J. W. R. are often practised in consequence of air. Once, indeed, he was overcome; it-plunder, devastations, fines, im- but it made him afterwards so unprisonments, and murder."-Ibbott's happy, that he could not rest till he Office of the Civil Magistrate." had begged his master's pardon for his unbecoming behaviour; and has ever since excelled in the meekness which adorns his station. He was formerly in an ungodly family, where he suffered very much on account of his religion; but dreading the Saviour's reproof, "What do ye more than others," and pitying their awful state, he prayed earnestly for them in secret; avoided increasing their guilt, enmity, and disgust, by "casting pearls before swine;" and displayed such a superiority of temper and conduct, that he won to Christ the soul of a fellow-servant, and obliged his master to say, "I had resolved I never would have a Methodist; but I did not think they were such people as this; for I would give any money to have always such servants as William." THE GOOD SERVANT. THE good servant is made so by the grace of God, and is reconciled to his situation by the voice of God: Art thou called, being a servant? care not for it; for he that is called being a servant, is the Lord's freed man." Knowing that it is not the station, but the manner in which we fill it, that makes us either honourable or despicable, he labours so to serve God as to turn everything he touches into gold, and make every common duty a spiritual sacrifice. Hence you may be sure he is not an eye-servant, as a manpleaser; but, in singleness of heart, seeking to please that God whose eye is ever upon him, he never takes ad vantage of his employer's absence or neglect: "Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity," he adorns the doctrine of God our Saviour, by proving himself to be the faithful guardian of his master's property. But as our good servant could not enjoy proper opportunities for religion, nor keep the sabbath in this family, he determined, though he should not have so high wages, to seek a serious master. This he soon found; and, from When a servant of a different cast the first hour of entering his service, once said to him, "Why, you are as resolved to pay strict attention to the saving of everything as if it were your apostolic command, 2 Tim. vi. 2: “ And own;" he replied, "So every honest they that have believing masters, let servant will be." The same principle them not despise them because they makes him resolve never to leave the are brethren; but rather do them serhouse in his master's absence, and vice, because they are faithful and benever to admit into it improper per- loved partakers of the benefit." Hence sons. As he knows the Scripture has he always keeps a respectful silence commanded him to please his master and distance, and never insists upon well in all things, he pays great atten- going out to public worship, but obeya tion to his own tempers. He would his master's will. In this situation he not allow himself to be surly, nor to formed an attachment to a fellowanswer again when rebuked, nor to servant, whom he honourably solicited mutter, nor to go away in a passionate in marriage; and as soon as they knew each other's mind, they intimated it to their master and mistress, who, though grieved at the thought of losing them, were pleased with the connection. What gained his affections? He was stricken with the cleanliness of her person, and the plainness of her dress; for he had always resolved he never would marry a girl who forgot, or was above her station, and squandered all her wages upon her back, to make herself ridiculous by mimicking her mistress. But he was especially charmed with her modesty; with which she was so completely armed, that the most licentious dared not, in her company, to violate the laws of decency. He knew also, that she rose early to worship God in secret, and was always early at her work; that she loved keeping at home, and abhorred gossipping. She was kind and obliging to her fellow-servants; careful of the children's happiness and morals; and such a peace-maker, that she would often do what did not devolve upon her, rather than suffer contention. Once, when her mistress was ill, she watched her with the affectionate solicitude of a daughter, by which she contributed greatly to her recovery. These are the qualities which won our good servant to say, "This shall be the wife of my bosom." THE VALUE OF THE SCRIP TURES. IN the Scriptures of truth the glad tidings of great joy are proclaimed to all the sinful and perishing children of men, without distinction of rank or condition: proclaimed to you for your deliverance from sin and its bitter fruits; for your recovery to God, and to holy and blissful obedience. According to your treatment of this message of mercy and peace, will be your future, your eternal condition. If you receive it, you receive pardon, life, and glory everlasting; if you reject it, you choose condemnation, death, and neverending wretchedness. The Holy Scriptures not only reveal to you the way of pardon and life, but all that you really require to know in the present world respecting God and yourselves; what you are to believe, and what you are to practise; the duties you owe to your Maker, to your fellow-men, and to yourselves. They inform you on what principles, and from what motives you are to act, so as to please God. These writings of inspiration constitute the chart by which you are to steer your course through the present life to the shores of a boundless eternity! They are the magazine wherein is laid up the whole Christian armour, with which you are to meet and to vanquish all your spiritual enemies. They set before you the bread of life, of which, if a man eat, he shall never die; the raiment which waxeth not old; the robe of righteousness, the garments of salvation and praise. They conduct you to the great and gracious Physician, who is able and willing, without money and without price, to heal all your wounds; to remove all your diseases; to enable your eyes to see, your ears to hear, and your hearts to receive the things belonging to your present and everlasting peace. When you are cast down, they will raise you up; when bewildered and perplexed, they will give you counsel; when in doubt as to your path, they will direct you aright, and say, in a language you will understand, "This is the way, walk ye in it." When your heart is disconsolate, they will fill you with that joy with which a stranger intermeddleth not; when in darkness, they will give you light; when weary and faint, they will supply you with strength, endow you with courage, and fit you for all the demands of the day; when filled with self-loathing, they will show you in whom the Father regards you as "complete;" when elated with the joys of salvation, they will keep you humble at the foot of the cross. In health, they will quicken you in the work your heavenly Father hath given you to perform; in affliction, they will enable you to exercise resignation and hope; and holding fast the truth concerning Jesus even to the end, you will be made more than conquerors, when you enter into conflict with the last enemy, through faith in Him who died and rose again; and will be partakers of that eternal life and glory which the Lord hath promised to all who love and obey him.-From the "Convict Ship." THE PLEASURE OF RELIGION. RELIGION is viewed by the unreflecting son and daughter of pleasure as a stern and forbidding monster, who wears an iron visage, and holds a rod of anger; who comes to wither every rational enjoyment, and to condemn the heart to a state of isolated misery. How unworthy are such impressions of that system of mercy which God has devised to heal the sorrows and to cleanse the pollution of the soul! But let the heart once feel the power of Divine grace, and the imaginary monster is quickly transformed into a real seraph-yes, a celestial visitant, robed in purity, and dignified with more than angel majesty. Her smile is the sunshine of the soul; her voice is the music of Heaven. She comes not to abridge, but to enlarge the sphere of human felicity. For the joys she interdicts, she tenders others a thousandfold more pure and elevating. Communion with her makes the heart sick of all inferior beauty. It has henceforth lost, in a great measure, its relish for the low and transient delights of the sensual and the gay. After having tasted of so pure a fountain, why, indeed, should it turn back to quaff the muddy and turbulent streams of earth? Why, after a glimpse of celestial glories, should it be interested in the artificial and unsatisfying round of this world's amusements? Piety takes nothing away that is worth retaining, nor does she withhold what is desirable and necessary. She allows every pleasure that is consistent with the good of our immortal nature; even with the cross which she imposes she connects a felicity which her sincere and faithful followers alone can understand and appreciate: "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." Deny this who may, they know it to be true who have walked in her ways, and gathered along her bright path, the spiritual joys which she has furnished to the pilgrim : "The joys that fade are not for me; I seek immortal joys above; There glory without end shall be The bright reward of faith and love." -From the "Happy Christian." The Letter Box. PLAIN TRUTHS FOR PIOUS CHURCHMEN. THE CHARACTER OF THE CLERGY. and deacons constitute three orders of ministers. The deacons are the lowest. What do the Scriptures require in a deacon? 66 The deacons must be grave, not double-tongued; not given to much wine, nor greedy of filthy lucre; hold conscience. And let these also first be The FELLOW CHRISTIANS,-What is the scriptural standard of ministerial qualification ? Had I not been writing to Episcopalians, I should have found no difficulty in answering the question. I could then have referred to the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and shoulding the mystery of the faith in a pure have found there everything that my purpose required. My own conviction is, that the bishop, whose qualifications are described in those epistles, represents the working minister of the Gospel who preaches and administers Christian ordinances to his own separate flock; but that is not your opinion. You think that the bishop of the apostle corresponds to the bishop of the English church: hence I may not quote the qualifications there set forth, as the requisite standard of ordinary ministerial character; nor may I adduce the incidental evidence arising out of the charge given to Timothy and Titus, respecting the manner in which they were to discharge their own ministry; since, I believe, you look upon them as having been bishops in your own sense of the term. I have no intention to enter here on the discussion of this point. I wish the standard of ministerial qualification I may mention, to have your entire concurrence. I will, therefore, endeavour to deduce that standard from the Scriptures, in a manner which will not at all interfere with your prepossessions in favour of diocesan episcopacy. The elders of the New Testament, as it regards their office, you believe to correspond to the priests of the English church; and so do I. What, then, is required of elders? "The elders which are among you, I (Peter) who am also an elder, exhort: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the over-sight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." This charge is in substance, almost in words, the same as that delivered by the apostle Paul to the elders of the church of Ephesus (Acts xx. 28). Timothy was commanded to "commit" the things in which he had been Your theory is, that bishops, priests, instructed, "to faithful men (believers in Christ), who shall be able to teach standard. I take it for granted, that others also." The purpose for which you, my fellow-Christians, have too ministers have been appointed in the much knowledge to think, and too Christian church, we learn from this much candour to say, that, at any assertion of the same apostle: "And time from the Reformation to this day, he (Christ) gave some, apostles; and the majority of the clergy could be some, prophets; and some, evange- pronounced, according to the above lists; and some, pastors and teachers! rule, "good ministers of Jesus Christ." for the perfecting of the saints, for the There have been times when it would work of the ministry, for the edifying have been difficult to find a few hunof the body of Christ." In another dreds of such men in the whole church, passage, we learn that they are re- from his grace of Canterbury to the quired to "watch for souls as they humblest village-curate in the land. that must give account." The influence of Wesley and WhitHere, then, we have the Divine field's labours in leading to an imstandard of ministerial qualification.provement of ministerial character in The only man whom the supreme the church, was not the smallest good ruler of the church authorises to be a minister, is one who is a genuine Christian himself; who enters on his office with a willing mind, and not for worldly purposes; whose life is a pattern to the people; who is able to teach others, so as to feed the flock of God, to perfect the saints, to edify the church; and who is disposed to labour, and pray, and watch for the souls of his hearers, as one that must give account to God for the manner in which he fulfils the duties of his ministry. No man who really wants these qualifications, ought to wish to enter the ministry; and a really pure church will take care that no such man does enter it in its communion, if his lack of such qualifications be unmistakably manifest. I have met with many persons in different places, who would venture to affirm almost anything in favour of the church; but I do not remember ever to have met with one who was bold enough to affirm, that the clergy of the church, taken as a whole, could bear a comparison with this scriptural effected by the mission of those de- ... non-re In 1798, Wilberforce himself said: "It is my fixed opinion, formed on much reading, consideration, and experience, that there has been for many years AMONG THE MAJORITY OF OUR CLERGY, a fatal and melancholy depar |