A

REVIEW;

ALL COMMUNICATIONS (Inclnding those for the Committee of the Free Distribution Fund) to be addressed "Editor of the Ecclesiastical Observer, 30, Belgrave Road, Birmingham."

THE many commendations of our recent

changes are thoroughly appreciated. The considerable efforts of not a few friends to increase our circulation impel to something like warm expression of thanks. That, that expression is not recorded is owing to the fact, that the work done and the sacrifice made are regarded not as personal favours, but as offerings to truth and to the Lord of truth; in which contributors, helpers, and editor, unite, not to favour one another, but as co-labourers with the Lord in promoting the spread of truth and righteousness to the blessing of many.

A reader of some years standing, writes, "We are delighted with the E. O. and believe it will accomplish much for the glory of God. We shall distribute thirty copies fortnightly, and fifty copies of the Old Paths. A copy of the first issue was sent to a gentleman who was so pleased therewith that, upon finding we were distributing it free, he sent us five shillings towards that object. We also supply public reading rooms." This sample letter is inserted only for the purpose of moving others to take the work in hand. There cannot be reasonable doubt that in this way thousands may be brought under the influence of truth who cannot otherwise be come at.

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But some kindly reader may be inaudibly, saying" Mr. Editor, have you not also letters of another sort? Are there not fault-finders among your correspondents? Do you intend to let us know nothing about them?" A very fair question, Sir! It shall have an equally fair answer. We have but one letter which could properly be deemed of that class, and that one ends by increasing the number of copies, which had already been augmented. The main complaint in this instance is that our pages are few and small compared with some other periodicals; to which lamentation is added on account of the loss of the wrapper. We shall get dirty before the time of binding, and not present a fair interior when sent home (may be on New Year's day), finely clothed in cloth and gold. Come then let us reason together. An elderly lady came into a printing office, saying, "Please, Sir, what would you charge to print me a Bible exactly like this, and how soon can you get it done?" The answer was, "it will take some months; the price we cannot exactly tell, but not less than £50." The old lady was amazed; "Why that Bible, ten years ago, only cost five shillings, well bound, and surely printing is cheaper now than then." But the printer was right and so was his would-be customer.

He

would have lost money by printing her a Bible for the sum named, yet she could obtain it for five shillings where hundreds of thousands had been produced from the same type. On our table is a serial of twenty-four pages with coloured wrapper, and about the same amount of reading as the E. O., price One Penny. But then 200,000 of each number are issued. With half that number our price can be reduced and our pages doubled. Periodicals are cheap or dear, so far as printing and paper are concerned, as the charge for them is high or low when compared with similar productions of like circulation. To attempt comparison, without reference to the number sold, is merely to act the old lady's Bible business over again. This much we are prepared to maintain that while publications which sell a hundred thousand to every thousand we send forth can, and do, and ought to sell for half our price, and yet yield a present reward, there are not few periodicals, with larger circulation than we have ever attained, that are not less in price nor larger in paper and contents. have never said this much before, and most likely shall not again write in similar strain. Reduction in price we deem not particularly desirable. But we are encouraged by the present enlarging demand to ascertain the cost of four additional pages as also the number of extra copies we shall need to dispose of to cover the cost thereof. This estimate is not gone into merely with a view to one such increase, but that a rate may be fixed, according to which other pages may be added so often as the requisite advance in circulation is made. Let but the present interest and effort continue, with any reasonable increase, and it will not be long ere the first addition of four pages may be made, thus, in effect restoring the wrapper, as in that instance, the extra pages would not be numbered to bind with the rest.

We

As

In the meantime, however, there is no necessity to soil the outer pages. A few pence would procure a case, with tapes to hold two or more numbers, which would last for years. new numbers are inserted the old ones could be put away for binding. We have obtained samples and can supply a cloth case, blocked and gilt lettered, at 6d., or post free 7d. We know not whether to obtain a supply, but if those who wish them send a post card we can at once determine.

THE CHRISTIAN WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS having yet no one employed to go to Jamaica to open their work, wish to correspond immediately with any suitable person who is willing to spend a year or more there, starting within the next six weeks. We have the necessary means on hand, and

ETC.

Observer, Feb, 1, '76.

are anxious to lose no further time.-For particulars, address, Mrs. Maria Jameson, 296, Broadway, Indianapolis.

COMING OUT.-The "Rev." G. Chute, M.A., recently preached his farewell sermon at Market Drayton. His reasons for leaving the State Church were partly expressed thus-"What brought me finally to a decision to leave the Church was that, after constant prayer and careful examination of the Word of God, I felt I would rather cut off my hand than be present at the rite of confirmation again. I could not bring children from thirteen to eighteen years of age for the bishop to ask them 'Dost thou renounce the devil and all his works,' etc. The poor children answer, 'I will,' or 'We do.' My dear friends, I could no longer be present at this awful lying falsehood, patronised by an old bishop and by clergymen who have come to years of discretion. I could not come and deceive children by telling them that they were born again in baptism, and received the Holy Ghost in the rite of confirmation."

Editorial Notices.

TIME.-There is no fixed date to which articles may be inserted in the E. O. Send as early as possible, and what is not in time for the first issue will have a good chance for the next.

CHRISTIANITY TRIUMPHANT, by Joseph Barker, sold out. No more expected.

S. J.-Baptize on satisfactory confession of faith and repentance without stipulation as to the future, further than that the baptized fully intend earnest endeavour to learn the will of the Lord in all things, and to act Refuse to baptize when the applicant accordingly. makes known intention to do contrary to the law of God, or to go, or to remain, where he ought not to be.

FREE DISTRIBUTION.-Contributions for this purpose have considerably increased since last issue. The committee will be able to enlarge their arrangements. Still there are many who might respond and have not, and there is ample room to carry the work much further. It may be well to repeat an intimation before given, viz.— In some instances churches, or individuals, having contributed take charge of copies thus paid for, and circulate them in their own neighbourhood. Others send a list of names for the committee to supply. Generally, how. the distribution is left to the discretion of the com. mittee. Each contributor is perfectly at liberty in this respect. The committee gladly receive suggestions in reference to the distribution committed to them, both from subscribers and others.

ever,

PAYMENTS RECEIVED to January 21.-R. Smith, J. R. Forbes, M. A. Evans, J. Ward, G. Newman, M. Harvey, G. Hay, T. Collin, D. S. Collin, W. Balding, C. Thomas, J. Law. P. Stephen, W. Dawson, A. Cameron, J. Nimmo, R. Graham, D. Mills, J. Collin, W. Linn, Ed. Brown (Auckland), W. Hoare, W. Ferguson, J. Jones (N. Z.), J. Peet, J. Hodge, A. Lobbam, R. Bateman, Thomas Watson, Thomas Edwards, W. Howard, A. Dawson, W. Dick, H. Cruikshank, Thomas Lyle (Adelaide), G. G., J. Hunt.

Free Distribution Fund.-William Jones, A Brother, E. Scott, T. Coop, J. Marsden, W. Hoare, R. Black, H. Johnson, A. Forsyth, J. Louden, G. Slee, W. S. Scott, Also from the following churches :-Glasgow, Lough borough.

Evangelist Fund.— Cupar, 30s.

A LESSON FROM "SEED."*

"Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fits of your righteousness."2 Cor. ix. 10.

HIS

occurs in a very remarkable chapter-remarkable as putting a stamp of eternal worth on money. At first sight it seems strange that God should set such value upon that which is elsewhere called "filthy lucre ; but as we look into the passage and its contents we see that it concerns principally the giving of money for the service of God, and learn from it how He notices the purpose of heart which actuates every gift.

We often enlarge upon the eighth verse, and stop there, as if it stood alone, instead of observing that a parenthesis interrupts the thread of thought, which is again taken up and carried on in verse 11, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work-being enriched in everything to all bountifulness," etc. This is the fruit expected from the grace given.

In the parenthesis we are carried back to two Old Testament Scriptures. There is a quotation from Psalm cxii., an allusion to Isaiah lv. The leading idea in the Psalmist's words is the permanent results in the lives of the righteous, "He hath dispersed abroad, He hath given to the poor, His righteousness endureth for ever." Dispersing suggests the idea of stewardshipeverything is given by God to be scattered, and the scattering yields fruit for eternity. The Apostle uses this to illustrate the truth he is teaching in reference to the "all grace," and the "all sufficiency" being intended to issue in "all good works." He sees in the example of the righteous man, sketched by the Spirit of God in that Psalm, a living comment upon what he is saying; and, therefore, quotes it thus, "As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad," etc.

Then, probably, with Isaiah lv. on his mind, which appears to be alluded to in verse 10, the Apostle looks at his Corinthian converts, and, whilst rejoicing over them and trying to stir them up by the example of those in Macedonia, he describes the fruits of grace, and especially Christian liberality, as a wonderful seed-sowing, and turns it into a prayer on their behalf"Now he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness." He knows that they could sow no seed till they had themselves fed upon the corn, and become abundantly nourished by it,

⚫ By MRS. PENNEFATHER, at a Morning Prayer Meeting.

and he knows, too, how freely God is willing to give them a full supply, and how He would, through His own bountiful provision, make them fruitful. So his prayer includes all the seed to the sower, the bread to the eater, the fruits to the reaper. He asks much, because

he realizes that he has to do with "the God of all grace."

And it is the same now. Just according to your grasp, dear friends, of the ability of God will be your requests in prayer. There is no meaning in much that is called prayer, because this is lacking. We cannot imagine that God can take pleasure in the prayer that is a mere performance of duty, when no hand of faith is stretched out to touch the Living One. Lay hold upon God's almightiness and His covenant grace in Jesus, and then all things are within the range of petition, for "all things are possible to him that believeth."

But we must leave the wider subject at present to consider more closely the seed here spoken of. Seed has various significations in Scripture. It is used to illustrate the Word of God-the life

long service of a Christian-his liberality; used also in the sense of posterity, and of the human body sown for the Resurrection. There are two points inseparable from the idea of seed

1. IT HAS WITHIN ITSELF THE GERM OF LIFE. 2. IT BEARS FRUIT AT SOME FUTURE PERIOD. The two thoughts may be expressed in two words-vitality and waiting. The life is there, but its development is yet to come.

The wonderful creative power of God has wrapped up in the smallest seed a germ of wondrous vitality. Seed is produced by a process which has gone on in a flower. The pollen or farina of the plant has been communicated to the stigma, and a germinating principle is thus set at work to produce a seed, which, when placed in favourable circumstances beneath the rain and sunshine of heaven, will spring forth and grow up into a plant similar to that from which it was produced. There could not be a true seed if fructification had not taken place.

I want you to dwell upon this lesson of seed in those two points-its vitality and its perpetuity. Paul here brings it to bear specially upon the subject of money; and, as we look at it, we may ask, How can money be invested with vitality? Take, for example, a sovereign. We use it for ourselves, or give it to others, without any harm in its disposal; it may go for something thought of God. There may be no particular useful, or pleasant, or kind, but then there is an end of it it only concerns this present life, and when it is spent it is done with. That sovereign is not "seed."

Take it as God's gift; look up to Him and

ask how you may use it for His glory, and whether it then goes for what seems a secular thing or for the Gospel, it matters not; it is vitalized, and the coin becomes seed. You may

not be able to trace it now-it may be quite lost to sight, and on earth you may never see the fruit, it may only be manifested to you in the sunshine of glory and beneath the dew of God's presence-but sooner or later the harvest is sure.

I have often thought, in looking round the walls of a seedsman's shop, closely packed with papers of seeds, how instinct they are with life waiting to be manifested. However insignificant to the eye, each tiny grain contains within itself a living germ. It needs, it is true, the moisture of rain and the warmth of the sun to act upon it before that life can be energized; but there it is, and there it will remain for days, and weeks, and years, ready to spring forth when cast into the ground. And the lesson it teaches may be carried beyond money, which is only one illustration of it. Some who have no silver or gold may have the skill of their hands, others have intellectual power or educational advantages-all of it may become seed. Our words, our works, if vitalized, will have a blessed influence for eternity; whereas if they are merely our own words, our own works, they must perish.

The

Sometimes there is much which looks like success in sowing and much which looks like failure, and both may be but in outward semblance. appearances so often deceive. seed that springs up quickly may be sown in stony places, and have no root in itself, whilst that which is not yet seen may be planted deep down in the ground, and, though the waiting time may be long, the life will be developed and the joy of harvest will come at last.

Nor must it be forgotten that a great deal of rubbish may be sown that looks like "seed." For instance, some one says, "I am anxious to be usefully employed," without any thought of God in the matter. Another sees others at work and does not wish to be outstripped. Another says, "I have been taught good habits, and education has given me many powers and qualifications, and I want to exercise them." Service that may have much apparent value often results from motives such as these, but there is no germ of life in it.

On the other hand, one who seems to be a very unsuccessful worker, having no special gift, brings all to God, and just says, "Master, sanctify it-give me something to do; I don't care what it is as long as it is for Thee;" and seed is sown, though the hand that scatters it is feeble-seed which shall spring up in due time. A dear invalid, perhaps poor in this world, but

Observer, Feb. 1, '76.

rich in faith, has earned a sixpence, and offers it to the Lord, and there is more vitality in that sixpence than in a gift of £20 given out of superfluity just because asked for.

Some, again, go to work in the faith of another, and may, I believe, help in sowing precious seed without any participation in the fruit. An individual has faith for a work, and says, "I cannot do it all myself, but I want it done for the glory of my Master." Another, without the same faith, who takes it up, may not at last receive the fruit, even though it should prosper; that may be reserved for the one whose faith entrusted it to the other to be carried out.

He

Looking closely at the words, we again notice the connected petitions. "Now He that ministereth seed to the sower, minister bread for your food." We have already said this is the first need. No one will ever sow seed who has not eaten corn. We must feed on the Bread of Life before our own lives can be productive. who is the great Sower ministers this bread to His disciples, and the bread which He gives is His flesh-Himself-His own life. Then follows the result, "And multiply your seed sown"multiply in the sense of abundance and of variety. Seed-sowing should be with us the object of every day, and how much is to be sown, or has been sown, our constant inquiry. Then the varieties of seed should make us very careful how we pass judgment upon each other. Some very tiny seeds, we know, develop into more fruitful and beautiful growth than larger ones, and God has a place for all in His garden. Some are sown in joy, and some in tears, but often the precious seed sown by one who goes forth weeping yields the most abundant sheaves. How frequently do we find that times of deepest trial have been the harbingers of greatest joy and blessing? Last of all comes the crowning thought thought "And increase the fruits of your righteousness." It is very good of the Lord to let us see some fruit even now in our work; but in comparison to what it will be, all we gather now is as the few violets we may glean in autumn contrasted with the abundant bloom of spring.

THE CHURCH-PLANTING AND

DEVELOPMENT.-No. III.

DURING the Saviour's sojourn on earth, as already noted, the Church was spoken of prospectively. Immediately after the Pentecost following His ascension the fact of its existence was apparent, and "the Lord added daily the saved to the Church." Daniel's seventy weeks also, with the foretold death of the Messiah, the