cruelties for which they had formerly reproached the Papists. But I had no idea at that time that persecution had disgraced any but the State Church. I found afterwards, to my astonishment, that even the Puritans, who had been driven into America by the persecutors of the Established Church, had become persecutors in their turn, and actually gone so far as to put some of the innocent Quakers, who paid them a Christian visit or two, to death. After this I found instances of persecution among the Methodists, but I supposed them to be confined to the Old Connexion, and to be the result of the Conference being made up entirely of preachers. Since then we have seen the spirit of persecution raging elsewhere, and exhibiting a fierceness and cruelty which we once supposed could have no place in a civilized country. And now, at length, the truth presents itself, that persecution is confined to no system: it belongs to human nature. The spirit of persecution is born with man, and there is nothing but the religion of Christ that can cast it out. Men will be persecutors under all systems, so long as they are under the influence of worldliness and selfishness. The love of power, the love of wealth, and the love of pleasure will always prompt those who cherish them, to persecute the followers of Christ. No man can have power or dominion without abusing them. The use and the abuse of them are inseparable. Whoever receives power, whoever allows himself to be made a lord over his fellow-men, is a persecutor in his measure, though he may not know it, and there is nothing but a certain set of circumstances wanted to make him a persecutor in action. All power, all authority, all lordship, except the power, the authority and the Lordship of Christ, are out of place in the Church, and that Churh in which they exist is a persecuting Church. Every body of men that has power,authority,and lordship over others, and that is resolved to maintain its power, is obliged to persecute, if those who are under their authority and power think and act freely, as the servants of Christ. It does not matter whether it be a Conference or a Corporation, whether it consist of preachers or laymen, or of both unit

ed, it is still the same, it cannot help but persecute, if the people who are placed under it think and act freely as Christians. If we would have done with caste we must keep low, live according to reason and religion, and not according to custom or fashion. However wealthy we may be, we must still be content with what is simply needful to health and activity, and employ all the rest in doing good. If a man will live in high style, or hoard up wealth like the miser, he becomes a man of caste inevitably. The only cure for the evil of caste is the lowliness, the self-denial, and the benevolence of Jesus. And the cure for persecution is much the same, there is nothing else can make us truly tolerant, but such a change of heart as will make us like little children, lowly, loving, unassuming, and forgiving. If churches or communities are to be tolerant, the individual members must be tolerant, and that can only be the case, in proportion as they get clear, correct, and comprehensive views of Gospel truth, and drink in the lowly, loving, disinterested spirit of the Redeemer. The moment we feel a disposition to bind others by our own judgment, to restrain men by creeds or regulations of our formation,the moment we attempt to take a man from under the care and government of Christ and his Gospel, and to have him brought under our government, that moment we may safely reckon ourselves so far, carnal, persecuting men.

REFORMS.

Reforms are never all pure. Evil elements always mix with the elements of truth and piety, and tend to frustrate the kind purposes of providence, and bring to nought the labours of God's people. It is vain to expect the present movement in favour of Evangelical Reform to be an exception. What shall we do? What can we do, but faithfully discharge our duty, and leave all else with God? God alone can accomplish what he pleases. We have no power but in him.

The obligation to observe God's laws compels us to throw aside the traditions of men.-One of Luther's fellow-labourers.

ADVICE TO ELDER MEMBERS

OF THE CHURCH.

I. Always be going forward. Don't think that you have gone far enough either in knowledge or in religion. You may always be learning something new, and you may always be obtaining increasing measures of true piety. There are no bounds to religion; it has neither end nor side. There have been persons who have gone a great way in religion; but no one ever went so far that he could get no farther. There may be those among you who have gone a great way, but there is still room for you to go farther. There are lengths, and breadths, and depths, and heights in the religion of Christ, which no one living has explored, and which never were explored by any mortal man, from the days of its first revelation to this hour. The apostles themselves never went so far but there were regions still beyond them; and if they had lived to this hour they would still have been making fresh discoveries, and gathering fresh stores of holy love and joy. Even the angels in heaven have not reached the boundaries of improvement : there are matters in connexion with the religion of Christ, which they are studying still, and which may continue to exercise their minds for many ages. Truth is infinite, and the mind of man is capable of infinite expansion, and we may be receiving clearer and fuller views of the things of God world without end. For a professor of religion to suppose that he has nothing more to learn, or no further progress to make in holy love or holy enjoyment, is great folly. We may be learning daily, and we may be daily growing more like God in holiness.

And continual progress in knowledge and holiness is not only possible, it is our duty. The man that stands still in religion, sins, and, unless he repent and start afresh, he will be undone. The command to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ," is binding on us as long as we live. There must be a ceaseless pressing forward, if we would be approved of God. Every step we take must be regarded only as a preparation for taking another step. Our desire for more must increase with all we get, and we must

covet to be filled with all the fulness of God. There are limits fixed to the growth of a tree and to the growth of the human frame; but to the growth of the immortal mind no limits are fixed, either in this world or in the world to come. Press forward then for ever, and every year run faster in the way of heavenly improvement than you did the year before.

II. Be very tender of the souls of young disciples. Love them, respect them, consult their welfare in all things. Do not slight them or despise them in any way. Don't be above talking with them, or associating with them. Be as fathers to them, or as nurses. 1. They need your kind attention, and your utmost care. On your conduct towards them depends, in a great measure, their stability. What would become of a new-born babe, if it had no one to nurse it and care for it? It would perish, unless preserved by miracle. And it is much the same with the young convert: he is a new-born babe, and if he have not the attendance of a tender and careful nurse, and a supply of the sincere milk of the word, he, too, will be likely to perish. The moment a soul is brought into the household of faith, the elder children of God should take it under their care, and do for it all in their power. For want of such attention many a new-born soul has suffered grievously. When I was first converted to God, which was about the close of my thirteenth year, a number of the elder members of the church stood by to look on me and on a number of other young converts, and instead of kindly taking us under their care, they stood on one side as heartless spectators, amusing themselves with our failings. "They are too hot to hold out," said one of those old professors; "They will find out their error in a few months," observed another; while a third exclaimed, "What can such children as these understand about religion; it is all excitement; nothing but animal feeling." thus they went on, foretelling our failures, and by their cruel neglect, bringing their hard-hearted prophecies to pass. Many of us did fall away, but I blame, in a great measure, the misconduct of those unfeel

And

It is

ing old professors for our fall. not at all unlikely, if the elder professors had acted as they ought, but that both I and numbers more might have been preserved in the ways of God from those early days. There are multitudes of young disciples that fall away for want of proper attention from their elders.

2. Christ has commanded us to pay attention to his young disciples. If we would prove ourselves the friends of Christ, we must attend to the interests of his flock generally, and to the interests of the lambs of his flock especially. When Peter declared that he loved the Saviour, the Saviour required him, as a proof of his love, to feed his lambs. And he requires the same proof of affection from his disciples still. If the elder members of the church do not pay attention to the younger members, and use their endeavours to promote their welfare, their professions of love to the Saviour are vain. "If ye love me, keep my commandments:" "If ye love me, feed my lambs."

3. You owe this attention to the lambs of Christ's flock, to the happy spirits of those holy men who once cared for you when you were lambs. Most of you, if not all, received kind attention and help from some one in the days of your spiritual infancy and helplessness. It was so with me. Though at my first beginning many stood carelessly by, yet at another period there were some of a better spirit that came near to help me, and that kindly took me by the hand and led me on. There were those, who, at my second entrance into spiritual life, were tender nurses to me, and spared no pains to feed my newborn soul with heavenly truth, and to direct and lead me in the ways of God. Some that were kind and helpful to me are now in heaven, and others are still on earth. And how shall I repay their love? By showing a similar love myself to the new-born souls around me. Nothing, I am persuaded, can please them better, than to see their kindness multiplying and extending itself, and communicating its blessings to fresh multitudes from generation to generation. And so with all of you who are elders in the church of Christ. You cannot make any returns either to Christ or to the loving souls that

once were useful to you, which can be more pleasing to them, than your endeavours to be useful to the young ones of Christ's flock that are around you.

If

4. We cannot tell what good we may be doing when we are attending to the souls of young converts; and we cannot tell what mischief we are doing when we neglect them. Wa do not know what we have r among these little ones. There ma be in them the seeds, the germs of all that is great and excellent. There may be among them a young Wesley, or a young Whitfield, a young Luther, or a young Melancthon, a young Peter, or a young Paul, a young Howard, or a young Penn. These great and useful men were once young children, and they were once young converts. They were once no wiser, nor better, than the young ones in our own church. they were here among us now, in their former state, you would not be able to distinguish them from those which are now amongst us. There was no peculiar beauty or comelinesss about them, no outward or visible marks of their after greatness. They were poor young men, poor inexperienced boys. If you had seen them once, you would have seen nothing attracting about them; you would probably have seen something, even in the best of them, rather repulsive than otherwise. You would have seen nothing more about them than you may see about the young ones in your own congregation. Perhaps not so much. You would have seen nothing in Peter, perhaps, but a rough, round-faced, bare-headed fishing boy; and you would have seen nothing in Paul, perhaps, but a little, deformed, or slenderly-formed youth, somewhat violent and unmanageable, sitting on the ground folding and stitching pieces of coarse canvass, to cover a tent, or carelessly fixing the poles in the ground over which the canvass of the tent was to be thrown. In Luther you would have seen nothing but a poor bareheaded and barefooted boy, singing at people's doors for his bread one part of the day, and during the rest of the day sitting with a number of other boys, puzzled with his lesson. You would have seen nothing in Whitfield, perhaps, but a careless

boy in an inn, carrying spirits, or ale, or wine, to his father's customers. And yet these youths became the greatest men of their days, and conferred benefits on the human family which shall lay under obligation every future generation. And among the young followers of Christ which have been lately received into the church, there may be the elements, the germs of all that greatness and excellency which we so admire in Peter and Paul, in Luther or Whitfield, in Wesley or Penn. And these germs of greatness and of excellence are waiting for your kind care to call them forth and to bring them to maturity. By careful culture these young ones may become the honour of humanity, and the benefactors of their kind; and by your negligence or hard-heartedness they may be discouraged, or driven into the ranks of sin and hell. Could you bear the thought of having marred such noble creatures? Could you bear the thought of having destroyed the promise of so glorious a harvest? Would you not wish to have the recollection, when your days are ending, to think, I gave to the world a Peter or a Paul; I had a hand in training for the church a Luther or a Wesley, a Baxter or a Penn ?

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5. The Redeemer puts the claims of his young ones in the most solemn light conceivable. That which is done to them, is said to be done to Christ. Any disrespect or neglect shown to them, is taken by Christ as shown to himself. The words which he shall utter at the last day will be these "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me."-Math. XXV. In Math. x. 42, the Saviour says:-"Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these my little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." To lay a stumbling block in the way of one of his little ones, or to be an occasion of offence or stumbling to one of them, is, in the Saviour's judgment, one of the most terrible of all crimes, and to be followed with the most terrible of all punishments. "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he

were drowned in the depths of the sea."-Math. xviii. 6. If you would secure the approbation of God, if you would make manifest your love to Christ, if you would bless the Church, if you would help on the salvation of the world, and if you would yourself be permitted to enter the worlds of future blessedness, be tender of the young ones of the flock.

REMARKABLE PRESERVATION, WHEN Oliver Cromwell entered upon the command of the Parliament's army against Charles I., he ordered all his soldiers to carry a Bible in their pockets. Among the rest there was a wild, wicked, young fellow, who ran away from his apprenticeship, in London, for the sake of plunder and dissipation. This fellow was obliged to be in the fashion. Being one day ordered out upon a skirmishing party, or to attack some fortress, he returned back to his quarters in the evening without hurt. When he was going to bed, pulling the Bible out of his pocket, he observed a hole in it. His curiosity led him to trace the depth of this hole into the Bible; he found a bullet was gone as far as Ecclesiastes xi.

9.

He read the verse, "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment."

The words were

He

sent home to his heart by the Divine Spirit, so that he became a sound believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and lived in London many years after the civil wars were over. used pleasantly to observe to Dr. Evans, author of the "Christian Temper," that the Bible was the means of saving both his soul and body.

FILIAL AFFECTION REWARDED.

FREDERIC, the late king of Prussia, having rung his bell one day, and no body answering, opened the door, and found the page asleep on a sofa. He was going to awake him, when he perceived the end of a billet out of his pocket. Having the curiosity to know the contents, he took and read it, and found it was a letter from

his mother, thanking him for having sent her a part of his wages to assist her in her distress, and she concluded with beseeching God to bless him for his filial goodness.

The king returned softly to his room, took a roller of ducats, and slid them with the letter into the page's pocket. Returning to his apartment he rang so violently that the page awoke, opened the door and entered. "You have slept well," said the king. The page made an apology, and in his embarrassment, happened to put his hand into his pocket, and felt with astonishment the roller. He drew it out, turned pale, and looking at the king, burst into tears, without being able to speak a word. "What is the matter," said the king, "what ails you?" “Ah! sire," said the young man, throwing himself at his feet, "somebody wishes to ruin me: I know not how I came by this money in my pocket." My friend," said Frederic, "God often sends us good in our sleep send the money to your mother; salute her in my name, and assure her I shall take care of her and you."

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RAFFLES AND LOTTERIES.

1. Ques. WHAT is your opinion

about raffles and lotteries?

Ans. About the same as about all other sorts of gambling; I think them altogether anti-christian. In a raffle or a lottery, men give a shilling for the chance of a pound; and in tossing up, or throwing dice, or betting wagers, they do just the same. I see no difference between tossing up for money, and putting into a raffle or a lottery.

2. Raffles and lotteries call into exercise all the same bad passions which are called into exercise by other kinds of gambling. All that put in, hope to gain the prize; that is, all hope to gain what they have not fully paid for, and what, therefore, is not theirs. All wish to have the prize; that is, all wish to have that which is their brethren's, that which their brethren have given as much to obtain as themselves and

this is covetousness.

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3. In proportion to a person's wish to gain the prize, will be his wish that others should not gain it. If he wishes to win, he wishes that others

may lose. And this is not a spirit for a Christian to cherish. The Gospel says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

4. In proportion to a man's desire to obtain the prize, will be his grief that another should gain it; and it cannot be right to cherish a feeling that would lead us to grieve at what is called another's good fortune.

5. I could not have any thing to do with a raffle oralottery myself. I could not dispose of any thing by lottery or raffle; for I should not feel easy to take part of the price of my goods from ten or twenty persons, and yet give the goods to only one or two. I could not take a man's money for goods, unless I took care to let him have the worth of his money in return. And I am sure I could not feel comfortable to let a man take a pound's worth of goods when he had only given me a shilling or two.

6. And I could not put into a raffle or a lottery. If I have any money to spare, I must use it in honest and useful trade, or else spend it in charity. If I use it in trade, I must have a shilling's worth for my shilling, and not a mere uncertainty,-a chance of a pound, and twenty chances of nothing. Such trading as that, trading in chances, would tend to fill me with anxiety, and to eat out of my soul every particle of piety. And if I must spend my money in charity, I must give it freely, looking for nothing again. I must give it in such a way, if the gift be public at all, that it may be seen to be charity, and so operate as an example of disinterested charity on others, and not dispose of it in such a way as to give people occasion to say, "His object is not so much to help the needy, as to help himself at other people's expense."

7. If I am a poor man, it is a sin to risk the money which God has given me to procure food and other needful things; and if I am a rich man, it is my duty to help the needy freely, and not to do it by purchasing shares in a raffle or a lottery.

8. Raffles and lotteries present great temptations to deceit and dishonesty. The person who offers an article by raffle or lottery, may easily impose upon those who purchase shares. Perhaps the article to be disposed of is worth twenty pounds,