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care; but suppose all men are the same, and talk much of being saved by true repentance, and doing all they They undervalue Christ, extol morality and good works, and do next to none. They plead for old customs, they will do as their fathers did, though ever contrary to the Word of God; and whatever hath not custom to plead for it, though ever so much recommended in Scripture, is accounted by them a heresy. They are greatly afraid of being too good, and of making too much ado about their souls and eternity; they will be sober, but not enthusiasts. The Scriptures they quote most, and understand least are, "Be not righteous overmuch; God's mercies are over all his works; There is a time for all things," &c. They call themselves by the name of Christ, but worship Baal.

The second sort of lukewarm persons assent to the whole Bible, talk of repentance, faith, and the new birth, commend holiness, plead for religion, use the outward means, and profess to be and to do more than others. But they yield to carelessness, self-indulgence, fear of man, dread of reproach and loss, hatred of the

cross, love of ease, and the false pleasures of a vain imagination. These say, do, and really suffer many things; but rest short of the true change of heart, the one thing needful being still lacking; they are as the foolish virgins without oil -as the man not having on the weddinggarment. Of these the Lord hath said, He "will spue them out of his mouth." But why so severe a sentence?

:

Because, 1st. Christ will have a man hearty and true to his principles; he looks for truth in the inward parts. As a consistent character he commended even the unjust steward. 2nd. Religion admits of no lukewarmness, and it is by men of this character that His name is blasphemed. 3rd. A bad servant is worse than a careless neighbour and a traitor in the guise of a friend is more hateful and more dangerous than an open enemy: Judas was more infamous than Pilate. 4th. The cold have nothing to trust to, and harlots and publicans enter into the kingdom of heaven before moral or evangelical Pharisees, who in different degrees, know their Master's will, and do it not: "they shall be beaten with many stripes."

GUILT OF SUBVERTING SOULS. THE house must needs be in danger, when the groundsels are loosened; can you think he means honestly, that undermines the foundation of your house? This they do, that would call in question the grand truths of the gospel: but this is a small fault in our loose age, or else so many seducers would not be suffered, whom I may call spiritual rogues and vagrants, to wander like gipsies up and down, bewitching poor simple souls to their perdition. Oh, it is sad, that he who steals the worth of two or three shillings, should hold up his hand at the bar for his life, yea, sometimes hang for it; and that those who rob poor souls of the treasure of saving truths, and subvert the faith of whole families, should be let to lift up their heads with impudence, glorying in their impunity: that blasphemy against God should not bear an action, where blasphemy against the king is indicted for treason! It is well that God loves his truth better than men, or else these would escape in both worlds; but God hath declared himself against them. There is a day, when they who rob souls of truth, shall be found and condemned as greater felons, than they who rob houses of gold and silver. See how God lays their indictment, Jer. xxiii. 30: "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my word, every one from his neighbour." He means the false prophets that enticed the people

from those truths, which the faithful servants of God had delivered to them. There will be none on the bench to plead the blasphemer and seducer's cause, when God shall sit judge.— Gurnall.

THINK FOR YOURSELF. ENSLAVE not thy judgment to any person or party. There is a "spiritual suretiship" hath undone many in their judgments and principles: be not bound to, or for, the judgment of any. Weigh truth, and tell gold thou mayest after thy father: thou must live by thy own faith, not another's. Labour to see truth with thine own eyes. That building stands weak, which is held up by a shore or some neighbour's house it leans on, rather than on any foundation of its own; when these go, that will fall to the ground also: let not authority from man, but evidence from the word, conclude thy judgment; that is but a shore, this a foundation. Quote the Scripture rather than men for thy judgment. Not, so saith such a learned holy man, but, thus saith the holy Scripture; yet take heed of bending this direction too far the other way, which is done when we condemn the judgment of such, whose piety and learning might command reverence: there is sure a mean to be found betwixt defying men, and deifying them. It is admiring of persons that is the traitor to truth,

ATTEND on the ministry of the word. One great end of its appointment is to establish us in truth, Ephes. iv. 11: "He gave some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints." And mark, ver. 14, "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro," &c. He that runs from his guide, will be soon out of his way. It is no small testimony that God hath given to his faithful ministers in this present age; that few leave them, but the leprosy of error appears soon on their forehead. And in thy waiting on the ministry of the word, be sure thou attendest to the doctrinal part of the sermon, as well as to the applicatory. The former is necessary to make thee a solid Christian, as the other to make thee a warm Christian: indeed, hot affections, without solid knowledge, are but like fire in the pan when the piece is not charged. The Levites, Nehem. viii. 7, 8, we find, gave the sentence of the law, and caused the people to understand it." Planting goes before watering, and so should teaching before exhorting. And the same method people should learn in, that we are to preach in.-Ibid.

POWER OF PRAYER.

LUTHER excelled other Christians in the tone of his spirit of prayer, as much as he did in actual efficiency. John Knox was second to none in his day, in regard to this quality. The depths of earnestness with which his soul entered into the spirit of prayer, are told in this one petition of his "Give me Scotland, or I die." His heart had seized its object with such an intensity of desire, that its grasp was stronger than death. He pleaded for a nation's deliverance from the pollutions and prison-house of Popery. The magnitude of the object had absorbed his very heart, and thus was he qualified to put forth that prayer-"Give me Scotland, or I die." And 80 manifestly was that prayer the secret of his power, that even his enemies were made to confess it. And the Popish Queen of Scots declared, that she had rather face an army of twenty thousand men, than the prayers of John Knox.

TEMPERANCE FRAGMENTS.

MAN, BEHOLD THE BEAST!-A party of sportsmen, having sat down to the bottle, of which they drank freely, at length went out, leaving a monkey in the room, who having observed their libations, thought what was good for man could not be bad for beasts; Pug therefore set to work, and having tapped a bottle, tippled, till, by the company returned he was maddened with drink, and, with more than ordinary grimaces, scampered up and down the furniture in the room, till he was exhausted, having become dead drunk. Next morning, Pug came into the room with his head in his hand, and in all the pitiable plight of a drunkard after a night's debauch. The glass was held to him, but he refused it with horror; the party persevering in thus testing Pug, to avoid

further importunity he fled up the chimney; and perched himself on the top. A gun being pointed at him, which on former occasions so alarmed as immediately to dislodge him, on this had not the slightest effect: the dread of being compelled to take the drunkard's drink was stronger than the love of life, and Pug seemed willing rather to be shot than drunk again.Plymouth Herald.

MAN, BEHOLD YOUR FELLOW!-An old medical gentleman, about nine years ago, Dr. - had a respectable practice, and kept his carriage. He soon commenced, however, to partake too freely of intoxicating liquors. In a short time he neglected his patients, his character also became injured, and for some time he and his once respectable family have been actually reduced to such a state of destitution by intemperance, that they have even been deprived of lodgings, and had nothing to allay the cravings of nature but a few cold potatoes, received from their neighbours. A few weeks ago they were admitted into the workhouse; their passage has since been paid to America, and they are about to leave the land of their fathers. What a change in nine years !-Reader, what are you doing to put down intemper

ance?

A brother of our acquaintance, in passing to one of his stated appointments, stopped and preached for a church on the way. In his discourse, he animadverted with some severity on the disgraceful practice of intemperance, espeUpon cially among professors of religion. visiting that neighbourhood again, he was told that he had hurt some of the brethren's feelings, and in a second discourse he apologized to this effect: "I understand, my brethren, that when I was last here, I was so unfortunate as to hurt some of your feelings by remarks upon drunkenness. Since nothing was further from my intention, I feel that it is my duty to make an apology, which is this:-Being a stranger here, I most solemnly declare that I did not know that there was a drunkard belonging to the church." The hint had its effect. The grumblers were drunkards, and at the next church meeting were excluded. Fact.-Fountain.

The bankruptcy analysis from November 1, 1843, to November 2, 1844, shows a list of 1064 bankrupts among 101 trades and professions. This gives an average of about 10 to each class; but we find that of innkeepers there are 22, victuallers 47, wine and spirit merchants 37, ale merchants 4, brewers 8; making a total connected with the sale of ale, wines, and spirits, of 117.

A letter from Upper Silesia, in the Cologne Gazette, declares that the Temperance Societies are gaining ground so rapidly in the country, that no such thing as a drunken man can be

seen.

Temperance Societies are stated to be now established in from forty to fifty towns in Holland, with the approval of Government. In

Rotterdam, it is said, there are five hundred adherents of total abstinence. The merit of such self-denial is augmented by the consideration, that throughout Holland the best gin and brandy are to be had at eighteenpence a bottle. -Chambers's Journal.

The recently deceased King, Bernadotte, of Sweden, was the great friend and patron of the temperance cause. In that country there are more than fifty thousand pledged temperance men. The work of reform is much in the hands of the clergy, and is favoured by the Government.

The Neapolitans in general hold drunkenness in the utmost abhorrence. It is said among them, that a nobleman having murdered another in a fit of jealousy, was condemned to suffer death. His life was offered to him on the sole condition of saying that when he committed the deed he was intoxicated. He received the offer with disdain, and exclaimed, "I would rather suffer a thousand deaths, than bring eternal disgrace on my family, by confessing the disgraceful crime of drunkenness." He persisted, and was executed!

Among the Indians, the terms for madness and drunkenness are identical.

Last year 100 individuals who had been pupils in the Launceston Wesleyan Sunday-school were inquired after;-twenty-six could not be found ; of the seventy-four others, forty-four were drunkards.

Oxford has 400 beer-shops, spirit-houses, and public-houses! The population is 23,834; this gives one beer-shop, spirit-house, or public-house, for every fifty-nine inhabitants-men, women, and children! Let the council and the magistrates think of this. Let them meditate on the fact-400 of these houses, and not one public reading-room, not one institution for the benefit of the rising youth of the city! There is something wrong here. Who is responsible? Let every public man ask himself the question. The moral condition of this ancient city is worthy of its divinity. Popery is the offspring of infidelity, and infidelity the parent of all the vices.

A

Broken-hearted wives, whom drunkenness has beggared, here is a word of encouragement to you. Take it for your text and preach it with prayers and tears, till he who is now your curse become your comforter! "Look at me now, you that knew me three years ago," said a reformed man. "What was I then? poor miserable outcast, deserted by all but my poor suffering wife! What made me so? RUM! But now it is different-I am surrounded by friends, I live respectably, and comfortably; my wife is happy; and I am happy. What has wrought this change? THE PLEDGE! Then will you not forgive my zeal in persuading you to sign it ?"-Fountain.

The revenue from whisky in Ireland was, five years ago, £1,500,000; last year it was only £900,000. Thus, SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND POUNDS are saved in a single year, to poor Ireland for the promotion of temporal and spiritual comfort! O England! when wilt thou wake up to a sense of thy real interest, and true glory?

Amongst the orders to forward the Herald lately received, we are directed to send a copy to the Brickmakers' Reading Room, West Drayton, Middlesex. Ten years ago we might have looked in vain for a Brickmakers' Reading Room. -Temperance Herald.

A reprint of an excellent article in favour of the temperance movement, which recently appeared in the pages of the CHRISTIAN WITNESS, was, in the form of a four-page tract, delivered at the doors of most of the churches in Edinburgh on sabbath week, to the number of 20,000.-Canada Temperance Advocate.

Jeremy Bentham, writing to a friend, says:— "I am a single man, turned of seventy, but as far from melancholy as a man need be. Wine I drink none, being in that particular of the persuasion of Jonadab, the son of Rechab." Bentham was one of the clearest thinkers of the age, and his voluminous writings have perhaps exerted a greater influence on society than those of any of his contemporaries. He reached his eighty-third year, and preserved his faculties clear and vigorous almost to the last.

DRUNKARDS SHALL NOT MARRY.-The government of the principality of Waldek, in Germany, have given public notice that no license to marry will hereafter be granted to any individual who is addicted to drunkenness ; or if having been so, he must exhibit full proofs that he is no longer a slave to this vice. The same government having also directed that in every report made by the ecclesiastical, municipal, and police authorities, upon petition for license to marry, the report shall distinctly state whether either of the parties desirous of entering into matrimonial connection is addicted to intemperance or otherwise.

CHRISTIAN LIQUORS.-A Newburyport paper states, that the Turks are fast giving up the use of opium, and that they now use freely the "Christian liquors." What are these? Why, we will tell you, reader,-New England rum and Holland gin. These are what the Turks call Christian liquors! And the same account says, intemperance is prevailing among them at a fearful rate.

POOR FRENCHMEN.-Of nearly 33,000,000 persons in France, says the Reforme, there are 27,000,000 who do not drink wine; there are 31,000,000 who never taste sugar; there are 20,000,000 who never wear shoes; there are 31,000,000 who never eat meat; there are 18,000,000 who never eat wheaten bread; and, finally, there are 4,000,000 clothed in rags.

CONGREGATIONAL BEARING OF AMERICAN PRESBYTERY.

DR. CUNNINGHAM, of the Free Church of Scotland, on returning from America, stated to the Assembly that the Presbyterianism of that country was much superior to that of Great Britain, and that the difference between them and the Congregationalists was, on most points, immaterial. It is also an established fact that American Independency differs somewhat from that of Great Britain. It is more distinguished by a spirit of union. In the work of Rupp, just published, it is said that "in all the states where Congregationalists are found, there exists some union or association of ministers, embracing all within certain local limits. Their meetings are usually held at intervals of several weeks. The object of these meetings is personal improvement, and assistance by mutual counsel and advice. With high spirituality on the part of the Presbyterians, and with a love of unity on the part of the Congregationalists, it has been long and generally found to be no very violent stretch of charity for the one to worship with the other; and in a number of the states it was a very common thing to find an Independent pastor set over a Presbyterian church, and a Presbyterian pastor set over an Independent church, it being an established custom that such diversities should in no respect interfere with the denominational character of the respective churches." On these grounds we are enabled to explain the apparently slow growth of Independency beyond the New England States. "Out of New England," says Baird, in his admirable work, "Religion in the United States," "the Congregationalists have never been zealous to propagate their own peculiar forms and institutions. Of the vast multitudes of emigrants from New England into other states, the great majority have chosen to unite with churches of the Presbyterian connection rather than to maintain their own peculiarities at the expense of increased division in the household of faith. In so doing they have followed the advice and fallen in with the arrangements of the associated bodies of Congregational pastors in New England. Yet in the states of New York, Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, many congrega

tions retain the forms of administration which had descended to them from the New England fathers, and refuse to come into connection with any of the Presbyterian judicatories. Since the recent division in the Presbyterian church, the number of such congregations is increasing." In a masterly article, in a recent number of the American Biblical Repository, by Professor Stowe, of Cincinnati, the doctrine of Presbyterian organization is thus set forth :

"According to the New Testament, when a church was organized, a board of elders was appointed to superintend its spiritual concerns; and these officers are called indifferently elders or bishops, no difference at all being made between these two appellations. Thus, according to Acts xx. 17, 28, Paul sent from Miletus to Ephesus, and called the elders (peσBUTEOUS) of the church, and in addressing these elders he says, Take heed to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops' (ETLOKOTOVC). The same interchangeable use of these terms is found in Titus i. 5, 7, and also in 1 Peter v. 1, 2, in the original Greek, for King James's Episcopal translators were not always careful to preserve in the English the exact shade of meaning of the original terms. If the early Christians had two distinct offices, it is strange indeed that having two names they should so utterly confound them, instead of applying the one name to the one office, and the other to the other. In military offices, is the general ever confounded with the colonel? or in civil affairs, the judge with the sheriff? King and sovereign are ever interchangeable, because they both indicate the same office, and so, for the same reason, chairman and moderator; but who ever thinks of confounding admiral with commodore, or chancellor with barrister? Where a new office is created, an old name is sometimes given to it, as in the Latin term imperator; but where the names and the office are from the beginning contemporaneous this is never done, and it would be a gross solecism in language to do it.

"These elders took the charge both of teaching and discipline, dividing the work according to individual capacity, without as yet, so far as appears, making any official distinction between the two classes of duties, 1 Tim. v. 17. After a while, when it became necessary that the preaching elders should devote all their time to the duties of their office, and be supported by the church, which was never the case with the ruling elders, then probably the official distinction was definitely made; but we have no account in the Bible of any such transaction.

"Besides the board of elders, another board of deacons was appointed to take care of the poor, and generally to manage the temporal affairs of the church, Acts vi. 1-7. With these two boards the organization of a church was complete, and the churches are addressed indifferently through their bishops and deacons, or elders and deacons, as in Phil. i. 1, 1 Tim. iii. 18;

but no church in the Bible is ever alluded to as having a bishop, elders, and deacons; the three orders under these names are never found in the New Testament.

"These church officers administered the ordinances, Acts x. 48, viii. 36-38, compared with vi. 5, also 1 Cor. i. 17. They were chosen by the people and inducted into office by the apostles or missionaries, Acts vi. 3-6; xiv. 23; xv. 24, 25; i. 21-26; 2 Cor. viii. 19. The Greek word χειροτονέω, used in some of the passages above cited, indicates a popular election by raising the hand.

"That the apostles were not diocesan bishops, and that modern diocesan bishops cannot be their successors, is manifest in every part of the New Testament. Christ prohibited among them all distinctions of rank, Matt. xx. 25-28. They themselves disclaim episcopal authority, Rom. i. 11-13; 1 Cor. iii. 5, 14, 15; xi. 13, 16. They were travelling missionaries, not confined to any particular province or country, Rom. xv. 18-28. In no respect can we trace in the New Testament a shadow of semblance between the apostles and modern diocesan bishops. But the Puseyites have discovered one proof of the identity between the diocesan bishops and the apostles, which a casual observer would scarcely suspect. They speak of the SUFFERINGS of the bishops' as the second mark of their being our living apostles,' (Oxford Tracts, x. 5.) The sufferings of the bishops, the English bishops and the Roman Catholic bishops of Europe, a proof of their identity with the apostles! We have had opportunities of witnessing something of the sufferings of the diocesan bishops in England and on the continent of Europe, and contrasting them with the apostolic sufferings, as described in such passages as the following, which we beg you carefully to read: 2 Cor. xi. 23-33; vi. 8-10; 1 Cor. iv. 10-13. Grinding poverty and hard work, incessant itinerating and unceasing cares, stripes and imprisonments, hunger and cold, persecution and contempt, these were the apostolic sufferings; and how do they compare with modern prelatic sufferings in England and on the continent of Europe? A princely income and princely honours are not exactly like poverty, persecution, and contempt; an easy coach, and an army of servants, and costly robes, are not like shipwreck, and destitution, and nakedness; a regal palace, and savoury meats, and strong wines, though they do afflict prelatical humanity with gout and stone, are not exactly like loathsome prisons and public whippings, and the feet fast in the stocks, and being stoned through the streets, Acts xvi. 22-24; xiv. 19. At least the resemblance between the two classes of sufferings is not so striking as to establish identity.

"In the apostolic age, a single individual appears sometimes to have had the presidency of a church, or to be chief minister in it, as in Rev. i. 20; ii. 1, 12, 18, &c. ; but that these were not authoritative bishops, but ministering servants, is manifest from the contents of the epistles themselves, which are addressed principally to the members of the churches, and not to the minister. Read the following passages: Rev. ii. 5, 10, 12, 29; iii. 6, 13, 22; and compare i. 4, 11; xxii. 16, 21.

"In places where, by the customs of society, females were secluded from the public, and no men, except their own relatives, were allowed to visit them, female deacons were appointed to

take charge of the female members of the church, Rom. xvi. 1; but there is no evidence that this office was ever filled except where the customs of society rendered it necessary-an instance of the variety admitted in the apostolic organization. "There were the officers of each particular church; but besides these there were others not attached permanently to particular congregations, such as missionaries, called apostles and evangelists, also prophets or exhorters, and some others, not fixed, but varying as circumstances required. 1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11.

"We read in the New Testament of no permanent judicatory above the eldership of a particular church; of no territorial presbytery or synod meeting at regular intervals; but as occasion demanded, councils, or occasional synods, were called together, in which the missionaries or apostles, the elders, the brethren, and the whole church assisted. Acts xv. 2, 4, 6, 22, 23.

"Discipline seems to have been administered by the whole church, and questions respecting it to have been decided by the majority, 1 Cor. v. 3-5, 11. Paul says respecting this excommunicated person, Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted (vπò twv tλeióvwv) by the majority,' 2 Cor. ii. 6."

Dr. Stowe, not satisfied with argument, appeals to fact in support of his views, which he affirms are most advantageous to man, as follows:

"When Christianity was introduced, the despotic form of civil polity was universal, and the church was the only republic then in existence; but the despotic spirit soon found its way into the church, and after the incorporating of the church into the state by Constantine, the same despotism reigned in both, and the emperor became head of the church, as he had been before of the state. Though bishops for a while still continued to be elected by popular suffrage, according to primitive usage, as is evident from the election of Ambrose of Milan, (as given by Gibbon in the 27th chapter of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,') and various other examples of the same kind, yet no bishop could retain the charge of his flock without the assent or confirmation of the civil power. After a while the government itself began to appoint to the important sees, and when the imperial power fell before the northern barbarians, the bishop of Rome perpetuated the ecclesiastical despotism which the emperor of Rome had begun. Hence in the book of Revelation (chapter xvii.) Papal Rome is justly represented as being but the resuscitation of old Pagan Rome in a form somewhat modified.

"I do not intend to say that despotism possesses no advantages over freedom, or that liberty of itself is the greatest of human blessings. Intelligence and true piety are the greatest blessings which man can enjoy; and, in my judgment, an intelligent and truly pious subject is a happier and a far more dignified man than an ignorant and ungodly citizen of the freest republic that ever existed. The martyr in his dungeon has a far better lot than the maniac at large, and the most oppressed slave is not unfrequently a less miserable man than his master.

"But despotism is always wrong in this-it checks and suppresses the growth of the individual man; it is a foe to the development of