alone. The rev. gentleman proceeded to explain and illustrate the significance of baptism, as administered in the form of immersion. The Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel occupied a conspicuous and important place. His paper on "Individual Effort for the Conversion of Sinners " appears to have been excellent. The whole of the

average number of additions to Baptist Churches, he said, during the last year was not more than two to each Church. If other Churches had not realized a larger number of conversions than that, then the Church of Christ had made no progress last year in its mission to bring the world to Him. He thought the Churches were in danger, and

degenerating. Liberty and prosperity brought wealth, and wealth led to architectural splendour, and that drew richer congregations, while it repelled the poor. Then followed artistic singing and less evangelical preaching, adapted to please but not to save. Then the rich were likely to be admitted to their Churches without proof of conversion; so their Churches, filled with unconverted members, like the Church at Laodicea, might have all external prosperity with the lukewarmness which the Lord abhorred; but let the Church members work, all seeking to save others individually, and this degeneracy would be prevented.

PAUL'S SPEECHES AND LETTERS. THE power of human speech is prodigious. What prodigies of force did Demosthenes, Paul, Whitfield, and other renowned orators, effect by use of speech addressed by them, as living men, to living men! There is an importance attached by Christ to the living preacher, which shows that no other instrumentality can take his place. Thus the apostle, magnifying the office of the living preacher, said: "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans x. 13-17.) And yet of necessity there was a limit to this instrumentality, so far as the ability of one man to wield it went. Perhaps no man can be named who addressed more people, face to face, than Paul, Whitefield, and the Wesleys; and yet millions of their own day never heard those men. But if, peradventure, a man can write a book, or a letter, or a hymn, or a proverb, or a sentence, which will be carried into many countries, to many firesides, and to many ears; if "Time," that much slandered destroyer of the worthless, shall gather up these grains of gold, and, as one generation goeth, and another cometh, commit the precious treasure to them; and if, as the years roll away, these divine words assert a wider sway and a deeper hold on the convictions of mankind, then the man who wrote those words has accomplished a labour which transcends in importance any other that can be named. Measured by this rule, the success of the apostle's labours transcends human imagination.-Dr. Tuttle, of Wabash College.

THE CHRISTIAN'S SENSE OF SIN. IF you can carry the feeling with you when you pray, that you are really approaching Him as sons and heirs, asking the pardon of sin, it will not make you hate sin any the less, but it will make you admire the Saviour more and love our Father also yet more. There is no real, deep, poignant sense of sin until you have a deep, joyous sense of God as your Father. When the moral law discloses your sins, you feel and see them; but there is a rising and rebellious feeling in your inmost heart that impels you to think the law too severe, the Legislator too exacting. But when you draw near to God, and see your sins in the light of a Father's face, you feel that your sins have been ingratitude, and that you have smitten, not a king, a sovereign, a legislator, but a Parent. And hence, when the prodigal felt where he was, and whence he had fallen, and what he was, the deepest spring of penitence in his heart was in that bright recollection in his memory, "Father." And hence he said, "I will arise and go to my father," holding fast his paternal and filial relationship; and seeing his sins only the more heinous because they were sins not against a master, but against a father. The Christian will ever have the deepest sorrow for sin, the deepest sense of its heinousness, while his deepest impressions of that sin are pregnant with hope; whereas the natural man's deepest conviction of sin drives him nearest to despair. A Christian's sense of sin carries him to our Father; an unregenerate man's sense of sin carries him away from our Father.-Dr. Cumming.

OUR first point of inquiry is, the spiritual condition of our great Metropolis, which, I think, is such as ought to awaken among its Churches the deepest solicitude. In every view it is alarming. While the population is now about three millions, we have no doubt that it would exceed the truth to say that one million out of three offers anything like even an outward homage to the Gospel of Christ. On no Sabbathday, we believe, would there be found in all its places of worship, churches and chapels, much beyond 500,000 fullgrown persons, one-sixth of the whole! Should this be deemed an understatement, let it be remembered that on the memorable day of the Census there were only present in all the churches and chapels of England, fourand-a-half millions out of eighteen millions, just one-fourth of the whole; but London is in a much more destitute condition than the country, so that the same proportion ought not to be allowed to it. Suppose that we had in London five hundred places of worship, each capable of containing a thousand people, would our church-going population fill these edifices? I think not.

But sup

pose such to be the fact, and that every one of these 500,000 persons had passed from death unto life, that is, that onesixth of our Metropolitan population are true Christians, would even this be a satisfactory state of things? Would it not leave five parts out of six " without God, and having no hope in the world?" Two-and-a-half millions in London, the light of the globe, the seat of Missions, of Bible, Tract, and other societies for the illumination of mankind, walking in darkness and in the shadow of death! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon!

But even this consolation is denied us; the number of true Christians among us, we believe, is not more than a third of the foregoing. Men conversant with ecclesiastical matters, require not to be told that, taking congregations on an average, not more than one in three has made a public profession of the faith of the Gospel; so that a congregation of 1,000

VOL. XXI.

would exhibit only somewhat over 300 Church members. With 500,000 church and chapel goers, then, there would still be under 200,000 Church members! Who can contemplate this without anguish and dismay?

But to this must be added the apalling fact that the population is being increased about 60,000 per annum, a large city of itself, a city larger than the bulk of the cities of England and of Continental Europe. This great and serious fact, however, passes unnoticed by the public. Nobody knows so little of London as the Londoners. While they are awake and busy, all classes and conditions of men pursuing their several vocations of pleasure or of toil, and after night has closed around them and deep sleep has fallen upon man, still, from every point of the compass, the stream rolls on! From this circumstance, were the church and chapel accommodation entirely sufficient to meet the requirements of the present population, it would be a serious consideration how to provide edifices for the incessant influx. Sure it is that the present rate of church and chapel erection is not sufficient.

The question then is, what can be done to meet the necessities of this stupendous and ever-growing capital? This demands two things; first, to provide for the extant 3,000,000, and then for the increase; and how is this to be done? There is, no doubt, wealth enough, taking the population as a whole, to accomplish it; but the prodigious majority having no concern in the matter, will render no aid, and, therefore, the small minority now bearing all such burdens must do it or it will remain undone.

But there is a prior consideration connected with the matter. Every man of sense and observation knows that the present edifices are by no means fully occupied. It may be doubted whether they would not accommodate nearly double their present numbers! The mere addition, therefore, of new structures would would but slightly improve matters as to the salvation of men. M M

The first thing, therefore, is to awaken a spirit of hearing amongst the multitudes dead in trespasses and in sins; and how is this to be brought about? It is clear that without a power far transcending the power of man it can never be effected. The Christian element, despite the assumptions of a blind charity, is very feeble throughout the City, and we greatly fear it is not gaining strength.

Our solicitude in this matter is much increased by the fact that the supply of suitable candidates for the ministry, both in the Established Church and among Nonconformists, is everywhere deficient both as to number and quality. The clergy are alarmed by the fact, which of late they have repeatedly made the subject of serious discussion.

Various causes have been assigned for it, but we believe they may all be reduced to one, the lack of a high spirituality. Were the necessities of a perishing world, and the claims of Christ more fully apprehended, secular pursuits would fail to draw away even men of superior intellect by the bribe of increased temporal emolument. On this head, the various bodies of Dissenters are much in the same position as the Church; the supply of first-class men in most of the Nonconformist colleges is defective, and only a revival of piety can improve it. When firstclass pulpits among Dissenters become vacant in London, and throughout the land, there is the utmost difficulty in procuring for them suitable occupants. It was not always so, nor will it continue. In Scotland matters are not greatly different. Of late, however, we happy to find that things are improving both in the Free and in the United Presbyterian Church, but the effective supply does little more than meet the necessities ever occurring from death, incapacitation and other causss.

are

This, then, is a serious view of matters, as it respects home, but it ends not there; far-off lands are deeply interested in the question. In every country, were there men and means, Christian missions might be multiplied ten-fold,-yea, in some places, a hundred-fold. It is as much, however, as the missionary societies can do to keep up their present stations. Missionaries are dying off in one quarter, in another health is failing, and various events are constantly occurring to diminish the number of faithful men.

Surely, then, under these circumstances it is time to remember the Master's injunction to "pray the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest."

To these facts must be added another intimately connected with them, and still darkening the picture. Our anxiety for the ark of the Lord is much increased by the spiritual condition of the several Christian communities of the land. It is a serious fact that the cause of God is not prospering as it did in years gone by. The churches, viewed as a whole, while the population is rapidly increasing, are doing little more than keep their ground. Had the report of attendance given by the Census, instead of being four-and-a-half millions been nine, it would have been a cheering fact since it would have been at least a nearer approximation to what it ought to be. But, at the present rate, while making no provision for the increase, we advance slowly in taking up the previously outlying population.

This is no mere speculation; facts confirm it. That great, and hitherto prosperous body, the Wesleyan Methodists, for the first time in their wonderful history actually report a decrease-we rejoice to say, a very small one; but still a decrease-a fact which is the more remarkable seeing they have an amount and a variety of adapted and skilled agency, such as can be claimed by no other Christian community in the world. We take them, therefore, as the most marked type of the stationary character of religion amongst us. If they do not advance it is in vain we look around us for progress amongst other less zealous and vigorous bodies. That active and enlightened community, the Baptists, we are glad to say, have not gone back as a whole, but their advance is little more than nominal. Upon some 1,250 churches, more or fewer, that have reported- for a number have failed to do so-t -there has been a clear gain of only one and a fraction to each church. As to the Congregational body, there are no statistics, and hence we are left to conjecture; but I do not believe that they are much, if at all, in advance of the Baptists. I presume that they and the Baptists, whose doctrine and polity are the same, and who differ only in a single ordinance, bear in all respects a very close resemblance to each other, and hence it may be in

ferred that they are much in the same condition.

It is impossible, I think, deliberately to contemplate these facts without painful emotion. When, at this rate, will the "knowledge of the Lord cover the earth as the waters the sea? When will the name of the Lord Jesus, "from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, be great amongst the Gentiles?"

But what of our Sunday-school? On this institution I look with unutterable delight. I deem it the most hopeful feature of Christendom. It is the glory of England. Let the eye be directed to the continent, sweeping over its empires and kingdoms, from Moscow to Madrid, and we shall find nothing comparable to the English Sunday-school. It is true that, in some cases, although to an extent little more than nominal, the institution of England has been copied ; but there is no vitality to support it, either as to teachers or to scholars, such is the lack of religion amongst the continental masses. The Sunday-school of England presents a spectacle truly sublime. Behold upwards of 300,000 persons, of both sexes, devoting themselves, without money and without price, from mere love to the young and concern for the glory of the Lord, to the work of teaching, every Sabbath throughout the year! Never depressed, unchecked by the heats of summer or the snows of winter, they give themselves to this loving labour; and, in so doing, they are conferring upon the country a boon altogether inappreciable.

But this is not all; look again; pass from the teachers to the taught; behold upwards of three millions of immortal spirits, children and young people, gathered together from Sabbath to Sabbath, to receive lessons from the book of life, and to be taught the way of salvation! This is a spectacle which angels view with rejoicing! There is nothing in the world to be compared to it! We are nevertheless looking at it, and speaking of it only as an instrument.

In

itself it has no power to convert and renew even one human soul! Indeed, from the testimony borne in every quarter, there seems, at present, a lack of efficiency; there is no proportion between the sowing and the reaping; of these millions only a limited number are from time to time giving themselves to the Lord and to His people, thus proving that there is something further

necessary to render the institution the means of working a revolution in the land.

Shall we look to continental Europe for comfort? Vain hope! There has been little noticeable progress in true religion throughout the continent during the present century. Russia is just about where she was when the agents of the Scottish Missionary Society were driven out of the country, from Siberia and elsewhere. The mass of the millions subject to the great Autocrat of the North remain in a spiritual darkness which may be felt! Even the emancipation of the serfs, although it has added largely to the temporal comfort of some twenty millions of people, and is a step in advance, has brought with it no spiritual improvement. In Prussia, notwithstanding its boasted educational system, and the useful labours of a few eminent Christian ministers, and professors of colleges, we look in vain for anything at all comparable even to the religion of England, imperfect as it is. The kingdom is overlaid with Popery, Rationalism, and Infidelity! We have more true piety and genuine Gospel in some small English counties than is to be found throughont the whole of that great country. In Austria, although the abolition of the Concordat with the Pope has somewhat improved matters, Popery is still rampant, ruling over all. Evangelical religion is a thing barely visible in some of the larger centres of population; the country, as a whole, is buried in the deepest night. In Sweden, we are happy to say, there has been a considerable revival of the work of God, chiefly through the instrumentality of the Baptists. There a very large number of people have been brought out of darkness into light, and are now 66 'walking in the fear of God and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost," boldly bearing their testimony against the Rationalism and Infidelity that surround them. Of France but little can be said; Popery is the alpha and the omega of the country, and the religion of the gentler sex, while the great body of the men are steeped in Infidelity. There is sufficient liberty of conscience to admit, under certain severe restraints, of preaching the Gospel, and in some cases of gathering the young together in Sundayschools; but the numbers who appreciate these privileges are only a handful confined to some of the principal towns

and cities. In Belgium, although there is a measure of religious liberty, yet true Christians are very few, and the Papal priesthood carry everything before them. In Holland-once an Evangelical Goshen-with its 1,500 churches, only some 150 pulpits give a "certain sound;" the rest are delivered up to Arianism, Unitarianism, and Rationalism. Spain is the darkest of the dark nations of the continent; we therefore pass it by as a valley of dry bones! As to Italy, that classic land, from its peculiar circumstances, is still but very slightly influenced by the Gospel. A great preparatory work, however, has been achieved by the overthrow of the Popish potentates, and the establishment of constitutional government. Now the pulpit, the press, and the platform, all are free; and thus a foundation has been laid for the evangelization of the country. Several successful missions are now being carried on in various parts of Italy, and it is to be hoped that, in the course of a generation, a new face will be put upon the country.

As to heathen lands, what shall we say? The preliminary work is most extensively begun, and a foundation is laid for great expectations, but beyond this not much has been done. The Missionaries are everywhere keeping their ground, although few and far between, compared with the hundreds of millions perishing for lack of knowledge. In Africa, India, and China, much has been accomplished. Languages have been mastered and reduced to grammars and to dictionaries, and sanctified through the translation into them of the Scriptures, of the Prophets and the Apostles.

So far, then, all things are ready; man can do very little more than man has done. But the advance is everywhere so small, that at the present rate of progress, many ages will pass away ere it be no longer necessary for one to say to another "know the Lord, since all shall know him, from the least unto the greatest."

From this statement, then, it is clear beyond rational dispute, that something more is wanted to stablish the work of our hands. The question, therefore, is, what is wanted, and how is that want to be supplied? Now, on these points the Scriptures are explicit; they intimate to us very distinctly, that it is "not by might, nor by power, but by

the Spirit of the Lord," that the human race is to be renovated. We want, therefore, the revelation of the arm of the Almighty; nothing more is required, and nothing less will prove sufficient. On this subject, one of the most distinguished men of the last generation, Foster, the Essayist, has expressed him

self as follows:

"I am convinced that every man, who, amidst his serious projects, is apprised of his dependence on God, as completely as that dependence is a fact, will be impelled to pray, and anxious to induce his serious friends to pray, almost every hour. He will as little, without it, promise himself any noble success, as a mariner would expect to reach a distant coast by having his sails spread in a stagnation of the air. I have intimated my fear that it is visionary to expect an unusual success in the human administration of religion, unless there are unusual omens; now a most emphatical spirit of prayer would be such an omen; and the individual who should solemnly determine to try its last possible efficacy, might probably find himself becoming a much more prevailing agent in his little sphere. And if the whole, or the greater number of the disciples of Christianity, were, with an earnest unalterable resolution of each, to combine that Heaven should not withhold one single influence which the very utmost effort of conspiring and persevering supplication would obtain, it would be the sign that a revolution of the world was at hand."

Such is the testimony of England's gigantic son, and its truth is equal to its solemnity and grandeur. But, if such be a correct view of things, is not the path of the Church very plain? There is not in the British Isles, we presume, a Christian man who will not give Foster's view his hearty concurrence. That is, so far, good; but it is not enough; the doctrine must take a firm hold of the judgment and the heart, else nothing will be accomplished in securing the "effectual fervent prayer, that availeth much." The matter is one which far transcends all other matters known to the human race, and it is the thing with which of all others, man, unaided by the power and grace of Christ, is the least competent to deal. It is the intercourse of the human soul with the Father of Spirits, the "great and dreadful God! The sacred Scriptures supply the only perfect illustra