were presented by Mr. S. A. Blackwood; also the devotional singing of such hymns as "I need Thee every hour," "Only Thee, my soul's Redeemer," "Not a sound invades the stillness," &c.

I will close this paper (imperfect and fragmentary as I feel it to be) with an extract from one of R. P. Smith's addresses, containing, I think, the central truth of the Convention-that to Christ, the living Saviour, present with us and dwelling within us, must we come that we may have life and full salvation; leaving hold of ourselves, and, as was forcibly said, "dropping right into the centre of the will of God."

<< 'And now I am anxious that all those who here have not found full union with Christ may come to the crisis of their soul's experience. . . Is it so hard to give up all to God this morning? Then make it easy by doing it at once. Give yourselves wholly to God. . . All those who desire this blessing, let them remember this: They who seek shall find.' Find what? Joy? No. I could be glad you had no joy; you would be so strong to teach others. I had two months in which I knew no difference between my former and my new state, and it has been a blessing to me since, because I have been able to help others. Find what? A life of self-complacent introspection? Beloved, you will never so much abhor yourself as you will if you find this rest; you will never be satisfactory to yourselves. Find what? It is all answered in one word-Christ. We do not want you to get an experience only, that will soon fade; but if you get Christ, He is 'the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' with this exception, that He is much better to-day than He was yesterday, and for ever He will be better and better. "Now, beloved, lay aside this moment the last weight, the weight of unbelief. This morning launch out your bark upon the ocean of God's love and mercy; this morning get out of your own depth into the waters that you can swim in. The Lord be with us, while for five minutes we indulge in silent prayer."

The hymn was then sung

"I am Thine own, O Christ!

Henceforth entirely Thine."

It is not for us to estimate the results of this Convention, they are in God's hand, and it is for Him alone to declare what the harvest shall be. Hannah W. Smith writes:

"The work at Brighton was wonderful. Testimonies keep pouring in from all sides, of blessing received there. And if the results are as lasting as those at Oxford have been, no words can ever express the wide-spread blessings that will flow from this wonderful meeting. It is the Lord! and what can we do but praise Him?"

RICHARD WESTLAKE.

POSTSCRIPT.--The following passage from the experience of Pasteur Theodore Monod so embodies, from the life, what I have endeavoured to say in the foregoing paper with regard to dedication of heart and will, that I append it here. All who, at Brighton, listened to the vivid expositions of Scriptural truth from this devoted servant of Christ, must have felt how it had become vitalised in his experience:

"I was further led to understand that God asks me to give Him my heart, and if I answer, 'It is Thine,' my heart is henceforth in His keeping, so that it is my duty and my privilege to look upon it as belonging to Him-for Him to empty and to fill it, to guard and to guide it, to cleanse, to strengthen, to comfort it, to use it for His service, and to work in it, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

"That is all. I had never preached nor theoretically admitted anything contrary to this, but I had never put it to the test of practice. From the hour when I took it to be a reality, I found it to be so indeed."-" Pathway of Power" for September, 1874.

Notices of Books Received.

BOOKS received as follows to be reviewed in next number:

-

The Lost Continent; or, Slavery and the Slave-Trade in Africa in 1875. By JOSEPH COOPER.

An Introduction to the Study of Logic and Metaphysics. By THOMAS SQUIRE BARRETT.

Retrospect of Half-a-Century of Work of the Negro's Friend Society.

THE

FRIENDS' QUARTERLY EXAMINER.

A

Religious, Social, & Miscellaneous Review.

No. XXXVI-TENTH MONTH, 1875.

N.B.-The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the opinions expressed in any article bearing the signature of the writer.

THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.

UPON this deeply important subject we have received for review from an esteemed contributor a little volume, entitled "Catholic Thoughts on the Church of Christ," with a request that it should be reviewed in our columns. Having been published upwards of forty years ago, we presume it is now hardly procurable from the publishers. One main object in commenting on its contents would be to induce the reader to go to the volume itself; but as that would now be difficult, we can, in this instance, hardly do better than adopt the suggestion of our correspondent, and place before our subscribers copious extracts from its pages. We do this with the greater satisfaction since they embody, in a condensed form, many of the principles with which our section of the Church is identified, and sentiments which we can commend to the thoughtful and prayerful consideration of all.

In the preface the author informs us that its object is to present some suggestions respecting the aim and constitution of the Church of Christ, "which may assist ecclesiastical students in the formation of opinions at once just and comprehensive." After alluding to the great wisdom there is in cultivating that "gentleness of judgment" in religious questions, which it is a blessing for any man to learn or to teach, he remarks on the expediency and importance of maturing, in times of quiet, opinions which must shortly become matters of party discussion, and of marking out clearly some desirable aims and some firm positions while the ground is yet unobscured by the heat and cloud of the conflict."

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The writer being a clergyman of the Church of England these words are peculiarly suggestive when we consider the immense changes which have taken place within its borders, and we could earnestly have wished for the book a wider circulation within its pale in those comparatively quiet times in which it was written; several years before "Tract No. 90" made its appearance, or the ritualistic fever had obtained so fearful a hold upon its clergy, and which is now so sadly spreading amongst many of its lay members.

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The writer states that it appears to him that the primary idea of the Church of Christ is that of a brotherhood of men worshipping Christ as their revelation of the Highest; and that equality of spiritual privilege is so characteristic of its constitution that the existence of any priestly caste in it is destructive of it; and also, That the faith which it should make obligatory on its members is emphatically faith in Christ Himself—in His incarnation, and acts, and teaching, and promises, and death, and resurrection, as recorded and expounded by His own evangelists and apostles -and very subordinately only, faith in any definite theoretic Creed.” (P. i.)

"This Church (he says) is immeasurable by human language, invisible in its completeness to human eye. It can be defined only approximately: its whole form is known only to God. Time and space are not its appropriate measures. It is a spiritual body, a small portion of which is only on earth, and whose Head is in the heavens. The Church of Christ now existing upon earth is but a section, as it were, of a larger body made up from all the generations of mankind, and to be completed from those which are yet to come. unto the end of all things. In fact that which is now visible is but the complement of the Church catholic, the great majority of its component members having either disappeared through death or being only anticipated through faith. And even such portion of the Church as is visible is indefinable, for it is never in one stay-portions of it while we look continually disappearing, and others being reproduced and amplified perpetually. This its fluctuating condition-the necessary consequence of its being born and not made, of its being a living body and not a thing merely-must ever render any definition, even of a part of it, incomplete it can only be even partially described. Perhaps the only definition that will hold even approximately is this: that it is the great company of men now living in the world who have been baptised into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." (P. 1.)

"The unanimity of each Church and the intercommunion of all, this is the idea of the unity of the Church catholic. And this is something far other and more than an universal submission to the same authority, or universal adoption of similar discipline. The unity of a particular Church consists in all its members using the same discipline and joining in the same worship. The unity of the Church Universal is constituted by a communion being preserved among all