as oppression and wholesale murder! In our happy English homes, freed from cruel tyrants, and strangers to the extortion and blood-thirstiness which savage despots or inhuman monsters, in the capacity of officials, revel in, the facts which reach us respecting suffering brothers and sisters in far-off lands seem to us like fiction, and scarcely affect us more. This is one occasion of our comparative inertness in relation to our mission fields. How differently do we feel towards the inhabitants of a block of buildings who have been burnt out of house and home, or towards a mother who is being prosecuted by a professed shepherd of God's sheep, because she, in obedience to her womanly tenderness, would sing a few touching lines over the tiny coffin in which her babe was consigned to the grave! We open our purses freely as we look at the wretched fugitives making safe their retreat from the devouring flame, and scarcely know what we are not prepared to give, to do, or to suffer, if needful, to shield a smitten mother's heart from the teeth of the ravening wolf in sheep's clothing.

Why are we generous, full of feeling, and prompt in action in the latter instances, while slow to either in respect of sufferings, ten thousand-fold greater, which are taking place every day in this same great world? The answer is easy to find. The one set of cases is at our doorthe other is afar off. Yet distance does not, cannot decrease the magnitude of wrong inflicted, nor mitigate the woe experienced. Perhaps, though, it is mercifully ordained that we should be less affected by the distantly-removed than by the near. If we felt proportionately according to the magnitude of the evil done and the suffering endured, energy might be paralysed, and possibly reason unseated. But there is the possibility of not being sufficiently affected; of not designing enough to bear one another's burdens.

Here we are blessed beyond, not only any other people on the globe at present, but favoured more greatly than any people who have ever lived since the fall. From our snug retreat let us glance beyond the seas. Let distance be forgotten. What difference can miles of earth or water make in the matter of human sympathies? The same papers which tell us that Prince Alfred received a becoming reception and entertainment at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and that twenty-three liberated Africans and their descendants presented an address to the Prince, thanking him and, through him, our beloved Queen for the deep interest taken by England in the suppression of the abominable slave trade, contain intelligence of a very different character. We paid twenty millions of money to secure the emancipation of the slaves in our own possessions in the West Indies. A bold and noble act. The noblest deed of modern days. This may be safely said, seeing it was the fruit of the best principles and of the best feelings of our nature operating without any pressure that reached our self-interest. But is slavery destroyed because it has been made to cease in Jamaica? Alas! no.

"Slave trade active on the windward coast." If that short sentence

were all the information furnished by the mail, how much tyranny, torture, and bloodshed would it represent! One recoils at the tableaux of woes which immediately come into view. But there are more definite accounts. Read this:

"We have reason to believe that, between the first day of January this year and the last day of August last, not less than TWELVE THOUSAND Africans from Cape St. Paul, Lagos, South Coast, have been carried across the ocean in spite of cruisers."

And this:

"On the 12th of August, a large screw steamer left Whydah with 1,200 slaves, and got off clear. Whilst embarking these unfortunates, eighteen were drowned in the surf by the upsetting of their canoes."

"The American brig Laurette shipped from Whydah on the 28th of September, 600 slaves, and got clear away; and a few days after the American barque Buckeye shipped an immense number of slaves, and likewise got clear off."

Those

Have you thought, dear reader, what such statements imply? They mean more than the forced exile of so many brothers of our own. Look at what preceded the placing on board that screw steamer 1,200 branded, manacled, fettered men, women, and children. Those heaving breasts and brimful eyes mean more than personal suffering. Self, probably, is least thought of, pagan though they are. brawny men, sobbing almost to suffocation, have left span-high babes behind, whom they shall never see more; and they still hear the shriek of bosom companions-wives dear to them as ladies are to their lords on English ground-wives whom they, with all their heathenism, mercifully wish silent in death in order to save them from a fate more cruel. One thousand two hundred slaves on board! That means one thousand two hundred families immersed in wretchedness, and, possibly, hopelessness. The number signifies at least five times as many mourning, with no consideration to moderate their grief. The plague or the pestilence would, in comparison with the slave hunter, be a visitor of mercy. Away they go, knocked, kicked, whipped, pricked with goads, half-fed, cramped in limbs, panting for God's pure air which devils, misnamed men, deny them. One, two, three. . sixteen days of what? Suffering? Yes, but the concentrated essence of suffering. The tortures of the Black-hole, without its alleviating death-to be followed by a life of galling bondage. Poor Africa! Can it be we know the woes Thy children are even now having multiplied unto them, and feel so little, do so little, give so little to save them? Great God, with shame we confess

'TIS EVEN So.

S. B

THE LAST QUESTION.-A little boy, on his death-bed, was urging his father to repentance, and fearing he had made no impression, said, "Father, I am going to Heaven; What shall I tell Jesus is the reason why you won't love Him?" The father burst into tears, but before he could give the answer his dear boy had fallen asleep in Christ.