duties too often not otherwise attractive. By the same means it delays the attention on these truths, and, moreover, secures (for them the irresistible power which belongs to constant reiteration. It possesses also that mighty sympathetic influence, which the simple expression of feelings carries with it to the heart of the child, whose interest has been gained. We beguile him to utter in the voice of a pleasant song, the language of some good emotion or noble sentiment, and almost insensibly he is won to join in the feelings he finds so pleasant to express. None but the heartless or the unwise can doubt the power for good or evil which poetry and music are constantly exerting on education, or fail to see the importance of earnest study and watchful care that this power may be well applied.” The judicious practice of vocal music is physically important. It promotes a healthy action of the lungs and of the muscles of the chest, and thus, as the labouring man's hand and arm become strengthened, the vocal and respiratory organs by exercise become stronger, and better able to resist disease; a most important effect in a country like this, where consumption lurks for its prey. Thus it is ascertained, by statistics, that the profession of public speaker and of public singer are more favourable to long life than any other. It would be well if medical men would bear this in view, and if parents would consider the daily singing lesson as essential as the daily reading lesson. If the practice of music was begun and kept up in the family and in the day-school, the singing in the church would soon become easy and the praises of our God would be comely and pleasant. J. W. L. Miscellaneous Papers. (Original and Selected.) SPEAK THE TRUTH. BY THE REV. WILLIAM C. BURNS. The wicked men estranged are, That closely stops her ear. That so she may not hear the voice crowded for many nights. Who is to have the mastery in this city? Whether is God's truth or the devil's lie to get credit? Who is on the Lord's side-who? If all the seats in this church were empty that should be so if all were absent but those who love God's truth, and who have no motive for coming here but to hear his truth, our ranks would be still more thinned. Fellow-sinners, are your seats in Satan's kingdom emptying? Has he a smaller part in you than he once had? See to it. It's not a head full of knowledge that will profit: it's a sanctified mind-a subjected will, awill subject to the law and dispensations of God. The only question asked of you is, "Are you a servant of God?" The end of BEFORE singing this psalm, let us seek to realise that it contains the true character by nature of all present. We go astray speak-religion is just to make a man yield himself ing lies we remain deceivers and deceived till God interpose to renew and change us. Having met to pray for the work of the Lord in this place, it is high time we were getting at the truth, as regards our own character. Some benches are vacant to-night that were nor less than a consecration of the heart and up into God's hand. Not to bring you constantly to meetings, to look solemn and sit with a long face, and commend preachers; nor only, nor chiefly, to sing psalms and be full of external devotion. It is neither more all its powers to the Lord-a yielding up of ourselves into his hand for life. It is to work hard and to be a faithful servant. There is no time for trifling in that service; you must put your hand to the work, declare yourselves for the Lord, and on his side; leave it no longer doubtful whose you are. We must be a peculiar people; we ought not, we dare not, to be on good terms with the unregenerate, with the crucifiers of Christ; we must not be contented with defending our own position: we must act on the aggressive; and, in the name and | strength of Jehovah, engage in his work in this place. You who are ungodly must answer the question for yourselves, whether you are contentedly to sleep on or not; whether you are to sink back into the deep slumber of sin? Make no excuses or delays. Don't say you'll give up that unlawful part of your business at the term, or at some future time. Death makes a term-day for souls, and judgment seals perdition. "Ah!" some one will say, "you are all bigots; why condemn every one around you? Is no one to be saved that does not think just as you do?" Is that bigotry? There was but one Noah in the ark. There was but one Lot in the beautiful and well-watered cities of the plain -one Rahab in Jericho. If you are not decided on this point-if you remain a waverer-you will never do the world any good, and you will do yourself eternal injury. Some say, "We do not want to be too singular, or too strict, or too holy; we just want to be moral, decent, respectable, neighbourly people, giving nobody trouble, and well thought of in the world." My dear friends, God's people are called to be saints-glorious distinction: the forerunner of an eternal weight of glory! True, this knife cuts deep; but if it be of God's own making, no matter who falls under it. A saint, and nothing less, is his standard; and, if there be not one such in your city, that only proves that there are none of God's people here; it does not alter the truth of his Word. This Word of his must stand, fall who may; it's not what this minister says, or what that Christian does that is to guide you: no, it's How READEST THOU? With such an infallible guide as his Word, you have no need to follow blind ones; such guides will all at to hell, but that, alas! will not excuse last go you, though they be doubly damned, Listen to no voice but this, "I am the Truth and the Life." He who speaks these words is one who speaketh truth and keepeth truth evermore. It is the work of the infinitely wise Jehovah to teach you, and to instruct sinners in the ways that they should go! "To meek and poor afflicted ones Ministers should be bright and shining stars, but they should be like the star that led the wise men to Bethlehem, where the Babe lay: when once it led them there, we hear no more of the star. While seeking to speak to a man the other day of these things, he used the com mon expression, “This is a bad world!" I thought he knew little of the evil heart within. It is indeed a bad world, and there is evil all around us, but the worst enemy is the heart. What produces all the evil around us but the streams that flow from man's corrupt heart joining together and forming, as it were, a vast dead sea, from which pollution is constantly emanating. One is apt to suspect people when one hears them complaining and saying we have a bad government in London; the worst government is in our own hearts-it's here, it's here, within, and not without us. Men would fain gloss that over; they don't like to be told what's within them, though they will speak for hours of the evils without them. Many such go about speaking lies, saying what is untrue, while they shelter themselves under their profession of religion, and some make it high in proportion as it is false. I have known many such who have in the end belied it, and gone back. I have known them become drunkards; I have known them turn out unclean; and, as soon as the sin is committed, they wipe the mouth, and say, "It's all right." Friends, don't draw a veil and think it thick enough to keep out God's eye. We do not speak at random ; we are not making out a highly coloured case merely to warn others; I have some such in my eye when I thus speak-some who have often shed tears under the preaching of the Word, and made a profession of godliness too-and done that unblushingly when they were going through secret gates to drop into hell, if the grossest sin fits a man for hell. Men do not, alas! realise that sin, all sin, | quent and grievous falsehoods to please man, when it is finished, bringeth forth death, and to escape man's wrath. You prevaricate just as certainly as it is committed. True, many a time, and cover any disagreeable it ends thus against our will; but this is matter that occurs, just to put it all to rights God's order, from which he does not depart, again; and it comes so easily to you that that it should, in judgment for sin, bring you will even do it when there's no necessity wrath on us; and truly the judgment of for it even to shelter yourself. You lie many a professor lingereth not, and their to your master, to your mistress, to your damnation slumbereth not. Do not put off fellow-servants. Now, isn't that the case? these remarks as having no bearing on your own cases, or consider to whom among your acquaintances you could most justly apply them. Young women, what have you been about lately? Young men, where were you last night? Fathers and mothers, what have you been doing? What have your secret thoughts and actions been? Now you are quieting your thoughts, and saying, "Well, at least nobody saw me!" Nobody saw you! Friend, God saw; God detected you; God was with you then; he heard your words; he saw your thoughts; he saw the whole of it. The beginning and end of the sin you dare not confess to men, and he sees it now. Don't then seek to hide the truth from yourself. Oh, the deceitfulness of hearts like ours-the depravity, the selfdeception that lodges in us! And now let me trace this self-deception in your hearts. Are some of you, who may have been convinced of some recent act of sin, not now saying within yourselves, "Well, if God did see it, it's all over now at any rate, and everything is forgotten again." Yes! and you think that God has forgotten because you have, and you'll go on and make all square and satisfactory again, and get your crying sins all nicely covered up and buried in silence, as you imagine; and then you will say within yourself, that now there will be no more notice taken of your sins, and you cry, "Peace, peace;" and that too just when ruin is at the door, when judgment is at your heels, and when wrath is over your head, while your foot is treading the edge of the precipice, and when Tophet, which is ordained, and lighted of old, is just opening to receive you! Believe it, the deceitfulness of your heart is not easily known. Oh, that we were enabled to lead you to see something at least of it! I would ask of such among you as are servants, how many sins you have peculiar to yourselves? You make a profession of religion, and yet you speak lies; you tell fre Oh, is it not true? You are trying to draw a double veil over your sin at this moment, so as to hide it from the voice of conscience and of the Word, and make these hold their peace. That will not hide it from God. And you too, poor little children, ah, how many lies do you tell? Truly, children soon prove what an evil nature they have got. They tell lies from the time they are born. There is one truth they often tell, and that is, when they say to each other, “You're a liar!" They do speak the truth there. They know their own hearts, and judge of others by themselves; they do not say, "You lie," but, "You are a liar." Were I called on to take a test that must apply to all, to see whether they were on the way to heaven or not, I think I would select this one," Do they speak the truth?" I believe that, were this test broadly and spiritually applied, not one but a regenerate person would be able to stand it-that is, no other one would be found who would tell the whole truth, at all times, and in all places, come what might; not one of the unregenerate could stand the test universally applied. Indeed, some people tell so many lies that one would suppose they must spend all their spare time in forging them. Do you set a high value on the truth? My dear friends, answer this; for I believe that there is nothing that goes so far with God as a truly upright, sincere, honest heart-a straightforward way of acting and thinking; and I believe, too, that those will be saved who are possessed of it, who may have very little pretensions to devotion, and who talk very little about religion. I say this, because I believe that such uprightness of heart comes alone from the new nature. I once knew a man with such a character; I knew him well; and, while admiring the sincerity of his heart and the rectitude of his principles, I still regretted that there was not more devotion and reverence in his way and speaking, and used to wish that the roughness and bluntness of his manner were | No person acquainted with that country as changed to seriousness. Well, when he was I am can for a moment doubt of its Divine dying, his answer to some questions, as to original; a great moral and religious change how he felt in prospect of the awful change, dent, from what I saw and heard, that no has evidently taken place, and I am confiwas just of a piece with his life. He said one who will go there with an unprejudiced "I feel now as if I were standing barefoot mind, calmly and dispassionately to judge on the Rock of Ages." Ah, brethren! of what is to be seen, but must come to the Mark the perfect man, and behold the up- been and is at work, and that the effects conclusion that a great spiritual agency has right, for the end of that man is peace." visible are such as never could have been And see that ye have an upright heart, and produced by the power of man or Satan, a truthful tongue, and a clear conscience, and which can only be referred to the without which all the semblance of devotion quickening and transforming influence of and the air of piety, which some assume, God's Holy Spirit. will but cast you deeper into the pit. Not that we would dare to take the Lord's place, and say who is safe and who is not. I am not your judge. I might say that I hoped and believed you had faith and grace, and were one of his chosen. That is nothing. The Lord is the Judge, and none else. And, in like manner, you might say that I have faith and grace. What will that profit me? The Lord is Judge. See that we be sincere, single-hearted. (To be concluded.) THE IRISH REVIVALS. Substance of an Address delivered in the RY THE REV. N. BROWN. We have all read and heard much of the Revival of Religion in Ireland, and other places; but so conflicting have been the accounts, that I have abstained from all pulpit reference to the subject, until I should have an opportunity of seeing and judging for myself. That opportunity I have, in the providence of God, enjoyed; and I shall now give you an account of what I saw and heard during my recent visit to Ireland. I purpose to confine my remarks principally to Ireland, because I am in a position to speak with greater confidence of the work going on there. It is the land of my birth; and with many of those lately convinced of sin and converted to God I am personally and intimately acquainted. Apart, then, from all the excesses and impostures which have attended the movement, I pronounce it, as far as I have been able to judge, to be indeed a work of God. In calling your attention to this subject, my desire is to present the case just as it stands, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. May the Spirit of the Lord direct us and lead us into all the truth. May he enable us so to speak and so to hear, that the glory of God may be promoted, and our own souls savingly impressed. Let me first direct your thoughts to the means used to bring about this gracious visitation. God always works by means. True, we may not be able to understand every circumstance; but that is no reason why God should not work according to his own plan. With regard to these revivals, be it observed that they have not come gratuitously, or without some desire and effort on the part of God's people. All who have read what has been written on the subject must have observed the connec tion of means with ends-the means single in themselves, but powerful in their operation. Of these means prayer seems to have been the primary. Prayer is the channel through which God's richest blessings are conveyed. Although God knows all that concerns his people-although he knows all the wants of the children of men-still he will have them to ask, if they expect to receive, to seek, if they desire to find, and to knock, if they thirst after the treasures of his grace. "For these things," says God, "I will be inquired at of the house of Israel, to do it for them." These revivals have not come unsolicited or unsought. They have come according to God's established method of bestowing his favours. The prayers of his people have been ascending; his throne of grace has been besieged. These prayers have prevailed with God, so that, in confirmation of his promise to "give the Holy Spirit to them that ask,” he has poured out showers of his grace. He has opened the windows of heaven, and rained down blessings upon his waiting people, and upon others, through the prevalence of their prayers. It was so in America. It was and is so in Scotland, in Wales, in Ireland, and in all other places where the revival work has commenced; and I trust it will soon be so in Leeds, and all over England. In this way God has often refreshed his people, and through the prevalence of their intercession he has been found of many who sought not after him, and been gracious to some who cared not for him. It was in this way that the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost. The people were waiting for the promise of the Father. They were all assembled for this purpose, with one accord, in one place, when God, true to his promise, sent down his Holy Spirit, filling all the place where they were sitting. We cannot read the account furnished us by the inspired writers without seeing in many points a remarkable similarity and coincidence with what God is doing now upon the earth. There were signs and appearances then; they are to be seen still; and why should we be surprised at them? Are we not surrounded by mysteries of Providence? We care not, however, for these; we cannot see the necessity of those physical manifestations which accompany the work, although on natural principles we think they might be accounted for. We attach, however, no importance to them: all they teach us is that God sometimes gives discernible tokens of his presence and power, and we are not to disbelieve because these may appear. We regard not the appearances, however-we prize the reality, we rejoice in the thing itself. We hail not the shadow, but we glory in the substance. God is working: let us leave him to do his own work, in his own way. What right have we to dictate to him? What is man, that he should reflect on God's method of working? Let him reveal himself to the hearts of men as he may think right. Let him come by powerful demonstrations, affecting the bodies as well as the souls of men. Let him come in the "still small voice," or in any way that he may deem right. Be it ours to rejoice in the result, and say, with regard to means, "Even so, Father; for so it seemeth good in thy sight." God has, in ways wonderful to us, brought many to repentance; and if the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that is reclaimed, then, let the means and appearances be what they may, we should also rejoice, yea, and we will rejoice. O that we could see more and more the value of prayer! We think too little of prayer, just because it makes too little of us. It was the great instrumentality, in days that are past, in obtaining showers of grace from above. It is so still. Let us, then, be "instant in prayer," that God may visit us and bless the nations with tokens of his love. But, in ascribing these revivals first to the efficacy of prayer, let us not be supposed to undervalue the preaching of God's word. Both are necessary, and both are used. God sanctifies his people through his truth. The truth has been preached in its simplicity and power, while no extraordinary means have been used to bring it to bear on the hearts of men. It has been preached in its apostolic purity; and it is worthy of remark, that the revival in Ireland has commenced and is going on among a people never remarkable for impulsive or excitable preaching. It began among a people whose services have been at all times noted for calmness and simplicity-with nothing to captivate the worldly, or to attract the unspiritual. They greatly err, therefore, who ascribe these revivals to the excitement of the feelings through the preaching of the Word. No new agencies have been at work. No singular or eccentric preachers have been employed. No unwarrantable means have been used. The Gospel has been preached fully and faithfully, and, by the blessing of God, it has been better heard, better felt, and better preached than ever it was before. This is the grand secret: the Gospel preached has been brought home with power and the demonstration of God's Spirit; and it has produced those effects which are now visible. So much for the means used. Let us see the results, and judge of them by the standard of God's word. (To be continued.) ON CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE. No. VI. IN some articles, through several previous numbers, for last year, the writer of this suggested some considerations on the subject of Christian Experience. Unavoidable circumstances prevented their continuance ; but now it is proposed to add two or three short papers on the same subject. We considered the Christian's experience in relation to the views he has been divinely led to entertain regarding himself, the Gospel, the Atonement, the World, the Word of God, Prayer, the Sabbath, and the Institutions of the Sanctuary. These considerations, we think, may, not inappropriately, be followed up by a review of some of the advantages of Christian experience, or some of the blessed fruits which it cannot but yield to the rightly exercised and observant people of God. In the affairs of this world, experience and its advantages are proverbial terms. Experience speaks; its voice is eagerly heard; its hopes and fears, its dreadings |