the hands of a young Scottish clergyman, talented, learned, eloquent, of whom the great Andrew Fuller said in his scarce extravagant admiration, that if he would fling his notes aside and preach extempore, he might be king of Scotland. The young clergyman had been ambitious and worldly-minded, and was still an unrenewed man. But a protracted illness had led him to serious thoughts, and prepared the soil of his heart for the seed of the book that now came in his way. He read it, and in the letter in which he gives the account of it, he declares that it wrought "a great revolution in all his opinions about Christianity." It was that book which made Thomas Chalmers "a new man," which fitted him to be the leader of the evangelical movement in Scotland, which led him to give forth stirring appeals and utterances which have thrilled the hearts of others also across oceans and continents, and which prepared him to be the means of the exodus of the Free Church from State control. Here we pause. But the stream, one of the fountain-heads of which we have found in that old torn copy of " Bunyan's Resolution," still flows on, and other centuries, along banks yet unexplored, shall drink from the waters of this river of life. If any are disposed to underrate the importance of a wide dissemination of sound religious literature, let them correct their error in the study of this lineage of a single book.- New York Observer. A BASIS OF UNION. THERE is another thing, said Dr. Cunningham, I would not like to abstain from saying, though I am aware it trenches somewhat on a point where there is some room for misconception, and where, I think, we sometimes manifest an undue measure of jealousy and suspicion. I believe that since Presbyterianism and Calvinism were the great distinctive characteristics of the Reformation as a whole, and especially of the Scottish Reformation, I believe that on the same ground Calvinism and Presbyterianism-without going minutely into points on which intelligent and honest Calvinists and Presbyterians differ from each other-afford a fair and adequate basis for the harmonious union of Chris tian Churches. (Cheers.) I know that statements of this kind are apt to be received as savouring of what are called loose and latitudinarian views of doctrinal matters, but I believe this is a misapprehension. I have no doubt that particular Churches have been placed in circumstances in which truths of comparatively minor importance on which intelligent Calvinists and Presbyterians might not unnaturally disagree,-in circumstances in which they were called upon to make a decided stand, at all hazards, for the greatness of those truths, subordinate though they be. This is, however, a question of circumstance, a question of fair construction of God's providential indications, and the question still remains whether, apart from these special circumstances or general grounds, we are called upon to go further, as an indispensable and universal basis of union or ground of disunion, than just the honest and intelligent profession of Calvinism in doctrine and Presbyterianism in government? (Great applause.) My conviction is that, apart from those special providential peculiarities of position, which may sometimes impose a distinct and explicit duty on particular Churches, an intelligent, honest, and cordial agreement in the great doctrines of Calvinism and the fundamental principles of Presbyterianism, ought to be ordinarily and usually an adequate ground for the union of Christian Churches-not merely for the recognition of other Churches as sister Churches, but for actual union. (Cheers.) Events in providence may stand in the way, but believing that to be a great general principle, and seeing how much Calvinism and Presbyterianism were the great characteristics of the Reformation, I believe that ordinarily there is ground for blame and censure somewhere if Churches brought in providence into close contact with each other, and combined in an intelligent profession of Calvinistic and Presbyterian doctrine, are not united. (Great applause.) It may be sometimes a difficult question to say where the blame lies, and to settle the construction of times, places, and circumstances; but I believe that is a great general principle which ought to be set forth, and which, however difficult it may be to set it forth as a great general truth, ought to be pressed on men's attention--though not forced upon them apart from circumstances. It ought to be allowed to den to itself, and unprofitable to others. I will not lay up too much, and utter nothing, lest I be covetous; nor spend much, and store up little, lest I be prodigal and poor.-Hall. These are the signs of a wise man: to reprove nobody, to praise nobody, to blame nobody; nor ever to speak of himself as an uncommon man.-Epictetus. conversation, may furnish us with ideas, Observation and instruction, reading and but it is the labour and meditation of our own thoughts which must render them either useful or valuable. Hasty conclusions are the mark of a fool; a wise man doubteth; a fool rageth "seed" in their minds, that in due time it may produce its proper fruit. I believe this to be the great common ground of Protestantism; and I am the more impressed with this when I think of the fearful mischief produced at the Reformation by the quarrels and dissensions into which the Reformers were so soon plunged. Nothing is more deplorable in the history of the Church of Christ than the extent to which, on points of no great importance, the Reformers quarrelled among themselves, and laid the foundation of divisions which, in course of one single generation, arrested the whole course of the Reformation, and left professing Christendom up to this day in substantially the same condition, as regards the relative strength of Protestantism and Popery, as at the period of the death of the first Reformer. (Hear,hear.) There is something very deplorable in this, and we have often to lament how largely the great ends for which the Christian Church is established are lost by us-ends at which we are bound to aim. I could not fee! myself warranted in abstaining from pointing out this great lesson which the Reformation so plainly and palpably teaches. Surely no man can look back on the history of the Reformation without seeing that this is one of the lessons it is fitted to impress on our minds. In looking back to that period we are called upon also to realise our own sins and shortcomings, and to One very common error misleads the consider what are the lessons it teaches opinion of mankind, that, universally, as to our duty, and the relation we ought authority is pleasant, submission painful. to maintain in regard to other branches In the general course of human affairs, the of the Church of Christ, and especially very reverse of this is nearer the truth. to consider what can be done to combine Command is anxiety; obedience, ease.all who hold the Head, and maintain Paley. right views of the organisation of the Church of Christ, and to unite them against their great common enemies, Popery and Infidelity. (Loud and prolonged applause.) and is confident; the novice saith, "I am sure that it is so;" the better learned anprithee, inquire." Some men are drunk with swers, "Peradventure it may be so; but, I fancy, and mad with opium. It is a little learning, and but a little, which makes men conclude hastily. Experience and humility teach modesty and fear.-Jeremy Taylor. Affectation is the greatest enemy both of doing well, and good acceptance of what is done. I hold it the part of a wise man to than go before him.—Hall. endeavour rather that fame may follow him I will, to-morrow, that I will, I will be sure to do it; To-morrow comes, to-morrow goes, Thus still repentance is deferred WORDS OF THE WISE. The ear and the eye are the mind's receivers; but the tongue is only busied in expending the treasure received. If, therefore, the revenues of the mind be uttered as fast or faster than they are received, it cannot be but that the mind must needs be bare, and can never lay up for purchase. But if the receivers take in still with no utterance, the mind may soon grow a bur FACTS ABOUT CHINA. THE Court and Government of China figures for the first time this year in the celebrated Almanach de Gotha- that thick, 32mo. chronicler of crowned heads, ducal families, republican rulers, and statistics of civilised nations. Japan has no place in the finely-printed pages of this diplomatic in number, as follows: of the interior' annual, while the Sandwich Islands are fully finance, worship, war, justice, public-works, reported, and every important spoke in its foreign affairs, and the censorship. political wheel clearly designated. The There are twenty-three provinces, and three reason why China, her Emperor, ministers, of these are subdivided in their government. provincial governors, generals and admirals, The list of governors, under-governors, mandarins all-appear in the ninety-secretaries, &c., is quite formidable in seventh number of the Almanach de Gotha appearance, and to pronounce the names is, that she has entered into diplomatic rela- with our occidental barbaric tongues, is tions with the Western "Barbarians." Next something equivalent to reciting an Ethioyear we shall hope to see Japan-in many respects the Asiatic England-faithfully represented in this little but eminent statistical work to which we have referred. The facts about the government functionaries of China are very briefly stated, but are worth translating, for, in a very short space, they give a clearer notion of the Celestial Empire than many long treatises. The Emperor Hienfung (in the Canton dialect Hanfung) is the seventh of the reigning dynasty of the Tsings (which succeeded in 1644 to that of the Mings). The present Emperor is the two hundred and fortyfourth issue, if we may believe Chinese history, from the year 2842 before the Christian era. This is decidedly cool; for, by placing figure against figure, we find that the first Chinese Emperor must have lived five hundred years cotemporaneously with Methuselah, and a Chinese Emperor must have been in the Ark with Noah. But, leaving these musty regions of antiquity, we ascertain that Heinfung commenced his reign at the death of his father, on the 26th of February, 1850, but, out of respect for the memory of his father, he dates his accession to power from February, 1851. The present Emperor will be 29 years old in August next. His name, Heinfung, is not his family appellation. It is his official name, and signifies Perfect Felicity. His father's name (Tankwang) means The Splen. dour of Reason. The different functionaries of government are mandarins, divided into nine classes, and the civil authorities always have precedence of the military. The cabinet has four presidents or ministers, and any quantity of under-ministers. The departments are eight pian song. The chief officers in the cabinet are Messrs. Hwai-leang, Pang-wan-Chang, Sui-Lin, Ung-Sin Tsun. The commanderin-chief of the Keih-Lin province is KingChun; another official rejoices in the name of Ching-Chi; the commanding general of the province of Ili has a name decidedly Italian, viz.: Chalafontae; while one of the Presidents, Mr. Chin Fu-Ugan, in the war department, must be an Irishman. The literary chancellor of the province of NagenHevui has a name that is rather executional in appearance-Shang-Hang-Yu. Then we have officials with such musical names as Mr. Wu-Ting-Tung, Mr. Pang-Yuen-Sung, and Mr. Hu-Sing-Gin, (the last syllable is very suspicious, doubtless indicating the theme which Hu sings). The population in 1859 was estimated from the census, taken for purposes of taxation, to be 415,000,000! There is no reason to doubt these figures. What wonder fills the mind when we think that the empire of China contains more than onethird of the human family! While we cannot but call these myriads of Chinese uncivilised, we must not yet include them in the category of wild Africans, Australasians and Esquimaux. They have many of the appliances of the most civilised nations, coupled with vices that do not find their equal amongst the lowest nations of heathenism. But their very numbers are appalling in view of reform. The greatest hope for China is that her masses are reading people, and can be reached through the printed page. What will be the effect of the great armed movement now putting forth by England and France no one can tell.Journal of Commerce. the way has not been opened for resuming done there; while the great objection to a school. Our premises are too contracted Swatow as a Mission station is, that it is a to allow of school and chapel, with room for mart of trade, where people chiefly come for the inmates of the house, while we have not business, where families are exceedingly found it an easy matter to enlarge our few, and those who may appear much imdwelling. It is also most desirable to have pressed, perhaps return to their homes, and a Christian teacher, who, I trust, will be we never see them again. Once, however, raised up in answer to believing prayer. the country thrown open, one or two misOur main work consists in preaching the sionaries will be quite inadequate to the Gospel, and, for doing so, our opportunities work. There are seven or eight burgh are very many. We cannot point to much fruit towns, which would require, at once, at as yet, but we must sow in faith and hope, and, least one missionary each; while, under the in due time, we shall reap, if we faint not. government of these, are thousands of vil"The longer I am here I see more and more lages and market towns, with populations reason to believe that it was of God that the varying from a few hundreds to upwards of mission to Teay Chew (Tie Chin) should be 100,000. I feel certain that this departundertaken by us. Foreigners, for some time ment presents one of the most compact, past, have hardly dared to visit Swatow; most accessible, most populous, and most but God has been as a wall of fire around necessitous mission-fields in China. Swatow our Mission, so that we have suffered no is the most centrical point in the department, harm. although it is, in some respects, undesirable as a place of residence for a foreign missionary. "People from all parts of Teay Chew come to our place of worship, and many of them urge me to visit their homes. The great advantage of a Mission at Swatow is, that the whole department soon learns what is Notices of Books. The Blood of Christ.-The Friends of working classes, have been compiled with Jesus. By the Rev. WM. REID, M.A., so much care, and under such excellent diAuthor of "Streams from Lebanon." rection, as to make them well suited to London: James Nisbet & Co. THESE two small volumes are admirably adapted for times of religious awakening and revival. The first contains the full and clear statements as to the nature and design of the sacrifice of Calvary; and the joy, and peace, and present salvation, which faith therein secures. Its appeals are most moving and tender. cond, "The Friends of Jesus," consists of a series of letters to young converts (actually written to real parties), which are rich in those counsels, cautions, and suggestions, needed by the lambs of the flock. We wish for these books a wide circulation. They are instinct with life and love. those in higher stations. "The Illustrated Natural History" is, by its elegant binding and illustrations, no less than by its subject matter, in every way fitted for any drawing-room. If there has been a fault in Mr. Cassell's publications generally, it has been an over-popularising of the subject, to the detriment of more sterling matThe seter. In the present instance the popular element is as prominent as ever; but the subject is one which, the more it is popularised the more interesting it becomes. If there be a fault, and we are loth to find one in so charming a volume, it is that the engravings are too profuse. Drawings of the animals themselves, or of their skeletons; the comparing of the skeleton of one animal with that of another, or the grouping of animals, are all more or less interesting and useful. But when we have the heads of six monkeys ranged in a row, one scarcely differing from the others in any perceptible degree; or when we find two or three drawings of the jaws of different animals, but so alike that it requires Cassell's Popular Natural History. Vol. I. JOHN CASSELL has long been known to the stirring considerable study to discover the points England" already published. The five of difference, such illustrations convey no parts contain a record or some of the most idea to the mind, and only serve to weary events of the latter end of last cenin the contemplation. With this excep- tury one of the most eventful periods of tion, the volume is all that could be de- English history. They take in the American sired. It contains descriptions and anec- rebellion, and the first indications of the war dotes of all kinds of monkeys, of the bat, the that was so soon to overspread Europe. The hare, the mole, and the bear, besides several letter-press is by Mr. William Howard, other animals of the same species not so whose name will, to many, be a sufficient generally known. The whole work will be guarantee for its value; the illustrations are completed, we believe, in four volumes. of some of the most striking incidents of the time, and are well executed. To the Editor of the English Presbyterian Messenger. DEAR SIR,—Mr Henderson's letter in the June Messenger may be satisfactory to the Hexham congregation, and it may have removed the not very unnatural impression, that Mr. Henderson wrote his first letter on the above subject under the influence of unfriendly feelings toward the Church he was leaving. But both his letters appear to me very unsatisfactory in other respects. He makes in the first, and repeats in the second, a charge which I believe to be entirely unfounded, viz.That "English Presbyterians allow their ministers to be surrounded by miserable straitnesses." Mr. Henderson's charge is conveyed in language the most explicit and unmistakable. It is specific, moreover, not general. It is not that ministerial income in England is low, but that English Presbyterians suffer their ministers to be so situated. The language seems intended to convey the impression that English Presbyterians, knowingly and heartlessly suffer this state of things, and that in so doing they are unfavourably preeminent in the ranks of English dissent. the parties involved in it, I ask for the evidence upon which it rests. The fact that ministerial income in our Church is low, is no proof of Mr. Henderson's charge. It may be proof that, as a church, we have an expenditure which exceeds our income; that we are living too expensively, and attempting, as a little church, to maintain a machinery which is only suitable for a large church. It may prove that the "givers" are few, and that the inadequate supply of funds is in spite of their anxious liberality. It may prove that the policy of our Church has something in it so obnoxious to English tastes, that it cannot command a footing on English soil. It may prove any or all of these, but none of these are what Mr. Henderson charges the membership of our Church with. Assuming that our members are capable of a larger liberality, he charges them with "suffering their ministers to be surrounded with miserable straitnesses." When the evil of which Mr. Henderson complains may be referred to one or more of so many causes, Now, Sir, I take the liberty of question- it would have been courteous in him to have ing the truth of this charge; and, as one of mitigated the severity of his charge by |