pose. Not even a text can be | dained by the beneficent Deity. I found. The Bible seems as barren of suggestive power as it is really powerful in awakening reflection. Perhaps, to mend the matter, it is Friday evening already. A pleasant fix that, my friend, to be out at sea so late in the week. (I would commend that little fact to deacon Diotrephes who thinks ministers have an uncommonly easy time of it; likewise to the members of Mr. Find Fault's somewhat large family.) Well, what is to be done? My reply would be-anything rather than sermon-making. If you have been trying all day and made a dead failure of it, give it up for a while. It is of no use going on. Change your occupation. If the text will not come and the sermon is vocative also, then shut your desk, away with pen and ink, put Alford back on the shelf, restore Matthew Henry to his post of honour, and don your hat. Out with you. Thank God that if you cannot make a discourse, you can pay a visit. If you cannot do good in one way, you can in another. Go to old Mary Black's cottage; it will do you good to find the poor old invalid so cheerful in her long affliction. Call of Peter Price; he is always glad to see you, and he will amuse and perhaps edify you with his very original disquisitions on theology, for the old fellow is learned in the Puritan divines. Or may be there is some young member of your congregation about whose spiritual welfare you are very anxious, you hope and fear good and ill concerning him. Make it in your way to visit him. Perhaps you will come home filling your sympathetic wife with a heart full of joy that he is now a devotional, decided disciple of Christ. Very possibly, something you hear or something you see while out will put you on the track of a good text to work at to-morrow morning. There is another thought that has often impressed me very much about apparent failure in attempts to do good. There is compensation even here, as there is in all things or not am not sure that the most successful men are the best men. I think, as far as my observation extends, that while they are often exceedingly clever men they are marked by great holiness. Popularity is a dangerous thing. There are few that can bear it. There is much talk oftentimes about matrimonial alliances with wealthy women spoiling ministers. Be that as it may, I believe that, generally speaking, when ministers are wed to Madam Popularity they are not improved. I know good people who have been very much pained by the utter want of gravity and earnestness in the private life of a certain minister who in public is eloquent, gifted, and popular. They are not straight laced, narrowminded people either. And as to kindly and considerate conduct to their lesser-gifted brethren, it is not to be disguised that some who are taken under the wing of Fame are not remarkable for such kind and considerate conduct. It is contemptible to see how haughty and pompous a little applause will make us poor human beings. I think it will be found that the apparent spiritual failure of which all good pastors are more or less conscious has this compensating effect, it leads us nearer to God. We go to Him with our vexations and seek Him in our trials. Lack of human praise does not lessen our desire for Divine approbation. Quite the reverse. And that it is an unspeakable boon to have a stronger, intenser desire for God's presence and smile, we all know. I say all these things simply for the heart-cheer of earnest and godly men who are discouraged. No one must suppose that I mention them as an excuse for being satisfied with only moderate ministerial_success. Be that far from me. I cannot understand the piety of him who, in effect, says, I cannot help good not being done,' and coolly leaves the matter there. No. That kind of spirit will not do. We ought to The Minister's Great Difficulty. 167 feel that when we are without study the Word of God will feel that spiritual births we are in a con- it is. The use of that book as a tool dition of religious bereavement by which to do one's work, the over which we are to mourn and making of it a text-book, tends out of which we are to extricate to rub the bloom, if I may so say, ourselves as soon as possible by off piety. Lord, make me feel prayer and labour. this. Give my heart as well as my head to know this giorious truth, that wonderful fact. Touch the fount of my warmest affections with this passage of Thy Word,'-who of us has not, my ministerial friends, let the Bible fall on his knees in the midst of a sermon-study, and silently offered a prayer like that? If a preacher is not a very good man he is likely soon to become a very bad one. He will utter words he only half feels, and articulate fluently solemn verities that ought to be spoken with fear and trembling. There is nothing more mournful in this mournful world then to know that a minister lives only a third-rate religious life and yet hear him insist publicly on the importance of entire consecration to God. It is enough to make one shudder to listen to a long, devout, and almost impassioned prayer in a church or chapel in which he who prays implores the Holy Ghost to sanctify him and those who are supposed mentally to accompany him and at the same time to know that the Levitical supplicant evinces, out of the pulpit, very little anxiety for the conversion of the unsaved. Such men always seem to me mere theological fingerposts. They point men to roads on which they themselves never travel, They are, says a living divine, 'like concave speculums cut from a rock of ice which, by concentrating the rays of the sun, set on fire gunpowder or touchwood, while they themselves are cold.'* Of course the only and palpable remedy of this enormous evil is to practice the receipt which we give to our spiritual patients, namely, to read the Bible frequently, not as a textbook, but as the message of God to us, and to be very regular and earnest in private prayer. The There is another difficulty which I believe needs but to be named in order to awaken the interest of all who bear the title of • Rev.' I mean the deadening influence of a merely professional acquaintance with and use of the Bible. Who has not felt this at times? There is danger of a merely theological perusal of the Scriptures hardening instead of softening the heart. There are some analagous cases in other walks of life. My friend Dr. Bolus visits habitations in which there is great suffering every day. He is often the witness of death or at least the near approach of it. I know how it would be with most of my readers if they accompanied him in his medical cases. The scenes they witnessed would make them wretched for a day or two. How is it with Bolus? Does he feel it? No. He eats a hearty dinner after he has been, sips his wine, and reads his Daily Telegraph with the greatest comfort. Why the difference between you and the M.D.? Habit, nothing else. When he began he was as bad as you would be. So with good Ebenezer Earnest the town-missionary. The wickedness, the misery he sees every week that he lives, in the course of his ordinary labours, is something fearful. It made bad work with him at first. Not so now. He enjoys his pipe after supper, and sleeps well. In these cases the effect of familiarity is to be looked upon as matter for gratitude. The professions alluded to would never do much good but for it. But in reference to familiarity-I mean a merely professional familiaritywith the Bible and spiritual things generally tending to deaden the soul, this can never be too much regretted. And is it not so? think all men whose work it is to I The Gospel in Ezekiel; by Dr. Guthrie. man who comes short in either of mournful memories about him. these duties will be sure to get wrong, and speedily too. But I must come to an end. When I was a student it was my privilege to have a Gamaliel who was a sagacious man. Not that he was that alone. Devout and earnest, his memory will always be dear to me. Of course he had defects. So have you and I. But his excellencies were greater than his errings, and there will ever be a sacred spot in my heart for him. I can write this without being accused of flattery for he of whom I speak is beyond the reach of it now. It is not many weeks since I stood at his grave and it awakened pleasant and But to return. I said he was sagacious. Many were the pieces of astute advice he used to give us about things in general. I remember one just now, though sometimes I forget it when it would, perhaps, be well for my congregation if I did not. It was this,-Know when to stop.' I think I shall do well to take that word of counsel and act upon it now. So I will wish my reader good-bye. I fear, on looking over the paper, that it is rather rambling, but I think it is reasonable as well. If the sentences are bad, I hope the sentiments are good. T. R. S. DIVISION OF LABOUR IN THE CHURCH, AN IMPORTANT AUXILLIARY TO THE PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITY. THE remarks which follow will be understood as applying more particularly to the ministers and deacons of our churches, who are not only the beacon-lights of those over whom they officially preside, but to them belongs the care of appropriating all the means the church possesses for the advancement of religion. That there are individuals in most of our churches capable of rendering efficient service in some department or other, who are altogether unemployed, we think no one will deny. The great difficulty consists in bringing them into action. But since it pleases the Almighty to employ human agency in the vindication and diffusion of His truth, the difficulty must be overcome, and all available strength brought to bear. If what we advance is in the least degree instrumental in promoting the interests of religion, by stimulating some who are at ease in Zion to arise and work, the end of our writing will be answered. There is nothing in Christianity which will justify or support those who profess to be guided by its principles in remaining indifferent to the welfare of others. Sin is the most prolific parent of human calamity as well as the destroyer of the soul. It may fairly be affirmed then, that God's people ought to be vigorously employed in promoting whatever is conducive to the happiness of man in the present world, but pre-eminently should the noblest energies of their minds be directed to the salvation of souls. Sinners should have religion brought prominently before them, exemplified in the conduct of church members; then might they be brought to consider the laws and requirements of Christianity, not as chains and fetters to bind them, but as helmets and shields to protect them. Division of labour in the church is one of the practical points to which our ministers and deacons would do well to pay more attention. It often constitutes the pith and marrow of success; for however faithfully and laboriously a minister may discharge his duty, without the effort of the church, his best endeavours will be Demand of Christianity for Personal Service. 169 rendered to a great extent valueless. | tian religion that those who accept its doctrines should be actively en- That churches can set themselves to work when they are destitute of pastoral oversight is often seen. Why should not the same machinery be in active operation when they have secured a suitable overseer? What could resist a church so zealous and devoted? In most churches, however, the burden of carrying on the cause rests with a few individuals, and not unfrequently do feelings of despondency and discouragement press upon them, which would overcome them, but for the knowledge that such feelings would be unworthy of the principles they hold, and the foundation upon which those principles are based. In every well organized church there are various branches of usefulness, each of which demands the constant and persevering effort of those who are appointed to them, and care should be taken as much as possible so to apportion the labour in the different branches that one individual has not more upon his hands than he is well able to discharge, and that that department is assigned to him for which his abilities best qualify him. In our opinion the progress of religion depends much upon individual exertion, and we think personal service is concerned, they those who have embraced it should appear never to have bestowed a determine to do all in their power passing thought upon it. Why is to diffuse abroad that purer light it, let me ask, that such as these which they have themselves re- should be allowed to remain inceived. We conceive Christianity different and inactive? Is it enough does not allow its professors to be that the one talent, money, should neutral in its cause. They passively be employed? Or is it because obstruct who do not aid in the they have never been solicited by dissemination of Christian truth. the officers of the church to take This is a serious assertion, but if it their share in sustaining the cause? be examined and found to rest upon We trust we shall not appear arthe broad basis of truth, then rogant in the assumption that one ministers and deacons should give of the most important auxiliaries it that consideration which it to the advancement of religion is, a deserves. If we look around our proper division of the real work churches, and fix our attention on among the members of our churches; those who are in no way aiding the and we believe were this systemcause by their labour, and consider atically attended to, great good them as so many obstructions to the would result. There may be progress of Christianity, we shall difficulties to overcome before not be astonished at the accomplish- this could be done, but when we ment of so little good. It is an consider the result of the comessential characteristic of the Chris-paratively small means at present employed in our churches, we think | efforts, however well intended, and the effort should be made. If by the instrumentality of a few individuals ten or twelve persons are brought out of the world into a church in one year, is it not reasonable to suppose that the united labours of the whole of that church would produce a corresponding increase in the number of converts? Were the members of our churches divided into given numbers, and each division appointed to their own department of labour, impressed with the high and solemn obligations resting upon them as professors of religion, we believe a ray of light, emanating from a celestial source, would gradually dawn, and its renovating and cheering influence would extend and brighten, until it would illuminate all around. We have been told, that our judiciously directed, will not succeed; our plan cannot be carried out. To such objections as these we have only to reply: the project is novel, the task is not easy, we readily admit, but that it is impracticable we deny. The object we have in view is identified with the salvation of souls, and would the limits of this paper admit, the importance of making the attempt to carry out what we have advocated could easily be shewn. We have attempted to show that the division of labour in the church is an important auxiliary to the progress of Christianity, and we hope what has been advanced, will lead some to consider under what responsibility they are placed as members of a Christian church. J. S. C. THE WELSH BUNYAN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES.* FOREMOST amongst the popular Welsh preachers of a former generation stands the fervid and imaginative Christmas Evans He achieved his first great triumph as a pulpit orator at the Western Association held in Carmarthen, in the neighbourhood of Llanelly. Many circumstances helped to make that Association one of peculiar attraction. Large additions had been made to the churches. This Association was the most extensive among the Baptists in the Principality. The neighbourhood abounded with their adherents. The annual gatherings were just then assuming their popular form, and a vast concourse of people was assembled. The site a sloping ground outside the chapel commanding a sweeping view, which embraced on one side a glimpse of the British Channel, and on the other the open uplands, beyond which towered the dark lofty summit of the Mynydd Du,-contributed not a little to the general effect. Christmas Evans was then known to but few of the ministers present. His appearance was unprepossessing. He was a tall, bony, haggard, oneeyed youth, uncouth in manner and ill-dressed. The minister of the chapel hard-by knew that two popular men were already engaged for the three-sermon-course, common at these Welsh Associations. He wanted a third to break the ice,' before the great men set out in full sail; and wandered among the crowds in quest of a suitable man. Preachers at such short notice were not numerous. Daniel Davies was in despair, when his friend Timothy Thomas, said, 'Ask that one-eyed lad from the North: I hear he preaches quite wonderfully.' The one-eyed lad assented, and slowly pulling out of his pocket, not an elegant clerical sermon-case, with chastely-written contents, but some very queer dirty - looking |