special work to pierce the lines of the enemy, storm his forts, and enter into the very heart of his camp. Of course, such efforts require no small degree of self-denial, moral courage, and determination. The inspiration and requisites for this work are soon obtained by communion and fellowship with Him, whose word of command is, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in." Such parties should be composed of all persons in the Church; the learned to instruct the ignorant-the stable to confirm the wavering-the strong to support the weak-the prudent to regulate the imprudent -the discreet to control the rash-the persevering to stimulate the impulsive and spasmodic; and all inflamed with love to God and precious souls. What could withstand such combined and persistent efforts as these, executed in full dependence upon the Holy Spirit's co-operation and blessing? without Whom the best regulated and most wisely concocted schemes are indeed vain. If such means were adopted by every Society, and carried on with intelligence, zeal, and what commercial men call "push," it would require no prophet to predict a net increase of fifty thousand souls in one year. When Paul planted and Apollos watered, God gave the increase. The increase is not a contin gent thing, but certain, if the planting and watering be done as it should be. Without being considered presumptive, may we suggest a word to those who have charge of the heavy artillery of this army, whose elevated position gives them the opportunity of firing, not simply at stragglers or single files of the enemy, but close columns, upon whom, if the aim be rightly directed, inroads are sure to be made. When Sir Colin Campbell was about to lead the brave 42nd Highland Brigade into action on the field of Alma, he addressed to his men a few words, telling them amongst other things, "to fire low." It was not the first time Sir Colin had been in actual fight, and experience had taught him the most successful mode of warfare. Acting on this advice, the 42nd soon drove back, with terrible loss, the massive columns of the enemy. Perhaps we have erred during the past year in firing too high; let us, for the future, with the simple truth of the glorious Gospel, aim more at the heart than at the head. In mighty phalanx joined, To battle all proceed; Arm'd with the unconquerable mind JOSEPH ADAMS. Poetry. "THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSETH ALL UNDERSTANDING." HIGHEST thought this Peace transcendeth; The deep peace they know so well. Yet this Peace, that thought confoundeth, Boasteth oft the Heavenly Guest. O this sweet and sure possession! In Thy Peace our spirits steep! A HYMN. WHEN fierce temptations lurk around, Our souls are filled with peace and light. If unto Thee, O Lord! we look Thy mercies are for ever new; J. H. GILL, W. H. W. OUR PROTESTANT DUTIES. Our Protestant Duties. PROTESTANTISM IN ROME. The Pope continues to act like a sulky child, confining himself to the Palace of the Vatican, and pretending that he is a prisoner. Mean while, under the flag of a freed Italy, Protestant ministers have commenced their Gospel labours in the imperial city. Just as England ran provision-trains into Paris, so soon as the beleaguering army relaxed its iron grasp of the starving city, so, in like manner, Protestant Churches hurried with the Bread of Life to Rome as soon as Providence, by means of the Italian army, had broken down the ramparts by which the Truth had been excluded from the city of the Popes. We stated last month that the Wesleyan Missionary Society had sent an Italian minister of its own to preach the Gospel to them that are at Rome also. We are now happy to refer to the efforts of fellowhelpers from other denominations in the same blessed work. To the Presbyterians belongs the honour of having opened the first Protestant Church in Rome. Seven years ago the Rev. James Lewis, D.D., took up his residence in the old Papal city, and privately held a service in his own hired house. Although the few people that attended came stealthily, Dr. Lewis received notice, through the British Consul, that if he did not desist, imprisonment or banishment would be the result. Obliged to give up the services in his own dwelling, which was within the city, he afterwards obtained a room without the walls in which he contrived to minister the Word of Life to British and American visitors. Means were placed at his disposal to erect a more commodious building, but as Protestants could not hold property in the Pope's dominions, the difficulties appeared insuperable. A piece of ground, however, was rented, and a building commenced upon it in 1869. Its ultimate design as a place of worship was kept secret from the priests and police, and, of course, nothing in the architecture indicated an ecclesiastical purpose. As it approached completion, fears were entertained that upon the discovery of its contemplated use the Papal Government would interfere and prevent the holding of Protestant services in it. Then came the downfall of the temporal power, sweeping away the dreaded obstacle. A few weeks ago the opening services were held, a minister from Florence preaching in the morning, and Dr. Lewis himself at night. 63 Signor Gavazzi, so well known in England, is preaching openly and boldly in Rome to such of its citizens as are willing to hear him, and these are not a few. Cardinal Antonelli and the Jesuit press are denouncing this fearless and eloquent reformer, but the liberal newspapers of Rome speak in his favour. One of these journals has the following remarks:-"Last night we were present with real pleasure, and to our great edification, at the conference held by the evangelical minister, Signor Allessandro Gavazzi. We have no intention of pronouncing a eulogium on his masculine eloquence, so spontaneous and pure, and so befitting the Christian catechist. We would only refer to the immense benefit which the zeal of so true a preacher of the Divine Word confers upon the religion and morals of our people. While hearing him we seemed to be listening to the apostle Paul instilling those maxims which we read in his epistles; so noble, so pointed, so holy was the discourse. How enchanting is the Gospel when expounded without the spirit of party or the love of gain! Only one thing displeased us, and we hope to see it soon remedied-the smallness of the hall. The concourse of people of every description was great, that crowds were obliged to remain in the adjoining rooms and lobbies, not seeing the orator, but drinking in every word, every sentence. And yet in so dense a crowd, beyond some demonstrations of applause, which the truth in all its splendour, called forth involuntarily from the auditory; the silence. and thoughtfulness, and internal satisfaction which were portrayed on every countenance were surprising admirable. these meetings, in which sincerity, truth, charity-in one word, the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, reigns, were but established contemporaneously in every quarter of our city, we should soon see disappear the ignorance of our people! who, knowing the true religion, would cast from them the prejudices and follies of paganism, in which they have been educated in the schools of hypocrisy and deceit." O, if In a letter, the writer says: "I had the pleasure of hearing Gavazzi begin his labours. by an excellent gospel sermon on 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.' He and Logomarsino, another Free Church Evangelist, preach alternately every evening in a large room, in Via Seminario." NEW CHAPELS FOR LONDON.-For some years past, the Metropolitan Chapel Building Committee has attracted, more or less, the attention of the Methodist Connexion. By its operation, the erection of several new Chapels has been stimulated and aided. Last Conference it started, with greatly enlarged designs, upon a new career. By the munificence of Sir Francis Lycett, the sum of £50,000 is placed at its disposal, on condition that a similar amount be contributed by the provinces. Already Sir Francis Lycett's challenge has been taken up by the country to the extent of upwards of £17,000. No doubt, month after month, additions will be made to this sum, until the required amount be raised. Of course, this £100,000 is to be a sort of auxiliary fund, to help and stimulate local efforts. The design is to build fifty large chapels in the Metropolis during the next nine years; and as a most efficient secretary has been appointed by Conference, specially for this object, the effort is very likely to succeed. The Committee can have no grander theatre for its operations than the most populous and influential city of the world. THE PEACE. Very heart-sickening for six months were the daily records of the gigantic war, by which France has suffered so severely, and Prussia, although victorious, only less than France. Who can calculate the bad passions which this contest has awakened into virulent activity, the animosities it has engendered, the industries it has paralyzed, the property it has destroyed, the ruin it has wrought in families, the bereavements it has inflicted, and especially the wide-spread sacrifice of life it has occasioned? Thank God, the devastating strife is now at an end! How long the peace which has been concluded between Prussia and France will last no one knows. We fear that the time has not yet come when the nations shall learn no more the lessons of war. The dreadful efficiency of the German army in the ghastly work of slaughter is evidently producing emulation amongst the Governments of Europe in the matter of army reorganization. Even our own peaceably-disposed Government has entered upon a course of army reform; the number of our soldiers is to be considerably increased, and the "service," in many important particulars is to be reconstructed and improved. All this indicates that the period of universal peace has not yet dawned. Indeed, in the very peace that has been signed at Versailles it is to be feared there is left the seed of future wars. The terrible exactions which the high-handed diplomacy of the conqueror has made upon its fallen foe will leave the most bitter memories behind. By such a policy are sown the dragon's teeth which are sure to spring up armed men. When Christ's religion of love is universally prevalent-not in name and empty profession, but in reality-then will be the time for the breaking of bows, the cutting of spears, and the burning of chariots; then shall be heard ringing from ten thousand anvils the sweet music which shall be made by the beating of swords into ploughshares, and the hammering of spears into pruning-hooks. Lord, hasten the day! THE CONDEMNATION OF RITUALISM.-The very active and mischievous party of extreme Romanizers in the Church of England, known as Ritualists, have received another heavy blow from the highest court of appeal in the realm, in ecclesiastical causes, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Not long since Mr. Mackonochie, Incumbent of St. Alban's, Holborn, was condemned by this Court for Ritualistic practices; and now the equally notorious Mr. Purchas, of Brighton, is admonished, by the same authority, to abstain from wearing albs, tunicles, and chasubles while administering the Lord's Supper in his church. These garments constitute the dress of a Roman Catholic priest when offering what is called the sacrifice of the mass. The assumption of such garments by the Ritualists, is for the purpose of symbolizing the false doctrine which they teach. These men, while living upon the emoluments of a Protestant Church, audaciously and dishonestly teach the very doctrines against which that Church specially protests. Nor is it at all certain that they can be driven out of the establishment by the various decisions which have been given against them by the highest tribunal of the land. They still cling to their benefices, and endeavour to evade the judgments of the Court by all kinds of discreditable shifts. Whether the Church of England will succeed in purging out the old leven that it may be a new lump; or whether the "Catholic Priests," as they style themselves, will continue to hold their benefices and teach Popery, remains to be seen, 66 THE NOBLE BRIDEGROOM AND THE ROYAL BRIDE. one is with a Scottish nobleman, and consequently with a subject of the British Crown. For political and dynastic reasons-which are not without great force-the marriage of a member of the Royal Family with a subject, except by the consent of the reigning Monarch, is prohibited by Act of Parliament. In the present instance, the consent of the Queen was given, with the concurrence of the Privy Council, for the marriage of her daughter to one of her subjects. A match so uncommon, has naturally enough awakened the unusual interest which has lately been felt by the British public. It is doubtful whether there is another instance in English history since the Conquest in which the reigning Sovereign gave formal consent for the espousals of a Princess of the blood-royal with a subject of the Crown. Rumour had it that Mary, the eldest daughter of Charles I., clandestinely married Harry Jermyn, a young nobleman, after losing her husband, the Prince of Orange; and that Elizabeth, daughter of James I., widow of the King of Bohemia, married Lord Craven as her second husband; but these cases have scarcely an historic credibility. For the last authentic instance of an English Princess being united in wedlock to a peer, not of royal blood, we most go back to the reign of Henry VIII. The Princess Mary, the beautiful sister of this capricious King, who had for her first husband Louis XII. of France, had for her second, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk,-through which union she was the grandmother of the amiable and unfortunate Lady Jane Grey. This alliance of his sister with one of his own subjects made "Bluff Harry" dangerously angry; so that the noble bridegroom, to appease the wrath of his royal brother-in-law, wrote under his own portrait the lines : "Cloth of gold, do not despise, Though thou be match'd with cloth of frize ; Though thou be match'd with cloth of gold." John Douglas Sutherland, Marquis of Lorne, who on the 21st of March, 1871, was united in marriage to Her Royal Highness, the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, if not of royal blood, belongs to one of the most ancient and illustrious families in the British aristocracy. As the son and heir of the Duke of Argyll, he can trace back his lineage to a remote antiquity through an ancestry greatly distinguished in Scottish history. The Campbell family is second to none in Scotland, and in feudal times Argyll, the head of this powerful clan, was the most influential subject in the realm. The foundations of the present house were laid eight hundred years ago, when Gillespick Campbell acquired by marriagewith an heiress the lordship of Lochow, in Argyllshire. To his son, Sir Colin Campbell, who greatly distinguished himself in war, was given the surname of More, (a Gaelic term signifying great,) a title which has become hereditary, so that the head of the family is styled in the Highlands to this day, Mac Callum More. It would occupy too much space to relate how the successive bearers of this proud title distinguished themselves in statesmanship and war; how after long feuds with the Lords of Lorne, they became themselves the Lords of Lorne; how Sir Duncan Campbell assumed the title of Argyll, and was raised to the peerage as Lord Campbell by James II. of Scotland in the year 1445; how Colin, the second Lord Campbell, was created Earl of Argyll and Lord High Chancellor of Scotland; and how Archibald, the fourth earl, embraced the Protestant faith and greatly promoted the Reformation in Scotland. Two of this famous line of Scottish noble men deserve special mention. These are Archibald, the eighth earl, who was advanced to the Marquisate of Argyll by Charles I., in 1641, and his son Archibald, the ninth earl, who two years after his father's execution in 1661 for alleged high treason, was restored to the estates and honours of his family as Earl of Argyll. Both of these eminent noblemen suffered death through the cruel tyranny of the Stuart kings. The father had been the recognized head of the persecuted Covenanters. While he was Lord Lorne he took an active part in national affairs, and went to London to plead with the King on behalf of the rights and liberties of the Scottish Church. His advice being disregarded, upon his return to Scotland he joined the Covenant, and became the foremost of the popular leaders. Still, while holding the religious principles against which Charles directed his opposition, the Earl tried to preserve his loyalty to the royal cause, and when the King visited Scotland in the year 1651, Argyll, with his own hands, placed the crown upon his majesty's head. After the overthrow of the monarchy, the great Presbyterian noble held out against Cromwell, until at last he was taken prisoner and brought to Edinburgh. held in durance, he was commanded by General Monk to attend a Privy Council at which Cromwell was proclaimed Protector. For this he was tried after the restoration of While |