servant bids him only look to his duty, and let him alone to provide him meat, drink, and wages. We are servants: God is our Master: let us look to our duty, and leave the wages to him. .... 66 Pray to God, first of all, not to incline your hearts to covetousness.' It is impossible for man, but easy for God to do it. And, secondly, be humbled for sins. We are so covetous and desirous of money, because we are never humbled for sin, so much as we should be; and this is the reason men would rather let Christ go than their wealth and riches. And, thirdly, use them to better purpose than formerly you have done: make friends with them find something better than them to fix your heart upon. Except you have a better treasure,' ye will not vilify (think ill) and part with these. Labour, therefore, for true 'godliness with content, which is great gain' (1 Tim. vi. 6)." | 66 HOLINESS THE FRUIT OF FAITH. "When a man looks on the covenant of grace -having laid hold upon the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Christ-he looks not on it now as an enemy, as he did before upon the commandments, the law of bondage; but he sees in it much love and friendship towards him: he sees God intends not any hurt, any evil to him, as he apprehended before he sees God exceeding kind and merciful and willing to put away all his sins, and willing to accept the sincerity of his obedience. Now he begins to change his opinion both of God and of all his laws and precepts. When he sees God's kindness towards him, and his compassion and readiness to forgive him, then his heart begins to relent towards the Lord again: he begins to magnify God's goodness, and to condemn himself. He believes his promises; and hence he grows up in love towards God: I say, he grows up in faith and love; and in this act of faith is the Spirit infused into his heart. This Spirit, being thus infused, writes the law in his inward parts; that is, it breeds in him a holy disposition, that gives him strength to observe the commandments that God hath given him; so that, if a man will go about this great work, to change his heart, and to change his life, let him not go about it as a 'moral man,' consider what commandments there are, what the rectitude is that the Lord requires, and how to bring his heart to it. But let him go about it as a Christian: let him believe the promises of pardon in the blood of Christ; and the very observing of these promises will be able to cleanse and purge the heart from dead works' (Heb. ix. 14).” consumed." In its present state it is fitly called militant," ," from the enemies, the dangers, the assaults of all kinds which it has to encounter. We have to lament that the church has suffered not only from the attacks of open and avowed enemies, and from the still worse attacks of her secret foes the enemies in the camp; but that she has suffered, likewise, from the weaknesses, the infirmities, the errors of judgment of those whom we believed to be her friends. We are painfully reminded of this by a consideration of the uninviting, and, I fear I must add, the repulsive picture of religion presented by persons in the church, who possess so much that is truly excellent, who are strict, conscientious, devout, and are active and useful, it must be owned, to a certain extent, in promoting every good work. Therefore it is the more to be lamented that they, who could serve the interests of religion so much, should, owing to the unhappy cause we have to assign, have prejudiced the minds of multitudes against it. I now allude to those who may be considered as, though good and conscientious men upon the whole, men of contracted views, "illiberal, narrow-minded Christians." They draw around them, as it were, a little circle, and all within that narrow circle is good and commendable, and safe and accepted; all without it is bad, perilous, refuse rejected. The great test and standard with them of orthodoxy and spiritual safety, and, in short, of every thing else that is good, is holding their own particular views and opinions. They who hold them are objects of affectionate regard, brethren, beloved, enlightened, or, at the least, most "hopeful characters." They who differ from them are shut out of the pale. They are "mistaken, blind, in the dark, and in a pitiable condition altogether." All about these characters is narrow-minded and illiberal. They are made up of a bundle of prejudices and prepossessions. They have, for example, their own class of books; and, in regard of these, they are the most candid, indulgent, and liberal critics in the world. If these books only advocate their own particular views, they will laud them to the skies, though they be the most vapid and mawkish productions that ever offended a cultivated taste; whereas, on the other hand, the most able and talented writings, should they not be upon their side, they pass by with a sneer, or do not even deign to look into them. They have their own authorities, guides, teachers, preachers. If they speak their favourite views, if they repeat their own "Shibboleth," they admire them; for they are noted by an almost idolatrous admiration of the men of their own party. They can see nothing but excellence in them; even their crudest Whereas attempts will be pronounced oracular. if a man happen to differ from them, and not to speak their own mind, they treat him with the utmost want of candour, disparage him, see no excellence in him, and the greatest intellectual powers are spoken of with scarcely concealed contempt. In short, they think there is no excellence out of their own little circle. They have their own class of subjects or topics of conversation--a most narrow and confined one. If you discourse on these, they listen to you with delight. But all 66 extraneous to them has no interest for them: can say but that some of the views they hold may general history or the noblest strains of classic be erroneous; that there are none who are not poetry or descriptions of characters, which have more or less influenced by education and by early kindled the admiration and enthusiasm of mil- prepossessions and by the first bias given to their lions, great events, anecdotes, which have excited mind; and that none can say exactly how far general interest, the productions of genius and of these may not have influenced the correctness of sparkling wit, the fine arts, painting, and sta- their views. They should learn, moreover, that tuary, &c., &c., all these have no attractions for there may be great excellence and uncommon them. They pass them by. You can have no amiability, as well as splendid talents, great libeintercourse with them except upon a few cold, rality of soul and brilliant accomplishments even formal, dry, barren topics. There is nothing en- amongst those who do not advocate their own larged, warm, generous, liberal about them; not particular views of doctrine. They should rea spark of animation or life or humour; except it member that there is no countenance from scripbe those miserable, jejune, abortive attempts at ture for that Pharisaic spirit which would "cast wit, which it makes you melancholy to listen to. out" all who do not belong to their party, or who All is cold, joyless, mindless. Conversation do not hold "their own" doctrinal views; but starves in such society. The imagination grows rather, on the contrary, that all, whatever be torpid: the affections freeze: it is worse than their character or class, we believe to be the obsolitude itself. The man of liberal taste is dis-jects of divine compassion, and, therefore, objects gusted by it: he finds nothing congenial to his of interest to him. "All souls are mine." They mind in it, and conceives a prejudice against re- should remember that the Redeemer admired exligion. cellence in whatever form he saw it; and that, when the young nobleman, recorded in the gospel, came running to him," it is added, our Lord, "when he saw him, loved him ;" which can only mean that he was favourably impressed with the amiability of his natural disposition, and the ge neral excellence of his conduct*. They should remember that divine light is bestowed in very different measures, and that they who act honestly up to the little light vouchsafed to them may be accepted of God in a way that we cannot exactly determine. "To whom little is given, of the same is little required." There is such a thing as great tenderness of "natural conscience," a nice and scrupulous sense of honour, a purity or singleness of motive, which might sometimes almost put to the blush some who make a profession of religion. Such persons should also seriously consider that, while they have been led through divine grace to see "the truth" as in Jesus, yet how long, how patiently may not the Lord have borne with them before they were brought to the knowledge of it; and "who made them to differ from others"? What errors and infirmities and weaknesses and shortcomings and slowness of belief has not God had to bear with from themselves? And, whilst they form this estimate of the characters and the state of others, they should recollect the disadvantages under which those persons may have laboured, how every thing was done, perhaps, from the very commencement to pervert their minds; that, instead of their having been trained up like themselves, in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord," every thing was done from the first to warp their minds, to prejudice them against religion, to lead them astray, to familiarize them to vice, and to deaden their moral sensibilities (for, But is this Christianity? or can they plead anything either from the spirit of our religion or from the example of its most eminent followers to countenance this narrow, illiberal, exclusive course? Surely it was not on these illiberal, contracted, narrow-minded views the apostle acted, when "he became all things to all men." Surely all about him indicated a generous, warm, catholic, enthusiastic spirit. Surely the religion which he so recommended was not one that was fitted to quench every spark of liberal feeling, and of warmth and enthusiasm in the soul, to make it dead to every thing that is great and generous. Surely the very style of his writings displays a mind which was alive to the beauty and charm of every thing that was sublime and noble and admirable in the works of art as well as in literary composition*. Surely the spirit of the apostle was the direct opposite to this cold, joyless, timorous, illiberal spirit. He was a man, we should judge, who of all others would have most promptly and freely entered upon every lawful and useful topie of discourse; and who would have recommended religion by the liberality and enlargement of his views on whatever topic he touched. Persons of the class I now name require to be taught that the spirit of true religion is generous and liberal and catholic in the highest degree. Religion is not the cold, contracted, exclusive thing which they have contrived to make it. They should consider whether many of the lines of exclusion which they draw are not arbitrary, and far more contracted than scripture warrants. An infusion of liberal and philosophical sentiment is what they most want. Yes: there are some lessons which it would be well for them to learn, and which would make them far better, because more useful Christians. Whilst they fancy that they have the "truth" as their exclusive possession, and that, consequently, all who differ from them are in a wrong path, they should bear in mind that it may admit of doubt whether in the probationary state of being, where "we see through a glass arkly," any can claim that they alone hold the truth on all points exclusively, and free from every alioy of error; that probably there are none who He quotes from the most celebrated productions of the Grecian muse (Acts xvii. 29; Tit. i. 12). The writer is not ignorant how defective in the sight of God is the virtue which springs not from evangelical motives; no one is more strongly impressed with this. Yet natural or constitutional amiability, and saying it is a sinthis does not prevent him setting a value on what is termed gular proof of the providential care and goodness of the Almighty that it exists in the degree it does; for without it the world would be a blank. If we were to wait until men became truly converted to God 'ere they would be in any degree just and humane and charitable and true, and discharge the relative duties of life with at least some little fidelity, the world could not stand. No one could live. be assured, all these things are taken into the account of "the Searcher of hearts," "in weighing the actions of men"). Blunt-the truly pious and devoted Blunt-that he was a man of a proverbially cheerful spirit; of refined wit and humour? And what produced this frame of spirit in these distinguished men? It is to be traced, I believe, to the benign influence of that religion, the spirit of which is eminently liberal, generous, kind, unconstrained; that religion which is the parent of the guiltless conscience, and of the light, cheerful heart. A contrary course to theirs may at first view appear to claim the merit of greater strictness and selfdenial. If this claim were well-founded, we might commend it. But, alas! I fear the judgment of most who have experienced the cold, cheerless line of conduct on the part of some who profess be imputed to conscientiousness than to what looks very like a natural coldness and selfishness of disposition, which makes them reluctant to take the trouble of exertion to make themselves agreeable, and "to be all things to all men." A few reflections like these would make them more liberal-minded, more catholic in spirit. If they left the little narrow circle to which they confine themselves, and became more enlarged in their views and inquiries, how often should they find amongst them, that now stand excluded in their esteem, redeeming qualities which would surprise them. They would then learn that it very frequently happens that, in proportion to the loftiness and independence of a man's mind, is the reluctance which he feels to make anything like an ostentatious profession of his religious sentiments and feelings. The high-religion, is that very frequently far less of it is to minded man has taken such a disgust (carried to a morbid extent), to what he calls (how unfairly) cant and hypocrisy, that we should not be at all surprised to learn that many, who are under serious impressions, and even strong convictions, disguise them, and assume an appearance of indifference in consequence; for we may rely upon it that men have their serious thoughts more commonly than we think. There are few who do not sometimes reflect on what is to "come the next" after this life. Reflections like these would make such characters as I speak of more liberal-minded, and more serviceable to the cause of Christ. They would present religion under an aspect that would win many instead of the rather repellant one they sometimes now give of it. They would become more manly in their thoughts, more free, liberal, communicative on all subjects of general interest. They would become lively and cheerful instead of cold and ascetic. Who does not perceive how much it added to the usefulness of such men as Heber and Wilberforce, and Cowper, and numbers of the same class, men of the most ardent and devoted piety, that they evidenced a spirit the most catholic, enlarged, liberal; that they were ever the most prompt to enter upon any subject which could interest the intelligent and cultivated mind; that they were men of the most lively, varied, versatile powers of conversation; that excellence of no kind in composition, in history, poetry, sciences, the arts, was prohibited by them; that they were ready to discuss the merits of all; that all who came within their circle were charmed with the free, generous, unrestrained, unascetic spirit? Who will say that it detracted from Wilberforce's religious character or impaired his usefulness, that his manner and conversation in general society was such that one of the most gifted women of the age (though, alas! not a woman of piety), remarked of him that he was the most interesting man in conversation she had met in English society? Who will say that it detracted from Heber's usefulness, that every one who was in his company was not only struck with the extent of his information, with the eagerness with which he entered upon every topic of inquiry; but still more by his innocent hilarity, his perpetual fund of humour, his mirth, his jocularity, insomuch that few men ever joined more heartily in an innocent laugh, or were more successful in promoting one? Who ever thought the worse of the late Henry * Madame de Stael. The Cabinet. THE SIGHT OF GOD.-"I shall see him with mine eyes; I, and not another." Yes, it is we, we ourselves who shall see God. It is we who write; and O, would to God that every eye that rests on this page shall see God! How glorious the sight! the sight, in glory, of him who created the worlds, sowed the stars in the heavens, and governs the universe. Yes, it is I, who with holy Job shall behold my Redeemer, but be hold him a thousand times more loving and more lovely than my imagination has ever conceived. 0 it is then only, and in his day only, that we shall be able to comprehend in all its fulness the words, "God world again. My eyes rest upon the pages of God's is love." But, my brethren, I fall back upon this book: they cannot yet see God. A few days longer of the soul's exile, and then it shall fly homewards: a few more hours of faith, and it shall dissolve into sight. Be thou, patience, courage, stedfastness, ours; and, whenever our spirits are weighed down, let them revive at the assurance that it is we, we ourselves, and not another, who shall see God. Let us remember but assurance, which prompted Job to exclaim, two that our Redeemer liveth; that it was not imagination, thousand years before Jesus came upon earth, "I of those whose hands handled the Lord of life, should know." And can it be that we, who hear the voice not have the like faith four thousand years after him? Away with the thought that we are placed too low in the scale of beings to ascend to God. He who raised Job raised him up from ashes, and gave him more than he had ever possessed before; more than he had into our nostrils, is he not able also to lift us up from ever looked for. He who out of nothing breathed life earth to heaven?-N. Roussel's Sabbath Discourse. Thou createdst us in thine own image: wherefore our soul finds no rest until it rests in thee, O God!Augustine. London: Published for the Proprietors, by JOHN HUGHES, 12, Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be procured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country. PRINTED BY ROGERSON AND CO, seemed, would venture to descend. Whether it was eventually rescued, I could not stay to see; but it read a lesson of the proneness of sheep to stray into difficulty and danger, and of the pains which the shepherd has frequently to take. eight departments unrepresented as to the reformed religion]. To these are added the procureur of the republic, four members elected by the council-general, and a member of the court of appeal. The immediate administration of all schools in the department belongs to this Conseil Academique. It is competent to these local boards to stop the opening of any primary school on the ground that it is nuisible (hurtful) to the neighbourhood; and, if the board should judge it to be hurtful, the decision is final. Without the auduring its pleasure) no person, even for charity's sake, can teach children to read and write. The board would have the power, for instance, if in our own country, to close all our Sunday-schools, though taught by gratuitous teachers. There are other sheep, which are still more prone to fall into peril; and there is a Shepherd who has risked more to preserve them than those who tend their flocks upon the Welsh or Highland hills. As far as heavenly things transcend things earthly, so much greater is the care, the vigilance, the love of Christ, the true Shep-thority of the local board (and, if authorized, only herd of Israel. He came to seek and to save those that were lost. He leads his recovered ones into green pastures. Happy are those who abide in his fold: happy are those who are defended by his rod and his staff; happy those that experience the kindness of him who gathereth the lambs with his arm. He promises never to leave nor to forsake them that trust in him. STATE INTERFERENCE WITH EDUCATION. THE danger of excessive state interference in education has recently been very forcibly brought before the public by the rev. R. Burgess, in an occasional paper of the Foreign Aid Society. Giving an account of a visit he made to Paris, he says, speaking of the working of the new French law on education : "As the operation of this law, as it bears upon the propagation of the reformed religion, may not be generally understood by our committee, I shall take this opportunity of pointing out some of its rigorous and partial-working provisions. : "This law came into operation in March, 1850, and purports to be the carrying out of art. 9 of the constitution of 1848, which is thus expressed "Instruction (l'enseignement) is free. Liberty of instruction is exercised according to the conditions of ability and morality fixed by the laws, and under the superintendence of the state. This superintendence extends over all establishments of education and instruction without exception.' "The law of 1850 then proceeds to place the whole of the education, public and private, under the control of a board of public instruction, of which the minister of public worship and education is president. This board is composed of twenty-seven members, of which eleven are the nominees of government, six indirectly in the nomination of government, four bishops, three councillors of state, one minister of the reformed church, one from the Lutheran church, and a Jewish rabbi. From the composition of this board, it will be at once seen that the cause of the reformed religion is completely overpowered by the joint action of the government and the bishops of the church of Rome. The standing committee of this board consists only of the eight members nominated by the government. In subordination to this superior authority are the academical councils, or local boards-each of these has a rector or president-the prefect of the department or his deputy, the bishop or his delegate, a priest nominated by the bishop, and a minister from each of the two protestant communities, if there be a legally established consistory in that department. This scheme leaves twenty "The law requires the separation of the two sexes. Every commune must therefore have its school for boys, and another for girls. A mixed school may be permitted by the authority of the local board; and in that case the priest and the pastor are to have equal access to their respective co-religionists. But the operation of this law has in several instances had the effect of closing the protestant schools, where the number of children were too few, or the parents too poor, to maintain two schools in the same village. The Conseil Academique has in no instance brought the law to bear upon the Roman-catholic schools in like manner. The next thing that may be pointed out is the nomination of the masters and mistresses of the communal,' or village schools. They are to be chosen by the municipal council in each commune,' out of a list, which is made out by the academical council of the department; and that list is formed out of materials furnished by the religious associations devoted to education, and authorized or recognized by the law as establishments of public utility. The consistories may also present their lists of eligible teachers. Every teacher, however, must be able to produce his certificate, or brevet, after examination; and he must be full twenty-one years of age: otherwise he is not eligible as a teacher, even in the lowest school. There are in France twelve religious associations, or confraternities, which are devoted to the instruction of youth. To these belong the hosts of jesuits which are now in France. These associations are provided with houses and with grants from the government, and find no difficulty in furnishing lists of persons of both sexes of twenty-one years of age and upwards; but the protestant communities have no such institutions. Their normal schools must be supported by voluntary contributions; and they are unable to sustain the expense of maintaining youths destined for teachers until the age of twenty-one. Under the law of 1830, the age was fixed at eighteen, and this enabled the protestant institutions to send out a certain number of school-teachers; but the three years' additional time before they can obtain any emolument, or even be allowed to teach, must inevitably diminish the number of candidates for the office of schoolmaster. This does not operate injuriously to the Roman-catholics; for out of the numerous institutions, liberally supported by the state, they can pour forth their Christian Brothers,' andBrothers of St. Joseph,' and Grey Sisters,' and 'Seminarists,' of all descrip |