OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 227

But, no sooner is the opposite principle allowed-no sooner is it admitted that the ministry of the Gospel is the work of the Lord that it can be rightly exercised only in virtue of his appointment, and only through the effusions of his Spirit: and that man has no power to command, and no authority to restrain, the influence which leads into such a service-no sooner are these things understood and allowed, then the compact which binds the minister to preach, on the condition that his hearers shall pay him for his preaching, assumes the character of absolute inconsistency with the spirituality of the Christian religion. "Though I preach the Gospel," says the apostle Paul, “ I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel! For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward: but, if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is commited unto me."

Such being the sentiments of Friends respecting the direct spirituality and perfect freedom of the ministry of the Gospel, it evidently becomes their duty, in a plain and consistent manner, to uphold those sentiments in their practice. Not only, therefore, do they refuse to pay or hire their own ministers, but they also decline making any contributions to the paying or hiring of ministers of other denominations. Did they act otherwise, they might justly be deemed unfaithful to the light bestowed upon them, and they would, in fact, be subverting with one hand, the edifice which they are professing to erect with the other.

It appears, then, that the allowance of the public preaching and praying of women, in the Society of Friends, necessarily results from their principles respecting the character of all true ministers that we dare not, in this respect more than any other limit the Holy One of Israel in the exercise of his own prerogatives-that our practice, in reference to the present subject, is justified by the records of Scripture, respecting the effusions of the Spirit of God in times of old-that, even under the

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OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

legal dispensation, many female servants of the Lord were called to the exercise of prophetical gifts-that, of the Gospel times, the common participation of those gifts by men and woman, was one decisive mark—and that the injunctions of the apostle Paul, against the public speaking and teaching of women, can only be understood (himself being witness) of speaking and teaching which were not inspired-which were not prophesying. J. J. GURNEY.

THERE is no need of smiting a rock in the wilderness, to supply the thirst of the heart. So far as outward things are concerned, no spring-floods of good fortune are necessary for the purpose: if the mind is kept in action, and the affections unchilled by selfishness, every day of life may be a festival of gladness, because, when the power of enjoyment is kept in order, the means of enjoyment are never wanting. The great truth that happiness depends on what we are and not what we have that when the spirit is kept in tune, the harmonies of nature and of life will always be listened to with delight: that, to be at peace with ourselves, with others and with God, brings out those full organ tones of glory and love on which the soul floats as on the ocean, upborne from all things unworthy, and brought continually nearer to the skies.

Ar a banquet, an ambassador desired the wise men to deliver, every one of them, some sentence or parable which he might report to his King; one was silent, which the ambassador perceiving remarked. The wise man replied "report to your king. that there is one that can hold his peace."

BARON'S APOTHEGMS.

Che Wish of Co-Day.

I ASK not now for gold to gild
With mocking shine a weary frame;
The yearning of the mind is stilled-
I ask not now for Fame.

A rose-cloud, dimly seen above,

Melting in heaven's blue depths awayOh sweet, fond dream of human Love! For thee I may not pray.

But bowed in lowliness of mind,

I make my humble wishes known

I only ask a will resigned,

Oh, Father, to thine own!

To-day, beneath thy chastening eye,
I crave alone for peace and rest,
Submissive in thy hand to lie,
And feel that it is best.

A marvel seems the Universe,
A miracle our Life and Death;
A mystery which I cannot pierce,
Around, above, beneath.

In vain I task my aching brain,

In vain the sage's thought I scan;

I only feel how weak and vain,
How poor and blind, is man.

And now my spirit sighs for home,
And longs for light whereby to see,

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THE WISH OF TO-DAY.

And, like a weary child, would come,
Oh, Father, unto Thee!

Though oft, like letters traced on sand,
My weak resolves have passed away,
In mercy lend thy helping hand

Unto my prayer to-day!

J. G. WHITTIER.

I SLEPT and dreamed that Life was Beauty.
I woke and found that Life was Duty.
Was my dream then, a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be,
A noon-day light and truth to thee!

LIFE-life, my friend,

May hold a not unornamented course,

Wherever it shall flow: be the bed rocky,

Yet are there flowers, and none of brighter hue,
That to the rock are native.

H. TAYLOR.

ОH SOLITUDE! how sweet are thy shades, when we have long gazed upon the blazing light of day, whirled in its deafening crowd, and lived with the mind much occupied in other things; how pleasant to go with earnest and deep searching into the chambers of the soul, disrobe and discipline, and lead it to the fountain of light, purity and joy.

Benry Martyn.

HENRY MARTYN entered on the Christian warfare with signal advantages. He could bring a cultivated intellect to the contemplation of spiritual and abstract truth. Like Justin Martyr, he has visited the schools of science and been crowned with their laurels; but he has returned dissatisfied. The spoils he has gathered in Greek and Roman fields he gladly lays down at the feet of his Redeemer. Martyn was a scholar. He had been with Newton through the Heavens, with Butler in the profound depths of the Analogy, and with Xenophon in his Retreat of the Ten Thousand. But he brought his philosophy and poetry, his history and his languages, and laid them at the feet of the Saviour. He gathered the fairest flowers of literature, and strewed them on the ascent to Calvary. No man loved his country more than Martyn. None could sympathise more sincerely in those treasured associations which will forever endear the land of Wickliffe and Cranmer, Hampden and Sydney, to all English hearts. The ties which bound him to the hills and glens of Cornwall, were of the most cherished character. Brother, sister, scholar and friend, all were merged in the exalted philanthropy which filled his soul. He looked upon the perishing millions of India, and felt, that there was his brother and sister and mother!

When we behold the lowly Henry Martyn in Persia-surrounded by captious and insulting philosophers, and contrast his humility with the lofty intellectual spirit of the Cambridge scholar, we are compelled to stop and admire the riches of that sovereign grace, which lays low everything that exalts itself against God. We love to watch the progress of that Star in the East, of which Buchanan and Schwartz and Brown and Martyn were the heralds. The best eulogy which can be written of them, is, to point to Ceylon, to the plains of Travancore, and to the garden of Shiraz. SARGENT.