with its admitted value and probable effects. A single half-hour thus spent, thrice or four times a year, may suggest thoughts and originate actions, may enlist agents, and bring support to missions, which, in the harvest of the world, will cause him who sows and those who reap to rejoice together.

But the subject of juvenile effort must not be dismissed without the recommendation that, when practicable, either as a part of the anniversary arrangements, or at some other period, at least one service a year should be specially adapted to the young. Were it desirable, it would be scarcely possible, to accommodate ordinary sermons and speeches to the juvenile taste and capacity. If, then, they are to be duly instructed and deeply interested in missionary matters, it must be by a meeting of their own. Nor will the pastor, intent upon forming the character of the rising race for future usefulness, fail to recommend and circulate those small but invaluable periodicals, which are written for their benefit. These are already widely disseminated, and were they recommended from the pulpit, and spread through each congregation by some simple organization which he could easily construct, or others at his suggestion, these halfpenny, but priceless heralds of gospel truth and triumphs might command a far larger sale, and exert a proportionately beneficial influence.

It is possible that these simple suggestions may seem to some either too obvious, or too unimportant to be thus pressed upon the serious attention of Christian ministers. But those who have tried or traced the operation of such methods, will have reached a sounder conclusion. That they foster the spirit and augment the resources upon which, under God, the missionary enterprise is dependent, is certain; and this single consequence should alone suffice to constrain ministers to employ them. And surely that pastor cannot be blameless, who, possessing such a power, refuses or neglects to employ it. The gospel with which he is entrusted, the wants and

woes of miserable millions, the love and last requirements of Jesus Christ, demand something better at his hands.

But, directly missionary purposes are not the only beneficial consequences of such a course. By the same means, just views on many related and most important subjects, are disseminated far beyond those whom the pastor is seeking to interest. Let this class be well taught, and suitably directed in the great purposes and plans of the Redeemer, and it will tend, in no slight degree, to leaven the congregation with which they are connected, with a spirit of zeal and devotedness. Many among the parents, families, and circles of friendship, will thus be drawn to love and labour in the cause of Christ. And in this way, the moral health and permanent prosperity of a people will be promoted, while he, whose efforts gave the primary impulse to these generous feelings and movements, will be among the first and chief to derive advantage from his own wise

course.

But, on the other hand, pastoral neglect of methods for engaging the hearts and hands of the young in the cause of missions, will scarcely fail to shake their confidence in his consistency, if not to forfeit their esteem for his character. Perhaps, there are no classes at the present time that read more on missionary matters than the children of our Christian families and sabbath-schools. On this subject the press has provided for them a rich supply. Missionary books, in almost endless variety, and at a price which brings them within the reach of the poor, are extensively circulated and eagerly read. These publications, with their pictorial and descriptive sketches of heathen wretchedness and missionary success, are extensively creating, in those who peruse them, a fixed sentiment concerning and a correct estimate of the great work to which Christians are called; while, by this means, they have reached a deeply felt, even if it be not a deliberately formed opinion, that all, and especially ministers, should earnestly promote

Church and became a Dissenter, and ceased, therefore, to have a brother's claim to an active interest on his behalf." That he became a Dissenter is granted: he became so, under moral compulsion; but this is hardly a sufficient reason for refusing to take an interest in his case, as that of a persecuted man, so long as Dissenters are allowed, by possibility, to be really Christians. But what is to be said as to the period of four months during which he remained silent, unwilling to dissent, and evidently dubious of his future course? During that period, the fact of his persecution was known to his brethren; but he was left unadvised and uncared for. It would scarcely seem an unpardonable offence, if he then accepted from other quarters a readily offered sympathy, which, even admitting the regularity of his proceedings up to that time, was not tendered by his brethren. If Mr. Shore, under the extreme pressure of episcopal persecution, and the seeming indifference of his brethren in the Church, was driven, or thought himself driven, to ultra and imprudent measures, it would almost seem a duty that his brethren should, in the crisis of his difficulty, when he was lodged a ruined man-in a gaol, have come up boldly to the rescue, to compensate for that tardiness in the first instance, which had tended most probably to hasten his dissent.

"2nd. But it is said, 'Mr. Shore is only imprisoned for a civil claim -a claim for costs legally due to an attorney-a simple debt. Let him pay the costs, and he will be set at liberty, and there will be an end to this troublesome case.' And can any man who knows the imperious claims of conscience on a Christian man, and the spirit of hostility in which they are met by the men of the world, honestly allow himself to take only that narrow view of this extraordinary and unprecedented case of incarceration? Can you lose sight of the fact, that these costs were incurred by an appeal against a sentence, which oppressed the conscience, and sent the

object of it back, either to hopeless silence, to minister under circumstances of doctrinal concession which his conscience disapproved, or to submit to imprisonment? If the principle involved in a legal decision as to the interpretation of a human law is an unsound and unjust one, is it morally wrong--is it not morally right-to dispute it in every successive stage of appeal which is fairly open to the oppressed? And if so, then you cannot treat this as a mere question of debt independent of the moral cause out of which the debt arises.

"3rd. But it is said, Mr. Shore is in prison because he has resisted, in successive stages of appeal, the sentence of a law which has been fairly expounded. He has resisted the law of the land." This, however, involves the question, whether or not the law is just? If a doubt fairly obtains as to the justice of the law, in what more proper way is the objector to proceed in order to obtain a national move for the repeal of it but to raise his objection in every higher court of appeal, till he obtains an acquittal, or a final and conclusive decision that the true meaning of the law is against him? Till then, he would be met on every side by another answer, 'You are not ready for an appeal to the public, or to the legislature for an alteration of the law; you do not know what the law is; you have not yet fully tried the case.' But now that question is settled, there is an ample decision as to the true force of the law; and the question now rises properly before the nation as to the justice of the law as it stands. It is easy to say, 'Mr. Shore is suffering for a declared disobedience to the law.' Granted; but can good and Christian men be satisfied with this as a reason for turning away with indifference if the law is unjust? No; the question now rises with intense interest, demanding the attention of every citizen of the empire, and especially of the faithful ministers of divine truth: ought a law, compulsory upon the conscience by the penal sanction of imprison

ment for religious opinion and acting, to remain on the statute-book? This is the point to which Mr. Shore's costs bring us. They are the costs of resistance to an unchristian and oppressive law. Every shilling spent is an appeal to God's word as the paramount rule; is an appeal to the Christianity of the country against an unscriptural and unwarrantable statute, which oppresses the conscience in matters of religious opinion, without allowing any avenue of escape. The costs incurred are the martyr's expression of a holy resolution not to submit to an unjust law. Mr. Shore's imprisonment is an appeal from the divine charter of religious liberty to the conscientious sympathy of every scriptural believer in the land.

ト

"4th. But it is said, 'After all, this is only a question for Dissenters; and for those unsound members of the Establishment who wish to dissent.' To this there are two answers. First, If the law is at variance with the principles laid down in the Scriptures, as touching the conscience, no man is exempt from responsibility in unresistingly allowing a law to continue which may oppress the conscience of any man. The tacit assent to such a law is not free from guilt. However satisfied we ourselves may be to continue in the Church, dissent is virtue is solemn duty-is an act of divine grace when conscience, even misguided conscience, demands it; and every godly man is bound to use his influence to remove the oppressive prohibition, which the principle of the divine rule forbids. But, secondly, The statute which closes the door of egress from the Church, destroys the spontaneous voluntaryism of the ministry within it, and robs it therefore of one of its brightest attributes before men. If we are not free to leave the Established Church, we become inevitably bondslaves in it before our people. The ministry of all other Christian sects wears the aspect of a free choice, the advantageous aspect of a choice with sacrifice; but ours that of a legal and unavoidable compulsion. Men

may give us credit for our sincerity at the outset, when we entered the Church, and resigned our freedom; but never afterwards. It remains to us only to make, with truth and with conscience, the best of a bad bargain. Every word we utter in commendation of the system, may be, for what any one can know, compulsive insincerity. We may flutter and sing, like the bird-catcher's decoy birds; but all our eloquence and all our simulation of freedom will be vain, when the system is understood. However, therefore, men may try to turn away from this question, as a Dissenters' question, they will find the sincerity of their own ministrations, and their acceptability with the multitude, absolutely bound up in it. Leave this oppressive law unrepealed; or let it be publicly known that you have not ventured to move against it, and to the extent that you thus lower your own moral standing, you shake the influence of the established ministry throughout the empire.

“5th. But it is said, 'The Dissenters came forward so eagerly to avail themselves of this juncture, that there was no opportunity for the Church to move in the matter.' This can hardly be a satisfactory answer to any fair mind. It is true that immediately the fact of Mr. Shore's imprisonment was made known, the independent spirit of the country was roused, and the dissenting bodies flocked to the gathering sign' of religious liberty. And is it not fair to ask, if they had not, who would? Think you not that they would most cheerfully have conceded the fore front of the battle to Mr. Shore's own brethren? Let it be remembered that this last movement is the ultimate crisis of a lengthened struggle. The question has been for months before the country. The law has been repeatedly discussed and declared by the all but unanimous opinion of the people, to be an unjust and oppressive law-a remnant of the tyranny of Rome-a law so objectionable that it has only been acted upon in this one solitary instance of secession; and, as it appears plainly enough by the bishop's