sin in the soul, and exercise the needed regenerating and transforming influence in the world. "God was in in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself;" and in him also the race has found the promised "seed of the woman," which should "bruise the serpent's head." To a world, then, groaning under the bondage and alienation of sin, how sweetly should sound the blessed invitation: "Come to Jesus."

last step, the closing scene, as it were, selves to His law, with our souls of the incarnation; and in that way, pierced and pained with all the stands for the completed results of his sad experience and exhibition of sin whole career. We are now ready to and suffering in the world? And how, see this more fully by turning to the in the second place, the power of sin condition of man, in whose interest is to be broken and destroyed; how entirely the whole transaction takes it is to be killed in the soul, and its place, and asking distinctly what it fatal consequences in the world arproposes to accomplish in his behalf. rested and overcome? Only God could We see man presented by the text as give a satisfying answer to these most the special object of that influence anxious and momentous inquiries, which Jesus came to exercise in the and that answer He has given in the world. "I will draw all men unto life and death of His Son. It is me." As, then, according to what Jesus alone who is both able, on the we have stated, one of the conditions one hand, to reassure our faith in the of this attractive power is supplied in Divine goodness, notwithstanding the the person of Jesus himself; so, an- painful facts of sin, and, on the other other essential to its perfect opera- hand, so to work upon the heart by tion, must exist in the object to be the Divine power and example of his reached, or no result can follow. sinless and holy life and death, as The person and life of Jesus of effectually to overcome and destroy Nazareth then, must meet and satisfy a universal need of humanity, or no such universal and irresistible effect as he predicts, could follow his death. The nature of this need will become apparent by a brief reference to the general moral condition of the race. All history, confirmed by daily observation and experience, bears witness to the wide-spread disorders and depravity that, in every age, have prevailed in the world. We know the innumerable host of evils that from generation to generation have infested human society and trampled upon happiness. We know the vast load of griefs and sorrows, pains and oppressions, beneath which mankind have toiled and groaned and perished. There is one word, and only one, that reveals the bitter fountain of all this accumulated tide of ills that has overspread and disordered the world. That word is sin: The worshipping and serving the creature instead of the Creator. Now what, in all ages, has most perplexed and oppressed the honest inquirer, is, in the first place, how the disorders and wrongs of sin can have place under the Divine government; under the perfect administration of an infinitely good, allwise, 'omnipotent Being? In other words, how we can have faith in God's providence, rest in the assurance that "He doeth all things well," reconcile our

But has not Jesus said: "No man can come unto me except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him?” These words, which were spoken on an earlier occasion than those of the text, only state the other side of the same great truth. There must be an inward preparation corresponding to the outward provision. God's Spirit must first find its way to the heart and awaken an urgent sense of the need of reconciliation and salvation, before we are prepared to accept the Savior and Mediator He has provided in His Son. It is only as the Father reveals the Son in us as the true object of our faith that we are rightly drawn to him. To the completed revelation of Himself in the person of Jesus, God must add His spiritual illumination to give the great fact its proper significance and interpretation, before it can reach its due effect. God has not left Himself without this inward

"by the grace of God tasting death for every man?" How, in fine, can we doubt that all our light affliction,' is designed to “work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," as we "look unto Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God!"

Thus it was only as Jesus "became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," that God's love reached its highest expression in him, and all these attractive influences fully gathered themselves up in his person. It was only by his death that his selfsacrifice reached its true climax; it was only on the cross that he could say: "It is finished." And thus he, every step of whose whole life, was a sacrifice for us, points onward to his elevation on the cross, as giving the completed significance to his life, and hence as the true beginning and source of that mysterious and resistless attraction, by which, in succeeding time, he was to make his power felt to the very outermost circumference of humanity, and "draw all men" in ever closer converging lines to himself.

witness. He freely offers His Son to all. In him, and through him, He extends His arms of love to the whole world, and would freely gather all. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotton Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.." Here we reach the right stand-point. Love, the love of God, is the great moving and acting principle in the whole transaction. Love, love to a perishing world, is the high and blessed source from which flows the mission of the great Redeemer. Love is the heavenly ray which sheds on his earthly lot its most moving significance, irradiates with such transcendant glory his lowly life of poverty and humiliation, throws such a divine halo around the cross, and reveals the true secret of its mighty attraction. And this amazing expression and outlay of Divine love, finds its great end in the two leading terms of the Gospel message: Reconciliation and Redemption. Through Jesus Christ as we accept him in living faith, we become God's reconciled and redeemed children. And by what expenditure of love could God so touch our hearts and make us feel that He is still our Father, notwithstanding the Let us now turn a moment, in conalienation and disorder sin has clusion, to the scene of the crucifix- · wrought, as by sending His well-be- ion, and see if it furnishes any conloved Son to cast in his lot with us, firmation and exemplification of the to take part with us in our dark pro- general view I have been endeavorbationary state, and share with us the ing to set-forth. If Jesus, from his full effects and consequences of that cross, is to draw all men unto him, bitter inheritance sin has been entail- can the event of his death transpire ing upon our suffering race! In without affording some significant what other way could He so effectu- interpretation and realization of his ally "assert eternal Providence and words? We all know the general justify His ways to men!" How features of the scene. Jesus is nailed could the great "Judge of all the to the cross as a public malefactor, earth," give a more convincing proof "numbered with transgressors," cruand pledge that He "will do right," cified between thieves." The Jewish than in "not sparing His own Son," but "delivering him up for us all," to take His place under the same administration He has appointed for us all? And when the thought of death, the last dark mystery, steals like a fearful shudder through the soul, what so calms the mind and sustains our faith, as the reflection that this dark mystery, too, Jesus has shared with us,

rulers ply their cruel mockings. The rude Roman soldiers catch up and reecho the heartless derision. Everything seems to repel and nothing to attract. How is it, then, that the crucified is to draw all men unto him? Nazarene, where is now the mysterious power of thy cross? But we follow one of the accounts a little further. "And one of the malefactors

the world, born of a woman, taking part and lot in the hereditary infirmity of the race, "bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows;" makes him our fellow-sufferer in all the pains and penalties of sin, while,at the same time he "hath done nothing amiss,” but maintains through all,his spotless and divine innocence. Can this wondrous exhibition of Divine selfsacrifice, reaching its acme in the cross, fail to touch and win the hearts of all as it touched and won the penitent thief? Who, at last, must not become a penitent before the cross of Jesus? Must not the strange attraction that first drew the heart of the malefactor on Calvary to the uplifted Redeemer, sooner or later reach and draw the hearts of all? The answer is in the words of the text: "And I, if I be lifted-up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."

railed on him saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering, rebuked him saying, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." Behold, then, in the penitent thief a present instance of the true attractive power of the cross. How is it, then, that while others are mocking and railing, he is so irresistibly drawn to the Divine Sufferer? The answer is at hand in his own words: "And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss." Does he not almost anticipate, while he exemplifies, the words of Peter: "For Christ, also, hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." In other words, the dying thief is drawn to Jesus, because he sees him innocently undergoing at his side the same punishment which he feels that he is himself suffering justly. Jesus does not suffer the penalty instead of him, but along with him; does not take away the just punishment of his sin, but shares it with him. Here, then, we have inseparably interwoven with the narrative of the crucifixion itself, The above essay on "the Attractive an incident which exemplifies, in a Power of the Cross," was read by its wonderful degree. the true signifi- author Dr. Z. Test, before the Firstcance of Christ's sufferings. He does day School Conference, at Walnut not annul any of the just consequen- Ridge, noticed in our last Number. ces of sin, but voluntarily places The subject was again called up himself under the same consequences at a subsequent sitting, by Dougan and bears them along with us. We Clark-in remarks substantially as are all "malefactors" before God. follows: While describing so beautiWe are all "in the same condemnation." We all stand under an inherited moral infirmity, which we have all converted into actual sin by voluntary transgression. In all that we suffer, like the malefactor on the cross, we do but "receive the due reward of our deeds." Behold, now, how "the goodness of God leadeth us to repentance." He sends His Son into

I now leave these simple views and thoughts with you. They have become the daily and hourly nutriment of my spiritual life; and my single object in presenting them has been that, under the Divine blessing they may impart to others something of the soul-sustaining power I have found in them myself. If this result in any degree should follow, I shall feel that this humble and imperfect attempt to present my conviction of "the truth as it is Jesus," has not been wholly in vain.

fully the attractive power of the cross of Christ, the essayist did not omit to inform us in what that attractive power consists. It is LOVE. In this connexion I am reminded of a remark made by Upham, that the attractive power of love is in direct proportion to its emanative power. Love desires the welfare and happiness of othersand the more the heart of an individ

ual goes forth in kindly wishes for love with which a God who is infinothers, the more irresistibly are the ite in all His attributes regards His affections of others drawn towards only-begotten, immaculate Son. And himself. There was sound philoso- yet this love, great as it is-incomprephy as well as touching simplicity, in hensible as it is-is only the same as the reply of the little girl, when asked that with which he regards us if we by her father, "Mary, why does are His children. No wonder that everybody love you?" "Really, papa, we are to be called the "Sons of God" I cannot tell, unless it is because I -no wonder that we are to be "joint love everybody." The principle that heirs with Christ"-if He loves us as like produces like applies to our emo- He loves Him. And as the love that tions generally. Hate engenders emanates from God through Christ hate; love begets love. Says Horace, towards His adopted children trans'If you wish me to weep, you must cends all other love of which we have first weep yourself.' If we extend any knowledge, so the attraction by our conceptions through the different which the Christian is drawn towards orders of intelligences, from man up God through Christ, transcends all to the Deity, we shall still find that other attraction. To such as these the influx of love will be great in He that was "lifted up," becomes in proportion to its efflux. God is in- very truth, "the chiefest among ten finitely greater than man, and has an thousand and altogether lovely." infinitely greater capacity of loving, and the attractive power of His love is vast in proportion to its emanative power. The awakened sinner loves God because He first loved him. He loves Christ, because while he was yet a sinner, "Christ died for Him," "Friends. The number of students and "greater love than this hath no enrolled was 106-all but six from man known, that a man should lay North Carolina; number of males down his life for his friends." The 38; females 68; average attendance attraction which draws all men unto 76; number of Friends 86; length of the Cross is but the refluent wave time 8 weeks. Many of the students that has first emanated from that were practical teachers, and, as might Cross. Still greater is the love both be expected, the exercises were very emanative and attractive which pass- entertaining and instructive to those es and repasses between God and His adopted children. "To whom much has been forgiven the same loveth much," and they who love much are drawn nearest to God Himself,and to the creatures of God.

"He prayeth well, who loveth well All things both great and small, For the dear God, who loveth us

He made and loveth all."

D. C.

NORMAL SCHOOL, Deep River, N. C. This School, which closed on the 9th of 8th mo., was conducted under the auspices of Baltimore Association of

preparing for the important business of teaching. Mutual instruction in the best methods of teaching, particularly object teaching, lectures by the Superintendent, Joseph Moore, and others not connected with the Normal, and discussion by the various classes, constituted an important part of the business. Tract reading was introduced and recommended as an exercise in schools calculated to "That the world may know," says promote mental discipline, and to exthe Savior, "that thou hast sent me, ert a great moral and religious influand hast loved them," (meaning the ence over the students. For this purdisciples,) "as thou hast loved me." pose they should be required once a Can we form any conception of such week, or oftener, to read separate porlove? We know something of the tions of a tract, and on a suitable oclove of an earthly parent for a child-casion rise from their seats and rewe know how that love is concentra- peat the same from memory. ted and intensified where it is an only child-but this is no measure of the

FRANKLIN ELLIOTT,
Friendsville, Tenn.

The American Friend. a balance wheel upon us.

RICHMOND, IND., 10TH MO., 1867.

WE this month publish accounts of Iowa and Western Yearly Meetings, prepared by one of the editors.

Eli and Mahala Jay are prevented from assisting in issuing this number on account of sickness.

In our next will appear the very interesting account given to Iowa Yearly Meeting by our friend, David Hunt, of his ministerial and other labors beyond the Atlantic.

For the American Friend.

ENGLAND.

But I did

not intend writing a political article,

but rather a hasty review of a few weeks sojourn in England, and my impressions of the country and the people.

The whole country from one end to the other, reminds me of a vast garden, dotted here and there with cities and villages. Green pastures, well-kept lawns, fields in the highest state of cultivation, picturesque hills and beautiful valleys, charm the eye of the tourist at almost every step; while the meandering streams that murmur through every vale, the welltrimmed hedge rows and shady lanes, are additional elements of beauty. To the student of Geology, England presents unusual attractions, for the reason that almost every formation is represented within a comparatively small area, and the country also abounds in minerals. The numerous mines and railroad cuts afford excellent opportunities for making investigations. Nor is it without attractions for the Botanist. The broom is one of the most beautiful shrubs that I ever saw. It is said that Linnæus, when he first beheld it, knelt down and thanked God for so lovely a creation. There are also many beautiful flowers indigenous to the

wild

soil.

AN American, who can lay aside all prejudice and political bias, must ever find England a land in which there is much of deep interest. So intimately are we connected with the mother country, by ties of ancestry, by common language and literature, by similar laws, and, to a great extent, similar social habits and customs, that whatever affects the prosperity of either country must in a corresponding degree, be felt by the other. There are no other two countries in the world more interested in The economy practised by the agremaining on friendly terms with ricultural portion of the community, each other than England and the United States. Two of the most powerful, most enlightened and christianized nations on the globe, every interest of civilization and of humanity demands that a friendly spirit should prevail between them, and I know of nothing more likely to foster this spirit than such intercourse between the masses of the people of the two countries, as shall make them better acquainted with each other.

Every year the travel in each direction increases, and opportunity is thus afforded for each to study the distinguishing characteristics of the other, and, it is to be hoped, with mutual benefit. Our new life and energy may act as a mainspring upon them; their solidity and stability as

might, with advantage, be imitated by the farmers in America. Every kind of farm produce is most carefully housed or ricked, and in feeding stock, care is taken that nothing be wasted. Indeed, so far as my observation extends, all classes of persons appear to practice economy, nor do they seem to be ashamed to have it known that they do so.

The student of history cannot fail to be interested in the country, for one can scarcely travel in any direction without finding spots rich in historic associations; and in this respect there are few places more interesting than the city of York and the surrounding country.

York was once the capital of Britain, and it owes its origin as a city to