delivers infidel sermons under the guise of lectures to the people, who admire and acquiesce, and go again, not knowing, in their simplicity, that the new doctrines which they drink in will presently unsettle all the religious belief of their childhood,-happier far is the fate of the vulgar, than literary advancement bought at such a price. It is a plain maxim of common sense, not to tamper with infection; and he is a fool who, for the mere sake of proving his boldness and freedom from bigotry, rushes uncalled into the miasmatic influence of false teaching. 'Take heed,' said incarnate Wisdom, 'what ye hear.' The caution which is good for yourself, is good for your children and dependants. A little mineral admixture in their daily bread, a little morbific quality in their daily milk, would be justly dreaded as tending to wear away the health; yet the daily journal enters your doors, distilling by little and little, false, latitudinarian opinions. No marvel if you find your old age surrounded by sons who have made shipwreck of the faith. It is impossible to watch too earnestly the literature which comes into the hands of the young. If you desire them to be guarded and manly Christians, their food must be truth. It is as certain of the mind as of the body, that whatever is taken into it should tend directly to its growth and strength; all that is otherwise is noxious. Nutrition, moreover, is a gradual process, the result of repeated acts. If, then, the mind and character are to make progress and acquire firmness, there must be not slight and occasional, but regular and extensive study of God's revealed will. -J. W. Alexander, D.D. THE CHASE OF THE LOST. SOME years ago, a visitor at an insane asylum, observed a woman pacing to and fro in a long passage. As she would reach the wall at either end, she would look eagerly for an object of which she appeared to be in search, and then, failing to find it, she would wring her hands, and moaning piteously, commence again the round. So it was that she passed each day and She night, except during a few hours of exhaustion, when in her dreams the same sad search was kept up. was a mother who had lost her child, and then, in her grief, had become deranged. Such may be part of the eternal punishment of those who fix their hearts upon merely temporal pleasures. Let us take the love of money. Gold is hunted and gloated over, so that the lust of it becomes a controlling passion. But then comes the grave. There are no pockets in the shroud. Those who come after are eager enough to seize the wealth of him that goes. See the scene by his death-bed. The words he mutters are about his money. When his mind is recalled, and his lips are aroused from their torpor suffi ciently to articulate, we find that it is in the eager hunt for money that he is still engaged. As the tree falls so it lies. The consuming passion of time will be the consuming passion for eternity. But there is this differencein time there is an object to be seized. There may be a maniac pursuit, but there is also a maniac enjoyment. But it is otherwise in a lost eternity. There the money so long coveted is gone. The chase after it lasts for ever, but its enjoyment never comes. It is not necessary for us to call in imagination to describe the terrors of that state. It is enough for us to know that the passions of this life continue to rage in the heart desolated by them, while the objects of those passions are gone. It is an incessant agonizing alteration between a frenzied search and a still more frenzied despair. THE SWEETEST MUSIC. THE sweetest music is not the peal of marriage bells, nor tender descants in moonlight woods, nor trumpet notes of victory-it is the soul's welcome to heaven. God grant that when we die there may not come booming to our ear the dreadful sound-Depart!" but may we hear, stealing upon the air, the mellow chime of all the celestial bells, saying, 'Come, come, come, ye blessed, enter into the joy of your Lord.' Poetry. SHADOWS. * No more with golden dreams elate, Her wings depressed, her glory fled. I hunger for immortal food, Yet pine or feed on ashes vile; I weary for diviner good, Yet cleave to earthly joys the while. I thirst, I pant for cooling streams, They say that glory shines afar, That hence to heaven a ladder springs, And up and down its crystal stairs, Bright angels pass with golden wings, Wafting around delicious airs. That hands invitingly outspread Would lure and beckon me to rise, And taste the delectations shed From happier realms and higher skies. Oh! wooings kind, yet fruitless all, Jesus, thine arm alone can free My captive soul, and give redress; Thy light can make all darkness flee; Thy love my fainting heart can bless. From 'Lays of Lowly Life.' BY RUTH WILLS, Notices of Books. CASSELL'S ILLUSTRATED FAMILY BIBLE. | From the Authorized Version, with Notes, Vol. II. 2 Samuel to the Psalms. London: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin. Both for quality and price this Family Bible still remains unrivalled. The prodigality and general excellence of its illustrations, and the judiciousness and pithy brevity of its notes pointed out as distinguishing the first volume, every whit as much distinguish the second. The events of the stirring period of David's reign, of Solomon's, and the disastrous times of their successors, down to the captivity and the return, are vividly brought before us. Some of the engravings fasten themselves upon the mind by their bold and vigorous conception, and others by their quiet pastoral beauties, or sad and pensive moral. The illustrations of the book of Job and the Psalms seem less satisfactory perhaps than any others. But tastes will differ on this point. The smaller engravings are equally well sustained. Objects of natural bistory, bas-reliefs from Egypt and Nineveh, illustrations of Persian life, ancient harps, and many other valuable helps to the allusions of the sacred writers abound in every part of the volume. The notes on Job and the Psalms are excellent. Much valuable exposition is condensed into a small compass. We cordially commend this Family Bible to all who may not yet possess it. ALTAR-LIGHT: a Tribute to the memory of the Rev. A. Fletcher, D.D., London. By Rev. J. Macfarlane, D.D., Glasgow. London: Nisbet and Co. The title describes the contents of this book. It is marked by all the freshness and vigour of the writer, who while well-stricken in years still retains the vivacity and ardour of youth. The text is John v. 35, ' He was a burning and shining light.' Dr. Macfarlane glances at John's ministry as one of transition, of destruction, and of enlightenment, and shows how the work of true Christian ministers in every age is similar, and how all this was strikingly seen in the ministry of his old friend Dr. Fletcher. LAYS OF LOWLY LIFE. By Ruth Wills. London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. Leicester: Winks and Son. Very smooth and pleasant verses by a maiden in lowly life. She tells her tale with artlessness and good sense, tempered by genuine modesty and Christian feeling. In the midst of a monotonous life, surrounded by uncongenial society, her heart has sought wholesome food and noble aspiration in books of genius and song. These are beautifully referred to in the lyric entitled My Treasures.' 'Shadows,' • The Voyage of Life,'The Ark,' and other poems, reveal the depth of her religious feeling. Others, suggested by local associations, or breathing the intense love for country which most poetical minds feel when pent up week in and week out in the hot dusty town, are not destitute of quiet beauty and show some skill in versification. We give the one entitled Shadows' on the preceding page. It is not selected as the best, but is taken at random. CHRISTIAN WISDOM. An exposition of the words of the apostle Paul. By Caleb Webb. London: Houlston and Wright. A very thoughtful and suggestive book on words of the apostle in 1 Cor. i. 30, 31. Correspondence. SECOND GENERAL BAPTIST CHURCH FOR BIRMINGHAM. To the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR,Without reverting to former failures, or reflecting in any way upon the many attempts which have been made to establish a second General Baptist cause in Birmingham, it is quite certain that at the present time an opportunity presents itself for this Correspondence.-Second General Baptist Church for Birmingham. 255 purpose, which, if properly and the Connexional institutions. promptly taken up, would lead to a positive success. In the centre of the town, there stands a good freehold chapel, with school rooms attached, at present occupied by Unitarians, who are building a new place of worship nearer the west end of Birmingham. The building has a commanding outward appearance, the interior is commodious, and will accommodate eight or nine hundred persons. There is also spare land in front, which would allow of a very considerable enlargement of the place. The price for which it is offered is £4,000, but probably something less than that sum would be accepted. Is it not desirable then, that an especial effort should at once be made to secure to the town and the Connexion so desirable an object? A few years ago, the writer, accompanied by the Rev. H. Hunter and the late Rev. J. Goadby, visited different parts of Birmingham in search of a suitable locality where freehold land might be obtained for the erection of a chapel, but were unsuccessful in finding any place which would warrant a recommendation for acceptance. The chapel which is now for sale stands in a situation which Messrs. Hunter and Goadby fully approved, being as near as can be in the centre of the town. This, then, is one reason why the offer should be accepted. Although the present is an age in which religion has lost much of its influence by that love of splendour, external show, and the ostentation of riches, which has carried away captive many of those who profess to be the humble followers of Jesus, it is doubtless true, that some are induced to attend public worship where the building itself is in appearance the most attractive, therefore, it is proper as far as is consistent with the peculiar essence of Christianity, to pay some regard to the architectural designs of those buildings which are set apart for the worship of God, and as regards the chapel in question, it will bear comparison with most. Much might be said in favour of another General Baptist cause in Birmingham. The place is large, and its situation is central. In a pecuniary point of view, it would be beneficial to From the nature of the manufactures of the town the artizan obtains a fair remuneration for labour, and it is reasonable to conclude that in proportion to the temporal advantages which a people enjoy, so they will render that support to the cause of God which their position in society enables them to do. Shall this opportunity be lost, then? Are there no means which could be adopted to obtain money sufficient to make the required purchase? After all the talk, and all the professions of anxiety for so many years respecting Birmingham, shall there be no attempt now to give a practical exemplification of that concern on the part of those who have been so deeply solicitous for the establishment of a second cause? There are those who attend the chapel in Lombard-street, and who stand as members of the church there, to whom a second church might be beneficial, and by whom a second church might be benefitted, especially if that cold reluctancy to labour in the cause were but removed, and they were constrained to a lively, cheerful, and spontaneous activity. What employment in the busy scene in which man engages from the cradle to the tomb, is more worthy of him than to spread the knowledge of the Lord in the world? It affords a field for intellectual energy and all the finest feelings of benevolence. It exercises and strengthens Christian sympathy. It calls forth those latent virtues which else had slept in the bosom, like the diamond in the mine. And is this employment, thus useful and honourable to the Christian, and conducive to the glory of God, to be confined to a few in a church? Is there to be a monoply of Christian action and effort? Does not God design that all who profess His name should work in His cause? He has declared His will, and shall He not be obeyed? There is no reason why all should not be at work, although all are not quite agreed in every particular. Irregularities will sometimes arise in the process of carrying on God's cause, but they are of no importance when weighed with the happy result-the return of distorted systems to right, and to the will 256 Correspondence.-Village Dissenters and Strict Communion, &c. of God. Occasional ferments, with all their inconveniences, are infinitely preferable to the putrescence of stagnation; if, then, by the commencement of a new cause any who are at present at ease in Zion' are brought to discharge their Christian duty in connection therewith it will be well, and may be considered as another reason why the object we have in view should be attained. Anxiety that the opportunity may not be lost, and that the building may be secured is the only apology for these lines. Yours truly, Birmingham. J. S. CHEATLE. VILLAGE DISSENTERS AND STRICT COMMUNION. To the Editor of the General Baptist MY DEAR SIR,-The kind feeling you ters in connexion with the Home Missionary Society, and at one time was a flourishing and useful body. Depression of trade, coupled with other circumstances, however, led the society to withhold their assistance, and it was after a brief struggle that the church gave up its identity, and its members had to seek a spiritual home elsewhere. Identical in views with the General Baptist Body, except in one point, their decision was not a matter of difficulty as to where a home was to be found. The zeal and liberality that had characterized their membership elsewhere was at once transferred to the churches at these two places, and from individual members they received & hearty welcome. Very soon, however, they were to receive from the church the sad, though chilling information, that being unbaptized they could not receive the communion of the Lord's supper with those beside of whom they lived in Christian affection; and so the case stands to-day. An excellent Christian woman, living in a village close by, asks what she is to do? The Established Church there has for its teacher a worldly man of indifferent moral character. This cannot be her home. Wesleyanism is not a system that commends itself to her as being the way in which she has learnt Jesus. 'Give me the crumbs that fall from the table,' seems to be the request. 'We will not cast them to dogs,' the reply. Let dissent be weakened; let the spiritual life of these people die out, every month though gall and wormwood may enter their souls, we will abide by our formula, and gather our righteous garments about us and keep ourselves undefiled from contact with unbaptized heretics.' You know, my dear Sir, that I am not a member of your communion, but I do venture to make my appeal against this unrighteous practice, and to ask your powerful assistance to wipe out this spot in your feast of charity. Allow me to crave pardon from your readers for thus intruding on their notice; to ask the deacons and members of all close communion churches to consider where their steps are tending, and the grevious injustice they do to themselves and others by the course they pursue. I beg to remain, Yours, my dear Sir, very truly, HALF A BAPTIST. May 23, 1861. READING NOT PREACHING. To the Editor of the General Baptist Magazine. DEAR SIR, ⚫ The reading Cleric's short essay, Or heal a conscience smitten.' A poor man was once asked by a popular reading minister, 'Why he |